"What"s this?"
"A switchblade. Be careful. Remember that poison from last night? Well, something like that is on the blade. It"s small enough to hide, but the poison gives it more punch." The knife was smaller than any switchblade I"d ever seen, the handle some kind of white material decorated with a carved blue-painted dragon riveted to a metal base.
Silence stretched out between us. At last he spoke. "I"m not Unbounded but if I have any ability, it"s for combat, and I wanted you to know where I stand. In case it matters."
If Stella hadn"t told me what the weapons meant, I would be completely confused right now. "Keene, I-"
He put a finger over my mouth. "Not now." In a swift movement he removed his hand and bent down, pressing his lips to mine. He felt warm and inviting. Desire rushed over me, but with my heightened sensitivity, I couldn"t tell who drove the emotion. Before I could figure it out, he drew back and walked toward the door.
I didn"t reply, still stunned. Despite his flirting and half joking comments, I was pretty sure he"d been resigned to my feelings for Ritter, but maybe he wasn"t as content as I"d thought to sit back and wait until I made my decision.
At the door, Keene paused. "Be careful out there tonight." A second later he was gone.
I stared at the knife, shaking my head. I burned for Ritter, but I"d be lying if I said Keene didn"t have a place in my heart. In many ways he was safer. Losing myself was something I was very much afraid of doing.
Locating a narrow pocket sewn in my catwoman suit along the side, one of the suit"s many hiding places, I stored the switchblade. I waited two more minutes to make sure the hallway was clear before I headed downstairs.
THE EMPORIUM COMPOUND WAS LOCATED across the bay in Brooklyn on the west side near the water but not right on it. We always pa.s.sed a Costco warehouse on our way, and as usual Jace said he wished it were open that late because there were some things he"d like to pick up. Before his Change, he"d been a huge Costco fan. I think he"d bought all his clothes there. Now he didn"t have time to shop, so he used magazines or relied on Stella"s contacts. He didn"t care about the perfect pair of jeans.
The compound was a big, ugly, rectangular building surrounded by other big, ugly, rectangular buildings. Compared to Manhattan where we were staying, the buildings here were flat, most reaching only four or five stories, though there were eight-story buildings scattered among them. The compound was three stories surrounded by yards of cement. There were no plants or gra.s.s anywhere, unless they were in some interior courtyard we couldn"t see. A huge chain-link fence dotted with construction signs encircled the property, but there was no evidence of construction except for a single backhoe and a small trailer parked near the entrance.
Four Emporium soldiers with a.s.sault rifles were always on guard near the trailer, and two of them walked the entire perimeter with regularity. Security cameras were everywhere, most focused toward the building"s doors and windows and the approaching grounds. The building itself had at least ten other guards on duty at all times, two outside each entrance, and every time we"d seen them, they wore headsets connecting them with the others. While this wasn"t a luxury safe house for high-ranking Emporium Unbounded, they were obviously protecting something they considered to be of high value. We knew from observation that at least one healer and two scientists were working there on manipulating the Unbounded gene. By the deliveries that came to the place, and the glimpses we"d managed to get of the inside with our technology, they weren"t living a life of squalor.
We parked several blocks over and walked through the silent streets, making ourselves scarce whenever a car drove by. The cold was biting and the darkness heavy, but it was better than watching in the daylight when we had to be more careful of being sighted.
"Anything we should be aware of?" Ritter asked me as we approached the building from the right side.
I shook my head. "Not a thing." I"d been pushing so hard and reaching so far out that my head already pounded, an odd contrast to the rest of me that felt alive and ready to fight.
"See if you can sense the new prisoner when we get close," Ritter said. "We haven"t seen him removed, but you never know."
Never know if he had been smuggled out or if he"d been killed? I didn"t want clarification.
"I"m so glad we"re finally doing something." Despite working through his forms twice, Jace was still wound tight.
