The Takeover

by Teyla Branton

  In an instant, the memories were over and I was aware of Mari continuing. “But the Ukrainian thinks this looks more like a raider changed Jeane’s memories—a raider’s a weaker variation of a mnemo—because the memories weren’t erased, just overlaid. The old memories are still underneath, but the brain can’t recall them. If whoever tampered with Jeane had extracted the memories before putting in new ones, the Ukrainian doubts we’d be able to detect anything. He almost missed the tampering as it is.”

  “So is that what makes Jeane’s mind scrambled?”

  “Ava and her experts don’t think so. The untampered stuff is still scrambled. She’s just different.”

  “Who would do such a thing? Could it be Ropte? Stefan let it slip that Ropte’s ability is hypnosuggestion, but maybe he’s wrong.”

  Mari scrunched her nose. “How could he be wrong about that? He would have seen him in action, I’m assuming.”

  “Well, Stefan hasn’t figured me out, so I’m just covering all the bases. Jeane didn’t seem to remember anything about Ropte’s ability, which I think is strange.”

  “Or she was lying.”

  Right. I turned and began pacing the room, trying to piece it together. Something didn’t add up. Why would anyone care about changing Jeane’s memories? “If only we knew what memories were changed.”

  “They’re working on that,” Mari said. “If they get a translation, Cort theorizes that you could channel a technopath and ‘read’ her memories. The guy in Ukraine also thinks he might be able to rig Stella’s holo program to show us at least a few images—if they can crack the code. It’s difficult because her brain doesn’t seem to work like anyone else’s.”

  They could theorize all they wanted, but ultimately that meant for now we were on our own. “So what could Jeane know? Maybe she told Stefan more than we think. He was definitely questioning my ability.”

  “But he doesn’t know you can channel people or break through shields, right?”

  “Didn’t seem to, but I didn’t share much of that with Jeane. I never trusted her.”

  “Anyway, Jeane’s a null,” Mari said. “It shouldn’t be possible for anyone to replace her memories.”

  “You sure about that?” Keene asked from the bed, sitting up abruptly and swinging his stockinged feet to the thick carpet. Ignoring Mari’s frown, he continued. “In Morocco, Erin managed not only to block Jeane from using her ability on her but also to protect all of us from Jeane. Erin couldn’t in the beginning, but she figured it out.” He transferred his gaze to me. “And we all saw how docile Jeane became in the conference room. I thought it was a coincidence the first time at Noah’s house when we were questioning her, but obviously you can use your ability on her when you’re past her shields or she’s not blocking. You just don’t understand her language, so you can’t sense her thoughts. If you can affect Jeane without understanding her, then why not whoever overwrote Jeane’s memories?”

  I stared at him for a full ten seconds. He was right, of course. I had influenced Jeane, and I could protect against her nulling and see her thought stream even when she was exerting her ability. But I was different, or so I’d thought. No one else that I knew, including Ava or Jeane’s boyfriend Lew, had been able to do that.

  Looks like things had changed.

  “I guess whoever did the tampering could have done so when Jeane wasn’t blocking,” Mari mused. “Anyway, they theorize that Jeane’s memories had been newly recalled before being plastered over with the new ones. So maybe they were talking and—”

  I reached the window and turned sharply on my heel. “What about that new sensing Unbounded Jeane told us about—Catrina, wasn’t it? Memory manipulation is a variation of sensing, but if she did it, she’s not a regular sensing Unbounded. She’d be stronger. I can’t replace memories.”

  “Any sensing Unbounded can learn to take memories,” Keene said. “So she wouldn’t necessarily be stronger. They weren’t erased, they were replaced.”

  “Probably because she didn’t know which ones to take, not if she can’t decipher Jeane’s mind any more than I can.” I scowled at Keene, wishing he were Ritter so he could tell me what this might entail on a defensive level. “This is bad, guys. If they have someone who can change memories, what’s to stop them from changing ours? Or anyone’s?”

