Hunted (Talented Saga # 3)

  “Hey, sweetie,” I said, patting him nervously on the top of his head. I looked at Erik for some indication of what I was supposed to do, but he just shrugged.

  Erik quickly worked his arms out of the straps of his backpack and set it on the floor. He withdrew a strange looking mess of thick, black ropes and began untangling it.

  “What is that?” I asked a little alarmed.

  “Sling. I’m gonna have to carry Alex. This will be the easiest way,” he answered, deftly unknotting the cords. “Put his stuff in Talia’s pack,” Erik ordered Cadence.

  “Is she coming with us?” I demanded, nodding to Cadence.

  “Yes,” Erik replied calmly, not looking up from his task.

  “Why?” I wanted to know.

  “Because we need her, Tals. She wants to help.” Erik gave me a small smile.

  I didn’t like it. The more people involved, the more likely we’d get caught. And I didn’t trust her, not with this. She might have been nicer lately, but that didn’t mean I was ready to put my life, or Erik’s and Alex’s, in her hands.

  “You can trust me, Talia,” Cadence said softly as though she’d been reading my thoughts.

  Maybe she had been. I hadn’t taken any measures to prevent projecting my incredulity. The look on Erik’s face said he’d already made up his mind, so there was no point in arguing. I sighed, resigned that she would be tagging along. Once Erik removed all the kinks from his sling, he started fastening it to his back. I lifted Alex and tried to figure out how to secure him in the contraption. When he was safely nestled against Erik and all his belongings were stowed in my bag, Cadence grabbed Erik’s discarded knapsack.

  “Stay close together. We’re going to take the stairs to the back exit. The elevators aren’t working anyway,” he said, assuming control of the situation.

  Cadence and I silently followed Erik down the dark hallway to the stairwell. I wasn’t surprised to find the passage pitch black, as well. Mine and Erik’s eyesight was good enough to navigate the steps without much difficulty, but Cadence stumbled and clung to the railing for support. Reluctantly, I reached for her hand to guide her. The last thing we needed was for her to fall and break something. Her palm was sweaty and trembled in my own and my irritation lessened. I wasn’t sure why Erik thought we needed her or why she wanted to help, but if Erik was willing to trust her, so was I.

  With me guiding Cadence, we made it to the exit without incident. Erik paused briefly in front of the door. “Tal, there is a guard outside. Just one, I think. Can you take care of him?” Erik sent.

  “Got it,” I sent back, moving in front of him to assume the lead.

  Erik was right. There was only one guard. I could feel his mind buzzing through the door. I noiselessly pushed the door open and slid through. The guard didn’t see me right away and I took the opportunity to cold cock him. He was a stocky guy and the blow only stunned him. He turned toward me with his gun raised. I yanked it from his hands using my telekinetic abilities and sent it flying across the alleyway. Cadence had followed me. She used the guard’s brief moment of disorientation to kick him in the stomach. He groaned and doubled over. I closed in, bringing my knee into first his groin and then his chin. He fell to the pavement, moaning.

  Not to be outdone, Cadence used the heel of her hand to slam his head into the brick wall of the hotel. The guard landed in a motionless heap. I breathed a sigh of relief, one obstacle down.

  “Clear,” I called to Erik. Erik trotted to join us in the alley, Alex’s hand clinging with a death grip to his neck.

  “Damn,” Erik whistled when he saw the guard. “Remind me not to get on the wrong side of you two.”

  I smiled weakly. “Where to now?”

  “We need to get to the Metro Station,” Erik said softly.

  “The Metro Station?” I asked, unsure I’d heard him correctly.

  “Yeah, we can follow the tunnels out of the city,” he replied.

  So this was his master plan? I trusted him implicitly, but it was a maze down there. How did he expect to find our way to the other end? I didn’t have time to question his strategy outwardly, though, because he was already making his way to the street. I looked at Cadence to see if she was anymore clued in to the logistics of Erik’s scheme, but she appeared as doubtful as I felt. There wasn’t time for argument, so I followed him.

