The Reckoning (3 page)

I swam up out of the lake and left his mind. “He’s out.”

The cook had long vanished back the way she’d come, so we crept into the hall and opened the door. It wasn’t locked, and from the thoughts in Melissa’s mind when she’d given the guard the coffee, locking it wasn’t customary. Her knock had been for the sake of politeness.

“Watch the door,” I told Mari as I sprinted to the computer the guard had been working on and pushed the decoder into the USB port. Codes started running across the screen. “Hopefully, it only takes out the shield and whatever is blocking communication. If the whole place goes dark, Desoto’s going to know something’s up.”

Mari’s laugh was a small explosion in the stillness. “This is Stella we’re talking about. When has she ever been wrong about something to do with computers?”

She had a point, and I grinned under my hood. The thing was tight and uncomfortable, and even as I had the thought, Mari was pulling hers off and wiping beaded sweat from her forehead. Her long black hair was pinned tightly against her head, and the style made her brown eyes seem even larger in her heart-shaped face. Though she was less than a fourth Japanese and looked more American than anything, she still resembled Stella, who was her fifth great-aunt. Mari had been a simple accountant before her Change, but now she added columns of numbers with barely a glance, folded space to teleport—or shift as we called it—and always knew exactly what time it was. She was a bit impulsive these days, and I liked her more for it. She’d come a long way from the catatonic state she’d fallen into after her husband’s betrayal and subsequent murder by the Emporium.

Mari’s attention transferred to the unconscious Walker, whose messy hair reminded me of my brother Jace’s, except the guard’s hair was shorter and had a bit of red highlighting. “He’s good-looking, isn’t he?” Mari asked.

I fingered the textbook next to the keyboard:
The Ethics of Journalism.
“Not my type. Or yours.”

A frown creased Mari’s face. She brought out a small knife from somewhere and twirled it in her hand. “You think he likes knives?”

“Not like you do. Looks like more of a pacifist to me. A bookworm.”

“Well, he’s cute anyway.” Mari brought the hand holding the knife near her cheek and delicately scratched her cheek with her finger. “Speaking of men, did you and Stella work out that nanite thing? You’ve only got two weeks left before the big day.”

My stomach both jumped and twisted at her words. Two weeks. Right. Not a lot of time. Before I could decide if I would answer Mari, Stella’s voice sounded in my ear. “I’m in. Accessing the database now. Looks like I won’t need you to enter anything from his keyboard. The decoder is enough. I’ll still need it, though, so leave it and get going. I’ll have the codes for you before you get to his office.”

Mari pulled her hood back on with some difficulty, and I was glad I hadn’t removed mine. We left the security room, turned a corner, and continued down a hallway until we arrived at the office. As predicted, there was a lock, and Mari drew out her tools. She’d taken to picking locks almost as well as knife work.

By the time Mari had the door open, Stella was speaking into my ear with the information she’d found in Desoto’s computer system. “The combination is forty-two, eighty-nine, fifty-eight, A, Q, R.”

Inside the spacious office, I dodged a marble statue and hurried to the bookshelf. There, I flipped a hidden lever detailed in the house builder’s plans that Stella had hacked days ago from his computer. The bookshelf swung open, revealing a panel on a door. “Repeat the code,” I said to Stella.

“Here, let me.” Mari moved past me. Of course, she’d remember the sequence. “This is so James Bond,” Mari exulted as the door swung open.

Two easy chairs with a small table between them and a fancy wooden filing cabinet were the only furnishings in the tight space. I hurried to the cabinet and began searching for the file on Iran. I almost hoped it wouldn’t be there, that our intel was wrong. Because if we were right, an unspeakable evil was about to be leashed upon the world.

The file was there. Mari helped me spread out the pages, which I carefully photographed and sent to Stella, who scanned them for readability. She directed a retake of only one page. Mari and I were both quiet as we returned the file to the cabinet and made our way from the room, the flush of success having turned into a realization that our information was correct. Desoto really was planning to supply Iran with plutonium and help start a war.

