The Marked (26 page)

Anna went below and rummaged around. She came back on deck holding a wicked-looking knife. “At least we’ve got a weapon.”

My eyes opened wide. Even Trevor looked nervous when Anna started tossing the knife lightly from one hand to the other.

“How’s Claire?” I asked, needing to break the silence.

“She’ll be okay. David’s with her.”

“She took a nasty bump on the head,” Trevor added. “We’re lucky David’s around.”

Anna sat in the seat next to Trevor and ran her finger lightly over the blade. “So, what exactly happened with the Irin?” she asked, meeting my eyes for the first time.

I described exactly how the fight had gone down, and Jack’s appearance.

“Do you still care about him?” Anna asked quietly.

“The Jack I knew is gone,” I said, defeated. “I don’t know who killed him, but he’s gone.”

Anna stared over the edge of the boat, the wind ruffling her hair. “We’ve all lost friends along the way.”

I stared at her, confused by the almost sympathetic tone.

We sat in silence, watching the water retreat and listening to the sirens wail from the island. Standing at the wheel, Trevor wore his usual frown, but beneath that stern look, I now knew, there was another side to him; I’d seen it myself when he caught my best friend in an unexpected embrace. Somehow, this gave me the strength to speak up.

“Have you two ever noticed that the Irin get stronger every time we increase the number of Watchers?”

“I think it’s the other way around,” Trevor said. “We increase the number of Watchers when the Irin get stronger.”

I chose my words carefully. “What if someone inside the Program stood to benefit from the Irin getting stronger? What if that person got more powerful every time the Irin struck out against us?”

Anna turned sharply. “What are you saying, Dancia?”

Trevor frowned as he steered the boat, but didn’t take his eyes off the water.

“We all know the truth about them, right?” I continued. “They’re former Program students, or at least they’ve been associated with the Program in some way. That association makes them hate us, but then we do these things to make it worse. We pick off their people. We break up their cells. We refuse to let them study or build schools.”

“Of course we do,” Trevor said. “We can’t let them get stronger.”

“And I’m not saying we should.” I bit my lip, trying to force my thoughts into coherence while the world around me kept spinning. “But what if it turned out they hadn’t done some of the things we accused them of doing. Like going after the president. What if the Irin had nothing to do with it?”

Anna pushed her hair behind her ears. “Dancia, I’m too tired to deal with mysteries right now. Just come out and say whatever it is you want to say.”

I took a deep breath and then closed my eyes and spoke quickly. “I think there’s a traitor on the Governing Council. I think he’s trying to make the Irin worse, because then he gets more power, maybe enough to take over the whole Council someday. And I think he’s sending the Irin information so they can attack us. I think he’s working both sides.”

When I opened my eyes, Anna and Trevor were staring at me, openmouthed.

“I can explain,” I said weakly.

“It will have to wait,” Trevor snapped, looking toward the horizon. “There’s a boat up ahead. And some people on board I think we know.”

THEY WEREN’T MOVING
. A cloud of grayish smoke hung over the back of their boat. Thaddeus stood by the wheel, swearing, while a girl crouched beside him, presumably working on the engine. Another figure was silhouetted against the light. I shuddered when I recognized the slender figure—it was the girl with the electric hands.

A person with broad shoulders and dark brown hair was barely visible at the back of the boat. Though I couldn’t see the face, I knew it was Cam.

Trevor did a quick scan of the boat. “There’s someone below. Three on top. Two have guns.”

It took a second for them to hear us approaching, but when they did, Thaddeus called out a warning that brought the girl beside him—the ballerina—to her feet. He coolly turned to us, brandishing his gun. Anna and I hit the deck. Trevor dropped to his knees, but not fast enough to avoid a spray of plastic exploding from the windscreen.

I popped up just long enough to send Thaddeus’s gun spinning into space. But at the same time, Jack’s head emerged from the cabin below, and our boat came to a sudden stop. There was a crunching sound from the front; we were all thrown forward, then back. Anna’s head smacked against the dashboard, while I grabbed frantically at a railing to keep myself from falling into the cabin below.

“What happened?” Anna asked when the boat came to rest. She had a long white mark on her forehead, which I imagined would be a healthy bruise in a few hours.

“Don’t know,” Trevor grunted. He rubbed his stomach where it had slammed into the wheel. Tiny red spots marred his forehead, which had been hit by flying bits of plastic. Carefully staying below the line of the deck, he revved the engine. “It was like we hit something.”

Another series of shots came over our bow. I jumped up when I heard a pause and sent the ballerina’s gun into the water. “It’s Jack,” I panted, dropping back down. “He must have made a wall of air.”

Anna cursed. “How are we supposed to get through that? We can’t very well swim to them.”

“Remember, he hasn’t been trained,” Trevor said. “He won’t have the skill to hold the wall very long.”

I thought about all the exercises Barrett and Mr. Fritz had forced me to do, and how far I’d come in one semester. I hoped Trevor was right.

