The Takeover

by Teyla Branton

I looked at Ritter, and I could see my own worry reflected in the set of his jaw. If Ropte suspected anything, Patrick would be in danger. Big danger. At the same time, if Ropte’s ego was big enough that he believed Patrick might be swayed to his side, it could work.

  When no one voiced opposition, Ava spoke. “Okay, then. Erin and Ritter, you will accompany Keene and Mari back to DC. You will be responsible for retrieving the families held in Virginia and Maryland.” She hesitated a second before asking, “You can shift them all, can’t you?”

  “Easy,” Mari said with confidence.

  “Man, does that mean I’m out of a job?” Chris spoke for the first time from his seat on Ritter’s other side. We all laughed.

  “Not on your life,” Ava said. “In fact, you need to get to the airport and ready the plane. When we do find those families, we’re going to have to act fast—and at the same time. I’m banking that Stella’s hunch about Idaho is right, so Jace and I will take a team and wait there for a final location. Dimitri and Oliver can take the smaller plane to wherever the fourth family is once we’ve got a lead for them. Everything will go through Stella, who will remain here to coordinate.” Ava stood, signaling that the meeting was over, and the holo of Patrick vanished.

  Nodding at me, Ritter headed to the door with a gleam in his eyes that told me he was heading to our weapons arsenal to choose what we would need for our op. He didn’t hurry, but his movements were fast compared to a non-combat Unbounded. Dimitri hurried after him, no doubt worried about what our guests might be up to in the holding suite. I’d risen to follow them out the door when Jace’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Can I talk to you for a few minutes?” he asked.

  Jace had always been my favorite brother because he and I were only two years apart, and since discovering our nature, we’d grown even closer during our many ops together. Unlike with Chris, our conceptions had been manipulated in a fertility clinic by Ava and the others when my parents had difficulty conceiving and requested a sperm donor. Without that intervention, neither of us would have Changed. I was grateful, but I still dreaded telling Jace the truth about his biological father. He’d been asking, and I knew he wouldn’t leave it alone.

  “Sure,” I said, sinking back into my seat.

  He settled in Ritter’s vacated chair as the others filed past us. When they were all out of earshot he said, “About my father. It’s time I knew.”

  I wanted to tell him that he should never have to deal with that knowledge, but Jace wasn’t the same boy who’d Changed last year. He listened to orders, he’d begun to think before acting, and he could fight like a demon. He’d become a vital member of our team, someone to rely on. Maybe he could handle the fact that his father was an egotistic megalomaniac with delusions of godhood and a plan to enslave mortals. That he’d tried to kill our family, including Jace, to achieve those ends. Just thinking about it brought back the fear.

  “I’m sorry we haven’t talked before now,” I began hesitantly. “But Jace . . . it’s not good.”

  My brother grimaced. “Don’t you think I’ve guessed that? Look, I’m not going off the deep end just because some guy donated sperm to start my existence. Our dad, the guy who raised us, is my father, but I need to know the rest.”

  “Let’s go up to my room then.”

  Jace grinned and bounced to his feet like he had as a child when I’d invited him to see a movie with me and my friends. My heart ached that he’d have to shoulder the burden of his heritage. I knew only too well how it felt.

  Ava and Mari were waiting for us outside the door to the conference room. “I need you to get to the infirmary,” Ava said, “so Dimitri can give you a large dose of nanites.”

  There was only one reason for that. Newer nanites made it possible for technopaths to mask—or change—their identities completely. That meant if I channeled Patrick or Stella, I could make myself look like anyone in the world. “Who am I going in as?”

  “Still working that out with Patrick, but we’ll definitely be using the nanites for your disguise. We can’t have the Emporium catching wind of you anywhere near Ropte. They’d be all over you in an instant. It’s going to be dangerous enough as it is.”

  I glanced at Jace before replying. “I’ll go up in a bit.”

  “Now,” Ava said. “Dimitri is waiting.”

  I looked at Jace, who shrugged, hiding his disappointment. That alone showed how far he’d come. “I’ll catch you later,” he said. “Before you leave.”

