by I. T. Lucas
Jacki nodded and took Jin’s hand, leading her into a narrow pathway. On one side of it was a wall with a two-foot-tall concrete ledge, on the other side a long line of massive ventilation turbines. A metal railing separated the path from the heavy machinery, allowing visitors a clear view.
Jacki kept walking, crossing at least a hundred feet until she stopped and sat on the ledge, pulling Jin to sit beside her.
“Impressive!” Jin yelled to be heard.
Jacki leaned closer, covering her mouth with her hand while speaking into Jin’s ear. “The turbines are not the reason I brought you here. It’s the noise. This is the only place where I’m absolutely sure we can’t be overheard.”
Jin lifted a brow but said nothing.
“If you want to say something, cover your mouth so the cameras can’t see your lips moving. And don’t look for them. Just nod if you agree or shake your head if you want to talk.”
Jin nodded.
“I have another talent no one knows about,” Jacki said. “I’m immune, like the director. Compulsion doesn’t work on me. It does work on everyone else in the program, though. And that’s how Marisol has a hundred percent success rate. She compels the recruits to sign the contracts.”
Jin frowned.
Was it possible that she’d been compelled?
She shook her head, and they switched places. Jin leaned into Jacki’s ear and covered her mouth with her hand. “I was compelled by the money. I don’t think Marisol needed to do anything else.”
Jacki shook her head. “Did she tell you to trust her?”
Jin nodded.
“And you did, even though you had no reason to?”
Jin nodded again.
“That was compulsion. Did she tell you to flirt with Richard?”
Unease starting to churn in her belly, Jin nodded.
“She did the same to him. That’s why you are both running hot and cold. It’s hot right after she has a talk with you, and then it runs cold when she is away. Am I right?”
Thinking back, Jin realized that Jacki was right. The cooling off usually started a day after Marisol left. Suddenly, a lot of little things that hadn’t added up before started to make sense.
Jin nodded.
“She tries to do the same with Dylan and me, but I pretend to be pitching for the other team. She thinks she can override even that, but at least she is not suspicious.”
Jin shook her head, and they switched places again. “If she didn’t compel you, why did you join? And before we switch again, is there a way for me to override the compulsion?”
“I came because of the money. I was a foster kid with no prospects, so this was a lifeline for me. She didn’t need to work hard to convince me. And as for overriding the compulsion, I don’t think anyone can do it on their own. But when you think about it, the compulsion is only about keeping the program secret and about trusting Marisol. We can still run.”
Jin shook her head, and they switched again. “Why run? I don’t like the compulsion part, but I really like the money. After five years, I’ll have nearly more than two million dollars. My sister and I will have enough to open our dream business.”
They switched. “Think about the big picture. Why is Marisol trying so hard to pair us up? Why are we all in the same program even though it’s obvious our talents have very different uses?”
Jin shrugged, indicating that she didn’t know.
“They want us to make babies with each other and produce even stronger talents. Do you think they will let you go and take that child or children with you? And what about having kids with a man you don’t really love but are compelled to be with? Is that worth the money?”
A cold shiver running down her spine, Jin shook her head. “I didn’t have sex with Richard yet, and now that I know what Marisol is doing, I’m not going to. She might be able to force me to date him, but not to sleep with him.”
Jacki shook her head. “Don’t be so sure. Marisol is subtle, but she is powerful. Besides, your sister is coming for you.”
Jin jerked away, but Jacki pulled her down again. “In the vision I had, she approaches you in the mall that they drop us at in Harrisonburg. She has a couple of guys helping her, and she asks you if you are here voluntarily. That’s all I saw, but it’s enough. On one of our future outings, your sister will come, and you can escape with her.”
Jin shook her head. “What about you?”
“If she’s willing to take me, I’ll come along. I have a good feeling about this. I don’t think we will have another chance to get out of the program.”
It was Wednesday, and the next outing was on Saturday. Jin had until then to decide whether she wanted to stay or not.
First, though, she had to verify if what Jacki had said about the compulsion was true, and Jin knew precisely how to test it.
Over the past two weeks, there had been many instances when she’d been tempted to follow the tether she had to Mey. Getting a small glimpse at her sister’s life and making sure that she was okay was not violating the program. But every time the thought had crossed her mind, Jin had been reminded of her promise not to communicate with the outside world in any form and had stopped.
Later tonight, she was going to follow the tether to Mey no matter what, but if she couldn’t, then Jacki was right.
10
Jin
“Can you sever the tether once it is created?” Dr. Roberts asked.
The guy was an actual medical doctor, but in addition to making brain scans while they were using their talents, he also worked with them on gaining better control of their abilities.
Jin hesitated. She could easily claim that she could, and no one could prove otherwise.
The truth was that she’d never tried.
Before joining the program, she had only tethered to people she cared about, and she avoided following the string of consciousness unless she was worried about them.
