Page 13

13

TREY

“How long was I out for?” I ask Katie when I wake up in the infirmary again. She’s on a chair at my bedside, typing something on her iPad.

In her sweet little voice, she says, “It’s been about seven hours.”

I drop my head back onto the pillow and let out a breath of relief. I swear, if she would have said I’d been out for another three days, I would have waltzed up to my uncle with the biggest fireball I can make and hold it against his face until his skin melted off.

I rub my face with my palms. “What time is it?”

“You just missed dinner. It’s almost nine.”

Dinner? That sounds good. The emptiness in my stomach is beginning to get excruciatingly painful. I can’t remember the last time I ate.

“Want some Healing Water?” Katie holds out a bottle of heaven to me.

This time, I read the label first. Lemon-lime, my favorite. When I finish drinking it, I toss the empty bottle into the air and point at it as it flies across the room and lands in the trash.

I’m surprised my powers are working. Last night after I climbed into this medical bed, I pointed at the blanket to pull it up, and it barely hovered. Poor thing fell limply to the floor. No matter how many times I pointed at it, it wouldn’t rise.

Technically, I don’t need a blanket, since my body will regulate my internal temperature during my sleep, but I like having a blanket for the comfort it provides. I was too weak to bend over to pick it up, so I figured I’d ask the nurse to do it whenever she came in to check my vitals. I fell asleep before she arrived. It was either her or Katie who must have picked up the blanket and draped it over me.

Katie crosses one leg over the other, then places her hands over the iPad in her lap. “So, you’re a Kinetic?”

“Yeah.” I press a button on the bed. With a mechanical buzzing sound, the mattress folds upward.

“You like it?”

A little eh grunt comes out as I exhale. “I like it more than my mind power.”

“Do you wanna share what that is?”

Usually, Zordis don’t openly discuss what their mind powers are. Many powers are seen as intrusive or dangerous, so it’s cultural to keep that information private. Mine is a power that falls into the intrusive category. I’m not a person who’ll tell people what my mind power is unprompted, but when asked, I don’t mind sharing. “I’m an Empath.”

A rush of adrenaline races through Katie. She’s good at hiding her emotions. If I wasn’t an Empath, I wouldn’t have a clue that her anxiety just spiked, because she shows no signs of it on her face. If knowing I can read emotions makes her nervous, that means she’s hiding something. Now I want to know: What’s she hiding?

“I’m a PMT,” Katie says as she works to regulate her nerves. I’m pretty impressed. Within seconds, she’s back to feeling content.

I rack my brain, trying to figure out what PMT means.

“Premonitioner,” she says.

“So, you’re a Seer?”

“Not exactly. Seers can control what they see and get their visions on demand. PMTs can’t control either. We see whatever decides to come to us, and our visions come randomly. Mine only come when I touch someone’s hands, and it doesn’t happen every time I touch someone. My visions can last up to ten seconds, but typically, it’s just a two-second flash, and it’s always from that person’s point of view. Because I rarely have context, I rarely understand them.”

“You had a vision the first time we met, didn’t you? When we shook hands.”

She nods slightly.

“What did you see?”

A tiny smirk creeps over her lips. “I saw you punch me.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Right here in the face.” She points at her left cheek.

“Well, shit. I’m sorry.” I’ve never hit a woman before. I’m not sure why I’d start now or why Katie. The girl looks as fragile as a carton of eggs. If I punch her, she’ll be down for the count. “Do your visions always come true?”

“Not always. If they’re bad, I’ll do things to prevent them. Like once, I went to lunch with a friend and I got a vision of her falling off a boat to her death. She hasn’t been on a boat since.”

“Do you know why I hit you?”

She shakes her head. “That’s the thing, my visions only show me what happens, never why .”

“I can relate. My powers only tell me what people feel, never why .”

“Speaking of which, how are you feeling? Better enough to get back into the battle box tonight?”

I let out a deep you’ve gotta be fucking kidding laugh. “Hell no.”

“Victor won’t like that answer, so I’ll just tell him you need a few more minutes to rest before we head down there.” Katie picks up her iPad and begins typing, except the device is backward. The screen faces me. I’m about to say something until my name catches my eye.

