by Daniel Price
“Yes, and I’m sure you’ll tell us all about them while your reinforcements arrive.”
“I can tell you in twenty seconds,” she insisted. “There’s a government agency called the National Integrity Commission. They operate outside the law, with virtually no oversight. Like us, they don’t enjoy the fact that you’re running around the country, causing damage and making headlines. If I don’t apprehend you soon, they’ll come after you with everything they’ve got. That’s when you end up in the Area 51, as you call it. That’s when your worst fears about the government are realized. If you come with us—”
“Time’s up.”
“If you come with us, Zack, we can avoid that. We’ll work with you, not against you. We know about Rebel and Evan and the Pelletiers. We want to stop them just as much—”
A booming gunshot cut her off, making everyone but David jump. He lowered the smoking pistol. A tiny new crater graced the asphalt, ten inches from Melissa’s leg.
David grabbed the radio and held it to Melissa’s face.
“Now you’re out of time and warnings.”
—
Hannah de-shifted, grateful to be out of the blue. Thirty-two minutes of her life had passed on the highway. Her right arm throbbed from all the vigilant gun-pointing.
Ross and Carter remained bound on their knees behind the tall rocks. They bathed Hannah in murderous glares as she reactivated her transmitter. She could hear David in her earpiece, trading curt words with a smartly accented woman.
“What did I miss?” she asked Mia.
“There’s one agent left in the back of the truck. They’re trying to get him out.”
“What do you mean ‘get him out’?”
“He could be aiming a gun at the door. We don’t know.”
“He is,” said Carter. “It’s standard procedure. But I hope your blondie boyfriend tries to get in anyway. He’ll look nicer without a head.”
Mia spun around, red-faced. “Shut up!”
“Please, honey. You’re about as scary as a teddy bear. Now your friend here, the one with the bouncers, she’s got crazy written all over her.”
Hannah shot him a dark and defiant grin, then turned her back on him.
“Yeah, that’s right, girl. Pretend you’re not scared. Just wait till I get out of here. I’ll show you a time.”
Ross bumped Carter’s shoulder, shaking his head with caution. Be quiet.
Mia followed Hannah to the road and watched the standoff at the truck. They both flinched when David fired a bullet at the ground.
“Jesus. I really hope he’s acting.”
“Maybe you should go over there,” Mia said. “See if you can help.”
“I don’t want to leave you alone with these guys.”
“They’re handcuffed. I’ll be fine.”
Hannah was never more enamored of Mia. She placed Rebel’s gun in her hand, then breathed a quick whisper through her hair. “Don’t let that asshole get to you. He’s just feeling emasculated. The best way to piss him off is to treat him like he doesn’t matter.”
Still high from David’s ferocious act of devotion, Mia fought a wild grin. It was the strangest time to realize what an invaluable asset she had in Hannah. The actress could serve as her sisterly guide to the opposite gender. She might even help her navigate the tricky maze of David.
“Go. Be careful.”
“Thanks. You too. Call me if they give you trouble.”
Hannah sped toward the truck. Mia looked down at the heavy weapon in her grip. Her father had taken her to the shooting range dozens of times, but she’d never fired anything this large before. Her finger was barely long enough to reach the trigger.
Behind her, Ross carefully wriggled his hands. The girl was inexperienced in shackles and had left too much room in the right loop. He’d worked it over the base of his thumb. He was nearly free.
—
Owen’s nervous footsteps echoed through the trailer. He’d only joined DP-9 for the ghost drills, and had little interest in handling criminals in their solid form. His pistol dangled in his hand so loosely that Amanda feared he’d kill someone just by dropping it.
“You have nothing to worry about,” Theo promised him. “If these are my friends, they won’t hurt you.”
The agent continued to pace and mumble. “That may be a factual statement, but the momentary scream we heard a minute ago would suggest that at the very least, they’re willing to hurt Howard. Had it been Carter or Ross, I would consider the mitigating circumstances, as many people wish to hurt them. But the fact remains that Howard’s a nice person. I’m a nice person. And your friends seem comfortable inflicting pain on nice people.”
