Shinobi (A Katana Novel) (10 page)

“What do you think he means by that?” Q asked.

“Who knows?” I backed away from the door and braced my hands against my knees to catch my breath. “Hopefully it means we won and they’re going to stop the truck. If they do, be ready. When they open the door, I’ll attack. Your job is to get to the driver’s seat and be ready to drive this thing the second you get inside. Got it?”

“You really think—” His words were cut off abruptly by a hissing sound. “What is that noise?”

Oh, crap.
The small burst of hope inside of me vanished.
Please don’t let that be what I think it is.
I jerked upright and spun a circle hoping to locate the source of the noise, but it was impossible. The hissing surrounded us.

“Ri … I don’t feel … right.” Quentin’s words were thick, as if he spoke them through a mouthful of cotton.

“It’s gas!” I pulled my T-shirt over my nose, knowing it would buy me an extra minute at most. My plan failed. Tears burned behind my eyelids, and I quickly blinked them back before they could fall. They really had created an inescapable truck—one in which they could incapacitate their prisoners without even leaving the cab.

The gas filled my head, making me sway on my feet. I knew I should have been afraid, but with the gas swirling inside my lungs, I found I couldn’t muster up any emotion other than exhaustion. I fell forward against the door. The rubber wall pulled at my cheek as I slid slowly to the ground. “Son … of … hibachi.”

“I … can’t … fight … ” But Quentin never finished his sentence. A second later, I heard the soft thump of what I could only assume was his body hitting the floor.

Without light, I couldn’t tell if the inky black of unconsciousness had already begun to bleed into my vision. My eyelids lowered, pulled down by a force too strong for me to fight. From somewhere far away, I was vaguely aware of my heart beating a panicked rhythm, as if it knew we were losing valuable time. Once we arrived in New York, our chance of escape would be lost.

The floor smacked against my cheek. I hadn’t even been aware I was falling. Sleep pulled at me. Unable to fight it, I fell deeper until even the hissing of gas drifted away, leaving me alone in silent night.

16

A
strong hand reached through the darkness and grabbed my hand.

My eyes fluttered open. “Kim?”

“Rileigh, it’s me—Quentin.” Only it didn’t sound like Quentin.

I blinked in groggy confusion as the pieces of what had happened to us after we’d been gassed gradually came together. “Oh. Right. How long have I been out?”

“I don’t know. I only woke up a little bit ago—there’s no telling how much time has passed.”

I sat up, immediately regretting it when a rush of dizziness swirled through my head. “So we could be anywhere?”

Quentin’s hand slid from mine. “Yeah.”

“Son of hibachi.” I crawled through the darkness with a hand stretched out in front of me until I met the wall. If we were drawing closer to New York, then time was running out. Once the Network imprisoned us inside their headquarters, there would be no escape. And I wouldn’t spend the rest of my existence in a cage while Sumi lived
my
stolen life.

“What are you doing?” Quentin asked, his voice full of alarm.

I braced against the wall and guided myself onto my feet. “I’m getting us out of here before it’s too late.”

“What?” I heard the soft pad of hands and knees scuttling across the rubber floor as Quentin drew near. “You already tried to do that, and it got us gassed. If you do anything like that again, who knows how much gas they’ll use on us? We might just wake up inside our cells.”

He was right. I couldn’t lash out like I had last time—I needed a plan. I braced my back against the wall and tried to recall everything Dr. Wendell had told me about this truck. “Dr. Wendell said this truck was designed specifically for Sumi, right?”

“Well, yeah. But I don’t understand—”

“So let’s break down Sumi’s powers.” I felt my way along the wall, searching for the door seam. “She can manipulate minds, which is why they designed the truck to keep her isolated. It’s covered in rubber so she can’t use her lightning … so let’s think about what it
doesn’t
have.”

“Door handles?”

Just like that, a flicker of an idea sparked inside my mind. “Quentin, you’re a genius!”

“That’s been established a long time ago. But I don’t understand what it has to do with getting us out of the truck.”

Just then my searching fingers brushed over the slight dip in the rubber indicating the seam of the adjoining doors. “Sumi can’t open a locked door without a key—but I can!”

“Your ki!” Q whispered so close to my ear I jumped. “Do you think it will work in Sumi’s body?”

