Waylaid (6 page)

Behind her, Rachel harrumphed, her lips moving as she looked over the words of power she’d scribbled on a receipt she’d found in the Mantis’s console. Peri warmed at Rachel’s low opinion of Bill. Her handler wasn’t dirty, but still . . . here she was, running an elaborate plan to find out for sure, half done and vulnerable.

Seeing her flustered and confused, Jack took her hand. “What is it, Peri?”

Peri sat beside him, the soft mattress pushing them together. “I need to see it,” she lied. “I think it’s fake. That we’ve been duped.”

Jack’s eyes widened. “No . . .” he breathed, his head jerking up when Rachel reached out, wanting his hand.

“Can I have your finger, please?”

Jack didn’t move, eyeing the finger stick in her other hand. “What for?”

“Big strong man afraid of a little poke?” Rachel mocked, and Jack’s jaw clenched.

But then his head snapped up and they all turned as Bill walked in, shoulders hunched and looking like a mobster’s thug even in his two-thousand-dollar suit and shiny dress shoes.

“This sort of complicates things.” Rachel made a fist, hiding her finger stick and backing up to the poured wine on the desktop.

Bill shut the door with his foot, never taking his eyes from them. “You look taller than the tapes suggest.” The door clicked shut. “What were you doing at the mall with Peri?”

Peri lifted her chin, thinking fast. “She told me the accelerator was fake. Is it?”

Bill’s thick hand touched his breast pocket. “No. It’s real. Where are you from?”

He was talking to Rachel, and the woman sat on the desktop, arms over her chest. It made her look vulnerable, but Peri knew it was to free her feet to slam into someone. “Cincinnati,” she said shortly.

“Really. Let’s find out for sure.” Bill reached for her, blind to Rachel’s foot coming up.

It struck Bill’s arm, and he pulled back, hissing in anger. But Rachel had moved, spinning to the center of the room and landing a back kick square in his gut.

Bellowing, Bill went crashing into the wall and slid to the floor.

“What are you doing!” Jack exclaimed, standing aghast beside the bed.

“You should have let me stick your finger,” Rachel said, then punched him.

Silent but clearly shocked, Jack fell back onto the bed, his hands drenched in the blood streaming from his broken nose. The white sheets went crimson. “Jack!” Peri cried, reaching to help him, and Rachel spun, her entire weight focused on her knee as it landed on Bill before he could get up, knocking the breath out of him.

“Excuse me,” Rachel sang lightly, Bill’s eyes going murderous as she plucked the accelerator from his pocket.

“Bill, I can explain,” Peri gushed as Rachel smeared Jack’s blood on the accelerator and dropped it into the wineglass. White wine tinted pink, and Rachel turned, eyes alight.

“I don’t think you can,” Bill said, and Peri gasped, seeing the Glock in Bill’s grip. It was pointed at her. “But you have three seconds to try.”

“Bill.” Peri looked at Rachel, knowing she wouldn’t leave without Jenks.

“One,” Bill intoned, the muzzle never wavering as he got to his feet, hunched like a bear.

“It’s not what it looks like. She said the accelerator was fake. I didn’t—”

“Two.” Bill checked the safety.

Holy shit, I think he’s going to shoot me
, Peri thought, panicking.

“Bill, don’t!” Jack said, paralyzed by the bed, covered in blood from his broken nose. “She’ll never forget you shooting her. Even if she drafts.”

“You’re probably right,” Bill said, voice soft, and Peri exhaled. “Three.”

The bang of the Glock firing shocked through Peri, and she jumped, hand going to her chest. But he hadn’t shot her. He’d shot Rachel.

No
, Peri thought, anger and fear flooding her.

“Oh, that hurts,” Rachel said softly, then started to collapse.

Peri lurched to catch her, somehow keeping the wineglass in her hand upright. The shot had been high, away from Rachel’s heart but nicking her lung. It was filling even as she sat there. Shock had paled Rachel’s face, making her lips red and her eyes eerily bright.
No . . .

“I can’t believe you did that,” Jack said, wiping the blood from himself.

Bill shrugged. “I didn’t shoot you or her. I shot a mall fruitcake she’s known for three hours.” His smile at Peri was predatory, and the beginnings of hatred trickled through her, muddling years of trust. “Now. The question is, how important is she to you, Peri? Is saving her life worth your memory of her?”

