Outlaw Read online

  “You have to.” I was putting him deep in the shit for sure. When he rejoined Support after this, he’d have to lie if the subject of me or the Fellowship came up. Maybe it wouldn’t. If they really thought I was dead. But the Fellowship would be hard to dodge. I had no idea if they had truth detectors for Normals or not, like the Spook Specs that can tell if you had used your power. I’m betting they did.

  “I’m done with Support,” he said suddenly. He sounded stone-cold certain.

  I did a double-take. “What? Just like that?”

  His voice went soft. “After the way they played you, how could I go back?”

  My breath caught. He was leaving Support because of me. “What will happen if they find you? They don’t think you’re dead, remember?”

  “Right now I’m still officially on extended leave.”

  “Did you know you were leaving for good when you left?” I sounded like an idiot.

  But a faint smile appeared on that handsome face of his. “No.” He turned serious again, with an open, vulnerable gaze that made me flutter just a little inside. “It was when I found you again.”

  Idiot. But I couldn’t help myself, I hugged him then.

  What the hell was happening to me?

  We stood like that for a minute, my mind racing. I couldn’t take him. But I couldn’t leave him. And he’d come in handy.

  There was only one way I was getting to Persia without getting caught.

  The freaking Dark-Net. A black market means of traveling around the world, or so people said. Supposedly run by ruthless criminals who charged huge sums of money to Normals to use it. Prison lore in Special Corrections had it that rogue Empowered had to use their power, were tested somehow, in order to travel by the Dark-Net.

  I had no idea if that was how the Fellowship moved around, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was. The Scourge didn’t trust the Dark-Net, but other rogues used it. Criminals. Super villain groups other than the Scourge.

  Gus told me about the Dark-Net once, before I went to prison. He swore the Dark-Net was real, even told me there was a “node”, he called it, in Astoria, of all places. Gus, my traitorous friend who’d been a true friend after all, and died for it.

  I didn’t want that happening to Alex, but I also didn’t want to say goodbye.

  Especially not now.

  I pulled away again. It was damn hard to do so, but we had to haul ass.

  “Okay,” I said.

  His eyebrows shot up. “Okay what?”

  “Okay, you can come with me. We need to get back to Mossville, and follow the trail that Keisha and others took out.”

  The smile he gave me right then could have melted steel, it was so warm.

  “What made you change your mind?”

  “I don’t want to see you get yourself killed.”

  He laughed. “We could both get killed doing this.”

  “Yeah, but at least I’ll be there.”

  It was weird. Things had gone ninety degrees from where I thought I’d been heading. It had been simple. Keep in hiding. Keep Keisha and me alive. Find Ella. Then go hide.

  Suddenly there was Alex in my life. I couldn’t think farther than Persia, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he was there, and that suddenly, a big hole in my life, a hole I had ignored, was occupied.

  I grabbed his hand and tugged him after me, heading further uphill and deeper into the forest.

  When we had circled back around to reach a vantage point with line-of-sight to the waterfall maybe a half mile away, a Support VTOL Raptor aircraft hovered above the cliff top, and agents in black jumpsuits rappelled down.

  I froze. A familiar-looking figure hovered in the hair, her long black hair blowing around her. Willow Chang. An Empowered who worked for Support. She’d tested me multiple times at Support’s orders, forcing me to push my power in order to defend myself against her telekinesis power. Hurt like hell.

  A squad of armored Support agents were at the base of the cliff.

  If Keisha and the Fellowship had gone that way, I hoped they’d gotten out.

  My shoulders sagged. Keisha. I shouldn’t have left her, but I’d had to cover our retreat. Knowing that didn’t help. I’d let down my best friend.

  I crouched down in the underbrush. Maybe she’d gotten out. Maybe.

  Alex tugged at my sleeve. “Mat. We should get going,” he whispered.

  “My friend went into that waterfall.”

  Alex didn’t say anything.

