The Cure (18 page)

As we finish loading our supplies, a large gray van appeared and sped toward us on the runway. Ritter stood at attention between the plane and the Pinz, his favorite SA58 FAL assault rifle strapped across his chest, his eyes moving back and forth between the van and the jungle surrounding the airstrip.

Recognizing our vulnerability, I sent my thoughts out to the trees, probing for but not finding the bright pinpoints that signaled life. There were only smaller pinpoints, so many that at first I didn’t realize what they were. They weren’t as vivid as I expected, though their dullness appeared to result from their oneness with nature, rather than their smaller size.
Animals.
Yes, that was it. Not insects that didn’t register but warm-blooded creatures with some degree of intelligence.

Keene took cover on the side of the Pinz, his hands also gripping a rifle. Taking his cue from the others, Jace stepped behind the plane’s stairway, motioning to Benito. I eased next to them, my mind now going toward the van, which screeched to a stop several feet away.

“Two people,” I told the others.

A slender, dark-skinned woman dressed in camouflage pants and a green tank top emerged from the passenger door, her long black hair twisted into countless small braids. I knew her at once: Tenika Vasco, Unbounded, originally from Angola. Two months ago, she had taken lead over the Renegades in New York after the death of their former leader. I’d only met her a few times, but I liked and respected her. Ritter and I stepped forward to meet her wide smile.

“Tenika.” Ritter nodded and extended his closed fist in the traditional greeting.

“Ritter.”

“They didn’t tell me you’d be here.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” Her words held the merest hint of a Portuguese accent. Ignoring his fist, she moved closer and planted a kiss directly on his mouth. I knew this was how she teased him, and that she was one of the few people Ritter had ever let inside his emotional barriers, however momentarily, but that didn’t stop the ridiculous surge of jealousy inside my chest. Part of me wanted to pull out a gun and growl at her.

Ritter chuckled. “So what
are
you doing here? Any news on the missing Renegades?”

“Afraid not. We had a run in with Emporium agents last week, and I’m here making a drop, same as you. I needed to get away, so I left Yuan-Xin in charge and came myself. I haven’t had a break in months.”

I had to stop myself from grimacing. Since when was transporting prisoners a break?

“When I heard what happened at your lab,” Tenika continued, “I offered to help transport your prisoners to save you time. I know Stella was really counting on that research, and we were here anyway.”

“Thanks for staying.”

“Can’t have them getting away. And the compound really doesn’t have enough personnel for pickups, though they did spare someone to help me find you.” Tenika jerked her head toward the van, indicating her companion. “Told him to stay inside until I checked you all out. He’s got a cannon in there that makes your rifle look like a child’s toy. He’s covering me.” She winked and turned in my direction, extending her fist, and I hit my knuckles into hers with a tad more force than I’d intended.

“The Emporium’s using the Hunters to track us,” I said.

She nodded. “Ava filled me in, and I’ve spread the word. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened to us last week, though we didn’t realize it at the time. Everyone will be on the lookout.” Everyone meant our ninety or so Renegades scattered in different cities across the world.

“Hey, Jace.” Tenika offered him her fist.

“What, I don’t get a kiss?”

She laughed. “Naw. You’re still wet behind the ears.” Her gaze went beyond him to Keene. “Who’s your friend?”

I made the introductions, but Keene apparently was in her files and she scowled at his name. “I thought I knew you. Why are you here?” Her voice held command, and I felt the urge to answer, though she hadn’t addressed me.

Keene laughed. “Your hypnosuggestion won’t work with me. Not if I don’t listen long enough. You might say I’ve developed an immunity. However, rest assured that I’ve left the Emporium.”

She regarded him with narrowed eyes for several long seconds, as if weighing his words. Then she turned and motioned to the van. The driver’s door burst open and a broad man with unruly blond hair and a ready smile emerged. Definitely Unbounded. He wore a pistol at his hip, but he must have decided to leave his “cannon” inside the van.

“Hello. I’m Irwin Stafford,” he said to me after he greeted Ritter. “I help run the facility here.” Though he was obviously Australian by his accent, his ruddy skin was tanned even darker, making it almost impossible to tell his age. If I had to guess, I’d say late thirties, which for Unbounded meant three or four hundred years old.

“Nice to meet you.” I extended my fist.

