He reached over and pushed a lock of hair away from my face, fingers trailing along my temple. I closed my eyes. I liked it when he touched me. It didn’t even have to be intimate. It was like my nerve endings weren’t truly functioning until they were beneath Sam’s fingers.
“I love you, too,” he said. “Now try to get some sleep. If you’re having flashbacks, you’ll need it.”
We curled up together, my back pressed against his chest, his arm around my waist. I slid my fingers into his and squeezed.
I fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, just after sunrise, we stood in a loose circle in the middle of a park. Everything was covered with a fresh layer of snow and glittered in the early sunlight.
The new boys had their packs slung over their shoulders. Sam had also bought them each a winter jacket.
“Thanks for this, man,” Greg said to Sam, and shook his hand. “We got any way of calling you in the future? In case something comes back? Or if we need your help?”
Sam nodded. “I programmed a number into your prepaids.”
“Thanks,” they murmured.
“And thanks again for busting us out,” Greg added.
Cas shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I’m going to miss you guys.”
“You hardly know them,” I said.
“I know them enough to know I’ll miss them.” He went over and gave each boy a half hug, half handshake before saluting them. “Till we meet again, gentlemen.”
The boys laughed and saluted him in return.
Dani went over and hugged each one, too. “I didn’t know you all very long, but I can tell you’re the good guys. Be vigilant, all right?”
Greg grinned. “We w—” His expression changed instantly. The grin disappeared from his face. He dropped his pack on the ground. Matt and Jimmy did, too.
“Greg?” Dani said. “Something—”
He punched her. A powerful shot to the cheek. She flew backward.
“What the hell?” Cas shouted as Jimmy charged straight for him.
“Shit,” Nick said just before Greg threw a punch in his direction. Nick ducked, and Sam stepped in, landing a solid blow to Greg’s chest. He staggered back, gasping for air.
I hurried to Dani’s side. “Are you okay?” I rolled her over, and she spat blood in the snow.
“What is happening?” she said.
I looked up. The boys were in an all-out brawl with the others. And it didn’t look good.
Greg had Cas pinned facedown in the snow until Nick kicked Greg in the back. Matt and Sam were circling each other. Jimmy leapt onto Nick’s back and wound him tight in a headlock.
“We should go,” Dani said in a rush. She grabbed my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction. “Before it gets worse. Sam would want you safe until it’s over, right?”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving them.”
“Anna!” Dani pulled harder. “They’ll kill us.”
“No, they won’t. I won’t let them. Stay here.” I started into the fray.
Jimmy swung Cas around, slamming him into a tree. Cas grunted, eyes squeezed shut for a fraction of a second. Just long enough for Jimmy to punch Cas in the side. Cas’s knees buckled. Jimmy grabbed a hunk of his hair and dragged him up.
I had a clear shot at Jimmy’s back.
I ran at him. But less than a foot away, he dropped Cas and swung at me with a backhanded punch. I ducked. He kicked me in the shin. I staggered away, the dull throb of the hit vibrating clear up to my thigh.
He threw another punch that I managed to deflect, then another that caught me across the top of the head. I tried to ignore the throbbing in my skull as he wound back for another blow, exposing his right side. I thrust upward with a jab, landing it in his ribs.
He paused through the pain, giving me the opening I needed.
I kicked him once in the knee, then again in the kidney.
He dropped to one knee, and I punched him in the temple, knocking him unconscious.
I turned to the others. Sam had Matt on the ground on his stomach. He took Matt’s head in his hands and slammed it to the ground. Blood poured from Matt’s nose, and he stopped moving.
Sam stood up. Cas sidled in next to me. Nick wiped blood from his face as Greg stared at him.
“The only one remaining,” Nick said to Greg. “You think you can take all of us?”
Greg didn’t answer. His eyes were blank as he looked us over, like he was calculating the odds in his head.
He turned around and ran.
Nick started after him, but Sam called out, “Let him go.”
Nick scowled. “He just attacked us! And we almost lost.”
Sam watched Greg disappear around a street corner. “I don’t think he knew what he was doing. You see the looks on their faces? Like nobody was home.” He ran the sleeve of his jacket over his mouth, wiping away the blood. “Something wasn’t right.”
Dani staggered to her feet. “It was like they were brainwashed.” She winced and gently fingered her now doubly swollen jaw.
“Anyone see them on a cell phone before this?” Sam asked. We all shook our heads.
“We should get out of here,” Nick said, “in case there are agents in the area.”
“What about them?” Cas asked, nudging Jimmy with the toe of his boot.
Sam looked around the park. There were no witnesses. No cameras. “Leave them here.”
“Poor bastards,” Cas added before slinging an arm around my shoulders. “Help me to the car, Banana? I need some assistance.”
I snorted. “I’m sure you do.”
