by Jody Klaire
She laughed. “Oh no, never again. No, Martin teaches kindergarten.”
As far removed from Renee as possible. Interesting. “Did you find anything of use in Lead Agent Frei’s file?”
Fleming wandered over to the printer and tapped the pages. “Reading in German takes me a while longer. Do you have somewhere I can work?”
Lilia swallowed back her need to tear the files from Fleming’s grasp. “Of course, there’s a spare office along the hall.”
She led Fleming that way, resolving to either demand Frei use plain American English for everything, or enlisting herself in a German course. She smiled to herself. Knowing Frei, she would find the latter the easier option.
Chapter 36
RENEE DROPPED HER chocolate bar as Aeron slumped against the door. She fought her instinct to tell Aunt Bess to stop the car. Their pursuers may not have seemed like they were following but she knew enough from her own experience with Frei’s past that they weren’t shaken off easily.
“Shorty?” Aunt Bess glanced over her shoulder as Renee checked her pulse. Steady, slow, too slow. Bradycardia slow, out for the count.
“She’s okay, keep driving . . . please.”
“Where?” Aunt Bess met her eyes in the mirror. Hers were a lot like Aeron’s but held a world weary tiredness. A glaze of how much she had seen.
“We need to get more sugar in her . . .” She pulled out a mini blood pressure monitor. Strapped it to Aeron’s arm. It was low. Too low. “Maybe iron.”
Aunt Bess raised her rugged gray eyebrows.
“When Aeron . . .” She tried to formulate just how she was going to put this. Aunt Bess was a civilian, the less she said, the better. “When she helped someone . . . before, there were side effects once.” Probably best she didn’t say Aeron had been locked away while she went through it and had a heart attack . . . or at least relived one. “She had to have iron . . . I’m not sure why but iron and sugar helped.”
She had her thoughts but she couldn’t say. She had said too much already. She wasn’t the Renee Aeron had met back in Serenity Hills now. She couldn’t shut off like before. She couldn’t just reel off some set answer or “I’m not at liberty to say.”
She’d changed.
She didn’t really want to change back.
Logic poked her and told her that: once again she was in charge; that once again her protectee was out cold having put herself through too much to help; and once again she had a civilian involved.
Logic demanded that she head to the nearest base, that she find a trusted, sane officer who could take care of Aeron and Aunt Bess. It told her that she should be looking for Frei systematically, in a structured, proven method of searching, not tearing around hoping someone would get a hunch.
Her heart just plugged its ears. Aeron had proven she could find people, that she could be counted on. She needed Aeron to guide her and she needed Aunt Bess to do . . . whatever Lilia had seen her do. So far her driving raised eyebrows. She drove like she’d had elite training. The kind of training she’d taken herself. Aunt Bess would make Frei proud with her speed.
So much for retired genteel ladies.
Trust, faith, belief.
Her head hurt.
“We’ll go for that town . . . there.” She reached through and pointed to the smallest dot on the map. Her gut instinct said to go there. Gut instinct fueled by something she was hiding from her logic. “It’s small . . . off the highway.” She pulled out her cell and tapped into the app. “There’s a drug store. We need extra things in case Urs is . . .” She didn’t want to think about how hurt Frei was. “We need an inhaler too.”
“I ain’t one for complaining but don’t getting that kind of stuff need a scribble from the doctor?” How did Aunt Bess know what she was on about?
Renee nodded. She needed to put a proper pack together. The one in the trunk was great. She had some anti-venoms but she wasn’t sure if Frei had been bitten or was poisoned.
She sighed. “We may need to stretch rules.”
Aunt Bess’s gray brows rose again. “Sounds like a hold up.”
She tried to ignore the hint of excitement in Aunt Bess’s voice. “We’ll pay . . . but you just need to distract the staff . . . somehow . . . while I get supplies.” She tapped her cell to her chin. “Do you have a cell or a beeper?”
Aunt Bess scrunched up her face. “With these paws?”
