The Takeover

by Teyla Branton

  “After today,” I said, “I can’t blame anyone for not wanting to admit to being Unbounded. The government was experimenting on them, remember?”

  So far, only one Unbounded had announced his nature: Patrick Mann, the president’s adopted son. He was the official face of the Unbounded—and a Renegade Unbounded. For his trouble, the Emporium had teamed up with Hunters to kill him, but fortunately, the four Renegades from our cell who were guarding him managed to save his life.

  “The Emporium has obviously stepped up their plan.” Ritter’s frustration showed in the growl of his voice. “Their agents are popping out of the woodwork like termites. All they need is one Unbounded president and a change in presidential term limits, and they will have won. We’ll have an overlord, not a president. Why can’t the mortals in Congress—or anywhere else—see that?”

  Mortals did seem to like making things worse for themselves. They either wanted to dismember us, experiment on us, or fall to their knees in worship. Despite Patrick’s constant visits to groups all over the country, trying to show that we were just another race of humans, the mortal world was polarizing itself. The impending conflict promised to be long and bloody.

  Ava must have caught my thought, because her eyes now seemed darker and haunted. I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long for the blood. Something had happened.

  Ava raised a monitor and keyboard embedded into the top of the table and began typing. “We’ve been working hard on this to see if we can find any connection between what’s going on in Congress and the Emporium. There are precious few links, but what we have found all point to one man.”

  She finished typing, and a holographic image of a man in his fifties appeared over the table. His hair was mostly a light brown, the gray on the temples blending in to soften the hard lines of his face. Even as a hologram, his hazel eyes seemed to peer inside me. What I could see of his chest hinted that he was in great physical shape, and there was no sign of the belly that most politicians sported at his age.

  “This is Ropte—Senator David Ropte, to be exact. Before a few years ago, he wasn’t even in politics, but he has risen fast. According to intel on the thumb drive we recovered in Mexico, he received large amounts of money from the Emporium. All those records have been expunged in the past months, of course.”

  “He’s Unbounded?” I asked.

  “We don’t yet know if he’s Unbounded or a mortal sympathetic to the Emporium’s cause. In the past few months he’s increased his meeting schedule by four hundred percent. He’s been seeing senators, representatives, and other political leaders—anyone and everyone with any kind of influence.” Ava paused, letting that sink in before she continued. “He’s come out strongly against the President’s new proposals regarding Unbounded—both the testing and term limits as well as the bill that ensures protection from forced medical experiments.”

  I thought about it for a moment. “He could be just another power-hungry idiot trying to use the Emporium for his own advancement. The announcement about us changed everything.”

  “Whatever he is,” Ritter said, “if he’s not Emporium, they’ll string him along until they gut him.”

  “Which might actually work in our favor,” Ava agreed. “Until this afternoon, we didn’t have anything solid on Ropte. However, there’s been a new development we can’t overlook.”

  Dread filled my stomach. This was what she’d been leading up to. The darkness.

  Ava jabbed her finger at her screen, pulling up another holograph that made my stomach churn. A family of four lay slaughtered, their blood seeping into the pale carpet underneath them. Ritter’s fists clenched tightly on the table near the gruesome image. He’d seen many such scenes during his long life, but this one of an entire family must haunt him, must bring back the night he’d lost his own family. I reached out to his knee under the table, giving it a brief squeeze. He relaxed marginally.

  “This is what separates Ropte from the other power-crazed politicians,” Ava said. “The father of this family is Senator Burklap, and he’s been vocal in his support of the president’s new policies. He met with Ropte five times this month alone—and we’re only two weeks into the month. Twice, Stella picked up residual chatter about them arguing so loudly the secretary called security. Yesterday they had another meeting, and Burklap’s aide says he never returned to the office. Two hours ago, this slaughter is what that same aide discovered when he tracked down the senator at his DC residence.”

