Tremble (16 page)

19

Ben Simmons’s plane was scheduled to land at ten a.m. That didn’t leave a lot of time to plan.

“I don’t like this,” Mom said on the other end of the line. We’d settled in the field behind the airport and the sun was almost up. There wouldn’t be enough time for backup to get to us before Ben landed. They were too far away.

“I’m open to other options,” I said, waiting for someone—anyone—to give us something better to work with. Mom, Dax, Ginger, and Vince were on speakerphone, and Kale sat across from me. The only plan we’d come up with so far was for Kale to distract Kiernan and for me to mimic her, getting Ben out of sight before Denazen could get him out of the airport. But there were too many variables, and that made me nervous. Not to mention the idea of slipping into my sister’s skin made my stomach turn, and the physical cost of mimicking an entire person was hard on me. Normal stuff had become a piece of cake, but an entire person sapped my energy and left me vulnerable.

“Are you sure you can trust him?” Dax asked. “What if this is a ploy so Cross can get his hands on you?”

Kale laughed. “If I wanted to give her to Marshal, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Besides, I know all about you, Daxil Fleet. You can hear my voice. What do you think?”

Dax’s ability worked through sound. If Kale planned to double-cross us, Dax would know. “He’s telling the truth.”

Mom let out an audible sigh.

“You won’t make the flight, but if you guys leave now, you can be here not long after the plane lands. If this works, we’re gonna need a ride.”

“A ride? What did you do to my car?” Ginger growled in the background.

“Relax, its fine. I just…don’t have it at the moment.”

“We had to run,” Kale interjected. With a sidelong glance my way, he added, “Unfortunately, the car was probably impounded by the local authorities.”

“The car isn’t important at the moment,” Mom snapped. “We can leave now, but I need to know you’ll be all right. Do you think you can do this?”

Everyone asked me that lately.
Do you think you can do this
. The truth? I wasn’t sure, but I’d never let fear and doubt get in my way before. No reason to start now.

…

Ben’s flight was slightly delayed, and I still hadn’t decided if that was good or bad. Kale was pacing the room, the proof Aubrey promised—a CD he’d taped to the sink—now in his hand. He waved the thing back and forth, angry. “How is this supposed to show me the truth?”

I grabbed his arm. He was making me dizzy. “There’s information stored on it, I imagine. Something that will shed some light on things.”

Kale looked down at the disk in his hands with nothing short of pure suspicion. “Information?” He turned the disk over several times before sighing. “I suppose you know more about it than I do. I’ll have to take your word for it.”

We were camped in the out-of-order men’s room, conveniently right by the terminal where Ben was set to arrive. So far the coast was clear, but we didn’t have a good view from in here.

“I promise. As soon as we get back to the cabin, we’ll find out what’s on there.” I stole another peek around the corner, impatient. Doing nothing was making me crazy. “This is ridiculous, and I’m sick of waiting. There’s an easier way.” Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and concentrated on the flight attendant I’d seen getting ready to board one of the planes. The familiar tingle at the back of my neck and the shift in clothing—from comfortable jeans to restricting nylons and a stiff pencil skirt—told me the mimic was a success. When I spoke again my voice was different. Not entirely foreign, but it had more of a rasp to it.

I braced myself against the wall as a wave of fatigue washed over me. It only lasted a moment before passing, allowing me to stand on my own. “This way, I can go out and have a better look around. They could be out there somewhere, and we’d never see them from in here.”

I turned and started for the door, but Kale grabbed me. “What am I supposed to do?”

Kale could easily move through the room unseen if he wanted to—he just didn’t remember. “If you have to ask, then you’re probably safer staying put and waiting for me.”

He lifted his free hand to my face and ran his index finger along my cheek. “I get the feeling that you find trouble often.”

“How do you know it doesn’t find me?”

Finger trailing down to my chin, he tilted my head toward his, frowning. “No. I think I was right the first time.”

I slipped free and made my way out to the floor. The crowd was thicker now, which would make it easier for Denazen to hide. Passengers were coming down the escalator and I took the spot at the end of the hallway, following the lead of another attendant as she thanked passengers and wished them a safe trip home.

