This was her chance. Bracing her feet on the ground, she resisted Jared as he pulled her towards the car, using all of the strength in her lower body to push back against the ground. A flare of pain went through her knee, and for a moment she wobbled—but she gritted her teeth and held on. Jared grunted, putting his weight into pulling her. The second she sensed his center of balance was off, Sam brought her legs up, eliminating the resistance and causing him to stumble towards the car door. Sam went down with him and took the opportunity to nail him with her good knee before rolling away. From there, she was able to scramble to her feet, still favoring her bad knee, only to duck back down as a bullet whizzed by her ear.
Oh boy. Cracks and bangs peppered the air, and projectiles were flying by all over the place—not just bullets, but pebbles, rocks, weird pointy things. The only limit for a TK, apparently, was imagination.
Sam belly-crawled underneath the SUV. For a split second, she enjoyed a sense of grim satisfaction. So she’d been right about them trying to kill her in the crossfire after all. Ha! The joy was bittersweet and short-lived. After all, there were still at least two groups who wanted her killed and/or kidnapped, and she was trapped in between both of them.
For now, Sam figured she was relatively safe. One of the Corp members had made some sort of shield thingy that had protected the SUV from a rocket. That would protect her, hopefully. If she could get this damn collar off, she could go back to her original plan. The handcuffs were annoying, but since her hands were in front of her, she still had some mobility. Sam slipped a finger up and under the band, looking for the latch. Nothing, the ends came together seamlessly in the same plastic box that zapped her every second. The band itself was a thick nylon strap, the kind used for backpacks. She’d have no luck in breaking that without a knife.
For the time being, it looked like she was stuck doing things the mortal way. Emphasis on the word ‘mortal’ in this case. Looking around, Sam spotted a pair of skinny jeans in a semi-crouch near the hood of the car. She remembered the motorcyclist and Hal’s knives—both kept in ankle holsters.
Shimmying forward on her elbows, and now Sam could see the creases on Renée’s expensive leather boots. Here goes nothing, she thought, and reached out.
A hand latched around her wrist, “Ha! Knew you’d show up some time. Jared, help me out!”
Two more hands joined the first, and Sam was unceremoniously dragged out from underneath the SUV, kicking and struggling. Renée shook her head, “Don’t make me zap you again!”
Sam’s retort died as someone appeared behind Renée, someone she recognized, about thirty feet away and gaining.
“Armani?”
Garret Stone, snappily dressed as always, this time in slate blue, reached into his jacket and pulled out a gun.
Sam shouted a warning, but it was too late. Renée turned to look, just as the bullet passed through her torso.
Chapter 33
Literally, passed through her torso. As though her body weren’t even there.
Sam would have thought that incredibly cool, if the bullet hadn’t completed its journey in her left bicep.
“Owwwww!” Sam yelled.
Renée yelled, pulling the pin out of what looked to Sam like a grenade and hurling it at Stone. “Cover!” The grenade exploded, spewing noxious yellow gas.
“Harris is down!” Jared yelled. Reaching forward, he grabbed Sam and pulled the SUV door open, shoving her into the back seat next to an unconscious Harris before the yellow gas could reach them. Jared then jumped into the front seat as Renée climbed in after and slammed the door, “Go, go!” The car took off with a roar of the engine and a spattering of gravel.
Turning over on itself, Sam’s brain began to process the events. She’d been ditched by N.T.U., kidnapped by the Corp, and/or rescued by the Corp, from the Corp. Now, either the collar-zapping was starting to affect her reasoning abilities or she was lacking a crucial piece of information here.
Or maybe it was the fact she’d just been shot. %#&!& shot! It felt like a burning stretch of pain from one side of her arm to the other. And, oh god, she was bleeding. A lot. Hot, gushy, bloody blood running down her arm and feeling sticky and ruining her favorite magenta hoodie.
OK, her brain said, one problem at a time. Sam turned to Renée, who, despite being a probable bad guy, was the only option she had right now: “Doesn’t Garret Stone work for you guys?”
