I’ve got it. She opened the kit, searching through it. There’s nothing sharp in here.
Bring the entire kit. We moved to a quiet corner in the back of the boat, where hopefully we would be safe from running into anyone.
The first aid kit had alcohol and antiseptic wipes, as I expected. After dousing both my hands and Addison’s with alcohol, I pulled a hairpin from my hair. We can use this. I grabbed her hand and urged her to look me directly in my eyes. Don’t touch the ruby, okay? If the paralyzing agent were to leak out into my skin… disaster.
She raised both eyebrows. Got it.
I removed the plastic that covered the tip of the hairpin, then scrubbed the entire needle with antiseptic. After handing the needle over to Addison, I brushed my long braid to the side and used a separate wipe to clean a spot on the back of my neck. Next, I cleaned the tracker that Alyson and I had carried around for so long. I’d never imagined the day would come when I would actually allow it to work its way through my neck and latch onto the base of my skull. Would it even work?
Okay, cut.
I reached for a couple of packages of gauze as Addison made the incision.
Here goes nothing, she said.
I reached out and covered her shaky hand with mine. You can do this. I trust you. Addison grabbed the gauze from my hand to mop up the blood from the wound. I closed my eyes tight as she touched my neck with her small fingers. When the needle first sliced my skin, I flinched.
I’m ready for the tracker.
I handed it to her. This better not kill me, I said, attempting to keep things light. Then the cold metal touched my skin, and I knew this was it. No turning back. I also knew that once it was inserted, I might be stuck with this foreign object inside my head forever.
The pressure of the tracker’s insertion was almost too great. If my equilibrium wasn’t already off, the burrowing invader had me gripping the railings along the side of the boat until my knuckles were white.
You okay? When I felt Addison press more gauze to my neck, I knew it was done.
I shook my head. The pain of the tracker moving little by little through my neck brought on another wave of nausea. I fought back tears from the biting pain.
Talk to me. I’m scared. Addison’s voice came out in a whimper.
While the tracker did its thing, I fought through the pain and homed in on the wound in my neck. I could actually see the separation of skin. With my mind, I closed the gap, stopping any additional bleeding. I did it. I healed my own wound.
Finally the pain subsided. I reached for the last package of clean gauze and soaked it with alcohol. Addison took it from me and cleaned my neck. You’re good, she said. We traded a glance—it was a combination of unspoken relief, and a prayer that I hadn’t just inflicted my own fatal wound.
The men continued to move about the boat, occasionally tossing something in the dinghy. I hadn’t even considered the fact that they wouldn’t drive the boat directly up to some kind of dock.
Beyond the beach, a thick forest of palm trees lined the shore. From this distance, I couldn’t see a lot of detail, but it looked wild, untamed. I suddenly imagined the sandy beach being littered with seashells and other debris washed up from the ocean.
I looked down at the dress and flip-flops I had chosen for last night’s romantic dinner, and I wished I had on something more suited for traipsing through razor-sharp seashells and making my way through a jungle of tropical wildlife and foliage.
Addison stepped back from me, sticking her arms out to her side to balance while standing in the back of the rocking boat. Are we going to have to swim to shore?
Another wave of nausea hit me. I had to get off the boat, and fast, before I threw up again. Can you swim?
As in, do I know how? Yes, but—
Then let’s go. I have to get off this boat. I climbed up to sit on the edge of the craft and swung my legs around. Then, as silently as possible, I dropped into the water, minimizing my splash as my entire body slipped under the surface.
Almost immediately, my body’s balance leveled out, and I floated on my back, using my arms to distance myself from the boat.
You can do it, Addi. Come on.
Two men—Granola Bar and another man—stepped toward Addison, their legs wide to keep their balance. I returned to an upright position in the water. They must have heard my splash off the side of the boat. Watch out.
Addison dodged to her left and was almost out of their way when one of the men’s arms brushed against her.
The man fell backward against Mr. Granola Bar. “Holy shit, what was that?”