“You sons of bitches,” Peri whispered, Rachel’s weight going heavy in her arms. She was nearing her forty-five-second ceiling. If she was going to draft to save Rachel’s life, she would have to do it now.

So she did.

The light spilling from the side lamp flashed blue, filling the room with a smoky haze that flashed to a sparkling clarity. No longer did Rachel hang in her arms. The woman straddled Bill, shock stiffening her shoulders. “I’ll take your gun this time, too,” Rachel said as she plucked first the orb from Bill’s pocket, then the Glock from his holster.

“You remember the first timeline?” Bill stammered, truly surprised, and Rachel beamed a big smile before slamming her elbow into his jaw.

“Rachel,” Peri prodded as she snatched up the glass of white wine. “We have to go.”

“Right.” She got up, kicking the large man in the ribs. “No one shoots me!” she shouted, kicking him again. “No one!”

“Here!” Peri said, warning Jack to stay where he was even as Rachel tossed her the accelerator and Peri rolled it in the bloody sheets. They had to get out of here. Right now, Peri remembered both timelines, but when they meshed, she’d forget—and there was a lot she was going to miss.
Damn you, Bill,
she thought, never having dreamed he’d shoot Rachel.

“She’s compromised, Jack,” Bill moaned as he rolled to his hands and knees. “Take her back four hours.”

“We’ll lose everything she knows,” Jack said, not moving. “You sure?”

“Four hours!” Bill bellowed. “I’d rather have Peri without doubt than know who that woman is.” His eyes rose, murderously intent as he found Peri’s. “And Peri has a doubt. Don’t you, kiddo.”

A chill raced through Peri as she dropped the bloodied crystal into the wineglass and ran to the hall, Rachel tight behind
. The shock of the pop, pop, pop of the gun as Rachel blew the lock shook her.

Four hours?
Peri thought, numb as she breathed in the spent gunpowder. Were her extended memory losses engineered? By Jack?

“Time for plan B,” Rachel said, taking
her arm and pulling her into a run. “Grab the fish and run like hell.” She took a breath and shouted, “Jenks! Forget the cat. We gotta go!”

Confused, Peri followed, wine in hand and ducking when a drone whizzed overhead, Jenks’s voice shrilling in a high-pitched thrill trailing out as he rode the head-size copter. Carnac bounded down the hall after it, head up and tail crooked.

“Wall!” Rachel shouted, but the drone was going too fast and it missed the turn, smashing into the wall with a small crunch. It hit the floor, and Peri gasped when the cat leapt for it.

But Jenks had bailed, and he flew at head-height back to them, grinning and trailing a bright silver dust. “I found my cat,” he said, darting up when Carnac jumped for him.

“That’s my cat,” Peri protested as Rachel scooped the tail-swishing cat up and mule-kicked a locked door open. It was a storage closet, and Peri stared until Rachel shoved her in, wine almost spilling.

“That busted lock on the doctor’s bunk won’t stop them for long,” Rachel said, struggling with the wiggling cat, which was pawing for Jenks as he tormented it, darting up and down like a demented yo-yo.

“W
ine,” Peri said as she proffered it, amazed there was still some in it. “You know the charm?”

Rachel beamed. “I think she believes us, Jenks.”

“Say the words!” Peri shouted. There was a sudden pounding on the door, and she shoved the wine at Rachel, moving to get between them and the door, should it open.

“Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again
,” Rachel said, cat in one hand, wine in the other, and Peri turned, seeing Jenks landing on her shoulder. Carnac’s eyes went black.

“As I stand here with my trusted friend, who can replay time and make it bend,” Rachel added, and Peri blinked. It wasn’t the same words that Jack had used, but maybe this was better.

“Who should know. Of the truth. That lies in her brain. Memories remain. Through her I spin, to my line.”

Rachel raised her glass, pink with Jack’s blood. Saluting Peri, she took a sip. Nothing happened.

Panic iced over Rachel’s eyes
, the cat wiggling in her arms. “What did we do wrong?” she said, frantic. “I can’t stay here, Jenks. I can’t!”

The pixy, too, looked scared. “I don’t know, Rache. There’s enough mystics in this room to choke a horse.” He hesitated. “I hope we haven’t changed something by being here.”

“I don’t care!” Rachel wailed as Bill pounded on the door. “I just want to go home!”

“You didn’t say the magic word,” Peri said suddenly, and Rachel’s fear hesitated.

