Collide (12 page)

“They disappeared, sir.”

Josh tightens his grip on my hand.

“You fool! They’re hiding.” Anger breathes from every word.

“Not possible, sir. We’ve checked—”

“Shoot into the woods. Burn down the forest if you have to. Whatever it takes. Just end this.”

I stare at Josh, watching the color drain from his face, knowing the same is happening to me.

Don’t panic
, Josh whispers into my thoughts.

Impossible.

The assailant motions to his minions. Bullets fly in every direction. I slam my eyes closed, waiting for the death that comes. Josh yanks my arms and pulls me deeper into the woods. I look over my shoulder. The first man with a gun falls, blood splattering in every direction. One by one the other gunmen fall, their faces locked in an expression on shock.

I pull back on Josh and force him to stop. “Look,” I say as I nod toward the carnage. “What’s happening?”

Josh stops, stunned.

More assailants fall, each sliced by invisible weapons or suffocated by unseen hands.

“No way,” Josh whispers as a slow, mischievous smile replaces the concern on his face. “Yeah!”

“Wait.”

Before I can finish the thought, Josh yells “Warriors unite!” as he laughs and pulls me toward the fields.

“What are you doing?” Josh has lost his mind. “There may be more of them.”

“Doubtful,” Josh jokes. “Unless they’re enlisting boys who only like to play with swords.”

“Hey, I used a sword and a gun this time.” David pushes through the cornfields, meeting us in a small clearing.

I stop, frozen where I stand. I can’t decide whether to run or stay. Either way, David is not getting off the hook just for saving us.

“I knew they couldn’t have gotten you.” Josh says, his relief palpable.

“Ha! I saw ‘em coming hours before they got here.”

Josh laughs and nudges me forward. I remain mute, my sight fixated on the house ahead.

David steps in my path. The familiar scent of pine fills my senses. “Dakota.” His voice is husky and low. A flood of memories I can’t control streams forward, along with my love, my anger, my pain. I turn my head away, refusing to meet his eyes. “Dakota, please.” He reaches out for me.

Silence speaks everything I can’t yet say as I push past him and make my way to the house. Clouds swirl in the sky, hinting of an impending storm.

“Don’t mind her,” Josh says. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”

“I owe her an apology.”

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

The boys chatter behind me as I cut through the fields and walk across the grass behind David’s house. Confusion over our past ties my brain into knots. I climb the stairs to the porch. The clouds gather closer and darken, turning the sky into a spectacular mixture of orange, purple and grey.

“We should leave,” I say, watching the storm move closer. “We aren’t safe.”

“This house is safer than you may think,” David says as he brushes up against me to open the door. “Besides, the roads will be horrible if those clouds let loose.”

“We’ll stay. We have a lot of things to discuss. Preparations to make. ” Josh motions for me to go inside.

“Ever the leader,” David jokes. “Just like when we were kids.”

I glare at Josh and follow David into the house, a fresh punch of anger blooming inside of me.

David leads us on a quick tour of the house. The interior is in better shape than the outside, fresh yellow paint on the walls, new tile in the kitchen and bath. David’s been busy since leaving Cambria.

“You guys look like you’ve been through hell,” David says as he guides us back to the kitchen. His green eyes catch mine and I turn away.

Josh pulls out a chair and sits. “We have,” he says.

The boys joke for a few minutes as David takes a plate of fruit from the refrigerator and places it on the table near Josh. His arm brushes against mine and he pulls a chair out for me. My skin heats from the brief touch, riding up from my chest, to my neck and flushing my cheeks. I turn, trying to hide the obvious impact of his presence.

“Time to talk,” I say, killing the mood before it begins. “I’ll start. I’m really pissed off at both of you for not telling me about WITSEC. But right now, I’m more worried about Mom and Dad, and I don’t know how finding you and the others will help us find them.”

“Mom and Dad said—”

“I know they told us to find the others and bring them to the safe house. Honestly, I don’t give a crap about them. Sorry David. I just want to find Mom and Dad.”

David reaches for my hand and I pull away.

Josh clenches his jaw. “I’m sure they’re at the safe house. They wanted to protect all of us. The only way to make sure we don’t end up like Mari is by being together.”

Tears fill my eyes when he mentions her name.

“Someone want to fill me in?” David says as he glances from me to Josh.

“He didn’t tell you?” I glare at Josh. “I’ve been going crazy since you left; even got hospitalized. When Mom and Dad came to take me home, we were run off the road and shot at. They took Mom and Dad, or killed them.” The rest of the story comes out in a rush: finding the house tossed, my vision of Mari’s death, going to find her house and our plans to find David and Maya.

David sits mute throughout my story, his eyes never leaving mine. Sadness clouds his expression. “I’m so sorry, Dakota. For everything.”

I ignore the innuendo and turn to Josh. “If we’re stuck here until tomorrow, then I want to use the time wisely. Both of you need to tell me what you know and why you remember more than I do.”

Josh fidgets with his hands and my apprehension grows alongside his.

“Tell me.” I say to both of them. “I can handle it. Josh, you said we were involved in psychic experiments?”

Josh nods. “Yes.” The word spills from his mouth like poison.

“Have you ever heard of Project Stargate?” David takes over the story, again reaching for my hand.

