My gait was more of a stagger than a swagger, but I picked up the papers, folded them, and stuffed them into my pocket. As a bonus, my phone lay there, and I thumbed up my screen. Still password protected and fully charged. Thank God for small favors.
When I turned to make my exit, Gabriel was leaned against the table, watching me carefully.
“You told him I would hire you. Why did you say that?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t want to break the natural flow of conversation, and it seemed like the right thing to say.” I waved a hand in the air. “He had a gun to my head. I hardly even remember what I said.”
To be helpful, Gabriel replayed that particular part of the conversation. “Gabriel said I was a quick study in system hardware… and lawful tarrasque… tactics.”
“Any reason you chose that phrase, lawful tarrasque?” he asked, his tone more curious than accusatory.
I winced. One accidental DnD reference, and the guy catches on immediately. Gabriel had always been way smarter than me, and if I stuck around any longer, he’d figure out who I was for sure.
“Nope. Just my general brand of mouth vomit. Trying to stay alive, and not like the song.” I edged toward the door, trying to get away from Gabriel. From Dawson, from this whole fucked up situation that was threatening to suck me under. “I thank you for your kind service, and Dawson?” Her ears perked up beneath her gray bun.
“I sincerely hope our paths don’t cross again.”
Over on the table, something beeped, like a microwave finished its job.
“That’s the results of the scan.” Gabriel pushed off the table. “Not even a little bit curious to find out who almost smoked you, PI girl?”
In truth, I wasn’t. My single, driving imperative was getting out of here before things went from bad to worse. The Sheltons, as well as Gabriel Vanguard, could suck it for all I cared. Besides, I had bigger issues. No money, for one thing. No transportation, for another. I really wanted to avoid falling back into my old, street-wise ways if I could help it.
“It’s undeniably Shelton tech,” Gabriel observed, apparently not caring that I didn’t want to know. “Basic bio interface, supplemented by a capacity booster and CPU with remote-controlled settings. Just like you said,” Gabriel continued, though to me, he was speaking a foreign language. “Your assailant controlled how quickly the device drained you, giving him enough time to question you, while still incapacitating you.” Okay, that part I understood.
Casually, he messed with something on his desk, and the red grid glowed brighter.
“Before we go any further, you should know a few things about me. One, I don’t trust anyone. Two, if you cross me, there are no second chances. Three, if I think you’re lying, or a spy, I will dedicate my life to destroying you.”
A tingle of fear crept down my spine.
“I have some questions for you, Miranda McHale,” he said, rounding the table and blocking my path to the door. “Not the least of which is… how did an unregistered Elemental secure a PI license? My other concerns can wait a bit, but that? I need to know the answer. Right now.”
I glanced at the exit, but given the way my knees were shaking, I figured I’d never beat him to the door. Gabriel smiled, showing his teeth.
“Don’t bother. The other piece of intel my scanner found was traces of your magic, trapped inside the device. You’re a Hyperion, if I’ve done my due diligence, and a powerful one.” He waved at the red grid projected over the perimeter of the room. “Think of this whole room as a giant suppressor. You can’t use your magic in here, which means you can’t burn your way out.”
Those too-blue eyes drilled into me, as if trying to detect what I was hiding.
“Like I said, I don’t trust anyone. Never have, never will.” He leaned back on the desk, his feet kicked out in front of him.
“So if you want to walk out of here, you’d better tell me the truth—if you even remember what that is.”
17
“I was lucky. When I was young, someone took me in off the streets. He taught me how to survive, and how to hide who I was. It’s because of him I’m here, actually.”
“It’s Lincoln,” Dawson said off handedly, still lounging in her chair. “Lincoln Amherst raised her.” She quirked an eyebrow at me, and when Gabriel turned back, there was renewed interest in his eyes.
