by Nikita Spoke
“I had guessed as much after the senator’s speech. You wouldn’t have left the way you did without excellent reason.” Her eyes flickered to Jemma’s bandage again. “Are you okay to return to work if your position is still available?”
“Not yet.” Jemma didn’t try to hide the regret in her voice. “I have some physical limitations for a little while, and I’m still waiting to hear what they need from us in terms of prosecuting Tricorp BioD. I’m not sure whether they know yet. As soon as everything is stable and I’m a reliable employee again, I’ll be back here in a heartbeat.” She swallowed. “As long as I’m still welcome.”
“It’s not my call, officially,” responded Cecily, “but your position is still available, and I’ll do whatever I can to get you back in here when you’re ready.”
There were tears in her eyes again when she nodded, but she refused to let them fall. “Thank you, Cecily.”
***
After the trip to the library, getting their licenses and phones replaced was easy. Errands done, parents updated, they parked near Marcia and Kendall’s house. The lights were on inside.
“That’s promising,” said Jack before getting out of the car and opening Jemma’s door. They walked to the door of the house, and Jack knocked. He’d raised his hand to knock again when the door opened.
Marcia looked out at them, caution and relief warring with greeting on her face before she stepped back, holding the door out of the way. “Come in.”
She shut the door behind them and led them to the living room, gesturing for them to sit and then disappearing toward the bedrooms. She reemerged a minute later with Kendall, who looked decidedly more cautious. The couple sat across from Jack and Jemma on the mismatched furniture, Kendall leaning into Marcia, whose hand curved around her waist.
“I know you wouldn’t’ve come unless you had a reason to.” Marcia’s voice was as vibrant as Jemma remembered from their brief exchanges at the facility. “So what’s up?”
Jack looked at Jemma. “I’m letting you lead this one,” he sent.
She looked between the two women. “At least according to the news, we’re safe now, which I’m sure you know or you wouldn’t be back here.” Marcia nodded, and Jemma continued. “But I keep having these dreams, nightmares, and I just don’t feel like we’re really done with Tricorp. I don’t think we’re safe yet, not really, not like they’re saying.”
Ken frowned and looked down at the floor, and Jemma saw Marcia’s fingers press more tightly into her side. “I think you’re right,” Ken mumbled. “Marcia keeps telling me I’ll start feeling better and it’s only been a few days. But I can’t even sleep. I’m sure they’re still out there.”
Marcia met Jemma’s eyes. “I’m not sure what I think. I can’t relax when Ken’s this worried. The hospital tried to just give her sleeping pills and tell her to ignore it, but why should she ignore it when something doesn’t feel right?”
Something doesn’t feel right. They were all agreed. Maybe it was just the minor brain damage, Jemma considered for a moment, or maybe post-traumatic stress, but if all four of them were sure that something wasn’t right, that had to count for something.
She took a breath. “I have an idea, but I don’t really like it. I did some research this morning and found out that except for the high-level employees, the people they arrested are still being held near where they were located. That means that Josh is still here.” She felt Jack tense next to her. “He always liked bragging, sharing whatever information he knew. If there’s something for us to worry about, more of the company out there watching for us, I think he’ll tell me, if I visit.”
“Jemma…” Jack kept his hesitation silent, taking her hand and expressing it non-verbally: worry, trust, concern.
“You willing to do that?” asked Marcia. “I saw how he treated you.”
She took another breath, slower this time. “It’ll be in a prison. I’ll be safe. He won’t be able to do anything to hurt me, and it might do some good, might be able to let us all relax. It could be worth it.”
“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?” Jack asked aloud.
“If it was just us feeling uneasy, I wasn’t sure whether I was willing to do it. At least four of us? That’s not a coincidence.”
He nodded, sending amazement, respect, and worry. “Okay. We should probably get home to my dad, unless there’s anything else.”
“I had something I wanted to ask, while you’re here,” Marcia said. “Can you two still Talk?” Before Jemma could decide how to reply or ask Jack his opinion, Marcia continued. “We can’t. I mean, there’s a hint of it when we’re touching and emotions are particularly strong. You know when I mean.” She winked, and Ken finally looked up, smiling at Marcia, looking a little less broken.
Jemma felt her cheeks heat, but she took the opportunity to change the subject. “We haven’t actually done that yet.”
“Yet?” Jack sent, along with a wave of humor and interest, and she felt herself flush further.
As they left, she realized with some amazement that the subject had actually managed to thoroughly distract her, for several minutes, from the visit she would need to try to set up for the next day.
CHAPTER NINETEEN:
Jailed
Jemma was able to find his visitation schedule online, right next to his name and photograph. She was surprised but relieved to see that their county didn’t seem to offer in-person visits, instead using a video visitation system. The restrictions were still fairly heavy, though, considering she wouldn’t be anywhere near the inmates; she would need to leave behind any personal items, and the list of regulations for her clothing was longer than the list of items that were allowed in the video visitation center.
“I can schedule a visit for tomorrow morning,” she sent Jack. Don was sleeping on the couch, and she didn’t want to wake him. She’d brought her laptop from home, and she and Jack were both on their computers at the dining room table.
