The Escape

by Teyla Branton

  “I’ve already tried,” she said. “I think I’ll have to do it from the inside. Even for a hospital, they’re paranoid.”

  “That works in our favor most of the time.” Dimitri took out his phone and began touching the screen. “I bet I can find someone who can get us an introduction.” He shook his head. “Or at least get us an introduction to someone who can get us an introduction.”

  Having worked in many hospitals all over the country under several different identities, I was sure he could do better than that.

  “Good,” Ava said. “Ritter, you will continue to work with Yuan-Xin to plan the rescue of our people. You’ll have everyone except—”

  “Wait,” Jace interrupted, gesturing toward the big screen. “Turn it up, Stella. This is the interview they’ve been promising. Better record it.” We all turned our attention to the screen, Ritter pivoting his entire body.

  “Hey, that’s Patrick Mann,” I said. Someone at the news station had pull if they could get an interview with the son of the vice president on such short notice. Or maybe he was trying to further his political career and had gone looking for the publicity.

  On screen, he appeared like any other confident, attractive man. Nothing told me he was Unbounded. For my ability to work, the subject had to be in view, and it was odd seeing him as others did, looking like an ordinary mortal.

  “So we understand there was a commotion at your father’s fundraising event tonight,” the blonde reporter said, smiling at Patrick as though she considered him the most important person at the event. “What can you tell us?”

  Patrick shook his head. “Unfortunately, not much. There was an altercation in a hallway at the hotel, and some people were taken to the hospital.”

  “We understand there were weapons involved. How did those get past the tight security?”

  “I’m sorry. I can’t speak to that.” His pursed lips radiated disapproval.

  “Any clue as to the identity of the people involved?”

  “None.” Patrick shook his head solemnly. “Apparently there was some interference in the camera feed for that hallway in the hotel. I understand that’s under investigation now.”

  I grinned. The Emporium was certainly quick at covering up their messes.

  The reporter hesitated a dramatic moment before saying, “Was the vice president in any danger at all during the course of the evening?”

  “That’s uncertain. Everyone in town knew my father would be present tonight, so my feeling is that he may have been the target.” Patrick flashed a tight smile. “But whatever these people wanted, they didn’t succeed. My father is safe and ready to continue his job, as always.”

  “That’s good to hear.” The reporter nodded as if any other vice president would have tendered his resignation. “How does it feel to know your father could have been in danger?”

  Patrick looked directly into the camera. “Well, we knew when he took office that the American people came first. This won’t change anything. His family is behind him one hundred percent.”

  “Thank you for your very valuable time,” the reporter said. “Please give our best to Vice President Mann.”

  The scene switched back to the news anchors, and Stella lowered the sound.

  “Smart,” Tenika said. “Creating sympathy and a feeling of outrage for the vice president, even though he was nowhere near the attack.”

  “If President Stevens really is sick,” I put in, “this will smooth the way for the vice president to step in for him until he’s able.”

  “If he’s ever able,” Jace muttered.

  Something shifted inside me. “Do you think that’s part of the plan? To get the vice president in control even before the next election?”

  “I don’t see how that would help the Emporium,” Ava said with a frown. “The vice president doesn’t appear to be connected with them. And with all the protection President Stevens has, how could they have made him sick?”

  “There are ways,” Dimitri said. “Poisons that can’t be detected. Or an Unbounded healer who damages instead of heals.” His dark expression told all of us what he thought about that idea. “Maybe the vice president isn’t connected with the Emporium but has his own agenda.”

  I shook my head. “I saw nothing like that in his mind. Or in anyone around him.”

  “Not even Patrick Mann?” asked Ritter, his black eyes meeting mine.

  “No. But I did learn something odd about Patrick.” I recounted finding the shiny, black cord in the sand stream of his thoughts. “It reminded me of a snake, and it was definitely put there by Delia Vesey.”

  “Show me what it looked like,” Ava said.

