It was awesome.
By the time we were finished and had hauled everything into the entry, we were completely exhausted. While Jill was distracted we had weighed the risks of taking the family car, in case the police were already looking for it, versus trying to get to the Warren on foot with a little kid, in case they were already looking for us. We had finally decided to just take the car.
“Remember to be quiet,” Joss told Jill. “Go right to the car, get in, get your seatbelt on. Let us worry about the bags.”
“I heard you the first three times!”
Joss opened the door. Eric and Kat were standing on the doorstep.
“Looks like you guys need a ride,” Eric said.
“How—?” Joss started to ask.
“Jill called me,” Kat told her. The look of sympathy she gave Joss said that Jill had filled her in on a lot.
“I told you guys I was going to call everyone I’ve ever met. Can we go to the sleepover now?”
* * *
Marco
It’s gonna be a good day, I thought as I sat on the stoop outside my apartment building and lit a cigarette. I was in a good mood, not even pissed that Tony was late picking me up, even though this was probably the one day all year that I actually wanted to go to school. He would have gone to Trina’s first, and maybe she had a hair out of place she had to go back in and fix, or maybe they were sitting in her driveway slobbering over each other. Either way he was late, and I was having a hard time getting pissed about it. Because I was just that happy.
Today was the day I was gonna fuck up Dylan’s shit. Joss’s too. I mean, that was going to be fucking great, seeing that bitch hauled off to jail. Maybe I’d even get to watch them put her in the car to take her to State School. That would be awesome. But what I was really looking forward to was seeing Dylan’s face when they cuffed her—I really, really hoped they’d cuff her right there in school—seeing that moment when he realized they were totally fucked and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. I wanted him to look at me, realize that I did this, see how he’d fucked his shit all up because he chose wrong.
A car pulled to the curb and I almost got up, but it was Eric’s car. What the hell? I stayed where I was. I wasn’t as pissed at Eric as I was at Dylan. We didn’t have the same kind of history. He didn’t owe me like Dylan did. And Eric’s Talent was useful, but there were other ways to start cars. Now Dylan’s Talent, that I could really use, and he was just wasting it. Anyways, I wasn’t as pissed at Eric, but he was still a dick who’d made the wrong choice when Dylan split.
“What do you want?” I asked when he was close enough to hear me.
“I need you to call it off.”
“Call what off?”
Tony pulled up and got out of the car. Trina stayed in the front seat.
“Call those merchants and tell them to back off, keep their mouths shut. Tell them any of them goes through with the plan, goes to the police, there’s gonna be consequences.”
“What’s goin’ on?” Tony demanded, looking down on Eric with a threat in his eyes. Not like I needed Tony swaggering in to defend me, but it was cool.
“Eric’s telling me I need to call off the plan for today. Tell the business owners to keep their mouths shut.” I snorted and flicked ash toward Eric. “Now why the fuck would I do that and how the fuck did you even know about it?”
“Second question: I know because Joss and Dylan know. They always find out about your shit. It’s because you’re an amateur.”
“Tony, call up that business association guy, the one who owns the theater, what’s his name?”
“Burkhart.”
“Yeah, that guy. Call him up and have him add Eric’s name to the list.”
“Yeah, Tony, you go ahead and do that. Here, take this so you can get it right.” He pulled out his wallet and handed it to Tony who flipped it open. “That should answer your first question.”
Tony looked at it and snorted. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Is that what they’re handing out in Cracker Jack boxes now?”
“Let me see.” I snatched the wallet from Tony. It was a picture ID of Eric, Eric Wilson from the National Institutes for Ability Control. And there was a badge. I laughed. “Good one. Why do you even have this stupid thing?”
“So when I finally get bored of playing with you idiots, call my boss, and this town gets swarmed with agents to round you up, I can identify myself.”
“Yeah, right.” I threw it at him. “Make the call.”
“You don’t believe me.”
“Hell no I don’t believe you, moron.”
“Tony,” he threw it at my cousin who caught it by reflex, “before you make that call to that Burkhart guy, call the number on the back of the ID. Ask them if Eric Wilson’s their undercover agent at Fairview High. I mean, we could go in and see Mr. Dobbs instead. He could confirm my identity and he would love be able to tell some more people he works for NIAC, trust me. But we don’t have time for that.”
“Wait. Wait wait.” That got my attention. “How do you know Dobbs is working for NIAC?”
“Well I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say he’s working for them.” Eric rolled his eyes. “I don’t know if they would either. But he’s on the payroll.”
“I know he’s on the payroll. I’m asking you how you know it.”
“Do we need to rewind back to the part where I showed you my badge? You’re getting it now, right? I mean, it’s sinking into your thick gorilla skull that NIAC has people here. It’s not a stretch for you to understand they put people into schools where they think there are a bunch of Talents hiding to get closer, learn their secrets, ferret them all out. I’m that guy, dude.”
“You’re a narc,” Tony said.
“Am I talking to myself here? Yeah, I’m an undercover fucking NIAC agent and I am telling you to call off your stupid little shit plan involving Joss and Dylan and to do it right now before you blow my entire operation. Do it now!”