“Lincoln, huh?” Now Gabriel was curious, damn it. “Lincoln gave me my start in this business. Well, maybe I should say he offered me opportunities that kept me out of real trouble during my teenage years. I still send him my latest prototypes to see what he thinks. The last time I spoke to him, he was going on and on about a disc—and Devilton.”
“Really?” I managed, eyeing the doors that were so close. “That’s weird. But it’s hard saying what Lincoln was into these days, since we hardly ever saw each other.”
“That’s interesting. Because he said the disc was in the possession of his ward, and if anything happened to him, Mac would send her straight to Daws. And here you are.”
Dawson grinned like a loon at the same time my heart sank.
“Okay, I’ll admit Lincoln saw the disc,” I confessed. “But even if such a disc existed, who’s to say what’s really on it?”
With a flash of movement, the screen filled with the graphs, lists, and data from the disc. Fuck.
“Okay, so you know what’s on it,” I admitted. “Even more reason for me to be on my way. There’s nothing I can add to… this.” I waved feebly at the long list of names. “Except to point out Lincoln’s dead. Everyone on this list is dead.”
And I really don’t want to join them, I thought desperately.
“This whole thing stinks of Shelton money and governmental power, and if you think you can go up against both of those and win, then you’re crazier than the magazines make you out to be.” I was almost to the door, hope blossoming, despite the fact the room was supposedly inescapable.
“How do you know?” Gabriel challenged. “If they’re killing Elementals in there, stealing their magic, don’t you think someone should put a stop to it?”
Someone, maybe. But not me.
“Dawson and I have a contact on the inside,” Gabriel told me, his gaze growing more intense as I dodged his icy blue stare. “Chances are, he’s in grave danger. Daws made an interesting proposal while you were downstairs getting yourself into trouble.”
When I whirled to face her, Dawson tried to look all innocent and failed.
“What does this have to do with me?” I countered, hoping it was just a fun fact he was throwing out there and not—like it sounded—a job offer. My hand closed around the papers in my pocket. I could almost taste freedom.
“Nothing,” Gabriel said with an elegant shrug of his shoulders. “Everything. Your choice.”
“They’re killing them, Gabriel, and now we have the proof,” Dawson pointed out, her bright red fingernails tapping out a jaunty rhythm on the table, but the worried edge to her voice was real. “You know Henry isn’t cut out for dangerous stuff. I told him he was too old for this job, but he wouldn’t listen. If he’s in trouble, we have to get him out.”
“I totally agree. But whoever could we possibly find with the skill set to get in and out of Devilton alive?” Gabriel mused while I threw my hands up in the air. “You do realize they only take unregistered Elementals.”
“Oh, I know,” Dawson agreed, her red lips parting in a wide smile.
“They’re killing people in there,” I reminded them. “Well. Stealing their magic, first. Then killing them,” I corrected, my gaze drawn to that too-long list of victims. I didn’t want to become a name on a list, not at my tender age.
“Our friend, Lincoln’s friend, Henry Saxon, has been an inside plant for about a year,” Gabriel explained, his tone patient. “When the rumors began in earnest, we set him up inside to feed us information. I’m told he became something of a celebrity inside, and up till now, we’ve gotten weekly reports. Except there’s been no
contact for a month.”
“Is there some kind of mass conspiracy I don’t know about?” Dawson’s expression was one, big—well, duh—in my direction. “I mean, who is this mysterious we you keep talking about?”
“We’ll get you inside.” Gabriel went on as if I hadn’t spoken. “You’ll find Henry and extract him.”
“Yeah, pretend I’m not even here and I don’t have a choice in the matter. Let me be perfectly clear. I am not going inside. I am not hunting for some old Elemental who can’t take care of himself, and I am not dying for the mysterious cause.” I used air quotes on that last bit. “I’m heading for the Midwest, where I can bury myself beneath so much mediocrity nobody will ever find me.”
“That’s a hell of a life plan.” Gabriel chuckled. “Care to start that new life under lock and key when I turn you in for being unregistered?”