  Opening my shield to her, I pictured it. After a moment, she nodded. “I’ve heard of this. It’s called a binding. With bindings, a sensing Unbounded can place important information in someone’s mind, either to pass it on to another sensing Unbounded or to hide important secrets from anyone who might break through a mental shield.” Her gray eyes, so like my own, became troubled. “It worries me to see this now. There haven’t been Unbounded who can break through shields for many years, so what’s the point?”

  She hesitated, her eyes meeting mine. She knew I could break through some shields, but there wasn’t any way the Emporium could know it, so this could only mean they’d discovered for themselves it was possible.

  “I can create something like that in myself,” Ava continued, “but I wouldn’t know how to go about doing it in someone else. Not without damaging them.”

  “Maybe that’s the point,” I said. “I can’t see Delia worrying too much about damage to someone else.”

  Ava inclined her head in agreement. “The Emporium has never concerned itself too much with the individual. You were wise not to attempt penetrating it. There’s no telling what might have happened. Although, maybe it’s a new application of an old concept. Something different altogether.” Silently she added for me alone, We know Delia recognized your potential when you were captured by the Emporium. This might be connected. She’ll not stay away from you long. She won’t let you grow too powerful.

  Normally, I would have tried to show Ava my confidence, but it was a little shaky where Delia Vesey was concerned. The woman was frighteningly powerful.

  Ritter’s knee touched mine under the table, freeing me from the thought. “We need to find out more about Patrick Mann. The sooner the better.”

  “Stella, can you play that piece with Patrick Mann again?” Tenika asked. “Maybe there’s something we missed.”

  The playback was halfway through when a black-clad person burst into appearance near the conference room door, wearing a knit face mask. Ritter was up in a blur, his gun ready. But it was only our shifter, Mari Jorgenson, emotions pinging from her in every direction. It had only been a few weeks since her Change, and sometimes she forgot to use her mental shield.

  Mari pulled off her mask, revealing a heart-shaped face and black hair winding down her back in a thick braid. She looked more American than Japanese, but she still shared a family resemblance with Stella, her fifth great-aunt. “The Emporium’s got another prisoner!” she said. “Another Unbounded. They just brought him to the compound. Yuan-Xin sent me to tell you.”

  There was more she wasn’t saying, particularly that she’d been glad to leave because Oliver Parkin, our other newly Changed Unbounded and also Stella’s descendent, was being his usual obnoxious, egotistical self. I liked to console myself that if he didn’t have such a valuable ability, we’d have tossed him out weeks ago. It wasn’t true because Stella had waited too long for someone in her family line to Change, but imagining it sometimes helped. I was glad Stella had Mari, whose childlike enthusiasm made her everyone’s favorite.

  “Did Yuan-Xin recognize the Unbounded?” Ava asked, coming to her feet.

  Mari shook her head and stray hair that had escaped from her braid fell into her dark eyes. “No, but he’s Unbounded all right. We heard the guards talking, and they gave him cureq
uick.” Tonic, she meant, the Emporium version of our curequick.

  Stella replaced her eyepiece. “I’d better contact all the Renegade groups to see if anyone’s missing.”

  Mari glanced up at the television as Stella turned down the sound. “Maybe he’s new.”

  Ritter shook his head. “They’d be trying to turn him not imprison him. What did he look like?”

  Mari’s gaze went back to the television interview of Patrick Mann in a belated double-take. “Actually, he looked kind of like him.”

  “When did they bring the prisoner in?” I asked. Could the Emporium have decided that Patrick Mann was a problem? They often turned on their own when it served the greater good.

  Mari didn’t hesitate, her gift with numbers coming to her as naturally as breathing. “Eleven minutes and forty-two seconds ago. He struggled with them at the gate and that’s where they gave him the curequick. They, uh, broke his leg.”

