Exiled (TalentBorn Book 2)

by C. S. Churton

  “Be honest now,” I say, gently tugging his t-shirt off. “How badly did you get your butt kicked?”

  “I’ll have you know, Ms Mason,” he says, leaning over me and planting a kiss, “that I was the one doing the butt kicking.”

  “Your ribs say otherwise,” I point out as he flinches away from my touch.

  “Well I was fighting impaired.” He raises his swollen hand. “One punch and this was right back to being useless.”

  “Idiot,” I admonish him affectionately. “I’ll grab some ice from the kitchen.”

  “Tomorrow,” he says, wrapping an arm around my waist as I make to get off the bed, and dragging me back towards him. “We’re a little busy right now.”

  “Hm, if you insist…”

  Chapter Fourteen

  We didn’t end up getting a lot of sleep, but we’re both feeling pretty refreshed by the time the sun rises.

  First things first, we pay Ephraim a visit. He’s not in the best of moods as he invites us into his office. He looks tired. Apparently we’re not the only ones who didn’t get much sleep last night.

  “Scott. Alistair told me you helped with the Rohan situation last night. You have my thanks. What can I do for you both?”

  “Actually, that’s why we’re here. I gather it’s not the first time he’s got himself into trouble.”

  I’m not convinced by Scott’s strategy of pointing out the telekinetic’s past misdemeanours, but I say nothing.

  “The boy’s a loose cannon. I’ve done what I can for him, but he is resistant to any sort of structure or rules. I hate the idea of turning him loose, but he’s a risk to everyone if he can’t control his temper.”

  “I agree.” Scott’s strategy sucks! I shoot him a look which he doesn’t see because he’s too busy giving Ephraim his full attention. “That’s why I want to mentor him.”

  Oh. Didn’t see that one coming. And I’m not sure I like it, to be honest. Ephraim doesn’t look too impressed either.

  “You already have your hands full helping Anna with her talent, and with your duties here.”

  Duties? That’s a new one on me. I suppose it makes sense that they’d waste no time putting him to work. He probably meant to tell me about it last night, but we were a little preoccupied. Ephraim’s still talking. I make an effort to focus back on his words.

  “He can be a bit of an abrasive character, unsurprisingly given his background, of course. Do you have much experience working with kids like that?”

  “I was a kid like that,” Scott says, and Ephraim frowns, steepling his hands. “I think I can get through to him, and he’s a much greater exposure risk to you out there alone than he is if he’s here where we can keep an eye on him.”

  “I agree,” Ephraim says, nodding curtly. “You’ll need to report in with me: there can be no more incidents like last night.”

  Scott nods, and rises from his chair. Ephraim extends his hand and Scott accepts it, wincing as they shake.

  “Tell me more about these duties of yours,” I say as we shut Ephraim’s door behind us.

  “I’m on standby for any reports they get of possible absa activity. Pretty much the same as I did at AbGen.”

  “Only without the pay.”

  “There’s that,” he inclines his head. “Good job we’re not in this for the money.”

  “Speak for yourself. I’m off to sell my talent to the highest bidder.”

  “Funny.”

  “You know what’s bothering me?” I ask, as we step out of the lift.

  “The lack of an absa eBay?”

  “I’m serious. We’ve been here days now, and no-one’s said a single word about AbGen. If there’s some sort of plan in place, shouldn’t we have heard about it by now? And what about Joe’s family? How much longer are we going to leave them in Pearce’s hands? We need to do something. Ephraim needs to follow through on his promise. That’s why we’re here, not to help build his underground empire.”

  “Could you say that any louder, Anna?” he says, nodding meaningfully at the figures scattered throughout the room, several of who are now looking in our direction. Oops.

  “I’m going to head over and break the news to Rohan, before you cause a riot. Coming?”

  I shake my head.

  “Callum wants to see me… the man’s a sadist.”

  Scott smiles. We both know I love it. I may have hated my talent when it first jumped me and turned my life inside out, but it was hard as hell not using it while we were on the run, and it feels good flexing that muscle again.

