Dr. Andrews added, “Then in her later entries she made blanket observations about all of you. You were all highly intelligent and extraordinarily quick to learn any skill, physical or mental. She predicted that your abilities hadn’t finished manifesting, relating you to a caterpillar that lives as such for a while before it goes through metamorphosis and changes into something else. She wasn’t sure what the catalyst of the change would be, or if it were just a matter of time. But she feared that the abilities you’d been given were going to have to be used against the people who forced them on you.”
We all sat in silence as this sunk in.
Then Cole piped up, “Well, I made a B on my math test last week!”
The SUV continued down the highway with laughter spilling out of the closed windows.
The driver of the black sedan three cars behind them was not at all amused.
Chapter 27 Fine Dining
After the first twelve hours on the road, having only stopped twice to use bathrooms and gas up, we were ready for a real break. The first restaurant we found was an all-night truck-stop. I only know that because of its name, “Trudy’s All Nite Truck Stop.” I wondered who Trudy was and did she know she misspelled “night.”
After a quick glance around her restaurant, it became very clear her customers probably wouldn’t have caught the error.
“Hey Alik, where are we?” I whispered to Mr. Map.
He looked around and said, “Do you mean metaphorically or literally?”
“Literally, dork.”
“Well, we’re on I-40 west heading toward Albuquerque. This is just a small…small…town on-route. Population 301, I believe the sign read.”
“I don’t care how small the town is as long as this place has hamburgers and fries on their menu.” Cole declared.
“Hi there dolls, table for five?”
“Yes, please.” Dr. Andrews nodded and then followed as the waitress led the way to the tables. She quickly pulled two together for us.
I was glad we were close enough to the window so I could look out and check on Maze. We had to leave him in the SUV, but I made sure the windows were half open. I could see his nose sticking out of the opening as he sniffed the deliciously greasy smells wafting from the grill. I reminded myself to order an extra piece of meat on my burger for Maze.
We had all placed our orders when Evan mentioned that he’d like to go retrieve the map. Alik looked at him inquisitively, but said nothing. Dr. Andrews passed him the keys and he headed out to the SUV.
I was sipping deliciously sweet iced tea and listening to the boys’ discussion about which was better, a waffle fry or a shoestring fry, when I glanced out the window. Evan’s legs were hanging out of the driver’s side, toes pointing up.
“What in the heck is that boy doing now?” I scowled.
Everyone at the table stopped talking and followed my eyes. We all saw his feet kicking a bit then stop. He sat up and stare at something in his hands for a moment. Then he stood, tucked whatever it was into his pocket and sauntered casually back into the restaurant.
“Have a hard time finding the map?” Alik watched him with one raised brow.
Evan walked up to our waitress and whispered in her ear. She handed him a pen with a wink and a smile. Evan sat and began writing on a napkin.
THE MAP FELL ON THE FLOORBOARD. WHEN I REACHED DOWN TO GET IT, I SAW SOMETHING THAT LOOKED OUT OF PLACE ATTACHED TO THE UNDERSIDE OF THE DASH. IT LOOKS LIKE AN AUDIO TRANSMITTER AND GPS. SEE FOR YOURSELVES, BUT DON’T SPEAK. SOMEONE IS LISTENING.
Fortunately, the restaurant was pretty quiet. No annoying music playing or crying babies, else I’m sure Evan wouldn’t have brought the small black mechanism in here. He removed it carefully from his pocket and turned it around in his hand so we could all see it from every angle.
Dr. Andrew’s face went white and he looked like he was about to throw up. He took the piece out of Evan’s hand and laid it on the floor gently before lifting the old-fashioned wooden chair he had been sitting on and slamming the leg down on it repeatedly. Pieces flew off as it shattered.
