One More Day (25 page)

Chapter Eighteen

When I woke up, I got up and scrubbed my face. My eyes were still red from crying, but now I felt numb. It was better that way.

I pulled my hair into a messy bun, blew my bangs out of my eyes. I pulled on a pair of black pants, my old black boots from my burgling days, a black tank top and a black shirt. I looked at myself in the mirror, meeting my eyes in my reflection. This could go badly. Really badly.

Or it could end up fucking up Connor and all of his plans. Maybe more.

I pulled a black balaclava I’d picked up. It covered everything except my eyes, and that was exactly what I wanted. I stuffed Dr. Death’s phone in my pocket after unplugging it from its charger, then I grabbed the backpack with the stuff I’d bought from Lola inside and put it on my back.

I made my way quickly from my room up to the flight bay, doing my best to avoid cameras and our guards. I didn’t want any attention or questions. I made it through, having timed their shift change pretty well, then took off into the sky.

I flew quickly, the night sky a blur as I focused on where I was going, on following the gps on my phone.

It took me less than two hours of flying to make it to the little island off the Mexican coast. I never would have guessed that I flew that fast. I circled around twice when I got over the facility I’d seen on the satellite maps David had showed me. I saw two armed guards at the gate, two more at the door to the facility. I pulled the x ray goggles David had been working on down over my eyes, noting thankfully that the building seemed to be empty. I landed near the gate, sending power blasts at both guards before they even realized what happened. I quickly tied them up and flew them to the dock, well away from the building. I made my way to the entrance of the building. I was able to knock one guard out by taking him by surprise, but he second guard started shooting at me immediately. I ducked and dodged his fire, then managed to get a blast in at him when he was trying to aim again. It knocked him back, but not out, and I ended up having to dive at him and knock his ass down. He fell back against the building and I heard his head crack against the brick wall.

“Don’t be dead,” I muttered, checking for a pulse. When I felt one, I sighed in relief, then tied both of those guards up and flew them to the docks.

It had taken me about two minutes, all together.

I pulled out the jammer I’d used so often to disrupt the alarm systems in the mansions I used to rob. I turned it on and smiled to myself. I hadn’t planned on using this ever again. There was an alarm system, as well as a keypad type security system on the door. Within seconds, I had the security code cracked, and, about a minute later, the signal that the alarm system was compromised.

I made my way in, quietly opening the door. Inside, the lab was lit mostly with fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling. Machines and other equipment I didn’t recognize sat covered in dust. I swore under my breath, wondering if Death had been lying to me at the end about where he’d conducted his work. This place didn’t look like anything but an old science junkyard.

There was a door to the left, and I went there. It was locked, but all it took was a good pull and the doorknob cracked in my hand. I swung the door open and saw that the office beyond was lined with binders, notebooks. Vials were collected neatly on racks, waiting to be used. Microscopes and other equipment were arrayed on countertops around the perimeter. I pulled one binder off of the shelf and looked it over quickly. I didn’t understand most of it, but a few pages in, I started recognizing his notation for certain powers, notes about how he combined them. Several pages about how the formula wasn’t stable, about how it had to be injected immediately, because storage produced irregular results. I put the binder back then rooted through the vials and other stuff in the cabinets. Not a drop of anything. On one wall of the office, I saw another door. I pushed it open and found that it led into a cooler. Along the walls, there was vial after vial of dark liquid, and I realized what I was looking at.

There were dozens of them. Labeled not with names, but with a number that, I guessed, matched up to the codes Death had kept in his binders. Dozens of vials of super powered blood, the precious samples that Connor wanted so badly that he’d apparently kill for them.

I nodded, dug one of the boxes I’d bought from Lola out of my bag, and attached it securely to the wall of the cooler with some putty adhesive she’d included with them. I powered it on, checked the signal button, and walked back out.

I went through the rest of the lab, which looked just as deserted as it had on first glance. All of the important shit, apparently, was in that one corner office.

I took the other two boxes out and did the same thing, placing one on the back wall and one just outside the office.

I walked outside, a good distance away from the building. I dug Dr. Death’s phone out of my pocket and opened the video messaging app.

I dialed Connor and he answered after the first ring. His face came onto the screen, which I held pretty close to my own face. For now.

“Jolene,” he said. The way he said my name had once made my body warm, my knees weak. Now all it did was make me want to flay him alive.

“Connor.”

“I wondered where his phone went,” he said after a moment. “Calling to tell me that you’ve come to your senses, sweetheart?”

I kept my face expressionless. “I’m not really in the mood for this right now,” I said quietly.

“Of course. It was a nice funeral, though.”

My stomach twisted, and I felt bile rising in my throat. That feeling of being watched earlier…. “You were there,” I said.

“Of course. And you felt me. I saw when you turned around.” He paused, his eyes glinting. “Don’t you see it, sweetheart? How attuned we are? How much we belong together?”

“You never wanted me. You wanted my blood,” I reminded him.

“Now we both know that’s bullshit. I want you. I’ve wanted you since the second I laid eyes on you.”

“You murdered my mother.”

