Cassidy Jones and the Luminous (Cassidy Jones Adventures Book 4) (34 page)

Grimm removed what looked to be a remote control from inside his sports jacket. He punched a few buttons. Looking at his cool expression, one would think he was calling a buddy to chat, and not standing in the center of wreckage and bleeding, injured men.

“My good people,” Grimm said in a loud, reverent voice. “We wish you no harm. You were doing your job, protecting your species, just as we were protecting ours. You have one hour to vacate this building before it goes up in smoke. There is no use looking for the bomb I’ve just armed. Don’t waste time. Survive.”

As if this were a cue, the Luminous made their way toward the channel. The injured members of the SWAT team watched them, making no attempt to intervene.

Hearing the metal steps rattle, I looked at the stairs to see the boy Gavin had beaten and duct taped. His and Gavin’s eyes briefly met. He touched his bruised jaw, then pointed at Gavin, a warning that he would not soon forget what Gavin had done to him.

One by one, the Luminous jumped into the clear water. The parasites had followed the current out.

“We are not monsters,” Grimm announced. He looked straight at me.

Ashlyn dropped into the channel, followed by her mother.

Owen stepped up to the edge.

“No, Dad!” Jared cried, his hand still pressed firmly on Joe’s wound.

“Come with us,” his father called.

“Come with you? How? I can’t! Where are you going?”

“We are the future!” Grimm thundered.

Owen smiled sadly at his son. “I love you,” he said, then jumped in.

Jared’s face fell.

“We are
your
future.”

With those parting words, Grimm stretched his arms over his head and dove into the channel.

Twelve hours after he’d been shot, Joe had pulled through surgery but hadn’t regained consciousness. He’d lost a significant amount of blood, but the doctors were hopeful he’d have a full recovery.

I glanced around the hospital room, apprising Gavin, Emery, and Jared. They wore the trauma we’d all experienced on their tired, somber faces, along with the knowledge that this was far from finished.

Dad, who had somehow convinced hospital administrators to allow us to keep a vigilant eye on Joe, had left about two hours earlier. My mom and brothers had stopped by to check on us, and Gavin had been in and out, conferencing with the “Mother Ship,” and covering our tracks. In the chaotic aftermath of the battle, Dad and I had been able to quietly disappear after assisting the injured CIA agents out of the building.

Following the ambulance that carried Joe, we’d listened to the emergency radio broadcast of the explosion as we watched black smoke billow in the distance. Thankfully, there had been no casualties.

We are not monsters
. Grimm’s words echoed through my head as I examined Joe’s heart monitor, the waves on the screen dipping up and down like the waters of Puget Sound.

We are the future
.

We are
your
future
.

Not if I have anything to say about it,
I growled in my head.

Jared’s cell rang. I looked at him. My heart sank, seeing his despair. He had barely spoken a word, but his eyes said it all. He had been shattered.

“It’s my mom again,” he mumbled. “I’ll be right back.”

I opened my mouth to ask if he wanted company, but the slight shake of Emery’s head stopped me. After Jared was gone, Emery shared more of his theories, just as he had every other time Jared had left the room.

“Infecting the general populace was phase three of their mission,” he projected.

“Which is to take over the world,” I interjected. The Kings, Lily White, the Luminous—why was there always someone trying to take over the world?

“What else?” Emery agreed. “Phase two had been to infect Seattle’s homeless population in order to breed in this particular region. They chose the homeless so they could stay under the radar. If a missing person report was filed for a homeless person—which most likely wouldn’t happen—the case would be shoved to the bottom of the pile.”

The invisible people
, I remembered Joe saying. I looked at him sadly.
Wake up, Joe. You’re not invisible to us.

“In this particular region?” Gavin repeated. “You think they’ve infected other areas?”

“They had an office full of Louisiana transplants, most of whom were from Grimm’s hometown.”

“So phase one was infecting targeted victims,” Gavin said.

“And there’s no way to tell if people are Luminous until they’re firing water from their palms,” I added, feeling queasy. I wasn’t sure if the ill feeling was due to the Luminous threat, or the fact that I hadn’t eaten since dinner the night before.