  “All right.” I watched him go, aware of Ava’s eyes on me instead of on Jace. She hadn’t given me permission to tell my brother about his conception, but I wasn’t going to ask for her blessing. Maybe I was still annoyed that she hadn’t been up front with me about Dimitri and my own beginning.

  “I’ll walk you up to the infirmary,” Mari said, her voice bright with eagerness. “Or I can give you a ride.”

  Ava surprised me with a laugh. “Yes, show us how you do it. I’m going upstairs to talk to our guests while I wait for a phone call from our Mexican compound.”

  I frowned. “Problem there?”

  “No,” Ava said. “It’s rather a good thing, actually. The new batch of reformed prisoners we’ve let work at the compound are ready to transfer to the village we created for the others we released from the prison. They’re doing quite well—keeping all the rules and working with the natives. No sign of wanting to run back to the Emporium. Of course, we’ve been really careful to make sure they’re ready.”

  I knew that much. I’d been down there several times in the past three months, interviewing the reformed prisoners and testing their minds for deceit. It was a relief to find something going right for a change. “That’s great.”

  Ava smiled and turned back to Mari. “Okay, let’s go.”

  Mari reached out and gripped our shoulders. “There are two ways I can shift now. Before, I always went to a gray area I call the in between. Keene’s power showed me another way. I try not to use it when I’m taking others with me, though, because it eats more energy. But look what it does.”

  Her shield dropped as it always did during shifts, and her thoughts tumbled into my mind. Almost immediately, the air shimmered in front of us, rippling and cracking until I could see the corridor outside the infirmary.

  “You can see where you’re going,” I breathed. The tactical advantages were limitless.

  “Well, I always feel where I’m going, even when I use the gray,” Mari said, “and I know just how it is in my mind, but, yeah, this is different because I can see if something’s there waiting for me that wasn’t there the last time I visited—like people or a wall. But for some reason shifting using this method takes more effort. It’s like I’m dragging the place to me instead of slipping sideways through the gray.”

  “Very useful to check out who might be waiting for you,” Ava said with approval in her voice.

  Mari’s smile widened. “Yeah, it has been.” She wrapped the image around us, and instantly we were upstairs.

  “I’d like to try that out later,” I told Mari.

  Ava started down the hallway toward Dimitri, who was just exiting the holding quarters. “Remember, if you stop channeling Patrick for too long,” she said over her shoulder, “your body will nullify the nanites, and you’ll look like you again.”

  “Got it.” I hadn’t used nanites on an official op before, but I knew the drill. Ever since my marriage to Ritter, I’d been channeling Stella’s ability daily to assure that I wouldn’t ovulate and become pregnant. The Unbounded gene was programmed to survive, and that included repairing tied tubes and going around—or through—any birth control method. This rampant fertility, and our Renegade commitment to following our posterity for six generations, made relationships complicated, but I’d found a way around that. For now. As long as I didn’t miss a day.

  Mari leaned over and whispered as Ava drew away, “Can you believe Stella and Chris?”

  “Yeah, it’s crazy. At first I wasn’t sure a
bout the two of them, but Chris has taken it slow. I’m hopeful.”

  “She seems so happy. I’m glad she’s getting her baby. Losing her last one . . .” Mari sighed and shook her head. “I wondered if she’d ever recover.”

  “She’s tougher than she looks.”

  “So I guess I’m going to be a . . . what do they call it when your fifth great-aunt has a baby?”

  “I have no idea.” I let my gaze slide past her to where Ava and Dimitri had paused as they reached each other in the hallway. “So,” I added, “you and Keene, huh?”

  Mari’s smile grew wider and more secretive. I noticed that her mind shield was firmly back in place. “That we’ll have to save for another day.”

  AFTER MY INJECTIONS WITH DIMITRI, I did a mental search for Jace, but he was no longer in the Fortress. That probably meant Ava had sent him on an errand. I didn’t think she’d done it on purpose, but I had to admit to feeling relief. Instead, I went up to my room to pack a bag. Besides my weapons and my metamaterials bodysuit, I threw in a couple of dress choices for the swanky affair we would have to attend at Ropte’s—provided we could get him to invite Patrick.

