Sarina glanced to Jasper and saw he was nodding. Even he was on board now. But something still didn’t sit right with her. “Why does it have to be us who does this?” she asked. “Why can’t it be somebody else?”
“Simple,” Ace said. “We’re the only Evolved team in the world that can pull this off without getting caught. The Covenant doesn’t even know we’re alive.”
Except David, and anyone else who saw that last text I sent him. Sending word to her family before she had taken off with the Nameless had sounded like a good idea at the time, but now she wasn’t so sure.
Tess was looking straight at her now. “I would have thought you, of all people, would want to get the truth out there. If it helps to keep fewer execution orders from being given, good. If not, no regrets later.”
Sarina couldn’t argue with that. Besides, Ace’s determined expression told her it was already all decided. They were headed to Liverpool.
No regrets, she decided. Although even she knew it was already too late for that.
5.4 Escalation
Paris, France
Sunday, the 10th of June, 2012
5:30 p.m.
Sarina raised the gun and adjusted her grip the way Ace taught her: left hand sliding over the fingers of the right to push back against the recoil. For the lesson he had given her the smallest caliber semiautomatic pistol from his stash. Even though she was someone who had absolutely no experience with firearms, this small-caliber gun felt heavy and unwieldy in her hands.
She had a feeling she was doing something wrong, but couldn’t figure out where she was deviating from Ace’s instructions. It had looked so easy when he had demonstrated it to her. But now that she was repeating the steps on her own, she had a hunch she was forgetting something important.
At least I have the safety right, Sarina mused. I checked it three times.
“Um, like this?” she asked, narrowing her eyes as she stared down the front sight. Her target was a green bottle that Ace had placed over thirty feet in front of her, on the back wall of his Paris townhouse’s small gravel backyard. She had to hit the bottle this time. All her previous attempts were either lodged into the fieldstone in an erratic spatter around it or wedged in the abandoned construction zone beyond the wall.
Ace lifted the hearing protection muff off one of her ears. “You look like you’re preparing to throw bread crumbs to pigeons,” he commented, amused. He brought a hand up to gently adjust her fingers. “Finger on the trigger now. Use the fleshy midsection, not the tip.”
Sarina positioned her index finger on the trigger guard, remembering to draw in a breath and hold it, but the front sight still swayed more than it should have.
“You’re squeezing the grip too hard, Wondergirl. Relax a little.”
At this rate, it’s going to be dark before I do everything right.
Sarina forced herself to relax her hand. The gun felt heavier and heavier with each passing second. If you don’t let me shoot soon, I’m going to drop it, she thought.
“Looking fine,” Ace finally said. “Go.”
Sarina exhaled before pulling the trigger. The force of the recoil spread through her hands and up her arms, pushing them up. Even with the hearing protection, the thunderous bang made her wince. She knew Sunny’s aura prevented anyone beyond the yard walls from hearing the shots, but she still expected the neighbors to call the police.
This time the bottle shattered, exploding into a satisfying shower of tiny green shards. Sarina couldn’t help but to smile as she lowered the gun and brought the muffs down around her neck.
“Good job.” Ace gave her a light pat on the back. He nodded at the weapon. “Next time we head into a tight spot, I’m gonna let you carry it.”
“Okay, thanks.” Sarina turned the pistol in her hands and offered the grip to Ace. “I really don’t want to use my power anymore.”
He raised his eyebrows as he accepted the weapon. “Knowing you, you don’t wanna shoot anyone either. Right?”
Sarina broke eye contact. “No, I don’t. But I don’t want to be a burden, either.”
She knew he had a point, though. Would she be able to pull the trigger when it came right down to it? She wasn’t sure. All she knew was she needed a reasonable alternative to using her power. She’d had enough of the raw anger taking control of her thoughts and actions, and she never wanted to lose herself like that again. The scariest part was, in a way, it had felt good to let that anger overtake her. Amazing even. She had been on top of the world, looking down on everyone else without fear or regret. She had a feeling that if she wasn’t careful, she might get addicted to that surge of superiority in the same way she had once gotten hooked on coke.
