Payback (8 page)

She wanted to get down there. Get it done. Get down there. Get it done. If she had to wait even a few minutes longer, she was af raid a vein would burst in her head or something. Every part of her body and mind was focused on getting the revenge her mot her deserved. Yana had been waiting so long.

The guard managed to unlock the door. “You can go now,” Yana said. “I’ve seen the episode you were watching. If you don’t hurry, you’re going to miss a great Samantha scene.”
Go.
The good boy left. And Yana started down the stairs, knees trembling.

God, she was close.

She reached the landing, turned-and froze. Waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs were three men and a woman in riot gear.

They each had a semiautomatic trained on Yana. “Put the guns down,” she ordered, her voice cracking.

They didn’t move. They al kept the guns on Yana.
I only said it,
she realized.
I didn’t think it.

Put the gun down. Put the gun down. Put the gun down. Put the gun down.
She blasted each of the four of them as hard as she could.

And the guns stayed aimed at her. None of the guards even twitched.
Put the gun down. Put the gun down. Put the gun down.

Put the gun down.
Yana shot the thoughts at them, using every bit of energy she had. Blood started to trickle out of her nose.

But the guns stayed up.

And the guards started toward her.

UNLOCK THE DOOR.
Neither of the government goons even glanced at the doorknob. Big surprise. Yana’d been shooting out thoughts al over the place, and nothing. Her head felt like it had imploded.
Now what am I going to do? What in the hell am I
going to do?

Also, what in the hel were
they
going to do? Two of the men, stil in their riot gear, had stashed her in a large office. Now they were just standing on either side of the door. Both watching her. Not saying anything.

Yana leaned back in the armchair. Then she used her feet to pul the ottoman in front of the chair beside hers over in front of her.

Her heart was beating out a drum solo, and a muscle in her thigh had started to twitch. But she wasn’t going to let these guys-anyone-know how scared she was. That would give them power over her.

Maybe I should slip off my sneaks, too,
Yana thought. But that was probably going too-The sound of the door opening jerked her away from her thoughts. Yana forced herself to hold her ultrarelaxed, screw-you pose as a fiftyish man walked behind the desk in front of her and sat down. One side of his mouth curved up as he looked over at her.

Suddenly Yana felt like a stupid little kid trying to act tough in front of the principal.

“I’d like you to tel me what you’re doing here,” the man said. “I’m Mr. Eggar, by the way.”

You lie. You tell the truth.
Those were her only two options. She was trapped. “I’m Yana Savari,” she answered. “My mother was Erika Keaton.” She’d decided to start with truth. She didn’t think there was any way that Eggar and the boys were going to believe she’d come to the center for a knitting class and gotten lost. “Do you know who Erika Keaton was?” she asked.

You should, you bastards. You killed her,
Yana want to scream. But she didn’t.

“Yes,” Eggar answered. “But Erika Keaton had no children. So why don’t you try again?”

“You did a pathetic job on the tracking,” Yana shot back. Eggar’s eyes widened a fraction. “Yeah, I know you were tracking al the offspring of the women in your group. G-2s, that’s what you cal us, isn’t it?” She was feeling less like a little kid every second.

Don’t get too cocky,
she reminded herself.
You surprised him, yeah. But there are two guys with guns over there.

Eggar gave a little flip of his hand, signaling her to go on. He was doing a decent job of pretending that she hadn’t just rocked his world.

“My mom left town when she was pregnant,” Yana continued. “After I was born, she handed me off to a friend.”
Like some stu
pid letter she wanted mailed,
Yana thought. She cringed inside. It hadn’t been her mother’s fault-Erika had only been trying to protect her. “Long story short. The friend died, and I got reunited with dear old dad. Who didn’t even know he had a kid. We mo ved around a lot and ended up back in Atlanta, where the beautiful love story of Erika Keaton and David Savari had begun.”

And I started trying to figure out how to get revenge,
she thought. Her mother had left a letter for her, a letter Yana had gotten ahold of years before she was meant to see it. She’d learned everything-about the group her mom had been in, about how Eri ka worried her life was in danger and that’s why she needed Yana to have this letter just in case. Yana’d even read about the po wer she could possibly develop when she was older, the power she
had
developed. Once she’d read the letter, she devoured everything she could find about Erika Keaton. Unfortunately, she ended up being fed just what “they” would have wanted her to see if they’d known she was out there-al the clippings about Erika’s murder by Melissa Voight.

