by I. T. Lucas
Lokan waved a hand. “That’s what you want, right?”
“They will get someone else to do their dirty work for them. Coercion works almost as well as compulsion.”
“How do they know who to send her after?” Carol asked.
“We think that they are using their Big Brother spying network to listen to people’s phone conversations. The bots are programmed to flag certain trigger words. The same way that the mention of bombs and explosives flags possible terrorist activity, mentioning precognition or telepathy or any other paranormal ability might flag paranormal talent. Once the bot flags a conversation, a human probably checks it out. If it sounds credible and seems worth pursuing, it goes up to another department, and eventually Eleanor or someone like her is sent to recruit the talent.”
Lokan rubbed his jaw. “She is not going to remember any of this, right?”
Kian nodded. “We hope.”
“Then put a tracker on her or have a Guardian follow her when she goes on her recruiting trips. Snag the talent from under her nose.”
Arwel shook his head. “Someone is going to connect the dots. In fact, she will probably get kicked out after Jin is gone. It won’t take a genius to make a connection between Eleanor’s so-called vacation and Jin’s disappearance.”
“Right.” Lokan nodded. “Is there a way to make Jin’s escape seem like a random act? Or even better, fake her death?”
Kian chuckled. “I have no idea how to pull something like that off. I need to contact the expert.”
“Turner?” Julian came down the stairs.
“Who else?”
68
Mey
“I’m exhausted,” Ella said as they neared the van. “It was fun learning to ski, and it has taken my mind off what’s happening with my aunt.”
Mey wrapped her arm around the girl’s shoulders. “We will find out soon. I’m sure they are treating her well.” Or as well as they could under the circumstances.
Extracting information from an unwilling subject could never be pleasant, but hopefully, Carol’s mate had been able to compel Eleanor.
It was frustrating not to know what was going on, especially for Ella, which was why Yamanu had offered to take them to a beginners' slope and teach them to ski. But they were both tired and hungry, and it was time to return to the chalet.
“How are you feeling?” Yamanu asked as he helped her into the passenger seat.
“Good. I’m tired, and I can’t wait to make us some hot cocoa.”
He turned on the ignition. “That tells me that you are feeling better. This morning you were still cringing when you drank coffee that wasn’t even that hot.”
“Yeah, you are right.” Mey took her glove off and patted her gums. “It doesn’t hurt as much.” She pulled down the shade and flipped the mirror open. “Look at that. They are almost normal.”
He turned to her. “Let me see.”
Mey cracked a wide smile.
“Adorable. They are just a little more pointy than Amanda’s, but they could pass for human.”
“Why didn’t I get any?” Ella complained from the backseat. “Nothing about me changed after the transition. Even my hearing and eyesight are only slightly better than they used to be. It’s such a bummer.”
Mey turned around and smiled. “You shouldn’t complain. I think your superpowers are all channeled into your telepathic ability. You told me that it improved after your transition.”
“Only a little. I managed to communicate with Michael, who is also a telepath. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is. Before my transition, I could only do that with my mother.”
“We should have brought him along,” Yamanu said. “That would have solved the communication problem. He could have gone with Kian and transmitted to you what was going on over there.”
“Yeah, but we didn’t anticipate having to kidnap my aunt. This was supposed to be easy. Find her, thrall the information out of her, find Jin, and go home. Besides, Michael can’t transmit verbal communication, only pictures and feelings.”
Mey nodded. “It’s impossible to plan for everything. Improvisation is a necessary part of nearly every mission.”
Yamanu cast her a questioning glance. “You sound as if you speak from experience.”
She hated keeping things from him, but she had no choice. Still, she could at least admit to having secrets. “I do, but I’m not allowed to talk about it, so please don’t ask me. It’s really not my choice.”
He reached over the center console and took her hand. “Thank you for telling me that. And I will never pressure you into revealing things that are not yours to reveal.”
Was he the best or what?
“I love you so much, Yamanu. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve such a perfect mate.”
He smiled and lifted their conjoined hands to wipe off the tear that slid down her cheek. “That’s no reason to cry, my love.”
“I know. I think this transition is affecting my hormonal balance. I’m much more emotional than usual.”
“It’s the stress,” Ella said from the backseat. “You are anxious about your sister and about what’s going on with your body. It’s no wonder that you get emotional.”
“Anyone want pizza?” Yamanu said. “We can get a couple to go and bring them home.”
“I’m sure they have already eaten dinner,” Ella said. “But I’ll check.”
Her nails made clicking sounds on the phone’s screen as she typed. A moment later, her phone pinged with a return message. “Syssi says that they have already eaten and that they saved some for us.” She leaned forward, sticking her head between Yamanu and Mey’s seats. “I don’t know about you, but I’m really in the mood for pizza. Carbs covered with cheese are the best mood picker upper.”
Mey glanced at Yamanu. “We are in no hurry. We can stop for pizza and even a little shopping.” If that was what it took to lift Ella’s spirits, then why not.