“Abracadabra?” Rachel said, her eyebrows high in disbelief.

Peri gasped, letting go of the doorknob in shock as the draft ended and time meshed with a savage sureness. A flash of red light seemed to blind her, and a soft thump and angry cat
yeowl
was like fingernails on a chalkboard as she reached out for the memory of Rachel . . . and the mall . . . and a little man . . . There was a little man, wasn’t there?

And then it was gone.

Pain lanced through her head, and Peri fell to the door, barely conscious as Bill and Jack boiled in. She looked up, finding herself in a closet. Carnac crouched in a corner, scared and eyes black, as Jack and Bill stood in the doorway, shadows against the brighter light from the hall.

I drafted
, she thought, gathering up the confusion like a familiar blanket and shoving it aside, refusing to let it rule her.
Why am I in a closet?

“Peri?” Jack said, dried blood on his face as he knelt by her. “Are you okay?”

“Holy crap, Jack,” she exclaimed, touching his face. “What happened to you?”

Jack stood up, his eyes flicking up to Bill. “I ran into a wall.”

She reached up, and he extended a hand, helping her rise. Her quick motion slowed as vertigo took her. An odd dust coated her arms, but when she brushed at it, it vanished. She breathed deep, thinking she smelled sun and wind. “Why am I in a closet? With Carnac?”

Bill’s eyes roved over the interior of the small closet. “She’s not here.”

“Who?” Peri asked, and Bill pressed his lips together. A man’s fast steps sounded in the hall, and he turned as one of the night security at Opti Health slid to a halt.
Why are we at Opti Health?
she wondered, no longer believing Jack’s story about walking into a wall.

“Sir, we can’t find her,” Harry said, gaze flicking to Peri and back to Bill. “There’s no trace, and the camera’s aren’t working. They’re all stuck on a five-minute loop.”

“A what?” Bill exclaimed. “How?” he added, quickly turning on a heel and stomping away, Harry hunched and apologetic at his elbow. Peri smiled, thinking Bill looked funny when he was pissed. But at least she knew where she was.

“Jack, what are we doing in Opti Health with Carnac?”

Jack put an arm over her shoulder and led her out of the closet. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Wine,” she said, seeing the empty bottle in his hand, and then her hand went to her pocket, finding the lump of the accelerator. “Hey, while we’re here, we might as well give Bill the accelerator. Save ourselves a trip in tomorrow.” She squinted at the ceiling and the low-powered lights. “It kind of feels like tomorrow already. What time is it?”

Jack’s eyes widened as he took the crystal from her. “You have it? Damn, woman. You are amazing. Bill is going to be so pleased. He thought you lost it.”

“I never lose anything,” she said, curving her shoulder under his arm and tugging him close. “Except my memory.” She could smell the sour reek of metabolized alcohol on his breath. “Did we get drunk?”

Jack laughed, his voice ringing down the empty halls. “Something like that.”

Turn the page for an excerpt from

THE DRAFTER

The first installment in the Peri Reed Chronicles.

PROLOGUE

2025

The room was a featureless eight-by-eight, the monotony relieved by a single chair and the door pad softly glowing in the recessed overhead lights. Pulling up from a stretch, Peri stifled a shudder as a feeling of electricity crawled over her skin, pooling where the training suit pinched.

Concerned, she passed a hand over the spiderweb of white stress lines in the otherwise black leather, frown deepening when her hand turned to pinpricks as the electric field in the fabric phased.
Seriously?
The slick-suit ran from her neck to the tops of her boots, elevating her slight form to dangerous and sexy, but a wardrobe malfunction would slow her down.

“Hey! Excuse me?” she called toward the ceiling, her high voice laced with demand. “I’m getting excessive feedback from my slick-suit.”

A soft chime fell flat in the tiny room as the audio connection opened. “I’m sorry,” a man’s voice said, the hint of sarcasm telling her they knew it. “Possible suit malfunctions are acceptable under the parameters of the exercise. Begin.”

Again the chime rang. Adrenaline surged with her quick intake of breath. She didn’t see the cameras, but people were watching, comparing every move to an unattainable perfection. Squandering a cocky three seconds, she stretched to show her confidence along with her lithe shape.
Challenge one: technological fence
, she thought, glancing at the locked door pad.

