Retrieval (19 page)

“So wait a second? You betrayed your friends? How?” Sky asked though she already knew the answer. She knew many things about this man, and he’d probably wig out when he discovered it.

“I told you Dempsey had an ace in the hole. He had my sister and by default, he had me. He held my sister for three years in a house of torture, all the while using her life to keep me in line and to make sure I betrayed Dray.” He stood up so abruptly his chair tilted back and fell to the floor with a crash. “Damn it. What the fuck is this? Cleanse and purge with Oprah?”

Instantly, King was up and standing in front of Sky. The hackles on his back were raised, but no growls had emanated from his throat yet. That was a good sign for Bleak.

“Okay, Bleak. It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me your life story anymore. I just want to know about Sasha. She looks like me you said?”

“Exactly like you, except for your hair color. In fact, she looks like all of you, but I have to say that she looks the
most
like you. I wasn’t lying when I said she could be your twin.”

“How old is she?” Her voice was faint, and she had to repeat the question for Bleak to hear her.

He glanced at her. “I told you, twenty-six.”

“Can you show me a picture of her? Can you, Bleak?” It was more demand than question.

Desperation made her tone much harsher than she wanted, but the coincidence was too much. A twenty-six year old woman, who looked just like Sky and had a name that began with S. Specimen S2. It couldn’t be. Not after years of searching with no results, and now she just fell into their laps?

But how coincidental that Peter Dempsey was involved in this. As a junior member for GenTech, it was way more than coincidence to Sky’s way of thinking. Had the son of a bitch used her sister to draw Sky out? How had Smythe-Ward known about S2? He couldn’t have. No one but Sky and her sisters knew. Who was she? Could she really be the lost one?

“Please, Bleak, if you’ve never done anything fast in your life, please do this for me. Show me a picture.” Sky pleaded hoarsely.

“Come on in to Rover’s room, and we’ll look it up. Maybe she can get on Skype real quick. I’ll call her. Give me a second okay? Are you going to be all right?” Concern dotted his words and his face.

“I’m fine. Get the picture. I don’t need live feed, just a picture okay?” Sky told him as she followed him blindly to Rover’s room where a bank of computers sat, each at various stages of work.

Two minutes later, and Skylar had to take a seat before she fell down. After years of searching for the sister they had lost in the womb, Skylar stared at her own face on another woman. Tears fell silently as her shoulders shook with noiseless sobs.

“Is she—does she—damn, I’m not sure how to ask…”

“Does she act all super-powery and shit like you?” Bleak grunted. “No. I’ve never known her to do the things you and your sisters do.”

Skylar lovingly traced the picture of her lost sister. Sasha Bennoit. S2. Her identical match with the exception of hair color and abilities. Her sister.

“It’s her isn’t it? Sasha’s the lost one,” Bleak asked her.

Skylar nodded her head. “Bleak? I need you to tell no one of this, do you understand me?” Skylar asked him suddenly.

She brushed the tears from her cheeks and focused her gaze on him. She tried to command him to obedience with her will alone.

“Why?” he asked her cautiously.

“Because. If Smythe-Ward hasn’t had her taken in yet, there’s the chance he may not know about her. I know that Dempsey knows of her, but I can hope that Sasha was just at the right place at the right time for him to use in his vendetta against Dray Bonner. I have to think that if Smythe-Ward knew about her, she’d be in his hands right now,” Skylar mused more to herself than to Bleak.

“Maybe Bonner’s just that good at protecting what’s his,” Bleak stated in a monotone.

“Nobody’s that good. If Smythe-Ward wanted her, not even Peter Dempsey’s desire for revenge against her man would stand in his way. Smythe-Ward makes Dempsey look like an amateur. I don’t want my sisters to know about this, okay? In fact, I don’t want anyone but you and me to know about this. Promise me, Bleak.” Again, more order than request.

“You know I’m an old hand at betrayal?” Bleak asked her, and his eyes reflected his moniker perfectly.

“No you aren’t. You’re a master at survival, and you really need to quit hiding behind that betrayal shit,” Sky said as she reached for Bleak’s hand.