“Are you sure about that, Cassidy?” Gavin asked. “There isn’t
any
physical trait? Could you pick up anything telepathically from them?”

I shook my head. “Apparently, they’re on a different frequency than dogs, cats, and
him
.” I gestured toward Emery. “They look like any other human, and smell like any other human, if that’s what you were getting at.”

“Jared will be back any moment,” Emery predicted, abruptly impatient. “The original
breeding ground
has to be
located
.
It’s probably in Grimm’s hometown.”

“Maybe that’s where they’ve all gone.” I pictured the devastation on Jared’s face when his father had disappeared in the channel. How could he have left his son like that? Then again, the real Owen had left Jared long ago.

“Believe it or not, Emery, the CIA is a step ahead of you.” Gavin yawned and scrubbed his exhausted face. “This is a government investigation now. In other words, stay out of it.”

“When you put it like that,” Emery retorted, “how can I not?”

Gavin shook a finger at him, lowering it as Jared returned.

I cleared the guilt from my throat. Why were we excluding Jared from the conversation, anyway? It was more than being sensitive to his feelings, I knew. Hadn’t he earned a place on our team?

“Um, how’s your mom?” I asked awkwardly.

“She’s at LAX,” Jared answered, sitting down. “She’ll be home in a few hours.” That was all he had to say on the subject.

I examined his guarded expression, wondering if he suspected we were leaving him out of the loop. It triggered another dose of guilt.

Enough of this
, I decided. “Jared, Emery thinks—”

“—Joe is coming to,” Emery finished for me.

“That’s a cheap trick—” I started to scold him.

Then Joe’s eyelids twitched.

“Joe!” I grabbed his hand, relieved and frightened at the same time. The jig was up. Joe was about to see more than just my green eyes. “Can you hear me?”

His eyelids fluttered open. Tears misted mine.

“Green Eyes,” he said in a hoarse whisper, trying to focus on me.

“Yes.” I dashed a tear away. “My name is Cassidy. Cassidy Jones.”

His lips lifted into a smile. “You’re as pretty as a picture, just like I reckoned you’d be.”

“And this is Emery Phillips—
Mendel
,” I introduced, excited. “And Gavin, his father, but you know him, too—Hawkeye. And you already know Jared.”

Jared gave Joe a distant smile. “Glad you’re okay, Joe.” He cleared his throat a little, as though it had constricted, and averted his eyes. I wondered if he felt ashamed about his dad.

“You’re a brave young man,” Joe whispered, his sage-brown eyes brimming with sympathy. “Everything will be just fine, Jared.”

Jared nodded quickly, hoping that would end the condolences. I’d noticed Joe hadn’t delivered the statement with his usual conviction. His words were meant to be comforting, nothing more.

“Oh, Joe, I have good news!” I gushed, wanting to shift the focus off Jared. Plus, I was eager to see how Joe would receive the opportunity. Knowing what I knew about him, I figured he’d politely decline the invitation. But I wasn’t about to let him.

“Let me, Cassidy,” Gavin said. He smiled at Joe. “Joe, it’s going to take a while for you to recover. We have an extra bedroom—”

“Thank you kindly, Gavin,” Joe cut him off. “But I’ll be fine.”

My eyes welled. I knew Joe would turn Gavin down.

“Oh, Joe.” I had forgotten all the arguments I had formulated over the hours. “Joe,
please
.” I couldn’t see him go back on the streets.

Joe took my hand. When I looked at him, I saw tenderness there.

And then I saw the shackles break.

“Gavin,” his gaze moved toward Gavin as he squeezed my hand. I swiped away the single tear that had slipped down my cheek, suddenly a happy tear. Joe had finally ended his self-imposed sentence of homelessness and loneliness. “Do y’all need a cook?”

“What do you cook?”

“Cajun.”

“Gumbo?”

“I make a
mean
gumbo.”

Sinking deep in his chair, arms crossed, Gavin just grinned and nodded.

“I have a year-long family membership for the EMP . . .” the auctioneer announced. He added a few details that I didn’t pay attention to, then launched into his chant. “Who’ll give me a hundred dollars, now two, who will give me two . . .?”

