I almost shot the girl in the head. She held the words down, along with the contents of her stomach. Thinking too far in that direction made her nauseous all over again.
Jasper didn’t respond, and Sarina was grateful for the silence.
She willed herself to think of something else. Anything else. Like the picturesque French villages they passed today, and the fields and castles.
Ace cleared his throat, uncomfortable. The moment of mental respite was over. “All right, crew. Tess is gonna salvage what parts she can from Trashcan’s projects. We’ll be out of here in half an hour.”
“Without the parts we came here for,” Tess pronounced, using a somber tone, as if the stupid car upgrade still mattered.
“Do you believe we can still trust them after what happened here? I don’t think so. We’re onto Plan B, mates.”
Tess didn’t give a rebuttal for once. She crossed her arms over her overalls, pursing her lips together.
“We’re just going to leave them here?” Sarina asked in a small voice.
“Yeah, but they’ll be fine,” Ace assured her. “They’ll have a couple of goose eggs is all, and maybe a shiner or two, but that’s it.”
Goose eggs? she thought, confused. She didn’t have the mental capacity to dwell on the subject so she decided to trust Ace and drop it.
The Australian rogue met Tess’s icy glare, gesturing at Trashcan and Plentiful. “I’m keeping an eye on these two while you do your thing, but get a wriggle on. I wanna be gone before they wake up.”
Tess responded by walking out of the room in a huff.
“I’ll go with her,” Sunny said, heading for the door. “She might need help finding parts.”
As he disappeared into the corridor, Sarina hoped that they would get whatever parts they could in a hurry. She didn’t want to stick around here for a second longer than necessary, and she doubted Ace would let her venture above ground on her own. It didn’t look like anyone except her noticed or cared, but this place had a kind of stink she couldn’t describe. Perhaps the dead girl and the violence still hung heavy in the air. There weren’t any good vibes down here. Never had been any.
As if reading her mind, Jasper took a tarp off the workbench and placed it over Mindbender’s body. At least Sarina wouldn’t have to look at her anymore. She was tired of thinking about death and killing, but she couldn’t help it.
“Hey, Ace?” she began.
“Huh?” he grunted, fiddling with one of Trashcan’s contraptions.
Show Crybaby Sarina how to use a goddamn gun.
“Can you teach me how to use guns?” Sarina asked. The words poured from her mouth before she realized what she said. It sounded like a good idea, though. Something she could accept and live with. She wouldn’t need her powers if she could use a gun.
Jasper looked over at her and cocked his head, a frown rippling over his face.
“Sure,” Ace said with a grin. “We can do that, Wondergirl.”
***
Two hours later, the Nameless made their way into Lyon to grab lunch at a nice little French bistro. Sarina hadn’t been in the mood to choose one, so she left the decision to Ace. She didn’t even know where they were headed. Her teammates spent most of the drive talking, but the words drifted past her like water in a brook. Her attention was invested in picking up and absorbing good vibes from her environment. Sightseeing tourists, mothers with babies. Normal people doing normal things.
After crossing a historic bridge stretching across the river Saône, the Nameless left their car at the far edge of a nearly abandoned parking lot. Everyone else trusted Sunny’s camouflage to keep it hidden so Sarina did her best to relax and enjoy the stroll through Lyon’s historic district. Not that she could.
Under different circumstances, the immense Fourvière basilica might have inspired a vacation-like atmosphere with its elaborately carved statues, but the emotional fallout of the past few hours spoiled the effect. She couldn’t even bring herself to wonder what Ace and Tess had been plotting in hushed voices ever since they left the junkyard.
“How about here, Wondergirl?” Ace asked, pointing to a cozy-looking café bistro with a small outdoor patio shaded by an ancient juniper. The patio was deserted except for the four Frenchmen sipping wine at one of the tiny tables. “I hear the food’s good.”
Sarina followed his finger with her eyes. “Yeah, sure,” she muttered.
