Veil of Justice, Shadows of Justice Book 3 (7 page)

More cursing, a swerve, and then fresh air
tickled his nose as he managed to unzip the body bag just a little.
He celebrated the minor victory.

"What the hell’s going on?" Kristoff shouted
through the cab window.

Nathan pictured the window sliding closed and
it slammed obediently. If any of his facial muscles could move,
he’d be smiling ear to ear.

His paralyzed body sloshed within the bag as
the ambulance dipped and heaved. Nathan wondered at the cause, but
stuck to his plan. He flipped latches that held cabinets closed and
sent items sailing about, slapping them against the window he'd
closed on Kristoff.

He imagined letting the air out of a tire and
soon the ambulance was fishtailing. When the ambulance rumbled to a
stop, several raised voices told him it wasn't nearly enough.

"Come on back here and play!" He willed the
thought to reach someone, but no one seemed affected.

Damn. He couldn't let Kelly deal with this
alone. He focused on the power locks and windows. Envisioning a
memory from auto shop about standard wiring, Nathan severed the
connections. The result was lots of pounding and rocking. He
reveled in another small measure of success.

"Good one. Thanks!"

Kelly! He wanted to believe, but he didn't
let down his guard. Kristoff was capable of most anything.

"You've done great, Nathan. Now let’s get you
out of here."

Her voice sounded close, but he didn't want
to hope for the impossible. He was scared it was another affect of
Kristoff's drug.

Then he felt her small hands working him free
of the body bag and the straps holding him to the gurney. "Hurry,"
he thought. Then he realized things had gone too quiet. "Where's
Kristoff?" he wondered.

"Indisposed. We have a little time."

How did she do that? Wait. "You can hear
me?"

"You've been in my head for months,
Nathan."

Of course that was true, but she'd been so
quiet in these last hours. Resuming the easy telepathic
communication with Kelly went a long way to restoring his
confidence.

If they got out of this, he'd unravel how she
kept him out so effectively. At the moment he just appreciated how
she spoke aloud, treating him like the man he hoped to be again.
Soon.

"It's Paracuron."

I figured as much. I'm going to give you
something that should help counter the effect."

"How do you know about Paracuron?"

"Give me some credit." He felt her fingers
opening his mouth, felt something cool dissolve on his tongue. It
was minty – and very bizarre to notice that detail. "I learned a
lot when your sister was attacked by Kristoff last spring."

Panic lanced his chest like a bolt of
lightning. Fear and dread swamped him in waves and he was helpless
to express any of it. He felt like he was choking.

"Relax, Nate." Her warm hand stroked gently
across his forehead, then down around his face, to soothe tension
in his neck. "Relax. You know she’s fine."

Nathan wanted to cheer, but the moment was
broken by Kristoff’s fury pouring from the cab in a string of vile
threats.

So much for the Mr. Helpful routine.

Above him, he felt Kelly scrambling. He heard
equipment scrape against the gurney, and then a loud hiss drowned
out Kristoff. Finally the cab window slid shut again.

"I used the sedative vapor. Unfortunately
he’ll be just as mad after his nap. You know what they say about
the nature of the beast."

Actually, he didn’t, but he didn't care
either. "I still can’t move."

"I got that, Nate. Give that powder another
minute?"

"Where's Simon?"

"Indisposed. By this time he might be
Leavenworth's newest resident."

"They'll know he's not me."

"Wouldn't count on that. I looked into their
records. Corrupt doesn't begin to cover it. If having Simon means
they have the right head count, and don't have to report a
successful escape, they might go with it."

It sounded absurd to him, but she was so
confident.

"You know you're not holding up your end of
the bargain," she said with serious irritation.

"Wait for daybreak."

"I’m kidding. Mostly. Hang tight one second
while I move the car."

He desperately wanted to see her after all
this time communicating only telepathically. He blinked, then
blinked again when his eyelids actually cooperated, revealing the
ambulance roof in its messy reality. So much better than his
memories!

