Exiled (TalentBorn Book 2)

by C. S. Churton

  “We are intrigued as to how you found us,” Mary starts, though her expression makes it clear that she is more than just intrigued. There’s a tension lingering in the room, and I don’t blame them for that. If you’re being hunted, and two of your hunters start knocking on your door, you get worried. Scott and I share a glance, he raises his eyebrow by a fraction of a millimetre – probably invisible to anyone who hasn’t studied his face as much as I have, and I dip my chin by just as small a margin – probably invisible to anyone who hasn’t studied my posture as much as he has. It’s time for us to share the information we have, as a gesture of good faith.

  “A couple of years back, Gardiner sent me to the edge of Wiltshire looking for you – although I didn’t know why at the time. I was called away before the search really began. When we got here this morning, it was just a question of using my talent to get a read on you.” He pauses. He could leave it at that, and if we walked away, or the Ishmaelians betrayed us, AbGen would find and destroy them within a matter of weeks. “There’s something else you should know. We spoke to someone inside AbGen recently. Pearce is organising AbGen’s ex-military personnel to search the county.”

  The room is suddenly awash with hushed whispers. Ephraim raises his hands for silence and the noise dies immediately.

  “Mary, please start preparing to mobilise everyone. We will continue here.”

  The older lady gives a curt nod and leaves the room.

  “You have done us a great service in sharing this information. We will not forget it.” He pauses. “But still, you are asking a great deal from us. Others from AbGen have tried to infiltrate this organisation before.”

  “That’s ridiculous!” I object. “If we were working for AbGen, we could’ve just called in your location and they’d have been here by now. And your lie detector has already told you we’re telling the truth.”

  “Mika’s talent is not infallible,” Ephraim says calmly. “And there are many gifts here. Perhaps AbGen would wish to learn the extent of them before risking their destruction in a firefight.”

  “We understand,” Scott says, before I can tell Ephraim where to shove it. Why’s he being so calm about this? I didn’t come back here to be insulted. And that’s when I realise. They didn’t call us back in here to insult us. They wouldn’t have called us back if they didn’t have a solution.

  “You are asking us to take a great leap of faith in trusting you, someone who has worked with our persecutors for years. We would like to trust you, but we need some…” he spreads his hands, “help.”

  Now I am going to tell him to shove it. If he thinks we’re jumping through hoops for him, he can think again.

  “That’s fair,” Scott says. “What do you want us to do?”

  I glare at him. Traitor. With his annoying logic and ability to compromise.

  “Prove your loyalties no longer lie with your former masters. There is a house twenty miles outside of the New Forest, it’s owned by William Fitzpatrick, one of the unseen hands to whom AbGen answers.”

  It hadn’t occurred to me that AbGen answered to anyone. I suppose it makes sense though: all that funding has to come from somewhere. I hope right now they’re giving Pearce hell.

  “Fitzpatrick has something that belongs to us. We have long sought to retrieve it, but our attempts to get past his security systems have failed.”

  “You want us to turn thief?” Scott asks with a raised eyebrow. He’s not wrong: that’s one hell of an ask for someone we just met an hour ago.

  “No, I won’t ask you to enter the house. We have plenty of people here willing to take the risk of retrieving our property. We simply need Anna’s gift to disable their security system.” He turns to me and I’m hit by a sense of déjà vu – it’s Gardiner all over again, drooling over what sort of a weapon I might be. Great. He offers me a questioning look. “I understand that any electrical equipment in close proximity when you shift will be temporarily shut down?”

  I nod, not willing to speak yet. He’s not Gardiner; that much is apparent. But is he any better?

  “Betraying them in this way would prove you no longer have any ties to AbGen, and that you are sincere in your claims to desire to see them overthrown.”

