Payback (15 page)

But she had to wait a little longer. Her plan depended on going in at precisely the right time. If she went now, there’d stil be pe ople in the classes held at the center, people who had no clue they were helping out the agency by giving the center the appe arance of a normal place where normal classes were taught. Those people, doing their knitting and flamenco dancing and medi tation, they al needed time to finish up and get out of the center. That meant she had to wait an hour and-she checked the clock again-an hour and thirteen minutes, which would give them time to gather their stuff and go to the bathroom and chat with their fri ends and stil be on their way to their safe little homes before Yana pul ed in the center’s parking lot.

Yana checked the clock again, even though she knew not even a minute had passed. She had to be careful not to wait
too
long.

Cascone usual y worked late. So did some of the other doctors. When Yana went in, she wanted them to be there. Torching the building would destroy some research, and she’d make sure she got rid of al the N-Tetran samples. That would slow things down. Buy some time for Rae and Mandy and the other G-2s. But if she wanted to real y damage the agency, she had to make her move while at least some of the people in charge were in the building.

She sat down on the edge of her bed, careful not to mess up the comforter, and rested her cheek against the cardboard box she held cradled in her arms. Her eyes fol owed the second hand around the face of the clock. Again, and again, and again.

Soon,
she thought.
Soon, soon, soon.

I guess I’d call this mission accomplished,
Anthony thought. Mandy’s sister was crying and yel ing. Zeke was yel ing back. Ant hony definitely didn’t think there was going to be a wedding today. Or anytime soon.

The shouting was giving him a freakin’ headache, and he real y didn’t want to get al caught up in some other family’s melodra ma-he got enough of that at home-so he headed out of the chapel, wandered over to his car, and sat on the hood. He closed his eyes, tilted back his head, and let the sun warm his face.

“Hey, you.”

Anthony opened his eyes and saw Rae standing in front of him. “Hey.” He shoved his hair off his face. “So is it under control in there?”

“I think so,” Rae answered. “Mandy and Jesse have Emma in-” She was interrupted by the sound of the chapel door being slam med shut. Zeke stalked out, climbed in a battered Chevy Nova, and peeled off, tires screeching. “Yeah, I’d definitely say our work here is through,” Rae said, watching Zeke’s car turn the corner and disappear.

“I guess I should move into his spot. Lucky I didn’t get a ticket for double-parking already.” Anthony climbed in the Hyundai, and Rae got in beside him. He maneuvered the car into the spot, then turned off the engine.

“It’s probably going to be a little while before Emma pul s herself together,” Rae told him.

Anthony nodded. He didn’t care how long she took. Hanging out in the car with Rae was one of his favorite things. It was like the inside of the car was a whole separate world, and he and Rae were the only two people who existed.

“Thanks for doing this.” Rae reached over, took his arm, and pul ed it around her shoulders.

“No prob,” Anthony answered, tracing little circles on the top of her arm with his thumb. “I thought maybe Mandy was freaking out over nothing, but it seems like neither one of them real y wanted to get married.”

“Yeah,” Rae said. “That was pretty clear when I did the fingerprint sweep.”

Anthony gave a laugh that came out sounding more like a bark. “Can you imagine what your dad would do if he thought the two of us were getting married?”

“With both of us stil in high school? He’d go-” Rae stopped abruptly and stared at him. “But that’s not what you meant, is it? You meant if we wanted to get married
ever,
right?”

She sounded pissed. What did he say?

“Anthony, do you even-I mean, I
love
you.”

Anthony blinked back at her, trying to process what to feel. Had she just said what he thought she’d said? But then, why did she stil sound angry?

“I love you,” she repeated, erasing any doubt that he’d heard her wrong. “Do you think I would love someone who was a big lo ser? ’Cause that’s what you think you are, right? Somebody my dad wouldn’t ever want me to be with.”

Anthony felt like he’d been zapped with a stun gun. Rae loved him. Rae Voight actual y loved
him.
He gave his head a slight shake as he realized what else she’d said. “Come on, like your dad doesn’t want you to marry some col ege guy,” he said, but his voice came out a little funny. He didn’t even know how to react to that other part.

“First, you could be some col ege guy if you wanted to,” Rae answered. “Second, my dad would want me to be with someone who… God, who was
good
to me, someone who’d be there for me. The way you always have been.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he admitted.

“You guess?” Rae’s voice rose higher. “Anthony, Marcus is going to be some col ege guy. Do you think my dad would want me to be with him? Do you think
I’d
want to be with anyone like him? Someone who’s such a weenie that he cares more about what other people think than about me?”

“He is a weenie,” Anthony agreed.

“And I shouldn’t be with a weenie, right?” Rae asked.

“No. You definitely shouldn’t be with a weenie,” he answered.

“And would you cal yourself a weenie?” Rae asked. She slid closer to him until her face was about an inch away from his.

“No.” Anthony couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across his face, a smile so big, it hurt.

Then, slowly, he felt the smile fade. His throat closed up until it was the size of one of those straws they put in drinks at bars. The re was something he had to say to her. Now. But he didn’t know if he could.

“Rae…”

His heart started to flail around, like it wanted to get out of his chest. This was so friggin’ hard. What if she laughed? Or said she’d only been kidding when she said it to him? Or-

“Rae,” he began again. He pul ed in a deep breath, hoping it would open up his throat a little. “Rae, I love you, too.”

She closed the fraction of space between them and kissed him, a light, sweet kiss that he felt in every square inch of his body.

“I love you,” he said again, without letting his lips break contact with hers. And that time it was easy, the easiest thing he’d ever said.