Ace ejected the magazine from the gun, and racked back the slide. “Bull dust. You’re not a burden, girl. You already saved our butts back in Lyon, and that’s gotta count for something.”
Before she decided how to respond, Sarina heard footsteps on the gravel behind them. When she turned, Jasper was approaching them in a colorful summer shirt and a pair of Bermuda shorts. He carried two tall glasses of what looked to be iced tea, condensation dripping down the sides of the glasses in the early evening heat.
“Don’t shoot the waiter,” he joked, raising the glasses in front of his face in a gesture of surrender.
Ace flashed a toothy grin while reaching for a glass. “I didn’t know I hired help, Pommie. Just don’t expect to get paid.”
“Don’t worry, artists are used to not getting paid,” Jasper replied lightheartedly. He held out the second glass to Sarina. “Iced tea’s your favorite, right?”
Sarina accepted the glass. The small beads of moisture clinging to its rim made her more aware of the summer heat and the dryness in her throat. “Yeah, it is. How did you know?”
“Pure deduction. It’s the Swiss national drink, isn’t it?”
“You never cease to amaze me with all the random things you know,” Sarina said, laughing.
“I didn’t know it an hour ago. I researched it.”
She flashed a smile of appreciation before taking a sip. As far as she could tell, Jasper had used the right amount of peppermint and mixed it with a different type of tea she didn’t recognize. Fruit tea? Rosehip? Not nearly enough sugar, she decided. But it’s sweet of him to make the effort.
“Mind if I steal her away for a while, Ace?” Jasper asked.
Ace tucked the unloaded practice weapon into his waistband. “Go ahead, mate. I’m knackered anyway. See you kiddies at dinnertime.” He turned and sauntered back into his small townhouse, his footsteps sounding on the gravel as he walked. The patio door slid shut behind him.
“Did you finish composing powered tracks for the others?” Sarina asked Jasper.
“I worked on them all afternoon. Ace’s track is almost done, but I need to make sure it’s right before I let him have it.”
The pair walked around the perimeter of Ace’s small yard as they talked, passing piles of equipment and spare parts belonging to Tess. Before long they were circling back to the house.
“Do you want to sit inside?” Jasper asked her. “You must be hot. You’ve been out here for hours.”
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Sarina agreed as they neared the back door. She relished the idea of her bare feet on the cool porcelain floor tiles.
“Great, as long as you’re not bothered by Snow and Sunny watching cartoons.” Jasper reached for the patio door handle.
“Snow watches TV?” Sarina asked, surprised. She couldn’t imagine the white-haired girl doing anything except picking flowers and staring holes into space.
“Well, I don’t know if she follows the plot, exactly.” Jasper pulled open the patio door. “But cartoons make her happy. Maybe she likes the animation or something.”
Sarina heard the TV as she stepped into the cool house and Jasper closed the door behind them. The high-pitched voices drifting from the living room let her know some sort of hero cartoon was on now.
“F
unny how cartoon heroes are still so popular,” Jasper commented behind her. “More popular than the real ones, if you think about it.”
“Maybe because cartoon heroes never do anything wrong. They’re never put in impossible situations,” Sarina said. She dropped her voice to a whisper before she went on, following Jasper to the living room. “My dad loves the comic book heroes. My adopted dad, I mean.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh, nothing,” she mumbled, averting her eyes to take in the room.
Sunny lounged in the armchair with the gaudy parrot-print upholstery. His eyes were glued to the plasma TV screen, where a costumed were-lizard flung rainbow-colored laser beams at a giant robot. The kid was stuffing himself with potato chips from a family-sized bag, undisturbed by the crumbs littering the sand colored carpet.
Sarina puffed up her cheeks in silent exasperation. I vacuumed only two hours ago.
