Kayci narrowed her eyes. “No of course not, I think I’d recall that. Wait, no, I don’t think so. Have we?” She shook her head. “I need to meet with Rose soon.”
Jordan felt like he was having déjà vu or something worse. “Kayci, didn’t you just meet with Rose?”
“I don’t think so.”
They shared a look of total confusion. Jordan suddenly didn’t even know why he was in this playground. “What’re we doing here?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
“Didn’t we come here to meet Rose?”
Kayci replied, “We still have to go meet Rose. We should go.”
They headed towards Central Park only a few blocks away. They got to the tall iron fence near the east gate. Jordan sat on the first bench he came to.
Kayci sat beside him and looked at her watch. “Dammit, we’re late. She was supposed to be here almost an hour ago.”
“How’d that happen?”
“Maybe we spooked her. Make sure your frequency is low, don’t broadcast.”
“I’m not.”
“You always are.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“Try harder.”
“Why’re you being so bitchy?”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
Kayci stood up. “Look, don’t get pissy with me because…” She stopped and they both looked around.
Jordan quickly stood up. “We have to go.”
“Where?”
“C’mon, there’s going to be another shooting, at a playground.”
They ran out of the entrance of the park, taking down the sidewalk. After running the few blocks Jordan rounded the corner and into the entrance of a playground. He expected to see a shooter but it was empty. “I don’t get it.”
Kayci looked at him, breathing heavily, shaking her head. “This is weird.”
Jordan had the oddest feeling of déjà vu. “Have we been here before?”
Kayci looked down at the sand, kicking a bit of it with the tip of her white and black running shoes. “Something’s not right.”
“Yeah, what’s happening?”
Kayci looked at her watch. “It’s…wait we’re late.”
“Late for what?”
“To meet Rose in the park, I just told you.”
Jordan suddenly had no idea where he was. “Where are we?”
Kayci looked around. “I don’t know.”
There was something very wrong here. Jordan walked over to the swing set and sat down.
“What’re you doing?” Kayci walked up to him.
“I’m sitting.”
“We have to go.”
“Go where?”
She started pacing. “We…I…there’s—”
“Kayci, you need to sit down, stop moving, chill out.” Jordan started to notice something.
“I can’t chill out.” She started to grow more agitated, practically running in circles.
Jordan watched her carefully, he watched the whole scene, he studied the frequency lines in his mind and that’s when he noticed. He got up and stepped in front of the frantic Kayci. He put his hands on her shoulders, and kissed her. At first, she resisted what he was doing, she tried to pull away but he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him. She tried to squirm away but he just kissed her harder and deeper until she sank into him.
After all they’d been through, this was the first time he’d felt what he was feeling. It was something different, something special. He finally pulled away, but then she pushed her lips back onto his, like she didn’t want the kiss to end. He obliged and they sank into the moment, lost in the middle of the city and that’s when it all came back to him.
Finally, the kiss fizzled out of momentum and Jordan pulled back and looked into her green eyes. “Are you okay?”
Kayci smiled. “That was amazing.”
“Do you see the chat box?”
She nodded. “I see it.”
“Stay in it. We have to stay out of the main channel again. That device, whatever it is, it’s targeted us.”
She smiled. “But if we keep our frequencies out of the channel it can’t adjust.”
“Because it’s not a person, it’s just an amplifier.”
“And the practitioner using it isn’t even in the same class as we are.”
Jordan winked. “You got it.”
“I love your mind.”
“I love you! And your mind.”
Someone shuffled on the pavement next to the playground. “You two are cute.”
They both turned to see Rose standing at the edge of the heavy beam boarder that marked the end of the sand.
“Rose,” Kayci said. “I thought you left.”
“I did, but I saw you two running around, I knew something was wrong and truthfully I became curious.”
Kayci walked up to her. “Curious like a train wreck you couldn’t look away from—or curious like you want to help?”
Rose tilted her head. “I suppose a little of both.”
Jordan studied her face, something about this woman was different but he couldn’t quite place it. “We’d appreciate any help.”
“There are conditions.” Rose said.
Jordan looked at Kayci. “There always are.”
Chapter 20
Jordan looked up through the tall, thin window of the somewhat fancy restaurant at the lights of a passing jet. The red and white blinking lights looked festive in the night sky. Kayci and Rose returned to the booth and sat. Kayci slid in next to him and Rose sat across three glasses of water and a basket of big crusty breadsticks.
Jordan said, “I think I know how that device locked in on us.”
Rose nodded. “Because, the three of us together is way too powerful a signature if we aren’t consciously masking.”
Kayci agreed. “We have to be mindful, or we have to split up.”
“There is one bonus to this.” Jordan said. “While this psycho is busy with us, there might not be any more shootings.”
“That’s a good point.” Kayci agreed. “Maybe that’s our edge right there.”
Rose asked, “How so?”
“I mean, we keep him busy. We make our frequencies visible to lure him.”
Rose nodded. “We amp it up and made him chase the ghosts.”
