Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (51 page)

“
No,” I moaned
aloud.

“
Give him another dose,”
Frederick ordered.

Images of a pub materialized in my head.
Another pinch on the side of my neck.

“
No, no more,” I protested
weakly. Her name was a slur on my lips. “Talia.”

The world faded to black.

I woke with a start, heading pounding,
throat raw and aching.

“
Not so fast,
kid.”

I’d tried to sit up, but Miles forced me
back down with a gentle shove. He forced a straw between my cracked
lips.

“
Drink,” he
ordered.

Feeling as weak as a toddler with the flu, I
obeyed. It wasn’t water, but something thick and foul tasting.

“
Drink,” Miles
repeated.

I swallowed several large gulps before
batting the cup away. This time, when I tried to sit up, Miles let
me. The room spun. I was determined, though, and I willed the
feeling away. Mostly. Letting out a shaky breath, I leaned against
the ornate headboard, closed my eyes, and counted to ten. When I
opened my eyes, the room was dark but stationary.

“
What is that shit? It’s
nasty,” I groaned.

Miles, sitting in a chair he’d pulled beside
the bed, shot me a wry look. “Vita shake. Frederick says it has
nutrients that will help restore your strength.” The older agent
eyed me critically. “Which you’re going to need, seeing as you blew
your fuse. The girlie’s, too.”

“
Blew my fuse?” I asked,
the words feeling like gravel in my throat.

“
Yeah. Frederick says you
two were locked in some sort of battle of wills? Hell, I don’t
understand it. But he says you guys were giving off so much power
that it’s a miracle people aren’t knocking on the suite door. You
know, the people who can feel Talents? He says that much power is
like a homing beacon.”

“
It is.”

I glanced towards the door and found
Frederick leaning against the frame. His expression was serious,
concerned, more than a tad angry.

“
What were you thinking,
Erik?” he demanded. “You could have killed yourself. You could have
killed Penny.” Frederick shook his head, exasperated. “Seriously
man. What were you thinking?”

“
I was trying to reach
Talia,” I said, feeling like a naughty schoolboy. Then, my anger
rose to match Frederick’s. I was trying to reach Talia, my
girlfriend. Because she was missing. And Frederick had the nerve to
chastise me? He had no right. “What if it were Henri out there?” I
flung my arms wide to indicate the world at large. “Can you
honestly tell me that you wouldn’t be doing everything possible to
find him? Don’t bother lying. I’ll know.”

Frederick sighed and rolled his eyes. He
took several deliberate steps inside the darkened bedroom. “Yes, I
would. To an extent. I wouldn’t go on a suicide mission, though.
That’s not going to help. You and Penny are the best shot we have
of locating Talia, and you’re both out of commission. So, good
job.”

His tone dripped sarcasm, which I chose to
ignore.

“
Whatever. How is Penny?”
Hurting myself to find Talia was one thing, but I did feel guilty
about taking Penny along for the ride.

“
Sleeping,” Frederick
replied. He reconsidered. “Well, she’s unconscious anyway. I
imagine she’ll be up soon, too. I’d steer clear of Brand for a
while if I were you, though.”

“
Is he pissed?” I
guessed.

“
That’s putting it mildly.”
Frederick came to perch on the edge of my bed. His tone was no
longer flippant or annoyed when he spoke again. “You were right.
She’s here.”

The mush in my skull where my brain should
have been took a minute to process Frederick’s meaning.

“
Talia? You saw her?” I
demanded, throwing back the covers. “Let’s go get her.”

Miles was on his feet. With two hands firmly
planted on my shoulders, he pinned me in place. “Sit. Listen.”

Because I was in no shape for a physical
confrontation, I complied.

Frederick cleared his throat and averted his
gaze temporarily before meeting my imploring stare. “I did see
Talia, very briefly. I wasn’t even trying. Her emotions were so
strong she must have pulled me to her. But one glimpse was all I
got before she disappeared again. I’ve been trying to view her
again ever since. I can’t. It’s weird. It’s like before, like there
is a force field around her, blocking me.”

