by Jody Klaire
My feet were pretty far away. I stared down at them and my fluffy buddy did the same.
“You get your claws stuck, lady?”
“Somethin’ like that.” They wouldn’t move.
Renee’s brow dipped then she took a long breath. “You need sugar?”
“Aunt Bess was looking for some but we kinda got distracted.” I smiled at the kitten as it rubbed its head against my shoulder. Guess I had passed the test.
Renee walked to me. She wrinkled up her nose, avoiding the tail flicking as the kitten arched about scenting me. “I don’t want to know.”
She held onto my waist from behind and massaged a point with her thumbs. Pulses bubbled up and down my legs and I managed to move them enough to get to the truck. “How’d you do that?”
“It’s a point to help circulation for your legs.” She helped me in and I handed the fluff balls over to Aunt Bess who cuddled them like babies. The kittens loved her.
Renee poured water from a bottle over my hands and washed them and hers off with soap, then disinfected them to be sure. I hadn’t ever seen her so fussy. Her cover identities, sure, but not her.
“Not a cat lover?” I asked as she peeled the wrapper off a chocolate bar.
“Just filthy cats covered in . . .” She shuddered. “Eat.” She bit off half and shoved the rest to my lips.
“This a medically approved dose, doc?” I hoped it would make her smile some. I knew I was worrying her as much as finding Frei.
“It takes a vast amount of research and experience . . . yes.” She winked at me, yanked shut my door, and rumbled the truck to life. It was louder than the plane.
“I don’t know why I needed to pick them up . . . but I had to.”
Renee smiled and gave my knee a squeeze. “I know. I’m just worried.”
“How come you didn’t just take us to the rental place?”
Renee glanced in the mirror. “I got the feeling I needed to avoid it. I needed to muddy our trail a bit.” She sighed. “I can’t explain why.”
I glanced out the window at a huge stretch of blue.
“East coast,” Renee whispered. “That’s the Atlantic Ocean.”
“I ain’t ever seen the sea before.” I drank it in. I could see white tuffs of spray launching up as it hit the land. I could almost feel it, like it had a living, breathing spirit of its own. “Baltimore is by the sea?”
“Not technically. It’s on the Chesapeake Bay further inland. Ocean City is a short flight away.” She glanced my way as we drove down the coast road. “Huber has his main home here.”
“How come we heading straight for him?”
Renee tapped at the pockmarked wheel as we waited at a red light. “If he’s not the one who’s taken her, we’ll need his help to find her. He should know where they’ll hold her.”
Sounded like good reasoning. “But.”
Renee chewed on her lip. Her eyes like the waves. Yeah, they were a lot like a stormy gray sea. “If he has taken her, we will be heading into trouble.”
“So follow your heart. What’s it saying?” I reached for her hand and squeezed it. I knew how hard it was for her feeling some of my freaky skills. Her heart would guide her to what was right.
“He cares about her.” Renee shook her head. “It makes no sense.”
“Doesn’t have to,” I whispered, smiling at the kittens who were snoozing along with Aunt Bess. She fell asleep quicker than me. “I trust your heart.”
Renee held onto my hand. Her eyes flickered with so many thoughts: Crashing worries, tides of emotion. “I needed to hear that.”
Chapter 47
FREI LEANED AGAINST the locked door, sweat dripping from her. She kicked out in frustration, feeling her foot crunch against it. She tried to squash down the panic that her surroundings were getting more and more solid. She was getting weaker and more detached from her body.
“You need to get out of here,” Doctor Stosur said.
Frei sighed and turned around. She was in bed, again, not yet sixteen, again and Doctor Stosur paced around in front of her. No matter how hard she tried to get out of her memories, she couldn’t. Instead she was heading toward everything she’d desperately buried under every barrier she could for so long.
“I can’t, Huber will find me.” She heard herself reply and was dragged back in.
“He can’t. How will he know if you have help?” Doctor Stosur sat on the corner of the bed and patted Frei’s feet.
