I barely noticed that Bobby was hugging me, patting my hair, speaking…his words grew more distant as vague memories of my long-dead birth parents became crystal clear. Forgotten funerals flashed into my mind, and the scalding pain of loss ripped at my breaking heart. My birth parents lying on the street, a monstrous figure standing above them, ripping a ghost-like hand from the chest of one of their prone bodies—then turning to me as I attacked with a rage I had never felt before. Just before everything went black, the monster spoke.
You poor, helpless child. How does it feel to cause your parents’ deaths?
The memories brought back deeply hidden pain, then suddenly uncovered something more, something ten years had smothered but not squelched—ravenous, unavenged fury.
I didn’t cause my parents’ death. He did.
My hair fluffed and I snapped into the present. I pushed away from Bobby. “I’m not helpless anymore. I am a Psi Fighter.”
“Huh?” Poor Bobby looked very confused.
Suddenly, I understood what my birth parents felt when they learned I had been kidnapped by the Knights. They knew they’d be walking into a trap in Dead End Alley, but they were going anyway. Just like me.
Then it occurred to me that I didn’t have to stumble into this blindly. The note was bait, meant to lead me to Dead End Alley, not to Susie. Susie was being held somewhere else. All I had to do was find out where. Andy could scan the note for memory fragments. The answer would be there.
Suddenly I heard voices in the hall. Rubric and the Red Team.
Tammy Angel.
The answer might also be there.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Rinnie Unchained
“Bobby, get Rubric and Angel to follow you in here.”
“What are you doing?”
“Please, Bobby, before they get away. They can’t know I’m in here. Hurry.”
Bobby’s face became grim. “I’m all over it.” He rushed from the boiler room.
I opened my backpack and pulled on my mask and hoodie.
Bobby’s muffled voice came through the boiler room door. “Hey, the Idiot’s Convention came to town! They want you for mascots!”
Confident that Bobby had gotten their attention, I moved behind the boiler pipes, thinking he just might be Psi Fighter material one day. The boiler room door burst open and Bobby shot in. He flew around the boiler and out the other side.
Agatha Chew stomped in, followed by Tammy Angel and Rubric.
“Hey, pretty boy. We’re coming for you.”
I closed in behind them like a shadow, striking hard at a pressure point on Angel’s neck, then Rubric’s. They both dropped to the floor.
I concentrated, imagining my face to be a naked skull with burning eyes. I tapped my mask’s voice button and stepped into the light. Agatha’s eyes and mouth opened wide in silent fear. She gaped at Rubric and Angel unmoving on the floor, then at me. Her knees shook, and she covered her mouth with both hands.
“Don’t scream.” My electronically altered voice was haunting in that dark boiler room as I pounded delusions into her mind.
“I know,” Agatha whispered. “I saw what you did to Hollisburg when she screamed.”
“Who took the little girl this morning?”
“What g-girl?”
I drew my Amplifier and a Thought Saber burst out. I pushed the point slowly toward Agatha’s heart.
“I don’t know anything,” Agatha pleaded. “Please, you know I can’t lie to you.”
My free hand shot out and caught her by the jaw. Through my gloved hand, I felt fear. Concentrating, I drew Agatha’s memories. As her emotions poured into my head, I became her, feeling the things that she had felt. I felt pure horror as I watched Kathryn attacked by a man with a skull for a head. I felt disgust as Tammy Angel forced drugs on a little girl. I felt heartache when I shot Mummy’s Magic Mix into Peroxide’s mouth.
I pulled away from the Scan and became me again. It was totally weird to see myself in somebody else’s memories. Agatha liked me. That was unexpected. I tweaked a nerve on her neck, and lowered her to the floor beside the others. She was innocent. Spineless, but innocent. She didn’t like Angel, and hated when she forced her to hurt people. Agatha was having second thoughts about being on the Red Team.
I scanned Rubric and saw horrors…drug deals, violent bullying…all useless. He knew nothing about Susie.
Then I scanned Tammy Angel, allowing myself to go deep.
I did what you asked, Mr. Scallion. I made one of the boys plant the 10 in Blys’s locker like you told me.
Good girl, the skull replied. He’ll back off now. And thank you for arranging little Christie’s appointment with me. I trust you are enjoying your work.
I am. Business has been good. We have plenty of fresh recruits.
The skull nodded. And you’ve been well rewarded.
I pulled out in shock. Angel was the brawn behind the drug ring. She had made a small fortune getting people hooked. But she had no Mental Arts skills whatsoever. She set up Christie Jasmine, but didn’t kidnap her. She set Bobby up, too, but it wasn’t her idea. She wasn’t Scallion. She was simply Scallion’s pawn. He was still out there.
I quickly unmasked and left the boiler room. Running around the corridor, I found Bobby waiting on the other side.
“Get out of here, Bobby.”