Trey, read carefully. Camera behind me. On the way to the elevators, we’ll pass a supply closet on the right. It’s unlocked. Put your hand over my mouth and drag me into it. I’ll explain there. Ask me for more Healing Water when you’re done reading this and you’re ready to go.

My heart rate kicks up. I do everything I can not to show it on my face. What does she need to explain to me in private? Is this a trap? Should I do it anyway?

Only one way to find out. “Could I get some more Healing Water?”

Katie shines one of her many smiles my way. “Of course.”

After she discreetly flips her iPad back over and clicks a few buttons, probably deleting all evidence of that note, she heads to the mini fridge in the corner. When she comes back, she has another bottle of Healing Water in her hands. This time, it’s the plain water flavor.

I drink it in its entirety with a good feeling that I’m gonna need all the healing I can get.

“Welp,” Katie says with a slap of her thighs, “we should get going. Don’t wanna keep Victor waiting.”

I let out a bitter grunt as I slide my aching body off the bed. Katie plucks my leather jacket off a hook by the door and hands it to me. I slip into it, then follow her out of the infirmary.

The hallway is silent as I trail behind her. We pass a security guard patrolling the area. He barely looks up from his phone as we cross paths. Every echo of our footsteps makes my heart pound harder. The anxious energy simmering in Katie’s gut makes me anxious too. I read the signs outside each door as we pass them.

My heart skips a beat when I spot a door coming up marked supply closet. I expand my powers to check if anyone’s around. The closest emotions I sense are from four people in a room around the corner. I don’t waste a second. I snatch Katie into my arms with a hand over her mouth. She pretends to struggle as I drag her into the closet with me.

Once inside, I let her go and she turns the lock. A tiny fireball appears in my palm, illuminating the many mops and spray bottles around us.

“We don’t have much time,” Katie says in a low voice. My flames dance across her sweet and innocent facial features, but gone is her mousey voice and that ever-present smile. Replacing it is a firm tone coupled with a frown that means business. “There aren’t cameras in here, but there are out there. If someone up in security saw you nab me, we have about one minute before they’re here, so listen carefully.”

“Wait.” I put my hand up, then magnify my mind power toward the security room. In that general area, I sense energy from two people. Neither seem alarmed. “We’re good.”

“How are you so sure?”

“Do you really want me to explain, or are you gonna tell me why you told me to kidnap you into a supply closet?”

“Right. Okay, Victor is planning to get rid of you the second the Immune projects her immunity onto someone besides you. He’s pretty confident she can do it. I overheard him giving orders to Craig to shrink you, then play off your death like it was an accident during testing. You need to get outta here. Tonight. And take the Immune with you.”

Why doesn’t it surprise me that my uncle has plans to off me?

“There’s a tech lab down the hall.” Katie points in that direction. “Go past the elevators, take the first left, then two doors down is room 317. In the far back right cabinet are perrizo guns—the sedative kind, not the normal kind that Enforcers use to subdue people’s powers in z-prison. I’ve preloaded two guns for you. Each one carries thirty shots. Aim well. One shot will subdue your target’s powers and make them drowsy. Two doses should knock ’em out within seconds. Do not—I repeat—do not kill anyone on your way out. Half of these agents are real ZIRDA agents.”

My face screws together. “What do you mean, half?”

“I don’t know if I have time to explain. Are you sure we’re good? Check again.”

I do, even though I know we’re okay. “My empathy power has been stretched throughout this entire floor and up to the security room this whole time. I’ll let you know if anyone’s coming.”

“Excellent. I’ll try to make this quick. Basically, this ZIRDA base has been compromised.”

“Compromised? By who?” As soon as those words leave my mouth, I know the answer.

“The Royals, duh. More specifically, Victor. Over the years, he’s been slowly getting rid of the real ZIRDA agents and replacing them with Royals. He’s done it so discreetly that it took this long for anyone to notice.”

Victor? A Royal? It doesn’t make any sense. How could he work for the same people who murdered his younger brother? Plus, they tried to kill him too. Katie’s gotta be lying.

I eye her through slits. “How do you know this?”

“ZIRDA Toronto was the first to recognize that there was something fishy going on here. Every time they collaborated with ZIRDA California to defuse one of the Royals’ schemes, somehow, the Royals were always two steps ahead.

