At the same moment, I became aware of Ritter bursting into the dining room, a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, looking rather like an avenging angel.
“Don’t shoot!” Mari said, standing between us and the men.
“I knew we shouldn’t have surprised her,” muttered Jace, holding up hands that were nearly as deadly as Ritter’s. “Erin, it’s me, Jace. You’re not going to shoot, right? It really is us. No illusions or nanite tricks, I promise. Come on, put the gun down.” Even as he spoke the electric grid came back to life, shutting out the world beyond the mansion.
I stared, my heartbeat slowing. “You guys are supposed to be in DC.” But it was them, and their mind shields were down—a wise choice if they didn’t want to be shot.
“We were until a second ago.” Mari gave an excited laugh and took several steps toward us. “That’s the surprise! Or part of it. As you’ve noticed, I’m not here alone. Ava’s known about this for weeks, but I begged her to let me surprise you.”
Now I understood. As I folded Mari in my arms for a hug, I had to admit it was a fantastic surprise. “Oh, Mari, this is great!” Before, she could only shift to a place she could see or to a location within a city or two range that she’d already visited. Or, if they were near enough, she could find people she’d connected with and shift to their location. But she’d only been able to shift herself—or with me when I channeled her ability. Now it appeared that not only could she fold space clear from the other side of the country, but she could bring others with her. It was a long-awaited break-through.
“I couldn’t target you from so far away,” Mari explained, “but the Fortress was easy to find, and once I began shifting, DC and San Diego touched, and I could see you were here in the dining room, so I switched arrival points at the last moment and here we are.”
“Gotta admit, it’s pretty cool,” Jace said, now hugging Chris. “She’ll probably be able to go anywhere in the world with more practice. I bet you can’t wait to try it.”
That was exactly what I was thinking: channeling Mari’s ability. “Smart alec,” I muttered as I took my turn hugging Jace.
“I’ve been all over the world,” Mari said. “Well, at least to locations I’ve already visited. Like Venezuela. It was Keene who helped me figure it out.” Her voice had an odd note now, which made me look at her and Keene sharply. Their hands were at their sides, but they might as well be gripping one another with the amount of sensual energy pouring off them. Looks like he’d finally told her about his Change.
Keene’s ability was synergy, and not only could he change the reaction in atoms, but he could also intensify the abilities of others, exciting their powers, helping them reach new heights that might otherwise take years to achieve. He’d worried experimentation could mean blowing everyone into clouds of dust, but apparently he’d overcome his fear at least enough to practice with Mari.
I hugged Keene, though not as tightly as the others. Being this close to him made me hyperaware of Ritter as he came across the room toward us, his sword already returned to his back sheath. Keene smelled faintly of his familiar spicy cologne and memories we were both better off forgetting. I was glad for him and Mari.
“We were very responsible about experimenting,” Mari said, as if to further allay Keene’s fears.
I laughed. “Like I believe that.” Once, as an accountant, Mari’s life had been orderly, full of planning before leaping. But that was before her Change. Now she was as driven by her impulsive, confident Unbounded genes as my brother Jace.
“No, seriously,” she insisted, shaking her auburn head and sending the long hair rippling. “We took short distances at first and then, well, we sort of got into a couple jams—”
“I almost blew us up,” Keene drawled.
“Now that sounds like a lot more fun,” I said.
Jace erupted with a laugh. “It’s been an adventure keeping Patrick alive. You missed a lot.” He paused before offering a sweeping gesture toward the table. “Um, shouldn’t you do something about them?”
I turned to see the children still under the table, staring at us and hugging the dog. I had to admire Spencer; his staying put showed an extraordinary amount of patience.
Chris sighed. “You can come out now.”
“We won’t be grounded?” Spencer asked, his brow creasing.
“Of course not!” Chris growled. “I only grounded you before because you messed up in training.”
“You grounded me like five times,” Spencer mumbled.
“That’s because you acted like it was a game five times.”
“Well, it was, wasn’t it?”
Before Chris could respond, Ritter said, “No, Spencer. Training is never a game. If this had been a real invasion, you’d be glad you’d stayed under that lead-lined table.” His gaze met mine, before he fist-bumped the new arrivals, accompanying the welcome with a slight dip of his head. On him, the greeting looked rather ancient and full of ceremony—as it had probably been intended before mortals began using their own more casual version.
“Well, it’s just Jace. And Keene and Mari with red hair,” Spencer said. “Ugly red hair, by the way, if anyone cares what I think. I liked their old hair.”
“We could have been an Emporium hit team in disguise.” Jace caught the boy up in his arms.
Spencer gave him a flat smile, his eyes drifting briefly to me. “Nope. Aunt Erin would have shot you, and dad would’ve fired when she did. Hey, you bring me anything?” He began checking Jace’s pockets for something of interest.
“It’s not like I knew we were coming until about ten minutes ago,” Jace said, pushing Spencer’s hands away. “I’ll bring you something next time.”
Spencer rolled his eyes and went back to his food, the dog begging at his side. With a smile that was too adult, Kathy joined Spencer.
