The Color of Courage (22 page)

“Well, fuck me, let’s not do that again.” He bent over as if to catch his breath. “But thanks.”

“What were you doing up there?” I asked him.

He glanced over his shoulder at Hurley, then straightened slowly. “Gathering intel.”

He looked at me, raised his eyebrows, and tipped his head back ever so slightly. I couldn’t see Hurley, so he couldn’t see me. I mouthed his name without sound, and Evan nodded imperceptibly, then whirled.

“Shit.”

Hurley was gone. I wasn’t sure how he’d gotten out of sight so quickly, but there were several directions he could have taken. We didn’t have time to give chase.

“He’s CASE.” I didn’t make it a question.

Evan nodded.

“I thought so, but didn’t want it to be true. What else did that guy tell you?”

Evan sighed. “Not enough. They’re definitely doing this as a trap for HQ. He bragged that they already got two of you. Trace followed that runner, and since I see you and Kirby, the other one has to be Summer or Adam?”

“Adam.” I motioned to his com. “Not working?”

“Not so much.”

“Mine either. Try person-to-person.” He switched over, and I keyed his code into our previous three-way conversation, making it four-way and reaching its limit.

“Summer’s inside?” he asked.

“I sure am.” Kirby’s move had maybe affected Summer’s attitude, because she didn’t sound so on edge. “You okay, brother?”

“Fine. Just not sure what our next move should be. They’re expecting us to try to take them out, protect those people.”

“Why haven’t they shot anyone?” Summer repeated my question.

“Not enough impact at that moment. Now that you took me, though, things might change.”

That Guy
was shouting out from his spot on the steps, but we couldn’t hear him. His companions had raised their weapons and encircled the group. That Guy was the only one with more than a handgun, but at such close range, with the innocents packed so tightly together, they’d do a hell of a lot of damage.

“Any kids in the crowd?” I wondered. The auras were all too close together and similar for me to count or estimate what was up there.

“No, just adults.”

“Maybe they don’t want a lot of collateral damage, not by themselves, anyway. That would harm their case.”

Evan shook his head. “I think the only thing that matters to them is harming superheroes in any way they can, and HQ has pushed them further by thwarting them in ways no one else has.” He looked at me, and for a second it was like there was no one else around us. I frowned, reading desperate earnestness in his aura, overlying heavy suspicion and emotional pain. He clicked off his com and spoke just to me.

“They knew we were coming. They’re inside HQ.”

He’d turned off his com, but forgotten mine could pick up the noises around me. Both Kirby and Summer heard him. Kirby, a few feet away, nodded, her aura darkening in disappointment and regret, but the bright colors of surprise weren’t present. She’d suspected already. So had I, though I hadn’t admitted it even in my own head.

Summer, though, went ballistic. “You think it’s me, don’t you? You fucking hypocrite, pretending to reconcile with me and be my brother again when you were just trying to infiltrate us so you could get me! I’m not with CASE, you asshole, and I’ll prove it!”

“No!”

The three of us yelled at once, turning toward the memorial as a black blur flew out of it. We ran, but of course none of us would get there in time. Summer’s new suit meant faster movements, and by the time we were racing up the steps, Summer had knocked out three of the eight CASE operatives holding the hostages. The others, taken by surprise and without time to plan their reactions, started firing. She was completely protected in her full suit and flexi-shield, but bullets ricocheted as civilians ran in all directions. People fell. Two of the CASE people took their own bullets, or those of their partners. They weren’t protected by stolen HQ suits the way Adam’s captors had been.

The three of us reached the flat landing in the middle of the steps. Evan wrenched the machine gun free of That Guy’s hands. Granted, it wasn’t hard to do. He stood staring at the sudden devolution of his control. Evan knocked him out with the butt of the gun.

In the meantime, Kirby stood to the side and summoned weapons to her, first from the hands of the still-standing enemies, then the ones fallen on the ground. I joined Summer in hand-to-hand combat with the remaining men, while Kirby quickly disabled the weapons and joined us.

In moments, it was over. Unwounded captives helped or dragged the wounded ones away. Law enforcement officers and paramedics, previously unseen to us, emerged from their secure locations to take care of the civilians.