“I’m erasing the record of the entry into the room,” Stella told us. “Now get my decoder and get out of there.”

“Be careful.” Ritter’s voice this time. “One of the patrol guys just went back into the house.”

We hadn’t heard any beeps from the alarm being deactivated so someone could enter the house, but that wasn’t unusual considering how large the place was. I linked to Mari’s mind, and we shifted back to the sitting room near the security office.

A man with dark hair came down the hall. Not just any man, I saw, as he strode past the opening to the darkened sitting room, but an Unbounded. So Desoto did have Emporium agents working right here at his estate, and the Unbounded likely worked directly for the Emporium, whatever Mr. Desoto believed.

The man opened the door to the security room without knocking and didn’t close it behind him. “Walker?” we heard, followed by a slap. “Hey, wake up! Those sheep can wait for counting another time. Good thing I came back inside for a cup of coffee before Desoto found you sleeping on the job. What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” came the groggy response. “I wasn’t even tired when I got here.” His mind shield wasn’t yet in place, and I jumped inside to observe from his eyes.

“Here, I’ll get you some more coffee.”

“Wait, that’s the good—”

Too late. The patrol guard poured the remains of the first cup of coffee into the drain of the narrow sink that was in the corner of the room, his quick, agile movements signaling his ability in combat. Even so, I was debating the wisdom of shifting in and out for Stella’s device when Walker said, “Hmm, what’s this? I don’t remember that being here before.”

“What’s what?” the Unbounded turned toward him, holding a stained coffee pot from the brewer on the narrow counter.

“Oh, nothing. I think I’m still half asleep.” Giving the patrol guard a sluggish grin, Walker slipped the device into his pants pocket.

Why had he done that? I was pretty sure I could make him take it out again, though controlling people wasn’t easy, but I didn’t want the decoder to be discovered by the Unbounded patrol guard any more than Walker seemed to want him to notice it, so I let it stay.

“You okay now?” asked the guard, setting a new mug of coffee in front of Walker.

“Yeah. Thanks for the coffee and for waking me. You saved my butt.”

“Just don’t let it happen again.”

“I’ll triple up on my caffeine. No worries.”

I was about to ask Ritter and Stella if they wanted us to wait for the Unbounded to leave so we could distract Walker and grab the device when Ritter’s voice came through our earbuds. “Scratch meeting us at the car. We’ve got company out here. We’ll need your help.”

WE SHIFTED, FOLDING THE SPACE
that separated us from the others, reappearing outside in the bushes next to the ten-foot stone wall encircling the property. Stella had already packed her computer equipment in her bag, and Ritter I couldn’t see but could sense on top of the wall.

“What’s up?” I asked Stella.

“Hunters. Apparently, they’ve found our car.”

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Hunters espoused a religion whose primary objective was to find and kill any Unbounded, regardless of their loyalties. To Hunters, Renegades who battled to save humanity were, by virtue of their near immortality, held in the same contempt as Emporium agents who sought to bring mortals into servitude. Many Hunter leaders themselves were descendants of rejected mortal offspring of the Emporium, and recently, they had begun tracking distant relatives to find those who had Changed. These relatives included some of our remote family members as well as those of the Emporium. The Hunters watched them, sometime insinuating themselves in their lives. Mari’s husband had been a Hunter, and we’d barely saved her from a true and final death at their hands.

“I wouldn’t kid about Hunters.” Stella held out her hand. “Decoder?”

I grimaced. “We couldn’t retrieve it without causing a commotion.”

She reached for her bag. “Was it still plugged in?”

“No.”

“Then don’t worry about it. Even the fail-safe has a fail-safe. Hopefully, they’ll just think it’s some equipment they overlooked when everything was installed. The information will self-destruct after two hours or if they plug it back in.”

