by Tracey Ward
I see what she’s getting at: the file Liam took.
“So James is one of them now, huh?” Brody asks mildly, trying to sound unaffected.
I’m not buying it. This bugs him. He’s looking down at his hands that now play loosely together in front of him, his face drawn.
“As far as we can tell,” I answer evasively.
I don’t want to tell him his friend is a puppet for the doctor—partly because it would suck to be the one to have to say it, but also because I don’t know it for sure. I won’t pretend for one second to know what side anyone is playing on in this game. Liam is a wild card, Brody is definitely a big question mark, and while James seems pretty solidly on enemy lines, he could have an agenda all his own. Even Campbell could surprise me. You never know.
The only person I trust beyond a shadow of a doubt is myself.
“That’s too bad.”
“You guys were close?” Alex asks him gently.
“Like brothers.”
“That friendship must have meant a lot to you, considering you’re an orphan,” Campbell says.
The room halts. You could hear a pin drop a mile away. The crickets would be chirping in our silence if they weren’t stunned too.
“Dude,” I groan disapprovingly.
“What? It was in his file.”
Alex narrows her eyes at him. “So is my time of the month, but we aren’t going to sit around and talk about it.”
“We can.”
“We won’t.”
“I’m available if you change your mind.”
“Shut up.” Alex turns to Brody, her tone quieting. “I’m so sorry.”
He grins. “No need to be sorry, hon. It’s not a secret—definitely not from me.”
Hon.
I can’t take it anymore.
“Where in the South are you from?” I ask him.
“I was thinking Texas,” Campbell guesses.
Brody looks back and forth between us, surprised. “You’d be right. How’d you know? Did my accent slip?”
Alex shakes her head. “No.”
“Yes,” Campbell counters. “It’s been in and out.”
“Huh.” Brody glances out the window, avoiding all of our eyes. “I guess I’m out of practice.”
“You’re alone a lot?” Alex asks.
“I thought it was safer. I thought I could hide better if no one knew me. Looks like I was wastin’ my time.”
“Where in Texas are you from?” I push.
“Small town just outside Houston.”
“Near any military bases?”
Brody smiles wryly. “Everything in Texas is near a military base.”
“Do you know anything about your parents?” Alex asks, and I’m glad it’s her asking and not me or Campbell. Everything sounds nicer coming from her, and I don’t want Brody running for his shotgun again because we took the wrong tone with the wrong question. “Were either of them military?”
“No,” he laughs. “Absolutely not. They were both hard drinkin’ druggie trash. They lost me to the state when I was just a kid, but I’m sure if Doc had come around with a check and a smile they’d have happily sold me to him. Look, I know what you’re getting at. A lot of the kids at the clinics were from military families. James was.” He points to me. “Judging by your haircut I’d say you’re a service member.”
I nod approvingly. “Air Force, like my dad. Alex’s dad is too.”
“Like I said, lot of kids were from military families. But not all of them. Not Liam, not me.”
“But you were in the state of Texas when they got ahold of you. So was I. So was Alex.”
“So was James,” Brody concedes. “They must have pulled heavily from that area back then. Lot of military families in and out of that place. It would scatter their experiments everywhere.”
He’s right: extraordinary children were created in that lab, but not all of them would have matured. According to the experts, Alex and I didn’t, but look at us now. We’re at the top of their most wanted list because of how advanced we are. We bypassed maturity and skipped right into retirement age. How many others are out there living their lives in ignorance with enhanced senses, strange dreams, or brilliant minds?
It’s amazing how quickly the thought dawns on all of us. How all three of us turn in eerie sync to eye Campbell curiously.
He grins, throwing up his hands in innocence. “Don’t look at me. I was born and raised in SoCal. Never set foot on a base before Basic. I’m all natural. Got my smarts from my dad.”
“What about your mom?” Alex asks.
“My mom is beautiful, she doesn’t need to be smart.”
“Real nice.”
“Don’t get mad at me. She’s the one who says it.”
“Were either of your parents in the service?”
“Nope,” he grunts, dropping down until he’s sitting on the floor with his legs stretched far out in front of him. “I’m telling you, I’m not tweaked. Wouldn’t mind if I was, though.”
Brody glares down at him. “Be careful what you wish for.”
“Oh, I would be. What you’ve got,” Campbell points up at Brody, not intimidated by the mountain of a man towering over him, “I wouldn’t want. Not on its own. But you combine it with what Nick has and we’re in business.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but they don’t exactly show you a menu and let you order up what you want.”
“I figured,” Campbell says, settling back against the wall. “I’ll stick to being pure homegrown excellence, thanks.”
“Brody,” Alex asks, “how long was the Texas clinic you were in open?”
He shrugs, turning his back on Campbell. “No idea. It was open when I got there and it was still open twelve years later when I ran.”
“So it could still be there.”
“Debatable,” I argue. “Remember, it was a government-owned program initially. When it was shut down and bought out, it more than likely changed location.”
She nods in glum agreement. “You’re right—which sucks, because that puts us right back where we were.”
