The Takeover (29 page)

Part of the New York Renegade cell would stake out politicians and businessmen who were known Emporium sympathizers, stopping them in any attempt they might make to aid the Triad. The New York blaster, Brody Emerson, was responsible for shutting off the electricity and cell phone towers in the area. He could pull any amount of power within a certain distance into his body and send it deep into the earth. I hoped he’d learned to control it well enough that this time he wouldn’t leave huge fissures in the asphalt.

Once inside Emporium headquarters, my first job—and Mari’s—would be to shut down the generators so we could shift Ritter, Dimitri, Cort, Jace, Oliver, and a team from the New York cell inside. Together, we’d convince the Triad to cooperate. I’d been hesitant about using Oliver, but Ritter insisted because we might need his illusions to convince the Triad’s immediate guards to do what we needed. I had to admit Oliver’s skill came in handy, and he was less annoying than he used to be. Maybe.

He was plenty annoying now as he pretended to help Jace and me arrange the supplies that clogged nearly every inch of floor space in the large sitting room. I was glad Ava had left Jace behind so I could keep an eye on him, but he seemed anxious, and moving supplies around didn’t expend his pent-up energy.

“Why couldn’t I have gone with Ava?” Jace muttered. “At least I could have caught up with my friends from the New York cell.”

“You mean Chloe?” I suspected he had a secret infatuation for her—he definitely wouldn’t be the first. Like Noah, Chloe possessed one of the beautiful abilities, and her dancing captivated people all over the world.

“Of course he means Chloe,” Oliver said, lifting a bag of curequick syringes but putting them with the weapons instead of with the other medical supplies. “She’s certainly the only one I want to see. I’m still trying to get her to show me certain moves she learned in Africa two hundred years ago.” He raised and lowered both eyebrows rapidly several times, to tell us exactly what kind of moves.

“Chloe wasn’t in Africa two hundred years ago,” retorted Jace. “Maybe she never has been. She’s originally from Holland, you doofus.”

Oliver shrugged. “That’s okay. Maybe it’ll be me showing her a thing or two.”

Jace snorted. “Hardly.”

“That’s exactly why neither of you went.” I put the curequick where it belonged. “They don’t need you two fighting over Chloe.”

“It’s not really a fight,” Oliver said. “She likes me best.” Jace rolled his eyes, but he didn’t protest, which told me there might be some truth to Oliver’s comment.

“Well, they have work to do, and so do we,” I reminded them. “You’ll both see her soon enough when this is over.”

I hoped.

We’d made a significant dent in the supplies when Noah and Patrick arrived. I was surprised to see Patrick vertical. “Shouldn’t you still be in bed?” I asked.

“Naw, I’m practically healed.” He stepped over a black duffel and collapsed on a couch.

Jace snorted. “So this is what happens when I’m not on the job.” He looked at me and shook his head in mock disgust. “Erin, you were supposed to protect him.”

“Hey, I wasn’t there.” I moved two assault rifles from the couch so there was enough room for Noah to sit with Patrick. “Take that up with Mari and Keene.”

“It’s no one’s fault but my own,” Patrick said with a groan. “How was I to know the guy had a sword? I didn’t realize it would cut right through that chair. I haven’t even trained with swords yet.”

I studied him critically. “So you two drove, what, four hours from DC to cheer us on? Because you don’t look like you’re ready for battle.”

Noah laughed and perched on the armrest of the couch, ignoring the room I’d made for her. “No, he’s not ready, but he will be by tomorrow. And Mari shifted us to our base in New York earlier when she brought the Unbounded from the Mexican compound, so we didn’t have far to drive.”

I wondered how many other side trips Mari had made. No wonder she looked so beat.

Noah stood up again, bouncing slightly. “Anyway, we have great news and couldn’t wait to tell you. Brody Emerson, our blaster—you know, the one whose father is a Hunter?”

The older Emerson was not just a Hunter, but one very high up in the organization. Or had been the last time we were in New York. “Yeah,” I said cautiously.

“Well, he’s offering their help.”

Jace and Oliver froze, each with a handful of weapons. Jace laughed. “You gotta be kidding,” he said.

Patrick grinned at our expressions. “Brody’s told him what’s going on—meaning what
really
is going on—and they seriously did offer their help.”

