Hush Money (18 page)

“Yeah. Fair enough.”

While Rob took a few more minutes to do his
thing, I finished going through the desk. I found a few more
envelopes with photos, but they didn’t have anything to do with
Joss, me, or Rob. I felt bad leaving them there, but one envelope
he could write off as misplaced and hopefully go crazy looking for
it. If all of them went missing, he would definitely know we’d been
there.

“That’s it!” Rob said as everything shut
down. “Please let’s get out of here.”

That was more than cool with me. We thought
it was best to go back out the way we’d come in, even though
getting up through the window was a little tricky for Rob. I ended
up standing him on my shoulders and practically launching him
through.

Finally we were off the property. Joss’s
pictures were stiff in my jacket, and I thought about going across
the street, climbing up to her window, and presenting them to her.
But we had already been incredibly lucky, and NIAC agent or not, I
was more scared of Mr. Marshall than Mr. Dobbs. Plus, I had dragged
Rob along on this, and it turned out I needed his help more than
I’d thought I would. The least I could do was walk home with
him.

It’s a good thing I did, too, because getting
him back into the house and back in his room was where we ran into
trouble. Not too bad, though. I just had to cover him as his mom
walked by on her way back from raiding the kitchen.

“Thanks,” Rob whispered. “Um, sorry about
that.”

“No problem. I…didn’t look.” Sometimes when
you’re invisible, you see things that are really embarrassing.

“Well, we’re brothers for life now.”

I have to say that I really liked Rob. “Life
or longer. Look, thanks a lot for coming with me tonight. I was way
over my head and I really needed your help. I owe you.”

“Yeah, well, just keep me out of jail.”

“I got your back.”

I turned to open the window, but he stopped
me.

“Dylan, there’s something else I’ve gotta
tell you. Something I found in the computer…”

Joss

I inadvertently had lunch with Dylan on
Tuesday. He was the latest invader of my stairwell space. I blame
Kat.

He led with the pictures and didn’t give me a
chance to feel too awkward about my meltdown, nor did he let me coo
over how he got them for me. Which was cool, because I’m not the
cooing type. Instead he launched into a rapid info-dump. I was
trying to get over the fact that he got poor Rob involved in my
problems and in breaking and entering. Plus, it’s not always easy
for me to think when Dylan’s talking to me. So I really didn’t get
a chance to start processing it until History.

Mr. Dobbs was working for NIAC. With
encrypted files on us and everything. It made him seem like more,
somehow. Not just an obnoxious loser who wanted to build himself up
by destroying our lives, but now an obnoxious loser who wanted to
build himself up by destroying our lives who had a badge. I mean
probably, somewhere, he’d have a badge, right?

Anyway, bottom line, more to hate, more to be
worried about. Just what I needed. And Dylan said there was a narc.
NIAC had planted someone among us, someone we thought was a
student, and they were sending information back to NIAC. Who? Could
be anyone. Was it Marco?

I’d been up all night thinking about what to
do about him, and I thought I was close to coming up with something
that might just save Jill, Kat, and even Dylan—all of us. But if
Marco was already known to NIAC, it wasn’t going to work. How the
hell was I going to find that out, just ask him?

I leaned back in my seat and let my gaze
wander the room. Maybe if I sort of emptied out my head and started
over fresh it would look different. And then I noticed Heather
sitting over by the windows. She was looking at the teacher, but
she wasn’t taking any notes. Her pencil was vertical and she was
lifting and dropping it, bouncing it on its eraser.

Heather. Are you tuned to Joss network? Tap
your pencil, once for yes, twice for no.

Tap. She turned and looked at me
sheepishly.

Ok, don’t worry about that, and don’t look
at me. Did you get all that stuff about Dobbs being affiliated with
NIAC.

Tap. And she gave me this wide-eyed
eeep!
sort of look.

Seriously, face front, okay? Did you hear
what I thought about the narc? Do you know who it is?

Two taps for that one. Of course, that would
be too easy. Then I had another thought.

Would you tell me if you did?

Tap.

Can you tell me if it’s Marco?

Tap.

Damn. That bastard.

