Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (47 page)

“
Let’s do it,” I
said.

The manager of the hover rental dealership
was unlocking the front doors when we arrived. Unlike the
harbormaster, Mr. Kempf, the manager, was actually French and spoke
very little English. Luckily Henri knew enough French to get us
through the conversation.

Mr. Kempf had not been on duty when Anya and
the fake Talia came in, but he was eager to help and had no qualms
about relaying the transactions details to us. I didn’t even have
to compel him either. Anya had been smart, renting the hover under
an assumed name. She probably hadn’t counted on me remembering her
mother’s maiden name, or Anya’s own middle name, which was the
alias she’d chosen. Or maybe she had. I was no longer certain of
anything.

According to the dealership’s records,
Lauren Caputo rented a black Y-90 Mizuto hover capable of going up
to five hundred miles without recharging. She was scheduled to
return the vehicle later that day at a drop-location near the
French-Swiss border.

“
What is near there?” Henri
asked Mr. Kempf in French, a fact I knew since I’d fed him the
question.

The manager contemplated the answer for
several long moments, before finally answering in broken English.
“Farms, I do think. There are a lot of cow farmers. That is
all.”

“
Cattle farms?”
Penny sent me, furrowing her brow in
confusion.
“Does Anya have family out
there?”

“
Her immediate family lives
in upstate New York, but I don’t know about her extended relatives.
It’s possible,”
I sent back.

Henri thanked Mr. Kempf for his help, and
then Penny set about making sure the manager didn’t remember either
our talk or the group of UNITED agents who’d paid him an early
morning visit.

“
Should we go to the
drop-off location?” Frederick asked as we headed back to the docks,
where we’d left our unmarked hover.

“
We might want to call in
reinforcements,” Brand spoke up. “Something about all of this
doesn’t add up.”

“
I agree,” I added. “I’ve
got a bad feeling.”

“
Erik,” Penny began
timidly.

“
Don’t,” I warned before
she could continue any further down her current thought
path.

“
But doesn’t it seem
likely—” she started.

“
I don’t know, Penny,” I
growled. Running a hand through my hair, I sighed. “I don’t know
what is likely anymore. None of this makes any sense. All that I am
sure of is this: The girl with Anya isn’t Talia. That means Talia
isn’t in France. She probably never was.”

We reached the docks. The line of Talented
waiting for passage out of France was longer than it had been hours
before. People were haggling with pod and hover owners, bargaining
for use of the vehicles so that they could get to the States,
England, and several island nations known for their tolerance of
our kind.

“
It’s your call, kid,”
Miles said to me. “Either we go to this BFE town and look for Anya
and the imposter, or we head back to the islands.” He considered
what he’d just said. “Or, I guess we go to London. Since you’re so
sure your girlfriend is headed there.”

“
I can continue to make
discrete inquiries here, if you like,” Agent Nadir offered. He’d
been fairly quiet up to this point, acting as more of a tour guide
than anything.

All eyes turned to me, expect for Penny’s,
which were lingering on the ever-growing crowd of refugees.

“
London,” I said
decisively. I turned to Agent Nadir. “Thank you for your help. If
you wouldn’t mind updating Hans if you hear anything new that would
be great. But don’t make inquiries. This just got a whole lot more
complicated.”

“
Of course. As I said, I
would like to help Natalia Lyons in any way possible.” Agent Nadir
offered me his hand, which I shook.

“
Thank you,” I repeated.
Turing to Miles, I gave my next order. “Call Victoria. Give her an
update, and tell her we’re headed for London. Have her send a team
to that drop-off location near the border.” I caught Penny’s eye.
She nodded gravely, already knowing what I was going to say next.
“Tell her Anya Pritcher might be a double agent.

Talia

Pelia Island

Two Days Before the Vote

After the fax Jeb received, I’d been ready
to leap out of bed and hunt down Kip immediately. NS was coming for
me. Whoever he or she was, I didn’t want to be around to find out.
Emma had insisted that we wait, however.

The fax sender wanted confirmation from Jeb
that I was indeed on Pelia. And Emma thought we could send back a
denial, supposedly from her father, and ask for the source behind
the rumor of my presence. Since I was insanely curious about who
had reported my arrival, I agreed to her plan.

Between the two of us, we were able to alter
Jeb’s memory of receiving the fax and compel him to sleep. Then, we
scribbled out the response, along with our request.

Since fax machines were not modern devices,
I left the actual transmission of the document in Emma’s hands. We
waited up all night for a reply. But never received one.

I whittled away the hours with repeated
attempts to contact Erik. There too, I struck out. Though I did
succeed in making myself pass out three more times, much to Emma’s
chagrin. Each time she shook me back to consciousness, Emma shoved
food into my hands and demanded I eat to replenish the calories I
was stupidly burning in my fruitless attempts.

Just before sunrise, Emma finally agreed to
go in search of Kip. And because we didn’t want Jeb receiving a
response to the fax we’d sent the mysterious NS, we unplugged the
machine. To be safe, I wanted to fry its antiquated insides, but
neither of us possessed electrical manipulation abilities, so that
was out.

Ross, Jeb, and Andromeda were sound asleep
when Emma and I crept out of her house.

Finding Kip was easy, since he worked the
morning fishing shift.

“
You must be the new
arrival everyone is gabbing about,” Kip said to me after giving
Emma a lopsided grin. He removed one large rubber glove and offered
me his hand. “Vester Ozolos, but everyone calls me Kip,” he said by
way of introduction.

“
Talia Lyons,” I replied.
“It’s nice to meet you.”

