Cipher (17 page)

Emma fisted her hands, and I wanted to step in for her. Being put on the defense wasn’t going to endear her to the Lady. “What I want is a normal life. Beyond anything, that’s what I want most.”

Lady Eva sighed. “You’re just like your mother.” She held up a hand when Emma bristled at that.

I wanted to shake the Lady. If she continued down this track, she’d lose Emma. And me, if it came down to it.

“It’s not a bad thing, but I wish you could compromise a little on your goals,” Lady Eva said. “You’re not normal. Normal, unmodded people don’t harness electricity like you do. You have to find what’s normal for
you
.” She paused. “But your normal could mean any number of things. I’d love it to encompass coming to my compound, and at the very least learning how to harness and control your ability. Maybe even joining our fight against the Seligo. Knight will help you and guide you. All that I ask is that you give the Ravens a chance. I think you can do good in this world. You could change things if you could learn to view being Red as a blessing instead of a curse.”

Emma nodded, but didn’t say anything. I wished I knew what she was thinking. All these nods made me want to stay there and question her until she told me what was going through her head. I had to know.

“Good luck, Emma. I hope to see you soon.”

Emma stood there, silent, as Lady Eva signed off.

I looked down at Emma, waiting to hear what she said. When she didn’t say anything, I decided it was time to break the silence. “What are you thinking about?”

Her brows were pulled tight together as she looked up at me. “She’s something, huh?”

“The Lady? Yeah.”

The overhead light flickered for a second, but she got it under control before I could reach for her. “Do you think I should give the Ravens a chance?”

I sighed as I sat down in the chair. At her full height standing up, she was as tall as me sitting down. “I know what I should say if I was being a good Raven, but you’re not just anyone. You’re Emma, the girl who saved me. So, I have to say that I don’t give a shit what you do. I just want to make sure you’re okay, whatever you decide. And I’d really like it if I could stick by you no matter what that is.”

She tilted her head as she stared at me. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Because. I want to.” It was as simple as that.

She scrunched her eyebrows. “Okay. But why?”

I laughed. “Just because.”

“Just because?”

She wasn’t understanding me, but I didn’t have more of an explanation. Or at least not one that she was ready for. “Yup. Just because.”

She blew out a breath. “I guess we’ll have to see what happens.”

“I guess we will.”

Chapter Eleven

CIPHER

The conversation with Lady Eva left me a little uneasy. My parents hadn’t wanted me to be a Raven, but it seemed like joining was my only safe bet.

The fact that I was here, in a safe house with a trio of helixed Ravens and my uncle not far behind, showed how totally messed up this situation was. I was a girl without a ton of options. Especially if I was tired of running.

“Still the same plan?” Oliver said as we sat down.

“Yep. We’re splitting up here. We’ll meet up with you at the compound. Assume you’re being followed and try not to leave the car for a while. Make them think we’re still—”

“Hold up. I’m not going anywhere,” Mona said.

I knew exactly how she felt. Mona’s life had been totally disrupted and it was all my fault.

“You can’t stick around here. They’ll make the connection between you and Emma soon, and you won’t be safe,” Oliver said. “You have to come with us.”

Mona shook her head. “No way. If I go anywhere it’s with Cipher.”

What? She wasn’t upset about leaving her place behind? I knew she didn’t have any family or friends besides me—we were alike in that way—but I figured she’d at least be a little pissed about abandoning her clothes.

She was upset about not being with me?

“Too dangerous,” Knight said. “It’s going to be hard enough for the two of us to lose any tail we might have. Adding another person is…”

I didn’t want to disappoint Mona, but he was right. She needed to get as far away from me as possible. It wasn’t safe for her. I wouldn’t ruin her life any more than I already had.

“No—”

“It won’t be forever,” I said, cutting off her protest.

Mona’s eyes were glassy when she turned to me. “You don’t know that. People leave all the time and they never come back.”

“I won’t be like everyone else.” My voice was firm and clear, even if I wasn’t sure how much of a promise I could make. I’d do my best, but if Jack got to me first… “I’ll find my way back to you.”