In contrast, Snow was perched on the leather accent chair as prim as a queen in church, with her knees drawn together and her hands folded in her lap. Her white hair spilled over the front of her impossibly clean, multi-layered white silk dress. If Snow hadn’t blinked, she could have been mistaken for a porcelain doll in a shop window.
“If anyone wants iced tea, there’s some in the kitchen.” Jasper settled down on the padded red couch beside Sunny’s armchair.
“Shh!” Sunny hushed him without taking his eyes off the screen.
Sarina smiled at the boy’s enthusiasm and settled down on the sofa beside Jasper, leaving a cushion of space in between them. “That was sweet of you, Jasper. Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a nice guy?”
Contrary to the reaction she expected, a wounded look passed over his face.
So you’re a nice guy, she thought. What’s wrong with that? I don’t get it. She bit down on her bottom lip. Did I say something wrong?
After a few awkward seconds, Jasper’s mouth twisted into a semblance of a smile. “Yeah, I get told that all the time actually. Thank you, Jasper. That’s so nice of you, Jasper. Goodbye, Jasper.” He sighed. “I’m the nice guy who will drive a girl he likes to a date with her boyfriend.”
“Ouch,” Sunny commented from his seat, offering the supersized bag of potato chips to Jasper.
“No, thanks,” Jasper said, waving away the proffered chips.
“Well, I know who Sarina likes,” Sunny piped up, the cartoon program forgotten. “Radiant! Even though he’s a total super jerk.”
Sarina felt her face flush even though it was ten degrees cooler in the house than it was outside. “Not that I like him or anything, but I wouldn’t exactly call him a super jerk,” she said, annoyed by the defensiveness in her voice.
“What would you call a guy who kills Shanti, abandons the Covenant, and dumps his girlfriend?” Sunny reached into the chip bag again.
She didn’t have an answer. “Well, it doesn’t matter, because I don’t like him,” she lied.
Sunny made an exaggerated show of stifling a laugh. “Yeah, right. You said he was hot!”
Sarina felt the corners of her mouth sag. “I don’t remember saying that,” she countered. Although it sounded like something she may have said a week ago, back before the Nameless had convinced her that she would receive the same treatment as Shanti. She was able to admit that even murderous jerks could be attractive, but that wasn’t the point.
“Oh. You must have whispered it in your dreams, then.” Sunny wriggled his eyebrows the way Jasper did when he made a joke.
Is he really spying on me when I sleep? Sarina wondered, alarmed.
Jasper came to her rescue. “Hey, Sun, lay off.”
“And quit listening to me when I sleep,” Sarina added.
The kid flashed a roguish smirk. “I never said I did.”
Jasper seized the opportunity to change the subject. “Hey, Sun, would you mind if I switched the channel for a minute?”
“Go for it.” Sunny held out the remote. “I’ve already seen this episode. Dr. Mayday presses the wrong button and everything blows up.”
“Snow, would you mind?” Jasper asked, glancing past Sarina to the white-haired girl.
It took Snow a few seconds to emerge from her daze. “Yes, is fine,” she finally whispered, an alabaster lock spilling across her shoulder as she turned her head. “I almost sleep.”
The cartoon voices cut off as Jasper changed channels, replaced by a severe newscaster’s monotone. Sarina turned her attention to the screen to see video footage of a one-story wooden building with smashed windows. The camera zoomed in on a sign above the door that read Café Bistro Charles.
“The Wardens were dining in a Quebecois restaurant when a group of local youths confronted them around nine-forty in the evening, local time,” the newsreader droned. “According to witnesses, the Canadian youths were not comfortable with the Evolved presence in their town and tried to convince the Wardens to leave….”
Sarina’s hand flew to her mouth. Ace was right, she realized. The relations between Evolved and normal people are getting worse.
“…during the ensuing conflict, Noire unleashed her Darkshaper shadow and the situation escalated, nearly ending in tragedy,” the newscaster’s voice continued. “Fortunate circumstances and the intervention of the local police prevented the worst….”
“Wow,” Sunny said from his seat. “Aren’t the Wardens heroes?”
