Remember Jamie Baker (11 page)

“It’s not a question of being corrupt. It’s a matter of handing over my power to others. My abilities are dangerous, and
I’m
to blame for what happens when I use them. I’m the one who has to live with the consequences. I won’t go on missions that I don’t choose to be a part of, and I won’t use my powers unless I feel it’s okay.”

Major Wilks sighed again and turned to go find a table. Thankfully he sat us at an empty one, but there were a few people within eavesdropping distance. Oh, well. I was going to have to get used to being on display. At least, for a while. “I can be a useful ally, Major, and a great friend to have. If I can trust you, you can always ask for my help. But I doubt I’ll ever be an official part of the team. I’m just
too
powerful. I can’t risk putting myself in anyone’s control. I’m sorry.”

As we sat, he finally noticed my tray. The lone apple on it derailed his focus. “I thought you were hungry?”

Twisting the apple in my hands, I glanced back at the buffet line we’d just gone through and wrinkled my nose. “Superpowers can have their drawbacks.” I had to elaborate. “I have amplified senses. A heightened sense of smell and taste generally equates to world’s pickiest eater. Great food is pure bliss. But mediocre food is awful, and terrible food is just inedible. No offense to your staff. It’s not their fault my taste buds are in overdrive. But don’t worry. I’ll just go out for something later.”

“No need, Angel!” Tyson chirped, appearing at my side with a wide grin. “Hey, Major. Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to bring this to Jamie before it got cold.”

He sat down across from us and pushed an insulated bag in front of me. It was warm and smelled divine. “What is it?”

“Well, we had the day off this morning, and I remembered Ryan talking about the supertaste thing, and I know the cafeteria food here is crap—” His eyes snapped to Major Wilks, and the tips of his ears turned red. “Sorry, Major.”

Major Wilks pursed his lips at the kid, but I think it was only to hide a smile.

“Anyway, I didn’t want you to starve, so Abiodun drove me in to Colorado Springs this morning and we did some shopping. Ryan gave us a list of foods you like, and we found more of that tea that’s your favorite. Abiodun’s taking it to your room right now, along with a new mini fridge we got for you. But I knew you’d be extra hungry when you woke up, so I brought you some tortellini from the best restaurant in town. Do you like mushrooms? I hope you like mushrooms. I ordered it because it’s my favorite, but I forgot to ask Ryan if you like mushrooms.”

He finally stopped, probably because he needed to take a breath. I would have said thanks, but I couldn’t get any words out. I was shocked. And touched. I had to swallow back a lump of emotion. After clearing my throat, I pulled a white Styrofoam box from the bag and held it up to my face, making a show of examining the food.

Tyson chewed his lip as he watched the display, and his leg bounced beneath the table. Slowly, I opened the lid, examined the food, and took a bite. I would have told Tyson it was the best thing I’d ever eaten, even if it was terrible. I couldn’t break the kid’s heart after he’d tried so hard. But I didn’t have to fake it. The mushroom tortellini was to die for. Groaning, I shut my eyes and savored the first bite. After I swallowed, I opened my eyes and grinned at Tyson. “You, my invisible friend, are my new hero.”

Tyson exhaled a giant breath and beamed a smile at me that showed all his teeth.

Two of the men I recognized from the day before sat down on either side of Tyson. “Uh-oh,” one of them teased. “Looks like Romeo’s got some competition.”

“I’m certainly not going to be the one to break it to him,” the other said.

The cute Hawaiian appeared next, boldly taking the empty seat beside mine and grinned at me. “Let him down easy, Angel.”

I rolled my eyes, but I appreciated the friendly jest. With all the stares from the other people in the room, their playful teasing was comforting.

None of the men had food. It seemed they’d all just come to say hello, and they were a lot more relaxed than they had been the day before.

After eating another bite of my delicious pasta, I turned to the guy next to me and finally asked a question I’d been dying to know. “Eyes?”

He laughed and batted his lashes at me. “My name is Maka Nani. It means ‘beautiful eyes’ in Hawaiian.”

I looked up into his big, chocolate eyes and smiled. “Well, Maka Nani, I’d say your mother got it right.”

The large man winked. “I’d say the public got your name right too, Angel.” He waved a hand at the other two men sitting beside Tyson. “This is Johnny G and Shortstop.”

Johnny G was average height for a guy, and had mocha skin and caramel eyes. His dark hair was shaved in a buzz cut and he was covered in tattoos. I imagined the ACEs recruited him from a boxing ring. Shortstop, on the other hand, was his opposite. I’d noticed last night that the pale redheaded man stood not quite eye level to my five foot eight, and while he was muscular his build was lean and compact. He was tiny, but obviously still strong. Scrappy. “Are you a baseball player?” I asked, curious about the nickname.

