Ambushed (31 page)

"It's
okay, Isaac. You can tell him."

I
felt Dominic go tense next to me, but I was too busy wondering why I
hadn't noticed the guy next to Isaac before now. He didn't look like
the others. They were hard men who looked like they were in their
late thirties or early forties, which probably meant that they'd
lived for more than a century already. He looked like he was all of
fifteen.

"This
is Heath and he's the real reason that our little group isn't
constantly at each other's throats."

Isaac's
words were obviously making Heath extremely uncomfortable. Heath
looked like some painter's attempt at bringing an angel to life. He
had straight blond hair that framed a face that didn't seem to have
even the tiniest trace of guile, and his skin was as flawless as an
alabaster doll.

He
didn't have the massive shoulders of most of the rest of the guys,
Isaac included. He didn't have any excess body fat on him, but he
didn't look athletic. He looked like your best friend's kid brother,
the one that you always had to protect from the neighborhood bullies.

"That's
not true, Isaac. You're the one who makes all of this work. Everyone
looks up to you or at least respects you."

The
words had the feel of an argument that had been voiced frequently
already, but there wasn't any heat to them.

Isaac
smiled at Heath and then looked back at Taggart. "Even before I
got exiled from Sanctuary I'd read enough books to realize that the
biggest threat to any society, to any civilization, isn't the petty
crooks or the second-tier criminals. The biggest threat is the human
equivalent to an apex predator.

"The
humans deal with that by making their own apex predators. They take
normal men and women and put them in the military and teach them
honor and duty before they unlock their ability to kill. Of course,
that would never work for us. Our apex predators are born instead of
being made."

"Heath
is your apex predator." It was a statement rather than a
question, and there was a kind of hushed reverence to Taggart's voice
that I'd never heard out of him before.

"Indeed,
he is. Heath is one of those rare hybrids with an ability. He can
manipulate what people see. He's been standing there with the rest of
the guys the whole time, but you didn't see him there because he
didn't
let
you see him."

"You
knew all along that the wolves would support you."

I
was the last person who should be interjecting something into the
conversation. I wasn't a hybrid, I couldn't even ante up for the game
that Isaac and Taggart were playing, but I couldn't help myself.

Luckily
Isaac just smiled at me. "Indeed, I did. The wolves had the most
to gain from civilization. I figured I could get the second-tier
hybrids to see the benefits as well. They were like me, predators but
not apex predators. Whatever we were going to lose out on because we
couldn't prey on the wolves would be more than made up for by the
fact that we wouldn't have the first-tier hybrids preying on us.

"The
first-tier hybrids were the problem just like in any other society.
Nobody was preying on them. They had to worry about conflict with
each other, but by and large they just stayed in their own
territories. From a purely material perspective they wouldn't gain
anything by following my rules."

Heath
spoke up again. "Only I didn't want money or human women. I just
wanted a home and someone I knew I could trust to watch my back. I've
been on my own for years already and I spent a lot of time at the
bottom of the food chain before I finally became a hybrid and
manifested a power. I've had enough sleeping with one eye open to
last me for a lifetime. I'm in."

Even
I knew that meant we had a chance of pulling this off, and knots of
tension that I hadn't even realized had been paining me unknotted in
my neck and shoulders. The Coun'hij enforcers couldn't kill, couldn't
even fight, people that they couldn't see.

Taggart
nodded respectfully to Heath and I realized that for the first time I
was seeing Taggart interact with an equal. He'd chosen to put himself
in Isaac's power because it had been the only way to save his friend,
but in his own way Taggart was just as deadly as Heath.

He
couldn't blind someone, but he was capable of reaching people no
matter how far or fast they ran. Heath could kill, but Taggart could
make you
wish
you were dead.

They'd
both chosen a path that put them at odds with the only people who
could really threaten them. They were kindred spirits in a way that I
could never be. I could kill in the dream, but I was never going to
be Isaac's apex predator. I was just a girl, a human girl who
wouldn't last one second by myself in the world that Isaac and the
others dealt with on a daily basis.

Alec Graves
Shelley High School
Shelley, Idaho

Seeing Alison and her mother reunite after so many months was worth all of
the risks that we'd run getting the two of them out from under
Kaleb's thumb. Their tears were understandable and nobody minded when
the two of them disappeared into one of the white-walled classrooms
to catch up.

My
biggest concern on the drive up to Idaho had been that Kaleb would
track us to the rendezvous point. My second biggest worry had been
that something would happen to Rachel. I was incredibly relieved when
she came running out of the theater where Jack and the others had set
up and threw her arms around me.

"I
was so worried about you, Alec!"

"I
know, Rach. I'm sorry that you've had to spend so much time alone,
there's just been a lot going on and none of it has been very safe."

Rachel
wiped away a couple of small tears before they could make it all of
the way down her face and then offered a shy smile to Brindi.

"I'm
glad you made it back too."

"Thanks,
Rachel. It will be nice to be out of the car long enough to stretch
my legs for more than just a couple of minutes at a gas station."

It
wasn't the first time that Rachel and Brindi had met, but I'd worried
that things would still be strained between them. Brindi was fierce
when it came to warding off anything that might take me away from her
for even a few minutes, and Rachel had obviously not been sure what
to make of the injured girl who'd attached herself to me out of the
blue.

It
was good that they were at least trying to get along.

Rachel
took Brindi's hand and pulled her towards the theater. Given Brindi's
viselike grip on my hand, that meant that Rachel pulled both of us
into the theater after her. James, Jasmin and Jess followed the three
of us in and a few seconds later we were all arrayed in a loose
circle with Jack and the rest of his people.

I
could tell that Jack was bursting to tell me whatever it was he'd
learned while in Sanctuary, but I held a hand up, stopping him before
he could get started. I looked around at everyone in the circle, both
Jack's people and my friends, meeting each of their gazes for a
second or two.