The Nameless trouped past the small patio to the front entrance. Thanks to Sunny’s power, the Frenchmen didn’t pay any more attention to them than the locals and tourists. Ace held the door open, and Tess led them inside. The smell of freshly baked bread almost took Sarina’s mind off the day’s horrors. Almost, but not quite.
When her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, Sarina saw the bistro’s interior was deserted. Tess claimed a table for them not far from the vine-covered front window. Through the foliage, she saw a few elementary-aged kids playing beside a nearby fountain, laughing and squealing as they splashed one another.
The carefree scene reminded her of how much she missed the ordinariness of her own life before powers. Her adopted family, her new home, her second chance. If she’d been in Switzerland, she might have been sipping iced tea with her adoptive brother David while talking about random things as the neighbor’s kids played with their dog on the other side of the fence.
Someone gently nudged her arm. When she glanced up, Jasper was looking at her. “Do you know what you’d like? You must be starving.” He extended a leather-bound menu to her. Beside the table, a white-haired waiter was standing at the ready, a tightly wound bow tie around his neck.
Sarina reached for the offered menu. “Can he see me?” she whispered to Jasper, nudging her head in the waiter’s direction as she opened the menu.
The waiter’s white eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch in surprise, but other than that his face remained stoic.
“Um, yeah,” Jasper whispered back.
“Oh.”
She immediately felt awkward. It was the first time that she had been seen in days, except by the Nameless and the rogues at the junkyard. She smoothed a few flyaway hairs, wondering if he could see her strands of alabaster hair, too. Did he know if something was wrong with her?
At least he can’t overhear us unless Sunny allows it, she reminded herself.
Sarina’s eyes drifted over the gold-embossed words. “I’ll have the salade lyonnaise, s’il vous plaît,” she told the waiter as she closed her menu. She didn’t want to keep looking at the listed prices because even a salad was twenty euros.
The waiter scribbled it down on his notepad, and took a few more orders before scurrying back to the kitchen.
Sarina’s eyes drifted through the window to the children by the fountain. Without realizing it, she hummed a song she last heard ten years ago, back when she was a little girl. She didn’t know why she remembered it now since her childhood was so far away it might as well have belonged to someone else.
“Hey, are you okay?” Jasper tapped her arm, concern flashing on his face.
She couldn’t find any words as a single tear trailed across her cheek. She wiped it away, but more came.
“We’re all in the same boat, you know,” Sunny said from across the table. “None of us have ever seen anyone die. Not like that.” He squinted at Ace. “Although maybe you have, Ace. You’re like Snow. You never talk about yourself.”
“Doesn’t matter how many times, mate. It doesn’t get any easier.” Ace looked over at Sarina. “But the world’s changing. We all gotta learn to swim before we sink.”
Sarina fixed her eyes on the table in front of her, watching as a teardrop fell down onto the white linen tablecloth.
“Sarina, look at me,” Ace said.
The gentle firmness in his tone compelled her to meet his eyes. She was surprised to discover worry lines creasing his face.
“You don’t act like you’re in a good place right now,” he went on. “What happened today …
you gotta leave that behind and move on. If it takes a little while, that’s fine. But you gotta understand you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Yeah, girl,” Tess chimed in. “No one’s giving out, so there’s no need to give yourself a hard time. You made the right call.”
If I made the right call, why do I feel so bad? Sarina gripped her silver fork so tight her knuckles turned white.
“She’s right, Dancing Queen,” Jasper said. “None of us would be here without you. You saved us. You’re the heroine you always wanted to be.”
For some reason, Sunny glowed with the same boyish admiration he had shown after her dance at the Sun King’s court. “A real heroine,” he added.
I’m not a heroine, she wanted to tell them all. And with this awful power, I never will be.
Tess broke into her thoughts. “I had my doubts about you, but that’s in the past now.” The Irish woman slid a hand across the tablecloth to settle it beside Sarina’s elbow, stopping short of making contact. The simple gesture was enough to brighten Sarina’s mood a little.
“If you’re worried about that white streak in your hair, I think it looks cute,” Jasper said. “Reminds me of a certain movie heroine.” His easy smile gave her the impression that he accepted her regardless of her flaws.
