Chapter Nineteen
We had arrived at the gut-trusting phase.
Since the guys had been working across three different facilities, we were able to scratch two off the list. Antonio ruled out the Bronx right away.
It was just too eerily empty. If they were actually holding Luminaries there, the place would’ve been crawling with guards.
Brooklyn was out, too. Chris did report a ton of movement on some restricted floors, but luckily that was Robert’s building, and he was positive it wasn’t the right spot.
That left Connecticut. The word “cells” had been used openly there, and the facility was often busy with shift changes of uniformed Luminary guards. So here we were, waiting to hear back from Nick. One power test from him, and the plan was a go.
“Breathe, Annie!” I said as she paced the living room. “I’m sure we’d have heard if something went wrong by now. Robert is on it.”
“I know. I kno—oooh! It’s him.” She answered her phone. “Hello? Yes . . . Really? . . . I’m just glad you’re okay . . . See you later. Love you.”
“What happened?” I asked. “Please tell me it worked.”
“It worked.” Annie blew out a sharp breath. “He tried a small fireball and immediately put on his dampener. Nothing happened. No alarms, nothing.”
Well, that was that. We were right in our assumption that using powers inside their own facilities wouldn’t trigger any alarms. And with Kevin returning by morning, we’d have our friends back by the end of the week.
The plan was as simple as we could make it. But of course, plans usually had a mind of their own, so we could only hope for the best. We’d go to the Connecticut facility, Gabby would do her unblocking thing, and I’d try to sense Jenny, Andrew, and Beth.
“I’ll fuse out their ‘kill’ and ‘locator’ chips,” I said. “We’ll kick ass and escape. Hopefully, all of us in one piece. Easy peasy.”
“Oh, yeah, that sounds foolproof,” Kevin said, raising an eyebrow. “Jay, are you sure you can handle two powers at once?”
“Well, we have to go to the lab and test it out. In theory, it should work,” Jay said. “Annie will boost me, Ryan will magnify my powers, and I’ll hold on to both teleportation and the blocking field.”
I nodded. “The only thing we don’t know is how long you can hold on to them. We should test it, practice, infuse you, and then go back the next day to see if you’ve retained any of it.”
He shook his head. “That won’t work. Once the bracelet is on, it’s going to wipe everything. I never hold on to anyone’s powers after I wear the dampener. It makes me start back at zero.”
“Okay. If you have to choose, I’d rather you hold on to Gabby’s powers,” Annie said. “Regardless, we’ll have to do all the infusing and power mimicking on location.”
Nick tapped his watch. “Clock hits twelve and we’re on the move. There’s no stopping. By now, we’re each clear on our roles. Just stick to the plan as closely as possible.”
“Everything will be okay,” I said. “We’ll teleport to Opry Mills shopping center in Tennessee, and we’ll have the van waiting in the parking lot. We’ll put on our bracelets, change our clothing, get to the other cars, and escape separately.”
“You okay, Chris?” Kevin asked.
He stared at Gabby. “I need you to bring back the mother of my children in one piece. I cannot look them in the eye if their mother doesn’t return.”
Nick placed a hand on Chris’s shoulder. “We’ll get her back to you, and then we’ll work on what we discussed.”
“What’s that?” Gabby asked, looking at Chris.
“We really think that once we’re all together again, we should sit down and make a group decision on our powers. Most likely take the inhibitor shot.”
“The children especially,” Nick said. “We need to remove the targets off their backs.”
“It should be their choice when they’re older. It’s not up to us,” Annie said.
“But this will give them the freedom to live their lives.” He let out a long breath. “I think we should track down any Luminary we know might’ve had kids and at least offer them the shot. We’ll figure out permanent choices later.”
“We can keep them protected by dampening their powers if that’s what their parents want. But I agree we should do it for Jack,” she said. “If he even has powers. We won’t know until he’s older, but it should be up to him after he’s learned to control them.”
“And tell me, Annie, how is he supposed to learn to control any powers he might have? There’s no way to train him without setting off alarms.”
Annie’s jaw clenched as she stared at Nick. “There’s Gabby and Jay. They can create protective fields.”
“We’re just not going to agree.” Nick sighed. “But that’s a problem for another day. Let’s focus on this one for now.”
At that, Annie’s eyes tightened. She turned and walked out of the room.
