Chapter Eighteen
Fields was leaving.
As if he’d done nothing wrong. As if he’d had some innocuous business appointment and he was now ready to go home. A military-style Humvee waited for him outside, behind the compound where he’d perfected and sold a drug that killed people.
He’d left reinforcements inside. While his contingent of changed fighters had been outside, he had a back-up plan.
Those reinforcements had followed him out. Now, they trained their rifles on her and Nick.
Behind her, Nick stiffened. He didn’t like this one bit. But he’d come with her. She’d told him it was important. It was important…to her. She needed to do this, and he seemed to understand what it meant to her.
Besides, he agreed that Fields needed to be stopped. He only worried that it was them—her—that was doing the stopping.
Now, gazing down a dozen rifles, she had to wonder if he wasn’t right.
She’d followed the sound of Fields’s fear-tinged thoughts through the compound to this rear exit. As he ran, other thoughts joined his, until she sensed at least a dozen people around him.
He’d planned to abandon them all. These guards were expendable to him. Like the people he’d changed were expendable to him. The monsters he’d created.
Hatred rose in her chest, like a snake coiling. Her hands shook with it.
“Doctor Fields,” she called. When he continued to climb inside the Humvee, she stopped him. Get out, get out…
He did as she asked, turning to face her. Though his thoughts were cautious, he smiled. “Miss Laughton. I didn’t expect you.”
“I bet.” She clenched her fists. “You sold me to a terrorist.”
He didn’t comment. He wasn’t sorry. “Why are you here?”
“Ahmed’s pilot decided he couldn’t fly.” She shrugged, even though the sound of the helicopter grinding into the ground and exploding still echoed in her memory. They weren’t good men, the men she killed. They would have come back for her, for Fields’s information. They planned to kill a lot of people.
But even as she sent them to their death, she couldn’t help wondering if they had people who loved them, somewhere. People who would miss them. Killing them hadn’t made her feel better. After everything that had happened to her, she still wasn’t bloodthirsty.
Turned out, searching for the best in people was a habit that died hard.
“A shame.” A lie. He didn’t care that they were dead, but he did care that a large chunk of his money was gone. “This is enlightening, Miss Laughton, but I am late in my departure.”
“I don’t think so.” She widened her stance. “You’re staying here.”
When she said it like that, she almost believed herself.
Behind her, she heard Nick prepare to fight.
Suddenly, she was paralyzed. She recognized the feeling. Nick had practiced this on her over and over. If she’d never had that experience, she might have been afraid. Now, it only made her mad.
If Fields thought that would scare her into backing down, he would learn.
Let us go. Let us go, she told him. He did.
Two could play this stupid game. With a glare, she forced him to throw himself against the car with enough force that he fell down.
As he rolled, shaking his head and trying to get to his feet, the guards next to him readied their weapons. Safeties clicked off around the field.
Under the weight of so many firearms, she should have been afraid. But she only felt heady anger.
This man, this horrible man, had stolen her parents. They weren’t perfect. In fact, they were completely dysfunctional, but it hadn’t been his right to take their lives. To take them from her. He’d imprisoned her, for months. He’d drugged her, poked and prodded her, used her as his personal lab rat.
He thought he would have her shot? He wasn’t even going to do it himself. He was going to have one of these other guys do it?
Her fingers fisted at her sides.
“Tell them to put down their guns,” she told Fields.
He got to his feet slowly, wiping the dust off his pants before he glared at her. “Come, girl. You might be able to control me. I know that you controlled five men at a time, but only barely. You can’t honestly think you can control us all. There are at least a dozen people.” He shook his head, clicking his tongue. “Here’s what is going to happen. I’m going to get into this Humvee. My men will follow in those vehicles.” He motioned across the road. “You’re going to let them go because you don’t have the stomach to hurt them. Me, you might be able to hurt. But they are only paid puppets. And you know it.”
“I’m not alone.” She tilted her head up. “Nick is with me.”
“He is, isn’t he?”
It happened too fast.
Kitty spun, the scream stuck in her throat, as Jeremy dove from the roof to land on top of Nick. Nick crashed into the ground on his belly. She took a step before she was paralyzed again.
Unable to move, she was forced to watch Jeremy bury his fist in Nick’s kidney, then grab his hair and smash his face against the ground, stunning him.
Get off him, she yelled into Jeremy’s head.
Jeremy’s hand paused, and he slowly slid off. But the guard next to him finished the job, tying a piece of his shirt over Nick’s eyes.
He couldn’t help her if he couldn’t see.
She watched Jeremy zip-tie his hands. Then he stood, dragging Nick to his feet.
The man who’d come for her. The one who’d taught her how to stand up for herself, to be strong. Blindfolded, bound. Unable to help. Even now, he reached out to her.
Kitty, are you okay?
She wanted to talk, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe, even.
Jeremy snagged the suitcase off the ground, where it had fallen at Nick’s feet. Then, he nodded behind her.
At Fields.
The rage overtook her. As she stared at Nick, bound and subdued, she couldn’t take any more.