“They’d sooner run us through than help us.” Oliver plopped onto the couch next to Patrick. “If I remember correctly, they almost cut Brody in three.”

“Yeah, I can just see them mowing down all our ex-Emporium Unbounded.” Jace swirled a sai in one hand. “We wouldn’t have anyone left to help us take over the Emporium.”

“I know,” Patrick said. “And Emerson agreed that most of his people would take a lot of joy pretending to help and then turning on us, but he said there is a growing number of them who finally understand that Renegade and Emporium Unbounded are not the same.”

“About time,” Jace mumbled.

I grinned at him. “So, maybe you and Ritter sparing all those Hunters is finally paying off.”

“About time,” Jace said again, this time mimicking Ritter’s voice, and we all laughed.

“Emerson did mention that some of those he had in mind have had run-ins with us,” Patrick said. “He might be able to come up with as many as fifty volunteers who fit into that category. Well? You think Ritter and Ava will go for it?”

With a glance at me, Jace shook his head, but when he spoke, his words weren’t exactly a rejection. “My feeling is to tell Emerson to get his people ready. But only those he’d be willing to trust with his own son’s life. Even if it’s only a handful. Then find someplace maybe five minutes from Emporium headquarters, and tell them to stand by. Ritter will let them know if and when we need them.”

A shudder crawled up my spine and across my shoulders because Jace’s solution sounded exactly like something Ritter would come up with. But if Hunters were our backup, we had truly hit bottom.

Jace smiled at me. “Maybe this is the day the world changes.”

“About time,” I told him with a smirk.

He rolled his eyes. “Very funny.”

I wished it was already morning. I felt anxious to get started, even though that meant facing Stefan. Because maybe after tomorrow there would be no more Emporium as it was today. For the moment, though, it was a torturous waiting game.

“Come on,” I said to Jace and Oliver, “let’s get these magazines and the extra weapons down to the cars.”

“I’ll grab the medical supplies,” Oliver said. Of course he would since those weighed less.

We met Mari and Keene in the hallway as we headed to the elevator. Cort was with them, his brown hair standing slightly on end and his face creased with worry.

Somehow Mari and Keene had managed to rid themselves of their red hair and the rest of their old disguises. Keene was back to his normal light brown with no beard while Mari was now sporting dark blond tresses, and she wore contacts that turned her brown eyes—which had been green for her last disguise—into a grayish blue. The blond hair looked too light to me, compared to her natural black, but Mari at least looked significantly rested. Keene, however, was still pale, and his face appeared more narrow than usual.

“I’m all right,” he said, not flinching under my stare. “You’re just not used to me without the beard.”

“No, it’s the idea of seeing our old man that makes you look like a ghost.” Cort’s voice was too tight to carry the joke.

“You have enough weapons?” Jace asked Keene. “They’ll expect you to be armed.”

Keene’s hand went to his holster. “I’m all set. But Cort’ll bring my good stuff. I’m not donating those to the Emporium arsenal.”

We all laughed, except Mari, who frowned and began removing her arm sheaths. “Guess you’d better bring these too, Cort. I don’t want to lose them. My others are replaceable.” Mari wore a minimum of four knives at a time, and sometimes double that. She also had a gun, but she didn’t like to use it.

“Ava and Ritter should be back in a bit,” I told them. “We’re just taking the weapons to the vans.”

“I can’t believe this is finally happening.” Mari leaned against Keene for assurance. His arm snaked around her.

I thought Jace might make a comment about Mari getting into her role already, but he closed the last foot between him and the elevator, punching the button. “Tomorrow it’ll be a whole new world.”

Down in the cavernous underground parking beneath the building, we divided the duffels between the five vans our group would be stashing around the Emporium headquarters, so our troops could restock as needed. The vans could also be used to hold any Emporium prisoners we might take during the op. Metal rings were embedded in the van at intervals for the purpose of securing any captives.

I was turning from throwing in my bags when Jace hit against me, knocking me partially inside the van. Before I could protest, he had zip-tied me to one of the metal rings. “I’m sorry, Blondie,” he said. I could feel his regret in his surface thoughts, but his voice was thick with determination.

