Cryostorm (10 page)

“Okay, Georgia,” I said.

“Sorry, old habits die hard,” Lois said, then gulped her water.

“What happened to you? You left? You’re so different. We couldn’t find you for so long.” Georgia rattled off the questions like an auctioneer.

“You got my letter.”

“And your book,” I said.

Lois swung her look to Georgia. “In the chair? How?”

“I crashed one of our Agent friends into it, it broke. We found it.”

“We watched the disc, too.” Georgia shoved a plate of noodles toward Lois.

“I couldn’t get it to work, then, right before I left, I’d seen the safe was broken into and it was gone. I feared the worst.”

“Obviously, you left,” Georgia said.

Nate watched me, Georgia, and Lois, always analyzing.

“I’m sorry for that, Georgia. I—I didn’t know what to do. I saw people creeping around, and I didn’t know what your birth parents, Sarah and Josh, had gotten you mixed up with.”

“So you ran without telling us anything. How do you know how to do all this?” Georgia asked.

Lois slurped in some noodles, and after a few moments, she finally spoke. “When I got that book filled with names and information two years ago I remembered my vow to give whatever Sarah sent to you. But, I didn’t honor the no-looking vow. I saw names, strange scientific data, and claims of creating super humans. Even from test tubes. Altering DNA, combining DNA with things. I—well—I tried to hide it all. Wish it away. But then, the disc came a year later.”

“So, you’ve had the book for two years, disc for one, never said anything.” Georgia stood up. “Then left. Left me to figure it out on my own. Alone.”

“No. I went to try and figure it out. I hoped anyone who might want the book or disc would follow me for it. That they’d leave you alone. I—”

“Lois, I know you meant well. But go on, tell us how you’ve managed to evade the Agents. Even us. We’ve been tracking you for months,” Nate said. “You’re always a step ahead.”

“When I got the disc last year, I couldn’t read it. I knew it was bad news, so I started preparing myself to take care of Georgia. Learned what I could online about how to hide, how to find contacts to help me, how to make fake IDs. I hoarded cash, then, when I left, I started going down the list of names, trying to find someone to help me. Somehow.” She shook her head. “But then I read you were killed. Saw the news. Your friend, Zach, from school, said you’d died. Coroner’s reports came back conclusive. I found someone to hack into police and Coroner reports. Dead. You were dead.”

“Lois,” Georgia said. “I’m sorry.”

“So strange to hear you call me Lois. You’re my daughter.”

“No. I’m not. I’m Sarah and Josh’s daughter. Mandy’s twin sister.”

Lois pinned me with a stare. Her wide green eyes scanned me from head to toe. “Fire and Ice,” she whispered. “I saw ice right before I went unconscious, and Georgia, you were fire.”

I nodded.

“How? I don’t…” She slouched into her seat, holding her head. “The book, I read it several times. Read about experiments. Testing, but the injections were switched, that was years before. Were you injected with something?”

Nate stood and went to my backpack. “Mandy, may I?”

“Yeah.”

He reached in and pulled out the book. “Sarah wrote down specifics that she and her husband could gather when they realized what had happened.” He walked back to the table. “What came across to the public as allergy-like testing was really an experiment for DNA altering projects. There were thirteen subjects that first year. The year Sarah participated.” Nate handed her the book. “The results were falsified inconclusive and the experiments terminated.”

“At least that’s what the public thought,” I said. “They went on. Year after year. They produced many people like Mom. Some went on to have babies with powers, like me and Georgia.”

“Many went into hiding as well, because The Center went to round up those with powers,” Nate said. “They had—well—
have
special teams for that. They wanted to learn from the altered subjects. How it’d happened and how to perfect it.”

“Great secret to have in times of war and terrorism,” Lois said. “But Sarah found me. She said—”

“She lied, Mom. It’s in the video. She gave me up to protect me.” Georgia sat tall. “Thought you, in the small town of Trifle, would provide a good life for me, free from Agents.”

“But then I came to town and changed all that.” Once again, destruction left in my wake.

“How?”

“Dumb freaking luck if you’re into that. Or Divine Plan if you’re into that. Twin connection? Whatever you want to label it as, it happened. Scott, my brother, has no powers. He was born before Mom got injected. Georgia and I are the lucky ones.”

