Closed Hearts (Book Two of the Mindjack Trilogy)

by Quinn, Susan Kaye

  He waved her away like she was a fly buzzing around his head. That won’t be necessary. Then he turned to peer from the spotlight and looked straight at my dad.

  My dad—he was on the list with Raf! My breath froze in my chest.

  I assure you that—Vellus stopped again, mid-thought, only this time, I sensed some confusion in his mind. As he studied the list, a mantra pounded his thoughts that these were dangerous jackers, they had to stay locked up, but it fought against an underlying tug of emotion that made him feel bonded to them. Like they were his people, and he needed to get them out. That they shouldn’t be locked in a prison, because they had done nothing wrong. A light sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead and reflected the spotlights.

  I glanced at Julian, who was deep in concentration, his eyes fixed on Vellus like a laser beam. He must be handling Vellus now, and not a moment too soon. With my dad’s name on the list, Vellus must know something was wrong. But would it matter? Could the rational part of his brain fight off Julian’s handling? It didn’t seem like my dad or Molloy could resist him.

  I think, perhaps, there has been some kind of mistake. Vellus blinked and leaned back in his chair, holding the list away from his body as if it were a snake that might bite him.

  Are you saying that it was a mistake to have these people arrested? Maria hung off the edge of her chair. Even though Vellus had extended her scribepad back to her, she refused to take it. That they were improperly caught up in your attempt to rescue the mindreader who was kidnapped?

  Yes… there must have been a mistake. They…His eyes grew wide, as if he couldn’t believe the thoughts running through his head. These people weren’t involved in the kidnapping.

  If it was a mistake, Senator, perhaps we could remedy that mistake now, Maria thought. Have the prisoners released immediately. A gesture of goodwill that would no doubt go far in reassuring the public.

  Perhaps. Yes, reassuring to the public. Vellus’s face turned red, which might be seen on the tru-cast as embarrassment, but I knew exactly what it was. Vellus was trying to fight the impulse he felt to free the prisoners. Maria flagged her assistant, the girl who had fluttered around her before, and she sprinted up to Maria with a slim silver phone.

  We have a phone ready for you, Senator, Maria thought. If you would like to make that call.

  Vellus ignored her outstretched hand.

  That won’t be necessary. Vellus’s chest was heaving, like he was having a hard time breathing. He gestured to his skinny assistant who jerked like he had been tasered and hurried up to the dais. Vellus thrust the scribepad into his hands, and he awkwardly caught it so that it wouldn’t drop to the floor. These people have been mistakenly detained. My assistant will make the necessary arrangements to have them released immediately.

  Vellus’s assistant sprinted out of camera range, horrified at the public-relations nightmare his boss had unfurled. He stabbed madly at his earbud phone and dashed out of the room to the lobby to place his call, afraid that the boom mics might pick up his thoughts and broadcast them, snarling the mess even further.

  Vellus’s face was returning to a normal color, now that the assistant had been dispatched to carry out the urgent need to release the prisoners that Julian had apparently placed in Vellus’s reptilian brain.

  I believe our interview is concluded, Ms. Lopez, Vellus thought, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore. He slowly rose from his seat, his soft brown eyes turning sharp, like a wolf coming out of hiding. He threw a dark look at my dad, then scanned the room, skipping over Maria and the camera people, his head slowly swinging toward me and Julian. I glanced around, but there was nowhere to hide. We were out of mindreading range, so that shouldn’t throw a red flag, but I covered my far-too-famous face with my hand before he got a good look. Could I jack him to look away? Vellus was still too close to the boom mics—if I jacked him, it would be picked up and recorded. There would be evidence the world’s most famous anti-jacker politician had been jacked, and it would be pinned on me. Or worse, my dad or Maria. Vellus stumbled as he stepped down from the dais, and the heat of his stare landed on me. The intensity of it grew, and then recognition lit his face.

  Kira Moore, he thought. Of course. I should have known it would be you.