Let go. The demand pulsed through the field. She didn’t even focus it on any one person. It didn’t matter. Whoever held her dropped her.
Behind her, Fields called to her. “If anything happens to me, Miss Laughton, then Mr. Degrassi here will meet a very sad fate.”
In front of her, Jeremy pointed a gun at Nick’s head. He inclined his head with the smuggest grin she’d ever seen. Around her, the guards all turned their guns…to Nick.
The compound door opened then, and Blue, Seth, and Luke stepped out, skidding to a halt. The guns, the guards. She could imagine the scene was beyond even Seth’s super strategy power. Too many variables. No way to stop everyone.
As they took in the scene, Nick’s voice floated into her mind. I can’t see you, but I know you can do this. I know you can. You can do this. Whatever it is, you got it, babe.
Then, as if an afterthought…
I love you.
“As you see, my girl. You’ll be waiting here.” Fields touched his eyebrow in salute. “Best wishes.” He opened the door to the Humvee and slid into the passenger seat.
She continued to look at Nick, to feel his faith in her. It washed over her, filled her up. He believed she could do this.
He needed her. She could fix this.
She took a deep breath as the Humvee’s engine revved, and she reached out with her mind to the people on the grounds who weren’t part of her group—to Fields’s men, to the soldiers who would try to kill her or Nick if they interfered.
Stop.
She yelled the word. The force of it made her skin tingle, like she had a severe case of static electricity. The hair on her arms stood up, the roots of the hair on her head even. Around her, Fields’s men stood frozen. The Humvee skidded to a halt.
Out of the truck, she told Fields. He complied, as did his driver.
On your stomachs.
When everyone was where she’d told them to go, she called out to her friends. “Blue, Seth. Someone get Nick.” Her voice sounded steady, even as her stomach trembled and her head burned with the force of holding the people down.
Out of her periphery, she watched Blue and Seth free Nick. His hands loose, he flicked off the blindfold. Luke picked up the suitcase that lay on the ground next to Jeremy.
“We need to contain them. Somewhere.” Beads of sweat trickled down her temples, even though it was a cold night.
“Where?” Seth’s take charge voice carried over the field.
“There’s a cell inside.” Nick chimed in, his voice much grimmer than usual. He was worried for her. She could feel it. There was nothing they could do about it. “I’ll lead.”
Follow Nick, she told them. Follow Nick.
Except, as soon as they started to move, Nick wasn’t moving.
What had happened?
Next to her, Blue and Seth were equally immobile. Luke stood, the suitcase gripped in his arms and his eyes wide.
All of their thoughts were the same, a unified chant. Stay still. Stay still.
That wasn’t her.
She’d believed she was the only one who could hear thoughts. She’d never heard of another. But someone else was definitely controlling them. Looking around, she saw where, at the edge of the building, Parker Sinclair and Jack Barnett watched the proceedings.
What were they doing here?
It wasn’t Jack in their heads. She’d spent enough time with him when they left Glory to know that.
It had to be Mr. Sinclair.
The last she’d heard of him, he’d run from Glory and none of them knew where he was. He must have connected with Jack and Luke.
Kitty’s breathing came in gasps as she reached out to them. “What are you doing?” she gasped.
“I apologize, Miss Laughton. But we’ll be taking that suitcase, please.”
“The suitcase?” What did he want with the suitcase? “I thought you had the drug. Gave it to the Army.”
“I didn’t have this much, nor the instructions to make more.” Parker motioned to Jack, who swept forward, wresting the case from Luke’s hands. “So, yes. The suitcase.”
“Why?”
“This research shouldn’t be a pawn in a war. This is much larger than one political regime against another. This.” He took the suitcase from Jack and patted it. “This is about evolution.”
Evolution. She didn’t like the sound of that. “That research needs to be destroyed.”
“You’d only slow the inevitable, Miss Laughton. Once something is created, one cannot simply un-create it. It is not the human way. There is no stopping this. This is Pandora’s box. This, my dear, is unavoidable.” He bowed slightly at the waist, while Jack turned and walked from her, as if he wasn’t even afraid.
No. They couldn’t do that. She hadn’t saved that research from Fields to have it stolen by them.
She closed her eyes. After a deep breath, she stretched, covering Jack and Sinclair. She ordered them to do what the others were doing. Stop.
Jack obeyed, but Sinclair continued on. When he realized Jack wasn’t following, he turned, placed his fingers on his temples, and white light exploded in her head.
She cried out, falling to the ground, and everyone she’d been holding could move. Her vision cleared as gunfire erupted in the yard. Bodies fell, including two guards, while some of the guards staggered, bleeding. A bullet hit the ground next to her, and rock spit up, striking her face.
She covered her ears as more shots rang out…and Nick fell to the ground. Her chest tightened, squeezing the air from her as if she’d been the one hit.
Ringing exploded in her head. It might be the gunfire, but it sounded like the world grinding to a halt.
They were going to kill them all.