  Apparently, Erik’s Electrical Manipulator friend was stronger than Erik had let on. Not only was the Hamilton bathed in blackness, the street lights were out, too. Sounds of commotion and frantic conversation wafted from the front of the hotel as we crossed K Street. I held my breath, waiting for one of the guards to spot us.

  The whistle of air hissed in my ear when the first bullet whirred past. I heard the second when it left the barrel of the snipers gun.

  “DUCK!” I screamed. Unfortunately, I yelled the word in my mind, and only Erik heard it. I realized my mistake in time to leap on Cadence, knocking her to the ground as the second bullet soared over us.

  “Talia, do something!” Erik exclaimed.

  I threw all my concentration towards my mental abilities, searching for the shooter. It was a lone sniper. Tt had to be. Shots were coming too far apart. I heard the third crack and followed the noise back to its source. I froze the bullet, guiding it harmlessly to the ground. The sniper was close enough for me to latch on to his mind. I took control, forcing him to drop his rifle and curl into a harmless ball.

  “How many are there?” Cadence asked fearfully. She was still underneath me on the pavement.

  “Just the one, but we need to move in case he radioed in our location,” I replied, getting to my feet. I offered Cadence my hand. She gripped my wrist and I hauled her to her feet.

  “Come on. This way,” Erik called, taking off at a slow run.

  We jogged the block down K to Fifteenth where Erik cut across a small grassy area that was supposed to be a park. Our footsteps seemed to echo off the tall buildings on either side of the street. I prayed it was just my superior hearing that made them sound so loud. As we approached I Street, Erik came to an abrupt halt.

  “Shit,” he swore under his breath.

  “What?” Cadence whispered.

  “The guard at the Metro Station. It’s not Harris,” he replied softly. He sounded a little frantic and for the first time, unsure of himself.

  “There’s only one. Cadence and I can handle him,” I assured him, putting my hand on his arm.

  “We can’t take him out, Tal. If we do, they’ll know where to start looking for us,” Erik replied, the wheels in his head working double time to adapt to the unforeseen development.

  “Then I’ll take care of it,” I said pointedly. “I am a master manipulator, remember?”

  I didn’t wait for his answer before jogging across I Street. I recognized the guard immediately. It was Desmond. He pointed his weapon in my direction when he heard my feet pounding the pavement. I held up my hands to indicate that I wasn’t a threat. Slowly, Desmond lowered his rifle.

  I locked his eyes with mine and bore into his mind. “You’re going to let us pass. Then you’re going to forget you saw us,” I ordered. He never stood a chance. His expression went slack and he bobbed his large head up and down stupidly.

  “Come on, Erik,” I called. Erik and Cadence sprinted across the street to join me.

  “Unlock the gate,” I ordered Desmond in a clear confident tone. He complied without so much as a sliver of hesitancy. Erik rushed past him and began descending the metal stairs. Cadence quickly followed, but she paused and stared at Desmond with an awed expression.

  “Go,” I urged when I thought that she might not move.

  She nodded and disappeared into the abyss beyond the gate.

  “Lock up behind us,” I ordered.

  Desmond jerkily shook his head up and down to indicate that he understood. I waited at the top of the nonmoving escalator until I heard the snap of the padlock.

  Cadence had only managed to make it a quarte
r of the way down when I caught up with her. I grabbed ahold of her arm and steered her the rest of the way, urging her to move her feet faster. Now that we were actually out of the hotel, the full weight of what we were doing settled on top of me. We were actually doing it. We were running away from the Agency. Fear made my chest tight and my stomach squirm. But the exhilaration of finally defying Mac, finally standing up for what I believed in, propelled me faster toward the landing.

  Erik stood at the bottom, whispering soothing words to Alex, who gave no indication he grasped what was happening.

  “There’s a flashlight in your pack, Cadence,” Erik said when he noticed her clinging blindly to me for support. “It should be safe to turn it on now.”

  I became impatient as Cadence rummaged through her bag for the light. When she finally found the device, she turned it on and a thin beam illuminated the path in front of her. She looked relieved to be able to see again.