Irwin smiled again. “The pleasure’s all mine. We don’t see a lot of new faces around here. At least not those on our side.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Benito inched forward from where he’d been crouching out of Tenika’s sight next to the airplane stairs. “I know you. You’re that crocodile hunter guy. Aren’t you? You look just like him. Well, maybe a bit younger. But . . . aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

Irwin sighed. “Now you know why I’m hanging out at the prison facility. Everyone recognizes me everywhere else. I hope it’s not too much longer until people forget. Good thing there’s a lot of interesting wildlife down here, or I’d be totally bored.”

He wasn’t the only famous Unbounded whose death had to be faked when the lack of aging could no longer be hidden. President Kennedy, his son, and Tenika’s second in command Yuan-Xin—once known as Bruce Lee—were only a few of the others I’d heard about. Some had been rushed out of sight only to die for real in battles against the Emporium. Irwin’s exile was his own fault for allowing himself to become a celebrity.

“A new name might help.” I wondered if he still craved the limelight.

He grinned. “Yeah. Guess I kind of got attached.”

“So can I see you wrestle a croc?” Benito asked.

“Uh, I don’t think so.” A hardness filled Irwin’s face as he refocused on the task at hand. “So where are your passengers?”

“Inside the plane.” I wanted to ask him the reform rate versus how many Emporium Unbounded they had to try and execute for their crimes, but I found I didn’t really want to know. Not yet.

Ritter and the others were already heading up the stairs, and I followed quickly. The faster we got this over with, the faster we’d warn the senator and get on with the search for the scientists and their research. I wanted to bring Stella good news for a change.

Ritter’s step faltered near the second set of four seats, but he recovered quickly and continued on to the back. No one else appeared to notice. I was almost afraid of what I might find inside, yet nothing prepared me to see Mari curled across two seats, once more asleep.

Jace stopped and stared, his eyes going to me. “Wasn’t she in the Pinz? How did she get in here?”

There was only one answer that made sense in my mind. Mari might be a shifter, a teleporter who could travel through space. She was talented in math, and it was logical that tough equations would be needed to shift, but to actually suspect it was happening under my nose was nothing short of miraculous. If I was right, her existence might signal a new era for Unbounded. Shifting hadn’t been seen for a thousand years.

“Better help them,” I said to Jace. He nodded and hurried down the aisle.

Belatedly, I remembered Benito and went outside to check on him, but he’d settled in the back of the Pinz on one of the bench seats that lined each side of the vehicle. When he spied me staring down at him from the plane, he shook his head and crossed himself. “I don’t touch dead people.”

“I told you they’re not dead.”

He snorted. “They look dead.”

“Stay right there.”

“Where else would I go?” He gave me a bland smile. “I have no money.”

I’d have to see that he remained without funds for as long as we were here. At least that way he’d be close where I could watch him—until we dumped him someplace safe.

With two extra hands, the transfer of the captives went quickly, though Irwin insisted on giving them all an additional dose of sedatives.

“That’s going to knock them out for another few days,” Keene mumbled.

Tenika shot him a glance. “What’s that to you?”

“Nothing.” But his scowl didn’t vanish.

“Things sometimes go wrong,” Irwin said, as though commenting on the weather. “Occasionally, we have to stash them and retrieve later. With only two of us to transport this many, we’d be fools to leave anything to chance.”

The idea of hiding the captives under a bush was ludicrous, but not as much as it would be in, say, downtown Portland. It was Irwin’s turf and he seemed to know his business.

“Just make sure you keep track of which ones are mortal,” I said. “Don’t give them too much.”

“Uh, I’m guessing those would be the ones with mortal written on their foreheads,” Irwin said. “In permanent marker, no less.”

Who on earth did that?

“We know you don’t have a sensing Unbounded to help you tell them apart,” Ritter said, avoiding my eyes. That man never ceased to surprise me.

Irwin grinned. “We usually just wait to see which ones heal fast.”

“Works for us.” Tenika slapped Ritter on the back with a familiarity I envied. I wondered what stories she might tell of him if we had more time. “Luck.”

“You, too.” There was real warmth in Ritter’s voice.

“Call if you need help. Like Irwin said, we could stash these guys in a swamp somewhere. The crocs might do us a favor.”