"Kelly!" What he'd intended as a shout came
out more like an asthmatic rasp.

No answer. He tried to quell the dread of
being alone again. Though his major muscle groups were still
offline, working eyelids and vocal chords were awesome. He
struggled to see his fingers, determined to make them wiggle, but
nothing happened. How the hell was she going to get him out of
here?

"You should leave me," he said, hearing her
climb back into the ambulance. Of course, he regretted the
gallantry the instant he saw her.

She was beautiful. Her eyes, nearly black,
were absolutely captivating. He could ignore the dark smudges of
grime on her face and dust in her hair –

"You'd better stop or I'll swoon."

Whoops. He hadn't meant to be so open.

"I'm not sure you can be anything else at the
moment. Got any feeling in your legs yet?"

He shook his head. Then realized what he'd
done.

"Is that supposed to be a smile?" she teased.
"Here's the plan. I'm taking the stretcher out, dropping it and
shoving you into the car."

"Such thoughtfulness and care. Now I might
swoon."

She laughed and he marveled that she could in
the midst of this ridiculous stress. He was immediately grateful
for her warning as the gurney bounced and jarred him head to toe.
He tried to smooth the way with his telekinesis. It was easier with
his vision back, and he was soon settled in the passenger seat,
feeling content. Then she stole his breath and all coherent thought
when she leaned that sweet, power packed body across his chest to
buckle his seatbelt.

"I’m just strapping you down for safety while
I drive us out of here."

In the next moment, she was behind the wheel
and the Mustang was roaring away. He closed his eyes, trying to
hide grateful tears, and soon he was asleep.

* * *

"Jaden, wake up!"

Jaden was on her feet and alert before he
sister finished speaking. "You've found them." Not a question. She
rolled her shoulders and lit up the map board. "Where?"

Petra waved to Jaden's attention to the
holograph. "Leavenworth. The alert you set to go off if Dad's codes
were breached."

She paused to absorb that. "You're sure it's
Kelly and Nathan? Are they okay?"

"No idea. I only know they're alive because
Kristoff is after them."

"I thought you killed Kristoff."

Petra shook her head. "You wish. I just
sidelined him."

"You've been in contact with him all this
time?"

"Of course not," Petra snapped. "He's been
hiding himself from me as well as the authorities."

Jaden shook her head. She still didn't quite
get all that her sister could do with her mind, preferring to use
weapons she could see, hold and apply as needed.

"Now I'm using the back door he built into my
head against him."

Jaden silently wished for Gideon, Petra's
husband to appear. A warrior himself, he made her feel a bit more
secure around Pet's odd talents for empathy and flying through
space without her body.

"You've got the worried face, Jaden."

"I've earned it." She gave up trying to
smile. "Tell me what to do." Her cell card skittered on the table.
"Hang on." She glanced at the display and groaned. "Who texts these
days? Except for you," she amended. Petra was nothing if not in
touch with the retro side of technology. Speed Voice was so much
more efficient for short messaging. Unless you didn't want to be
overheard.

On that thought, she slid her cell card
through the receptor on her keyboard and set the holographic map as
the monitor so Petra could keep up.

'Sending intercept coordinates and
antidote.'

A stream of numbers poured forth, followed by
an odd list of what looked like Latin. It was all laid out in white
text on a black background that blanked the map from Texas to North
Dakota.

"Hit record, save, whatever," Petra scrambled
for her pen and notebook and started to copy the words.

Jaden secured the data and started to send a
reply.

"Don't."

"Okay." Sometimes it was a little creepy that
Petra could read her like that. "What do you want me to do?"

Jaden tried to be patient, but her foot
started tapping long before Pet answered.

"Gideon's on his way with the Commandant.
We'll plan an intercept. If I can find Lorine, she can start
brewing an antidote for Nathan."

"He's been poisoned?"

Petra nodded, still making notes. "Shot with
Paracuron, most likely, based on the counter agents listed."

