by R. D. Brady
“When did you last eat?” he asked again.
“Uh . . .” She ran through the events of the last few days. “I don’t know.”
“That’s what I thought. I made some stew. It’s on the stove. You need to go have a bowl.”
“No, Molly needs—”
“You not to get sick. She is sleeping, and she will need you when she awakens. But you also need to take care of yourself. You can’t take care of everyone else and neglect yourself.”
She looked back into the room, where three of her children slept. “They hurt my baby.” A tear rolled down her cheek. She’d thought she’d run out of those.
“I know. She did not deserve anything she has gone through.” Cain pulled her into his arms. “But your family is strong. Together, you will all get through this.”
She nodded into his chest. They would. The world might be falling down around them, but they had each other. And an ever-expanding group of people that were quickly becoming family. She pushed back, wiping at her eyes. “I could probably eat something.”
“I will sit out here, and I will come get you immediately if Molly awakens.” Cain smiled. For the first time since she’d met him, he wasn’t wearing his glasses, and in the dark, his eyes looked almost completely black.
Must be a trick of the light.
“Thank you. I won’t be long.” She headed for the stairs, pausing at the top. Just the idea of walking down them seemed insurmountable. She could not remember a time when she had felt so tired. The closest she could remember was when Billy died.
She made her way down the stairs slowly, her hand firmly clasped on the bannister. She felt a small tingle of victory when she reached the first floor without incident. She had been convinced she was going to pitch forward halfway down and break her neck. Right now she would take those small little victories. She made her way into the kitchen, the smell of the stew making her stomach rumble.
“Hey,” Jake said, quietly entering the kitchen from the other side of the room.
“Hey. Cain said I should eat.”
“He’s right. Sit. I’ll grab you a bowl.”
Mary Jane slunk into a chair, not capable of arguing. Jake placed a bowl of steaming stew in front of her. She took a tentative spoonful, her mouth watering. Then she quickly finished bowl. Jake didn’t say anything, just grabbed her bowl and refilled it. He placed a large glass of juice next to it. Mary Jane finished both, her mind feeling much clearer than it had before. She pushed the bowl back.
“Another?” Jake asked.
“No. I’m good.” She looked around the kitchen. “Where is everybody?”
“Asleep.” He nodded toward the clock. It was four in the morning.
“Oh, I didn’t realize. Why are you up?”
“Danny’s been working on a few things. I wanted to check on him.”
Mary Jane nodded absentmindedly. Danny always seemed to be working on something. She looked over at Jake. In the dim light, the angles of his face were sharper, making him look tougher. And he was tough. But he was also tender. And he had risked his life to save her daughter. She took his hand.
“I never said thank you for bringing Molly back.”
“You don’t have to say thank you.”
And she knew he was telling the truth. He wasn’t a man that expected thanks. He was a man who saw people in trouble and helped. It was who he was. He was a good man. And she was so grateful he was in their lives. “How did you find her? I thought Danny hadn’t been able to track them down.”
Jake smiled. “He knew the CEI had tried multiple times over the last day to nab Fallen, but they weren’t having any luck. He had it down to about a ten-mile radius, and then he found the facility. But getting in was the problem. That’s when he and Rolly came up with a plan.”
“This is a horrible plan,” Rolly groused from the second row of the green Subaru.
“You didn’t think it was so horrible when we came up with it back at the house,” Lou replied from where she sat next to him.
Rolly crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, well, that was when I was bait. You being bait makes it a horrible plan.”
As Jake watched them from the driver’s seat, he couldn’t disagree with Rolly. He liked the plan as much as anyone can like a plan that revolves around putting a teenager in harm’s way. But he felt better with it being Lou. And it wasn’t just him being sexist—although he was introspective enough to acknowledge that it did play a role—he knew how much of a toll Lou being abducted by the Katzes had taken on her. She’d lost a lot of herself on that day, and she hadn’t fully returned to who she once was. He hated the idea of this plan adding to her psychological burden. But he also recognized that this was something she needed to do.
“Look, I appreciate you guys worrying about me, but I know better than you guys what Molly’s feeling right now. And I need to do this, okay?”
Rolly studied Lou for a long moment before he finally nodded. “Okay. But if you get into any trouble—”
“I will call for help . . . loudly,” Lou said.
“You know how that plunger works?” Danny asked.
“Yup. You made me show you six times. I have not forgotten in the last ten minutes,” Lou said dryly.
“Go, Lou,” Jake said.
Without a word, Lou opened the car door and hopped out. She jogged down the street. Halfway down the block, she began to feign a limp.
Jake waited until she was half a block away before he dialed his phone.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“There’s, there’s one of those Fallen. She’s on the street. I just saw her on TV.”
“Where are you?”
Jake rattled off their address.
“Is she armed?”
Lou crossed the street, disappearing into the alley in between a restaurant and a rundown apartment building.
“I—I couldn’t see. But she ducked into an alley. I think she’s hurt.”
“Sir, stay on the line. Do not approach the subject.”
“Are you sending someone?”
“A special unit is already on the way.” Jake disconnected the call.