My hand fell to my side. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

His fingers grasped my shoulder and squeezed. “You have to try. It could be our only chance.”

He was right. I cracked my knuckles. Even if it didn’t work, I had to try. “Okay. Let’s do this.” Even in the pitch dark, I closed my eyes and tried to fall inside myself as I’d done so many times before. But this time, something was different. I could still sense the white-hot energy that was my ki. I felt the heat pulsing from inside me, and yet each time I reached out to it, it slipped beyond my grasp.

“Oh, God,” I muttered, letting my forehead drop against the door. “Something isn’t right—I can’t reach it.”

Quentin’s hand squeezed my shoulder again. “I was afraid of this. I noticed something similar when I tried to use my healing powers to revive you.”

I turned my head toward his voice. “What do you think it means?”

He sighed. “I think it means that because these bodies don’t belong to us, our powers won’t stay inside them.”

“But I can feel my ki!” I protested. “I just can’t … reach it.”

“Right. I think when we switched bodies we took our powers with us, but they’re slowly bleeding away.”

I turned and placed my palm against the door. “So you’re saying we have a fraction of our power now—but soon we won’t have any at all?”

He was silent a moment. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

As if we weren’t in enough trouble
.
“In other words, if I’m going to use my ki to break us out of here, I better do it while I still have ki left.”

“I’m afraid so.”

I sighed. “But how can I use my ki power when I can’t reach it? I can feel something blocking me—like a wall. I can’t touch it.”

“Hmm.” His hand slid from my shoulder. “If I were to make a guess, I would assume the only thing blocking you is you.”

“What?”

“You know you’re in Sumi’s body, and it’s messing with your mind. Just try to imagine that you’re in your own body. Don’t think about Sumi. You know who you are. You’re Rileigh Martin. Senshi, reincarnated samurai. A body doesn’t make you that.”

“No. But it sure helps.” I didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm from my voice. “So what do I do? Think happy thoughts? Aim for the second star on the right?”

He sighed. “Your attitude isn’t helping us get out of here any faster. Just close your eyes and
do
it.”

I huffed loudly. “All right. I’ll try it your way. But if it doesn’t work, make sure you hold your breath while I pound the crap out of the door.”

“Right. Because that worked out so well for us last time.”

I scowled at him despite knowing he couldn’t see me through the darkness. “Now who has the attitude? Are you sure you’re not turning
into
Whitley?”

“Just try it!”

“All right. All right.” I closed my eyes and sucked in a deep breath. Luckily, I’d trained with Lord Toyotomi in my past life in the art of meditation. I inhaled deeply through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. I repeated the process several times until I felt myself gradually relax.

“You are Rileigh Martin,” Quentin whispered—only it was Whitley’s voice, so my eyes fluttered open despite themselves.

“Q?”

“Yes?”

“I love you, but your voice—Whitley’s voice—it’s not helping.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.”

“That’s okay.” I closed my eyes and tried again. This time, I imagined myself not inside the truck, but on the recon mission with Kim the night before. I pictured myself on Sumi’s porch, and the way Kim looked at me as I stood before her locked door. I was Rileigh Martin. I was Senshi. A locked door meant nothing to me. “I am Rileigh Martin,” I whispered.

My ki stirred inside me.

“I am Rileigh Martin,” I repeated.

My ki flared within me like a match dropped onto a pile of kindling.

“I am Senshi!” This time my ki burst through the wall holding it back, spilled through my veins, and ignited my blood. My eyes fluttered wide—only now, instead of seeing darkness, I could see the inner-workings of the door in front on me. I pressed my palm against the seam and willed my ki to spill from my fingers, where it bled into the seam and flooded the lock beyond. A second later, I heard the whine of metal being retracted right before the door swung wide open.

After so much time spent in complete darkness, the sunlight spilling into the back of the truck blinded me. “Grab the doors!” I caught the edge of the metal door closest to me and pulled it inward, all the while trying to blink the sun spots out of my eyes.

Q dropped to the ground and grabbed the bottom of the other door, keeping it slightly ajar. Through the gap, I could make out a lush green forest on either side of us.

“I thought you wanted the doors open,” he panted.

“I do. But if the doors swing wide and bang against the side of the truck, they’ll know what we’ve done and stop the vehicle. First we need to figure out where we are.”

“Got any ideas?”

