“I thought it was gone,” she said, her eyes shut and head bowed.
“No, you only put it away for a time,” Mentis said.
He might have used his powers on her, gone into her mind and tweaked whatever mental dam was keeping her from reaching her abilities. Anna thought that was possible—until she remembered that his powers were blocked. If she had stopped using her power because she was afraid it had killed someone, the only thing that could bring it back was saving someone. Saving all of them.
From a flight above, Teia and Lew stared down, amazed. Maybe a little terrified.
Analise held her hand up. Water dripped, pooled in her cupped palm. Brow furrowed, she studied it a moment. The surface of the tiny pool trembled, and the vibrations increased until the water contracted, collected together into a spherical drop, which rose an inch from her hand before splashing back against her skin, scattering.
Sighing, she closed her eyes. Rubbed water from her face, not that it did any good. They were all soaked and dripping. But at least they hadn’t cooked. When Analise looked up, Teia was sliding down, skating on the wet stairs while balancing against the railing, and pulled up short before crashing into her mother’s arms.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Teia muttered into her mother’s shoulder.
“Same reason you didn’t tell me, baby,” Analise said back. “I didn’t even tell Dad.” They hugged, and Lew slipped down to join them, and they might have stayed like that all day.
Arthur absently reached out to rest a hand on Anna’s shoulder. She didn’t know what to say.
“We’ll find her,” Arthur said. Which was exactly what she’d been thinking.
“I thought you said your powers were blocked.”
“And somehow, I knew just what you were thinking anyway.”
“Sorry to interrupt. But we have to keep moving,” Paulson said, nodding up the stairs.
They hauled themselves up the slope, a task made more difficult by the water running down the concrete. But they made good time, clinging to the railings, because they had no desire to see what the next booby trap involved.
Anna didn’t let herself think for a minute that she couldn’t do this. She didn’t have a choice, and that was that.
“I’m perversely encouraged,” Arthur said at one point. “This wouldn’t be so difficult if we weren’t close.”
“We’re going to get up there and be totally exhausted and no good for a fight,” Paulson muttered.
“Plenty of time to worry about that when we get there,” the telepath replied.
“Holy crap, what happened?” Teddy said, his bodiless words echoing ahead of him before he flashed to visibility and pitched up against the railing on the thirtieth floor. He stared down at the dripping walls and the sopping wet mess of them.
“Geez, kid, you have got to stop doing that,” Paulson said, holstering the gun he’d drawn from his belt.
“Sorry,” Teddy said. “But what happened?”
They all looked at Analise, who shook her head. “I’m a really bad plumber, it turns out.”
Teddy looked blank, but Teia giggled.
“Ghost, you’ve been to the thirtieth floor? What did you find?” Mentis ordered.
Wide-eyed, he nodded quickly. “There’s five of ’em. The two who tried to snatch Anna are guarding the doorway. Two more guys in skin suits are watching Ms. West. And a guy in a suit, he looks like he’s in charge. Ms. West is there, she’s tied to a chair.”
“You’ve seen her, she’s okay?” Anna gasped. He’d seen Mom, she was okay, she was close, and they would find her. These last few minutes of waiting before they could rescue her were going to be impossible.
Teddy nodded. “She looks really pissed off.” That sounded like Mom.
Arthur said, “What’s she bound with, cuffs or straps?”
“Straps. Knots, I think.”
“Right. I need you to go back and loosen them—don’t untie them entirely, we don’t want to show our hand. But enough so she can slip out when the time is right. Then get out of the way and wait for us.”
“Got it,” he said, entirely too eagerly. Must be nice, being able to turn invisible to avoid danger.
“Can you unlock the door for us?” Sam said.
“No, it’s got a code lock on it or something.”
“Then can I please blast it?” Sam called over his shoulder.
“Give Ghost a few minutes to get out of the way and get to Celia. Then yes, you can blast it,” Mentis said.
Once he blew up the door, a battle would start. After that, there’d be little enough Anna could do, compared to her friends who could do so much. But that didn’t matter, because they were all here for the same reason: find Mom, get her out safe. That was Anna’s task.
Teddy vanished through the door again.
TWENTY-THREE
THE minions returned and huddled in conference with Majors—out of Celia’s hearing, of course. Alas. Not that she would have been able to do anything with any information she gleaned. She kept glancing at the mentalist, Mindwall, wishing she could interrogate him on the extent of his power. Wishing she could knock him unconscious by sheer force of will. But no, that was Arthur’s ability.
Arthur. She relied on him for so much. She’d taken him entirely for granted, and now she had plenty of time to review in painstaking detail all the mistakes she’d made in her adult life. Little mistakes, inconsequential. A missed birthday here. A failure to listen to her children sufficiently well. An obsession with details she might have been better off letting go. Celia had given herself a pass because those mistakes all paled when compared to the drama of her childhood. Except for the latest mistakes: She really should have told everyone about the leukemia. And when she told Arthur that he was right, assuming she got out of this in one piece, he wouldn’t even say I told you so.
Maybe Majors was right, and she should have let the company go a long time ago. Let the big picture fend for itself while she focused on what was important: Arthur and the girls.
No. Those thoughts were a trap, because while she didn’t have powers of her own, she was still her parents’ daughter. She had the power to make Commerce City better and an obligation to use it. Dr. Mentis of the Olympiad understood. So did Anna, or she wouldn’t have spent all these weeks sneaking out on her adventures.
An explosion sounded, the whump of a fireball in a distant corridor, the hiss of gas and burning, and a group of people shouting in panic that seemed to echo through the building’s foundations and floor. No …
Majors turned back to her, his face drawn into a very serious, very pitying frown. “Remember, you could have stopped this.”
“You’re a psychopath,” she said. “I know your kind.”
“You don’t know anyone like me,” he declared.
She smiled, because she could list the names of all the villains who were just like him, who’d kidnapped her or tried to. Who’d failed, no matter how confidently they’d stood before her and ranted that they were different. The feeling of déjà vu was oppressive.
The sounds continued, changing in ways Celia couldn’t interpret. The blast of a blowtorch, shouted denials, then … rain? Falling water? Whatever it was, the shouting stopped, which could either be good or bad.
Typhoon …
Which was only her mind playing tricks on her. A memory from the old days intruding.
“That’s it, right?” Steel, the thug behind her, asked Majors. They’d all gone very quiet, listening. “They’re done?”
“We’ll wait a few minutes and send Shark in to check. But I’ve studied all the vigilantes who might have come to help her, and none of them could escape those traps.”