The question made Tyson, Eyes, and Johnny G all snort with laughter. Even the major chuckled quietly under his breath. “He wishes,” Johnny G teased. “We call him Shortstop because he’s
short
.”

Shortstop rolled his eyes, but his mouth curved into a smile. “You can always call me Patrick if you’d like, Angel.”

I glanced at the top of his head and smirked. “Why would I do that when Shortstop suits you so perfectly?”

We all had a good laugh, and when it died down I looked at Johnny G. “Okay, I can’t guess yours.”

Shortstop grinned. “
John
here plays a mean saxophone. Hence, Johnny G.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“After Kenny G,” Johnny G explained with a sigh. “He’s a famous saxophone player.”

“Like, the
only
famous saxophone player,” Eyes added.

“Seriously,” Shortstop said, shaking his head. “Who decides to play the saxophone? Guitar, drums…even the piano. But the saxophone? That’s extremely dorky. And
embarrassing
. Our fearless team leader is a former high school band geek.”

Johnny G took the ribbing gracefully, with only a roll of his eyes. But it was funny. He appeared so tough on the outside. I couldn’t picture him playing the saxophone. Laughing again, I turned to the major. “So what’s your nickname?”

Major Wilks cocked his brow, and when that didn’t make me stop waiting for an answer, he said, “Major.”

“Original.”

Major Wilks couldn’t hold his serious expression. His lips curved up and he said, “I also accept
sir
.”

The guys told me a little
about the base and what they do while I finished my lunch, and after that Major Wilks offered to take me on a tour. Tyson jumped to his feet and scrambled out of the cafeteria after us. “Can I come?”

Major Wilks lifted one of his eyebrows into a skeptical arch. “Can you keep your mouth shut if you tag along?”

“Silent as the grave,” Tyson promised.

The major stared down at Tyson’s hopeful face, and although he heaved an exasperated sigh, there was a hit of endearment in his eyes. The major acted like a tough guy, but he definitely had a soft spot for the kid. Silently he began to walk again, giving Tyson a nod as if to say, “Come on, then.”

Tyson grinned and took my hand, tugging me along after Major Wilks. “Have you seen the command center yet?” he asked. “It’s so cool!”

I laughed. There was no way he’d be able to stay quiet on this tour. We got about five feet before Johnny G cleared his throat to get our attention. “Sir,” he asked Major Wilks, “would it be all right if we tagged along also?”

Johnny G, Shortstop, and Eyes were all waiting with curious expressions. Major Wilks sighed. “It appears you have a fan club, Angel.”

Eyes threw his arm around my shoulders to give me a friendly hug. “She’s one of us now, sir. Just trying to make our newest ACE feel welcome.”

Major Wilks shot me a smug look that I chose to ignore. “I’m not an ACE yet.”

“We’ll convince you soon enough. It’s in your blood, Angel.”

As we toured the facility, Major Wilks explained to me that while there were close to five hundred people stationed at the base who knew about the ACEs, only about two dozen people were actually part of the ACE team. There was his main recon team, which was the group of eight guys who’d come to my rescue yesterday. Then there were a handful of researchers, technical people, doctors, scientists, and trainers.

All of the men giving me the tour said that the ACEs were a tight-knit unit. A family, in a sense. I knew what they meant. I was starting to feel that bond. It was a pretty irresistible feeling. Already I felt more whole than I’d felt the entire six months I’d spent alone with Teddy.

The facility was made up of the lounge, mess hall, barracks, command center, training center, detainment center, infirmary, debriefing room, and a number of private offices and guest quarters—which Major Wilks informed me was where my room was located.

The command center looked very much like something out of an Avengers movie, except for it being underground instead of in the sky. There were a dozen different stations that had fancy computers and four or five monitors apiece, and they were all facing the front wall of the room, which was wall-to-wall screens.

My heart panged a little with grief when I walked in the room. Teddy would have loved it. It was like his office in the desert safe house, but on some major steroids. Then I saw the guy sitting in a chair at one of the main stations, hands flying over the keyboards, face buried in the monitors, head bopping along to whatever techno music was playing in his large headphones, and felt another stab close to my heart. The guy may as well have been Teddy’s cousin.

“Hey, Geek!” Johnny G called out.

When the guy didn’t respond, Johnny G went to tap him on the shoulder, but I stopped him. “Wait, let me.” Grinning, I focused on the computer in front of the unsuspecting nerd. “Watch.”

I’ve learned to control my power enough so that I can focus on single electronic devices at a time. I reached out with my senses and felt for the electricity coming from one of the glowing monitors. Once I had a grip on it, I sent the screen just enough power to blitz the image momentarily. My tiny power surges never actually hurt computer monitors, but you wouldn’t know it from the way Teddy always freaked out. Geek was no different.

