Talented (12 page)

Henri silently led the way into the house.  Immediately
, I noticed that, like the barn, the house was designed to look more decrepit from the outside than it in fact was.  It was nowhere near luxurious on the inside, but it was clean, and all of the walls and staircases appeared more intact than I‘d guessed.  I was relieved.  As soon as we closed the door, I pictured all the doors and windows from the floor plans and mentally locked them.  The sound of all the locks clicking simultaneously into place was faint, but both boys heard the noise.  I felt safe for the first time that night.

“We’re
going to sleep in shifts,” Henri announced, speaking out loud for the first time in hours.  I hadn’t realized what a toll maintaining the mental connection was taking on me until it was broken. I sagged with relief at the reprieve.

“I’
ll take the first watch.  The bedroom is upstairs, both of you need to get some sleep.  Erik, I’ll wake you up in a little while,” Henri continued.

Exhaustion was beginning to set in
, as I followed Erik up the stairs.  There were three rooms on the upper floor; one was a bedroom and one was a bathroom, while the third room looked like a command center.  There were touchscreens lining the walls, and panels decorated with buttons and switches.  I walked directly to the bathroom and took off my suit, replacing it with my pajamas. My skin was immediately thankful to be free of the constricting material and allowed to breathe.  I quickly brushed my teeth to erase the fuzzy film.  Sleep couldn’t come fast enough.

Erik was standing awkwardly in the bedroom in his pajamas when I walked in.

“There’s only one bed.  If you want me to sleep on the floor I will,” he offered.

“The floor is wood, not exactly comfortable
,” I observed.  “Haven’t you ever been on a Hunting team with a girl?”

“Yeah, Henri and I
had a girl as a floater before he asked to have you permanently assigned to us,” Erik confirmed.

“Did you sleep in the same bed with those girls?” I asked.

“It never came up.”

“
Just don’t grope me in my sleep and I think we’ll be okay,” I replied dryly.

“I don’t plan on it
, but I make no promises,” Erik’s eyes twinkled mischievously in the darkness.

I rolled my eyes and climbed into bed.  Erik headed towards the bathroom.  I was vaguely aware of him
climbing into the bed a couple minutes later, but I didn’t have the energy to speak.

There were no windows in the bedroom
, so I had no concept of time when I woke up.  I was lying on my side facing the wall and I could feel a hand on my hip.  The sheer size of the hand indicated to me it belonged to Henri.  I gently removed his appendage and slid down to the end of the bed, to go in search of Erik.  I didn’t have to go far.  I found him in the command center watching surveillance of the perimeter surrounding the safe house.  He was sitting in one chair with his feet propped up on a second.  He was eating something from a bag that looked disturbingly like dehydrated meat.

“Hey.  What time is it?  Why didn’t you wake me?”

“It’s not that late.  I was going to let you sleep for another couple hours.”  He looked over his shoulder at me.  The light pouring in the window caught his eyes causing the turquoise color to look even more unnatural, and gorgeous, than normal.

“You don’t
have to coddle me,” I retorted, snappier than I meant.  My awareness of him when we were in close proximity irritated me and I irrationally blamed him, like he could help being ridiculously good-looking.

“I’m not coddling you.  You’
re expending a lot more energy than either me or Henri, and it’s your mental powers that we are counting on to keep us connected when we go inside that house.  You have to be at your strongest.”  His reasonable response irked me further.

“I’m not really tired anymore.  I’
m really hungry though,” I said changing the subject.

“There’
s some stuff in the kitchen cabinets.  None of it’s expired or anything, but a lot of it is less-than-appetizing.  It’s smart to conserve the stuff in your pack, in case we have to hide in the woods somewhere.”

I made my way downstairs and rummaged through the kitchen cabinets.  Erik was rig
ht, nothing in there looked edible.  I finally settled on mixed nuts and canned peaches.  Taking my meal back upstairs, I sat with Erik, and let him explain how all the buttons and switches on the panel, worked.

“Did you guys get enough sleep?” Henri asked when he
finally wandered in a couple of hours later.  Erik and I both nodded.  “Good.  I want to scout out the town, so go get dressed – suits, just regular clothes.”

