Defective (The Institute Series Book 3) (28 page)

“They’ll be here soon,” Jayce assures, putting his arm around my waist.

“I’m going to go get a beer, you guys want anything?” Jayce’s dad, Carey, asks.

I love Jayce’s parents. I know it’s usual for people to dislike their in-laws, but they are genuinely the nicest and sweetest people. They welcomed Ebb, Drew, and me with open arms. Surely it would’ve been a shock to have all three of their ‘normal’ children bring home a Defective partner all within a few weeks of each other, but they handled it with grace, and from what I could sense, even a little pride; they raised their kids right. They even treat Nuka and William like they were their own grandkids.

Luckily, I have work as an excuse to not drink today, keeping our little secret a secret. I look at Jenna, “I don’t think the Sergeant over here would be too happy if I were to drink while I was on call.”

“Good move, Rook,” Jenna says.

“Come on! How do I
still
have that nickname?”

“You’ll always be Rookie to me,” she replies with a wry smile.

“I’ll grab a beer, Dad,” Jayce says. Just as they get up to go to the kitchen where Tate and Shilah are talking to Mum and Dad, Ebb and Jamie arrive.

“Geez! What was so important that Jayce had to call us three times to hurry up?” Ebb exclaims, getting everyone’s attention. “Did he finally pop the question or something?”

My eyes go wide as I instinctively hide my hand behind my back.

“Oh my god! He actually did it?” she screams.

I look over at Jayce, “Aren’t you glad we decided to wait for them to turn up to announce it?”

Suddenly I’m being hugged from every direction, from everyone, and so is Jayce. Shilah’s the last to get to me.

“Getting married, hey?”

“Yup. Going backwards. Meet, raise kids, then get married.” I shrug, “But when have I ever done anything conventionally?”

“I’m so happy for you,” he says, leaning in and kissing my cheek. With his contact it’s impossible to not get a vision. His ability is still growing and evolving, long after the rest of ours have plateaued.

Jayce stands over me as I hold our baby girl in my arms. He looks down at his daughter with a look of love, adoration, and astonishment. Yup, she has him wrapped around her finger and is only minutes old. He touches her cheek with his forefinger. “Illyana,” he whispers.

“I know that look,” Tate says from beside us. “You just had a vision. It’s the same stupid look Shilah has all the time. So out with it – what did you see to make you all gushy like that?” He’s grinning, devil like.

I smile. “I’m keeping this one.” It’s all I have to say. Tate knows I’m pregnant thanks to Jayce and his damn open mind.
Thank you for keeping it a secret.
He smiles and nods at me in return.

After flashing the ring around, countless taunts over how hard it will be at work being the Sergeant’s sister-in-law, and getting bombarded with wedding detail questions – all of which have the same answer of – ‘I don’t know, he only asked me two hours ago!’ – I sneak Jayce away to our bedroom to tell him what I saw.

“Want to know what your daughter’s name will be?”

“Daughter?” He stumbles back, sitting on the edge of the bed, clearly overwhelmed. “I guess there wasn’t any chance of it being a surprise with you and your brother around.”

My mouth opens in shock. “I’m sorry! Did you not want to know the sex?”

“To be honest, I’d only just visualised the baby part of it – not the sex or the name, what they… sorry, she, will look like,” he pauses, “A girl?” He smiles, looking up at me.

“I can keep her name a secret if you like. Then you’ll have a surprise when she’s here.”

“There’s only one name I’ve ever considered if I was to have a girl. It was my grandmother’s name. Illyana.”

My smile says it all.

“Really? That’s the name?” He matches my smile, pulling me towards the bed. I stand between his legs as he hugs me, putting his head on my stomach. He turns his head to kiss my belly and whispers, the sound coming out just like it did in my vision, “Illyana.”

A continuous buzzing noise comes from somewhere. I follow it to Jayce’s bedside table, tilting my head towards the noise.

