The Escape

by Teyla Branton

  “We’ve tried and she can’t.” I stood and walked around the table. “We’ll have to leave further experimentation for later.”

  “Agreed,” Ritter said. To Ava he added, “I’d also like Yuan-Xin, if Tenika can spare him.”

  “I’ll go,” Keene said.

  Ritter’s gaze shifted to him. “You’re wounded.”

  “I did okay this morning.”

  I didn’t know about that, but he seemed no worse off now.

  “Too risky,” Ritter said shortly.

  Keene’s eyes glittered, and he appeared about to say something when Cort interrupted. “If you’re planning on me driving the getaway vehicle, which might be a good thing given the abuse my leg suffered today, I could use him as a lookout.”

  Ritter’s nostrils flared. “Okay. But he doesn’t go inside. We can’t risk anyone who isn’t in full form. Confronting the Emporium isn’t the same as going up against a few mortal Hunters.”

  “Of course not.” Bitterness filled Keene’s voice, though because of his longing to be Unbounded or his hatred of the Emporium, I couldn’t guess. I was too busy wondering if Ritter’s comment was partially meant for me, a hint to let Ava take my place. I wasn’t feeling altogether myself yet after taking in all that power. Heat still filled my body, and although that was better than the constant cold I’d experienced since arriving in New York, it wasn’t normal. But I decided if Ritter had a real concern about me, he would have said something earlier. He wouldn’t endanger the mission.

  Ritter headed to the door. “Stella, I hope you have a location on our imposter because I want everyone ready to go within the hour.”

  “Oh, I found him,” Stella said. “But he’s not at a house. It’s a hotel. Dress up nice. We need to look the part.”

  Nice dress and fighting usually didn’t go hand in hand, especially as there had been no time to restock my wardrobe after we’d abandoned our last safe house. I’d have to borrow something from Ava’s closet, who like all the others, reordered her favorite clothes with a simple click of a computer key.

  “Full disguises,” Ritter added. “The Emporium knows us all by sight.”

  My heart thudded inside my chest as I watched him leave. No time to tell him about my epiphany at the Hunter’s meeting house. Maybe tonight. But what would I tell him exactly? It wasn’t as if he’d proposed.

  I was fooling myself, though, because his so-called gifts told me exactly what he wanted—a complete and total commitment for the next two thousand years. Nothing to worry about. Right?

  LESS THAN EIGHTY MINUTES LATER, a taxi carrying Ritter, Jace, Stella, and me pulled up at a luxury hotel in downtown Manhattan. I eyed the huge building doubtfully. “How are we even going to get inside, much less grab him?” There was a young doorman outside and I wondered if we’d have to show him our hotel key or something to prove we belonged.

  “They have to let us in.” Stella smiled sweetly as she adjusted her narrow eyeglasses. “We’re visiting a distinguished Russian ambassador.” She looked unlike herself, though still completely arresting in her long black wig, fluttery beige dress, and impossible high heels. Far too good to have had time to concoct a cover story.

  “I see,” I said.

  Stella smiled at the doorman, who blushed as he hurried to open the door for her. We all stepped inside. To my surprise, Dimitri was already there, sprawling casually on a couch in the lobby, almost unrecognizable with a longish gray-peppered wig and something odd going on with the shape of his nose. Hovering over him was Yuan-Xin, wearing small spectacles and a fancy gray cap covering black hair that had suddenly grown to his collar. Both were dressed in designer suits, though Dimitri’s was slightly too large.

  “Ah,” Dimitri said in a heavy Russian accent. “So good to see you, my friends.” Standing, he took my hands and pulled me close, kissing both cheeks and then repeating the gesture with Stella. Even Ritter and Jace received a bear hug, which almost made me laugh out loud. Dimitri had actually been born in Russia and it was apparent he enjoyed playing the part.

  “Come, let us go upstairs to my suite.” Dimitri signaled a bellhop, who relieved Stella and Jace of their large suitcases crammed with computer equipment.