The contact was enough to open a pathway between them, and Bleak shuddered as she touched him. She only ever needed a small touch to open communication between herself and another person. Sometimes she didn’t even need that. Through this one she allowed Bleak to see and feel her trust in him as a person of integrity. She also took a few seconds to delve deeper into his past for a better understanding of why he was the way he was.

The ringing of Bleak’s sat phone interrupted them, and Sky reluctantly released Bleak. She was much more tired than she should be from even that small amount of work, but it had been worth it. Bleak was someone she could trust, and she wouldn’t allow him to think less of himself, for his decisions in the past.

“That was invasive as hell, Skylar,” he berated her roughly as he wiped his hand across his mouth.

“Answer your phone, Bleak. And remember your promise,” she urged him gently.

“I didn’t promise—well, hell, I guess I did huh? You read my thoughts?” he asked her in a grumpy tone as he answered the insistent ringing.

She gave him a get-real look and picked up the picture of her sister. Already she could feel a connection to the woman who stared at her from the black-and-white photo. She was beautiful, and very pregnant, and Sky took a moment to thank God for her safety. Now all she had to do was keep her out of the way of the war that was going to take place between the McKannons and Dolan Smythe-Ward.

“That was Sebastian. He said that he and Rove’ll be back within the next couple of hours,” Bleak informed her in a hard tone as he began moving back to the computers.

“What’s wrong?” she asked him, instantly alerted to something in the tone of his voice.

“They’re coming here. Listen to me, Sky. Get your shit together, get King rounded up, and meet me in the hallway outside your room in two minutes.” Bleak calmly took out a wicked looking gun, and right before her eyes, he began shooting the computers he’d just been using.

“What the hell’s going on? Who’s ‘they’?” Sky asked him when he finished.

“No time now. Get your shit and meet me—you now only have one minute left. I have to destroy the hard drives and get a few other things together, and then we’re out of here.” He disappeared into another room.

What the hell?
She followed his directions and made her way to her room to get her stuff together, only to realize she’d left her bag buried in that cornfield in Des Moines.

“At least we’ll be traveling light,” she mused and then proceeded to call King to her side.

She was dressed in yoga pants and a tank, and she was able to find a sweatshirt and her shoes and get them on right as Bleak entered the hallway to meet her. She was amazed at the change that had come over him. In the blink of an eye, he’d turned into a modern-day warrior, his face devoid of emotion, and his eyes flat but constantly moving to survey his surroundings.

“We’re going out the front door, but listen to me, this is important. Keep behind me and mainly on my left side. I need my right hand free to shoot, okay? Can you keep King under control and quiet?”

“Yes. He knows battle,” Skylar told him quietly.

“Good. Knew there was a something great about that dog. Whatever happens, do not get separated from me. Your father has discovered where we are, and he’s sent a team in to take you.” His voice was a near whisper.

The blood left her head, and her heart pounded. She was grateful, for the warmth of the sweatshirt she’d put on. But she was ready for this fight. She’d been preparing for it for years, and while she wished she’d had more time with Sebastian, at least maybe this way he’d be out of the line of fire.

And Bleak. He didn’t deserve to be in the middle of this shit with her either.

“Bleak, I’ll be right behind you, and I follow directions well, so don’t worry about me okay? Handle your business and stay safe, and we’ll get out of this all right. Did Bastian say where he was?”

“He’s still two hours out, Sky. I’m sorry; it’s just me with you. We have to move, and we have to leave here under the assumption that the bad guys are right outside the door. You ready?”

“I am so ready, Bleak, you don’t even know,” Sky replied firmly.

He shot her a quick look that she couldn’t decipher and slowly made his way to the front door.

Sky had the unique ability to multitask within herself. She could carry on a conversation with one person while completely scanning another’s thoughts. She could do both of those things while also scanning her surroundings, talking telepathically to her sisters and figuring out a way to lower the national deficit. It took energy though, and with all that she’d expended in the healing of her gunshot wound, she was depleted. Dammit, she really needed another twenty-four hours of doing nothing but resting.
Not going to happen. Put your big-girl panties on.

