My wrists are already raw from the restraints and my obvious struggle during manipulation. The cuffed wrist bleeds now. It’s kind of loose and I’ve tried to remove it, but I’m scared to force it in case it sets off the sedation needle. If I tilt the cuff to the light, I can make out the dark hole where the tiny needle sits ready and poised to inject me at the slightest provocation. But what if I can hold it in place? Adrenaline shoots through me. What if I use my telekinesis, but use it to hold the needle in place and counteract the cuffs sole purpose? Could it actually work? The worst case scenario is sedation and Jude’s smug expression.
I pull the cuff away from my skin as far as possible. I feel better if I can see the hole. I need to be fast, so I take a deep breath, visualise the needle, and direct my telekinesis. It’s holding. I must maintain the hold and work my hand free. I pull the cuff as hard as I can. My thumb twinges as the metal forces it. There is only one thing for it. I can’t blast the cuff for fear of crushing my wrist in the process, so dislocation it is.
Biting on my lip, I force the cuff further over the joint. I feel the thumb slip, and then a raging pain as it pops out of joint. I gasp, fighting down a cry, but through sheer will I maintain my telekinesis until the cuff bangs off the floor boards.
I fall to my knees, cradling my hand, and as I lean forward, bile surges into my throat. ‘Come on, Teddie. You’ve been shot and stabbed. Perspective... perspective,’ I tell myself. I pull the thumb out hard and push against the palm with my other thumb. The joint moves back into place, and this time, I do cry out. The pain only lasts a second, and I gingerly circle my thumb as an instant relief floods my body.
I can’t use my telepathy to see who is guarding the door. I will only alert them, and no doubt, everyone else in the building that I have removed the cuff. I curse my lack of control where my telepathy is concerned. First Tess, and now Leoni, has seen fit to give me a strength of power that downright scares me.
I rush back to the window. The glass is easy enough to deal with, but the bars on the outside require telekinetic force; force is something I have to my advantage. Using my good arm, I hoist myself up onto the ledge and lift the window pane. The bars have seen better days, but will still require a little effort. I have to be fast after the initial blast. I must lower myself to the ground and get away from the warehouse without being seen or caught.
The door swings open, and Grayson and Jude eye me with bemusement and a little admiration. There’s nothing to do but jump down from the sill and admit defeat
“Quite the Houdini,” Grayson says, smiling. “How’d you get the cuff off?”
I don’t bother to reply. I just hold up my cut and swollen hand.
“That’s just gross, and not to mention, unnecessary,” Kesh says, stepping into the room. Leoni and Cooper appear behind him, dressed in black, and armed with big ass guns. “Get yourself ready.”
Jude hands me a thick, oversized jumper, kind of like the ones fishermen wear. It’s scratchy, but warm. I can feel the chill in the air seeping through the door. “Do you still want to check out the centre?” he asks.
“Can I go? Seriously?” I ask, adrenaline spurring me into action.
“Check it out only,” Grayson adds. “Check it out and report back to Syndicate. You will not take action, Teddie. Do not put others in danger.”
“Checking it out is better than sitting in here wondering,” I say, heading for the door. If I need to take action, then so be it.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We approach a narrow track cut into a hedge, and Kesh pulls over.
Leoni leans between the chairs. “I know you have a hard time with it, but you need to read the area.”
“I can’t. I don’t know how to work this stupid telepathy anymore. Your un-manipulation has screwed me up.”
She puts her hand on my shoulder. “No excuses. Reach out.”
I take a composing breath and let my telepathy loose. It feels like I’m setting a caged animal free. It leaves my mind with such uninhibited ferocity. I instantly hear Kesh’s, Cooper’s, and Leoni’s thoughts, but three is manageable. I can kind of discern who is who- kind of. There is nothing else for as far as I can read.
I pull my telepathy back, gasping and gagging from the effort. “Just you three.”
“Nothing else?” asks Leoni. “We should be within a mile if Lizzie’s coordinates were right. Twenty miles north of HQ she told me, the first road after the dairy farm. You don’t reckon she...”