  We spoke little as we rode up the elevator to the sixteenth floor. On my recommendation, the others had let their shields drop and had carefully blanked their minds so that if any sensing Unbounded from the Emporium were nearby, their presence wouldn’t set off any alarms. A dangerous game to play, but with minds blocked, our life forces would be dimmer, different from the regular mortals around us, signaling our Unbounded connection. It was akin to advertising our identities to our enemies. This way as long as a sensing Unbounded hadn’t been personally in the lobby and laid eyes on us, our presence and our natures should go undetected.

  Once we were in the room, I’d use my ability to mask everyone completely before they erected their shields so the room would appear to be empty to sensing Unbounded. I wasn’t actually sure I could extend to everyone, but as long as we were in the same room, I hoped it would work. At any rate, unless a sensing Emporium agent was watching nearby, we shouldn’t be discovered.

  The room turned out to be a luxurious suite, with two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, and a sitting room that was almost as large as the rest combined. Stella began setting up her equipment after the bellhop closed the door behind him.

  I imagined my mental shield pushing out to encompass the room, strengthening it and checking for breaches. “Okay,” I said. “You can use shields now.”

  I crossed the room to where Dimitri stood near the window. “How did you get here so quickly?” I asked, looking down at his broad form. “And dressed like that?”

  He leaned closer. “Compliments of Yuan-Xin. Quite resourceful, our New York allies.”

  “So did you learn anything from the president’s test results?” Ever since Ava told me the senator had sent the tests, I’d been curious to know what he’d discovered.

  A frown filled his broad face. “There is nothing I can see from the tests except that it wasn’t a stroke. The medical history she sent told me a lot more. He’s experiencing several organ failures—liver, kidneys, spleen—without apparent cause. Even his heart has been affected. The only thing I’ve ever seen like it is poisoning.”

  “What, you mean like arsenic or something?”

  “No, I mean something far more subtle. Particularly a cocktail of rosary peas and nicotine that the Emporium perfected in the Dark Ages. Undetectable if given over time, and there is no antidote.” He sighed. “What the president needs are several transplants, but unfortunately, it has been going on so long, I doubt he’d survive the surgeries.”

  Which would give Vice President Mann the presidency.

  “At least not without a healer present,” Dimitri amended.

  Across the room, Jace climbed under the table to connect power cables for Stella, while Ritter and Yuan-Xin talked near the set of couches. Dimitri and I watched them for several seconds before I asked, “You think Patrick Mann had something to do with it?”

  Dimitri met my gaze. “The one thing I’m sure of is that he has everything to do with it.”

  I thought so, too.

  “Thank you,” Stella told Jace as he crawled out from under the table. She pulled off the long black wig and tossed it behind her laptop.

  With a parting smile at Dimitri, I drifted toward Stella. “I’m taking it we’re on the same floor as Patrick Mann. What about his parents?”

  “They’re visiting friends on Staten Island,” Stella said. “Junior apparently wasn’t invited.”

  “Too bad for us.” I felt hot in the wool coat Ava had given me to wear over her short, blue silk dress, but I was loath to discard the few weapons it concealed. Already I missed the rest of my gear.

  “Actually, we’ll be more easily overlooked here.” Stella put on her neural headset, pushing the tiny metal electrodes down tightly next to her skull. When I’d tried it, the fit was uncomf
ortable, but she didn’t seem to mind. “In a few minutes, I’ll be able to control what hotel security sees on their cameras.” She turned on her headset. “You read me, Cort? Are you in place?” He must have answered in the affirmative because she nodded. “Stand by. I’ll let you know when they’re coming. It may be a while.”

  I looked at Ritter, who was now huddled on the longer couch with Yuan-Xin and Jace. Dimitri was going to join them. Closing my eyes, I reached out past my shield, searching for any sign of Unbounded. Almost immediately, I felt one at the far end of the hall in a room where two life forces lounged by the door—probably Secret Service agents. The shield over the Unbounded’s mind was strong, but not a match for my machete. Making it past the shield, I recognized the man I knew as Patrick Mann. He was doing nothing but reading the newspaper. No thoughts of intrigue or treason. Only the shiny black snake undulating in the sand stream of his thoughts testified that something wasn’t quite right.