"Nathan plus Paracuron equals we can't stay
here." Jaden did a slow circle, taking in the library her husband
had set up in their reconfigured warehouse. The upper levels were
home and the lower levels provided studio rooms for various martial
arts and fitness instruction. She had excellent security but no lab
capabilities. "Slick Micky's our best option."

"But-" Petra protested, then thought it
through, agreeing with Jaden. "I'll notify Gideon. We have to move
fast or Kristoff will be hardwired into him for life."

Which meant Nathan's life would be short.

FOUR

A lie gets halfway around the world before
the truth has a chance to get its pants on. Winston Churchill

Kelly headed west, periodically checking the
mirrors and craning her head to the sky. So far, no visual or
audible pursuit. Maybe they’d been lucky and Simon had fed his dark
urges by eviscerating Kristoff. Eliminating a genetics expert who
preyed on desperate, infertile couples in order to manipulate the
gene pool could only make the world a better place.

"You’re not judge, jury or executioner," she
reminded herself aloud.

"Why not? We both know he's guilty."

Kelly rolled her eyes. Like she needed
company in her brain at the moment.

"You're just grumpy." Thankfully, Nathan used
his voice this time. "Where are we?"

"Not sure. You haven't been out that long.
We're still too close to Leavenworth to stop." She was looking for
a safe place to hide and rest.

Nathan tried to sit up, but his muscles were
still useless. "What's the navigation gadget say?"

"Nothing useful unless you can make it find
the farm house I lost. There aren't a lot of paved options out
here."

He tried to keep his thoughts to himself, but
he failed.

"I did have a plan," she snapped. "It blew up
in my face when they made you dead. Now stay out of my head so I
can think alone."

He didn’t like the dead concept any more than
staying out of her head. "Two heads are better than one," he
teased.

"You're in good spirits for a guy who can
hardly move."

She was right. "The fresh air helps. Can you
roll down my window?" The car weaved a little on the road as she
reached across him to comply. He tried not to enjoy the soft press
of her body. It wasn't entirely a sexual attraction. He simply
craved all the little things he'd been denied in solitary
confinement. Like conversation and casual human contact.

"We'll have to talk later," Kelly said.

Nathan sensed her spike of tension. He tried
to move his head, to get a view of the trouble, but the Paracuron
still had a tough hold on him.

Kelly swore and doused the headlights. Nathan
fell to the side as she whipped right, turning onto a rutted dirt
lane carved between harvested fields. She righted him and swore
again.

"What is it?"

"There's no such thing as cover anywhere out
here," she complained. The field behind them burst to life with
searchlights from an approaching helicopter. The beat of the rotors
grew louder, pounding after them like a charging army.

"Company. Can you do anything about it?"

She waited, but nothing happened.

"Not yet," he said, sounding as pissed off as
she felt.

She leashed her temper, promising herself he
wouldn’t be debilitated forever. More lights, headlights now,
sparked to life behind the Mustang. They had to be closing in on
the main road where she could really open it up and let the Mustang
outrun the pursuers. At the moment, she struggled with the manual
transmission and the uneven terrain.

"Let me drive."

She was sure she’d heard wrong. Let him
drive? The man couldn't turn his head. "I've got this."

The wheel jerked out of her grip, proving he
could
handle it.

"You are insane." Or maybe she was.
Inexplicably she eased her grip and let him try.

"Envision the route you planned."

He was back in her head, but there wasn't
time to be bothered by it. Hands hovering over the wheel, she
focused on the terrain surrounding the prison, trying to give him a
bird's eye view of the map she'd memorized.

"Good girl."

She screamed when the searching beam sliced
through the field ahead of the car. The rotor wash of the chasing
helicopter pressed on the roof. At home there would be a thousand
hiding places. Crevices, tunnels or niches to blend with or tuck
into. Here, there was only more flat, open exposure.

"Hang on!"

To what
? Kelly’s heart bumped her
spine and her hands grappled for anything as the car did a
one-eighty, zipped between two pairs of headlights then pulled a
hard right into a cornfield.