Betrayed (12 page)

Clenching her hands into fists at her sides, Rae forced herself to look right into the picture on the monitor. And her
whole body stiffened. It looked exactly like a hospital unit. Four beds, and in the beds patients hooked up to IV drips
and heart monitors and Rae wasn't sure what else. A woman with a clipboard moved from bed to bed, making
notations.

"Experiments," Rae whispered. "They're still doing experiments in this place." What else could be happening in
that room? It's not like the Wilton Center had a six-week course where you knitted a sweater and a six-week course
where you became a doctor. Was my mom ever in one of those beds? she wondered. Was Mandy's mom? Hot bile
splashed into Rae's throat, and she swallowed hard, trying toforce it back down. It didn't work. She could still feel
the sting of the acid. What exactly were they doing to those people?

Think about it later. It's time to get out of here, Rae told herself. She slipped back into the main security room,
careful to shut the door behind her, then darted into the hall. A second later Jesse and the rent-a-cop rounded the
corner, heading back for the security room. The rent-a-cop looked… not so happy.

I'm going in, Rae thought, hoping the rent-a-cop hadn't registered the fact that he and Jesse had passed by her on
their way out. "There you are," she cried, rushing toward them. "I've been looking all over the place. Mom's already
in the parking lot."

"I think you should ask your mother to come inside," the rent-a-cop told Rae.

"Why? What happened? Is something wrong?" Rae asked.

Jesse shot her a calm-down-already look, but Rae thought slightly hysterical was the way to go.

"What happened is that your brother here told me when he was in the bathroom, he saw a gun in another kid's
backpack," the rent-a-cop answered. "But not only did we not find the kid, it took your brother quite a while to find
the bathroom hesupposedly had been in right before he came to get me. He said it was because he was nervous,
but-" He stopped, shaking his head.

Obviously our plan had a hole, Rae thought. Should have found a bathroom first. Okay, time to see if we can
recover. She took a step closer to the rent-a-cop, and his eyes did a fast-so fast, you could hardly see it-sweep over
her enhanced breasts. Good. Ick, but good, Rae thought. She and Jesse would take any kind of advantage they
could get.

"Here's the situation," Rae told him. She lowered her voice a little. "You know how there keep being those stories
on the news about a kid going psycho at a school and blowing people away?" Rae continued on without waiting for
an answer. "Well, it's completely disturbed my brother. I mean, he has nightmares almost every night. His room is
across from mine, and the screams-God, I wake up with my heart going a million miles an hour." She moved a step
closer, lowered her voice a little more. "He's even started wetting the bed. I'm sure he wasn't trying to jerk you
around. He just gets scared sometimes, you know?"

"All right. Go on. Get out of here." The rent-a-cop turned to Jesse. "Next time be a lot more sure of what you saw."

"He will," Rae answered for Jesse. She grabbed him by the elbow, turned him around, and tugged him down the
hall.

"I can't believe you said I wet the bed," Jesse muttered.

"Hey, it got us out of here, didn't it?" Rae answered as they headed out the main exit.

"Yeah, but it's not like it's the only thing you could have said," Jesse complained. "So what'd you find out?"

Rae filled him in as they cut across the parking lot and started down the sidewalk toward the bus stop.

"We should start working on a plan to get ourselves into that room and-" Jesse broke off abruptly. "Anything seem
strange to you about that blue van across the street?"

"Like that it's going extremely slowly," Rae answered, struggling not to stare at the van with the tinted windows.

"Yeah. And that it's staying almost right across from us," Jesse said.

Without consulting each other, they both passed the bus stop and made a right at the closest corner. "Is it still
there?" Rae forced the words through her sandpaper throat. "Yeah," Jesse answered. And they both began torun.

Rae heard the van pick up speed behind them. A rushing sound filled her ears as she pushed herself to go faster,
pumping her arms and legs.

