Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) (18 page)

“Makes as much sense as anything else.” They listened to cars drive by, and Jemma regained her strength. “We’ll wait here until the movie gets out. We should be able to tell. Should’ve grabbed one of the watches they left.”

“Felt better taking only what we really needed.”

“True.”

Jemma started talking Jack through some of the ideas she’d had and discarded, some of their options for staying hidden and yet seeking out information. They would need internet, power, and anonymity. The libraries weren’t an option since Jemma knew all the employees, by sight if not by name. Coffee shops would work during the day if they stayed in back rooms, but that didn’t give them a place to sleep, nor did it offer transportation. There were plenty of coffee shops within walking distance of their current location. They’d be a little bit close-for-comfort to the blood bank that had started it all, but they would also be near several parks where Jemma thought they might be able to sleep undetected, as long as the weather stayed warm and relatively dry.

“Hopefully Jill understood the text about us being broke and will bring enough that we can stay in food and drink for a while,” sent Jack, “and keep from being kicked out of the coffee shops, but I think that’s a solid plan.”

“We’ll want to stay off the main roads, I think, in this part of town. The highway that far out of town was different.”

“You’re right. They might think to look for us here,” sent Jack.

Jemma glanced toward the parking lot, then sat back against the building again, glad the theater was fairly slow on a Thursday night. On Fridays, the side lots were full, too, and Jack and Jemma would be much more visible to people coming and going.

“Jemma?”

At the sound of her sister’s mental voice, Jemma stood. “Jilly!” She kept her connection with Jack open, letting him hear her side of the conversation. He stood up beside her, listening.

“Where are you? Don’t come out. I might’ve been followed. Just say where you are.”

“You might’ve been followed? Are you okay? Around the corner of the building, right of the ticket counter.”

Jemma heard footsteps stop just on the other side of the corner, then saw a thin trail of smoke and caught a whiff of bubblegum scent. “Jilly, are you
smoking
?”

“You’ve been gone for like five weeks and all you leave is some cryptic note. Is that
really
what you want to talk about right now?”

Jemma met Jack’s eyes, trying to calm herself. She loved her sister, but nobody else could get under her skin quite the same way. “Do Mom and Dad know?”

“God, Jemma, it’s just an e-cig, and no, they don’t know I smoke, but I need an excuse to stand here and—”

“No. Jill,” she interrupted, “do they know I’m here?”

“No.” Jill sounded more subdued this time. “I knew they’d want to come, and every once in a while I catch someone watching me, you know, like you mentioned before you left.”

Jemma clenched her fist. Were they watching Jill because of Jemma’s abilities, or were they considering taking her sister, too? She knew her sister couldn’t Talk farther than normal; she’d have been able to hear her in the movie theater. “You’re being watched?” She saw Jack’s brow furrow. “You’re being careful?”

“Yeah. This is the first time I’ve gone out alone in ages. I’ve been bringing friends with me or whatever. It makes Mom happy, anyway.”

“How are Mom and Dad?”

“They’re okay. They’re confused. I told them you wouldn’t have left unless you had to.” She paused. “That’s true, right?”

“I wouldn’t have left unless I had to,” she answered firmly. “I can’t…” Jemma swallowed. “How much can we tell her?” she sent Jack.

“If she’s being followed, even being here might not be safe,” he answered. “But we’re also going to be trying to get the word out, so…” He rubbed his neck. “I’m not sure there’s a right answer, here.”

“There are some bad people, and we’re trying to stop them,” she sent finally.

“You?”

“I know, I know. Hold the skepticism, please. You know I research. Is it too much to believe I found out something I shouldn’t know?” Jemma winced at the half-truths.

“Okay, maybe not.”

“We’re trying to get the information in the right hands, without getting anyone hurt in the process. We got caught for a while, but we got out, and now we’re trying our best to figure out who’s safe to talk to and who isn’t, but we don’t have any money or—”

“I brought some. I’ll set it down before I leave. It’s everything I had, and Dad’s gonna kill me if he finds out I emptied my savings, so you better survive this so you can pay me back.”