Melissa’s voice crackled on the radio. “Owen, do you read? Can you hear me?”
He raised the device. “Yes. I hear you. I also hear strain.”
“We’ve been subdued by Theo and Amanda’s companions, but no one’s been harmed. Zack and David are here right now and . . . Oh. Hannah just arrived rather suddenly.”
Amanda closed her eyes, wincing tears. She never thought she’d see her sister again. Now Hannah was just a few yards away, risking her life, sealing her fate as a national public enemy.
“They’re demanding you come out peacefully,” Melissa told Owen. “I’m ordering you to disregard. Keep your gun at the door. Fire at anyone who—”
David chucked the radio and pressed the gun to Melissa’s forehead.
Hannah grabbed his shoulder. “David, no!”
“Put it away,” Zack growled at him. “Enough already.”
“She’s stalling us until backup arrives! Why can’t you see that?”
“I see it. Just like she sees you won’t really kill her. You’re the one wasting time.”
On the contrary, Melissa felt quite convinced that David’s threat was genuine. She watched the boy carefully as he turned to Zack.
“The man in the truck has a positional advantage. We’re out of ‘nice’ options. We’re out of reasons to be nice.”
“That’s not true,” said Melissa. “You haven’t harmed us yet. It’s not too late to—”
“You shut up! You’ve done enough already!”
Mia watched the drama from her distant rock cover. She’d never seen David so furious. She considered saying something in her microphone to calm him down.
A strong arm suddenly seized her from behind, covering her mouth. Ross switched off her transmitter and snatched her gun. She could hear the jingling of his loose handcuff as he pressed the heavy barrel to her temple.
“You’re lucky I’m a good guy or your brains would be splattered all over those rocks. Now I’ll burn in hell before I shoot a little girl, but if you make any noise or trouble, God help me, I’ll crack you one. You hear me?”
Her heart thumping madly, Mia quickly nodded.
“Now tell the truth, girl, because I’ll know if you’re lying. Do you have the handcuff key?”
She shook her head. Ross threw a sigh at Carter. “Sorry, man.”
“It’s okay. I don’t need my hands to do a rounder.”
“All right. Good plan. Give me two minutes to get in position.”
Ross held Mia closer. She could smell his sweat.
“You and I are going to take a walk now. You better hope your friends behave. I got no qualms about putting a bullet in any of them.”
Mia’s thoughts screamed as Ross pulled her back into the darkness.
—
The future continued to evade Theo, lost in a dwindling fog of chemicals. He knew from Howard’s call that at least eight more Deps would be here in minutes. He wanted to yell the news through the trailer wall, but he didn’t know if Zack would hear him. He also wasn’t sure how Owen would react. The strange little agent was becoming increasingly unglued.
“This
is . . . this is . . . no. I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all. She was supposed to bring wisdom to the department, like Athena. Instead she calls for violence, like Ares. Or Andy. She has grown the metaphorical mustache and become her predecessor. And now she asks me to shoot.”
“Then don’t,” said Theo. “Just drop the gun and go outside. They won’t hurt you.”
“The door’s locked from the other side. You’re trapped in my dilemma. I think—”
A banging noise from outside made Owen flinch. He aimed his gun at the door.
“Okay, Owen, listen to me—”
“Theo, let the man work out his problem! You’re not helping!”
Owen tossed Amanda an obliging nod. “Thank you. My inner chorus is loud enough.”
Theo looked at her confusedly. Her expression was more pleading than stern. She mouthed a single word. Wait.
Soon Owen retreated into his tizzy, mumbling in the rear corner of the trailer. The moment he turned his back, Amanda slumped in her chair, struggling to thrust her right foot as far as it could go beyond the boundary of her solic generators.