“
Same.” Kip turned to Emma.
“What’s got you out of bed and down at the cliffs so
early?”

Emma glanced guiltily at me. She was having
second thoughts about asking Kip to take me to London. I didn’t
blame her, not after what had happened to his father. But the trip
would be a quick there and back for him. It would also save me the
trouble of navigating my way across the ocean, seeing as that
hadn’t gone so well for me the last time.

“
Can we talk somewhere
private?” Emma asked Kip, her voice low.

Kip’s grin split his handsome face and his
light almond-shaped eyes twinkled mischievously. He reminded me so
much of Erik in that moment that my heart felt as though it were
being ripped in two.

Soon. You’ll see him so soon.

I didn’t know whether that was true, but I
had to hold on to the hope that it was. Otherwise, I’d go
insane.

“
Why Emma Montague, what
would old Jeb say about his baby girl going off into the woods with
some ruffian?” Kip waggled his finger. “He’d strap a chastity belt
on you faster than—”

“
Not alone,” Emma
interrupted, her cheeks the color of ripe tomatoes. “Talia is
coming, too.”

Kip made a pouty face. “Shame.”

“
Kip, be serious. We need a
favor,” Emma said, tone grim.

This sobered Kip. “Yeah, okay, sure. Give me
just a sec.”

Kip peeled off his other glove and tossed
the pair of them on the ground next to a tackle box. “Hey, Rig, I’m
taking ten. Cool?”

Another fisherman, presumably Rig, standing
beside the table where other worker bees were busy measuring and
gutting the fish, nodded absently.

Kip led Emma and I back up the path we’d
taken to the cliffs and into the woods beyond. The trees near the
forest edge were leafless and covered in a thick layer of ice.
Deeper inside the woods, white and gray leaves clung to icy
branches, shielding us from the rising sun. Beneath my boots,
powdery snow crunched as we walked. We didn’t stop until we were
far enough from the edge that there was no chance of a passerby
seeing us.

“
So, what’s up?” Kip asked,
leaning against a thick tree truck and crossing his arms over his
chest.

Emma looked to me. I cleared my throat,
acutely aware of how arduous the favor I was about to ask truly
was.

“
I understand that you can
teleport,” I stated flatly. No reason to beat around the bush.
Either Kip would agree, or he wouldn’t. I had no intention of
manipulating him if he declined to help. That just seemed
wrong.

“
I understand that you can
read minds and force people to do your bidding,” he shot back,
smiling despite the unease leaking off of him.

“
Sure can,” I said,
matching his smile with one of my own.

A branch cracked beneath Emma’s feet as she
shifted uncomfortably.

“
Now that we know what
we’re all capable of, mind telling me why you two wanted a
clandestine meeting in the woods?” Kip was no longer smiling, and I
felt the moment realization dawned. “Where is it you need to
go?”

“
London,” I
answered.

“
When? There’s another
storm coming. I don’t know if I’ll be able to take you after it
starts,” Kip warned.

“
I’m ready as soon as you
are,” I told him.

To his credit, Kip didn’t shy away from the
task. If anything, he seemed excited by the prospect of getting
away from the island, even briefly. He tapped his index finger
against his elbow as he complied a mental list of all of the things
he’d need to do in preparation for the trip. Just as Emma had
intimated, Kip needed a booster to break through the energy field.
He also believed we’d need to go to the top of Mt. Tipper—whatever
that was—in order to pull this off.

I remained silent, listening to Kip’s mental
ramblings and trying not to think about the fax and NS. Admittedly,
I wasn’t doing a stellar job at the latter task. I wanted to know
the identity of NS. It might have been someone in UNITED. I
wouldn’t have put it past the organization to put a bounty on my
head. Still, that didn’t feel right for some reason.

“
Alright. We can leave in
an hour. Well, two by the time we reach the top of Mt. Tipper. But
first we’ll need to stop by the school and borrow a booster,” Kip
announced, pulling me away from my own thoughts. He eyed me
critically. “I don’t suppose you have moral qualms with breaking
and entering or stealing, do you?”

I laughed. “Hardly. Escaped convicts rarely
worry about such trivial crimes.”

Kip’s eyebrows winged northward. “Escaped
convict?”

“
Is that going to be a
problem?” I asked calmly. I wanted him to know the truth before he
broke his society’s rules to help me. It was only fair.

“
Not for me.”

“
Good,” I
replied.

At the edge of the woods, our little group
parted ways. Kip returned to the cliffs to tell his boss that he
wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t finish his shift. Emma and I went
directly to the school.

“
If you tell me where to
go, you can stay out here and keep watch,” I offered, not wanting
her to get in any more trouble than necessary on my account.
Truthfully, I wanted her to go home. That way she could claim
ignorance to the entire plan. But Emma was firm on staying with me
until the end. She even planned to make the trip with Kip and I,
but I wasn’t going to allow that.

“
Keep your mind open. I can
guide you to the supply closet in the nurse’s office. It’s pretty
easy to find,” Emma replied.

I made quick work of the lock on the front
door, disengaging the two halves with my telekinetic powers. Once
inside, I followed the map in Emma’s head straight to the nurse’s
office. The school was only one floor, so finding it would have
been easy even without her help. The closet was also locked, and
also extremely easy to open using my talents. Vials of substances
I’d never heard of lined the shelves, everything from Cat’s Paw to
Hydelophine.

Tachatrine.
I read the word from Emma’s thoughts and located
the booster easily—whoever had organized the drug supply had a bad
case of OCD.