Talent to Burn (Hidden Talent #1) (24 page)

Jamie shrugged. “Whatever works. I want to keep an eye on things, make sure she doesn’t leave him alone.” He made for one of the big rocks out the front of the Quonset hut, where he sat down and began inspecting his fingernails.

“I’m going to get a glass of water,” I said. “You want something?”

“A beer would be nice, if they have any,” he said. “It’s been a hell of a day.”

I headed into the Quonset hut and back into the kitchen. Not knowing my way around, I started with the beer—that was easy, in the refrigerator—and then rooted around to try and find a drinking glass.

Busying my hands with domestic tasks calmed me, as always. Once I had my glass of water, I dug around until I found some cheese and crackers, and set up a little tray for Jamie.

I headed back through the hut, and used my hip to open the door. I stepped out into the clearing. Jamie still sat on the rock, swinging his feet back and forth.

A cracking sound startled me, and as if my mind were buried in molasses, I wondered what it was.

Jamie hit the ground behind the rock, and the cracking sound repeated a couple more times.

It was not until a bullet sang into the ground in front of my feet that I dropped the tray. Beer fizzed onto the dirt, crackers flew, and I threw myself back through the doorway.

I rushed over to one of the windows, crouching down as Dad had always coached me, and then taking a quick prairie dog glance out of one corner of the glass—head up, head down. Look fast and remember what you see, he said. Look with soft eyes, get the whole scene and think about it after.

 
Jamie moved behind the rock, commando crawling toward the Quonset hut. I did not see who was shooting at us. Moments later, a few more shots rang out, ricocheting with a zing off the outer metal wall.

Jamie vaulted over the sill of the open window, and fell to the ground beside me.

“Are you all right?” he said, running his hands roughly over my limbs, not waiting for an answer.

“I’m fine,” I breathed. “You?”

“The same.” He sneaked a glance out of the window, and then ducked down again. “This isn’t the police. Even if Miller gives the game away at the hospital, this is too soon. Besides, I expect the cops to declare themselves.”

“The Institute?”

“I’ll bet you any amount of money Ryder’s behind this.”

“How did he find us?”

“We can answer that later. Right now we have to get out of here.”

“We can’t leave Eric and Justine behind.”

Our conversation was cut short by feedback from a megaphone, and an anonymous male voice blared, “Come out with your hands up.”

“They’ve got to be kidding,” Jamie said. The whites of his eyes glared all around his irises. His usual bravado had deserted him.

“What’s wrong?” I said.

He shook his head. “They will not take us prisoner,” he said, his voice taut with rage.

A nearby window shattered, showering us with glass. I shook myself off and gritted my teeth while I pulled a fragment from my forearm. Jamie was not as lucky. He had a slice over one eye that was bleeding freely down his face. He mopped at it with his arm.

“Let’s go,” I said. “We can go out the back and run over behind Eric’s cabin, help them get away through the bathroom window.”

Jamie shook his head and blood sprayed. “We’ll never make it. There’s at least fifty yards out in the open to cover.”

“We can’t leave them behind. I haven’t gone through all of this to give up on Eric now.”

He looked me in the eye, something unknowable ticking over in his mind as he watched my face, and then his jaw set, the muscles locked. “All right.” He looked at me for another long moment.

Leaning forward, he brushed a kiss across my lips, leaving a bitter tang of blood behind. “I’ll see you when I see you,” he said, and sprang to his feet.

“What…”

Jamie took off and was out a window on the opposite side of the hut before I could gather my thoughts. The crack of gunfire brought me to my senses. He was giving us a diversion and I needed to act fast.

Shouts and more shots moved away in the opposite direction from Eric’s hut. Bouncing to my feet, I moved to the window closest to Eric and Justine, opened it and stuck my head out, cautiously. When there was no answering gunfire, I climbed out the window and covered that deadly fifty yards in a time better than anything I’d ever done on the track.

When I arrived and banged on the window, Eric and Justine were engaged in a heated conversation, but it cut off as I slid the sash open. “We have to go right now,” I said.

“I should turn myself in,” Eric said, his face still white.

“Listen,” I said, biting each word off. “Jamie has led them off on a wild goose chase. You’ll excuse me for not wanting him to get shot at for nothing.”

The life drained from Eric’s eyes “More blood on my hands,” he said.

“Don’t waste it.” I held out my hand and he took it. “Come on.”

Justine said nothing, but she followed us over to the window. I helped first Eric and then Justine over the window ledge, and then we were running faster than I could think back into the woods.

“How do we get out of here?” I asked.

“There’s only one road in, but we can hike out to the main road,” Eric said. “I’ve walked out there a few times. It’s a couple of miles. We’re not far from town, either.”

“All right.” I turned. “Are you okay, Justine?”

She nodded. “I’m not dressed for hiking, but I’ll survive.”

That was an understatement. She still wore the high-heeled boots she’d had on every time I’d seen her. Hopefully she wouldn’t slow us down too much.

“Lead the way,” I said, and Eric took off at a solid march through the woods. Shots rang out in the distance, making my heart drop. I hoped Jamie had gotten away safely. Fear for him left a sour taste in my mouth. How and where would we meet up after this?

As we got deeper into the woods, the pace slowed. Justine picked her way through the leaves, and Eric kept stopping to help her. I wondered what he saw in her. She never said much, but it was clear my brother adored her from the gentle way he assisted her through the brush.

The hike must only have taken an hour but it felt like months. I waited for shots, the sound of feet behind us, but there was nothing.