“That’s what everyone says. It’s a lie. Even if you believe it now, something will happen, something you’re not prepared for, and you’ll decide I’m not worth the trouble.”

I gripped her hand. “You’re worth it. I don’t forget family. Not ever. Being with me right now isn’t safe. But you can’t get rid of me that easy. We’ll find our way back together.” I hoped to God I wasn’t lying. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “So, how soon can we leave?” I asked Knight.

He checked his watch. “Next transpo out of New Mexico is in an hour and a half. It’s tight, but I think we can make it.”

“New Mexico? We can’t leave from Arizona?”

“Nope,” Dex said. “They were supposed to clear out of the Arizona transpo stations at oh-four hundred hours, but we got word that a force is staying on as a precautionary measure.”

“Don’t worry,” Knight said. “They don’t think you got through the Tempe blockade, so the roads from here are clear. The extended transpo station watch really is precautionary. We’ll be fine.”

My stomach knotted. If we were caught…I didn’t want to think what would happen. The longer we waited the worse it was going to get. “Sounds awesome.”

“Let’s move out,” Knight said.

The guys started gathering up stuff and putting equipment away, and they clearly knew what they were doing. They had it all choreographed as they moved from room to room, turning off lights and making it look like no one had been here.

Mona and I moved outside to wait by the car. She hugged me, and it took me a second too long to hug her back. She squeezed so tight, I could barely breathe.

“Stay safe,” I said when she finally pulled away.

“We’re in this car,” Knight said as he motioned to the garage. Inside was a beat-up SUV that looked like a million others on the road. I jumped in the passenger seat.

“You sure they’ll be okay?”

“Yeah. Dex and Oliver are used to this kind of thing. They’ll take care of Mona. Just focus on staying calm, and if you feel like you’re losing control, reach out for me. I’ll steady you, okay?”

I stared out the window, unable to meet his gaze as he drove away from the safe house. He thought he wanted to help me, but eventually he’d realize I was more trouble than I was worth. Or he’d die trying to save me.

I wasn’t sure I could live through either of those options.

“Okay?” he said again.

I didn’t know how to answer that. “Sure.”

We didn’t talk much on the way to the transpo. I had questions, but opening up right now…I already felt exposed. I tugged on my lip ring as I thought.

“You’re going to break your teeth if you keep doing that.”

I let go of it, and turned to him. “It’s fine. Promise.”

“I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

How had I somehow gained an overprotective guy in my life? “I get that you and I knew each other, and that you feel like there’s some kind of debt that you need to repay, but consider us even. Seriously. I don’t need protecting. So, let’s push that instinct where the sun don’t shine. Okay?” I gave him my most angelic smile.

He frowned at me. “What are you doing with your face?”

I was horrible at fake smiling. Why did I keep trying? “I believe it’s called a reassuring smile.”

“No. That’s not a smile. When you smile, your dimples show, your freckles stand out, and the green shines in your eyes. It’s a thing of beauty. When all of those things are absent, it’s unsettling. You have dead eyes when you fake smile.”

“Dead eyes?”

“Yeah, your mouth is smiling, but your eyes are saying ‘I’m going to murder you.’ It’s creepy.” He shuddered.

“What a drama queen.” I needed to learn to pretend to be happy better. I could pretend to be pissed off and cry on cue. I had to know how to lie pretty well to survive, but faking a smile had never come easy to me. “So, tell me, oh Wise One, how do I do it correctly?”

“If I have to tell you how, you can’t do it. Start with a lot of practice in the mirror.”

“Is that how you learned to lie so well?” I winced. That had sounded more bitchy than I meant it to be.

“No. I learned to lie when I was a kid because if I didn’t, I’d be dead. Death is usually a pretty great motivator.”

He didn’t seem upset, so I pressed for more. “Your dad?”

He shrugged. “Took me a while to figure out that it didn’t matter what I said or did. If he wanted to kick my ass, he was going to. It didn’t really have anything to do with me, but I tried my damnedest to lie and fast talk my way out of fights with him.”

Slightly impressive. “You’re really well adjusted.”

“Yeah, well the school I went to had really fantastic head shrinkers.”

