“You said it was his ‘gift?’ I remember Dr. Williams mentioning that each of you had something special about you. Each of you had an enhanced gift. I guess, Alik’s gift is his memory? It’s pretty clear you’re a medical genius and Meg—” his voice trailed off as he looked at her beautiful profile from where he sat. “Anyway, he said these were the ‘gifts’ he wanted back. I hadn’t really thought about what he meant by that until now.”
“Right. Well, as you mentioned, Alik has the eidetic memory as well as ultrastrength. Meg is an empath. And I am not as much a ‘medical genius’ as an engineer, though lately I’m inventing, building and problem solving the mechanics of the human and meta bodies more than anything, so I can appreciate the assumption.” Evan shrugged modestly. “I just see everything as a puzzle to be solved.”
“No wonder Williams wants all of you back,” Creed found himself looking at the younger male meta in front of him with a whole new sense of awe and respect.
“You said Meg is an ‘empath?’ What is that, exactly?”
“‘Empath’ meaning empathy. Her gift is the ability to sense the feelings, thoughts and emotions of others, especially those to whom she is linked somehow. She calls herself an emotional superconductor.” Evan smiled at his sister remembering how annoyed she got constantly bombarded with everyone else’s feelings and struggling to untangle them from her own.
“Can she read minds?” Creed was very afraid of the thought that she knew what he was thinking all along.
“No. She reads emotions, not minds.”
“You said she could only do this with people she is linked with?”
“With people to whom she is linked,” Evan gently corrected Creed’s grammar.
“Like who? You? Her family?” Creed asked ignoring Evan.
“Exactly.”
“Only her family?”
“No. She has a really tight connection with Maze, too.”
“Maze, her coyote?”
“Yes. She hand-raised him when he was orphaned back on the ranch in Texas. They are quite a team, those two.”
“Are we still playing, ‘This is Your Life?’” Alik was walking back toward the boys with one eyebrow raised.
“Any luck helping ration the fuel?” Creed asked.
“We’ll see. We could look around to see what we could dump. The lighter the plane, the less fuel it uses.” Alik was only half joking as he looked around the cabin for something heavy and expendable.
“Now there’s an idea! Do we really need two pilots? I say we dump the heaviest one.” Evan offered.
Not knowing the boys well enough to get that they were kidding, Creed’s eyes widened with surprise.
Alik couldn’t hold it any longer and busted out laughing. “You should see the expression on your face! That was priceless!”
“Glad to help lighten the mood for you.” Creed chuckled good-naturedly at himself.
Evan looked at his watch and said to the room, “We have approximately 3 hours 47 minutes before we land, and we have a lot of planning to do.”
“Right. When is Dr. Williams expecting you to check in?” Alik asked Creed.
“He wants status reports constantly. He will be expecting me to call when we were to arrive at LAX,” Creed looked down at his hands. “If I don’t call him, he’ll call me on this.” From his pocket, Creed removed a sleek-looking cell phone.
“Okay, well, that gives us about four hours before he is aware something’s wrong,” Evan concluded.
“What about Farrow?” Evan asked.
“She’s ruthless. She’s probably stalking the house with her sniper rifle right now. Come dark, assuming she hasn’t had the opportunity to complete her objective yet, she’ll switch weapons and tactics. She’ll wear night vision, have a powerful handgun with a silencer and she’ll find a way into the house.”
The brothers stared at him with wide eyes.
“Which is why we need to get to the house with Meg before sundown,” Creed added sensing the level of anxiety bouncing off the walls of the small aircraft.
“Four hours from now will be just before 7pm. The sun sets at 7:22 today,” Alik offered.
“Not a lot of room for error,” Evan sighed.
“No room for error,” Creed agreed. “Farrow won’t be easy to defend against. There’s a reason Williams sent her above anyone else. Matter of fact, once Williams gets wind something’s wrong he’ll have a whole platoon on a private jet headed right to us.”
“Let’s not think about that yet. One thing at a time,” Evan said logically. “Our first concern is getting Meg back to the house before nightfall, then locking the house down so we can work on Meg’s antidote, safely.”
“The most dangerous part will be when we’re outside the house trying to get Meg’s gurney out of the ambulance and into the house,” Creed thought aloud.
“When Farrow sees us, she’ll contact Williams immediately. He may even order a complete take-down. It depends on how badly he wants your blood,” Creed added looking at the metas in front of him.
“Then we can’t let her see us.” Evan said matter-of-factly.
“How are we going to do that?” Creed asked.
Evan had a far-away look on his face.