Twist (34 page)

“Is Chincoteague, Virginia, one of the destinations? What about the Great Fire of London? Maybe retracing my steps could lead us to the kidnapper.”

“Bree!” My name turned to a snarl on his lips. His fingers curled to claws an inch from my shoulders, and for a flash, Evil Wyck possessed his body. He felt it, too, I could tell. He snapped his hands to his side, and his face relaxed. “I need some room to figure this out. Please.”

“Of course. I'll, umm—” I pointed to the kitchen and took off at a trot. When I opened the door, Den gave me a silent nod and dug back into his cereal. I'd never been to Wyck's place outside the Institute. It was tiny. I knew his dad had taken off when he was little, but you could tell his mom had made the best of what they had. The place was bright and cheery. Taking care of two boys by herself had to have been hard. I perused a collage of pictures on the wall before I settled into the seat across the table from Den.

“So,” he said.

“So.”

“Jafney know you're here?” he asked.

“Jafney? No, why?”

“No reason. She just gets kind of horkface-crazy-jealous-eyes when it comes to Wyck.”

“So she's his girlfriend now?”

Den snorted.

“You just now figuring that out? I thought you were her roommate.”

“I've been kind of out of it lately.”

“Well, so has she.” He glanced at the doorway. “Y'know what? Never mind.”

“No. What did you mean by that?”

“I don't know. She's just been more
Jafney
than usual.” Den let out another snort.

“I don't really know her all that well,” I said.

“After living with her all these years?”

“I mean … the real her.”

“Does anyone?” he said. He got up and grabbed a carton of eggs and a skillet.

“And what does that mean?”

“Nothing. It's only”—he peered at the doorway again and lowered his voice—“okay, promise you won't tell Wyck about this.”

“Promise.” I leaned in.

“Earlier today, she was over. I walked into Wyck's room to borrow a pair of jeans. He was outside talking to one of our neighbors, and she didn't hear me come in. She was in there talking to herself.”

That was all?

“She's had a lot on her mind this week,” I said.

“No, I mean she was talking to herself. Her Future Self. Well, arguing more like it. Her Future Self was trying to convince her to do something, and she didn't want to do it.”

“What was it?”

“I couldn't hear the details. But it was something about how much stunner power it would take to knock out a six-foot guy without causing permanent damage.” He cracked two eggs into the pan.

“What?”

“At first, I thought she might be talking about Wyck, but then the Future one said, ‘This is the only way to protect Wyck. We don't have a choice.' And then something about the distant past and making a better future for the two of them, no matter the cost. So … sucks to be some other dude that crosses Jaf's path, I guess.”

“I'm sure it's nothing.” I forced the words out of my mouth to keep Den's suspicions at bay even as every molecule of my being screamed.

“She was probably joking around,” I said.

“Who was joking?” Wyck popped his head in the door.

“No one,” I said. “Any progress?”

Wyck grabbed a handful of grapes off the counter and tossed them into the air, catching them in his mouth one by one.

“Yeah.” Wyck popped another grape in and flicked the compufilm open, raised up the soligraphic numbers into the air between us and rotated them around so they faced me. “What do you know about transport codes?”

“As of a couple hours ago … that they exist.”

“Right. Well, each code is split into two different parts. Origin and destination. That's one of the interesting things about these codes. All have origins from the same location and within the last week. All the same Shifter.”

“All? How many Shifts are we talking about?”

“Four.”

“So someone Shifted four times in the last week. Why is that interesting?”

“You said you got these codes last Saturday morning. That's right before the first origin point.”

“Oh.” Well, time was kind of wiggly that way.

“No, that's not the interesting part. Look at this.” He expanded a section and tapped on some of the symbols so they glowed brighter than the others. “This didn't happen.”

“You're going to have to talk to me like I just found out what transport codes are. Because I just found out what transport codes are.”