I shake my head. “I tried to read her as soon as I met her. After all, she is a Roscoe by blood. She’s legit.”
“Maybe we need to be closer?” Kesh adds.
“No, Teddie can read at this distance. Something isn’t right.”
Kesh turns off the engine and gets out, moving his chair forward to let Leoni and Cooper exit. I begrudgingly step into the freezing temperatures and damp mist that is seeping in around us.
“We should walk from here. We’ll stick to the trees, and we only observe for the moment, okay Rambo?” Kesh says, giving me a pointed look. He pulls two rucksacks from the boot and hands one to Leoni.
We trudge across the frozen mulch under cover of the trees. I hold my right arm across my torso in an attempt to quench the gnawing ache that eats at my wound. The cold makes it ten times worse.
“I know why Leoni is here, but how come you two agreed to this?” I ask Kesh and Cooper.
“We volunteered,” says Kesh, scanning the area.
“He knew what you said was right,” Leoni interrupts. “Syndicate need to prove themselves, but all they want to do is cower behind a ghost organisation. What happens if you don’t find Shift, hey? Will Syndicate step up?”
Kesh purses his lips. “We know Shift exists. We know that they’re raiding fight houses and have been successful so far. But we also know that the EVO they’re rescuing have nowhere to turn. Many are ending up on the streets, some are recaptured within days. Syndicate needs support, and Grayson will openly admit that. We have our flaws, and Shift have theirs, but together we could really make a difference. I volunteered to keep you two in check.”
I try not to laugh at his last comment. “And you?” I ask Cooper.
He shrugs. “Syndicate haven’t proven themselves to me. I’m not saying that you have, but Jude has gone cuckoo. First and foremost, we save our own. Nothing else comes in to it. Jude has got you to worry about. He’s so hell bent on keeping you safe that he’s acting like a twat. Well, more of a twat than usual.”
“I’m surprised Jude isn’t here smothering me,” I say.
Leoni smiles to herself. “Grayson forbade it. Jude is your reason to return to headquarters.”
Kesh raises an arm to silence us, pointing toward a metal porta-cabin at the edge of the road. The door is open and the inside is bare except for a metal chair and a no smoking sign. We look to each other, but don’t voice our thoughts.
A little further down the lane, metal barricades lie abandoned in a ditch. The signs read- ‘Military Training Site. Authorised Personnel Only.’ Why are the barricades not in place? They’ve been strewn at the side of the lane like rubbish.
Before I fully realise what I am doing, I’m sprinting up the lane. Leoni and Cooper run behind me, Cooper coaxing me to stop. More barricades and another porta-cabin sit forgotten up ahead. I don’t stop because I know they’re empty. The road widens and the woods rise up an embankment. I use my hands to scramble up the loose earth until I breach the top and look down over the detention centre below.
It’s deserted. There are numerous green hangars, but the doors are wide open. The fencing around the camp is damaged in places, and bits of debris scatter the compacted mud. The deathly silence tells me that there isn’t a single soul remaining. Telepathy is not needed.
“Where are they?” I scream.
Leoni climbs the embankment and stands gasping beside me. Cooper surveys the scene below in confusion.
“Where are they?” I cry again.
“They’ve moved locations. How can they move four hundred EVO in less than twenty-four hours?” asks Kesh, talking more to himself than us.
Running down the incline, I head straight for the gaping hole in the fence and clamber through like a crazed person. My chest throbs uncontrollably, so much that I can barely catch my breath, but I need to do this.
“Check every building,” I shout.
“What are you expecting to find?” Leoni calls back. “Teddie, they’re not here. You said so yourself.”
“They have to have left something- anything.”
The first hangar is littered with dirty blankets, and I gag on the smell of rotten eggs. Leoni and Kesh follow me in, both covering their noses.
“Lizzie said something about sedative gas,” Kesh muses. “I reckon they knocked them out, and then transported them somewhere. Something or someone must have spooked them.” He kicks at a blanket, and bends to retrieve a small action man toy. “Those bastards. They held the kids in here.”
