by Gini Koch
They looked at each other, then at me and at White. “I’m Jeremy Barone, this is my sister Jennifer. We’re policing the crowd.”
“We actually have female field agents now that James is in charge?”
Jennifer smiled. “I’m an imageer, Ambassador. My brother’s an empath. We work well together, and I’m not really good with math, science, or medicine, so I was approved for fieldwork.”
Refrained from mentioning that the Dazzler version of “not good” at these pursuits was still probably Mensa material for the rest of us. Also didn’t mention that I knew female imageers were rare, meaning Jennifer wasn’t on fieldwork only because she wasn’t good at normal Dazzler Duties. We had other things going on; I’d mention these points later.
“Okay, great. I need you two to try to find Ambassador Martini.” They stared at me. “What?”
“You’re right here,” Jeremy pointed out.
“Oh. I mean former Commander Martini. Right, I was a Commander, too. I mean the other one. My husband, Jeff.”
“Ah. Right.” Jeremy looked at his sister. They both gave off an “I’m so uncomfortable” vibe.
“What is it?”
“We were told you might, ah, drop by,” Jennifer said. “All of us, I mean, not just me and Jeremy.”
“And what were you told, and who told it to you?”
They didn’t speak. White sighed. “Children, are you aware of who I am?”
“Oh, yes, sir, Pontifex White,” Jeremy said quickly.
“Then answer the Ambassador’s question. Honestly and quickly, please.” I noted he didn’t correct them by adding “former,” which, under the circumstances, I was A-okay with.
They exchanged another glance. “I’ll do it,” Jennifer said with a sigh. “That way you won’t get in trouble.”
“And Alpha Team’s current Captains will be more than supportive,” I added. “Time, guys. It’s of the essence.”
“We were told by Commander Reader that you’d probably try to help out, and that we should advise him and send you back to the Embassy.”
“Great, I’d imagine he told you this during your prep meeting right?” They both nodded. “Super duper. Here’s the deal—things have changed since prep time, and if someone doesn’t help me find my husband and Charles Reynolds pretty much immediately, heads are going to roll in uncomfortable ways.”
White cleared his throat. “We could very well be in a state of emergency. We can’t confirm that until we can confirm where Ambassador Martini and Mister Reynolds are.”
The siblings looked at each other and nodded. “We’ll help you,” Jeremy said. “But I’m not sure how, other than being two more people looking for them. There are too many people here for me to be able to pick anyone out specifically based on their emotions.”
“And a picture won’t tell me where they are right now,” Jennifer added.
I had to remind myself that Jeff and Christopher had always been the most talented and that their Surcenthumain boosts had ensured no one was going to catch up any time soon.
Serene could find Chuckie and Jeff, if they were within fifty miles of her. Since I’d sequestered her at the Dome, which was in New Mexico, that option was out. Jeff had told me earlier he couldn’t find Chuckie emotionally because of all the interference at the Festival, so Jeremy being unable wasn’t a surprise.
Christopher might be able to tell, but pictures told him about a person, not necessarily that person’s
location. Then again, part of Christopher’s Surcenthumain Talent Extension meant he could see anyone, externally and internally, to the point of being able to assist Tito in performing brain surgeries. He also had the best range around, to put it mildly.
I sent him a text asking him to use his Heavy Duty Searching Powers to find our missing men. Got a snippy text back sharing that he was already on that case, in between policing pregnant women and keeping the Security guys feeling important, and so far had nothing, but wasn’t even close to being done with his search because he’d started at the Festival and searching through that much interference was a slow process.
It dawned on me that if someone wanted to kidnap pretty much anyone, this Festival was an awesome way to neutralize the people most likely to be able to stop said kidnapping. I had a sinking feeling I’d finally tuned to the Bad Guy Radio Channel, only I’d missed some important programming updates.
But before I could remark on how our luck was always consistent, in that it always sucked, Jeremy stiffened. “It’s not the Ambassador, but someone’s in real danger.”
“Let’s go, kids.” I grabbed White with one hand and Buchanan with the other. “You run, we’ll keep up.”