  What if I could break into that snake right now and see exactly what the Triad planned? Maybe it even contained the identities of other influential operatives. The undulating construction beckoned to me urgently, and I felt an increasing desire to rip into it with my machete. Only Ava’s warning about the snake and my fear of Delia stopped me. Instead, I crouched in Patrick’s mind, waiting for what seemed a very long time until he looked up and I could take note of the room where he sat. I breathed a sigh of relief when no one besides the two Secret Servicemen seemed to be nearby.

  Who had I expected? Delia Vesey? She was one of the few who would be able to mask her presence from me as I was attempting to do with this entire room. I wished Ava were here so she could see if I was succeeding.

  I joined the others near the couches, who were debating the best way to take Patrick Mann without setting off too many alarms.

  “I think they’ll keep Patrick’s abduction quiet for a time,” Dimitri was saying. “They won’t want to advertise a breach of the Secret Service so soon after the events on Friday. And by then we’ll be long gone.”

  “Agreed,” Ritter said. “Once we get him out of the hotel, I don’t care what they tell the press. We’ll take him to Mexico if we have to.”

  I settled on the arm of the couch next to Dimitri. “There’s just him in the room and two agents, as far as I can tell.”

  “Then let’s go up to the roof and climb down the side of the building to his window.” This from Jace, who I was pretty sure had seen it done on a television show the week before.

  “For that matter, we could just knock on the door and take out the agents,” I put in.

  Jace rolled his eyes. “Only if we want the hotel cameras to pick it up.”

  “Isn’t that what Stella’s here for?” I smiled at him sweetly. His hair was colored a sedate brown instead of his usual blond, but the blue of his eyes burned brightly. Today those eyes looked even more like Stefan Carrington’s, and I knew exactly how I felt about that.

  “Well, there are still the neighbors. And anyone else who might be in the hallways.” Jace looked at the others. “Wouldn’t the windows be the least obtrusive?”

  Ritter shook his head. “Better that we wait for him to call room service and take over the cart before it gets to his room. If there’s enough time, Stella might be able to place Jace in as a new waiter. Or we can intercept the cart on the way.”

  “That could take forever,” Jace groaned. “I hate to remind you, but he doesn’t need to eat. He could be satisfied with just absorbing.”

  I agreed. He might not eat lunch at all, depending on his normal habits. “The agents might order something. Unless they’re on short shifts.”

  “Maybe Mann will get bored with staying inside and go out,” said Yuan-Xin. “Then we can jump the agents and take him.”

  Ritter nodded. “That would be ideal—getting him to leave the room voluntarily. That way we could take him before he left the hotel. But the likelihood isn’t very strong, not with only two agents there to protect him. His father is about to become the president of the United States, and after the attack at the fundraiser, they won’t give him much leeway. In fact, I’d be surprised if they don’t have a few more agents in the hotel or somewhere close by.”

  Ritter arose and began to pace, radiating frustration. I understood perfectly. It was disappointing to come all this way in such a hurry only to sit and wait.

  “I could call him,” I suggested. “Tell him I need to see him. He’d remember me from the fundraiser. I could say I’d recognized him as Unbounded after all and that I needed to talk. Maybe he’s new enough—or that arrogant—to take the bait.”

  “Like he’d believe you’d meet him alone when his buddies at the Emporium have been trying to catch up to you for the past three months.” Jace rubbed his hands on his black dress pants, which had to be driving him crazy, given that he hated wearing suits. “He’d know it was a trap. At least I’d know, if it were me.”

  Ritter turned and faced us. “He’s right. Then the guy would contact his buddies. As far as we know, the Emporium has no clue that we’re on to him or that we suspect his presence is related to the president’s illness. If they had any idea, they’d be here in force.” His gaze scorched me, though it didn’t linger.

  Sheesh. All he had to do was look at me and I was gone. Completely and totally. Did I really have to tell him about the conclusion I’d come to that morning? My emotions felt painted on my face.

