Mute (Muted Trilogy Book 1) (28 page)

“We don’t know what happens,” sent Jack. “She could be perfectly okay, just not able to Talk to you or come home right now. I didn’t know her, but if she risked more exposure to warn us, I don’t think she’d want you to be this upset.”

“You’re right,” sent Kendall, “but it’s hard. She’s barely been gone any time at all, and I want to tell her about my day and have her hold me close. I want to see her face right now having this conversation with the two of you. She
hated
how hard group conversations were and would’ve loved being able to Talk to more than one person at a time, everyone hearing and being able to act like everything was normal again.”

Kendall fell silent, and the living room was quiet. Jack tightened his grip on Jemma’s hand, and their mental connection strengthened.

“I don’t know what I would do if I lost you or my dad. I mean, I worry about him anyway, but to not even know where he is…” His tone carried traces of distress, and Jemma sent back comfort, feeling him relax almost immediately.

“Your dad isn’t involved in this,” she sent him. “No families have disappeared that we’ve heard of. And you and I, we’re being safe as we can without staying in the dark.”

He nodded, and his connection returned to normal as he spoke to them both. “Kendall, can you tell us what forums she was on? Or what she meant when she said we were on a ‘maybe list’?”

Kendall shook her head almost violently. “No! The forums got taken down, and I already told you everything else I know. She didn’t tell me everything since it was making me upset. Looking into this only got Marcia taken. There’s no point! They come faster if they know you know. You can’t keep looking or you’re gonna disappear, too.” She got up from the chair, throwing the pillow back to the seat, and started pacing the small living room. “I can’t do this. I can’t have everyone disappearing. I don’t want to know. I just want to lock myself in my studio and paint until they take me away or I wake up from this nightmare. And at least… If they take me, at least I might be with Marcia, might have her there and know she’s okay, unlike now.” She tangled her hands in her hair, and Jemma got up, trying once more to comfort her, putting an arm around her slight shoulders.

When Kendall threw her arms around her, Jemma stiffened, then forced herself to relax, running a hand up and down Kendall’s back. When the woman stopped shaking, Jemma Talked in a low tone, careful not to project the concern she was feeling. “Do you have someone you can stay with? Someone who can stay with you?”

“It’s been just me and Marcia for so long,” sent Kendall. “Neither of us really has any family here. Besides, I don’t want to drag anyone else into this. I know I sound ridiculous, but really, I just…” She pulled back. “I really appreciate you coming by and the fact that you’re concerned and all, but I want to be alone. Now that we’ve… After people like us Talk to each other once, folks on the forums think we can Talk from anywhere except wherever they’re taking us, so if I need something I’ll let you know, or if I haven’t been taken yet by the time I’m not this blubbering mess anymore, or.... But right now I want you to leave. Back door, please, and cut through the neighbor’s yard to get back to the street.”

Jemma nodded slowly. “Are you sure?”

“Positive,” sent Kendall, letting emotion seep through their connection for the first time, a combination of confidence and heartbreak, plus the desire for solitude that Jemma had felt so often before everything had changed.

“Okay,” Jemma sent before turning to look at Jack.

“Is there anything we can do before we leave?” he sent.

“No.” Kendall seemed suddenly exhausted. “Just go.”

They walked back into the kitchen and opened the door, Kendall behind them. Before she’d shut the door all the way, Jemma sent, “Tell us if you need anything at all.” Kendall nodded, then shut the blinds.

“I wish we could do something,” Jack sent Jemma as they started walking through the backyard.

“Me, too. And we found out… I haven’t even processed everything yet.”

Jack caught hold of Jemma’s hand as they reached the sidewalk and headed back to her car.

“I wonder how Marcia found forums,” he sent. “I looked pretty hard.”

“And there are at least three more of us, just near here. I wonder how many there are elsewhere, how many have been taken, how many are still going about their normal lives.”

“And was everyone on that list able to Talk? If they were watching us instead of just taking, it might not be a given,” he sent.

“We don’t have much time, do we?” Jemma slowed as they approached the car. “Between Marcia coming to the library, our names being given to her, our coming to talk to Kendall like this… They’re going to take us soon.”

Jemma felt oddly calm, almost resigned, tired of being scared, tired of not knowing, until Jack sent disagreement.

“No. They’re going to try to, yes,” he sent, letting go of her hand when they reached the car, “but we’re watching. We’re ready. And we’ll be even more ready before they try.” He cupped her cheek, and she leaned into the touch. “We’re not gonna go down without a fight, as cliché as that sounds.” He watched her until she nodded, then he dropped his hand and got in the car, and she moved around to get in the driver’s side.

“You’re right,” she said, trying to picture her family struggling to deal with her disappearance. “We’ll fight.”

Jack sent a solid wave of agreement. “We should probably stay together tonight,” he added. “Make things harder for them. You can take the guest room again.”

“All right,” sent Jemma. “The lightsaber night light will help me get into fighting mode.”

Jack sent appreciation, and Jemma started the car, shifted into drive, and pulled away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:

Ties

We're not going to make it for dinner tonight. Sorry, Mom. Love you.

Resisting the urge to add more, Jemma sent the text, set her phone down, and looked around the library. There were a few more patrons than normal for a Tuesday afternoon, and a couple of them had mentioned trying to come the day before and finding the library closed. According to Cecily, employee instructions were to avoid mentioning the abduction in order to avoid scaring away the patrons.

"It feels so weird," Jemma sent Jack, "being at work, pretending everything is normal when the world is falling apart around us."