She’d recovered from her operation. Doctor Stosur had helped her to get fitter than she’d ever been. It was a way to stave off boredom, so she’d said. A way to make sure Frei wasn’t missing out when all the others were in class.
She’d enjoyed it, in spite of everything that had happened to land her there, she liked the doctor. It felt like it was personal. It felt like . . . well . . . maybe she cared. She shook the thought away. What did it matter, gala night would see her sold. The way Jäger was talking to Doctor Stosur it sounded as if buyers had decided she was pleasing to their greedy eyes. There was no way Huber could afford her if they realized what she could really do.
“Who would want to help me?” She met Doctor Stosur’s eyes. “I saw what he did to the other doctor. I won’t let him hurt you.”
Doctor Stosur walked over to her desk. She pulled out a cell phone, smaller than the one Huber had given her.
“Don’t worry, I cleaned out your room.”
Frei tensed as Doctor Stosur produced the phone she’d stashed.
“Clever way of hiding it. Took me a while to repair the damage.”
Frei shrugged. She’d dug out the bricks behind the notice board to use as a safe place. All she’d had to do was unscrew it.
“Call him. Tell him what happened to you. He won’t let them buy you then.” Doctor Stosur handed her the phone. Her voice gave away how worried she was.
Frei couldn’t bear to look at it. Huber would think she was weak for what happened or he’d laugh. Besides, he had let Megan sell her sister right under his nose. Everyone knew it was her. Why hadn’t he done something?
“You need him.”
Frei huffed out a breath. “When has he ever helped me? He lets her do what she likes.”
Doctor Stosur’s eyes narrowed. “Your sister escaped.”
“Only because Suz helped.” She folded her arms, unable to meet the doctor’s gaze.
Fahrer had been driving. She’d tried to ignore the tingle of joy she felt from knowing he’d helped her. She tried focusing on the fact Fahrer just accepted everything, that he hadn’t wanted to stand up to them. She still thought about him, too much. Worried if his wounds had healed. If he was okay.
“You think they could have done it without Huber?” Doctor Stosur raised her eyebrows.
Frei couldn’t explain her blush. It was as if Doctor Stosur knew what she’d been thinking about Fahrer. She’d told her about Suz, about him, about how he had just given up.
“He may not have been conspicuous about it, but Huber would have been involved.” Doctor Stosur urged the phone toward her.
“You don’t know him.” She stared down at it.
If he had helped her sister, he’d know if she was safe; if Suz had taken care of her; if they were both alright. She’d heard stories from the other kids when they were recovering. Suz had been in a lot of fights with the people following her but she’d learned to hit back. The burns Frei had seen on her hands showed at least some of it was true. She hoped her sister wasn’t in the same position.
“Call him.”
“I don’t know the number.” A blatant lie.
Doctor Stosur tapped away at the number pad and handed it over.
Frei scowled. “You know it?”
“Yes.”
She scoured Doctor Stosur’s face for an answer. How did she know his number? She’d seen Doctor Stosur ask to speak to him but she’d tapped in his private number. Was she a slave? How did she know him? Who was she?
“Huber.”
She heard a long shuddering breath and tensed for his anger.
“Are you okay? Have they hurt you? Are you confined?”
She looked at the phone. Huber was talking, she was sure of it, but he was asking how she was? He’d never asked anything close to it before. “I got her out.”
“Yes. She’s been good at evading them. Suz has learned a lot but she’s not you.” He sighed, his pen clicking in the background. “They’re closing the net on them.”
Frei pulled back the covers. Doctor Stosur moved out of her way. She grabbed for her clothes with her free hand not knowing what she was doing. How was she going to help? It didn’t matter. She needed to . . . somehow. “I have to warn them.”
“Don’t try anything of the sort.” Huber’s tone was cutting and she flinched, but there was an air of desperation.
“I won’t stand back and let them get hurt like you.” She dropped the phone to the bed at her own burst of anger. He’d never raised a hand to her yet she still braced, waiting for the blow.
