Closed Hearts (16 page)

When you say anti-jacker technology, are you referring to the shield that surrounds the facility?
Maria asked.

As your fellow journalists will soon find out,
Vellus waved to the screen behind them,
a mindwave disruptor field does indeed surround the facility, which effectively prevents anyone from jacking into or out of the Center. All doors are remotely controlled, and no one is allowed in or out of the facility without authorization. A breakout is impossible.

Your authorization,
Maria retorted. The intensity of her stare at Vellus kicked up a notch.

He gazed at Maria with soft brown eyes, as if he couldn’t sense the edge in her thoughts.
I simply helped secure the funding for the Center because I felt there was a need for such a facility. I was honored that they chose to name the Center after me, but I assure you that the police follow standard procedures for incarcerating prisoners and holding them while they await trial.

Does your standard police procedure for arresting mindjackers include random sweeps through Jackertown?
Maria’s look alone could have impaled Vellus, but his face remained calm.
What guarantee can you give that innocent people, including mindreaders, won’t be caught up in such a blatant violation of civil rights?
An image of a dark, curly-haired boy sprung up in her mind, making my heart twist, but Maria had never met Raf, so the image wasn’t as strong as her question about civil rights.

Vellus smiled indulgently.
No reader in his right mind would ever go to Jackertown—unless you were demens, and then you’re just like a neighbor coming to visit anyway.
He paused a beat.
But I admire your concern for protecting the rights of regular citizens. And it turns out that rescuing a wayward reader, who had been involuntarily taken to the lawless area known as Jackertown, was the reason behind the arrests last night.

What? My mind spun. The raid was because of a reader? Was it Raf?

Vellus kept going.
Unfortunately, the kidnapping of readers is becoming a more prevalent occurrence every day. Something I hope the Detention Center will prove a preventative measure against, as a warning to mindjackers that there are consequences for their violent acts.

Maria hesitated.
So you’re saying this was a rescue operation?

Vellus smiled wider.
Exactly.
One I’m happy to say was successful.

Maria frowned, and her thoughts were spinning faster than mine. She clutched her scribepad tighter and shifted in her seat.
My sources say a mindreader was arrested in last night’s raid on Jackertown along with a dozen mindjackers. Are you saying that this mindreader had been kidnapped, and that the mindjackers arrested were holding him captive? Can you verify that the rescued mindreader is indeed the one on my list?
She tapped her scribepad and leaned forward to hand it to Vellus.

I assure you that any mindreaders in Jackertown—
Vellus’s thoughts were interrupted as his eyes landed on the list.

I have a Truth Magistrate standing by, Senator Vellus.
Maria perched perilously close to the edge of her chair.
To verify the accuracy of your answers.

He waved her away like she was a fly buzzing around his head.
That won’t be necessary.
Then he turned to peer from the spotlight and looked straight at my dad.

My dad—he was on the list with Raf! My breath froze in my chest.

I assure you that—
Vellus stopped again, mid-thought, only this time, I sensed some confusion in his mind. As he studied the list, a mantra pounded his thoughts that these were dangerous jackers, they had to stay locked up, but it fought against an underlying tug of emotion that made him feel bonded to them. Like they were
his
people, and he needed to get them out. That they shouldn’t be locked in a prison, because they had done nothing wrong. A light sheen of sweat broke out on his forehead and reflected the spotlights.

I glanced at Julian, who was deep in concentration, his eyes fixed on Vellus like a laser beam. He must be handling Vellus now, and not a moment too soon. With my dad’s name on the list, Vellus must know something was wrong. But would it matter? Could the rational part of his brain fight off Julian’s handling? It didn’t seem like my dad or Molloy could resist him.

I think, perhaps, there has been some kind of mistake.
Vellus blinked and leaned back in his chair, holding the list away from his body as if it were a snake that might bite him.

Are you saying that it was a mistake to have these people arrested?
Maria hung off the edge of her chair. Even though Vellus had extended her scribepad back to her, she refused to take it.
That they were improperly caught up in your attempt to rescue the mindreader who was kidnapped?

Yes
…
there must have been a mistake. They
…His eyes grew wide, as if he couldn’t believe the thoughts running through his head.
These people weren’t involved in the kidnapping.

If it was a mistake, Senator, perhaps we could remedy that mistake now,
Maria thought.
Have the prisoners released immediately. A gesture of goodwill that would no doubt go far in reassuring the public.

Perhaps. Yes, reassuring to the public.
Vellus’s face turned red, which might be seen on the tru-cast as embarrassment, but I knew exactly what it was. Vellus was trying to fight the impulse he felt to free the prisoners. Maria flagged her assistant, the girl who had fluttered around her before, and she sprinted up to Maria with a slim silver phone.

We have a phone ready for you, Senator,
Maria thought.
If you would like to make that call.

Vellus ignored her outstretched hand.

That won’t be necessary.
Vellus’s chest was heaving, like he was having a hard time breathing. He gestured to his skinny assistant who jerked like he had been tasered and hurried up to the dais. Vellus thrust the scribepad into his hands, and he awkwardly caught it so that it wouldn’t drop to the floor.
These people have been mistakenly detained.
My assistant will make the necessary arrangements to have them released immediately.

Vellus’s assistant sprinted out of camera range, horrified at the public-relations nightmare his boss had unfurled. He stabbed madly at his earbud phone and dashed out of the room to the lobby to place his call, afraid that the boom mics might pick up his thoughts and broadcast them, snarling the mess even further.