I looked at him and, even knowing it was my best friend trapped in another body, I still couldn’t help but wince when I saw Whitley staring back. I returned my attention to the road and the trees surrounding us. “None,” I finally answered. “I have no clue where we are.”

We crested the top of a hill, and the view spreading before us took my breath away. Tree-covered mountains reached for the cloudless, blue horizon like the lacey edge of a bridal gown.

“Which states between Missouri and New York have mountains?” I asked. “Illinois doesn’t.” I tried to recall the map of the United States posted on the wall in my history class. “And Ohio doesn’t.”

“No,” Quentin agreed. “But Pennsylvania does.”

“Pennsylvania!” I tightened my grasp on the door the wind desperately tried to wrench out of my hands. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

He frowned. “You know I never joke about geography.”

I sighed and surveyed the rolling landscape. “That doesn’t give us much time to escape before we get to New York.” My fingers were already beginning to burn from the strain of hanging on to the door—I wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. “There’s nobody behind us. We’re going to have to jump, and we’re going to have to do it before another car comes along.”

Quentin stared at me, not blinking, as Whitley’s long hair whipped around his face. “Jump? Are you crazy? At this speed, the fall would kill us.”

“I think I might be able to brace our impact with my ki.”

“
Think?
” He shook his head. “That doesn’t really inspire a lot of confidence. Aren’t you worried you used up most of your ki opening the door?”

I bit my lip and looked away before he could read the doubt on my face. Of course I was worried about that—but I was even more worried about spending the rest of my life locked inside a cell. “Look, you don’t have to go with me. I can’t ask you to risk your life like that. But I’m going to jump.”

Quentin was quiet a moment before finally answering. “I have to come with you.”

“No, you don’t.” I tried to readjust my grip on the door to ease the ache in my fingers. “Once I make it back home, I’ll tell the others what happened. I’ll make sure Sumi switches our bodies back, and then I’ll get Dr. Wendell to call the Network and release you.”

“It’s not that.” He looked at me. “I … there’s something I haven’t told you.”

My gut clenched, and I almost lost my hold on the door. “What is it?”

He shook his head. “I’m a healer. This means, when it comes to the body, I can feel things that other people can’t.”

I nodded for him to continue even though I was sure I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

He licked his lips. “And I can feel this body latching on to me. Its hold is becoming stronger by the minute.”

I frowned, trying to make sense of his words. “Its hold? I don’t understand.”

He sighed. “Look, there’s no easy way to explain this, but if what I think is true, we have to get out of these bodies as soon as possible, before … ” He shook his head, and the look on his face tightened my throat.

“Before what, Q?”

He was quiet, and for a moment, I worried he might not answer me. But then he looked at me and swallowed hard. “Before we get trapped inside them permanently.”

17

W
hat?” The door slipped from my fingers and hit the side of the truck. The resulting bang was loud enough to bounce my heart against my ribs.

The truck slammed on its brakes, the tires squealing in protest as Quentin and I were thrown to the floor. We scrambled to our feet and I heard the distinct squeak of vehicle doors opening before slamming shut.

“C’mon!” A voice ordered. “They couldn’t have gotten far.”

“Son of hibachi,” I muttered. I ran across the padded floor and grabbed Q’s arm. The bombshell he’d just delivered would have to wait. If we had any hopes of escaping, now was our moment.

I pulled Q beside me and pressed us into the corner of the truck by the door hinges. Not even several heartbeats later, a shadow fell across the crack of light created by the door seam.

“You check the woods,” another voice said. “I’ll check the back of the truck.”

Quentin tensed beside me, but I held him steady with my arm. We had one chance—we couldn’t blow it.

Fingers grasped the edge of the door, but before they could pull it open, I moved out of the corner and kicked the door as hard as I could. The man didn’t have time to cry out before the door clanged against his head. A second later, he crumpled to the ground.

“Now!” I grabbed Quentin’s arm, and together we jumped from the truck, landing beside the dazed man on the asphalt.

Quentin knelt next to him. The man was dressed in all
black, and his cracked sunglasses hung at an awkward angle across his face. “Look,” Quentin began. “I’m sorry we had to do that to you. I’m sure you’re just trying to earn a living—but we’re not who you think we are.”