Now Theo understood, though he was no less surprised. He had no idea Amanda could generate tempis from her feet. She’d only just learned it herself last week, when she unwittingly shredded her socks in a fit of Zack-related anguish. She wasn’t sure if her trick would work now. The white beast inside her felt heavy and languid, as if riddled with tranquilizers. Amanda gritted her teeth in concentration, willing it awake.
Theo kept a nervous eye on Owen. The agent still didn’t notice Amanda’s new pose, or the fact that her sneaker was beginning to swell.
—
Hannah paced the road in furious bother while Zack and David studied the back of the tug. It seemed insane that they’d come this far only to be hindered by a single door and Dep.
“I’ll open it,” said Hannah. “If I’m fast enough . . .”
Zack shook his head. “It’s a sliding gate. The moment you lift it, you’re a stationary target.”
Melissa fought a laugh over their inflated impression of Owen Nettles. The man was more in danger of hurting himself.
“It’ll leave your midsection exposed,” she told Hannah. “Which is exactly where my man will shoot. He knows abdominal injuries are slow to kill. We’ll have plenty of time to get you to a reviver.”
“You need to stop talking,” David urged.
“You know he has a crush on you, my agent in there. I’m not one to judge—”
“I said be quiet!”
“Or what? You’ll shoot me in the head?”
“If that’s what it takes!”
“David . . .”
Melissa smiled wisely. “No, Zack. Let him work it out. The boy’s gotten a taste for power now. I do believe he likes it.”
David lurched toward her. “You don’t know the first thing about me!”
“I know you would’ve killed me if Hannah and Zack hadn’t stopped you. I know it wasn’t morality that stayed your trigger finger. You care what your friends think. You want them to keep trusting you.”
Hannah yelled as David grabbed Melissa by the collar. Her grin turned fierce.
“Go on, boy. Show them. Show them the real you.”
“David, stop! You’re doing exactly what she wants! You’re helping her stall for time!”
He looked to Hannah with wide-eyed revelation. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.” He tossed a cynical laugh at Melissa. “Wow. I was told you were smart, but you’re downright brilliant. You played me like an amateur.”
Melissa silently cursed Hannah. She’d hoped the stunt would buy a few more minutes.
“Well, I’m impressed,” David said. “Feel free to keep talking. I’m no longer . . .”
His smirk disappeared when he noticed Carter standing ninety feet up the road. Though the agent’s hands were still cuffed behind his back, he grinned like all was right with the world.
David raised his collar mic. “Mia?”
Now Zack and Hannah joined him in worry. Hannah tested her own mic. “Mia, are you there?”
Zack turned pale. “Uh, Hannah, can you please—”
She shot up the road in a dusty blur. Zack traded a wary glance with David. “I don’t like this.”
Neither did Melissa. She had a dark feeling that Carter and Ross were pulling a two-man rounder, a risky tactic used to turn the table on armed aggressors. Unfortunately, its success relied on the enemy’s ability to drop their weapons. These people were their own weapons.
She bent a knee in nervous readiness. “Zack, David, I need you both to stay perfectly still . . .”
Thirty feet behind them, Ross emerged from the shadows, his hostage still muffled in his grip. He raised the gun. Mia forced a scream through his fingers, loud enough to turn David around.
Melissa jumped to her feet. “Wait!”
Ross Daley had been fully prepared to shout a warning. The words had moved from his mind to his throat. Don’t move! Don’t move!
Unfortunately, David was quicker. He raised his palm and hurled the first loud noise he could find, the warning shot he’d fired two minutes ago. The ghosted echo struck Ross like a cherry bomb, rupturing both eardrums.
It also prompted him to fire.
David watched helplessly as the bullet cut through his right hand, severing two fingers at the base before continuing into the night. The shock of his wound kept him mindless and frozen for three and a half seconds, through the many events that happened next.
The moment he spied David’s bloody hand, Zack lost hold on all reason. For the second time in his life, he focused his weirdness on Rebel’s gun without any concern for the hand that wielded it. Melissa shoulder-barreled him before he could launch his attack. They tumbled together to the dirt.
