The Takeover (17 page)

I didn’t attempt to take Jeane’s memory. Her unconscious mind showed only a frozen lake, one that wouldn’t allow tampering. It was probably why she’d hated Delia so much—Delia hadn’t been able to take away the memories of the awful things she’d forced Jeane to experience over the years.

I left Jeane sprawled over Mrs. Ropte’s legs and ran from the room, closing the door behind me. With a little luck, they wouldn’t be found before I finished my job.

“You’ve only got six minutes.” Ritter’s voice instead of Cort’s came through my earbud. “Do we need to wait for the next opportunity?” His voice was controlled, but I knew he’d felt my shock at seeing Jeane. Without knowing her identity, he wouldn’t be able to understand the reaction.

“No, both women are taken care of. I’m at the top of the stairs. There are no life forces here.” Unless there were more like Jeane or any sensing Unbounded, but I wasn’t going to bring any of that up yet. If Ritter knew Jeane was here, he might see her as the first priority. Maybe he’d be right because Jeane was a lot more important to the overall battle than a few mortal lives, but I knew what it was like to have the people I loved in danger, and I wasn’t abandoning those families. “I’m coming up on the door now.”

In fact, things went almost too smoothly as I reached Ropte’s office, picked the lock, and slid inside.

“Four minutes,” Cort said.

Plenty of time to make sure the room was empty, sprint to the laptop on the desk, and open its lid. The display jumped to life, and as the password screen popped up, asterisks were already appearing as Stella remotely worked on hacking the code.

“You’re good to leave,” Cort confirmed.

I angled the lid down until it was only an inch from shutting. Ropte might wonder about the change in position, but there was nothing we could do about that. For now, my biggest concern was what to do with Jeane. Leaving her here would expose Noah, and I didn’t want to do that. It would also alert Ropte, since Jeane was obviously in alliance with him. Time to see what Ritter thought.

“Uh, we have a slight problem,” I said.

“Someone coming?” It was Ritter again.

“The second woman—it was Jeane.”

Half a heartbeat delay. “We need her.”

I was going down the stairs now, which I hoped meant I was out of view of the cameras.

“How should I get her out?” I imagined dumping Jeane into a bin somewhere and rolling her out past the Secret Service, but I didn’t think they’d be that lax.

There was a pause as Ritter consulted with Cort. Then, “How about channeling Mari’s ability to shift her out?” Ritter asked.

“It took her months and Keene’s help to get to that point, and I don’t think I have the time to learn now. Let’s be honest, I’d probably just end up a few feet down the hall.” Even with an ability you had to train to be any good.

Ritter was silent again for several seconds. “Mari can’t leave Patrick now. He’s at too great of a risk. You’ll have to walk her out.”

“This is Jeane we’re talking about. She’ll make a scene.” I reached the room where I’d left the women and dragged the door open, letting out a breath in relief to see they were still there.

“If she didn’t actually see you give her the drug,” Ritter said. “Maybe you can convince her someone else came in. That you need to get her out of the house because Renegades are on the premises.”

“I don’t think we covered acting in training.”

“Noah can help,” Cort said. “She’s done all sorts of musical theater.”

Seriously, this was what we were down to?

“I still have my pistol.” I touched the plastic one I’d strapped on my thigh. Made on our 3D printer, it wouldn’t be good for more than a couple shots, even with the improvements Cort had made on the commercially available models. “She won’t know it’s plastic.” Not to mention that threatening to use it was way more my style.

“She’ll know you can’t carry a seemingly dead body out of Ropte’s townhouse. It’d be worth being shot to get away from you.”

Ritter had a point. A bullet would hurt, but it wasn’t permanent. “Okay,” I said. “But I need a way to convince her that the Renegades have crashed this party.”

“Keene can help. He’s tracking your locator and is nearly at your position. Better turn back on the feed from his mic.”

I switched on his feed. “Keene, aren’t you supposed to be watching Patrick and Ropte?”

“Patrick and Mari have Ropte occupied. There wasn’t room for me at their table, so I shouldn’t be missed for a few minutes.”