I snorted, and then covered my nose.

“Did you just snort?”

This was so embarrassing. “No.”

“You totally did, didn’t you?”

“Shut up.” I laughed again, and snorted in the process.

“There it is again!”

We both started laughing. It was easy to be around him. It always had been, regardless of the version of him I thought back to.

After that, we made small talk about programming and hacking. I asked him about how he built his processors, but he wouldn’t share the secret recipe. Before long, we were pulling up to the transpo station. He swiped his ID to get through the gates, and an alias popped up on the vid screen.

“That was fast.”

“We’ve got some good hackers on our team. You might even like some of them,” he said with a wink.

The car went through the usual security scan. A bead of sweat rolled down my face as we went through the gates. I was expecting the Black Helixes to come rushing out at us at any second, but no one did. We parked, and everything was fine.

He messed around with something in the trunk, before pulling a backpack over his shoulders. I watched the parking lot, to make sure no one was looking at us, but everyone was going about the day as usuasl.

Knight walked over with a black ball cap in his hand. “Come here.”

I stood still as he approached. He tilted my head up and brushed my hair away from my face, before easing the cap over my head. “The cap will limit front-on facial scans to fifty-percent. Ditto for the sides. Sometimes fifty-percent is enough to raise a flag, but not usually. I altered my specs in the system last night and they don’t have any on you yet. This is purely precautionary.” Knight leaned over me to adjust the cap size before stepping back. “Looking good,” he said with a grin. He pulled another hat out of his back pocket, and straightened the folded brim before shoving it over his head.

“Let’s go.”

The station used to be all white and chrome, but a layer of grime coated everything, turning it shades of gray. I wondered what it would’ve been like when it was new. Something about the clean lines of the structure made me think it had been beautiful once. The air conditioning in the station hit me as soon as we stepped through the doors, raising goose bumps along my skin. Outside was hot, but inside was freezing.

“You need a jacket?”

The guy noticed everything. “I’m okay.”

“This way.” He motioned off to the right, and I followed him.

The station was impressive. Different colored lines on the floors marked directions for bus, train, and pod travel. We walked through the security station. Automated kiosks scanned us as we walked into the ticketing area, and I reached for Knight.

My nerves were going crazy, and I didn’t want to set off any alarms. This time when he started draining my electricity, the feeling was comforting instead of freaky.

“You sure you’re okay?”

I swallowed. “Let’s just get where we’re going.”

“You’re doing fine.”

I nodded. I didn’t want to need the praise, but it helped me calm down as he led me toward the pod docks.

I’d never been in pod station before. I stayed away from transpo stations in general because they had too many cameras. This mega-station had one hanging from every ceiling tile, and I was sure there were more that I couldn’t see. Each camera had a flashing red light, meant to draw the eye. I knew this, and yet I still started to look.

Boards hung along the walls, showing destinations, departures, and arrivals. Other vid screens ran ads, alerts, and PSAs. Servers called out from food stalls, trying to catch commuters as they rushed through the station. It was instant sensory overload.

I started to look back up at the cameras and Knight tapped on my brim before the camera could get a full shot of my face. “How about you not look straight at them.”

“Accident. I’ve never actually been in a station like this.”

“No? Never taken a pod before?”

I shook my head. “Nope.” To be honest, the hyperspeed pods kind of freaked me out. I mean, I knew they almost never failed, but when they did, it was insta-death. And they were expensive. Like thousands of credits. To ride in a deathtrap? Only a helix would be so dumb.

“Well, today’s your lucky day.”

Right. My nerves started to take hold as we walked through the crowd. People moved in all directions, some hauling giant bags. My feet nearly got creamed by some jerk’s rolling trunk. It was too much. Too many people. Too many cameras recording me.

I started to pull away from Knight but he gripped my hand.

He leaned close to me. “I don’t want you losing control here. We can’t afford for you to cause even the tiniest fluctuation in the electrical grid. The Blacks aren’t actively looking for us here, but I guarantee you that every power station on this planet is monitoring local electrical levels. Best way to avoid that attention is to stick close, skin-to-skin. I’ll absorb any surges.”