The Unseen Trilogy (50 page)

Next, she was in darkness. The pressure she felt on her wrists, combined with the difficulty she had breathing, made me think she was hanging by her wrists, but I couldn’t see anything. Obviously, she’d been beaten, but she didn’t seem to remember. Pain radiated through her from head to toe.

“Well. I’d hoped we would see each other again under different circumstances, Amanda.” I recognized Agusto’s voice immediately, although I didn’t see him. There was darkness everywhere. Maybe she had her eyes closed.

What is he doing here? Why is the leader here to see me?
she thought.

The shock of that revelation almost made me lose my connection with her, but I held it tight.

“Didn’t you like to tell that girl she was a disappointment? Now who’s the disappointment?”

He hit her hard across the face, but it didn’t compare to the pain she was already feeling.

“I should kill you. But you don’t deserve mercy from me.” His footsteps echoed in the room, and I heard him circle around behind her. “No,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ll keep you close to me from now on. That way I can remind you of your transgression. Regularly.”

No wonder she’s so exhausted and weak,
I thought, feeling nothing but sorrow for her.

But she was still fighting me. I tried to plant a seed in her mind that would convince her to help me and rejoin the Unseen, but she fought, with all that she had left, she fought me.

I looked over at her, and she had a feral quality in her eyes. “I’m done,” she said.

“I forgive you, Amanda. For everything. I hope you can forgive me too.”

“See you in hell, Mackenzie.” With her last ounce of willpower, she brought the gun to her head and pulled the trigger.

She’d done it so quickly, and with such determination. It was like she’d seen it as her chance to reclaim some of the strength she once had for one final deed that she could call her own.

The sound of the gunshot still rang in my ear as I dialed 911 and listened to it ring once, twice.
Come on.

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” a calm woman asked.

“My coworker just shot herself. She’s not breathing. I need help right away.” The alarm in my voice was real as I gave her the address, and she assured me help would be there soon.

I eyed Amanda, slumped in her chair, blood pouring out of her wound. “There’s so much blood. How can I help her?” I knew I was in deep with an already-suspicious boss, who was also apparently the leader of the Potestas rather than a second or third in command like we’d assumed. The water was getting deeper all the time, and I was struggling to keep my head above it. All I could think of was creating a record of my efforts to save Amanda, something solid so I could reasonably deny involvement. It was a thin chance, but I was desperate.

Before the operator could answer me, two of Agusto’s guards came in to the conference room, waving their own guns around before pointing them at me.

“Amanda shot herself,” I shouted at them. “I’m on the phone with 911.” Then I kicked the gun that had fallen to the floor just beneath Amanda’s dangling hand toward them to demonstrate the fact that I wasn’t armed.

“Are you all right?” the 911 operator asked.

How could I answer that? Two of the enemy’s armed guards had their weapons aimed at me, and they hadn’t relaxed their grip one bit.

“Help is on the way, guys. Calm down,” I said to the guards, ignoring the operator. I knew the two men. They weren’t readers. I could easily make them lower their weapons, but if I did, my cover would probably be blown. But if I didn’t do anything, they might shoot me.

“Ma’am. What’s going on?” the operator asked again.

“Two of the CEO’s guards have come in to assess the situation. They seem to think I’m armed in some way. But I’m
not
.” At least it would be on record that two armed men had aimed their weapons at an unarmed woman. That would make for a great headline for Agusto’s campaign.

We eyed each other, and slowly, they lowered their weapons. For several seconds, we just stood there in a silent stand-off, and then the operator said, “Are you there?”

“Yes.”

“The EMTs are in the building. They will be there shortly. Just hold on a bit longer.”

“Thank you,” I said, and I truly meant it.

When the EMTs arrived, they stepped around the guards, totally ignoring them, making the guards move off to the side. They tried to shock Amanda a few times, but it didn’t help. After what seemed like an eternity, they loaded her onto a gurney, leaving nothing but a bloody mess behind.

One of them approached me. “You’re the one who called?”

Nodding was the only thing I could bring myself to do. The ramifications of what had unfolded weighed heavily on me. Despite the fact that I hadn’t pulled the trigger, I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I’d spent most of my life with Amanda, and although I still didn’t feel any love for her, I felt sorry for the role I’d played in her death.