  Ava paused, turning off the image. I was grateful for the chance to let my brain catch up. Staring at those dismembered bodies reminded me of all the deaths the Emporium had been responsible for, and how many of my loved ones they still might murder.

  “A group of Hunters is claiming responsibility,” Ava added after several moments.

  Ritter shook his head. “No way. They only kill Unbounded. And they never kill children.”

  “The rules surrounding Hunters have changed too,” Ava reminded him. “At least with the new recruits who claim to be Hunters but are really just out for the sport.”

  From what I’d seen, Hunters were all pretty much out for the sport, for killing and asking questions later. Almost from the first day I learned I was Unbounded, they’d been trying to kill me. “Maybe the family has some Unbounded connection.”

  “No.” Ritter leaned back, folding his arms against his chest. “Some Hunters are downright bloodthirsty bastards, but too many of them are descended from Unbounded for them to start murdering children who haven’t reached the age of Change. They’d have to kill all their own children just for the possibility. And the attack against Senator Burklap’s family was experienced. They were cut specifically in a way to sever focus points. No wasted strokes like you normally find with Hunters.”

  I really didn’t want to see the image again, so I’d take his word for it.

  Ava pondered a moment in silence before saying, “Ritter, I’d like you to contact Keene and have him get some feelers out to see what the official word is from the Hunters. He should have some insight into it. But I’m with you on this. I believe either Ropte or the Emporium, or both, are behind these murders. Unfortunately, it gets worse. When I talked to the president this afternoon, he told me four more supporters have indicated their intention to change their vote. Not just any men, but outspoken supporters like Burklap.”

  Fury built in Ritter’s eyes. “Their families.”

  I could barely breathe at the idea. “Like Burklap.”

  Ava nodded. “We knew the fight was going to get worse. However, I’m still hoping we’re wrong. Stella’s been tracking the families of the four since the news came. We have to find them, even if we’re only making sure they’re safe.”

  I had the sinking feeling they weren’t.

  We all looked up as Stella Davis, our technopath, came into the room, her neural headset blinking, indicating that she was linked to the computer network. Her flowered dress fluttered behind her, accentuating her curves. She was half Irish and half Japanese, with the Japanese side taking precedence in her long, dark hair and mysterious brown eyes. Her Unbounded confidence was enhanced by nanites that made slight changes in her face and body, resulting in a combination that made most men stare.

  “What is it?” Ava asked, taking the words from my lips because Stella’s worry dripped from her surface emotions. “You locate the families?”

  Stella came to a stop on the other side of Ava. I could barely detect the small mound of the baby boy growing inside her. He still had another five months before he was due to meet the world, but his life force was strong, and his thoughts radiated contentment.

  “There’s still no sign of any of them,” Stella said with a frown. “The two families staying in DC have neighbors who say they were told the families were going back to their main residences, but they never arrived home. We’re tracing down rumors of vacations for the other two families, supposedly to Idaho and Kansas. So far I’ve come up with nothing—no credit card receipts,
no phone transactions, no bank transfers. I’ll keep looking, but by the time I find them, it may be too late.”

  Ava nodded. “What about our new Emporium captives?”

  “I questioned them about Senator Ropte,” Stella said, “but every time I brought up Ropte, they froze.”

  “They wouldn’t give you the information?” Ava’s eyes narrowed.

  “Not that, exactly.” Stella blew out a breath of frustration. “They just seemed not to know anything. Except their reaction was odd, and I don’t know what to make of it.”

  “Maybe they can’t tell us,” Ritter said.

  I stood, grateful for anything that would take my mind off the slaughter Ava had shown us. “I didn’t see any blocks in their thoughts back in Texas, but let’s go find out.”

  Ava rose to follow me, pausing in the doorway to speak to Stella. “Start delving further into Senator Ropte, and see if there’s a connection with the four families. Trace even the smallest lead. You should also monitor our progress with our prisoners. You might catch something we miss.”