Together, we hobbled away but kept our eyes on the surrounding area just in case. If the Branch could control people remotely now, there was no telling what else they were capable of.
15
SAM HOPPED A CHAIN-LINK FENCE IN the backyard of an empty house that was for sale.
We needed a place to clean up, to regroup. I could only imagine the conversation we were about to have. Nick scowled and fidgeted next to me, and I could tell he was dying to say I told you so. So I figured I might as well get it over with.
“Go ahead,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“You think Trev set us up.”
He leaned against the fence as Sam slunk to the rear door and worked on the lock. “You’re damn right I think he set us up. He gave us that location. We broke those guys out of that lab. We walked right into their plan. They gave us ticking time bombs, and we practically stuffed them in our back pocket.”
I looked over at Dani, who was trying to pretend like she wasn’t listening. “We found my sister, though,” I said. “That’s what we went there for.”
“Yeah, they used her as bait. And you bit into it.”
He was right, of course. I had. Maybe they’d set the whole thing up, right down to kidnapping Dani in that alley behind the grocery store. Riley had been second-in-command on the Altered program. He knew us well.
But I didn’t think Trev had known about the plan.
He’d been there that night, yes, but he’d saved me.
If their goal was to take us out, Trev could have let that agent drug me in the river and I’d already be locked up in some Branch cell.
I would have told Nick if Trev hadn’t asked me to keep it quiet.
And why had he?
The back door to the empty house swung open, and Sam waved us inside.
The place was freezing. We entered into a long, narrow kitchen. There was a room beyond that and another in front. All of the bedrooms were apparently upstairs.
Cas found a leftover towel in the upstairs hall closet. Thankfully, the water was still running. Unfortunately, it wasn’t hot water. We cleaned up as best we could with what we had.
“So,” Cas said as we hung around the kitchen, “we got a plan?”
I helped Dani wipe the blood from her face. She winced when I hit a sore spot, and I muttered a quick apology.
“I have an idea,” Nick said. “We go to Branch headquarters and blow that goddamn place apart.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. Nick was usually the voice of reason. No unnecessary risk—self-preservation, always.
Clearly he was pissed. And I couldn’t blame him. How long could we run from the Branch? They obviously weren’t keen on letting us fade into the distance. We knew too much. We were too valuable.
We couldn’t ever be free as long as the Branch was out there. They would keep making supersoldiers, altering them until they were faster, stronger, smarter than us. We’d just walked into one of their traps. What would they do next?
“We can’t go after them without a plan,” Sam said. He scrubbed at his face with the palms of his hands. “It would help if we knew more about what happened with Greg and the others.
“If they went through the same Altered program that we did, then their commander could have ordered them to kill us.”
“But they had no contact with anyone,” I pointed out. “And they have to follow a direct order immediately after receiving it. There isn’t a delayed response on that.”
Sam nodded. “What are the other explanations?”
“Brainwashed,” Nick said.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Sam paced for a minute. “But what set them off?”
Nick leaned into the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “Something, or someone, in the area could have set them off with a laser or maybe a flash of light. It could be anything. It could have been something one of us said unknowingly.”
Sam stopped pacing. “Greg said they’d been in that lab for six months.” His gaze grew distant as he thought. “Cas and I were at Branch headquarters a little over two months ago. Which means, if they’d already perfected this new kind of programming with Greg and his team…”
Silence.
We all knew what he was insinuating. If the technology was complete and they had the means and the opportunity, why not brainwash Sam and Cas, too, as insurance?
“But…” I started, trying to come up with a viable excuse to talk him down. “Like you said, Greg and his team were in the lab six months. The Branch had you and Cas for only twenty-four hours.”
“That’s plenty of time to implant something. Some new programming. Some new alteration. Whatever it is they’ve created.”
Dani nodded. “It’s true, Anna. It takes only a few hours for a drug to take hold.”
I rounded on her. “How would you know?”
She shrank away, and immediately I regretted snapping at her.
“I’m sorry. It’s just… we don’t have any of the facts.”
“That’s true,” Sam said. “And until we do, none of us are safe.”
“We’ll be careful—” I said, but he cut me off.
“We should separate.”
“No.”
“Anna,” Sam said.
“No.” My heart fluttered in my chest. “You were at the Branch two months ago. If they programmed you, why wouldn’t they have activated you by now?”
“Maybe they’re just waiting for an opening.”
“And maybe they want us to separate. Did you consider that? Divide the pack. We’re weaker apart.”
Sam rocked his shoulders back, clearly irritated with me. “Did you not see what happened at that park?” He pointed out the window, even though the park was miles and miles away now. “One minute they were fine, the next minute they were blank-faced and attacking. That could have been me. Me attacking you. I can’t risk that.”
“I’m not letting you leave.”