“I’m sure the police will have some questions for you.” The EMT startled me out of my inner thoughts. “We were never able to get a heartbeat. I’m sorry.” He put a hand on my shoulder, squeezed, and left.

As he walked out, I noticed a huge crowd had gathered outside the doorway of the conference room. Police officers were keeping them back, and I eyed their vacant expressions. As I realized they were being controlled, I spotted Agusto and understood why. He was keeping them away from me so he could have me all to himself. He gave me a hard look before turning and walking away. The crowd parted for him, and I knew I was supposed to follow. My mind and heart rebelled against the idea of following him, but my feet did as they were told. People watched us as we went, but I didn’t make eye contact. I couldn’t worry about what they thought. I needed to focus on surviving whatever happened next.

As we walked down the hall to his office, I risked sending a quick message to David.

Amanda dead. Agusto number one. Going to his office now.
Then I buried my signature as deeply as I could. I had no idea what Agusto was capable of doing, and I didn’t want to risk exposing our headquarters to literally all the Potestas. It would mean the end of us for sure, and without our protection, the people of our country would be at their mercy. As it stood, I was fairly certain this little exchange would be the end of me. There was no need for others to share my fate.

The two guards who’d interrupted my call for help fell in on either side of Agusto as we drew closer to his office. Just a few more feet and I’d be closed into a room with five guards and him. Six-to-one odds.

My mind reeled as I followed him into the office. I glanced around for some kind of safety rope to pull me out of the pit of quicksand I’d tumbled into, but there was nothing. Anyway, I wasn’t sure what I expected to find. I had no allies in this building. They were all a few miles away, safely within our headquarters. Well, all except for our mole, and I had no idea who that person even was.

Once I was inside, the door closed loudly behind me. Agusto was already making his way toward his desk, so I followed, eying the guards as they took their places along the wall. I knew two of them weren’t readers, including one of the ones standing closest to Agusto.

But before I could form a plan, Agusto spoke to me. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

My voice was shaky as I gave him the details. “We got to talking while we were cleaning up the room after the campaign meeting. I don’t even know what set her off, but the conversation turned south. She said something about being a failure and feeling trapped…and…and then she pulled a gun out from under the table and shot herself. It all happened so fast. I called nine-one-one, but they arrived too late to help her.” I hoped that by telling him most of the truth, it would seem believable. After all, I hadn’t lied; I just hadn’t told him the whole story. But the thought of her with the gun pressed to her head set the room spinning. But instead of sitting down or steadying myself in any way, I straightened my spine and swallowed the bile in the back of my throat.

“And that was that?” His tone was flat and hard to read, making me even more hyper-aware of the precarious situation I was in.

“Except for the part where your two lackeys came in and tried to shoot me, yes.”

“That
is
unfortunate,” he said, ignoring my comment about his lackeys. “I now find myself without a campaign manager. Despite the fact that Amanda was a bit of a blundering idiot, she was loyal.” He turned his chair around, mumbling to himself. “Not out of respect, but out of fear. Fear makes people reliably loyal. Respect can be taken away at any moment, but fear…” He trailed off as he considered his options. “But who could replace her?”

As he tried to work through his problem, I took another assessment of the situation.
Could I get into his mind while he’s distracted?
A quick glance at the closest guard made me hesitate. If he suspected anything at all, it would be over for me.

If I can just keep him talking. Keep him distracted.
I would need to speak to Agusto while making my attack on his mind, and I’d need to keep broadcasting nothing thoughts to trick his attack dogs. Sure, I’d managed to multi-task with Amanda, but she had been relatively weak. Surely their number one would be a formidable foe.

Agusto was still mumbling about his options, and what to do, while I felt time running out. I couldn’t stand there forever.

It was now or never.

“What about Bob Yarwick? He worked closely with Amanda on a few projects,” I said, trying to keep Agusto distracted. Bob worked downstairs, but I didn’t actually know what his title was. He seemed to be one of Amanda’s go-to people for getting things done for the campaign. I had no idea if he was a good candidate or not. At the moment, his best interests weren’t foremost in my thoughts. Keeping Agusto talking was job number one.

“No. He’s an idiot. Too much of a yes man. He’d be crushed by the politics of this. In fact, why does he even work for us? I should fire him immediately.”

