Search (SEEK Book 1) (6 page)

“Was a huntress,” I grumble, visualizing Harnel swearing me into Ops.

Jonathan frowns at the sad-faced Mayet and turns his pity on me. “The Khayal are not the charred pile of debris you see when you kill them, Keira. When they die, their beauty evaporates. That’s why their bodies decompose instantly. It’s really rare that they chose to save a huntress. They must’ve seen something particularly noble in you.”

The girl’s head tips toward Jonathan as though they’re deep in conversation.

Jonathan’s jaw drops abruptly. “O-oh!” He spins back to me with laughter in his eyes. “You’re underage! You tricked Kistall? Well done.”

I clasp the seam of my shorts, digging a toe into the fluffy bed of pine needles. “How the hell…? Is she reading my mind?”  

Jonathan nods. “Sort of, the Khayal have a collective conciseness with each other, but they read human emotions.”

“Whoa. No, nope. It’s too…uh ugh. I don’t—” I jab two fingers into my ears. It doesn’t help. I can still hear him, still see her.

“Mayet says there’s not much time. You have to decide, bond with your Khayal, or die.”

I think of Lindy. “And I’m just supposed to believe you, and her?” I point, finger trembling.

“I think you’re missing the obvious answer here. Did SEEK tell you this is what the Khayal looked like? Would you have killed them if you’d known? Could you kill Mayet now?”

My throat burns as I look at the creature’s child-like face. A tear tickles the corner of my right eye. “I don’t—no, of course not.”

“Do you need any more reason to believe?”

I shake my head, tears spilling freely down my hot cheeks.

“I’ll help you, Keira. The Khayal will help you, but you have to let us.”

“Say I believe you…” the voice of a frightened little girl squeaks out of my mouth. “What happens next?”

“We go to where you were bitten and then Mayet can help us. She sees the connection between you and your Ka,” Jonathan says.

“That’s impossible. I was bitten on the SEEK compound. If we go in none of us will come back out.”

SEEK owns me, and now this mission is starting to make sense. Dr. Solomon had to have known what the change in my eye color meant. He knew exactly why my leg healed so fast, that’s why he was reluctant to release me. And Captain Roselle, he knew he couldn’t hide me, so he sent me to Ops, to Harnel, and Harnel mentioned my eyes specifically, said I was the “right fit” for this mission.

“God! I’m so stupid!” I swipe the tears roughly from my face, flicking them off my fingertips.

“This mission was never about you. This mission was about me. They want me to die. No, they wanted me to kill you first, and then die.”

I pinch my brow, wondering when this whole mess started.

“We don’t have to be in the exact location. How about the forest where you met the cougar?” Jonathan asks, as though reading my mind.

“The Daniel Boone National Forest,” I say with final determination.

Jonathan nods to Mayet. She winks in return and blows me a kiss. I cup my cheek as she floats away in her bubble. 

“No time to waste.” Jonathan sweeps an arm up the trail.

I square my shoulders, marching beside him in silence, his eyes always on me. I manage to ignore it for a while, but eventually the silence is deafening.

“Were you studying psychology at Brown or something?” I ask, catching my toe on a rock, totally unlike like me.

Jonathan gentlemanly pretends not to notice and answers without missing his cue. “Hardly, I was studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. I dabbled in parapsychology though. That’s how I learned about the Khayal. It was an accident really, but I don’t regret it.”

“You’re on both Kistall’s and Episteme’s Most Wanted lists. How could you not regret it?” 

“Hmmm…good question.” He nods, swiping a leaf from an oak tree and picking at it. “I’ve given myself a new crusade. I guess you could say I’m now a paladin for truth. The Khayal have been wronged and I’m going to prove it. Besides, as long as I stay out of Kistall custody no permanent harm can come to me.”

“You are in Kistall custody. SEEK is owned and operated by Kistall, remember? So what, now you’re invincible because of the Khayal?”

“Of course not.” Jonathan wipes the glistening sweat from his face on his t-shirt as we cross the deserted ridge leading to the hotel. “They can only heal flesh wounds, nothing that affects the brain. One could die from mental illness, a gunshot to the head, cranial bleeding, and stuff like that.”

“That makes sense,” I say, wishing away the festering ball of dread in my stomach that says we’re both making America’s Most Wanted by nightfall.

“I know how you feel,” he says, pulling me to a stop in the hotel parking lot, his expression suddenly brooding.

“No. I doubt very seriously that you have any idea what it’s like to put your sister in a wheelchair, lie to your family, and then be lured in by a complete stranger with his pal, who by the way looks an awful lot like Tinkerbelle’s cousin, and have your whole world turned inside out!”

Jonathan blinks at me.

“Sorry. I needed to vent.”