The four of us stood on the steps, panting from our exertions and the suddenness of the small battle and its ending, at a momentary loss for our next action.

That had been far too easy.

Summer scowled at her brother. “See? It’s not me.”

“I never thought it was.” He walked toward her, his tone soft, his expression softer, but her aura darkened with anger and hatred. I stood, shocked. I’d never seen such intense, negative emotions from her before. I glanced at Kirby, whose aura showed the same shock but swirled with the beginnings her own anger.

“You did!” Summer backed away until she reached the wall and climbed up on it, bracing her feet and holding up her hands in a fighting pose. “Come on, brother. Come get me, if you think you can.”

“Summer, he’s not—” I stopped. What point was there in trying to talk reason with her? She was beyond reason. I had to do something else. I’d managed, in the melee, to hold on to my taupe center. I was scared and confused on the surface, but at my core I was still emotionless. Into that void I forced calm and relief, made it grow, then pushed it outward toward Summer. It met her seething emotions and I could almost see sparks as they collided.

For a few seconds I thought I was doing it. Her aura shrank beneath the pressure of mine. Then it swelled again, and I felt like something was pushing against my mind. I stumbled back a step, as if someone had physically shoved me, and tried to assert my aura again.

“Knock it off, Summer!” Kirby stepped toward her, into my line of sight, and disturbed my concentration enough to catch my attention. What I could see horrified me so much my artificial aura collapsed into me. It was like I’d been poured full of cold water.

Kirby’s emotions exactly matched Summer’s. They weren’t as dark or as encompassing, but the composition was the same. I’d never seen her look at our friend like that.

“Come on, baby,” Summer taunted her. “You think you can take me? Bring it.”

Kirby raised her arms and summoned Summer off the wall. She’d been close already and hit Kirby hard, knocking her over. They tumbled down the stairs.

“No!” I began to run after them. Evan grabbed my arm.

“Let them fight it out,” he said.

My heart sinking, I checked, and sure enough, his aura was the same. I didn’t understand it. It wasn’t possible for them to have all started hating each other like that. Evan stood at the top of the steps, his hands on his hips and a sneer on his face as he watched his sister and one of her best friends try to battle each other.

So far, not much was happening. They both still wore their suits, and the new flexi-shields and gloves held tight to the main suit unless the wearer deactivated them. I didn’t think they’d do much harm very quickly, so I turned my attention to Evan. I had to figure this out.

Possibilities raced through my head as I probed him. Drugs could cause irrational anger and paranoia, but how could they all have been drugged without me also being affected? It had hit suddenly, and they’d been wearing their suits, which ruled out injection or airborne pathogens or chemicals.

Maybe something electronic. I’d never seen a device like the one that held Adam, so it was possible CASE had other strange technology that could be doing this.

I didn’t have time to figure it out, though. This was happening
now
, and I had only seconds before, I suspected, Evan either turned on me or joined the catfight going on down below.

I dug deeper, grimacing when I remembered what he’d thought of my earlier invasion. I didn’t find that deep-seated grief this time, though. I didn’t get that far. I passed through the outer ring of negativity to . . . nothing. I could sense his real emotions lurking underneath, but it was like pushing through jungle and finding miles of open space on the other side.

Then it hit me. This was
induced
. Like
I
induced emotions. It didn’t manifest the same, so it wasn’t as obvious. But there was another empath here, there had to be. Someone who was manipulating emotions to make us turn on each other.

I had to stop it. I tried the bubble again, but even Evan’s aura was too strong already. I couldn’t get through. I tried tendrils like I’d used on the drummer. They penetrated Evan’s hatred, but then turned red and black at the ends, rising up the tendrils back toward me. I released them and they were absorbed into Evan again. The same thing happened no matter what shape I made.

Despair threatened my taupe center. I had to keep it clear of true emotion if I was to succeed at this. I took a deep breath and envisioned a calm bomb going off inside me. I raced down the stairs toward Kirby and Summer and slammed between them, forcing the concussion of my calm into their auras, hoping the sudden nature of it would have more effect than the slow intrusion I’d tried before.

