The Fire In My Eyes (32 page)

The brunette looked at me and rolled her eyes. “You're doomed,” she mumbled.

“Us?” I asked. “Hold on here. Aren't you supposed to be terrorists?”

Star looked over her shoulder. “Hey, Ruth? How many people have we terrorized in the past month or so?”

“Lost count,” the blonde said. She was wheezing with every breath.

Star looked back to me. “That's what the suits call us,” she said with a shrug. “But one man's terrorist is another man's patriot, as the saying goes. I prefer the term vigilante, though. Or maybe we're agents of justice?”

“You're losing me here,” I said.

She started to reply, but then tilted her head to the side. Blue energy flickered in her eyes. “More suits on the way. Beth, you up for another fight?”

“Sure, if you're not worried about winning,” the brunette replied.

“Figured. Get to the safehouse. We're bugging out tonight, cell compromised. Pack what we can, burn what we can't. I'll catch up in a few minutes.” Star fell silent, but I could sense telepathy flickering between her and the other girls.

“Got it,” the brunette said. Star grabbed my left wrist and dragged me outside. The agent was still lying in the middle of the street where I had left him. She knelt beside him, then touched his forehead. Her eyes shone blue.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Twisting,” she said. “He shouldn't remember this, and even if he does, he won't be coming after us for a few months.” She patted him on the head and stood up. “His crew will handle cleanup, so don't worry. You and I need to talk.”

“Talk about what?” I asked. “Who are they? Who are you, for that matter?”

She touched my injured hand. I could feel her probing the injuries. “Maybe I just wanted to talk about rescheduling our tryst,” she said.

“Like hell.”

She laughed. “I'm serious. We don't have enough time to discuss things properly. You go to Ripley? That's in upstate New York, in Troy, isn't it?”

“Are you planning on taking a tour?” I asked.

Her smile turned playful again. “Of course. I've always wanted to visit that campus. Will you be my guide?”

“Yeah, for about three minutes before you get caught up there too,” I said. “Are you serious? That's like walking naked through a field full of beehives. Our people up there will track you down fast, and I don't think they'll be any happier to see you than this guy was.”

“Are you thinking about me walking around naked?”

I was, now that she mentioned it. “That's not my point!”

Star laughed again and I felt psionic energy curl into my broken hand, knitting the bones and encouraging the injuries to heal quickly. I clenched my jaw as the pain spiked, then receded. She was at least as skilled at biokinesis as Nikki, maybe better. “You can trust me, Kevin. I won't get caught. I've been on the run since I was fifteen. I can dodge the authorities, I can fend for myself, and most importantly, I can keep a secret. Can you?”

“I'd like to think so.” I wiggled my fingers with only a small twinge of pain. “Thanks.”

“You're quite welcome. Here's what's going to happen. Your friends just got their memories of this event tweaked. You'll have spent a nice long evening in the bar, but didn't get anywhere. Your friend Max owns a car?”

“Yeah, that one in the lot,” I said.

“Good. They’re going to be in a haze until they get some sleep, so you'll want to grab a hotel room. Wish I could join you. Oh well. There's always next time.”

“Hopefully not involving a government agent almost killing us,” I said. “That settles things for them, but what about me?”

“I'd like to trust you,” she said. “I'd like to trust you to not tell anyone about what happened tonight. I'd like to trust you to not even think about it. You're right about the Establishment. They won't be happy to see me. There's a lot you don't know about them.”

“How do you know-”

She cut me off before I could ask. “Trust me on that. Return my trust, all right?” She sighed and looked side to side. “We're running out of time. Kevin, here's the deal. We can trust each other and we both walk away from here. If you don't trust me, I'll just tweak your memories too. The suits probably won't bother you any more if you're laid out like everyone else. That one seemed like he was going beyond his orders. He set you up so he could take you out alongside me.”

“So what-”

“Listen!” She grabbed my shoulders. “No time! Do you trust me?”

