Voice (11 page)

She could lock it first. If he wasn’t in there, no harm would be done. If he was, then if he saw her, at least he couldn’t reach her immediately.

Jemma shifted her weight so she was on her knees, her face at eye level with the doorknob, giving her the best view of the keyhole. She slid the key in as slowly as she could, wincing at every little bump, picturing Josh turning and frowning at the door. She turned the key toward the door frame, feeling the lock slip into place, and she pictured him racing toward the door, fell backward as she could almost hear his footsteps.

Nothing happened.

She realized her heart was racing, her stomach churning, and she forced herself to swallow, to focus. She leaned forward again, keeping as close to the door as she could, minimizing the chances of being seen through the larger observation window to the side.

She straightened, stopping with her eyes just high enough to see through the square window on the door.

Josh was sitting in his chair, staring at the one that usually belonged to Jemma, tapping his fingers impatiently.

Jemma dropped down out of sight, allowing herself a few deep breaths before crawling away, staying low for longer than she needed to. When she stood, her legs were shaking, and she clutched at the keys to keep them from rattling. She continued back down the hall until she found Heidi, who was already waiting with the others. Heidi raised an eyebrow, and Jemma nodded, returning the keys.

Marcia grinned at her. Holding her girlfriend’s hand, Kendall managed a shaky smile.

“You’re sure we should be leaving?” asked Katherine.

“Look,” said Heidi, “I’m not going to force you or your brother out of here at gunpoint, but the building is empty. We’re the last ones here. I don’t know what they’ll do with anyone they find still here when they come to investigate, though, so I’d recommend leaving.” If Jemma hadn’t known that it was a lie, she’d never have guessed. Had the woman been less than truthful about anything else?

Katherine and her brother, Sam, seemed to communicate silently, though whether it was telepathically or not, Jemma wasn’t sure. Would she ever get that back? After several seconds, Sam spoke up. “We’ll leave.”

Heidi nodded. “This way.” She led them out the way Jemma had escaped the first time, talking as they went. “You need to know a few things.” She spoke mainly to Jemma, but she kept her voice loud enough that the others could listen if they wanted to. Marcia and Kendall stayed close, clearly taking in the information, but Jemma couldn’t tell whether the other two were paying attention. “Tricorp BioD is down, but not out. It isn’t safe to go home yet, and it isn’t safe to go public. Most of their documented facilities, like this one, will be gone, but they’ve got connections. They’ve got people out there, and they’ll still be looking for you. You need to keep quiet until they’ve been completely dismantled, and that might take a while. Smaller groups will be safer.”

They walked up the stairs and out into the sunlight. The siblings immediately started walking away, and Heidi shook her head, continuing her information for the three who stayed. “You three might be all right, but probably no larger. Even three is risking it.”

Jemma almost missed the last sentence because she suddenly became aware of a comforting presence she hadn’t really expected to feel again: that of her connection with Jack.

CHAPTER TWELVE:

Sweet Sorrow

“Jack?” she sent, closing her eyes at the echo. She opened them again to see him coming around the closest corner of the building. She ignored the fact that Heidi was watching her, an odd expression on her face, instead moving around the guard to walk into Jack’s open arms.

With contact came a surge of emotion Jemma hadn’t realized was missing from their few seconds of earlier connection, and she felt herself relax against him for far too brief a time before they were interrupted.

“Sorry to cut the party short, but right in front of the doorway to a secret medical facility? Probably not where we should be holding a reunion.” Heidi sounded both exasperated and amused. “I think it’s time for us to split up, anyway. Remember what I said; I don’t think it’s smart to travel in groups bigger than three. It’s your lives, though, if you want to take the chance. I’ve got to head my own way. Best of luck.” She winked at them and walked back into the building.

“Into the woods, at least long enough to get our bearings,” Jack said to the group over Jemma’s shoulder. She pulled away to see Marcia nod, then looked back at Jack. His eyes scanned her face before he smiled, and they looked around them before crossing the small space between the building and the woods, Jack keeping Jemma’s hand in his.