Tap tap.

What, he’s not a bastard? Ok, wait. Syntax.
Is Marco working for NIAC undercover?

Tap tap.

So it’s not Marco. Ok. Then all we have to
do is get you to listen in on everyone in the school until you find
out who it is.

Tap tap.

I’m sure it’s a pain and against your rules,
but this is really important.

Tap tap.

No, what? Oh my God, this is so
annoying.

“Jocelyn. Are you with us? Do you have any
thoughts on this question?” Mr. Grier asked, rather snidely. I
guess I’d been too obviously not paying attention. Crap.

I felt a hand on my back and then words, and
the desire to say them, just popped into my head. “Um,
the…formation of the Holy Roman Empire?”

“Correct. Thank you,” Grier said, looking
annoyed, and then moved on.

Thank you, Matt.

Heather turned to me and mouthed something
that I was pretty sure was, “He can’t hear you.” I narrowed my eyes
at her.

Are you going to help me find this narc or
what?

Tap.

I was trying to figure out the best way to go
about it and settled into thinking about my conversation with
Heather the night of the party.

Hey, you said you hear some people better
than others. Does that mean there are people you don’t hear?

Tap, and, it seemed, some enthusiasm.

Maybe that’s what you wanted to say before.
You think the narc might be one of the people you can’t hear.

Tap.

NIAC might be able to train their
people…makes sense.

Tap.

“Heather? Do you know who I’m talking about?”
Grier asked.

“Pope Clement the second,” she answered,
without hesitation.

“Yes, thank you.”

Whose head did you pull that out of, Rob’s?
Isn’t that against the rules?

She glared at me. And I almost laughed.
I’m not talking to you anymore. Pay attention. I’m just going to
let all this marinate a while.

Someone among us was a NIAC mole. That was
huge. But I didn’t have a way to find that out right now. The most
I could do was warn any Talents I knew—and I didn’t really know
anyone except Kat and her friends. I was pretty sure I could count
on Heather to spread the word, and we’d have to work on that threat
later.

We. Jesus.

My immediate problem was Marco. Dylan was
going to become a bank robber in two days if I didn’t figure out
what to do. Marco wasn’t the narc, but he was a Talent. He had just
as much to lose as the rest of us if someone had the kind of
pictures of him that he had of Krista. I thought I could work with
that.

* * *

Joss

“Um, yeah. I guess it would be a date.”

“Jocelyn, you know how your father feels
about you dating.”

“That’s why I’m asking you. Please? It’s just
pizza—at Donatello’s, not the Pit. We won’t be anywhere near the
store, so Dad doesn’t even have to know.”

“Joss! Are you suggesting we lie to your
father?”

“No, Mom, it’s not like that, it’s just…Look,
I know Kat’s party was a big disaster and that Dad wants me to stay
away from her, and her friends, and…Dylan.”

“And this boy, Eric, he’s not part of that
crowd?”

“No.”
Lie.

“You really like this boy?”

“I…” For some reason, I found it harder to
lie about this part. I felt awful about having to lie to my mom and
to play her like I was about to. It sucked. But it was when I got
to the point of lying about which boy I liked that I balked?
Stupid brain.
“I know that I’m not like other kids. But
sometimes I just want to pretend like I am.”

“Aw, honey.” Mom pulled me into her arms and
I felt so bad I almost cried. “You’re such a good girl. I know you
try so hard to make things easier for Dad and me. You’re such a
help to us. I don’t want to have to tell you no.”

“Then don’t. Just let me go and have this one
afternoon. I don’t really think anything’s going to come of it. I
know I can’t really have a boyfriend. I just want to know what it
feels like—to be normal.”

My mom pulled back, brushed her lower lashes
with her fingertips and blinked a few times. Then she sighed. “At
least I don’t have to worry if you can take care of yourself if he
gets out of line.”

I laughed, relieved. This was going to work.
“Don’t you hate it when those chair legs just break, all
sudden-like?”

Mom laughed too. “Just make sure you’re home
before your dad and don’t make me worry. Now, what are you going to
wear? Should we do something with your hair?”