My heart stopped as I searched his face. He was dead serious.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I hissed. “I covered for you with muscle-bound-bad-guy. I could have thrown you under the bus and given him everything he asked for. And I didn’t.”
“For which I thank you,” he responded coolly. His gaze fixed on the rotating holo of the suppressor. “Now, you need to get Henry for us.”
“You rich, privileged asshole,” I snarled. “Too used to giving orders, too used to having everything handed to you. Well, you can’t order me around like I’m some kind of lackey, and you can’t threaten me…”
Gabriel’s tone was clipped when he answered, “For your information, I left my family legacy behind the day I turned eighteen. Yes, my parents were rich, obscenely so. In our house, work was a dirty word. But this…” He pointed at the room as his voice went dangerously low. “This is mine. I worked my ass off to build this business, so don’t strut in here and throw that rich-kid bullshit in my face like you know me. Because you don’t.”
It was true. I didn’t know this version of Gabriel. He was ruthless and paranoid and perfectly willing to sell me out to get his way. No, I thought, this Gabriel was a complete and total stranger.
Gabriel drew in a steadying breath. “There are people I owe debts to, and Henry is at the top of that list. Which means, if I have to leverage your freedom to get what I want, then yes, I’ll do it.” He hesitated for a second before tacking on, “Lincoln would want you to.”
I tossed the disc at Gabriel. “Here, take the goddamn thing. I should have burned it up when I still had the chance. And don’t you ever use Lincoln as emotional blackmail against me again.”
“It’s too late, Andy.” His voice was hard, even though I thought I saw a glint of sympathy in his eyes. “You can’t walk away from this now. You’re in too deep.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I protested.
“I ran a check on you at the same time I was falsifying your profile. There’s a warrant out for your arrest, filed five days ago by a Detective Bennett. Attempted murder, murder in the first degree, evading arrest, and unregistered status as an Elemental.” He paused, as if searching for the right words. “I know what it feels like to be in over your head, with no one to trust. I’m offering you a clean way out. Do this for me, and I’ll help you disappear.
“Not just a new identity—but a whole new life, anywhere in the world.”
18
“This is utter bullshit. I will not be trapped by the likes of… you.” I didn’t spare Dawson from my wrath, and she at least had the decency to look chagrined. Gabriel only met my eyes with that intense look on his face.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I informed them, “There are a couple of problems with your half-assed plan.”
I also refused to believe Mr. Know-It-All, with his big, blue, suspicious eyes, knew anything about me. He didn’t remember me, that much was clear. He didn’t know who I’d become, and what I was capable of, and it was going to stay that way.
“For one thing,” I said carefully, “there’s no way into Devilton. According to reports, not to mention what I saw with my own eyes, the place has biometric zones around the entire perimeter. Since the whole thing runs on DNA sequencing, there’s no getting around it.”
“There are ways around everything, trust me,” Gabriel mused. “DNA sequencing isn’t impossible to break, not if you know the codes.”
“For the record,” Dawson interjected, “she claimed she could melt the lasers down to liquid in the blink of an eye.” I inwardly cursed myself and my big mouth.
“I was bragging and it was stupid. You’re manipulating me into a suicide mission, and I resent the hell out of that.” I was fuming. This little day trip was supposed to help me, not screw me over. Through the windows, I watched the sun drop lower over the city I hated while my life spun out of control.
“I can’t change your DNA, but I can change the records. They won’t be able to trace you, not the real you,” Gabriel explained in a clipped tone. “Just for the sake of argument, what would have happened if Bennett managed to capture you?” Gabriel raised a staying hand. “I’m just curious, so indulge me.”
“He would have arrested me, booked me, then sent me to Devilton,” I told him, realizing that was, interestingly, the most direct route inside the prison.
“You have to agree, it would work.”
Something else occurred to me. “You had this all planned out, didn’t you? How did you even know I was coming? Fuck… Mac called Dawson and told her I was on my way. You saw an opening and took it, didn’t you? That’s why we’re here. Not to help me, but to help yourselves.” I was sick and tired of being one step behind. Since I’d been on the lam, nothing had gone right. In fact, ever since I’d found the disc, my life had become one big shitshow.