“Get off me, dude.” Mr. Granola Bar pushed his friend away, this time sending him right into Addison.
“It’s one of them. They are here.” The man waved his hands through the air in front of him. Addison ducked.
Jump! Don’t let him catch you!
Addison turned and grabbed onto the side, then she very awkwardly rolled over the side of the boat and belly-flopped into the water, making a loud and lovely splash. Graceful, I said when she surfaced.
The men were yelling obscenities and pointing.
Are we still invisible to them?
Yes.
Addison struggled to keep water out of her mouth as small waves tossed her small body about. I reached out a hand to steady her long enough for her to get a breath. Let’s get to land.
As we swam—being careful not to splash—I looked back at the boat, where four of the men were now climbing into the rowboat. They seemed to be in no hurry, so I assumed that Mr. Granola Bar and his friend had kept the information about our presence to themselves. Men and their egos, I laughed. Hopefully, their pride would keep us safe a bit longer.
We swam another hundred yards and then the waves began to help us along the rest of the way. Once on the beach, we both collapsed in the sand. The sun had now risen higher in the sky, and its harsh rays beat down on us. The area on the back of my neck throbbed, and I couldn’t even think about the flesh-eating bacteria that might have crawled into the wound.
Sure that Addison had to be getting tired from keeping us invisible, I was about to suggest that we find a shady spot among the palm trees when, suddenly, the sunlight dimmed behind my closed lids. I opened my eyes to find two feet directly in front of my face.
Addison was gone, and I was no longer invisible.
I slowly lifted my head. A dark figure towered over me, the sun glowing behind his head.
Jonas.
~~~~~
Jonas lifted my braid, examined it, then tossed it aside. He circled his fingers around my upper arms and, with a tight grip, lifted me to my feet. “What are you doing here?” His voice was stern, scary. “How did you get here?”
This was it. I had to convince Jonas I was Maya. He’d already seen the red streaks running through my hair. “I…” I glanced over my shoulder toward the boat anchored just off shore. “I obviously came on that boat.”
I smiled, attempting to take on the personality of a smart-ass, when everything in me wanted to scream and yell and force him to tell me if he had anything to do with how sick Jack was. But I couldn’t break my cover. Not yet.
He shoved me forward, pushing me toward a path leading away from the beach.
I grunted as I my foot landed on a pointy palm leaf. “Ow! Watch it.” I had lost my shoes in the swim to shore, not that those flimsy flip-flops would have done much good anyway. I kept my eyes to the ground, watching for crabs and biting insects.
Addison had deserted me the moment Jonas showed up. I wasn’t sure Jonas even knew Addison was there.
I also didn’t know how much of what he was doing was the work of Sandra. I used every technique he had taught me to keep him closed off from my mind. I needed him to truly believe I was Maya if this was going to work.
We followed the path, Jonas right behind me, until at last a building came into view. It was even bigger than I had imagined—two stories but wide, nestled in and around the trees and tr
opical foliage.
Jonas led me to a metal door that appeared to be a side entrance. He placed his hand flat on a scanner—similar security to The Farm—and after a clicking sound, he opened the door. He placed a hand on my back, and when I hesitated, he pushed me harder through the entrance.
“Hey!” I stumbled.
He said nothing as he grabbed my elbow again and led me down a hallway, almost running me into the wall three times. It was like he was purposely keeping me to one side. That was when I scanned the ceiling and discovered the cameras. I glanced toward Jonas. He, too, was watching the video cameras. We slowed, then sped up, then slowed again. He was deliberately keeping me off of the video. But why? Did he know that I was Lexi? Was he trying to protect me?
We turned a corner, and he pulled me down another hallway to another grey metal door. After opening it and pulling me through, he shoved me against the wall and jammed a forearm into my neck, pinning me where I stood. “Where is Lexi? What did you do to her?”
My eyes must have widened to the size of sand dollars. I shook my head. “What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything to her.”