“A few months ago, Toronto sent two agents here to do some snooping on the pretense that those agents needed more-intense training. They were never heard from again. I was sent here from ZIRDA Minnesota to find out what happened to them and try to uncover what’s going on here. Victor thinks I was sent here because I want to be a field agent and my CEO thought I needed more experience at a larger base first. Thanks to my submissive-girl act, Victor took me in as his assistant.

“Through some snooping, I found out Craig shrunk and crushed those two Toronto agents under Victor’s orders. But that’s not all I’ve uncovered. There’s heavy shit going on here. Everything from human trafficking to suicide bombing, and they’re creating another bioweapon.”

Suicide bombing? It hits me. Those Tickers—the ones Victor sent those two agents out to find—Victor doesn’t want to protect the Tickers. He’s the goddamn Royal who’s been kidnapping them to use as unwilling suicide bombers. Fuuuck. I think I’m gonna be sick.

Katie continues, “I send weekly notes to my CEO about my progress here. Victor thinks I do that because she’s monitoring my experience to determine when I’m ready for field work. Really, I’m just encoding secret messages to her about what I find here. Since Victor reads and approves all my notes to her before I send them out, I can only give her so much info. She’s building a case against him and trying to get some other ZIRDA bases involved to take him down.”

I let out a scoff. “You’ve been here for how long now? Why is Victor still in charge? What the fuck is taking so long?”

“These things take time, okay? We’ve gathered the evidence, and my CEO has been in contact with some of the other bases, but a proper takedown can’t happen overnight. If it makes you feel any better, after this last Immune arrived, I asked for reinforcements. I’m determined to keep her alive.”

A little hope sparks in my chest. “That’s great. When are your people coming?”

“Um, I dunno. It could be days. Could be weeks. That’s if they’re sending anyone at all. They’ll only come if they think it’s safe to.”

“What if your life was in danger? Shouldn’t they make saving you a priority?”

“I knew the risks when I took this field assignment. My CEO told me up front that she’d rather let me die than risk more lives. I told her I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Kill ten to save ten thousand. Seems like the other ZIRDA bases believe in that mentality too. Except, this base isn’t ZIRDA anymore. At least, fifty percent of it isn’t.

Wait... “How do you know that half of this base is still ZIRDA and the other half isn’t?”

Katie shrugs nonchalantly. “I don’t know—not for sure, at least. In my time here, I’ve only theorized that it’s fifty-fifty. I’ve only been able to confirm that seventeen people here are good.”

I whisper yell. “Seventeen? That’s it?”

“Well, you can’t expect me to run around asking people what side they’re on. I have to be discreet about it. Including you, that’s eighteen.”

“How are you so sure I’m not a Royal?”

Katie gives me a come on look. “Victor wouldn’t try to kill you if you were. Also, I did my research. Back in May, Victor assigned a field mission to some guy in the LA area who had no prior record of being a ZIRDA agent. I thought for sure you were another Royal that Victor recruited to test out his infatuation theory.

“When I researched you, I discovered that your parents died under mysterious circumstances. All of ZIRDA knows that’s code for ‘The Royals did it.’ That was my first sign you weren’t one of them. Once I met you, I was one hundred percent sure. The agents before you personally brought in their Immunes for testing. Your Immune was taken in by other agents, and you seemed genuinely livid to find her here.”

Because I fucking was.

Katie’s words are making my knees weak. I’m not sure if I should believe her or demand proof. We don’t have time for that though. Also, something she said is rubbing me the wrong way.

“What do you mean by ‘Victor’s infatuation theory’?”

“You really haven’t figured it out yet?” Katie pauses to look at me. I make my fireball bigger just so she can see my I don’t have a clue look. She rolls her eyes at me like I’m an idiot. I feel like one. “Many, many years ago, ZIRDA discovered that some rare Ordinaries are immune to our gifts. As a research and development agency, naturally, they brought in these Immunes to analyze. The Immunes were told they were part of a top-secret medical study led by the government, and they were even paid for their services. Ya know, normal ZIRDA stuff.”

This is information I’ve known. I let Katie continue anyway.