“Okay,” he answered. “I can make sure Dad’s nurse can come in.” He looked up at her, took in her expression, and frowned. “You want to see him alone, don’t you?”
She looked at Josh’s photo on the screen. Even in the unsmiling, unflattering mugshot, he seemed ready to taunt her. “I think he’s more likely to give us the information that way, yes. He likes taking any chance he can to try to impress when he’s around me, and I think you’d be a distraction. I’m not even sure he’d agree to see us together, because he knows I’m harder to get to when you’re around.” As she continued, some of the manipulation that she’d initially dismissed as lack of awareness on Josh’s part clicked into place. “The flirting? That was always worse when you were there, or when we’d been together, because he was more focused on you. When he was focused on me instead, he gave me information because he knew it was what would get my attention. And that’s what we need. Information.”
She looked up at Jack, letting out a frustrated breath. “I don’t want to see him alone. I don’t want to see him at all. But all that time with him, all that time I spent subject to his whims? I understand him, Jack, better than I understand most people, and if this is going to happen, then I need to see him alone.”
Jack watched her, the silence stretching out until he reached across the table to cover her hand. When he let his emotions show through, Jemma expected to feel them mixed, conflicted, unsure. Instead, what she felt was support and affection.
She closed her eyes, gathering her strength. She sent a wave of gratitude, then focused back on the details. “The visits are remote, done by video, so I won’t be anywhere near him, and that helps a lot. I can schedule the visit ahead of time and will need to show up fifteen minutes early.” She clicked through a few screens. “I can take one of the time slots that gives me a pretty clear mind. I know I can’t drive yet, but your dad does fine for short periods of time, right? So you can drop me off, and then pick me up an hour later. We’ll bring him home whatever he wants for lunch.”
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Jack nodded. “That’s what we’ll do, then.”
***
After checking in early as instructed, clearing security, and waiting for her scheduled time, Jemma was shown to a monitor with a phone. She saw holes and an outline of where it looked as if a keyboard had been removed from the surface below the monitor. It was just another indicator of the voices that had been removed and returned. She shifted uncomfortably at the thought that the person who’d taken away people’s voices would be talking to the person who’d returned them, and they’d be using this terminal, one for which they both held the responsibility, in their ways, for the marks marring its surface.
Her eyes flicked up to the screen when Josh’s face appeared. He wore a dark green jumpsuit that only served to bring out the green in his own eyes, and she frowned, wishing that he’d at least been forced to wear the bright orange that was so typical in movies.
He also wore a smile that she could only describe as self-satisfied.
He held the phone to his ear and raised an eyebrow while waiting for her to do the same. Finally, with a deep breath, she lifted the receiver.
“Hello, Jemma.” His voice was the same as she remembered, the same as had been haunting her dreams, and her jaw clenched. “I would say this was a pleasant surprise, but I knew you’d come talk to me sooner or later.”
She swallowed. “What made you think that?”
He smirked. “I was right, wasn’t I? Dr. Harris didn’t believe me, of course. I wish he was still here so I could show him I was right, but they shipped him off someplace else, as if he was the one who had actually done anything.” He watched her, and Jemma resisted the urge to pull at the neck of her sweatshirt. “He knows that I’m smarter than he is. I think that’s why he watched me so closely in the lab.”
Yeah, that’s it, not because he knew you were a sadistic creep, she thought. “I just needed to see you locked up.”
His eyes narrowed for a moment before his expression recovered. “You were the one who locked me in my lab, weren’t you? I suspected as much.” He shook his head. “We could’ve made such a team if we’d just worked together, Jemma. Our brilliance, together? We’d be unstoppable.” He leaned forward. “It’s not too late, you know. You can still report to me until they release me.”
Jemma stared at him. “You really think either of those things would happen? That I would help you when I’m not being forced, or that you’re going to be released any time soon after what you’ve done?” She’d never be able to pull off sincere agreement or patience when talking to him, but she’d had luck with goading him in the past.
“Jemma,” he said, his voice low and earnest, “I’m just an assistant. All I’ve done is gather information. Why would they keep me for long? Why wouldn’t you come to me if you realized you were still able to Talk?”
Josh watched her carefully, and Jemma kept her features still. Her stomach churned. Was he guessing, or did he know? “What do you mean?” She managed to keep her voice steady.
“See, I’ve got this theory.” He leaned back in his chair, studying his free hand. “Those of you who have natural telepathy, I think part of the limitation, part of the reason we didn’t see the results we wanted and why we had trouble before and after the Event, the thing that makes some of you more compatible with others, is that you all function on different wavelengths. I wasn’t able to find any equipment that could measure those wavelengths without something—someone—else to connect to, but based on my best theories and statistical models, I suspect there are about eight different wavelengths.”
Jemma flashed again on the colors she’d seen, on her suspicion that the similarity between hers and Jack’s could make it easier for them to Talk. Colors were sometimes discussed in terms of wavelength and frequency, weren’t they? Maybe he’d been looking for the right thing in completely the wrong way; it would explain why he hadn’t found a machine that measured it properly. It might still translate to the lines that she’d seen so often on the monitors, but not in a way that would make sense.
