Chapter Forty
Carter
Last time, Ingram had paid Yun’s little friend a visit on his own. I didn’t personally like scaring guides, so it had seemed a better plan. That had been about intimidating him, though. It had been a good little light-hearted threatening between friends.
This time it was serious, as shown by all four of us sitting inside his trailer, waiting.
“He eats yogurt,” Ingram said, lip lifted in disgust.
“What kind?” Kenyon asked.
“Orange creamsicle.”
“Oh, I love that flavor! Give it here.”
Ingram tossed a small container to Kenyon, followed by a spoon from Kaidan’s kitchen. Kenyon happily opened the yogurt and took the first bite just as the door opened.
Kaidan didn’t even pause as he came in and saw us.
If I didn’t hate him so much, I might have liked him. I respected that sort of confidence. Something about a person who had absolute faith in themselves had always amused me, after all. It was the way I lived my life—or at least the way I wanted to portray.
In the same way I doubted Kaidan actually felt that sure, but he put on such a good show of it that I had to respect him.
“I don’t recall inviting any of you in.”
“And I don’t recall asking,” I answered, smiling.
Kaidan let his gaze move over each of us, appearing entirely unimpressed, though when he spotted Kenyon eating his yogurt—loudly—he at least appeared annoyed. “Ingram already threatened me once. If you’re here to do it again, can we please get it over with? I’ve had a long day.”
He did appear tired, not that I gave much of a shit about his comfort.
“What’s going on with Yun?” I asked, instead of worrying about him. He could take care of himself—he wasn’t our problem.
That got him to hesitate.
Which told me what I already suspected—he knew exactly what I was talking about.
“What do you mean?” He came in further, acting as though he didn’t care about the conversation.
“You know exactly what I mean. She confides in you, so you’ll know what’s bothering her.”
He went to the fridge, opened it, then frowned. “Did you really have to eat the last one?”
Kenyon held it up. “There’s half left. You want to finish it?”
“No, thank you. The last thing I want is to risk contracting anything you all might have.”
I respected his sharp tongue, though his barb didn’t land. It took a lot more than that to get under my skin, especially when we had something serious to discuss.
“We’re not leaving,” I said.
“Why would I ever betray Yun by telling you all anything? You’re the cause of all this.”
That had me sitting up straighter.
“Are you saying something’s happening to her because of us?” Kenyon asked around a mouthful of yogurt.
Kaidan focused on Ingram. “I warned you that you’d end up hurting her, that she’d destroy herself for you. I told you that was going to happen.”
“Don’t fucking blabber bullshit and just tell us,” Ingram snapped. “We’re fucking here because we want to help, because we want to do something about it. So stop wasting our time and get to the god damned point already.”
Kaidan crossed his arms, finally appearing bothered by us. He turned his gaze to Shear. “Mr. Yorn.”
I didn’t know the name personally, but the immediate mental chill that rushed through the room said Shear did.
Shear rose as though to leave, but I grabbed his arm. “Sit down.” I pointed at Kaidan. “And you, get to the point.”
Kaidan pinched the bridge of his nose, his shoulders sinking in defeat. “You knew that once the Guild found out about her powers they weren’t going to just let it go.”
“They can’t break the contract.”
“No, but they can worm around it. They brought Mr. Yorn in.”
“And who the fuck is that?” Ingram asked.
“He runs Obsidian,” Shear whispered.
Which explained Shear’s reaction. Even I didn’t know much about Obsidian, never asked Shear about it, but his reaction told me enough.
“So he’s been sniffing around her?” Ingram palmed a dagger, rolling it around in his grasp, a sure sign he wanted to deal with the problem himself.
“Not sniffing around, no. He’s been experimenting and testing on her.”
“What?” I asked, sitting up straight. Rarely did something take me by complete surprise, but that sure as fuck did. “Not possible.”
“You know, of all the things I dislike about espers, I think the arrogance gets me the most. How can you say that isn’t possible? Are you with her every moment?”
“No, but—”
“But what? You’re certain that she’d tell you? You’re certain no one would ever get one over on you?” Censure filled his tone, as though he wanted to make damn sure we felt as small as he viewed us.
However, despite my immediate rejection, I hated that he might have been right. She had been away from us, doing training with other guides. I’d thought that we’d know, but would we have?
