MINE TO POSSESS

Clay stirred. “Yeah, but what about snakes? Snakes can hide in corn and, in animal form, they’re unique enough that the sensors shouldn’t go off.”


“You know a snake? Oh!” She suddenly remembered his story about a changeling with shimmering black scales. “Do you think your friend will help us?”

“I’ll ask.” Clay nodded at Judd. “Best-case scenario—we go in without setting off alarms, kids are there, we get them out.” A pause. “High-tech security like that—I’m not sure we can maintain your secret.”

“If you think it’s going to turn to shit, warn me. I need to alert my contact.”

Talin met the Psy man’s cold gaze. “Why?” They could be undoing everything he had worked to achieve, but he hadn’t flinched.

“Sometimes,” he said, “you have to save the innocents you see in front of you and worry about the ones to come later.”

At that instant, Talin realized that who Judd seemed was not who he was. She was about to thank him when her brain suddenly presented her with the answer to a question she hadn’t been conscious of considering. “You know, I was always good at puzzles.”

Everyone looked at her.

“How do we get information from inside a locked room without opening the door? We have someone send it to us, of course.”

Judd shook his head. “The lab is under a blackout. No PsyNet access.”

“What about the Internet? Telepaths tend to ignore it, but it works just fine.” Brenna sat up straighter. “Judd, baby, do you have a link on the inside?”

“We have suspicions that a certain scientist may be open to being turned but no proof.”

“You able to put out some feelers?” Clay asked.

A sharp nod. “I don’t know how much good it’ll do. My contact is … not good as you would think of it. He’s not evil, either, but he won’t do anything unless it complies with his personal code. That code involves a deep loyalty to his race. However, since he passed on the information about the kidnappings, he may be willing.”

Talin hoped with all her heart that the humanity within this unknown Psy was stronger than the Silence.





CHAPTER 35


Jonquil opened his eyes and for a horrifying second, thought he was blind. His lungs grew tight as he fought the screaming urge to panic.

Then cool fingers touched his forehead. “Lie still.”

“You.” Relief turned his limbs to water. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Your eyelids are grossly swollen.” She touched them and even that feather-light brush caused excruciating pain. “I apologize. I was applying a salve—give it a few minutes and the swelling will reduce to a negligible level.”

He trusted her. She was the only adult in this place who hadn’t tortured him. “What did they do to me?”

“I’m not certain, but I believe they were testing a new compound that’s purportedly meant to help with the integration of an implant.”

He didn’t understand most of that, but he caught the idea. “They poisoned me?”

“That wasn’t the point, but let’s say it’s a good thing for you that their science was flawed. Had it not been, you’d be dead now.”

He was used to listening for nuances in people’s voices. However, Blue … she was beautiful, with her smooth skin and wolf eyes, but her voice was utterly toneless. So he made a guess. “Did you help that flaw along?”

A small silence. “You’re highly intelligent. Yes. It was to my advantage that their experiment failed.”

“Why?”

“I need you alive.” She touched his face, then his neck. “Why do you have so much bruising? It should have been a simple injection.”

He could make out some light now. Relieved that she’d been telling the truth about his eyes, he answered almost absentmindedly. “I think I might’ve tried to hit them while I was out of it.”

“That explains Larsen’s black eye.”

Fear clawed through him. “The little girl—did that guy hurt her? He said they wouldn’t if I cooperated.”

“He lied,” she responded, cold as the chill of these antiseptic walls. “Nothing you can do will stop him. But the girl is safe for now. He’s having some trouble getting new subjects so he’s taking care with the single undamaged one he already has.”

“Trouble?” He began to smile. “Talin. Talin did something.” He’d nicknamed her the Lioness after seeing her hair. It had been meant to be a joke because she was so little, but it had turned out to be perfect—she never gave up. “She told me she’d fight for me.”

Blue’s face was now a fuzzy shape above him. “Who is Talin?”

He realized he’d been led into a trap. “No one.” “It’s in your best interest to tell me. You’re a bargaining chip. I need to know with whom to negotiate.”