The Becoming: Revelations (23 page)

Despite how dangerous their new mission was, Gray was sure Ethan would have been behind their every move one hundred percent.

Gray glanced at the man in the driver’s seat again before looking back at Remy. She was surprisingly asleep, her head lolling against the back of her seat. Her bolo knife lay on the seat beside her, well within reach should the need arise. Gray was disappointed with her unconscious state; he’d been hoping for someone to talk to—the silence in the vehicle grated on his nerves. His only option was Brandt, and the man didn’t look like he’d make a very appealing conversational partner.

“Whatever you want to say, spit it out,” Brandt said suddenly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. Gray was startled by the man’s statement, and it scattered his thoughts enough that it took him a moment of stammering before he choked it out.

“I just hope you have a plan,” Gray admitted. “I don’t want to get in there and find out we’re up shit creek and you have no idea where the paddle is.”

Brandt blew out a breath. “I have a fucking plan,” he grumbled.

“Does the plan include an exit strategy?” Gray asked.

Brandt rolled his eyes. “That was
one time,
” he protested.

“Yeah, and that one time nearly got you and Cade killed,” Gray pointed out.

A faint smirk flitted across Brandt’s face. “Yeah, well, we saved our asses
and
Remy’s,” he said smoothly.

“So do you plan to, you know,
share
that plan with us, or are you sticking with keeping it to yourself and letting us muddle our way through it for your own personal amusement?” Gray asked. He rubbed at his eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “Because I, for one, am tired of stumbling my way through everything blindly.”

Brandt chuckled. “Gray, I hardly think either one of you is stumbling through life blindly,” he said. He navigated the SUV around two cars crashed at the highway’s shoulder. “If anything, sometimes I wonder if you and Remy understand the way of shit far better than I do.”

Gray huffed out a frustrated breath. “Can we just
not
discuss your general philosophies on my and Remy’s temperaments and get on with the sharing of the plan?”

Brandt rolled his eyes again but kept his gaze on the windshield. “I don’t have a complete plan yet,” he admitted. “What do you want to know? Because if you want to know the plan, you’re going to help me put the damn thing together.”

Gray made a face at Brandt, but regardless of his feelings on being dropped into making a plan without knowing anything about where they were heading, he reached into the bag at his feet and pulled free their map. He unfolded it and spread it across his lap, careful to not let it overlap into Brandt’s space, and quickly located the city of Atlanta. “Where’s this hotel at? And what’s the area around it like? I don’t know anything about this place.”

“Do you remember that really tall, round skyscraper we saw on our way to the Tabernacle last month?” Brandt asked. “Trust me, you can’t miss it.
That
is the Westin, which is where that guy said they planned to take Cade. I think it’s the fifth-tallest building in Atlanta. Seventy-something floors, and she could be anywhere on any one of them.”

“
If
she’s even there,” Gray pointed out. “You heard what they said on that radio report. There was an escapee in that fight yesterday.”

“
But
there’s nothing to guarantee it was Cade,” Brandt argued.

“There’s nothing to guarantee it
wasn’t
.”

“Look, we don’t know what kind of people made that announcement,” Brandt said. “We don’t know if they’re good or bad, if they’re the type of people to be on our side or not. I don’t know their motivations. I don’t know if they’re really working for Alicia and are attempting to fool us into thinking they’re on our side. I don’t know if they actually
are
on our side. I don’t know how factual their reports are or what their history is or what they’re like or anything. So I don’t know if we can trust them.”

“Sometimes you just have to trust people, whether you know anything about them or not,” Gray said. He focused on folding the map to examine the inlaid square containing a close-up grid of metro Atlanta. “I mean, that’s what you did when you and Cade came after me and Theo and convinced Ethan to let us stay with you guys. If you hadn’t, I don’t think either of us would have survived as long as we had. Sometimes you just have to count on people, whether you’re comfortable with them or not.”