“Okay, so transport codes tell you what a person experienced on a Shift, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Like, if you Shifted back right now, and someone punched you in the face.…”

I backed away from him.

“I'm not going to punch you in the face, Bree.”

“Could we just use another example?”

“Okay, say you went back and cuddled a bunch of kittens.”

“Better.”

“Well, these codes would show how your tendrils were firing and processing the fur and the softness and whatever emotions and memories you associate with kittens.”

“You can tell all that?” Wow.

“Yeah, that's just Transport Code 101. But
this
code. Well, it's almost like this Shifter left with one set of tendrils and came back with another.”

“Can you put that back in kitten terms?”

“This is like the Shifter went back and was petting a kitten … that suddenly turned into a puppy. It's like everything's…”

“Scrambled,” said Den, sticking a fork into his steaming pile of eggs in the pan.

Wyck gave me a shrug that said, yeah, pretty much.

“Each set of codes has the same anomaly,” he said. “They're all off.”

Changes. It was a Neo.

“Wait. You said that one of the origin points was right after I got the codes.” That would be when we were at the movie theater. The day of the first big change to my timeline—when Wyck became my boyfriend.

“Yep.”

“Did the destination match up with the date you mentioned before? Six months ago?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Was the destination at the Institute?”

“How did you know?”

“And there are four Shifts?”

He nodded.

I cringed. These weren't just changes. These were
the
changes. These were Wyck's Shifts that had ruined my life.

Forget him stalking and spying on me to figure out my schedule. I'd just handed them right over.

Wyck continued to manipulate the alphanumerics. He looked puzzled about something.

“There's a sequence I can't get to,” he said.

“What do you think it is?” I asked.

“I think it's a sequence I can't get to.”

“Very funny.” Although there was nothing funny about this whole situation.

Wyck kept at it. Droplets of sweat dotted his brow, and he swiped his forehead against his shoulder, not taking his hands out of the air for a moment. Finally, he gave up and cursed.

“I wish Jafney was here,” he said.

“Why?” I shot Den a side-glance.

“I think better when I'm around her,” said Wyck. “I dunno. Steadier, somehow.”

Den rolled his eyes, but I didn't respond at all.

I looked up at the O'Banions' picture wall again. Jafney was in a bunch of the shots, smiling like the blazes. In one, Wyck had his arms wrapped around her from behind. He was only a smidge taller than her. She was an unchipped Shifter. Almost six feet tall. Born of two centuries with sticky tendrils. Willing to do almost anything to be with Wyck. Talking to her future self about how to stun a guy Finn's size. My knees shook. The weight of the realization of who I was staring at, at what she had done, pressed so heavy on me, my joints ached.

I was staring at Raspy.

I was staring at the kidnapper.

“Bree? Hello, Bree.”

“Huh?” I snapped out of my daze. Wyck was waiting for me to answer something, but I'd missed the question. “Sorry. What did you say?”

“I asked if you could think of a three alpha code that might unlock this.” He tapped a tiny corner of the message. I squinted at it, and sure enough there was a password-enabled section.

“Umm. Maybe seven, seven … seven?”

“Alpha. Not numeric.”

“Oh.” Think, Bree, think. “I've got nothing.”

“How did you think of the sevens?”

“I didn't. It was something that … try FJM.”

“FJM?”

Finnigan Jonathan Masterson.

Wyck entered Finn's initials, and there was no question as to whether or not it worked. Immediately, the entire room exploded into a giant jumble of glowing letters and numbers. The air was so dense with code, I couldn't make out Den's features, seated directly across the table from me.

“Whoa.” Den's chair screeched as he pushed it back from the onslaught.

“What kind of code is this?” I half expected my voice to come out in a glug. The room was so thick with symbols, it felt as if I were swimming through a sea-swarm of plankton.

“I have no idea.” Wyck's voice slipped to a hushed awe. “I've never seen anything like it. It's beautiful.”

I nodded. It looked like a work of art.