It’s finally time,
Yana thought.
It’s finally time, Mom.
She stepped out of her Bug, her big cardboard Happy Burger box in her arms, and used her butt to slam the car door. She slapped the smile she’d rehearsed in her bedroom on her face and headed to the main doors. They were unlocked. A good sign, she told herself as she walked inside and turned down the hal that led to the room with the security monitors.

The security guard popped his head out of the room before she was even halfway there. “Got a food order,” Yana cal ed. “A big one.” She nodded toward the box in her arms. “You must be having a party.”

The guard ran his hand over his short, bristly hair. “Let me cal downstairs and check.”

“No!” Yana exclaimed. “The guy who cal ed in the order said upstairs, turn right when you get in the door. Maybe I just got the ad dress wrong.” She kept talking as she walked toward him, trying to keep him away from the phone. “God, if I screwed up, my boss is going to be pissed. Al the food wil be cold and-” Yana reached the guard and put down the box. “I’l have to go back and get a whole new order.”

She kept her eyes on the guard’s face so she wouldn’t somehow signal what she was going to do as she reached into her poc ket and slid out the stun gun. She couldn’t risk using her thought-implanting ability on this guy. Who knew if he had the same po wer to block her as the others downstairs? “I hope I don’t get fired,” she said. Then she zapped the guy. He didn’t even see it co ming. He stared up at her, unable to move. Yana pul ed a rol of duct tape out of her other pocket and taped his mouth closed, then taped his feet together; then she hauled him over onto his stomach and taped his hands together behind his back. Breat hing hard from the effort, she managed to drag him back into his little room.

The guard was giving angry little sounds of protest behind his tape gag, and the grunts made Yana’s stomach turn over. She was leaving a helpless man up here. When the fire-Yana shook her head hard, trying to send the thought flying out of her brain.

“You knew exactly what was going on downstairs. You knew. You should have gone to work at the 7-Eleven.” She stepped outsi de, shut the door firmly behind her, and picked up her box.

Everyone who is left in here deserves what they’re going to get,
she reminded herself as she sprinted down the hal , the metal lighter fluid cans banging around inside the box.
All the innocent people are on their way home or already there, settled in
front of the tube.

Yana slid to a halt in front of the first camera, the one a few feet away from the door leading to the basement door. It was bolted to the wal above her head. She dropped the box, then climbed up on it, pul ed one of the scrambling devices out of the plastic bag in her bra, and stuck it on the camera. The scrambler had a magnet on it to hold it in place. Sam had thought of everything.

You can tell him thanks when this is over,
she told herself as she jumped off the box and picked it up again.
For now just mo
ve. Move, move, move!
With three long strides she reached the door to the stairs. She raised one knee and used it to balance the box while she punched in the security code and opened the door. She hesitated for a moment, listening. She didn’t hear any footsteps on the stairs.

So move!
she thought. She started down the stairway, moving as fast as she could with the box. She heard the sound of metal slamming against wood. Crap. That was the door at the bottom of the flights of stairs. Yana backed up a few stairs so that she was about halfway above the landing between the first two flights. She could hear footsteps racing toward her. A second later two guards rounded the landing and started up the flight below her.

“I give up!” Yana shouted. The guards didn’t slow down.
Let them come, let them come,
she instructed herself. They hit the lan ding directly below her. Yana tossed the box over the stair railing to the flight of stairs a level down. Then she grabbed the railing with both hands and vaulted over.
Now I’m ahead of them, at least,
she thought as she snatched up the box and started to run.

Not very far ahead of them, though. They’d already turned around. They were coming after her. The sound of their boots on the cement stairs was like thunder.

Yana rounded the second landing. She could see the door to the basement. Five, seven, three, one, one, five, two, she chan ted. She slammed to a stop in front of the door and started punching in the code. The guards had reached the last flight, too.

She could hear them. In another second they’d be able to-The door opened. Yana bolted inside. She spun toward the keypad on her side of the door and started hitting a new combinati on of numbers.
Faster, faster,
she thought. She could hear the guards yel ing. They were right on the other side of the door.

But they were too late. Yana punched in the last two numbers she needed to change the code. Thanks again, Sam. Now no one could get in without the new code-her code. And no one could get out.

Don’t stand around congratulating yourself. There are security monitors down here, too.
Yana scanned the front hal and spot ted a camera to her left. She darted over, dropped the box, jumped up on it, and placed a scrambler. In the distance she heard voices. She thought one was Cascone’s. Yana ran in the opposite direction. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a metal box on one wal . Score. The fuse box. She opened it and used the side of her hand to click off a whole row of switches at once. When she shut off the second row, the hal way she stood in went dark.

The voices were coming closer. Yana ducked into the closest room. Crap. It was smal , with just a desk and a chair. Not much of a place to hide. She jammed her box under the desk, then positioned herself to one side of the door and got her stun gun re ady, just in case.
Maybe they won’t even look in here,
she thought.

But a moment later the door swung open. Yana stood motionless, crammed between the door and the wal . She wasn’t going to use the stun gun unless she had to. Whoever was out there would make a sound fal ing to the floor. They might even have time to yel before Yana got their mouth taped. And that would give away her location.

How long can it take to check a tiny office?
she wondered. Had whoever was out there spotted her box? Had they already se en her but didn’t want her to know they had? Her heart began to beat so hard that she could feel her pulse in her temples, in her throat, even in her fingers.

Footsteps moved toward her, soft on the carpeted floor.
How can they not hear my heart?
she wondered. It was thudding so lo udly, she was surprised the floor wasn’t vibrating.