Sitting in the back seat with Quinn, I realized I didn’t know what to say. I barely knew her. Henry put on the radio, and an old Johnny Cash song played. As the truck rattled down a rough road, Quinn bumped into me.
‘Sorry,’ she murmured.
I smiled, swallowing. ‘Your hair looks nice,’ I said.
‘It’s the same as yesterday.’
‘But you’ve washed it,’ I said. ‘Yesterday it had bugs and trash in it.’
Quinn shook her head. ‘You’ve still got the same sense of humor,’ she said. ‘Some things never change.’
If you say so, I thought.
Halliford was busy, but not huge. It had a couple of supermarkets and several dozen specialty stores. Passing the local high school, I realized I might go there one day. A big baseball game was coming up. It made me wonder if I’d played baseball or football.
‘You were okay at both,’ Quinn said when I asked her. ‘A master of none.’
‘Is that like saying I was terrible?’
She laughed. ‘Not too terrible.’
Henry stopped in the heart of town and dropped Louise and me off at a cafe called The Tender Rose.
‘Very fragrant,’ I joked.
Louise smiled. Henry drove off, promising to return in an hour. Quinn waved, looking a little sad. I began to understand what it was like for her. She’d lost me—the boy she loved—just as I’d lost my memory. The losses were painful for us both.
Settling into a booth, Louise ordered an early lunch—homemade lasagne—for both of us.
‘By the way,’ she said. ‘This belongs to you.’ She produced a silver watch. ‘Do you remember it?’
I stared at the watch. ‘No,’ I said. ‘It doesn’t bring back any memories.’
‘It was on your bedside table,’ Louise said. ‘It looks new. You may have gotten it for your last birthday.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, absently putting it on. ‘Maybe wearing it will bring something back.’
Louise asked me again how I felt about helping the people at the tanker crash.
‘It felt good,’ I said. ‘Why are you asking me? What are you saying?’
‘I haven’t been totally honest with you,’ Louise said. ‘Oh, I haven’t lied. I wouldn’t do that, but there is something I should mention.’
I waited.
‘It wasn’t me that identified you from that picture,’ Louise continued. ‘It was someone else. A man who came to see us. His name was Cameron Howard.’
‘Okay,’ I said, unsure.
‘He said he worked for an organization called Rescue Prime, an international rescue group.’
‘I’ve never heard of them.’
‘They’re not a part of any government, so they’re not very well known. There was a major problem on the International Space Station last year. The entire crew was almost killed, but Rescue Prime saved them.’
‘Really?’ I hadn’t heard anything about this. ‘There was nothing in the media about it.’
‘Governments don’t advertise when things go wrong. They pay a fee to belong to Rescue Prime to keep things quiet.’
‘Who—exactly—is Rescue Prime?’
‘They’re modified humans like you. Apparently, they’ve saved over a million lives in the last decade alone.’
I was open-mouthed. ‘That’s amazing,’ I said. ‘And they want me to join?’
Louise nodded.
I sat there in stunned silence. This had all come out of nowhere. Rescue Prime. A covert organization. Cameron Howard.
‘But what about...well, I had some problems with The Agency...’
‘That’ll all be forgotten. They have no affiliation with The Agency. It means you could live here with us and still be part of a good cause.’
Our food arrived, and I ate in thoughtful silence. This was amazing. Flying over the darkened landscape the previous night, I’d realized that living on the farm wasn’t going to cut it. I’d moved beyond harvesting crops. Maybe even moved beyond school and everything that a normal life offered.
But to have the best of both worlds...
‘Maybe we could get Brodie and the others on board too,’ I said. ‘Didn’t they ask about them?’
‘They didn’t mention anyone else from Liber8tor,’ Louise said. ‘Maybe you can speak to this Cameron Howard guy about them. That is,’ she added, ‘if you want to meet him.’
I nodded thoughtfully. ‘I do.’
The door to the cafe opened, and Quinn appeared. It was a good thing I had finished eating because my mouth fell open in amazement. Quinn had not only bought a new outfit—a skin-tight floral dress with a pair of matching shoes—she’d also had her hair styled. She looked a million dollars.
‘You look incredible,’ I said.
‘Thank you,’ she said, giving a small curtsey.
We got back into the truck and headed back to the farm. On the way, I glanced over at Quinn, telling her again how fantastic she looked. She just smiled and blushed. Reaching the farm, we went to the back veranda and settled into the swing chair to look at the view. It was a beautiful afternoon, the kind you’d wish would last forever. We made small talk for a while.
Without warning, she leaned over and kissed me. Hard. We spent about ten minutes making out before she pushed her hair back and apologized.
‘I’m not usually like that,’ she said. ‘But, I’ve missed you.’
I took her hand. ‘It must have been tough for you,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘You don’t need to be sorry.’
‘But I am. It’s going to take me a while to get back to who I was.’
‘I understand.’
I stood, staring out at the endless landscape. ‘I’m going for a walk,’ I said. ‘I need to think about a few things.’
‘I’ve got work to do,’ Quinn said, smiling. ‘Lots of new dresses to try on.’
Strolling away from the building, I took a deep breath and gazed into the distance. This was all so perfect.
