The Candidates (21 page)

Cam straightened but didn’t let go of my hand. “I thought you guys were going to the woods today.”

“It started raining.” Trevor ran up the last few steps and threw up his hands in disbelief. “Jesus, Cam, I know you like her, but have you lost your mind?” He glared at both of us, his eyes blazing. Normally I would have been terrified, but his wrath seemed reserved primarily for Cam. “We watch and protect, Cam. This isn’t protecting. This just exposes her to more danger.”

Cam’s hand tightened on mine. Stupid as it was, that tiny piece of confirmation from Trevor meant more to me than almost anything Cam had said. Besides, it was oddly comforting to think that Trevor—scary Trevor—was looking out for me. If I hadn’t been completely freaked out by the group of them staring at me, I think I would have smiled.

“You don’t understand,” Cam said, shooting me a quick look. “She figured it out herself. Most of it, anyway. I was just filling in a few details. Not that it really matters, because we all know it’s just a matter of time before she’s up here with us. And I would stand for her. Right now if necessary.”

“How could you stand for her?” Anna demanded. “You barely know her. And what about Jack? She’s attached to him. I know it.”

Cam’s mouth set in a hard line. “I’m her recruiter and her Watcher. I know. Besides, you’ve heard her history. She’s already shown how she’ll use her talent. And trust me, Landry isn’t a problem.”

Clearly, “stand for her” meant something important, which was pretty cool. Still, it pissed me off to have Anna and Cam discussing Jack and me. I wondered how many times they’d done that since school started, and got even madder. Watching me for a few months at school didn’t mean they knew me—or Jack, for that matter. They didn’t know how he helped me when Catherine was so mean I almost lost it.

They didn’t know how we studied together and explored the school together.

They didn’t know how terrified he was of being followed.

And what did Cam mean when he said that Jack wasn’t a problem?

I hated to do it, but I pulled my hand free from Cam and jumped off the windowsill. “I should go,” I muttered, and started to make my way around the group.

Anna put her hands on her hips and glared, though I couldn’t tell if she was directing her anger more at Cam or at me.

Trevor raised a chilly eyebrow. “Dancia, whether you like it or not, Cam’s just made you one of us. Leaving won’t change that.”

Cam walked over and stood at my side. “Trevor’s right. You’re part of a new team now. For better or worse.”

From the other end of the hall, an unmistakable voice boomed. “Cameron! What’s going on here!?”

Mr. Judan had arrived.

“DELCROIX IS
affiliated with two other training programs in the United States, and several others worldwide. Most of the teachers here, though not all, are familiar with our true mission: to develop extraordinary talents and see that they are put in service to the good of humanity.”

I squirmed in the lush velvet armchair Mr. Judan had directed me toward upon entering his office, wishing I could pace the floor like Cam. The large windowless room was surprisingly opulent, with elegant brass lamps, an antique-looking loveseat, and portraits of men wearing old-fashioned suits and neckties, and women in high-necked lacy gowns.

“Principal Solom and I are also members of the Governing Council, which oversees the activities of Level Three and Level Four Talents across the globe. The Governing Council sends our talents to help in cases of natural disasters, wars, and other extremely dangerous situations. Although we do not show our face publicly, you can rest assured that were it not for the council, over the past few years, India and Pakistan would have set off a nuclear holocaust, thieves would have raided a chemical weapons plant here in Washington, and a little germ known as Ebola would have led to the deaths of thousands, perhaps millions, on the East Coast. We do these things by direct intervention and by preemptive attack; our Watchers allow us to monitor the activities of dangerous people and ensure their plans never come to fruition. In fact, the Watchers—a program I initiated, by the way—are the council’s most important weapon in preventing harm to the people we protect.”

“You mean there are grown-up Watchers? Watchers outside of Delcroix?” I asked.

A look of pure self-satisfaction crossed his face. “Watchers are the cornerstone of our new security program. Some very motivated students, like Cameron, begin training to become Watchers while they are in school. Others train after they graduate. Either way, they must complete an exhaustive course of education in everything from foreign policy to martial arts. When they are done they will be able to operate in any country, in any situation. Their goal, quite simply, is to ensure that their targets do not endanger the lives of those around them. Of course, it’s always a struggle to find and train enough qualified Watchers to keep track of all the dangerous people in the world. Watchers must be flexible, be able to go anywhere, and deal with any emergency.” I looked at Cam, imagining him as a cross between Superman and James Bond. He lowered his eyes but smiled, as if he were both pleased and embarrassed by Mr. Judan’s words. “They monitor everyone from political dictators to your friend Jack Landry, and must be ready to react to any situation.”

I pictured Jack, running from Sunglasses Guy that day before school had even begun, and recoiled. “Wait a minute, you were watching Jack before he came to Delcroix? What’s wrong with Jack? He’s not a dangerous person. Why were you watching him?”

