Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) (34 page)

A look of surprise flickered across Mrs.
Marshall’s face, and then her brows came down. She looked at Joss
for a long moment, then at me, and then back at Joss again. “You
are too young to understand that.” She reached out a hand to me and
I took it without thinking, so that she was holding on to both of
us. “And I’m glad that you do.”

Jayce poked her head in the door. “Sweetie,
we’re ready to go.”

“I’m coming.”

We all got up and moved into the hallway.
Ben was standing by the door, not impatient, even with the weight
of Joss’s unconscious father over his shoulder. Tim stood in the
doorway, holding Jill’s hand. She clutched a nappy pink unicorn to
her chest. Joss’s mom changed. She suddenly seemed nervous, maybe a
little panicked. She whirled back to Joss, taking her daughter’s
face in her hands.

Joss caught her mom’s wrists and cut off
whatever she was going to say. “Dylan, go write down my cell
number. There’s a pad in the kitchen by the phone.”

I went to do as she asked, straining to hear
what was being said.

“We won’t leave yet, okay?” Joss was saying.
“We’ve got places we can hide. Dad’s found us lots of places and I
know where they are. We’ve got somewhere safe we can go right now
where we’ve got supplies laid in. We can move around if we need to,
but we can stay in town, stay close and see what happens.”

“Is that what your father would want you to
do?”

“I don’t know.”

She nodded. “Okay. Okay.”

I held out the paper and Joss took it from
me, putting it in her mother’s hand and wrapping her fingers around
it. “This is the number for my cell phone.”

“When did you get a cell phone?” Jill
asked.

Joss ignored her. “Don’t call it from your
cell phone. Don’t call it from anywhere near Dad’s room. Try not to
use the same phone too much. Use pay phones as much as you
can.”

“Jocelyn, I haven’t been asleep for the last
twenty years. I did learn a few things from your father.”

“She’s her Daddy’s girl, isn’t she?” Jayce
said.

Joss ignored that, too. “Don’t panic if I
don’t answer because if reception isn’t good the call won’t go
through. But when I see the missed call, I’ll get back to you,
okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered, like that’s all she
could manage.

Jayce opened the front door and led Ben down
the steps. It was just starting to get light on the horizon. We
didn’t have much time left.

Mrs. Marshall had a few more private words
with her girls in the open doorway while Tim and I tried to pretend
we weren’t there. When she was gone, when the SUV had disappeared
from sight and they closed the door again, Jill looked like she was
ready to cry.

“Miss Jill,” I said, “did you know your
sister has a secret hideout?”

“Really?”

“It’s…kinda like a base of operations,
really.”

“You have a base?” Jill asked Joss who was
giving me a look I couldn’t quite interpret.

“I’m not sure I would call it—”

“Why do you have a base?”

“Because she is just that awesome,” I told
Jill, taking her hand and leading her up the stairs. “How do you
think she snagged me?”

“I’ve been wondering about that.”

“So you wanna go, right? To the secret base?
Skip school, hang out, have a sleepover?”

“Are you serious?”

“I never joke about slumber parties.”

“Jesus Christ,” Joss muttered behind us. I
looked back to grin at her but she was looking back at Tim.

“You are so not invited.”

“Like I’d want to go to a slumber party with
a girl who cries if her mac and cheese touches her peas.”

“I don’t do that!” Jill protested.

“I meant your sister.”

“Oh yeah. She’s still all weird like
that.”

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school?”
Joss snapped at Tim.

“Dad’s not going to care if I’m late for
school. Come off it, Joss. I know how to pack. Let me help.”

“Whatever.”

We needed Tim’s help. The family was
prepared—understatement—and there wasn’t a lot to do, but it took
two of us to manage the Marshall girls: one to convince Jill not to
pack every single thing she owned, and one to soothe an already
stressed out Joss into not biting her head off.

It was awesome.

By the time we were finished and had hauled
everything into the entry, we were completely exhausted. While Jill
was distracted we had weighed the risks of taking the family car,
in case the police were already looking for it, versus trying to
get to the Warren on foot with a little kid, in case they were
already looking for us. We had finally decided to just take the
car.

