More Than Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #2) (37 page)

I had to follow. Sure, I needed to find Carter, but that hurt man was obviously a subject and those other two men were taking him back to whatever cage they kept him in between experiments. No way was I going to leave that man here. Or anyone else I might find on the other side of that door. Carter would have to wait a few more minutes.

I waited until the two guys dragged the unconscious man through the door, and the moment it started to slide shut I made a run for it. I had no idea what I would find on the other side of that door, but I didn’t have a choice. There was no way I’d be able to break down that big electronic door, and I didn’t have a key card.

I grabbed both the men in scrubs and zapped them unconscious before the door was even all the way shut behind me. When they fell to the floor, a woman sitting behind a desk cried out. Bad move on her part, because she found herself getting an electrical nap next.

As the woman slumped back in her chair a scratchy voice said, “Who are you?”

I whirled around to see the subject guy trying to push one of the unconscious orderlies off of him. He was a tall black man whose accent suggested he was actually from Africa. He looked to be about forty, and despite his obvious exhaustion from whatever test he’d just been put through, he looked like he played for the 49ers.

“I’m someone like you,” I told him, swiping the plastic key card off the unconscious woman in front of me. I held it up with a big smile. “You think you’re up for a jailbreak?”

The man’s eyes widened, and then his face turned hard. He snatched the key card off the man that had opened the door and nodded his head behind me. “The others.”

Behind the reception desk was a short hallway with four rooms on either side of it. All of them had big, fancy holding-people-in doors and observation windows. I shuddered at the number plates on each door. I was pretty sure they weren’t room numbers.

I ran to the first door and slid the women’s key card over the scanner. The door slid silently open with a light woosh of air.

“Hello?” I called.

A little girl, maybe eight years old and pale as the moon, sat up on her bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “No more tests, please,” she begged, “I’m so tired.”

My heart lurched. “No more tests,” I promised the little girl, rushing over to her bedside. “I’m going to get you out of this place.”

The little girl’s eyes widened. “How?”

I gave her a devious smile. “I have my ways.”

“You’re a
subject
?” the little girl gasped.

“I’m a
person
,” I said sternly. “So are you. And we’re getting out of here.”

The little girl jumped out of her bed and clutched onto my hand without question. I didn’t want to know how bad things must have been for her if she was so willing to leave with a complete stranger.

I scooped her up into my arms and when I walked out of her cell the black man was already standing there with an older woman and a boy who was maybe fifteen.

“Is this everyone?” I asked.

“It is now,” the man said through gritted teeth.

At my frown, the girl whispered, “There used to be seven of us.”

My temper exploded, causing the lights overhead to flicker. I took a deep breath and the boy looked up at the lights. “Did you do that?” he asked. Australian accent. Apparently, Visticorp was scouring the entire globe to find people like me.

“Yes,” I said. “And I’m going to do a whole lot more than that just as soon as I find my friend, so I need you guys to get out of the building and as far from this mountain as you can.”

I swiped the key for the main door and checked the hallway. It was still clear. “Follow me.”

“Wait!” the boy said.

When I looked at him, he grinned and puffed out his chest proudly.

Without words, the man gestured for me to give him the girl. I handed her over and after he adjusted her on his back and told her to hold on tight, he and the older lady each grabbed one of the boy’s hands. The boy smiled and me and said, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

The woman held out her hand to me with a smile.

Suddenly, I heard a kind grandmotherly voice inside my head that said, “Trust us.” It was a little startling, but I managed a smile and took her hand. The second I did we all vanished. I gasped and the boy laughed at me. “You didn’t think you were the only one with powers, did you, sweetheart?”

“Actually, I was hoping you all had something useful up your sleeves. And I promise you do not want to call me ‘sweetheart’ again, little man. You haven’t seen what I can do yet.”

“Whatever it is, gorgeous, I’m sure it’s kick ass.”

“You have no idea,” I whispered and then pulled them back to the ventilation room.

Once we were safely in the small room, I let go of the lady’s hand and pointed to the ladder in the service tunnel. “It’s dark and creepy, but it’s a way out. It opens into a cave. Head down the mountain toward Las Vegas. You’ll see the city lights. As soon as I rescue my friend, I’ll come find you. I have a safe place I can take you all, and a friend who can help get you the things you need to start new lives. Or you could stick around.” I smiled. “We’re thinking of buying our own island and building a real-life version of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.”

They’d all gone visible again and the fifteen-year-old boy grinned at me with admiration. “Hell, yeah! I’m totally in as long as I get to pick my own name.”

I laughed. “My friend Teddy is going to like you. Now go!”

The woman went up first and the little girl followed after her. The boy went next, and lastly, the man. He was so big it was going to be a tight squeeze for him. Before he headed up, he turned to me. “We owe you for this.”

“Just get to safety. That’s good enough for me.”

“The friend you’re looking for, is he like us?”

“No.”

The man nodded. “If he doesn’t have powers, they’ll be holding him in the detainment center. It’s on level three near the control room.”

“Thanks.”

The man nodded and then disappeared up the ladder.