Yana kicked the ottoman away and sat up straight. Her brain had gone there so many times since what almost happened with Rae in the cabin, and she couldn’t do it anymore.

“When I was about twelve, I started getting my power,” she said. “I was an early bloomer.” Time to switch to lie. She hoped al the truth she’d blurted would make them swal ow the next part. “I’ve figured out a lot of what I can do. But I bet there’s more. I want to learn. And you’re the only ones who can teach me. That’s why I’m here.”

If he buys it, I’m safe
-
for now,
Yana thought.
If he doesn’t, I could end up with a bullet in my brain.
She locked eyes with Eg gar. What was it going to be?

Rae stabbed a spinach leaf with her fork. It was humongous. There was no way she’d get it past her lips without a bunch of unat tractive lip gymnastics. But she couldn’t pul it off the fork and choose a smal er piece. That’d be so tacky. And Mandy and her fa mily seemed to take dinner seriously. They had candles and place mats-stuff Rae and her dad never bothered with. She glanced around the table from Mandy to Emma to Mr. Reese. None of them was looking at her. She risked it, jamming the leaf far into her mouth and then using her tongue to wrangle it al the way in. She gave a few hard chews, then tuned back in to the conversation.

“Have you been either place, Rae?” Mr. Reese asked.

“Um,” Rae mumbled, trying to finish chewing.

“Italy or Alaska,” Mandy said, helping her out. “We’re trying to figure out which one we should go to over summer vacation.”

“You two are trying to figure it out,” Emma said. “I’m not going.”

“It’s a family vacation, Emma,” Mr. Reese told her.

“I know that,” Emma answered. “But I’m eighteen. I’m past the age where I want to spend the summer with dad and little sis.”

Great. She’s in a pissy mood already, and Mandy and I haven’t even gotten a chance to get her alone and talk to her about
Zeke,
Rae thought. She real y hadn’t thought that sitting Emma down for a chitchat was a good idea, anyway. But Mandy wanted to give it a shot so badly, and she was convinced having Rae there could help somehow. So how could Rae say no?

“I’ve been to England,” Rae said, leaping into the conversation. “My dad loves England. He teaches medieval literature at the university. His big thing is Arthurian legends, so England is like heaven for him.”
You can stop now,
Rae told herself.

“Your father’s a professor?” Mr. Reese asked.

“Uh-huh,” Rae told him, not letting herself start to spew again.

Mr. Reese looked over at Emma. “Maybe you could talk to him, Em. He might have some suggestions about summer reading that would help you get a jump at UCLA.”

“Sure,” Rae volunteered. “He lives for that kind of stuff.”

“I’m ful ,” Emma announced. She left the table without another word.

“I apologize fo-” Mr. Reese began.

“Don’t apologize for me,” Emma muttered as she went through the dining-room door. She shut the door behind her before he had time to respond.

“You know what, I’m pretty ful , too,” Mandy said. “Or at least ful to the point that I think it’s time for me and Rae to retire to my ro om with a pint of New York Super Fudge Chunk.” She stood up. “Is that okay?” she asked, starting to sit down again.

“Fine,” her father answered, staring down at his plate as though there was a secret message hidden there.

“Okay, then. Come on, Rae. To the kitchen,” Mandy said, her voice ful of false cheeriness.

“To the kitchen,” Rae repeated. She fol owed Mandy.

“New York Super Fudge Chunk is Emma’s fave,” Mandy said when they reached the fridge. “I figure it wil at least get us into her room.” Mandy pul ed a pint of ice cream from the freezer, then opened a drawer and grabbed three spoons. “Here we go.”

Mandy took the lead again. She barged into Emma’s room without knocking. Not the way Rae would have gone. “I brought ice cream,” Mandy announced. She plopped down on Emma’s perfectly made bed, then tossed a spoon at her sister.

Emma caught it, hesitated a moment, then sat down next to Mandy. “Don’t pick out al the white chocolate,” she warned.

“I’m eating
some
of it,” Mandy answered. She patted the bed next to her, and Rae headed over and sat down. “I met this guy,”

Mandy blurted.

No segue. No finesse. Mandy and Rae had made a plan to work the conversation around to guys, yeah. But talk about obvious.