  “See you later, then,” he says, pecking me on the cheek and heading off in the opposite direction. I watch his retreating… um… back for longer than strictly necessary, then turn and head for Callum’s office.

  *

  It doesn’t take us long to fall into a routine at the new base. Our days belong to the Ishmaelians, and we spend them honing our talents and our hand-to-hand combat skills, and I obsess over whether Ephraim’s doing enough about AbGen while Scott takes Rohan under his wing and starts teaching him some self-discipline. The kid takes to him immediately, much to everyone’s relief – but then, who wouldn’t take to Scott?

  The nights are ours alone, and we don’t waste them. It’s as if we’ve been given a second chance at living, and we don’t intent to squander a single moment. In short, life is good. Better than I ever imagined it could be in this place. But when I find myself alone, Janey is often at the forefront of my thoughts, alongside Mika’s assertion that I don’t hold AbGen responsible. I spend more hours than I’m willing to admit searching deep within myself, but still I can’t find the conflict she was picking up. I’ll find it though, and whatever instinct in me makes Pearce out to be innocent will either lead me to her murderer, or be quashed by cold, hard proof. Either way, she will have justice. And I’m not prepared to wait forever for it.

  Nor am I prepared to wait forever for Ephraim to uphold his end of our bargain. Every day AbGen goes unchallenged, every day Joe’s family stays in captivity, is a day wasted. Scott’s regularly out scouting for new absas, and I’ve taken two more sets of security cameras offline so that the Ishmaelians can ‘retrieve’ property they consider theirs, yet still there’s no word from Ephraim. It’s been three weeks now, and I’m through waiting.

  I raise my hand and rap on his door.

  “Come in,” his voice invites from beyond. I glance at Scott to make sure he’s still with me – going into Gardiner’s office to confront him alone had almost been the biggest mistake of my life, and it’s not one I intend to repeat with Ephraim – and open the door.

  “Anna, Scott. How are you both doing? I trust things are well with Rohan?” His forehead furrows, but smooths out again as Scott nods.

  “He’s adjusting well. The self-defence lessons are helping to keep him focussed.”

  “Good. How can I help you both? Please, take a seat.”

  I perch on the edge of one of the seats, and see Scott settle next to me from the corner of my eye.

  “We just wanted to know,” I begin, “whether there’s any news about AbGen?”

  “News?”

  Oh, not this again. I’m starting to get AbGen flashbacks, and I am so through playing games with faction leaders. Ephraim clearly sees it in my face, and continues.

  “We’re not ready to move against them yet, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Then when?” I ask, impatience getting the better of me. This isn’t how I intended this conversation to go. Scott touches my elbow lightly. I take a breath, and he takes over.

  “What Anna means,” he say smoothly, “is we’re curious as to whether you have a timeline yet. We’re concerned that every day we wait is another day they have to find us.”

  What Anna means is that it’s about time people started living up to their promises around here, but apparently Anna’s not allowed to say that. Wait, that’s not fair. Scott’s just trying to salvage the situation before I ruin it with my big mouth. Still, it s
marts a little.

  “And another day for us to grow stronger,” Ephraim says. “Our numbers are far fewer than AbGen, our gifteds less trained. There are few professional soldiers amongst us. We must time our moment carefully, or lives will be lost.”

  And if he times his moment too carefully, Joe’s family will be lost. I tense, and Scott casually rests his hand on my knee. I bite my tongue.

  “And each person you help us bring into the fold,” Ephraim continues, “is another who will never risk being imprisoned at Langford House – and another who will not bolster their numbers. Your very presence here weakens them, and I fear you must be content with that for the moment. This must not be rushed.”

  Scott leans back in his seat and folds his arms across his chest. You don’t have to be an expert at body language to see he’s not happy. And I wasn’t happy to start with. None-the-less, I take over before he loses his composure. Ephraim needs to believe that at least one of us isn’t ruled by emotion, and honestly, he was never going to believe that was me.