Yamanu nodded. “Pizza it is.”
After dinner they checked out the stores, and Ella’s mood had improved after buying herself and Julian matching sweaters.
“What do you think?” Yamanu wrapped a scarf around his neck and handed her its twin. “We can do matching too.”
She smiled. “Why not. Let’s get them.”
It was dark when they left the store, and as they got back to the chalet, they found a stack of suitcases by the door.
“What’s going on?” Yamanu asked.
“Kian called,” Syssi said. “We are leaving here and heading to Harrisonburg to join them.” She chuckled. “Of course, that wasn’t what he said over the phone, so I might be wrong. We will find out once we leave the Quiet Zone.”
“What exactly did he say?” Mey asked.
“He asked me if I’m all packed and ready to go.”
“That’s good enough of a clue,” Ella said. “Did he hint anything about my aunt?”
Syssi shook her head. “Pack your things. The sooner we are out of the zone, the sooner we will find out what’s going on.”
“Do I have time for hot cocoa?” Mey asked.
Syssi smiled. “There is always time for that. But you’ll have to take it to go.”
69
Kian
Up in his bedroom, Kian called Turner and gave him a short version of what he’d discussed with Arwel and Lokan.
“What do you think?” he asked when he was done.
“Tough call. I understand your desire to go after the recruits before Eleanor gets to them, but I agree with Arwel. After you get Jin, Eleanor will probably be out of a job. And as for staging something that will take the suspicion elsewhere, it’s too ambitious even for me. You are talking about the US government, not a Russian mobster. I don’t see how we could possibly pull it off.”
If Turner couldn’t come up with a plan, no one could.
“What if they keep Eleanor? I doubt they have another compeller they can use for recruiting. They will assume that she’d be
en compromised, drugged into revealing things she shouldn’t have, but not due to any wrongdoing on her part.”
“It’s possible. They might give her a new identity but keep her. She is a valuable asset.”
“But even then, if we follow her, we might get away with snagging one or two Dormants from under their noses, but no more than that. They will fire her or get rid of her.”
“No doubt. But that’s a worry for another day. Right now, you have only one objective, and that’s to get Jin. Don’t try to kill two birds with one stone because you might get none.”
“What if we ambush that bus and get everyone on board? We could set the thing on fire and make it look like an accident.”
“You would need to collide it with a nitrogen tanker. Anything less than that would not incinerate the bodies into ash. And even if you can get cadavers to replace the talent, they will not match the dental records they have on file. Again, you are dealing with the US government. You don’t want to mess with them, and you don’t want them to start investigating. One girl disappearing may not justify a full-on investigation, but an entire bunch of new recruits gone missing will.”
Dragging an agitated hand through his hair, Kian leaned back against the headboard. “I don’t like it. The thought of leaving a group of Dormants behind frustrates the hell out of me.”
For a long moment, Turner didn’t respond, and his silence gave Kian renewed hope. Perhaps he was thinking about another twist. Something they could do to get those Dormants.
“I wonder how many they have recruited before this last batch, and what they have done with them. At some point, the recruits are put to work, and maybe we can get to them then.”
Excited, Kian pushed up on the pillows. “You are brilliant, my friend. We follow Eleanor, find out who the recruits are, but we don’t approach them until they are done with the training. We get them later. The connection to her would be much less clear.”
“They will probably get new identities, but we can find them using William's facial recognition program.”
“Imagine the possibilities. Not only will the government find possible Dormants for us, but we can also find out what their talents are used for.”
Turner chuckled. “What good is it going to do you? It’s not like you want to sabotage the US spying activities.”
“Entertainment. It will satisfy my curiosity. Do you have any suggestions for Jin’s Saturday extraction?”
“I’ll give it some thought and get back to you. I also need to arrange your transport out of Harrisonburg. As far as anonymity, the best thing would be for you to drive all the way to Washington and fly from there. But once Jin is reported missing, they might put up roadblocks. Not that it’s a big problem for you and your team. You can just thrall the officers.”
“I’ll leave it up to you. We have three days to come up with a plan. That’s plenty of time.” He chuckled. “For you.”
“Indeed.”
70
Mey
“Is it safe to turn on the clan phones now?” Mey asked an hour into the drive.
She was worried. At first, she’d been excited about joining the team in Harrisonburg, thinking that Kian’s instructions to leave earlier than planned meant that he’d found out where Jin was, and they were heading there. It had taken some time for the gears in her brain to process the other possibilities.
There were several possible reasons for Kian to have them leave earlier than planned. One was that Eleanor didn’t know anything about Jin, and he was folding the operation. Another was that what he’d learned had made him decide to abort the mission for some reason. A third possibility was that he’d found out Jin’s whereabouts, and it wasn’t where they’d thought she was.
Yamanu checked the GPS. “I think it is.”