“You got rid of their guns,” Anna said. “That helps.”

“Dancia, when I count to three, you do whatever you can to distract Jack,” Trevor said. “When his concentration breaks I’ll move our boat next to theirs.”

I took a deep breath. “Okay.” The last time I’d used my talent this much I’d been unable to get out of bed for a week. And that had been without a kick to the stomach.

“I’ll be ready to board,” Anna said.

Trevor nodded. “Quickly, now. One…two…three!”

I didn’t want Jack out in the air where he could see us, so I popped up, got a quick look at where he stood, and pushed him down, hearing a thud when his body hit the floor of the cabin below the deck. A second later, our boat shot forward. Anna climbed the silver rail that ran around the deck of the boat and balanced herself on top, the knife gripped firmly in her teeth. She launched herself across the water at Thaddeus and the ballerina as soon as Trevor cut the engine. Electricity Girl hung back a ways, her hands raised like a boxer’s. I had no doubt what she was preparing to do.

Anna landed lightly on her feet. Thaddeus flew at her, seemingly unfazed when she sliced at his side with the knife. He drew back for only a second when her knife cut through his shirt, then lunged again to grab her wrist with one meaty hand. A line of red appeared across his ribs. Electricity Girl danced around Anna’s back, trying to catch the edge of her shirt or arm.

Trevor leaped across the water just as the ballerina started swinging. There was little room for her to dance, which was probably a good thing, because Trevor was immediately able to land an uppercut to her chin, but then fell back when she caught him with a high kick to the head.

Once Thaddeus had Anna’s wrist, he yanked her forward, smiling when she stumbled and almost fell into his arms. “Get her, Reva,” he called to Electricity Girl.

The tiny black-haired girl didn’t hesitate; she laid her hands on Anna’s arm and squeezed. Knowing we had only five seconds, I focused on Reva, ignoring her screams as I lifted her into the air. But in doing so, I came to a painful realization. My stores of energy were wearing down. As a result, Reva bounced unevenly in the air. I pushed her over the edge of the boat and dropped her into the icy water, then swayed dizzily.

I’d have to start conserving my energy.

I shook my head and blinked to clear my vision. When I was steady again on my feet, I made my way to the deck rail, shrinking at what I saw there. Blood covered the white deck—hopefully Thaddeus’s, though I couldn’t be sure, because Anna’s shirt and the side of her face were also spattered with red. The two were locked in battle: Anna on top, Thaddeus underneath, holding her wrists tight.

Trevor was in front of the hole leading to the lower cabin, trading punishing kicks with the ballerina. Red drops were smeared across his forehead, too, while a steady stream of blood dripped from the ballerina’s nose. There was no sign of Jack; I assumed Trevor had knocked him back below deck, or that I’d injured him when I brought him down to the floor of the cabin.

My eyes landed on the broad-shouldered figure I’d been desperate to see.

Cam. His face was bruised, and one eye was swollen shut. A piece of silver tape covered his mouth, and his arms were tied to the railing behind his back. I balanced nervously on top of the silver railing for a second and then jumped across, managing to land directly between the fighting couples.

I wanted desperately to throw Thaddeus into the air, but he was holding on to Anna, and I had a feeling he’d have liked nothing more than to take her with him into the sea. Besides, I needed to save my strength. So I pinned his body to the ground, forcing him to lie still. From the corner of my eye I could see Trevor and the ballerina making their way on to the deck around the front of the boat, fighting at a steady pace.

Thaddeus didn’t loosen his grip on Anna’s wrists, but she must have felt it the instant his body became still, because she tucked in her body and landed a knee right in his groin.

His eyes grew wide and his face went white, and then his hands fell limply to the ground. Anna jerked free of his grasp and jumped lightly to her feet.

We looked at each other for one triumphant moment. “You get him over the side,” Anna said. “I’ll get Cam.”

She took to the ropes with her knife, holding Cam while I nudged Thaddeus’s body into the air above the deck. Moving up and down was the easiest step—side to side was much harder. I had him halfway over the edge when Jack reappeared, and suddenly Thaddeus’s body wouldn’t budge.

It took me a moment to figure out what had happened. It was as if I were running into a wall. I pulled him in every direction, but he seemed to be in a solid, invisible cage. I struggled to punch through it, but it moved like quicksilver, dissolving and re-forming as it went. Thaddeus bounced around inside, but never fell into the water. My energy was quickly depleted, and I finally let go, watching in amazement as he bumped down an invisible set of stairs, landing back on the deck with a thud.

“Clever, don’t you think?” Jack said with satisfaction.

Behind me, I heard Cam jump up and down a few times as Anna freed him. I turned to look as he dived at Thaddeus, with a sound that could only be called a war cry.

Anna rushed at Jack, moving only a few feet forward before stumbling, as an invisible hand pushed her toward the edge of the boat. First, she lurched forward, and then she was thrust back, flailing with her arms. She landed on the seat where Cam had been, and began crawling up the back. I could hear her gasping for air, and realized that she was being squeezed to death.