I shot a glance in his direction. "Remember there"s a sensing Unbounded in the area. Keep your shield up." The last thing I wanted was that Unbounded in my brother"s mind. It disturbed me that I hadn"t noticed the man spying on Emerson while I"d also been in his mind. I had to be more careful.
"I"m with Jace," Mari said. "It"s good to be doing anything at this point. I wish I could just shift in and talk to our people. Let them know we"re out here and not giving up on them."
I wished she could, too, or that my connection with the prisoners was clear enough for me to guide her inside. But I"d only been able to catch occasional glimpses of the prisoners at all.
"They know we"re coming for them." This from Ritter and it was nearly a growl. The others fell silent but I felt his frustration and knew the growl was directed more toward himself than at their chatter.
"He"s right," I said. "If it were any of us, we"d know someone was coming for us. Or I hope you know that."
They did. So odd feeling that from them without trying.
We usually watched the building from several locations, including from behind a grouping of storage sheds near the building next door, which was where we were headed tonight. Our primary goal in watching had been to make sure the Emporium didn"t move the prisoners while we gathered information that might aid in their escape. So far, we"d kept our presence a secret, hoping to find some way in without risking a direct a.s.sault. But we"d come up empty, and after three weeks of waiting, the collective frustration was beyond high. We didn"t forget our people had probably been tortured-perhaps still were being tortured-and that their genes were being studied and used by the Emporium.
As we approached, a figure separated itself from one of the storage sheds. A short Asian man talented in combat moved toward us with the sinewy grace of an acrobat. He had very short hair and looked to be in his late thirties, which made him closer to three or four centuries. His name was Li Yuan-Xin, and normally he"d be called Li, but that was too similar to the name he"d used as the famous mortal, Bruce Lee, so we called him Yuan-Xin. He was the only Unbounded famous in America who hadn"t relocated elsewhere after faking his death. His son, also Unbounded and another faked death, was in Europe working with Renegades there.
Yuan-Xin smiled, taking my hand to kiss the back of it. "We missed you last night. Heard you ran into trouble today. Good to see you"re not letting it hold you back."
I returned his smile. "Never."
He kissed Mari"s hand and b.u.mped fists with the men in greeting. "My people are watching the other sides of the building, so I"ll be joining them."
"You aren"t staying for the fun?" Jace asked.
Yuan-Xin nodded. "Yeah, but we"ll be on the other side in case they try to use the back gate. I"d rather be here with you guys, but someone has to keep an eye on our young ones. They"ve been talking about letting themselves get caught just for the experience. They don"t yet understand . . . anything." He bowed to us. "Regardless, I"ll be watching and waiting for the signal in case you need my help."
With that, he faded into the night. I was glad to have him for backup. I"d never seen him in an actual fight, but Ritter"s respect for the man told me all I needed to know. Thinking of him saddled with two new reckless Unbounded and two others who cared only for their art was a little sad, but for all their irresponsibility, at least his new Unbounded weren"t as arrogant and unlikable as Oliver, and their ability was combat. Eventually Yuan-Xin would live long enough to see the pendulum swing back the other way. At least if we could stave off the Emporium long enough.
"Okay," Ritter said as we made our way behind the sheds. "We know they change the guards at two. They are never late. Two new guards arrive and two leave. The others rotate. That"s when we"re going to act. We need to stop the guards from pulling their car into the gate. We hit them hard and fast. Use your silencers. Shoot out the tires and windows. Shoot them if you have an opportunity. We grab hostages if we can. Mari and Erin, if their people do get out of the car and make it inside the gate, I want you both to shift close enough to fire at them, but get out within five seconds. Got it?"
"What if they get the car inside?" Jace asked.
Ritter pulled a rocket launcher from the duffel bag he"d dropped on the ground. "This is our backup plan."
Jace"s face lit up. "So much for silencers."