“And they want us.
Bad,
” Georgia said. “So, Nate and Tim killed us off to protect Scott, Zach, and Jasmine, along with ourselves. They’ve been taking care of us since.” Georgia winked. “And looking for you.”

“I can’t believe this. I never knew it was that big. Who’s after you? The ones who did the experiments on Sarah? They want you?” Lois reached for Georgia’s hand but then retracted. “I’m so sorry, I—” A single tear rolled down the smooth cheek of Georgia’s former mother. “I had no idea.”

“So, you know nothing of this? You have no involvement?” Nate asked. “Why are the Agents after you?”

“I’m on their radar because of the book.” Lois cleared her throat. “The night I left, someone showed up at our house, Georgia. He had buzzed hair, was short and stocky. I was coming home from work and as I drove near, I saw him slip around the back of the house. You know how we back up to a greenbelt? Well, I went around the corner to watch. He took out something silver and used it to punch through the back window.”

“That was Andrey. We knew him. But don’t worry, he’s dead. Go on,” I said.

Lois speared me with a stare. Yep, she still didn’t like me.

“I’d gotten some strange phone calls and hang ups earlier that week. I figured it was the same person. I had to get away, Georgia. Keep him from your dad—Gary—and keep you and him safe. So, I did a few loops, and he eventually left. I came in, wrote two notes that broke my heart, and I ran.

“I went straight for Minnesota because a computer friend of mine was able to locate a few of the people on the list of names I’d found in the book.” Lois looked at Georgia. “I saw Landry on there.”

“Zach’s Aunt. His Mom was in on it, too,” I said.

“You dated Zach,” Lois said to me.

“Yeah. That pretty much sucked to find out his mom was the one who caught me, drugged me, tried to dissect me.” I nodded. “Believe me. But how do we know you’re not really involved in all this, too?”

“I guess you don’t, other than my word.” She leaned forward and dug her hand in the back pocket of her jeans. “I have this contact. He goes by Gonzo. I found him online. He seems really knowledgeable and trustworthy. Then again, I’m an amateur.”

“An amateur who’s evaded Agents for months. I’d say you’re doing okay,” Tim said.

“Did you say Gonzo?” I reached for the piece of paper. “As in
our
super-computer- freak-friend, Gonzo?”

Sure enough, scribbled on there in blue ink was the screen name belonging to Jess, Zach’s cousin.

“What?” Nate asked.

“This is Jess. Zach’s cousin. Does he know who you are? That you’re Georgia’s mom—er—Lois?”

“No. I go by LizzieB.”

“Son of a bitch. He’d been searching for you and not finding you, then you pop up and are working with him? How could he not know who you are?” I glanced at Nate.

“Surprising for sure,” he said, looking at Lois. “Who taught you how to use the computers so secretly?”

“Found someone in Nebraska. He set things up.” Lois nodded. “Cost me quite a bit of the money I’d brought, but it was worth it.”

“But these names, Gonzo has to be connecting them to The Center,” Nate said. “Since he knows about all them.”

“He’s a sneaky bugger. He’s got his fingers into everything. When he first hacked into the disc for us, he claimed he hadn’t watched it, then popped up at graduation saying he’d dug up all this stuff. Knew all about it,” I said.

“Oh, no,” Lois said. “Jess the school janitor? Zach’s disillusioned cousin? He’s crazy.”

“Far from it. Okay, well, not far from it, but not whacko-crazy like you’d think. He’s wicked smart and a little odd. He’s been helping us, well, until we died, anyway.” I flipped over the worn piece of paper Lois had. “So, you give him a name, ask him to find where that person is, and go there? For what? What’d you expect to get from it?”

“Information. Information is power.”

“Or a death sentence,” Nate said.

“I’m finding that out very quickly.” Lois stood, grabbed Georgia’s plate, and moved to the sink. “Each time I get to a person’s last location they’ve either moved away, died, or just plain disappeared. And then twice I was attacked.”

She returned to the table and grabbed the rest of the dishes. I guess motherhood didn’t shut off very easily, or it was a nervous habit. I glanced at Georgia. She shrugged.

“I thought the attack was a random mugging until it happened again at another location. Just last month.” She leaned over the sink and turned on the water. With her back to us, she continued. “When I’d left, I immediately went into self-defense training, picked up anything I could from anyone. Learned how to use a smart phone to get online anonymously.”

