Outcasts (48 page)

“Explain later.” Omar flashed Ciddah a fake smile. “Right now we need to get out of here.”

Mason wanted to shake Omar for his “help” in regard to Ciddah. He only felt more flustered and confused now.

“Do you invisible men have a plan of escape?” Shaylinn asked.

“I think we should put the girls in the SimSuits,” Omar said, already zipping down the front of his. “That way we’ll be sure they get out safely.”

“Excellent suggestion.” Mason unzipped his suit as well.

“I’m going to wear that?” Shaylinn shifted the baby to her other arm and reached for Omar’s invisible middle, patting it with her fingertips.

“What about Baby Promise?” Ciddah said.

“I’m wearing a harness,” Omar said, shrugging off the sleeves of his suit. “The same one I used to carry Ben. One of you will have to put it on.”

“I will,” Ciddah said.

“You saved Ben?” Shaylinn said, beaming.

Omar stepped out of one leg of his suit. “We saved all the children, except …”

“Except what?” Shaylinn asked. “Is it Jemma?”

Omar struggled to get his other foot out of the suit. “Nothing. Never mind.”

“Jemma is fine.” Mason didn’t think now was the time to bring
up Kendall’s death. He could imagine the effect the news of Kendall’s death would have on two frightened women. It would not expedite their escape. Mason left his SimSuit on the floor and removed his surgical kit from the pocket. He unrolled it on the bed.

Omar took off the harness he was wearing. “We can give you our suits, but not the contact lenses. So you’ll have no way of seeing each other. Hold hands or something, so you don’t get separated.”

Mason took the harness from Omar and helped Ciddah put it on. “I need to remove your SimTag next, Ciddah, or they’ll be able to track you. Did they give you a new one, Shaylinn?”

“No,” Shaylinn said. “I just got here.”

“Mason, what about my donors?” Ciddah asked.

He met her eyes. “Your
parents
are in hiding. Omar and I got them to safety on Friday.”

“Oh, Mason!” She threw her arms around him and hugged him so tightly he could feel her heart beat.

He wanted to linger in her arms, but he made her sit on the bed. “Hold still so I can do this.”

Omar took the baby so Shaylinn could get into his SimSuit. While Mason removed Ciddah’s SimTag, he shared what he’d overheard from General Otley. “It seems like it won’t be long until he’s the task director general. Though I don’t know why he wouldn’t just wait a few more months until Lawten is liberated.”

“Because then the Guild takes a vote,” Ciddah said. “And if Otley can make himself look like a hero before then, he stands a better chance of getting the job.”

“That’s madness,” Omar said. “It will be worse for everyone then. Do you think he’d really let Bender be enforcer general?”

“Bender has no enforcer experience,” Mason said. “I believe Otley is manipulating him.” He taped a bandage over the incision on Ciddah’s hand. “Sorry I can’t do better than that right now.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “You were right about our land: It’s anything but safe. In fact, the only place I’ve ever felt protected has been in your presence.”

Mason took hold of her hand. “Then I will never leave you.”

“Wow,” Omar said. “Keep that up and you two are going to make me sick.” Omar pulled Shaylinn to the bed. She was now the one with a floating head. “Sit and hold the baby for Mason. And you” — he nodded to Ciddah — “put on Mason’s suit, will you?”

Ciddah got up from the bed and Shaylinn took her place. She hugged the child to her chest, which looked so strange with her body being invisible. “You’re going to cut him?”

“I have to. They’ll track his SimTag otherwise.”

Omar stood guard at the door, stunner in hand, while Ciddah got dressed in Mason’s SimSuit and Baby Promise screamed. Mason worked fast, though, and once Kendall’s child was bandaged up, he quickly fastened the boy into the harness Ciddah wore, then zipped her up until she was only a floating head too.

“How will we get out?” Shaylinn asked. “I don’t know where to go.”

“You’ll stay with us unless something happens,” Omar said. “And if it does, get out of the house and walk to the black truck that’s parked at a green house around the corner. Nash will drive you to Zane’s place.”

“Can’t we just go to the cabin?” Shaylinn asked.

“Not now that Rewl knows where it is,” Mason said. “Everyone will be at Zane’s now.”

“Just get out of the gates,” Omar said. “Zane says they can find you wherever you are as long as you keep the suits on. So get out and look for Nash. If you can’t find him, sit somewhere and wait. He’ll come find you.”

