The Cure (35 page)

“We’ll stake out the ruins,” Keene said. “I’ll stick with the senator and relay anything I see from that vantage point.” He looked at Ritter for approval, though I knew he had every intention of doing exactly what he wanted regardless.

Ritter studied him for a moment, his black eyes dangerous. Finally, he nodded. “We brought two-way radios with earbuds and mics. Range is about three miles. But everyone needs to keep in mind that Justine will be expecting us and will have warned Benito to stay low. He may not come in plain view until the very last minute. That means we check out everyone. Even the Maya. Benito might be taller than most natives, but he could pass.” His gaze shifted to Dimitri. “You take Jace and Mari to the ruins and get everything scoped out. Erin and I are going to scan the nearby hotels. See if she catches anything. We’ll join you as soon as possible.”

Dimitri nodded. “Maybe we should leave Mari here with Cort. We can’t stop to get those bullets out of him now, and he might need something.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” Cort muttered. “With or without your help, my body will eventually get rid of the bullets. It’s just a matter of how long.”

Dimitri and Ritter shared a look, which told me the idea had been more for Mari’s safety than anything.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Mari jumped up from the table. “I might not be able to handle a weapon all that well yet, but I can at least keep an eye out and report what I see. Besides, I can shift if I get into trouble.” She could, but would she? Already she might be too assured of her own immortality.

Ritter arose and began digging through one of the duffels. “You can go, but you’re carrying a pistol. Keep your vest on.” He tossed an extra vest at Keene, who took it without question. “We may have to draw Benito’s fire in order to gain control of the situation.”

“A lot of good a vest did me,” Cort muttered.

“Actually, your vest did save you from a couple more hits,” Dimitri said. “And it was a good thing you were standing between Jace and the gunman, or they might have hit him as well and we could have crashed.”

Cort rolled his eyes. “Glad to be of service.”

Dimitri and Ritter began giving Mari a quick lesson with the pistol—much better than the one I’d given her with the Smith and Wesson back at the hotel. I motioned Keene over to Cort’s bedside. “Look, there’s something you two should know.” I sank down on the edge of the bed.

Keene cocked his head and Cort struggled to sit up. I pushed him back down onto the pillows. “It’s Tom. Justine said he’s your brother. Tihalt is his father, too.”

“No.” Keene shook his head, his green eyes vivid. “There’s no way. Tihalt was with my mother then. They were—” He scowled. “He loved her.”

“I have to agree with Keene,” Cort said. “While Tihalt was responsible for his wife’s death in the end, he would never sleep with Justine. She’s not his type.”

“He was involved in gene manipulation,” I said. “She didn’t ask permission.”

Keene and Cort’s eyes met for a long moment. “It doesn’t change anything,” Cort said finally.

“It does to me.” Keene frowned. “I have to at least try to get him out and away from them.”

Not exactly the reaction I’d hoped for. Or was it? Had I wanted them to help Tom? Maybe.

“Not now,” Cort said.

“Of course not. The mission comes first.” Keene started for the door.

“There’s something more,” I called after Keene. “He’s unbalanced. I think Delia did something to him.”

Keene’s step faltered briefly, but he continued to the door, where he turned to face us. “I’ll keep that in mind. Look, Ritter, I have a way to the ruins already with some men the senator hired, so you and Erin can take the rental I got this morning.” He tossed Ritter a set of keys. “The rest of you can walk. It’s not far. It’ll be better if you can get in without using the entrance. They’ll be checking for weapons because of the senator.”

Ritter nodded. “They’ll go in from the jungle. There’s no use in announcing our presence to the Emporium agents who are bound to be watching the main entry. Their people will have had time to arrive from the jungle, same as us.”

“I’ll call if anyone I bribed spots her or anything strange.” Keene yanked open the door and vanished.

Cort sighed. “I wish you hadn’t told him about Tom.”

“What?” I shook my head. “Why not?”

“Because he’s been hurt enough by my family, and we already know where Tom’s loyalties lie.” Cort shut his eyes, leaving me to chew on that.

“It’s not like he wouldn’t find out. Justine plans to make issue of it very soon.” I believed Cort was wrong, but it was his family. Wouldn’t I want to know if I were in their place?