  My throat tightened. I glanced at Maria, but she was talking on her earbud phone, and didn’t seem to hear Vellus’s thoughts. I edged closer to Julian, but he was busy with his phone, furiously concentrating on a scrit to Hinckley. Didn’t he realize my cover had just been blown? Julian needed to do something quick—handle Vellus again. Were the boom mics still on? Were they picking up Vellus’s thoughts and sending them out on the tru-cast?

  Vellus glowered at me a moment longer, and I was afraid he would march back up the dais steps and claim I had jacked him. Instead he swung his head back to my dad, leveled a stare at him, and stepped away from the dais. I was relieved to see him put more distance between himself and the boom mics, but I didn’t like the way he was looking at my dad.

  Patrick, you seem to be a very ineffective mindguard, Vellus thought. At least where your daughter is concerned.

  My dad took a half step back, his thoughts careening for an explanation of what had happened on the dais that wouldn’t involve me going to jail. Kira is no threat to you, Senator. She’s simply an assistant here. An observer.

  Yes, I’m sure that’s the case, Vellus thought. But perhaps we need to review the tru-cast to see if there’s anything unusual picked up by the boom mics.

  My dad’s shoulders twitched. His thoughts zoomed in on jacking Vellus now, boom mics or no boom mics, but that would only confirm what Vellus suspected—that I had jacked him into releasing the prisoners. We’d both end up on the run. His thoughts swung to exposing Julian, pinning the blame on him, so I would go free. My dad’s thoughts must have pulled in Julian’s attention, because he was gripping my elbow again. If my dad exposed Julian, things would get bad in a hurry. Julian would end up handling everyone. What did he say? Induce a riot?

  Dad, no! I elbowed Julian, hopefully holding him back from doing anything yet.

  Vellus was creeping closer to my dad, waiting for his response. Finally, my dad linked an answer to him. There’s no need to check the boom mics, Senator. I’m sure there’s nothing to be found there. And it would be unfortunate for the world to learn that you had been mindjacked.

  I glanced around the tru-cast station, but my dad must have linked those thoughts only to Vellus, because no one seemed too alarmed that he had just implied that Vellus had been jacked. Vellus stopped a few feet from my dad, then gave him a snake-like smile. Yes, you are quite right. That would be unfortunate. I wouldn’t want people to lose faith. They need to be assured that mindjacker influence doesn’t affect the important decisions made by their elected officials. That’s your job, isn’t it, Patrick? To make sure that doesn’t happen?

  For the moment, sir.

  Perhaps you’d like to revoke our previous agreement? Vellus arched his eyebrows. That could be arranged. For both you and your daughter.

  My dad’s gaze didn’t waver. That’s not necessary.

  Good. Perhaps you can manage to do your job more effectively when your daughter is not in the room. And I do believe it’s time for us to leave. We have a press conference to attend, where I will need to manage the public relations aspect of today’s interview. Or do we need to stay here and review the recordings?

  No sir.

  Vellus strode past my father and out of the tru-cast station, tailed by the three over-muscled mindreader goons. The bulky mindguard turned to follow Vellus, then stopped. Are you coming, Moore? He was still under Julian’s influence and not overly concerned by Vellus’s thoughts. In fact, the whole tru-cast room was carrying on with the post-production of the interview as if nothing had happened.

  My dad stared at me from across the cast station. He didn’t want to leave me with Julian, but if he tried to bring me along now, Vellus might put us both in the Detention Center—an
d not as mindguards.

  I only agreed to mindguard for the press conference, Kira, he thought. After that, I’m coming for you.

  My throat closed up as my dad turned to follow in Vellus’s wake.

  Once the entourage was on their way out of the building, Julian shoved his phone in my face. How long has your father been working for Vellus? was scrit across the face.

  I grabbed the phone from his hand, holding it at my side, but not looking at it or Julian, just keeping my eyes on the screens behind Maria. Julian’s question felt like a punch in the gut. I wanted to say my father would never work for someone like Vellus. That he was a good, decent man who had only tried to jack Julian because he was trying to protect me. I wanted to make up an excuse for the obvious fact that my dad was mindguarding for an anti-jacker politician. Say that Vellus was just another praver who hated jackers but used them for his own purposes when it was convenient. But Julian had heard my father’s thoughts explaining that he was working for Vellus in exchange for getting out of prison.