Ciddah took hold of Mason’s hand, and the thick suit glove felt strange against his skin. “I don’t want to be apart from you ever again,” she said.

He looked down into her eyes. He wanted to say that his love didn’t change when they were apart, but Omar would mock him, and he still didn’t know with absolute certainty that she was being honest. “Stay alive, please. That’s your only task now.”

“I will, if only to see you again.” She kissed him, and Mason couldn’t believe how happy a person was capable of feeling.

“I think it’s time for the hoods,” Omar said, a little louder than necessary. Then he mumbled, “Walls, you two are worse than Jemma and Levi.” He laughed, then added, “And Levi agrees.”

Mason and Ciddah broke apart, and Mason’s cheeks burned. He’d forgotten that people were watching through his eyes. He lowered the hood over Ciddah’s head and she vanished from sight. It was difficult to find the snaps with the suit already activated. He found the first two, but the third must have been twisted under the hem somehow because —

The door burst open. “Don’t move!”

Rewl walked into the room, gun trained on Mason, then Omar, then Mason again.

“You can’t shoot us both at the same time,” Omar said.

Mason was glad to see that his brother had gotten Shay’s hood on in time. Perhaps if he were able to stall Rewl, Omar could get the girls out. He looked for his stunner, then realized it was still strapped to his belt, which was coiled on the floor at his feet.

“Where are they?” Rewl asked. “Where’s the baby? I can hear it.”

The baby cooed from somewhere near the closet. He hoped Ciddah hadn’t gone inside, but then he saw her blue form inching along the wall toward the door.

Rewl stepped forward and motioned Mason to walk to the foot of the bed, where Omar was standing. Mason backed up slowly as Rewl moved toward the closet. Rewl turned quickly, so that his back was to the closet and his gun aimed at Mason. He pulled the closet door aside.

Empty.

Rewl frowned and looked at Mason. “I don’t understand.”

His aim drooped enough that Mason took his chance. He tackled Rewl, knocking him into the open closet. Mason’s hand and temple scraped the wall as they fell. His elbow struck the metal runner for the closet doors, and pain coursed up his arm.

“Go, Omar! Go!” Mason yelled, both hands on Rewl’s gun hand, pushing it away from him. No matter what, he had to hold on long enough for them to get out of the room.

Somehow Rewl got on top and jammed his knee against Mason’s abdomen. Mason froze, as if paralyzed. His diaphragm was stuck in the inhale position. Too much air with no place to go. His spine instinctively curled. Rewl untangled himself and stood, then he shot Mason with the stunner.

The electricity from the stun cartridge was stronger than Mason would have imagined. His muscles seized and felt like they were being stretched beyond their limits. The pain surprised him as did the fact that he had no voice, no motor control at all. Yet he was completely cognizant of his surroundings. Rewl was searching the room. Mason saw him look under the bed and behind the chairs and curtains, out on the balcony.

Yet Mason couldn’t move. It was the strangest sensation he’d ever experienced.

And then the cartridge ran out of current. Mason’s body relaxed, though every nerve still felt like it was vibrating.

“He’s there,” Rewl said to someone. “Pick him up and follow me.”

Two enforcers appeared over Mason. Hands descended upon him, and he was dragged out of the closet and from the room. The enforcers carried him through the house, down the stairs, following Rewl, and while Mason’s body no longer hurt, his muscles had yet to resume taking instructions from his brain.

It truly was a fascinating experience.

Suddenly the enforcers stopped. They were in the small parlor again. Lawten was there, sitting on the same red chair. Kruse sat beside him now. Two enforcers stood behind Lawten and Kruse, guns in hand. Two of the bodyguards in black suits lay on the floor. Stunned. Dead. Mason couldn’t tell. The others weren’t present. Bender sat on one of the beige sofas across from them. General Otley was standing before the fireplace.

“Well, surprise me,” Kruse said. “It’s the handsome medic. I did not expect
that.
”

Otley turned and looked at Mason, then at Rewl, who walked farther into the room.

“What’s this?” Otley asked.

“The girls are gone, sir,” Rewl said. “All I found in the room was him and his brother.”

“Gone?” Otley roared. “How? Where? And what about the baby?”

“I don’t know,” Rewl said, his voice so low it was barely audible.

Otley narrowed his eyes. “
Which
brother did you see? He has two.”

