The Escape

by Teyla Branton

“Thanks.”

  A buzz in the sudden silence had him reaching for his cell phone. “It’s Ava texting from the garage, asking if you’re awake. They’re on their way up.” He handed me a shirt. “Guess you’ll be wanting this.”

  “Man, and I really liked my blue one.” I seemed to have the worst luck with clothes. Maybe I’d start ordering them by the dozen. Mari had ruined my favorite pair of jeans in Mexico, and I still hadn’t found time to find a decent replacement.

  Voices down the hall signaled Ava and Dimitri’s arrival. Quickly, I pulled the shirt over my head, threading my arms in the holes and letting it slide down before releasing the sheet. The older Renegades in our group didn’t worry much about nudity, but I wasn’t casual with my nakedness. Besides, with what hung unsettled between me and Ritter, the more clothes between us, the better.

  Ritter hit the light switch on the wall by the bed and came to his feet. “I hope they have good news.”

  I did, too. And I hoped someone had already explained to them what had happened at the Emersons’ townhouse so I wouldn’t have to. Glancing down, I saw the shirt was a dark gray with a V-neck I’d seen Ritter wear before, made of a thin, stretchy material that caressed my skin like a touch. All at once, accepting the shirt felt far more personal than if I’d kept wearing the sheet.

  “Is she awa—” Dimitri broke off as he saw me. He crossed the space between us and leaned down to give me a hug. “Sorry I wasn’t around to take care of you.”

  I laughed. “You mean put my pieces back together?”

  “Something like that. I hope Ritter did a good job.”

  Ritter paced to the other side of the room. “Wasn’t me. Keene took out the bullet.”

  Oh, so not only had I disobeyed and gotten myself shot, but I’d had the gall to get better with Keene’s help. “Guess I’d better thank him,” I said lightly, turning to Ava. “Did you find anything?”

  “Actually, no.” She frowned. “Everything, and I mean everything, was in place. We talked to dozens of people at the hospital, pursued leads all over Worcester and several other cities in Massachusetts, and interviewed more people over the phone. Stella hacked into computers, I spied on people’s minds, and Dimitri consulted on several cases—he even saved two trauma patients in the emergency room.”

  “They were children,” Dimitri said somewhat apologetically. “All I did was give them enough strength so they would survive their surgeries.”

  Ava met my gaze. “Try explaining to frantic parents why a strange man was touching their child in such an intimate manner.”

  “Oh, I thought you filled in rather well with all that talk about pressure points and blood flow.” Dimitri smiled. “As always.”

  Ritter and I exchanged a glance, and I was relieved to feel the tension between us dissipate. “There has to be something,” I said. “Patrick Mann got those genes somewhere. Isn’t there a chance he could be adopted like Brody Emerson?”

  Ava shook her head. “The doctor who delivered him died a few years back, but we talked to two nurses who were there that day. For one woman, it was her first week on the job, and it was a big deal to her. They both verify that the Manns had a son that day. The only slightly interesting thing we found was that on the same day another woman had a baby boy and placed him for adoption, but that’s not unusual in a hospital of that size.”

  “Did you talk to the birth mother?” I asked. “Is she Unbounded?”

  “I wish. Then we might have some reason to think there was a switch.” Ava sat on the bed next to me, her expression grave. “After some digging around, Stella found her name, but there is no Emporium connection that we can see. Same with the listed father. We talked to the mother on the phone and she became quite upset. Said she saw her baby after he was born and that he had black hair, but he had problems breathing so they rushed him away. When she saw him again his hair was lighter and he looked different.”

  “That seems promising,” I said. “Maybe there’s something to her claim.”

  Dimitri pulled a chair from against the wall and straddled it, resting his arms on the back. “Babies are always wet when they’re born. That makes their hair darker. Depending how long they’ve been in the birth canal, their features are often squished and their color odd, and this mother had been in labor for over thirteen hours. It’s also likely she was trying to emotionally distance herself from the baby she wasn’t planning to raise.” He sighed. “At any rate, if she were Unbounded or had any connection to them, I’d be more suspicious, but unless she’s lying about who the father is, she can’t be Patrick Mann’s mother.”