  I saw it in her mind, the vicious strike and the guard glancing around to see if his comrades objected to what he’d done. The tonic would help the prisoner heal quickly in case anyone at Emporium headquarters was told about the break. It created deniability.

  “Then it couldn’t be him,” I said. “This interview was live and it would have been going on then.”

  Mari went around the table to take a better look at the screen, where Stella had frozen an image of Patrick Mann. “The mouth is different,” Mari said, “and maybe the hair wasn’t quite so dark. It was hard to tell with just the street lights. But he did kind of have those features.”

  “So a white, American-looking guy with blue eyes and brown hair?” Jace said. “That could be anyone.”

  “Sorry.” Mari glanced back up at the screen. “Yuan-Xin or Oliver might be able to tell you more. I was so mad that I wasn’t really paying attention to details. I wanted to shift over there and shift out with him, but Yuan-Xin wouldn’t let me.”

  “I wouldn’t have either,” Ritter said. “You’ve only been able to shift a few yards with another person and that situation would be far too dangerous. We can’t risk you that way.”

  The Emporium had one aged male shifter, and we all knew they were anxious to breed the ability back into their family lines. Worse, if Delia could use others’ abilities the way I could, Mari would be the Emporium’s ticket to all kinds of mischief. Few documents or computer files would be safe, no lineage records secure. Assassinations that much easier. Normally shifters could only shift to places they knew, but sometimes they could also shift to people they were close to or had a mental connection with. Mari had so far been able to shift to places unknown only if Dimitri or I was there. Or if I showed her the place in her mind. But I believed it was only a matter of time before she was able to “find” the rest of our group.

  Mari blew out a sigh. “I know. I know.”

  Ava resettled in her chair. “This brings up another issue we need to address. We’re all aware of how the Hunters kept genealogical records since before their abandonment by the Emporium. These include connections with Renegade descendants. Lately, they’ve been researching and finding these extended connections and are watching them to see if they Change. Then they attack to kill. So far we’ve been lucky to have no casualties, though Keene reported that the Emporium hasn’t been so fortunate. While that might be good news for us, we can’t allow this to continue, especially as we have several more descendants approaching the age of Change.”

  As Ava spoke, I was watching Mari, who stood behind Jace, her fists now clenched. Her husband had been a Hunter, sent to watch her for the Change, and he’d betrayed her before being brutally murdered by the Emporium. While she’d rebounded more quickly than anyone imagined possible, there were still nights when she came into my room tortured by nightmares.

  I reached out to her mentally, pushing soothing emotions her way without delving into her thoughts. It’s okay. You made it.

  Her eyes flew to mine and her hands relaxed. I refocused on Ava’s words.

  “That a prominent Hunter,” she was saying, “showed up tonight at the fundraiser with an Unbounded is something we can’t overlook. If the Emporium has managed to get a plant in that deeply, they may be close to obtaining the Hunter records, which we know they want every bit as much as we do.”

  “There is another possibility,” I said. “I mean, the man had no shield to speak of. He didn’t seem Emporium trained.”

  “He could be new.” This from Jace, who could create a tight shield—but couldn’t maintain it without repeated effort.

  “That could be, but”—I shook my head—“it seemed different somehow. What if this cowboy Hunter is recruiting Unbounded now instead of killing them? He has money and position—that alone is different than most Hunters we deal with. Maybe he’s also learned to work differently.”

  “I can’t imagine Hunters overcoming that kind of hatred,” Ritter said. “They don’t even differentiate between us and the Emporium.”

  Jace perked up. “Yeah, but if they have their own Unbounded, they could get more of us, right? It’s the smart thing to do.”

  “That’s just it. Hunters aren’t smart.” Ritter paced a few steps. “They’re racists, which generally means poor and uneducated. Most of them barely graduate from high school. And those who have gone to college are steeped in so much prejudice that they never see past it.”

  I leaned back and put my foot on the table, adjusting the left side of my coat so the sai inside lay lengthwise down my upper thigh. “Well, some would call Unbounded racists against mortals, especially Emporium Unbounded.” Was I speaking for myself or saying something I knew Keene would say?