Force fields, fake Talias, what was the
world coming to? As if having a slew of Talented and Created
running through the streets wasn’t enough.

“
How do you know she’s
here? For sure?” I asked, trying to tamp down my
excitement.

Frederick and Miles exchanged irritating
pointed glances across my sickbed.

“
For one, I recognized her
surroundings,” Frederick said finally. “You remember that pub, The
Pink Giraffe? It’s where we met that Riley kid—Kenly’s
friend.”

“
Yeah, I remember,” I
replied.

The Pink Giraffe was a dive that catered to
an eclectic crowd of Talented and other individuals looking for a
quiet place to eat, drink, and not be bothered.

“
That’s where I saw her.
She was with two other people. A boy and a girl. At least, I think
they were together. She was holding hands with the boy.” My pulse
spiked. “Not like that. The boy was holding hands with the other
girl, too. I got the impression they all needed to be touching.”
Frederick reached into the pocket of his cargo pants and withdrew a
folded piece of paper. He handed it to me. “Do you recognize either
of the other two?”

Slowly, I unfolded the paper and smoothed
the creases. With the skill of a professional artist, Frederick had
drawn three figures surrounded by high-top tables and chairs. A
surprised older man stood behind the bar off to one side of the
picture. I traced the planes of Talia’s face, the outline of her
small, lithe frame, pretending my fingers were touching her
skin.

“
Kid? Take a good look. Do
you recognize the two with Talia?” Miles prompted, tearing me away
from thoughts of Talia.

The boy was tall and between sixteen and
twenty. Frederick had drawn the picture in black pen, and had
colored in the boy’s hair, so I assumed that meant the guy had
dark, shaggy hair. The girl was shorter than the boy, but
significantly taller than Talia. Her hair was most likely blonde,
because Frederick hadn’t bothered to add pigmentation. Both of
Talia’s companions had high, sharp cheekbones and almond-shaped
eyes. Neither triggered a response in my memory.

I shook my head. “Pretty sure I’ve never
seen either of them.”

Frederick reached for the drawing. I
snatched it out of his grasp. Childish as it was, I wanted to have
the picture of Talia to look at later.

“
Erik, come on. I need to
give that to Victoria and Crane. One of them might recognize those
faces. If nothing else, they can run facial recognition. You can
have it back after I scan the image and comm it over to them. Or
I’ll make you another if you really want.”

With one last look at my girlfriend’s soft
lips, I relinquished the drawing. Frederick carefully folded the
paper and returned it to his pocket.

“
I’m guessing you’ve
spoken to Victoria? Did she have anything useful to say?” I asked,
fidgeting with a loose gold thread on the comforter Miles had
replaced over my legs.

“
I have. And she did.”
Frederick paused and more nonverbal signals passed between him and
Miles.

I opened my mind to read their thoughts,
only to have a searing pain lance through my skull. Cursing, I
cradled my head in my hands and waited for the worst of it to
subside.

“
I told you, you blew a
fuse, kid,” Miles said. “No mind reading for you right
now.”

“
Fine. Just tell me what
Victoria said,” I said through gritted teeth.

“
She sent one of the
search teams to the location where Anya was supposed to drop off
the hover,” Frederick began.

I looked up. White spots obscured portions
of Frederick’s apprehensive expression.

“
And?” I
prompted.

“
And Anya did leave the
hover there this morning. From there, it is unclear where she went.
According to satellite imaging, there isn’t much within walking
distance. Some farms. A couple of vineyards. There’s a small town,
like population-549-small.”

I didn’t need my mind
reading capabilities to know Frederick was holding back. Something
he’d said stood out:
According to
satellite imaging.
Why was Victoria
relying on imaging? Sure, it was usually pretty accurate, but
nothing about Talia’s escape had been usual.

I decided to ask the current million-globe
question. “What do you mean about satellite imaging? What did the
agents Victoria sent report?”

“
That’s the thing. There
hasn’t been a report since the one stating that Anya left the
rental hover at the exact location the guy in Nice gave us. That
was hours ago. UNITED is currently unable to contact any of the
agents they sent.”