  Like Mika couldn’t already have told him we’re sincere. More like he wants to know how easy we are to manipulate. But I don’t see what choice we have, if we want them to accept us. I look to Scott, wondering what his take on this is. He moves his shoulders just slightly: a shrug. He’s leaving it in my hands. That’s just like him: my talent, my decision. Of course, he knows how I feel about having to make decisions.

  But it doesn’t really matter how I feel, because when you get down to it, we can either jump through their hoops, or leave and attempt to tackle AbGen by ourselves – in which case we’re going to be taking far greater risks than the one Ephraim is asking us to take. I sigh.

  “Okay, we’ll do it.”

  Chapter Ten

  It’s dark, and it’s cold, it’s two a.m., and frankly this was a really bad decision. Doesn’t matter how many times I tell Scott I suck at making decisions, he doesn’t believe me. So actually, it’s his fault that we’re in the middle of nowhere, freezing our butts off. I make a mental note to tell him that when my teeth stop chattering.

  We’re outside Fitzpatrick’s house. Mansion would be a more accurate description. I mean, this place is massive, with its own road, ten-foot gates and acres of land. You could lose the whole estate where I grew up in one corner of this place and never think twice about it. That’s a problem. We’re in the shadows of a small wood backing onto the immaculate white-washed walls, where Ephraim assures us we will be invisible to the CCTV – which would be good because apparently it’s manned twenty-four seven and we’ve already seen a pair of security guards patrolling with a dog. No wonder none of the Ishmaelians fancied their chances of getting in and out in one piece. Anyway, the problem is that we don’t know how far my EM pulse will reach. How close do I need to be to the security equipment to disable it?

  The plan had been simple. I’d get as close to the house as I could, shift a few feet away from where I was standing (any further away than that and I start losing accuracy – and it would be really bad if I ended up on the wrong side of that wall), and while Ephraim’s men were doing their thing, Scott would get me out of the area and back to the Ishmaelian’s new base.

  When we talked it through this afternoon, it had seemed like a great plan. Unfortunately, it failed to take a couple of minor things into account – like whether or not I could actually knock out the security from this far away. If I don’t manage to knock it all out, someone’s getting savaged by a dog. At best. Now, I’m not the most intuitive person on the planet, but I get the sense that if one of Ephraim’s men gets used as a chew toy on account of my mistake, we may not be very welcome in his base. It’s not like it’s my fault they didn’t give us all the information. Still, in the spirit of fostering new friendships, I’ll try my best not to screw up my part.

  “How close do you think we can get?” I ask Scott in a whisper, exhaling a white cloud.

  “If we stick to that treeline,” he gestures to a row of trees that extend out towards the property’s perimeter, “we might be able to get right up to the wall. I don’t see how we can get any closer without being detected though.”

  I stamp my feet – from frustration as much as the desire to keep my toes from falling off.

  “Maybe my pulse will reach that far?” I suggest hopefully.

  “And maybe it won’t,” Scott says grimly. “You took out all the equipment at AbGen, but nothing in the next street. This is at least that far.”

  Yeah, he’s right. The odds don’t look great.

  “So what now? We can hardly tell them it’s off.” I gesture to the white van parked up just beyond the trees.

  “I don’t think we have any choice.”

  “I could shift into the house, and then shift out again.”

  “
No.” It’s not like Scott to flat out veto something, so I hold my tongue about him telling me what to do. “Too dangerous. You might get stuck in there if you can’t manage a second shift.”

  Yeah, that would be bad. I dip my head in acknowledgement. And this is why I prefer Scott to make the decisions. He’s way better at this than me. Except…

  “I’ve got an idea,” I say, grabbing some dirt and smearing it onto my jeans.

  “What are you doing?” I can hear the frown in Scott’s voice, but I dart off, calling back over my shoulder: “Wait here for me. I’ll shift back to you.”

  “Where are you going? Shift from where? Anna!”

  I ignore him and keep going, right up to the wrought iron gates. I take a moment to get my breath and admire the craftmanship. They probably cost more than what I earned in a year back in my old waitressing job at The Glasshouse. But they really are exquisite. I wrap my hands around the bars and rattle them loudly. A security light comes on over-head, illuminating the whole area.