I wasn’t as sure as I wanted to be.
“How long?” Kenyon asked, instead of fighting the idea. Then again, he’d always been the best at changing his mind. Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as we said…
“I don’t know, but I believe the first time was when she went for the sleep study.”
“That long?” I considered that, nearly two weeks ago. “Why didn’t she tell us?”
“Because he threatened us,” Shear said.
“You knew?” I snarled his way, the idea that Shear would have not done anything to stop it driving my temper nearly out of my control.
“Of course not,” he answered. “I just know Mr. Yorn and I know Yun. If he’d threatened her, she wouldn’t have gone along with it, but Mr. Yorn is good at finding the pressure point for people, at manipulating them, and he has the power to reach further than most know.
For Yun to agree, to keep quiet, he must have threatened us—possibly me, given our past.”
I curled my hands into fists, the muscles of my forearms aching from the pressure, from the need to do something right that moment.
“He’s right. He said that if she didn’t do as he wanted, he’d make sure you all perished in The Pitt, that he’d send other espers after you in there. If the contract was broken, it wouldn’t matter what she chose. So she agreed to testing here in secret, to keep you all safe,” Kaidan said.
And, boy did I hate that. Failing her was one thing, but the fact she’d suffered in silence just to protect us?
Would anyone but my squad do such a thing for me? Even they’d keep me alive, but anything more?
“Well, that seems easy enough,” I said, knowing my smile held nothing friendly. “We kill him.”
The moment I said that, Shear went forward, falling from the couch and to his knees, clutching his head.
He gasped and shuddered, nearly convulsing.
“No,” he growled out. “Can’t hurt him.” The words didn’t sound like him, rough and torn from his throat.
He shook his head back and forth, nearly seizing.
Kaidan moved quickly, dropping down before Shear and cupping his cheeks. He forced Shear to look him in the eye, his movements confident, showing his skill as a guide.
Kaidan flinched, as though the action hurt him, but Shear calmed after a moment. It took another minute before Shear collapsed, unconscious.
“What the fuck was that?” Ingram asked, eyes wide.
“He has a hidden trigger in his mind. It was probably put there by another esper, and given what just happened, I have to assume Mr. Yorn did it,” Kaidan explained, hand still on Shear’s head. The soft energy of guiding filled the trailer, just enough to calm Shear.
Normally I’d have been pissed at the idea of anyone else guiding us, like it was a betrayal, but there were times it was unavoidable. I chalked this up as one of them.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“I’ve seen it before. It’s sometimes done to ensure compliance.
They can’t usually be widespread, meaning there is usually a pretty good limit to the control one can exert.
In this case, I’d guess it was placed to ensure Shear didn’t harm Mr. Yorn.
It was likely placed while he was at Obsidian.
He probably doesn’t even know it’s there. ”
“So we kill Mr. Yorn, and it’s a two birds one stone thing, right?” I asked, ready to end the fucker right then.
“Not necessarily. The fact that this happened at even the idea of harming him makes me think it’s a pretty deep trigger. I can’t say what will happen if Mr. Yorn is killed, especially if Shear knows it was done by any of you. It’s possible the trigger could cause irreparable damage to his mind.”
“Which means we have to find another option,” Kenyon said. “We can’t kill him, but we can’t let this keep going.”
“You can’t tell Yun you know, either,” Kaidan said. “She’s a horrible liar, and if Mr. Yorn finds out you know, he’s going to assume you’ll come after him. You don’t want that.”
I ran my tongue along the edge of my top teeth, my brain working faster than it possibly ever had before. I considered options and discarded them in seconds.
Can’t kill him.
Threaten him? No, he might have more control of Shear, and if he knows we’re after him, he’ll make another move.
Go to the Guild? No, they want the same thing he wants. We’ve learned they’ll throw us under the bus in a heartbeat already. Plus, they already seem to want us dead in The Pitt themselves, so they’ll be no help.
Take Yun and run? No, the Guild would never stop searching for us, and I don’t know that Yun would want to come. Can’t ask her to leave everything behind.
Finally, after so many options came and left, I settled on one.
“We can’t touch him, but he’s never the top of the chain.”
“You can’t mean…” Kaidan said. “That’s insane. No one would do that.”
“Well, we aren’t called Reject Squad for no reason. Might as well remind everyone why we earned that little nickname.”