Landlocked (Atlas Link Series Book 2) (15 page)

gripped the fake leather armrest with all I had. The lights above my head drove pikes into my skull, a migraine looming. Chelsea was rarely late. There was no stuck in traffic for her. No elevator jam. Not with the ability to teleport.

Where was she? I knew she went back to Boston for leave, but come on. Nothing she couldn’t handle ever happened there.

Major Pike sat across from me, skimming his notes on the Altern Device from four days ago. I never knew what he did with his leave time. I actually didn’t know much about him, period. He wasn’t a personal-talk kind of guy, which served me fine because neither was I. He knew about Chelsea, and that I didn’t talk to or about my parents.

Every now and then, Pike glanced between me and the clock hanging off the wall.

What do you want me to do about it?
I thought in his direction.
I’m not her keeper
.

These days, I sure felt like it, though. But Pike couldn’t read my thoughts. Only Chelsea could, and she wasn’t here.

Sophia and Dr. Hill walked in with General Holt at their side, chitchatting about something not related to the mission. They’d left to go get something when it seemed like Chelsea wasn’t going to show up anytime soon, and had returned with the African idol. Dr. Hill placed it on the briefing table. I averted my eyes. The damn thing downright gave me the creeps. All wide-eyed and painted in intense, bright colors. Freaking creepy.

Shuffling sounds pervaded the room from the hallway, and in jogged Chelsea. She took a seat across from me without so much as an acknowledgement of her tardiness. I shot her a look, asking where she’d been.

She turned away from me.
Didn’t know I had to report my whereabouts to you.

Dammit
. We were still linked when close together.

She glared. “Seriously?”

I sighed and leaned back against my seat, rubbing my eyes with my palms.
Great
.

“What?” Pike asked, watching the exchange.

I gestured between us. “We’re still telepathically linked.”

“Still?” Dr. Hill asked, alarm in his eyes.

Chelsea put her face in her hands. “Still.”

General Holt grimaced and turned to Dr. Hill. “Do you know what happened to them yet?”

Dr. Hill shook his head. He was about to say something when Chelsea spoke up.

“They had to connect our minds so that we could connect the dots in their puzzle game,” she said. “They were building a Waterstar map using us. Maybe one brain isn’t enough. Then we both ripped the electrodes off before the mind-link was properly shut down. That’s probably the root of the telepathy.”

That much I’d surmised. “But why build a map?” I asked. “They had one hanging on their ceiling.” I wanted to ask Valerie if she had an answer for that, if I ever found her. I hadn’t.

Chelsea’s eyes narrowed.
What about Valerie?

I clamped down my thoughts and focused on Dr. Hill’s next words.

“I’m more curious as to why they were so focused on connecting you two in the first place,” he said. “Rather than the rest of us, I mean.”

Chelsea lifted her eyes from me. “Our… whatever we have, it was strong enough to draw me to Trevor halfway across the world two years ago. That’s probably why. Sophia and I don’t have that kind of connection, regardless of us both being super soldiers. The rest of you don’t have that kind of connection, either.”

And I didn’t know how we had ours in the first place. Except I did—my dreambox. I wasn’t ready to tell her about that yet, though. Part of the coming-of-age Lemurian indoctrination process was receiving this magical dreambox
thing
. You wrote down a wish at ten years old, thought about it enough, protected the box, and it came true. I’d wished for someone to come and end this war—Lemurian
or
Atlantean, I didn’t care. I met Chelsea nine years later… and everything with the war changed forever.

“So they used your connection to get into Chelsea’s head to make the map?” Major Pike asked. “Seems like a lot of work.”

Chelsea shifted in her seat. “Well, they obviously need it for something.”

But
what
? If they had the map, they shouldn’t have needed Chelsea and me. That’s what bugged me. And the only other person I could think of to ask, the only person outside of TAO who knew things about the war, was Valerie. And that… wasn’t happening.

Valerie again?
Chelsea asked in her thoughts.

I glanced her way.
I stay out of your head, you stay out of mine
.

Doesn’t matter. Tell them
, came Chelsea’s reply, but it sounded more like random thoughts, not connected or aimed at me.

You want me to tell them about Valerie?