I look around at the squalor. The rotten egg smell is underlined with the smell of urine; wet patches have accumulated along the walls. There are no windows and the only light comes through the open hangar door. Did they have light when the door was closed? A shiver runs the length of my spine. If they were keeping kids like this, how were they treating the adults?
I leave the hangar and head into another. More of the same- scattered blankets, rotten egg smell, and large patches of blood that appear to have been scrubbed clean.
“They must have left some clues,” I say to Kesh. He rummages through a black, rubbish bag. “Look for paperwork.”
Kesh snorts to himself. “I can tell you, right now, that we won’t find a shred of evidence here.” He holds open the bag to show me its contents of tatty clothes and shoes. “We shouldn’t be here. What if they’re watching us right now? What if they know about Lizzie’s involvement with us? We need to warn Syndicate.”
“We’d have had a bullet put in us before we even made it up the lane,” Leoni says from the hangar doorway. “Come off it, Kesh. Grayson knows about this. That’s why he suddenly changed his mind about allowing Teddie to come up here.”
“He wanted to keep me sweet, so I’d do what he wanted. Of course, Lizzie would have known of this.” I say, growling with frustration.
“But what would have spooked them in the first place?” Kesh asks.
Cooper appears in the doorway. “I’ve found something.”
We follow him away from the hangar and toward a gate at the far side of the camp. It’s open, but it looks like it heads to nothing save woodland.
“Look at the tracks. This gate has been well used. Something has to be through there.” Cooper says. “Are you coming?”
“Well, we’ve come this far on a wild goose chase,” Kesh says, sighing, and he marches through the gate. “There’s no harm in checking.”
The ground has been cleared, and a hangar sits alone in the midst of dense trees. The tracks are furrowed deep into the mulch and earth, and lead right up to the door. Unlike the others, this one is closed. The ground here isn’t as frosted as back at the camp.
Leoni takes a second gun from her boot and hands it to Kesh. “You never know,” she says, shrugging. “You better have my back.”
He takes it and tucks it into his waistband. “Of course.”
“What about me?” I say.
“High grade Telekins don’t need guns. Especially ones who can’t shoot worth a damn” she says, pushing passed me.
“I need something!”
Leoni sighs, reaches in her bag, and pulls out a small, sheathed blade. “Stick it in your boot and pray you don’t need it.” I do as I’m told. I would have much preferred a gun, but I can’t push it with her. “Read the area again,” she commands.
I do much like I did before. This time, bracing for the bile to rise in my throat from the rush of their thoughts. It’s amazing how many thoughts can go through a person’s head in a second. I desperately fight to catch my breath, and push passed their thoughts.
“Nothing,” I say, feeling physically drained. I have no idea what effect it would have on me if those hangars had been full of people. My brain would have probably exploded.
Kesh forces the door open. It’s loud, the clash of metal on metal echoing through the trees. If there is anyone here we’ve lost the element of surprise.
Inside the hangar there are rows and rows of hospital gurneys. I feel sick. I’ve only ever seen a scene like this once before and that was on the footage of Adam’s TORO conditioning.
“This is a TORO maintenance hangar,” I say, my voice shaking. “What is that smell?”
It isn’t a rotten egg smell. It’s something different; a burning, barbecue smell. Leoni heads back outside and shines her torch through the trees, illuminating smoke hanging thickly in the air.
Cooper is the first to venture through the trees. I hang back. Something niggles at me, telling me that I don’t want to head down there. He yells out, and then comes back into view with his arm across his mouth and nose. It’s rare to see Cooper affected in such a way. He leans forward with his hands on his knees, fighting the urge to vomit.
“Stay there, Teddie,” he shouts.
Why would he say that? Why would he single me out specifically? My feet are moving in time with my heart pounding in my chest. I push Cooper aside, and the horror I’m faced with burns into my retinas. At least twenty TORO are stacked in a crooked pyramid and are burnt and smoking beyond recognition. I know they’re TORO because bits of grey fabric remain intact and military grade boots stick out from the pile.