Vellus’s face was returning to a normal color, now that the assistant had been dispatched to carry out the urgent need to release the prisoners that Julian had apparently placed in Vellus’s reptilian brain.

I believe our interview is concluded, Ms. Lopez,
Vellus thought, but he wasn’t looking at her anymore. He slowly rose from his seat, his soft brown eyes turning sharp, like a wolf coming out of hiding. He threw a dark look at my dad, then scanned the room, skipping over Maria and the camera people, his head slowly swinging toward me and Julian. I glanced around, but there was nowhere to hide. We were out of mindreading range, so that shouldn’t throw a red flag, but I covered my far-too-famous face with my hand before he got a good look. Could I jack him to look away? Vellus was still too close to the boom mics—if I jacked him, it would be picked up and recorded. There would be evidence the world’s most famous anti-jacker politician had been jacked, and it would be pinned on me. Or worse, my dad or Maria. Vellus stumbled as he stepped down from the dais, and the heat of his stare landed on me. The intensity of it grew, and then recognition lit his face.

Kira Moore,
he thought.
Of course. I should have known it would be you.

My throat tightened. I glanced at Maria, but she was talking on her earbud phone, and didn’t seem to hear Vellus’s thoughts. I edged closer to Julian, but he was busy with his phone, furiously concentrating on a scrit to Hinckley. Didn’t he realize my cover had just been blown? Julian needed to do something quick—handle Vellus again. Were the boom mics still on? Were they picking up Vellus’s thoughts and sending them out on the tru-cast?

Vellus glowered at me a moment longer, and I was afraid he would march back up the dais steps and claim I had jacked him. Instead he swung his head back to my dad, leveled a stare at him, and stepped away from the dais. I was relieved to see him put more distance between himself and the boom mics, but I didn’t like the way he was looking at my dad.

Patrick, you seem to be a very ineffective mindguard,
Vellus thought.
At least where your daughter is concerned.

My dad took a half step back, his thoughts careening for an explanation of what had happened on the dais that wouldn’t involve me going to jail.
Kira is no threat to you, Senator. She’s simply an assistant here. An observer.

Yes, I’m sure that’s the case,
Vellus thought.
But perhaps we need to review the tru-cast to see if there’s anything unusual picked up by the boom mics.

My dad’s shoulders twitched. His thoughts zoomed in on jacking Vellus now, boom mics or no boom mics, but that would only confirm what Vellus suspected—that I had jacked him into releasing the prisoners. We’d both end up on the run. His thoughts swung to exposing Julian, pinning the blame on him, so I would go free. My dad’s thoughts must have pulled in Julian’s attention, because he was gripping my elbow again. If my dad exposed Julian, things would get bad in a hurry. Julian would end up handling everyone. What did he say? Induce a riot?

Dad, no!
I elbowed Julian, hopefully holding him back from doing anything yet.

Vellus was creeping closer to my dad, waiting for his response. Finally, my dad linked an answer to him.
There’s no need to check the boom mics, Senator. I’m sure there’s nothing to be found there. And it would be unfortunate for the world to learn that you had been mindjacked.

I glanced around the tru-cast station, but my dad must have linked those thoughts only to Vellus, because no one seemed too alarmed that he had just implied that Vellus had been jacked. Vellus stopped a few feet from my dad, then gave him a snake-like smile.
Yes, you are quite right. That would be unfortunate. I wouldn’t want people to lose faith. They need to be assured that mindjacker influence doesn’t affect the important decisions made by their elected officials. That’s your job, isn’t it, Patrick? To make sure that doesn’t happen?

For the moment, sir
.

Perhaps you’d like to revoke our previous agreement?
Vellus arched his eyebrows
. That could be arranged. For both you and your daughter.

My dad’s gaze didn’t waver.
That’s not necessary.

Good. Perhaps you can manage to do your job more effectively when your daughter is not in the room. And I do believe it’s time for us to leave. We have a press conference to attend, where I will need to manage the public relations aspect of today’s interview. Or do we need to stay here and review the recordings?

No sir.

Vellus strode past my father and out of the tru-cast station, tailed by the three over-muscled mindreader goons. The bulky mindguard turned to follow Vellus, then stopped.
Are you coming, Moore?
He was still under Julian’s influence and not overly concerned by Vellus’s thoughts. In fact, the whole tru-cast room was carrying on with the post-production of the interview as if nothing had happened.

My dad stared at me from across the cast station. He didn’t want to leave me with Julian, but if he tried to bring me along now, Vellus might put us both in the Detention Center—and not as mindguards.

I only agreed to mindguard for the press conference, Kira,
he thought
. After that, I’m coming for you.

My throat closed up as my dad turned to follow in Vellus’s wake.

Once the entourage was on their way out of the building, Julian shoved his phone in my face.
How long has your father been working for Vellus?
was scrit across the face.

I grabbed the phone from his hand, holding it at my side, but not looking at it or Julian, just keeping my eyes on the screens behind Maria. Julian’s question felt like a punch in the gut. I wanted to say my father would never work for someone like Vellus. That he was a good, decent man who had only tried to jack Julian because he was trying to protect me. I wanted to make up an excuse for the obvious fact that my dad was mindguarding for an anti-jacker politician. Say that Vellus was just another praver who hated jackers but used them for his own purposes when it was convenient. But Julian had heard my father’s thoughts explaining that he was working for Vellus in exchange for getting out of prison.

And he heard that one little word.
Again.

Finally, I jacked into the mindware interface of the phone, scrit a reply, and shoved it back into Julian’s hands.

I don’t know
.

I turned and stalked out of the cast room.