My heart thudded against my rib cage. “Jace, what are you doing?” I reached out to his mind but found his shield a tight, swirling black. Shoving my free hand into my pocket, I pressed the panic sequence on my phone that would alert all our Renegades that there was a problem. The phone in Jace’s pocket began buzzing.

“Don’t be angry,” he said, tossing the phone into the van and backing away. “This is probably the only chance I’ll have to meet him. I know what ‘by any means possible’ implies. I need to do this.”

“Jace, no! He’ll never let you go!” I drew out the imaginary version of my machete and hacked on his mental shield. If I could get through, I could make him stay. I didn’t want to flash light to his mind for fear of doing permanent damage, but I could control his body for at least a short time. Maybe by then Oliver would have found us and could free me so I could channel Jace and fight him with his own combat ability until someone arrived to help.

“I know what you’re probably trying to do,” Jace said. “But we’ve been working for months on strengthening my shield. I figure I have at least three minutes before you break through, and that should be enough time to get beyond your reach.”

“Please,” I said. Why hadn’t I seen this coming? I’d never imagined Jace would do this to me. Try to sneak away, yes. Or maybe fight Oliver, who we’d privately appointed to shadow Jace until tomorrow. But never to lock me up and leave like this.

“Don’t worry. I won’t ruin the op,” Jace continued, ignoring my plea. “I’ll tell Stefan I spotted Jeane talking to you and that when you went missing, I suspected she’d take you to him. I’ll tell him I wanted to meet him and that you told me all about him. With so many years passing and so many things that can happen, Stefan should believe there was enough of his stolen sperm for both of us. It’ll work, and we’ll be there together. You won’t have to face him alone.”

“You can’t do this!” I hacked harder with the machete. “It’s not only about you. This will hurt everyone!”

“No, it won’t. Go talk to Ritter. He’ll tell you I’m right. And when this is over, I’ll still be your favorite brother.” With that, he dived into a small car next to the van, started it up, and squealed across the parking lot, heading toward the garage door that began opening onto a ramp leading up to the street.

I slammed harder at his shield, but as he left, it became harder to maintain contact. My one stroke of luck was that the garage had no electronic grid to keep me from following him.
Almost there,
I thought, grasping after him.
Slam! Hack! Slam!
As if from far away, I heard my phone emit the vibration pattern I’d assigned to Ava’s number.

Jace slipped farther away. He must be breaking every speed limit to put so much space between us this quickly. I kept him for one block, two, and even a third. All the other thoughts from the crowds of people he passed threatened to break through the connection I had with him, but somehow I clung on. Yet the farther he went, the less impact my machete had on his shield, until I finally let the weapon disappear and simply held on to him. Two breaths later, his presence abruptly cut off.

Tears ran down my face. I wanted to weep and cry and swear and pound Jace’s face, but instead I reached for one of my knives and began hacking away at the tie on my wrist. The plastic had thin lines of metal reinforcing it—Cort’s special design—and I hadn’t begun to make progress when Keene and Mari appeared with a soft
pop
near the stairwell and ran to the van. Cort and Dimitri were close behind, bursting from the stairwell like water from a high-pressure hose. Only Stella remained upstairs, and she was probably monitoring the garage with cameras through her neural headset. Some part of my mind was glad she wasn’t willing to risk her baby—not after what happened last time.

“What happened?” Mari asked.

I dropped my knife and faced them, my hand still tied. Hope ran through me. Mari could find people’s locations even farther away than I could trace thoughts. “Find Jace. He’s gone to Stefan. We have to stop him!”

Placing my free hand on Mari’s arm, I shut my eyes and reached out for her mind. Her thoughts immediately flooded me as her shield dropped. “Keene,” she whispered. At once, I felt Keene’s power pulsing, plenty for both of us to use.

But Jace was nowhere.

“Reach for the street in front of Emporium headquarters,” Keene said.

I saw in Mari’s thoughts that visiting the headquarters had been another side trip they’d made earlier, partly by car, as they’d scoped out the location so she could fix it in her mind.

In the next instant, the street was shimmering around us. Mari pushed out her mind through the connection and so did I, using both her ability and my own, and drawing from Keene’s power. Nothing. In fact, a very big nothing met us where the building stood, though we could plainly see it with our physical eyes as Mari folded space. All around, thoughts from the people in the buildings next to it assaulted me, but within the Emporium headquarters, I felt nothing.