“Where is he?” Colin asked as Tenessa shrugged her shoulders.
“Who?”
“The other one.” Tenessa frowned and Colin looked annoyed. “He’s a large, black-skinned man, my dear. He’d be rather hard to miss.”
“He’s not with me. We left him with that one,” she pointed at Marcus.
Colin looked at Marcus.
“He went after you,” Marcus told her, not sure why he felt the need to explain.
“He didn’t catch us,” Tenessa said. “They did.” She jerked her head toward the Trepid on her right.
After a moment, Colin walked toward her. The Trepids stood back so Colin could pace a circle around Tenessa, looking her up and down. “You’ve been with these individuals all day. Do you still revere the Union?”
Tenessa eyebrows jumped. “Of course we do.”
“I only ask because I’ve spent time with individuals before. With these two in particular, actually. I know their influence can be rather...seductive.”
“We haven’t been seduced by them in mere hours,” Tenessa said coldly.
“Good!” Colin clapped his hands together. “Then you won’t mind if I use you to teach this one a lesson.”
“Not at all,” she bobbed her head and turned expectantly to Colin. Marcus’s stomach roiled. This was about to get ugly, and something told him it would not be in the way Tenessa expected.
Sure enough, Colin looked at the Trepid on Tenessa’s left, and the man’s arm lanced out like a bolt of lightning. His fingers closed around Tenessa’s throat and he slammed her against the nearest tree. Her arms flailed out and she gasped for breath. No doubt the wind had been driven from her lungs, and it took her several seconds to recover. “What...doing?” she managed to croak from under the Trepid’s enormous fingers.
Colin jerked his head toward Marcus. “This one thinks he can save everyone. And that he should. Well, he can’t. The sooner he understands that, the better.”
The significant look Colin gave him made Marcus realize he wasn’t talking about Tenessa. He twitched with anger. “I won’t let you hurt Maggie,” he grated.
Colin smiled a too-sweet smile. “It has nothing to do with what you will allow, Marcus. I will find her, I will have her, and I will kill her. And there’s nothing you can do about it, any more than there’s anything you can do about her.” He jerked his head toward Tenessa, then turned his eyes on the Trepid still holding her against the tree.
Something nonverbal passed between them and the Trepid reached for the ties at Tenessa’s belt. Marcus sighed. He might have seen this coming.
Tenessa’s eyes widened when she realized what was happening. Her hands went to the Trepid’s hand, trying to push it away.
“Colin!”
Colin turned his head toward Marcus, eyes smug and mockingly inquisitive.
“Leave her alone. This is between you and me. There’s no need for this.”
“Of course there is. It’s something you must be made to understand.” Colin turned leering eyes back toward Tenessa.
Marcus locked eyes with the collectivist woman who’d harbored so much animosity toward him throughout the day. There was no hiding any messages from Colin. “Fight them!”
Colin’s head jerked around sharply, then whipped back to Tenessa. “No.” The Trepid paused and looked to Colin, awaiting orders. “She has no reason to fight,” Colin went on. “She knows all things that benefit the whole must be done. All things must be sacrificed to put the Union first. Isn’t that right?”
Tenessa glanced between Colin and Marcus, and for the first time since he’d met her, Marcus saw fear in her eyes.
“This...will not benefit the Union,” she said.
“Ah, but it will,” Colin cooed. “This man is one of the highest leaders of the resistance. Breaking his spirit and forcing him to bend the knee will help our cause more than you could possibly imagine. And this is how we do it.”
Tenessa glanced between them again, undecided. Marcus hoped the look he gave her was pleading, but he could feel that he was losing her. “Tenessa, this isn’t right. If you don’t want it—”
“Tenessa?” Colin interrupted. “You gave her a name?” He laughed merrily, shaking his head.
Tenessa looked from Marcus to Colin. Her eyes dropped to the ground, arms falling to her sides.
