SIX
POINT REYES, CALIFORNIA
“JACKASS!” SIX SAID, SLAMMING THE DOOR.
Lexa looked up from her seat at her desk. “Nice to see you again too.”
Six dropped into a chair and uttered a groan of frustration. “Not you,” she said. “Him.”
“Help me out here,” said Lexa. “Are we talking about Nine or Sam? Or maybe somebody else?”
“Both of them, actually,” Six answered. “Nine is the one I want to smack at the moment, but it’s Sam’s fault we’re here at all.”
“Got it,” Lexa said, returning her attention to her computer screen for a moment to check something before turning back to Six and asking, “What did he do this time?”
“He’s going to get them killed,” said Six.
“I’m going to need you to be more specific again,” Lexa said.
“Rena,” said Six. “Probably Ghost and Edwige and Yo-Yo, too, once Dennings figures out what’s happening. And he will figure it out. Sending Rena in there is ridiculous.”
Lexa nodded. “Got it,” she said.
“So, you agree with me then,” said Six. “He’s out of his mind, right?”
“Actually, I still don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. But I assume it has to do with the kids you picked up in New Orleans. As for Nine being out of his mind . . .” She shrugged. “Speaking of kids, did you ever find that girl from the videos?”
“Yeah, that’s Rena,” Six confirmed. “And I’m not real happy with her right now either.”
Lexa picked up the cup of coffee resting beside her keyboard and took a sip. “Sounds like everybody’s on your bad side today.” She looked at her watch. “And it’s not even ten o’clock yet. What’s going on?”
Six told her everything. “It’s not like I don’t want Rena to stay here,” she said, wrapping things up. “I’d like all of them to stay here, if that’s what they want. And Max probably will. Nemo, who knows what will happen with her. But Nine is encouraging Rena to do this totally stupid thing, and he’s only doing it to piss me off.”
“Mm-hmm,” Lexa murmured.
“What?” said Six.
Lexa held up her hands. “I didn’t say anything.”
“I know that sound,” said Six. “That’s the sound you make when you don’t agree but don’t feel like getting into it with someone.”
Lexa grunted.
“Just like that,” Six said, pointing a finger at her. “You think he’s right.”
“I didn’t say anybody was right,” Lexa argued. “But maybe it’s not such a bad idea. This Rena, can she handle herself?”
“No,” said Six. “I mean, yes, she’s tough. But Denning isn’t going to believe for one minute that she ran away from us. I mean, why would anyone do that?”
“I can’t imagine,” said Lexa.
“Fine,” said Six. “Maybe it is believable. It’s still a terrible idea. She could get hurt.”
“Somebody can always get hurt,” Lexa reminded her. “Let me ask you this. If Sam was being held by somebody you knew was hurting him, wouldn’t you do anything you could to get him out?”
Six narrowed her eyes but said nothing. Then there was a knock on the door.
“Somebody around here who knocks?” Lexa said. “Must not be Nine. Come in!”
The door opened, and Sam’s head appeared in the crack. “Hey,” he said, sounding uncertain. “Can I come in?”
“No,” said Six.
“Yes,” said Lexa.
Sam walked inside and shut the door behind him. He eyed Six warily as he passed by her, went over to Lexa, and gave her a hug.
“That’s more like it,” Lexa said. “Now sit.”
Sam sat. “So,” he said.
“Lexa’s on your and Nine’s side,” Six said.
“Oh,” said Sam. “I didn’t realize there were sides. I thought we were all working together now.” He waved at Lexa. “Welcome to the team, I guess.”
“Someone is a little bit mad that Nine is acting like Nine,” Lexa told Sam.
“I am not mad!” Six objected.
“She’s mad,” said Lexa.
“Noted,” said Sam. Then, to Six, he said, “Nemo says she wants to leave. Now.”
“I think I’m with her,” said Six.
Sam nodded. “I’m kind of getting that. But here’s the thing. Rena wants to stay. Max does too. That leaves Nemo the odd one out. And you’re the only one she trusts. Well, sort of trusts. So I was hoping you could maybe talk to her.”
Six stood up. “Fine,” she said.
“Great,” said Sam. “She’s stomping around the grounds somewhere. Max is tailing her to make sure she doesn’t take off, so she shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
“There are cameras all around this place,” Lexa said. “I’ll find her.” She turned to one of the handful of monitors set up around her desk. It displayed video feeds from around the campus. “There she is,” she said, pointing to the screen. “Heading for the beach. But once she leaves the lawn, alarms will sound.”
“Do me a favor.” said Six. “Turn them off. Let me follow her as far as she’ll go.”
Lexa hesitated, then nodded. “I can disable the security temporarily,” she said.
“Thanks,” said Six.