“You mean the psychic spy stuff from the 70’s?” I always felt like there was more truth to those stories than the history books let on.

“It actually started earlier than that, but yes.”

“We were somehow involved in that stuff?”

“More or less, yes,” Josh says.

“Knock it off, Josh!” I can’t contain my frustration any longer. “Don’t give me this ‘more or less’ crap. Tell me what’s going on.” Anger creeps up my spine.

“Dakota, calm down.” Josh places his hand on my back.

“No! Tell me what Project Stargate has to do with us.” I stare at both Josh and David, willing the answers to come forward.

They clench their jaw, grinding their teeth as I force the truth from their minds. Flashes of thoughts, not my own, stream behind my eyes. “New recruits.” “Train them to spy.” “Train them for more.” Familiar images join their voices in my head. Five children. Experiments. Objects hovering in the air. Maps of unseen rooms drawn with perfect precision. People mentally manipulated to our whims.

“We were part of the psychic espionage? Part of Project Stargate?” My eyes never leave Josh.

“Not that project, no,” David says.

“What then?”

Josh looks down and swallows. “Mom and Dad believed all the psychic stuff was the key to winning the cold war; every war. They told me they included us in their work.”

“Their work?”

“We were supposed to learn how to use our natural gifts. Nothing else.”

“I don’t understand.”

“We, the five recruits, were born with psychic gifts, Dakota. Though I suspect yours was, is, much stronger than any of ours. The government wanted to train us.”

A cold shiver brushes across my skin. “Mom and Dad let them experiment? On us?”

“Yeah.”

His voice slaps me hard across the face. Anger and fear mix in equal proportion, all aimed at my parents. “That’s why we’re in protective custody, isn’t it? Something went wrong.”

“We don’t know,” David says. “Josh and I don’t remember anything bad happening. Most of our memories from that time are good.” David fixes his gaze on me. “Very good.”

“Are you sure?” I pause, wrestling with the question still lodged in my throat. I face Josh. “Are you sure I didn’t do something . . . bad?”

“No,” the boys say in unison.

“I refuse to believe any of us are capable of anything like the visions you’ve been having.” Josh takes my hand and smiles.

“Visions?” David asks.

“She sees people’s deaths. They started out as random incidents when we were younger. But in the last few days, they seem more personal. A Doctor. Mari.”

Hearing Josh talk about my visions makes me feel even crazier, if that’s possible. And even though he denies it, I know I’m the cause of Mom and Dad’s disappearance, Mari’s death. Everything.

“What happened during those experiments?” I whisper. “We need to figure it out.”

“Mom and Dad stopped trusting the other researchers. They told me that when they tried to pull us out of the project, the CIA prevented it. So they turned to the FBI and told them about the experiments. We were all placed in WITSEC the next day.”

“Ten years ago?”

“Yeah. You were six. I didn’t know any of us wound up in the same area until I saw David.”

“Why did you wait to say something? Why can’t I remember it the way you can?”

“I didn’t remember anything until a few years ago,” Josh says.

“Neither did I.” David fixes his vision only on me, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Not until Josh passed me in the Coffee Shake. You have to believe me.”

I can’t respond, the words stuck too far in my throat to form.

“I still don’t remember most of the year we spent at the lab,” David says. Just a few memories of Josh. And you.”

Another chill covers my skin and I turn away, desperate to hide my reaction to him.

“Do you remember anything else, Josh?” David asks, still staring only at me.

Josh shakes his head.

“I remember several glass-enclosed labs,” I whisper. “ And a house, our house.” The mental pictures refuse to focus for me.

“Yes,” Josh says. “We were there for about year, near as I can tell. Mom and Dad wouldn’t tell me anything other than they had to keep us—all of us—safe. I’m hoping to get more out of them this time.”

Assuming they’re alive to tell us.

JOSH AND DAVID CONTINUE TO TALK, RECOUNTING THE VARIOUS MEMORIES OF OUR LIFE IN THE LAB
. I can’t take it in. The words spin around me until I’m dizzy. “I need a shower. Do you mind?”

Josh tilts his head in surprise.

“No problem,” David says. “Top of the stairs and to the left.”

“Thanks,” I say, ignoring them both.

The water is hot against my skin as it pounds into my back, my shoulders, my arms. Relief comes quickly. But not peace. I can’t stop thinking about Mom and Dad, the gunmen, and everything Josh and David remember.

Psychic experiments.

Paranormal activity would explain the visions and the voices. Not to mention why things literally start flying whenever I get mad.

I lather up my body and hair, picturing the soap as it floats out of my hands and hovers for a moment before scraping the tile. In seconds, the bar loosens itself from my grip with a tug. I watch as it mimics my mental imagery. A smile forms across my lips as the soap dances around the shower, obeying my every thought. So natural, good.

Ominous.

I focus solely on the soap as the water begins to heat even more. I never acknowledge the burning sensation on my skin, or the steam that fills the room. The soap continues to dance while scalding water turns my skin a blistering red.

“Leave some for the rest of us,” Josh yells from the other side of the door.

My vision shifts to the door and back. The soap falls hard against the tile.

“Dakota? You okay?”

A scream escapes my lips as I finally feel the water as it burns through my flesh.