“Yes and no,” Renée said, surprisingly calm, all things considered, “You know how sometimes people will get irritated about how a company is being run and elect someone to takeover and things get really nasty with in-fighting? What’s the word for that again?”
“An insider takeover.”
“Right. He’s trying one of those right now.” Shifting in her seat, Renée rubbed up against Sam’s arm. Blood came away on her white blouse and Renée sighed in frustration, scooting away from Sam.
Sam ignored the woman’s lack of concern, “And what do I have to do with this?”
“We were going to give you his job. Your first assignment would be to take him out.”
“Oh.” Sam took a second for this to sink in. Getting paid to stop the person who was trying to kill her. That didn’t seem like such a bad deal. “Is that offer still on the table?”
“We did just pay N.T.U. an absurd amount of money for you. So I guess that would make you... an indentured servant.”
“I’m sure that’s up for negotiation. You want to take this collar off?”
Renée looked at Sam and smiled, “Everything’s up for negotiation. But we’ll wait until we’re somewhere nice and safe before taking that off.”
“Look out!” the driver yelled. The SUV lurched and skidded as something slammed into it from the driver’s side. Another crash, another lurch, and the car was weaving, colliding with something—a guardrail?—and fishtailing.
“Evade, evade!” Renée screamed.
“I can’t, the steering’s out!” Casey yelled back.
No steering? Sam’s breath caught. That could be a mechanical TK! God damn it, if only she wasn’t wearing this damn thing, she’d have an idea of what was going on!
At that moment, the SUV slammed into a divider and tumbled over onto its side. Sam was tossed head over heels, from the floor to the new ground—the passenger’s side door—as the car screeched and skidded several feet on the pavement before finally slowing to a stop.
Seconds ticked by as Samantha regained her sense of orientation and her heart returned to its normal pattern. She lay sprawled, half-under the unconscious man she guessed was Harris. Jared and Casey dangled in mid-air, hanging by their seatbelts and pinned by their airbags. There was no sign of Renée.
Sam, beyond a lingering sense of dizziness, felt fine. Her back on the ground, on the passenger’s side back door, it suddenly hit her how lucky she was. Then she tried to take a breath and found she couldn’t.
Oh yes, Sam thought, it’s not a miracle if it doesn’t have a catch.
The catch being the two hundred plus man on top of her, effectively pinning her to the ground. And, looking up, it dawned on Samantha that even once she managed to get up the only way out was the driver’s side back door. Which would have to be opened. Above her head.
Ah, crap.
Handcuffs, one completely useless arm, blood loss, a gimpy knee, and gravity working against her. Yup. It looked like this was going to come down to brute strength, cleverness, and sheer determination.
She had one of those things, at least. Taking a deep breath, she counted to three.
Pressing upwards, Sam lifted her body, trying to sort of catapult the unconscious man off her and onto his side. Almost—almost—with another push, Sam tried to dislodge the body—
Woomph! The body landed right back on top of her. Damn it! There just wasn’t enough room in here.
After a quick rest, Sam counted to three and tried again. This time, however, when his weight was moved to the side she wiggled her torso up and out, l
etting gravity do the rest of the hard work in pulling Harris off of her.
Sam sat there for another few seconds, pulling in a grateful breath, working to control her breathing. She could not have an attack right now, her inhaler was in her back pocket but it might have been in another state for all she cared, because she could not reach it. Her legs were still pinned; that was next on her list. Then she’d have to somehow find the keys to her handcuffs—she was pretty sure they were in one of Harris’ pockets—climb out of here and get herself some help.
“Need some help?”
Sam’s heart leapt and crashed. She swallowed the feeling and looked up.
There he was, peering down at her through the doorway of the car, the bright white of overcast sky casting an angelic glow around him.
“I’ve got this under control,” Sam said.
“I know. But having me around might make things a little easier.”
Ignoring Lane, she struggled to unpin her legs.
“Sam.”
I can’t hear you, Sam thought, I am not listening. I will not respond.
