Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (41 page)

“
Yep,” Lyla confirmed,
nodding enthusiastically. “Hartley and both Jacobs are in. And,” a
huge grin overtook her expression, “they promised they’d
bring
him
.”

Confused, Cressa looked at Nydia to see if
she was in on whatever secret plans the twins and Daphne shared.
The disapproving glint in her roommate’s eyes would’ve made Gracia
proud, but Nydia didn’t say a word.

“
What do you say, Cressa?
Want to go exploring with us?” Lyla asked mischievously.

“
Exploring?”

“
Oh, don’t do it, Cressa,”
Nydia pleaded. “If you’re caught, you might be dismissed. It’s not
worth the risk.”

Ignoring Nydia, Daphne added, “Kev Leon is
coming.”

So they
have
seen
him
, Cressa thought.

“
He just advanced to Phase
Two yesterday, same as you,” Daphne continued. “I can’t believe
he’s been here for so long and none of us noticed.”

Remembering the way Kev had looked on the
ride from med bay to his floor, as well as Dr. Masterson’s comment
about the star’s adjustment issues, Cressa wondered if maybe he’d
been hidden away until recently.

“
You guys don’t even know
for certain that he’s a cadet,” Nydia said. “All you have is
Hartley’s word, which means little. Hartley also told us that
Natalia Lyons was coming to the Institute, and that hasn’t happened
yet.”

“
Gracia becoming a clone
tonight likely means that she will be taking Natalia’s place soon,”
Lyla argued. “So, Natalia Lyons probably will be coming to the
Institute any time now—just like Hartley said. Daphne, didn’t
Gracia tell you that the Dame knows Natalia personally?”

“
Yep. That’s how she has
so much source material from her,” Daphne said knowingly. “The Dame
just needs to get Natalia away from UNITED’s brainwashing, then she
can bring her and Erikson Kelley over to our side.”

“
So
not important right now,” Shyla interjected. “We were talking
about Kev Leon, who is definitely here. Right now. Hartley is Kev’s
roommate. He’s seen him.”

“
So have I,” Cressa said
quietly.

Eight eyes instantly turned to stare at
her.

“
Seriously?” Lyla
demanded.

“
Um, yeah. He received his
second injection right around the time I did. We rode on the
elevator from med bay together.”

Shyla swatted her on the arm, a little
harder than Cressa thought necessary. “And you didn’t tell us? Some
friend you are.”

In Cressa’s opinion, “friend” was
overstating her relationship with the twins. She didn’t contradict
Shyla, though.

Lyla grabbed Cressa’s hand and squeezed.
“Tell us everything. What did he say? What did you say? Is he as
perfect as I think he is?”

“
Not now,” Daphne
interjected. “We need to get in bed, just in case someone else
comes around for a bed-check.” The younger girl met Cressa’s eyes.
“If you’re up for a little fun, meet us in the commons in one hour.
Got it?”

“
Yeah, sure,” Cressa
replied, uncertain if she actually would.

The girls split up, heading to their
respective rooms.

While they changed into pajamas, Nydia kept
shooting worried glances at Cressa, though she remained quiet. The
pair brushed their teeth and washed their faces without speaking a
word. Neither of the Towers sisters joined them in the bathroom, so
Cressa didn’t even have their constant babble to distract her from
Nydia’s anxiety.

Anxiety that was steadily seeping in to
Cressa, too.

“
Are you going to go?”
Nydia finally voiced what Cressa knew she’d been wanting to ask
since Lyla had first mentioned exploring the Institute.

Instead of answering her roommate, Cressa
posed a question of her own.

“
Do you think it’s a
trick? Are they setting me up? Or are they really planning on
wandering around the Institute?”

“
Oh, they’re doing it.
They twins have been wanting to explore since they first arrived,
and Gracia’s absence has finally presented them with the
opportunity they’ve been waiting for.” Nydia hesitated for a long
moment, and then plunged forward. “If you go, I won’t tell on you.
But it’s a bad idea, Cressa. You
will
get caught. The Dame doesn’t
miss anything. The others have trained already with invisibility,
but you haven’t.”

Cressa hadn’t considered that last point.
She wasn’t sure how long the other girls had been able to
manipulate light, but even one lesson with the ability was better
than Cressa’s zero.

Still, Cressa was too
curious to turn down the opportunity. She wasn’t sure when she’d
get another chance to snoop around, if ever. In truth, the more
Cressa learned about the Institute, the less she wanted to be a
part of it. But that didn’t change the fact that she
was
a part of it. And if
the day’s demonstrations had taught her anything, it was that she
always would be, one way or another.

Something her father used
to say popped into Cressa’s mind:
Business
dealings are a lot like making sausage; you’re better off not
knowing the details and processes, just enjoy the end
result.

In retrospect, that was sort of how Cressa
had viewed the mystery surrounding the Institute prior to arriving.
She hadn’t known the details of becoming Privileged, only that the
endgame was going to be amazing.

Cressa’s vision of the wonderful life she
would lead once she was Privileged had changed a great deal in the
last twenty-four hours. And so had her desire to let things unfold
organically. She wanted to learn every sordid detail of the
Privileged-making process. Sooner, rather than later.

“
I’m going with them,”
Cressa told Nydia. “It may be a risk, but I don’t care. I’m tired
of being in the dark.”

Talia

Pelia Island

Three Days Before the Vote

“
I can explain,” I began,
and then had no idea how to finish that sentence.

I mean, sure, I could explain that yes, I
was indeed Natalia Lyons the escaped convict. But that seemed like
a supremely bad idea given the circumstances.