Mr. Judan sat behind a dark oak desk. He tapped a pencil gently against one hand as he spoke. “Watchers follow known threats and young people who have been identified as having potential Level Three Talents. We’ve been following Jack Landry since his father accused his four-year-old son of threatening to choke him with invisible chains. Reports like that are usually dismissed by the police, but we tend to take them seriously. We’ve known him to use his talent repeatedly since then.”

Somewhere between Trevor’s appearance on the steps leading to the secret library and the booming sound of Mr. Judan’s voice, I had begun to sweat, and now a tiny trickle slipped from my temple down my cheek.

When had they started following me?

“But his dad is a horrible man. You can’t blame him for trying to defend himself,” I insisted.

“Jack has led a difficult life, that’s true. But that life changed him, and something inside turned from the good. We brought him to Delcroix because we had to see if he could be channeled safely. But now we’re certain he cannot.”

“You barely know him,” I cried. “How can you be sure?”

Cam and Mr. Judan exchanged significant looks. Cam knelt down in front of my chair. “Jack’s done a lot of things he probably hasn’t told you about, Dancia. He’s a member of a gang—a serious one. We don’t think he’s done anything illegal since he’s been in Danville, but it’s only a matter of time. He’s dangerous. Not only to himself, but also to people around him.”

No he’s not! I wanted to scream. He’s a good person inside, I know he is! But I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t doubt Jack was capable of breaking the law. He’d told me he’d stolen cars. I just knew there was more to him than that.

“I was willing to give him a chance,” Mr. Judan interjected, “but things have gotten much more serious. Early this morning Jack broke into the program library and stole two books.”

“How do you know it was him?”

“We don’t know for sure,” Cam admitted, “but there’s traces of him all over the library. I could feel it.”

“The books that Jack stole contain information he could use to unlock his talent,” Mr. Judan continued. “We must get those books back. We’ve already searched his house but didn’t find them. We think he may have hidden them somewhere.”

Mr. Judan stared at me with one eyebrow slightly raised. I drew back against the chair. He seemed to be asking me a question. “What?” I whispered.

“Dancia, I can’t say I approve of Cameron having made the decision to bring you here”—he reserved a little frown for Cam—“but we knew having you and Jack together at Delcroix in the same year would cause some … complications.” He enunciated the word as if it left a sour taste in his mouth.

I bristled at the implication that either Jack or I had done something wrong. “If you don’t like having me here, I’ll leave.”

A tiny, humorless smile crossed his lips. “I don’t think so.”

I breathed an inward sigh of relief. As bizarre as everything seemed, and as weird and unsettling as Mr. Judan and the whole Watcher thing was, I desperately wanted to stay at Delcroix and be a part of the program. They believed talents like mine could be used to protect people. It was all I had ever dreamed of—for my power to be useful and to keep people from harm. I wouldn’t have to hide and be guilty. I could be proud of who I was and what I did.

“But we do have expectations of our students,” he said. “And now that you’ll be joining the program, you’re going to be a part of something far bigger and far more important than anything you’ve ever known.”

His eyes bored into mine. I glanced away nervously, briefly catching Cam’s stare, which was just as intent. They wanted something from me. And I had a bad feeling I knew what it was.

“What do you mean?”

“Jack must be stopped.”

There, it had been said.

“Are you going to kill him or something?” I blurted out.

Mr. Judan’s eyes were cold. “Our job is to watch, and to do everything in our power to make sure those with talents don’t hurt other people. Right now that means getting those books from Jack before he learns something dangerous.”

Acutely aware that he hadn’t answered my question, I said, “Jack and I aren’t talking right now. I have no idea where he might have hidden your books.”

“Surely you could find a way to speak with him. If you could convince him to bring the books back quickly, we wouldn’t need to worry quite as much.”

“Look,” I said flatly, “Jack’s got this thing about being watched. It makes him crazy. He knows you’ve been following him, and he hates it. If he does have the books, I can’t imagine what I could possibly say to him that would make him want to give them back.”

Mr. Judan steepled his fingers together and rested his chin on them. He stared at me for a minute, then opened a red ledger on his desk and started making some notations in it.

Without looking up, in an almost casual voice, he said, “You seem to have strong feelings for Jack. That’s understandable. We even anticipated that might happen. But I need to have those books back by tomorrow morning. Any later than that, and I’ll have to assume the worst. We only have a few Watchers in town right now, but there are more on the way. What happens next is really up to you.”

Cam headed back down the circular staircase at a quick but controlled pace. I followed, with considerably less grace.

“Where are we going?” I demanded.

“We’re going to Jack’s house. Mr. Judan and some of the others have already searched it and can’t tell where he might have hidden the books, but you might see something we didn’t.”

“Don’t I get any say about it? Maybe I don’t want to go hunt down Jack like he’s some kind of criminal. The whole Watcher thing is a little creepy, don’t you think?”