“Yeah, sorry about that, she called me last night,” Gabriel apologized, quickly changing the subject. “We decided you were the perfect mole. We’ll use your warrant to our advantage. You get picked up, they run a check, they charge you, and you go to Devilton. A day or two in processing and you’re inside.”
“You won’t even go through the courts,” Dawson piped up. “There are no formal hearings, no trials. Unregistered Elementals go straight into the general population.”
“Even Elementals with murder charges hanging over their heads?” I corrected myself. “Alleged murder charges?” Well, Lincoln was alleged, and I hadn’t killed Derek, though I’d definitely almost melted Bennett’s hands off. So yeah, he was probably salty about that.
“Even them,” Dawson agreed. “Somehow, the Norms figure not registering is worse than killing someone, if you can believe that.” She cackled at her own lame joke.
“You can’t use the warrant unless you reveal my identity,” I pointed out. “I thought the whole point of this”—I waved my documentation in Gabriel’s face—“was to become someone else.”
“It is. You will be someone else. That’s how you’ll get out. Case of mistaken identity. You will be arrested under Miranda McHale’s name.” He handed me a sliver of clear, flexible plastic. “Stick this somewhere no one will find it. It’s nano-tech that will interface with your magic and mask it. The effects last for about a week. The upside is, no scan will detect your abilities.”
“The downside?”
“You’ll have no abilities. I’ll give you a day or two inside, and when you find Henry, then I’ll feed your new profile into their computer system. Once the DNA scanners sweep you, they’ll discover they’ve imprisoned the wrong person, and you will be set free.”
“We’ll need someone to pose as her lawyer, to facilitate her release. He’ll know who.”
Gabriel nodded at Dawson’s suggestion. “That’s a good point, and it will make this more realistic.”
“How will Henry get out? They won’t buy two wrongful imprisonments in a day. There’s no use in me going in, if I can’t get him out.”
Dawson and Gabriel traded looks. “He’ll be your lawyer. It’s the simplest solution, and we’ll kill two birds with one stone.”
“How
is that even going to work? Or are all the guards blind?”
“Watch and learn my child.” Before my eyes, Dawson’s face began to change, her thin, lined face growing larger, her gray hair growing out at an alarming rate, until a large, bearded man of about thirty lounged in the chair. Gone was the flamboyant attire, replaced by sedate, inconspicuous brown.
All I could do was stare. I’d heard legends of skin changers. But that’s all they were. Stories. There simply could not be actual people who changed their damn skin. Still, a hundred years after the Surge, mutations among Elementals were becoming more common. Maybe this was just one of them.
I stepped closer and inspected the doughy skin, pushing my finger in. It sprang back, just like real flesh. Dawson was completely unrecognizable, even the shape of her hawkish nose was different, replaced by a flattened blob that was as unidentifiable as the rest of her. My brain was about to explode, but before I could demand an explanation for this violation of natural order, Dawson winked at me, and morphed back to herself. Or what I hoped was herself.
“That,” Gabriel explained, “is how Henry will do it. He’ll transform into a respectable lawyer and will escort you out.”
“If he has that ability, why doesn’t he just walk out of there on his own?” I was busy wrapping my head around this whole thing. These kinds of abilities were outside the realm of the known world, and I wondered what other secrets there were.
Again, the two traded looks, Dawson looking worried and Gabriel with a furrow in his brow. “That was always the plan. If Henry ever got into trouble inside, he’s always had the ability to change his face and walk right out. We don’t know why he didn’t. Which is where you come in. Dust off those well-honed PI skills of yours and solve the mystery.”
Since I couldn’t quite tell if Gabriel was serious or joking, I let that one go.
Betrayed by Blood: The Shelton Family Legacy : 1 Page 12