He pressed harder against my neck, cutting off my air supply. My hand clawed at his arm, struggling to wriggle out of his chokehold. I couldn’t breathe or talk.
“If you don’t tell me what happened to Lexi, I will make sure Sandra sees you as a traitor and a spy.” He loosened his arm enough that I sucked in a labored breath.
“I swear I didn’t do anything to her.” I coughed right in his face. He closed his eyes in disgust. “I snuck on the boat with the agents who delivered Addison’s mom. They didn’t see me, but I managed to slip down below on their boat and stayed hidden until we got here. I slipped into the water before anyone caught me and swam to shore.”
“How did they not see you?”
I tried to think about how Maya would act. It had to be different than how I would react to Jonas. I smiled, and instead of clawing at his arm, I began massaging it. “Because, Jonas, I’m that good.”
He loosened his hold even more. “And Lexi wasn’t on the boat with you?”
I shook my head, not letting my grin falter in any way. “I might have drowned her again if she had been.”
He let go and took a step back. I sucked in a huge breath and let it out slowly while I massaged my neck. I flattened my hand against my chest, the place where my necklace used to be, losing my concentration briefly as I mourned the last gift my dad ever gave me. Lost in thought, and just when I thought Jonas had believed me, his hand came at me so fast that I didn’t even feel the slap across my face until a second had passed.
I gasped, and my hand covered the smart. “You hit me!”
“That was for Lexi—for drowning her the first time. And for basically being a thorn in our sides since we discovered your existence. If I find out you did anything to harm Lexi or any of the others, I will make sure Sandra terminates you.”
I rubbed at the sting. I couldn’t believe he had hit me—or hit Maya, I guessed. He’d better not be just pretending that he hadn’t recognized me. “And here I thought we could be friends,” I purred.
I stepped around him. Only then did I notice we were in some sort of bedroom. The bed was dressed with white sheets and a dark grey blanket. All of the furniture was silver or grey metal or painted black. I knew I had to pretend I knew exactly where I was—that I knew my way around Palmyra—or my cover would be blown. “So, you seem to be settled in quite nicely. I bet Lexi would love to know you’re fighting her battles while working so close to your mother again.”
“You don’t know anything about my relationship with my mother, but you’ll find out soon.” He gave me a cold smile, then turned and walked out the door.
When the door slammed behind him, panic rose in my chest. I ran to the door. Locked. I banged on it a few times.
Jonas stared at me through the small window. “Sandra will be here to see you shortly.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
For the first twenty minutes of my captivity, I searched the room for anything useful. I lifted the mattress off the bed, pulled out every dresser drawer, and checked the attached bathroom for supplies. There were very few.
Other than a fresh toothbrush and toothpaste, the room had nothing I could use. Though it was nice to brush my teeth.
Addison, can you hear me? I hadn’t heard from her since we’d crawled up on the beach. Jack? Briana? They were too far away.
I had to assume that my tracker, the tracker I stole when I fled The Farm—the same one that was now embedded at the base of my skull—was still connected to Sandra’s system. And according to my mother, that would mean Sandra could control my tracker—and me—through the cell tower here on the island. If she discovered it had been activated. I just had to hope that Sandra didn’t look closely at the computer software that controlled the trackers. Somehow I had to get my tracker connected to the satellite so that Alyson could assume command and send me all the information being fed to Maya.
But first, I had to get out of this room.
I was staring up at the ceiling when the doorknob jiggled. I jumped up and stared at the door.
Sandra blew in, followed by two women twice her size, and therefore twice my size. “When Jonas told me my cloned beta prodigy had come home, I just had to see it with my own eyes,” she said.
I stared at her, wide-eyed and nervous, shifting on my feet to hide the fact that my legs were shaking.
Sandra was wearing a white lab coat. Circles darkened the area under her eyes. I forced my own face to soften and my lips to stretch into a smile. “That’s right. And boy, am I glad to be home.”
She stepped up to me, studying me, and a sweat broke out across the back of my neck. This was it. She was going to figure me out. How did I ever think I could get away with this?