“Q!” I grabbed his arm and motioned to the line of trees. If I hadn’t been convinced he wasn’t Whitley, his apology to the Network official certainly did the trick. “We don’t have time for this. We have to go!”

He nodded and reluctantly followed me as I bolted into the woods. Brambles and twigs pulled at my clothes and scratched across my skin as I sprinted through. But I didn’t dare stop. I knew the other man had to be close by.

“Hey! Come back here!”

I chanced a glance behind me just as something whizzed past my face and lodged into the tree in front of us.

Quentin pulled it out as we ran past, looked at it, and chucked it over his shoulder. “Tranquilizer darts,” he said between huffs. “If they get us, we’re screwed.”

My heart felt on the verge of exploding. Another series of pops exploded behind us and I lunged behind a tree, grabbing Quentin by the arm and pulling him with me. Three soft thwacks sounded as the darts sank into bark. “Okay, let’s go!” I shoved him forward and together we sprinted ahead.

The farther we ran, the more the ground sloped downward. I had to slow my pace to keep my footing sure as the incline steepened.

“You can’t hide from the Network!” a voice shouted behind us. “So you might as well surrender now!”

Fat chance of that happening.

“Watch out!” This time it was Quentin who pushed me aside as a dart soared over my shoulder.

“I don’t understand.” I shook my head before leaping over a log. “My danger premonitions usually allow me to sense things like that.”

“Yeah, well.” He ducked under a low-hanging branch. “You better get used to not relying on your ki so much. You’re probably not going to have it much longer.”

I swallowed hard. “Awesome.”

“Speaking of which.” Q placed a hand against his ribs and grimaced. “I’m starting to get a stitch in my side—something I’ve never had. I guess my healing ability kept me from cramping before. I’m going to need to stop soon.”

I peered over my shoulder one more time. I couldn’t see the man following us, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t out there. “Just a little bit farther until I know we’re safe.” We ran for several more minutes until I could no longer hear the distant rustling of footsteps behind us. “This is good,” I whispered, ducking behind a boulder and indicating for him to join me.

Quentin collapsed on the ground beside me, heaving ragged breaths with his hand pressed against his side. “Do you think he’s still out there?”

“Yeah.” I nodded, trying to calm my own erratic breathing. “He wouldn’t give up so easy. In fact, he’s probably called for backup.”

“Great.” He leaned his head against the rock. “So what’s our plan? We can’t just sit here.”

“No,” I agreed. “After we rest for a minute, we need to put more distance between ourselves and that truck.”

He frowned. “But we don’t know where we’re going. We’re in the mountains! We could get eaten by a bear.”

“We won’t be eaten by a bear,” I hissed.

Quentin opened his mouth to respond, but a twig snapped nearby and I clasped my hand over his mouth. Leaves rustled as our pursuer pushed through the brush. Quentin’s skin paled as footsteps drew nearer. He looked at me with Whitley’s one good eye as if to ask, “Now what?”

My muscles tightened with the urge to bolt. Normally I might try to fight. With my ki, a weapon of any kind wouldn’t faze me a bit. But now that my powers had faded, I needed to be more careful—especially since I had Quentin to look after too.

The footsteps shuffled closer until they stopped on the other side of the boulder we crouched behind. If the man took even one step closer, we’d be discovered for sure. And then what? I could attack, but I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t get hurt in the process.

Think, Rileigh, think!

Before a solution came to me, the grass rustled and the tip of the man’s boot appeared from the side of the rock.

Quentin pressed himself deeper against the rock until his body was covered by shadow.

Wait a second … Rock. Shadow.
That was it!

I only prayed I had enough ki energy to pull it off.

The man wasn’t looking in our direction when he stepped past the rock. Like the man we’d struck with the door, he, too, wore a skin-tight black T-shirt that prominently displayed all the bulging muscles underneath as well as a pair of black, baggy cargo pants. His eyes swept over the scenery in front of him, and I knew we had seconds before he turned in our direction.

Q reached for my hand and squeezed so hard I almost cried out.

Instead, I swallowed the yelp, closed my eyes, and tried to fall inside myself. But like earlier inside the truck, my access was blocked. Only a few wisps of ki reached out to me, and I grabbed onto them with everything I had.

When I opened my eyes, despite the fact that Q was still squeezing my hand to the point of bringing tears to my eyes, I could no longer see him sitting beside me.