  And he heard that one little word. Again.

  Finally, I jacked into the mindware interface of the phone, scrit a reply, and shoved it back into Julian’s hands.

  I don’t know.

  I turned and stalked out of the cast room.

  Numbness crept through my body as I tried to process what had happened in the tru-cast room. I ignored Julian’s pointed looks as the autocab whispered through the streets toward Jackertown. The city was void of life or cars with only a breeze that tumbled trash down the bleached-white pavement and the occasional demens staggering for a place to rest out of the bright morning sun.

  When the autocab rolled up to the mages’ headquarters, my legs itched to get out and find out what had happened at the Detention Center. Had Hinckley brought the prisoners back already? I reached for the handle of the autocab door, but Julian leaned across and stopped me by trapping my hand with his.

  “I need to know, keeper,” Julian said. “Was Vellus truly after a kidnapped mindreader? Or did your father ask him to raid Jackertown for you?”

  I shrank from him and jerked my hand away from his. Did my dad pull in a favor with Vellus and trade a dozen other mindjackers’ freedom for mine? I didn’t want to believe it. “Well, if he did, I’m sure he didn’t plan on ending up in Vellus’s prison.”

  “So you believe him?”

  “What do you mean?” My voice was rough.

  “You believe your father when he claims he was only working for Vellus in order to get out of prison?”

  “Yes!” I choked on the word. I didn’t want to believe that my dad was lying to me. Had been lying all along.

  Julian nodded. “It was reassuring, actually, how hard he worked to make sure you knew it was just a temporary arrangement. I have to admit, when I saw your father come into the station, for a moment I thought that maybe you…”

  “That I what?” I demanded.

  “I thought maybe I had you all wrong, keeper,” he said. “That you and your father were both working for Vellus.”

  “I would never do that!” The idea of working for Vellus crawled across my skin and made me shudder. How could my dad work for someone who hated us so much?

  “I believe you. But you’re not at all the person I expected.” Julian waved his hand in the air, as if trying to explain the unexplainable. “The girl who rescued a half dozen changelings on a tru-cast? The girl who went on-air in a live interview with a Truth Magistrate to show the world that jackers existed? I thought you would be more…” He seemed to search for just the right word, then his eyes sparkled when he found it. “Revolutionary.”

  Those things only managed to put my family in danger for the last eight months, from people like Molloy—jackers that Julian seemed to have no problem working with.

  “You don’t know anything about me.” I yanked open the door of the autocab and slammed it behind me. Hinckley blocked the doorway to the mages’ headquarters, installing a metal bar to keep the busted front door closed. He stood back to let me squeeze past.

  Inside the converted factory reeked of the gas, and a fine yellowish powder coated everything. A dozen figures in pale green jumpsuits were scattered around the mages’ kitchen: on the couch, in the chairs, standing at the sink. I ran toward them, scanning their faces, searching for Raf. Hinckley was the only one not dressed in prisoner garb, still wearing his ratty jeans and the black, long-sleeved t-shirt that he’d had on in the tru-cast feed. He had followed me in and now sat sprawled on the couch, one leg hooked over the end, looking satisfied. I ignored him and dashed in between the circulating mages, peering at every face. Myrtle was standing with a group of prisoners that I didn’t recognize. I kept checking everyone, but I already knew.

  Raf wasn’t there.

  I stumbled onto Ava and grabbed her slim shoulders. “Where’s Raf? Why didn’t you bring him out with you!” I accidentally shook her, which wasn’t very mesh, but the trembling had taken hold of my arms.

  Suddenly Sasha was by her side. “Leave her alone.” His voice was like sandpaper, his lips chapped: symptoms of the gas. One arm wrapped around Ava’s shoulders, the other slid between us. His dark brown eyes were at full attention. I pulled my hands back, remembering what Julian had said about Sasha scribing away a person’s entire being.

  A pair of hands landed gently on my shoulders. “He wasn’t in the prison, keeper,” Julian said. “He was never picked up in the sweep.”