“Wow,” Georgia said.

I had to admit. I was liking this newly empowered version of Georgia’s mom—er—fake mom. Strong. She’d always seemed strong to me, but more because she was bossing Georgia around, kind of like a mom should, I guess, now that I look back on it. But I remembered her always having such strict rules.

But then every rule seemed strict to me since I hadn’t had parents since the age of fourteen and my big brother raised me.

“So, we’re basically back to square one,” I said. “I’m really sick of that square.”

“I’m not so sure.” Nate said.

“How’s that? No offense, Lois, but you don’t know much. Just enough for them to want you dead.”

Lois smiled and leaned against the counter, keeping her gaze locked on me. Her now slender arms crossed over her chest. “They may want to shut me up because I found an organization that could shut The Center
and
Bev’s operations down in a heartbeat.”

Chapter 16

“I
’m not sure, Lois. The Center is pretty big.” I pushed my chair back. “Big enough to hide murders, major establishments that are holding people like me and Georgia, and making people like—well, you know what I mean. To hide all that, you have to be connected. Big time. You know?”

“I think these guys are bigger, though.” Lois stood up. “I had Gonzo look into anything with connections to DNA experiments, mutant technology, things like that. He said he had a field day.”

“You’ve talked to him?” Georgia asked.

“No. Just in private chat rooms.”

My stomach lurched at the mention of private chat rooms. Jeez. Felt like I was cheating on the team.

We all moved into the sitting area. Nate stepped to the fireplace and pulled open the doors. I stayed focused on Lois. The thought of being able to shut both The Center and GenCorp down would be fantastic. Highly unlikely, but fantastic.

Georgia sat next to Lois on the longer couch and Tim nestled in beside her. Lois eyed his arm around her former daughter a little longer than a couple of breaths, but then looked away. I bet she literally had to bite her tongue.

“I got the information last week, but there’s an Academy called GEM.” She cleared her throat. “Gonzo said that some guy named Dustin Parks kept coming up in a lot of his key words. It’s some rich guy who lives out in Wynot, Arizona.”

“As in where we came from?” Tim asked.

“Yes. It’s north of Trifle.”

“Why’d his name come up so often?” Nate asked as he moved toward me.

I scooted as far over as I could in the armchair I was sitting in, and he smiled. Instead of sitting next to me, he leaned forward, scooped me up, then sat down, settling me on his lap.

His warm, protective arm wrapped around my shoulders, and he draped his remaining arm over my waist and hugged me close.

Wow.

Lois watched with wide eyes, probably at the ease with which my super-strong boyfriend picked me up. Sure, I only weighed around a hundred pounds, but he handled me like a sack of cotton balls.

Her focus shifted from Tim to Nate and then to me. “You all have abilities, don’t you?” She narrowed her gaze at Nate. “I think you ran fast.”

He nodded. “Strength as well.”

“I can tell.” She looked to Tim. “And you?”

He flashed his eyes red. “X-ray.”

Lois flinched, then fastened a stare on Georgia that only a mother could. “You two are dating?”

“And he doesn’t mind my tongue ring.”

I could not believe Georgia said that. Was she trying to give her former mother a heart attack after we’d just found her?

“Okay. Focus,” I said. “Lois. Dustin Parks? What’s his story?”

“Rich guy. Investor of some sort. But GEM is in Aspen, Colorado. Gonzo couldn’t get an address or anything, but he thinks GEM and Dustin are connected and involved in some mutant development.”

“Has he contacted this Dustin guy?” Nate asked. “It’s not something we can come out and ask anyone. If they are Agency people, we’d really have a problem.”

“Seems The Center already knows we aren’t really dead and they’re coming at us from all directions, so if this GEM place could help, why wouldn’t we try?” Georgia asked. “We could keep running now that we know Lois is safe. We could keep an eye on Trifle from afar, to make sure Agents leave Scott, Zach, and Jasmine alone.”

“Or, we could go to the FBI, try that,” Tim said. “Make ourselves known to everyone. Expose the scientists, Bev, everything, and take our chances that way.”

“Another option is to use Nate’s knowledge, target individual sights and destroy them, like we did in California.”

“What?” Lois asked.

“Remember when I ran away to be with Mandy? We destroyed the location she’d been kept prisoner at. I’ll tell you more later.” Georgia set her hand on Lois’s.