“I’m aware of that,” Brandt said, sounding more contrite. “I’m well aware that sometimes you just have to trust people. But these are the same dirt bags that kidnapped Cade. What if they do something awful to her? What if we get there and find out she’s dead because those assholes did something to her that she couldn’t get out of?”

“What if she’s perfectly fine and they’re feeding her well and taking good care of her?” Gray responded. He retrieved a bottle of water from his bag, cracking it open and taking a long swallow before continuing. “Do you remember what Ethan used to say?”

“You’re the last person in this car to be talking about things Ethan used to say,” Brandt muttered. He swerved around several more wrecked vehicles, his grip on the steering wheel tightening once more.

“I didn’t exactly
like
the bastard, but even
I
have to admit he made some excellent points from time to time,” Gray said. He swallowed from his bottle again and twisted the cap back on. “Ethan used to go on about how when things got shitty, if you could see even a little bit of hope, it was leagues better than having no hope at all. Because the hope is
there
. And this time, the hope is that Cade’s fine. And personally, I think she’s more than fine.” Gray paused and contemplated what he’d just said before adding, “So can we get on with the planning already? I’m tired of offering up reassurances that Remy and I have already repeatedly given you.”

Brandt sighed. “I can’t say for sure what the area immediately around the Westin is like. I can only guess. It’s probably pretty roughed up. I know for a fact there was a big fight in that area when the military tried to contain Michaluk’s spread. I can imagine the infected have long figured out where these people are hiding, so I’m willing to bet they’ve got the place essentially surrounded.”

“So how the hell are people getting in and out?” Gray asked. “If the place
is
surrounded, then they obviously have a place through which they’re able to access the building.”

“Exactly. And our first step is to find out what that place is,” Brandt said. “But before that, we’re going to Park Place and Ralph McGill. I want to check that out before we do anything else. Maybe we can find some signs of what happened there and whether or not Cade was involved.”

Just as promised, Ethan’s help arrived at precisely nine that evening. He sat on the end of his bed, his bag beside him; he’d been there for most of the evening, watching the closed door and waiting for any sign that the promised help had arrived. It was heralded with a faint scratching noise on the other side of the door, followed by the sound of hushed whispers and a soft thump. The quiet whirr of a power drill brushed the air, and then soon after, the door swung open, revealing a familiar blond-haired figure standing in the doorway, a gun in one hand, a drill in the other, and a bag strapped to her back.

“Jesus, Kimberly, it’s about time you showed up,” Ethan said, the relief in his voice almost palpable. He stood and scooped up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. “Where are we going, and how are we getting there? And, for that matter, what am I going to do without my medication?”

“Oh, we’ve got that covered,” Kimberly said. She stepped into the room and motioned to the doorway. Ethan looked past her and was surprised to see Derek in the doorway, dressed as if he were ready to go out, in dark jeans, a white dress shirt, and a comfortable jacket, a backpack on his shoulder and a messenger bag against his left side, a gun in a holster at his right.

“I’ve got almost everything we’ll need,” Derek said.

“Almost?”

“I’ve got medication and paperwork and reports,” Derek clarified. “Plus what appears to be the closest I’ve come to a cure yet. Now all I need is Brandt, preferably
before
Alicia gets her hands on him. And maybe sometime soon, a test subject or two to try it out on.”

“Just stick close to us,” Kimberly added. She took a step back and motioned to Ethan. “We’ve got to get you out of here. It’s gotten too dangerous for you to stay much longer.”

Ethan followed her to the door. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Means you’re starting to outlive your usefulness to Alicia,” Derek said. An odd, nervous wiggle stirred in Ethan’s stomach at the doctor’s words. “I’ve seen it happen several other times, and I conveniently never saw those people again.”

“Plus, with all this new information we’ve come across …” Kimberly began, starting to walk briskly down the hall. She didn’t say anything further, though she exchanged a nervous glance with Derek. Ethan scrambled to catch up with her.