  I shook Julian’s hands off me and turned on him. “How can you be sure?”

  Hinckley stood with crossed arms right behind Julian’s shoulder. “Everyone on the list came out, except the reader,” Hinckley said. “No one saw him.”

  “A reader like your friend would have been noticed right away,” Julian said softly. “If he was in there, someone would have seen him. Besides, Vellus had no reason to hold him, especially when he was releasing everyone else on the list.”

  “Then where is he?” My voice was a whisper.

  “I don’t know.”

  My shoulders sagged. If Raf hadn’t been swept up in the raid, someone else must have taken him. He was lost in Jackertown, a truly kidnapped reader, just like Vellus had talked about. The idea made my chest so tight I could barely breathe. I stumbled away from Julian and landed on the far end of the couch. Thoughts and images screamed circles in my head.

  Raf enslaved to a vile gang of jackers.

  My dad lying to me about working for Vellus.

  Raf dancing a pirouette, over and over.

  My dad doing Vellus’s dirty work.

  I slowly crumpled into a ball. Ava alighted on the couch, careful not to jostle me. Sasha hovered nearby in the kitchen, watching us. Ava didn’t seem to hold a grudge about me grabbing her. Or tasing her earlier with the butterfly, for that matter.

  “We’ll find him,” she said softly. I took a deep, shaky breath, trying to stop the images in my head. I tucked the dark thoughts about my dad back into the deep recesses of my brain. I needed to pull myself together to have any hope of finding Raf.

  Julian paced at the far end of the factory, near the couch where I woke up yesterday. Was it only yesterday? My mind blurred the time. He argued with Hinckley about something, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

  I turned back to Ava. “I’m sorry,” I said. “About before. With the butterfly.”

  “Sasha says I’m too trusting sometimes.” She half-grinned. “I guess he’s right about that.”

  “I just wanted to get back home. To get Raf out of here.” My justifications weren’t necessary—it seemed like Ava already understood. And they weren’t helping me find Raf either. I closed my eyes and reached beyond the walls of the mages’ headquarters, using my most featherweight touch to search the nearby minds for any sign of Raf. But everyone was on a high state of alert after the roundup last night and they reacted to my slightest brush.

  I pulled back before I set too many of them off. I would have to find another way to search fo
r him. When I opened my eyes, Ava had wandered back to Sasha. She flipped on a screen set on the kitchen counter. It showed a tru-cast with an aerial view of the Vellus Detention Center. Words scrolled along the bottom about the release of the prisoners before the press conference. Senator Vellus came on, mindtalking to one of the reporters, a wiry woman I recognized from the earlier tru-cast. My dad lurked in the background in his gray security jacket, arms crossed. I swallowed down a sour taste that rose up in my throat.

  The rescue mission was a complete success. Vellus’s thoughts scrolled along the bottom of the screen. Julian stalked over with Hinckley and examined the screen. Sasha’s arm snuck around Ava’s waist, pulling her close.

  What about the prisoners that were released, Senator? the tru-cast reporter asked. On your earlier tru-cast, you said there had been a mistake made in detaining them?

  Yes, Vellus answered. Unfortunately, there was confusion about who they were during the initial arrests. While the mission was to recover a single kidnapped mindreader, the police discovered an entire group of mindreaders being held hostage in Jackertown.

  She looked confused, but my mouth hung open in disbelief. So the prisoners released were actually mindreaders, not mindjackers? the reporter asked.

  Yes! Vellus responded. Sending a rescue team into a town filled with mindjackers is not an easy thing to do, and there was a lot of chaos during the operation. During the arrests, the mindreaders were accidentally mixed in with the mindjacker clan members that were holding them. I realized this right away when I saw the list Ms. Lopez provided because the warden had already briefed me on the names of the rescued mindreaders.

  Which is why you asked for them to be released immediately?

  Exactly, Vellus thought. It was an innocent mistake, and I don’t fault the warden or the police commissioner for this at all. They are heroes today. More than a dozen mindreaders have been safely returned to their families!