She exited the office, leaving Sam and Lexa to catch up. She went outside. It was gray and cold, and the air smelled like the ocean. A light rain was falling as she walked around the grounds of the Academy and across the expansive lawn, and headed towards the coast. After a few minutes, she saw Max ahead of her. She increased her pace, catching up to him.
“How is she?” Six asked him.
He pointed ahead. “She’s not stupid. She knows I’m following her. But I can tell she doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“She probably doesn’t want to talk to me either, right?”
Max shrugged. “Probably not.”
“You head back to the Academy,” Six told him. “No point in everyone getting wet.”
She walked on. After a minute, she saw Nemo. She was walking down a path that led to the beach. Unless she started swimming, there was nowhere for her to go, so Six took her time following her. She considered turning invisible, but Max was right—the girl wasn’t stupid. Nemo would know they wouldn’t let her get too far out of their sight. Now wasn’t the time to try to fool her.
Nemo paused, bent down, and removed her sneakers and socks. She carried them in her hand as she walked to the edge of the surf zone and stood there. A wave came in and broke, rolling up the sand. Water covered Nemo’s feet for a moment before retreating. She stood there, staring out at the gray-green ocean as rain dimpled the surface. Six walked up and stood beside her. She left her shoes on.
“Thinking about swimming to Hawaii?” she said to Nemo.
Nemo didn’t say anything for a minute. Another wave came in. Six stepped just out of its reach. Nemo didn’t move.
“This is prime great white territory,” Nemo said. “From here down to Monterey Bay. They come to breed, and because there are a lot of seals to eat. They call it the Red Triangle because a huge percentage of shark attacks on people occur here. But they only bite humans because we look like seals when we’re in wet suits.”
“You like sharks?” Six asked.
Nemo nodded. “They’re cool.” She looked over at Six. “Doesn’t mean I want to swim with them, though. I can breathe underwater, but I still look like a seal to a hungry great white. Maybe if I had animal telepathy. Does that work on fish?”
“You’ll have to ask Nine,” Six answered. “He’s the animal whisperer.”
“What’s the deal with the two of you?” Nemo asked.
“He’s like the bossy big brother who’s always trying to one-up you.”
Nemo snorted. “So that’s why you’re so pissed off that he agrees with Rena.”
“I’m pissed off about that because I don’t want her to get hurt,” Six retorted.
“And because he’s trying to be the boss,” Nemo suggested.
Six started to deny it but then said, “He does that. It’s annoying.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nemo smile a little. But the girl didn’t say anything in response. Instead, she turned and walked a little farther down the beach, to where a large rock jutted out of the sand. She climbed it and sat down. Six followed her and sat beside her.
“The Farallon Islands are out there,” Nemo said, pointing. “There’s nothing else, really, except more great whites. A couple of scientists live at a research station there, studying them.”
“How do you know so much about sharks?” Six asked.
Nemo shrugged. “I’ve read a little,” she said, obviously trying to sound casual about it.
Six suspected there was more to her interest. “Maybe you should consider being a marine biologist. That breathing-underwater thing would come in handy.”
“Actually, that’s kind of how I figured out I had a Legacy,” Nemo said after a moment. “My family was vacationing at a lake. I was swimming and wanted to see if I could dive to the bottom. I held my breath and swam down. It wasn’t that deep—maybe ten feet or so. I was lying there, and I started watching some little fish swim around and wondering what they were. Then I realized I’d been there way longer than I should have been able to stay and still wasn’t running out of air. At first, I thought I was just really good at holding my breath. Then I figured it out.” She looked at the ocean. “I haven’t gone swimming in the ocean yet, though.”
“How come?” Six asked.
Nemo shrugged. “It’s just so . . . big,” she said.
She’s afraid, Six thought. Good. I can work with this.
“Sam made me try scuba diving when we were in Thailand,” she said. “No sharks, but we saw eels. They were cool.”
Nemo rewarded her with a genuine smile. “That sounds like fun,” she said. Then the smile faded, and she looked sad again.
“Max wanting to stay here doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to be your friend, you know,” Six said, guessing what she was thinking.
Nemo nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
Before Six could continue, her phone buzzed. She took it out and looked at the screen. There was a text from Sam: THEY’VE LOCATED KIRK.
Six texted back: ON MY WAY.
“I’ve got to get back,” she told Nemo. “And you really shouldn’t be sitting here in the rain. So how about this—you come back with me. You don’t have to stay here permanently. That’s a promise. We’ll figure something out. For now, though, be nice to Max. He needs you to be his friend.”
She felt Nemo tense up.
“And maybe I’ll talk to Nine about going with you underwater, so you won’t have to worry about anything,” Six added.
“Deal,” Nemo said.
Relieved, Six stood up. Together, they walked back to the Academy.
Rena and Max were hanging out talking to some students, and Six left Nemo with them, then went back to Lexa’s office. Sam was still there, and on one of Lexa’s monitors, McKenna was talking to them.