My friends fell back, hitting the ground hard. I stood between them and looked from one to the other. Summer’s hatred had faded, replaced by pain and sorrow. She rolled on the ground, moaning and holding her head. Kirby, however, seemed normal. I looked harder, but doubt and confusion were her dominant emotions, and they came from inside her, not from a bubble outside.

“What the hell?” She put one hand against her chest. “What the hell was that?”

“It’s—”

Evan came barreling down the stairs and knocked me sideways before I got the words out. Like when I’d similarly slammed into Kirby and Summer, I was uninjured when I hit the ground. But I was stunned enough to be unable to blow into Evan’s false emotion. He slammed my head against the ground, again and again. The flexi-shield made it feel like I was banging my head against a soap bubble, but the blur of cement and trees and blue sky in my vision still disoriented me, and it was impossible to react.

I rolled and tipped him off, a move I shouldn’t have been able to make. When I’d gotten to my feet, though, I saw that I’d had help. Police officers had hold of Evan and were cuffing his hands behind his back. I started to protest, then realized if they took him away, he’d be out of range of the other empath and the effects would wear off. Distance had to be a factor. That would explain why it didn’t happen until we’d hit the steps.

I looked up into the dark opening of the memorial. He had to be in there. Where Summer had been, before she got nasty with me and foolishly attacked the CASE captors.

Kirby was okay now. I’d take her with me to confront him and hope he couldn’t get to her again. She’d let me infuse her with defensive emotion first, I was sure.

But she was gone. I turned in a full circle. Evan was being hauled away toward a squad car, near a police van that I could see contained the chained CASE members they must have rounded up during our infighting. Summer lay at my feet, writhing less, but still moaning. But I could see Kirby nowhere.

“Tom!” I spotted my sparring partner conferring with an officer and rushed over to him. He offered a grim smile.

“Sorry our first effort together is something like this,” he said. “Wasn’t that guy at the gym with us a few weeks ago?”

I blew that off. “Did you see where Kirby went?”

“Yeah, that way.” He chin-thrust in the direction of our original location. “She was walking off with Hurley. He said he needed her help with those three fake HQers who stole your suits.”

Shit. I ran in that direction, but I knew it was too late. Kirby had to know Hurley was part of CASE. If he’d freed the three who’d captured Adam, she was in trouble. I didn’t yet know what kind, and decided I couldn’t follow. I had to get to the empath, and the only ally I really had right now was Summer.

I went back to her side and helped her to her feet. The false hatred and pain had faded, but in their place were her own, just-as-painful emotions. She’d been raw already from grief and sorrow and anger, and now she’d been manipulated and maybe even tortured. I wasn’t sure she’d be up to the task.

But if she was susceptible to him, maybe she’d be susceptible to me, too. I tried again to infuse her with calm, this time adding hope and relief, and she absorbed it like a sponge. She took a deep breath and held on to me.

“God, I’m so sorry, Daley. What’s happening?”

“An empath.” She whipped her head to look at me, and I ran my hand up and down her arm reassuringly. “Not me. Someone else has powers like mine, only he’s obviously been using them for a lot longer. At least for manipulating other people’s emotions.”

“Longer?” She frowned at me. “You’ve been doing it?”

I shook my head. “There’s no time for that.”

“Who could it possibly be?”

I didn’t need to think about it. I knew. “He’s in there.” I pointed. She looked up the steps. “Can you help me, or are you too—?”

“Let’s go get him.” She started up the steps. “It’s got to be someone in law enforcement, right? Someone who works with us, so they knew what we knew and everything.”

“No, it’s not that. I should have sensed it, at the restaurant that first day.” I stopped. Summer had paused, back on the central landing where she’d started fighting. Now, though, her face held a rapturous expression. Her aura boiled again, this time with ecstasy and lust and longing, the opposite of what she’d been feeling, and much, much more powerful.

“Summer, you’d better go back.” I grabbed her and tried to pull her down, away from the point of influence. But she flashed her arms, knocking me away.

“It’s so good,” she moaned, and ran up the steps faster than I’d ever seen her move, even when she flew out of the memorial in the throes of rage.