"The objective is to make it cost them every time they come or leave. No deliveries in or out. No people in or out. A literal blockade. In between, we"ll hit their electricity and other utilities. It gets pretty cold at night, and without running water, they"ll get desperate soon enough. No doubt it will get harder to maintain the blockade as the days go by, and we"ll have to become more creative. During daylight it will be far more difficult, and if they bring in anyone they have on the local police force, that will complicate things. Yuan-Xin and his people have b.o.o.by-trapped places in the street that are controlled remotely, if it comes to that, but our hope is that the Emporium will try to deal with this on their own first and not officially involve local authorities until they decide to move the captives. When they do move our people, we follow them as far as we can and, at the best opportunity, hit them with everything we"ve got."
"That"s your plan? Really?" I asked. Now that he"d explained the so-called siege, it didn"t seem at all like something that would work long enough to get our people to safety. "I can drive a semi through that plan. They have far more people available than we do, and we may be able to stop them for the first few days, but we all know they aren"t above involving the local authorities. In fact, I"m betting that"s the first thing they"ll do. They"ll probably have the vice president"s son conduct a press conference right here with the media while they bus our people out in the background." I"d been emotionally close to bursting for days, and it was good to have an outlet.
Ritter"s eyes narrowed. "I agree, but it"s still our best chance-as long as they do eventually move our people. If we go in there now, we"ll lose both of Yuan-Xin"s new Unbounded as well as his other two, no matter how well they sing and dance. They"ll be nothing more than cannon fodder. Even with all our people here, we aren"t strong enough to take that building from fourteen experienced men armed with a.s.sault rifles."
The sinking feeling in my gut told me he was right, but there had to be another way. A better way. Two of the captured Renegades were women, and after nearly being raped myself for the so-called Emporium good, I worried most about them. While Unbounded sperm could be removed from its owner and manipulated to increase the possibility of Change, tampering with the ovum had not yet been successful, and neither had implanting an Unbounded-bred ovum in a host body. That meant Unbounded women were vital to the Emporium breeding program. They wouldn"t let these two go easily, especially if they had any unusual gift or ancestry.
The Emporium"s success at sperm manipulation had led to our own testing. We didn"t, however, experiment on unwilling partic.i.p.ants or kidnap Emporium agents for their genes. We also didn"t try to force early Changes. I told myself that was because the resulting damage, defects, and even death caused by the failed experiments was immoral, but part of me wondered if it had anything to do with numbers. We had fewer than a hundred Renegade Unbounded in the entire world and significantly fewer healers and scientists. The Emporium had a least four times that amount, possibly more. They could afford to lose one or two potentials to an experiment that might reap far more. We couldn"t.
Ritter took my silence as capitulation. "Can you see inside the building? Are they all still there?"
He meant the prisoners. Of the five, we"d sighted only two in the last three weeks, one when she"d briefly been allowed to walk around the grounds, and another when he"d made a break through the front door. The building was made of heavy materials and was large, but I should be able to see inside better. Unfortunately, an occasional glimpse of the five huddled life forces was all that I was able to receive. I"d broken through many shields outside the building as the guards came and went, but so far that hadn"t been useful. The last time I was here, I"d considered trying to access the roof because it might get me closer to the Unbounded inside. Unfortunately, their soldiers and cameras made that impossible.
"I can"t tell," I said.
Mari squinted into the night. "What about the new Unbounded? The one they brought in the other night? Any sign of him?"
I concentrated. "Nothing. Sorry."
"Not your fault," Ritter said. "It"s a long way." I felt slightly placated, though I was still mad at him for that stupid plan. Still, he had to know what he was doing, right? He"d been fighting the Emporium for more years than I"d been alive.
"Someone"s coming." I turned to stare into the street behind us. "Two, on foot. Coming from that direction." Everyone reached for a weapon, Ritter fading into the night to circle around. I pushed out my thoughts, touching the newcomers. "Stand down. It"s Cort and Oliver."