“Eventually, the Royals found out about the Immunes too. They began kidnapping the Immunes from ZIRDA to try to weaponize them. I’ve estimated that at least five have died from Victor’s brutal tests over the last nineteen years. With the last three Immunes he found, yours included, he’s been trying out his love or infatuation theory. He thinks with the right stakes on the line, he can get an Immune to project their immunity onto someone else.

“Since kidnapping Immunes and torturing their families in front of them would give away his cover, he came up with this plan to plant a Royal into the Immunes’ lives. The Royal would get the Immune to fall in love with them. Then Victor would arrange their kidnappings to make the Immune think they were both in danger.

“Once here, he’d have some agents torture the Royals the way he did with you. The rest of ZIRDA wouldn’t think it’s suspicious because it’s one of our agents getting hurt. Because you know, it’s okay to torture our own people if it’s for the greater good.” Katie rolls her eyes and huffs.

“Anyway, Victor’s plan failed. The two previous Immunes he tried the love theory on never developed strong enough feelings. The last Immune got close, but once he found out the woman he loved never loved him back, he could no longer project his immunity onto her.

“So, Victor needed someone to play the lover part who didn’t know his end game. He needed someone who could take on this mission and develop the feelings back to make the infatuation stronger.”

I blow out a breath as the weight of the world comes crashing onto my shoulders. “And that’s where I come in.”

“Yep. You were the perfect guy for Victor to use. Single, good-looking, around the same age as the Immune, and you even live in the same area. Over the last few weeks, he’s been running tests on you to see if you’ve developed the infatuation he wanted you to. I process most of the mission notes that Victor receives from our field agents. One of the notes came from an agent Victor has stationed at a hospital in LA named David Jordan.”

That’s the zoctor I spoke to after Arella was in the car accident Victor caused. Is that doctor actually a ZIRDA agent or is he a Royal?

Katie continues, “David Jordan’s note included some MRI results and a paragraph about your reaction to finding out that she’d been hurt. Once Victor knew that you were ‘visibly distraught,’ he was ready to move on to the next phase of his plan: getting you here with her. That’s when Victor assigned me my first on-base mission. He said that she’d arrive within the week, but she never did.

“For the next month, Victor had plans to send agents out to nab her three times. Each time, you must have said something to make him put it off, which only excited him more. It further confirmed that you had real feelings for her. I think he allowed you to put it off because he wanted you to continue falling for her, with hopes that a deeper connection would yield better results. Something must have happened between you and the Immune last week, because all of a sudden, Victor wrote up mission plans to get you here immediately.”

I know exactly what happened. Victor must have found out that Arella and I broke up, and decided he needed to get us here before our feelings faded. But how did he know? Did he have someone watching us?

“I hate to say it,” Katie says, “but Victor’s infatuation theory worked. He’s had the most success getting your Immune to project onto?—”

I slap a hand over Katie’s mouth, then I squeeze my fireball out. She doesn’t protest. A few seconds later, the two people I sensed coming down the hall stroll past our supply closet.

“You wanna join me in the Artificial Sunlight room tonight?” a woman asks.

“Ya know,” a man says, “I’ve worked here for almost ten years, and I’ve never been in that room. What’s it like?”

“Seriously, Mark? It’s like a beach vacation in there. And if you’ve got the room to yourself, it’s like you’re on your own private island where the sun is always shining.”

The rest of their conversation trails off as they turn the corner toward the elevators. I take my hand off Katie’s mouth, and she breathes again. My fireball returns to my hand with a burst of heat and light.

I speak first. “How can I get Arella outta here safely?”

“You must have had some type of plan already cooking in your head. What was it?”

I scratch the back of my neck. “Um, I was just gonna sneak her out of her room.”

“How were you going to unlock her handcuffs?”

“Easy. I’m a Kinetic. I can wave at almost any lock to open it.”

“Okay. How were you going to get past the Hulk?”

“Um, I dunno. Maybe I’d tell him that Victor sent me to take her down to the battle box alone.”

Katie narrows her eyes at me and cocks her head to the side. “What if I was in the room?”

I shrug my shoulders with another I dunno look. “Maybe I would have told you the same thing?”

