Legacy (29 page)

Ah, hell.
Ganzfield had a—a
traitor
. Maybe more than one. The word didn’t seem overly-dramatic, given the situation. Who would risk exposing all of us by giving information to this sociopath? And how had they stayed off the minders’ radar? We should’ve heard someone shooting blackmail video, thinking,
Gee, I can’t wait to send this to Isaiah!

Telepath, do you know what a dead-man switch is?

I nodded. I’d seen enough movies to know that it activated when the holder let go of the trigger—if he was killed, the bomb would still explode, or whatever.

Isaiah held up his cell phone. His hand was on a button on the front. He grinned in smug satisfaction.
I wrote my own app
.

Oh, crap.
I understood. If he released that button, or if the phone suddenly died, the link to all of those files and videos would go out to dozens of people in the government, the military, and the media.

His smile twisted into a cold sneer.
Sorry I missed you two in Detroit. I’ve been watching you
. Memories flashed to me, sledgehammer-blunt. I felt my jaw start to shake, so I clenched my teeth tightly. He’d been remote viewing us
a lot
—sleeping, eating, and…
oh, ick
. This creepy old guy’s been watching me in the
shower.
The golden RV glow flared around me again and I saw us mirrored in his thoughts. My face looked death-pale.
Crap. He’s trying to psych us out. I need to focus.

My hand tightened on Trevor’s arm.
Trevor, whatever you do, keep his finger on that button.

Someone at Ganzfield betrayed us to Isaiah.
Dismay and anger tornadoed through him; it took a moment for my words to register.
Okay, I can do it, but I’ll need to be closer
.

We took a first, slow step forward.

Isaiah slid out of the car. He glanced in through the glass door of the security station, and my heart seemed to lurch to a stop.
He’s going to see Zack!

The cold shock came to me in a sudden flash of knowing. The security building was empty.

Zack wasn’t there.

Trevor’s invisible arms tightened as the near-panic bounced between us.
Is this a trap—for us?

He’s not there. Did Zack set us up to die?

Did ZACK send that stuff to Isaiah?

Oh, God—he can shield. He could’ve shielded his intentions.

Why would Zack do this? Is there a connection between him and Isaiah?

Has he been playing us all along? What other things has he sabotaged?

What’s he done to Drew and the other sparks?

Was he able to charm Ann, too?

Are they okay?

Oh, my God in Heaven.

Oh, no, no, no, no.

Isaiah sidestepped the security barrier. His shadow reached for us in the still-illuminated headlights. Holding the smartphone up at shoulder height, he approached with the stalking gait I remembered with horror from the last time I’d been this close to him.

When he’d nearly killed me.

Oh, God. What should we do? Everything had gone horribly wrong. We’d been—
betrayed
. Terrible things could happen if G-positives were exposed: forcible conscription, confinement, experimentation. Groups like the Sons of Adam would swell to overwhelming numbers, fed by people’s fear of our abilities. We’d be targeted and hunted. Gah—most of the witch trials and burnings in history may well have started when families or groups of G-positives were discovered. Were we about to experience it firsthand? Hell, were Trevor and I going to live through the next few minutes?

Should we give in to his demands? Did we have any choice? If we did what he wanted, he’d be supplied with dodecamine for another year. Was this going to be an annual event, coming to Jersey to be blackmailed by this monster? My God, was that the
best case scenario
in this mess?

Maddie, we have another choice, but we need to be closer. I’ll grab the phone, and then you blast him.

He’s gauging the distance between us right now—I can feel him doing it. You’d have to be fast. He won’t let us get too close.
I couldn’t seem to get enough air in my lungs.

This was it.

I knew Isaiah would blast me back, using the energy burst from my mind to channel his killing force into me. It was like going over the fence at Peapack all over again. I was screwed either way, but there was a chance I could save the others.

Wait! With our connection, would that killing blast spread through to Trevor? I had no way of knowing, but at that moment, I knew I couldn’t risk it. Endangering Trevor like that…
NO!
I couldn’t. I knew we’d discussed how far we’d go to stop Isaiah but now, with reality slapping me across the face, I just
couldn’t
. Trevor was the hostage here, ensuring my compliance. It was as though Isaiah knew about our special connection. If Zack was Isaiah’s inside man, he probably
did
know.

Trevor swallowed hard.
We could still try it, but if I died, the dead-man switch would be released.

I felt a completely inappropriate sense of relief at that thought. We couldn’t attack Isaiah, even if I could somehow stomach the risk to Trevor.

Ah, hell. We really don’t have a choice.

Isaiah couldn’t read our thoughts behind the shield, but he seemed to sense the defeat that suddenly filled me. His cold smile widened as he stepped closer, confident now that he was in no danger from us.

“
GIRAFFE!”

The world seemed to explode. Painful bursts of thought slammed into me—many minds at once. The lawn erupted as several grass-covered hatches flew backward. I startled back against Trevor with a cry.

What the HELL?

“Isaiah, freeze!” I couldn’t hear the charm resonance in Zack’s voice—he was completely shielding.

Six sparks had popped up through manholes that’d been hidden in the lawn by thick circles of turf. Burning energy surged within them as they focused on Isaiah.

Isaiah froze. Pain spiked though his forehead as he fought off the charm command.

Trevor and I started to move.
We have to get that phone!

Did that kid—?

“I said FREEZE! Don’t move!”

The sparks became statues.