  “Hello?” I call out loudly. “Hello! Is anyone here?”

  I peer through the gates and see a torch making its way across the vast lawns, and as it gets closer, I see the uniformed figure behind it. There was a time that the sight of a uniform would have sent me scarpering, but I’ve faced much scarier things since then. I like to think I’m braver than I used to be, but in reality, I’m probably just walking around shell-shocked most of the time. Either way, I don’t bat an eyelid at the guard’s approach.

  He stops short of the gates and lowers his torch, watching me from the shadows beyond the wall.

  “This is private property, ma’am,” he says in a tone that just about stays the right side of respectful. He sounds young. And hopefully naive enough to fall for this.

  “My car broke down, just over the hill,” I say apologetically, gesturing away from the mansion. “I saw your lights through the woods, I need some help.”

  He takes me in, mud stains and all, and comes to the edge of the shadows. I can see the reluctance in his face. On the one hand, he’s got a job to do, and anyone is a threat, especially at two in the morning. On the other, I’m a damsel in distress, and courtesy demands he helps me, especially at two in the morning. Plus, how much of a threat could a girl really be? And no doubt it’s been a long, boring night… He’s tempted.

  “I have AA cover, but my phone’s dead,” I say, waving it at him through the gates and praying it doesn’t choose that moment to ring. “I just need to borrow a phone… and maybe somewhere warm to wait?”

  I wrap my arms around myself, shivering, and eye the guard house meaningfully. He glances over his shoulder: he’s still not convinced. His job could be on the line if his boss gets wind of it.

  “I promise I won’t be any trouble,” I say, bouncing on my toes, ostensibly trying to keep warm, but really just letting him see I have all the right parts in all the right places, and hating myself for it. Ephraim better be bloody well grateful if I pull this off.

  “Just for a little while…?” I bat my eyelashes at him and hope he takes the bait, because that’s pretty much all the tools in my box used up. He glances round again, then steps right out of the shadows.

  “Okay, make your call. But then you need to leave again.”

  “Whatever you say,” I tell him, flashing what I hope is a seductive smile, but truth be told I can’t feel half of my face so who knows what it’s doing. Whatever it is, it works. He presses a button on the wall and the gates swing inwards.

  “Thank you,” I say, walking through and planting a kiss on his cheek. It’s not cheating if it repulses me.

  He pressed the button on the wall again, and the gates swing silently closed. He walks along beside me, lighting the way to the guardhouse with his torch. As we move further inside the compound, the security light at the gate goes out, leaving us cloaked in darkness. In the distance I can see several brightly lit windows in the house’s façade, which makes the darkness surrounding us all the more intense.

  Our footsteps are muffled by the soft lawn, and the silence is so absolute that I can hear the gentle sounds of our breathing. I feel very alone with him and I’m suddenly acutely aware of his closeness. I’m not going to be hanging around for long once we get inside. I’m sure he’s a very nice guy, and I feel bad about any trouble he might get into on my account, but it’s dark, and we’re alone, and I’ve suggested I might be willing to give him more than I actually am – which is nothing. The peck on the cheek is as far as it’s going. How anyone has the guts to do this without the ability to shift is beyond me. I’m on edge and I can get out in a heartbeat. Assuming there isn’t an EM disruptor nearby. Oh shit. I didn’t think of that – Fitzpatrick is part of AbGen, he may well have shielded his property against me if he knows I’ve gone rogue. How much does Pearce tell him? I really suck at making decisions! It’s too late to back out now.