“Let her go, Jack!” I cried.

“I’m sorry, Danny, but you’re not in a position to demand that.”

Beads of sweat popped up on my forehead as I used the last of my energy to pull Jack a few feet off the ground. “I’m not kidding. Let her go!”

Anna’s hands clawed at the space on either side of her neck. Her lips were starting to turn blue.

“Or what?” Jack asked softly. “Will you kill me, too? Like Reva? Send me into the water and let me drown?”

I didn’t want to consider the thought that I’d killed anyone, but I knew how cold the water was. Our kayak instructors had made a point of telling us that the waters of Puget Sound were about fifty degrees, so, if exposed, you only had ten minutes or so before hypothermia set in. Once it did, the chances of making it out alive were slim to none.

“Let us go,” I said. “We’ll get back on our boat, you can stay in yours.” I gripped the deck railing tightly for support as I felt the energy draining from my muscles.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Jack said. Anna moaned, her head lolling forward.

I looked at Jack with renewed fury. “This ends now, Jack.” I was trembling with both anger and exhaustion. Carefully, I moved him out over the water, as far as I could.

Anna fell to the deck, and an invisible weight was dropped on my back. I collapsed onto the cool white fiberglass deck, the heavy weight immediately squeezing my lungs. I turned my head to one side and gasped for air. “Jack,” I panted, “stop it.”

“You should probably know that I can’t swim,” Jack called from the air above the water. “Are you sure you can live with yourself if you kill me?”

Blackness started to swirl around my eyes. I fought with myself for a few seconds, and then arrived at the only answer that made any sense. I closed my eyes and said a silent good-bye to the boy I’d once known.

Then I let him drop into the water with a splash.

It took Trevor and a recovering Anna working together to subdue the ballerina. Cam helped bind her to the deck rail, tying her hands and feet separately and taping her mouth shut. Thaddeus had sustained some serious head injuries from being slammed around by Jack and me and then facing Cam’s wrath. He didn’t need further restraints, but they tied him up anyway, just to be sure.

When the ship was finally quiet, Cam caught me in his arms, and we held each other in a long, trembling embrace. I shut out any thoughts of tsunamis, the Irin, and the boy I’d sent into the icy water, and pretended we were alone together somewhere beautiful, on a boat with blue skies above us and a sandy beach off in the distance.

“I thought they were going to kill you,” he said hoarsely. “I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t imagine…” He broke off, holding my head against his chest.

I sensed his slow, steady breathing and surrendered my whole being to that moment. I couldn’t make my lips form words, but it didn’t matter. I knew he understood exactly how I felt.

“I’ll never let them hurt you again, do you hear?” Cam said fiercely. “Never again.”

“She did a pretty good job defending herself,” Trevor said drily. “Dancia, maybe you and I can partner up from here on out.”

“No way. You’ve got Cam. She’s my partner now,” Anna chimed in. “She set me up for an amazing shot to the crotch.” She gestured toward Thaddeus. “That’s something only a girl can do. You guys are too squeamish.”

That set us all laughing. Everything hurt, so it was a painful sort of reaction, and it felt wrong to be doing it when the water that gently lapped at the sides of our boat had just swallowed up someone I knew. Someone I used to care about—maybe even loved. But we were all laughing together, so for a moment, I let the feeling of relief overwhelm me. When we paused for breath, Anna raised her hand. “Do you hear that?”

There was a sound of splashing a few feet in front of the boat. Anna peered over. “It’s the girl you threw in the water, Dancia. Her electricity must be keeping her warm.”

Cam shuddered. “What should we do with her?”

I hesitated for only a moment before I spoke. “We get her on the boat,” I said firmly. “We can’t leave her in the water.”

“But the wave,” Anna said. “It will be here soon.”

“Then we have to move fast,” I said. “I won’t leave her in the water. Not if we’ve got a chance to save her.”

Cam blinked. “What wave?”

I’d forgotten how much he had missed. “There was an earthquake,” I said, unable to tear my eyes from the horizon. “You were unconscious. They predicted a tsunami. Which is why we’re going to do this quickly,” I said. “We’ll throw Electricity Girl a rope and let her climb out.”

No one mentioned the fact that there was no sign of Jack.

“And when we get back? What will we do with her then?” Anna asked.

“Mr. Judan will call the Governing Council,” I said, “and he’ll tell them we need someplace to put her—and her friends, too.” Thaddeus lay sprawled on the deck, unconscious, and the ballerina was slumped on the floor, eyes half closed. “They aren’t exactly shape-shifters or computer geniuses. There are prisons that can hold them.”

I felt a powerful sense of certainty as I spoke. I wouldn’t be party to more killing. I didn’t care what Mr. Judan or anyone else in the Program thought. We would have to find a different way.

“It’s worth a shot,” Trevor said.