“I bet you are,” Nick muttered. “But you might have to beg for it.”
Cas grinned. “Good one, Nicky poo.”
Sam’s hand trailed down along my spine before coming to a stop at the small of my back. I twisted his way, our knees bumping beneath the table.
“You sure about this?” he asked.
I nodded. “As sure as I’ll ever be.”
“Then we should get going.” He gestured to the manila envelope tucked in my bag. “Delta lab is several hours off. If we get on the road now, we should reach it before dawn.”
The boys pushed back their chairs to leave.
“Wait,” I said. “Can I call my dad before we leave?”
It’d been over two weeks since I’d spoken to him. Our relationship wasn’t perfect, not now, not in the past. And even though he’d lied to me for over five years and posed as my father while he led the farmhouse Altered program, I still felt like he was family. He’d helped us escape when we’d needed him and he’d stood behind us at Branch headquarters. He’d even taken a bullet to save me.
“Use the oldest prepaid,” Sam said. “We’ll meet you outside in ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes,” I agreed.
They filed toward the door. “Anna?” Sam called over a shoulder. “Don’t tell him where we’re going.”
“I won’t.”
Hearing my dad’s voice always made me feel instantly at home, like we were back at the old farmhouse in New York, discussing the news over dinner. Back when everything was normal, at least for us. When we were safe.
“Anna,” Dad said when he realized it was me. “It’s good to hear from you. Everything all right?”
I held the phone tighter. “Yeah. Everything’s fine. Just thought I’d check in with you.”
He sighed. “Everything is not all right, is it?”
All the tension ran out of my shoulders, and I slouched in my seat. My dad and I had never been close, even when we’d lived in the same house, when I’d thought the life I had was the truth. But if there was one thing my dad was good at, it was knowing a lie when he heard it.
“When will anything ever be all right?” I laughed to lighten the mood. “That’s not why I’m calling, though. I really just called to talk to you. How have you been?”
“Well… I’m still having trouble sleeping at night, but that’s to be expected. Everything has healed well enough. I’m just old.” He chuckled and it turned into a drawn-out hacking fit. “Sorry,” he said, once he’d recovered. “It’s this dry air.”
Somehow I didn’t think it was the air. I ran my finger through salt left on the table. The grains stuck to my skin.
“So, how are the boys?” Dad asked.
I looked out the restaurant’s windows to the parking lot beyond. I could just make out the roof of our SUV and the heads of the boys lined up alongside it, waiting. “The same, I guess. Cas won’t stop eating. Nick won’t stop being a jerk. And Sam…” I trailed off, because while my dad wasn’t technically my biological dad, he was still the closest thing I had to one. Heat burned through my cheeks. Sam was a subject I didn’t feel comfortable elaborating on. “Sam is good,” I finished.
“Have you had any run-ins with the Branch?”
“No, but…”
“But what?”
“Did you know there were other labs?”
There was a rustle through the line as Dad shifted. I imagined him reaching for a straw to chew on. It’d been his habit for nearly four years. Ever since he gave up smoking. “I didn’t know for sure, but I always imagined there were. That’s what their goal was, to make more kids like you.”
“How many more?”
“I don’t know.”
I checked the clock above the front counter. My ten minutes were nearly up.
“You aren’t going after them, are you?” Dad asked. “Trying to play the vigilante, save the others like you?”
“No,” I said, because that was the truth. At least, that wasn’t our first goal. Finding Dani was. Saving the others, if there were others, would just be a bonus.
“If not that, then what? Why ask about the other labs now?”
I wanted so badly to tell him about my sister. I wanted to tell someone. But Sam would be furious, and involving my dad would only put him in danger.
“I can’t tell you the details. You know that.”
He sighed. “Yes. I know.”
“My time is up.”
“All right.” He pulled in a breath. “Just be careful, all right? Please?”
“We always are.”
“I meant you, Anna.”
I gritted my teeth against the sudden burning in my eyes. “I will.”