We all laughed, though ultimately I knew our attempt to reform the Unbounded we captured was one more thing setting us apart from the Emporium. I watched with relief as the van sped away.

“Don’t know what they want with dead people anyway,” Benito complained from the back of the Pinz.

Ritter pretended not to hear. “Erin, better get Mari out of the plane so we can close the doors. Try to keep an eye on her until we can find someone to watch her. Jace, you’ll ride shotgun. Stay alert. Keene, you’re in the back with the others.”

Keene smiled lazily. “Aye, aye, captain.” He winked at me. “Any time.”

Ritter scowled and headed for the Pinz. “Can I drive?” Jace asked, running along beside him. “Please?”

Within a few minutes we were speeding down the dirt road. Well, not speeding, exactly, because the Pinz could go no more than just under seventy miles an hour, but with the vegetation whipping by, it felt faster than that. Every now and then Jace had to slow the vehicle as he drove over rocks, rotted logs, and brush, or skirted the deeper potholes and puddles of mud.

Mari slept on one of the bench seats, and I sat next to her, making sure one of the sudden lurches didn’t throw her to the floor. Keene and Benito sat opposite me making a late lunch of food they’d raided from the plane.

The interior was open to the front cab, and I raised my voice to address Ritter. “Any word from Cort and Dimitri?” I’d seen him talking on his phone a few moments earlier, half leaning out the window to find a clear connection with the overhead satellite, but he hadn’t shared any information. I was tempted to try to contact Cort myself but even if I could get a satellite signal through the thick canvass, on ops like this we weren’t supposed to bypass our leader.

Ritter turned in the passenger side seat, where the FAL rifle in his hands looked a part of him. He stared at me blankly for a few seconds as he digested my words, as though having difficulty pulling his thoughts back from wherever they had been.

I thought of our fight on the rooftop, the feel of his body pressed against mine.
Stop,
I told myself.

“No word yet,” Ritter said finally. “Every time I’ve tried, there hasn’t been an answer. I’ll call again now.”

So he hadn’t been talking to Cort. Then who? Not Ava because he’d called her from the plane. Maybe it had something to do with where he’d been for the past two months. Until that moment, I’d told myself he’d been following leads to find the missing Renegades, but now I wasn’t so sure. Ava told me he took off regularly, returning only to train our group or to participate in missions. He could have an entire life that no one knew about. He certainly had one that didn’t include me. That meant I needed him like I needed to get hooked on curequick.

Holding the phone out the window to connect better, Ritter dialed. I edged closer to eavesdrop, nearly losing my balance as Jace drove over some washboards. I glanced back at Mari, but she appeared undisturbed. It wasn’t a natural sleep, though, and I worried for her state of mind. Anyone could break under so much trauma. The sooner we could get her to Dimitri and his healing hands, the better.

“Good, you answered,” Ritter leaned out the window to talk, his voice rising to carry over the sound of the engine. “I was beginning to worry. Say again? Oh, we’re traveling toward Palenque. We hoped you’d be nearby. Where are you?” A long pause. “Any news?” Ritter’s neck tensed. “They after you now? Okay, send me the coordinates. We’ll get there as soon as we can.”

Ritter turned back to me, suddenly moving into my space—or his space rather, since I was leaning so far over his seat. I pulled back as Keene stepped up beside me, stooping as I was so our heads didn’t hit the tarp overhead. “Well?” I asked.

Ritter frowned. “Cort and Dimitri have one of the scientists, but the Emporium beat them to the other, and he’s the one who had the thumb drive with the research. Cort and Dimitri aren’t far behind the Emporium, but their Jeep died on them.”

“What else?” I didn’t need my sensing ability to know there was more.

“I’m not exactly sure because he kept cutting out. But he’s worried.” Ritter looked past me to Keene. “We’re going to have to meet them instead of heading directly to Palenque.”

Keene shook his head. “I have to disagree. The senator’s more important. If he’s killed, his death could affect thousands.”

“The one versus the many.” Ritter’s voice was hard. “That might mean something if the one wasn’t family.” His words chilled me because they so closely resembled my own feelings. I wanted to help the senator, but saving Bronson for Stella, even if only for the twenty or so years he had left of his regular life span, was more important to me at the moment. It was an emotional decision, but if we lost that emotion, didn’t we lose the very thing that kept us human?