“But I’m assigned as her overseer. I’d know if Victor wanted her there or not. What kind of dumb plan is that?”

“Listen, I never said it was any good.”

“It’s shit, is what it is.”

I think I prefer the mousey version of Katie. This one is mean. “All right,” I huff, even though she’s right, “you come up with something better.”

“I already have. That’s why those perrizo guns are preloaded for you. Again, room 317. Far back right cabinet. Once you get those guns, aim at whoever you see. Once everyone’s gifts are subdued, you’ll have a better chance of getting outta here with the Immune—alive.

“Now, before you go, remember that vision I had when we first met? I lied about what I saw.” Katie reaches down her shirt and pulls out a shiny object from her bra.

I move my fireball closer to it, then gasp. It’s Arella’s angel-wings necklace. But why does Katie have it?

“In my real vision, you were outside an apartment building, asking a woman where her angel-wings necklace was. You said something about it being proof. Later, when I saw the Immune for the first time, I realized she was the woman from my vision. And there she was, wearing an angel-wings necklace. I thought maybe she didn’t have it in the future because Victor stole it. I took it off her to give to you. Hopefully, I just prevented my vision from happening.”

“Thank you, Katie. You have no idea how much this necklace means to me.” I accept the jewelry. As our hands touch, Katie’s breath hitches and her eyes go blank. Seconds later, she blinks and returns to the present.

I place the necklace into my front jeans pocket for safekeeping until I can hook it back where it belongs. “Did you just get another vision?”

“Yes. I—I think I just saw your death.”

My lungs stop working. “What?”

“And I think it’s soon.”

Shit. “Describe your vision to me. What did you see?”

Katie shuts her eyes and thinks. “Um, you were running from some men. Probably Royals. Three of ’em. They catch up. One is a Slasher. He stabs you. Left side of your stomach. You collapse to the ground as the other two drag the Immune into a van. You get stabbed again, and that’s it. Everything goes black. My visions never black out like that unless... well, you know.”

I gulp as the trauma of seeing my parents’ mutilated faces whips through my mind. Is the Slasher who attacked them the same one who’s going to kill me?

“On the bright side,” Katie says, “this vision means you manage to get the Immune outta here alive.”

Her words give me no reassurance. “Where am I when this happens?”

“I’m not sure. I saw shops. One had cats in it. Lots of ’em. Toy cats. Golden with one arm waving.”

Golden toy cats waving? What the fuck? What kind of shop sells those? “What time of day was it?”

“Maybe late afternoon? The sun was out for sure. God, they’re going to kill you in broad daylight. The bastards.”

Hell no, they’re not. “I’ll make sure to avoid any shops with waving cats while the sun is up from now on.”

“Good.” From the inner pocket of her jacket, Katie pulls out an ID card with her name and face on it. “Take this. You’ll need it to access room 317.”

I shove the card into my back pocket. “Thanks.”

“Oh, and you’ll need the code for her door. It’s 5634.”

Goddammit. How am I supposed to remember all this? I repeat the numbers in my head a few times. “Okay. Got it.”

“All right. You ready for the most important part?”

“There’s more?”

She tilts her head back to look me square in the eyes. “You need to punch me.”

“What?”

She points at her cheek. “Right here in the face. And do it hard.”

“No way.”

“Trey, you have to. I can’t blow my cover. Why do you think I told you to drag me in here? When they review the camera feed, it needs to look like you attacked me, interrogated me in this closet, then stole my ID card.”

“There has to be another way.”

“There isn’t. And if you wanna continue dinking around in this closet forever, we can, but we’ve already spent a lot of precious time in here.”

“Goddammit,” I groan because she’s right.

“Look, Trey, my parents were killed by the Royals too. I was ten, and I’ve wanted to be a field agent ever since. I’ve been training since I was eleven, so I’ve gone through much worse than one punch.” She braces herself against the shelves, then closes her eyes. “Don’t hold back, okay?”

I can’t believe I’m about to do this. Sighing, I form a fist, draw back, then release.

Katie’s head snaps back as she moans. “Jesus, fuck. You couldn’t have held back just a little?”

“But you said?—”

“Kidding, kidding. Kind of.” She rubs her cheek with her palm as she slumps onto the floor. “Now go.”