“Remember to be quiet,” Joss told Jill. “Go
right to the car, get in, get your seatbelt on. Let us worry about
the bags.”

“I heard you the first three times!”

Joss opened the door. Eric and Kat were
standing on the doorstep.

“Looks like you guys need a ride,” Eric
said.

“How—?” Joss started to ask.

“Jill called me,” Kat told her. The look of
sympathy she gave Joss said that Jill had filled her in on a
lot.

“I told you guys I was going to call
everyone I’ve ever met. Can we go to the sleepover now?”

* * *

Marco

It’s gonna be a good day,
I thought
as I sat on the stoop outside my apartment building and lit a
cigarette. I was in a good mood, not even pissed that Tony was late
picking me up, even though this was probably the one day all year
that I actually wanted to go to school. He would have gone to
Trina’s first, and maybe she had a hair out of place she had to go
back in and fix, or maybe they were sitting in her driveway
slobbering over each other. Either way he was late, and I was
having a hard time getting pissed about it. Because I was just that
happy.

Today was the day I was gonna fuck up
Dylan’s shit. Joss’s too. I mean, that was going to be fucking
great, seeing that bitch hauled off to jail. Maybe I’d even get to
watch them put her in the car to take her to State School. That
would be awesome. But what I was really looking forward to was
seeing Dylan’s face when they cuffed her—I
really, really
hoped they’d cuff her right there in school—seeing that moment when
he realized they were totally fucked and there wasn’t a damn thing
he could do about it. I wanted him to look at me, realize that I
did this, see how he’d fucked his shit all up because he chose
wrong.

A car pulled to the curb and I almost got
up, but it was Eric’s car.
What the hell?
I stayed where I
was. I wasn’t as pissed at Eric as I was at Dylan. We didn’t have
the same kind of history. He didn’t owe me like Dylan did. And
Eric’s Talent was useful, but there were other ways to start cars.
Now Dylan’s Talent, that I could really use, and he was just
wasting it. Anyways, I wasn’t as pissed at Eric, but he was still a
dick who’d made the wrong choice when Dylan split.

“What do you want?” I asked when he was
close enough to hear me.

“I need you to call it off.”

“Call what off?”

Tony pulled up and got out of the car. Trina
stayed in the front seat.

“Call those merchants and tell them to back
off, keep their mouths shut. Tell them any of them goes through
with the plan, goes to the police, there’s gonna be
consequences.”

“What’s goin’ on?” Tony demanded, looking
down on Eric with a threat in his eyes. Not like I needed Tony
swaggering in to defend me, but it was cool.

“Eric’s telling me I need to call off the
plan for today. Tell the business owners to keep their mouths
shut.” I snorted and flicked ash toward Eric. “Now why the fuck
would I do that and how the fuck did you even know about it?”

“Second question: I know because Joss and
Dylan know. They always find out about your shit. It’s because
you’re an amateur.”

“Tony, call up that business association
guy, the one who owns the theater, what’s his name?”

“Burkhart.”

“Yeah, that guy. Call him up and have him
add Eric’s name to the list.”

“Yeah, Tony, you go ahead and do that. Here,
take this so you can get it right.” He pulled out his wallet and
handed it to Tony who flipped it open. “That should answer your
first question.”

Tony looked at it and snorted. “Yeah, sure,
whatever. Is that what they’re handing out in Cracker Jack boxes
now?”

“Let me see.” I snatched the wallet from
Tony. It was a picture ID of Eric, Eric Wilson from the
National
Institutes for Ability Control
. And there was a badge. I
laughed. “Good one. Why do you even have this stupid thing?”

“So when I finally get bored of playing with
you idiots, call my boss, and this town gets swarmed with agents to
round you up, I can identify myself.”

“Yeah, right.” I threw it at him. “Make the
call.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“Hell no I don’t believe you, moron.”

“Tony,” he threw it at my cousin who caught
it by reflex, “before you make that call to that Burkhart guy, call
the number on the back of the ID. Ask them if Eric Wilson’s their
undercover agent at Fairview High. I mean, we could go in and see
Mr. Dobbs instead. He could confirm my identity and he would
love
be able to tell some more people he works for NIAC,
trust me.
But we don’t have time for that.”