“Omar,” Rewl said.

Otley walked up to Rewl. “And where is Omar now?”

“He got away, probably with the girls and the baby.”

Otley drew his gun and shot Rewl. The gun let off an airy pop.

Mason’s arms flinched then, fear bringing his muscles back into action. He knew that sound. It was the same sound he’d heard when they killed his father.

Rewl collapsed, and Bender jumped up from the sofa and stared at his son. “You — What did you do?”

“What was necessary,” Otley said. “Clearly Mr. Renzor is working with those outsider rats. But without the girl and the child, we have no proof of kidnapping charges. So find Omar Strong, find the girl, and find the child. Now!”

The two enforcers holding Mason dropped him on a chair and ran out of the parlor. Mason sat there, legs still shaky, staring at Rewl’s body, wondering if there was anything he could do. He tried to move his hands and only one finger curled.

Bender crossed the room and knelt at Rewl’s side. He pulled his son onto his knees, leaving a circle of red stained onto the rug. A breath released from Mason. Too much blood loss. Too late.

He could only stare and pray that Omar and the girls had gotten out.

S
haylinn clutched tightly to Ciddah’s arm as they followed Omar down the hallway. He turned a sharp corner, and when the girls caught up, Shaylinn saw him standing three steps down a half-flight of narrow, wooden steps, looking back up, waving them to come.

Omar turned, but before he took another step, footsteps clattered up the steps from below. Shadows jostled on the wall of the landing. He spun back to them. Shaylinn reached out and took his hand, and he ran up the steps and darted ahead, pulling Shay along. She had to run to keep up, and she squeezed Ciddah’s arm even tighter.

Omar ran past the room the girls had been kept in and followed the hall until it turned a corner. Here the passage stretched out the length of one room before it turned yet again and ended in a grand staircase. Shaylinn thought she saw the front door at the bottom of the stairs. They were almost free.

Omar went down the steps quickly and silently. Shaylinn tried to be silent as well. She could hear little Elyot fussing and hoped no one else would.

Just as Omar stepped off the stairs, General Otley swept out from a doorway on the right.

“You!” Otley grabbed the front of Omar’s shirt and swung him around, jerking Omar’s hand from Shaylinn’s and knocking over a vase of roses with Omar’s feet. The vase fell with a crash, spilling water and porcelain and flowers across the floor.

Shaylinn bit back a scream. Footsteps on the stairs behind them signaled the approach of two enforcers.

“Did you find the girls?” Otley asked the enforcers, still holding Omar’s shirt as Omar struggled to get away. His words were heavy and mean, like punches.

“No sign of them in the rooms, sir.”

Shaylinn clutched Ciddah’s arm and watched Omar reach for a shard of the broken vase.

“Look again.”

“Yes, sir.” The enforcers turned and scurried back down the hallway.

Omar stabbed the shard into General Otley’s leg, which made the beastly man growl. With a flick of his arm, he threw Omar through the archway and stomped after him, disappearing from sight.

A tug from Ciddah, and Shaylinn followed her down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, Shaylinn could see into the room where General Otley had gone. Omar lay on the floor on his back, General Otley’s foot on his chest.
Don’t hurt him!

“Where’s the girl, little rat?” General Otley leaned on Omar, pressing down with his foot. “Where’s the infant?”

Omar grabbed the general’s boot and twisted out from under it. He rolled up into a sitting position and pushed back on the floor, panting slightly. “I don’t know anything about a girl or an infant.” Omar took a breath. “Or a rat, for that matter. Me and my brother were looking for a new house, and we liked the looks of this one.”

Otley kicked Omar’s stomach, making Omar slide over the wooden floor. He rolled onto his chest and moaned.

“Leave him alone.” Mason’s voice. Somewhere deeper in the room. Shaylinn saw the back of his head above a fancy red chair. Why was he just sitting there?

Someone hitched in a muffled sob, which drew Shaylinn’s gaze to Bender, kneeling on the floor, cradling Rewl’s head in his lap, blood staining the floor beneath them.

Shaylinn lost her breath.

They should do something to help. But what? If only Shaylinn had a stunner. She would shoot Otley and end all this.

The baby let out a long, gurgling coo. Ciddah pulled on Shaylinn’s arm, and, reluctantly, Shaylinn followed Ciddah, but her eyes stayed on Omar until she could no longer see him.