  Erik led us down the second, shorter set of steps that went to the train platform. The sound of our feet against the cracked stones reverberated off the rounded ceiling. We crossed the length of the platform before Erik climbed over the edge and lowered himself on to the tracks. Carrying Alex on his back didn’t encumber his movements in the slightest. Less gracefully, I clamored down behind them, my own bag swinging wildly on my back and throwing me off balance. I landed hard, one of my knees banging painfully on the rails.

  Learning from my mistake, Cadence smartly threw her pack down first and then jumped. She landed with a soft thud next to me. Squeaking and scratching met my ears as we set off into the tunnel. I tried not to think about the rodents that were causing the noises, hoping Cadence’s light would scare them off.

  “Erik, these tunnels are complex,” I began once we had walked for several minutes in silence and was confident it was time to voice concern. “Do you know where we’re going?”

  Erik snorted humorlessly. “I’ve spent a lot of time down here, Tals. Trust me, there are few people who know these passageways as well as I do,” he replied.

  I tore my eyes away from my feet, where they’d been carefully monitoring the cross beams to ensure that I didn’t trip and land on my face. Alex’s small head bobbed up and down with each step Erik took. I wanted to question him further, but was reluctant to make it seem as though I doubted him. He had gotten us this far, which alone was a minor miracle. I returned my gaze to the ground just in time to see a furry shape scurry across my path. I yelped and jumped, what felt like feet, but was really only several inches.

  “What?” Erik asked, spinning around, alarmed at my screams.

  “Rat,” I mumbled embarrassed by my reaction.

  He tried to hide a smirk. “They’re more scared of you than you are of them,” he promised, holding out his hand and waiting for me to catch up.

  “How far is it until we’re out of D.C.?” Cadence asked nervously.

  “It’s about ten miles to Virginia,” Erik answered her. “But it’s only a couple more minutes to where we’re going.”

  “I thought we were leaving the city?” I asked, surprised.

  “We are, just not tonight,” Erik replied evasively.

  I hated all of the secrecy, so I delved into Erik’s head for some more concrete answers. His mental blockades were firmly in place. A rush of annoyance overshadowed my earlier resolve to trust Erik. I hated being shut out.

  “I’m not trying to hide anything, Tals,” he promised. “You’ll understand when we get there.”

  Well, that was ominous. Erik wasn’t prone to over dramatization, but I couldn’t help but think he was being theatrical. Thirty agonizing minutes later, we hit an impasse. Broken concrete and shards of metal were piled from floor to ceiling of the tunnel. “I told you so” was on the tip of my tongue when Erik maneuvered his way to the wall just before where the cave-in began. He ran his hand along the wall until he found a handle. He pulled and a door that had been seamlessly placed in the wall swung open with a loud whine. Rusty metal rungs of a ladder led upwards into an impossibly small passage.

  “Duck your head, buddy,” he whispered to Alex before releasing my hand and ascending the ladder.

  I watched his feet disappear before I gripped the rungs myself. I wouldn’t have believed the rusty metal could withstand my weight if I hadn’t seen them hold Erik’s. Flakes scratched my palms as I pulled myself higher. Dirt and grime trickled down into my hair from Erik’s shoes. I closed my mouth to keep from swallowing the grossness. The space was so tight and the air so stale that breath barely reached my lungs; I prayed that the end was near. Claustrophobia wasn’t one of my fears, but then again, I’d never been in such a cramped space.

  I looked down when I didn’t hear Cadence following me. She stood at the bottom of the ladder, her face frozen in a mask of horror.

  “What’s wrong?” I called, irrationally worrying that I would use up what little oxygen was in the tube by speaking.

  “I don’t like small spaces,” she called back, sounding close to tears.

  I sighed. Great, just what we needed, Cadence to freak out now.

  “Just close your eyes and breathe,” Erik instructed her from somewhere above me. “The shaft isn’t long. I’m already close to the top.”

  After a couple of false starts, Cadence firmly gripped the first rung, pulled the door shut behind her, and practically flew up the ladder until her head was just below my feet. Above me, Erik gave a hard shove to the underside of a trap door. A dull light filled the tunnel. I resumed climbing. At the top, Erik grabbed my hand and pulled me the rest of the way through. Cadence was still on my heels, so once I was safely on firm ground, I helped pull her through, too.