“With how strong the connection was between you and Jack,” he continued, saying his name dismissively, “the only conclusion I can come to is that the two of you function on the same wavelength. The siblings may have, also. I didn’t get to study them firsthand, not together.” And Jemma hadn’t checked their colors like she had with the others. “I’m less sure about those two. But you two, you and Jack? I would stake my reputation on the fact that you can still Talk.”
“Your reputation as assistant?”
His eyes flashed, not in the anger she’d expected, but in appreciation. “I’d stake a little more than that, maybe. Those first weeks would’ve been so much more entertaining if I could’ve understood you, wouldn’t they have? You’re quick, and it shows when you’re angry.” He leaned forward. “Come on. Tell me. What are the limits? How far does it reach?”
She shook her head. “You remember, I cured everyone. Reversed the limitations that you put on them. Aside from the fact that I still can’t see right, still have headaches, still have throbbing pain in my arm, all because of experiments that you put me through, everything’s gone back to normal. I can talk again, out loud. I can see my family again, can try to get my job back, can go back to my life.” She realized she’d raised her voice, and she turned to see one of the detention assistants watching her with a warning on his face. Nodding at the guard, she closed her eyes, waited until she’d gotten her breathing back under control, then looked back at the monitor.
Josh was smiling serenely at her. “Jemma.” He said her name as if she were a small child who had just said something unreasonable but inoffensive. “I was just an assistant. I didn’t have any power to approve anything on my own. How could I have put limitations on anyone or caused you all that harm? I wanted to work with you, Jemma. I still do.”
Jemma held the phone away from her ear, staring at it as if it could help her understand the man on the other end, the one she’d thought she had a handle on. Of course, though, if he was playing the assistant angle, he wouldn’t admit to anything incriminating over this sort of system; it might be recorded and used against him. She wanted to hang up, wanted to leave, but she still hadn’t really found out what she’d come for. She put it back up to her ear. “How could we work together if you’re in there? What would you even do with the information?”
“That sort of thing shouldn’t really be exchanged over the phone like this.” He tilted his head to one side, studying her. “I want you to think about it, Jemma, because I know you’re just baiting me right now. Think about how much we could learn together. I have lab equipment, separate from the company’s, so it won’t be confiscated. It wasn’t used in any illegal activities. Without the company involved, there would be no need for the particular sorts of force you were subjected to, since you would, of course, be a volunteer.”
The hair on the back of Jemma’s neck stood on end. “You still haven’t explained how we would communicate, how you would access any of this.”
“Did you know I wasn’t always interested in science?” He sat back again, his expression changing, looking thoughtful. “No. Originally, and you’d know this already if you’d shown more interest, I actually studied communication. Foreign language, cyphers, body language, oh, any form of communication with information I could get my hands on. My transcripts were a mess.” He grinned, rolling his eyes before fixing them back on her. “Telepathy, Jemma, isn’t the only means of covert communication. And me?” He shrugged. “Maybe I’m not the only assistant I know who was a little smarter than his supervisors.”
“What does that mean? Are you saying you have someone else helping?” She watched his mouth twitch. “Is there more of the company still out here?”
“I’m stuck here in this silly jail cell. How would I know who’s still out there?”
He was talking in circles, trying to scare her, trying to keep from incriminating himself, or both, but she was pretty sure he was trying t
o imply that he had at least one connection.
The backup laboratory, meanwhile, had been more than simple implication.
“Speaking of stuck, Jemma,” he continued. “Did you know I was in the lab for a full day after you locked me in there? It was a good thing I kept those granola bars in there for you, or I might have lost weight.”
Jemma let out a disbelieving huff. Under his care, she’d lost so much weight that none of her clothes fit, that she couldn’t get through a normal meal before she had to stop because she wasn’t used to eating anymore. “Just tell me, if I decide to help you study whether or not I can Talk now that the Event’s been reversed, do I have to come back here to let you know?”
He smiled slowly, his lips pulling upward until his teeth were exposed. “Don’t you worry, Jemma. I’ve got everything under control, and we’ll be able to work together again soon enough.”
CHAPTER TWENTY:
Underway
Only her limited eyesight kept Jemma from running as far from the video visitation center as she could once she got outside. She reminded herself that her need to get away from the building was irrational; Josh wasn’t even there, was miles away, and trying to navigate sidewalks and busy streets with drivers who didn’t always watch for pedestrians was a bad idea when she wasn’t able to compensate. She pulled out her phone, muttering a curse when she saw how badly her hand was shaking. She concentrated until she could hold it still enough to see to text Jack, not yet trusting herself to speak aloud.
Done. Come get me?
On my way, came the immediate response.
She put the phone back away and shivered, despite the fact that she’d dressed way too warmly for the time of year. She hadn’t wanted Josh to be able to see her arm, though, what it had taken to remove the tracker. She hadn’t wanted him to see how much weight she’d lost, or really anything that he didn’t have to. She’d thought it would help her keep control of the situation, wearing a sweatshirt.