Unforgiven (15 page)

Dylan Shields didn’t seem particularly special. Though Owen had done some pretty extensive detective work, he’d found very little information, which was suspicious in and of itself. What we did know was that Shields was a confirmed member of the Potestas with a connection with the University of Michigan. David hoped he was the link between Jeppe and Dux Ducis.

“Do you think this guy is even real? Are you sure he’s not some sort of diversion they’ve cooked up to keep us busy? There aren’t even the most basic facts about him. No birthdate, birthplace, parents, job, social security number, nothing. Do you think he’s maybe a higher up that had his history erased?” I asked, thinking about Amanda. “How on Earth did our people track him to Atlanta, anyway?”

“One of our guys spotted him on some security camera footage. Some scouts we have stationed here confirmed the lead.” She paused as she navigated the busy city streets. “And yes, he could be a diversion, but if so, what are they hiding behind him? We need to know,” Tracy said.

“How can we hunt a diversion?”

“Yes. That part’s tricky.” She didn’t once take her eyes off the road as we drove into downtown Atlanta. “Let’s hope he’s a higher up, then we’ll really have a big score on our hands when we take him out.”

It was shortly after lunchtime, and the research the Unseen had collected about Shields said he was regularly seen walking from Grady Memorial to Hurt Park at five thirty in the afternoon. After that, he seemed to disappear. It made absolutely no sense to me. Did he work at the hospital? If so, why wasn’t there a record of him?

Not having much else to go on, we waited at the park. I grew more and more uneasy. “Tracy, this feels like a trap. There’s nothing to go on. What if they’ve lured us here, lured me here?”

Tracy scanned our immediate surroundings suspiciously, but it wasn’t unusual for her. “That’s true, it could be. To be honest, I wish we’d brought more people with us.”

She glanced at her watch. From a glance at my own, I knew we had about fifteen more minutes before we could expect our guest. “I’ll stake him out first, okay? I’ll just feel him out, try to get an idea of what we’re in for.”

“Sounds good.” I breathed a sigh, relieved she was going to do some reconnaissance for me.

But a few minutes later, I noticed someone off in the distance that I couldn’t hear at all. He was a total void. “Tracy,” I whispered.

“I see him. He’s not alone.”

Sure enough, more and more voids popped up throughout the park. It felt like they were just materializing out of the ground. How had they learned to be so stealthy?

“What should we do?”

“Try not to get killed. That’s our new objective. Forget the target for now. We’re surrounded.”

“Disguise yourself. Let them hear some inane thoughts so they don’t know who you are,” I said.

“What? That doesn’t—”

I cut her off. “Just do it.” They were starting to notice us. More than a few of them were throwing glances our way. There were a total of fifteen Potestas in the park, only three of them women, but there was still no sign of the man we knew as Shields.

Catching the eye of another member of the Potestas, I sent out a thought.
Man, it’s gorgeous today. I’m sure glad we decided to take our break out here. Jeez, what is he looking at? I’ll bet he thinks I’m checking him out just because I made eye contact. Men are such pigs.

I hoped the standoffish approach would work with this group. I didn’t want to do anything to provoke a direct interaction—that sort of thing would likely get us caught. Looking back down at the book I’d brought to make it look like I was out there to enjoy the nice day, I risked saying something to Tracy.

“Are you doing it?”

“Yes.” She also kept her face angled toward her magazine, but I knew her well enough to realize she was keeping constant tabs on those around us.

I read the words on the page in my head, making sure everyone around me could hear them. Then I saw him. It broke my train of thought for just an instant, and I glanced around to make sure no one had noticed.

With one eye on Shields and the other on my book, I watched him walk down the path right in front of us. He didn’t seem to be walking toward any specific person, just meandering. Taking a seat at a bench not fifteen yards from us, he ate a sandwich he must’ve picked up on the way over.

It was frustrating not to be able to get into his mind right then, but clearly, this was much bigger than we’d guessed. Fifteen Potestas didn’t gather around for nothing.

For a very tense ten minutes, I watched him eat his sandwich as I absently read my book. I didn’t risk speaking to Tracy again.

Once his last bite was gone, he got up, tossed the wrappings in the trash, and retraced his steps back out of the park, walking right past us yet again.

After he left, the Potestas slowly trickled out after him. It took another ten minutes or so for the last of them to leave the area. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

“Holy shit,” I said. “Tracy, we need more help.”

She already had her phone out. “I couldn’t agree more,” she said as she typed out a message.

The following day, Owen, Mitchell, Camden, and most of the rest of our division of the Unseen met us for breakfast in the hotel. Tracy reserved a special meeting room for us to eat in, so we could talk freely.

Owen embraced me long and hard, and I squeezed him back, finally letting myself feel how scared I’d been. Hell, I was
still
scared. We didn’t exchange words; we just looked at each other with gratitude in our eyes.

It took a few minutes for everyone to exchange greetings.
We might stand a chance
,
I thought as people started to settle around the huge, oval table at the center of the room. We had a fair number of mind readers in our army, and there was at least one of us for every Potesta. Owen stayed right by my side as we got some cereal from the buffet that had been set up along the edge of the conference room and took our seats at the table.

“What’s our approach?” Owen asked once everyone was settled.

“The park isn’t very big,” I said through a bite of Froot Loops. “If we all go down there, they’ll notice us, don’t you think? Not to mention, they all saw Tracy and me down there yesterday. They’ll think something is up.”

“Well, you guys have already passed their test because you were able to act like you enjoyed taking your break out there. But you have a point for the rest of us,” Camden said.

“Well, we could take turns milling around the park. Just have a revolving door, so to speak. Plus, you could hide two or three people up in the trees throughout the park,” Owen said.

