Phoenix (36 page)

Brad’s hand shot out and slapped him. Rakburn
laughed.

"I will take that as a ‘no.’"

Brad slapped him again.

Rakburn turned his head and spit out a small
glob of blood. "You are a pitiful interrogator."

Brad took a deep breath. He was losing his
temper. If that happened, he’d get nowhere and the Suit would get
what he wanted.

What
does
he
want
?

"My granddaughter."

Brad’s eyes met his. "So you’re a
telepath."

Rakburn tilted his head and shrugged. "Among
other things."

Brad fell silent and rubbed his hand. He had
no idea how to get at this man. He
was
a pitiful
interrogator. If it wasn’t for Izzy, he’d just take the gun from
his pants, shoot him, and dump his body over the barrier.

"You have little reason for that."

Brad clenched his jaw. "Stop doing that."

Rakburn smiled. "All I want is Isabel. I do
not want you or your friends."

"Why do you want her? Someone like you
doesn’t care about family, so what do you want with her?"

Rakburn’s smiled disappeared. "What is it you
believe you know about someone like me?" He grunted and looked
away. "You are a damned fool."

"Okay." Brad slapped his thighs and started
pacing back and forth. "What do I know about you. One: I know
you’re some kind of secret agent man. Shadow agent. Agent. Which do
you prefer?" He ticked off on his fingers. "Two: You work for
PhoenTek, the bastards responsible for all this." He held his arms
out. "Three: For some reason, PhoenTek had you watching us. Four:
You killed my friend’s neighbors." He stopped and stood in front of
the Suit.

Rakburn dipped his head. "Yes. That was
unfortunate. I do not prefer that method."

"So you want to tell me just what I’m
supposed to think of you? Because unless I’m missing something,
you’re what we call the bad guy."

Rakburn laughed. A loud belly laugh that came
out sounding surprised and ended in tears. Brad stared with his
mouth open. Finally Rakburn found some control and looked up with
what seemed to Brad as pity.

"The bad guy?
You
think
I
am
the bad guy?" Another fit of laughter. "Oh, my poor fool. You see,
this
is why I left you that note." He paused and studied
Brad with a grin and tears in his eyes.

"What?" Brad shook his head. "What the hell
are you talking about?"

Rakburn sighed and lowered his face. He would
have rubbed his forehead if his hands were free. Could this young
man be so stupid that he had not yet realized his mistake? Rakburn
took a deep breath and opened the door in his mind. Through it he
could see Isabel, outside with the others, boarding windows.
Good
.
If
he
has
an
outburst
,
she
will
not
hear
it
. "You are correct. I am an agent. Senior Agent Thomas
Rakburn, if you must know my rank and name." His voice lowered and
his face smoothed. "There are many agents, and we do work for
PhoenTek. Well," he shrugged, "the current state of my employment
is questionable. Regardless, I carried out many orders for them.
Until I didn’t."

Brad paused, thinking the man would continue.
When he didn’t, Brad prodded. "Are they all like you? The agents,
are they psychic?"

"Yes."

"What’s PhoenTek?"

Rakburn chuckled. "You know what they are. A
multibillion dollar company spanning the globe."

Brad paced again. "Sure, on the face. But
there’s got to be something more to them if they’ve got who knows
how many psychics working for them. What are you, like a bounty
hunter?"

"No." Rakburn cringed. "Decidedly not."

Brad gestured for him to hurry up and get to
the point.

"Long story short, my poor fool? Yes, for I
am not certain you will understand anything more than simple
sentences."

The impact of Brad’s fist against his stomach
forced all the air from Rakburn’s lungs in a great heave. The agent
gasped, his head lolling back and to the side until he caught his
breath.

Very well." Rakburn swallowed hard and he
glared at Brad. "We are not the bad guys.
You
are."

Brad’s eyes roved the floor and drifted up
until they met Rakburn’s.

