Unhidden (The Gatekeeper Chronicles Book 1) (23 page)

As for me, I was too valuable to kill, although I had no doubt they would use whatever other means were at their disposal to get what they wanted from me. I could handle whatever they threw at me, and maybe, if Alex got out, he could bring help.

He was standing at my back, so close I could feel the heat of him through my bodysuit. It was a comforting feeling, and even though I needed him to be safe, part of me didn’t want him to leave. I knew Alex wouldn’t voluntarily leave us behind; however, he must have reached the same conclusion I had. I suddenly felt the energy pass through me as he gathered it around him. It felt like an electric caress sliding over my skin.

“Miss Hayes. Exactly the person I expected to find here.” The soldiers made way for the man stepping through the doorway.

He had the look of a former athlete whose best days had passed him by. A big man, most of the muscle from his youth was now turning to jelly. He was thick around the middle with the beginnings of a gut hanging over his belt. His cheeks were drooping into jowls, and his thick lips smirked in satisfaction at having cornered me.

“Who are you?” I demanded. I had to buy Alex the time he needed to gather enough energy to get out of here.

“My name is Ed Connor. I’m an envoy to the Committee on Superhuman Research, a joint effort between Homeland Security and the National Institute of Health. I have wanted to speak with you, but you have the unfortunate habit of running away.”

“If you had peaceful intentions, you shouldn’t have sent your soldiers after me at Nathan Anshar’s office. Oh, and you just killed my friend,” I spat, gesturing to Lockien’s body without having the desire to look at it.

His cold eyes rested on the body of Lilly’s brother. He leaned down and brushed the hair from Lockien’s ears, revealing the obviously pointed tips. He waved at his team, and two men efficiently ran over, lifting Lockien from the floor and carrying him out of the room.

“What are you going to do with him?” I asked, feeling nauseous.

He merely gave me a small half-smile in response. We both knew the answer already.

Then his eyes landed on Alex. “You must be Alex Griffin. Don’t look so surprised. We have files on all of you, albeit some are less complete than others. I would love the opportunity to get to know you better, Mr. Griffin, to find out what makes you tick.”

My heart was pounding in my throat.
Get out, get out
, I kept screaming at Alex in my head. I didn’t think he could read minds, though I was desperate enough to try. I was not sure when I had started to care about Alex or even if I really did. Maybe what I was feeling was fear at potentially losing someone who had helped keep me alive thus far. Maybe I simply didn’t want to lose an ally, even if he wasn’t exactly a friend.

“How do you know so much about us?” I asked, trying to keep Connor talking.

I was relieved when he refocused his attention on me. “Why, Miss Hayes, I am disappointed you don’t remember me. After all, I was the first person to welcome you to Earth when you arrived. Although, you were quite incoherent and then unconscious during much of the time we spent together, so I don’t suppose I can blame you. Suffice it to say, my team took good care of you and even found you a loving foster home.”

“I don’t think we entirely agree on the definition of ‘loving,’” I said with contempt. The memories of those years still haunted my nightmares, but now I knew who to thank properly for my time in hell.

“Well, tough love is still a form of love, is it not?” He seemed to enjoy mocking me. “You really should be grateful. In fact, I would say that you owe us, and now it’s time to collect. The government simply wants its property back.”

“I am no one’s property, least of all the government’s. Didn’t you know, I’m an independent contractor now.”

“Emma dear, there is no need to get defensive. No one wants to hurt you. Just the opposite, in fact. We want to help you realize your full potential. We’ve given you ten years on the outside to figure it out on your own, and you have failed miserably. Your time is up, and now you need to come back.”

Benjamin’s words came back to me: “They are very dangerous and powerful men who won’t hesitate to do whatever is necessary to achieve their objectives, up to and including murder.” I had no doubt this man was one of those Ben had been speaking of, and I had no intention of going anywhere with him.

“Why now?”

“You heard your dead friend there a few minutes ago. They are planning an invasion of Earth. We might be able to peaceably take in a group of docile elven refugees, but what about all of the others who will come pouring forth once there is a way available to them. You have seen those creatures, and they aren’t even the tip of the iceberg. What do you think will happen to Earth and humans when it is overrun by even more powerful monsters? We need all of the weapons we can get, and you are one of them, Emma. You can help us save the world.”

I snorted. “I’ve been fed that crock of shit before, Mr. Connor. I believe it was right before every single one of my military deployments. None of them ever seemed to turn out exactly as promised.”

“Our problems in the Middle East are child’s play compared to what we are facing now. We acquired the battle axe years ago, knowing that, at some point, you would be ready to learn how to wield it. Now is that time. We have some allies from Urusilim who don’t want that rift opened any more than we do. They have agreed to teach you in exchange for your loyalty.”

I had been wondering what was taking Alex so long to make his escape, and I had suspected it was because he wanted to hear as much of this conversation as he could before leaving. He must have heard enough because the pull of energy blooming at my back increased to uncomfortable levels. I was vibrating violently and sweat beaded my forehead.

Connor must have thought I was scared because he actually tried to reassure me. “No harm will come to you or your friends if you agree to join us. I promise you that.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said between clenched teeth.

As if on cue, a blinding light erupted from behind me. I squeezed my eyes shut and grabbed onto Daniel, who had been standing by my side, pulling him to the floor. Gun fire immediately erupted from one or two less disciplined soldiers, and I could hear Connor screaming at them to stop shooting. I covered Daniel with my body as bullets whizzed overhead. One hit me in the shoulder, and I screamed as pain spiked down my arm. Then quiet settled around us except for panicked breathing and my whimpers. When I opened my eyes and looked around, Alex was gone.