We said our good-byes and I hung up the phone. The prepaid was no longer good, as far as Sam was concerned, so I tossed it into what remained of my iced tea and hurried to the door. I wanted to reach Delta lab as soon as possible, before Riley or anyone else did something terrible to my sister and she ended up dead all over again.
10
THE ADDRESS FOR DELTA LAB WAS IN the middle of Indiana. Sam followed the GPS directions till we were two miles outside the lab’s location and then turned onto a long, winding driveway that circled an abandoned textile factory. He parked behind the building. “Let’s travel on foot from here,” he said.
As Sam, Cas, and Nick went around to the back to load themselves with weapons, I shrugged out of my coat and draped it across the passenger seat so I could slip into a shoulder holster.
Next, I checked the clip in my gun, making sure it was full before sliding it into place at my side. I put my coat on again, leaving it unzipped.
“Ready?” Sam asked around the side of the vehicle.
I tugged my knit hat down low. The air was freezing, and already my ears were numb. Running would help, at least, and I was looking forward to it. “I’m ready.”
Cas rounded the front of the vehicle, his boots crunching in the snow. “Ready, boss.”
“Ready,” Nick said.
We headed into the woods.
Months ago, I’d barely been able to keep up with Sam when it came to running. Since then, I’d taken the once-optional sport more seriously and tried to run daily. Still, Sam was faster than I was, and he’d already pulled ahead.
I counted my breaths the way he’d taught me. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. It was all about finding a place, a focus point straight ahead. And I’d learned I could go a lot longer and a lot harder than I’d thought I could. My body wouldn’t give out on me after ten minutes, despite my doubts.
We spread out in a V, with Cas and Nick on Sam’s left, me on the right. I was almost keeping pace with Cas. We ran silently, like ghosts. A sense of strength and power poured through me, and my breathing evened out.
When the trees thinned, we slowed and cut through a grove of pines—the only trees in the forest that would afford us some cover this time of year.
A house came into view.
It was a sprawling estate positioned at the top of a hill that overlooked a river. A massive deck hung over the hill, but was empty of everything, including lawn furniture. There were no lights on inside.
“What do you think?” Cas whispered.
“Looks deserted,” I answered.
“Cas and Nick, around front,” Sam said. “Look for their handler. Anna, with me.”
Nick and Cas nodded and disappeared.
“We’re going up the north end,” Sam said to me. “To the basement entrance below the deck.”
According to the blueprint Trev had given us, the lab was in the basement, fifteen feet from the entrance door.
Sam motioned me forward, and we jogged up the hill, ducking beneath the deck. Sam pressed his back against the house’s exterior wall, on the right side of the entrance. I echoed his movements, taking the left side, pulling my gun out as the cold of the brick foundation seeped through my jacket.
Sam inched forward and twisted the metal doorknob. The door opened, the thick weather stripping expanding with a sigh. Sam froze. I counted to ten. Nothing. No one moved on the other side. No alarms went off. No lights clicked on.
We slipped inside and entered into what might have once been a mudroom. Empty hooks dotted the wall across from us. Below them sat a bench. A few logs were stacked on end in a tin bucket near the door. The air smelled faintly of burning wood and ash.
I craned my neck, checking the hallway straight ahead, gun up, ready. A thick steel door stood at the end. A keypad was installed in the wall to the right.
The lab was exactly where the blueprints had said it’d be.
Sam gestured to the rest of the basement, meaning we should finish our check first.
The basement wasn’t large, so it took us only a few minutes to be sure we were alone. Sam was the first to the lab door. I hovered behind him as he inspected the keypad.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to break into this,” he said quietly. “It’s high-tech, more advanced than the system at the farmhouse.”
“So what do we do?”
“We hope Cas and Nick find the handler, and the handler gives us the code.”
I snorted. “Like he’s going to give that up?”
“I can be convincing,” he said without looking at me.
“What, and torture him? You can’t. If the handler is anything at all like my dad—”
“You want your sister, don’t you?” He finally met my eyes. “How else are we going to get inside? Call Riley direct and see if he knows the code?”