Jordan had no idea what they were talking about which was something he was used to. “Do you two want to explain what you’re saying in terms I might understand?”
Kayci took hold of a breadstick and broke off a small piece. “You see this one piece? It’s only like one tenth of the entire stick. From your perspective, you can see one is larger than the other.” She then moved the smaller piece really close to his face. “Now what do you see?”
Jordan nodded. “I still see the small piece, but it looks bigger.”
Kayci smiled and popped the small piece into her mouth. “You got it babe. We puff up a tiny piece of our frequencies, location, intentions etcetera, to keep him occupied. It’s called roping.”
Jordan nodded. “Kinda like an Ali rope-a-dope.”
“Exactly like a rope-a-dope. Muhammad Ali was the king. He’d give his opponent just enough rope to hang themselves. And even though the entire world knows the tactic, it’s just too temping for people to leave it alone. No one can resist what they see closest to their face.”
Jordan looked at Rose, then back to Kayci. “Okay, how do I do that?”
Kayci took a sip of water. “Don’t worry about it. I think Rose and I will be able to bait the hook. You can just run interference to keep the local frequencies in line. You remember how to do that.”
Jordan rolled his lips inward. “Yup, I can do that.”
Rose said, “You’re ahead of yourself, Kayci.”
“How so?”
“We’ve not talked about my conditions.”
Kayci nodded. “Okay, what do you want?”
Rose placed her hands in a steeple on the table. “
I know you understand how our financials work. Well, I don’t work for free.”
“Name your price.”
“I want a quarter million.”
Kayci blew a long wide-eyed breath. “Wow, I didn’t expect that.”
“Like I said, I don’t work for free. And unfortunately I take on too much charity work. I think you have the means.”
Looking at Rose, Jordan didn’t expect she would ask for so much money, or any money at all for some reason. She looked more like a hippy yoga chick than a money hungry psychic spy. He looked to Kayci. “Is there any debate?”
Kayci shrugged. “No, not really, we can swing it.”
Rose turned her palms up. “What can I say, Kayci? This is hazard pay. You know this is going to get dangerous. I can’t risk it for free. I think that’s a fair price, and I think you can pay it.”
Kayci tilted her head. “Okay, done. But something tells me there’s more.”
“There is more. I need you to help me.”
“Name it.”
“I need you to help me find my daughter.”
Kayci glanced at Jordan, then back to Rose. “I’m sorry?”
Rose sighed. “I have a daughter, she was taken from me. I want her back.”
Jordan asked, “Who took her?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I have my suspicions.”
Kayci shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Tell me the story.”
“Several years ago, I had a baby. There were some complications during the delivery, I went into a coma of sorts and nearly died. When I work up, they told me the baby didn’t make it. But I knew right away they were lying.”
“Where was this?” Kayci asked.
“I was in Virginia outside of D.C.”
Jordan asked, knowing the answer, “Who do you think took her?”
“Wait,” Kayci interrupted. “How do you know they were lying to you?”
“I was still in the NSA at the time, working under cover in the CIA, trying to infiltrate and flush out a crooked agent, it was complicated. But my pregnancy was the perfect cover for what they needed. My cover worked like a charm, I was able to get my job done. We flushed the agent it was a rousing success.” She took a small sip of water. “When I went into labor, they rushed me to the Navy hospital near Newport News. I was in a lot of pain and they gave me something. But it only made things worse and I’m pretty certain it’s what caused the supposed complications. I think they tried to kill me to take the baby. But I didn’t die.”
“Wow,” Jordan said. “That’s quite the conspiracy theory. But why did they want your baby?”
Rose looked to the ceiling and bit her lip. “There’s something special about her. I knew it during the pregnancy.”
Kayci asked, “How so?”
“She’s like us.” She smiled proudly. “I could tell. She didn’t even have to leave my womb to feel it. Her frequency was marvelous and playful. But something happened during the delivery when I went out. I woke up and I couldn’t find her frequency, I was blocked.”
Jordan asked. “I don’t understand. How does that happen? How do you get blocked?”
Kayci said, “Well sometimes something can cause us to lose touch with a frequency. It’s usually a traumatic event or something.”
Rose looked away. “I wish I understood how it happened. I wish I could get it back but I’ve tried a million times. Wherever she is, I can’t find her.”
Kayci nodded. “Okay, Rose. You didn’t have to explain. But how can we help find her?”
“The same way we’re going to find the nugget, we triangulate her.”
Jordan leaned in. “So you know for sure she’s alive but you haven’t found her frequency?”
Rose’s face saddened. “No, I haven’t fully uncovered it, but I feel it. There are bits and pieces of it out there but she’s a stranger to me now. I no longer have that intimate link.”
Jordan asked what he was thinking. “So how do you know they took her? And that she’s really still alive? Maybe it’s, pardon the expression, but maybe it’s in your head.”
“Last year when I was working a case I came across someone else, like us. She’d lost her baby too, under very similar circumstances. She became obsessed with finding out who was behind it all.”
“Who is she?” Kayci asked.
“Her name was Lorraine Adamanto.”