Doctor Stosur scooped up the phone. “Careful, the girl is scared enough as it is.” Her voice was gentle. “Come now, did you think I would stand back when she needed me?”
Frei’s worry blurred into panic, she threw on her clothes, not able to look, trying not to listen. Doctor Stosur knew Huber well enough for him to take her speaking to him . . . like an equal.
“Just be ready to do what you do best.” She hung up.
Frei backed away as she smiled at her. “Who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m pushing you because Jäger is planning to move you to observation.” She motioned to the door. “There are guards outside. Someone thinks you’re worth paying out for.”
“Why?” She didn’t understand. She’d been in the medical wing. “How do you know all this?”
“Again, it doesn’t matter. You need help to get out of here and I am offering it to you.” Doctor Stosur held out her hand. Her eyes were intense but warm. She’d listened to her talk. She’d heard her worries, her hopes, her silly thoughts.
Frei swallowed the bile rising in her throat. Jäger. No, she couldn’t go back to observation with him. She took Doctor Stosur’s hands. “How?”
“Window.” Doctor Stosur led her to it. “Rope.”
Frei looked down. She knew she could manage it. “What about you?”
Doctor Stosur smiled. “Right behind you. We’ll have to lay a few distractions in case we need them.” She slid up the window. Frei shivered as the cold hit her. It was spring but still icy with the wind at night.
She shimmied down the rope with ease and seconds later Doctor Stosur followed her. Doctor Stosur detached the rope from the sill in a way Frei had learned when she was breaking in for Huber. Then she pulled a duffel bag from under the surrounding hedge, stowed her coat away, and slung it onto her back. “Come on, let’s give them a surprise.”
Frei struggled to keep up with her nimble footsteps. “Surprise?”
She nodded. “Yes. That way we can just leave through the main gate. Easier.”
Frei didn’t see how that would work. “Show me?”
Doctor Stosur took her by the arm and squeezed once. “Pleasure.”
IT TOOK THEM twenty minutes to rig the brand new reception building. Doctor Stosur showed her how to lay the explosives to make the structure crash in on itself without damaging anything around it. There’d be no one inside. It was a perfect way to distract the guards.
As Doctor Stosur ducked around the back to set the receiver, Frei heard a whimper from the steps to the main building. She sunk back against the wall only to see Jones being hauled down the steps by two men. They threw him to the ground, yelling at him in a language she couldn’t understand but it sounded like one of the Latin ones. They stuck their boots into him and she tensed as Jones curled up.
She glanced in the direction Doctor Stosur had gone and sighed. She couldn’t just watch on. She looked at the duffel bag. The rope they’d used to climb from the medical block was inside.
She should just ignore it. Stosur had risked so much to help her.
Jones whimpered.
She turned back. She couldn’t ignore it. She just couldn’t.
She slung the bag on her back and hurried over behind the men. Doctor Stosur had shown her how to lasso. She’d giggled as she attempted to drag chairs over. She only hoped she could do it for real.
She waited until the two men were close to each other and whipped the rope out. It dropped over their heads.
Yes. Got it.
Then their bodies and down to their legs.
Uh oh.
She yanked it toward her. The rope snapped shut. Their legs didn’t move a whole lot but they toppled forward and crashed onto Jones. He wriggled out from under them.
His eyes met hers.
He looked back to the men on the ground who were fighting with each other to get back up.
She shrugged as he met her eyes once more. She’d always hated how she’d caused him and Sawyer to fail to protect Suz. It was the least she could do.
He could run now, escape, be free.
He scowled. “Runner!”
So much for helping.
She glanced behind but Doctor Stosur wasn’t around. The men scrambled to their feet and she burst into a sprint.
“Runner. We’ve got a runner!” Jones, others, they yelled out the alert.
She made it to the fence. Slid to a stop. Dirt shot forward from her sneakers. The dirt hit the fence. Sparked. Electrified?
They’d made adjustments.