“What exactly is it you all are planning to do?” Brody asks. “I know you said you’re shutting down the program permanently, but how do you expect to do that?”
Campbell gestures to Alex. “She’s amassing an army.”
“Not an army,” she says defensively. “More like a banding of brothers.”
“Like in Band of Brothers? The TV show about the Army?”
“I want to bring together all of the people hurt and affected by this! Let them know they’re not alone.”
“Build a sense of community amongst a group of lonely outsiders?”
“Yes! Exactly.”
“Like on Army Wives?”
“Not like Army Wives,” Alex snarls at him.
“Sister Wives maybe?”
I frown. “What the hell is Sister Wives?”
“Are we all getting married?” Brody asks.
Alex throws up her hands, palms out. “Everybody stop talking! I am not building an army, that’s the important thing.”
“Well then you’re not half as smart as I hoped you were,” Campbell replies.
“What?” I challenge. “You think it’s a good idea?”
“Of course I do. What’s the alternative? You and I hunt down some mystery figurehead on our own? That’s what you have planned, isn’t it, Carver? I’ll tell you what, I’m not doing it. I’m with you all the way until the bitter end and all that, but I’m not jumping into a suicide mission with you. Not when there’s another way, and your chick has another way.”
I take a step into the room, feeling my temper flair. “We could get killed rounding these people up. We got lucky Brody didn’t shoot us on sight. To be honest, I was hoping this would be a wakeup call to how bad an idea this is. I have no interest in hunting down more people—people that we don’t even know are worth finding.”
“If they can kill you, they were worth findin
g.”
“Lot of good it does us when we’re dead.”
“You think whoever is in charge hasn’t surrounded himself with people just like you? People better than you? You don’t start a game on the Boss Level—not unless you want your nuts handed to you on a platter. You need to meet some of the other monsters this guy created, get a feel for what they can do, see if you can stand up against them. If a cast-off can kill you, you were screwed anyway.”
“First of all, I’m all Boss Level. I’m ready. Point me in the right direction and I got it. That’s what I’m gunning for. Second, they don’t have anyone that can handle me. You saw what I did to James, Alex knows how I handled Liam. If they had anyone who could take me, they’d be here by now.”
“Got a pretty high opinion of yourself and your abilities.”
“If they were yours, wouldn’t you? Tell me honestly that if you could do what I do that you wouldn’t be talking the same way.”
“Maybe.”
“Please. If you were me you’d be wearing a cape and spandex already, running around demanding the minions bow before you and call you Master.”
“What is it exactly you can do?” Brody asks. “I thought you said you were all tweaked reflexes and speed.”
“He has no fear response,” Alex tells him, sounding oddly distracted. She’s looking at me with blank eyes, and I wonder what she’s thinking—what’s buzzing behind the scenes. “He’s not afraid of anything. Not anymore.”
I grin at her. “And I have you to thank for that.”
She surprises me when she doesn’t smile back.
“That doesn’t seem like enough to take down whoever is running this thing,” Brody warns me. “You have to imagine they’ll be tough to get to. No one person can do it alone.”
I pull the white rock from my pocket and flip it into the air, catching it easily in my palm. “I’m not alone.”
Brody frowns. “Is that a pebble?”
“Will you help us?” Alex asks him suddenly.
He looks between the stone and her, not sure which subject to stick with.
“Help you what? Reach the top of the heap?” he asks Alex incredulously.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“You all are on the run. I’m not,” he explains plainly.
“Not yet,” Alex reminds him.
“I wasn’t worth bringing in before. Nothing has changed.”
“Except for the fact that they’re going to be trying to track us,” Campbell reminds him. “And a bloodhound would come in very handy for them.”
“Campbell,” Alex cautions.
“What?”
“Don’t compare people to dogs,” she whispers fiercely.
He waves her away. “Calm down. It’s not an insult.”
“Then maybe don’t make it sound like one.”
“I’m out of here in the morning,” Brody tells her. “I think you all should be too.”
“Agreed,” I reply heartily. I was actually thinking we should leave tonight, but I don’t know where we’re going and I’d like to build a buffer between Alex’s Slips. I don’t want her getting wiped out by it the way Liam described.
“So that’s it?” Alex asks Brody. “You’re going to run for the rest of your life?”
“Where I’m going next they won’t find me,” he promises.
“That’s what you thought this time.”
“The answer is no. I’m leaving in the morning. Alone.”
Alex holds out the files to him, her face hopeful and pleading. “Will you at least look through these and tell us if anyone is familiar and if we should stay away from them?”
“I think you should stay away from everyone who ever set foot in those clinics.”
“Please,” she implores softly.
Brody sighs, melting under her stare. Eventually he takes the files from her grudgingly. “I’ll make you a list.”
“Thank you.”
“Wait until you see the list before you go thankin’ me.”
Chapter Twelve
Alex
Roaming around Brody’s house is the loneliest thing I’ve ever seen. The signs of a solitary life are everywhere: one towel, one blanket, one toothbrush, one pillow, one bowl, one plate—the list goes on and on. He uses things, cleans them, and stores them. It’s very methodical, and as I wander through the house with Nick, I can see the respect in his eyes. In the way he opens cupboards to find them nearly empty. The way he nods and grins when he finds what he calls a Bug-Out Bag, something he says is almost identical to his deployment bag. Nick is impressed with the place and Brody, while I’m just sad.