  Ritter’s eyes narrowed. “You know what I mean.” His eyes dropped to where I was stroking the leather-wrapped handle of the sai. Satisfaction rushed from him. What did that mean? I pulled my hand away.

  “The Hunter’s name is Davis Emerson,” Stella said, looking up from her laptop. “He was pictured on one of the news blogs. No mistaking that hat or his wife’s dress. Not poor by any means, though he was once. He’s a self-made man from right here in New York. Born on a small cattle ranch in St. Johnsville about two hundred miles north of here. Married his high school sweetheart after graduation. Only took a few classes at a community college and then worked his way up in the business world creating marketing videos. Barely saved his parents’ ranch from repossession. Eventually he hit a couple of lucrative contracts that made him a quick two million. He kept working, got into several fast food franchises, and invested in the stock market the day before it took a huge dive, but the check didn’t arrive at the broker’s until after the plunge, so he made a lot of money when the market revived. He bought his parents’ ranch and four other properties surrounding it.”

  “Living the American dream,” I mused. That explained at least why Mrs. Emerson looked so awkward in her designer dress. “Any children?”

  Stella nodded. “Two. Boy and a girl. Thirty and twenty-five respectively.”

  “I think the girl was there last night,” I said. “She had red hair like her dad.”

  “More Hunters in training.” Ava sighed, shaking her head. “That brings me to the next assignment. Erin, I want you to take the night off. Get some rest.” She meant no going to the rooftop, as was my nightly custom, to see how much further I could push my thoughts, all the while beating back my acrophobia. “Tomorrow morning,” she continued, “I want you and Mari to find the Emersons and feel them out. Even if the Unbounded bodyguard is with the Emporium, he didn’t seem to recognize you as a Renegade, so there’s no reason for you not to go. In fact, it might become an opportunity to set you up with a cover inside the Hunter organization that we can use later.”

  “But Mari’s in their records.”

  “Only as a descendent. Not the fact that she Changed.” Ava rubbed her chin in thought. “But it might be good for her to go in disguise anyway.”

  “I always wanted to try being a blonde,” Mari said, “and there are some real
ly cool glasses in our costume boxes.”

  “Maybe Keene can set up a meeting with Emerson using some of his Hunter contacts, assuming his cover is still intact and that he’s well enough.” Ava glanced at Dimitri as she spoke.

  He shrugged. “The poison is out and the bleeding stopped. I stitched the slashed artery and healed it as much as I could. He should be able to do some calling at least.”

  “Good.” Ava’s gaze now swung toward Ritter. “As I was saying earlier, you will have everyone else, including Tenika and her people. Freeing our Renegades remains the priority. If you need any more help, just ask and we’ll juggle the other assignments.”

  “But shouldn’t I go with Erin and Mari tomorrow?” Jace asked. “What if there’s fighting? Erin and I together are unbeatable.”

  Ritter arched a brow, but he didn’t challenge Jace’s assertion. “A fight is exactly why she’s sending Mari. If they run into anything Erin can’t handle, Erin can channel Mari’s ability and the two of them can shift out.” Funny how he said the words and I could tell he wanted to believe them, but his vivid surface emotions told me he was more worried than he let on about what happened tonight. Whatever his feelings, he’d better not go all macho on me, and insist on coming with me himself.

  “We won’t need to shift.” For the moment at least, I felt perfectly confident of my own ability against so few Hunters and only one Unbounded. And as Ritter had said, Mari and I could always shift out.

  “So do we all know what we’re going to do?” Ava asked. “Questions?” Heads shook as we all arose. Everyone but Stella, who was busy with her computers once again.

  “I’m heading back to the compound now,” Ritter said. “You up to it, Jace?” It wasn’t really a question. Even after going through his forms, Jace was so tense that everyone could see it.