Clumps of people came and went, filing down the gangway and embracing their waiting loved ones. I waited as the crowd thinned and, after a few minutes, caught sight of a familiar mop of long dark hair and a weathered leather trench coat.

Aubrey stood in the back, and a few feet in front of him, Kiernan stood to the side. Looming on the outermost edge of the crowd were three additional agents. It wasn’t easy, but I was able to pick them out due to their trademark blue suits. If not for their clothing, they would have blended perfectly into the chaos.

When the last of the passengers trickled down, I started to panic. I’d seen a blurry picture of Ben next to his name on Ginger’s list, and no one even remotely resembling it had exited the plane. And I wasn’t the only one getting edgy. Kiernan rose on her toes, shooting Aubrey a worried look. He shrugged in return and started forward. He had a choice between me and another airline employee. Luckily, he made a beeline for me.

“’Scuse me,” he said, Kiernan coming up beside him. “We were waiting on a friend. Is everyone off the plane?”

“Is it possible your friend took another flight? Or maybe he’s already been through. Could he have been picked up by someone else?”

“Over my dead body,” Kiernan mumbled.

I pretended not to hear her and turned back to Aubrey. This was my opportunity to get them to leave. “You might want to check with the gate agents. They’ll know more than I would, I’m afraid.”

Aubrey nodded and turned, but Kiernan stayed put, staring down the hall. “You
sure
they’re all off?”

“I’m certain, yes,” I replied, fighting the urge to physically shove her in the other direction. It said a lot about my self-restraint—to be so close and still be able to resist decking her.

She hesitated, then turned to follow Aubrey, but it wasn’t fast enough. A hair-curling scream rocked the terminal, freezing everyone—including Kiernan and Aubrey—in place. The three of us whirled toward the gangway where two burly security officers escorted a tall guy in a bright red hoodie down the gangway.

A guy who looked freakishly like the picture in Ginger’s file.

“Let go of me,” he screamed, pulling against the taller officer’s grip. “I didn’t do anything!”

“What happened?” I asked when they reached the end of the hall. Kiernan and Aubrey waited off to the side for their chance to pounce.

“He went nuts halfway through the flight from Paris,” one of the officers said. “Started yelling about blood and brains or something.”

“Sent the entire cabin into an uproar. Everyone panicked,” the other said with a sneer. He gave Ben a good shake. “Police are on their way to have a little chat with him.”

They turned and started down the hall, and I followed. No way was I letting Ben Simmons out of my sight. With a quick glance over my shoulder, I saw Aubrey and Kiernan trailing behind. They obviously had the same idea I did.

Stopping, I turned to them and flashed my sweetest—or the attendant’s sweetest—smile. “We’ll take care of your friend and let you know what’s going on. There’s coffee and cookies in the lounge. Feel free to make yourself at home.”

Kiernan looked like she wanted to argue, but Aubrey put a hand on her shoulder and pulled back. I doubted they’d given up—or that there were any cookies to be had—but I needed to stall them. Hopefully this would buy Kale and me the time we needed to get Ben out of the building and to safety.

Security led Ben down a side hallway and into a room at the end. I hovered in the doorway as they cuffed him to a bar beside the small table and closed the door. “You boys seem to have this under control,” I said with a smile. “Call the office if you need assistance.”

I turned on my heel and started walking, headed in the opposite direction we’d come. Think. I needed to think. I was fairly confident I could take out one, but in order to do that I needed to get rid of the other.

Slipping inside the first door I came to, I found myself in a small waiting area. There was a couch and coffee pot as well as a slew of outdated garden magazines—no cookies, though. There was also a bathroom. I ducked inside and looked in the mirror. First thing that had to go were the clothes. The material hugging my skin twitched and changed, morphing from nylons and pencil skirt to the sturdy leather of combat boots and an itchy black police uniform.

It would have been easier to mimic an entirely new person, but it was too soon. I’d pushed myself recently, curious about my limits when it came to mimicking other people, and found that doing too much too soon would hurl me into the equivalent of a coma for two days straight. Crossing my fingers, I hoped there was still enough juice to change a few key features of my face and clothing.