“You don’t have to be a jerk.”
“I’m not, I’m just trying to—”
A door clicked open somewhere above us. Clean white light spilled down the stairwell. I tightened my hold on my gun.
“It’s us,” Cas said. “We found the handler.”
I exhaled and followed Sam around to the staircase. Nick was dragging a man down the stairs. Cas led the way. The man nearly stumbled over the last two steps, and Nick had to catch him beneath the arms to steady him.
“Take whatever you want,” the man said, his voice hitching with panic. “My wallet is upstairs. I don’t know how much cash I have, but I have credit cards and—”
“We’re not here for your money,” Sam said.
I stepped around Sam to get a better look at the Delta lab handler. He was nothing like my dad.
He was younger, for one. Thirties, maybe, with a full head of dirty-blond hair and a neatly trimmed goatee. A tie hung loose from around his neck. The first three buttons of his white oxford were undone.
“Open the lab,” Sam said.
The edge of distress on the man’s face disappeared, replaced with curiosity and caution. “You’re him, aren’t you?”
Sam didn’t even blink.
“Sam. And…” The man examined the rest of us. “Cas. Nick. And…” His attention landed on me. “Anna.”
“So we can skip the introductions,” Nick said, giving the man a tug. “Now open the lab.”
“I can’t. You know what they’d do to me if I did?”
Nick kicked the man behind the knee. He wailed and dropped to the floor. Nick twisted his arms higher, pushing the sockets of his shoulders as far as they would go before dislocating.
“You have any idea what we will do to you if you don’t open that lab?” Nick said.
The man started sobbing. “Please don’t hurt me. I’m just a scientist. I run the logs and the tests. That’s it.”
Nick pushed the man’s arms higher. “Then open the door.”
He cried out. “Okay! Okay! Stop. Please.”
Nick looked up at Sam. Sam nodded and Nick let the man go. He cowered on the floor for several long seconds holding his arms close to his chest.
Cas grinned. “Good one, Nicky poo.”
Sam’s hand trailed down along my spine before coming to a stop at the small of my back. I twisted his way, our knees bumping beneath the table.
“You sure about this?” he asked.
I nodded. “As sure as I’ll ever be.”
“Then we should get going.” He gestured to the manila envelope tucked in my bag. “Delta lab is several hours off. If we get on the road now, we should reach it before dawn.”
The boys pushed back their chairs to leave.
“Wait,” I said. “Can I call my dad before we leave?”
It’d been over two weeks since I’d spoken to him. Our relationship wasn’t perfect, not now, not in the past. And even though he’d lied to me for over five years and posed as my father while he led the farmhouse Altered program, I still felt like he was family. He’d helped us escape when we’d needed him and he’d stood behind us at Branch headquarters. He’d even taken a bullet to save me.
“Use the oldest prepaid,” Sam said. “We’ll meet you outside in ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes,” I agreed.
They filed toward the door. “Anna?” Sam called over a shoulder. “Don’t tell him where we’re going.”
“I won’t.”
Hearing my dad’s voice always made me feel instantly at home, like we were back at the old farmhouse in New York, discussing the news over dinner. Back when everything was normal, at least for us. When we were safe.
“Anna,” Dad said when he realized it was me. “It’s good to hear from you. Everything all right?”
I held the phone tighter. “Yeah. Everything’s fine. Just thought I’d check in with you.”
He sighed. “Everything is not all right, is it?”
All the tension ran out of my shoulders, and I slouched in my seat. My dad and I had never been close, even when we’d lived in the same house, when I’d thought the life I had was the truth. But if there was one thing my dad was good at, it was knowing a lie when he heard it.
“When will anything ever be all right?” I laughed to lighten the mood. “That’s not why I’m calling, though. I really just called to talk to you. How have you been?”