When the second computer glitched, the man sitting in front of it froze. He waited a moment, so I blitzed it again and this time he reached up to smack the monitor. As soon as he relaxed, I made one of the other monitors blink out for a moment. “What the…?” he muttered, and started pounding the keys on his keyboard with a new purpose.

“I used to do this to my friend all the time. It drove him crazy. Geeks are so touchy about their equipment.” The ACEs with me all snickered as they watched their team member get more and more confused. “And for my final trick…”

I picked up my speed and made all the monitors blink in and out like a strand of Christmas lights. The poor guy manning the station freaked out. He started swearing like a sailor and jumped to his feet so fast his headphones caught him up and yanked him back down.

The ACEs all burst into wild laughter, drawing the attention of every worker in the room. As they all came to investigate, the guy I’d been harassing finally whirled around. He spouted another string of impressive curses until he found me standing in the middle of his peers, and his mouth popped shut.

“Hey Geek, get over here and meet Angel,” Johnny G said.

When Geek did as he was told, Shortstop finished the introductions. “Geek, Angel. Angel, meet Geek.”

“Do we need to explain that nickname for you?” Johnny G asked.

“Nope.” I laughed. “Not at all.” I smiled at the computer nerd. “Hey, Geek.”

His wide eyes narrowed nervously, and he glanced over his shoulder at his computer. “Do you, uh, always have that effect on the equipment?”

He looked terrified of me, yet also strangely willing to try and boot me from the room if necessary. “Only when I want to,” I assured him. “Or if I’m seriously pissed off. Why? You on to something important?”

I didn’t really care what he was doing. I’d just learned that the best way to put a nervous nerd at ease was to ask them what they were doing.

Instead of Geek’s face lighting up with excitement, he frowned in frustration. “I’m stumped. It doesn’t happen often, and I
don’t
like it. Visticorp held the patents to a number of very popular pharmaceuticals. They were worth an estimated 3.2 billion in the last quarter before the explosion. Afterward, it came out that they’d been cooking the books and were actually bankrupt.”

I smirked, but Geek didn’t notice. He was lost in his own brain. “It’s not possible. It doesn’t make sense. All evidence suggests Visticorp couldn’t have been in the red. The money was taken, and the records were made to look as if it didn’t exist. It’s not easy to make 3.2 billion dollars disappear, but that’s what happened. It’s gone. I can’t find it.”

Now I laughed. “You’re looking for Visticorp’s money?”

Geek nodded. “Find the money, find the man. Donovan had to have had a contingency plan for if things ever went south.”

The poor guy. He was looking for something he’d never find. “It’s a great idea, but you might want to look for a different approach. I don’t think you’re going to find that money.”

The smiles slid off of everyone’s faces, and they all turned to me with shocked or curious expressions.

“You know where it is,” Geek said.

I heard the accusation in his voice and saw the suspicion in Major Wilks’s eyes. “No.” Technically true. “I don’t
know
where it is, nor did I have anything to do with taking it.” Again, true. Technically.

“But you have an idea,” Major Wilks pressed. Apparently I was transparent.

I looked around the group and knew that none of them would let it go. After thinking over my options, I decided it was best to tell them because I personally hadn’t done anything they could arrest me for, and I needed their help to find Donovan. They wouldn’t do that if they spent their time looking in the wrong places.

“I have an idea,” I admitted. “I have several different identities. Each of those comes with a number of extremely padded bank accounts, and I’m sure Teddy’s do, too. I never asked him where they came from. He’s a genius with a computer, and, if what he said about himself is true, he was raised in the Visticorp labs and forced to work for them. He could have done it. In fact, I’m sure he did. It makes too much sense.”

Sparks of hope bled from Geek’s eyes as he watched his way of finding Donovan vanish. “Sorry to burst your bubble. But if it makes you feel better, I have a new lead for you.”

Geek perked back up, and so did everyone else. Major Wilks’s eyes glinted at this possibility of new information. I pulled the small pouch with Teddy’s microchips in it out of my pocket and waved it in front of Geek. “I assume you know a little about hacking and code breaking?”

Geek flashed me a toothy grin. “Why do you think I got this job? I hacked the CIA just for fun, and instead of arresting me they offered me employment.”

His smile was infectious. “Then you’re my man. I have some encrypted microchips I need cracked. It’s information on Donovan and Visticorp that could give us clues to where he would go to disappear or the people he might work with now. Teddy stole the information when he was preparing to escape Visticorp. He used to call it his insurance policy.”

Geek perked up with more excitement than I’d ever seen anyone exude. I was clearly forgiven for bursting his follow-the-money bubble. Before he could say anything, a different man who’d been working in the command center sucked in a gasp. “You have Teodoro’s microchips?”