The waitress was standing a few feet away holding a huge tray of our food. The doctor took one look at her and calmly said, “We’ll take it all to go. And this should cover our check and any damages.” He politely slipped a couple hundred-dollar bills on the table, stood and escorted us all back to the SUV. Just a few minutes passed before the waitress came out with bags of food. I’m sure she wanted to get rid of us just as much as we wanted to get out of there.
We were being tracked, and more than that, our SUV had been bugged. They heard everything we said for the last twelve hours. I felt too sick to eat. Instead, I was replaying all our conversations in my head trying to remember what we may have given away. Ugh. We talked about everything. It would be easier to think about what we hadn’t given away.
Chapter 28 Margo’s Stand
A little closer. Come on you psychotic freak. You know you want to. Just step a little closer.
Margo silently willed for Dr. Williams to continue his ranting a little closer to her. She figured four more feet and he’d be within range. She was going to try to take out this monster. Her eyes were on his jugular and she was pretty sure she could do some serious damage. If she were lucky, maybe even strike a fatal blow to his throat. At least, that was the unofficial plan.
Her ankles were still tied, but she didn’t care. Her hands were free. If all she did was kill Dr. Williams over there, then the nightmare would be over for her children. Of course, his thugs would finish her off before they even checked their boss for a pulse, but that didn’t matter. What mattered to Margo was that Williams wouldn’t be alive to hunt her children.
“And all this time you lived on that pathetic little ranch in the middle of nowhere? Amazing. I know you must have watched the children carefully for their metamorphoses. I’m anxious to hear all their developments. I feel like a father who has missed more than a decade of my children’s lives.”
And that was just about all she could stomach. So caught up in his one-sided conversation was he that he moved those last few feet, closing the gap between them.
He didn’t even have time to react beyond making a stupid surprised expression on his greasy face. With all the fierceness of a lioness, Margo sprang and attacked. Her hands, though cut and bleeding, were exact in their movements. Knuckles out, she went for a lethal throat strike. She hit her mark. He went down clutching his throat and gurgling.
That was the last thing she heard before she blacked out. The thugs were on her.
Chapter 29 Anyone For a Plan B?
Evan thoroughly checked the rest of the SUV for any more devices that would be tracking, eavesdropping or exploding.
Nothing.
It was just that one piece. And it wasn’t very professionally planted either. Evan only had to lean down a bit and he saw it. A professional would have hidden the device in a much less conspicuous place. It made us all start to wonder out loud about who put it there. I had my suspicions, but it didn’t seem polite to name names, especially when that person had the same last name as the good doctor. Michelle did this.
We had driven off course a bit hoping to lose whoever was following us. Just after midnight, I knew we needed to find a place to let Dr. Andrews rest. He looked exhausted and he was the only one with a license to drive. (Oh, believe me, Evan, Alik and Cole all offered repeatedly to take over driving duty, but only Cole had a driver’s permit. And apparently his dad didn’t want to permit him to drive during this particular point in our ever complicated adventure.)
We had two choices, as far as I could tell. Either find a place to pull over and settle down to sleep in the SUV, or locate a motel and crash there. Considering we had bad guys following us, I felt a little better about voting for the motel. At this point, I didn’t even care if I had to sleep on the floor. It had been an exhausting day.
“I vote for motel.” I yawned loudly.
“I second that,” sa
id Evan.
“Motion carried,” Dr. Andrews joked through his yawns.
A few miles ahead we saw a motel that looked as uninteresting as any of the other hundreds we’d passed so far. Dr. Andrews pulled into the parking lot, walked up to the teller’s desk and checked us in.
He returned to the truck and began driving slowly passed the many identical doors looking for the one to which we had been assigned.
“I’m Mr. Moore, by the way.” We all looked at him through tired, squinted eyes.
“I paid in cash and used an assumed name. If it comes up, thought you should know; we’re the Moore family.”
Alik started to chuckle to himself. He gets giddy when he’s super tired. “The Moore family? Morbid family. Morose family. Monitored, maintained, migrating, metas, mortuary, marred, martyred…tired.”