Mia worked her teeth around Ross’s index finger, biting him deep enough to draw blood. The agent yelled and threw her to the ground. He aimed the gun at her head.
“Goddamn it! Goddamn! You little bi—”
A sudden windy force slammed him from behind. He flew eight feet through the air, then skidded six feet across the road.
Hannah de-shifted at the place of impact, her stunned gaze fixed on her victim. She’d shoved him in the back at 120 miles an hour, hearing and feeling the snap in his spine. Now he writhed on his back, wide-eyed, broken. The actress covered her mouth with both hands. God, what did I do to him? What did I do?
David remained in shell shock at the two gushing stumps on his hand. Once the agony of his wound caught up to him, he fell to his knees and screamed.
Mia pulled off her sweatshirt and ran to him. She tried to wrap the garment around his hand. He savagely struggled away from her.
“David, stop it! Stop! You’re bleeding!”
Melissa clambered back to her feet. She glanced down the road at her fallen agent.
“Oh goddamn it. Goddamn it. Zack, you need to let me out of these cuffs.”
The cartoonist kept his tense stare on David. “Go to hell.”
“Zack, I have a seriously injured man—”
“—who shoots at unarmed kids!”
“Not unarmed! And not a kid! I don’t know if you’re deliberately blind to your friend’s nature, but it’s moot now. Look around you. It’s over. Your only choice now—”
A loud and echoey thump seized everyone’s attention. They all turned to look at the truck. A second thud bulged the gate as if an angry rhino pounded at it.
Melissa closed her eyes. “Shit.”
Now a huge tempic fist knocked the door from its track. It dropped to the road in a resounding boom.
Theo and Amanda stepped out into the night, their broken shackles dangling on their wrists. The relief of escape lasted three short steps before Mia cried from the side of the truck.
�
�Amanda! Help us!”
She rushed to David’s side. “Oh God. Mia, we need alcohol. We have to disinfect this.”
“W-we brought a first aid kit. It’s in the car. I can get it.”
“No. Help me get him there. Backup’s coming. We need to go fast.”
Hannah kept a wide and unblinking gaze on her victim until Theo gripped her shoulders and gently turned her around. She took a trembling moment to process him, then wrapped him in a tight embrace.
“I didn’t mean to . . .”
“It’s okay.”
“I didn’t know how fast I was going.”
“It’s all right. They’ll fix him.”
Even as he said it, Theo knew nothing would erase the consequences of her actions. The Deps would remember what Hannah did. They’d probably shoot her on sight next time.
Zack moved behind Melissa and rusted the chain of her handcuffs. She broke them apart.
“Thank you. Now I know you can simulate a juve. What about a reviver?”
His mind flashed back to the dead deer in Nemeth. “No.”
“If you could heal him, Zack, it would go a long way—”
“If I could heal people, I’d be healing David.”
Melissa ran to Ross and checked his vitals. “It’s all right. There’s still time to get him help. We can still fix this, Zack. Everything I said still applies.”
The cartoonist took Hannah’s free arm and helped Theo escort her away. As the Silvers moved up the hill in two hobbling trios, Melissa shouted after them.
“We can protect you! With enough time and cooperation, we’ll even free you! We’ll give you a life on this world! Citizenship! Identity! What do I have to do to convince you?”
Theo turned around to face her. “We believe it’s what you want, Melissa. We don’t believe it’s what we’ll get.”
“If you think you’re better this way, then you don’t know a damn thing about the future. You’re walking to your own deaths! Please listen to me!”
They disappeared over the dark crest. Melissa closed her eyes and pressed a fist to her forehead. “Goddamn it.”
Soon she heard an electric engine start. She watched a boxy white minivan swerve onto the road, kicking a cloudy trail of dust as it sped to the east. She couldn’t read the license plate from her vantage. It didn’t matter anyway. The fugitives would ditch the vehicle before Melissa could get a trace warrant. She wasn’t dealing with amateurs anymore.