They had intentionally chosen this street, knowing how close it was to the facility that held Molly. They figured they’d take any Fallen directly there, which would be their way in. But being they were trying to do this quietly, busting down the door was not going to work. They needed something a little subtler.
“Danny?” Jake asked.
Danny’s hands flew over the keyboard. “They’re checking out the cameras in the area. I inserted the feed we created earlier.”
“I’m getting into position.” Before Jake or Danny could say a word, Rolly had blurred out of the car and up the fire escape of the apartment building. He’d watch the alley from up there.
Jake watched him go, concerned about how worried Rolly seemed.
Danny caught his gaze. “He’ll be all right. Lou’s his family. He’s really protective of her.”
Jake thought he might be trying to convince himself as well. “I understand that.”
Danny tensed. “They’re coming.”
Jake slipped from the car and moved casually down the street, keeping the visor of his baseball cap down low over his face.
An SUV swung onto the road behind him with a squeal of tires. His head jerked up as another swung onto the road ahead of him. He had to keep from shaking his head at their foolishness. If Lou were actually trying to get away, the squeal of their tires would be like a starter pistol. No wonder they hadn’t managed to catch any Fallen.
Jake rolled his eyes. What a bunch of hot dogs. He tapped his mic. “Danny?”
“I’ve got all their communications blocked. They won’t be able to call in help.”
“Good. Lou?”
“Ready.”
“Rolly?”
“Good to go.”
Jake tensed. A million things could go wrong right now. Come on, God, we just need one little break.
/>
As Jake turned the corner, the two SUVs screeched to a halt in front of the alley, pulling their cars into a turn so they blocked the road. The doors to the SUVs flew open. Four agents burst from the car, rifles pulled into their shoulders as they advanced on the alley.
Jake picked up his pace. He’d just reached the alley when the first shots rang out.
CHAPTER 61
Jake’s heart nearly stopped as the rapid fire started and then died away.
“Got her!” one of the agents yelled, his voice ringing with triumph. “Grab the sedative.”
“Hold,” Jake said quietly into his mic, knowing how hard it was for him to not rush into that alley, never mind how hard it would be for Rolly. As horrible as it was, this was part of the plan.
An agent went to the back of one of the SUVs and pulled out a long rifle. Jake recognized it. It held the sedative. The agent moved to the end of the alley, dropped to one knee, and fired.
Rolly’s growl could be heard clearly through Jake’s earpiece. “Danny?”
“Lou was getting up, and then she was hit with the sedative. She’s lying flat.”
None of the agents moved for thirty seconds. Then one yelled. “Clear. Move.”
They hustled into the alley. Jake sprinted across the street as Rolly jumped from the roof of the apartment complex, landing on two of the agents. Lou reached up, grabbing the wrist of the one who’d tried to pull her up and breaking it. He screamed. She stood and threw him into the wall. One of the agents turned to run, but Jake was right in front of him. He kicked out the man’s knee before elbowing him in the chin. An uppercut turned off the lights for him.
Danny sprinted into the alley. “Lou?”
“I’m good.” She stood. Her legs were spotted with blood, as was her chest.
“Oh my God.” Rolly blurred over to her. “How many times did you get shot? How are you still standing?”
“I managed to dodge most of the shots. I only got hit once. I had to do a little acting. The blood packets helped with that.”
She pulled up her shirt and pulled off the blood packets that had been attached to her chest with masking tape. She winced as she rolled up her sleeve and pulled the syringe that had been filled with adrenaline from her arm. “Getting shot really hurts.”
“Yes, it does,” Jake agreed before grinning at Danny. “I guess you were right. The adrenaline does counteract the sedative.”
Rolly looked down at Lou. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah.” Lou glared at the men lying in the alley. “Now let’s go get Molly.”
Mary Jane sat dumbfounded. “You all . . . you did that, for Molly? Lou let herself be shot?”
“Her and Rolly kept arguing over who got to be the target. Lou won.”
“But they’re just kids themselves.”
“Pretty special ones.”
“I owe them so much. They risked their lives.”
“It’s kind of what they do. Like I said, they’re pretty remarkable kids. And Danny, he planned it all out. He controlled all the cameras in the area, all the communications. We took one of the CEI’s SUVs, and once we got to the facility he controlled all those cameras as well. He got us in and out, and they didn’t even know we were there.”
When Billy had died, part of the reason it had been so hard was that she knew no one would love her kids as much as she did, as much as Billy did. As a parent, you would risk your life gladly if it meant saving your child’s. And yet here she had found an entire group of people that hadn’t just talked the talk, they’d walked the walk. They had risked their lives to save Molly, just like months ago they’d done the same to save Susie. She did not even know what to say to express how thankful she was to each and every one of them. But she promised herself she would find a way to show them.
“Uh, Jake?” Danny stood in the doorway, shifting from foot to foot.
Mary Jane got to her feet and strode over to him, wrapping him in a hug. “Thank you, Danny. Thank you.”
Danny didn’t react for a moment, but then his arms wrapped around her. “You’re welcome.”
Mary Jane pulled away, smiling at the young genius as she wiped her eyes. “I just can’t get over how amazing you all are.”