  “Our shields?” Mari offered.

  Right, our shields. But would those really protect us? They didn’t stop me for the most part, given enough time. And not understanding Jeane’s thoughts hadn’t stopped whoever tampered with her mind. “That might work if it’s mental, but what if it works by sound like hypnosuggestion? Or touch?” Even my mental connection was enhanced by touch.

  Keene shrugged. “Shields don’t work very well against hypnosuggestion. I don’t know about touch, but you might have to shield our bodies like you did in Morocco.”

  My anxiety cranked up a notch.

  “I’m more worried about how this relates to what’s going on in Congress,” Keene added. “It seems strange that a popular president could lose so much ground, but it makes more sense now, knowing someone with this ability is running around. Memories are basically knowledge, and if they have the ability to ‘raid’ memories, they can change politicians’ minds to make them think they believe something else, or have different alliances within the senate. Or even plant memories to make it look like President Mann is an idiot.”

  “But why kidnap those families or murder the senators?” I asked. “Why not change their memories instead?”

  “Maybe it’s not an ability?” Mari ventured. “Maybe it’s technical, a program, or even hypnosis.”

  I restarted my pacing. “I’m guessing Stella’s doing research on it, but didn’t Dimitri have anything to say? He’s probably heard something about mnemokinesis in the last thousand years.”

  “Dimitri’s only heard the same rumors we have,” Keene said. “And it’s going to take me time to get another phone to find out if Stella’s uncovered anything more. My contact isn’t under suspicion, but she has to be careful.”

  “She?” Mari asked.

  Keene flashed her a grin. “Jealous?”

  “Not a chance—unless you’ve suddenly developed the ability to lie.” He’d drifted away from the bed, but Mari pushed him back toward it. “Now rest while we install the relay switches on the generators, or you’ll be useless when Ropte gets here. With the kind of distances we’re talking about, we don’t need you to help us shift.”

  “And let you have all the fun?”

  Mari glared at him. “Don’t you go all macho on us. This is our job. You’re here only because of your dad.”

  “Wait a minute.” I pulled my mind from its preoccupation with Jeane and the mysterious raider. “Look, neither of you has to go anywhere. I’ll take care of the generators.”

  “You’ll need a lookout,” Mari protested. “I can shift away if there’s a problem. I even brought a couple of Cort’s bodysuits for us.”

  Keene looked surprised. “What? You know Cort’s going to kill you, right? We don’t want to hand them that kind of technology.”

  “Oh, well.” Mari gave an unconcerned shrug. “They didn’t take them from me, so we’re probably in the clear.”

  The last thing I wanted was for Stefan to know about Mari or suspect that we were connected, especially with a mind-sucking raider lurking around. But her coming with me had been part of Ritter’s plan, and I knew better than to second-guess his skills. Besides, I desperately wanted to search for Jace, and the sooner we planted the relay switches, the sooner I could get to that.

  Keene started to speak, but I shook my head. “Just her. You look ready to drop. You’ll only be a liability.” Funny how he could increase our abilities but not fix his own exhaustion. Or maybe he just hadn’t figured it out yet.

  He raised his hands in surrender. “Don’t get yourselves caught.”

  “We won’t.” I looked again at Mari. “Did you get what we need?”

 
; “I did,” Mari said, going to a drawer. “Tihalt’s lab is exactly like Cort’s, only ten times the size. Really, it’s ridiculous. After I told him my ability was adding numbers, he pretty much ignored me, so while Keene kept him busy, I explored. Tihalt tried to order me back here at one point, but when Keene said he’d go with me, Tihalt let me stay.”

  Mari retrieved a length of wire, a roll of black electrical tape, wire cutters, several screwdrivers, and some tightly rolled-up blueprints as long as my arm. “How did you get all this from the lab?” I asked.

