Lethal Engagement (An Unbounded Novella) (2 page)

I stared, fascinated at the scene that appeared more realistic than looking out a window. Stella had recently installed the new technology, and this was my first real look at it. This holo presented a public rally featuring Hunters, who were once again preaching their gospel of hate and racism. Sound came through the conference room speakers as a man yelled, spittle flying from his mouth with his zeal. He claimed Unbounded were evil and had to be stopped before their progeny contaminated the entire world. The crowd cheered. When he proceeded to detail how to dismember Unbounded so they would remain dead, the roar of approval grew to a wild crescendo.

Abruptly, the sound died, disappearing with the image. “Hunters publicizing how to permanently kill Unbounded complicates things on many levels,” Ava said, “especially where the president’s Unbounded son is concerned.” She nodded again at Stella, and a new hologram appeared.

More shouting and confusion resounded through the speakers embedded in the walls. Women, young and old, clogged the sidewalks and streets for miles outside the White House chanting, “Give us babies! We want Unbounded babies!” They carried signs that read
I Will Carry Your Unbounded Baby
and
My Ancestors Were Unbounded, My Child Might Be Too—Choose Me.
And,
Willing to Sleep with Any Unbounded.
The variations went on, each more bizarre than the last.

“Wait,” I said. “Are they out there for Patrick Mann?” Patrick was the president’s grown son. Or, more aptly, the president’s adopted son, who the Emporium had planted as a baby and tried to turn against the president. Patrick’s refusal to succumb, even after a year in a squalid prison, ranked him way up there on my list of people to admire.

Ava gestured for Stella to kill the sound. “That’s right. They’re all volunteering to bear his child.”

Keene laughed. “Who would have guessed that would be a problem when he became the face of the Unbounded.”

“It’s every man’s dream, isn’t it?” I said, laughing with Keene. “A horde of adoring women. But I bet Patrick’s not happy about it. My impression of him was that he’s rather conservative.”

A smile teased Ava’s face. “Whatever his feelings on the matter, it’s making his security rather difficult. There have been two serious attempts on his life. The first was a shot from a crowd outside the White House that killed a Secret Service agent. A man with Hunter affiliation was arrested. The attempt last week was by an eighteen-year-old woman, and it resulted in her death.” Before Ava finished speaking, a picture of a young blonde took the place of the chanting women.

“Her name was Annabella Fredricks,” Ava continued, “Somehow she got into the White House where she was found naked in Patrick’s bed. He wasn’t home, but Secret Service found her while doing their regular rounds, and she jumped off a balcony trying to get away. They’ve kept it from the media so far, but she had a knife on her.”

I decided not to ask where she’d kept it.

“Someone on the staff had to let her in,” Stella said, making the image disappear, “but they really don’t know who.”

Ava nodded. “Patrick has moved to a different location in DC with a smaller, handpicked staff, but there are no guarantees that it won’t happen again. Or something like it.”

Cort cleared his throat, a habit he often used before saying something unpleasant. “He can’t go back into hiding in Europe. We need him out there talking to people. He’s the only way we’ll get the support of the people and restore sanity to the government. We need him to show that we’re normal.” Catching Keene’s stare, he added, “I mean, normal in every way that counts.”

Keene usually took the bait on something like that, especially from his brother, but this time he didn’t respond. When I cocked a teasing brow at him, he only gave me a wistful smile. My stomach did an odd little flop, and for no reason at all, I recalled that closet in Venezuela when we’d been crammed in so tightly that his heart had beat out a pattern with mine.

It was a relief when Ava began speaking again. “We do need Patrick, and that’s where this op comes in. Patrick needs a fiancée.”

I couldn’t help laughing at that. “You mean to get rid of all those women?” I motioned to where the holographs had been.

“I thought we’d advised him
not
to reconnect with the woman he was dating before he was abducted,” Cort said. “I distinctly remember someone explaining the danger he’d be to her.”

Ava shrugged. “Since when do the young ever listen?”