I felt relief knowing Keene could help, although if Jeane recognized him, any chance we had of deceiving her would be over. But his disguise had been good enough to keep him under Emporium radar thus far, and she didn’t know him well.

“There’s no second exit in the front,” Ritter said. “So you’ll have to pass the Secret Service in the entry. We’ll have a car outside when you’re ready. Cort’s heading to it now. But there are three more Secret Service teams that can see the front door, so you have to get her to the car before she suspects anything.”

“Okay.” Now that my course was set, my mind churned with ideas.

“I’m coming in,” Keene said. “Don’t shoot.”

I was standing in front of the door, so I moved aside. “First, we need to get Mrs. Ropte out of sight. I’ll tell Jeane that Ropte already evacuated his wife and that he asked you to help me get her to a car out front.”

Keene looked doubtful. “What if it doesn’t work?”

“I’ll drop my disguise and tell her we’ll cut her in three if she doesn’t come with us. I can always disable the agents by the door.” I’d feel bad flashing light in their minds, but I would do it.

Keene chuckled. “If it wouldn’t alert Ropte to something going on, I’d almost want her to resist.” He picked up Michelle Ropte and strode out the door.

By the time he returned, I’d repositioned Jeane so she was sitting on the couch. I had a syringe full of adrenaline in my hand. “She’ll take a minute to become fully cognizant. Wait out there until you hear me talk to her and then come in and tell us the car is here.”

He nodded, pausing for a second to gaze down on Jeane’s lovely face. “Hard to believe that she’s so cold inside. She has a lot to make up for.”

I knew he was thinking about the innocent people killed in Morocco. “She won’t get away this time.” I sat next to her and jabbed the adrenaline into her thigh, the needle slipping easily past the white dress pants she wore. I capped the needle and put the spent syringe back in the sheath on my leg.

Sixty seconds later, Jeane stirred. “Oh, thank heavens!” Linked with Noah and showing her the scene as it unfolded, I plucked the words from Noah’s head as she thought them. “Senator Ropte said he’s sent a car for us, but I was so afraid those awful people had done something permanent to you!”

Jeane’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about? What did you do to me?”

“Me? Oh, no! It wasn’t me. It was some people dressed all in black—a blonde with a gun, and a big guy that moved like the wind. Never seen the like! Ropte said they were Renegades or something.” I gave a little sniff, which I thought might be over the top, but Noah advised it, and Jeane seemed to drink it in. “Ropte came and got his wife out of here. He asked me to stay with you until he sends my friend back to tell us a car is ready.”

“You?” Jeane asked.

I lifted the gun from the couch on the side opposite her. “He gave me this.” She shouldn’t be able to tell the pistol was plastic unless she held it, and I wasn’t about to allow that. “He said to shoot anyone who came in.”

Jeane took a deep breath. “Okay, then. Where is he? Maybe I should call Ropte.”

We heard running footsteps, and Jeane bounced to her feet. I followed, pointing the gun at the door. Keene’s head peeked inside, followed by his entire body. “The car’s coming. Come on! Ropte got his wife and my sister and Patrick. We have to hurry. Those Renegades went outside to the back yard, and we have to go before they come back in. If we can make it to the front door, the Secret Service will watch our backs. Patrick let them know we’ll be coming.”

I wished we really had asked Patrick to let them know to expect us.

Keene hurried out of the room, with Jeane on his tail. I followed quickly.

“No, that room is huge and we don’t want to be in the open too long,” Jeane said as Keene reached to open the door to the reception area. “There’s another way to the foyer.”

I tried to remember all the floor plans, but I didn’t have Ritter’s ability to remember layouts, and I hesitated. If Jeane had caught on to us, she might be leading us into some sort of trap, but if she were right, I’d much rather not risk any of the guests seeing us flee.

Keene nodded. “Show us! Hurry, before they come back for you. Ropte said I shouldn’t let that happen.”

Jeane opened another door and sprinted down a short hallway. At the end, it intersected another hallway that ran in both directions. She turned to the right, and at the end was another intersection leading to the entryway. She moved more cautiously now, though I could tell there were no life forces in the rooms we passed.

