“Hey.”
She tucked her hands in her pocket and looked him in the face. Knowing him well enough to recognize that he had something to say, and waiting for him to start. That cool, levelheaded forthrightness that he had always loved. A siren sounded nearby, and it quickened his heart. He glanced at his watch. Tick-tock.
“Am I keeping you?”
“No, I—” He took a breath. “I have to tell you something.” He glanced at her, at the yard, at the window. Had that been motion in the curtain?
“For Christ’s sake, spit it out.”
“I’m going to be going away for a while.”
“‘A while’? What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe a long time.”
“Something for your job.”
“Yes.”
“Something to do with today.”
“Yes. I was there. Manhattan.”
“My God, are you—”
“I’m fine,” he said, then shook his head. “No, that’s not true. I’m pissed and I’m frustrated and I’m hurting. I was trying to stop it, Nat. I almost did stop it. But I didn’t, not quite, and all those people…”
“Did you try as hard as you could?”
“Yeah. I think so. Yeah.”
“Then it’s not your fault. Nick, what is this? What’s going on?” A miniscule widening of her eyes flashed her fear up at him.
“The explosion today. It was John Smith.”
“You can’t know that yet. Maybe it was—”
“It was John Smith. The worst terrorist attack on America in history, and it was an abnorm who did it.”
“But…that’s going to…things are going to…my God, it’s going to get worse. They’re going to come after abnorms. Really come after you.”
“Yes.” He stepped forward and took her hands in his. “So I’m going after him. John Smith. Not the same as before. Something different.”
“What?”
“The only way to get close is if he thinks I’m on his side. So I’m going to be. I’m going to leave the agency and go on the run.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The bombing. They’re going to blame it on me.”
She stared at him. He could practically hear her mind working. “Wait, no, it doesn’t make sense. He’ll know. John Smith, he’ll know you weren’t in on it.”
“Right. But he’ll also know that all of the DAR thinks I was. That I’m on the run, and that I’m being chased. That the agency I’ve served for years, the one I’ve killed for, has betrayed me. That’s enough to make someone start thinking differently. And what a coup for him if I came over to his side! Think how much I could help him. Not only what I can do, but what I know.”
“But for that to work—”
“Yeah. They’re going to have to chase me. Really, truly chase me. I’ll be designated a target. No one but Drew Peters will know the truth. Everyone will think I really went over.”
“No!” Natalie yanked her hands from his. “No, are you crazy? They’ll kill you.”
“Only if they catch me.” He tried a grin, aborted it quickly. “It’s dangerous, I know, but I can do it. And it gives us a chance to get—”
“No. Take it back. Go to the director right now and tell him you changed your mind.”
“I can’t do that, Nat.”
“Why not? Don’t you understand? You have children. I hate John Smith as much as you do, but if I had the choice between him being dead or Kate and Todd having a father, I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“It’s not that simple,” Cooper said, and held her gaze. It only took a handful of seconds. He watched the revelation hit. Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened.
“Kate.”
“Yes,” he said. “Kate. If I do this, she won’t be tested. Ever. That was my price. She gets to grow up and live a normal life. She won’t be taken from us. She’ll never see the inside of an academy.”
Natalie steepled her hands over her nose and mouth. Her fingers were shaking. She stared at his chest. Cooper knew enough to wait her out.
“She’s tier one, isn’t she?”
“Yes.”
She rolled her shoulders and straightened her back. “There’s no choice?”
Cooper shook his head.
“The things we do for our children.” Natalie managed a thin, tight smile. “When do you have to go?”
“Soon. I want to see the kids first.”
“Do you want to…you could stay. The night.”
A warm feeling bloomed in his chest. When they’d split up, they’d both agreed that sleeping together was a bad idea, that it would confuse the kids and maybe risk complicating the friendly relationship they had. It had been a mutual decision and a good one; much as they loved each other, neither wanted to be involved romantically, and so it had been years since they’d shared a bed. For her to offer that, now, tonight, it touched him. “That’s a tempting offer. I really wish I could. But they’re going to be looking for me.”
“Already?”
“Soon.”
“All right. You’d better come in, then. What are you going to tell them?”
“Nothing. Just that I love them.”
She blew another breath, wiped at her eyes, then started across the yard. Her shoulders slumped and the muscles of her neck were coiled cables. Cooper caught up with her, took her hand, and spun her around.
“Listen,” he said, then realized he had no idea what to say next. Tell her that there was nothing to be scared of? There was. Even as they stood here, Director Peters was designating him a target. The most powerful agency in the country would be hunting him, thousands of people with billions of dollars. And even if he could manage to escape them, he was walking into the monster’s den and begging for an audience.
“I’ll be okay,” he said.
And for just a second, a tiny moment, he could see that she believed him.
It was enough.
PART TWO:
HUNTED
My fellow Americans.
Today our nation, our very way of life, suffered an attack of the most grievous nature. The victims were men and women of all kinds, all walks of life. Social workers and attorneys, bankers and artists. Mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives were snatched away in the most cowardly fashion imaginable—by terrorists who planted bombs in the heart of our great nation.
The individuals responsible want to disrupt our way of life. By killing innocent people, they want to cow us, like children afraid of monsters shivering beneath their blankets.
But this is not a society of children. We do not hide from monsters. We find them, and we defeat them.
Our intelligence community is united in the belief that this attack was perpetrated by gifted terrorists. Our military and security forces are the strongest in history. They are already at work to track down the people responsible. Make no mistake: we will find them, and they will be brought to justice. Anyone who aids them, anyone who hides them, anyone who supports them in any way will face our wrath.
Since the emergence of the gifted thirty-two years ago, our world has faced a challenge never seen in all of history. A small minority of human beings now possesses a massive advantage. How can men and women on both sides of this divide live together, work together, form a single more perfect union?