“Ah. I’ll get that,” Jayce says, sinking onto the floor and reaching under his bedside table. He pulls duct tape from underneath it, attached to my work tablet.

“You taped it to the bottom of the bed?” I exclaim.

He shrugs. “Jenna told me to confiscate it.”

I narrow my eyes. “I knew she did that,” I mumble.

Grabbing the tablet from Jayce, I rush out into the living room. I try to download the data that tells us about the job, but Jenna is already on the phone with HQ. I look between her and my tablet which is still trying to load the data. It seems to be taking forever. Technology is slowly advancing back to what it was before the pandemic broke out. Our tablets work off satellites which orbit the planet, same as our trackers.

Before the pandemic, the country had access to up to six of our own satellites, plus the satellites of ally countries. Being cut off from the rest of the world means that currently we have access to two satellites which is only enough for government officials and employees – such as cops – to have access. We can send wireless messages, have phone conversations, and input and download any type of data into our tablets. It took a long time for me to get used to such a device, having grown up on the run without so much as a TV.

Jenna stares at me wide-eyed, while nodding to whoever’s on the phone. When she gets off the phone, the whole room is silent.

“Well?” I ask. “Have we been called in?”

She lets out a deep breath. “We’ve been more than called in. Allira, it’s really him this time. They’ve found Brookfield.”

“Are they sure this time?” I try not to scoff, I really want to believe her, but it’s hard to when I’ve heard this so many times.

She nods. “Turns out he’s been living under the pseudonym Branson Tyler. Those warehouse raids? He set them all up, he’s been playing us. We’ve found his permanent residence. We’re raiding it, like right now.”

“Now?”

“Yup. You coming, Rook?”

I turn to Jayce and kiss him quickly before turning away to rush out the door with Jenna when he pulls me back. “Be careful out there,” he says. “Take good care of her,” he whispers, brushing his hand against my stomach.

“I won’t let anything hurt her,” I reassure him.

***

“Are you ready for this?” Jenna asks. We’re in our Tactical Response van, on our way to our target’s location.

I raise my eyebrow at her. “Of course I’m ready. I’m always ready.”

“I just figured you might be a little rusty after your vacation,” she says, smiling.

“This is the whole reason I joined the force. A few weeks off isn’t going change me.”

She gives me a stern look.

“Okay, not the whole reason I joined, but it was one of the main ones. I’ve been waiting for this moment for five years – ever since he escaped the Institute.”

“I know, I know,” she says, giving in.

How Brookfield has eluded us for this long is beyond me. He is one resourceful man.

It doesn’t take us long to reach his residence, a wave of nausea hitting me as the van rolls to a stop.

“Come on, baby, not now,” I mutter to Illyana, taking a few deep breaths.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jenna asks, concerned. “You’re looking a little pale.”

“I’m fine,” I lie.

“Allira, I know this means a lot to you, but you’re not looking too well. You look like that newbie from a few weeks ago. Get it together or I’ll have to pull you out. I’m running this op, I don’t need any screw-ups.”

“I can do this,” I say sternly. I want so much to tell her it’s because I’m pregnant, not nervous. I’m just worried if I tell her about the baby, she’ll pull me out anyway – not as my Sergeant, but as my soon to be sister, and Illyana’s aunt.

“Okay. Let’s go.” She opens the van door and we move swiftly towards the house… more like a demountable trailer really. There are three small steps leading to a narrow porch, with weeds and vines growing over the banister and lattice work that surrounds the small patio. This will be our entry point.

We’re all armed, and in head to toe black protective gear which is actually making me really hot. I’m sweating, and it’s not from the nerves. We spread out and position ourselves strategically around the perimeter, then wait for Jenna’s orders to go in. Nothing happens, and it’s quiet for quite a few minutes, the radio silence making me nervous.

After a few more minutes, my pulse is skyrocketing, my heart frantically trying to beat out of my chest. I love this part of the job, I feel alive, I feel wired. But today, it’s just making me feel off. Something’s not right. Maybe I can sense that this is really it this time. He’s in there, I just know it. I feel it in my bones.

