“No I’m not.”
“Yes you are. You know just enough about all this psychic reality to know how dangerous that can be.”
“Ha, I don’t have to kill you myself.”
“No, but you don’t have anyone to do it. These gun toting minions of yours are running off the nugget aren’t they, Evan.” She knew who he was.
There was a long silence on the other side of the door before Evan said, “Well, perhaps I’ve underestimated you somewhat.”
“Somewhat?” She laughed. “No, Evan, you little twerp, you’ve underestimated me a lot more than somewhat.”
“Maybe I have. But it doesn’t matter, none of you will be getting out anytime soon. And by the time you do, I’ll be long, long gone.”
“How much did my father pay you?”
There was another long silence before Evan replied. “He didn’t give me money. He gave me power. And I’m about to flex it.”
Footsteps trailed away quickly, Kayci smiled knowingly.
Chapter 31
Jordan dangled his jeans through the window and let them go until the loop he formed with Rose’s flowery flowing skirt reached to where the doorknob should have been but he couldn’t hook anything.
Rose sighed and whispered. “I don’t see how this is going to work.”
“It might not.”
“I think it’s a waste of time.”
He looked back at Rose, “I just wanted to see you what you looked like in your underwear.”
Rose shyly turned away, but then turned back and boldly posed with her hands on her hips. “Well, what’s the verdict?”
He nodded. “Actually, very nice, you got a better body than I thought you’d have hiding under that giant skirt.”
“Better than you thought? What did you think?”
Jordan kept trying to hook the handle. “Well, if I’m being honest you looked a little lithe for my taste.”
“So you like big girls?”
“I like all girls. But if I’m being picky I like them athletic.”
Rose huffed. “I run three miles a day.”
He looked back at her. “It shows. You look good.”
He tried to reach the handle. When they put them in here, he didn’t see them use a key. But there was no handle on this side of the door so Jordan hoped it wasn’t even locked.
No matter how he tried, though, he couldn’t get to the handle to even check it. He should have expected what happened next when someone pulled the jeans and skirt out of his hands.
“None of that.” A voice called from the other side. “Waste of time anyway, the knob has no place to hook onto, it’s a keyless switch lock you moron.”
Jordan glanced back at Rose. She crossed her arms and shook her head slightly in a look of haughty derision. He shrugged and said, “Oopsie,” he glanced down at his bare legs below his blue boxers. “At least it’s not cold in here.”
“That’s not a consolation.” She reached into her bag and pulled out a balled up pair of tiny black yoga pants. “Lucky for you I have these.” She stretched them on.
“You had them the whole time?”
She nodded.
“So you just wanted me to see you in your panties?”
She smirked. “Maybe I forgot about them.”
“I can’t believe they didn’t take your bag.”
She shrugged. “They looked through it. There’s nothing in it besides my yoga pants and some makeup.”
“No guns or knives I imagine.”
She shook her head. “Nothing of the sort.”
“What’re you two doing in there?” The man outside the door asked.
Jordan walked up to the door. “We’re planning our imminent escape. What’re you doing?”
“Ha, you’re funny.”
“Thanks, wish I could offer you a similar complement.”
“Hey don’t sell me short, I’m funny too.”
“You’re right, that is funny.”
“See, I’m a great guy. You just don’t know me.”
Jordan laughed sarcastically. “Well, heck, open up that door let’s hang out. Maybe we could play video games or something. Do you have a Playstation here?”
“X-Box.”
“That’ll work. C’mon Evan, we should be pals. I get you.”
There was a long silence.
Jordan finally said. “Yeah, I know, I’m that good. But don’t hate me for it Evan, I know you’re a little raw in that area.”
Evan finally responded. “It seems I’ve underestimated all of you. Clearly I need to change the frequency running through these walls.”
“No, you don’t want to do that, I just figured it out.” Jordan joked.
Footsteps hurried away.