Wyck retracted the code onto the compufilm with a swipe and handed the note back to me.

“I'm sorry. I can't help,” he said and walked back into the entryway, leaving Den behind in the kitchen.

“Wait. What?” I trailed after him. “You're not even going to try?”

“Bree, you saw that. It's way beyond me. To even manipulate the data, I'd need access to equipment that's a lot more powerful.”

“We can't just give up.”

“We?” He cocked an eyebrow.

“I can't give up. And I'm asking you to help. Not forcing you. Not holding you to something your future self told you. I'm asking you. Begging you.”

“You don't need to beg.” He reached out and his hand drifted down my spine, just the way I liked it. “I made you a promise a long time ago. Anything.”

That touch. Those words. I looked up, positive of what I'd see before I even met his eyes. Of
who
I would see. I mean, they were still Wyck's eyes, but it was as if Finn had taken over Wyck's body.

“Finn?” I whispered.

“We'll figure it out.” Strong arms lassoed me loosely, and I let myself pretend they were his. “How hard can it be? Easier than scaling the Pentagon, that's for sure.”

It was him. It was Finn.

Or it could be a trap. But, honestly, I didn't care. Yes, it could be a hoax, but in that moment, I'd do anything to talk to Finn again, even if it was through Wyck's ears.

My breath clung to the edge of my throat as I said, “How are you here?”

“It certainly can't be harder than finding that bracelet in a whole beach-worth of sand. The look on your face when Slug had it.”

“Finn, we need to figure out what's happening to you, I mean … to Wyck.”

“I don't trust that guy.”

“I know but—”

“We can't ask him to transport you. It's too dangerous.”

“What? No one's transporting anyone, Finn.” And that's when I realized this wasn't Finn standing in front of me. Not his brain, and certainly not his soul. This was a random stew of Finn's memories, sloshing over the edges of a pot. This was an echo.

It snapped me back to reality. I was here for one reason. To save Finn. For that, I needed one person.

“Wyck.” I pulled away from his embrace.

“I don't trust that guy.”

“Wyck!”

“I don't—” Wyck shuddered like he was shaking away a bad dream. He stared past me, and I knew whatever flicker of Finn was in there had been put out.

“If I help you,” he said, “will this stop? The voices?”

“I don't know,” I said. “But I do know it's our only chance.”

At this point, every other step headed backward. At least this felt like stepping forward, even if it was directly into a trap.

 

chapter 26

“ARE YOU SURE
you're okay with this?” I peeked over at Wyck then checked the transport tube's landing chamber yet again. Still no one coming. No red scrubs. No Lafferty. Didn't make me any less antsy, though.

It was the middle of the night by the time we'd gotten to ICE's headquarters. The only people there had been techs and the cleaning crew. Wyck had made up some excuse about prepping for his next Shift. Apparently, this wasn't the first time he'd worked odd hours. No one questioned him.

“Little late to change my mind now.” Numbers and letters from the code waltzed around Wyck in loose formation. They seemed more orderly in this environment, more stable. Wyck did, too.

“I still don't understand why we couldn't use the Institute consoles,” I said.

“Their technology is out of date. It would be like using a toothpick to slice a T-bone.” He shrank some of the symbols, expanded others. They meant nothing to me, but they seemed to fascinate him.

“Why are you so worried?” he asked. “I thought you said that nonShifters forget about you with each timeline change.”

NonShifters might. Jafney wouldn't. And now that I knew that she was behind the arson and the kidnappings, I had the blarkiest feeling ever in my stomach. She knew about me. She knew about Finn. I'd even told her about the reverter. And if this was her future self we were dealing with, she could keep ICE posted to the minute what I was up to. It was a wonder they hadn't stormed the room by now. But they were probably waiting for Wyck to do the hard work of figuring out this temporal code before they pounced. That had been their M.O. in the past. Keep those scrubs spotless until the blood would blend right in.