Hybrid Zone Recognition (32 page)

“That was from last night. If you contact him and they are listening, you could expose his location.”

“I’ll call you back,” I choked out and then hung up the phone.

“Everything alright?”

I lifted my eyes to Adam. Pulling my hand from my mouth, I waited until I was sure I could speak without crying.

“I have to get to the Colony.”

“We are going to Montana.” He held my stare for a moment and then went back to work.

He’d dismissed me. My eyes widened at his presumed gall, and anger flushed through my system. Who did he think he was?

“I need to get to the Colony.” It came out as a growl. One I’d heard him make on many occasions.

He paused his typing and looked up at me. “
You
need to calm down.”

“Calm. Down.” I paced towards him. “Calm. Down!” I found his lack of emotion to be utterly insulting. “You do not order me to calm down. Neither do you dictate to me where I will and will not go.” I was beyond furious as I stood in front of his desk with my hands fisted at my sides.

“Macy,” he began in that patronizing tone he possessed.

“Don’t you dare speak to me as if I were a child!” Suddenly I found myself face to face with Adam, my nose just inches from his. I had leapt onto the desk and was now crouched in front of him.

In an instant, his eyes shifted. He shoved his keyboard aside and gripped the desk with both hands. “You are certainly acting like one!” He snarled.

I found myself drawing ragged breaths as I stared at Adam. Was I seriously about to attack him? I reined my anger in some, but I didn’t move from my position on the desk.

“The hybrids at the Colony may not mean anything to you, but they mean something to me. I will NOT abandon them,” I snarled.

He was unyielding in his response. “The hybrids at the Colony are not your responsibility.”

“Then whose are they Adam! The government’s? That’s laughable. Yours? They mean nothing to you! They are mine!”

Before I could move, he flung his chair aside and pressed his nose to mine. “You mean something to me!” he yelled.

We maintained our pose, him standing and me crouched on the desk, nose to nose and both of us breathing heavily.

“If I mean anything to you, then you’ll honor my commitment to the Colony.” This I spoke softly, pleadingly even, putting all the feeling I could muster behind it—for all the good it did. His shields were still tightly in place.

He pulled away and paced rapidly back and forth behind the desk. Not once did the growling stop as he marched back and forth. It was too focused to be simply driven by anger.

“You know what’s going on,” I said suspiciously.

He stopped, putting both hands on his hips.

“What’s going on?” I growled. His reluctance to answer only fueled my anger. “Adam!”

He sighed deeply and turned to face me. “The Consortium has managed to infiltrate the government. I believe they are the ones responsible for the disappearances at the Colony.”

Kenny had said Crystal had been butchered and left for dead. What were they after? In the next second, I knew.

“For research and experimentation?”

“And nanobots.”

What? My head snapped back to Adam.

He seemed truly sorry to tell me this. “The Colony was not entirely made up of the original hybrids.”

Light bulbs started going off all over my brain. The inexplicable differences I’d observed between the hybrids. Why some, like Kenny, seemed so much more advanced than the others.

The full realization of my betrayal hit me and my legs collapsed beneath me. “Kenny,” I breathed with heartfelt regret.

There was no question that I had unwittingly participated in both the Organization’s and Consortium’s plans for the Colony. Now they were disappearing, destined for who knows what or being murdered before I would ever have a chance to make it up to them.

I drew in a deep breath. I knew I couldn’t change what had already happened, but I could change things from here on out. Not all of them were gone yet.

“I made a promise to Kenny,” I said. “I won’t go back on that.”

Adam would either accept it or he wouldn’t. But there was no way on God’s green earth that I was not going to do everything in my power to save Kenny and whoever he’d managed to save.

He sat at the corner of the desk furthest from me, one hand planted on the edge, the other rubbing his forehead. “I can’t just swoop in there and take over. I have to work through the logistics of the operation. I have to factor in the government, the populace, that reporter.” He pushed off the desk and strode away from me. “Not to mention, the Organization is in shambles. We are one decision away from scrapping it all!” he yelled.

“While you plan, Kenny and whoever he’s got with him are waiting for me to show up,” I said quietly.