What a shame it was all a complete lie.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The house was just right. Louise and Henry were the ideal aunt and uncle. They looked like a typical farmer and his wife, a couple who had spent their lives working the land. Their explanation of the accident was logical; my parents had been killed, but I’d been saved, taken in by The Agency, and modified.
Quinn was the clincher. She was the sort of girl a guy could settle down with for the rest of his life.
It was all so perfect.
Too perfect.
There was no way Louise could have known we christened our ship Liber8tor. Outside of our group, no one else knew its name. Yet, back at the cafe, she had said They didn’t mention anyone else from Liber8tor.
How did she know the name of our ship? She could only know it if someone else had told her. I know I didn’t, and neither did Brodie. This guy, Cameron Howard, couldn’t have known either. So how did they find out? Was Liber8tor bugged or—
The answer hit me in a flash.
Back at New Haven, when speaking to Tomay and Bax, I’d referred to our ship as Liber8tor. The information must have been relayed to Louise—or whatever her real name was.
Were Tomay and Bax in on this? I doubted it. They had nothing to gain. Most likely, they were innocent victims of this whole scam. They’d simply made the mistake of trusting Louise when she’d turned up on their doorstep, pretending to be searching for her long lost nephew. Their residence must be bugged by whoever was behind this.
My stomach turned over. How long had this been in the planning? What was their ultimate goal? And what had happened to the others?
I had reached the halfway point of my walk. The house was still in view. I would reach it in about fifteen minutes. Slowing my pace, I pretended to soak up the sun as I continued around the perimeter.
This whole thing wasn’t a ploy to capture us. Or kill us. That much was obvious. They could have done that already. We had fallen so completely for their sto
ry that they could have murdered us a dozen times over. Part of their plan was to get me to work for Rescue Prime, or whatever they called themselves. Were they a rescue organization? Probably not. More than likely, they were a group of mercenaries.
Where were Brodie, Chad, and the others? Had they been captured by Cameron Howard? Were they even alive?
Pausing behind a tree, and out of sight of the house, I tried my communicator bracelet. No reply came back. It could mean a poor signal, but I doubted it. Liber8tor had either been destroyed, captured, or incapacitated. Most likely, Brodie and the others were being held, or tricked, as I had been.
They had to be alive. All this hadn’t been done simply to trap me. Their plan was to capture and use us all. How could I find the others? I couldn’t simply confront Quinn and my faux family. They would clam up. If I threatened them, they wouldn’t believe I’d torture them for information. I never had before, so I was unlikely to start now.
I needed to pretend everything was fine until I found out where my friends were being held. Now, as I circled back to the house, I saw Quinn appear at a window. She waved. Smiling, I returned the greeting, though I wanted to smash her face in. Choosing someone who resembled Brodie was a nice touch. Obviously, they’d assumed I would simply transfer my affection to her. They didn’t understand the human heart too well.
Reaching the house, I went to my bedroom. Even if I could contact the others, it was undoubtedly not safe to talk here. Pottering about my room for the next half hour, I moved and rearranged things, put posters up on the walls, and unpacked clothing. Turning over a lamp, I found a small black button at the base—a microphone. I was bugged. Probably the entire house was one big surveillance operation.
Wait a minute...
I glanced down at the watch Louise had given me. She’d said this was from my old life, but I would have bet money it contained a tracking and recording device. Getting onto my bed, I lay back, trying to appear relaxed, although inside, I was shaking, scared, and angry. It seemed I had nothing on my side, but that wasn’t true. I knew this whole escapade was one huge lie, and I could use that to my advantage.
Later in the day, as Louise and Quinn cooked dinner, I played chess with Henry. He was a good player. I’ll give him that. He didn’t let me win. We traded verbal blows through the game.
‘You’ve left your knight undefended,’ Henry said, raising an eyebrow.
‘All part of my cunning plan,’ I said, laughing evilly. ‘Soon, you will regret your attacking posture.’
In the end, he didn’t regret anything. He caught me in checkmate while I still had most of my pieces on the board. We played a second game, but I fared even worse.
‘Chess takes patience and concentration,’ Henry advised. ‘An even mixture of both.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind.’
Dinner and dessert followed soon after. Louise knew how to make a mean cheesecake. As we dived in, Quinn mentioned how much she was loving the area and hated the idea of leaving.
‘We’d love you to stay,’ Louise said, giving her hand a squeeze. ‘It’s wonderful having another girl around.’
‘My parents have me on a pretty loose leash,’ Quinn said. ‘They’re not in a big hurry to have me back.’
‘What about school?’
‘Actually,’ Quinn looked embarrassed, ‘my parents have been talking about splitting up.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
Quinn glanced over at me. Clearly, this was all staged for my benefit, the idea being that she would eventually stay here permanently. One day we would be married. Oh, what a happy family we would be.
It made me want to puke.
Chapter Twenty-Six
After a couple of hours of TV, where I sat with my arm draped around Quinn’s shoulder, I gave a few obvious yawns and said I was turning in. The family wished me goodnight before I disappeared into my room.