  My bed beckoned to me with seductive promises of oblivion, but I wasn’t really tired anymore, and I didn’t want to be alone in that bed. I didn’t have to push out my senses to know Ritter was downstairs in the basement workout room, because this close I always knew where he was. There was no word from Ava or Stella yet, so maybe he was working off the frustrations he’d felt in Texas.

  Minutes later, I entered the workout room, skirting several large duffel bags full of weapons Ritter had taken from our stores. His back was toward me, but he turned and threw a sword as I approached, tossing it before he could have seen me completely.

  I caught the katana, being careful not to touch the blade because it looked old and expensive. “It’s beautiful.”

  He reached me, sliding his arms around my body and pulling my back against his hard chest. “It’s for you.”

  “Looks old.”

  He chuckled. “Actually, it’s not. An Unbounded guy in Italy makes them. He likes to mimic ancient swords, but they’re far stronger than anything you would find anywhere in the world—ancient or modern. He studied sword-making in Japan, of course, but his ability allows him to enhance the strength of the metal. He’s created many Renegade swords. I ordered this one three years ago.”

  I started to hand it back. “Then it isn’t mine.”

  His arms tightened around me. “Everything I have ever done is for you, even before I knew you.”

  My body kicked into high awareness at the rough emotion in his voice. Giving me this weapon was his way of courting—all combat Unbounded gave weapons in courting—and to refuse would mean more than refusing an expensive, one-of-a-kind sword. I had to hand it to him. Maybe it was his centuries of living and his old-world courtesy, but this man of mine somehow kept making me fall for him.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He moved around to my front, still holding me, but avoiding the sharp katana, now pointed toward the ground. “Oh, I’m sure you can do better than that.”

  I was about to show him just how much better when Mari materialized with her customary soft pop. “Patrick did it! Ropte must want him bad because Stella has already picked up rumors that Ropte’s people might be throwing an impromptu get-together for supporters in DC. No official invitations have been sent out, but at least two other private events have been canceled. Stella’s tracing phones now to see if there were any calls between Senator Ropte’s residence and the people who were putting on the cancelled events.”

  I stepped back from Ritter. “And the rumor says this party will be when?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon at Senator Ropte’s residence.”

  I exchanged an uneasy glance with Ritter. Was it too convenient? Or did Ropte just want to seduce Patrick that badly after hearing that Patrick might be amenable? Either way didn’t bode well for us.

  “Ava says we should leave now,” Mari added. “She wants you to have time there to prepare for your alias.”

  “I’m already packed,” I said.

  Less than a half hour later, we met in the conference room. Ava and Dimitri were present as Keene, Ritter, and I grabbed hands and let Mari take us into the gray. It was only as we appeared at the safe house some miles outside DC that I remembered I still hadn’t talked to Jace.

  PATRICK WAS WAITING FOR US at the safe house, but he wasn’t alone. With him was Noahthea Westmoreland, or Noah for short. Noah was a member of the New York Renegades who had been helping Patrick in his duties as the face of the Unbounded. She was a beautiful woman with very dark skin and tightly curled ebony hair that cascaded halfway down her back. Her slender torso and long legs were emphasized by an ample bustline and rounded backside. Today her perfect figure was set off by a snug black dress, but as usual it was her voice that held people mesmerized.

  Unlike most Unbounded, Noah’s gift was what I considered one of the beautiful abilities. It wasn’t meant for battle but for splendor and inspiration, and she had regaled music lovers all over the world for over a hundred years under several different identities. Her audience felt words when she sang them. Her joy raised listeners to new heights, and her sorrows made them shed bitter tears. Ava had told me that gifts like Noah’s had once been envied among Unbounded, but that was before we began battling the Emporium. Now Noah and those like her were a weakness we had to protect. Most of us did so willingly.