Jemma felt a surge of affection for her sister. “I’ll do my best.”

“I’d better get going,” sent Jill. “Oh, is Jack with you?”

“Yeah, he’s right here.”

“Have you guys hooked up yet?”

Jemma closed her eyes at the unexpected blush that raced across her cheeks. “Jilly.”

“Okay, fine, be that way. Anyway, I’ve been visiting his dad a couple times a week. He seems kinda sad, misses Jack and all, but he’s doing okay otherwise. He has a new nurse I think he likes working with. The guy makes him laugh.”

“Thanks, Jill. I’ll let him know. Be safe. Text Mom before you leave so she knows you’re on your way.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jemma could almost hear her roll her eyes before there was a shuffle and fading footsteps. She counted to sixty before moving around the corner and picking up a small envelope with cash, putting it in the pocket of her backpack rather than trying to count it in the dim light beside the building. She looked at Jack.

“She said she’s been visiting your dad and that he’s doing well.” Jack broke into a smile and wrapped Jemma in a hug. After a moment, she returned it, squeezing him before pulling away. “Come on. We need to find somewhere to sleep for the night.”

NINETEEN

Options

“You know you have a lot of great ideas, right Jemma? I’m not sure that this was one of them.” Jack looked out at the park, and Jemma nodded. The lot she’d led them to was much smaller than she remembered, and it was considerably more open. If there were even a cursory search of the parks in the area, they’d be found immediately.

“What are our other options, though? Without a credit card or ID, we can’t get a hotel room. It’ll be impossible to find a safe place abandoned at this time of night, at least on this side of town. Maybe if we were closer to home, I’d know of some better places, but here?”

“Would you be able to sleep here?” Jack asked quietly, gesturing toward a bench that had seen better days.

Jemma looked around again, rubbing her arm. “No.”

“You wanted to plan, anyway. So we’ll find somewhere dark, where we won’t be spotted easily, somewhere with power and WiFi, and we’ll start our research. If we can find somewhere to sleep that takes cash, that’s great. If not, maybe we’ll be tired enough to find a spare alley by that point.”

“An alley might be safer than this place.” Jemma sighed. “Where are we headed, then?”

“There’s a bar I went to once or twice that has internet. I haven’t been in years, so I don’t think anyone will recognize me, and we shouldn’t be carded unless we try to buy alcohol.”

“Caffeine sounds like a good idea, anyway.” Jemma let her hand drop to her side. “It’s in walking distance?”

“It’ll take us probably thirty minutes, staying off the main roads, but yeah, it is.”

“All right. Lead the way.” She looked at the park one last time before following him, longing for sleep and the safety of her theoretical plan. They did, at least, stop in the public restrooms to clean up, not adding to the filth as they washed the mud from themselves as best they could.

The walk to the bar was uneventful, their entrance unchallenged. The room was nearly empty, just a few patrons on barstools, and the man behind the bar nodded to them as they walked in. They chose a table toward the back of the room, Jemma sitting with their bags while Jack took the notepad and pen up to the bar. He came back a couple minutes later carrying two sodas.

“Forgot to ask for cash to pay him. They’ll do a tab, obviously, but I think they’ll leave us to ourselves better if we pay as we drink.”

Jemma retrieved the envelope, her eyes widening as she saw the variety of bills. Jill had managed to get them about five hundred dollars, and while that wouldn’t get them very far if something big came up, it was a lot more than she’d expected. She handed Jack five dollars and put the rest back in place while he paid.

“Everything all right?” he asked when he returned, sitting back down.

Jemma sipped her cherry soda while answering. “She just gave us more than I thought. We really could stay at a hotel for a few nights if we had ID. I mean, I’m not sure whether that would be the wisest use of funds or not, but we
could
.”

