Abduction (A Psychic Romance Novella Series) (2 page)

Gabrielle arrived at the nondescript office of her first client, having a private laugh at the fact that all federal offices seemed to look the same. They all tried to look as unassuming and unimportant as possible, and in trying so hard to blend into the world around them, they stuck out like sore thumbs, practically proclaiming themselves. Gabrielle wondered if the trick actually worked on anyone.

She walked the short distance to the entrance of the building, reviewing the details of the assignment in her mind. She had agreed to work on an as-needed basis for several federal operations as a negotiating tactic
. At one point, she had been rather insistently recruited by various armed forces and intelligence offices, each of them determined to have her as a permanent employee. The idea of living out her best years in one office or another, listening to the droning thoughts of federal employees, or hiding in darkened rooms to observe suspects for hours as they were questioned, did not appeal to Gabrielle at all. Instead of being conscripted, she reasoned, she would volunteer—and set her own terms. So, a certain part of her daily work was comprised of working with one branch of the government or another, acting as a “consultant.”

Gabrielle took her keys out of her purse and put them in a bowl, following
by her cell phone. Her purse itself went into a separate bin, and she sent the whole set through the x-ray system, suppressing her sense of boredom. She’d been to this very office not six months before, and with her security clearance, she rather thought the normal checkpoints were a waste of time. But she complied, because arguing with any of the techs working security at a federal facility was just an invitation for a more thorough search and more time wasted. She did speak up when one of the security techs suggested that she would have to throw away her food. “Excuse me, I have the highest possible security clearance in this office, and I will likely be here for several hours. If you make me throw away my food, then I will make sure it is YOUR responsibility to tell Site Director Patrice why it is that I am unable to work with him on an important personnel issue today.” The other tech, who knew her a little better, covered his grin hastily behind his hand and muttered to let the woman through without a hassle.

She was in the office for three hours, conducting quick interviews with those
whom the site director had identified as having access to the files pertinent to the leaks. The questions themselves weren’t that important, although sometimes if someone’s thoughts were particularly difficult to read—due to apprehension or inattentiveness—they helped her to get to the thoughts she needed. Nominally, the interviews were to determine how employees felt about some mundane issue, but all of the employees knew that opinions were the last thing that their employer really wanted. It amused Gabrielle to hear the speculation as to why the interviews were really being conducted. After speaking with more than twenty employees, all of whom had nothing in their minds to indicate that they even knew how the leaks were happening, Gabrielle had finally hit pay dirt.

One of the accounting managers, while talking about the mundane funding issue, had just a tiny qualm in the back of her mind, as Gabrielle listened in.

I wonder if this is going to get leaked, too. Have they already been interviewed? Consultant, my ass
.

The woman was the first one to even think about the leaks in the context of the interview—and while Gabrielle could sense that the woman was aware of the information being given to the press, she was very careful not to know who specifically was doing it. But a mental image appeared in her mind—a file she had noticed, accessed on the weekend before the first of the leaks
had hit the press. It had been opened by someone in the administration. Gabrielle had smilingly dismissed the accountant, and cut down her list; she was looking for someone in admin.

Instead of interviewing each individual in turn, Gabrielle brought them into a room together, saying that she wanted to have a section meeting and find out how they felt collectively about the particular initiative that was her cover. It was a bit trickier to read minds this way—with so many to listen to, she could potentially miss a single, stray thought—but it also increased the possibility of uncovering
whether multiple people were behind it, and who they were.

Gabrielle let the interview with the department stretch out, sampling minds and letting the tension build among those who knew the most about the leaks naturally. Gradually, she noticed two employees were thinking about the leaks, feeling guilty and tense—and their feelings eventually won over their need for secrecy, even to themselves.

She dismissed the group back to their jobs and went to the site director, stepping into his office without preamble. “Man and woman in administration,” she said, handing over the personnel list with their names highlighted. “Woman’s the one doing the actual leaking, man’s covering for her.” The director looked at the names, startled.

“They have the highest security clearance in their department,” he said, shaking his head. “I can’t thank you enough for this information. I’ll have to find evidence, question them, but knowing who to go after is a big help.” Gabrielle smiled.

“In terms of evidence, check the logging history on the files that were leaked. Someone in accounting put me on the trail after remembering seeing the files accessed by someone in admin the weekend prior to the first leak hitting the media. You’d probably have more specific details at your disposal.” The director nodded thoughtfully.

“Anyone else I should be concerned about
, more generally?”

Gabrielle considered the question.
“No one’s an immediate threat, but you may want to have someone talk to Gladys in IT. She’s concerned about a security breach, but her higher ups keep telling her that it’s not important. From what I could get from her mind, it was pretty severe. She’s got a really bright mind, too—you should encourage her superiors to take her more seriously, in spite of all the pink she wears.”

The Director chuckled and nodded. With that, Gabrielle left, reasoning that she had just enough time to scarf a snack before she had to get to her next client.

The most interesting assignment of her day was to eat lunch with the boyfriend of a wealthy client, who was convinced that she was being cheated on. The lunch date she had set with the boyfriend, ostensibly a business lunch for her to offer him writing services, was almost a farce. The boyfriend knew that his girlfriend was suspicious, and suspected that Gabrielle was ‘bait.’ Gabrielle was treated to a mental litany of the reasons why he wouldn’t go for her, as well as the reassuring revelation that he was not, in fact, cheating on his wealthy girlfriend. He had quite legitimately been tired for the previous weeks because he was working long hours. But, it had been a lunch that she didn’t have to pay for, and it was nice to be able to give someone good news.