“What’s going on?” Six asked.
“We’ve received a signal from Kirk’s implant,” McKenna said.
“Implant?” said Six. “What implant?”
“He was—is—part of a program testing implants in military personnel,” McKenna explained. “Among other things, the implant acts as a locating device. Somehow, the signal was either inoperative or blocked. But now it’s working.”
“So, where is he?” asked Six.
“Montana,” McKenna replied.
“Great,” said Six. “When do we go get him?”
When nobody answered her, she looked at Sam and lifted her eyebrows.
“That’s what we were talking about when you came in,” Sam said. “We think it might be a good idea to move forward with Rena’s suggestion.”
Six grunted. “Of course you do,” she said. She turned to look at McKenna. “You too?”
“We still don’t know who took James,” McKenna said. “But as we’ve discussed, the logical conclusion is that it’s someone connected to the operation Dennings is running. Since you discovered their previous location, they had to move to another one. If that’s where Kirk is, this is our chance to find them.”
“Right,” said Six. “But we can do that without sending Rena in. Sam and I can go.”
“Yes, you could,” McKenna agreed. “However, there are other considerations.”
“Like what?” Six asked.
“The possible connection to the Foundation,” McKenna said. “From what we know, they’re operating a kind of black market in those with Legacies.”
“Right,” said Six. “But I thought we figured that they weren’t the same people Dennings is working for.”
“I don’t think they are,” McKenna confirmed. “Despite its methods, the Foundation presents itself as an altruistic organization whose intention is to do good.”
“By kidnapping healers?” Six said.
“Indeed,” said McKenna. “Nevertheless, that’s how they apparently see themselves. Whoever is behind what Dennings is involved in, it’s more like organized crime. Purely for profit. At least, that’s my theory. However, that’s not to say that they’re not connected. Which is why I think sending in someone who can get a more thorough look at what’s going on there could be helpful. If you and Sam go in, you could probably retrieve Kirk and the kids who are there. But if Rena goes in and convinces Dennings that she’s there of her own free will, she’ll be able to feed information back to us that might help on a larger scale.”
“Or get herself killed,” Six suggested. “He had no problem shooting Ghost or Evella. And is there an update on Evella, by the way?”
“She’s going to be all right,” McKenna said. “I’ve had her moved to a private hospital, in case Dennings or the people he works for try anything more. And your point is taken. However, I think he knew Ghost would be healed.”
“I’m sure that made being shot a lot better,” Six snarked.
“You saw how he seemed to remove that girl’s Legacy when she lost the fight,” McKenna continued. “If he in fact did so, that has enormous implications.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” said Six. “It would change everything. Someone with that kind of technology, power, whatever could do a lot of damage, especially if they got their hands on untrained kids.”
“Exactly my point,” said McKenna. “So if Rena can get inside and find out more about that, it would prove very, very useful.”
“Or we could get in, get Dennings, and make him talk,” said Six.
“As I’ve said before, I don’t think he is the real power behind his organization,” McKenna said. “And I don’t think whoever is would let Dennings live long enough to tell us anything. We already know they have people with Legacies working for them, and we know they’re more than willing to kill if they think they’re in danger of being found. They would have no problem eliminating someone like Dennings.”
“Or someone like Rena,” Six pointed out again. She was out of arguments, and she still didn’t like what they were suggesting. She settled into a sullen silence, while Sam and Lexa looked at her uneasily.
“I’ve spoken to Nine about equipping Rena with—”
“Nine?” Six interrupted. “Now you’re talking to him without involving me and Sam?”
“Nine is familiar with the Foundation, due to Taylor Cook’s experiences,” McKenna said. “We’ve agreed that—”
“So now we’re working for Nine,” Six said flatly. “I get it.”
“You’re not working for me, Six” Nine said from behind her. “You’re working with me. You know, like you told Sam earlier today.”
She glared at him as he took a seat.
“Sorry I’m late,” Nine said. “I had to meet some of my students about an extracurricular project they’re working on. Where are we?”
Six listened as McKenna explained what was going to happen. She didn’t say anything. Obviously, the choice had been made. She didn’t like it and thought they were making a mistake sending Rena back inside. But now she had to focus on keeping the girl as safe as she could. Still, the whole thing bothered her.
She had already said no to working at the HGA, and now here she was doing exactly that. Well, not exactly working for them. As Nine had so characteristically pointed out, she was now working with them. And them was Nine and Lexa, two people she cared about very much, even when they made her crazy. So why was it irritating her so much?
She wasn’t sure. She’d told Sam she was okay with it. But was she really, or had she just been trying to convince herself she was? Right now, she didn’t have time to work it out in her head. She had to focus on the mission ahead of them. She glanced over at Sam. He was watching her. He smiled. It made her feel better. Not great, but better. She pushed the worrisome thoughts away and turned her attention to McKenna. Everything else could wait.