—
can’t move! How are we supposed to—

—
Oh, God, Isaiah’s RIGHT HERE and I’m stuck—

—
we’re all gonna die, and I never even got a chance to—

Pain ripped through my head as I tried to push the command from my own thoughts. Zack was stronger now than he’d been at Ganzfield. I wasn’t able to fight it off!
No, Zack! Not OUR people!
Gah—I couldn’t tell him without dropping the shield!

The pain dropped away and we staggered forward again. Geez, Zack didn’t even say “Mother May I,” or “Red Rover, Red Rover, let—”
Dammit, focus!

Trevor’s vision narrowed.
I’ve got to get that phone.

Pain lanced through Isaiah’s temples as he fought the charm command. His feet moved as though sunk into clay.

I shot a thought to Trevor.
Zack needs to hit him again!

The sparks let loose, and Isaiah screamed as searing agony poured across him. It whipped into me and then into Trevor like we were being branded from within.

No!
Trevor fell to one knee, and my vision swam with little white flashes as I staggered against him.

You did this.
Isaiah lashed out with his mind, targeting Zack. Lava-thick killing energy flashed from him, hot with pain and hate.

Zack’s shield cracked under the sudden attack. His surprise and fear burst through to us, flowing around the pain.
—need to…keep the shield up…or he’s gonna—

Dammit! I have to do it NOW!
A pulse of killing energy exploded from inside my skull. I tried to launch it at Isaiah, but I felt it dissolve. He was still out of my range! I needed to be closer!
Closer!

Trevor lurched forward and reached for the phone with one invisible arm. Liquid-fire pain from Isaiah seared through us. His shirt was now ablaze. Smoke rose from different parts of him, and we caught the sick sound of sizzling meat. We were too slow!

“Isaiah, freeze!” The power was gone from Zack’s words.

An invisible burst of white-hot lightning shot from between my eyebrows. Isaiah turned away from Zack, whose thoughts drained away as he fell forward, sprawling facedown and unmoving on the grass.

Isaiah’s face contorted in a mask of pain.
I’m surrounded! I’m going to die!
His vicious eyes locked with mine as he threw the phone to the ground.
You’re going to die, too.
I felt him target my mind, determined to take me down with him.
You’re the girl who ruined everything.

I frantically blasted his mind again with as much killing energy as I could. A low, incoherent cry ripped from my throat. My mind was on fire! Could I only destroy Isaiah if I destroyed myself in the process? Burning agony enveloped me from within.

Isaiah’s own killing burst fizzled against his pain. He was frying inside and out. His body crumpled, engulfed in oily smoke and flames, but his silent, excruciating shriek stabbed through me before he faded into oblivion.

I went ragdoll limp against Trevor. The edges of the world blackened, threatening to close over me.
No!
I forced myself to pull back toward the world with each breath, as though inching back up a lifeline.

The others swam through my vision in a distant fog. Their thoughts and voices didn’t register—as though I’d gone deaf on several levels. Trevor’d caught the phone with his ability just before it would’ve hit the pavement. He frantically tried to figure out which button to press to make it stop—to take it all back.

I started to shake my head, but the motion made me want to hurl.

We’re too late
.

Isaiah had set up his dead-man switch to work just this way. His surety had permeated his thoughts. The email had flown out to all of those people.

Email.

“Maddie? Are you okay?” Trevor’s concern washed through me. He lowered us both down to the grass as he scanned my face.
She’s hurt! I can feel it! Isaiah did something to her and—

Trevor. Coleman. Call Coleman.
I fumbled for my own phone, handing it to Trevor with weak and shaking fingers. I couldn’t make my brain work. I felt floaty and dizzy and queasy.
Something about Coleman and email.
I focused back on my breathing, using the rise and fall of my lungs to anchor me to reality. At some point, Trevor and I had lost our shared shield, but that didn’t matter anymore.

Breathing.

I’d managed to keep breathing. The blackness threatening my vision receded slowly, although it still felt like someone had driven a spike between my eyebrows.

Only a few feet away, Isaiah’s body continued to burn, casting greasy light and foul-smelling smoke into the evening air. Zack lay unmoving in the grass, caught in the light from the flames and the blue-white glare from the headlights of the rental car. I couldn’t feel anything from him. Was he alive?

Drew rolled Zack over with hesitant hands.
Is he dead? Oh, man, I think he’s dead.

Behind us, Ann’s silent scream hit me like a pillar of pain. She ran toward us from the administrative building, with Hannah and Claire trailing behind her. I knew that panicked feeling from personal experience, knew that the run from the main building felt never-ending to her, like the slow-motion movement in a nightmare. Another wave of sick-and-shaky hit me and I wasn’t sure if it was from taking down Isaiah or feeling Ann’s emotional anguish.

Probably both.

Trevor’s arm tightened around my shoulders.
“Coleman. Trevor Laurence. We have a problem.”

“Does it have to do with the ‘big problem’ you were dealing with?” Tonight, I didn’t find Coleman’s coded talk as amusing as I usually did. I watched Zack’s still, pale face. His jaw hung slack and his eyes showed only white through his half-closed lids.

“The big problem is…solved, but…the man in question created another one. He put…um, proprietary information on a website, and then sent an email to the media and…others. Government people. He wants to make it public…make
us
public. Names, addresses, and…uh, skills. And it’s all documented by video. Any way we can get that website down?”

“Give me the web address. I’ll go back to New York now and see what I can do.”

Trevor read off the information from the email on Isaiah’s phone. Once they’d hung up, Trevor called Williamson. “It’s over, Jon. But Maddie’s—” His eyes met mine.

I’m okay.

You’re NOT okay.

I will be.

We’ll get Hannah to check you out.
Worry painted him dove-grey, and he kept running his hand up and down my arm.