Frostbite (Touch of Frost) (25 page)

“I’m not leaving her with you,” Zach said.

Jasmine huffed. “Fine. Scott and Georgia watch out for Andrey. Georgia, you see him, flame up.”

Georgia snuffed out her smoldering digits and stepped aside. Zach lowered me to the ground but kept his grip on my shoulder.

“Concentrate. Focus on healing. Think it with all your energy, Mandy. Whatever hurts, zero in on it.”

“Can you heal yourself?” I asked.

“I wish. Truthfully, I’m not as strong as you. So far, no one is. That’s why they’ve been watching you, trying to grab you.”

“Oh, great.”

“Your mom was unique.”

I closed my eyes.

“Um, Zach. You might want to let go unless you want to get frostbite,” Jasmine said.

I glanced up at him and smiled. “It’ll be fine.” I didn’t know that for sure, but the pain coursing through me needed to stop soon, or I’d pass out. He inched back and rested his casted wrist on his knee as he squatted close to me.

I snapped my eyelids shut again after a quick glance at Jasmine. Man, I hoped she wasn’t lying about this. But I had to try this healing thing. I couldn’t make it to the Jeep if someone paid me a million dollars. What good would I be if Andrey showed up? None. And I couldn’t allow anything to happen to my family.

My shoulder, my side, my face, my knee all stung or ached. Zeroing in on each pain, I kept repeating the word ‘heal’ in my mind. The temperature dropped. I cracked open my eyelids. Frost covered my hands. It crept up my arm.

I shut my eyes again. Pressure inched up my neck. It had to be ice. My chest constricted. Voices morphed into muffled slurs, like I’d gone underwater.

The distorted noises around me became frantic. I couldn’t make out any words, but the speech was fast. Sounded like Georgia yelling.

“No!” I heard
that
loud and clear through the static. “Don’t thaw her out.”

I fell onto my side, shivering. My body spasmed so violently, I thought I’d snap in half. Whatever had hurt before hurt worse. Stabbing pain sliced through each cut, sore muscle, and broken bone. Then suddenly, my flailing body calmed itself. Chunks of ice melted, sliding away from my skin, along with the aches and stings.

I unclenched my jaw, relaxed my fists, and flopped onto my back.

No pain.

“She better be okay, or I’m going to learn real quick how to fry you, Jasmine,” Georgia said.

“She’s fine. Barely even wet!” Jasmine jutted out her hip and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m good.” I coughed so hard I checked the ground to make sure I hadn’t spit up razors. I nodded at Jasmine. “Let’s go. I want to know everything you know.”

She pointed her finger at me. “Told you.”

“Can’t blame me. I mean, you lie to my bro, kick in a door where we were hiding—”

“Andrey was in the school. I had to get to you.”

I hopped to my feet. Dirt clung to my jeans, but thankfully, I was pain-free.

“Where should we go?” Scott asked.

“My place.” She whirled around and ambled to the Jeep. “My hideout is
much
better than a stupid Janitor’s Closet.”

THIRTY

“S
o, talk,” I said as I planted my elbows on the shiny tabletop at Jasmine’s hideout.

“I’m Jasmine Perry, my mom was Sally Perry. She was subject number 14332. She died giving birth to me.”

“How old are you?” Scott asked.

“Turned twenty-one last month.” She sipped her drink and pointed to the buffet of chips, soda and sandwiches on the tabletop. “Eat. You must be hungry.”

I snapped up a sandwich. “Go on.”

“I found you guys in Minnesota right before you left for this place. What were you thinking, Scott? This town is small.”

“Kind of winging it, here.”

“Easier to disappear in a big town. I mean, blue and red hair? Things like that stick out in a place like this. Ripping car doors off, steering wheels—”

“Point taken,” I said. So much for Scott’s hope that we’d finally landed in our last town. “What’d you mean by watching over us?”

“There were more
Coats
lurking around. I happened to dispense of a couple of them. Heard how important it was to Scott and your mom and dad for you to graduate.” She glanced down and cleared her throat. “And, I needed to learn more about what was happening. See who I could trust.”

“And your powers?”

“I was raised in The Center. Groomed to be an agent and track down people like you and me. They have a team of those types. Trained by the best.” She nodded. “As I learned more and more about their ideals, philosophies, I couldn’t be a part of it. So, I ran when I was sixteen. But I learned a lot, both from training to be an agent and from being inside their walls for so long. I know enough to stay under the radar.”

“Why’d you leave?” I asked.

“I saw what they did to those they catch. Experiments, testing…The program isn’t as big as it was. It’s more about containment at this point. But they still dabble in the nanotechnology that made your mom.”

“Are there others?”

“Yes. I’ve run across a few. Genetics are weird, though. With your mom, they found out that the injections alone didn’t change her. It wasn’t until she got pregnant that she received her powers.” Jasmine popped a chip into her mouth and grabbed her can of Coke. “That’s what sparked all the new testing. They really wanted to get their hands on her to find out the exact science behind how she came into her powers.”

“The other subjects weren’t getting their abilities until they got pregnant?” Georgia asked. “What about the guys?”

“They kept a tight rein on the information about your mom, but I heard some things about how the guys from those rounds of experiments weren’t exhibiting any powers, but their kids were.” Jasmine shrugged. “Didn’t seem to be working very great in the guys, at least the results they were looking for.”

“Which were…” Scott asked.

“Not sure on that one. But it sounds specific. Like, something they’d been asked to try and create.”

“Super soldiers?” Zach asked.

“That’s been done. For the most part, they’re able to create the super speed and super strength pretty easily these days. But there was something about your mom. More specific. If I had to guess, she was being created to tolerate certain environments.”