  “So what’s the plan?” I asked, pushing my thoughts away. Later, I would have time to make a decision about how much I would expose my feelings to Ritter. Except if he touched me, I might not have a chance of holding anything back, regardless of the consequences. “I haven’t found any sign of Emporium agents. Even if they’re able to mask some from me, it can’t be many.”

  “You could knock.” Stella’s voice came from directly behind me. “If we got Oliver here, you could be anyone you wanted. Maybe Delia again?”

  Ritter’s lips tightened. “Oliver is unreliable.” Meaning Ritter was unwilling to risk my life. I might take the chance, but he was in charge here and the choice wasn’t mine.

  Dimitri watched Ritter for a few seconds before saying, “Looks like the blind knock on the door might be the way to go after all.”

  Ritter thought for a moment and started shaking his head just as Yuan-Xin said, “Too risky.”

  Jace let out a sigh. “I suppose that feeling in my gut is why you guys are saying that?”

  “Yep, get used to it,” Ritter said, the slightest smile hovering for a second on his face. “Looks like we’re going with the room service cart.”

  “Well, I still think we should check out my roof idea,” Jace mumbled.

  My turn to sigh. “We didn’t bring enough rope.”

  “Wait a minute, guys.” Stella turned from her computer. “I have movement. Two uniformed agents heading up the elevator.”

  “Reinforcements?” Jace asked.

  “More likely a change of guard.” Ritter went to look at the monitor, his voice tense. “Unless we’ve been spotted.”

  I pushed out my mind, pinpointing the agents as they left the elevator on our floor. “They’re not blocking,” I said. “I don’t see anything that says they’ve noticed us.”

  “Yeah, but look at the present they’ve given us.” Without touching her keyboard, Stella brought up a picture of the lobby showing the two agents only moments before. As they passed the check-in desk, one of them locked eyes with an employee, exchanging a slight nod.

  “Ah, so the two from the room weren’t alone after all,” Dimitri said.

  “It happens again over here.” Stella brought up a second image. “This time with an employee who seems to be watching the elevator.”

  “If they have those two, they’ll be careful enough to have someone near the back exit we plan to use,” Yuan-Xin said.

  Ritter put a hand on the table leaning over to get a better view of Stella’s laptop screen. “Show me the door to the alley.” He stud
ied a man slowly vacuuming a floor. “Probably him.” He straightened. “We’ll have to take care of them all before we smuggle Patrick out. Okay, Jace, get down to the kitchens and report to duty. By the time you get there, Stella will have made sure you are their latest employee.”

  “Already done,” Stella said. “I can’t get him the clearance he’d need to deliver room service to Mann because security has it flagged, but once the call is made—if the call is made—we’ll give Jace the signal and have him take the cart from the real employee.” Her eyes went to Jace. “I’ll send the details to your phone.”

  “The original agents are leaving,” I said, having kept track of them, both on the camera picture in one corner of Stella’s screen and in my mind. “We’ll need to make sure they leave the hotel.”

  Jace put in his wireless earpiece, followed by the ring that hid a mic. “I assume someone is going into the room with me? Though if there are only two mortals and Mann, it should be a piece of cake. As long as there aren’t any others lurking around.”

  “There could be more hiding their life forces behind shields.” I felt uneasy that it was my word they depended on when it was my little brother’s life at stake.

  That didn’t faze Jace. “Then it’d be someone with sensing not combat. If they can’t channel like you, they won’t be a problem.”

  If, if, if. I wanted to tell him he didn’t know what he was talking about, that Delia was more powerful than he could imagine, but I didn’t really have anything but my one meeting with her and my own fears to base that assumption on.

  “I’ve reviewed their video footage since Friday night,” Stella said, “and there’s no record of anyone entering that room besides Patrick Mann and several different sets of agents.”

  “No connecting rooms?” I asked.

  “None.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my ability exactly, but the fact that I’d been sharing Davis Emerson’s mind with Delia’s minion and had sensed absolutely nothing had unnerved me more than I’d admitted to myself.