Now, she had a tether to each of the teammates, including Jacki, which proved that it worked on everyone. Which made her regret that she hadn’t hooked the director when she’d had the chance.
Still, it was not too late. Since he didn’t know about Jacki’s immunity, he also didn’t realize that his own probably was not going to protect him from Jin. He might offer her his hand again.
“I’m not sure.”
The instructor nodded. “Then let’s give it a try.” He turned to look at Jeremy. “Attempt to release him. First without touching him, and if that doesn’t work, with touching.”
None of her teammates had been happy about her hooking them, but she’d promised never to spy on them unless it was during the many exercises Doctor Roberts insisted on. She’d even asked the two empaths to verify that she’d meant it.
Nevertheless, since that day, they had all started treating her differently, and she couldn’t really blame them for that.
“Ready when you are,” Jeremy said.
She waved a hand. “Give me a moment. I need to concentrate.”
“Take all the time you need.” The instructor walked over to Jeremy. “I want you to focus inwardly and see if you can feel the tether releasing.”
Closing her eyes, Jin did the reverse of what she did when inserting a hook. She imagined unraveling the string of consciousness she’d previously tied to Jeremy and then pulling out what she imagined as a shiny little hook made from light.
“I feel it,” Jeremy said. “It’s so strange. I didn’t feel it when Jin hooked me, but now that she’s released the hook, I feel a little lonely, abandoned.” He made a pouty face.
Naomi elbowed him in his side. “Watch it. You’re making me jealous.”
Doctor Roberts lifted his hand to stop the banter. “It could be a placebo effect. Jeremy, I want you to walk out of the classroom and do something unusual.” He turned to Jin. “When he is out, check if you can still follow the tether to him.”
As Jin waited for Jeremy to walk out, she debated what to do in case the tether was
still there. Lie and say that she couldn’t see what he was doing? Or admit that she still could?
Luckily, Marisol hadn’t compelled her to tell the truth, just to trust her and to lust after Richard.
Jin’s inability to follow the tether to Mey had proved beyond doubt that she was under Marisol’s compulsion. All that her many attempts had managed to achieve had been severe headaches.
The compulsion was impossible to shake, and even though she knew now that the feelings were not her own, she had a hard time overriding them. It was doubly difficult with Richard. He was convinced that he wanted her as well and was very upset about her refusal to get intimate with him.
Jin had lied, saying that she had a rule against going to bed with someone she’d just met. The truth was that it didn’t really matter. Since she was on the pill, he couldn’t make her pregnant, and as far as she was concerned there was nothing wrong about two adults scratching an itch.
But it was the principle of it.
She wasn’t going to have sex with a guy because someone was compelling her to lust after him. Except, if she continued to stall, Marisol was eventually going to force the issue. Jin figured that the only reason she hadn’t done it so far was that she didn’t know that Jin and Richard hadn’t had sex yet.
“Well, what’s the verdict?” Doctor Roberts asked.
“Oh, I haven’t tried yet. Give me a couple of moments.”
Concentrating, Jin tried to find the thread and follow it to Jeremy, but it was really gone.
Letting out a relieved breath, she shook her head. “It’s not there. I can’t see what he’s doing.”
As the others started murmuring about getting released as well, Doctor Roberts lifted his hand to shush them. “One at a time, people.”
As Jin unhooked each of her teammates, some reported the same sensation of abandonment as Jeremy had, while others reported feeling nothing.
Jin felt lighter. Letting go of so many tethers at once was like freeing her mind of background noise. She hadn’t been aware of it, but, apparently, tethering twelve additional people had an adverse effect on her.
Being able to sever the tethers was good news.
She’d often wondered what would happen when she was sent out on missions and had to hook into people that she had no desire to be tethered to. Knowing it would be only temporary was a huge relief.
When the class was over, the looks she got from her teammates were much friendlier than the polite ones she’d been getting since the experiment had started.
Jacki walked over and wrapped an arm around Jin’s shoulders. “I haven’t shown you the water pumps yet. Are you up for a walk?”
That was code for going somewhere noisy to talk.
“Sure. You’ve infected me with your fascination for heavy machinery.”
They didn’t talk much on the way, and when they reached the fenced-off area, they sat down on the concrete floor and looked at the pumps through the crisscrossing wires.
Jacki leaned closer. “I think your sister is coming for you this weekend.”
It hadn’t happened the previous Saturday, but the upshot had been that Richard had stayed behind to catch up on homework, and she and Jacki had sat in a coffee shop right by the entrance, talking without fear of being overheard.
Naturally, they had checked their clothes and shoes for bugs, going as far as leaving their purses on the bus and just taking some money and their driver’s licenses in their pockets.
Jin had thought that Jacki was being paranoid, but she’d followed her example anyway. They’d spent the entire time talking in hushed voices and glancing through the window in hopes of seeing Mey.
