The Sphinx Project (12 page)

"We need to move on, all of us. They'll find out where we are shortly. We need to get out of L.A."

"How would they know where to start?" Nicole asked what I was thinking. "Even if they knew you were here, it's still a huge city."

"You have no idea how long their reach is. They've found our kind with less than this."

I was exhausted and all of my muscles hurt. The painkillers Julie had given me didn't seem to do anything. Talking sucked; my tongue was fuzzy and didn't want to wrap itself around the words. I simply wanted to fall asleep.

"As far as I'm aware, they don't even know Sarah's my daughter. That's the way I want to keep it."

"Oh." Comprehension dawned. If they knew about Sarah, they wouldn't let her go—they'd take her and experiment on her, like they did to us.

It would be worse for her though. She's too old to be of any use to them, whereas we were young enough to shape and mold; to train us to use our abilities to their advantage. She would be nothing but a lab rat.

I shuddered, remembering all the things we'd been forced to do as children. No child should be expected to spend every waking hour training, especially when that involved learning the most effective methods for inflicting pain in others.

No wonder Mom had wanted us to escape… Well, had wanted
me
to escape. What could be so different about me? I couldn't think of anything that would warrant interest in me over one of the others.

"Where are we going?" I could tell I was slurring. It pissed me off that I couldn't do something as simple as talking properly.

"We're splitting up," he replied unapologetically. "For now I can keep Sarah safe. At the moment, they want you…a lot. We really can't take the risk of staying together."

I was surprised by his bluntness, but I could understand his stance. If leaving with just Nicole could save her from harm, I would do it in an instant, with no thought for anyone else. Would Nicole be safer if I was to leave her?

"We don't have a car anymore," Mouse reminded everyone.

"I've sorted that out," James responded. "A new one will be here before morning." He looked like he was going to say something else, but he stopped himself and stared at his hands.

We said our goodnights and turned to go to bed. Sarah had vacated her room for the night.

I was about to leave but another thought occurred to me.

"At the labs, was there anyone else? Any more of your people?"

"No." He lifted his face to mine, confusion evident upon his features. "Just Sarah. Why?"

"I was just wondering," I said, turning to follow the others.

If he hadn't been the one Guy had spoken to, then who was? Whoever the person was, he or she wasn't telling us everything about the creatures, of that I was sure.

I clutched my injured arm to my chest with the healthy one. Every movement sent pain tearing through some part of my body; it seemed there was no piece of me that remained bruise-free.

I padded along the carpeted hall toward the stairs, the soft pile pleasantly cushioning my sore feet. My shoulder and my arm were the worst of my injuries, but every single part of my body had taken a battering.

"So what are we going to do?" Briana asked, closing the door to Sarah's room. It was a pretty little space with white furniture and pale purple walls.

"Run away again," Mouse replied quietly, seating herself on the cushioned window seat.

"We'll go somewhere far away from here and Carolina," Nicole said.

I curled up at the head of the bed while she sat at the other end and Briana slumped into a white wicker chair.

"We should withdraw more money before we leave too. It won't matter since they know we're here now," Briana said.

"I think we should go back to South Carolina," I said quietly, bracing myself for the response. I hadn't been expecting the one I received though.

"I don't care what you think. This is all your fault." Briana's voice was harsh and I couldn't help but gape at her words.

"What?"

"If you hadn't gone chasing after that little brat, they wouldn't have a clue. We'd be able to stay here. They'd never have found us!" Briana was practically spitting as she released the fury that had been brewing inside of her. She was on her feet, glaring daggers at me. With her muscles tensed as they were, it was easy to believe she would have hit me if she had the chance.

"That's enough." Nicole was standing between us in an instant. She glared at Briana until the shorter girl turned away. "You can't blame her for saving someone's life."

"One life doesn't matter," Briana muttered below her breath.

"What was that?" Nicole demanded.

"Nothing." Briana stared at the wall, obstinately refusing to look at us.