A chuckle ran through the conference room, all except for Keene and me, who were, of course, babies compared to the other three. He caught my gaze again and winked. I knew he was thinking that Unbounded sometimes took themselves far too seriously. I thought that all the time, and I
was
Unbounded.

“Well, the world is changing,” Ava said. “We hope that soon we’ll no longer have to abandon our families for their own safety. But, yes, Patrick did hook back up with his girlfriend, and things are going well enough between them that if he had his way, he’d be announcing his real engagement.” Her gravestone eyes rested on me. “However, his girlfriend isn’t going to work for us, and that’s where you come in, Mari. We want you to pose as Patrick’s fiancée until the threat is over.”

“Why me if he practically has a fiancée already? We could just go in as bodyguards.”

“First, the girlfriend won’t agree to her engagement, at least not publicly.” Stella adjusted her neural headset with one hand, giving me a brief glimpse of the tiny metal wires that nestled against her scalp and provided the connection between her brain and her computer network. “Lucinda Ririe puts a whole new spin on the word shy. Truthfully, it might have been every bit as much for her as for himself that Patrick gave up politics when he Changed. Being a technopath just gave him a way to leave successfully. But Lucinda—Luce for short—isn’t ready for that kind of attention. At least not yet.”

I understood only too well. In my old life any kind of attention that didn’t involve numbers made me blush and shy away from people. But I wasn’t like that anymore, and those days mostly seemed foggy and unreal. Now I felt strong and alive. Awake. Changed.

“Besides,” Keene drawled, “I bet she doesn’t have your fascination with knives.”

“Exactly,” Ava said. “Lucinda can’t defend him the way you can. At any rate, the Secret Service wouldn’t be pleased to have us send in bodyguards—that’s the job they’re supposed to be doing. As Patrick’s fiancée, you can accompany him everywhere and keep an eye out for any threat, especially internal ones. Your unique ability gives you the advantage in just about every encounter Stella has simulated.”

She had a point there. Short of a special, electrically-generated containment field, nothing could keep me from shifting.

“Since we know you’re in the Hunter database as an Unbounded descendent,” Ava continued, “and we can’t be sure we’ve eliminated or altered every photograph there might be of you online, you’ll have to go in disguise and use a fake name. Stella has already created your new identity and begun posting photographs of you in various places where Patrick has been. The media will soon find them. You’ll become an overnight sensation.”

I grinned. “New identity, cameras flashing, cute guy to romance. Sounds great! When do I start? But can I drive a Jaguar? Gotta keep up appearances if I’m dating the president’s son, don’t I?”

“Oh, really?” Keene rolled his eyes. “Is that all it takes? A new identity and a car? What about a Ferrari? Would you go out with a guy just because he had a Ferrari?”

I leaned over and elbowed him. “Only if he’s really hot. Otherwise, I’ll save up and buy my own.” We received good pay for our ops, aside from our regular stipend allotted us at our Change, so I wasn’t just talking.

Ava’s next words wiped the smile from my face. “I want you to understand that your life will be in danger every minute. We know the Emporium has plans to take over the country despite everything we are doing to stop them, and Patrick may be a part of their long term goals. If we don’t learn what they’re up to, this war to save humanity may be lost before it’s truly begun.”

HER WORDS SHUDDERED THROUGH ME
, and for the first time, I felt inadequate. Why were they sending me? I wasn’t the best fighter among the non-combat-gifted Unbounded. I couldn’t sense thoughts like Ava and her descendent Erin, who was usually her first choice for ops like this. Yes, I could add pages of numbers with a single glance, but I couldn’t manipulate other data anywhere as fast as Stella. I couldn’t heal someone who was ill like Dimitri could, or whip up one of Cort’s scientific solutions.

I got along with people. I could make them laugh. I always knew the time down to the second, and I could shift anywhere I’d visited before, or someplace Erin could show me with her mind. I could even shift to unknown locations to find certain people with whom I shared a strong connection, but I couldn’t take anyone with me for more than a few feet. If Patrick Mann got in too deep, I couldn’t shift out with him. My choice might come down to leaving without him or dying with him.

“So,” I tried to swallow past the clot of terror in my throat, “you’re giving me backup, right?”