"At the corner fake like you're going right," Jesse called. "When they start to turn, we'll cut-"

It took Rae several feet to realize Jesse was no longer beside her. She skidded to a stop and spun around to face
him. He lay on the sidewalk, eyes staring straight up, his mouth open wide enough to show his lolling tongue.

"Oh, God. Oh, no." Rae bolted over and fell to her knees next to Jesse. She slapped him lightly on the face. "Jesse,
come on, talk to me." He didn't move.

Her hand trembling, Rae felt his neck for a pulse. Her fingers brushed against something sharp, and she looked
down. It took her brain a moment to process what she was seeing. A tranquilizer dart.

Anthony wandered through the mall. He hated malls. All malls. He hated shopping. But he wanted to get Rae a
good birthday present for tomorrow night, something to make her… well, he just wanted to get her something good.

So he wouldn't look like an idiot with her dad there and all.

He passed The Body Shop, hesitated, then turned around and stepped inside. There were bottles of who knew
what everywhere, way too many bottles. On tables. On shelves. On counters. If he made one wrong move, he could
smash half a dozen of them at a shot. Carefully Anthony picked up a squat glass jar of something called a sugar
scrub. Sixteen bucks. So if he knocked over a table, it would cost him131

"Those brown-sugar scrubs are amazing," a salesclerk with her hair in ponytails gushed as she headed up to him.

"They exfoliate all the dead skin cells, and they hold the moisture in. They come in vanilla, lavender, Indian gardenia,
and citrus."

Citrus. Rae'd like that. It would go with that perfume she already wore. Suddenly Anthony's mind got very busy
imagining Rae in the shower, rubbing the sugar stuff over Crap. What was he-crap. Anthony slammed the jar back
down, setting the other jars rattling.

"Not what you were looking for, huh?" the ponytailed salesclerk said, pushing one of the jars away from the edge
of the table.

"No." Anthony ran his fingers over his face. "No," he said again.

"You looking for a present? We have lots of other nice stuff," the salesclerk told him. "There are these wonderful
cocoa butter moisturizers." She picked up a large, round tin. Anthony tried to look at it, but it went silvery and blurry.

All he could think about was Rae smoothing on "No," Anthony burst out, backing out of the store. "No, thanks." He
tore off. He didn't slow down until he got to a bookstore. Okay, he thought. This is good. I can get her an art book. A
nice one.

Expensive. He had some money from the car repair jobs he got every once in a while.

By the time he found the art section, his pits were damp. Too many books in this place. Too many people who
actually liked to read. Just pick one and get out, he told himself. Except how was he supposed to pick? Even in this
one section there were hundreds of books. What if he chose the wrong one, one about an artist everyone knew
sucked? He'd look like a moron.

"What am I doing in here?" Anthony muttered. He jammed his hands in his pockets and made his way toward the
door, weaving between the rows and rows of books.

Now what? he asked himself when he was out in the mass of shoppers circling the mall's walkways. He wasn't
ready to go back in another store. Not until his sweat production had gone down a couple of notches. Instead he
wandered over to one of the little carts that circled the biggest fountain. A bunch of necklaces were laid out on a
white cloth. Anthony liked them. They were delicate; that's what he guessed you'd call it. The silver chains were so
thin, they were almost invisible, so the little charm things would look like they were kind of hovering over the girl's
skin. Anthony picked one up, his hands feeling big andbeefy. He liked the sparkly blue flower charm. The color was
pretty much exactly the same blue as Rae's eyes. He checked the price tag. Not anywhere near cheap. But he could
cover it. And it'd be worth it to get Rae something she'd really like.

"Your girlfriend will love it," the cart guy said, as if he could read Anthony's mind. "It's not for my girlfriend,"

Anthony answered.

The cart guy winked. "If she's not, she will be when you give her that."

Anthony dropped the necklace back on the cloth. The guy's right, he thought. You only gave a girl a present like
this if you were hoping to get together with her. Like Marcus giving Rae the freakin' bracelet, or trying to.