"Why would you want to go back there?" Nicole sat down on the lilac comforter again. She looked as if she was humoring me, not actually caring about my reasoning. She knew how I felt about Mom. Was she playing dumb or was she right in thinking I had other reasons?

"We can't let those creatures roam free. They need to be rounded up, and the government isn't doing a very good job of it. And I want to find out more about Mom, too, but that's not a priority right now… Anyway, she always said, 'The closer to danger you are, the further from harm.' They won't think to search for us there."

"I agree—I don't think they'd look for us there—however I don't think it's the best place for us to be," Nicole said. "It's not our problem. We're not the ones who created those creatures. They can tidy up their own mess."

"But they're not. The people who are in trouble are normal, regular people who don't have a clue how to protect themselves. The scientists have washed their hands of this. They're obviously not doing anything."

"What about the decapitated creatures on the news?" Nicole asked.

"What about them? There's hardly been enough of those to say they've sorted the problem out." I paused for a breath, releasing it as I contemplated my twin. "I can't understand why you don't care. We have the ability to help people. We can protect them from an enemy they don't understand."

"I agree with Kayla," Mouse said quietly, not turning to us. "There's nothing worse than not knowing what's attacking you." Her voice sounded far away as she stared through the darkened glass. It took me a moment to realize she was talking about the seizures. Briana and Nicole didn't seem to get it. "I want to go back, too."

"Are you as insane as she is?" Briana demanded, spinning around again.

"And I want to help you find out more about your mom," Mouse continued saying to me. "I never knew mine. Mary was the closest thing I had to one."

Briana snorted. "I never knew my mom
or
my dad. Do you see me bitching about it?"

Nicole lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Her cheek moved slightly as she chewed on it; she always did that when she was deep in thought.

"Even if you don't want to go to South Carolina next, I want to find out more about the creatures…and us. I want to track down whoever was on the other end of Guy's phone," I said, hoping they might see that as a reasonable compromise for now. "If we can make that person talk, we might be able to get that information to someone who can make use of it to fight the creatures."

"Is that possible?" Nicole asked, opening her eyes and turning her head to Mouse.

"Yeah, but I can't do it without the right equipment."

"Could you find it?" Nicole pushed herself up on her elbows. Her thumb ran back and forth over the nail of her index finger, her eyes glazed over in concentration.

"Yeah, but I could find someone to do it easily and for less money. I'd still need a decent computer and an internet connection."

"Okay. We'll find somewhere you can do that tomorrow. We'll decide exactly where we want to go then. Okay?" Nicole said. The way she said "okay," however, sounded more like, "Say yes because this is the best you're going to get."

"Yes," Mouse said.

"Yeah." I let a small smile curve my lips. Pain shot through my face and I immediately regretted it.

"Whatever," Briana said, stalking to the door.

"Where are you going?" Nicole asked, her words dripping with authority.

"To sleep on the couch." Briana didn't even turn around.

Chapter Thirteen

I gazed distractedly at the white card as I spun it between my thumb and forefinger. The bold black numbers printed across one side faded to gray, the movement fooling with my eyes. Sarah had slipped it to me while her parents were distracted, folding it into my palm so they couldn't see it.

The sound of Mouse's finger flying across the keyboard seemed to blend into a low drone, helping me concentrate. Thoughts flew around me as I contemplated things I couldn't bring myself to mention aloud; would the others be safer if I wasn't here? Was James right in saying I was the one they wanted most?

Mouse made a faint sound of triumph, jolting me out of my trance, before she continued without a word.

I slouched further into the seat, stretching my neck in an attempt to loosen the kinks. I'd slept surprisingly comfortable, probably due to the combination of painkillers and the soft bed. The mattress must have been three times thicker than ours at the lab.

Although I should have been feeling significantly better, my body decided it was still going to hurt as though it had been hit by a truck…or a tsunami. Who would have thought water could hurt so much?