That made me a big hypocrite because my own brother was unaware of who his birth father was, and I certainly wasn’t in a hurry to tell him. As for myself, I knew Dimitri had other children, and a lot of descendants, but that didn’t mean I was going to rush out and introduce myself. Most of the descendants didn’t even know who he was.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Cort.

He opened one eye and smiled. “It’s okay. I just worry about him. Take care of yourself.”

“I will.” I laid a pistol on the bed within his reach. “Just in case.”

He nodded, his fingers sliding over the gun.

Keene’s rental turned out to be a motorcycle, which wasn’t exactly low profile, given our attire and weapons. We had to pull shirts over our vests, and stash Ritter’s FAL, his sword, and the extra magazines in a duffel. It wasn’t ideal, but it would do.

We were already at one of the hotels closest to the ruins, so we backtracked, driving along the small road as quickly as traffic allowed, slowing whenever we neared a building or settlement. Trusting Ritter with the navigation, I shut my eyes as he drove slowly around the parking lots, reaching out with my mind. Bright life forces of tourists and natives assaulted me, along with the less noticeable ones of various Maya. No mental shields. But for all I knew, Justine was in a barn out behind someone’s trees, out of my range. Or even in a hotel room that didn’t border a parking lot. Besides, I’d been at high awareness for hours already. What if I was too exhausted to sense anything of value?

For Benito’s sake I had to keep trying. Focusing, I began absorbing nutrients from the air, bolstering my physical reserves. I caught a hint of something fruity and some kind of protein, followed by something with a slight moldy feel, which made me glad I wasn’t using my taste buds. If my body found something useful, I’d trust it to take what was needed to repair itself.

Straining my mind, I could feel animals in the rainforest that bordered the road. No Justine. No blocked minds. “They’re just not here,” I called to Ritter. “Or they’re out of my range. So unless we’re going to go inside each hotel, this is useless.”

Ritter slowed down. “We’d better go back. I’ll need to get these weapons inside the park.”

I’m sorry, Benito.
I kept searching as we retraced our path.

We hadn’t gone far when Ritter pulled over to the side, braking hard and reaching for his phone. “Ritter here.” He paused. “Where? Got it.” He hung up and put the bike into gear. “That was Keene. One of his moles reported seeing three men with poorly-concealed guns at our hotel. They were heading toward our room. Justine must have her own spies in place.”

He punched the gas and the scream of the motor filled all the parts of my senses that weren’t overcome by shock. We’d left Cort in bed, alone and unprotected. Better that he had stayed in the Pinz than to be found there by Justine’s henchmen. Ritter drove heedlessly, darting around busses and taxis and other vehicles on the road. Honks and more than a few fingers followed us, but we plunged on. My mind pushed out, searching for dark mental signatures.

At the hotel parking lot, Ritter stopped so abruptly that I would have vaulted off if I hadn’t been holding on tight. “Four,” I muttered, as we hurried to one of the doors. “Four people who are shielding, not three.” Two were completely blocked, but the others radiated anticipation. I couldn’t sense Cort, though he could be unconscious or one of those blocking.

Even as I tried to pinpoint them, the mental signatures were outside the hotel, and moving away fast. “I think they’re leaving!” Panic enveloped me.

Ritter turned on his heel and hurled himself toward the bike. I hurried after him.

The flash of a thought slowed my step. Someone calling out in bright pain. Someone I knew.

I whirled and started running the other way. Ritter was at my side in an instant, a gun appearing in his hands. “Behind that car,” I said, pointing in front of us.

Without hesitating, Ritter sprang around the vehicle, his weapon ready. A second later, he blew out air, relief softening the tense lines of his face. I peeked around the car, still afraid of what I might find.

Cort lay between two parked cars, his brown hair matted to his forehead with sweat and his clothes stained with the fresh blood seeping from under the bandages. “Keene called,” he said, lowering his own weapon. “I climbed out the window before they got in. Think I broke something falling out.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Better get after them.”

“You stay here with him.” Ritter was already turning.

I shook my head. “You won’t be able to find them without me.”

“Go—both of you! I’m okay, though I think someone gave me a little too much curequick. I’m feeling quite a buzz. Go on. I’ll wait for you in the Pinz. I can make it that far.” As if to prove his point, Cort pushed himself to a seated position. He looked like he’d fallen from a cliff.