“Holy shit.” Kesh recoils from the sight and pukes.
Leoni stands motionless.
“Check them,” I shout. “Check every last one of them.” I start moving the charred bodies, studying their faces, scared of what I might find. Sticky flesh comes away on my hands, but I continue to lug the corpses from the stack.
Cooper pulls me away. “Get away from here and wait. I’ll check them, okay?”
“Every last one,” I sob.
As I turn around, Leoni and Kesh stand with their hands in the air and guns trained at their heads.
More people appear from around the hangar, all pointing guns, and all looking intimidating. I should’ve been continuously reading the area. I should have tried harder with my telepathy, but I was scared, and now, I’ve endangered Leoni, Kesh, and Cooper.
“Drop your weapons on the floor.” A woman walks to the front of the group. Her hair is shaved short and dyed a peroxide blonde. “Now, assholes.”
Cooper lowers his gun. “She’s unarmed,” he says, nodding toward me.
“I reckon she’s E.N.C,” I whisper to Cooper.
“What happened here?” Cooper asks the woman.
“I said drop your weapons.”
“And he said I don’t have anything to drop.” I’m not one hundred percent sure what I’m doing, but I need to do something. “So, you’re E.N.C? We’ve been waiting for you guys to show your faces.”
She shifts uneasily. “You have, huh?” The crowd of members behind her murmur to each other, but never let their guard down.
“My friend asked you what happened here,” I say, keeping a level voice. “Where have the Norms moved the EVO, and why the hell is there a TORO barbeque on the go?” I let anger contort my voice. The only thing these people listen to is power. I have to sound powerful. I tut, shaking my head disapprovingly. “Please, tell me you at least know where they’ve taken them? God, this is piss take. We’re being outwitted by the Norms. This is not how he wanted it to be. He’d be ashamed with all of us. He didn’t die for the Norms to win!”
“Who didn’t?” The woman asks. I can sense the tension from the group.
Leoni gives me a nod. She understands where I’m going with this. “My Dad. Oh, yeah, sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m Theyda Woodman.”
Every person in the group lowers their gun instantly. Leoni and Kesh are pi
cked from the floor, and the guys marking them shake their hands in way of an apology.
The woman shakes my hand. “I’m Bo. I met your Dad once, although, I never knew I was talking to the leader of the E.N.C. I’m sorry for your loss. He did a great service to EVO everywhere.”
“Thank you,” I say, feeling sick to my stomach.
She stands closer to me, so only I can hear her words. “I’m not denying any of it. We have let the Norms get the better of us, but these guys are tired, and most of them have lost good friends and family in the riots or through the detention centres and fight houses. They need to believe they’re making a difference.”
Is this woman for real? They’re not making a difference. They’re the cause of all this shit.
“Do you think I’m not tired? Do you think I haven’t lost people? The difference is, I’m not being a whiney bitch about it.”
Bo coughs in her throat and sucks her teeth before giving me a curt nod, and gestures for us to follow her.
“Rein it in,” whispers Cooper. “Be a bitch, but be an E.N.C bitch.”
“What’s the plan now?” I whisper.
He scoffs. “I don’t know? I’m following your lead.”
Leoni and Kesh are shoved into one van, and Bo ushers Cooper and I into a second.
Bo takes my arm before I can climb in. “We’re all in this together, you know?”
“I know. I’ve had a long day. I was unprofessional,” I say. Unprofessional? What the hell kind of profession is this?
Bo seems appeased. “We got here a little late, but we did over run the last convoy. It was a solo, armoured truck with seven marines and two prisoners- a female and a male EVO. They must be important to the Norms otherwise they’d have been transported with the rest of the prisoners. We have taken them off of the Norms hands and sent them ahead to our base.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “Was the male a black guy with green eyes?” Please, say yes.
Bo shrugs. “He was black, but I can’t say that I paid any attention to his eye colour. He is pretty banged up. Built like a brick shit house, though.”
EVO Nation Series Trilogy Box Set Page 39
