The Takeover (9 page)

Chris came to sit beside me as the children loaded their plates. He didn’t remind them to wash their hands like Lorrie would have. “So,” he said, sitting close to me. “What’s up?”

“A senator and his family were murdered.”

His fork sat by his plate, forgotten. “Stella told me about the Burklaps and the missing families. What else do you know? Is that why Ava called the meeting?”

“We think the man behind the murders replaced Delia Vesey.”

His jaw tightened. “Stella has to stay out of this. The baby—”

“No one will risk Stella, so don’t worry about that.”

The tightness eased. “Good. We can’t lose this baby.” Chris was the father of Stella’s lab-created child, but I knew their relationship had gone far beyond the lab. He was totally and completely in love with her, and despite Stella’s ongoing grief at losing her mortal husband, I suspected she was starting to feel the same for him.

“Yeah . . . uh, about that. When are you going to tell the children? Stella’s already showing. Kathy will guess soon enough that she’s expecting, and then what? It’s getting harder to keep the secret from them. Every time I open my mouth, I’m afraid I’m going to blow it.”

“I know. I just worry about how they’ll react.”

“They love Stella.”

“They miss their mom.” He ran a hand through his hair, the wrinkles around his eyes reminding me that he was mortal, and I would lose him before I physically aged another year. The thought didn’t hit me with as much agony as it once had. It just was.

“They’ll love the baby. It’ll be okay.”

He nodded. “I just . . . things aren’t decided between Stella and me. I-I love her. I have for a long time. I think Lorrie would understand.”

“Tell them.”

The kids came back then, with heaping plates they would devour almost completely. The cook had given up baking or boiling vegetables for them and instead had a constant variety of raw choices available. Spencer particularly liked the sweet peas, shells and all.

I watched them begin eating, joking and laughing together. It was peaceful, this slice of time where the horrors we experienced often didn’t seem quite real.

Until I thought of Senator Burklap and his family, who would never be eating again. On that lovely note, it was probably time to head up to the meeting.

“Aunt Erin, I—”

I held up a hand, silencing whatever Kathy had been going to say. I sensed a distinct change in the air, one that triggered all my awareness. It took me a few precious seconds to understand what was different, to realize that I was receiving a jumble of thoughts from
beyond
the mansion. And if I could sense thoughts and life forces outside the electronic grid that protected us from mental assault, we were vulnerable. Unless Ava was holding some kind of unprecedented drill, only the Emporium could have wiggled through our mental protections.

“Down!” I said to the kids, reaching for my gun.

Immediately, Spencer and Kathy dived under the table, no questions asked. The weeks of training and subsequent grounding and household chores had seen to that. Max followed them, his tail between his legs, and Chris shot to his feet, his own gun ready. I faced the door; he faced the window that overlooked the garden.

I felt someone trying to get inside my mind—someone I recognized. Ava. I let her in.
Erin, we’re about to have a visitor. She wanted to surprise you, but I didn’t know if . . . Look, don’t shoot anyone in the next two minutes, okay?

I blew out a sigh of relief, but I didn’t put down my gun and I didn’t tell Chris to lower his weapon.

“Who is it, Ava?” I said aloud for Chris’s benefit. “Why shouldn’t we shoot?”

Just don’t
.

A soft
pop!
sounded in my ears, and a woman who appeared to be our friend Mari Jorgenson materialized in the dining room—Mari with her black hair dyed red for her undercover job protecting Patrick Mann. She wasn’t alone. The two men with her appeared to be Keene McIntyre and my younger brother, Jace. Keene’s piercing green eyes, framed by his red hair and beard—also dye jobs—were as mocking as his smile. Jace had let his blond hair grow shaggy, but it looked good with his black leather jacket.

At the same moment, I became aware of Ritter bursting into the dining room, a sword in one hand and a gun in the other, looking rather like an avenging angel.

“Don’t shoot!” Mari said, standing between us and the men.

“I knew we shouldn’t have surprised her,” muttered Jace, holding up hands that were nearly as deadly as Ritter’s. “Erin, it’s me, Jace. You’re not going to shoot, right? It really is us. No illusions or nanite tricks, I promise. Come on, put the gun down.” Even as he spoke the electric grid came back to life, shutting out the world beyond the mansion.

I stared, my heartbeat slowing. “You guys are supposed to be in DC.” But it was them, and their mind shields were down—a wise choice if they didn’t want to be shot.

“We were until a second ago.” Mari gave an excited laugh and took several steps toward us. “That’s the surprise! Or part of it. As you’ve noticed, I’m not here alone. Ava’s known about this for weeks, but I begged her to let me surprise you.”

Now I understood. As I folded Mari in my arms for a hug, I had to admit it was a fantastic surprise. “Oh, Mari, this is great!” Before, she could only shift to a place she could see or to a location within a city or two range that she’d already visited. Or, if they were near enough, she could find people she’d connected with and shift to their location. But she’d only been able to shift herself—or with me when I channeled her ability. Now it appeared that not only could she fold space clear from the other side of the country, but she could bring others with her. It was a long-awaited break-through.

“I couldn’t target you from so far away,” Mari explained, “but the Fortress was easy to find, and once I began shifting, DC and San Diego touched, and I could see you were here in the dining room, so I switched arrival points at the last moment and here we are.”

“Gotta admit, it’s pretty cool,” Jace said, now hugging Chris. “She’ll probably be able to go anywhere in the world with more practice. I bet you can’t wait to try it.”

That was exactly what I was thinking: channeling Mari’s ability. “Smart alec,” I muttered as I took my turn hugging Jace.

“I’ve been all over the world,” Mari said. “Well, at least to locations I’ve already visited. Like Venezuela. It was Keene who helped me figure it out.” Her voice had an odd note now, which made me look at her and Keene sharply. Their hands were at their sides, but they might as well be gripping one another with the amount of sensual energy pouring off them. Looks like he’d finally told her about his Change.