The last word had him crashing into the first bed he saw. I wasn’t going to bug him about brushing his teeth. I would have felt like a hypocrite, ‘cause little ol’ Meg was skipping the brush, too. I was dog-tired…which reminded me of Maze.
I forced myself to let Maze outside to find a nice patch of grass then we both dragged our weary butts back into the motel. I locked the flimsy door behind me thinking how easy it would be to kick this in. Then I turned around to see that every bed in both adjoining rooms had a boy in it. Four beds, four boys, one girl and her coyote. Stupid men.
I thought about kicking Evan to Alik’s bed, but I was too tired, so I grabbed an extra pillow and a thin towel off the rack and lay down on the floor with Maze curled up beside me. I honestly don’t even remember falling asleep.
Two things happened that night of monumental importance. First, I woke briefly only to realize I was being carried, gently, and placed on a soft bed. Covers were pulled up around me. I snuggled in, just sure I was dreaming.
I didn’t see who carried me, but very early the next morning I found myself in the bed Cole had been sleeping in and he was sprawled out on an uncomfortable looking chair. His head tipped so far back I was sure I could see the pulse in his throat. He was going to wake with a horrible crick in his neck, no doubt about that. It was about 4am and I watched him sleep for a while smiling to myself before I dozed back off.
And that’s when the second event happened.
The door handle to our motel room was moving.
Chapter 30 Wake-Up Call
At first, I thought maybe someone had the wrong room and they’d find that their key didn’t work, feel foolish and move along. I thought I remembered reading something like that happening in a novel once. But that’s not what happened here.
Instead, barely audible pins clicked into place inside the knob. I was almost mesmerized by what I was seeing—caught between awake and asleep, not sure that this was a dream. Still and silent I remained until…
CRACK!
The silence of the morning was shattered as harshly as the door. The shards of wood and frame didn’t have time to land before I was on my feet, yelling, “You picked the wrong room, buddy!”
“Shut up! Get down on the floor! Everyone! Get down on the floor and put your hands behind your head! Now! MOVE!”
Four dark figures moved like grease into the dark motel room pointing guns directly at our faces and snarling orders.
Fully aware that my brothers were already as poised to fight as I was, I stole a glance at Dr. Andrews and Cole. Even in the dark of the room, their faces shown pale, their eyes wide with fear. They were obeying orders and lying down. Good, they needed to be as out of the way as possible. This was going to get ugly.
“Who the hell are you? What do you want?” Alik growled menacingly at the intruders.
“I said, ‘shut up’ punk,” the huge framed man positioned nearest to him snarled in a low voice. Alik slowly moved into compliance and lay down. Near him, Evan followed his brother’s lead. Only I remained standing in the blackened room, watching the moonlight glint off their guns while trying to anticipate their next move.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shift low to the ground. It was Maze. He was crouched and ready to surprise attack; his yellow eyes like mirrors of light glowing in the dark room.
“What do you know fellas? They warned us these kids were gonna be tough, but look at ‘em! Damn, I’m disappointed! I was hoping for a good fight, but look what we got instead?” The snarling thug began laughing.
He pointed directly at me with his weapon and said, “Come here, baby. Daddy’s gonna take you for a ride.” I could almost hear him drooling with anticipation. There was more laughter, this time from the obvious leader’s minions.
“Who warned you?” I asked in a calm voice.
“What? I said, come here!” The thug stepped closer to me.
“Get away from her, dork-wad!” It was Cole’s voice. The anger and fear in it was very real and very touching. He had no idea, but he would see in a moment.
I’d had enough of these disgusting men. I could sense what the intruders were thinking and it was vile enough to make me blush with rage.
I gave a sharp, low whistle into the blackened room. That was one of the many signals mom trained us to use. It was all my brothers had been waiting for.
Alik sprang to his feet and hurled himself toward the biggest of the thugs, slapping the gun out of his hand and plowing him across the room. They crashed against the wall—the bad guy knocked out cold.