He hurried away from the cart. "You're not going to find anything better," the guy called after him. Anthony didn't
look back. He walked straight into the closest store. I'm buying something here, he promised himself. Something
that says friend. Something I could give to Jesse.

Rae ripped the tranquilizer dart out of Jesse's neck, getting a tiny fragment of a thought that she couldn't decipher.

She carefully placed it in her jacket pocket. Then everything began to move in slow motion. Her thoughts. Her
movements. The beat of her heart.

The van? Where's the… blue van? Her head came up, slowly, slowly, and she saw the van gliding to a stop in the
street alongside them. Each time her slow, strong heart moved, it rocked her chest. Ba… boom. Ba… boom.

"Jesse! Jesse, you've got to get up," Rae cried. It felt like it took an eternity for the words to leave her lips. Jesse's
eyes stared up at her face, but she knew he didn't see her, didn't see anything.

Ba… boom. Ba… boom. Under the sound of her thudding heart, Rae heard a clicking sound. She risked another
look at the van and saw the side door begin to slide open.

"Help!" Rae screamed as loud as she could. She pushed one hand under Jesse's back and shoved him away from
the sidewalk. At the same time she grabbed the front of his shirt with her free hand and pulled. Slowly, much too
slowly, she managed to get Jesse to his feet. "Heeeelp!" she screamed again, the inside of her throat feeling like it
was shredding as the word came out and out and out.

Rae started up the lawn of the closest house, dragging Jesse with her. She kept her eyes locked on the house's
lime green door. Each step seemed to take an entire minute. Ba… boom. Ba… boom. Her heart was beating so
slowly, Rae was sure it would stop. Where were… the people…from the van? she thought, her brain in lowest gear.

She expected to feel a hand grab her shoulder. Or a dart pierce her back. Just… run, she told herself. Keep…

going. She struggled forward, feeling like she was fighting her way through sticky oatmeal. Ba… boom. Ba… boom.

Jesse collapsed to his knees. Rae didn't take the time to get him onto his feet again. She hunched over, tightened
her grip on him, and yanked him across the lawn, the lawn made of oatmeal. It sucked at her feet with each step.

The lime green door didn't seem any closer than it had before. Ba… boom. Ba… boom. Rae fought her way toward
it. I have… to be closer, she thought. Then the door flew open.

Baboombaboombaboom. Rae's heart spasmed against her ribs. Time was moving at normal speed again. No,
superspeed.

A short woman appeared in the doorway. "What's-goingon?" she yelled.

Rae didn't understand what the woman had said. It was too fast, too jumbled. "You'vegottohelpus," Rae shouted,
jerking Jesse toward the woman. "They'reafterus." Even her own words came out sounding scrambled.

As soon as the woman saw Jesse, she flew down the steps. She wrapped one arm around Jesse's shoulders, and
the world returned to normal speed.

"Who's after you?" the woman exclaimed.

Rae shot a glance over her shoulder. The van was gone. "Doesn't matter. We need to call nine-one-one. I don't
know if he's still breathing." She and the woman managed to get Jesse up the two porch steps, into the house, and
over to the couch. "Please, you've got to get help. He, I don't know, he might be dying."

The woman nodded and rushed out of the room. Rae lowered her head to Jesse's chest. Oh, God, oh, thank God.

His heart was still beating. She hadn't been sure. She'd been afraid he was already gone. "It's going to be okay,
Jesse. You're going to be okay." She pressed her ear to his chest again. Just to be sure.

Rae lifted her head when she heard footsteps rushing back into the room. "The paramedics are on their way," the
woman said. For the first time Rae really looked at her. She was younger than Rae expected, twentyish, with short
black hair. "How's he doing?"

"He's breathing," Rae answered. "I think-" The inside of her nose began to prickle, and a lump the size of an egg
formed in her throat.

"The paramedics are going to be here any minute," the woman said, clearly realizing Rae was about to lose it.

"What happened out there?"