  Stella had already pulled up a dozen holograms that flickered like twelve separate computer screens suspended in midair. She likely had another twenty connections open that we couldn’t see. “I’ll contact Patrick Mann as well. He’s been hobnobbing with the rich and famous long enough to have heard something on Ropte. I could use his help tracing the information.”

  “If you need me, I’ll help after I finish with the questioning,” I told her. I couldn’t approach Stella or Patrick’s agility with computers, even when I channeled Stella’s ability, but every second counted.

  OUTSIDE THE INFIRMARY, TWO OF our mortal security guards, Marco and George, stood at the open door with weapons ready. I nodded at them as we passed, glad to see them instead of Oliver, who was one of the few Unbounded I’d ever met that was inept at fighting. Of course, he thought he was great, which only made him more a liability.

  Dimitri sat at a table inside a glass-walled isolation area in the left corner of the infirmary. Eden and Fenton sat with him, and Bedřich lay on the only hospital bed. He was awake now, so Dimitri had been at work on him, but the Czech’s hands and feet were secured to the bed—a wise precaution. Shadrach was nowhere to be seen, and I hoped someone was keeping an eye on him. I believed he was sincere about helping us, but he’d acted on his own agenda before.

  Feeling the need to check, I opened my mind, releasing the normal shields I kept in place to allow my colleagues privacy. I found Chris and my niece and nephew in the courtyard near the gardens located in the middle of our century-plus old mansion and the new walls we’d built so the children would have a protected place to play. It was those walls that had given our safe house the nickname of Fortress, resembling as it did the old forts from frontier days. Their nanny, Becka, wasn’t with the kids, judging by the life form in her room on the third floor. On the main floor, our cook, Nina, was probably finishing up a dinner that I’d only eat in order to spend time with the kids.

  I found the life forces that were Shadrach and Oliver together on a balcony on the second floor overlooking the courtyard. It stood to reason that Shadrach would be anxious to have time outside, but I was glad our upgraded security system meant he was under Stella’s constant surveillance, and even Oliver’s company would at least be some deterrent to any possible troublemaking.

  Beyond the house and courtyard, I could sense nothing. The electronic grid running through the house and surrounding walls—even extending in a fine, almost invisible net high above the courtyard—prevented sensing Unbounded from seeing in or out. It also eliminated the possibility of shifters appearing without warning. We believed we had the only shifter, but the Emporium’s continuous breeding program might have resulted in new Unbounded with abilities we weren’t aware of.

  The estate was sprawling, with large expanses of grass in the front and more extending far beyond the walls in the back. Weapons nestled in trees, under the ground, and on top of the mansion and the walls were at constant readiness. The Emporium had attacked us at a previous stronghold, and this time we were prepared.

  I drew my mind back to the infirmary to see that Ritter and Ava had accompanied me into the isolation area. The three Emporium agents eyed us warily, but Dimitri smiled a greeting. Weariness showed in his face, and I knew he’d expended a good amount of healing energy on at least one of the agents—probably Bedřich. Nice of Dimitri, considering Bedřich had tried to kill me.

  “Hello,” Ava said. “I’m Ava O’Hare, and I’m pleased to meet you.”

  “You’re the leader here?” Fenton asked.

  She inclined her head in agreement. “I apologize for the rush, but we need to ask you more questions about Senator David Ropte.”

  Fenton gave a snort. “We already told the Asian woman. We’ve heard the name, but we don’t know anything more.” The big man spoke confidently, but with no real conviction, as if he didn’t believe what he was saying.

  “If you’re telling the truth, you won’t mind dropping your shields and letting me see,” I said. Fenton and Eden stared at me as if I had asked them to give me the number of their bank accounts and custody of their firstborn. Only Bedřich didn’t meet my gaze, staring up at the ceiling, his body tense on the bed and his hands curled into fists below his restraints.

  “I can do it without your consent,” I added helpfully. I had recovered enough to force my way in if I had to.

  When they didn’t answer, Ava said, “She’s the one who killed Delia Vesey.”