“Let me tell you how it happened for me.” He hooks my elbow and begins strolling slowly between cars. “Two years ago I was researching mystic phenomenon at the Stone Gardens in Georgia. There’d been reports of black shadows in the trees near the Adams Family Graves. A true family. Weird, right?” he asks. “My buddies convinced me it was for scientific research. Only we weren’t supposed to be there. The graves are on private property and we were trespassing. The police showed up and chased us. My buddies flipped out and scattered. I was lost in the woods for a few days. It was February and I was freezing and hungry. I cut my hand trying to start a fire. That’s when Mayet chose me. I tried to write it off as a hunger induced nightmare, but I started seeing her bubble everywhere and by day five she started speaking to me.” 

“Five days? That’s how long it was before…” I trail off, chewing a cuticle and remembering the disembodied voice calling my name.

“You’ve heard her.” Jonathan nods, looking pleased that I can’t deny it any longer. “Yeah, there’s an incubation of five to seven days after a Khayal bite before we can hear them. I’m not really sure why. Mayet doesn’t think in terms of facts and figures so I can’t get an answer from her,” he says, a small frown playing with the edges of his bottom lip.

“What?” I ask, realizing we’ve stopped walking and he’s studying my face like a science project. I run a hand self-consciously down my ponytail.

“You don’t look underage,” he mumbles with a lopsided grin as we get moving again.

“Shut up.” I scowl. “I turn eighteen in a few months.”

He’s still grinning as we pass the courtyard. “Oh, only a few months,” he mutters under his breath.

We reach his door. He pulls the keycard from his back pocket, slides it swiftly through the card reader and goes in, letting the spring-loaded door swing back.

I shove my foot against it. “I can’t leave you alone.”

“Find me irresistible, do you?” Jonathan beams at his own cleverness.

“Don’t be flattered. I’m underage remember.” I lean against the door, arms crossed, looking the other way.

“Trust me.” He leans in and breathes in my ear, “I won’t forget.”

It shouldn’t matter to me what he thinks. I’m more adult than most girls my age. But it does. And the smell of cleaning disinfectant and room deodorizer does nothing to mask his inviting scent. I prop the door wider, watching him scurry around the room neatly collecting his things.

“Your turn,” he says, holding the door for me to go out first.

“I’m next door.” I nod, leading the way.

“Lord, did a mall throw up in here? I didn’t peg you for the shopping type,” he says before he even gets one foot inside my room.

“Six grueling hours, wasted,” I groan, stuffing the mounds of colorful frocks back into my bag.

“Is all of this for me?” He chuckles, lifting a sundress and holding it out in front of me, tipping his head as though imagining how it would look.

I wrench the frilly garment from his fingers and shove him out the door, face burning. “Just go.”

“We have time if you’d like to change.” He turns back to the room.

“Don’t try to snake-charm me by sending me into the bathroom to change so you can disappear.”

“I’m hurt,” he teases.

“Get out of here!” I snort.

I peer up a good five inches, studying Jonathan. He looks a little older than nineteen, probably because he needs to shave. And he’s funny, like Cord. But he’s not Cord. He’s not my friend.

The smile fades from my face. What would Cord think if he knew I’d been bitten? Would he see me as the enemy? All of the rumors about hunters going off to Ops and never returning suddenly make sense.
Did the others die?

We scurry through the courtyard with our arms loaded, a blue fringed scarf dangling from my duffle. Absently, I watch a man dressed in solid black going into a room on the other side of the fountain. At first I don’t think anything of it – I’m more concerned about dropping my laptop while digging for car keys – but just before the man slips out of sight, I catch the burnt-orange stains on his boots. My gaze roams over his bulging biceps, head shaved to a quarter inch and the lump in the back of his jeans, probably a Beretta 9mm. 

“Ops. Go!” I push Jonathan forward, never taking my eyes off the agent’s door.

“Hey!” Jonathan protests.

“SEEK’s sent someone to check on my progress,” I say.

“What do you mean?” he asks.

“I mean Ops is here to make sure neither of us lives to expose their secrets.” Heat burns inside my chest as I scramble into the parking lot. “Oh, shit! That’s why they gave me this friggen car, so they can track me. And I’m sure that has GPS too.” I point to Jonathan’s Beamer.

“Here, hold these,” Jonathan says, handing me his bag.

Unfazed, Jonathan strolls to the SEEK Hummer, and then to a white minivan with Alaskan plates. All the while, scribbling on a touch-screen tablet.

“No problem,” I say, balancing his junk and mine. “But what exactly are you doing? We don’t really have time to…”

“I’m trading GPS signals from one car to another,” he says, opening his car and whipping out a Leatherman.

Arms cramping, I drop all of our gear on his hood with a thud.