The rest of us stayed behind and continued to plan our next moves.
I shifted in my seat, trying to ignore the ache spreading through my body.
I kept my expression neutral, refusing to let any of it show.
The last thing I wanted was to worry anyone.
Getting the job done was stressful enough without me adding to it.
I would do what I had to do . . . sick or not.
As planned, Robert dropped us off near the Connecticut facility exactly at noon on Friday.
I felt like a ninja in our getups, with only my eyes exposed.
I wasn’t sure if it was hard to breathe because of the tight fabric or sheer nerves, but keeping our identities hidden meant I just had to suck it up.
Besides, feeling claustrophobic was the least of my problems.
Since Nick had been working at this location, he had the code to get us through the door.
Robert had also managed to snag his boss’s keycard, which had higher clearance, and would hopefully get us into the cells.
The blueprints he’d found were most likely for this exact facility, but we hadn’t been able to confirm it.
Either way, we’d be cheating by using our powers, so we weren’t too worried. We slipped straight through the side door used by the janitorial crew. Even though we probably could have teleported inside undetected, we didn’t want to risk the extra exposure.
With a quick force field bubble by Gabby in place, Kevin zapped the cameras, and Annie and I infused everyone with boost and amplifying energy.
From there, we split up. Nick took the guys toward the offices near the exits to hunt for intel.
That left Annie, Gabby, and me to head straight for the cells, where I sensed Andrew immediately. Not the girls, though.
The whole thing seemed too easy. Even my aches had eased up. Though I didn’t want to question my good fortune, I was incredibly relieved not to have to push through the pain. They were all counting on me.
“I can’t sense Jenny or Beth,” I said. “But I can feel Andrew loud and clear.”
Panic flashed across Annie’s face for a split second before she shook her head. “We focus on him then. We’ll see what he knows, and depending on how much time we have left, we’ll regroup. If we have to come back another day for the girls, so be it. You two go, I’ll stand watch outside this area.”
Gabby and I found Andrew quickly. We couldn’t wake him, so we assumed he—and probably everyone else—had been heavily sedated. Honestly, it was probably for the best while I worked on short-circuiting his tracker and kill chips. At least the intel about the dual chips turned out to be true.
I reached out both hands, hovering them on either side of his head, and closed my eyes to concentrate.
Visualizing the intricate web of energy within him, I zeroed in on the individual chips.
A smile tugged at my lips as my own energy began to surge and sizzle in my fingertips.
I loved this feeling. It was exhilarating.
With a strong mental thrust, I sent sharp, precise bursts of power straight into each chip, zapping them into oblivion without harming a hair on Andrew’s head.
Because he was out cold, I couldn’t amplify him to get us out of there in his portal, nor could I carry him. So that was another change of plans.
I spoke into my earpiece. “Annie, we need you to help carry Andrew. He’s alive and well, but he’s unconscious.”
“On my way,” her voice crackled back.
“You don’t want to try healing him so that he wakes up?” Gabby asked.
“Something feels off. Maybe my senses are just overloaded, but I don’t want to mess with him yet.” The distinct sound of footsteps echoed from the end of the hallway. “She’s here.”
Annie slipped into the room and effortlessly hoisted Andrew up. There she was, a five-foot-nothing woman, carrying a man well over six feet like he was one of Jack’s toys.
“Chips?” she asked as we turned to go meet up with the others.
“Done,” I said. Then the alarm went off but was quickly drowned out by the noise of multiple fights breaking out. “Dammit!”
We followed the commotion, running to help the guys. With Andrew out of commission, we had to reach them fast so we could teleport out of there. Unfortunately, there were a lot of guards—some with powers, some without.
I stole a quick glance at Andrew. He was a tough cookie, but he’d been captured for a long time.
He had always looked like a bodybuilding champion, but now?
He was so thinned out that his frame looked wasted away.
I let out a breath as a sickening thought crept in .
. . If they could do this to his body, what had they done to his mind? What about the girls?
My only shred of hope was that Park had left Chris and the others alone so far, but that felt like a trap.
If they had broken any of them down enough to learn about our jump, biding their time would’ve been their best strategy.
Had Andrew and the girls really been strong enough to fight off years of torture and hypnosis, or was Park just waiting for the perfect moment to strike?
I tried to shake the thought away. The time for these questions was long gone.