I nodded and headed to
the bathroom to do as I was told.  I choose tight fitting jeans and strapped a knife to each of my calves, covering them with knee high black boots.  I secured the knife belt around my waist, and covered it with a loose fitting white cotton shirt.  I strapped on my backpack and wrapped myself in a light-weight jacket to hide the pack from view.  When I was ready, I walked downstairs to find Henri and Erik both dressed in loose-fitting dark jeans and black shirts with their jackets covering their packs as well.

We pi
led into the road car and followed a very roundabout set of dirt roads that eventually led us to the town.  There were several blocks of white stone buildings, no more than four or five stories tall.  All of the structures were completely open-air with no doors or windows.  I wondered how they kept the rain out.  One look at the cloudless sky had me doubting there was much precipitation here.  The streets running through the city were narrow, barely wide enough for one vehicle.  The walkways were the same white stone as the buildings, and the streets were a mix of gray, black and white stones.  I assumed the white buildings and walkways were to keep the city as cool as possible in account of the extreme temperatures.

I’d
noticed the heat and humidity the day before, but neither had effected me because I was wearing my suit.    Today, wearing normal clothing, the heat was nearly unbearable.  I found myself wishing that I had packed shorts.  Both Elite Headquarters and School were in moderate climates, so the temperatures never came close to the heat here.  Capri is on the water, so despite being closer to the equator, there is always a nice breeze that makes the temperature more bearable.

Henri pa
rked the car just outside of the city, and we walked the short distance on foot.  I could feel the sweat dampening my shirt.  My knife belt began to chafe against the slick skin of my hips and stomach.  I stole glances at both boys, and found them oddly unaffected by the soaring temperatures.

Henri had told me to stay close to him
just in case there was trouble, but nobody gave us a second look as we wandered through the crowded streets.

I was unsure what Henri expected t
o find out by spending the day roaming the tiny town, so I concentrated on my surroundings.  It was apparent that the town was poor. Most of the shops sold fabrics or meats and cheeses.  I saw one store that sold beautiful metal plates, bowls and jewelry each piece individually crafted – no mass manufacturing here.  Most of the road vehicles I observed looked much like ours on the outside, but I doubted that any of them contained the interior comforts our vehicle offered.  I only glimpsed a few hover vehicles all day, and those I did see didn’t glide silently through the air; they created a great deal of racket, making them stand out.

After
scouring every inch of the town for something only known to Henri, we walked about half a mile, to the house we’d scouted the night before.  We kept our distance for fear of being seen.

“Erik
, I want you to go check out the surveillance system.  Talia and I will stay down here and keep watch,” Henri instructed.  Erik nodded and began to undress.  I turned around, my cheeks flushing, even though he didn’t appear to be modest.  I felt Erik morphing behind me, and I turned around just as he completed his change into a small black bird.  I tried to follow the bird’s movements through the treetops, but he moved so quickly that it was impossible to keep up.  I opened my mind, and tried to get a feel for how many people were in the house.  All that I could tell was there were at least a handful.  Henri busied himself with snapping images of the surrounding area.  In the daylight, the house looked almost inviting.  I stored the mental image away for later, hoping that it would comfort me later that night.

Erik was only gone
for a couple of minutes.  After landing, he quickly morphed back and dressed.

“I
found all of the cameras that our intel suspected.  I looked around for additional ones but didn’t find anything,” Erik reported.

“Let’s head back and go over the heat images from last night
, and the ones that I just got.  We can finalize the plan and hopefully take action tonight, so we can be out of here by tomorrow,” Henri replied, satisfied.  With that, we returned to the vehicle and Henri drove us a different roundabout, way back to the safe house.

Henri insisted
that I get more rest before the evening.  I hated to admit how exhausted I was from spending the day in the hot sun, but after a cold shower I climbed back into the bed and fell instantly to sleep.

When
I woke from my nap, it was dark outside.  Henri had made the executive decision we would not go in that night, and instead perform another stakeout, so I suited up; we hid in the woods, using the trees as cover, for most of the night.  Henri took images of all the men coming and going.  We observed the guards posted outside to determine when the least number of people would be awake and alert.  We left in just enough time to make it to the safe house before dawn.

Whe
n we got back, Henri confirmed that tomorrow night would be
the night
.  I was still wired from the night’s activities, so I offered to take the first watch.  I diligently monitored the surveillance feeds and munched on dried fruit and hard chunks of cheese while Henri and Erik slept.  I promised myself that the first thing I’d do when we returned to headquarters was eat a hot meal, consisting of only fresh foods.