“Hey—oh, never mind. I’ll never see this car again anyway.” He shrugs and unscrews his ICUCK license plates.

I watch Jonathan’s back, checking that we’re alone. He quickly gets to work, swapping plates with the Ops agent’s black Suburban.

“I wish I could see the look on his face when he gets it.” I laugh.

“Let’s hope you don’t get that chance. We should go.” Jonathan rushes now, grabbing up our stuff and jogging to the Hummer.

“So, we’re safe, just like that they can’t trace us?” I ask, unlocking the car.

“Just about.” Jonathan snaps the battery out of my laptop and tucks it under his chin.

“Hey!” I frown.

But Jonathan digs his fingernail the empty cavity and holds up a tiny silver chip. He drops it to ground and smashes it with his boot. “Sorry, your cell phone has to go, too.”

A second later my cell phone crashes to the cement. Jonathan stomps on it to make sure it’s dead.

“They’ll be chasing their tails for a while, but it won’t stop them. Let’s get out of here.”

I climb in the car drumming my nails on the steering wheel and staring out the rearview mirror. Jonathan tosses our bags in back and hops in the passenger seat, twitching and scratching his neck.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

“Yeah, it’s just that normally I’d have Mayet with me when faced with mortal danger, but I fear she’s better off away from this mess.”

I shrug, throw the car in reverse and go skidding out onto the highway.

Jonathan clamps both hands on the dashboard, chattering nervously. “I grew up in New York. I used to be a hacker. You know, just for fun. Just to see if I could break through firewalls. Nothing too malicious just looked around mostly. Except one time I hacked into the mall security system and changed the music station. Some people just don’t appreciate good metal when they hear it.”

“I remember that. They never figured out who did it or how. Some old lady sued the mall for causing her husband’s stroke. I think she got like ten grand in the settlement, but a short time later an anonymous donor gave her ten million and covered all of her husband’s medical bills.” I whip my head to Jonathan. He’s already chattering on about some video game and paying no attention to me.

I tune out. Focus on the highway, searching for any unmarked GOV cars. Jonathan said he bought us some time, but that could mean anything—five minutes or five hours. So far nothing looks out of place except me. I shouldn’t be here. None of this should be happening.

I look at Jonathan again.

“That’s when I first came in contact with the Episteme Brotherhood. They can be pretty persuasive. They make you feel like you’re joining for a noble cause. You know ‘do it for America’ and all that. I was just in it for the thrill of it. But the more I saw, the more I figured something was up. It was more like a cult than anything. Oh, and once you’re in, they have you…”

That’s when I really start paying attention. I have to find out more before I can figure out a way to fix this situation. “So, did you join for a cause?”

“No. I wish I was that noble. I bought their garbage hook, line, and secrets. I believed their proof that Kistall was trying to take over the country,” he says, suddenly falling silent.

I give him a minute, feeling that he has more to say. But he doesn’t offer anymore.

“I know the feeling. It was the same thing Kistall told me.
‘Only we have access to real medical cures.’
I was so desperate I would’ve believed them if they told me I had to fly to the moon for a cure.”

“You know what? Here’s the secret.” He throws me sly glance. “They’re connected, Kistall and Episteme. They’re trying to create one global government, sole owners of the world’s resources and their militaries.” He demonstrates by holding an imaginary ball.

“Wait. What? You think Kistall is working with Episteme? No way.” I stare at him with wide eyes. The SUV veers over the centerline.

Jonathan catches hold of the wheel.

“I got it.” I soften my white-knuckled grip back to normal.

Jonathan shrugs, falling back into his seat. “Only the elite know. Grunts like us are intentionally left out of the loop. But I have special resources.”

“How would either benefit from pretending to be enemies? That theory is preposterous.” I rub my neck.

“Nothing weakens a government like a war. An ally posing as an opponent is brilliant,” he insists.

I glance at the clock – three o’clock. SEEK agents are switching shifts from day runners to mids and Cord is one of them – and I’m here, with
the enemy
, trying to wrap my head around a conspiracy theory. It does make a little sense. “That’s why SEEK wants you dead. Your secrets are their secrets. But where does that leave you? Any ideas where you’ll go?” I crinkle my nose. Just in case this plan takes another detour. I’ll use this information as leverage with SEEK.  

“You mean after I save you?” Jonathan tilts his head, lips artfully puckered in concentration. “I’m thinking England.”

“England? Sure. Good luck getting out of the country.” I exhale.

Jonathan’s always-smiling-mouth twists in the corners. “I own a jet.”

“You have a plane?” I gulp, turning to stare at him. The car swerves, but I jerk the wheel back into my lane in time.

“Can you keep your eyes on the road?” Jonathan overreacts, tugging on his seatbelt. “And yeah, I have a plane.”