Alien Collective (20 page)

Took Christopher’s hand in mine. “Do you trust me?”

To his great credit, he neither tried to drop my hand nor asked me if I was crazy. “Yeah, I do.”

“Then get the two of us to wherever Vander and Serene are at the fastest speed you’ve ever used in your life.”

I
’D EXPERIENCED CHRISTOPHER’S
Flash Level of speed before. But this was faster than he’d ever used with me yet.

His Surcenthumain boost had expanded his talents to a frightening degree. But after a while, the new abilities had all faded, leaving him back to his just regular Better Than All The Other Imageers level. But his hyper-hyperspeed had stuck around.

For whatever reason, Christopher had held onto all the extra speed ability the drug had given him, and then some. He and I still worked regularly on my reverse-inherited A-C abilities and talents, but he also worked on his own. And especially after Operation Infiltration, he focused on speed and distance.

Field agents had to be able to run twenty-five miles at a go. Jeff and Christopher had always been able to do fifty. But now? Now Jeff could do several hundred before he overtaxed himself. And Christopher was up to a thousand miles without breaking a sweat.

And I was about the only one who knew it.

Part of this secrecy was simply because we wanted to keep whatever edge against our enemies that we could. Part was that we didn’t really relish the idea of Jeff and Christopher having to submit to a battery of tests to figure out why they could now perform at this level in terms of hyperspeed prowess.

This meant, however, that Christopher was faster than even regular A-Cs could see, so presumably to those in the conference room, we were there and then suddenly we were not. Was distracted from this thought because, as we sped up fifteen floors and out of the Science Center within the blink of an eye, I realized someone was holding my other hand. And I was pretty sure that someone wasn’t Jeff.

I was prepared to pretty much black out, because of how hard this speed level was for anyone other than Christopher to take, so it was a shock when I didn’t. It was also a shock that, once outside, we weren’t heading toward the east coast. It was more of a shock to look to my left and see Buchanan and Siler there.

“How the hell?”

“He knows you well,” Siler said, jerking his head toward Buchanan. “And I’m fast.”

“Almost there,” Christopher said. “I’ll stop just before we’re on top of them so you can all throw up.”

Thought about it as we whizzed by things I couldn’t even make out we were going so fast. “I don’t need to.”

“Me either,” Buchanan said. “No idea why.”

“It’s me,” Siler said, “my touch transference. I could explain it now, or we could do whatever the hell you’re planning on doing.”

“Where is the there we’re almost at?” I asked Christopher.

“Home Base.”

“Oh, a nice trip to Area Fifty-One. I guess that makes sense. But why are Vander and Serene here? You said they’d gone to Vander’s Bomb Unit place or whatever.”

They all stared at me, even Christopher. Hoped he wouldn’t trip on something.

“There’s a bombing range here,” Buchanan said as we approached the Nellis Air Force Base and didn’t actually go into it. “At Groom Lake.”

“And they used a gate to get here, Kitty,” Christopher said slowly. “And I assume they came here because Serene wanted to blow more things up than the F.B.I. felt comfortable with.”

“Fine. And yes, I’ll give myself the ‘duh.’ Let’s get this rescue mission rolling!”

“There’s no water,” Siler said as we ran across the so-called lake.

“It’s a salt flat,” Christopher said as we reached a concrete bunker on the far side from Home Base. “Get ready, I have no idea what our mission actually is.”

“Stopping a Second Generation Traitor from doing something very bad.”

“Stephanie?” Christopher asked.

“Yep.”

“Okay, I can make the logic leap.” He wrenched the door open and we zoomed in.

Once inside, we stopped. Sure enough, none of us needed to toss the cookies. The benefits of having Siler around seemed good so far.

There was no one in the entry area. That this place had an entry area was kind of surprising. There was more to this bunker than one room to hide from bomb blasts within. It was a lot larger than I’d expected it to be, too. Figured the A-Cs had something to do with all of that and chose not to ask about it, lest I get another “duh” added to my ever-growing pile.

Could hear the sound of voices. “. . . have no idea where they’ve gone or why.” Mom. Sounding tired, pissed, and suspicious.