"Oh, did he have to bring Oliver?" Mari muttered.
Jace snorted a laugh.
Ritter reappeared at my side as Cort rounded the shed, Oliver two steps behind him. "So, couldn"t stay away from the fun, eh?" Ritter said.
"I came to give you another option." Cort nodded at me. "Actually, it was Erin who suggested it."
Me? I was brilliant, but I didn"t know what he was talking about. "How"s that?" I asked.
"Show her, Oliver."
Oliver"s satisfied smile vanished and a cold menacing one took its place-an exact mirror of the one on Ritter"s face. No, it was Ritter, and I was standing next to him where Cort had been, except my catwoman suit was nowhere near that tight or that low. And did I really have that much cleavage?
"Wow, that"s pretty neat," Jace said, moving around them. "It even looks real from the back, though not exactly like the real thing."
"Well, I didn"t see them from behind." The Ritter that was really Oliver took several steps and peered behind the real Ritter, keeping a safe distance, which I thought was pretty smart, given that the real Ritter"s expression had hardened even more.
"Oh, that"s much better," Jace said. "Now try to do me."
Jace"s blond hair slowly replaced Ritter"s black, followed more quickly by the rest of Jace"s face and body. Fascinated, I reached out to see how Oliver did it, to see if I could mimic his ability.
Mari looked back and forth between the real us and the illusions. "Wow, that"s incredible. So how many can you do at one time?"
"Only two if I want them to look just like the real thing." Oliver morphed back into himself. "Cort says I should be able to do more eventually."
"Maybe I can do it." My thoughts were churning. If we could pose as someone who belonged inside the compound, it would be a lot better start than that ridiculous plan.
Oliver frowned at me. "I don"t think you"ll be able to. It took me all day to-hey! Get out of my mind!"
I glanced down and found myself looking at Oliver. It looked real enough that I had to touch myself to see that it was an illusion.
"I can"t believe you"d do that," spluttered Oliver.
"You didn"t have a shield." At least not one of any note. "Anyway, I"m not in your thoughts, exactly. I"m barely inside. I just watched how you did it." I let the illusion drop, taking myself from his mind. I really hadn"t meant to go inside him, but what a discovery. "There, I"m out."
Oliver glowered. "Don"t do it again."
"Shut up, Oliver," Cort said. "You finally have a way to help us. Don"t blow it. Or are you saying you don"t want backup?"
"I"m just saying she shouldn"t-" Oliver broke off when he glimpsed Ritter"s face. "All right. But if we"re both going to do it, she"d better watch me again to make sure she"s got it. There"s a particular problem with the speech."
Ritter exchanged a glance with Cort. "The question is how can we use it?" Ritter asked. "Three or four people won"t be enough to take the compound over, even from inside. Not without a plan and a simultaneous attack from outside."
"No, but it"ll be enough to give us a peek and see what the setup is," Jace said. "We could even plant some b.o.o.by traps inside."
"Go inside?" Oliver made a sour face. "What if we"re caught?"
"Then we free you when we free the others." Mari gave him an insincere smile as she added, "Cousin."
Oliver flashed teeth that seemed almost too bright against his dark skin. "Sure you would. Cousin."
"Kids, kids." Jace placed a hand on each of their shoulders. "Let"s call a truce, eh? Oliver, I"m amazed. That"s a useful trick. And if we get caught, you can fake that SWAT team like you did in Oregon. They were detailed enough to cause a distraction. Maybe not from behind, but who cares?"
Oliver seemed mollified at the praise and Mari knew when to keep her mouth shut. That left Ritter to decide what to do since Ava had given him total control over what went on at the compound. He paced to the end of the storage shed and back. "If we take out the new guards that are coming tonight and fake being them to get inside, we"ll tip our hand when they pull out early. Because no way am I leaving our people there all night, especially if we begin the siege."