“Do it,” I told Tony. “Call Burkhart and call it off.”
“But Vivian—”
“Shut up. Just shut your mouth and do what I tell you.” This wasn’t happening. This just was not fucking happening. But what if it was? “If I’m wrong about this maybe we lose a day and we’ll put the plan into action again tomorrow. If I’m not, then what happens if Tony doesn’t make this call?” I asked Eric.
“You’ve fed the merchant association a bunch of stuff to tell the cops about Joss and Dylan—and other kids, too—including outing them as Talents, right? You do that, it goes right to NIAC and they’re coming to town. Now I’m having fun here, and I’m not done having fun yet. I like it here. You’re about to fuck that up for me, dick me out of the cushy little life I got goin’. If my bosses show up, I’m going to have to have something to show for my time, and you’d better believe that you, your cousin, and your whole crew are gonna be on the top of that list.”
I stood up, took a step toward him. “And if I kill you right now?”
He smirked. “Yeah, ’cause I don’t have any kind of plan for that. I’m a professional you idiot. I’ve got your names on a list. If I don’t make my next contact, the list goes to NIAC. It’s that simple.”
“But you already know about us. You’re already planning to turn us in.”
“But I haven’t done it yet.”
Tony grabbed Eric’s arm. “Take our names off the list. Mine, Marco’s, my girlfriend, Trina. Take us off the list and we’ll give you the Syndicate.”
“What?”
“Shut the fuck up, man.”
“Marco,” Eric said, completely on alert, “all it takes is one phone call and you’re on my last nerve. Tony, tell me what you’re talking about right now.”
“We got Syndicate contacts, came down from Banner. They’ve been working with us. Kind of…grooming us, you know?”
“I need names and locations.”
“Don’t fucking do this, Tony,” I warned him.
“Marco, Trina and I are off the list,” Tony said to Eric.
“Trina wasn’t on the list, but she will be now if you don’t give me those names. But yeah, you give me the Syndicate, I’ll let the three of you walk.”
Tony smiled. The dumb fuck. Like anything was that easy. “Vivian. Vivian Chambers. She’s been posing as the school nurse. She’s got two guys with her, Richie and Poe. I don’t know their last names. They’ve got a couple rooms at the Wayside, down by highway.”
A grin was spreading across Eric’s face and then he burst out laughing. “Dobbs’s girlfriend is fucking Syndicate? I knew that was too messed up to be true. I see order in the Universe again. Make the call, Tony.”
Tony didn’t even look to me before he started scrolling through his phone for the number, and that fucking pissed me off. “What now?” I asked Eric.
He shrugged. “I don’t care what you do as long as you keep your mouths shut about me. Someone finds out who I am, I’ll know who told them and our deal’s off.”
“How do we know our deal’s really on?”
“You’re just gonna have to trust me.”
* * *
Joss
“Can you get games on that thing?” Eric asked.
“Ooh yeah, can I play?” Jill sat forward but was yanked back again. “Ow!”
Kat tugged on the French braid she was working once more for good measure. “Oh no, little girl, we’re not done here. You wanted slumber party, that means I get to braid some hair. Your sister’s next,” she threatened me.
“I’d like to see you try.” Not like I really cared. I mean, it might be okay for Kat to braid my hair, I guess. But I had a persona to uphold.
“Grayson! Games?” Eric repeated.
Rob looked up from his laptop and adjusted his glasses. “Can I get games?” It was almost like he didn’t understand the question. Probably more like he was having trouble switching gears, switching from whatever communication he used with the machine to speaking to actual people. I could kind of relate. “Yeah. I can get anything. But not right now. I’m still waiting for news and I’m trying to boost reception. It sucks down here.”
“How does that thing work, anyway?” I asked. “The…wireless thingy. You sure they can’t track that?”
“Naw, it’s cool. It’s a wireless modem. It’s like a cell phone, right? You subscribe to it but instead of letting you talk to people, it lets your computer talk to the web.”
“So…if you’re subscribed to it, then can’t someone follow your subscription to your device, to you sitting here in the Warren where we’re trying to hide?”
“They could, if they connected the subscription to me. Which they won’t, because I paid attention to what you said, Miss Joss.”
I rolled my eyes. “Finally, somebody actually listens to me.” I was pretty sure I just got sassed by the biggest geek in Fairview, but I was okay with that.
I glanced over at Heather who was trying to hide a grin, and trying to look like she was looking at the magazine Maddy and Elizabeth were passing back and forth when she was really watching Rob out of the corner of her eye. Girl has it baaaaddd.
Her head snapped to me and she glared.
Hey, I’ve been there, I thought to her, glad my friends were back to talking to me again. I guess however pissed off they were about my inability to behave like a human or whatever, it wasn’t something they couldn’t overcome in a crisis. They’d both come around when Jill called, which was cool of them. And besides it being good to have my friends back right now, it also would have been hella awkward for us to all be stuck down here in this little room and them still mad at me.
Rob was still explaining the process he’d gone through to cover his tracks with the whole wireless thingy subscription. He was the smartest one here and I kinda felt like I didn’t need the details.
“This is the most boring-ass skip day ever,” Eric groaned.