King was on alert but none of his body language indicated that he’d picked up on anything or anyone in their immediate vicinity that shouldn’t be there. Sky used her senses to try to locate anything amiss outside the condo. Nothing was out of place, and she neither felt nor sensed any heat signatures outside the door of the condo that would indicate people lying in wait for them. Every person who breathed produced heat. As a consequence, their body’s heat could be thermally imaged, and Skylar had the ability to switch her normal eyesight to infrared or thermal scanning without the need for special goggles or lenses.

Nothing whispered to her from outside the condo. She could hear the normal sounds of an Illinois spring night, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If she didn’t have to conserve as much as she possibly could, she would simply dissolve and reappear outside in the shadows to have a look-see. But if sugar went to shit, she’d need to have the energy available to shield Bleak, so nothing happened to him.

“We’re clear out there right now. Nobody’s out there at this moment, but I’m kind of down right now, so I can’t scan as far as I would normally be able to. If we’re gonna leave, we need to do it now,” she urged Bleak.

He gave her another indecipherable look, and she noticed him tap an earpiece that she hadn’t seen earlier.

“Got it,” he said.

“Got what?” she asked him.

He pointed to the earpiece and then placed his fingers over his mouth in a shushing gesture.

She rolled her eyes and started to move to open the door when Bleak grabbed her suddenly and threw her on the ground. King growled deep in his throat and then everything went bright white.

“Shit. They’re using UV light. Dammit, he knows,” she muttered angrily.

“Okay, Bleak, you listen to me now. I have to get out of here or make a stand, one or the other, and I’m asking which you want to do because this could get real ugly real fast,” Sky spit out as she rolled out from under Bleak and crawled behind the couch.

She grabbed her head and closed her eyes tight as the glaring white UV light worked its horrible magic on her. Concentrated UV light was the only energy she couldn’t manipulate. It created a chemical reaction inside of her that caused entropy. It broke her down faster than she could build back up. Black lights were not her friend.

“We may not have much of a choice, Skylar. They seem to be closer than what we thought.” Bleak stayed as close to her as he could to prevent anything from hitting her if bullets started flying.

“There’s always a choice, Bleak. Remember that; there is always a choice. So, should we stay or should we go now?” she sing-songed in a pain-filled voice.

“You’re quoting The Clash to me?” Bleak asked in astonishment.

“’Cause if we go there will be trouble, but if we stay it will be double.” She half laughed, half sang, the miserable agony the UV light caused inside of her head and body ripped through her tone.

“Are you hearing this shit, Seb?” Bleak asked, and then
she
was concerned for
his
sanity until she remembered the earpiece he was both listening and speaking through.

“Yeah, Bastian. You hearing this? Stay as far away from this shit as you can. I’ll get Bleak out, you get my sisters to safety, and we’ll all meet up. Piper knows the way to safety. I’ll be right behind ya’ll,” Sky said urgently as she made her way on all fours back to her bedroom.

King crawled beside her as Bleak brought up the rear.

“He says, ‘Fuck that.’ And that’s a direct quote. He says that you better hole up somewhere safe and that if even one strand of hair on your head—that’s just corny, Seb—is hurt that he’ll whip that ass when he catches up to you,” Bleak relayed.

Sky stopped on a dime when a sound coming from outside sent chills up her spine.

“King. Belay,” she said in a hard whisper.

“He climbs mountains too? Wonder dog to the rescue,” Bleak whispered sarcastically.

“No. It means ‘wait’ to King. He’ll stand guard until we’re out, and then he’ll follow. King knows that if something happens to him, I’ll wait until I can get him before leaving. He knows he’s that important to me. He also knows that if he’s in my way, he could get hurt. He’s a good dog—he’ll belay.” She moved to her right.

“Bleak,” Sky called to him, and he crawled beside her.

“Yeah Ultraviolet? What’s up now?” Bleak said with a grin.

“You couldn’t come up with anything better than that?” she asked him right before her breath left her as a wave of pain seized her from the inside out.

The UV light fractured her control of the energy around her. Entropy raged within her body, and the very real struggle of the universe to reverse that condition caused Skylar great pain as the fight of chaos versus order played out within her.

“Sky!” Bleak practically yelled. “Sebastian. She’s out—what the fuck, man? There’s nobody in here with us, and she just passed out.”