“Samantha!”
“Traitor!” OK, that was it. She wasn’t going to say anything else.
“Sam, I swear I didn’t know N.T.U.’s plans. They stole my notebook, I came as soon as I figured it out.”
“Bullshit!” Absolutely last thing.
“Sam, look, you’re the one who says actions speak louder than words. What are my actions saying right now?”
This time, Sam managed to keep her mouth shut. But anger proved a handy tool when it came to strength, and she finally managed to yank her left leg free.
“I’m not going to break my promise to you, god damn it. I’m staying with you and that’s that. Now you can let me sit and watch you struggle for the next thirty minutes or so, or you can give me your hand and we can get out of here now!”
Sam craned her neck upwards, “I can’t.”
“Sam, I am so sick of your goddamned inability to accept any—”
“Because I’ve been shot, dork!”
“Oh.” Lane looked at her again, saw the blood, and cleared his throat. “Right. One sec.”
Taking a break, Sam leaned against the seat.
“Hey, Sam!” Al’s head and torso popped into view, “Lane’s puking right now. Give us a second.”
Harry appeared, “Hi. I’m the one who figured it all out. I just want that on the record right now before anyone else tries to take credit.”
“Nice, um, thanks.”
Finally, Lane climbed back into view, breathing shallowly. With help from Harry and Al, he was lowered into the car. Careless of stepping on Harris, he lifted her by her armpits, pulling her up and onto her feet. From there, she was helped up out of the SUV by Harry and Al. Quickly, Al removed Sam’s cuffs. The collar, unfortunately, he couldn’t fix.
“It’s magnetic or something,” Al said, “I can’t do magnets.” Sam nodded glumly and slid down off the car, into Harry’s arms.
Tess stood nearby, anxiously jiggling a set of keys. When she saw Harry helping Sam down from the SUV, she let out a squeal and rushed forward. “Sam!” Tess crowed, “You’re alive!”
“Don’t you dare hug me,” Sam said, backing up against the car. Tess stalled in her tracks, arms dropping to her sides. Her thwarted attention found a new target when Lane appeared, “Lane!” Tess said, “You saved her.”
Rolling her eyes, Sam looked around. They stood in the middle of a six-lane road that ran alongside a rocky shoreline, each direction separated by a divider—the cause of the turnover. Several cars, some with minor damage, parked on the side of the road, and drivers milled around, most of them on their cell phones. Many people stared at them with open curiosity. A few moved aside as a woman pushed past them. Renée’s previously immaculate blouse now had smears of oil on it in addition to Sam’s blood; her jeans were ripped and torn. She looked like she’d been rolling around on the asphalt, yet, amazingly, showed no sign of injury. Sam remembered the bullet, and wondered if Renée had passed through the SUV the same way the bullet had passed through Renée’s body. Cool.
Harry spotted Renée the same time Sam did. Shouting a warning, Sam felt the hairs on her neck raise as Harry prepared to call down a bolt of lightning.
“No, Harry, don’t!”
The lightning bolt danced away from Renée, narrowly avoiding hitting her. Renée looked at the bolt, impressed. Sam let out the breath she’d been holding. “She’s not evil. At least, not in this case. The Corp isn’t trying to kill me.”
Lane slid down from the SUV, “We know that N.T.U. sent Hal, Sam, but that doesn’t clear the Corp. If they aren’t behind all these attacks, who is?”
“Stone. He’s staging a hostile takeover.” But how did N.T.U. figure in? “And I think he’s got some alliance going with N.T.U., too. I bet they’re the ones funding his little coup.”
“That’s a big jump,” Lane said, “Do you have evidence?”
“Oh, yeah, I had a chance to go through the files while I was at N.T.U. No, I don’t have hard evidence! I put two and two together. How else did Stone’s men always know where to find me? How did they know when the trade-off took place? You were calling to check in with N.T.U. all the time. N.T.U. told them where we were.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Tess said, “N.T.U. would never team up with someone like that. Never!”