“It’s one of Huber’s. Catch her!” More guards.
She launched herself sideward, rolling, using the momentum to haul herself into a run. She hurdled the hedge alongside the main building. The road Jäger often led women up, all charm, and returned gripping them like property. She swallowed. Forced away the fear. Clamped it back down.
Running was easy. Doctor Stosur had been making her sprint up and down stairs with packs, towels, chairs. Again, it was a game. How much could she smuggle out from the nurses’ quarters without them noticing. She’d get most of it up to the ward before collapsing onto her knees. Doctor Stosur would give her water, that concoction of stuff, and make her carry it all back down again. All done in silence. All done right under their noses. No one had ever spotted her.
Was this why? Had she been training her to escape?
She ducked around the corner and her heart skipped.
Jäger.
He stormed out onto the quadrant. He was half dressed. Shirt hanging open. He barked orders and Jones scurried over to him. Why did it hurt that he’d turned on her? It wasn’t like they’d been friends. It wasn’t like he understood why she’d protected Suz. He’d been obsessed with Suz.
Jäger glanced in her direction. She dropped low. Heart pounded. Had he spotted her?
She couldn’t get out. She didn’t have the device to set off the distraction. Where was Doctor Stosur? Hide. She needed to hide. Somewhere that they would think she’d escaped and call off the search. Doctor Stosur might find her. She said she’d help.
Dogs barking. Loud. Primed. Ready to pick up her scent. She slammed her eyes shut. They’d track her in minutes. Where could she hide?
Focus. Calm. Like Doctor Stosur had taught her.
She opened her eyes and scanned around. She could do this. She could.
Her eyes lighted on the tower. It sat behind the gym. It was where the silver group trained. She’d never been through there but it was tall. It was tall enough no one could get to her.
Doctor Stosur had mentioned it a few times. Too many times. A hint?
Did she trust her?
Frei took a long steadying breath. What other options were there?
She shot out of her hiding position. Darted through the shadows. Heart Pounding. Would they spot her? Tensed for the calls.
Not one. Just the wind. Just the
dogs. Just her own heartbeat.
She fled along the wall to her dorm, the technology block. Glanced up at the medical and observation wing set back on the corner.
Heartbeat, the wind, her slow breaths.
She couldn’t go back.
She sped around the gym, past the villa, which had once been the gym teacher’s. Another person she’d put in trouble to help Suz. Another person she wanted to make it up to.
Hold. Wait. Heartbeat, wind.
No calls.
Across the gap. The silver group’s block was weird shapes. She shoved her duffel bag through a gap between the wall and the roof space.
Waited. Heartbeat, breaths. Wind.
No calls.
She climbed through. Didn’t break her pace. Picked it up. Sprinted to the tower. She circled it. No door.
Come on. Come on. How did she do this? How did she climb a tower with no door?
Heartbeat. Wind. Dogs . . . Excited barks. They’d caught her scent.
No.
She stared up at the sheer smooth face of the tower. Balcony at the top. She could do this. She had to. Unzipped the duffel bag. Anything. She needed something. How did she climb it? A coat inside, some ropes and—
Suckers? What kind of a doctor had suckers in her bag?
Barking. Heartbeat. Calls.
She pulled the suckers out. She knew how to use them. Huber had her climbing the side of glass buildings most trips home. They worked on glass.
Would they work on this surface?
She felt around the wall.
Heartbeat, calls. Closer. They were getting closer.
Concentrate. Duffel bag on shoulders, suckers at the ready.
She stopped.
There. At the back of the tower. A metal section. No one could climb it. No one but a locksmith. It was perfect for locksmiths.
And she was a locksmith.
Heartbeat. Calls. Closer still. Medical building?
She clamped on. Flew up the wall at speed. She was stronger, fitter, faster. Like she’d been trained. Doctor Stosur had been training her.
Why? Did she work for Huber? He wanted her to be a locksmith. The school had said she was too short, too weak to be in silver. Had he brought Doctor Stosur in?