I could lie. That also seemed like the wrong
way to go, though. Particularly since I’d already opened my big
mouth, so it wasn’t as though I could take back those three ominous
words. Unfortunately, that left me with one option:
manipulation.

“
Dad, I think we should
hear Talia out.” Emma moved to stand between her father and
me.

“
She’s a criminal,” Jeb
snapped. “What more do we need to know?”

Emma’s voice was calm, her posture relaxed.
“For starters, we might want to know where exactly she’s from. You
know that our kind is frequently persecuted for made up crimes.
That is probably what happened to Talia.”

The suggestion carried physical weight, and
I realized immediately that Emma was wielding her own brand of
subtle manipulation. It was so refined that had I not been a
skilled manipulator myself, I might not have noticed the trace
amounts of power she was using.

Emma turned slowly to face me, making sure
to keep her body firmly positioned between Jeb and me. “Isn’t that
what happened Talia?” she asked.

Interestingly, the younger girl did not
attempt to compel me. She was simply offering me a way out, and I
was only too happy to accept.

“
Yes. I’d rather not get
into specifics, but I was imprisoned for a very minor infraction.
In many places, my crime wouldn’t have come with jail time.” Not a
lie. Only UNITED agents received a one-way ticket to Vault for
insubordination.

“
What was this so called
‘infraction’?” Jeb demanded.

Emma was strong; I could feel the power she
was using. She was also smart. Holding her father captive in her
thrall would have only worked for so long. Allowing him to retain
some degree of control over his mind meant that even once Emma was
gone, Jeb would still believe whatever tale we wove. He would also
remain suspicious, but that was okay. Hopefully I’d be on my way to
London soon.

“
Breach of protocol,” I
replied in answer to Jeb’s question. “I broke my employer’s
rules.”

Jeb studied me for several long moments. He
didn’t like me—that much was obvious. The fact didn’t hurt my
feelings. Most people I encountered weren’t fond of me.

“
I see,” Jeb said finally.
“Well, I don’t appreciate liars. You should have told us the truth
earlier.”

The tension in my muscles lessened.

“
Come on, Dad. Did you
really expect her to introduce herself as an escaped convict?” Ross
interjected. “You would have thrown her back to the sea on her ear.
Can we eat now? I’m starving.”

“
Right, of course.” Jeb
turned to head into the dining room. “I will want to hear the full
story later, though,” he called over his shoulder.

Dinner consisted of some fatty meat cooked
in a myriad of spices, with a vegetable concoction in gravy on the
side. For dessert, we had bickerberry pie—whatever that was.
Everything was amazingly delicious. But the best part of the meal
was the conversation, which Emma and Ross skillfully directed
towards themselves. The siblings kept up a constant stream of
chatter about the sights they had shown me during our tour, the
impending storm, and just about any other topic under the sun that
couldn’t segue to me and my prior incarceration.

Family mealtime also provided me with the
perfect opportunity to read Jeb’s mind. I needed to know how he’d
found out about me. Had UNITED sent out a public service
announcement? Warned people to be on the lookout for me? That
didn’t bode well.

From Jeb’s mind, I learned that was exactly
what had happened. Sort of. The public at large had not been made
aware of my escape. Intelligence agencies around the world had. And
Jeb had contacts in more alphabet agencies than I knew existed.

The tip had come from Vanuatu. This was
surprising only because I’d never heard of the place. Jeb’s
informant had sent a fax—like an honest-to-goodness piece of
paper—to alert him of my disappearance, since Vault and Pelia were
relatively close. Thus far, Jeb had not reported me to UNITED.
Unlike so many people I’d dealt with, Jeb was interested in my side
of the story. Sending a wrongfully accused and convicted teenage
girl back to her captors did not sit well with him, and he wanted
to know more about my crime before condemning me.

With a little help from Emma, I hoped to
delay giving Jeb too many details of the events surrounding my
incarceration. I was guilty. And I wasn’t sure whether Jeb would
believe my crimes harmless once he knew the intricacies.

“
I thought Ross said you
don’t have an ability?” I teased Emma when we were changing into
pajamas.

She had offered to let me share her bed, but
I’d insisted a sleeping bag and the floor would do just fine.

Emma’s tanned cheeks flushed. “I don’t.”

“
You can compel people,” I
said. “Where I come from, that’s a pretty incredible
gift.”

Emma turned away to hide her face. “Yeah,
well, not here. Not in our tribe. Mental abilities scare
people.”

I folded the clothes Emma had lent me
earlier into a neat stack and placed them on the floor next to the
sleeping bag. “That’s true where I come from, too.” Peeling back
the top layer of cushy down-filled fabric, I crawled between the
folds. “Is that why you didn’t want your father to know the extent
of my talents?”

Emma sat on the edge of her bed, wringing
her hands in her lap. She nodded. “I knew who you were the moment I
saw you on the beach,” she admitted guiltily. “You are sort of
famous, you know. I figured Dad would recognize you, too. But he
didn’t. At least not right away.”

In most any other place, I wouldn’t have
been surprised to learn that Emma recognized me. But Pelia was so
far off the grid. I hadn’t seen a single tech gadget all day. How
did they get world news on such a remote island? Did it all come in
via fax?

“
School,” Emma answered my
unasked question. “We studied TOXIC and the Battle of D.C. in
school. Sort of as a cautionary tale. Our tribe doesn’t believe in
mixing races. They believe it only leads to problems—like what
happened with TOXIC.”

“
So everyone here is
Talented?” I asked.

“
To some degree, yes. We
are all physically stronger, have better senses, and a keener
intellect than most mainlanders. For some of us, that is the extent
of it. Others can shape-shift, harness electricity, control the
elements, heal, teleport—you know, the same abilities you and your
friends have.”