Jenna’s voice finally comes over the earpiece. “Our negotiator has been in contact with him. He has no hostages and is willing to co-operate.”
That’s good news.
“On one condition,” she continues.
That’s not good news.
“He wants to talk to Daniels.”

I press my finger to my ear, pushing the tiny button on my earpiece to talk. “He knows I’m here?”

“He does, somehow. Stay where you are, I’m coming to you.” She approaches me moments later with a fellow officer. “You don’t have to go in. We can still treat this as a hostile situation and ambush him.”

“And risk other lives when he’s agreed to come out peacefully?” I shake my head. “I can go in.”

“He might not be planning to come out of this alive,” Officer Cooper says. “He says he will cooperate, but you’ve been in situations like this before. He could be planning…”

“Suicide by cop,” I realise. “Okay, if that’s the case, send me in unarmed so I can contain him instead.”

Jenna scoffs, “That is the most absurd idea you’ve ever had, Rook. You’re going in armed, and you’re going in prepared to shoot him if he tries anything.”

“Fine, so it’s agreed – I’m going in.”

Jenna grunts at me in frustration. It’s not the first time I’ve manipulated the Sergeant’s words to get what I want. It pisses her off, but I think she’s also a little proud. I’m her protégé, she’s trained me well.

“If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right. You’ll have us stationed right outside. You’ll open your earpiece so we’ll be receiving you the whole time. You
will
be armed, and you
will
have your gun in hand at all times. If he makes one move to harm you, you shoot him. Got it?”

“I’ve got it,” I nod.

“Jayce is going to kill me,” she mutters.

“I’ll be fine, I promise. He won’t even have to know.”

“A few hours into your engagement and already planning to lie to him?” she says lightly.

“Whoa, you’re engaged, Daniels?” Officer Cooper interjects. “Congrats.”

“Thanks. And I’m not lying to him. You know how he can worry, Jenn… Sergeant.” I look between Jenna and Officer Cooper. I don’t know what to call her when we’re working but talking about our family. It’s an odd feeling I’ve never gotten used to, especially around co-workers. “It’s just best if work stays at work.”

“Uh… Umm… I’m going to go fill the others in on the plan,” Cooper says, backing away from our now personal conversation.

“I can do this, Jenna. We both know I can do this. I have a history with him, and I know how he thinks. If any of us is going to be able to get him to come out voluntarily, you know it’s going to be me.”

She nods in agreement. “Let’s just do this.”

Once we’re all ready and in position, I stand by his front door, gun in hand, preparing myself to go in. I let out three quick breaths before calling out to him.

“It’s me, Allira.”

“Ah, come in, Miss Daniels,” his voice is calm. That worries me.

Opening the door, I check for anything out of the normal – like rigged wires or explosives – in the doorway. It’s all clear. Making my way through the entrance to the small dwelling, I don’t need to search far to find him. He’s sitting in a recliner in the corner of what I guess is his living room. He’s nursing a shotgun, but his hands aren’t near the trigger. He’s looking old, older than I remember. Then again, it has been five years since I last saw him.

I aim my gun at him. “You know, this will go a lot smoother if you put the gun on the ground and slide it over to me,” I say casually to let the others know he’s armed.

He smiles. “Who said I’m going to make this smooth for you?”

“It’s words like those that will cause the officers outside to want to come inside. That won’t end well for you.” I want to mentally high-five myself for sounding calmer than I actually am. The adrenaline is surging.

Now he laughs. “This isn’t going to end well for me no matter how this goes. You know that, right?”

I’m silent. This
is
a planned suicide, and he wants me to be the one to kill him. “You know, we didn’t expect you to stay hidden so long. I have to give you credit where it’s due,” I say, trying to turn the conversation to something positive. “We’ve all had bets on how long it’d take for you to come out of hiding once your funding source died, and I have to tell you, you’ve surprised me.”