* * *
Kayci knew she might not have a lot of time. If Evan was as savvy as she assumed, he was right now working with the nugget to change the frequency of the electricity tuning these walls.
She used every bit of the power within her ability, stretching out with her mind, all her feelings, all the good and hate in the world focused on this one task. And when the door opened slowly she knew it worked.
The heavily armed man behind the door looked at her inquisitively. Untrusting of the hold she had on the man’s mind, she acted quickly and disarmed him, yanked him into the cell and spun out on one swift move. As she clicked the door behind her she said, “I’m sorry, you’ll be fine in there for a while.”
“Hey,” He yelled. “What’s going on? Who are you? What is this place?”
“What’s your name?” Kayci asked.
“Paul, Paul McKinney. What the hell’s happening? Where in the hell am I?”
“Paul, my name is Kayci De…Kayci Taylor. I’m with the NSA. You’re a soldier, Paul?”
“I was. I’m no longer active duty, I sell cars now. What the hell is this? Why are you holding me? What is this about?”
“Your mind has been compromised, Paul. But now that you’re in there you’re safe. I’ll come let you out when the situation is under control and debrief you properly.”
Kayci turned away and started down the long gray hallway with the pistol in her hand. Finally, her mind was free. It felt good to get beyond the constraints of those walls. For a guy like Paul those walls were freedom. To her they were a prison.
It was surprisingly easy to pull Paul away from his mind-captor. It almost didn’t make sense. Something was not adding up. It should have been much harder and taken much longer to pull him away.
She turned the corner and saw the other man standing guard at a cell. She didn’t want to shoot this guy, he wasn’t at fault for what he was doing. She approached him slowly, he saw her and raised his rifle.
“No!” Kayci yelled. “Freeze right there. Not another move.” She could see the battle raging behind his eyes. Tapping into his frequency, she tried to ease him down, control him. But unlike the other guy this one was much tougher. He was locked in and under control. “You don’t want to do that.” But he did.
He raised the rifle and fired, Kayci ducked behind the corner as the bullets flew. She dropped down to her knees, reached her arm blindly around the corner and fired two shots to give herself cover.
Jumping up she ran across the hall to the other corner, expecting to hear some gunfire but nothing happened. She eased her head around the edge, and saw the man down on the ground.
A long sigh escaped her as she took a few strides towards the man. Unbelievably she’d hit him in the head with one of her blind shots. He was going to kill her. She had no choice.
Reaching over she twisted the lock on the door and pushed the handle down. Jordan stood on the other side, a cute smile teased at the edge of his lips. “It’s about time.”
Kayci looked down on the floor. “Are those your pants?”
He stepped out into the hall and bent to pick them up. “Yeah, long story.”
Rose passed her by and gave Kayci a soft smile. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” K
ayci replied. “Where’d Evan go?”
Jordan buttoned his jeans. “I think he went to change the frequency of the nugget jammer thingy.”
“You figured it out.”
“Not before you did, obviously.”
Kayci bent to the dead man and handed Jordan the pistol from his holster. She searched him quickly but didn’t find anything worthwhile. “I knew it would take some time, but our minds have the ability to learn and work around those frequency barriers.”
Jordan nodded. “Didn’t he know that?”
Kayci stood. “Yeah, he knew. But we were figuring it out faster than he thought. He probably went to adjust the flow when he realized what was happening.”
“Too late now.” Jordan quipped as he jacked a round into the pistol.
Rose bent and picked up her skirt, balled it up and stuffed it into her bag.
Kayci gave her a look, then she looked at Jordan. “Why were you two not wearing pants?”
Jordan looked at Rose, then back to Kayci. “Umm, long story.”
They headed down the hallway towards a commotion that was obvious. Kayci led the pack, looking down the barrel of the pistol.
They came to a small dark room with an arched doorway that led to a large steel double-door.
Without hesitation, Kayci jumped and planted a hard kick below the dual knobs, sending the doors swinging inward.