Ritter’s jaw worked for a few seconds, but we both knew we had no choice, not really.

Seconds later, we squealed from the parking lot. The traffic this close to the ruins had increased while we’d been at the hotel, the usual thousand daily visitors augmented by the natives coming for the celebration. Ritter zipped in and out, often passing on the side of the road. Several angry shouts followed us.

“I’ve lost them,” I shouted to Ritter. We’d reached the parking lot near the entrance to the ruins, brought to a standstill by several busses and a streaming crowd of people. No way to pass with all the cars and pedestrians.

I looked toward the flow of people heading to the park’s entrance, sensing a shuttered mind. I found the owner easily, a blond mortal who studied each passerby intently. His bulky overcoat despite the heat warned me he was armed. Another fainter signature was closer to the entrance. “Keene’s right. They’re watching,” I told Ritter. “Not the ones we were following, but at least two others. Should we grab one of them instead?”

“Too many people around.” Ritter guided the bike into the slight opening between a bus and a taxi. He turned before the parking lot on a small dirt path, heading off road. Deep into the jungle we went, the foliage growing thicker with every passing minute. I held on tightly, pressing my cheek against the hardness of Ritter’s back to avoid being slapped in the face by stray branches.

Finally, we could go no further, and he killed the engine. We wasted a few precious moments covering the bike with branches, though it was unlikely we’d ever go back for it. “We should be in range now.” Ritter pulled an earbud from his pocket, attached to a thin cord that also held a tiny microphone. Ingenious in that it could pass as an earbud for any musical device or cell phone. “Dimitri, Jace, Mari, can you all hear me? We’re here and preparing to enter the park now. Any sign of them?”

I put in my own earbud in time to hear Dimitri’s response. “Nothing. They’ve roped off one of the monuments. Apparently, they’re going to use it for the celebration as a sort of stage. They’ve got a group of about two dozen children here, all dressed in native gear. We’ve got to find Benito in time.” Worry filled Dimitri’s voice, a rare occurrence in the two months I’d known him.

I turned on my mic to speak. “I can’t sense him.” In fact, I couldn’t sense anyone at the moment, only Ritter, whose thoughts were as dark as they came. Not even Jace or Mari appeared on my radar. “Any eyes on Keene?”

“He doesn’t seem to be in the park yet,” Jace said. “So he’s probably not in radio range.”

“The senator isn’t around either,” added Mari.

Ritter frowned. “Well, it’s a big park, and if I were Justine and her cronies, I’d stay out of sight until the celebration began. Keep searching—and keep your radios on.” He switched off his mic and added to me, “Let’s go.”

Ritter and I fought our way through the jungle, finally managing to reach the part of the ruins that had been uncovered and reclaimed from the jungle. It seemed ludicrous to me to check people at the entrance when anyone who was seriously intent on attacking the senator and his sister would have done enough research to find another way inside.

We stayed in the trees, moving in a circuit around the open area. I pushed outward, trying to sense what I could, but the only thing coming through was the occasional burst of an unshielded mind. So much confusion and excitement radiated in those bursts that I felt nauseated.

I checked the clock on the GPS Ritter had distributed to each of us. “We’re nearly out of time.”

Ritter held up his tiny microphone to his mouth. “Dimitri, we’re coming up empty. Which structures still need checking?”

“We’ve gone to all those inside the reclaimed area, but there are at least a thousand structures in the jungle that haven’t been uncovered yet. She could be in any of those. The locations are on your GPS, but there’s no way we can search them all in time.”

“It can’t be too far away,” I put in. “Justine will make sure she’s not in danger, but she won’t want to miss all the fun.”

“She’ll also have to be close enough to keep her shooter hidden until the last moment.”

“Uh, excuse me,” Keene’s voice crackled. “Just to let you all know that I’ve arrived with the senator. He’s enlisted the local authorities, but they won’t be much use against a mad man with an assault weapon.”

“Stay with him,” Ritter said.

“Yes, sir.” There was a slight mockery in the words.

“We’ll have to separate,” I told Ritter.

“Keep your mic on, then.” He hesitated, and for a moment the thing between us was there, alive and eager. “Be careful.”