Once they were out of sight of the buildings, Marcia spoke. “So if you two both broke out, why was only Jemma back again?”

“I thought it would be smart to split up,” Jemma answered, not sure she’d ever quite get past the guilt of that.

“Hey.” Jack squeezed her hand. “You were right. I was safer where I was, and I managed to escape again, without having to find my own version of Heidi.” He let go of Jemma to duck behind a tree, coming back with a backpack, newer than the one he’d disappeared with, camouflage instead of black. From one of the pockets, he pulled an envelope. “Another perk of splitting up. I did meet back up with the senator, and when I told him I was coming to get everyone out, we came to the same conclusion that it would be safer to separate into smaller groups. He agreed to fund everyone as long as we don’t contact him any more than we have to.” He handed the envelope to Marcia. “There’s some cash and a couple of those credit card gift card things that you can use anywhere. I didn’t have time to get phones again, but there’s plenty in there if you want to get one for yourself, just make sure it’s not attached to your name in any way, and don’t do anything risky with it.”

Marcia nodded. “I guess we should get going. Any clue which way to go from here?”

“Do you know if anyone is following you?” Jack looked at Jemma.

“Nobody should be, not yet.”

“Then I’d go that way, straight to the main buildings on campus, and get a taxi or catch a bus, something to get away from here before that changes.”

Marcia nodded, looked at Ken, then looked back at Jack and Jemma. “Thanks, you two. Be safe.”

“Same to you,” said Jack.

“Sorry I yelled when we first met,” added Ken, smiling and tilting her head toward Marcia, who raised an eyebrow.

“It was understandable,” answered Jemma.

The couple turned and walked away, hands linked, shoulders bumping, and Jemma felt some of her energy and adrenaline drain, as it had the last time they’d been here. “What about us? Do we get a taxi, too?”

He shook his head, the shadows of the trees playing over his face as he grinned. “I went fishing and got the keys to Pratt’s car back. I parked it nearby. He got us a safe house, too, but it’s just for the one night. Come on. We’ll talk when we get there so you can relax.” He pulled her into his arms again, and she sighed against his shoulder until he pulled away, keeping a firm grip on his hand to keep from tripping.

***

Jack didn’t seem to realize that her vision was impaired, not at first. When she nearly fell on the curb, he lent her his arm instead of his hand, giving her more strength, seeming to assume she was tired. She sent him a surge of gratefulness, and he smiled at her.

When he asked her to help him watch for street signs and she hesitated, he again seemed to blame weariness, suggesting she instead rest her eyes.

Once they’d gotten inside the home, though, which Jack had briefly explained belonged to a friend of the senator’s, Jack seemed to be finally able to see that more was wrong with Jemma than simple fatigue.

“You’re looking around a lot. They’re not gonna find us here.” Jemma studied Jack’s brown eyes, then stepped forward, encouraging him to wrap his arms around her once more. “What’s wrong, Jemma?” His physical voice matched his mental one perfectly, and it washed over her, surrounded her. She breathed in the comfort, her eyes closed, pretending that everything was okay for as long as she could.

Gently, firmly, he moved his hands to her shoulders and stepped back, catching her wince. His eyes flickered to her arms, freezing when he saw her bruises.

She tried to smile at him. “Colorful, hmm? They’re smaller than they were, at least.”

He ran his fingertips over her skin, too lightly to hurt. “The tracker?” His jaw was tight, his eyes dark. Jemma nodded, and she felt a surge of protectiveness through their connection. “I didn’t forget about that, and I should be able to scramble it. Is that why you’re jumpy? Or is there more?”

“I’m not looking around because I’m jumpy. The day after you got out, they used a new drug combination on me, and it messed with my eyesight. It’s back now, mostly, but it’s still blurry on the edges.” Jemma was watching her feet until she felt his finger under her chin.

“But you can see me okay like this?”

She looked into his eyes and nodded. “Anything I’m looking directly at is close to normal. The rest is getting better, just not fast enough.”