In the same instant, Evan took a three-step run and jumped feet first at the thug nearest him, grabbed him by the neck between his ankles, spun him down to the ground and pinned him in one fluid and well-calculated motion. A barrage of punches to strategic pressure points rendered his attacker helpless.
Maze, upon hearing my whistle, flew across the room to the thug farthest from us and propelled his sixty-pound body right into the man’s chest, teeth snapping and ripping at his neck. The terror behind the ski mask was real but his screams of panic came to an abrupt stop. A ceramic lamp lay in pieces around the thug’s head. Dr. Andrews had helped Maze finish the guy off. And since there was a pretty good amount of blood pooling through the ski mask, it was clear this guy wasn’t getting up anytime soon.
I only had eyes for the foul-minded creature who spoke to me. It was in that instant that I found myself smiling with anticipation. I felt a thrill ripple through my body as surprised registered in the man’s dull eyes. I leaped toward him in attack position. With my left hand I grabbed his weapon, and with my right, I delivered one quick strike to his nose with my palm that had him gushing blood and stumbling around.
Even though I was pumped and ready to finish him off, I thought better of it. I put him on the ground, face down and pulled his arm up and behind his back. He was in a lot of pain, but I had some questions and he better have some answers for me.
Chapter 31 The Messenger
This all had happened so quickly I hadn’t stopped to think about everything that could have gone wrong.
“Check in,” I called out just as mom had taught us.
“I’m good,” Alik wasn’t even a little out of breath.
“Me too,” Evan called out casually.
“I—I’m okay,” the doctor stammered a bit, but otherwise sounded fine.
“I’m freaking out, but okay,” Cole answered honestly. Maze was sitting on my right side, but he wanted to be sure I knew he was okay because he gave my hand a big slobbery lick.
Mom always said, “If you know you’re in for a battle, strike first and strike to win.” She would be proud of how we handled these goons.
“Come on in here guys. I’d appreciate your help asking this one some questions.”
Cole came flying from where he had ducked for cover. After quickly scanning the room and confirming that the bad guys were all subdued he blurted, “You guys are awesome! That was amazing! Oh, my gosh! I wish I had that on video! I would so put that on Yout—” he stopped mid-word and stared at the bad guy under me.
I was balanced on my guy’s back, my knee digging into his r
ight shoulder blade, my arms wrapped around his right arm painfully pulling it back and up. The guy was trying valiantly not to scream like a little girl. (Well, a regular girl.) Cole looked back and forth from the guy’s cringing face, to me. I’m sure he was thinking, she only weighs 120 pounds, tops, and she brought that giant down?
“They had guns! They were coming to kill us?” Dr. Andrews was downright furious now.
“Well, I have my suspicions, but let’s just go ahead and ask this fella right here. So, were you sent here to kill us?” With the last word I yanked his arm a little further, and then eased off enough so he could talk through the pain.
“I ain’t telling you nothin’!” the thug spat through his bloody face.
“Ohhh, wrong answer.” I made a soft tisk-tisk noise with my tongue before I grabbed the hair on the back of his head, lifted and slammed his face into the crusty motel carpet.
I heard the doctor and his son gasp simultaneously. Good grief, they really didn’t have the stomach for this! Mom must have trained us really well. This was no big deal to us. I confirmed my thoughts by looking over at my brothers. Yep, they were both standing with arms crossed looking annoyed at the guy; no pity in their eyes at all. I guess growing up playing war games will desensitize a person.
The idiot under my knee was groaning. “Wanna try answering that question again?” I growled in his ear.
After several wet coughs and one uncontrolled sob from the pain, he answered, “We weren’t gonna kill you. Our orders were to bring you back to The Institute.” He was telling the truth, I could tell.
Winter's Awakening: The Metahumans Emerge (Winter's Saga #1) Page 8