“Something like that.” Ava pointed at Keene. “Mari, meet your brother.”

Was she serious? Keene and I looked nothing alike. I was only one-eighth Japanese, but I’d kept Stella’s family’s slight olive coloring and the heart-shaped face. My long hair was dark, if not perfectly straight, and my eyes were decidedly brown. Keene was much lighter in coloring, from his hair to his green eyes and the skin that was a far different shade of white, even when he’d been out in the sun too much. He was tall, while I was a good foot shorter, and despite all the hours of grueling training, I didn’t have anything approaching his lean muscle.

“Sure,” I said. “Everyone will buy that.”

Keene gave a slight snort. “If they’re blind.”

Ava nodded at Stella, and another holographic image flickered to life above the table. I peered at it, barely recognizing the woman with auburn hair and green eyes as myself. The man with matching auburn hair and trim beard threw me for a loop. Okay, so maybe it would work. With my high metabolism, I’d have to use a lot of hair dye.

If I lived long enough.

Something of my fear must have radiated in my face because Keene leaned over and put his arm around me. “Hey, sis, let’s do this thing. Piece of cake.”

My stomach did that weird little flopping thing again, which had to be left over from my years as a mortal when I’d been shy and not accustomed to men taking notice of me. Except for Trevor.

“Okay,” I said, “but can I have bacon on that cake?”

He groaned. “More bacon? Really? Okay, fine. Whatever you want.”

“Chris is already prepping the plane,” Ava said, ignoring our little exchange. “You’ll leave for the airport at eight, sleep on the plane, and get there bright and early. I’m also sending Cort and Jace along for backup and to work with the New York cell. If there’s any kind of emergency, the New York cell may be able to provide additional people, but they are already swamped with all the Hunter and Emporium movements there. I’d send more of our people, but everything is on edge here just like it is there, and we need to keep a strong presence on this side of the country or the Emporium will take advantage of our absence. Stella will, of course, be in regular contact with Patrick through the Internet.”

“So, I guess I’ll go pack,” I said.

“About that.” Ava’s face relaxed into a smile. “Stella has some plans to help you get ready. Hope you’re up for a visit to the salon and then some shopping.”

Right. I’d need red hair, and I guess my usual attire wouldn’t be up to presidential standards.
Great.

Keene laughed at my expression. “Sorry.”

“You too,” Stella said. “I sent you an email about your appointment with a guy named Rogero. He’ll set you up with your new look and supplement your wardrobe.”

Keene groaned. “You gotta be kidding.”

I couldn’t help my smirk, thinking that he should be accustomed to such treatment. As the son of an Emporium Triad member, he’d been raised with the best of everything.

Everyone was up now and moving toward the door. I stood more slowly, waiting until Stella rounded the table. Physically, my great-aunt was only thirty-two, a year older than I was, but she’d celebrated more than two centuries of life, and I looked to her as a mentor. I needed her wisdom now. We walked down the hallway for a moment in silence, the others disappearing from sight. I itched to shift to my room on the third floor, or anywhere else but this tight hallway. Only worry held me back.

“So why isn’t she sending Erin?” I asked finally. “If I stayed somewhere nearby, Erin could channel my ability, and she’s a lot better at combat, especially when she channels Jace or Ritter.” In fact, Erin’s ability to channel others’ gifts, essentially using them as her own, made her potentially the most powerful Unbounded to Change in a millennium.

“She was a possibility,” Stella admitted, “but even though Patrick is no longer staying at the White House, the president wasn’t keen on having a woman who can force her way into people’s minds interacting so closely with his family and the politicians who are actually doing their jobs. Besides, Erin is far too well-known by the Emporium. She could channel Patrick’s ability and alter her appearance using nanites, but maintaining that cover would be a huge distraction for her during a conflict. And then there’s Ritter. Hiding him from both the Emporium and Hunters would be even more of a challenge, and Ava doubted he’d stay put here without Erin. Not until he gets over the fact that he almost lost her. Besides, we need Erin and her ability in the political meetings here. There’s too much disquiet.”