Sarina smiled back at him. She couldn’t wrap her head around why, but Jasper never doubted her. She wished she was able to see herself the way he did. Maybe she would be able to believe in herself.
The waiter served wine and sparkling water before setting down a fresh-baked baguette. Sunny voraciously dove into it.
“I want you to know that we’re gonna watch out for you,” Ace told her once the waiter had left. “We’re almost like a family here.”
If that’s true, why don’t you tell us about this thing you’re planning? Sarina frowned.
She was about to let Ace’s comment slide when she remembered something Jasper said in the car. Something that made sense. “If we’re family, we should all have the same information. About everything,” she said, reciting Jasper’s words.
“I agree,” Jasper said. “We can only work together if you fill us in.”
Ace shifted in his seat and pushed the hat up from his face. Stalling, he reached for his wine cup and bumped it with his large hand. Drops of blood red wine splashed across the white linen. “Crikey,” he cursed. In seconds, the red droplets disappeared.
“Thanks, Snow,” Ace said.
Sarina looked at Snow in surprise. Once again, she had almost forgotten that the white-haired girl was there.
“Well?” Jasper pressed Ace, uncharacteristically stringent.
Sarina had the feeling he was pressing the matter for her benefit so she squeezed his hand under the table.
“All right, here’s the deal,” Ace said. “The UNEOA is planning to make a big announcement this coming Tuesday. Really big. They finally realized they need to explain things.”
“About Shanti?” Tess asked.
“That, and then some. I doubt the UNEOA’s gonna tell the truth, though. And as long as they don’t, our living conditions are gonna get worse. We’re the world’s smallest minority. Most people care about their personal safety before they even think about us.”
Sarina felt her face fall. How can things possibly get any worse than this?
“Gentleman told us the Covenant was informed about how the power feedback theory works in reality, but what are they gonna do with the truth? Who knows.”
There was a silence around the table as everyone thought about the possibilities.
“And you guys have a plan?” Jasper asked after a moment.
Ace nodded. “We’ll get ourselves on television to spread the word. The truth. Maybe people will think before they blow someone’s lights out.”
“Like they did to the Traveler,” Sarina muttered.
“Why can’t we hack into their telecommunications system and let the word spread that way?” Jasper asked. “It would be safer, and we know Tess has friends who can hack into pretty much anything. And Gentleman works with Data, the world’s most powerful Technician.”
Sunny snatched the last piece of baguette. “They call him the Ghost in the Machine, like a badass from an Anime movie.”
Ace took the bread from the boy’s hand. “Data’s not reliable. He’s too busy doing his own thing lately. Gentleman doesn’t want him involved. And your idea about spreading the word through the ether,” he said, pointing his butter knife at Jasper, “our first plan involves hacking into a satellite, but that’s off the table now since Tess didn’t get the parts she needed to build an uplink.”
Since we abandoned Plentiful’s and Trashcan’s unconscious bodies in an underground hellhole after killing their friend, you mean. Sarina thought it better to keep quiet about the matter, but what Ace said about spreading the truth struck a chord with her. Once the world became aware that Evolved deaths caused power surges, more could be prevented. Maybe, just maybe, everyone would finally calm down.
Maybe I could go home.
“But isn’t television a little … nineteen-nineties?” Jasper asked Ace, who was easily twenty years his senior. “No offense.”
Before Ace had a chance to answer, the waiter arrived with the appetizers. Sarina gazed down at her plate of warm bacon and egg salad. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was. Her stomach rumbled at the sight of the food.
Much better than gas station sandwiches. She dug in, savoring the taste as she listened to Ace.
“So here’s the thing. The Internet isn’t a reliable way to spread the word. Stuff gets removed by the authorities too easily. But the whole world’s gonna turn on their TVs on Tuesday to watch the UNEOA’s big announcement, right?” Ace paused to take a big bite of his chicken in a creamy mushroom sauce. “Well, we’re gonna waltz into NBE Britain in Liverpool. If Tess is gonna jack into their live program with our recording, she can prevent them from shutting it down before it’s done.” With that, he sat back in his chair with a satisfied grin on his face.
