in Priyanka’s pocket besides the cell phone I’d taken from the kidnapper. Something with power in its battery.
She turned toward the motel, leading the way. Roman subtly slowed and drifted back so that he was a step or two behind me. He marched me forward like the prisoner they believed I was.
But in the soft, milky light of early morning, I let a small smile touch my lips. I knew what that power signature was.
Another, different cell phone.
A chance.
Present Day
THE CAR SMELLED LIKE DAYS-OLD french fries and drove like it was slouching toward its millionth mile. The engine clogged and churned pitifully each time I sped up, and the brakes screeched as I slowed. It did have a full tank of gas, but that was only because I’d shown Roman how to use the motel’s garden hose to siphon from the other car in the parking lot.
This was a routine I knew. Find a car. Siphon gas. Change the plates. I latched onto the familiar steps, because I didn’t want to think. Anything was better than mentally replaying what I had seen on the television.
Me, killing that Defender. Me, sending out a bolt of bright electricity that ripped through the speakers and tech booth, making all of them explode in turn.
I’d been hoping one of the reporters on hand had captured the attack on camera. At least two of them had, but both videos were set from behind the Defender who had approached me with the gun. Only someone recording from my right would have captured what actually happened.
I couldn’t shake it, even as I stalked down the interstate to retrieve the truck’s license plate and swap it with the one on the gray sedan we were taking. Of all the cameras there rolling…there had only been that one angle?
By the time I had the license plate in place, Priyanka and Roman were already in the car, the supplies in the trunk along with the water bottles and snacks Roman had selected from the vending machine.
No one said a word as we drove east using the car’s dashboard compass. It was at least an hour before we knew where we were: Nebraska. Over a thousand miles from the attack in Pennsylvania, which had occurred three days ago.
The men had held us for three days while the rest of the country, the UN, its peacekeepers, the Defenders, and local police searched for me. While they sent out drones to scan blocks of cities and highways for any sign of me. While my face was plastered on newscasts and, I assumed, on the few social media sites that the interim government had approved access to.
The search is still on for the Psi responsible for the deaths of seven people….
It was another hour before cars started appearing, cities began sprouting up, and the highway widened around us. I felt like an ant caught under glass; unable to move and slowly being burned alive by the sunlight.
I swallowed hard, reaching for the water bottle in the cup holder. Roman opened the cap and passed it over. I drank it down, crushing the plastic as I finished, but it did nothing to ease the ache in my throat.
“Are we going to talk about this, or are we just going to ignore the fact you’re a wanted fugitive?” Priyanka asked from where she’d sprawled across the backseat. “I’m fine with either, I just want to make sure that we’re all on the same page. Also, I’m bored.”
I gritted my teeth. “I’m glad you have the luxury of being bored by this situation.”
“We do need to discuss a plan,” Roman said, almost apologetically, “if only to get through the zone crossing. Did your friend give you any sort of way to get…wherever we’re going?”
“Yeah, and by the way, what friend was that?” Priyanka asked. “The one who is on the Psi Council, or…who were the others? Stewart and…Ruby? Was that her name?”
I shut that down quickly. “It was Charles.”
Priyanka knew Ruby’s name. After the media storm following the camp closures and, later, her disappearance, everyone knew Ruby’s name and that she was wanted by the government. This wasn’t an innocent question.
I bit the inside of my mouth to keep from saying anything else. After everything, the lies stacking on lies, it couldn’t be that simple. That obvious. My personal history was out there, along with the knowledge I’d been close to Ruby and Liam. It wasn’t totally unreasonable for them to assume that I was secretly in