I nodded, my mind too busy trying to find a way to survive this mess to worry about Bob Yarwick and the fact that he was about to be unemployed. I tried to come up with other names, but as it turned out, he didn’t need that much prodding to keep talking.

I looked absently out the wall of windows and turned my focus inward, feeling like it was time to act. I split my concentration so I would keep hearing the audio of what was happening in the “real” world in the forefront of my mind.

Not bothering to risk another glance at the guards, I pressed my mental attack, but I couldn’t find him. He was sitting right smack in front of me, and yet his psychic space was like a black hole.

Maybe I’ve lost my touch,
I thought as I reached out for the guards, all of whom I located easily.

I listened to him as he combed through his options again and again. His mind was running a mile a minute, so he should’ve been easy to find. He was practically screaming at me. But he just wasn’t there. Over and over, I tried to find him; each time, I was met with nothing. Not even darkness or a wall, like I was used to seeing in protected minds, just nothing. Like the man in front of me wasn’t a living thing at all. It made me feel even more desperate.

I’d already reached out for the guards, potentially alerting them to what I was doing. Time was ticking away while I floundered in front of the leader of the Potestas. I had the potential to end their organization right then and there, but I couldn’t tap into the mind of the man sitting right in front of me.

“You.” He interrupted my thoughts and brought me slamming back into myself rather uncomfortably.

Clearing my throat, I struggled to respond. “Excuse me?”

“You. It has to be you.” He smiled at me, as if he’d found the perfect solution.

“What?” A feeling of dread filled me at his suggestion. He’d zeroed in on me for a reason. None of Joyce’s qualifications pointed toward her being a logical choice for campaign manager. He was angling toward something. But what? Was he just trying to keep me off kilter, so I couldn’t press my mental attack, or was there more to it?

In the silence that followed, I listened to the bubbling of the river, which created a false sense of peace. It was nothing close to peaceful in there. Calm, yes, but in a sinister way that let me know he could kill me at any moment and feel absolutely no regrets about it.

As his eyes bored into me, my discomfort grew. “You heard me. I know you haven’t worked for me long, but I can already tell you’re perfect for the job. You’re already very involved in the campaign, so you know what needs to be done. You’d need minimal training. And, I tell you what, I’ll hire someone to replace you, so you’ll have help.”

Desperate to stall him, I fumbled for something to say, anything at all that would keep him talking for long enough for me to make another effort. But what if I was doomed to act as his second in command for the rest of my life, never being able to escape back to the Unseen?

I took a deep breath and scolded myself.
Stop it. You’re being melodramatic. They know who he is. They’ll get to work. All you need to do is hang in there.

“I can see that you’re overwhelmed with gratitude. No need to thank me now.” He turned his back to me. “Go, gather your things, and get settled into Amanda’s office, I mean
your
office.” He turned around and smiled at me.

I knew I couldn’t take him at his word, but I wasn’t sure what to do.
Just keep him talking,
I thought.

“Perhaps you’d like to go over some of the details of my duties, since Amanda never shared that kind of thing with me.”

“I don’t think that’s a valuable way to spend my time right now. In fact…” He trailed off and nodded to one of the guards. The man approached, keeping his eyes glued on me.

“The campaign manager is someone I need to keep very close. I know you are going to be well suited for the post. Do you know why?”

Instead of responding, I watched as the other four guards slowly closed in on us. The final guard stood close to Agusto’s side, and I knew we were getting to the meat of what he had in mind.

Despite my best efforts to stay calm, my heart was racing, my breath coming in short gasps. I was probably visibly sweating, but I didn’t want to bring my hand to my forehead to find out. No need to draw further attention to my distress.

I need to abort this, right now,
I thought.

“You know what? It’s been a very stressful day. I think I’ll leave you to it, and I’ll get to work on figuring out where Amanda left off,” I said. So much for seizing the moment; I was in survival mood. “At any rate, I think the police were waiting to speak to me.”

I took a half step back, but he stopped me. “You’re not going anywhere. You didn’t answer my question. Don’t you want to know why I need to keep you close?”

I shook my head as the guards continued to close in on me. Soon, Agusto was on one end of the circle of guards, and I was on the other—surrounded. The two guards closest to me could’ve seized me in an instant.

“Because you keep your friends close, but you keep your enemies closer.”