No one particular in mind, I imagined it a bit puffier, lengthened just a smidge, framed by short dark brown hair and dark blue eyes. As I watched the mirror, my skin began to stretch and morph, taking the shape in my mind. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. My eyebrows were uneven, but no one would notice.

I hoped.

Now, instead of the flight attendant looking back at me from the mirror, there was a petite raven-haired woman with chipmunk cheeks and a chin that came to a bit of a point. Her eyes were blue—darker than Kale’s—and held a hint of mischief, her police uniform starched and clean. I sighed. Showtime. “Let’s go bag us a Supremacy kid,” I said to my new law enforcement reflection.

Out the door and back into the hall, I walked slowly but steadily back to the room where they were holding Ben. Just before I got there, I saw Kiernan stroll slowly past the other end of the hall. They knew where he was and were beginning to circle like vultures. I had to act fast. If it were possible, Kiernan was even more impulsive than me. Where I tended to stop and think things through, she would just charge in.

“Officer Debra Morgan,” I said before even thinking about it. Crap. That’s what I got for watching reruns! Dad never bothered with cable, and with Kale gone, I’d soaked up seventeen years’ worth in record time. Everything from disaster flicks to soaps. I’d moved onto Netflix and was currently working my way through the first season of
The Walking Dead
.

I held my breath and waited, hoping to God neither man was a
Dexter
fan. Casually glancing at the nametag of the man closest to me, I asked, “Which one of you is Spitz?”

He nodded and stood a little straighter. “That would be me.”

“My captain wants to see you. He’s waiting in the security office.”

He nodded again, once to me, then to his partner, then trekked down the hall toward the main terminal. I breathed a sigh of relief. I had no idea where the security office was, but hopefully it wasn’t too close. I needed a few minutes to get in and get out.

I inclined my head toward the door, hitching my thumbs through my belt like I’d seen the officers at the Blueberry Bean do a million times. Squaring my shoulders, I cleared my throat and said, “He in there?”

The remaining security officer waved me ahead. “Go for it. He’s bonkers. One minute he’s normal, the next he’s crazy. PCP if you ask me. Kid’s higher than a kite.”

Wonderful. Supremacy crazies were setting in. That would make things
so
much easier.

I held my breath and ducked into the room. Ben was sitting in the same place, forehead resting atop the table. When he heard the door, he twisted around without lifting his head. “Fantastic,” he groaned. “Don’t I at least get a phone call or something?”

I closed the door and crossed the room, kneeling beside him. “We don’t have a lot of time, so while this is going to be a sort of crash course in reality, I need you to listen. ’Kay?”

“Um, sure.” He picked up his head, attention divided between the door and me like he was waiting for the camera crew to bust in. Not long ago I’d felt the same way.

He seemed lucid, and I didn’t know how long it would last, so I took a deep breath and launched right in. “I know who you are—what you are.” I grabbed the chain of the handcuffs as he started to protest and slapped my other hand across his mouth. “Listen, remember? I know because you and I—we’re the same.”

In my hand, the cool metal chain grew lighter. More flimsy. My ability used to be limited by similar mass and size. Lately, I’d found the same laws didn’t apply. The metal chain-turned-paper crumbled in my hand and tore as I gave a good yank.

Ben gasped. “What the fu—”

I dragged him from the seat and covered his mouth. “Shh! Still talking here. Somewhere skulking around this airport is a handful of people looking to make you their bitch because of the brain-busting thing you can do. We have to get out of here before they find us because, trust me, you don’t want to meet them.”

He blinked, looking from his wrists to the door, and nodded. I removed my hand. “So you’re not a cop?”

I ignored his question and pointed to the corner of the room behind the door. “Get over there and stay out of sight. I’m opening the door.”

He hesitated but finally crossed the room, wedging himself into the corner like he was hoping this was all some bad dream.

I pulled open the door and leaned around the frame into the hall, motioning for the remaining security officer to come inside. When he did, his eyes traveled from the empty table to me with a slightly panicked gleam. He made a move toward the door, presumably to call for help. I darted forward to stop him, but something sent him flying back into the room. A second later the door slammed closed…