Around mid
day Henri woke up, and I gratefully climbed into bed with Erik.  He didn’t move when I flopped down next to him.  The night before I’d been so spent that being close to Erik – sharing a bed with Erik – hadn’t fazed me.  I was tired today, but my body hadn’t been subjected to the same mental rigors, and exhaustion didn’t prevent my awareness of Erik’s warm presence next to mine.  I wedged myself close to the wall, as far from Erik as I could manage.  Still, I could feel his body just inches from mine, making it hard to sleep.  I needed something else to focus on, anything else . . . the intel, I would concentrate on the intel.  If I mentally reviewed all of the tedious details from the reports, maybe I could bore myself into sleep.  It must’ve worked, because I was soon dreaming I was eating dehydrated chicken strips on a pebbled beach while I watched Erik play in the frothy waves.

Chapter Sixteen

When I woke up several hours later
, I was anxious and jittery.  Just thinking about what the night entailed made me twitch.  I was on a rollercoaster ride of emotion; part of me couldn’t wait a minute longer to put my skills into action, but the saner part of me was near hysteria.  A list of what-ifs materialized in my head like a grocery list.  Imminent death was shelved right next to egregious bodily harm.

I
took a cold shower, hoping to drown my fears. My hands shook as I pulled on my adapti-suit.  My fingers fumbled while I wound my hair into a tight bun at the base of my neck and covered my head with a black bandana.  I knew that I should eat something, but the butterflies in my stomach made me reconsider.  When I finally joined Henri and Erik in the control room, I was vibrating like a too-tight guitar string, fraught with tension.

“Ready?” Henri asked.  I nodde
d, unable to unclench my teeth.

The ten mile jog to the house seemed to take less time than
it had the previous two nights, my mind was so consumed with the upcoming task.  We weren’t running very fast but my heart was pounding loudly in my chest.  With Henri and Erik’s heightened senses, I assumed that Henri and Erik could hear it with their heightened senses, but neither said anything.

Erik had an uncharacteristically
-serious look on his face. Henri’s expression was grim.  I could feel Henri’s confidence in my Talent, but I also felt his uneasiness about how I’d react if there was trouble.  It didn’t help with my nerves.  I wanted –
needed
, to prove my worth; not just to Henri, but to everybody who’d said that I didn’t belong here, and also to myself.

Once
we reached the spot in the woods, just outside of the area the cameras surveyed, we settled in to wait for our moment.  I lay down in the leaves on my stomach, and tried to even out my breathing.  The three of us sat motionless, not speaking, for hours.  I filtered their thoughts from my own while still holding the connection, each boy’s apprehension weighing heavily on my already-overburdened mind.

“
It’s time,”
Henri announced, finally.  “
Erik, you’re on.”

“See you guys shortly,
”
I caught a hint of a smile, and felt his trepidation turn to giddy anticipation as he rose.  I clung to that emotion, letting it overtake my fear.

Erik silently
morphed in to the small bird.  He took off towards the treetops and, while I couldn’t see or hear him, I knew that he was taking out the security cameras.  Several minutes later, the black bird flitted down.  Instead of morphing back into a human, he morphed into the large wolf-like dog from the other night.  He scurried off in the direction of the house; Erik would go create a distraction, hopefully causing the guard to leave his post so Erik could take him out.

There
was only one door to the house, so once the guard was gone Henri and I would be clear to slip in.  Henri had determined that the laboratory was located on the second floor of the house, and we needed to get in and take images of all the research.  If all went well, Henri and I would be able to get up the stairs, collect the data, and leave the house, undetected.  The plan was to return to the safe house, and be on our way out of the region before sunrise.  We knew that the next guard wasn’t scheduled to come on duty until the morning, so no one was likely to find the incapacitated guard until then.

I heard Erik start
barking in the woods, far to the right of where Henri and I stood.  The guard hesitated at first, so Erik moved into the clearing and barked louder.  The guard finally went to chase him off.

“
Now, Talia,”
Henri said.  His anxiety was gone, a cool reassurance taking its place.