Evan looked up at them. He was bent and pulling a small-wheeled cart out the far side of the room towards another door.
“Stop, Hill!” Kayci yelled but Evan didn’t oblige. He hurried around the corner of the doorway out of sight.
Kayci followed cautiously, looking back to see where Jordan was, hoping he would know to provide cover in case Evan was around the corner.
She twisted hard around the edge but nothing was there except the cart, and the melon-sized hexagon shaped device sitting on top.
Chapter 32
Kayci sat next to Rose on the small bench couch. The hushed tones of the spacious office didn’t really cut the tension that sat heavy between them as they waited for Colleen to arrive.
“So,” Kayci said, going right at the elephant in the room. “I hope you understand Jordan and I have no secrets.” She looked at her directly. “None.”
Rose gave her a nervous look. “I understand.”
“You might be able to hide things from me, but he can’t, even though he tries.”
Rose didn’t reply she just averted her eyes.
“I know you kissed him.”
Rose shrugged. “I can’t deny it. But he didn’t exactly push me away.”
“Are you sure you didn’t coerce him?”
“No, I didn’t. He wanted to kiss me too.”
Kayci seared her with a burning stare. “I’m not a jealous person, and I’m confident Jordan loves me. And both those things are working in your favor right now.”
Rose glanced up but couldn’t hold her stare. “He does love you. But that doesn’t change the fact he kissed me.”
Kayci was trying not to get angry and block the natural positive energy. It was hard sometimes. She wasn’t lying about not being a jealous person. She’d never been jealous of anyone in her entire life, but she was suddenly understanding why jealousy was such a dangerous feeling. The overwhelming desire to punch Rose in her pretty little face was hard to deny.
Rose looked at her, clearly reading the anger. “I’m sorry, Kayci, but it’s not like there was some premeditated concept churning in the background. It just happened.”
Kayci nodded slowly. “That’s easy to say now.”
“You don’t have to believe me.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t have to trust me.”
“I won’t.”
“But know that whatever happened,” She met Kayci’s eyes unwavering. “You will still honor our agreement and help me find my daughter. You will not back out on me.”
Kayci looked into Rose’s dark eyes and felt her desperation. A fierceness that wasn’t in them before flashed through and she realized maybe there was more to Rose than met the eye. The feeling actually made Kayci respect her a little more. She kind of considered Rose a little soft, not very tough at all, and no matter how she tried it was just hard for her to respect those types of people.
Kayci nodded once. “I will. I honor my word.” Little did Rose know, Kayci was pretty certain she’d already found her daughter, in a matter of speaking anyway. She was positive that little mystery was about to be revealed.
Colleen entered the office, peeled off her light jogging jacket and slung a blue nylon gym bag onto the chair near the door. “Ladies, thank you both for meeting with me. I’m sorry I was late, got a little caught up with my workout.”
“No problem.” Kayci replied. “We were just chatting.”
Colleen sat in the chair across from Kayci. “I just wanted to tell you two how pleased we are that you’ve recovered the nugget. You’ve both just solidified your lifetime status in the DRC. Especially you Kayci, I’m not sure anyone has ever been named and had such an immediate impact.”
“Well,” She glanced to Rose. “It was a team effort. And I was just happy to get the opportunity.”
“Unfortunately,” Colleen noted. “Evan Hill has slipped out of our grasp.”
“That’s not surprising.” Kayci replied. “He’s definitely a special kind of slimy.”
“Yes I suppose so.” Colleen agreed. “But there’s more. His wife is dead, and his daughter is missing.”
Kayci issued a breathy, “Dammit.”
Rose said, “Oh, goodness, that’s horrible.”
Kayci asked, “So he’s got Bella—just after we rescued her?”
Colleen nodded. “Unfortunately yes, but we don’t think she’s in danger at this time.”
“He killed his wife?” Kayci said more to herself.