  The tension in the room tripled with that sentence. It sounded worse than it was. The lives of all my friends plus eight million people had hung in the balance. Not to mention that Delia had tried to transfer her consciousness and all her memories to my body. She’d planned to become me, and would have used my body to create potential hosts, essentially giving her true immortality. She’d deserved much more than death.

  “Fine,” Eden muttered. The resistance over her mind vanished, and the sand stream of her thoughts came clear. She didn’t know it, but Ava was also in her mind.

  “What do you know about Senator Ropte?” Ava asked in the same casual tone she’d been using all along.

  Eden shrugged. “Nothing. I remember a briefing on our agents that infiltrated the senate. But beyond that . . . nothing.”

  She was right. There was a literal nothing, a gap in the sands surrounding that thought.

  As though someone removed it, Ava thought.

  Yes, exactly as if someone had removed it as I had the doctor’s memories at the government facility. I could easily imagine Delia and her assistant plundering her soldiers’ minds. This meant Ropte was someone important enough for Delia to protect. Delia, who didn’t care about anyone but herself.

  I looked at Fenton, who glared but dropped his mind shield. “Think about Ropte,” Ava directed. His sand stream shifted, revealing the same black spacing we’d found in Eden’s mind.

  I wanted to growl in frustration. “All missing,” I told Ritter and Dimitri. To Eden and Fenton, I added, “The gap is big enough that you have to be aware something is missing.”

  “A blankness,” Eden whispered. Her jaw worked with anger. “It’s not the only time she did that to me.”

  “At least you have confirmation they’re telling the truth.” Dimitri’s voice wasn’t quite a chastisement, but close. Whatever conversations the three had shared, he was apparently leaning toward trusting them.

  “I know who Ropte is,” Bedřich said from the bed. We all turned to him, and I reached out instinctively, but his mind was shut tightly. Whatever mental damage had occurred in his brain, it wasn’t affecting his shield now.

  Bedřich laughed. “You won’t get inside my head. I could shield against even her.”

  “I did before.” I took a step closer, pulling out my imaginary machete.

  “You were lucky.”

  I slammed hard, summoning all my energy. Two hits, three. Concentrating on the place I’d hit before,
though it seemed completely healed. I reached out to place a hand on his secured leg because touch enhanced my efforts. Desperation had fueled me at the facility, but now I worked with determination and skill. I felt Ritter’s presence like a strength, as well as my friends around me. Finally the hole opened, and I was inside the maelstrom of Bedřich’s mind. His thoughts still hurtled crazily around the bits of twisted construct, but the movement was far less volatile than at the facility now that the hallucinogen was out of his system.

  I am always lucky, I told Bedřich.

  He gasped and writhed on the bed, glaring hatefully at me.

  Ava came to “stand” next to me in his mind. The bits of gray construct were falling toward the hole I’d made, slipping out, where they disappeared. Why’s it doing that? I asked Ava. Though I was stronger mentally, she had centuries more experience.

  Ava watched for a few more seconds before saying, I think it’s because he has such a tight control on his mind that the construct couldn’t leave or disintegrate all the way when Delia died. Look, even now he’s trying to block the hole. Sure enough, the gray bits had ceased to flee his mind, though the hole wasn’t repaired.

  “Stop,” I told Bedřich aloud. “I want to show you something.” I sent him the images we were seeing. This is what Delia left in your mind. I used the machete to pound another hole in his shield, which was much easier from this side. But Delia’s dead now. You need to drop your shield and let them out. All of them.

  “What are they?” The anger in Bedřich’s manner had disappeared. Fear had taken over.

  “Constructs,” Ava said. “Or parts of one that broke down after her death. It was likely hiding something you know from other people. Or preventing you from talking about it.”

  His shield dropped, but the bits didn’t fly away. “More,” Ava instructed, “You’re still holding back.” As she spoke, a clear inner shield I hadn’t noticed before crumbled and the gray bits drifted away and disappeared. “That’s it. You did it,” Ava said.