  “Well, something happened at that hospital, unless you think Patrick Mann just suddenly became Unbounded on his own.” I frowned at the white sheet on the bed. “Is there any way to trace that baby? Maybe test blood or something, just to check the woman’s claim?”

  “Good idea.” Ritter stood by the bed, his arms folded over his chest. “It’s a long shot, but if it’s the only abnormality you found, we have to check it out.”

  I drew up my right knee and rested my arm on it. “I don’t suppose the Mann baby could have been exchanged later, after they left the hospital.”

  “No.” The look in Ava’s gray eyes was intent. “If that baby was taken and another left in his place, it would have had to be done in the first hours. Parents, even busy political ones, spend a lot of time staring at their newborns. By then a switch would be noticed.”

  “We’ll have to check out the adoption agency that placed Brody Emerson.” Ritter paced to the door. “And his sister. For all we know, she was placed by the Emporium as well.”

  “We’ll cross-reference all the names at the agency and where Emerson was born with the people we researched today,” Ava said. “Another long shot, but any connection would give us a lead.”

  Ritter stopped pacing. “One big problem now is Brody Emerson. The Emporium knows we were there. Is he going to be safe?”

  “Nothing we can do about that now,” Ava said. “We’ll bring him in as soon as possible. You sent Cort there to watch him, right?”

  “Cort and Oliver.” Ritter’s voice showed a decided lack of enthusiasm.

  Poor Cort if he had to endure Oliver all day. I’d rather take another bullet.

  “Is Jace back?” Dimitri asked. “I can grab him and relieve Cort when we’re through here.”

  Ritter nodded. “He’s upstairs working through his forms again.”

  “Look, that reminds me,” I said. “Brody Emerson has an odd sort of gift that I’ve never seen before. When he looks at Unbounded who are using their ability or at something using a lot of electricity, he sees a sort of glow around the thing or the person. He doesn’t seem to know why it’s happening, but it must relate to his gift. I didn’t notice it when I was in his mind, but it’s obvious in his unconscious memories. That’s why he singled out Patrick Mann and me at the fundraiser. We were both glowing. And so were all the lights around the camera.”

  Ava looked at Dimitri, one brow raised. “Have you heard of such a thing? I haven’t.”

  “Sounds like a blaster,” Dimitri said, his head shaking back and forth. “I knew one once, and he went missing too many years ago to count. Centuries.” We waited for more, all eyes riveted on his face. “Blasters see energy,” he continued. “At first they can only see big energy, but as they mature and develop their gift, they can pinpoint increasingly smaller amounts. I’m not surprised you didn’t notice the energy before, Erin. You were probably still using your own physical eyes to see the world. As I understand it, connecting with him mentally isn’t the same thing as looking out through his physical eyes, though I know that’s possible for you.”

  “I remember hearing Cort talk about something like that,” Ritter said. “Can’t blasters gather energy and convert it for other uses?”

  Dimitri nodded. “That’s why they’re also sometimes called converters. It works a lot like absorbing, but they can use that gathered energy to literally blast things.
Huge explosions or tiny isolated ones—whatever is needed. Very useful. One blast at the front gate and you’re inside the castle. Or a blast to a pile of old armor laid outside the gate and the heated metal seals an entire castle regiment inside while you take over the land around. It’s particularly effective.” He laughed. “My age is showing, isn’t it? Anyway, in this day and age I imagine the gift would be even more valuable.”

  I could imagine. “Can they draw power from people?”

  “Yes, but only if those people are using an ability at that moment, and strong mental shields can prevent the transfer. Problem is that with people blasters seem to expend as much energy drawing it in, so usually they learn to take it from easier, non-living sources like electricity, storms, rivers, and so forth. They can even take it from fire. When they do, the hottest blaze won’t heat up a small room. But once my friend managed to do quite a number by stealing the power from a dozen young Emporium Unbounded gifted with combat.” Dimitri laughed, his wide chest expanding. “He almost died doing it, but it was a glorious win, I tell you. We were outnumbered.”