We didn’t tell TAO about Valerie because she’d disappeared and Dr. Hill thought she’d died during the hijacking. We let him believe it because Chelsea and I couldn’t decide if she was actually a threat.

Chelsea shook her head.
No.

But the
Tell them
thought rang between us throughout the rest of the briefing, tied to something about chicken parmesan. Right before we finished for the morning, Chelsea looked pointedly at General Holt. “Can I tell them now?”

He nodded deeply. “Of course.”

“Tell us what?” Major Pike asked.

Yes, tell us what?
And if it bugged her that much, how was she able to keep it from me?

Chelsea hesitated for only a moment. “I’m leaving for a few months.”

Excuse me?
My stomach dropped. “Since when?” I asked.

She avoided my stare. “Since the other night.”

The rest of us looked at each other. I couldn’t decide if what she said was legitimate or not, given her track record. I
knew
something happened while she was in Boston. “Where are you going?”

She blinked a few times then swallowed hard, like she’d heard my thought about Boston. “I can’t say flat out because they’re… well, I don’t really know what they are. They say they’re paramilitary, but it’s made up of ex-soldiers who still acknowledge ranks.”

Pike shifted, an uncomfortable look on his face. “That never spells anything good.”

Chelsea nodded. “I actually agree with you, but here’s the thing: they hunt Lemurians.”

“What?” Sophia asked. “How has this gone unnoticed by TAO?”

“Because
we
don’t hunt them down,” General Holt supplied. “Our directive is to understand the Link Pieces and, now, to find SeaSatellite5. The Atlantean-Lemurian war is very real. So too is the threat to Earth because of Lemuria’s time-traveling. Unfortunately, our numbers aren’t large enough for hunting the Lemurian soldiers stuck in our time. We’ll intervene when we have to, as we did on SeaSat5, and we’ve got the five of you to explore. Everyone else spends their time putting the pieces together.”

Chelsea nodded again. “That, and this group thinks the Lemurians here are mercenaries—black market sellers and assassins for hire. Not exactly terrorists but not normal, either. Honestly, I’m pretty sure their General’s got some personal vendetta of some sort. They don’t even know what they’re up against—that the people they hunt are Lemurians. Which still weirds me out because,” she said, finally looking at me again, “Weyland’s a part of it.”

“Lieutenant Weyland?” I hadn’t heard from him since before he disembarked SeaSat5.

“Yeah. He knows they’re strong like me, but is either keeping the similarities to himself or denying it altogether.”

“How’d he end up there?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Supposedly these guys rehab vets and people who’ve worked on super classified stuff. The people who can’t go back into civilian life.”

Pike snorted. “I smell bullshit.”

“Again,” Chelsea said, “I agree. But the fact they’re hunting Lemurians presents us with an interesting opportunity.”

“We can figure out what they’re up to,” Sophia guessed. “Maybe even discover what happened to SeaSat5.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Chelsea.

“As long as you don’t run into one who knows what you look like,” Sophia countered.

Chelsea let out a defeated breath. “Yes. That’s the one hole in the plan.”

Even still, it was a damn good proposal. But why did
she
have to go? If this mystery group was made up of ex-vets, couldn’t we send Pike instead?

Chelsea shook her head. “Trevor wondered about sending you instead, Major Pike. But we can’t.”

“Wouldn’t want to, anyway,” Pike said, but I knew he’d go in Chelsea’s place if given the option. Hard-ass? Yes. Good commander? Absolutely.

“Why not?” I asked.

“Because the whole reason Weyland let them recruit me instead of shipping me back to TAO with trespassing charges is because I’m strong enough to fight them. I even the score for them.”

My turn to call bullshit. “You can’t even it that much, Chelsea. The Lemurians like guns as much as their powers.”

“I think I’ve done just fine holding my own these last two years.”

“But what about the stuff we talked about the other day?”
The band. Finding SeaSat5
.

“It’s worth it,” she said. “I’ll hopefully find information regarding their location in place-time.”
And I can still make it for band practices. And Juxe
.

I sighed. “Okay.”

Not like I could change her mind anyway. Changing Chelsea’s mind after it’s been made… I’d rather watch Dave destroy Hummingbird again.