“Wait. Wait wait.” That got my attention.
“How do you know Dobbs is working for NIAC?”

“Well I don’t know if I’d go so far as to
say he’s
working
for them.” Eric rolled his eyes. “I don’t
know if they would either. But he’s on the payroll.”

“I know he’s on the payroll. I’m asking you
how
you
know it.”

“Do we need to rewind back to the part where
I showed you my badge? You’re getting it now, right? I mean, it’s
sinking into your thick gorilla skull that NIAC has people here.
It’s not a stretch for you to understand they put people into
schools where they think there are a bunch of Talents hiding to get
closer, learn their secrets, ferret them all out. I’m that guy,
dude.”

“You’re a narc,” Tony said.

“Am I talking to myself here? Yeah, I’m an
undercover fucking NIAC agent and I am telling you to call off your
stupid little shit plan involving Joss and Dylan and to do it right
now before you blow my entire operation. Do it
now!
”

“Do it,” I told Tony. “Call Burkhart and
call it off.”

“But Vivian—”

“Shut up. Just shut your mouth and do what I
tell you.” This wasn’t happening. This just was not fucking
happening. But what if it was? “If I’m wrong about this maybe we
lose a day and we’ll put the plan into action again tomorrow. If
I’m not, then what happens if Tony doesn’t make this call?” I asked
Eric.

“You’ve fed the merchant association a bunch
of stuff to tell the cops about Joss and Dylan—and other kids,
too—including outing them as Talents, right? You do that, it goes
right to NIAC and they’re coming to town. Now I’m having fun here,
and I’m not done having fun yet. I
like
it here. You’re
about to fuck that up for me, dick me out of the cushy little life
I got goin’. If my bosses show up, I’m going to have to have
something to show for my time, and you’d better believe that you,
your cousin, and your whole crew are gonna be on the top of that
list.”

I stood up, took a step toward him. “And if
I kill you right now?”

He smirked. “Yeah, ’cause I don’t have any
kind of plan for that. I’m a professional you idiot. I’ve got your
names on a list. If I don’t make my next contact, the list goes to
NIAC. It’s that simple.”

“But you already know about us. You’re
already planning to turn us in.”

“But I haven’t done it
yet.
”

Tony grabbed Eric’s arm. “Take our names off
the list. Mine, Marco’s, my girlfriend, Trina. Take us off the list
and we’ll give you the Syndicate.”

“What?”

“Shut the fuck up, man.”

“Marco,” Eric said, completely on alert,
“all it takes is one phone call and you’re on my last nerve. Tony,
tell me what you’re talking about right now.”

“We got Syndicate contacts, came down from
Banner. They’ve been working with us. Kind of…grooming us, you
know?”

“I need names and locations.”

“Don’t fucking do this, Tony,” I warned
him.

“Marco, Trina and I are off the list,” Tony
said to Eric.

“Trina wasn’t on the list, but she will be
now if you don’t give me those names. But yeah, you give me the
Syndicate, I’ll let the three of you walk.”

Tony smiled. The dumb fuck. Like anything
was that easy. “Vivian. Vivian Chambers. She’s been posing as the
school nurse. She’s got two guys with her, Richie and Poe. I don’t
know their last names. They’ve got a couple rooms at the Wayside,
down by highway.”

A grin was spreading across Eric’s face and
then he burst out laughing. “Dobbs’s girlfriend is fucking
Syndicate? I knew that was too messed up to be true. I see order in
the Universe again. Make the call, Tony.”

Tony didn’t even look to me before he
started scrolling through his phone for the number, and that
fucking pissed me off. “What now?” I asked Eric.

He shrugged. “I don’t care what you do as
long as you keep your mouths shut about me. Someone finds out who I
am, I’ll know who told them and our deal’s off.”

“How do we know our deal’s really on?”

“You’re just gonna have to trust me.”

* * *

Joss

“Can you get games on that thing?” Eric
asked.

“Ooh yeah, can I play?” Jill sat forward but
was yanked back again. “Ow!”

Kat tugged on the French braid she was
working once more for good measure. “Oh no, little girl, we’re not
done here. You wanted slumber party, that means I get to braid some
hair. Your sister’s next,” she threatened me.