“Oh, grow up, Tess!” Sam said, “The whole world isn’t as shallow as you are, you know.”
“I,” Tess said, her voice a growl, “am not shallow. As a matter of fact—”
“Tess!” Harry yelled.
A bolt materialized out of thin air, slashing down towards her. For a second, Tess was illuminated in blue-white light. Then the light disappeared, leaving Tess standing there shaking like a leaf.
“Harry!” Al gasped.
“It wasn’t me!” Harry said, “I barely stopped it!”
Then who—? Spinning around, Sam stopped as she faced north. Oh god. Stone had caught up. But this time, he wasn’t alone. A whole array of men and women in suits stood behind him in formation. The fact that most of them weren’t openly carrying weapons only made them more frightening.
“RUN!” Sam screamed, and pointed towards the other side of the freeway. Lane, Al, and Harry didn’t hesitate to start running, but Tess stayed still, stunned. Al had to grab her arm to pull her away.They leapt over the barrier, dodging oncoming cars and more lightning bolts as they crossed the road and encountered—a concrete retaining wall extending at least twenty yards in either direction. They were sitting ducks.
“Al,” Sam said, “Stall the cars!” Closing his eyes, Al crouched and placed his hands on the ground. Within a second, several cars had slowed or skidded to a stop.
“Now hide!” Sam said, “Split up!”
The group peeled off in separate directions to crouch behind the different stalled cars, ignoring the questions of confused drivers. Renée hid in the car to the left of Sam’s, Lane somewhere to the right of her. Harry, Al, and Tess ran in the opposite direction. Sam didn’t see where they hid, but she could guess what Harry was working at, lightning danced out and around them, the air feeling hot and charged as the electricity continued to narrowly miss each of them.
Sam didn’t hope that their evasive maneuvers had somehow confused or misled Stone. What she prayed was that Stone would ignore her friends and come after her instead. Maybe if he had what he wanted he’d leave them alone.
For once, she was right. After climbing over the divider Stone made a beeline for the Civic Sam hid behind.
A sense of déjà vu came over her. Haven’t I been cornered by you before? she thought. Only the last time he didn’t have twenty other Talents arrayed behind him. She turned to Renée. “Get the collar off me, now!” she hissed.
Renée shook her head, “I’m waiting for back-up! He can’t hurt me. And I have strict orders to keep you contained.”
“You can’t keep me contained forever, Renée. Al
l you can do is piss me off badly enough that I come after you instead.”
Renée reached into her pocket. Sam felt the collar deactivate. Reaching over, Renee used a small hand-held key to unclip the collar. It fell off, and Sam shoved it into her waistband. She held out her hand. Renée looked at her blankly.
“I want the remote, too! And the key. Give it to me, or I leave you defenseless,” Sam hissed. Looking like she knew she’d be regretting this, Renée tossed her the remote.
Collarless, now Sam could once more sense the ebb and flow of energy around her. She took a deep breath, a little frightened to realize how much she had missed that sixth sense.
And she realized something else.
The energy flow was wrong again; it was moving unnaturally, with that off feeling it had had when she’d seen...
Of course. The final piece clicked into place. Her father. All of that talk about deals and economics. He’d gone and taken the better deal. He’d been toying with her the whole time. No wonder Stone was so keen on killing her—he didn’t want competition for his ace in the whole, her father. Either that, or her death was a condition of her father’s agreement. Not a pleasant thought, but an issue she’d have to deal with later. But Stone was only ten feet away from finding her hiding place. He had to be dealt with now. Sam counted down his steps. Five, four, three, two—
“Hey, Stone!” A voice called out, “Looking for someone?”
Lane stepped out from behind a station wagon, “You want her, you’re going to have to go through me first.”
Stone smiled.
No. Oh no no no.
In less than a tenth of a second, Lane was lifting, spiraling a hundred feet up and into the air, like falling in reverse. And then he was falling for real, plunging back towards the earth and, thanks to Sam, he had absolutely no TK with which to protect himself.
Chasing Power (Hidden Talents) Page 28