Renee cocked her head. She loved the smatterings of Aeron’s speech in Aunt Bess’s, the same gestures and expressions. They were so alike. Aeron was very connected yet unique. She loved that. She loved her.
Concentrate. “All you need to do is leave when it buzzes.” She pulled up the central console and fished a beeper out, hoping Aunt Bess couldn’t tell how ruffled she was.
“You got things in all kind of places, ain’t you?”
Renee smiled, half-focused on Aeron, whose face was sweaty, pale, dark circles under her eyes. “Comes with the job.”
“Sounds kinda exhausting.”
Renee frowned. Like Aeron, Aunt Bess had cut straight through the armor to her core. Unnerving. “It is.”
“So she know you still protect her?”
Renee sighed, abilities or no abilities, Aunt Bess was a Lorelei. What was it with Loreleis and unraveling her? “Yes, she hates it.”
Aunt Bess snorted a laugh. “You kiddin’? That kid adores you.”
Renee rolled her eyes. “Oh great. Don’t you start. Next you’ll be telling me we’re like wicker baskets and writing notes.”
Aunt Bess cocked her head and Renee waved it off.
“Long story, don’t ask.”
Chapter 37
I COULD HEAR Renee’s voice somewhere nearby. The scent of her shampoo floated around me as she fussed. I could hear Aunt Bess in the driver’s seat talking as Renee moved my shoulders. I felt her place something under my head; the soft, warm lining of a coat maybe? Either way, it smelled like her. It glowed with comfort.
I could feel how concerned they were. Renee knew from back in Oppidum that when I got stuck, if that’s what I was, it took a lot to wake me. Just like when Jenny died, I didn’t seem to have the energy to shake myself out of it. Not as dangerous as back then maybe, but I was getting more tired.
I gripped onto the lock. Maybe I was feeling what Frei was feeling? Maybe I was helping her in some way, lending her the energy to fight somehow? I was used to finding people through objects. So far, all I could see were her memories but then maybe she was stuck in them too.
Renee and Aunt Bess got out and I heard the doors lock. The memory filled my mind until I found myself in a ward: Dim lights, bland colors, and the stink of disinfectant.
A woman stood with Frei in an open space between the beds and a desk. The woman looked older but she felt young. They circled each other. Frei’s long blonde hair was scraped back in a loose ponytail, strands falling into her face.
Her cheek was swollen. A graze I knew now as a faint scar was prominent and angry looking. She was small and slight but something inside her had started to harden, to change. They were training, at least that’s what it felt like. There was something odd about their auras and I couldn’t figure it out. Maybe it was the memory?
I tried taking in details, hoping I could see some kind of indication as to what the memory was pointing to. The surroundings only blurred, refocusing me back on Frei.
“Use their weight against them.” The woman spoke in German. I got the fuzzy hum around the sound which told me so.
Frei nodded. The woman snapped out her hand. Frei batted it off, sluggish.
“Good but you need to move faster. Focus your energy. You want to move me, throw me off balance.”
I took a seat on the bed, mesmerized. I was watching her learn the skills she’d taught me. She was an expert now.
I didn’t know who the woman with her was. She was so odd to look at, like she should be beautiful yet somehow her chin and her nose made her miss it. I could see how much she cared about Frei, ho
w invested she was. Her strength poured from her, the way she stood, the way she moved. Whoever she was, Frei had needed her back then. Whatever had happened to cause the wounds on her face had beaten her, scarred her. She drew courage from the woman and that strength I knew her so well for.
They moved through several defensive and offensive moves. I knew each one from watching her in classes, in boot camp, in action. Frei, even at her tender age, even battered, was a natural. What a woman.
A red light flashed over the door. The woman glanced up at it. Frei caught the lack of concentration and snapped out her hand. The woman caught it with a smile on her face.
“Back to bed.”
Frei nodded and sprinted over to a bed next to me. She yanked up the covers and pulled out an exercise book. Harrison entered seconds later and she strode over to the woman who now had a white coat and stethoscope on.
“Jäger told me that she will be in here a while?” Harrison sounded genuinely concerned. Maybe I was hearing things but she looked concerned too.