"I
just wanted to say thank you to all of you. I know some of you are
here more because of Jack than any other reason, but I still
appreciate you going back to Sanctuary and risking what you risked to
help reunite Alison and her mother. I pay my debts, and when you help
me pay a debt like you just did then some of that debt transfers from
the person you helped to you.

"If
there comes a time when you need to cash in that debt all you have to
do is tell me. Money is easy, but if it's something else you need
I'll do my best to make it happen."

Jack
let the silence hang in the air for a few moments before clearing his
throat. "I have some news, Alec. While we were in Sanctuary I
found out where they are holding Agony. Even better, I found out when
they are going to move him and what route they are going to take. If
Shawn or his contact comes through with a couple dozen hybrids then
there is a good chance we can do this."

I
didn't even realize I'd stood up until Brindi tugged on my arm. My
shock was complete. I'd been trying to put together a jailbreak for
Agony ever since we'd flown back to the mainland, but given the
complete dearth of information, I'd stopped believing it was going to
be possible to actually get him out.

"Show
me."

With
the biggest grin I'd ever seen on his face, Jack pulled out an
old-fashioned, red three-ring binder and passed it over to me. He'd
been busy, extremely busy.

There
were topographic maps, weather data, satellite pictures of the
enclosure where they were guarding him, and detailed information
about each of the cities along the route from the Mexican border up
into New Mexico. There were probably only a handful of people in the
world who could have put together that much information by themselves
along with three separate possible plans while on the run from
Kaleb's people and all in the space of just two days.

I
was extremely lucky to have recruited Jack to my side. We still
lacked the numbers and the top-of-the-food-chain hybrid abilities
that we would have needed to go head to head with a group of the
Coun'hij's finest, but with Jack on our side we at least had a chance
of structuring things so that we could achieve objectives without
having
to go head to head with someone like Brandon or Puppeteer.

Jack
and the others waited while I looked through the binder. Once I was
done and had handed it to James, Jack pulled out another map. This
one was of a tiny stretch of road on the eastern edge of New Mexico.

"I've
gone through the other two plans half a dozen times and if we had to
we could give them a shot, but we'd need something like fifty people
to have any chance of making them work."

I
nodded. I couldn't have put options together like Jack had, at least
not as quickly as he had, but I could understand what he was saying.

"How
did Kaleb and the rest ever even find him down in Mexico?"

Jack
shrugged. "Maybe the Brain Box found him. They've been working
with Brandon for months now scouring every bit of intel they could
get out of Mexico and parts south. Maybe Agony got sloppy, or maybe
it was just sheer dumb luck. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me to find
out that Agony has been spending a lot of time south of the border.
It's the last place the Coun'hij would have been looking for him, so
it makes a lot of sense that he would have gone down there whenever
things started getting too hot here in the States."

"I
agree with you, an open assault on the compound where they have him
right now is too dangerous. Not only do we have to worry about any
jaguars who might be in the area, I think the intelligence you've got
is probably right that Puppeteer is down there."

"Yeah,
it fits too well with everything else I've been hearing. Mexico's
power grid isn't as redundant and robust as ours is, but there has
been a definite uptick in blackouts down in that area and Puppeteer
has been remarkably quiet for the last couple of weeks."

I
shook my head in astonishment that anyone had managed to get
Puppeteer to remain in one spot for that long. Kaleb relied on
Brandon and the largest pack in North America to keep him secure.
Puppeteer on the other hand relied on anonymity. He'd killed too many
people over the years and his ability was too powerful. People from
both sides were gunning for him. If his actual identity ever became
common knowledge his life expectancy would drop precipitously.

"I
should have seen it. Kaleb has managed to keep Puppeteer leashed
pretty well for the last few years, but even for him it would have
been an epic accomplishment to keep Puppeteer down there that long
just to do a little jaguar hunting."

"Don't
beat yourself up about it. Nobody else saw it either. In fairness,
Kaleb was probably killing two birds with one stone. The pressure on
Brandon and his people seems to be reaching critical levels. For
every official op that they run there seems to be another one going
on that nobody is talking about. All I can figure is that Kaleb is
more concerned about looking like he has the situation there under
control than he is about trumpeting his latest body count figure from
the rooftops."

I'd
known that Jack didn't like Kaleb, but there was something else there
besides just the death of Jack's son. Now wasn't the time, but I
needed to get him to open up. Jack has as much control as anyone else
I'd ever met, but some pressures are too great to be contained
indefinitely.

Jack
moved his finger over to a small town on the map that was the most
likely place for the convoy of vehicles to refuel.

"We
could hit them here once they aren't moving, but then we'd have to
worry about all of the humans around. I'm not just talking about the
fact that we'd be on the six o'clock news either. Kaleb and the rest
are going to know that this is their most vulnerable spot. If I was
him I'd have at least another six or seven hybrids there at the gas
station waiting for the convoy to roll in. If we get into some kind
of knock-down drag-out fight with all of those humans around we're
going to have some innocent people caught in the crossfire."

I
wanted to argue with him. Fights involving wolves and hybrids didn't
usually cause the kind of ancillary damage that you saw when you
added modern weapons and explosives into the mix, but ultimately it
didn't matter. He was right that the Coun'hij would have extra
security waiting at the gas station.

All
of which brought us to the final option. Jack flipped the map over
and revealed another map and some satellite photos taped to the back
of it.

"This
section of the road climbs a six-and-a-half percent grade for a mile
and a half, which means that the truck will be basically crawling by
the time it hits the top of the hill. There's a stream that runs
along from here to here which is important because it has fed some of
the biggest trees I've ever seen all along this section of the road
at the top of the hill.