They had split into two groups. Dalhu, Amanda, Syssi, and Callie had left in the first van, while Yamanu, Mey, Wonder, and Ella had closed up the place, leaving twenty minutes later. The idea was not to have the two vans leave at the same time, but she didn’t see the logic. If they were really a group of people on vacation, sharing a chalet, it made sense for them to arrive and leave together.
Pulling the clan issue phone out of her purse, Mey turned it on. “There is a message from Kian.” Her heart started beating faster as she read through it.
“Eleanor told them where we can find Jin. She is getting a day off on Saturday and gets dropped off at a mall in Harrisonburg.” She looked at Yamanu. “How lucky is that?”
“It’s certainly good news.”
“I’ve got the same message,” Wonder said. “It seems that Kian sent it to everyone in our group.”
Ella sighed. “My poor aunt. They will have to keep her prisoner for three more days.”
That was probably the least of Eleanor’s problems.
Kian hadn’t specified how they had gotten the information out of her, and Mey hoped it had been with Lokan’s compulsion and not torture.
Not that she really minded how they’d done it. Eleanor wasn’t a good person. And although Mey would have preferred to avoid brute-force measures, finding out what was going on with Jin as well as with the other possible Dormants in the program justified any means. Well, maybe save for killing the woman.
Closing her eyes, Mey let her head drop against the headrest.
She was so incredibly grateful for the clan’s help, and for Lokan’s. Without them, she wouldn’t have been able to locate her sister, and none of this would have been possible.
Until meeting Yamanu, Mey had considered herself lucky on account of two major events. One was her and Jin’s adoption by the Levines, and the other one was winning the beauty queen title that had opened up so many opportunities for her.
But even though her chance meeting with Yamanu would not have happened without the first two lucky events, it was the most important one. The others were necessary milestones in the journey that had brought Mey to her mate and to an entire clan of people who she could now call family.
Her army.
Mey was going to be forever grateful to this tight-knit community of people for mobilizing their best to help her save her sister.
71
Yamanu
It was close to midnight when Yamanu pulled up next to the duplex and killed the engine.
The door on the right opened, and Amanda waved them in. “You are on this side.”
Ella opened the back door and jumped down. “Where is my aunt?”
Amanda pointed to the left door. “In the other one, sleeping.”
“Is she okay?” Ella whispered.
Amanda nodded and motioned for her to get inside.
Yamanu collected several pieces of luggage and carried them up the front porch’s steps. Behind him, Mey and Wonder brought in the rest.
He put everything down just inside the door. “I’m going to find a parking spot down the street.”
The others must have done the same with their vehicles because none were parked in front of the house.
“Leave it for now,” Kian said. “I’ve been waiting for you to arrive so I can update everyone in one go.”
“I’ll just lock it then.” He jogged out, closed the van’s doors, and jogged back in.
“I’m making drip coffee and hot cocoa for everyone,” Syssi said. “What would you like?”
“Coffee, please.” He joined Mey at the dining table, where most of their team was congregated.
Arwel wasn’t there, and Yamanu assumed that he was on the other side of the duplex, guarding Eleanor. Lokan wasn’t there either, but he might have left after doing his part.
When coffee and cocoa were served, Kian waited until everyone was done stirring and getting comfortable before he began.
“Some of what I’m going to tell you we’ve learned from Eleanor, and some of it we guessed. Regrettably, we discovered that she is not susceptible to compulsion either, and we had to coerce the information out of her.”
“Did you torture her?” Ella ask
ed.
Kian smirked. “Terribly. We tied her up and didn’t let her go to the bathroom until she told us what we needed.”
Ella arched a brow. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Seriously. But her need to relieve herself was just part of the reason she told us where we could find Jin. It seems that you were right and that your aunt is a compeller. Eleanor is certain that Jin will refuse to come with us, claiming that Jin came voluntarily because she’s a patriot who wants to help her country and because of the generous compensation she was offered.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Mey said.
“Yes. But when I said that we were willing to offer Jin a deal twice as good, Eleanor was still confident that Jin would refuse it. That, along with several other comments, convinced us that Eleanor compelled Jin to accept the offer.”
“How did she find out about Jin?” Mey asked.
“From what Eleanor told us, she is an independent contractor rather than an employee of the organization, and her job is to lure in the talent. She is not the one who discovers them, though. They give her the names and addresses, and she travels to wherever they are and brings them in.”
Ella shook her head. “Still, she is directly responsible for Jin being in the program even though she didn’t discover her. If not for Eleanor, Jin wouldn’t have agreed to join.”
Kian nodded.
Ella slumped in her chair. “It’s even worse than I imagined. She really is a rotten apple.”
Julian wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “As you often say, people are not black and white. I’m sure your aunt has some redeeming qualities.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Mey asked. “How are we going to convince Jin to come with us if she is under Eleanor’s compulsion? Are we going to force Eleanor to remove it?”
“Lokan is going to help us with that,” Kian said. “He had to return to Washington, but he’ll be back on Saturday to join us.”