In a swift motion, she grasped the back of the wooden chair, flinging it into the wall. It hit with a startling crack of wood, and she knelt before the pieces. Nimble fingers bare of the slick-suit’s gloves sifted through until she found a metal pin. Rising, she padded to the locked door and used it to wedge open the door pad.

This task is mine
, she thought, then walled it off, concentrating on the maze of wires until she found the one she wanted. Hand fisted, she tensed to yank one of the wires free, then hesitated. With her “malfunctioning” suit, she might end up on her ass, blowing out smoke as she tried to remember how to focus.
Not worth the risk
, she thought, following the wire back to the circuit board and shorting the door with the pin instead. The ceiling chimed her success. Peri saluted the unseen cameras, smug as the door slid open.
Eleven seconds
.

Pin set between her fingers to gouge, she dove into the cooler air and into a spacious, spongy-floored room. The ceilings were higher, the light brighter, and at the far end, a closed door beckoned, the light on the lock already a steady green. Beyond it was everything she’d been working for, everything she’d been promised. She just had to get there.

A faint whisper of air gave her warning. Peri ducked, lashing out with a back kick to send a man pinwheeling into the wall.
Shit, he’s huge!
she thought as his slick-suit flashed white. But it was fading to black even as she watched. He wasn’t out of it—yet.

“Nothing personal, right?” she said, her eyes jerking from his holstered weapon to the two men sprinting toward her. Three against one wasn’t fair, but when was life ever?

They attacked together. Peri dropped, rolling to take out the closest. He fell and she swarmed him, jabbing his throat with her elbow. There was the telltale thump of a pad, but she’d struck hard enough to make him gag. His slick-suit flashed white as she rolled to her feet.
One down
.

The second grabbed her, a glass knife shadowed with electronics at her throat. Screaming in defiance, she stabbed his ear with the chair pin. He howled in real pain, and she threw him over her shoulder and into the first man, now recovered.

Following them both down, she scrambled for his blade, running the glass training knife across both their throats. The glow of the technological blade against their skin flashed, indicating a kill, and their slick-suits turned white. Gasping, they went still, paralyzed. Real blood, looking alien on the training floor, dripped from the one man’s ear.

Peri straightened, keeping the pin as she turned her back on the men and walked confidently to the distant door.
No more lame excuses
, she thought, the adrenaline high still spilling through her, though shifting to a more enduring burn of anticipation. She’d been working toward this for months. How many times did she need to prove she was ready?

With a heavy thunk, the lights went up. At the door, the pad shifted to a locked red.

Peri jerked to a halt. “Excuse me?” she directed at the ceiling, and the audio connection pinged open.

“You failed to demonstrate proficiency with projection weapons,” the man said, but she could hear an argument in the background.

Peri cocked her hip, knowing the time was still running, ruining her perfect score. “You mean a
gun
?” she asked with disdain. “Handguns are noisy and can be taken away, and then I have to do more damage to fix it.”

“Your time is still running,” the man said, smug.

“How can I prove my value if you keep changing the rules?” she muttered, stomping back to the three men, still paralyzed in their white slick-suits. Jaw clenched, she snatched the nearest man’s handgun. “I already killed you,” she said when the man’s eyes widened, and she spun, shooting out the cameras in the corners instead: one, two, three.

“Reed!” the man shouted as his screens undoubtedly went black.

Peri dropped the weapon and waited, shaking the pinpricks from her fingertips. The audio channel was still open, and a smile quirked her lips as she caught some argued phrases, “best we have” and “it’s that shitty attitude of hers that makes her perfect.”

Glancing at her watch, Peri shifted her weight. “So am I going, or do you want me to try it again with feeling? I have stuff to do today.”

There was silence, and then a younger voice took the mic. “You will report to medical tomorrow at nine. Congratulations, Agent Reed. It’s yours.”

Her breath caught, the quick intake lighting a fire all the way to her groin, and then she steadied herself. “Friday,” she countered, ignoring the men behind her, groaning as their slick-suits returned to a black neutrality. “I want to say good-bye to my mother.”

Again the silence, and Peri’s good mood tarnished as she caught a whispered “might not remember her when she gets back.”

“Friday,” the young voice finally said, and Peri’s jaw clenched at the pity in it. Her mother didn’t deserve anyone’s pity, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to say good-bye.

The lock shifted green, a solid thump echoing as the door opened onto an empty white hallway. Her thoughts already on a shower and what was in her closet that her mother might actually approve of, Peri paced forward into the light.