  She pulled up her wide-legged pants to show compression stockings that reached to her knees. “Stuffed in these. Believe me, it wasn’t easy. Those plans were the worst. I would have just shifted with it, but we hadn’t disabled the cameras in here yet.”

  “Nice. It’ll save time not having to get the location of the transfer switches from someone’s mind. What about the relays?”

  The most important element of our plan was the four dime-sized relays that she carried inside the metal buttons on one of her jackets. If we needed more than those four, we were going to be scrambling, but we could make new relays if we had to, even if it delayed our plan. Cort assured us we could find all the necessary parts in his father’s lab.

  “One of the guards took both our bags into their security office when we came in,” Mari said, stuffing the tape, wire, and wire cutters into a purple sack stamped with a yellow daisy. “You know, before they fed us into that imaging machine? I faked a desperate need for the bathroom, and while I was there, Keene caused a distraction so I could shift back into the room to snatch the jacket. They didn’t even notice when I emerged with it over my arm.”

  “If they’d known about your shifting, they would have locked you up inside a shielded cage. So Jeane didn’t tell them that either.”

  “Well, she didn’t know I was coming.” Mari made a face. “And if she did tell them about me, I’m disguised enough.” She twirled a finger through a lock of dyed hair. “I still say she’s hiding something.”

  “Yeah, but does she even know what?”

  Mari shrugged and didn’t answer. Instead, she fished in the drawer and pulled out a syringe. “I took a couple of these too—their version of curequick. You look like you need it.” Her eyes dropped to my bare stomach, where the bruises had darkened considerably.

  I glanced toward the bed. “Keene probably needs it more than I do.”

  “He’s had three.”

  “Oh, thanks.” Taking the syringe, I shot the thick liquid into the flesh around my ribs, wincing at the prick. I really hated needles.

  Mari unrolled the plans, revealing not one but several sheets of paper. “How do you even know these are for this building?” I asked.

  She laughed. “Easy. The dimensions. I saw the building from the outside, and I just know how large it is, how much space it takes up. Unless they have another building exactly like this one somewhere, including the lobby and security room and Tihalt’s lab, it’s this one.”

  “Could you shift us to the generator room?” Maybe her experimentations with coordinates would be useful here.

  A grimace stole over her face. “I could try, but these plans don’t give me nearly enough information spatially. It would be too easy to come out somewhere we’d be seen. Using my new method of folding space, we could take several glimpses downstairs before we found where to shift, but I’d rather reserve the energy—I have no idea how much effort it’s going to take to get the others inside safely. However, the plans do show us where to start looking for someone near the generators who can provide you with a visual link—”

  “And we can use that link for a simple shift through the gray.” Seemed easy enough, and it wouldn’t take much energy on my part.

  “Exactly.” Mari dragged a finger down the plans, one floor to the next. “There are so many floors, it gets confusing, but basically, each paper has about three floors. So here’s the lobby, and the generators are two floors under that. Half of each of the two underground floors is also a parking garage. Looks like they have three generators intended to supply energy to different sections of the building. The transfer boxes are there.” She stabbed a finger at a line that represented a wall.

  “Great. If the setup is anything—wait.” My concentration broke as my mind registered a warning. “Looks like a life force is approaching that apartment they locked me in.” The life force was moving closer and closer to my door. At my words, Keene sat up again from the bed, his brow furrowed. Keeping my hold on Mari, I shifted.

  Back into the shower. I tugged off the rest of my clothes and began washing for real. The water was a tad too hot, but it felt comforting on my strained muscles. Soaping down my hair and body in record time, I turned off the water, grabbed a towel from a hook, and wrapped it around me. The life force I’d seen was already inside my room, and I prepared for battle.

  To my surprise, a tiny, sweet-looking young woman stood in the middle of my apartment, her arms full of clothing. She had dark strawberry blond hair, the kind I’d always thought of as being orange, and a splash of pale freckles warmed her face. Her spaghetti-strapped tank and short shorts made her look about seventeen. She wasn’t much taller than my twelve-year-old niece and probably weighed less.