“She’s a good kid. Despite the smoking.” Jack pulled out his borrowed laptop, and Jemma sent a groan and plugged in the one she’d picked from the house.

“I don’t want to think about that. Research. We’re researching. We’re looking for someone high-profile enough to help us take these people down, or at least to get them the help they need with their own research, right?”

“That’s right.”

“That’ll be an easy search term. We’ll be done in ten minutes.” Jemma let her sarcasm seep through, and she looked at Jack to see him smiling at her.

“You’re the Queen Googler, remember? Think about everything we’ve managed that
wasn’t
in our skill sets. This? Something we’re actually good at? This will be easy.”

Jemma nodded, then turned her attention to the laptop, pressing the power button and releasing a breath when it turned on. It had been a good assumption that it just had a dead battery, but it had only been an assumption, after all.

“WiFi password is on the bar napkin,” sent Jack. “Just don’t login on any of your accounts, and you should be fine.”

Jemma sent an affirmative, connected to the internet, then opened up a web page. She started with the local news. Somebody in the area would be easiest, of course. There just weren’t too many people locally who had real pull, and she wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking for.

She widened her search to the state. There were more rumors about telepathy statewide, but nothing connected to anybody in a position of power. She marked a page to go back to, an article about the governor starting a special project looking into the Event, mentioning it to Jack as she moved on. The governor seemed maybe a bit too high profile. Additionally, the fact that he’d started a program made Jemma wonder whether he might be involved with the project; it would be a perfect cover for studying telepathy, finding others with advanced abilities. It made her more than a little nervous, considering seeking him out. Still, it was a possible lead, and that was better than nothing.

She widened her search again, this time looking throughout the region, which included several political and metropolitan areas and slowed her search significantly. She gathered several more bookmarks, politicians, scientists who might be trustworthy, who had a public persona and might be able to pull strings, who might be heard as long as they had Jack and Jemma as evidence and witnesses.

“Jack,” she sent, stopping after she found herself marking a third article for the same politician, “what do you know about Senator Myles Pratt?”

“Not a lot.” She heard his fingers moving across the keys. “He’s a senator for Alabama. Seems like a decent enough guy, pretty progressive for his party. Something about him catching your attention?”

“Any place with reports of missing people like us, including here, he’s visited. Some on the record, political visits, some personal vacations.”

“On their side or ours, then?”

Jemma flipped through what she’d gathered, opening an article that kept grabbing her attention, one from a couple months after the Event. She told Jack the title of the article so he could look at it on his screen. “Something about this one makes me think he’s on our side. He went off the radar, as much as someone like him can, around the time people started finding out about enhanced abilities, and then, look at this interview, he sort of sidesteps questions about telepathy, but he does it neatly enough that I don’t think the reporter even noticed.”

“He might be our best bet, then. He has connections, for sure. Looks like some want him to run for president in the next election. We’d have to be careful approaching him in an obvious way. Where’s he living?”

“In Birmingham, when he’s not in D.C.. It’d be about five hours if we had a car, but I’m not so sure about stealing one. The buses from here to there need ID to purchase the ticket, and trying to hitchhike that far just sounds like asking to get caught.”

“Agreed.” Jemma watched his face light up, then dim. “You’re not going to like this idea.”

“You do though?”

“Well, yes and no. I mean, it’s something that I always thought would be neat to try. Not something I ever really wanted to
have
to try, but under the circumstances, if we have to do it anyway…” He ran a hand through his hair, his lips pulling up to one side. “The freight trains run from a couple blocks that way all the way up to Birmingham. Farther than that, if we wanted. We’d need to do a little more research on it and everything, but we catch a train not too far from here, in the part of town people don’t like to look too closely at anyway, and we take it to Birmingham. From there, the in-city bus systems shouldn’t need ID, and they wouldn’t have a reason to be monitoring the cameras that far away.”