  “I think we can all agree that we’ve been very patient, and we’ve done everything you’ve asked us to. But lives are at stake here. They might not be Ishmaelians lives, but they still matter to us. They should matter to you, too.”

  “You speak of the mind reader’s family.”

  “His name is Joe.”

  Ephraim inclines his head.

  “Their lives do matter to me,” he promises. “But we cannot act without intelligence, your former colleagues could be holding them anywhere in the country. Outside of the country, even.”

  I wish he’d stop doing that. Reminding us at every opportunity that we worked for the enemy. What is it they say? ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’ – well by that definition he’s as guilty as we are. Even more so, because he knew all along what AbGen was. Maybe if he’d acted sooner we’d never have been there in the first place. But, loathe as I am to admit it, he raises a valid point. We have no idea where Joe’s family is, and Scott’s talent is of no help, since neither of them are talented. On the other hand, Pearce knows, and we know where he is. It’s not exactly rocket science. Of course, I say none of this. I choose my words more diplomatically than Ephraim deserves, for Joe’s sake.

  “We don’t expect you to act without all the facts. And we don’t expect you to put anyone at risk by rushing into Langford House half-cocked. But we do expect that you’ll have a plan of action in place for the moment the time is right.”

  Scott’s silence backs up my ultimatum: show us you’re not all talk, or lose us.

  “As you say,” Ephraim acquiesces at length. “We will speak more on this soon. Meanwhile, Alistair would be interested to hear any information you have about AbGen’s security and procedures.”

  He rises from behind his desk: we’re dismissed. Do all these management-types go on some sort of course in dismissing people? It’s infuriating. But we’re not going to achieve anything else here today. Our small victory will have to do. For now.

  We head out of the office and almost walk straight into Alistair. He nods a greeting, but as we go to duck round him, he says;

  “You might want to come back inside, save me looking for you both later.”

  I roll my eyes and pivot on my heel, re-entering the office behind him. Ephraim narrows his eyes but says nothing as Scott closes the door. I drop back into my seat without waiting to be invited – it’s still warm – and Scott stands behind me. Either he has better manners, or he doesn’t feel at ease enough to sit. Probably both. Alistair waits until Ephraim gestures to the seat next to me, then sinks into it and slides a manila folder across the desk. Ephraim picks it up and flicks through it, pursing his lips.

  “AbGen’s constitution of founding members,” Ephraim breathes at length, then looks at his subordinate sharply. “How sure are you it’s there?”

  Alistair shakes his head.

  “As sure as I can be without getting someone inside. That’s where Anna comes in.”

  Ephraim nods curtly, and Alistair turns to me. I feel Scott tense in my shadow.

  “You could shift in, take a look, and then we’d know whether we need to send in an extraction team. If it’s a false alarm, they can stand down and no-one would be any the wiser.”

  “Interesting time to ask a favour, Ephraim,” I point out. Alistair looks confused, but I don’t bother to clue him in.

  “You have my word that the other matter is in hand,” Ephraim says. I glance up at Scott and he does that invisible shrug of his. My talent, my call. No harm in considering it, I suppose. I turn back to Alistair.

  “You realise that shifting is going to take out the lights? I’d have to be standing around until they rebooted, along with any other security they have.” Scott tenses again: he doesn’t like that idea, and he’s probably regretting not weighing in on the issue. He still might.

  “I’ve got the lab techs working on a pair of gloves with shielded LEDs in the fingertips. We’ll make sure she’s not in any danger.”

  That last part was directed at Scott, probably in response to the tension even I can feel leaking out of him. I bristle: I don’t like the implication that I need someone else to make my decisions for me, which is ridiculous, because I absolutely loathe making them, and value Scott’s opinion over my own. Still.

  “It’s not my decision,” Scott says coolly. Damn, that man is practically a mind reader.