There was a long pause in which Adam didn’t say anything. I turned to look at him. He was all the way across the plane, standing with his back to me. Could he be any more obvious? Realizing my shields had slipped, I pulled them back in place.

He turned and stared at me for the longest time. “You have to let me keep you safe.”

That was the most egotistical, male chauvinist comment. My anger that had cooled welled up in me again.

He was in front of me in an instant. His hands were planted on either side of my hips and his nose once again inches from mine. “I need to protect you. Can you not understand that?”

I understood the need to protect. It was what I currently felt towards the hybrids at the Colony. But I couldn’t say I was receptive to the way he expressed that need—if that was what it was. I wasn’t convinced that this wasn’t some kind of play for alpha dominance.

“One day,” I said. “Then I go with or without you.” I knew it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, but I was done with trying to “work” with him. He’d gone too far this time.

“Then get your butt off my desk so I can work.”

Truce struck, I slid off the desk and started to brush past him, but he grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop. While neither of us looked at the other, he said, “Macy. Don’t ever challenge me again.”

I slowly turned my eyes to him. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that all the revulsion I felt at that command shone in my eyes. I waited until he met my gaze before I responded.

“I am not yours to command. I am not one of your soldiers. I am not even officially your employee. But whatever I am to you, I will never be ordered around like a submissive cub. You don’t challenge that.”

Adam bristled with rage, but his hand dropped from my arm, and I stalked away from the desk. Shaking with my own suppressed rage, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the phone without collapsing. But I couldn’t display weakness now. Not after all that.

Determinedly, I walked back to the phone and called Miranda. She picked up on the first ring this time.

“You okay?” I asked.

“We’re going to get them, right? Please tell me we’re going to get them.”

“Yes.” I didn’t even look at Adam as I confirmed it, but I did smell the spike of anger that wafted from his direction. I knew he could smell mine too. We’d both shifted during the confrontation. His desk bore score marks where I’d been. I might regret that later, but not right now.

“When do we leave?”

I sensed her switch from grief struck friend on the edge of panic to woman of action. She was always good at compartmentalizing. I’d never needed to before, but I’d had a crash course in it this week. I had stuffed so much stuff in so many places that I hoped it didn’t explode all at once.

“Adam’s making a plan right now.”

“Oh, that’s good. You said he was good at this stuff.”

Guilt shot through my heart. I did say that. And he was. I stuffed that into some already overstuffed compartment and confirmed her assessment. “He’s excellent.”

“So, we wait?”

“We wait.”

“Are you okay? You don’t sound okay.”

I glanced in Adam’s direction. He was still in hybrid mode. I wasn’t going to answer right now while he could hear me. “I’ll see you when we get there.” It was tightlipped, and she deserved better, but it was all I could give at the moment.

She hesitated before answering with a sigh. “I’ll be here.”

I hung up before the understanding in her voice caused me to break down. There was one more thing I needed to address with Adam. “Do you know where Kenny is?”

“In the woods,” he answered without looking up. “My operative just informed me.”

Of course he knew. He knew what he was doing. I trusted him, right?

I closed my eyes and leaned back into the seat. This truce between me and Adam felt like nails being dragged across a chalkboard. I couldn’t relax. The confrontation with Adam had left me shaken. I found myself simultaneously doubting Adam and my own abilities.

I’d had another uncontrolled shift. I wasn’t naïve enough to think that I would become a hybrid and do everything perfectly right away. But I expected it nonetheless. Did that make me a perfectionist? I didn’t know, but it did leave me disappointed.

As did Adam’s implication that some of the hybrids belonged to the Organization. That little omission of his was another sore spot. When did the secrets end with him? Granted, five or six days may have not given him enough time to tell me everything. But this was different. This was personal to me.

Despite all the drama associated with the teen hybrids, which had nothing on the adult ones I’d been with this week, I loved them. I didn’t quite realize that until this week.

Over the last two years of my substitute parenting, I’d gotten to know them. They all had my phone number on speed dial. Many a time, after an early morning phone call from a broken hearted teen hybrid, did I regret that decision. But, as we got to know each other, they’d become like family to me. I couldn’t let them down, any more than I already had.