Jack sent a wave of agreement. "I've been trying to get into the blood bank's system, but they've got some major network security going on. I think this is a dead end."

"We finally found a link, though," she sent. "We can't just ignore it."

"And we won't. I'm checking employees, too, the ones I could track down. I figured out which one went missing." Jack sent a link via messenger, making Jemma's computer chime. The link opened a Facebook profile for Davis Powell, an average-looking man in his thirties. "They don't have too big a staff, not in the actual clinic, and I figured if Marcia was able to find him, he probably had a bit of an online presence. Much of his profile is private, but wall posts are public, and friends and family are looking for him."

"He has kids," sent Jemma, scrolling through his profile. "I wonder what made him risk sending those texts."

"Maybe he's one of us, or maybe he's just a good person who saw a chance to avoid more people going missing. We don't really have a way to know right now."

Jemma glanced around again to make sure nobody was approaching, then closed the Facebook profile, staring unseeing at the default desktop image. If she went missing, if they couldn't stop this, she wouldn't have people posting to her Facebook page. Her mom didn't care for public posts for anything important, and her dad avoided Facebook at all costs. Jilly read anything Jemma posted but typically avoided interacting publicly with her older sister. They would worry, though. Carolyn worried over so many things, and Jemma's complete disappearance would wreck her.

Jack's father, too, would probably be worried. He had the person who took care of him when Jack wasn't there, but would he be able to function without Jack? What if the stress was too much for him?

"We need to figure something out with our families," Jemma sent. "We can't just disappear, but we can't tell them what's going on."

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I made arrangements for more help with Dad if I'm not there. They have my account information, so any extra charges from additional shifts, they won’t be a problem."

"What are they going to think? If we can't stop this, if we go missing in the next few days or weeks..."

As if on cue, Jemma's phone buzzed with a text from Carolyn.

Okay. Is everything alright? I'd really like to see you.

Jemma ran a hand through her hair and then looked up, jumping when she saw a patron ready to check out.

“Sorry,” the woman typed with a small smile, “didn't mean to scare you.”

Jemma forced a smile as she responded.

“No worries! I wasn't paying attention like I should have been. Did you find everything okay?”

“Actually, I was hoping you could help me find one more book.”

Jemma quickly helped the patron locate the book, which had been misshelved nearby. She checked out the woman's books, then helped the next few people who had lined up at the circulation desk. By the time she was finished, the library had cleared out a bit, and it looked more like a normal Tuesday, with just a few people milling about, one patron parked solidly in front of the travel section.

"We could take a trip," she sent Jack, tone laced with enthusiasm. "I mean, not really, but that's what we could say."

Jack sent a lack of understanding.

"If we tell our family we're, I don't know, taking a cruise, right? Or in another country where our phones won't work? That'll buy some time that they won't worry about us," she sent. "And then it'll make sense that you set up more helpers for your dad. It works."

"That's brilliant. We tell them we're looking for last-minute tickets and might not get a chance to let them know them we're leaving."

"Mom might be a little annoyed if I don't take a minute to send a text as we're leaving, but I'd rather her be a little annoyed than worried out of her mind." Jemma paused. "What do I tell work, exactly? I mean, I have to hope we'll be back eventually, and I don't want to burn any bridges."

"Leave a note, somewhere Cecily doesn't usually look but would probably check if you didn't show for work. Do you have a cubby or something in the staff room?"

"I do. I think that'll work." Jemma grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.

Dear Cecily,

Jemma stopped. "We're assuming we're going to be kidnapped, Jack." She felt the distress lacing her tone, but she didn't bother to disguise it. "I'm writing a letter so that my former boss doesn't worry if I disappear completely without warning. How is this okay?"

"It's not okay," sent Jack, his tone holding frustration and reassurance. "We're going to do whatever we can to prevent it, but you're completely right that we need this all in place, just in case. It's smart, and it shows how much you care about people."

"That's not something I hear a lot. I've been called cold more than once." Jemma tapped the pen against the paper to keep her hand from shaking.

"You just interact a little differently than most. It doesn't mean you don't care. How you tried to comfort Kendall last night, how you help me when I'm upset? You care, more than many people do."

She rubbed her arm with her free hand. "Okay," she sent finally, unsure how to respond. "I'm going to finish writing this, and then we need to figure out how we're going to keep anyone from ever needing to read it."

Jack sent silent acknowledgment along with determination and something like affection, and Jemma focused her attention back on the mostly blank page, stopping before the pen touched paper.

“I can’t do it,” she sent, finally. “We should still leave notes, I think, but I can’t… If we don’t come back, I can’t let a lie be my last communication with my family. It isn’t right.”

“Fair point. But we still don’t think it’s safe to tell them the truth right now, right? And if we wait until after we’re gone, will the truth really make it easier on them?”

“In the event that we… I think they need to know at least some of the truth, that we aren’t leaving because we want to, that we’re not disappearing indefinitely for fun.”

“We could leave notes for our parents with the one for Cecily,” sent Jack. “But what do we write? How much do we say?”

“Let me think a moment.”

She tapped the pen against the counter, then resumed writing.

If you’re reading this, Jack and I have vanished. We don’t want to give too much information in case it puts you or our families in danger, but we didn’t leave by choice.

We don’t have enough information to go to the police, who aren’t able to help even when there is some proof, but we’re sure that we’re at risk.

If we’re able to return, we will as soon as we can. I’m including letters for my family and for Jack’s father. Could you please deliver them? My parents’ address is on file, and Jack’s is in the patron records.