"Yes, you. You did this. You and your
incessant meddling." Rakburn lifted his chin and straightened as
much as his bindings would allow. "My superiors, those behind the
face of PhoenTek, have fought for nearly a decade to prevent this
very thing. I do hope you are not so stupid that you have not
noticed the state of the world in which you live? One country
fighting another, governments being toppled, civil war, genocide,
and the list goes on. Would you like me to continue?"

Brad couldn’t find his voice. His throat was
closing and his chest felt squeezed.

Rakburn shook his head with disgust. "We used
every tool and weapon at our disposal. Seers, viewers,
manipulators, and many more you cannot even begin to
understand."

"Used them for what?" Brad could barely hear
his own voice, though how much of that was caused from whispering
or his heart hammering in his ears, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t want
to hear this. The things Rakburn was saying made more sense than
half of what he and the Club had determined, and the Suit hadn’t
even explained much of anything yet. But Brad could connect the
dots. It was making for a very ugly picture.

"We used them as weapons. We were at
war
, Mister Lincoln." Rakburn lowered his eyes. "And we were
losing."

"You were trying to stop it."

Rakburn looked up.

"You didn’t start this. But you knew it was
going to happen and you were trying to stop it." Brad gasped.
"North Korea? It actually
was
them?"

"If not them, it would have been someone
else. A global arms race, Bradley. My superiors were putting out
fire after fire all over the planet. We were barely keeping up. But
we
were
, until you meddled."

"The vaccine. We stopped it from going
out."

"Yes."

"It was a real vaccine, then. For the
virus."

"Yes."

"That’s why you were watching us. To stop us
from interfering?"

Rakburn nodded.

Brad wiped his mouth. "Just us?"

Rakburn shook his head.

"Not just us. Okay." Brad wiped his mouth
again. He felt dizzy.

"Our seers said there would be those of our
kind who would interfere. That is where the agents came in. We were
assigned in such a way so all, or at least most, of the civilian
Psi population was covered at all times. We each had orders to
dispose of potential threats."

"
That’s
why we were blocked. So we
wouldn’t see and get in the way," Brad said. "Well if we were
sticking our noses where they didn’t belong, why aren’t we dead?
You were watching us, so I’m assuming we were your assignment. You
saw what we were doing. We were trying to
stop
them."

Rakburn nodded along. "Yes. You were."

Brad waited a beat, then threw out his arms
and made a face. "
Well
?"

Rakburn worked his jaw and glanced at the
door behind Brad. "Isabel. She, too, was a target. Any other
reasons I might have had are my own."

"What about that note? How does that fit in?
Killing Boucher? If PhoenTek was trying to stop the damn zombie
apocalypse, and Boucher was leading the charge, why in the
hell
would you use me as your
assassin
?"

"Lower your voice."

Brad was sweating and his jaw ached. He
realized he was leaning over Rakburn with his hands clenched around
the arms of the chair, bent over so far that his heavy breathing
was ruffling the old man’s hair. He backed off almost immediately.
He had no way of knowing the full range and scope of the Suit’s
abilities. If the man wanted to, he might be able to kill Brad with
just a thought.

Rakburn cracked his neck. "
You
were
damage control. That note led to an escalated reaction from my
superiors. If Mister Boucher had not been killed, then he would
have postponed the next phase of our operation past the point of no
return. That could not be allowed to happen." He cleared his
throat. "We had formed a contingency plan in the event of failure.
This contingency needed to be enacted before it was too late."

"You
used
me—"

Rakburn leaned forward and shouted, "I gave
you a chance to redeem yourself! You
caused
this! I used you
in an attempt to
fix
what you had
broken
!"

Brad stumbled back. Rakburn took several deep
breaths and forced himself back against the chair.

"I am sorry. That was unnecessary."