Yi
CHAPTER 52
BUCHANAN GRABBED TITO and White took hold of Armstrong, and then we were off at the slower version of hyperspeed. I could see Bruno flying just above us. He was having no issues keeping up, even with Bellie in his claws. He was obviously carrying her versus trying to kill her. I decided to table my emotions about this for later.
We could have gone faster, but Jeremy and Jennifer weren’t going all out, presumably because there were so damn many people here they couldn’t go to full hyperspeed without bowling everyone around over.
I’d done the daisy-chain thing a few times before, but no one else with me had. It was interesting. Buchanan and Tito adapted fairly well, but Armstrong kept րce="Times on knocking into people. White stopped, shoved Armstrong in between us, we each held one of the senator’s hands, and we were off again.
Happily, this meant we were controlling Armstrong and so kept him from slamming into other people. Unfortunately, this delay meant we’d lost the Barones.
However, Bruno hadn’t lost sight of them. He was ahead of us, but we could see him to follow him, and we did.
With Armstrong between us, it was also easier for White to lead and control the daisy chain, and we caught up to Bruno, and then the Barones, in short order, massive number of people to wade through or not.
They headed through the crowd toward an area with a lot of foliage. As we drew near, I could hear the sounds of struggle and fighting.
We stopped, and I dropped Armstrong and Buchanan’s hands. They and Tito were busy retching anyway. White and I trotted after the Barones.
A part of me was hoping we were going to discover Jeff and Chuckie here, maybe fighting for their lives or protecting someone, but here, nonetheless. Those hopes were quickly dashed—I didn’t know the people fighting in the foliage.
There was a woman about my mother’s age. She had shiny, black hair, light olive skin, and was dressed nicely in expensive-looking clothes with even more expensive-looking accessories. She didn’t look American; I put her from somewhere in the Middle East. There was a younger man, late twenties probably, who had the same coloring, but he didn’t look like her, other than clearly being her countryman.
There were also two other younger men, about the same age. One was taller with curly light brown hair and glasses. The other was average height with straight brown hair. They were both wiry and muscular, and they also looked Middle Eastern, but not from the same country the woman was from. And they, and the black-haired man, were all surrounding the woman, fighting nothing.
At least, it looked like nothing. But from the way the men were reacting, either they were all crazy, or they were fighting something they couldn’t see.
“Whatever it is, it’s moving too fast for us to see,” Jeremy said as I came up to him.
“That’s the Bahraini Ambassadress,” White said as Jeremy lunged toward the clutch of people fighting the nothing. I took a closer look at the men. The one who looked like the Ambassadress was in uniform. The other two weren’t. Based on what had been going on and their looks, I took the leap and assumed they were Israeli.
Whatever these men were fighting, it was strong enough to hit Jeremy and send him flying toward us. White managed to catch him, but they both slid back.
This wasn’t good and w
as probably going to get worse. Well, Jeremy and Jennifer were agents, so they probably had the gas manipulation chips in their brains. And even if they didn’t, I’d worry about it later.
I opened my purse. “Poofs assemble!” I looked up. “Bruno, my bird, drop the parrot and let’s stop whatever or whoever, right now.”
Bruno released Bellie, who flew to White’s shoulder. She was screaming. “Tino! Tino! Tino!” I decided to table Bellie’s inability to say Tito’s name correctly fۀ">Bor later. Because Bruno gave the loudest bird shriek I’d ever heard as the Poofs jumped out of my purse and went large and toothy.
“Poofies, surround those people and don’t let whatever or whoever’s attacking them get away!”
The Poofs did as requested. Bruno, meantime, was flying in a circle, and he was going faster and faster. I got the impression he was trying to catch up to and then match the speed of the invisible assailant.
During Operation Fugly I’d had to stop an A-C racing around Jeff at hyperspeed with a needle full of badness in her hand. I’d had a baseball bat to work with at that time. I didn’t have a weapon like that on hand, and I wasn’t stupid enough to use my Glock.