“Well… I’m still having trouble sleeping at night, but that’s to be expected. Everything has healed well enough. I’m just old.” He chuckled and it turned into a drawn-out hacking fit. “Sorry,” he said, once he’d recovered. “It’s this dry air.”
Somehow I didn’t think it was the air. I ran my finger through salt left on the table. The grains stuck to my skin.
“So, how are the boys?” Dad asked.
I looked out the restaurant’s windows to the parking lot beyond. I could just make out the roof of our SUV and the heads of the boys lined up alongside it, waiting. “The same, I guess. Cas won’t stop eating. Nick won’t stop being a jerk. And Sam…” I trailed off, because while my dad wasn’t technically my biological dad, he was still the closest thing I had to one. Heat burned through my cheeks. Sam was a subject I didn’t feel comfortable elaborating on. “Sam is good,” I finished.
“Have you had any run-ins with the Branch?”
“No, but…”
“But what?”
“Did you know there were other labs?”
There was a rustle through the line as Dad shifted. I imagined him reaching for a straw to chew on. It’d been his habit for nearly four years. Ever since he gave up smoking. “I didn’t know for sure, but I always imagined there were. That’s what their goal was, to make more kids like you.”
“How many more?”
“I don’t know.”
I checked the clock above the front counter. My ten minutes were nearly up.
“You aren’t going after them, are you?” Dad asked. “Trying to play the vigilante, save the others like you?”
“No,” I said, because that was the truth. At least, that wasn’t our first goal. Finding Dani was. Saving the others, if there were others, would just be a bonus.
“If not that, then what? Why ask about the other labs now?”
I wanted so badly to tell him about my sister. I wanted to tell someone. But Sam would be furious, and involving my dad would only put him in danger.
“I can’t tell you the details. You know that.”
He sighed. “Yes. I know.”
“My time is up.”
“All right.” He pulled in a breath. “Just be careful, all right? Please?”
“We always are.”
“I meant you, Anna.”
I gritted my teeth against the sudden burning in my eyes. “I will.”
We said our good-byes and I hung up the phone. The prepaid was no longer good, as far as Sam was concerned, so I tossed it into what remained of my iced tea and hurried to the door. I wanted to reach Delta lab as soon as possible, before Riley or anyone else did something terrible to my sister and she ended up dead all over again.
10
THE ADDRESS FOR DELTA LAB WAS IN the middle of Indiana. Sam followed the GPS directions till we were two miles outside the lab’s location and then turned onto a long, winding driveway that circled an abandoned textile factory. He parked behind the building. “Let’s travel on foot from here,” he said.
As Sam, Cas, and Nick went around to the back to load themselves with weapons, I shrugged out of my coat and draped it across the passenger seat so I could slip into a shoulder holster.
Next, I checked the clip in my gun, making sure it was full before sliding it into place at my side. I put my coat on again, leaving it unzipped.
“Ready?” Sam asked around the side of the vehicle.
I tugged my knit hat down low. The air was freezing, and already my ears were numb. Running would help, at least, and I was looking forward to it. “I’m ready.”
Cas rounded the front of the vehicle, his boots crunching in the snow. “Ready, boss.”
“Ready,” Nick said.
We headed into the woods.
Months ago, I’d barely been able to keep up with Sam when it came to running. Since then, I’d taken the once-optional sport more seriously and tried to run daily. Still, Sam was faster than I was, and he’d already pulled ahead.
I counted my breaths the way he’d taught me. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. It was all about finding a place, a focus point straight ahead. And I’d learned I could go a lot longer and a lot harder than I’d thought I could. My body wouldn’t give out on me after ten minutes, despite my doubts.
We spread out in a V, with Cas and Nick on Sam’s left, me on the right. I was almost keeping pace with Cas. We ran silently, like ghosts. A sense of strength and power poured through me, and my breathing evened out.
When the trees thinned, we slowed and cut through a grove of pines—the only trees in the forest that would afford us some cover this time of year.
A house came into view.