  “Hi,” she said, raising the bundle in her arms. “Triad Stefan asked me to bring you clothing. He said you didn’t pack much.”

  “Thank you.” I took the clothing from her and dumped it on the bed. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Catrina Silvaski.” Her words had a slight lilt I couldn’t place, like an accent that hadn’t quite been eradicated. So this was the sensing Unbounded Jeane had vowed to get rid of. Why hadn’t she come in hiding her life force, especially if Stefan suspected my ability? Or maybe he didn’t suspect anymore after our bout.

  Catrina looked sweet and young—but definitely Unbounded. To be this young, her Change must have been forced, yet she didn’t have the typical crunched facial features, so maybe I was wrong. Unless the Emporium had perfected the process. I didn’t want to think about that or how many lives they’d sacrificed to make it happen. Too many didn’t survive the process.

  Her appearance told me little about her, but the probing at my mind told me much more. She felt like a tiny fly hitting my shield. Maybe the rumors of her strength had been greatly exaggerated. Unless she was a mnemo variation. I arched a brow. “Is there something else?”

  She opened her mouth and then shut it again just as quickly. Suddenly a thrust of her mind jabbed into my mental shield, driving a volley of pain into my head. I pushed back, but only to strengthen my shield, careful not to let her know I’d felt her attack. She watched me with unveiled interest in her pale green eyes. “Your shield is very strong. Stronger than Lew’s. That’s unusual.”

  “So you’re a sensing Unbounded.”

  She dipped her head in agreement. “I was told to come in here and pick your mind. I have better luck sometimes than Lew in breaking down mental shields. Probably because many people—well, most people—don’t like him.” She shrugged her slight shoulders. “But I guess I failed.”

  “Are you sure you tried hard enough?”

  Again the shrug, but aloud she said. “Definitely.”

  She was lying. I felt it in her surface thoughts. If she was letting those escape, she either didn’t suspect anything or she knew my true nature and was toying with me.

  “I’ll have to try again,” she said, “probably after they inject you with drugs, but I’ve never been able to get through Lew’s even then.”

  I could see more questions in her eyes, but for whatever reason she wasn’t voicing them. She strode forward, her hand reaching for my arm. I stepped back, avoiding contact. “Don’t touch me.”

  If she was the mnemo or raider, even a shield over my entire body might not hold up to a physical touch—and I couldn’t risk such a protection now, because only sensing Unbounded could extend mental shields beyond their minds, and she’d instantly perceive
my actual ability.

  “So you know touch increases my gift.”

  “My grandmother is sensing.”

  “Your fifth great-grandmother.”

  “That’s right. You guys murdered my real grandmother.”

  Something passed over her face in a wave. Was it regret or satisfaction that she’d rattled me?

  “You touch me and I’ll kill you,” I said.

  She took a pace backward. “I didn’t know about your grandmother. I’m sorry.”

  I wanted to ask her about Jace, if she’d stolen his memories. But I still wasn’t supposed to know he was here. “Was it really Stefan who sent you?”

  She nodded. I wanted to rip into her shield and delve into her mind, but I couldn’t or she’d feel me every bit as much as I felt her. She’d also have a chance to get inside me that way. Not a large one, but still a chance. Better to focus on keeping my shield strong. I hoped Jace’s shield had held if she’d attacked him.

  “You are like your brother,” she said softly. “I couldn’t get through his shield, either. Lew will try soon.”

  “My brother? He’s here?” I thought my simulated surprise was pretty good, but Catrina gazed at me with an amused expression. Strangely, it didn’t feel like she was mocking but rather admiring me.

  “Apparently, he heard you were taken by Jeane and came here to rescue you. He arrived last night. Surprised everyone. We had a DNA test done, and Jace is Triad Carrington’s son. Looks like he’s had two prodigal children come home.”