* * *

Dylan

“Hey man, guess what I’m doing.” Eric said,
as soon as I picked up.

“I can hear the wind, so I guess you’re
driving. I’m afraid to ask what it is or who it belongs to.”

Marco had gotten us cell phones, the
cash-only kind with no names attached. I think this enhanced his
self-image as a crime boss. I had thought about flushing the damned
thing, but I didn’t want to piss him off right now. The night
before I had dreamt that the whole grocery store job was just a way
to trap me in the store and call the cops. Eric, it seemed, was
embracing the convenience.

“Ha ha. It’s my car. I’m on my way to pick up
your girlfriend.”

“Why? From where?” I was getting so used to
people calling Joss my girlfriend I was forgetting to argue or
pretend I didn’t know who they were talking about. I was also
forgetting that I didn’t have the right to be so unreasonably
pissed off at Eric’s news.

“From her house, and I don’t know why,
actually. Kat grabbed me after school and asked me if I’d give her
a ride somewhere later and got my number. She just called and told
me I had to go pick up Joss at her house and then I’m supposed to
go get Kat. She wouldn’t tell me where they’re going or what’s up,
though. She was just really particular about me getting Joss first,
even though Kat’s house is closer. Girls, man. I got no clue. But
you want me to swing by and pick you up?”

Something was definitely up. Something Joss
could have let me in on if she’d wanted to. What the hell was that
about? What did I have to do to get this girl to trust me?

“Hey, what did you say? I think the
connection’s going.”

Maybe I was supposed to trust her first.

“No. No thanks. I got some stuff to do right
now. But do me a favor and call me when you get where you’re going.
Maybe I can hook up with you guys later.”

“Yeah, ok. Later.”

Eric clicked off, leaving me wondering,
Joss, what the hell are you up to?

* * *

Joss

“So wait, I don’t get it,” Kat said, trying
to keep her curls from blowing around. “How are we going to do
this? Why did you send Eric away? We’re going to need him.”

We were standing in the middle of a
construction zone, inside a skeleton of steel beams that would
someday be some kind of conference center and pricey lunch spot
overlooking the river. Right now it didn’t look like much. Not to
Kat. To me it looked like opportunity.

But I was as scared as I had ever been. More
scared, maybe than I had been at Kat’s party. Then, everything had
happened so fast that I didn’t have time to feel it, I didn’t have
the luxury of thinking things over, and now I could tell myself
that I couldn’t be held completely responsible for my
decisions.

This was totally different. This was a
carefully thought-out plan—well, as carefully planned as it could
be in the less than twenty-four hours I’d been working on it. I
told myself I had to try now so there would still be time for a
plan B if something went wrong. But really, I just wasn’t giving
myself time to chicken out.

Now I had come to the first irreversible step
and I had to stop asking myself whether or not I really trusted Kat
and just take the leap.

“We don’t need Eric. I don’t want anyone else
involved.”

“So you know how to hot-wire a crane?”

“You mean that crane?” I concentrated on it,
on manipulating the safety devices that locked it in place. And
then BOOM, the crane’s arm plummeted from its raised position.

I caught it, moved it back up and locked it
in place again. The giant magnet swung wildly on its cable. Kat was
staring at me with giant cartoon eyes, and I was a little dizzy
myself.

“Ooops. Maybe we should just…skip the crane.
I’m not licensed.”

“Did you really…?”

“Here’s what we’ll do…” I focused on a pile
of beams at the edge of the worksite. One of them began to work
itself up above the rest and hovered there while I refocused. Damn
was it heavy. Maybe the heaviest thing I had tried to lift and that
worried me. I raised it up several feet in the air and dropped it,
catching it before it hit the pile again.

Kat gasped.

“I meant to do that.”

I tried it a few more times, raising it,
letting it go, catching it. Getting a feel for it. But I was
getting tired. I set it down and rubbed at my temples.

“That was freakin’ amazing, Joss!”

“Um, thanks.”

“I mean really, seriously, like—wow! I can’t
believe you can do that. I mean, I just can’t believe that you… Oh
my God, you are such a faker! All that talk about me not being
cautious with my Talent—”