“I guess you’re here for the meeting,” I said to the newcomers with an internal sigh of regret. So much for my few minutes with the kids.
“Yep,” Jace answered.
“Speaking of which,” Mari said. “We have about thirty seconds before Ava wants us all in the conference room.”
Having Mari around was like having the most accurate watch in the world at your fingertips. When it came to time or anything to do with math, Mari was queen. I could do the same to some extent when channeling her, but I didn’t understand any of it when we weren’t linked.
“Already?” Chris muttered. “Guess we’ll see you in a bit, kids.”
As a group, we started for the door. My last glimpse was of Spencer extending a hand overflowing with food to Max, and the dog’s tail thumping the rock-tiled floor with anticipation. Neither seemed disturbed by their time under the table, but I was disturbed. Children should never have to hide under a table, or worry that someone might kill their remaining parent. No kid should grow up thinking that dangerous ops were a fact of life.
Of course, Kathy and Spencer weren’t the only children caught in the crossfire. If we didn’t find the senators’ families in time, the power might shift once and for all toward the Emporium, and if they controlled the world, no child—or adult, for that matter—would be safe.
“HAVE WE LOCATED ANY OF the other families?” Jace said from his seat at the foot of the conference table. His black high-backed chair leaned at an angle, his feet thrown up on the table. He looked comfortable in jeans and the leather jacket that fit snugly, as if it’d grown there instead of being purchased from a sale at his favorite Costco.
“I’ve tracked two of the families with an eighty percent chance of accuracy,” Stella said from her usual place midway down the table opposite where Ritter and I sat. “There are still a few variables before I can say for sure, but one family appears to be at a house in Virginia and the other in Maryland. We also have possible leads that put a third family somewhere in Idaho. Fifty percent chance. But there’s nothing from the fourth family yet, and we can’t risk them for only a fifty percent probability of finding the thir
d family.”
“I’d take fifty percent from you over a hundred percent from anyone else,” said Mari, who sat between Stella and Keene near the end of their side of the table. Mari’s hands fidgeted as they always did when she wanted to be moving instead of talking. I could imagine that now with the entire world open to her, the feeling of being closed inside this room was even more intense.
“Even if it were a hundred percent accuracy, we can’t move on those three until we know about the fourth.” Ritter spoke with an authority no one questioned. None of us had lost more than he because of the Emporium—or knew them as well. “Once they know we’re onto them, they’ll cut their losses and slaughter those we haven’t saved. We must save all of them.”
“I’ll find them,” Stella said. “Patrick and I are following up on some leads right now.” I’d already guessed that from the furious way her neural receiver was flashing, but something inside me relaxed at the words. Stella was my best friend, closer than a sister, and if anyone could find a needle in the proverbial haystack, she could.
“What we need is to meet with Senator Ropte,” I said. “He’s Delia’s heir and the prime suspect, so what’s stopping us? All we’d need is a good connection to his network and a few minutes, and I bet we’d discover the families’ locations. I volunteer for the job.”
Stella looked thoughtful. “It could work, if Patrick or I am close enough so you can channel our ability. Or if you can get me into his network remotely. It’ll depend, of course, on how well Ropte keeps his information guarded.” She looked at Ava for guidance.
Ava stood at the head of the table, leaning over slightly, her hands resting on the mahogany surface, her gray eyes missing nothing. “With Erin and Mari working together, and the rest of you for distraction, that may very well be our best chance. Patrick should have the connections to make such a meeting happen.”
Stella’s attention faltered slightly as she conferred over her electronic connection with Patrick. I imagined her mind flashing questions up on a screen faster than any human could type and Patrick answering in kind. In seconds, she had an answer.
“Patrick says Ropte talked to him at a party last week and suggested another meeting, which Patrick didn’t take him up on at the time. Apparently, Ropte encouraged Patrick to speak out against his father’s proposals. He suggested that Patrick needed to think more of his own kind.”
“Who is with Patrick now?” Ritter asked, tensing with the question.
Stella gave him a smile. “Don’t worry. Cort has him on lockdown at the safe house where they’ve stashed him. In case you didn’t notice, Cort didn’t come back with the others.”
“I noticed, but I want to be sure that Patrick doesn’t get any ideas about going to see Ropte on his own. Especially without Mari around to shift him out.”
“The stronghold is completely secret,” Mari told him. “We drove to it once so I could fix its location, but from then on, we’ve only shifted in and out. He’s perfectly safe.”
Ritter didn’t appear satisfied until Keene held up something from his pocket—a handful of keys. “I had the same thought, so I made sure there wasn’t any way to drive out. He’d have to walk miles first or blow the cover by calling in a taxi—if he could find one willing to go out that far.”
Ritter’s laugh surprised me, and I realized that was because I’d heard it so rarely. The others also relaxed at the sound, grinning, Jace’s smirk the biggest of all.
“Keep looking, Stella,” Ava said. “But the possibility of meeting directly with Ropte is promising, especially if he has no idea we’ve learned who he is. Naturally, he’ll suspect Patrick because of his nature and his refusal to join the Emporium, but he can’t know about Mari and Keene working undercover. The backgrounds we created for them are solid.”