When we broke through to the edge of the road, there were cornfields on the other side. Looking along the road in both directions, I could see an intersection one way and a small cluster of stores the other.

“Where are we?” I said.

“West Virginia,” Eric answered. “The town is Littlefield.”

I didn’t have the vaguest idea of where in West Virginia that was, but it looked like we were out in the sticks. What would Jamie have done?

Taking a deep breath, I decided it was time to woman up. I’d already bribed someone, broken into an apartment, burned down a building. What was one more transgression at this point? “Unless you know something I don’t, we’re going to have to steal a car to get out of here,” I said.

“How are we going to do that?”

“That’s the easy part. The hard part is where we go from here,” I said.

“I have money,” Justine said.

“That’s one good thing, at least.” I looked down at the stores. There were a few cars parked here and there. “You guys wait here. I’ll be back.”

 
I walked casually down the edge of the road, checking out the town. There was a diner, a grocery store, a post office and a gas station. Not a bad little town. I headed around to the back of the diner, and found three older cars parked in the back lot. These would be the employees’ cars, and there was less chance of being spotted back here.

I made a silent promise to leave the car somewhere with a full tank of gas, and started checking doors. None of them were locked, a side effect of being in the middle of nowhere. I had planned on hot wiring one of the vehicles, one of the useful skills Dad had taught me, but the old red truck had keys hanging in the ignition. People were far too trusting.

I started the truck and quietly backed it out, checking my clearance on both sides. It wouldn’t do to run into something while trying to sneak away. Jamie would have been proud of me for thinking of it.

Moments later, I pulled over by the woods. Eric and Justine had dropped out of sight, but they popped out of the bushes when I pulled up. The three of us crammed into the front seat, and I headed to the intersection, turned out and we were off, away down the highway.

“Got any ideas about where we might go?”

“I was thinking Mexico,” Eric said.

“What about that place Jamie was talking about?” said Justine.

I nodded. “We can go there,” I said. “It’s close. But I don’t know if they’ll help you if you’re on the run from the law. Jamie would know.” I pressed my lips together. “I hope he got away okay. When we get down the road a little, I’ll give him a call. I also want to switch cars before we go into DC. The other question,” I said, “is who those men were. They didn’t act like police.”

“I’m sure they were from the Institute,” Eric said.

“If you were going to get caught, would you rather it was by the police or by the Institute?”

Eric sighed, and stared through the windshield. “I know I deserve to go to jail. I don’t want to go back to the Institute.”

“I think you should go back,” Justine piped up suddenly from the far side of the cab. “This is insane. We’re on the run and you could accidentally kill someone at any time. The Institute is the best chance you have of getting yourself under control.”

“I said I don’t want to go back,” Eric said.
 

“All right,” I said. “Let’s go to the Order. Dorian can help us figure this out, and hopefully Jamie will show up there soon.”

We used Justine’s money to buy a four-hundred-dollar junker parked out front of a farm, and left the truck in a supermarket parking lot. I didn’t want to drive a stolen car across state lines, although I don’t even know why that concerned me after the events of the last few days.

After a couple miles, I pulled into a gas station and while Eric put gas into the old Buick, I walked to a corner of the parking lot and called Jamie.

His phone rang twice and then went to voice mail. “I’m calling to see how you are,” I said, wary of who might hear the message. “Everything’s great here. Give me a call when you get the chance.”

We continued the drive toward DC, and within a couple of hours I pulled into the tree-lined driveway at the Order. We were safe, at last. Relief washed over me. I wondered if Jamie had found his way back here yet. It could only be a matter of time.I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that Dorian was waiting for us on the front steps. She did, after all, have an entire mansion full of psychic Talents at her disposal.

“Good afternoon,” she said. “Please come into my office.” Her expression was neutral. She turned and clicked away across the marble tiles.

I glanced at Eric. His skin had turned gray and he had huge shadows under his eyes. He followed Dorian, and Justine, with her arms tightly folded, followed him. I brought up the rear.

Dorian held the door to her office open for us, and as I entered she swung it shut behind me.

“Please sit,” she said, moving behind her desk, and we all complied quietly. “Catrina,” she said, “I assume this is your brother, Eric?”

I nodded. “And this is his friend Justine.”

Dorian inclined her head in their direction. “I’m pleased to meet you at last.” She closed her eyes, and sighed. “I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you.”

My stomach squeezed itself into a tight little ball as I waited for her next words.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to help you.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“As you are possibly aware,” she continued, “We have, in the past, brokered deals with law enforcement for Talents to keep them out of jail.” She paused, and then made grim eye contact with each one of us in turn. “In this case, that has not been possible, although I have tried.”

“Are you going to turn me in?” Eric said.

Dorian sighed. “You may be surprised to learn the answer is no. In my meetings with various parties, it has emerged that, given how dangerous you are perceived as being, you are not desired as a prisoner, either.”

“What does that mean?” I said bluntly, leaning forward. Her political double talk frustrated me.

“What it means is that if Eric encounters law enforcement officials, they will shoot him on sight, and shoot to kill.”

I fell back in my chair, trying to absorb the news.

“What options does that leave us?” Justine said, her usually squeaky voice controlled.

“Not many,” Dorian said matter-of-factly. “Adopt a new identity. Flee the country—although that will be difficult, I imagine, as Eric’s details have been circulated as a possible terrorist. Try turning yourself in and hope they don’t actually shoot you.”

The room lay quiet. Eric said nothing, but his pupils were huge, making his eyes look black. I slumped down, pushing my hands into my pockets so I could think. My fingers brushed the edge of a piece of card, triggering memories, and an idea.