Adam spent the rest of the plane flight working, and I spent the rest of it worrying. By the time we got to Montana, I was exhausted. Adam hadn’t said another word to me the entire trip. That didn’t change when we landed. He left the cabin and me without delay.

I felt a burst of cool air as the door to the plane was opened. Adam exchanged a greeting with someone, even laughed a little. It was a miracle. He did still have the power of speech.

I got up and collected the jacket I’d discarded on the plane. Making my way to the exit, I spotted Adam already seated in one of those hunter golf cart ATVs. With the way he’d been acting, it wouldn’t have surprised me if he pulled away and left me there.

I shrugged on the jacket as I jogged down the stairs. It felt good to move again, even if it was only fifteen feet. When I reached the ground, he was still there, so I guessed that meant he was waiting for me. I climbed in and without so much as a sideways glance, he took off.

All I could see were the surrounding mountains. It looked like Adam was going to run us straight into them until I spotted a natural looking rock gateway. Adam slowed down and part of the rock slid away, revealing an opening just big enough for the ATV.

As soon as we cleared the entrance, the entire scene changed. Nestled in a large valley between the mountains, was the largest log cabin I’d ever seen. It reminded me of a wilderness lodge you would see on a postcard.

We sped across the grounds to the back of the lodge. A servant came forward and exchanged places with us in the cart. Another person, a slightly older and rotund woman, greeted us and then ushered us into a large kitchen. Her cell phone rang, and she walked a few feet away from us to answer it.

“I’m going to go shower, you okay?” Adam asked coldly.

I was startled that he’d spoken to me, but not that he was dumping me here. “Sure,” I said without feeling, because that was how I felt—numb.

Seemingly oblivious to my emotional state, he left, leaving me alone in the kitchen with Rotundo.

“That is truly not flattering,” she said stiffly as she walked up behind me.

Crap. Was this another mind reader I had to contend with? I turned to her, ready to apologize, but my apology died on my lips. She wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at a dead pig being put on a spit. I had to agree. Not flattering at all.

“Are the other’s here?” I asked.

“Are you speaking of Agents Juarez and Olivia or the two procreating like rabbits?”

I smiled despite myself. I totally appreciated her frankness. “Let’s start with the unengaged agents, shall we?” I said.

“It would spare these innocent eyes. In any case, you’d be entirely on your own. I’ve sworn off their entire hallway after my first encounter with Cedar’s bare backside.”

Better her than me. Though it made me worry how I’d get in to see Miranda.

“Just follow me,” she said merrily as she led the way.

I increased her intelligence rating due to the fact that she hadn’t tried to give me directions. I didn’t really pay attention to where we were going. Everything was just sort of a blur. I stopped when she did. We were standing at the end of a hallway. The semicircle that it formed had two doors.

“Juarez is in the room to your left, and Olivia is on the right,” she said. “You need anything else?”

I shook my head no and watched her leave. Looking at Olivia’s door, I wondered if I had the courage for this. This was what I signed up for, right? The good, the bad, and the just plain I don’t want to.

I took a deep breath and walked the few steps to Olivia’s room. I knocked softly and eased the door open. Poking my head in, I saw she was in the bed amidst a swaddling of blankets and pillows.

“Hey, Einstein,” she said weakly from her cocoon as she tried to sit up.

“No need to get up on my account,” I implored, hurrying to her side, but she continued to struggle determinedly. Putting one arm around her back, I helped her to sit and then adjusted her pillows.

“You just lifted me with one arm,” she said.

Did I? “Yay super hybrid me.” It lacked any enthusiasm, but I didn’t think she noticed. Sliding a nearby chair close to her bed, I sat down. “How are you doing?”

“I’ve been better,” she snorted and then winced in pain. “My ribs were shattered,” she gasped out. “One or more of them punctured my lung. I cannot even remember all my other injuries. All that to say, it’s taken a little longer than normal to recover. But the nanobots are hard at work.”

I sat there caught between the need to help her and the need to scream. “Olivia, I’m so sorry,” I finally managed to choke out.

“It’s not your fault,” she assured me. It was the same thing Adam had said. “Pike and the Consortium are the ones responsible.” A dark shadow passed over her face. “Mostly Pike.”