  “Of course,” Alistair says hastily, and then to me, “It’s your call, Anna, but we could use your help. It’s not going to be easy for us to get a retrieval team past their security, and I’d rather not put our men at risk if the constitution isn’t there. But this document will tell us everyone who had a hand in putting AbGen together. This is the first lead we’ve had on it in six years. We could cut the power to the whole area so they won’t be able to detect your arrival – you wouldn’t be at risk.”

  “I’ll think about it,” I say. Let them stew for a while and realise how much they need us. Plus, I really do want to hear Scott’s take on it, and we can’t talk freely here.

  “That’s all we ask,” Ephraim says.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Of course, I give in and take their field trip. Kinda hard not to – like it or not, they have us over a barrel here. Yeah, we could walk if we wanted to, but they’re our best chance of defeating AbGen, and we all know it. Assuming they step up and get involved, obviously. So Scott and I agreed that we’d give them a week – one more week of playing by their rules, jumping through their hoops, mentoring their absas and upgrading their security protocols, and if no plan of action for the raid on AbGen and the rescue of Joe’s family materialises, we take our chances on our own. Because anything is better than doing nothing. We’re not ready to stand aside and let evil triumph.

  Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to think of a way to find out where they really stand, because even if they do turn up the plan, we have no way of knowing that they’re really going to follow through on it. Look, I’m trying my best to trust them, okay, but it’s not like they’re making it easy. It’s not Ephraim’s fault that Pearce took what little trust I had left and trampled it into the dirt, but he’s not entirely innocent here, either. He gave his word, and I can’t see any sign of him making good on it. True, it hasn’t been a week yet, and maybe he does plan on keeping his word. Maybe not.

  The answer is so obvious that I can’t believe I didn’t see it staring me in the face this whole time. Like, literally staring me in the face. Right now.

  “Hey Mika, could you pass the ketchup?” I ask. She passes the bottle across the table and I douse my bacon sandwich in it. Scott’s nose wrinkles in distaste, and Rohan snorts quietly into his food. The pair have taken to eating with us. Rohan is practically Scott’s shadow – I think the phrase ‘hero worship’ wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate – and wherever Rohan goes, Mika goes. It’s sweet. Young love and all that. Okay, they’re not actually all that much younge
r than me and Scott, but six years counts for a lot, and the events of this year count for at least another ten. No, wait, that’d make me ancient. Anyway, there’s enough of an age gap between us that I’m keeping a close eye on what the kids are up to.

  “You fancy helping me out this afternoon?” I ask Mika casually. Scott’s pauses mid-chew for a beat, then swallows and claps Rohan on the shoulder.

  “C’mon kid, time to spar.”

  “I’m not a kid,” Rohan gripes, but rises from his seat obediently and crams the rest of his breakfast into his mouth.

  Scott-the-psychic and his protégé disappear as Mika says;

  “Of course. What do you need?”

  I need to tread carefully here. She still idolises the Ishmaelian leader, and nothing I say is going to change that. I need to be careful not to challenge her beliefs – they are, after all, how she’s survived this long. She does seem to have developed her ability to think freely with all the time she’s spent around Rohan recently. He’s having a good effect on her. I give myself a mental pat on the back and then press on with the matter at hand.

  “If I have a chat with someone, could you hover outside the door and tell me if they’re being honest?”

  “Like a spy?” she says, her eyes glittering with excitement. It shadows over before I can answer. “Whose door?”

  Honesty is the best policy, right? Especially when you’re talking to a walking lie detector.

  “I’m going to speak to Ephraim. Just to set my mind at ease.”

  She chews her lip thoughtfully, and then nods and beams at me.

  “It will help you see what a good man he is. It’s a good idea.”

  Uh-huh. Sure. If that’s what she’s gotta tell herself, that’s fine by me.

  “Great. Eat up, then.”

  *

  Five minutes later – honestly, no-one eats quite like an excited Mika – we’re in the hallway outside Ephraim’s office. Luckily for us, it’s deserted out here. But if anyone asks what Mika’s doing, she’ll just say she’s waiting to talk to me. It’s not like anyone can tell if she’s lying, after all.