“
Right behind you,”
I responded, thankful that my voice mirrored his calm tone.  A coil of thrill unwound in my stomach, invigorating my limbs.  I was ready.  I could do this.  I would do this.

I followed right on Henri’s heels.  I was vaguely aware
that Erik had ceased barking as we entered the house.  There were no lights on inside, but my sensory training, combined with the fact I’d memorized the layout of the house, made finding the staircase easy.  Sweat stung my eyes; I wiped it with the back of my gloved hand.  Henri and I crept up the stairs and to the end of the hallway.  I stationed myself outside of the door, while Henri entered the lab to photograph the research.  My breathing was even as I slowly scanned the corridor for signs of mental activity.  Henri had been in the room for several minutes when I heard a scuffle downstairs.

“Trouble downstairs,”
Erik grunted through the bond.  My mouth went dry.  A clammy sheen covered my face.  This was
not
part of the plan.

Henri came rushing out of the room. 
I met his brown eyes and saw the same alarm that I felt.  We ran back down the hallway and flew down the stairs, my feet barely making contact with the carpet.  Somebody had turned on the lights, and I could see Erik sparring with two men.  I reacted without thinking, adrenaline starting to pump through my veins.  I grabbed two knives off of my belt, throwing one at each of the men.  Both knives struck their targets.  Satisfaction surged through me as one landed in the shorter man’s thigh and the other cut the upper arm of the taller one.  When I mentally summoned the knives back to me, I was already in motion.  The first man had fallen when the knife struck him, and I went for him.  Henri went for the taller one.  I deftly hit the man in the temple and he crumpled to the ground, knocked out.

All
of the noise had woken the rest of the men in the house, and they were now flooding into the foyer.  Panic gripped me.  We were outnumbered.  We were going to be killed or, worse, captured.  I needed to do something.  I needed to restore our advantage. I needed to focus.  I needed to breathe.  I greedily gulped the stale air, filling my lungs, my eyes darting around the space for a sign of what to do.  The lights, I thought.  A thread of hope pulled through the quilt of dread.

I concentrated on the overhead lights until they exploded, blanketing the room in darkness.  It was a risky move but
, I figured that our heightened senses would give us an advantage in the dark, and just then we needed all the help we could get.  My eyes adjusted in seconds.  The men from the house floundered in the dark, and relief washed over me.  We weren’t out of the weeds yet, but we’d definitely gained ground.

I closed my e
yes and focused my energy to my hearing.  I moved through the room depending solely on my ears and my mental abilities.  I quickly sunk my blade into the mid-section of the first man I encountered.  Flecks of sticky, dark liquid dotted my glove.  I suppressed the urge to retch.  Keep it together, I chastised myself.  He stumbled to his feet.  I brought a fist and the blunt end of my knife, slick with his blood, down on his head.  The cracking sound it made reverberated through the room, and blood spurted from his new wound.  His knees buckled.  I swallowed my disgust and hit him again.  He stayed down that time.

Before I had time to congratulate myself on my victory, another figure collided with me, knocking me to the floor.  I let out a small grunt of surprise as I landed on my back, and instinctively crossed my arms protectively over my face.  The man’s fists rained down on me,
but luckily he couldn’t see well enough to hit anything vital.  He got in one good punch to the side of my head, my ears rang, and I coughed and sputtered, blood filling my mouth.  The metallic taste reminded me that I needed to take the offensive; I couldn’t play his punching bag.

The man was straddling me, his bulk pinning me to the floor.  His weight was compressing my lungs, and I couldn’t catch my breath.  The room started spinning around us.  Getting him off of me was the only thing that mattered.  I used the only weapon I had, my head.  I strained my neck muscles and flung my forehead towards his, head butting him.  My vision blurred slightly, but I summoned my mental energy to throw him off of me, chiding myself for having not thought of it sooner.  He flew backwards, landing several feet away in a crumpled heap.  I scrambled to my feet, my chest aching from the sudden influx of air. 
Erik, Henri
, I thought weakly.  They were both still fighting with their own combatants.  I didn’t waste time assessing my injuries, I threw myself back into the fray.

With the cover of darkness
, the three of us were able to even the numbers.  I heard movement on the stairs, and I moved toward the noise.  I heard three loud pops.  I froze mid-step, a fresh wave of panic overcoming me.  Someone had a gun.  Time seemed to stand still.  The bullets headed straight to where Erik was standing over a man kneeling before him.