That guard put it into his pocket. Why?
The thought prevented me from feeling relief at Stella’s words.

“I can shift back to the airport and rent a different car,” Mari said. “You guys can just start hiking out to the main road. Go around the Hunters. I’ll meet you there.”

Ritter dropped silently from the wall behind Mari, causing her to startle. A hint of a smile touched his lips, but his voice was hard. “They aren’t here because of us. They must have followed one of Desoto’s employees.”

“The patrol guy who came inside is Unbounded,” I said.

He nodded. “I think the Hunters only chose the same place we did to park because it’s the perfect location if you’re planning an attack. Needless to say, they seem curious about why the car is out there.”

“You think they plan to attack this place?” I asked. “How can they be so stupid? The cameras will catch them before they’ve disabled the alarm, and the police will arrive soon after.”

Ritter scowled. “Agreed, but maybe they plan to abduct the patrol. They have the means and the determination—and they don’t care if the Emporium finds out. If they manage to take out the patrol and get inside, our advantage is shot. The Emporium will suspect that someone knows about their plutonium deal.”

“So we get rid of the Hunters.” I couldn’t believe we had to protect Emporium agents from our joint enemy. Usually, we didn’t mind leaving Hunters alone because in a strange way they were our allies against the Emporium—at least when they weren’t trying to murder us. We still hadn’t been able to convince many of them that Renegades worked for humanity instead of against it—or maybe they simply didn’t care. All Unbounded were a scourge they had the responsibility, because of their linked heredity, to obliterate from the earth.

“Erin and Mari, you shift beyond them,” Ritter said. “Stella and I’ll take them from the front. Use the tranques as long as you have them.” His gaze settled only on me. “Once you’re there, channel my ability.” His mind was already opened.
And don’t get shot,
he thought.

I ignored that last bit. “How many are there?”

“Looks like fifteen, but you’d better verify. And they’re packing big time.”

We climbed over the wall into the unlandscaped region that still belonged to Desoto for a good couple acres until it joined his neighbor’s land. The trees and other vegetation were sparse but enough to hide our approach.

As Ritter indicated, the Hunters were seriously armed, but Ritter had been right in his count, and four against fifteen was grossly unfair for the Hunters, especially since we had surprise on our side. Mari was a bit bouncy in her step, which told of an anticipation that I understood only too well. The Unbounded genes gave us a confidence that wasn’t always realistic, but it sure felt good to act, especially after creeping around Desoto’s trying not to be noticed.

Five of the Hunters stood in a loose circle chatting, while the others unloaded their van.
Was that a rocket launcher?
They were serious about whatever it was they had planned. One of the men was peering inside our car, obviously wondering what the vehicle was doing outside the wall.

I sent my thoughts out. The men in the circle had their minds shut tightly, which told me they had experience with Unbounded. I could have broken in, but enough thoughts radiated from the others that it wasn’t necessary to expend the energy—I’d need all my strength for the battle at hand. It would be easier if we could simply kill them, but they were part of the humanity we’d vowed to protect.

“They know that guard from the security room,” I told Ritter and the others as I picked up the information from their thoughts. “Walker’s his name. He’s been asking them questions regarding Unbounded.” I focused on the older man peeking inside the car window, seeing in his mind that he was one of the Hunters who had talked with Walker. “There’s not much more than that. Maybe Walker revealed the presence of Unbounded here, or the Hunters deduced what their conversation meant without him knowing about it. I can’t really say.”

I thought again how Walker had put Stella’s device in his pocket and hadn’t shared it with the Unbounded patrolman. What did that mean?

“Showtime,” Ritter muttered. “On your call, Erin.”

Mari grinned at me, silenced tranque pistol in hand, showing none of the reluctance that she had when using a weapon with real bullets. Her shield was gone, and I linked to her, sending a picture of the area on the other side of our car.
Let’s get as many as we can before they see us,
I told her.