It didn't take much thought. She was telling me things, not like Ripley or Shade, and she hadn't kept me at arm's length like Nikki. She was straightforward and she was honest and she had tried to keep me from getting involved. Even though I had only known her for a half hour or so, I trusted her. “Yes.”

Her expression softened with a smile. “Good. Do you want to see me again? I want to talk to you, tell you things. I want to see you again. I want to do things with you. To you. But it's your call. What do you think?”

My hormones had calmed down by this point. I had a girlfriend. I could turn down the blatant seduction, and I could learn what was going on. “You'll tell me about what's going on? About who you are?”

She nodded, hands still gripping my shoulders. “Yes.”

I nodded as well. “Sure. When?”

Her smile widened and she looked simply radiant. “I'll need some time to take care of business. I'll contact you. I promise. And here's something to seal that promise,” she said, and pulled me roughly to her. Her kiss was intense, brutal, nothing like kissing Nikki. Star kissed me like there was nothing more important in the world. The world could end around us and she'd still kiss me until she was perfectly satisfied.

She let go far too soon. “Run, Kevin,” she whispered. “Run before I lose my mind over you. Go!” She licked her lips, then took a shaky step backwards, turned her back on me, and ran. Her hair twinkled as she passed under a working streetlight and I watched her go until she turned a corner and was out of sight. Immediately overhead, I heard a helicopter. I pressed up against a wall as it swept overhead, searchlight flashing past me and down the street, following her. I wanted to knock it out of the sky, but she had asked me to trust her. I curled my hands into fists and ran back into the bar.

Max and Drew were standing near the door, both grinning drunkenly while the rest of the bar looked around with glassy eyes. The blonde and brunette were long gone. I pushed them both out the door. “Get in the car!” I shouted. To my surprise, they did. “Buckle up!” I snapped as I slammed the driver's door shut. I tore out of there like a frightened rabbit.

Traffic was non-existent for several blocks and I twisted and turned until I found a sign that pointed me west, away from the city. I got onto a highway, merged into the light traffic at whatever ungodly hour it was, and raced off. Max and Drew were still silent with identical ridiculous grins on their faces. Whatever memories Star's friends had suggested to them must have been pleasant. I sped down the highway and pulled off at an exit long before the point where we had originally been caught. There was a cheap motel not far from the exit and I pulled into the lot.

The late night clerk was more than happy to accept a full night's payment for a room in cash. I thanked him, took the key, and herded my friends into the room. “Go to sleep,” I told them. Each of them obediently picked a bed, climbed into it fully dressed, and promptly passed out. We were probably far enough away by now to be safe. I dropped into a chair by the window and looked at the clock. It was almost three in the morning and I still had adrenaline pulsing through my veins. There was no way I could sleep right now.

My thoughts drifted back to Star. If she really did come up to New York to find me, what would I do? Could I even talk to her without betraying the Establishment? Was she trying to recruit me to be a traitor to the people who were training me? It wasn't as if I had a lot of loyalty to Ripley and his crew, but if she was part of a terrorist group, I didn't want to get involved. She didn't seem like someone who would go around slaughtering innocents, though. What was her story? I needed to hear it.

I nodded and curled up in the chair. I'd listen to what she had to say. She'd be able to take care of herself when she came up to Ripley, and hearing her out was the least I could do if she actually showed up. The only thing left for me to consider was how I would explain this to Nikki. Or if I would tell her at all.

Florida terrified me. After what had happened in Washington, I was constantly looking over my shoulder. Would they come after me? Would I wake up some night to see glowing red eyes in the darkness of the hotel room? That was the theme for nightmares that month. The incident had only gone to show me how very vulnerable I was when I was away from Ripley.

Some of my dreams involved glowing blue eyes. Those dreams tended to wake me for entirely different reasons. I hadn't heard anything on the news the next morning, but that wouldn't have come as any surprise. The government agents had probably fixed whatever damage we had done to the area and then adjusted as many memories as they needed to. There were no mentions of terrorists on the news. I doubted there would be, even if they had caught her. I'd have to wait until November to find out.