I spent the next three hours lying in bed, completely awake. I couldn’t have slept if I’d been paid. Sometime after one, I heard the creak of floorboards as someone left the house. Removing my watch, I left it on my bedside table, eased the window open, and climbed out.
Quinn got into her car and drove off. Taking to the skies, I followed. The air was cold as I trailed her, watching the headlights cut through the dark like a pair of knives. It was a dark night, the crescent moon shouldered behind clouds. She drove west for almost an hour, reaching an industrial building on the far side of Halliford.
Wilson Electrics.
It looked like the place had been abandoned for years. Quinn drove through the front gates and parked. Producing a flashlight, she flashed it at the building, sending a signal. A figure broke from the darkness. I floated down to hide behind some old pallets as the two figures came together.
Quinn started speaking.
Slam!
The man had punched her in the stomach—hard. He said something more to her as she struggled back to her feet, but I couldn’t make it out. They spoke for another few minutes. Then Quinn limped away back to the car, climbed in, and drove off.
I wasn’t sure what to make of all this. There was obviously a dispute going on between Quinn and the man. She didn’t seem to be an equal partner in this whole thing. Although I longed to search the old factory, I realized Quinn would be back home within minutes. If I was found gone from my bed, the game would be up.
Taking to the skies again, I flew home and went to sleep.
The next morning at breakfast, I saw the first break in their facade. Louise and Henry were true to character, but Quinn looked miserable. She gave me a smile but looked ready to burst into tears. I took her outside as soon as I could to speak.
‘I’m fine,’ she said, wiping away a tear. ‘I’m just upset that we’ve wasted so much time being apart.’
Another lie.
‘Let’s go out,’ I said.
‘Where?’
‘Somewhere.’
Leaving the house, we walked to the hill we had previously climbed. Quinn chatted, but I could tell she was distracted. Reaching the top, we looked out at the view. A bank of gray clouds clotted the horizon. As Quinn took my hand, I drew her close and looked into her eyes.
‘What did you want to talk about?’ Quinn asked.
‘You and me,’ I said. ‘But mostly how you’re going to be sorry if you don’t tell me the truth.’
I took off, hugging Quinn tightly against me. She screamed. Within seconds we were hundreds of feet above the ground. Quinn struggled, trying to claw at my face. Then she reached for a locket around her neck.
‘Is that a communicator?’ I said. ‘I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.’
By now, we were a mile up where the air was cold and clear.
‘Why?’ she snapped, furious tears in her eyes. ‘You’re not going to—’
I dropped her. It’s frightening how fast a person falls when they’re a mile off the ground. There’s this thing called terminal velocity. It’s the maximum speed you can fall. Here on Earth, it’s about 120 miles per hour.
Skydiving can be scary if you haven’t done it before. Imagine doing it without a parachute.
I grabbed Quinn in midair about a hundred feet before she struck the ground. She was utterly terrified, but not so frightened that she wasn’t still fighting me.
‘Put me down!’ she yelled as we ascended again.
‘Sure.’
So I dropped her again.
This time when I caught her, she looked positively ill.
‘Why are you doing this?’ she demanded. ‘I haven’t done anything to you.’
I gripped her collar. ‘Really? Care to explain why you were meeting that guy at Wilson Electrics?
Quinn’s chin quivered. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Sure you do.’
‘I can’t tell you. People’s lives are at risk.’
‘Try me.’
She shook her head, resolutely. ‘You can drop me as many times as
you want,’ she said, ‘but you won’t kill me.’
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘I’m not that sort of guy.’ I stared into her eyes. ‘But you’d better believe I’ll take you somewhere so remote it’ll be months before you find your way out again. Maybe the Amazon. Maybe Antarctica.’
‘You...you can’t mean that,’ she said, her resolve finally faltering.
But I did mean it, and she could see it in my face.
‘It’s my father,’ she said flatly. ‘They’ve got him.’
I gently lowered us into a wooded area near the base of the hill.
‘Who are they?’ I asked.
‘How much do you know?’
‘I know this whole thing is a sham. That you’re no more my girlfriend than Louise and Henry are my aunt and uncle.’
‘I was recruited by Cameron Howard.’
‘And Rescue Prime?’
‘There is no Rescue Prime. Howard and his men were going to recruit you to help them break into a facility to steal a deadly virus.’
‘I would never have done such a thing.’
‘They were going to tell you it was an influenza cure. Do you know how many people the flu kills every year?’
About a million, I knew.
‘What about Brodie and the others?’ I asked.
‘I don’t know anything about them.’
‘But why this subterfuge?’
‘That was the deal. Howard got you in return for the others.’
I swallowed. ‘Are they safe?’ I asked. ‘How do I find them?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘I’m not.’
‘Why were you recruited?’ I asked. ‘It wasn’t because of your pretty face.’
‘They’re holding my father, Robert Okada,’ she said. ‘And it was because of my pretty face.’
Her face shuddered and melted into that of Louise. Then Henry. And half a dozen famous movie stars. Quinn was a shapeshifter; she could mimic other people with ease.
‘What’s your real name?’ I asked.
‘Quinn, believe it or not,’ she said. ‘My father once worked for The Agency. He had me modified, thinking it was for the best.’
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 74