She’s nervous,
Rae reminded herself.
She’s completely freaked out about the Emma-and-Zeke situation.

“
Yo u
met a guy?” Emma asked. She pried a chunk of white chocolate out of the rock-hard ice cream.

“Yeah.
I
met a guy. He’s real y cute. And he’s the same age as me. And he rides a skateboard,” Mandy said in a rush.

She’s talking about Jesse,
Rae thought. She would have known that even if Mandy hadn’t mentioned the skateboarding part.

She’d seen the way Mandy was looking at Jesse at the Chick Filet. Rae’d felt that same expression on her own face when she looked at Anthony.

“And you know what the best thing is about him?” Mandy hurtled on. “He makes me feel like I can do anything. Is that how you fe el about Anthony, Rae?”

It really sounds like she memorized a script.
Rae shot a look at Emma. Emma didn’t seem to have realized she was being set up. At least not yet.

“Yeah. Anthony’s always total y behind me,” Rae answered. “Whatever I want to do, he wants to help. Like swimming-”
Or like
helping me figure out what my power was,
Rae added silently. “He’s teaching me to swim because I love taking long baths, but I was afraid to step into even the shal ow end of a pool.”

Again, too much information.
But it didn’t come out sounding rehearsed, at least. It came out too dorky to be rehearsed.

“Is that how it is with Zeke?” Mandy asked.

Here we go,
Rae thought.

But Emma seemed eager to talk about Zeke. “When I’m with him, I don’t know, it’s like there’s a heat lamp switched on inside me. And when I’m not, the lamp’s off and everything is grayer and colder.”

Mandy shot Rae a glance that was easy to read, a look that shouted out, Oh my God. Mandy’d clearly come to the same conclu sion Rae had-Emma was completely gone, completely gaga, completely in love with Zeke.

Mandy jammed her spoon into the ice cream so hard that it knocked the carton out of Emma’s hand. “Sorry,” she muttered. She leaned over, grabbed the carton, then returned it to Emma. Rae thought she saw Mandy’s fingers trembling.

“It… it sounds great with Zeke,” Mandy said. “But is it like Rae and Anthony? If there was something you wanted to do, would it be important to him? As important as it is to you? Because that’s how it seems like it is with Rae and Anthony. And I think, I hope, that’s how it might be with me and this guy someday.”

“Yeah. Definitely,” Emma answered.

Mandy shot Rae another panicked glance. Rae knew Mandy wanted her to say something. But what? Emma was never going to see anything bad about Zeke. That was obvious.

“Real y?” Mandy went on when Rae didn’t jump in. “So like when you head off to UCLA, would he, I don’t know, would he rent a U-Haul and drive your stuff? Would he move to LA to be with you? Would he quiz you on your homework for UCLA?”

Too much. Way too much,
Rae thought. But there was nothing she could do to stop the train wreck.

“You’ve been listening in on my phone cal s again, haven’t you?” Emma demanded. She shoved the ice cream carton at Mandy.

“Did you tel Dad what you’ve heard?”

“If I had, you’d be locked in your room permanently,” Mandy answered. “But you’re insane if you think Zeke real y loves you. If he did, he’d want you to take the scholarship and-”

“Get out,” Emma ordered, her voice low and cold. “Right now. Both of you.”

*

The sting of the electric charge hit Yana’s temple.

“What is it?” Eggar asked, holding up a playing card with its back to her.

Yana had no clue. Her brain felt like a melted blob of ice cream. “What is it?” Eggar repeated.

Slowly Yana managed to find the words she wanted. “Two of spades,” she answered, taking a wild guess.

Eggar placed the card on the table between them, faceup. Seven of hearts. “The electric stimulation doesn’t seem to have any effect. Let’s move on.”

Move on? God, weren’t they finished? If they kept going, her brain wouldn’t just be a blob. It would be a puddle. Yana yanked off the electrode that had been taped to the side of her head. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of movement. She tur ned toward the window that looked out onto the hal , expecting to see some other agency suit. But it was Sam. The freakboy who’d glommed on to her in the parking lot yesterday. He was wearing a T-shirt with a chimp on it. Someone had drawn a table around the chimp and added restraints to its hands and feet. The guy pointed at Yana, pointed at himself, then pointed at the chimp, like they were three of a kind. Then he turned and walked away.