It was a sprawling estate positioned at the top of a hill that overlooked a river. A massive deck hung over the hill, but was empty of everything, including lawn furniture. There were no lights on inside.
“What do you think?” Cas whispered.
“Looks deserted,” I answered.
“Cas and Nick, around front,” Sam said. “Look for their handler. Anna, with me.”
Nick and Cas nodded and disappeared.
“We’re going up the north end,” Sam said to me. “To the basement entrance below the deck.”
According to the blueprint Trev had given us, the lab was in the basement, fifteen feet from the entrance door.
Sam motioned me forward, and we jogged up the hill, ducking beneath the deck. Sam pressed his back against the house’s exterior wall, on the right side of the entrance. I echoed his movements, taking the left side, pulling my gun out as the cold of the brick foundation seeped through my jacket.
Sam inched forward and twisted the metal doorknob. The door opened, the thick weather stripping expanding with a sigh. Sam froze. I counted to ten. Nothing. No one moved on the other side. No alarms went off. No lights clicked on.
We slipped inside and entered into what might have once been a mudroom. Empty hooks dotted the wall across from us. Below them sat a bench. A few logs were stacked on end in a tin bucket near the door. The air smelled faintly of burning wood and ash.
I craned my neck, checking the hallway straight ahead, gun up, ready. A thick steel door stood at the end. A keypad was installed in the wall to the right.
The lab was exactly where the blueprints had said it’d be.
Sam gestured to the rest of the basement, meaning we should finish our check first.
The basement wasn’t large, so it took us only a few minutes to be sure we were alone. Sam was the first to the lab door. I hovered behind him as he inspected the keypad.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to break into this,” he said quietly. “It’s high-tech, more advanced than the system at the farmhouse.”
“So what do we do?”
“We hope Cas and Nick find the handler, and the handler gives us the code.”
I snorted. “Like he’s going to give that up?”
“I can be convincing,” he said without looking at me.
“What, and torture him? You can’t. If the handler is anything at all like my dad—”
“You want your sister, don’t you?” He finally met my eyes. “How else are we going to get inside? Call Riley direct and see if he knows the code?”
“You don’t have to be a jerk.”
“I’m not, I’m just trying to—”
A door clicked open somewhere above us. Clean white light spilled down the stairwell. I tightened my hold on my gun.
“It’s us,” Cas said. “We found the handler.”
I exhaled and followed Sam around to the staircase. Nick was dragging a man down the stairs. Cas led the way. The man nearly stumbled over the last two steps, and Nick had to catch him beneath the arms to steady him.
“Take whatever you want,” the man said, his voice hitching with panic. “My wallet is upstairs. I don’t know how much cash I have, but I have credit cards and—”
“We’re not here for your money,” Sam said.
I stepped around Sam to get a better look at the Delta lab handler. He was nothing like my dad.
He was younger, for one. Thirties, maybe, with a full head of dirty-blond hair and a neatly trimmed goatee. A tie hung loose from around his neck. The first three buttons of his white oxford were undone.
“Open the lab,” Sam said.
The edge of distress on the man’s face disappeared, replaced with curiosity and caution. “You’re him, aren’t you?”
Sam didn’t even blink.
“Sam. And…” The man examined the rest of us. “Cas. Nick. And…” His attention landed on me. “Anna.”
“So we can skip the introductions,” Nick said, giving the man a tug. “Now open the lab.”
“I can’t. You know what they’d do to me if I did?”
Nick kicked the man behind the knee. He wailed and dropped to the floor. Nick twisted his arms higher, pushing the sockets of his shoulders as far as they would go before dislocating.
“You have any idea what we will do to you if you don’t open that lab?” Nick said.
The man started sobbing. “Please don’t hurt me. I’m just a scientist. I run the logs and the tests. That’s it.”
Nick pushed the man’s arms higher. “Then open the door.”
He cried out. “Okay! Okay! Stop. Please.”
Nick looked up at Sam. Sam nodded and Nick let the man go. He cowered on the floor for several long seconds holding his arms close to his chest.