Max and Drew remembered nothing of the strange events. For them, we had diverted to Washington on our own initiative, they had danced and flirted with pretty girls, and then we had left. Fuzzy memories. They chalked it up to having too much to drink.

By the time the end of vacation rolled around, I was ready to enjoy myself at last. Of course, that was when we had to leave. No amount of argument on my part could convince them to stay an extra day. “Besides,” Max said, “If we don't leave today, we'd have to sleep and drive in shifts to make it back in time. We're cutting it close already. If there are any delays on the way, we'll be in trouble.”

We were almost in trouble. It was nearly midnight by the time we pulled into the parking lot. We rushed back to our room and frantically unpacked, got in each other's way, and checked our schedules. My only surprise was finding Comparative Ethics II on my schedule, this time scheduled for Monday afternoon. That suited me fine, since I had a class right before it. It also meant that I would get to see Nikki.

My classes all got out early that day, so I made sure I was early for Ripley’s class, which was in the same room it had been in before. I sat at the same desk as I had the first trimester and pulled out my laptop. I had grabbed a few files from the Establishment network after Max and Drew had fallen asleep last night. I wanted to learn anything I could about the people I had encountered in Washington, especially those with blue eyeglow.

Before I could make much headway, the door to the room opened. I turned in my seat and closed the laptop's lid. Alistair Ripley stood framed in the doorway, cane in one hand, and sheaf of papers in the other. “Mr. Parker. I see you have decided that punctuality is a virtue.”

“You could say that, Professor,” I said.

He closed the door and strode to the front of the room, leaning his cane against the desk and placing the papers in a neat stack on top. “I trust you had a pleasant summer vacation?”

“Not completely pleasant,” I said. “I'm sure you already know. Right?”

Lines appeared between his eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?”

“I had a bit of an altercation around Washington,” I explained. “I guess you could call it being caught in the crossfire.”

I hadn't often seen Alistair Ripley surprised. He was now. His hands gripped the edge of the desk and his eyes went wide. Before I could comment on his seeming loss of control, his grip loosened and his eyes narrowed. “You traveled to Washington?” he asked.

“Past it, on the way to Florida,” I said.

“Without letting anyone know?”

“Was I supposed to?”

He leaned on the desk and sighed. “Yes. You should have. I take it that you encountered gentlemen wearing suits and whose eyes glowed scarlet.”

“Yes, and another group whose eyes were glowing blue.” I tapped my laptop. “I was just looking up who was who.”

“You'll find information on the Bureau on our network. Perhaps not too much at your access level.” Ripley turned away and picked up a piece of chalk, then started to write on the board. “As for the other group, it would be difficult to narrow it down. The blue color is common for various reasons.”

I put the laptop in my backpack and leaned on the desk. “Reasons like what?”

The scratching of chalk on blackboard stopped, then resumed. “I suggest you ask Shade or Absynthe next time you see them. I would explain, but we haven't the time to go through historical records before class begins.”

“If we don't have time for that, maybe you could answer one other question?” I asked.

“Go on.”

“This class is for psions, isn't it?”

He tapped the chalk against the blackboard. “Why do you think that, Mr. Parker?”

“Because Nikki and I have psionic power, and we're both here,” I said. “I also don't think you would be teaching a class just for the fun of it. Maybe for special students. Very special students.”

“I cannot deny that this class is geared toward those with your talents,” he said. “However, it would be a mistake to assume that all of your classmates are talented in the same manner. Normally, I would not approve of you knowing any of this. However, since you and Miss Wainwright have already learned of each other's talents and begun training together, it's unsurprising that you've deduced this.”

“I'm trying to figure out if that's a compliment or not,” I said.

His shoulders shook as he chuckled. “I suppose it could be.”

The door to the classroom opened again and another student who I recognized from the first trimester entered, cutting off any further conversation. Over the next fifteen minutes, more people arrived, and at the precise minute when class was scheduled to begin, Ripley began to call roll. Nikki hadn't yet arrived. I wondered if she hadn't been selected for the class. That would have been ridiculous, considering he had mentioned her just a few minutes before, but where was she?