“What do you mean?” Scott asked.

“I saw some of the reports of what they injected her with. I mean thermophilic eubacteria, extremophile organisms such as acidophile and hypolith? Even I had to look some of those words up, and I border on genius IQ.
Extreme
temperatures and you guys have ice and fire? Twins. I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket science to formulate a theory.”

“Evidently it does.” I raised my hand. “Because I’m not following you.”

“Just think. If you could create someone who could withstand cold—even heat—how valuable would that be to pretty much anyone. Working in Antarctica. Or working on Mercury or Venus. Being able to withstand extremes…”

“I can withstand cold,” I said. “But I don’t like to be cold. I mean, I’d still rather be warm.”

“True. But my guess is, that if you were left out in a blizzard, you wouldn’t get frostbite,” Jasmine said. “There’s something special with your mom and you guys, though, if The Center broke out the big Andrey…that means something.”

“Lucky me—er—us,” I said.

“More like unlucky. That guy’s a machine. Not literally, but, I remember him from around The Center. About two years or so before I left, he’d vanished. Rumors around the water cooler were he’d been recruited for special operations. High-risk missions. Some even said he was killed.” She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “But his appearance in Trifle utterly shatters
that
theory. I about shit my pants.”

“So, normally The Center is focused on finding out who’s out there that has powers and killing them?” Georgia asked.

“They either observe them or bring them in to study.”

“More like they find us and throw us under the scalpel.”

“Well, there’s that, too. But it depends. In some cases they’ll watch the subjects in their natural habitat instead of bringing them in. Learn from observation. But ultimately, subjects are studied more closely in the labs, if they want to replicate the genetics behind the abilities. Sometimes the subject will be eliminated.”

“They can’t just go around killing people.” Georgia shot up in her chair.

“Oh, yes they can. And they do.” I nodded to my sister. “And we’re going to stop them.”

“It’s not that easy.” Jasmine stood, then marched across the room. Newspaper clippings, maps, and electronics littered the desk set against the wall.

What was with this chick? A former agent who had strength, super-speed, and super-hearing, and now she wanted to help us? Not to mention the fact that she’d been watching over us for a while? That felt…weird.

I really wanted to trust her, though. We needed help. Obviously we’d been more than lucky these past years according to her. She might be able to help us. But something didn’t let me jump right on the trust train with her. I couldn’t place it, though.

She shuffled through the mess of papers and said, “I bolted when I was sixteen. But I snagged a bunch of intel when I left. I try and find computer hackers in each town I settle in so I can watch them through their online workings. That’s how I zeroed in on Jess—though he’s known more as ‘Gonzo’ online.” Jasmine shook her head and huffed. “Stupid name if you ask me. I hadn’t asked him to help me yet, but I was leaning toward it. I sent him a couple anonymous texts and emails to test him out, to see if he could hack through them to find me. That’s how he knew about the
Coats.
And I knew you used that phrase because I was listening in on your conversations once in a while.”

“Son of a bitch!” Scott shook his head. “And what was I in all this? Wait, don’t answer that.”

Jasmine sashayed to the table and paused by her seat. “When Georgia’s powers developed and that loser, Andrey, showed up, I knew you guys were in trouble.”

“What? You saw?” Georgia asked.

“Not directly, but the hair and nails. It’s like Mandy’s. I’m not stupid, you know. And don’t forget, I hear very well.” She tapped her ear, then tossed a file of papers onto the table. “Like I said, I snagged some records, and I lived in The Center for sixteen years. I heard things. Mostly about your mom. She was the most powerful of all the subjects. So, when I heard that she had a kid. I was all over that.”

“Why?” Zach scooted his chair closer to mine and rifled through some papers.

“I’d been planning my break away for a couple of years. I knew, even at fourteen, what was going on was bad news. Genetic manipulation. Killing. So, I stuck around and listened to as much as I could, courtesy of the ears they gave me. When I could, I bolted.”

“You’ve been on your own since sixteen?” Scott asked. “How have you survived?”

“I’m fast. I’m strong. I hear things most can’t. And I border on genius IQ. But, when I got desperate, I did what was needed to stay alive. I found you guys in Minnesota and followed you here.”

“And then went and posed as someone interested in me.” Scott’s jaw clenched.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t intend for that to happen. I walked into that smoothie shop, saw you, and I was toast.”

“Excuse me?” I said.

“I’d been watching you two from a distance for quite a while. But when I came and talked to you guys, I was even more hooked on Scott than I had been. I made up a story about passing through town on work so I could be closer to you and Scott, and to keep an eye on things.”

“Ugh,” I said. “You two can work out your romance lives in a sec. What’s the story, then? Can we beat these guys?”

“No. Only stay under the radar so they can’t find us.”

I slumped into my seat. So
not
what I wanted to hear. Mom even said in her video that we might have a chance if we destroyed the base. But it sounded so huge.

“But if we make a stand, cause a ruckus, maybe they’ll back off,” Jasmine said.

“Or they’ll turn up the heat and send more after us.” Scott scrubbed his face with his hands.

“That’s the more probable reaction The Center would have. Like I said, you’re what they want. And now that they know your mom had twins they’ll want Georgia just as badly.” She flicked a popcorn kernel into her mouth.

I slouched against my chair and closed my eyes. I just wanted to sleep in my own bed and wake from this nightmare. Sure, we had a few more answers to what my mom had gone through and some theories as to why, but no
real
answers on how we were going to stop these assholes.

A hand brushed my cheek, and I opened my eyes. Zach stared down at me. Scott and Jasmine talked in the background, but I kept my focus on Zach. His sweet smile and big gray eyes drew me in.

Nope. I was going to fight this. I was done disappearing and moving from town to town.