“Where is Sarah? Your job was to ensure she came to Palmyra. Where is she?”
I repeated, What would Maya say? over and over in my head. Whatever I said next had to be convincing. “I did my job,” I snapped. “Lexi will go through hell and high water to get the cure for Jack. She’ll be here.”
“Why are you here, then, without her?”
“I couldn’t stay with them any longer. They locked me up. They threatened me. Lexi almost killed me when she tried to remove my tracker. She’s scared. She won’t risk something happening to Jack. She’ll be here.”
Sandra paced back and forth a few times. “Well, welcome home.” She rested her hand on the gun at her waistband, I hoped out of habit and not out of doubt for who I said I was.
Jonas entered the room. “You rang,” he said, practically bowing before Sandra. Surely he was joking. As he lifted his head, he shot a quick look my way. Not a very friendly look, either.
“Yes, Jonas, I want you to get to know Maya better. Let her tell you everything she learned from Sarah and the others. I need to know when to expect our Alpha healer. It’s time she stopped fighting her destiny.”
“What makes you think she’s coming at all?” Jonas asked.
“Because she needs to know how to cure her precious Jack, who by now ought to be in seriously poor condition.”
If I hadn’t been watching Jonas so closely, I would have missed the lift of his eyebrow followed by the slight look of panic. Had he known Jack was ill? Based on what Seth had told me about Jack’s medical abilities, I still wondered if Jonas had had something to do with Jack’s and Georgia’s predicament.
Resisting the urge to massage the space over my aching heart at the mention of Jack’s sickness, I cocked my head and studied Sandra. “Do you plan to cure Jack?” I kept my voice even—disinterested but curious. “He’s quite ill, you know.”
Sandra seemed to bounce the question around in her mind. “Meh. Yeah. Probably. I’d hate to have to tell his father that his son is dead.”
I squeezed my hands into fists. “Well, I’m glad to be back at Palmyra.” I smiled, but there was no joy behind it. When I glanced
toward Jonas, he was staring at me with one eyebrow raised.
“Well. I’m sure you’re tired from your boat ride, so I’ll leave you to rest.” Sandra looked from Jonas back to me. “I’m just glad to have you both under the same roof. I think you’ll get along famously once you get to know each other.”
Jonas continued to stare daggers at me as Sandra moved toward the door to leave. Just before she stepped over the threshold, she turned. “Oh, and Maya, when you see Addison, please tell her that she can’t hide forever. She should have stayed with her mother on that boat. Because once I find her, she won’t be leaving again.” And with that, Sandra let the door slam behind her.
A shudder moved through me as I took in and released a large breath. Sandra hadn’t even questioned my identity. I glanced sideways at Jonas. “She’s amazing, isn’t she?” I tried to sound sincere, even though I practically choked on the words.
“Uh-huh. And obviously distracted.” He crossed his arms. His eyes pinned me where I stood. “You’re hiding something.”
“What? I am not,” I scoffed. I shifted under his gaze. “And stop staring at me. Didn’t Sandra ever teach you any manners?”
“Actually, no. She taught me anatomy and medicine. And how to obey the commands of my tracker.” He walked around the room. “Speaking of which, you’ve had your tracker a long time, right?”
“Yes.” Where was he going with this?
“Are you ever able to disobey the orders fed to you through your tracker?”
“Why would I want to?” Maya didn’t strike me as someone who would fight Sandra, and did the twin clones even have the mind abilities to disobey?
“What if Sandra ordered you to do something hurtful to someone you liked?”
I figured that was an easy one for Maya. “I’ve never been around people I like, so I wouldn’t know. What about you?”
Jonas stepped close. So close that I could smell the tropical scent in his hair, see the amber specks in his chocolate eyes. “That’s an interesting question. One I’ll answer for you soon. But I’ll tell you this. You better hope Sandra doesn’t ask me to hurt you in any way.”
Mindsurge (Mindspeak Book 3) Page 25