  I pushed down the shame. I needed to keep my shit together right now. Maybe Keisha and the others had escaped. Maybe the Fellowship had its own secret way out, like the Dark-Net, like Renee had implied.

  Maybe.

  But maybes wouldn’t get me far.

  7

  By the time we reached the Columbia River, after hours hiking in the trees, long shadows from the hills covered the river. We must have hiked ten miles. I used my power to open up pathways in the underbrush when we needed. Alex had a few protein bars. I wolfed down two but was still starving. I was at the point where you are so hungry you weren’t hungry any more.

  We’d argued about how to get to Persia for what felt like the whole hike, but really hadn’t been. We’d mostly walked in silence, listening. My nerves felt hot from all the straining I’d done with my senses, trying to detect a Support team. The few times we’d reached a clearing I stopped at the edge, and peered up at the sky, trying to see if the Hero Council blimp was overhead, but no sign of it. The blimp mostly hung over Portland.

  Near the river, under a cluster of firs, I stopped.

  “Okay, so we’re going to Persia. Let’s look at the information I found back in the mine.” I pulled out the maps and documents. Alex scanned the documents quickly. He must have been a hell of a speed reader. I was still working on trying to decipher the maps.

  I must’ve stared, because at one point he glanced up, raised an eyebrow.

  “You read fast,” I said, sounding like an idiot to myself.

  “I have to read a lot of crap. I mean, official reports. Speed reading is a survival trait.” He slowly shook his head. “The papers don’t really say much. They talk about the sacred spring and the love of the Earth unchaining humanity. Whatever that means. There’s no direct mention of Persia, aside from one document saying it’s where “Sanctuary” is.

  He opened one of the maps. “This is just a standard map of the Middle East.” He pointed at an area that said “Great Persian Empire.” This is Persia. He opened another map. “This looks like a topographical map, showing elevations.” He must have spotted something on the map, because he suddenly tensed. “Okay.” He pointed at a spot below the capital, Tehran. “Maybe a hundred fifty miles away from the capital, there’s a symbol here, a stylized ‘S.’ Has to be for Sanctuary.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  He nodded at the papers. “Sanctuary is mentioned several times in the newer documents.” I swear his eyes twinkled. “Before you ask,” he said, “yes, I can tell how old paper is.”

  “Another Support skill?” I asked, barely holding back a soft giggle. Alex had that effect on me.

  “So, it looks like Sanctuary is where that S is, then?” I asked instead of giggling.

  He nodded. “There’s no information about exactly where any entrance might be, but this can get us pretty close.”

  “Good to know.”

  We each ate a protein bar. I was already thoroughly sick of them.

  “I really think we have better options than the Dark-Net,” Alex said after we finished eating.

  I ground my teeth, but forced myself to unclench. “Okay, so you’ve said that, without any details.”

  “We can hijack what we need.”

  My eyes widened. “That’s not going to paint a big bull’s-eye on us at all.”

  He winked. “Criminals steal aircraft and boats all the time.”

  “But probably don’t head halfway around the world, when they do.” It hit me then, final
ly. “Why are you so worried about Dark-Net? Really?”

  He looked down at the Columbia River. It was calm at that moment, dark green water running toward the sea.

  “They are dangerous and answer to no one.”

  “Just like rogue Empowered,” I said softly.

  He looked off in the distance for a moment. “I’ve seen files, coded ultraviolet security on the Dark-Net.”

  I wondered how he’d gotten access to them, but I’d just been a mushroom with Support.

  No doubt he’d heard way more than I had. “If they were that dangerous then how would they stay in the business of providing underground messaging and travel?” I crossed my arms.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe all of that is just a myth.”

  “That’s not what I heard in prison,” I said. “The Scourge had heard the same thing.”

  “Rumors and legends have a way of doing that.”

  “But you just provided evidence that the Dark-Net is a real thing, not a myth or a legend,” I argued. “Maybe Support is treating you and the other agents like mushrooms.”