  My heart’s pounding as the guard swings open the door to the guardhouse – a small anonymous building just a shade closer to the wall than it is to the house. I eye the distance between the two, and hope my EM pulse will reach that far, otherwise this is all for nothing. I step inside the brightly lit room, and jump as the door slams shut behind me. The guard offers me a friendly smile and I try to make myself appear relaxed. It’s several degrees warmer in here than it is outside, and I shiver again as the heat touches my skin and makes me realise just how cold I was. I should be quick, before Scott gets frostbite – or has a panic attack about me being in here alone. There’s definitely a lecture coming my way when I get back to him.

  There’s a desk against one wall, and the wall itself is filled top to bottom with monitors showing different camera feeds. It looks like the entire property and its grounds are being monitored. Fitzpatrick is taking no chances with his security arrangements. He’s obviously a man who knows he has enemies. Comes with the territory, I suppose, if you’re one of the main backers of a clandestine government organisation that has a penchant for trying to steal people’s free will the moment they don’t follow your orders to the letter and– Focus. I need to focus. I’m in luck. If all the security is monitored from in here, then it doesn’t matter if my pulse doesn’t reach the house. Even if Ephraim’s men trip an alarm, no-one’s going to hear it. All they need to do is get past the dogs, and I’m guessing they have a plan in place for that.

  The security guard gestures to a phone on the far wall.

  “Press three to get an outside line.”

  I nod and pick up the handset, turning my back on him, suddenly very aware that I’m about to use my talent as a weapon. Up until now it’s been purely defensive – just a way to get away from danger. This is what Gardiner wanted me to do, this is why I left AbGen. And now here I am, about to do the one thing I’ve been fighting so hard to avoid. There’s no turning back from this. I take a breath. I can do this. I want to do this. We have to stop AbGen, no matter the cost to my conscience.

  I close my eyes, aware of the security guard watching me from behind, and let the feeling of vulnerability creep over me. He’s between me and the door, if he knew what I was he’d drag me in front of his boss, I’d never get out of here, and I have to get out of here, I need to get back to Scott, I’ve got to-

  *

  “Anna! Oh, thank God!” Scott’s arms are around me and pulling me into him before my eyes are even open. I let his smell and his body heat envelope me, but all too soon it’s gone and he’s pushing me to arm’s length, hands locked around my shoulders and meeting me eye. Oh yes, he’s definitely not happy with me.

  “What the hell were you playing at? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Anything could have happened to you in there!”

  Before I can even apologise, he’s pulling me close again.

  “You foolish, brave, reckless woman.”

  I wriggle out of his grasp, but entwine my hand in his. I’m not ready to let go of him yet.

  “Let’s get back to the car before anyone comes looking for us.�
��

  We start moving, and I glance back at the house as it grows smaller behind us. The windows are dark. It worked. Scott pulls his phone from his pocket with his other hand and dials quickly.

  “It’s done. The power’s offline.”

  I see black-clad figures pile from the van as we vanish back through the trees. The pale moon reflects off a flash of metal: a gun. I suppress a shudder and hope that tonight’s mission is bloodless. I take some consolation from the fact that without my pulse, they’d have had no choice but to use violence. Maybe weaponising my talent isn’t as scary as I thought. Maybe it doesn’t mean hurting anyone – maybe it means protecting them. I contemplate that as I climb into the passenger side of the car and hold my hands over the heater, while Scott gets us back onto the main road.

  “You’re quiet,” Scott observes. “Everything okay?”

  He knows what a big deal it is for me to weaponise my talent, even for the good guys. Or at least, the people we think are the good guys. My doubts from earlier are still lingering, and now that the dangerous part is out of the way, I have too much time to think about that.

  “Do you think we did the right thing?”

  “They would have gone in eventually, with or without your help,” he says, his eyes flicking from the road to me and back. “And whatever it is they’re taking, it’s better for us if it’s not in AbGen’s hands.”

  That much is true. The odds are already stacked against us, anything we can take from them only increases our chances of succeeding.

  “I shifted in front of the security guard,” I blurt, suddenly worrying about the exposure risk. “He wasn’t in the know, he’s a – wait, do we have a word for people who aren’t absas?”