After leaving the interview, Gabrielle contacted the girlfriend directly, making sure to leave in the opposite direction of the boyfriend, and left her a message confirming that her boyfriend was, in fact, perfectly faithful—along with the suggestion that the girlfriend invest in a couples
’ retreat at a spa to rekindle the romance, or try learning massage.

Gabrielle tried to exercise as much caution as possible as she went to her various appointments, but it was impossible for her to keep her mind “open” all day. She’d get far too much detritus if she did. She tried to keep her shields as light as she could, to be aware of her surroundings, and do a quick scan of the area whenever she parked.

As the day wore on longer and longer, however, she was having trouble remembering the precaution, and it became much more important to keep her shields up. Even though she was making an effort to keep her body stoked with sufficient calories to keep her ability at peak, there were some loud minds at one of her assignments, and Gabrielle instinctively reinforced her shields. She had left them in place even as she left the building, having given the businessman the information that his register thief wasn’t the new employee, but instead was one of his most trusted cashiers—who resented the lack of a promotion, in spite of the fact that she had rejected the previous offers for not being good enough. Tensions had run high, and Gabrielle had been almost overwhelmed by the shrill, antagonistic mental tone of the woman she had discovered as the thief.

Shaking her head as she left the shop, Gabrielle paused in her steps, halfway out to her car. She thought she had heard something. She looked around, and seeing nothing, realized that what she had heard wasn’t physical—it was mental. Someone nearby had seen her, noticed her, and the intent of the person had gotten the thought through her mental shields. Gabrielle tried to tell herself it was just someone leaving the store, maybe one of the employees. She started back towards her car, and felt the tingle again. Someone close by was very excited, and watching her intently. Why?

Gabrielle cautiously let down her shields gradually, scanning the area for the mind in question. As she opened up her ability, she caught another flood of shrill mental screaming from the cashier inside the building and cringed, putting a damper on the thoughts she received from that direction. She focused down, looking around her mentally.

She almost missed it. Gabrielle was about to put her shields back up, when she heard just the barest whisper.
That’s her. Get her
. She felt other minds nearby, but couldn’t think beyond the fact that someone had identified her, that they were about to attack. The best course of action, she knew, would be to get into her car and get away, maybe call the police—or someone she knew a bit higher up, who might be able to provide protection.

She started towards her car, moving quickly but being careful not to run; if she ran, her assailant
s would know that she knew they were there. She hadn’t caught enough to know whether or not the other people were aware of the fact that she was a telepath. Hopefully, they had no idea.

Gabrielle almost made it to her car when she heard the sound of heavy boots behind her—not just one person, but several. She wheeled around and saw a group of three men, all of them coming towards her, all of them wearing masks over their face
s that obscured their identity—something sheer but blurring. They were all of a similar build—tall, bulky, muscular—and all in black. For just a moment, Gabrielle’s heart turned over in her chest. The adrenaline hit her system and she focused her telepathic ability on the three men, closing out all other thoughts. She had to know what they would do to be able to counter it.

They were going to use a stun gun on her, she realized, to knock her out and carry her elsewhere—they wanted a quick grab. Gabrielle was going to make that as difficult as possible. She turned her attention to the leader, identified by the minds of the other two. She squared off in his direction, listening for his thoughts while trying to keep a tenuous hold on the other assailants to make sure they didn’t surprise her.

She kicked and punched, putting her martial arts training to use. She didn’t have a weapon at her disposal, but as long as she avoided being hit by one of the stun devices, she could be okay. For a long time, it seemed like she barely evaded one of her assailants just in time for the other one to make another attempt on her. Wisely, they spread out to surround her, each of them staying just out of her reach once they realized that she was capable of defending herself.

Have to bring her in…CHRIST she’s going to get us caught…Should have just used darts…We’re taking too long, someone will see…make a grab right—now!—shit!

Gabrielle heard one of her assailants fall to the ground with a thud, and backed up in surprise
. She hadn’t touched that one. She turned her head in the man’s direction and only barely caught the instinctive, victorious thought of one of her other assailants in the moment before he would have brought the stunner down on her. Barely dodging, she saw someone in the corner of her eye; not a figure all in black, but someone else.

Gabrielle reached out to find out who the man was, and felt as if she had stubbed her toe
. Shaking her head, she knocked the stunner out of her assailant’s hand and scrambled to grab it, turning it around on the man who had almost gotten her and giving him a dose of his own medicine. She remembered the third assailant then—and the man who had suddenly appeared. He could be another attacker, she thought in a panic, though he hadn’t attacked her yet. Just when she turned to her third opponent, she saw him falling from a height that didn’t seem plausible. There was a heavy thud, a groan, and the man was out, his mental voice subsiding to an almost indiscernible murmur.

Gabrielle looked at the man who had showed up
. He was taller than she, with dark hair and blue eyes, dressed in jeans and a striped t-shirt, with a hooded sweat shirt over it, unzipped. “Get in your car,” he said to her, his voice tense. “It won’t be safe for very long.”

Gabrielle moved to get rid of the stunner she had appropriated and the man hissed. “Take it with you
. You’ll need it.” He had a faint accent that Gabrielle couldn’t quite trace, and she instinctively reached out with her mind to try and read him.

She gasped as her attempt to read the man was
again met with a sensation like stubbing her toe—only in her mind. There was nothing there for her to read. It was like trying to see through a brick wall, or trying to listen to something with her ears plugged. She couldn’t read him at all.