Marcus hung his head in frustration while the Trepid resumed his work at the laces of her trousers. He supposed he couldn’t have expected anything else. She was too fully and too recently a collectivist to be expected to stand up for herself. David was the same way when he first emerged: unwilling or unable to defend himself. Perhaps a little of both. They were unable because they were unwilling, and because they didn’t understand they truly could fight back.
There was nothing Marcus could do to help her. He could try to stop the Trepid physically, but he sat in the midst of fifty Arachnimen. It would only give Colin a reason to beat him to within an inch of his life, and he still wouldn’t be helping Tenessa. Karl. Where was Karl?
As if the thought were a summons, Marcus felt something. Karl’s mind still had to be Concealed. The instant Marcus was knocked out, his Concealment of both of them would have disintegrated. Evidently Karl had taken over his own, though. Otherwise, Colin would have been able to point right at him. Karl had been Marcus’s best friend for more than a decade and something about the way the feel of the air changed told him his friend was close.
The next instant Karl exploded from the woods and slammed into the Trepid who was trying to undress Tenessa. Karl landed atop the man’s chest and raised a round stone that fit perfectly in his huge hand over his head. He brought it down hard on the Trepid’s throat, crushing his trachea. In one fluid motion, Karl jumped off the gargling Trepid, grabbed Tenessa’s wrist and yanked her around behind him. He raised the stone again. This time he pulled energy through it. When he grabbed the second Trepid and threw him backward, it was with such force that the man hit a tree twenty feet away, slid to the ground, and didn’t move again.
It happened so quickly that no one else had reacted yet. Colin’s mouth simply fell open, but he recovered quickly, looking more annoyed than alarmed. “Get them,” he looked at the Arachnimen and snapped his fingers in Karl’s direction. “Take control of them both.”
Karl was immediately surrounded by four more henchmen. Two of them attacked him from one side while one of them tried to get a hold of Tenessa. The fourth waited for a good time to jump in. Tenessa seemed unsure whether to allow the Arachniman to take hold of her or not.
Karl danced back and forth, throwing small bursts of Offensive Energy at the Arachnimen while dodging theirs and throwing the occasional punch when they got close enough. His punches always left the Arachnimen on the ground.
He lunged backward, knocking Tenessa to the ground. The Arachniman squatted, trying to grab her, but she rolled back from Karl’s dancing feet. She ended up on her stomach, and the Arachniman grabbed her by the thigh and dragged her toward him.
Alarm registered on Tenessa’s face. Marcus thought the Arachniman really was only trying to get a better hold on her, but the threat of rape was too recent. Her hand closed around a flat rock. She clutched it, rolled onto her back and clocked the Arachniman in the jaw. The man staggered backward, cradling his jaw in shock. Marcus’s heart exulted, until he realized Colin had also witnessed the entire exchange.
Colin’s face went from red to purple. Tenessa’s actions angered him far more than Karl’s emergence had. Non-verbal communication or no, Colin lost all control and started screaming at his men. “Get them! Both of them! Just...kill them! Now! Her first!”
“Marcus!” Karl still fought off lumbering Arachnimen, but he held his hand out to Marcus, and Marcus sprang into action. The only way they were getting out of this alive was to rely on Karl’s most dominant ability.
Hearing Colin’s command, one of the Arachnimen unsheathed his knife and lunged toward Tenessa. Marcus was sure she was lost. He was no
where near enough to stop the stabbing, but Karl miraculously extricated himself from the group of Arachnimen converging on him. The Arachniman raised the knife over his head. Tenessa didn’t look inclined to move at all, though the knife descended toward her chest. She stared at the rock she’d used to crush the Arachniman’s jaw with utter shock.
When the knife was less than a foot from her, Karl managed to slide between her and it. He used his arm to deflect the blow, but it was too close a call to escape completely, and the knife sunk into Karl’s shoulder, just below his clavicle, with a faint sucking sound. Karl turned his hip, kicked the man’s legs out from under him, then pulled the knife from his shoulder with a growl of agony and the Arachniman coming toward him impaled himself on it.