“Why NBE Britain?” Jasper asked. “Isn’t the UNEOA’s press conference going to be broadcast from New York?”
“You wanna hijack a news studio right next to Covenant headquarters? Good luck, mate,” Ace laughed. “Security’s gonna be tighter than a bush rat’s ass. NBE Britain is the next best thing, though. Since it’s a branch of ANBE news, they’re gonna do a live feature about the press conference half an hour earlier. The whole world is gonna watch NBE Britain in the lead-in, and they’ll have little to no security there.”
“What makes you think we’ll be able to pull it off before anyone catches us?” Jasper asked.
“I’ll need five, maybe ten minutes,” Tess explained. “Maybe a few more to make sure they don’t screw with my override.”
“Besides, even if the Covenant sent someone in, it would be Samael—who needs at least an hour to cross the Atlantic,” Ace added. “But what does it matter, as long as we got our lil’ Wonderboy here?” He clapped a hand on Sunny’s thin shoulder, causing the boy to drop ratatouille on the table.
“What about the EU heroes? And Radiant?” Sarina asked. As good as the intention of spreading the truth sounded, she wasn’t convinced of the plan yet.
Ace flashed a knowing grin. “There’s no way Radiant’s gonna show up. At least not before we’re ready to get out. Trust me on that one, Wondergirl.”
He knows something that he’s not sharing, Sarina thought, annoyed. So much for truth among friends. “Is he going to die?” she asked, showing her disapproval.
“Man…” Sunny groaned. “It’s almost as if you have a crush on the guy or something.”
Sarina didn’t dignify that with a response. Despite all that had happened, she still had a soft spot in her heart for Radiant.
“Nah,” Ace assured her. “He’s gonna be out of commission for a while.”
Seeing as they’d saved each other’s lives, Sarina decided to give him credit. Jasper thought these guys were
okay, Ace included. He had told her as much more than once.
“And the Euro heroes?” she asked.
“Their base is in Brussels,” Tess said. “It would take them even longer to arrive than Samael, and they don’t have a Revoker that could mess with our Wonderboy. They wouldn’t even see us.”
“You’re not planning on taking hostages or anything, are you?” Sarina asked. She’d had enough violence and coercion in the past few hours to last her a lifetime.
“Look,” Ace began, “I can’t guarantee anything, but—”
“I don’t want to be a villain. I don’t want anyone else to get hurt,” Sarina interrupted.
“Look, Wondergirl, none of us enjoyed what happened today. You get that?” Ace said, looking right at her.
To his left, Sunny gave a solemn nod. “Yeah, that sucked.”
Ace finished the last of his wine. “We get in, have Tess jack into their tech, and get out.”
“And no one will see or hear us,” Sunny added with boyish enthusiasm. “It’ll be easy.”
“Why do you even care?” Sarina probed, not yet satisfied with their answers. “Because you owe Gentleman and his friends a favor?”
It still didn’t make total sense to her, especially since Ace didn’t act all that friendly with the crew at the Sun King’s court. Some of those guys had even given her bad vibes, Raven in particular.
“Sunny’s the only reason the Covenant is off our backs,” Tess said, reaching out to pat the boy’s arm. “If anything happens to him, we’re screwed. Our message could end the persecution of him, of all power surged folks everywhere.”
“The thing is, if the world starts crumbling, we’re gonna need friends like Gentleman,” Ace added. “You know the first thing about anarchy, girl? It’s dog eat dog. Now imagine that with superpowers.”
“Anarchy?” Jasper echoed. “That’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?”
Ace’s face was dead serious. “It’s starting. India and maybe a few other countries are gonna drop out of the UNEOA any day now. The Covenant’s losing its status, which is bad news since they’re the ones that have kept it all together since the Pulse.” He let out a long breath. “Mark my words. Yesterday’s riots are nothing compared to what’s to come. People are real scared, and scared people don’t stay calm and quiet for long.”
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