"Yeah." Brad’s bowels felt loose but he
couldn’t leave the man alone long enough to run to the bathroom. If
all he wanted was Izzy, nothing stopped Rakburn from killing him
and the others and leaving with her. The man was still a killer, no
matter what he said. Brad walked over to his bed and sat on the
edge. He rubbed his chin and glanced up now and then, studying
Rakburn’s profile. The man stared forward at the door.

We
did
this
.
He
might
be
a
killer
,
but
we
...
What
we
did
,
we
thought
it
was
for
the
good
.
Only
thing
we
ended
up
doing
was
killing
the
world
.

Brad wiped his mouth and stared at Rakburn’s
shoulder. "Now what?"

"Now you release me." He didn’t look at Brad.
He kept his eyes on the door.

Brad chewed at his lip. "What’s stopping you
from carrying out your orders? Yeah it’s too late, but you might
just do it for spite."

Rakburn chuckled. "Many years ago, when I was
your age, I was taught a very valuable lesson." He turned his head
and looked directly at Brad. "Never dispose of something which
might still be of use."

Don’t
trust
him
. "What
do you mean?"
Don’t
trust
him?
We’re
the
ones
who
fucked
everything
up
,
not
him
.
He’s
the
one
who
shouldn’t
trust
us.

When Brad glanced up, he saw Rakburn was
nodding along. "Yes, that is true. I should not, and I know this.
However, you have somehow managed to keep the thing most important
to me safe. That is something, would you not agree?"

Brad looked away. He couldn’t stand to look
the man in the eyes for too long. "Yeah. She’s one of us, part of
the family. Why wouldn’t we keep her safe?"

Rakburn shrugged. "That is neither here nor
there. She cares about all of you. Other than still having a use
for you,
that
is why I will let you live."

"Alright." Brad steeled himself. "What did
you have in mind?"

Mort, Adams, and Brad huddled in the kitchen.
Brad explained everything Rakburn had told him and the offer he’d
made. He also made sure they understood the consequences if they
refused Rakburn’s deal. The only person missing from the meeting
was Izzy. She was in Brad’s bedroom with her grandfather. Rakburn
had said he needed privacy so he could contact his superiors,
though he wouldn’t say why. Brad had no idea how the man would do
that, considering cell phones and landlines hadn’t worked in
months. Mort suggested Rakburn had other means of communication,
hinting at the man’s psychic abilities. They agreed that this was
most likely the case, since the air around them had temporarily
cleared up and the buzzing noise from the dead was hardly
noticeable.

"But what he’s talking about, it hasn’t even
happened
yet," Adams said.

Brad nodded. "I know. But apparently it’s
going to, unless something happens soon to change the course of
things." He glanced at Mort. "I believe him. I know how this sort
of thing works. And he said their seers have predicted events up to
three years into this mess. After that, they’ve got nothing." Brad
stuck out a finger. "
And
, he confirmed that they
are
still blocking us so they can stay in hiding, but that the dead are
affecting them, too, so the block isn’t as solid as it was before.
Explains why me and Izzy have picked up a few things, like what
happened at the farmhouse, and these new zombies, but can’t see as
far ahead as their seers."

Adams spoke up. "We already figured that out.
Remember? I’m pretty sure I remember some guy asking me about it."
He raised an eyebrow.

"I know, I know." Brad waved his hands. "This
is just a confirmation of
your
confirmation."

"Boys," Mort rubbed his face, then met their
eyes, "as far as the offer goes, I don’t think we’re in a position
to argue, after what we’ve done."

"What
we’ve
done?" Adams asked. "We
did what we thought we had to with the information we had. I tried
my best! You guys asked me questions, and I damn well answered
them!"

"Yes, you did. This isn’t your fault," Mort
soothed. "We didn’t ask the right ones, or we weren’t specific
enough. After all this time with you, we’re
still
learning
how to get around your wicked genie."

"I can’t help that!"

"I know, I know. I’m not blaming you."

"We’re not completely at fault here," Adams
continued. "If those assholes had just brought us all into the
fold, things would have turned out much differently."