“Yeah, putting you on speaker. Where are you?”
“I found your parents, the Joint Chiefs, your Secret Service details, some politicians, and all the crew other than Brian. They’re off and at a safe distance, at least hopefully.”
“How did you get the Secret Service to leave without us?”
“I didn’t give anyone a choice, honestly. I just grabbed and ran, explained what was going on while running, and left them to barf a safe distance away.”
Hyperspeed was hard on humans, and we all tended to barf after any extended hyperspeed experience. Well, before Tito Hernandez had joined us. When I’d met him he’d been in med school, working three jobs, and cage fighting during his copious free time. Tito had joined us and gotten his medical degree. He was a genius and, in addition to a lot of other helpful things, he’d created Hyperspeed Dramamine. All human agents and those who worked closely with Centaurion took it regularly, and I carried a big bottle of it in my purse, just in case.
However, Christopher was so fast that the Hyperspeed Dramamine didn’t work on anyone. Even other A-Cs barfed if they had to go at his Flash Level too long.
“Thanks for ensuring that no one barfed on the sparkly new ship or in view of cameras.”
“I was the Head of Imageering for over a decade, Kitty. I’m not an idiot.” I was fairly sure he was glaring at the phone, but since I couldn’t see it, decided not to care. “Anyway, we have Centaurion agents here, ready to grab everyone and run. But the ship doesn’t look like it’s falling to anyone on the ground, so I couldn’t do an evacuation, even though your mother confirmed that the ship was moving erratically. Raj won’t leave the ship until he has you and Jeff. I can’t find the others.”
“I thought you said you just grabbed and ran,” Tim said.
“That works for the humans, Tim, but not necessarily for other A-Cs.”
“You mean you slowed down near A-Cs,” I said.
“Christopher knows what he’s doing,” Jeff countered, ever in defense of his cousin.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Jeff. Anyway, I found Lizzie, who also won’t leave the ship. She said that Jamie wanted to play hide and seek and she won’t go until she has Jamie and Wasim with her.”
“She’s a human kid. Why didn’t you grab her and get her to safety?”
“She’s a human kid who’s adopted father is a hybrid assassin who’s spent years training her. And now she’s your protégé. Take a guess for why I didn’t grab her.”
“Sorry about your groin.”
“Exactly. I’m staying with Lizzie, searching the ship for Jamie, but we can’t find her or Wasim. I have no idea if they’re on or off the ship. I don’t have a clear idea of who’s still on board, either. Some of those I didn’t find could have left on their own already and others could have come back.”
“Great,” Jeff groaned.
“How is it that the Flash can’t determine that?”
“Chose to stay with the youngest person I found, who won’t let me take her hand because she doesn’t trust me to not take her to safety.”
“Cannot argue with this logic.” The doors finally opened and we hustled out of the elevator. “We’re out. No idea where we are, but we seem to be alone. Where are you and Lizzie and have you found anyone else?”
“We’re somewhere on Deck Fourteen. Keep in mind that this version of hide and seek they’re playing is the one where if you find the hider, you hide with them, meaning Wasim might be with Jamie. But Jamie has hyperspeed and could literally be anywhere, on this deck or any of the others.”
“What about the adults who went with them?” Jeff asked. “Gadhavi, Mahin, and Naveed?”
“You’re on speaker now, too,” Christopher said, as he repeated Jeff’s question.
“They totes said they were going to play the game, too, but I think they all went to find a place to sit down and relax where they thought they would be near us,” Lizzie shared. “But we haven’t found them yet, either.”
“Fabulous,” Jeff groaned.
“Sorry,” Christopher said. “All I have for you is that the adults likely still on board are all field trained or experienced. Or are in your Cabinet, Jeff, because I haven’t found any of them.”
“They probably went to meet up with the others in Engineering,” Tim said. “Did you check there?”
“No, because Lizzie said that she’d made that section off limits for the game and I stopped grabbing people once I found Lizzie.”
“That was the right choice,” Jeff said. “Lizzie, if Christopher says you two have to go, I expect you to do so.”
“Not until we find Jamie and Wasim,” she said calmly. “And don’t even try to pretend you’d do any differently. And also don’t try the ‘we’re adults’ line, either. My dad taught me to ignore that a long time ago.”
“Well, one small favor that none of the kids are in Engineering or Weapons, I guess.” Said more to stop any more bickering than because I was calm about the situation. Tried not to worry about where Jamie was and if she was alone or not. Failed utterly. “I have no idea how to get everyone into one safe place, particularly my daughter who prides herself on her hide and seek skills.”
In the past couple of years Jamie had really gotten into this game and all of its variations, and she’d gotten all the other kids into it, too, even the older ones. There was no way Jamie was going to give away her position unless she was certain the emergency was real. And I had no way to let her know that without potentially terrifying her.
“No idea, but I can at least tell you that, so far, Deck Fourteen is clear. We’re heading to Deck Fifteen.”
“Let’s get off the phones, but call if you find her and we’ll do the same.” We hung up and I dropped my phone back into my purse. Noted the time and realized that we hadn’t been in here all that long—it just seemed long in terms of what had been going on, but we hadn’t been inside the ship more than thirty minutes.
“How do we get up to the command deck without using that elevator?” Jeff asked Tim.
“There are stairwells.” Tim headed off and we followed.
Hyperspeed made stairs a great option, but you still had to do the stairs. Fortunately, I’d spent high school and college running track under the most sadistic and thorough track coaches in the world, so stair charges had pretty much always been a part of my life. And since becoming enhanced, getting to do them using my own hyperspeed instead of someone else’s was a point of pride. During training. Right now, I was more than happy to let Jeff do the heavy hyperspeed lifting as he took Charlie from me and grabbed my hand while I grabbed Tim’s, and off we went.
We searched every floor of the sports car section, just in case. For good or bad, no one else was in this part of the ship. We were in one of the stairwells that connected the sporty flyer to the cruiser when Tim’s phone rang. “Hello? What?” His face drained of color while whoever was on the other line talked. “No,” he said finally. “Stay there, where you are. I mean it! Alicia! Dammit!” He hung up.