“Is everything alright?” Horn was talking. Good, he was still in here.

“We’re fine here.” Chuckie’s voice. “They’ve only been gone a minute. Let’s continue. If there’s something going on I’m sure they’ll let us know.”

“They disappeared.” Cliff’s voice. “I think that’s significant, Chuck. Especially since they didn’t tell anyone where they were going, and Kitty had just gotten to the meeting as it was.”

“I think Kitty forgot something, that’s all.” That was Jeff. Had to figure he’d read my emotions, at least before we’d taken off. He probably couldn’t read them now—had to assume Stephanie had an emotional blocker or overlay on her person. “I’m sure she and Christopher will be back shortly. Serene, why don’t you tell us what you and Vander have discovered.”

Serene started sharing things about explosive ranges, the differential between older and newer self-destructs on various blockers we’d found, and other bomb-related things. My ears shared that they were done listening for now.

While she happily prattled on about weapons of varying degrees of mass destruction, we crept through what looked a lot like the Bomb & Weapons Superstore. Had to figure Serene spent a lot of time here. As her current recap was illustrating, she loved explosives and considered her work with them to be like getting to do her favorite hobby full time. And she was scary good with them, too. The best we had, and that was saying a lot. She was, per Chuckie, one of the best the government had access to.

And yet, the Yates Family Players hadn’t tried to recruit her. Club 51 had drugged her in an attempt to kidnap her and hold her prisoner in order to use her skills. But no one had approached her to sway her to the cause of Yates Solidarity. There was something vital about this that I had to figure out.

Only, you know, after we saved Serene and Horn from Stephanie.

“Hold on,” Siler said in a low voice. “I’m going to blend us all so they can’t see us. Be as quiet as possible.”

Blending didn’t feel like any A-C talent I’d experienced before. It was kind of gently tingly. Assumed the feeling allowed the blended to know when they were and weren’t chameleoned up.

Thankfully, I could still see the three men with me. So, still holding hands, walking slowly, and stepping softly, we went to the doorway of the partitioned room our quarries were in.

The three of them were seated exactly as they had been a minute ago, when we’d been in the conference room at the Science Center watching them on our video screens. Only we were looking at their backs, so Stephanie was the closest to us.

Who, as we peered like creepy stalkers into the room, wasn’t really doing anything aggressive. Wondered if this was going to turn out to just be a big misunderstanding. If so, I was going to look like the worst aunt-by-marriage in the history of the world.

Wasn’t sure if we could be caught by the video feed—the doorway wasn’t in a direct line with it. Sure, we were technically invisible, but Siler had said he couldn’t hold it long. He might have been lying, or he might have been telling the truth, and if that was the case, we were going to appear out of nowhere soon.

Stephanie’s phone beeped. I could tell it was hers because she grabbed it and looked at it. Text, not call, because she texted back, at hyperspeed. Then she stood up.

“Excuse me, I need to clear up something on Mister Horn’s calendar.”

Horn looked at her over his shoulder. “Don’t be too long.”

“I won’t be a minute.” Stephanie headed out of the room.

Buchanan tugged at my hand and we followed her, still slowly and quietly. She wasn’t walking slowly, though. She headed for the door.

Looked back at the room. She’d left her phone on the conference table.

Well, no time like the present to either save the day or be shunned out of Jeff’s entire extended family.

Dropped Buchanan’s and Christopher’s hands. “Her phone’s a bomb!”

Then I launched myself at Stephanie.

C
LEARLY NO ONE
had realized the four of us were in here, because I heard both Horn and Serene give the screams people do when they’re completely startled.

Stephanie jumped and spun around. She saw me, turned, and ran for the door. But I caught her before she reached it.

“Going somewhere?” I asked as I grabbed her arm and managed to spin her around.

She hit at me, but not with any real skill. So no one had trained her in fighting. “Leave me alone!”

“You hit like a girl.” I slammed a fist into her stomach. “And I note you’re not at all surprised to see me here.” Whoever had sent her the text had clearly told her to roll her part of the plan, and I was pretty sure said texter had also told her to assume we were here already.