I thought about how, after all that grief Kat had given me, I’d had to bring him into the Warren anyway, whether Heather could vet him or not. Because now that everyone Marco thought of as connected to me was threatened and we were hiding out here, it’s not like I could leave him outside on some crazy possibility that he was the mole. I’d never forgive myself if he got caught up in the arrests and sent to State School while I was covering my ass and playing it super safe. Using the Warren was kind of a compromise, because I really did think someone knew about it who wasn’t supposed to, so I’d be pretty much done with it after this. Still, it had a few different escape routes, plus the supplies. It was the best place I had to hide.
“Hold on, I think I’ve got something! Oh, come on, don’t crap out on me now,” Rob muttered at the thingy, holding his glowing hand over it. “Okay, breaking news, ‘Fairview PD announced the arrests—’”
I think my heart fell into my stomach or something, sure that he was saying I’d forgotten someone, that I’d left someone on the outside. Jessica? Raine and Lakota? Tim? Oh God, I told Tim he couldn’t—
“‘—of three known members of the Banner Syndicate. The Syndicate, an offshoot of organized crime which primarily employs ability-affected persons in its operations…’ Yeah, yeah, tell us stuff we don’t know…”
“Yes!” Eric practically screamed, leaping up from his seat. I nearly jumped out of my skin from the change in tension. “It fucking worked! I can’t believe it fucking worked! High five!”
Matt put up his hand with a what the hell are you talking about? look on his face that we were pretty much all wearing, and Eric slapped it so hard I’m sure he felt it all the way up to his shoulder.
“‘Mayor Davies, during a barrage of questions by reporters at City Hall today, commended Police Commissioner Colin Stuart and the Fairview Police Department for the arrests but delayed further comment pending a press conference later this afternoon. When asked for comment, Commissioner Stuart referred to an anonymous tip delivered to the department early this morning and promised more details at the press conference.”
“Anonymous tip! That was me! Yeah, baby!” Eric was practically dancing now as he smacked hands with Dylan.
Kat jumped up. “Zo my God!! You are so completely awesome!” she screamed as she threw herself at him. Naturally a public display ensued that was really too graphic for my little sister to watch, but we were all still too stunned to do anything about it. Except maybe for Rob who kept skimming through the article and reading out the high points.
“‘Superintendent Perkins and Principal Riley both refused to comment on how a Syndicate member came to be employed as a nurse at the school, but an anonymous source within the school board offices reports that a full-scale investigation into the procedures surrounding the hiring of Vivian Chambers is being launched.’”
“Is it really wrong that I kinda want to leave you guys and take my invisible self to the Principal’s office right now?” Dylan asked, grinning.
“If I could be a fly on the wall, I’d totally be there,” Matt agreed. “Oh man, she is totally screwed!”
“And we’re not,” Heather said, probably because she got that it wasn’t really about hating the administration so much as it was about the immense relief that it was them and not us.
I still wasn’t quite ready to believe it.
Eric was talking about how he had dropped Kat off at her house to pack her stuff and then came up with the idea to use Marco’s plan, but to pin it on the Syndicate instead. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I mean, I knew it was a long shot. If I was too late, if the merchants had already gone to the police, we were pretty much screwed anyway, right? But I just thought that if I called the cops and said, ‘Look! Talent Mafia!’ they’d fall all over themselves running in that direction.”
“Ugh, I hate that term, ‘Talent Mafia,’” Elizabeth said.
“A-men,” Rob agreed.
“Anyway,” Eric said, seemingly annoyed they’d commented during his story, “the important thing is that it worked.”
/> “But why didn’t the merchants go through with it?” I asked.
“Maybe they did and the cops believed criminals with Syndicate ties over local kids, I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Maybe they went in to do their thing, the station was buzzing over the info I gave them, maybe they decided to back off and wait. ’Cause your dad’s one of them, right? They all know you and your family and stuff, I’m sure they didn’t want to turn you in.”
“That could be it,” Matt agreed.
“What with you being so enchanting and all,” Dylan added in my ear. I gave him an elbow in the gut.
“So does this mean we can go home?” Elizabeth asked.
“I don’t know what we should do,” I said slowly, trying to reason it out. “I kind of don’t want to leap to any quick decision, you know? It seems like it’s too early to say we’re safe. But then if nothing’s going to come of it for us, it’s pretty suspicious that we’re all missing at the same time. One day’s bad enough, but…”
Maddy shrugged. “So we’ll stay together tonight and look at tomorrow tomorrow. We’ll do the all night study sleepover thing.” At my blank look she rolled her eyes. “We have a big test we have to study for, Heather’s tutoring us and we’re sleeping over her house. Except for Heather who’s sleeping over Kat’s house. And the boys are getting tutored by Rob. And Rob’s sleeping over Dylan’s house.”
“On a school night?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“It’s for our education! Yeah, trust me, this is not a new thing.”
“Yay! We get to have the sleepover even though we’re not going to jail!” Jill exclaimed, jumping on Dylan. “Does this mean we can go out for ice cream now?”
“I think ice cream dinner is totally mandatory,” he told her.
Chapter 16