“I’m not like them. I just—”
“No. Do not ever tell me you are not amazing. You saved my daughter’s life. Both of them. You are not a Fallen, but your abilities are just as important. Don’t ever doubt that, Danny.”
He nodded, ducking his head. “Yes, ma’am.”
Mary Jane gave a watery chuckle before kissing his forehead. “All right. Well, I will leave you two to speak.”
She stepped past Danny and started for the stairs. But as she reached the bottom step she realized she could use some coffee. She turned around.
Reaching the kitchen doorway, she paused as Danny’s words reached her. “I managed to recover the video from Molly’s time at the facility. It’s not good, Jake.”
“Let me see it,” Jake said.
Mary Jane stepped into the room. “Me too.”
Danny whirled around, shaking his head. “Mary Jane, you don’t want to see this. It’s—”
“My daughter. She is traumatized because of what they did to her. And I need to know what that was if I am going to help her.”
Danny looked at Jake, his voice pleading. “Jake.”
Jake took Mary Jane by the arms. “Do you realize what you are asking? She was tortured, Mary Jane. Do you want those images in your head?”
She didn’t. She wanted to run upstairs, pull the blankets over her head and never, ever look at what had been done to her daughter. But if she was going to help Molly, she needed to know what happened. If she was going to find a way to help her live with those memories, she needed to know how bad they were. And together they would share that pain. She couldn’t ask her daughter to move past something she was too scared to even look at.
“I need to see it,” Mary Jane said quietly. “For Molly’s sake, I need to see.”
CHAPTER 62
Mary Jane stopped back up at the room where her kids slept to tell Cain where she would be if he needed her.
He frowned when she explained what she would be doing. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Want? No.” She glanced into the room where Molly lay with her arms wrapped around a pillow like it was a teddy bear. “But I need to. I need to know what she went through so I can help her the rest of the way.”
“And you have people around you that will help both of you.”
“I know.” She turned to head down the stairs, then stopped to hug Cain. “Thank you, Cain. These last couple of days, you have been such a sense of comfort, of home. It would have been much more difficult without you here.”
Cain slowly wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you for letting me help you.”
It seemed an odd thing to say. But Cain was odd. Even though he looked to be about her age, his demeanor was very paternal. She pulled away. “You’ll let me know if they need me?”
“Without a doubt.”
She headed back down the stairs to where Danny and Jake were waiting for her. She had expected them to head to the living room, but Danny walked right past the opening and headed out the front door. She glanced at Jake, who answered her unasked question. “Danny has everything set up in a shed out back. He tends to get lost in his work and has found it works better if people aren’t walking in and out.”
Mary Jane nodded as she followed Danny across the quiet yard. She knew there were guards patrolling the area, but she couldn’t see any of them. Everything was quiet, peaceful. Pink was just beginning to break along the horizon.
Danny pulled open the metal shed door with a screech before slipping inside. Light spilled out into the yard from the open doorway. Mary Jane’s heart began to race, and she hadn’t even stepped inside yet.
“You don’t have to do this,” Jake said.
She walked around him. “Yes, I do.”
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br /> Some old farm equipment had been pushed against a far wall. Another wall had been completely cleared out and lined with Danny’s equipment. Mary Jane wondered how they’d even managed to get it all here. Did he have stashes of computer equipment stored around the country in case they needed to hide?
“Actually, yeah,” Danny said. And Mary Jane realized she’d asked out loud.
“All the safe houses have electronics. In this day and age, it’s impossible to get by without them.” He pulled some binders off a chair and gestured to it. “You can sit here.”
Mary Jane nodded and walked over on trembling legs. She sat down, but it really was more of a collapse. She scanned the monitors; there were four of them. “Which one?”
Danny pointed to the one directly in front of her. “This one.”
She nudged her chair back a little farther from the screen, and when she realized what she was doing, stopped. She needed to see this through.
Danny looked at her. “Are you ready?”
Her heart leaped, and she gripped the sides of the chair, shaking her head. “No. But go ahead.”
The screen in front of her flickered to life.
Mary Jane threw up. All that lovely stew that had warmed her when she and Jake had sat in the kitchen burned her throat as it came back up. Danny had wanted to stop the tape, but Mary Jane wouldn’t let them. She’d sat there in horror, in terror, in anger, in tears, as she watched grown men torture her little girl.
The screen had been blank for minutes now, and still Mary Jane could not stop shaking. Even without the images on the monitor, she could still see them. She closed her eyes, more tears being pushed out.
“Mary Jane?” Jake asked quietly.
She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to talk. She couldn’t talk. If she opened her mouth, she was going to start screaming and would never be able to stop. What they had done to Molly . . . How could anyone be that cruel?
All she could think was how that had been similar to Mengele’s experiments during the Holocaust. When she’d been in school and studied the Holocaust, the teacher had assured them all that nothing like that could happen in the United States. We had too many laws, too many people willing to stand up for others. But where were those people, those protections, when her daughter had needed them? This wasn’t some crazy person off the street who’d grabbed her and tortured her. This was government-ordained torture.