  “Noah!” I hadn’t seen her for months except in the occasional holo when Mari reported in. I set my duffel on the carpet and moved toward her. “It’s good to see you.”

  “You too!” She hugged me and added in a whisper, “Especially with Patrick going to Ropte’s. I feel so much better with more backup.” She withdrew from me and bumped fists with Ritter in greeting. “Never thought I’d see you settle down,” she added to him.

  “Ha. We don’t have time for settled. Dangerous or explosive, maybe—a lot more fun.” His eyes swept over me, conveying a heat that enveloped my entire body. Three months of marriage, and a single look still set my stomach doing frenzied somersaults.

  “Where’s Jace?” Patrick asked, glancing past us in search of my brother.

  “He’s going to be on one of the other strike teams,” I said. “With Ritter and me here, we should have enough for Maryland and Virginia.”

  “If not, we can ask for help from our Renegades,” Noah said. “I put them on notice. Right now they are coordinating with Ava and Stella to protect the families of the other senators who are supporting the president.”

  “So, did you get an official invite from Ropte?” Keene asked.

  “It just came in,” Noah said.

  “Come on,” Patrick added. “Cort will explain the setup.” I barely had time to note the plush off-white couches that looked as beautiful and seductive as Noah herself before they motioned us from the living room and into the hall.

  Noah led the way to a spacious sitting room where four couches, this time a light brown, stretched in a semi-circle in front of a monitor that took up half a wall. Along another wall was a long row of counters, and a small kitchen took up the back portion of the room. Only the counters looked used, their surfaces full of instruments, beakers, microscopes, and several contraptions I didn’t recognize. Cort Bagley sat nestled in among the experiments, but he put down a circular object and came to his feet when he saw us, his blue eyes as piercing as Keene’s green ones. Besides the eyes and the brown hair—or at least the hair before Keene’s disguise—the half brothers didn’t look much alike. Cort was bookish serious while Keene was more witty bad boy.

  “Good to see you guys.” Cort extended his fist, but I bypassed it and hugged him. Cort was one of the people who’d shown me the most kindness after my Change, and I looked at him as a friend and mentor. He was surprisingly awkward for a man who’d lived five hundred years and had buried several wives and many of their children.

&n
bsp; Ritter walked over and, after exchanging a greeting with his old buddy, picked up the device Cort was working on. “Security bypass?”

  Cort nodded. “We’ll have to actually tap in before Stella can overlay with fake feeds, but it should do the job once we’re inside Ropte’s. Most times we don’t care if the Emporium knows we stole something from them, but this time, we need to keep them in the dark.”

  “Why don’t you give us a feel for what we’ll find at Ropte’s?” Ritter said. “Any information will help me set up the details.”

  Cort motioned for us to sit, and I made way to the nearest couch, sighing as the cushions cradled my body. Maybe I could use a little sleep. I looked up when Ritter dropped the duffle he was still carrying and sat next to me, his eyes shuttered. I knew what that look meant—he was trying to get his emotions under control. I’d be in danger at Ropte’s townhouse, and his instinct was to protect me. He’d have to deal with his own demons. I refocused on Cort, who had settled on the next couch with Patrick and Noah.

  “. . . like any other political gathering,” Cort was saying. “That actually works to our advantage to have so many powerful mortals there. If it were a more intimate gathering, I’d be concerned that their agenda was to capture Patrick. I think it’s safe to say that Ropte would prefer to convince Patrick to join him willingly.”

  “Well, yeah,” Keene said with a snort, sitting next to Mari on the third couch. “If he can get Patrick to change his stance, many of those following him will fall into line. Particularly some of the politicians still supporting the president. Once they’re out of the way, the term limits will be struck down, and all the protections for humans will be out the window. I’d say Patrick is first on his list.”

  That made me feel better about the entire situation because Patrick was a born politician, having been raised by the man who was now in the White House. “So Patrick just has to double-talk him and make Ropte think he’s being swayed.”

  Cort nodded. “If Ropte’s anything like the rest of us, he’ll be patient only to an extent. Once the families are rescued, all bets are off.”