The doctor nodded. “She’s strong, she’s lucky but even so it will take her a long time to recover.” Her accent was nothing like it had been. She spoke in perfect English, American but with only a slight regional lilt. It sounded a lot like Ivy League. Serenity once had a visiting psychiatrist from some place in upstate New York. Rich folk must have had issues too. She sounded much like him.
“Will there be any lasting effects?” Harrison glanced over at Frei. I knew that look. She saw all students as things to sell. She was probably calculating how much discount she’d have to give.
“Angle of her rib. Other bones have reset fine but now I’ve got the bleed under control, we need to make sure it remains that way.”
Harrison frowned. Although she was younger, less gray in her hair, her pursed lips still wrinkled up like they had when I’d met her. “Sounds serious.”
The doctor stared up at her. Not just any stare. No, it was exactly the kind of stare someone else I knew had. Someone who could terrify most into silence with a flash of her icy blues.
Huh?
“It is. I won’t bore you with details but I located it and stopped it. Any kind of activity however will risk a reoccurrence.” She hardened her stare until Harrison averted her eyes. “A very high risk.”
Harrison folded her arms, a grave glint in her beady eyes. “Best be safe.”
I looked at Frei who focused on her book like she couldn’t hear. The fact I could, the fact I could see even their expressions showed me how much she observed without appearing to.
“Doctor Stosur, I don’t need to tell you that her condition has to remain confidential. That it’s best you let Jäger and I inform . . . her parents . . . of her progress?” Harrison sounded like she was tired of pretending that students had parents but wary of the doctor nonetheless.
The doctor smiled up at her. “Of course not. There’s no need to be so formal either, Ursula is just fine.”
Chapter 38
RENEE SIGHED AS she eyed the cameras and all the other security around the pharmacy counter. Thanks to Frei, she could get in anywhere but that was without a senior in tow.
Renee browsed the shelves while the device on her phone found the signal for the cameras. When it buzzed in her pocket, they would be scrambled and she could stray into the line of sight. She’d avoided being spotted coming in by covering her face with a magazine from a stand outside the shop. The town was small. The car was parked a fair distance so not to be on any nearby camera.
She sighed.
Now, it just depended on Aunt Bess, a civilian with no training, doing her part.
Aunt Bess headed in through the door as she thought it and Renee shook her head. Coincidence, that was all.
“Can I help you?” The woman at the counter flicked through her magazine. Renee wiggled her toes. The woman’s feet were aching. Her hair was bunched up in an exaggerated bun, making her look like she had a mushroom on her head and Renee’s head itch.
“Er . . . sure . . . You see, I live with some good folks in a big ol’ house.” Aunt Bess started in an accent a lot further south than Missouri. “I forget things, you see. They take care o’ me.”
The woman’s focus sharpened, her energy pulsing with curiosity. “A house?”
The woman put down her magazine and strode over. She barely reached Aunt Bess’s chest. Her eyes were wide, intense. Renee somehow knew that she was a mom of three.
Freaky. Weird and freaky.
“Institution.” Aunt Bess shoved her hands in her pockets like she was ashamed about it. She looked so much like Aeron at times. Even in those long pants that were fashionable in the thirties, a blouse that looked like it came from the same era and a cardigan on top. “I don’t get people real well.”
“My mother lived in one.” The woman’s eyes opened and concern filled her aura. She smiled a big warm smile. “So, how can I help you?”
“I need stuff . . . to . . . er . . . wash . . . I think?” Aunt Bess pulled out a sweet from her pocket and popped it in her mouth. She looked vacant. If anything, she would make a great actress.
The woman clasped her hands together. She looked at Aunt Bess like a bird that had fallen out of a nest. “You don’t have anything?”
Aunt Bess pulled out a wad of bills from her pocket, drawing the woman’s eyes to her. “They just said to buy stuff. The man at the hardware store said I couldn’t clean my teeth with none of his.”
