The Major’s eyebrows rise, wrinkling his forehead. “What makes you interested in the old city?”
“Seems you’ve been interested in the Mitchell family since you got here,” Seth says. Brady looks beyond confused, and I assume Seth didn’t tell him what we found at their dad’s office. “I think there might be a bigger reason than you let on.”
The Major shakes his head. “If you expect me to tell you about every classified file I have, you better be enlisting.”
And there it is—he knows something. Seth curls his fingers around his knees, anger wafting off him. “Hell. No.”
“You okay, son?” The Major looks like he’s enjoying Seth’s frustration. “You don’t look too good.”
I turn my full attention on Seth. Sweat beads at his forehead, and it’s subtle but he’s shaking. My stomach drops at the thought of him having another painful vision episode. And now of all times. “I’m fine,” Seth says through his teeth.
Despite our fights, I can’t help putting my hand over his. I won’t let his secret be revealed before he’s ready. “Fine, whatever. That information isn’t that important—we were just curious,” I say.
“What?” Seth glares at me, and I don’t think it’s because of his vision. But we have to drop it and get him out of here.
I move on to the other topic of concern. “You want the merinite and our silence about the cure. We’re willing to provide that, but we also need to form some kind of mutual protection agreement.”
“You want security?” The Major purses his lips. “I can understand that, seeing as The Phantom probably has a big target on your back. We could provide guards.”
I shake my head. “That would make us a bigger target right now—I was thinking more like intel on his forces and base, so we know what we’re up against.”
The Major sighs. “I’m afraid I can’t give you anything there. We haven’t been able to get a good idea ourselves. We can’t even find the networks they’re using or where their central base is.”
“Damn,” I mutter. After what The Phantom said when we got to school, I can’t help feeling I need to be even more cautious. “It sounds like we know more than you do.”
This seems to pique the Major’s interest. “Really? Because we can’t get into town for the most part. They’ve got us surrounded here at the school, and they follow my soldiers who go into town, harass them. I could use help rooting them out, and it seems like that wouldn’t be bad for you, either.”
I mull it over. “I think we may have found our common ground. So we give Allie access to the pools and keep her work secret, and you allow us to know about the cure. Also, we both agree to collaborate on eliminating The Phantom’s presence in the area.”
There’s a lot of nodding. Even Seth seems to agree—or maybe he just wants to get out of here because of his vision. I hold out my hand to the Major, my charm bracelets showing my action. “So you agree?”
Major Norton squeezes my palm hard. “It’s a deal.”
Chapter 30
I get one good night of rest, but the next night I’m woken by a rough shake. When I open my eyes, all I see is a black figure. I almost scream, but then I hear Lee Seol’s quiet voice, “You better not freak out, because there’s no way anyone will get into this house undetected on my watch. You should know it’s me.”
I gulp back my yelp. She seems more serious and deadly in the dark, and it reminds me of the first night I met her. “What’s going on?”
“We need to scout the town for surveillance locations. I’m tiny and dressed in black. You’re invisible. I figure we’d make the best team.”
Glancing at the clock, I pull myself up to sitting. “It’s one in the morning.”
“Best time to lurk.” She throws my covers off. “Get naked, Fi.”
I take off my tank top, though the idea of going out this late isn’t appealing. It’ll be freezing without clothes. “I’m telling Miles you made me undress in front of you.”
She snorts. “You don’t think he’d go for a threesome with his sister? Damn.”
“Oh, gross, you went there.”
“Don’t play dirty sarcasm with me—I’ll win every time.”
“Lesson learned.” I tug my shorts off, the sensation of being exposed lasting for only a moment. No Seth means I’m safe and invisible as can be. “Thanks for doing this, by the way. We’d be toast without you.”
She shrugs. “You didn’t think I’d pass up on all this fun, did you? Much to Miles’ distress, I like having my hands in the dangerous stuff, and nothing is more dangerous than this.”
“Fair enough.” I look around my room, feeling the urge to take something in case things go bad. Not that I can bring much while invisible. Then I remember Noelle’s one possession. “Hey, did you keep that little box you found on the woman you shot?”
“Yeah, why?”
“It had knock-out and killing needles in it—thought it might be handy to have that box in my mouth. Just in case.”
She nods slowly. “Is that what they were? Glad I didn’t touch them. They’re in my bag. I’ll be right back.”
Once Lee Seol gets the tin for me, I slip it into my mouth and we head into the chilly night. I’m not entirely sure where we’re going, but now that we’re on the move I don’t dare talk. This feels like it could be any other mission for my dad’s syndicate. But this time no one is controlling me. I’m back in this world because I chose to be.
It better be worth it.
After we cross the street into the older section of Madison, I assume we’re headed to where my boyfriend and closest friends live. We definitely need eyes in this area. They are major targets, both for their abilities and their relationships with me.
Lee Seol is incredibly good at sliding from shadow to shadow, crouching in small places, and not making a single sound. I feel like I’m trying to follow a ninja, and I’d be doing a horrible job at it if I weren’t invisible. She picks a wall of bushes and waves me over.
“I need you to mark a few things for me,” she whispers.
“How?” The word sounds funny with the needle box lodged in my cheek.
It’s hard to see in the middle-of-the-night darkness, but she pulls something from her pocket. “These are clear stickers. We should be able to find them though they aren’t conspicuous, and it’ll give me an idea of how many cameras I need to get. Give me your hand.”
“Here.” I put my palm on her knee, and she puts stickers on me.
“You need to get that stop sign under the street light, the mailbox on the corner, and that car on cinder blocks in the driveway across the street.”
I squeeze her knee instead of talking, and then I’m off. I don’t like how the stickers are slightly reflective in comparison to me, but even if anyone is out at this hour chances are low that they’ll see them. The stop sign is my first mark, since I want to get the one in lamplight over with. The other two spots are easy in comparison.
We do this one more time before we’re right in front of Seth’s house, where lights are still on. Please be his dad and not him. Not that he looks through walls all the time, but who knows when his eyes will glitch out lately?
Lee Seol settles behind a trash can and begins to talk, but I cover her mouth. Her eyes pop open in surprise, so I whisper right into her ear, “Hector’s been going without his ear plugs a lot. He might be able to hear us.”
She nods, and I step away from her. We’ll have to be mind-readers from here on out.
When she points at the basketball hoop above the garage behind us, I jump up as quietly as I can. Then she creeps to another location and we begin a strange charade—I can’t figure out what she wants, and I’m about to tell her that when headlights round the corner and shine on me.