"We couldn"t fake being the guards anyway," Cort said. "We know nothing about their protocol except what Erin and Ava have seen from their minds. That won"t be enough."
An idea was forming in my head. "What about visitors? They"ve had at least two surprise inspections that we know about. One we even witnessed." I used the term we very loosely because I hadn"t actually been there at the time of the visit.
Ritter"s face snapped to mine. "What are you thinking?"
"I"m thinking we forget the siege for right now and some of us go in there with Oliver, posing as another inspection team or visitor. We take note of the setup, see if we can give our people weapons, and let them know to watch for a signal."
"What if something goes wrong?" Oliver asked.
"We know they"re blocking radio signals from going outside the gate," I said, "to make sure their guards aren"t overheard, so we can"t use radios. But we have detected cell phone signals. We can call out if we need to."
"If they don"t take our phones." Oliver"s voice was a mutter.
I shrugged. "Well, if it"s just you and Mari and me, Mari and I can always shift and take you with us at least some of the way."
Jace arched a brow and I knew he was remembering our practices with him. "You may need to fight your way out. Maybe someone else should go, too."
I opened my mouth to tell him that was ridiculous, but I couldn"t because he was right, and I was suddenly dreading going in with only Mari and Oliver. Even if the two didn"t kill each other, they would be next to useless in an actual fight. Oliver"s illusions certainly couldn"t fight, and Mari"s knives wouldn"t be much protection against experienced Unbounded. At least she could save herself by shifting out.
"I don"t think-" Oliver began.
"The question is, can he do it?" Ritter ran over Oliver"s protest, looking intently at Cort.
"Oh, yeah. He does it rather easily, in fact." Cort"s voice told me he wished it were otherwise. "He should be able to grow stronger with practice. There"s even a possibility that-" He shook his head. "Never mind." But I had already seen in his thoughts that he thought Oliver might learn to imbue his projections with substance.
Wait. I pulled back mentally from Cort, shocked at myself for spying, but unlike with Oliver, I hadn"t penetrated his shield, only picked up his surface thoughts, perhaps even meant for me. I gave an internal sigh of relief. I hadn"t lost myself to instinct entirely. I really needed to talk to Ava about this increase of my abilities. I didn"t want to lose what few friends I had in this new life.
"Look, if it fails," I told Ritter, "you can always go with the original plan. I know it"s a risk, but what we stand to gain far outweighs what we might lose."
Our eyes met, neither of us speaking. Everyone else seemed to vanish until we were alone. A tremor slid down my back.
"Okay," he said finally. "You go in now, before they change guards." He looked at his watch. "You have one hour. If you"re not back by then, we"ll attack the guards, cut the electricity, blow Yuan-Xin"s b.o.o.by-traps, and hope that provides you with enough distraction to get out." In other words, he"d show all his hand instead of doling it out bit by bit as the original plan called for.
"Maybe we should wait," Mari said, "and do it all at once. Free them and attack from the inside and out with all our strength on the same day. We"d keep the advantage of surprise. We"ll lose that if they discover us tonight."
Ritter shook his head. "We need to know what we"ll be walking into. We have the original building plans but no idea how the inside might have been modified. We have no clue about locking doors or what kinds of experiments have been done on our people and how able they are to defend themselves. They could be drugged and useless for all we know, or their minds could have been damaged."
This last he said because of Delia Vesey. The Triad member had been one of the visitors to the compound before we"d arrived. Her machinations were not limited to enemies, as verified by the distinct fear the guards had of a possible return visit. It was she I planned to impersonate.
A sense of excitement replaced the trepidation in the pit of my gut. Ritter had signed off on my plan and that meant he thought we had a real chance at success.
"In and out," he said.
Sometimes he was so predictable. "Of course, Your Deathliness. No dallying or fancy stuff. I promise." Not even Jace laughed at my comment. Probably too afraid of the beating he"d get at their next training session.
Ritter scowled. "Good. Now just try to remember that."