I caught a glance between Mari and Keene and again felt the connection between them. With Mari posing as Patrick’s mortal fiancée and Keene as her brother, they wouldn’t have found much free time this past month, but there was definitely something going on between them.
“What’s the news from the Hunters?” Ritter asked Keene. “Have you heard from your sources?”
Keene made the jumble of keys disappear. “The official word from the Hunters is that they aren’t responsible for what happened to Burklap. Or rather, the kill order didn’t go out from their leaders. But as you expected, they can’t vouch for all the new members who’ve joined in the past three months.”
“It’s terrible what happened to Burklap,” Mari said. “We met him last week at an event. Such a vibrant man, and now he’s just . . . gone.”
This interested Dimitri, who sat on my right side. “Can you recall anything odd from that night?”
Mari hesitated. “No, not really, other than I’m pretty sure that was the same night Ropte approached Patrick. Well, he was there, at least. But a lot of politicians were. Quite a few of them really seem to love Ropte.”
“Well, think about it and let us know.”
“Okay,” Mari agreed.
“A few of the leads we’re following come from the White House,” Stella said into the sudden silence. “They’re busy working the case too. Patrick’s father doesn’t want any more families to end up like Burklap’s, and at the same time he needs the votes of those senators.”
“Taking the families was a smart move by the Emporium,” Jace said, his jaw tight. “If you can’t find the families, there’s no chance of rescue and those senators will have to do their bidding.”
“There will be more victims before it’s over.” Twin lines appeared between Keene’s eyes. “We’re going to have to do more than find these families and protect all the others who might go missing. Eventually, we’re going to have to hit the Emporium hard enough that they’ll stop. For good.”
A shiver rolled through me at the certainty in his voice. Keene had grown up in the heart of the Emporium, as a then-mortal son of Triad member Tihalt McIntyre, and had experienced firsthand their cruelty. He’d tried everything to be one of them—impossible when he didn’t Change as expected. Then he’d made a choice that saved my life and helped Chris and his children escape from the Emporium. Yet even after leaving the Emporium and facing the truth, joining us hadn’t been easy for him.
“We have to stop these kidnappings first,” Ava said. “We can’t second-guess ourselves. But at least Stella has been able to verify that they’re the only families currently missing.”
Ritter nodded. “I agree, but Keene’s right that they’ll up the ante, even if they wait until after we save these families. We have to prepare for worse. Unless we decide to take the offensive.”
We all pondered his comment for a few seconds, and then Ava nodded. “I want to hear ideas on that. I think we all agree that the time is coming when we’ll have to face them directly.”
“With the information from our new guests, we know where they are,” Dimitri said quietly.
Ava turned to him, an unreadable expression on her face. “I don’t know how we could survive taking the fight to them, not with our low numbers, but we may have to.” They shared a long stare, and I caught a sense of fire and burning and fighting and dying. Dimitri at least had survived a similar battle with the Emporium, and it hadn’t ended well.
In the next second, the impression was gone, and Ava turned to Stella. “Let me talk to Patrick.”
Patrick appeared over the table in 3D. Or at least his top half did. He was facing Ava so I was looking at his profile, but it was easy to identify him. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes that looked out from a pleasant, average sort of face—or a face that would have been average if he were mortal.
“Patrick, Stella’s been keeping you apprised of our discussion, I assume?” Ava asked.
His generous mouth curved in his customary smile. “Yes, and I’ll set up a meeting with Senator Ropte. All I need is a good connection to his network and a few minutes.”
Ava frowned, her face unyielding. “Not a meeting at his off
ice. We want a social situation at his home. You’ll go in with Mari and Keene and Erin. The others will be outside for backup. Your job will be to keep Ropte distracted so they can get the information. I won’t be sending Stella because we need her here, which means Erin will have to channel your ability.”
Patrick’s smile turned sheepish. “All right. I’ll send out a few feelers. He’s popular, so I think I just need to show up wherever he’s going to be. Shouldn’t take me more than a few hours to pinpoint an event he’ll be attending. Then when I run into him, I can suggest that I’m willing to hear more in a casual setting. Assuming I can get an invitation to his house, it still might not happen for a few days.”
“We don’t have a few days,” I said. “There’s got to be another way.”
Mari snapped her fingers. “What about that senator who wears her hair up in that huge gray bun? I seem to remember her hanging around Ropte and flirting with him to the point of ridiculousness. Well, when she wasn’t flirting with you.”
Patrick gave a short, mirthless laugh. “Oh, you mean Beatrice Shumway. Yep, she courts everyone, despite her age, and is actually more successful than most. She might be a good one to plant a suggestion on because she was there at that party when Ropte approached me last week. If I dropped a hint that I was amiable to hearing more from Ropte, she might work to arrange something in an effort to please us both.”
“It has to be at his place, though,” Ava reminded him.
“Leave it to me,” Patrick said. “I know how to work the system. Ropte has a very nice townhouse in DC, and it shouldn’t be too hard to get him to throw a party. Guess it depends on how much he wants to meet with me.”
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