The car trip probably hadn't helped numb my aches and pains. We'd driven southeast for hours without stopping until we'd reached whatever town we were in now. The journey seemed to take forever, probably because of the sluggish pace forced on us by the thousands of cars attempting to leave the coastline far behind them.

"Any luck?" Nicole slipped into the dim internet cafe, carrying several brown paper bags.

"Yep," Mouse said distractedly. She didn't lift her eyes from the screen or elaborate.

"I don't think they'd ever seen so many customers," Nicole handed out the small packages and sat against the wall. "The line was out the door."

I opened the bag and pulled out a sandwich, biting into it without even inspecting its contents. No one spoke as they ate. We'd been moving along in a state of awkward silence all morning. Briana refused to acknowledge us, Mouse seemed to be in her own little world and I couldn't find the energy to try and start a conversation.

"Have you guys ever heard of laser tag?" Mouse asked suddenly, startling me enough that I bit the inside of my cheek.

I shook my head, so did Nicole. Briana pretended to be so engrossed in her sandwich that she didn't hear; she couldn't fool me, though.

"It's a recreational activity. People use guns that shoot harmless lasers instead of bullets in war-game simulations," Mouse explained.

"What's the point in that?" Briana asked scathingly.

"Briana," Nicole warned, before turning to Mouse. "What happened to finding out who Kayla spoke to on the phone?" she asked Mouse.

"Oh, I've done that. I found someone who can do it in Santa Fe. It won't add much time to the drive" She turned around to look at us before continuing. "I was trying to figure out ways that we could make money and I found a laser tag tournament with a cash prize in Nashville. If we're heading that way anyway, we should stop and try it out."

Briana lifted her head to look at the mention of money.

"And you think we could win?" Nicole asked.

"Well, judging from what I've found out, I'd say we have a good chance. The guns may take some getting used to, but it seems to be a safer version of what we've always done."

"When is it?" I asked, wondering if my hand would be useable by then.

"Next week."

"If you think it's a good idea, we may as well give it a shot," Nicole said.

Mouse hit print and the computer whirred, following her instructions. She cleared the browsing history of the machine and plugged a small USB stick into a slot on the side.

"I swiped it when we left. It's a program I wrote to completely erase someone's digital 'footprint.' They'll never know we were here."

We stopped at the convenience store to pick up some snacks before getting back in the car.

The main road passed directly in front of the internet cafe, packed with cars. They sat nose-to-tale, barely moving. With the overnight announcement of a possible second tsunami, people were getting as far away from the coast as possible.

Mouse took the driver's seat, and I curled up behind her in the back. She turned into the queue and we made halting progress forward for the rest of the afternoon.

In the early evening, when Briana took her turn behind the wheel, she and Mouse switched sides without even stopping the car because once again, the traffic had come to a stand-still.

As the sun lowered behind us, sending scarlet streaks across the high clouds, a helicopter hovered above. Men hung from the doors on either side, surveying the cars that lined the street. The occupants looked like military, but the helicopter was shiny and black, with a corporate logo on the side. I cowered slightly, pulling back under the protection of our roof.

Nicole must have noticed because she reached out, patting my thigh absentmindedly. I tried not to tense or gasp when her fingers found a particularly tender bruise.

***

At nine o'clock, we were still on the road. Nicole's watch beeped, waking me from my sleep. I lifted my good hand. Running it along my face, I could feel where the pattern of the door panel had pressed into my skin.

She tugged open the thick black trash bag. Sarah had given it to us before we'd left. It was filled to the brim with purple and white boxes containing the same medicine that she and James took on a daily basis. Nicole withdrew one of the boxes, passing tablets out to each of us.

I swallowed mine and relaxed against the door again. Pulling the blanket up further, shuffling under it to wrap myself more firmly inside. I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but sleep eluded me. We still moved slowly, but it was slightly more free-flowing, as opposed to stopping every few minutes. With a tilt of my head, I turned to gaze into the darkness beyond my little window.