“Marcus, to me, now!” he yelled through gritted teeth.
Marcus tried. Half a dozen Arachnimen stood in his way. They were focused on Karl, not him, so he wasn’t forced to fight them off. Still, they were larger than him and blocking his way.
Marcus dodged between them and came level with Colin, who watched the scene unfold with a deepening frown. He didn’t realize Marcus stood right next to him. Marcus brought his foot up and slammed his heel into the back of Colin’s knee. The man went down like a sack of grain, face-first into the dirt. Marcus shook with anger. If only he had access to his abilities he could end this now. He could neutralize this mad man here and Maggie would be safe. Here Marcus was, hovering over Colin at his most vulnerable, and there was nothing he could do.
He briefly considered taking a more savage approach. He could use a rock to smash Colin’s skull in, but the Arachnimen would turn on him in an instant. That kind of brutality took time—precious seconds he didn’t have.
With a visceral growl he lunged the final few feet toward Karl and grabbed his best friend’s arm. He swung around, still holding onto Karl and grabbed Tenessa’s arm.
“I’ve got her, Karl! Now!”
The world lurched. Marcus tried to move but it was like pushing through thick mud instead of air. Blurry images lurched past, making him dizzy. It only lasted a few seconds before his feet thudded on ground. He’d been standing crookedly on one toe, and the impact took his foot from under him. He landed on one knee, throwing a hand out to steady himself.
Tenessa staggered back a few steps, but didn’t fall. Karl turned calmly to look at the two of them. “Are you both all right?”
Marcus nodded and Karl pulled him to his feet. Tenessa didn’t answer. She still stared at the rock in her hand like she didn’t know what it was.
“Where are we?” Marcus asked.
“Same place, different time. About three months ago, I think.”
Tenessa’s eyes flew open wide. “You jumped us back in time?”
“Of course. How else did you think we were getting out of there?”
Tenessa looked deeply disturbed by the idea, but didn’t say anything else.
“You’re bleeding.” Marcus dug in his pack for a bandage and a water bottle.
Karl raised an eyebrow. Sweat beaded his brow and he still breathed deeply. “You...aren’t going to Heal me?”
Marcus pointed to the tender spot on his neck. “Sedative.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t you think I would have helped you out more back there otherwise?”
Karl shrugged. “I was too preoccupied to wonder. What now?”
Marcus passed a hand over his eyes. “I have no idea.”
Chapter 12: A Painful Talent
A FLASH OF PURPLE LIGHT. A rock formation. Brown boots walking across a room at eye level. Two large hands covering hers. A hand with an ugly black burn on the back. A woman standing in front of a broken lighthouse. Blood on her hands. A whisper of a voice. The one called B cornering her in a glass room. Karl washed up on some jagged rocks, bleeding from the neck. Joan holding a baby. Clay on his knees, mouth open in a silent scream. Lila curled up in a ball, crying. Doc burning parchment by candlelight. Gasping, clawing for breath...
Gasping, Maggie kicked herself awake, chest tight with fear and pulse racing.
“Whoa.” David’s hands were immediate on her shoulders, steadying her. “You all right?”
Awareness crashed in and Maggie’s panic abated. She was in the abandoned carport with David. They had to wait until morning to return to where Jonah and Lila were waiting for them with Kristee. They’d been sitting side by side against the chest and Maggie had fallen asleep. She realized she’d been resting her head against David’s shoulder. Her cheeks heated at the thought. She pretended she didn’t realize.
“Have a nightmare?” David asked. Maggie’s eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness of the carport. Despite the dim light, she could see David’s features perfectly.
She shook her head. “Not a nightmare, exactly. The flashes again.”
An understanding look came into his face and he nodded. “The same ones from before?”
“Yes. Other ones, too. New ones.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Recovered memories?”
She nodded. “I guess.”
“How much have you recovered?”