  “They are,” he said, and looked back at the river. He stared at it for a long time.

  He finally spoke up. “All right, so you want to use the Dark-Net to get to Persia.”

  “I do.”

  “Do you know where the nearest node is?” he asked.

  The Scourge leadership had known where a few nodes were; points of travel and message drops.

  “There’s one in Astoria,” I said.

  “You sure?” he asked.

  “That’s what I heard. There’s another north of Seattle, and a third down in southern Oregon.”

  “Those are the ones you know about?” he asked.

  “Why do I suddenly feel like I’m being interrogated?” I scowled at him. “Yes, these are the ones I know about.”

  He sighed. “Your information is correct. I saw Astoria listed. An old cannery on the Columbia.”

  “I knew you knew! You can’t bluff a Brandt,” I said.

  He snorted. “I’m learning that.” He became serious again. “The Dark-Net is still a black hole when it comes to how little either of us know about it.”

  “There’s only one way to find out,” I teased, trying to look sly.

  “There is no darkness but ignorance,” Alex said, and watched me.

  “I have no idea what that means.”

  “Shakespeare, Mat. Twelfth Night?”

  “Never saw that play.”

  “We’ll have to change that someday.”

  I yawned. “But what does it mean?”

  “Come with me to see it performed and then you’ll know.”

  “That doesn’t help me now.”

  “Then someday,” he said.

  Someday was right up there with maybe—I never counted on it happening.

  We talked about how to get to Astoria, ending up agreeing that the best way was to boost a boat, provided it was the right boat.

  We spent the next day creeping along the river, in the woods. Alex had a supply of ration bars and a few insta-meals. We agree that we needed to hide as much as we could.

  That night, we hunkered down at an old pier near a pile of boulders in the river. A holed wreck of a boat was beached nearby.

  We ate our insta-meals, turkey with rice and peas, in silence.

  Alex took the first watch. I relieved him at midnight.

  The River was a dark watery highway in the night, running to the ocean far away. I got up a few times to move around. The night was cold. A drizzling rain fell.

  I heard movement in the trees just up from the shore. I crouched down, my gaze darting back and forth. Our camp was maybe ten yards back. A tingling spread down my body. A twig snapped. My hair stood up, and I tensed. An Empowered was nearby. I listened, blood pounding in my ears. I hadn’t heard an approaching vehicle. There were Empowered who could fly, but if the Hero Council knew where we were, they’d just swoop down, not blunder around in the dark.

  A familiar figure emerged from the woods, dressed in a gray jumpsuit, black knee-high leather boots, and a mask.

  I swallowed.

  One of Ella’s projections stood there.

  “Go home, Mat,” the projection said.

  “I can’t, not without you.” I moved slowly toward her.

  She stood there with her hands on her hips, chin lifted, looking down her nose at me.

  “Why won’t you come back? Are you trapped? Held prisoner?” I asked. I stepped closer.

  When she spoke, her voice was a snarling whisper. “I was always the good girl,” she said. “Ava was the bad one, just like our big sister.” She pointed at me when she said big sister.

  “Okay, so I was a bad example. Don’t be like me.”

  “I’m not like you, Mat. I’m not like Ava, either. I’m not angry.”

  She could have fooled me. The projection fumed, obviously pissed off.

  “Everyone’s angry sometimes,” I pointed out.

  “I’m not.”

  “You look angry.”

  Her eyes flashed. “You make me angry. Why won’t you stop looking for me, and accept that this is what I want?”

  “Why don’t you want to come back to Ruth?” I asked.

  “Because I don’t belong there, Mat. Not anymore. I belong with the Fellowship, helping humanity.”

  “You can’t change the world,” I said.

  “You believe that. I know I can. At least help it change.” Moonlight glinted off her mask and hair. No one wore costumes any more, unless you counted the blue jumpsuits the Hero Council strutted around in. But no one else. Forty years since costumes had been a thing. But Ella’s projections did.