“Why does it make you sad?” Nick asks, rifling through the nearly empty fridge.
Brody has headed into town on a supply run, but before he left he told us to go ahead and fix ourselves some dinner. We were given free rein to zero out his freezer, fridge, and cupboards, since he wasn’t taking any of it with him. The ‘supplies’ he’s out buying now are apparently not of the food variety.
What his small kitchen has to offer is a hodgepodge of microwavables. Some single serve rice bowls, pizza rolls, veggie steamers, a brick of cheese, and a very large packet of impressively long hot dogs.
“Because it could have been me,” I answer Nick as I slice slowly into the cheese brick. “If it weren’t for Cara, this is what my life would have looked like.”
“It doesn’t look too bad to me.”
“You know what? No. I would have been worse off. I wouldn’t have had a job to afford all of this. I would have been on the streets or working the pole. Instead of a driver’s license I would have had a stage name. Next up on center stage is the Amazing Alex!”
“That’s more magician than stripper.”
“And besides,” Campbell says, “you’re not center stage material.”
I spin around to face him where he sits in the single chair at the kitchen table. “Excuse me? How am I not center stage material?”
“Is that a serious question? Get real. Your boobs are too small.”
“I’ll have you know I can hide a Glock up in this piece,” I tell him, Vanna White-ing my hand under my chest.
“So can I. Call me when you can hide a Judge.”
“What’s a Judge?”
“Executioner. Max Payne. Mark Wahlberg. Call of Duty.”
“Bubblegum. Volkswagen,” I mimic. “You’re just saying random words.”
“It’s a big-ass gun,” Nick tells me. “Only Jessica Rabbit could stow that thing.”
“More eighties movie knowledge! Impressive.”
He casts me a crooked grin. “I told you, I was a kid once.”
“Your knowledge so far is purely boob based, though.”
“Well, I’m a man now,” he reminds me, as though I needed reminding. “It’s hard to relate The NeverEnding Story to breast size and handguns.”
“Give me five minutes,” Campbell calls.
“No.”
“Okay, three.”
“None. Time’s up. You lose,” I tell him dryly.
“You’re a hater, SB. I don’t like it, but I respect it.” I’m surprised when he rises suddenly and strides across the room to stand beside me at the counter. His face is blank when he looks at Nick, his tone all business. “Where do we go from here, Carver?”
Nick stops with his hands on the counter. He keeps his gaze down as he thinks it through, his eyes searching for answers in the green and gold flecked Formica surface. Campbell and I wait patiently, silently.
Finally Nick looks up and shrugs. “Tahiti?”
Campbell doesn’t respond in any way, but I’m pretty sure I’m gaping at him.
“Are you serious?” I ask. “We’re running?”
Part of me is relieved—the part that doesn’t want to die or see Nick or Campbell die. The part that doesn’t want to ever be locked up in a clinic agai—because I may not have known I was a prisoner before, but I will for sure be made awa
re of it this time around. And this time they’ll use Nick to get what they want from me. One threat is all it will take. One drop of his blood and I’ll be ready, willing, and able to do anything they demand of me.
But there’s another part of me that’s pissed. One that looks at Brody’s life here, at his plan to run away again, and I can’t stomach it. I can’t run forever. I don’t want to live in fear for the rest of my life. I don’t want Nick to feel like he has to protect me, either. I need this to be over. I need to know my life is mine. I need to grab hold of control—the only thing I’ve ever wanted.
“No,” Nick answers solemnly, pushing back from the counter. “I’m not serious. We’re not running. I don’t know where to go from here, though.”
“Texas?” I suggest.
“That clinic can’t still be there. There’s no way. But even if it was, it’d be on a military base and none of us can get inside. Not without using our IDs and sending up red flags.”
“Nebraska? I was screened in a small set of offices there before they took me to the island.”
“It was probably a fake setup—offices put together to make it all seem legit. They probably only rented them out for the month.”
“The island then?” I ask, my palms sweating at the thought.
Nick shakes his head, crossing his arms over his chest. “It was destroyed. I bet they cleaned that place out already. It’s probably a ghost town.”
“Well, crap,” I exclaim. “Tahiti it is then.”
“Right?”
“What about the next person on the list?” Campbell asks. “The one Brody gave you.”
“Oh, you mean this list?” I ask, holding the paper up for him to see. “Count how many names of stay-the-hell-away there are and compare it to how many files are in the bag.”
His eyes scan the page quickly before he clicks his tongue disapprovingly. “Kimberly Fry and Marcus Beck are the only names missing.”
I slam the paper down in amazed disgust. “That’s impossible.”
“It’s easy.”
“You’re a machine. A strange, deviant, relentless machine.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Like any girl has ever let you touch her.”
“You’d be surprised.”
“I’d be horrified, I’m sure. But, yeah, that’s it: two people Brody thinks won’t kill us the second they see us.”