I’d done it. I’d used up the last of my ki in the process, but I’d made us invisible.

Without thinking, I let out a sigh of relief.

The man standing before us snapped his head in our direction and scowled. He tilted his head and took a step in our direction, the dart gun aimed at where my chest would be if it were visible.

I held my breath, afraid the slightest noise might set off his index finger, which twitched against the trigger. Already I could feel the ki inside me slipping away like unraveling spools of ribbon. I knew I couldn’t keep us invisible much longer.

The man slowly lowered his gun, reached for the walkie-talkie clipped to his belt, and brought it to his lips. “I don’t see any signs of them. I’m going to head back to the truck and check on Agent Ross—he might need medical attention. The bitch got him good.”

I stiffened, but Quentin’s hand on mine kept me from standing up and giving him his own reason for needing medical attention.

“Roger that,” a voice answered through the walkie-talkie. “Your orders are to remain with the truck until backup arrives.”

He brought the walkie-talkie back to his lips. “Tell them to bring the dogs.”

“Roger,” the voice answered.

A knot formed inside my gut and pulled tight. I couldn’t hold on much longer. I watched in horror as Quentin and my clasped hands flickered in and out of view.

The man snapped his walkie-talkie back on his hip and set off toward the road. I let go of Quentin’s hand as we both appeared in view. Still, I didn’t dare make a sound until I could no longer hear the man’s footsteps trudging through the brush.

“Are you all right?” Quentin asked, lightly touching my arm. It was so strange to see him looking at me through Whitley’s good eye with a look of genuine concern.

I shook my head. “Not even close. And to make matters worse, I think I might have used up the last of my ki.”

He frowned. “I was afraid of that. I don’t think I have much of my healing powers left, either.”

Awesome.
So there we were, lost in the woods, running from Network agents, without food, powers, money, or even a map. I stood and brushed the leaves off my pants before carefully peeking over the boulder to make sure the coast was clear. “We need a plan.”

He nodded. “We need to get home. You know, before—”

I snapped my head in his direction. “Do you really think that could happen? That we could get stuck like this
forever
?”

He used his hands to help himself into a standing position. “Yes. The only thing I’m not sure about is how long we have. A couple days at the most, I think.”

A newly formed headache throbbed beneath my temples, and I squeezed my palms against my head to ebb the pain. “Son of hibachi,” I groaned.

He nodded grimly. “So what do we do?”

I dropped my hands and tried to come up with a solution. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life in Sumi’s body. We had to get home—and fast. I checked to make sure the coast was clear. When I didn’t spot anyone coming, I pointed deeper into the woods. “We have to go that way.”

He shielded his eyes and surveyed the forest in front of us. “How do you know that’s the right way?”

“I don’t.” I motioned for him to follow me as I marched ahead. “But we have to keep moving, and we certainly can’t go back in the direction of the road. That’s where the Network will be setting up a search team.”

“But”—Q sidestepped a tree—“what if we get lost? What if we come across a bear?”

“You’re really worried about that bear, huh? Don’t. With the mood I’m in, I’d feel pretty sorry anything that decides to cross our paths.” I cracked my knuckles together.

He frowned at me before pushing through the branches of a bush. “That doesn’t seem like much of a plan.”

“It’s not.” I shrugged. “But we can’t sit there and wait for the Network to catch us. I also can’t wait around doing nothing while Sumi steals my life—possibly forever.” In a fit of desperation, I’d been forced to kill myself in my last life. There was no way I was going to let this one be taken from me as well.

“You’re right. We’re running out of time.” He was quiet a moment before adding, “You’ll get us out of this. I know it.”

“Of course I will.” I gave him a reassuring smile but quickly turned away before it had the chance to slip. I didn’t want him to know how scared I really was. The odds were stacked against us. We were lost, outmanned, and outgunned.

I licked my lips and leapt over a fallen tree. If only Kim were here. In our past lives, he was the leader of our samurai army. I could always count on him to know what to do in any situation, and to always lead us in the right direction. But now that responsibility had fallen to me, and the burden of being the one to make sure we made it home felt like a noose around my neck.

“There sure are a lot of trees,” Q mumbled.

My throat constricted and I said nothing. I hoped the trees weren’t an omen of what was to come. Because when you walked with a noose around your neck, all it took was one branch to end it all.

And a million stretched out before me.