  “They’ll catch you,” I whispered.

  “Only if you are there.”

  My stomach felt like lead. “Why?”

  “Support will find us through you. Just leave me, and the Fellowship, alone. Go home. I should have told you this straight up, but what I’m doing is important.”

  “Support is looking for you,” I said. “You aren’t sanctioned.”

  She shook her head. “If they are, it’s only because you are looking for me.”

  “But, you don’t know that for sure.” I tried to keep the desperation out of my voice. She didn’t know how much danger she was in.

  “There’s the possibility of danger in anything we do,” she said.

  That sounded like something she’d gotten from a teacher. “Some things are more dangerous than others.” I clasped my hands together, trying to keep my voice from rising. “Okay. I see that you’re doing something important.” I unclasped my hands, made myself smile at her. “Let me join you. Please.” At least then I could meet with her in person, see where she was, find out for myself exactly how much danger she might be in.

  The projection didn’t hesitate. “No.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “Because you are danger,” she said. She didn’t say dangerous, she said danger.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to figure out what to say to convince her I wasn’t a risk.

  I took a deep breath, and opened my eyes. “I can help,” I said to the air.

  Ella was gone.

  “Who was that?” Alex called from behind me. I turned. He sat up, rubbed his face.

  I couldn’t tell him. I had to lie to him, just like I had Keisha.

  “No one.”

  “But I heard you talking.”

  Damn, but this was going to complicate things. I couldn’t come up with a decent-sounding lie.

  “One of Ella’s projections was there.”

  His eyes widened, and he looked around. “Where? I don’t see her.”

  I shook my head. “She left.”

  “What did she say?”

  I took a deep breath. “She told me to turn back.” I thought he would say, okay, we’re done here.

  But he didn’t. “I guess you’d better get some rest, then.”

&nb
sp; The next day we slowly moved along the river. Late in the afternoon we found a boat up on blocks near a shack by the river. The shack was locked, and there was no car nearby.

  We’d gotten lucky.

  Alex was smart about the set up. We watched and waited from a stand of trees about a hundred yards away, while the shadows grew long and the day ended. Only after the sun had gone down did he have us leave the cover of the trees. We manhandled the boat’s trailer down to the river, floated it off, and then pushed the trailer deeper into the river.

  We pulled ourselves aboard. Alex pulled out a Support gizmo to start the boat from the control console in the pilot house. The boat had a full tank of gas, too.

  We headed off down river, toward Astoria.

  I awoke with a jolt. For an instant I didn’t know where I was. I half-sat up. I was on a boat. The one we’d stolen. Alex stood in the little pilot house, the door open, his back to me. The engine’s quiet rumble was weirdly reassuring. Overhead, stars peeked between dark scudding clouds. I half-closed my eyes and reached out to feel the sleeping trees just beyond the shore.

  They murmured in my mind and, like at Mossville, I could sense their energy, taste it, a quiet strength which ran from them into the earth. But there was something else, something which ran the other way, something whisper quiet, like the sound of surf on a sandy beach.

  It grew clearer in my mind and I gasped.

  Alex turned around.

  “You okay, Mat?” His eyes gleamed faintly in the red light of the navigation beacon above the pilot house.

  Fountains of blue-green rose up in my mind, connecting to the trees through the roots. As I concentrated, a fainter blue-green mist swirled into view, surrounding everything.

  I gasped again.

  Someone called my name, but I didn’t answer.

  Instead, I watched the mist swirl about the world in my mind, in my special vision. It was everywhere.

  I tasted pine needles. Grass. Flowers. The wet dirt of the soil. The sharp sourness of moss and the acid bitterness of mold.

  A strong hand shook my shoulder. I shuddered, and blinked my eyes open.

  Alex knelt beside me, looking very worried.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.