I sagged in relief and whispered close to Daniel’s ear, “Are you okay?” He nodded. “They’re not going to hurt you. Cooperate. Keep yourself alive until Alex brings help. And don’t worry about me. I can handle them.” My voice held more confidence than I felt, but I hoped it was enough to make Daniel obey.

Strong hands reached down and dug into my wounded arm. I almost passed out as I was roughly lifted to my feet. A couple of soldiers did the same with Daniel.

“Put her in room three-three-six and secure her. The boy stays with me. We have a lot to talk about.”

I was placed in a small, sparsely furnished room on the third floor of the old hospital. There was nothing in the room other than a cot with a moth-eaten mattress and the folding chair that I was sitting on. My wrists and ankles were in shackles, connected to lengths of chain that were welded into the concrete floor. I had already tested my bonds, and there was no way I was getting free on my own. Above my head was a dim fluorescent light fixture, and a single window was covered with a thick, black curtain so I couldn’t tell whether it was still night.

Blood ran down my arm from the gunshot wound, but they had made no move to clean and bandage it. I guessed we weren’t operating under the Geneva Convention here. My blood was seeping out at a slow rate; therefore, I wasn’t in danger of immediately bleeding out, although it had made me weak and tired. Between that and simple boredom, I found myself dozing off periodically as I waited for something to happen.

It felt like several hours had gone by before Connor finally came in to see me. One of his soldiers followed him in, carrying an identical folding chair. Setting it down, he faced it toward me. The soldier then retreated to the corner of the room, placing his hand on his holstered revolver. The message was clear.

Despite the long night, Connor looked well-rested and refreshed. He took a seat in front of me, crossing his legs at the knees and placing his folded hands on his lap.

I didn’t let him speak first. “Where is Daniel? What did you do with him?”

“No need to worry about your friend. He is being well taken care of. He’s actually quite a technological genius. That kind of talent isn’t easy to come by.”

I breathed an inward sigh of relief. They wouldn’t want to get rid of a valuable asset like Daniel. The best thing I could do was keep the attention off him by not bringing him up again.

“So, what is it you want from me?”

“Quite simply, Miss Hayes, we want your loyalty, and in order to achieve that, we need to know everything about you.”

“I thought you already knew everything about me. Isn’t it all right there in your top secret files?”

“Alas, we don’t know everything.”

“Well, if you want my loyalty, it would go a long way to show your good faith if you untied me and told me everything you do know.”

He looked at me for a long moment then shrugged. “I’m not going to release you just yet, but I suppose we can trade information. Quite honestly, Emma, you turned our world upside down when we found you a decade ago. NASA picked up an unusual energy reading in the New Mexico desert from one of their satellites and reported it to the FBI, thinking it was a domestic concern. We sent in a standard response team, and what we found was you. You were lying semi-conscious in the middle of the desert, babbling like a mad woman. The earth around you had been displaced in a perfect circle with you at its center. We found you hundreds of miles from the nearest town, with no tire tracks or prints of any sort to show how you got there. You want to tell me how you got there?”

“I have no idea,” I said, trying to hide my excitement. This was the first time I had been told anything about my past. “What did you learn about the energy reading?”

“Smart girl. You ask the right questions. It took NASA a while to analyze the data, and during that time, we kept you in a government hospital under observation. They eventually came back and told us it looked like an Einstein Rosen Bridge. Do you know what that is?”

It sounded familiar, maybe from a movie I had seen, but I couldn’t place it, so I shook my head.

“It’s a stable wormhole that is believed to be a shortcut through space and time. It is theoretically possible,” he said, “but no one has ever been able to actually create one … except for you.”

“I didn’t create it!”

“Then who did?” he asked, leaning forward, placing his elbows on his knees.

For a fleeting moment, I had been absolutely certain I knew the answer, but then it just slipped out of my brain as if it had never been there.

I shook my head. “I honestly don’t know.”

He nodded and sat up straight. “That’s what you said to us when you arrived, but I’m not surprised that you don’t remember those first few weeks here. You were pretty out of it, coming in and out of consciousness, not making a lot of sense. You muttered a few words here and there. Mostly, ‘father,’ ‘Zane,’ ‘I love you’ … oh, and ‘kill them all.’” I tried to remain impassive when he said that; however, I was sure the rapid blinking and increased heart rate were noticeable. “Beyond that, we couldn’t get much out of you.

“We knew you needed care, both medical and psychological. There was a lot of debate over what to do with you. We even held a secret Congressional hearing. Folks were on all different sides of the issue, from killing you as a security risk to letting you live among us in freedom. Bleeding heart liberals,” he said with scorn. He stood, stretching his legs, and began to pace the room casually. How I wished I could do the same. My muscles were cramping in painful spasms.

“Do you think you could take these shackles off while we talk? As good as I am, I can’t get out of a heavily guarded building single-handedly, unarmed and injured. And any chance I can get some medical attention?”

He stopped pacing and faced me, a smile crossing his face briefly. “That all depends on how cooperative you are.” He continued moving about the room. “In any case, Benjamin Hayes learned of your situation. After all, as the head of procurement, he pretty much knows everything that is going on in the government. Everyone thinks it’s the politicians that make things happen, but it’s really those who control the money.” He winked at me. “For some reason, he took an interest in you, pulled some strings, and got the votes to release you into a foster home in return for keeping an eye on you and reporting back. But the other side had some influence over the selection of your foster family. After all, if something unfortunate and tragic were to befall you there, we would have no further need for concern.”