Renee felt her phone buzz. She snuck through the gap in the counter, ducked down, pulled out her phone, and placed it to the secure gate which sealed off where the drugs were made up. She could see Aunt Bess through a small gap in the counter and shook her head.
Aunt Bess picked up some gel, shaking it about. “Can I use this?” She opened it and dipped her fingers in.
The woman took it off her. “That’s for your hair.”
“I gotta clean my hair too?” Aunt Bess looked down at the goop.
The woman took Aunt Bess’s hand. Renee got hit with a rolling screen of information: The woman was taking classes in night school to be a lawyer . . . The guy she was with worked hard in the local garage . . . Her kids all came home to food on the table and a smile on her face.
“You have to clean both with different things.” The woman took Aunt Bess along the aisle and picked up a basket. “You put soap on your face and hands, toothpaste in your mouth, and shampoo in your hair.”
Renee’s phone buzzed, signaling that the backroom was unlocked.
Aunt Bess sighed, her face contorted like she was confused. “That’s a lot to remember.”
Renee crept into the back and pulled out her list.
“Can you read okay?” The woman’s voice carried as she started to decipher the storage system and make up what they’d need.
“Not without my glasses.”
Renee stifled a chuckle as the woman blew out a breath as if to say, “How did they let you out?”
Renee moved through the drawers, pulling out the required meds. She stocked up on a few of Jessie’s inhalers. Even with them, the poor kid suffered. She peeked around the door.
Aunt Bess had picked up toothpaste. “Why is this one so small?” She squeezed it until the cap popped off and squirted all over the woman’s top.
The woman took it off Aunt Bess. “Your teeth are smaller than your head.”
Renee smiled and went back to scouring for her list. She had half of the things.
“Why’s it smell funny?”
Aunt Bess was making the woman nervous, Renee could feel it somehow. “It’s mint.”
Renee hurried, completing her list, and snuck back out with the bag shoved under her top. Aunt Bess sighed enough to keep the woman’s attention on her as Renee went back to browsing.
“I don’t get it,” she muttered.
“Is there someone . . . who can help you?” The woman was more concerned about Aunt Bess than anything else.
Renee was starting to agree with her.
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“They yell at me when I wander off.”
“And have you wandered off?” The woman led Aunt Bess over to the counter.
“Maybe.” Aunt Bess giggled as if she’d done just that.
Renee stuffed her sweater in her waistband to keep the medicine bag inside; shoved the buds connected to her phone into her ears, and cleared her throat. “Nancy?” She shook her head and walked over, pulling the buds out. “What you doin’ leavin’ the bus?”
The woman’s shoulders sunk in relief. “She was learning about washing.” She held up the basket full of products.
“Now, you know you ain’t allowed to use those without supervision.” Renee wagged a finger, hoping her accent was placed correctly. She met the woman’s eyes. “Sorry, head injury as a child. Nancy doesn’t understand and her memory is worse than her eyesight.”
“The hair stuff tastes minty.”
Renee touched Aunt Bess’s cheek with her hand. “It does, does it, sweetheart?” She turned back to the counter and placed a pack of mints on it. “How much do we owe you?”
The woman shook her head. “Oh no, I’m just glad she’s okay.”
A breeze tickled Renee’s neck and she shivered.
“Give her the money,” Nan whispered.
Renee met Aunt Bess’s eyes and flicked her gaze to the bills. Aunt Bess turned, knocked over a display of products, and stooped to pick them up. The woman hurried around to help her and Renee ducked behind the counter and shoved the wad of cash in the handbag tucked underneath.
How would she explain this one to Doctor Montgomery, the CIG shrink?
“Maybe it’s better we leave before we cause any more trouble?” Renee ducked back to the right side of the counter. Aunt Bess was kicking the products about as she tried to pick them up. Renee placed a handful of products on the counter. It seemed as though the town was fighting a head lice outbreak. The wonders of school. Renee placed a twenty dollar bill on the counter. “For the damage.”
The woman smiled, looking up. Exasperation filled her eyes. “I’m just glad she’s got somewhere safe.”