“Yeah. They’re the American hero team,” Sarina said.
Jasper set the remote down on the coffee table without a word.
His face says it all, she thought. He’s as worried as I am.
Sunny popped another potato chip into his mouth. “With heroes like those, the world doesn’t need villains,” he crunched.
Sarina tensed. His words hit too close to home for comfort.
“Maybe it’s not their fault,” she ventured. “There are people who get bad powers, but they still do good with them.” Her own words stirred a sense of unease in her, and it took her a moment to realize why. Goodnight, bitch, she had thought before pulling the trigger on Mindbender. She remembered the anger that had filled her. The uncontrollable fury.
Something the Princess had said to her at the Sun King’s court still mystified her. Angel, the tiny Visionary had called her. But now that she knew her power was anything but angelic, the name felt ironic and undeserved. If powers could be so closely linked with evil deeds, she wanted nothing to do with hers anymore.
“If you guys could have any power, what would you pick?” Sunny asked, pulling her back from that destructive train of thought.
“What I have now,” Jasper said. “It fits me, I guess. I just hope it’ll be able to do some good.” He spoke in a flat voice without a trace of his usual humor which meant something was bothering him.
Still, Sarina would have preferred his power over hers. She didn’t know a thing about music composition, but she would have been willing to learn. It had to beat having her mind overpowered by something—or someone—that felt borderline evil.
“What about you, Sarina?” Sunny prompted, gazing into the empty chip bag with a frown on his face.
“I’d like Shanti’s power,” she replied without hesitation. “Maybe with added teleportation so I could go wherever people needed healing whenever they needed it.”
She caught Sunny and Jasper exchanging a sidelong glance. A furrow appeared on Jasper’s brow.
“What?” she said, feeling more and more self-conscious as the strange vibe permeated the room. “Was it something I said?”
But her words hung in the air. On the TV screen, the newscaster continued with a special feature on the Wardens’ latest addition, outlining Mascot’s background as an antisocial athlete with a boxing fetish.
“Seriously, what is it?” she pressed, her hand going up to tuck the white strands of hair behind her ear. She could tell something was up, an understanding they didn’t want to share with her, frustrating her.
“Nothing,” Sunny said, overly cheerful.
Sarina considered confronting them, but reached for the remote control instead. No more drama, she reminded herself as she pushed the ‘up’ button on the remote. The channel changed to a local weather forecast.
Nobody said anything as the minutes passed.
“…partly cloudy with a thirty percent chance of showers in Paris….” the weatherwoman trilled in French. “But the sun should come out by Tuesday….”
“Where’s Tess?” Sarina asked, finally breaking the silence.
“In the garage,” Sunny informed her.
“Working on the car?”
“That, plus our TV transmission for Tuesday. Our Techie’s been working non-stop since she woke up.”
“Do you think we’ll be able to see the transmission before we go hijack a TV studio with it?” Sarina asked.
She had already decided to go along with the plan as long as no one got hurt, provided that Jasper still thought it was a good idea, but she had her doubts. Knowing what kind of message the Nameless planned to broadcast to TV screens worldwide would go a long way to putting her unease to rest. How exactly are they planning to prevent the UNEOA from spreading lies about powers anyway? she wondered.
“We’re all going to watch it tonight when she’s done,” Sunny informed.
“Good, because I’m curious as well,” Jasper said. “Taking over the airwaves is a pretty big deal, after all.”
“Almost as serious as Britain’s Got Talent,” Sunny joked.
“Hey.” Jasper feigned a serious tone. “I almost went on that show. My sister signed me up without asking.”
“Seriously?” Sarina blurted, unable to conceal her surprise.
“That’s hilarious!” Sunny guffawed. “I’m picturing it now.” He launched into a reenactment of a mock death scene worthy of any Shakespearean stage, sending potato chip crumbs flying everywhere.
“I didn’t show up for the audition or anything,” Jasper replied defensively. “I told my sister that I had lost my voice.”
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