“Well, now. I gave you my reasons for that. What? Are you going to hold it against me forever? She’s gone, and there’s no changing it now.” He looked into the screen, the cool light from his phone casting his face in harsh light, making his scar stand out even more. “And you still care, or you wouldn’t have bothered calling me. We both know that.”

“That’s not why I called.”

“No?”

I shook my head. “I’m on a little trip,” I said. Then I pulled the phone back so he could see the building behind me. I saw the second he recognized it, and smiled behind my balaclava. “Recognize it?”

“Big deal. So you found Death’s lab. It’s on international soil. I know how you superhero teams work. Portia will go through all of the proper channels. She’ll get the tribunal involved and they’ll try to get a permit. Which will be denied, by the way, because I have servants in high places.” He paused. “And if they do happen to get there, they’ll find it empty. Do you think I’m stupid enough to leave that shit there? I have a crew en route now.”

“I’m sure you do,” I said.

“Go on. Try it. Get your search and seizure order and we’ll see how that goes.”

“Yeah.” I shook my head. “I’m starting to think that you never really knew me at all, Connor.”

His eyes narrowed. “Why’s that?”

“Because if you did, you’d know I’m not that subtle.” I pulled the remote out of my pocket and held it up so he could see it.

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare, Jolene. Don’t even— ”

I smiled, and then I hit the button. There was absolute silence for a moment, and then there was a deafening boom and all of the oxygen felt like it was sucked from of the air.

And then the lab burst into a ball of flame, and Connor started shouting on the phone. At first I couldn’t hear him. Then I could.

“You fucking bitch. You’ll pay for this. I swear to god I’ll find you and — ”

“I’m counting on it, asshole,” I said. And then I hung up. I crushed the phone in my hand, turning it to nothing more than powder. I turned and took one last look at the inferno that had been his lab, and then I rose into the sky.

This didn’t make us even. Not even close. It didn’t avenge Mama. He still had his team and a hell of a lot of power.

But it set him back quite a bit, destroyed his little super army plan. And it ensured that this time, it was Connor having a bad day instead of me.

Chapter Nineteen

It was just after dawn when I got back to Command. The sky was a mix of aqua and coral in the east, a layer of vibrant yellow on the horizon that made me think of Mama, and I felt a little bit of the suffocating heaviness inside me lift. I landed in the flight bay to see Jenson already there, leaning against the wall.

I grimaced, readying myself for a lecture about protocol and international incidents and what could have happened if Connor had been there already. I walked toward her, and she watched me, expressionless. I reached her and was about to say something. I saw the corners of her mouth lift, just a little, and then she wordlessly raised her fist, and I bumped it with mine. Then she grinned.

“I should be pissed off, because I was worried sick about you. But you did it.” She laughed. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“Portia’s going to be pissed,” I said, and we started walking toward the elevator.

“Portia is caught between being pissed that you did what you did and relieved that now she and StrikeForce don’t have to get involved. I don’t think you’re going to hear much about it either way.”

I glanced over at her, and she continued. “Portia’s very by the book, but even she knows that sometimes you can’t do things that way. As far as she’s concerned, she doesn’t know a damn thing about it,” she explained.

“I don’t think this is the last time she’s going to have to turn a blind eye to what I’m doing.”

“And I think she knows that. I think she doesn’t want to hear about any of your plans regarding Killjoy, and the two of you will get along just fine. Those may have been her exact words, and she may or may not have told me to make sure I told you that.”

I smiled. “Okay. Well. I have plenty to do still.”

“We do.”

“We, huh?”

“Yep. David and I were pretty good at helping you with the technical and intelligence-gathering stuff. Ryan did an amazing job training you to work with what you have, power wise, despite the fact that you didn’t want to do it. I don’t know where you got those devices, though.”

“And you really, really don’t want to.”

“I really don’t,” she agreed. “Do you think he knows about it yet?”

I laughed. “Oh, he knows. I made him watch it happen. Called him via Death’s phone.”

She shook her head. And then she laughed. “Remind me never ever to piss you off.”

“Just don’t ever betray me, and we’ll be fine,” I said. We stepped on the elevator, and she pressed the button for our floor.

“Jolene.”

“Hm?”

“I know you probably won’t believe it, and I don’t blame you, given what you’ve been through. But I wouldn’t betray you. Ever.”

I took a breath.

“You’re going to play everything close to the chest now, waiting for the next person to turn on you. And I get it. I have been there.” I looked up at Jenson, wondering again what her story was. I knew nothing about her past, other than the barest generalities. She was closed off about anything personal, which was why it had been so surprising that she’d had her cousin host the wake. As far as any of us had known, Jenson didn’t have any family nearby. I didn’t even know if Jenson was her actual name. All I knew was that when we all started calling one another by our real names, she’d still been Jenson.

“I trust you,” I said. “Until I have reason not to.”

She smiled. “Sounds fair. So what’s next?”

“Next, I’m going to take a long shower, and then I’m going to sleep. A lot.” I paused. “I need to clean out Mama’s trailer at some point, but not now. I just can’t deal with it right now.”

Jenson nodded. “If you want help, you know all you have to do is ask.”

“Thanks. I also need to pay for the last of the repairs on the house.”