However, I’d shoved my sweat jacket into my purse before we’d left the Dome. I pulled it out now. I so frequently had no options other than the crazy, I just went for it naturally now.
Flipped my jacket out as I shoved in between two of the Poofs. I watched Bruno, who was going incredibly fast. But I could see him. Couldn’t see what he was following, but Bruno was a really clear bird-blur.
I needed the hyperjuice, and it wasn’t hard to rev up to rage—rage was easy to get to once I’d already hit high anxiety and stressed confusion. All it really took was to look at the expression on the face of the Ambassadress—she was terrified—and to see the three guys getting punched repeatedly. This really pissed me off, because I was damned sure she hadn’t done anything to deserve terror today, and protectors being beaten up in an unfair fight was far too close to what my guys went through every time some lunatic decided to try to go global and take over the world.
Based on the hits the dudes were taking, however, I judged that they were being attacked by something taller than me. I timed it, and the next time Bruno went past me I flung my jacket out and up, high, keeping a tight hold on both of the sleeves.
I caught something and pulled. “Toro!” If only I had a spear to shove into this particular invisible bull.
As I pulled, Bruno dived, screaming nasty things in Peregrine, and landed on whatever it was I had my jacket around, dug his impressively large, sharp claws in, and held on. Something, or rather someone, shouted in pain. Couldn’t tell if it was a person or a thing shouting, though.
We were all moving now, at the really fast hyperspeed Jeff and Christopher used these days. I should have been sick, but I was too revved, which was good. Then I realized my Lifehouse jacket was getting stretched out of shape. And that seriously pissed me off.
Whoever I had “captured” tried to pull away some more. I let his strength pull me into him and body-slammed him. It was definitely a him—my jacket was over and around his head, but he felt human-shaped. However, no human could be doing this, so I was fighting either an enhanced A-C or an android.
My body-slam staggered him. Bruno used that to press down and I did my best to help him. We ended up on the ground. “Oof!”
Human-sounding voice. Could still be one of Marling’s superandroids. One easy way to find out. I was in a good position for it, too.
I rammed my knee into his groin. He bellowed. Trees didn’t shۀd oake and leaves didn’t plummet to the ground, so this wasn’t Jeff. No one bellowed like my man. Which meant, happily, this wasn’t my man gone insane.
White, Jeremy, and Buchanan arrived, just as whoever it was flipped us over. He wasn’t trying to fight me, though. He was trying to get away. White caught one arm, and Jeremy was able to grab the other, as B
uchanan tackled our mystery dude around the waist and managed to bring him back to his knees while I rolled out of the way and scrambled to my feet. This was an improvement, but three of them were barely able to hold this guy. I’d lost my hold on my jacket, but it was still over his head.
Wanted to call Tito for help, but I figured he was doing medical on the people who’d been attacked. Besides, we didn’t know if this guy was working alone, so Tito and Jennifer were better off staying with the others.
Bruno was still attached to this guy’s shoulders, and he did the bird scream thing again, but it wasn’t directed at me. It was directed at Bellie.
She cawed and got into it, as she grabbed my jacket in her beak and slashed the guy’s chest with her claws at the same time. Then she flew to me, dropped the jacket, and alighted on my shoulder. “Bellie wants a treat!”
I was too busy being shocked about who I was looking at to be shocked by the fact that Bellie was suddenly my Best Birdie Friend.
I’d been wrong. No, I didn’t know the people being attacked. But I sure knew their attacker.
“Clarence Valentino, what an unexpected displeasure.”
Yi
CHAPTER 53
“TINO! TINO! TINO!” Bellie cawed. It dawned on me that she didn’t have any mispronunciation issues—she was calling him Tino instead of Valentino.
“Right you are, Bellie. Treats coming soon. Hold him, guys.”
“Trying,” Buchanan said through gritted teeth.
“So you’ve shot up with Surcenthumain, haven’t you, Clarence?”
He glared at me but appeared to be using all his effort to get away from the guys holding him.