“Most of it, I think.”
He turned his body to face her, his eyes widening. “Really?”
“Yeah. Not all, though. Everything that happened on the ship, while I was captive—you know, the most important thing for me to remember?—is still completely blank. I remember everything leading up to it, and Vegas, and everything after that, but those three hours haven’t come back to me. I remember the team, being at Interchron, the missions, the collectives, everything else.”
“You remember Marcus, and your relationship to him?”
Maggie looked up into David’s troubled eyes and nodded, unable to find her voice. “I feel so badly about what happened when I was here before.”
David frowned. “Why? What do you mean?”
Maggie wanted to change the subject, but couldn’t think of anything to talk about, and she didn’t want to look like she was dodging his question. “I didn’t remember Marcus, then. I didn’t know him, so I couldn’t see through his defenses. Now, looking through the lens of my recovered memories, I realize how much pain he was in. He was so heartsick because I couldn’t remember, and he couldn’t say so many things because of that. Now, I want to see him so badly...” She cleared her throat. “If we can just get there...”
David nodded. A sad acceptance came into his eyes and he heaved a sigh. “You should get some more sleep,” he said after a moment. “You’re exhausted.”
“So are you. Besides, I don’t want to sleep again, tired or not.”
“I thought you said it wasn’t a nightmare.”
“No, but still I...” Her cheeks grew hot again. She didn’t want to explain to David how afraid the flashes made her feel. Instead, she changed the subject. “Let’s talk to keep ourselves awake. We haven’t really swapped stories in detail. Tell me what happened with Marcus and Karl.”
He stared at her intently for a few moments before focusing on what she’d asked. Then he shrugged. “Not much more to tell. They both returned to Interchron after taking you home. A few days later when everyone woke up, they were gone. No one’s heard from them since.”
Maggie sighed. That had been a brief story. “How’s everyone else doing?” she asked, hoping to keep it going.
He shrugged again. “Fine.”
She gave him a scathing look. “What has Doc been up to?”
He smiled briefly at her irritation, but answered with a straight face. “He and Joan have been working together on something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. They do it away from Interchron. There’s a cavern a few miles away. The two of them have been going there nearly every day for the past few weeks. They come back every few nights; sleep in their own beds. I asked what they’re doing, but they wouldn’t tell me. Or Lila. They say it’s the business of the team. And since they’re the only two members of the team currently at Interchron...”<
br />
Maggie nodded. “I suppose I’ll have to ask him about it when we get back. What about you, David? How are you? Your language is better. You hardly hesitate when you speak at all, now.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice speaking to the residents of Interchron. Lila helps me a lot.”
“You two are good friends?” Maggie asked.
He shrugged. “Depends on your definition of good. We don’t confide in one another. We get irritated with each other a lot. But Lila has always accepted me. She doesn’t mind spending time with me, where other people tend to avoid it.”
“What about everything else? How are you adjusting to life as an individual?”
David’s eyes roamed the carport for a few seconds, contemplating. “I’m doing just that,” he said finally. “Adjusting. There are still hard days, and things I miss a lot.”
“Do you still regret leaving the collective?”
David took several seconds to answer again. “There are things I regret not having anymore, but as a whole, no. I made my decision; I’ve never looked back. I think that’s helped me to adjust.”
“I’m sure.” Maggie fell silent for a moment, thinking. She wanted to ask him about something, but she didn’t know how sensitive a subject it was. And she didn’t want to pry.
“What do you want to know?” David asked, making her jump when the silence had stretched.
“Know?”
“I can practically hear you thinking over there.” His smile was roguish.
Maggie smiled back. “When we were last at Interchron, you told me that when you emerged from the collective, you saw the sunset, and it was beautiful. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Would you mind telling me more about it?”
He shrugged yet again and Maggie wondered if he was aware of how often he did that. “Breaking away from the collective was hard, painful. The beauty of the sunset was a contrast to that.”
Quantum Entanglement Page 12