Finally, we reached the entryway. A servant passed to our right and paused briefly, but after seeing Jeane, she went on. Keene hurried toward the Secret Service agents, nodding at them and speaking under his breath. I caught the words
Patrick
and
car,
and from their minds I saw an image of Keene retrieving something from Patrick’s vehicle. I had to laugh at the genius.

Jeane was passing them now, unable to resist flashing them one of the smiles that had seduced a generation of moviegoers. They stared and barely noticed me as I passed them, my gun hidden in the folds of my dress.

“I don’t see a car.” Jeane looked around frantically.

“There!” I said, pointing. It was a red sports car, nothing like the black sedan I’d expected, and I wondered where Cort had obtained it. I could see him inside, wearing a black wig with a neat ponytail.

Keene ripped opened the door and helped Jeane inside. He gestured to me, but I shook my head. “You stay with her. I’ll make sure Mari and Patrick get out.”

He hesitated, and I knew he’d planned to hand me into the car and return inside. But I wasn’t going to leave. If Ropte somehow discovered what we’d done, Patrick and Mari would be in danger, and since I could channel Ritter or Noah or Keene himself, Keene knew as well as I did that I was the better choice to stay behind.

“Go,” he said. “Take care of her.” He meant Mari.

“Mari can take care of herself.” I furtively handed him the gun that I wouldn’t be able to put back in my sheath under my dress before passing security. Their gazes burned into my back suspiciously even now, and agents on the rooftops probably had me in their sights. Keene grinned and swung himself into the car.

“Hurry and get in,” Jeane screeched at me.

I couldn’t resist leaning over, sticking my head into the car, and letting my own face seep partially through Noah’s features. “Sorry, Jeane, I have to go see Senator Ropte to make sure he doesn’t miss you.”

“Erin!” she breathed. “No! You can’t! You don’t know what this means.” She dived for the opposite door, but both Cort and Keene turned weapons on her. Her eyes went to mine again. “Erin, please.”

In answer, I replaced Noah’s features and slammed the door. Cort squealed away. I turned around and walked back to the Secret Service agents, who dutifully scanned me and searched my tiny bag, even though I’d been in full view all the time I’d been outside.

“Thank you,” I said.

As I sauntered back through the reception room, I spotted Michelle Ropte coming out from the door that led to the back stairs. She was walking unsteadily, and I hurried toward her. “Are you all right?” I asked.

“I’m just a little dizzy. I must have blacked out.” She put her hand to her head and leaned heavily on me.

“Do you need a doctor?”

“No, just a glass of water.”

By the time I found a servant to fetch water for Mrs. Ropte, the luncheon was well underway. Ropte barely looked over when his wife slipped into her place next to him or when I found my spot at a table nearby. Mari smiled at me, and I nodded slightly. Patrick’s surface feelings shouted his annoyance at Ropte, who leaned toward him like a smiling shark, but Patrick’s face was remarkably pleasant.

Minutes ticked by, taking the edge off my anxiety—or maybe it was the excellent food. Either way, no one with guns showed up, and Ropte seemed content. I studied his features under the guise of drinking the sparkling wine in my glass, wondering how a man who looked so normal, so handsome, could have been responsible for the gruesome slaughter of Burklap’s family.

“Package secure,” Ritter finally said in my earbud. “We’re ready to move, so get out when you can.”

It was all I could do to wait for dessert.

“YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT
you’ve done!” Jeane told me as I walked into Noah’s sitting room after changing from the yellow dress. I was fully myself now, though every now and then I caught myself humming Noah’s song under my breath.

I gave her an insincere smile. “Actually, I have a pretty good idea. I captured the null who betrayed all of us in Morocco. And I interrupted whatever plan you were cooking up with Ropte.” I just hoped he didn’t connect her disappearance with the luncheon. Stella was looking to find a way to drop some hint that Jeane had left on her own, but doing so without endangering our mission to rescue the families was doubtful.