She kicked at me as I managed to get behind her and wrap both of my arms around hers and her torso. “Get off me, you bitch,” she hissed as I squeezed.

“Is that any way to talk to your aunt? Besides, it’s hard to handle a call when you leave your phone behind. I’m just trying to make sure you do a good job.”

A man’s hand grabbed the back of my shirt. “Out,” Buchanan said. “Now!” He tossed us both toward the door, which Siler was holding open. How and when they’d taken the cuffs off I didn’t know. Decided now wasn’t the time to worry about it.

“Get off me!” Stephanie screamed. “You’re ruining everything!”

“Unless it was a surprise party with clowns, cake, and balloons, I’m sure we’re not.”

“I wish my daddy had killed you.”

“Yeah, I know. We killed him instead. These things happen.”

She struggled more, and because she was an A-C, she was strong. However, I was both trained and enhanced. Also however, she managed to knock us both off balance. We went to the ground. I ensured she was on the bottom.

“Let me go! We need to get out of here!”

Serene and Horn ran out, her pulling him, Christopher right behind them. Once we were all outside I realized Christopher also had Stephanie’s phone. “Get away from the building!” He ran off.

Buchanan hauled me off of Stephanie and grabbed her at the same time. She tried to get away, but Serene grabbed her other arm and she wasn’t going anywhere.

Siler grabbed my free hand and Serene had Horn in hers. We took off, away from both the building and the lake, meaning toward the base of the nearby mountains.

Christopher rejoined us, without Stephanie’s phone. “Down!”

We all ducked and covered right as the bombs went off. Impressively. Both something in the middle of Groom Lake, which was where I assumed he’d thrown the phone, and the building we’d just been inside.

“Phone was the trigger,” Christopher said. “But the entire place was rigged to blow.”

“Yeah, we see that. Everyone okay?” Everyone assured me they were okay. “Great. Then someone beat the truth out of Stephanie. Or let me do it. I’m all for doing it. Start with asking who sent her the text telling her to go ahead and blow things up.”

“Did you happen to look?” Buchanan asked Christopher, as he took over holding Stephanie, who was struggling a lot. She stopped as her uncle stood behind her, locked his hands around her upper arms, shoved her arms next to her torso, and shook her gently.

“Stop it, now, or I’ll do something you won’t like that I might feel badly about later. Yeah,” Christopher said to Buchanan, “I did, actually, while running with a bomb that was ready to go off. Blocked number.”

“Fantastic. So, can I hit her then?”

“Stephanie did all that?” Serene asked, sounding shocked. Everyone other than Stephanie and Horn nodded. “But why?”

Stephanie glared at us. She was pretty good. Not up to Christopher’s standards, but a lot closer than most managed. I gave her a Bronze. “You deserve it.”

Serene looked even more shocked. “What do you mean? What have Vander or I ever done to you? Vander gave you a job and was planning on training you to become an F.B.I. agent. I’ve only taught you some things about explosives. How have either of us hurt you enough to make you want to kill us?”

“She doesn’t want to kill you because of that, Serene. And I can practically guarantee that she’s not grateful for the opportunities, either. She was moving herself into a position to hurt us. Not just you two, all of us.”

“I know Kitty’s right. But why are you doing this?” Christopher snarled.

Stephanie tossed her head. “Killing traitors isn’t wrong.”

“Wow, I hope one of us recorded that, so when your mother tries to get you released, we can play it for her and she can understand why we’re not letting you go.”

She smirked. “I’m not going to stay captured long. I’m valuable.”

“As an undercover agent, sure. As a captured traitor, I doubt it.”

“I have a much bigger part to play than this,” she replied with a heavy dose of haughty. I’d heard that before, from her father. And . . . someone else. Recently. Tried to remember who, because it was probably important.

“Ah, Kitty?” Horn said.

The current situation shared that I’d have to search my memory banks later. Right now, what was going on was requiring my full attention. Because I turned around to see Siler holding Horn.

Siler was also holding a gun, and it was up against Horn’s head.