She hadn’t shown up, which was good since Jin still wasn’t a hundred percent sure that she wanted to leave. Giving up two million dollars was not an easy decision, and she still wasn’t sure that Jacki was right about the program being designed to breed the next generation of super-humans.
Marisol and the director could have had other motives for pushing teammates into each other’s arms. Doctor Simmons was big on team bonding, and pairing them up might have been part of that.
But there were other bothersome aspects to the program.
Like the kids.
Last week Marisol had arrived with another fifteen-year-old girl, which brought the number of underage participants to three out of fourteen.
That was wrong no matter how much the director and Marisol had tried to cloak it in good intentions.
She leaned toward Jacki. “I wonder whether I should offer the teenagers a chance to come with us. Except, I’m still not sure that I should escape. Giving up all that money and then spending the rest of my life in hiding doesn’t seem like a smart move to me. I’d rather stay the five years, collect my bonus, and then leave.”
Jacki snorted. “First of all, you are not going to walk away with the whole amount. Did you forget taxes? You’re only going to get half of that. Secondly, do you really think they will let you walk away? You are the most valuable asset they’ve snagged so far—the ultimate spy. And besides, you are still compelled to feel that you belong here, and that’s why you can’t see what’s wrong with this place.”
“And yet you came out of your own free will. No one compelled you.”
Jacki shrugged. “I was blinded by the money, and I was curious to meet others like me. I also wondered if my ability could be enhanced. Naively, I didn’t expect them to push drugs on us. When they started that, it cemented my decision.”
“They said that hallucinogens are harmless and that they have no side effects and don’t cause long-term damage. They helped you with your visions.”
It had been a freaky experience, but Jin had no problem experimenting when she knew it was safe. They had a medical doctor supervise it, and other than Mollie, no one had freaked out. Well, James had had a scare because of his heart condition, but the doctor had reassured them that it hadn’t been because of the drugs. But what if it had?
Nah, doctors were sworn to do no harm. He wouldn’t have let James participate in the experiment if he’d thought that it was dangerous for him. Besides, even if the doctor didn’t give a shit, James’s talent made him a valuable asset to the program.
A remote viewer was good for spying.
Shaking her head, Jacki leaned into Jin. “And that makes it okay to give them to impressionable teenagers? Come on, Jin. If not for Marisol’s compulsion, you would have felt just as awful about it as I did. Try to shake it off and think. God knows what else they are going to have us do. Five years is a long time.”
It was difficult to feel alarmed by Jacki’s words when all Jin heard in her head were Marisol’s reassurances. She’d said that the drugs were perfectly safe and that they had the potential of unlocking more hidden talents she might not be aware of.
So far, no new talents had surfaced, but they had only done the drug experiments twice.
“I wish I could remove the compulsion from you,” Jacki said in her ear. “If you decide not to go with your sister, do you think she will still help me escape? Because I want out. I’m sick of living underground, and I’m sick of feeling like a bug under a magnifying glass, with cameras and listening devices recording everything I do and say.”
Jin shook her head. “How are we going to make it out there? We will need new identities, or we will have to move somewhere far away from here.” She smiled as an idea blossomed in her mind. “You can come with me to Israel. We can hide there.”
“First, let’s make it out of here. Then we will worry about where we are going.”
“We need to plan for it now. My sister served in intelligence, and she might know someone who can help us. Maybe she and her friends can help the entire team escape. I’m sure Israeli intelligence would love to offer each of us a job, and they can provide everyone with fake identities.”
“And what would we achieve by that? Change one secret organization for another? No, thank you. I want my freedom. As sucky as my life was before I sign
ed the deal with the devil, I’d rather have it back than stay here.”
Yeah, Jacki was right. Jin would have liked to believe that Israeli intelligence held itself to higher moral standards, but she had nothing to base it on. The higher-ups over there might be just as unscrupulous as those over here.
11
Jin
The artificial glow outside Jin’s window mimicked dawn at precisely six o’clock, the same as it had done every morning since she’d arrived at the belly of the mountain.
Except, today was Saturday. The day Jacki had predicted Mey showing up at the mall and offering Jin help to escape the program.
Jin was excited, scared, and conflicted.
She’d signed a contract, and as she’d told Mey in her text, she wasn’t a quitter. Turning her back on obligations that she’d committed to felt wrong. Also, there were many other things she was going to regret if she ran. Like not having had the chance to shake the director’s hand and tether to him. If she did that, she could find out whether Jacki was right about him and the breeding plan and all the other things she’d accused him of. Like planning to keep the recruits in the program forever.
Perhaps once she got out, she could tell someone about his plans and at least get the kids out. Except, she wasn’t going to see Director Simmons before getting on the bus with the rest of her team.
Damn, she was going to miss her new freaky friends, and she was going to miss Richard as well.
Talk about guilt.
Her feelings for him weren’t real, but knowing that logically didn’t help the way she felt about leaving him behind without a word of warning.