“All right.” He paused, his eyes flickering down to her mouth then back up to hers in question. He dropped a light kiss on her lips at the answer he found, then walked over to his backpack. “We’ll keep this GPS scrambler hooked up. I wasn’t sure where they’d put it on you, so I didn’t get the kind that would cover it physically, and I think, now that I’ve seen it, metal on your arm would probably hurt anyway. What I got instead is one that scrambles any GPS signal within about 30 feet. Not exactly legal, and I won’t tell you who I had to deal with to get it on such short notice, but it’ll work. We need to keep it close, though. I got a portable charger so we don’t have to stay hooked to a wall to power it.”

He pulled out the contraption, which seemed to be already turned on, and Jemma felt some more of her tension melt away. She’d found a way to release the cure, and Jack had handled their money problems and dealt with the tracker. They were going to be okay.

“Come on,” he said, holding out his free hand toward her good one. “Let’s go find somewhere comfortable, and we can fill each other in on what’s happened since we split up, what we don’t already know.” He looked into the first rooms they came to, stopping at the second. “This looks good.”

There was a queen-sized bed with plenty of pillows propped up against the headboard, two bedside tables, and a television hung on the wall opposite the bed.

“We can find a couch instead, if you’d be more comfortable,” he suggested when she didn’t step forward immediately. “I just thought this way we could fall asleep if we wanted to. Just sleep, of course, like before. You’re not in any condition to… I mean not that…” He closed his eyes and blew air upward, and Jemma chuckled. “Did I ramble this much in our minds?” He opened one eye to look at her, and she shook her head, leading him forward and taking the closer side of the bed. He set the scrambler on her bedside table before moving around to the other side, snagging the remote control from next to the television before he got comfortable.

Jack held the remote, looking at Jemma rather than turning on the TV. She could feel him in her mind still, their connection not as strong as she’d gotten used to, but very definitely there, and watching him, too, made it seem more intimate somehow.

“So,” she asked, interrupting the moment, “you found Pratt, obviously.” She refused to call him by his first name after he’d ignored her. It might be petty, especially without knowing the reason, especially when he’d obviously changed tactics since then, but it made her feel better. “And he was willing to help?”

“Yeah. He asked me to let him explain some of it to you himself. He seemed to feel pretty bad.” Jack ran a hand through his hair and shifted, leaning more heavily back into the pillows. “But basically, as soon as I got out, he was ready for me to contact him, and we managed to meet up before you set the cure loose. As soon as that happened, I knew I needed to get you out as fast as I could, so he loaded me up with supplies, drove me to the car that you’d left behind, and then he was going to try to get in touch with some old contacts or something.” Jack smiled crookedly. “I was a little preoccupied with getting to you at that point. We’ll meet back up with him tomorrow.”

He watched her, waiting for her to share her side of things without demanding it. “I went to a news station, tried to set up an interview. That’s how I got recaptured. They said they would make sure my story got out, even if the interview was stopped. Did it?” She paused, looking at Jack, who shook his head. Jemma felt a sinking sensation. She hoped that everyone at the station was all right, that Tricorp had silenced the story without causing harm.

“After they got me back in the facility,” she continued, “they did an MRI, made sure I didn’t have any permanent brain damage or anything like that.” Her good arm was next to Jack, and she reached for his hand without thinking as she remembered being strapped to the machine. “You and I started Talking not long after that, so you have a good idea of most of that, I think. I’d rather not deal with the details unless they’re relevant.”

She looked down at their joined hands rather than at his face, into eyes that could guess at too much. “Josh changed the drug the day after you left, made it so it had pain killers in it, or pain blockers, I think Dr. Harris called them. But I was picking up on surface thoughts again, and even a little more than that, except I couldn’t feel the pain, couldn’t tell that it was doing any damage until I opened my eyes and could barely see. Not that he had a way to reverse the effects, anyway, not without just waiting it out.” Jack squeezed her hand, and she swallowed.