Forcing her gaze from Nick, still writhing on the ground, she tapped her head and reached out to the guards. Stop Fields. Stop Fields. Stop Fields.
She refused to let herself look away. As the contingency of guards slowly turned toward Fields, his eyes widened. He took two steps back. He shoved the guard closest to him away, and the man tumbled to the ground. But he didn’t have time to protect himself from the rest.
Shots rang, and Fields’s body jerked. As he fell in an awkward heap, Kitty expected to feel something. Relief, maybe, or even closure. Instead, she looked on his still body with what felt suspiciously like sadness. Not for him, exactly. For the people whose lives were irreparably different because of him.
Stopping him hadn’t changed any of that.
The guards shook their heads, disoriented, as two more helicopters swept over the ridge and circled to land. As they surfaced from her demand, the men lowered their guns to their sides. Around her, they processed what had happened, what they’d done.
She didn’t care. She was running to Nick.
She skidded on her knees beside him. Seth already knelt on the other side, putting pressure on Nick’s thigh. Nick’s head shook from side to side.
“What happened?”
“He volleyed the first wave of gunfire. The second caught him…” His mouth thinned. “And Blue.”
Kitty glanced to the left, where Blue had removed her jacket and was pressing it to her hand. Her wound didn’t seem life threatening, but that wasn’t the case for Nick.
Beneath Seth’s hand, Nick’s blood dripped out between his fingers. Seth’s thoughts were grim. “I need a tourniquet, Kitty. Put your hands here. Quickly.”
She crawled next to Seth, replacing his hands with hers. Pushing down. The warmth of his blood seeped under her fingers, gagging her, filling her with terror. “Hurry.”
He nodded, ripping his sleeve from his shirt, shredding the fabric. The good thing about Seth? He moved faster than most people. He made a strip of material, wove it under Nick’s thigh, and pulled it tight. He shredded the remainder of the material. “Use this. Press against the wound. As much pressure as you can.”
She did as he asked. Nick mumbled, thrashing from side to side, his hands reaching for his leg.
“Nick.” Her voice shook. “Stay still. Please stay still.”
His eyes opened, briefly, but they were hazed with pain. “Kitty?”
“You’re going to be okay. We’re going to get you out of here.”
Around them, more military soldiers arrived, Martins’s back-ups, Kitty suspected. Beneath her fingers, warm blood still seeped from Nick’s gunshot wound. It was slowing, though, wasn’t it? Surely it was. As she doubled up the pressure, Seth waved his arm, calling for a medic.
“Kitty?” Nick’s voice was weak. “Kitty, you did it.”
When she looked down into his pain-filled eyes, he looked pale. His lips were blue. He smiled up at her, reaching for her face. He pressed his palm into her cheek. She could barely murmur, “What did I do?”
“Fields.” He rubbed his thumb along her cheekbone. “You got him.”
She didn’t want his praise. She’d been adamant about going after Fields, but she wondered if it hadn’t been a foolish choice, another in a list of horrible decisions. Had stopping Fields been worth putting Nick’s life in danger?
“Save your strength,” she whispered, but tears thickened the demand.
“I’m cold.” He closed his eyes.
“No. No, you aren’t.” She pushed harder on his wound, even as his hand slackened and dropped from her face. “You’re not cold. You’re fine. You’re going to be fine.” Desperation laced her words. “The medics are coming.” At least that much wasn’t a lie. She could see two men running toward her, a backboard between them.
He didn’t answer.
“Nick? Nick!”
Terror gripped her. As the medics gently pushed her out of the way, taking over the task of keeping Nick from bleeding to death, she took up residence at his head, rubbing her fingers along his hair, his forehead, memorizing his beloved face.
She heard them mention his femoral artery. She knew that was dangerous, could sense they worried that it was bad.
She ran alongside the backboard as they raced to the helicopter. She listened as they checked his vital signs, and even she knew his pulse and blood pressure were low. Her movements felt jerky, disoriented as she murmured to him, trying to reassure him. Trying to say the things she wished she’d said when he was awake.
She refused to let that stop her, though.
Thank you for coming for me.
I love you.
Keep fighting. Stay with me.
…
From far away, Nick thought he heard Kitty.
It didn’t feel strange that she was in this place. It was peaceful and warm. A cocoon.
Her words were strange. Keep fighting? Stay with her? She loved him? Is that what she said?
A sliver of unease swept through him. She loved him? He must have heard wrong. Kitty hadn’t said anything about love. If that was here, then he wasn’t sure he trusted here.
He opened his mouth, but when he called for her, his lips felt sluggish, as if they weighed too much. The feeling upset him. He struggled, but there were restraints holding him down. He panicked, fighting harder.
Her voice echoed again. Relax. He was fine, it said. But he couldn’t find her. How could he be fine if he couldn’t find her?
Nothing made sense here.
He didn’t want to be here anymore.
She said it would be fine. When he stopped fighting, she praised him. Her voice was sweet, soothing to him.
It told him that it loved him.
And, while he trusted nothing in this place, he didn’t mind hearing that again and again.