I dug around for my phone. “Where’s Jeff and Chuckie?” I took a picture of him. It wasn’t a great shot, but hopefully it’d give Christopher and Serene something to work with.
Clarence laughed one of those low, evil bad guy laughs. “You’re never going to see either one of them again. Not that you’re going to be around too long to mourn their loss.”
I wanted to kick his face, hard, but that wouldn’t get me information. “Blah, blah, blah. Heard that the last time you decided to tangle with us. Where are Ronaldo and LaRue? They are the ones pulling your strings, right? I mean, you’re not smart enough to do this stuff on your own.”
Probably untrހullingue. All the A-Cs were bright. But Jeremy was an empath, so I wanted Clarence’s emotions reacting, in the hopes we’d get something from them.
“You’ll see them soon enough.” The men were trying to get his hands behind his back, presumably to handcuff him or tie him up in some way, but they weren’t succeeding. Clarence had clearly taken a lot of the superpowers drug.
“Just the three of you against all of us? I don’t like your odds.” I relaxed as much as I could and then sent what I hoped was a really loud, really screaming emotional signal that I needed help, and as many A-Cs as possible, pronto. It had worked before, but that was in the Dulce Science Center. I wasn’t liking my odds here at the Festival.
“We’ll have your baby. She’ll provide all we’ll ever need.” He struggled to his feet, despite the fact that we had two big, strong A-Cs and a big, strong human all doing their best to prevent this.
I was going to hit him, but before I could move, Bruno flew off Clarence’s shoulders and right at me, screaming. I managed to stop myself. My rage was high, but I had to keep it in check. Bruno had been clear—if I attacked Clarence right now, he was going to escape, possibly with me in tow. “You’re not getting her, or anyone else.” Bruno landed in front of me and faced Clarence.
“How’d you get one of those?” Clarence asked, obviously talking about Bruno.
“What’s it matter to you? Where are Jeff and Chuckie? What’s your evil master plan? Why are you such a raging jerk?” No external reactions, other than an increase in the level of dirty in the look he was giving me.
“You never shut up,” he growled.
“Nope, never. Where are LaRue and Ronnie? Why did you start the problems between Bahrain and Isr
ael?” He jerked. Just a little. “What take-over-the-world plan are you guys working on now? Why send dirty pictures of me around town?”
Interestingly enough, this got a real reaction. Clarence laughed. “Because they’ll ruin everything you’ve all worked for. And my self-righteous brother-in-law will get what he deserves—the knowledge that you’re a slut and always will be.”
“Wow, you’re all still clinging to that one? It didn’t work on anyone in Paris, and it’s not going to work on anyone here.”
“Oh, it still works on some of us,” Reader said, as he, Gower, Tim, and the flyboys, along with a good number of field agents, surrounded us. “As in it really pisses us off. Let’s get our missing traitor under wraps.”
“Can we beat him up while we do it?” Jerry asked.
“Save that for interrogation,” Tim suggested.
Bruno screamed again as Clarence flung Jeremy at the flyboys. Jeremy knocked them over like a humongous bowling ball.
With a hand now free, Clarence was able to grab Buchanan, pull him off, and throw him at Alpha Team. He missed Gower, but took Reader and Tim down, which also knocked over Hughes and Walker, who had regained their feet.
“Richard, let go!” It dawned on me that the bad guys always had some form of “destroy the Pontifex” in their plan.
White tried to comply, but Clarence had him. I was going to try to tackle them, but before I could move, Clarence tossed White at me. We landed, hard. As we did, my brain chose to cheerfully remind me that White was no longer the Pontifex while also pointing out that Gower had no one near him.
Bruno took to the air, headed right for Clarence’s face, while I heard Bellie in the near distance shrieking, “Help! Help! Help!”
Bruno slowed Clarence down to regular hyperspeed, but no one was close enough to Gower.
“Paul, run!” As the words left my mouth, I felt rather than saw someone race past us. Said someone tackled Gower to the ground, which meant Clarence shot past them, as Bruno landed in front of Gower and Jennifer.