Holding tightly to the key card I’d stolen, I took a breath and went in search of an elevator.

The basement—which it turns out, is where the holding cells for the test subjects are—is the dumpiest part of Visticorp’s secret, evil laboratories. The rest of the facility is clean and bright with state-of-the-art everything.

According to the sign in the elevator, level one was living quarters. Level two was home to the mess hall, rec rooms, supply rooms, and offices, but level three was where all the good stuff was. I zipped at superspeed through several laboratories, and then stumbled into the control center. There were too many people to slow down and get a good look, but even moving through it at superspeed it was like I’d walked right into a scene from
Race to Witch Mountain
. The entire room was filled with super computers that Teddy would probably give his firstborn child to get his hands on, and at its core there was some kind of giant generator that obviously powered the entire mountain. As
Men in Black
ridiculous as it was, the whole setup was rather impressive.

After that, I finally found the detainment center. It was set up much like the holding cells for the test subjects. Through the tiny window on the door—that I prayed my key card would open—I could see a reception desk with an armed guard sitting behind it. Beyond him was a hall of rooms and observation windows identical to those I’d found the others like me in.

Fingers crossed, I swiped my key and breathed a sigh of relief when the light flicked green and the door slid open.

I didn’t give the guard behind the desk time to blink before I zapped him and traded my key card for his.

Carter was in the first cell, lying on the ground, looking quite out of it. He’d clearly been on the receiving end of a bad beating.

I was a little shocked by the feelings that overwhelmed me at seeing him hurt. I may want to knock him around every now and then, but I did not like the fact that someone else had.

I double-checked all the cells for other prisoners, but Carter was the only one here. “Carter!” I whispered as I slipped into his cell. I picked him up off the floor and slapped his cheek to wake him up. “Carter! Come on, wake up, old man.”

His eyes rolled forward and he grumbled, “I’m only forty-two, Jamielynn. Stop calling me ‘old.’”

“Well,” I laughed, “I see they haven’t beaten the grump out of you.”

“What are you doing here? You have to leave now!”

“Well, duh. I wasn’t planning to stick around for tea.”

Carter winced when I picked him up, but was able to put weight on his legs, so I slung his arm over my shoulder.

I turned around and almost ran into the door. I hadn’t heard it close. I looked for a place to swipe my key card, but there wasn’t one on this side of the door. Someone had locked me in here with Carter. I cursed under my breath.

“Still easy to sneak up on? You said you were going to work on that.”

“Shut up. It’s your fault. I was here trying to rescue your pathetic behind.”

“Some rescue.”

“Do you want to get zapped?”

I set Carter down and took a running leap at both the door and the observation window, but, thick as they were, I wasn’t strong enough to punch them out. At least I made a dent in the door, but I also think I broke my hand. I let out a curse and in a fit of anger shot a bolt of lightning at the window. Whatever the window was made of wasn’t affected. I tried the walls next, but the material they were made out of merely absorbed the electricity.

“It’s no use. This room has been prepped for your gifts specifically,” a voice sounded over an intercom.

I turned around and a man that had to be the mystery voice from my school watched me through the observation window. He was maybe sixty and fit the voice I remembered perfectly. He was attractive for an older man. Tall, thin, and impeccably dressed. He had pale blue eyes and a full head of thick, silvery-gray hair. He stood a little off-kilter, leaning his weight on a cane, but the disability took nothing away from his presence. He was clearly a man you did not mess with.

Behind him stood Demakis. He looked both pissed off at me and happy to see me locked up at the same time.

I returned his angry smirk. “Huh. Guess I didn’t kill you.”

“You’ll wish you had soon enough, little freak.”

“Or I’ll just rectify the mistake.” My gaze slid to Boss Man. “Maybe take a few others out with you.”

Boss Man looked as if he hadn’t heard my threat. He simply met my stare and flashed me a smile that I think was supposed to be friendly. “Welcome to Visticorp, Miss Baker.”

Once again, I was
so screwed.

“Damn it, Jamie, why the hell did you come here?”

The weakness in Carter’s raspy voice scared me, but not enough to go easy on him. “I came here to save you, idiot! Why would
you
try to come here alone? You told me you weren’t even researching Visticorp!”

Carter rolled onto his back with a groan. The way he was holding himself, I suspected he probably had a cracked rib or two. “I wasn’t,” he grumbled. “I told you nothing was ever simple with you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I wasn’t researching Visticorp. I was looking into your friend. I had an interview set up with his adoptive parents.” He gave a snort and waved his hand toward the window. “Meet Daddy Dearest.”

“What?” I gasped.

“Jamie, your friend is from Visticorp. He
works
for them.”

“No way.” I wouldn’t believe it. Not after everything Teddy did to help me escape from them. “That’s not possible.”

“It’s true. The people who adopted him were Visticorp employees. He’s been raised here since he was five.”

“Ah, yes, 4281.” The man outside the window sighed. “Like my own son. Disobedient and too intelligent for his own good, perhaps, but now with you here, I suspect he will calm down quite nicely.”

“
Teddy
is 4281?”