“It would appear that way. The FBI went to arrest him and found her dead, the house ripped up and the daughter was gone.”
“This is worse than I suspected. But it confirms my suspicions.” Kayci said. “He’s not going to hurt her.”
Colleen crossed her legs calmly. “I suppose there’s no way to know. He’s obviously more unstable than anyone ever knew. Who knows what he’s capable of?”
Kayci felt a small pang of guilt for not shooting the bastard when she had a chance. “Sonofabitch,” She muttered under her breath.
“It’s not your fault.” Rose offered.
“I had a shot.” She replied. “I had a damn shot and I hesitated. I didn’t want to hit the hardware.”
Colleen uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. “Kayci, don’t worry, if he wanted to kill her he would’ve done it.”
Kayci stood and started to pace. “No, Colleen, there’s something more going on here. I saw something, felt something when I was talking to Evan. I suspected he had a partner so I was trying to scope him out. What I got wasn’t what I expected.” She looked at Rose. “I wasn’t sure at first, but the more I think about what’s happened here the more I know it to be true.” She looked back at Colleen. “I don’t think Bella is his daughter.” Then she looked at Rose. “I think she’s yours.”
Rose stood up, looked at Kayci. “What? How’s that possible? Are you certain?”
She nodded. “All but positive.”
Colleen got up from her chair. “Kayci, you have to be certain about this.”
She turned to face Rose. “You have to feel something. You have to sense that connection.”
Rose shook her head. “I didn’t, I don’t. Why don’t I?”
Kayci shrugged. “I don’t know. But there must be some reason for it. There has to be some connection to that little girl that you’re missing. I was able to pick up on it so easily that it kind of shocked me. I had to really feel it out before I came to that conclusion because I didn’t expect it.”
Rose wrapped her arms around her torso. “This is making me sick. I thought if I found her I’d be happy, but
I’m just nauseated.”
Kayci took a step towards her. “That’s because you don’t feel that connection, but that’s not necessarily wrong. It could be her protecting you.”
Rose gave her a look. “How do you mean?”
“I mean, it could be she doesn’t want to expose you for who you are. Maybe she’s known all along.” Kayci turned to face Colleen. “What do we know about Bella?”
Colleen unclasped her hands and turned her palms up. “Not a lot. She’s been home schooled, she’s very gifted, very intelligent.”
“Could she be more than intelligent?” Kayci asked.
Colleen motioned to Rose. “Well if she really is your daughter, you could’ve passed your gift onto her.” She looked to Kayci. “Just like Cayden did with you. The child is often more gifted than the parent. Sometimes skills such as ours become more powerful with the generations, and sometimes they disappear altogether. There’s no real rhyme or reason that we know.”
Kayci blew out a long audible sigh. “If she’s not his kid, he doesn’t care about her. She’s a tool not a daughter.” She looked at Rose, the look of distress etched into every corner of her face.
Colleen offered, “You have to know, that the NSA and FBI will both have a vested interest in the girl to close their cases. They’re both going to be looking for her.”
“They won’t find her. Hill is too smart. And the NSA probably just wants to turn her into an asset if they find out she’s gifted.” Kayci said.
“That was their plan from the beginning.” Rose said. “That’s why they took her in the first place. They must have fostered her with the Hills knowing I’d never find her and planned to turn her into an asset.”
Colleen shook her head. “The problem with your theory, Rose, is that the NSA didn’t take your daughter.”
Rose turned to face her. “Well, someone did. I didn’t just dream up the birth. And I never believed she died, not for a second.”
“I believe you.” Colleen offered. “But no one from this agency took your child with the authorization of this agency I can assure you. That’s not how the NSA operates and none of our directors would sign off on such a thing.”
Kayci waived her hand. “It doesn’t even matter at this point. What matters, is that we find her before anyone else does.”
Soul Frequency (Frequency Series Book 2) Page 17