  How much he’d lived, all in a different time and place. I wondered what the world would be like a thousand years from now when I was his age. What marvels the world would have seen and what battles I would have fought. Surely by then we would no longer be hiding in the shadows, hoping humans didn’t find out about us and murder us as we tried to save them from the Emporium.

  “We have to make sure we recruit him for our side,” Dimitri added. “I can only guess at how long it’s taken to breed back that ability. Blasters have always been exceptionally rare, and while they can take a long time to regain strength if they discharge completely while using their gift, they can be extremely valuable.”

  Ritter was at the foot of the bed, his hands once more folded over his chest. “What I want to know is what ability Patrick Mann was using when Brody Emerson looked at him and saw him glowing.”

  “I don’t know.” I bit my lip in thought. “I couldn’t see anything in Mann’s thoughts about his ability. I sure hope it’s not another one we’re not familiar with.”

  Ava shook her head. “It’s unlikely, given the odds, but let’s talk to Cort and see what gifts he could be using just standing there—beyond sensing, of course.”

  “What about communication devices?” I released my leg, letting it hang over the edge of the bed with the other, the buzz from the curequick making me anxious. “Patrick had a way to contact his friends. Wouldn’t that register on Brody’s ability?”

  “No,” Dimitri said. “I mean, those things will eventually register as he grows in skill, but if they were registering now, he would have seen glowing from everyone there—cell phones, hearing aids, pacemakers. No, for him to pick out Mann, it had to be that he was using some stronger energy.”

  “So not only do we need to figure out what Mann is planning, we have to figure out what he is.” I hated the uncertainty. “I’ve racked my brain and I just don’t see what they’re planning. Let’s say the rumor about the president being sick is true and Vice President Mann becomes acting president or whatever. That still doesn’t help Patrick because I don’t believe he has a lot of influence with his father. His father may be worried about him, but there seems to be some bad blood between them.”

  “Yet it’s kind of coincidental that these rumors begin just when Patrick Mann suddenly turns out to be an Emporium agent.” Ritter’s scowl wasn’t meant for me, but the intensity made me shiver.

  “I’ll talk to a certain Pennsylvania senator,” Dimitri said.

  “You mean the one who’s your descendant, right?” I was curious because that meant she was also some sort of relative to me.

  He nodded. “Seven generations removed from the last Unbounded in her line. We knew she wouldn’t Change, but since her family has always been in politics, we kept her grandfather, and now her, in the loop. She also knows about the Emporium and has helped us out a time or two already. Maybe she can verify what’s going on with the president.” Dimitri stood and replaced his chair against the wall. “To protect mortal America, we need to do what we can to protect both President Stevens and the vice president from the Emporium. Depending on where our search leads, that might mean removing Patrick Mann by any means possible.”

  We were all quiet a moment, and I began swinging my bare feet as they dangled off the bed in an effort to alleviate the effects of the curequick. Ritter paced to the sink on the far wall and back again. Ava and Dimitri were motionless.

  “How about the compound and the prisoners?” Ava asked finally.

  Ritter faced her. “If we force our way inside, we will have casualties. If we use Mari and Erin to shift inside while we attack outside, we will still have casualties.” The hollowness in his voice betrayed his discouragement.

  “It’s a chance we are all willing to take,” Ava said gently.

  Ritter shook his head. “For three weeks Yuan-Xin and I have done nothing but go over this. Our numbers are too small and our enemy too protected. In every scenario, we believe we would lose more Renegades than we would save.”

  “We could ask for backup from Europe. After all, three of the prisoners are theirs.” Ava slid off the bed, standing close to Dimitri. Really close. It made me wonder at their relationship. Just old friends, or had they decided to take the chance we all hoped they would take?