“
NO!”
I shrieked, mentally, unable to get the word past my lips.

All of the mental energy I was expending caused me to shake with fatigue, and I didn’t know how much I had left in me.  But I couldn’t let those bullets hit Erik, so I gathered my waning strength and froze the projectiles mid-flight
.  I almost cried with relief.  The gun fired again, but I also managed to stop the second round of bullets.  Rage filled me.  Stop the gun from firing, I ordered myself.

Fury consumed me as I rushed to the man on the stairs, praying that he would at least need several seconds to reload, but not caring if he didn’t.  He didn’t bother reloading h
e just threw the gun at me.  I deflected it with my mind and literally dove at him.  I knocked him backwards, his spine connecting – I hoped painfully – with the steps underneath him.  I wanted to make him hurt.  I needed to make him sorry that he pulled that trigger.

When
I came down on top of him, I felt a sharp pain pierce my side.  I screamed in shock.  I reached down, my fingers closing around the handle of a dagger; it was sticking out of my side.  I gasped.  Panic paralyzed me. These suits were supposed to be impenetrable, how could this happen?  I’d been so concentrated on the gun that I hadn’t even noticed a knife.  My eyes sought those of the man lying underneath me, and his astonishment mirrored my own.

S
trong arms pulled me to my feet; I knew instantly that they belonged to Erik.  He leaned me against the banister.  My knees were shaking so badly that I couldn’t stand on my own.  Erik moved past me.  He reached for my waist and pulled one of the knives free.  I averted my eyes as Erik plunged the blade into the man’s exposed neck.  I brought my hand to my mouth, stifling the strangled cry that was fighting its way out.  Erik turned to face me, with murderous rage burning in his eyes.  The intensity that was radiating off of him both terrified and thrilled me.  He reached for me, and I collapsed in to his arms.

“
Get it out.  Erik, get it out,”
I yelped, hysterically, reaching for the end of the dagger myself. My hands were shaking so badly that I couldn’t grip it.

“
No!  We need to get you somewhere safe first.  If you pull it out now you’ll lose too much blood,”
Henri exclaimed, coming up behind me.  “
We need to get out of here now.   Most of these guys are still alive, just unconscious.”

Erik scooped me up in his arms
, running out of the house, and to the woods. Once we were a good distance in to the trees he set me down gently on the forest floor.  I was disoriented, my vision hazy.  Henri dropped to his knees, and morphed instantly.  Erik fastened all three of our packs to Henri’s back and then turned to me, “
I’m going to morph.  Can you climb on my back by yourself?”

“Yes,”
I answered, even though I wasn’t actually sure that I could.

Erik
morphed into the large dog and dropped down to his stomach making it easier for me to crawl onto his back.  I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to position myself so that the blade handle wouldn’t bump into his back.  The two huge animals took off into the night.

Every breath
that I took sent a fresh wave of pain through my side.  I wanted to reach down, and see how much blood was soaking through my suit, but I was afraid that I’d fall off if I let go of Erik’s neck.  I took ragged shallow breaths in time with Erik’s paws beating against the dirt.  I needed something to distract me from the pain so I tried to count Erik’s footsteps but my mind was spinning too quickly to keep up.

The combination of the moonless night and the speed at which we were moving made it impossible for me to really see our surroundings
, but after a time I was positive that we’d passed the safe house.  Erik and Henri showed no signs of slowing.  I wanted to say something but I had yet to manage mental communication with either of them in animal-form.

The pain was becomi
ng too much, and I thought there was a chance that I might actually pass out.  Fear enveloped me. I wanted Donavon.  I instantly scolded myself for being so weak that I needed a boy to comfort me.  It was just a little knife wound after all, right?  The pain was so intense, spreading from my side, down my left leg, and across my stomach.  One minute icy-cold fear shook me.  The next, my skin was on fire and sweat bathed my face.

I gave up caring whether I appeared weak, I reached out to find Donavon’s
mind, but I couldn’t even catch the faint buzz of his mental activity from such a great distance.  I tried harder, opening my mind and expanding it little-by-little.  It was a lost cause; I now knew definitively that my mental net did not span thousands of miles.  I guess that even I have my limits.