The wheels turned in my head. “If Tracy and I are out of sight, they won’t know they should be hearing thoughts from us. Right?” A few heads nodded at me. “Tracy, we’re idiots. Why didn’t we do that yesterday?”

She shook her head. “I’m glad we didn’t. This goes deeper than we thought. We needed help. I hope we have enough.”

Mitchell spoke up. “Tracy said you’ve learned an interesting defense technique for keeping the Potestas distracted. She said it saved your lives yesterday.”

“I guess. I kind of assumed it was what you all did to hide yourselves from them. Just let them hear some stupid, normal thoughts. About the last sports game, or some girl you’re dating, or some made-up problem at work. Just make yourself seem normal to distract them. It worked on Washington, and it worked on fifteen Potestas yesterday, so I’d say it’s fairly effective.”

Everyone nodded as they considered the various scenarios we’d laid out for the day ahead. But I still had questions. “If that’s not how you’ve kept yourselves hidden among the Potestas before, how do you normally do it?”

Tracy shrugged as she chewed her bacon. “We didn’t, really. Usually, it’s a race to get in—and out—before we’re noticed. But this technique offers a whole new level of time and safety for us. You saved our skins yesterday, and I imagine your tactics will save many more of us in the years to come.”

We all chewed on our breakfast for a moment, trying to piece together a plan. Finally, I said, “So, how about this? Tracy and I will hide in the trees while the rest of you will mill around, keeping us safe.”

“No. Absolutely not. That’s too dangerous because of the level of relaxation required of the body to enter someone else’s mind. They could fall out and kill themselves,” Owen piped up.

Then, the idea hit me. “What if we tie ourselves up there? We have plenty of time to get into position. If we go down there now, hours before he’s expected, we’ll be golden. You guys would be down there to keep an eye on us.” Excitement at the prospect made me talk faster and faster. I looked up into the faces of my brothers and sisters in arms. “This could work.”

“People will be suspicious of what we’re doing. I’m pretty sure people don’t normally tie each other up in trees,” Mitchell offered.

He was right. “We’ll have to deal with whatever attention we attract. I mean, there’s not too many ways you can tie someone up in a tree without being seen by someone.”

Tracy and I were set up in our trees about two hours later. It took some time to find a hardware store where we could buy rope, hooks sturdy enough to satisfy Owen’s concerns about our safety, and a ladder for those responsible for tying us up there.

In the end, I was glad we were there so early. It was quite a production to get ourselves up in the trees. In fact, we were spotted by a police officer just as Owen was securing the last hook and knot.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?”

Owen froze, but I smiled at her.

“Just setting up for a little game,” I said, easing into her unprotected mind so I could urge her to move on.

“Oh. Well, have fun,” she said and walked away.

“You are just the absolute worst kind of impossible,” Owen said as he leaned in to kiss me. “Good luck. I’ll be milling around down below if you need anything.”

“I’ll see you on the other side of this mess,” I said, already looking forward to completing the mission.

The hours in that tree passed slowly. I kicked myself for not bringing that book I’d pretended to read the day before, anything to keep my mind occupied and make the time pass a little faster. The tree wasn’t exactly the most comfortable place to sit for more than a few minutes, let alone six hours.

But the time eventually passed, as it always inevitably does. From behind the tree’s branches, I noticed the same faces come trickling in, but I couldn’t risk signaling any of my fellow Unseen. I could only hope they’d noticed and were doing their jobs. Soon, I was reassured as they started to trickle through the park. The block prevented me from hearing their defensive thoughts, but based on the way the Potestas essentially ignored them, I could tell it was working.

Right on time, Shields took his seat on the bench across from the tree where I was stationed, and I could only hope Tracy had begun her attack. The plan was to let her hack into his mind and make her presence known. This, in theory, would distract him, giving me the chance to get in cleanly and unnoticed. Hopefully, she would simply be pushed out unharmed and I could poke around undetected. But as I sat in the tree, waiting for my turn at Shields, I thought of what Mitchell had told me about these people. They would never just push her out unharmed. Regret and dread settled in, and I wanted to cry out, to do anything and everything I could to keep her safe and protected. But it was too late. I had to focus. There were a lot of lives in my hands. I couldn’t let my panic allow them to slip through my fingers.

I took a deep breath as I counted the seconds, and the five minutes I waited dragged on like an eternity. Then, I pressed my attack.

Immediately, I felt his struggle with Tracy. She wasn’t getting pushed out easily, that was for sure. Lucky for me, she was keeping him so occupied that I slipped right in. His defenses weren’t even active, which puzzled me. I’d thought that, once set up, a person’s defenses were always armed and ready to go. But his were like traps that had already been sprung, perhaps by Tracy? I made a mental note to ask her about it later as I pressed onward.

His mind seemed strangely empty as I began to search it for information. Another tactic of the Potestas, I assumed. Redoubling my efforts, I combed through the darkness until I came across something. It was nothing more than a speck at first. But as I got closer, I knew it was the jackpot, or at least something that would lead me to the jackpot.

Under my focused attention, the speck became clearer and more distinct. It was a model train. Picking it up, I examined it more closely. It was an exact replica of the SunRail—the train on which my best friend had died. My mouth went dry as I peered inside the small windows. I didn’t want to watch Maddie die again. I’d already glazed over it from Washington’s perspective. But I couldn’t stop it. No matter what I did, I couldn’t control what I was seeing.

Washington was sitting next to Maddie, flirting with her. Actually flirting. The rage nearly made me crush the model in my hands. Two other men—both Potestas—had taken up positions next to her and across from her. All of them were engaging her in friendly banter as they waited for the train to start up. Maddie ate up their attention, flirting right back. And who could blame her? They were all very attractive, and I knew from experience that Washington was quite the charmer.