  “No.” Ritter’s voice was inflexible, echoed by the physical stance he took with his feet apart and arms tensely folded. He looked like a rock that would never move. But the emotions coming off him told me of his agony at not being able to act. “Our allies in Europe aren’t ready to trust us again so soon. We are the reason the Emporium found the safe house. Besides, they have their own battles there.”

  Ava sighed. “You’re right. Some of their problems are more serious than what we’re facing, and we can’t send them help, either. Not yet.”

  “We can’t just leave our people there.” I dropped to the floor, the tile cold on my feet.

  “Of course not.” Ritter unfolded his arms. “Our best hope at this point might be to let the Emporium know we’ve found their compound. Get them to think we’re going to attack and that we have more people at our disposal. But we hold off on the actual attack until they move our people to another location.”

  “Like a siege.” A slow smile spread across Dimitri’s face.

  Ava rubbed her chin, her gaze going to the floor in deep thought before finally nodding. “Yes, that could be effective. Attack them coming or going, damage the building, cut the electricity. As for an illusion of more combatants, maybe Oliver will finally be able to help.”

  “Maybe later on,” Ritter allowed.

  Ava brought her hands together. “When does our siege begin?”

  “In two hours. At midnight,” Ritter said. “As long as you’re all in agreement.”

  “Then I’d better keep Oliver with me when I relieve Cort outside Emerson’s townhouse.” Dimitri gave a sigh. “I’d rather have Jace, but if we let him beat someone up near the compound, he’ll be so much more fun to live with.”

  I stifled a laugh. “He’s coming now,” I told them. “Must be finished with his forms.”

  Ava looked at the ceiling and concentrated. “He’s barely leaving the fourth floor.” Silently, she added, You really are getting stronger.

  Minutes later Jace appeared in the doorway. “So, what’s the plan for tonight?” he said. “Any chance of getting a little action?”

  Ritter grinned. “I think I know just the thing for working off a bit of frustration.” He didn’t look at me, but I knew he was talking to me every bit as much as to Jace.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m in. But I need to change.”

  Ritter regarded me seriously. “What you have on looks fine.”

  “Not really.” Jace made a face as he examined me. “Whose shirt is that anyway? A gorilla’s?”

  “Yeah, one who probably needs it back.” I spied my boots in the corner and
went to get them.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ritter said. “This particular gorilla buys them a dozen at a time.”

  Of course he did. That’s it. The next article of clothing I found that worked, I was going to buy out the entire store or send it to Stella’s seamstress to replicate. “I’ll only be a few minutes,” I said. “That’s plenty of time to fill Jace in on what’s happening tonight.”

  “Oh, and Erin,” Ava said as I walked to the door. “You and I need to talk.”

  I’d known it was coming. From the moment she’d walked in, she’d kept back her anger at my decision to take Keene along, but I hadn’t escaped entirely. Everyone studiously looked elsewhere, even Jace whose expression told me he was glad for once not to be the one in the hot seat. My mouth opened to explain Keene’s obstinacy, but she shook her head. “Later.”

  Only Ritter met my gaze. I expected to see amusement or even satisfaction at Ava’s words, but instead I glimpsed a sadness I didn’t often see on his face, a heaviness usually masked by strength and competence, a weight caused by this centuries-long war. What had he been like before becoming Unbounded? Obviously he’d felt an urge to protect others since he’d chosen to be an officer of the law in colonial America, but what else had he done? Had he gone on picnics with his family? Had he participated in games of skill that were popular in the day? All I really knew about that time of his life began on the day his family was slaughtered by the Emporium.

  Ritter saw my gaze and winked, his strength back, the weight lifted—or at least willingly borne. Warmth inched over my body, filling me to bursting and blotting out all thoughts of Ava.

  With effort I left him there with the others.

  STELLA JOINED ME ON THE elevator at the next floor, her face looking weary and her pinstriped suit slightly disheveled, which for her was unusual and testified of a fruitless day. As usual, her neural headset was on and occasionally blinking. “Glad to see you’re recovered.” She turned up her eyepiece and smiled. “Mari told me what happened today. That’s tough about the disk.”