“You don’t have a choice.” He gestured at Nick. “You stay with Anna. Cas and Dani are coming with me. As far as we know, she’s been brainwashed, too.”
“I love you, too,” he said. “Now try to get some sleep. If you’re having flashbacks, you’ll need it.”
We curled up together, my back pressed against his chest, his arm around my waist. I slid my fingers into his and squeezed.
I fell asleep quickly.
The next morning, just after sunrise, we stood in a loose circle in the middle of a park. Everything was covered with a fresh layer of snow and glittered in the early sunlight.
The new boys had their packs slung over their shoulders. Sam had also bought them each a winter jacket.
“Thanks for this, man,” Greg said to Sam, and shook his hand. “We got any way of calling you in the future? In case something comes back? Or if we need your help?”
Sam nodded. “I programmed a number into your prepaids.”
“Thanks,” they murmured.
“And thanks again for busting us out,” Greg added.
Cas shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “I’m going to miss you guys.”
“You hardly know them,” I said.
“I know them enough to know I’ll miss them.” He went over and gave each boy a half hug, half handshake before saluting them. “Till we meet again, gentlemen.”
The boys laughed and saluted him in return.
Dani went over and hugged each one, too. “I didn’t know you all very long, but I can tell you’re the good guys. Be vigilant, all right?”
Greg grinned. “We w—” His expression changed instantly. The grin disappeared from his face. He dropped his pack on the ground. Matt and Jimmy did, too.
“Greg?” Dani said. “Something—”
He punched her. A powerful shot to the cheek. She flew backward.
“What the hell?” Cas shouted as Jimmy charged straight for him.
“Shit,” Nick said just before Greg threw a punch in his direction. Nick ducked, and Sam stepped in, landing a solid blow to Greg’s chest. He staggered back, gasping for air.
I hurried to Dani’s side. “Are you okay?” I rolled her over, and she spat blood in the snow.
“What is happening?” she said.
I looked up. The boys were in an all-out brawl with the others. And it didn’t look good.
Greg had Cas pinned facedown in the snow until Nick kicked Greg in the back. Matt and Sam were circling each other. Jimmy leapt onto Nick’s back and wound him tight in a headlock.
“We should go,” Dani said in a rush. She grabbed my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction. “Before it gets worse. Sam would want you safe until it’s over, right?”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving them.”
“Anna!” Dani pulled harder. “They’ll kill us.”
“No, they won’t. I won’t let them. Stay here.” I started into the fray.
Jimmy swung Cas around, slamming him into a tree. Cas grunted, eyes squeezed shut for a fraction of a second. Just long enough for Jimmy to punch Cas in the side. Cas’s knees buckled. Jimmy grabbed a hunk of his hair and dragged him up.
I had a clear shot at Jimmy’s back.
I ran at him. But less than a foot away, he dropped Cas and swung at me with a backhanded punch. I ducked. He kicked me in the shin. I staggered away, the dull throb of the hit vibrating clear up to my thigh.
He threw another punch that I managed to deflect, then another that caught me across the top of the head. I tried to ignore the throbbing in my skull as he wound back for another blow, exposing his right side. I thrust upward with a jab, landing it in his ribs.
He paused through the pain, giving me the opening I needed.
I kicked him once in the knee, then again in the kidney.
He dropped to one knee, and I punched him in the temple, knocking him unconscious.
I turned to the others. Sam had Matt on the ground on his stomach. He took Matt’s head in his hands and slammed it to the ground. Blood poured from Matt’s nose, and he stopped moving.
Sam stood up. Cas sidled in next to me. Nick wiped blood from his face as Greg stared at him.
“The only one remaining,” Nick said to Greg. “You think you can take all of us?”
Greg didn’t answer. His eyes were blank as he looked us over, like he was calculating the odds in his head.
He turned around and ran.
Nick started after him, but Sam called out, “Let him go.”
Nick scowled. “He just attacked us! And we almost lost.”
Sam watched Greg disappear around a street corner. “I don’t think he knew what he was doing. You see the looks on their faces? Like nobody was home.” He ran the sleeve of his jacket over his mouth, wiping away the blood. “Something wasn’t right.”
Dani staggered to her feet. “It was like they were brainwashed.” She winced and gently fingered her now doubly swollen jaw.
“Anyone see them on a cell phone before this?” Sam asked. We all shook our heads.
“We should get out of here,” Nick said, “in case there are agents in the area.”
“What about them?” Cas asked, nudging Jimmy with the toe of his boot.
Sam looked around the park. There were no witnesses. No cameras. “Leave them here.”
“Poor bastards,” Cas added before slinging an arm around my shoulders. “Help me to the car, Banana? I need some assistance.”
I snorted. “I’m sure you do.”
Together, we hobbled away but kept our eyes on the surrounding area just in case. If the Branch could control people remotely now, there was no telling what else they were capable of.