My eyes moved from smiling face to smiling face at our table—my family, the Phillipses, Jared, and Eileen. I marveled at how normal we all appeared, dressed up, eating, laughing, and having a grand old time. It was as though worlds hadn’t been rocked, lives hadn’t been shattered, and we lived blissfully free from the knowledge of a new threat against the human race.

For the night, Gavin was just an accountant, Emery was a typical ninth-grade boy, I was human, and Jared was happy. He played the part well. His joy seemed genuine, and at the moment, his biggest challenge in the world appeared to be getting the napkin football he’d folded to go between the goal posts Nate made with his index fingers and thumbs across the table. No one would have guessed the many dark secrets concealed at this one table, behind our bright smiles.

My eyes traveled around the room, taking in the other happy faces. What were their secrets?

That they’re Luminous?
I examined an attractive woman in a shimmering dress who was nibbling at a slice of red velvet cake as she chatted with her tablemates. As far as I knew, she could be one.

Doctors, lawyers, politicians, pillars of society.

The city could be swarming with Luminous. There was no way to know.

Of course, the burning question was: What about the people who hadn’t been completely assimilated, including my mom?

Will the parasites remain dormant in them?
Serena had concluded they would.
But does the parasite have more control than we realize?
I fretted, studying Mom.

Mom chatted with Eileen, appearing untroubled and in complete control of her mind. Feeling my worried gaze, she looked at me and smiled. I worked the sides of my mouth into a smile, too. Tonight was not the time to torment myself.

The threat of more Luminous casualties had been greatly reduced. Ester’s building and the Luminous Water plant had burned to the ground, and the government had issued a sweeping recall of the contaminated water. Subsequent news reports claimed that a potentially harmful bacteria had been detected in the bottled water during a routine safety test. It was a pale shade of the truth.

There had been a public outcry that first week as Luminous Water was pulled from stores and vending machines. Many consumers experienced withdrawal symptoms. There had been a handful of other missing person reports filed during that time, too. I figured these were the unfortunate people who disregarded the recall and consumed their last flat of Luminous Water. According to Grimm, they were unhappy hosts choosing a new life, a new aquatic existence.

Which brings me to Cristiano.

He had returned to work a couple of days after the explosion, apologetic and moodier than he’d been in recent weeks. Emery said his excuse had been a family emergency, which he hadn’t elaborated on. I didn’t believe Cristiano, of course. He had to be one of them.

After school that day, I studied him from our living room window, waiting for him to slip up and give himself away as he tossed scraps into a dump truck. As far as Cristiano knew, he was alone and there was no one around to witness the truth. But he remained a normal man, just doing his job.

Maybe Cristiano is only human
,
I thought as Dad raised his paddle to bid on whatever auction item was up for grabs.
Maybe I should stop thinking about all of this right now.

Jared’s football struck my forehead, confirming that thought.

“Ow!” I complained, rubbing my forehead.

Jared flashed his beautiful grin, the merriment reaching his eyes.

“Having fun?” he inquired. He appeared to be on the verge of laughter. I marveled at how he could be so carefree. Like Emery, he obviously possessed an ability to compartmentalize that I didn’t. The heavy stuff always hung directly in front of my face.

“Loads.” I shot the football at him. I could at least
try
to put thoughts of impending doom on the backburner for a couple of hours.

“Ah, we have a very special item on the table now: a six-day Caribbean cruise on the Sovereign Luxury Cruise Line for a family of up to four members, with the host of
In the Spotlight
, Drake Jones, and his lovely family. Who’ll give me one thousand, now two, who will give me two . . .”

Gavin raised his paddle.

“Two-thousand-dollar bid! Now three thousand, will ya give me three?”

Across the room, Robin Newton’s dad put his paddle in the air.

“Dad!” she shrieked in horror.

I couldn’t blame her. I was pretty horrified myself.

The auctioneer pointed at him. “Three-thousand-dollar bid! Now four thousand, will ya give me four?”

“Gavin, put your paddle in the air,” I screeched, gesturing wildly for him to bid.

Emery laughed.