“What new information?” Ethan demanded.

“I’ll tell you as soon as we get the hell out of here,” Kimberly said. “We’ve got to slip out from the sixth floor. There’s a walkway attaching the hotel to AmericasMart across the street. From there, we’ll work our way down to the street level, and then we head for Williams Street behind the Hampton.”

“And from
there,
we meet up with a group of people who will be getting us out of here,” Derek finished.

“But what’s this news you’ve learned?” Ethan persisted as they reached the stairwell door. He slipped between Kimberly and the door, blocking her from opening it, and watched her closely. She avoided his gaze, keeping her eyes on their surroundings—anywhere but on him. “What is it?”

“Alicia found where Brandt and his friends,
your
friends, were staying,” Kimberly said. “She tried to get to Brandt, but he wasn’t there. So she …”

“So she took another one instead,” Derek spoke up after Kimberly trailed off. “As bait, so to speak.”

“Who? What happened?” Ethan demanded. He felt a lurch in his gut, and he clenched his teeth against a surge of nausea.

“She took your friend Cade Alton,” Kimberly said. “She made Cade go with them, and she … My informant overheard Cortez talking about how the other woman who was there at the time is dead.”

“Oh God,” Ethan whispered. He staggered back, bumping into the stairwell door. “Remy is … Remy is
dead?
”

“They
think,
” Derek said quickly. “It’s all hearsay at this point. There’s a chance she isn’t.”

“But that’s not the worst of it,” Kimberly interrupted.

“It gets
worse?
”

“Cade escaped,” Kimberly finished.

“And that’s … bad?” Ethan asked incredulously.

“She escaped here in Atlanta, Ethan,” Kimberly said patiently. “She’s somewhere in the city. I don’t know where. But we’ve got to get out of here, because Alicia is trying to find her, and we’ve got to meet up with the people who are going to try to find her first.”

“But what the hell does Alicia want with her anyway?” Ethan asked. He moved so that Kimberly could open the door. “Why does Alicia need to track Cade down? Cade isn’t the one she wants.”

“We don’t know,” Derek admitted. He motioned for Ethan to follow Kimberly out into the stairwell. His voice dropped to the barest of whispers as he added, “I’m missing some information. I couldn’t find out everything. But I heard enough to decide I couldn’t wait any longer. I have to meet up with this other group. They’re the best shot we’ve got at survival, especially with Alicia acting like she’s lost her damned mind.”

“Lost her mind? What?” Ethan repeated. He struggled to keep his voice as low as Derek’s.

Derek merely put a finger to his lips, indicating that Ethan should shut up, and then began the descent down the stairwell behind Kimberly. Ethan followed, his brain feeling muddled. He was having trouble wrapping his mind around the idea of Cade in Atlanta, in danger somewhere out there, probably without any help whatsoever. Ethan hoped she was okay. He hoped she hadn’t gotten hurt or killed in the process of escaping Alicia’s custody.

And Remy … dead? A deep pit felt like it had opened up in the bottom of his stomach, and he fought to focus on Kimberly’s back instead of on the feelings threatening to overwhelm him. Remy’s death was a concept entirely too horrible to contemplate, so he shoved it aside for later, to wait for when he’d have time to truly think on it and its implications.

The three managed to reach the sixth floor surprisingly unmolested. Kimberly stopped outside the stairwell door and drew a Walther PPS pistol from its holster on her hip, motioning for Derek to do the same. Ethan fumbled for the Glock stashed in his bag, but Kimberly put out a hand to stop him.

“No, don’t,” she hissed. “If we run into someone, we can claim we’re following Alicia’s orders to move you someplace else. She’s not here to contradict that.”

“Smart,” Ethan breathed out appreciatively. He dropped his hand back to his side and glanced at Derek. The doctor’s jaw was set in a hard, determined line, and his dark eyes met Ethan’s as he held his own firearm up.