I looked the new guy over as I nodded. Most likely in his mid-twenties, he was an average height of about five foot ten and a little on the skinny side, but not unattractively so. He had light brown hair that was a little scruffy and a short beard that seemed out of place on his pretty face. His eyes were gorgeous—rich brown-green hazel and speckled with little gold flecks. Overall, he was a handsome man. The only thing I didn’t like about him was the fact that he was wearing a white lab coat.

“How do you know Teddy?” I asked.

The question chilled the atmosphere, and I took a step back from the man. There was something about him that triggered an internal warning bell. Suddenly no one would look me in the eye, either.

I met the stranger’s gaze and noticed something there besides his worry for Teddy. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it reminded me a little of how Ryan looked at me before I knew what our history was. “Do I know you?”

The man couldn’t seem to find words.

Major Wilks cleared his throat and stepped forward, placing a hand lightly on my shoulder. “Angel, this is Dr. Edwards. He was one of Visticorp’s top scientists.”

I recoiled, and all the numerous monitors and screens in the room flickered in response to my distress. I backed up until I bumped into someone’s chest. Johnny G’s hands clasped down on my shoulders. “Easy, Angel,” he said in a low, soft voice at the same time Geek wrung his hands and begged, “Can we please get the unstable computer-killer out of the command center?”

Major Wilks looked at me, then scanned the room. “Perhaps we
should
take this conversation elsewhere.”

Or perhaps I should just take myself elsewhere. “That won’t be necessary.” I started backing toward the door we’d come in through. “You can just show me the way to the exit. I’ve seen enough, and I’m ready to leave.”

Everyone in the room froze, waiting to see if I was bluffing. I wasn’t. My turning to leave shocked them all back into motion. “Angel, wait!”

Eyes had called out to me, but it was Major Wilks I glared at when I whirled back around. “I will not work with a Visticorp scientist.”

“
Ex
Visticorp scientist,” Major Wilks replied, his face stony, his manner calm and collected. “He defected because he didn’t agree with the human testing. He had to fake his own death to escape them. He’s part of our team now, and he’s done a lot to help us. He’s the reason we have a lead on Donovan, and the lists of suspected doctors he might be working with. He’s the reason we found you.”

I supposed that was better than nothing, but I still wasn’t going to go anywhere near him. That gleam I’d seen in his eyes made too much sense now. The man was fascinated by me. He wanted to study me.

My eyes found the youngest member of the group and narrowed with suspicion. “Didn’t you say you were a test subject at Visticorp?” I asked Tyson. “Did you know him there? Did he ever do tests on you? Are you okay working with this man?”

Tyson clenched his jaw so tightly the muscles in it popped. His back was ramrod straight and his hands were fisted. His utter hatred for this man was obvious. “It was the only way to find you,” he grumbled through gritted teeth. I noticed he didn’t answer any of my questions directly. “We had no leads. He had knowledge of Donovan and Visticorp. Ryan suggested we talk to him, but he wouldn’t give up any information unless we got him out of jail and let him join the team. Ryan, Abiodun, and I almost quit when Major Wilks agreed to the terms, but we never would have found you otherwise.”

“And now?” I asked.

Tyson looked me straight in the eyes. “Say the word and we’re gone. If you leave, we’ll go with you.”

His speech did two things. It made me seriously love the kid, and it made me realize I couldn’t walk away. If I bailed, I’d never find Teddy and the other two PACs. I couldn’t leave them high and dry.

The entire group exhaled as one the moment it became obvious I wasn’t going anywhere. I gave Wilks another death look. “You keep him away from me,” I warned. “And from Tyson and Abiodun, too. And not one test. Ever.”

Visticorp Man broke the silence with a soft murmur. “I don’t want to hurt you, Jamie.”

His soft tone pissed me off, but his use of my name when everyone else called me
Angel
was truly disturbing. So was the pain in his eyes. I stepped back, a little closer to Tyson. Yes, oddly, in the group of elite soldiers the only person I found any comfort or security in was the fifteen-year-old kid.

Tyson stood a little taller when I scooted next to him. He nudged my shoulder with his and slipped his hand into mine. It wasn’t a come-on; it was solidarity. He was presenting a united front. In that moment, he and I were a team. On the same side. I knew without having to ask that if Abiodun were here right now, he’d be standing on my other side. The three of us together.

I’d found a new kind of family in Tyson and Abiodun. People I could genuinely trust. The thought made my chest clench, but I managed to keep those emotions buried at the moment. I had other things to deal with, and I was glad to have Tyson there. Giving his hand a grateful squeeze, I took a breath and asked Dr. Edwards a question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to, yet had to know all the same. “Ryan told me I was never a Visticorp subject, so how do I know you?”