“Was?”
“I was hunting her down on assignment. She was on the list of potential enemies of the state. I found her, I put the bull’s-eye on her back, and they pulled the trigger. I made a promise to myself that day that I’d try and find my little girl. I didn’t want her to suffer the fate of never knowing who her family was. I’m her family and she deserves to know she’s loved.”
Jordan felt a bit of sadness, not for Rose but for Kayci. He wasn’t sure exactly what was bothering her but he knew something was. It wasn’t him reading her frequency, it was just regular old human empathy that he felt. Or so he thought. One thing he’s learned is that you never quite know if the thoughts in your head are real or if someone suggested them. The psychic realm wasn’t limited to those who knew they were gifted. The vibes were all around everyone all the time. Those who were more empathetic were just more in tune with the empathy frequency of others. It amazed him how it all just made so much sense. Either way he knew Kayci, and she was sad right now.
Doing her best to hide her sadness, or so Jordan thought, Kayci smiled at Rose and said, “Of course, we’ll do what we can.”
Jordan nodded to Rose. “Do we have a deal?”
Rose puckered her lips. “We have a deal.”
Chapter 21
With the darkness of the room absolute—expect for the glow at the center, he walked around the device, looking into the soft golden color. He was getting mad, he didn’t know what had happened but Jordan and Kayci were still somehow managing to stay out of his grasp. It didn’t seem probable, he thought he’d reached a level that would give him the edge over anyone.
He’d had them, they were on the hook, running in circles. All he had to do was drop the hammer and he hesitated just a bit and that caused him to lose the edge. It was too hard to get all the pieces working together sometimes. He had to accept that there was no way he was going to turn them on each other, they were too good, so it was time to recruit some new assassins. Jordan had been able to stop them but that was before, now he was close enough.
Placing his hands on the device, he was able to see the lines of white, yellow and green frequencies all trolling around the lowest level. He also saw the blood red glow of the high-end psychics that he wished he could be. But with this device, he was better because he didn’t show up as one of those bright red lines, yet he still had access to all their gifts. He knew how this all worked because he’d studied with some of the greats. Getting into SORC was all he’d ever dreamed of but they would never take him in. The blind scores he was able to post were never good enough. His remote viewing scores were only in the 25% range, which is only a hair above average default. Most people can guess at an accuracy rate of 20%. To even get consideration for SORC you needed to be above 75% consistently, and he would never be that good. But he’d done okay for himself, because of this little piece of fool’s gold.
Sorting through some of the white lines, the easiest to control, he picked one that looked promising. After a quick read of the profile, he moved on. He sorted through them one-by-one until he’d struck gold. This guy was former military and that’s all he needed to know. He was never able to get the full scope of a subject. Admitting it was hard but the reality was that his psychic gifts were not that immense. If not for the nugget, he’d be working summer carnivals or kiosks at the local mall. But after Cayden Taylor was killed, no one else on the planet knew he had it. He was only watching it, keeping it warm and using it sparingly so as not to alert anyone. But now he was free and it was time to unleash his fury on the world.
Marking that subject for later, he moved on to
the other local lines of frequency. If he was going to get Jordan and Kayci out of the way, he was going to need all the help he could recruit. So far sending just one attacker wasn’t working, so he would send two. It would be tricky but now was the time to start pushing the envelope.
He wasn’t even sure if he could manipulate two subjects at once. He was only ever able to hold a single one for a limited amount of time. Usually he could bend them into doing his bidding for a couple hours at best, get them to the location and unleash his fury on unsuspecting citizens. Beyond that, the hold began to slip away and before long, the subjects would regain themselves. His usual last-ditch effort was to put all his energy into getting them to kill themselves. It was a tidy way to wrap up the scene.
If he could coordinate this properly, it would work. This time it would be different. The biggest problem was that the range of power was limited, so he had to operate near his home base in New Jersey and New York. His little road trip recently was too stressful on the nugget but it was necessary to do some testing. Now he had the data he needed to move forward with the next phase of his plan. He had the hardware now all he needed to do was transfer the operating system and figure out how to keep the power source from overheating.
Chapter 22
Jordan felt like someone was watching them. He looked through the blinds, using his fingers to part the plastic slats. The gray sky gave the city a dank feeling. The air was warm and the humidity thick. It made the tiny apartment feel more stuffy than it probably was.
Rose asked, “Is something wrong?”
He answered while scanning the adjacent stucco building. “I feel like someone’s watching us.”
“I don’t see how. No one knows we’re here.” Rose offered. “It’s probably not a real feeling.”
“You think I’m being spoofed—or whatever it is?”
She sipped tea from a white mug with a clover on the side. “It’s possible. More likely it’s just the nervous energy of the situation.”
Jordan shook his head slightly. “Well, it’s not in my head. It’s an old-fashioned gut feeling.”
“Those are one and the same, Jordan. The intuition, the gut-feelings, the bad vibes, they’re all derived from the same place. You know that.”
Soul Frequency (Frequency Series Book 2) Page 11