  The hallway was not much wider than the shaft and Cadence was just as uncomfortable in the constricted space. I took hold of her hand and sent calming thoughts her way. Her trembling subsided and she smiled gratefully at me.

  A faint glow shone in from the space underneath a door to our right. Erik started moving in the direction of the light as I guided Cadence in his wake.

  When we reached the door, Erik knocked three times, paused, knocked twice more, paused again, and then knocked one last time. Nothing happened at first, but then, three sharp knocks replied. I gasped in surprise. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d expected to happen or what I’d thought the point of his knocking had been, but for some reason, it hadn’t occurred to me someone would answer. Erik knocked once, paused, and then pounded three more times on the door. After the crude code had been exchanged, the door eased open.

  A middle aged man with a full head of gray hair stood on the other side. He wore thread bare jeans and a flannel shirt with so many patches sewn to cover up holes, it resembled a quilt. When he smiled, bright white teeth gleamed back at us. His eyes literally lit up when he smiled, sending me stumbling several paces back. The irises were projecting a dull, yellow light into the passage where we were still standing.

  “Erikson,” he exclaimed, grasping Erik’s arm and shaking his hand.

  “Adam,” he greeted the man with a familiarity that shocked me.

  Cadence and I stood awkwardly witnessing the exchange, waiting for Erik to shed some light on what the hell was going on. Adam held the door open and gestured for us to pass through. The vast space was nearly identical to the platform of the first Metro Station. Several men and women patrolled the platform, guns sticking out of the waistbands of their pants. Too many sets of eyes to count bore down on our group when we stepped on to the platform.

  I instantly went into fight mode, mentally preparing myself for an attack. It didn’t come. Upon closer inspection, the rag-tag army was surveying us curiously. I relaxed, flexing my fingers and rolling my neck to release the tension.

  “Welcome to the Underground,” Erik said, turning tentatively to face me and Cadence.

  I stared at him at him blankly, at a loss for words. The Underground? What was the Underground?

  “Adam, this is Talia,” he said gesturing to me.


  I shuffled forward to stand as close to Erik as I could manage and gave Adam a small wave. He smiled kindly.

  “Cadence,” Erik continued, pointing to where she still stood rooted in place. Cadence was speechless, as well, and managed little more than a strangled noise in reply.

  “And this,” Erik said, rubbing the tops of Alex’s fingers that were clinging to the collar of his shirt, “is Alex.”

  “It’s nice to have y’all,” Adam said. His eyes were no longer glowing, but the small amount of light they gave off illuminated his face. “And it’s great to have you back, Erik.”

  “Back?” I croaked.

  “Um, yeah, well, I used to live here when I was little,” Erik replied, refusing to look at me.

  “And he’s nice enough to come visit every once in a while and bring us some supplies,” Adam said, winking at me.

  Ah, that must be why our packs were so bulky. It hadn’t occurred to me to ask what was actually in the bags before we left.

  “So, I take it this isn’t a social call?” Adam asked Erik.

  “No, unfortunately not,” Erik answered gravely. “They’re both Toxic Operatives and the boy was slated to be moved to the school tomorrow, but we learned some things ...” Erik let his voice trail off.

  Adam gave him a knowing look. “So, you finally decided to make a run for it, huh?”

  “Yeah,” Erik confirmed. “We won’t stay long, just a couple of nights. I don’t want to cause trouble for you.”

  “No trouble, Erik. Y’all are welcome as long as you need.” Adam smiled.

  “I feel as though I should tell you who they are,” Erik said hesitantly.

  “No need. I can guess they are pretty important to you for you to be taking such a big risk.” Adam waved off Erik’s concern. “We’ll keep ‘em safe.”

  “Thanks,” Erik said, relieved.

  “It’s late. There are some empty rooms upstairs if y’all want to get some sleep,” Adam offered.

  “That would be great,” Erik agreed.

  Adam gestured to a brunette girl reading nearby. The girl couldn’t have been more than fourteen or fifteen, tops. Her clothes were just as worn as Adam’s and she shared his round cheeks and thin lips. Not his glowing irises, though. Hers were the color of fresh cut grass.