Keene’s ability was synergy, and not only could he change the reaction in atoms, but he could also intensify the abilities of others, exciting their powers, helping them reach new heights that might otherwise take years to achieve. He’d worried experimentation could mean blowing everyone into clouds of dust, but apparently he’d overcome his fear at least enough to practice with Mari.

I hugged Keene, though not as tightly as the others. Being this close to him made me hyperaware of Ritter as he came across the room toward us, his sword already returned to his back sheath. Keene smelled faintly of his familiar spicy cologne and memories we were both better off forgetting. I was glad for him and Mari.

“We were very responsible about experimenting,” Mari said, as if to further allay Keene’s fears.

I laughed. “Like I believe that.” Once, as an accountant, Mari’s life had been orderly, full of planning before leaping. But that was before her Change. Now she was as driven by her impulsive, confident Unbounded genes as my brother Jace.

“No, seriously,” she insisted, shaking her auburn head and sending the long hair rippling. “We took short distances at first and then, well, we sort of got into a couple jams—”

“I almost blew us up,” Keene drawled.

“Now that sounds like a lot more fun,” I said.

Jace erupted with a laugh. “It’s been an adventure keeping Patrick alive. You missed a lot.” He paused before offering a sweeping gesture toward the table. “Um, shouldn’t you do something about them?”

I turned to see the children still under the table, staring at us and hugging the dog. I had to admire Spencer; his staying put showed an extraordinary amount of patience.

Chris sighed. “You can come out now.”

“We won’t be grounded?” Spencer asked, his brow creasing.

“Of course not!” Chris growled. “I only grounded you before because you messed up in training.”

“You grounded me like five times,” Spencer mumbled.

“That’s because you acted like it was a game five times.”

“Well, it was, wasn’t it?”

Before Chris could respond, Ritter said, “No, Spencer. Training is
never
a game. If this had been a real invasion, you’d be glad you’d stayed under that lead-lined table.” His gaze met mine, before he fist-bumped the new arrivals, accompanying the welcome with a slight dip of his head. On him, the greeting looked rather ancient and full of ceremony—as it had probably been intended before mortals began using their own more casual version.

“Well, it’s just Jace. And Keene and Mari with red hair,” Spencer said. “
Ugly
red hair, by the way, if anyone cares what I think. I liked their old hair.”

“We could have been an Emporium hit team in disguise.” Jace caught the boy up in his arms.

Spencer gave him a flat smile, his eyes drifting briefly to me. “Nope. Aunt Erin would have shot you, and dad would’ve fired when she did. Hey, you bring me anything?” He began checking Jace’s pockets for something of interest.

“It’s not like I knew we were coming until about ten minutes ago,” Jace said, pushing Spencer’s hands away. “I’ll bring you something next time.”

Spencer rolled his eyes and went back to his food, the dog begging at his side. With a smile that was too adult, Kathy joined Spencer.

“I guess you’re here for the meeting,” I said to the newcomers with an internal sigh of regret. So much for my few minutes with the kids.

“Yep,” Jace answered.

“Speaking of which,” Mari said. “We have about thirty seconds before Ava wants us all in the conference room.”

Having Mari around was like having the most accurate watch in the world at your fingertips. When it came to time or anything to do with math, Mari was queen. I could do the same to some extent when channeling her, but I didn’t understand any of it when we weren’t linked.

“Already?” Chris muttered. “Guess we’ll see you in a bit, kids.”

As a group, we started for the door. My last glimpse was of Spencer extending a hand overflowing with food to Max, and the dog’s tail thumping the rock-tiled floor with anticipation. Neither seemed disturbed by their time under the table, but
I
was disturbed. Children should never have to hide under a table, or worry that someone might kill their remaining parent. No kid should grow up thinking that dangerous ops were a fact of life.

Of course, Kathy and Spencer weren’t the only children caught in the crossfire. If we didn’t find the senators’ families in time, the power might shift once and for all toward the Emporium, and if they controlled the world, no child—or adult, for that matter—would be safe.

“HAVE WE LOCATED ANY OF
the other families?” Jace said from his seat at the foot of the conference table. His black high-backed chair leaned at an angle, his feet thrown up on the table. He looked comfortable in jeans and the leather jacket that fit snugly, as if it’d grown there instead of being purchased from a sale at his favorite Costco.

“I’ve tracked two of the families with an eighty percent chance of accuracy,” Stella said from her usual place midway down the table opposite where Ritter and I sat. “There are still a few variables before I can say for sure, but one family appears to be at a house in Virginia and the other in Maryland. We also have possible leads that put a third family somewhere in Idaho. Fifty percent chance. But there’s nothing from the fourth family yet, and we can’t risk them for only a fifty percent probability of finding the third family.”

“I’d take fifty percent from you over a hundred percent from anyone else,” said Mari, who sat between Stella and Keene near the end of their side of the table. Mari’s hands fidgeted as they always did when she wanted to be moving instead of talking. I could imagine that now with the entire world open to her, the feeling of being closed inside this room was even more intense.

“Even if it were a hundred percent accuracy, we can’t move on those three until we know about the fourth.” Ritter spoke with an authority no one questioned. None of us had lost more than he because of the Emporium—or knew them as well. “Once they know we’re onto them, they’ll cut their losses and slaughter those we haven’t saved. We must save all of them.”

“I’ll find them,” Stella said. “Patrick and I are following up on some leads right now.” I’d already guessed that from the furious way her neural receiver was flashing, but something inside me relaxed at the words. Stella was my best friend, closer than a sister, and if anyone could find a needle in the proverbial haystack, she could.