Cam spun around, something like hurt appearing in his voice. “We aren’t creepy, all right? It’s a job. A really important job. And if you care about Jack, you’ll help us get those books back before the other Watchers get into town. If you think I’m bad, wait until you see the professionals. Jack has the potential to affect hundreds, maybe thousands of lives. They aren’t going to just let this go.”

I immediately regretted what I had said. I’d forgotten that Cam was training to be one of them.

Was
one of them.

“What will they …” I wanted to ask
what will they do with Jack?
but I wasn’t sure that Cam could answer that question. Or that I wanted him to.

I stayed quiet after that. Part of me was terrified by Mr.

Judan and everything Delcroix now seemed to represent. But the other part rippled with excitement. A chance to learn to use my power—this time for good. A chance to be on a new team, as Cam had put it. They all seemed so sure of themselves. Like they had the answers. It would be so nice not to have to worry about the answers for a change.

Besides, they’d given me a chance to help Jack, and maybe, in some small way, I could make up for all the hurt I’d caused him.

We retraced our steps down the long gray hallway. When we reached the end of the corridor, Cam pushed a button on the wall, and a tiny screen appeared, showing the room in the library where I had confronted him about the Watcher Report. It was empty, and the doors were still closed. He pushed the button again, and the wall creaked open.

Cam slipped through the slim opening, and I followed, catching my shirt on a fake book and briefly panicking that I would be squashed like a bug when the wall swung closed. Luckily, my hands stopped trembling long enough to pull myself free. Cam didn’t look left or right as he strolled through the library. We avoided the front door and went down a narrow flight of stairs I hadn’t known was there, then passed through a hallway to a heavy gray fire door. We went through that and down another hallway before reaching a black door without windows or any identifying marks.

Cam extracted from his pocket a silver key ring with a hook on it that looked like a bottle opener. He stuck it into the door and turned the handle. We passed through, and the air immediately got colder and damper. A small light illuminated a box of switches on the wall to our left, but otherwise everything was dark and still.

“Where are we?” My voice echoed, and my imagination filled in the shape of the room—tall and cavernous, with a ceiling of rock. Kind of like the Batcave.

“Parking garage. Where they keep the Silver Bullet and a few other vehicles,” Cam said. He hit a number of switches, and huge overhead lights flooded the space. My imagination proved mostly accurate. We were in a large open room with two buses, a black Mercedes, and a tan Buick. The image of Jack’s face, white and pinched with anger when he realized we were being followed, leaped to my mind. Cam opened a box on the wall and grabbed a key, then unlocked the door of the Mercedes.

“Let’s go,” he called over his shoulder as he sank into the driver’s seat.

I slid down into the smooth leather with the knowledge that I had now truly entered an alternate universe. “I thought the Silver Bullet was the only vehicle that could get past the gate.”

“It is. We take a different route.”

The car roared to life and we headed into a dark tunnel, our headlights illuminating the blacktop below. We climbed a steep hill and then stopped when we reached a steel grate lit on the far side by hazy yellow sunlight. Cam leaned over and pushed a button on a device that looked like an intercom. A voice boomed out, “Who’s there?”

“It’s Cam Sanders, Pete. On official business for Mr. Judan. I’ve got Dancia Lewis with me. She will be assisting in an official investigation.”

The voice came back, a trifle apologetic. “Sorry, Cam. You know what happened this morning. We’re on lockdown. No one goes out. Even you.”

“We don’t have time for this. Call Mr. Judan,” Cam barked.

Cam tapped impatiently on the wheel as we waited. I remembered Jack talking about the gates, and how they would be used to keep us in.

Everything he had said about Delcroix, from the gates to being followed, had been true. But Jack hadn’t known that it was all for the good. That they only wanted to protect people.

The voice crackled through the speaker. “He gave the okay. Be careful out there.”

The thick crosshatched gate opened, and Cam hit the accelerator so hard, my ponytail slammed against the headrest. We pulled out onto a gravel road I didn’t recognize. It led to Highway 78, a little farther down from the parking lot. Thick bushes grew up along either side of the road, partially shielding it from the highway.

We cruised the streets, me worrying endlessly about Jack and the Watchers, Cam looking grim and determined. I kept shooting him glances out of the corner of my eye, and despite the magnitude of everything that was happening, I still got a little jolt of pure pleasure every time I did. Let me tell you, there is nothing sexier than a guy driving a black Mercedes.

We eventually pulled into the driveway of an old bungalow not far from my house. Cam pushed open the front door, which wasn’t even locked. Whoever lived there was either dirt-poor or just didn’t care. Maybe a little of both. Inside, the house was littered with beer bottles, pizza boxes, and piles of mail and papers. Dishes were stacked in the sink and on the counter, and a few flies were buzzing over a dirty table.