“
Excuse me?” I looked from
Frederick to Miles positive I’d misheard.

“
Weird, I know. They can’t
get them on comms. I can’t view any of them. Satellite imaging is
showing nothing.” Frederick sighed. “Victoria is deciding whether
or not to send more agents right now. Between the search for Talia
and the general chaos around the world, she isn’t sure whether they
can spare the manpower. Especially when there is no evidence that
the agents are truly missing.”

“
As opposed to what?” I
asked. “On vacation?”

“
Dead zone,” Miles
answered knowledgably. “There are pockets all over the world where
electronics don’t work right. It’s like that Hans guy was saying
with the energy fields. And there are several bodies of water
surrounding the area, so it makes sense that the energy would be
higher in that region.”

“
Exactly,” Frederick
agreed. “Under normal circumstances, the whole no-reporting-thing
wouldn’t be a big deal, at least not yet. Victoria’s only concerned
because nothing about any of this makes sense. For now, our orders
are to find Talia’s location in London. Victoria doesn’t want us
going to her if we do manage to pinpoint her coordinates. The city
is crawling with agents, and we don’t want to run the risk of
leading them straight to Talia. We’re to notify Victoria and Crane
instead. Then, Crane’s people will go get Talia and take her back
to the States as planned.”

“
Why are there so many
agents here already?”

It was Miles’s turn to give me bad news,
which apparently didn’t stop coming. “Frederick over here isn’t the
only one who saw your girl,” he told me.

My stomach sank. Of course. Talia had gone
to a freaking pub. How many people had reported seeing her
there?

“
Eyewitnesses say Talia
and the two others materialized out of thin air. Like poof. One
second the space is empty, the next three bedraggled teenagers in
artic explorer outfits are standing there. Then, ‘cause that’s not
weird enough, all three of them leave snowy prints on the tile when
they skedaddle out the door.” Miles held his hands up. “This crap
keeps getting stranger and stranger.”

Snow? Well that did jive with what both
Frederick and I had seen in our respective visions. But the whole
appearing out of thing air thing was bizarre, though not
unexplainable.

“
One of the two Talia’s
with must be a light manipulator,” I said, voicing my theory aloud.
“That’s why all three were holding hands. The guy was in the
middle, right? He must be the light manipulator. Also, he must be
strong to be able to make the girls invisible as well.”

“
Strong but not
proficient,” Frederick agreed. “He must have lost control at some
point—that’s when they magically appeared. But why were they at the
pub in the first place? And why were they wearing such ridiculous
outfits? Even if they’d traveled from somewhere cold, wouldn’t they
have changed, or at least shed a few layers, the second they
reached London?”

“
Maybe they went to the
pub to meet up with Kenly. Her friends do have ties to the Pink
Giraffe,” I pointed out.

Even as I said it, I wasn’t convinced. Talia
wasn’t stupid. UNITED knew about those ties, and had probably
already explored them in the search for Kenly. If only my stubborn
as a mule girlfriend would reach out to me, all of these mysteries
might be cleared up.

“
Talia’s too smart for
that. But I guess desperate times call for desperate measures,”
Frederick said half-heartedly. He didn’t believe Talia had gone to
the Pink Giraffe looking for Kenly either. He shook his head,
baffled by the entire situation. “The snow prints make no sense.
All of the witnesses say they only saw the tracks after Talia and
the others disappeared. How did they get inside without leaving a
trail? Even invisible that isn’t possible.” Speaking more to
himself than Miles or me, he added, “Unless…no, that’s impossible.
Well, not impossible, I guess. Farfetched definitely.”

“
Want to share with the
class?” I asked dryly.

Frederick exhaled slowly. “So you know how
right after the Great Contamination there was a much wider range of
powers? A lot have died out over the years. Mimics, for one, are
exceptionally rare. Mind Manipulators are few and far between.
Well, way back when, Teleporters existed. According to UNITED’s
records there were only ever a handful of people who possessed the
ability. I know it sounds ridiculous, but maybe the guy is a
Teleporter.”