15
SAM HOPPED A CHAIN-LINK FENCE IN the backyard of an empty house that was for sale.
We needed a place to clean up, to regroup. I could only imagine the conversation we were about to have. Nick scowled and fidgeted next to me, and I could tell he was dying to say I told you so. So I figured I might as well get it over with.
“Go ahead,” I said.
“What?” he asked.
“You think Trev set us up.”
He leaned against the fence as Sam slunk to the rear door and worked on the lock. “You’re damn right I think he set us up. He gave us that location. We broke those guys out of that lab. We walked right into their plan. They gave us ticking time bombs, and we practically stuffed them in our back pocket.”
I looked over at Dani, who was trying to pretend like she wasn’t listening. “We found my sister, though,” I said. “That’s what we went there for.”
“Yeah, they used her as bait. And you bit into it.”
He was right, of course. I had. Maybe they’d set the whole thing up, right down to kidnapping Dani in that alley behind the grocery store. Riley had been second-in-command on the Altered program. He knew us well.
But I didn’t think Trev had known about the plan.
He’d been there that night, yes, but he’d saved me.
If their goal was to take us out, Trev could have let that agent drug me in the river and I’d already be locked up in some Branch cell.
I would have told Nick if Trev hadn’t asked me to keep it quiet.
And why had he?
The back door to the empty house swung open, and Sam waved us inside.
The place was freezing. We entered into a long, narrow kitchen. There was a room beyond that and another in front. All of the bedrooms were apparently upstairs.
Cas found a leftover towel in the upstairs hall closet. Thankfully, the water was still running. Unfortunately, it wasn’t hot water. We cleaned up as best we could with what we had.
“So,” Cas said as we hung around the kitchen, “we got a plan?”
I helped Dani wipe the blood from her face. She winced when I hit a sore spot, and I muttered a quick apology.
“I have an idea,” Nick said. “We go to Branch headquarters and blow that goddamn place apart.”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. Nick was usually the voice of reason. No unnecessary risk—self-preservation, always.
Clearly he was pissed. And I couldn’t blame him. How long could we run from the Branch? They obviously weren’t keen on letting us fade into the distance. We knew too much. We were too valuable.
We couldn’t ever be free as long as the Branch was out there. They would keep making supersoldiers, altering them until they were faster, stronger, smarter than us. We’d just walked into one of their traps. What would they do next?
“We can’t go after them without a plan,” Sam said. He scrubbed at his face with the palms of his hands. “It would help if we knew more about what happened with Greg and the others.
“If they went through the same Altered program that we did, then their commander could have ordered them to kill us.”
“But they had no contact with anyone,” I pointed out. “And they have to follow a direct order immediately after receiving it. There isn’t a delayed response on that.”
Sam nodded. “What are the other explanations?”
“Brainwashed,” Nick said.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
Sam paced for a minute. “But what set them off?”
Nick leaned into the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “Something, or someone, in the area could have set them off with a laser or maybe a flash of light. It could be anything. It could have been something one of us said unknowingly.”
Sam stopped pacing. “Greg said they’d been in that lab for six months.” His gaze grew distant as he thought. “Cas and I were at Branch headquarters a little over two months ago. Which means, if they’d already perfected this new kind of programming with Greg and his team…”
Silence.
We all knew what he was insinuating. If the technology was complete and they had the means and the opportunity, why not brainwash Sam and Cas, too, as insurance?
“But…” I started, trying to come up with a viable excuse to talk him down. “Like you said, Greg and his team were in the lab six months. The Branch had you and Cas for only twenty-four hours.”
“That’s plenty of time to implant something. Some new programming. Some new alteration. Whatever it is they’ve created.”
Dani nodded. “It’s true, Anna. It takes only a few hours for a drug to take hold.”
I rounded on her. “How would you know?”
She shrank away, and immediately I regretted snapping at her.
“I’m sorry. It’s just… we don’t have any of the facts.”
“That’s true,” Sam said. “And until we do, none of us are safe.”
“We’ll be careful—” I said, but he cut me off.
“We should separate.”
“No.”
“Anna,” Sam said.
“No.” My heart fluttered in my chest. “You were at the Branch two months ago. If they programmed you, why wouldn’t they have activated you by now?”
“Maybe they’re just waiting for an opening.”
“And maybe they want us to separate. Did you consider that? Divide the pack. We’re weaker apart.”
Sam rocked his shoulders back, clearly irritated with me. “Did you not see what happened at that park?” He pointed out the window, even though the park was miles and miles away now. “One minute they were fine, the next minute they were blank-faced and attacking. That could have been me. Me attacking you. I can’t risk that.”
“I’m not letting you leave.”
“You don’t have a choice.” He gestured at Nick. “You stay with Anna. Cas and Dani are coming with me. As far as we know, she’s been brainwashed, too.”
