Chimera

because not everyone in the room was in the know on Double Trouble’s issues.

As his own shock wore off, anger took its place and Kinsey flushed bright red. He stared at the photos of Switch and Bennett. “How did I never see it?” he asked no one in particular.

“If you didn’t keep abreast of Ranger news back then, there’s no way you could have seen it,” Ethan said. “And none of us were even born when Switch was supposedly killed.”

“When I was still very new at Weatherfield, I heard rumors.” Kinsey rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. “Rumors that Metas were being kidnapped and their DNA used as part of the projects. I promise you, I never participated in or witnessed such a thing, but the rumors did exist.”

“And you’re just mentioning this now?”

His expression suggested he thought he had mentioned the rumors before, but it was news to me. It didn’t surprise me, though. Weatherfield had created the Recombinants. Their sister company had created the clones. Everything about this was incestuous.

“So was Switch a willing participant in those experiments?” Gage asked.

“Like you said,” Teresa replied. “We’ll ask her when we catch her.”

He nodded, and something passed between them. An unspoken promise, a silent declaration of love. That he’d follow her orders to the ends of the earth, because he trusted her. Whatever it was, it was beautiful.

“Dr. Kinsey,” Teresa said. “I need you to give Bennett a call. Tell her Noah and Dahlia are getting worse, ask what her progress is.”

“I can do that, but why?” Kinsey asked.

“If she answers you, she’s in Richmond. And if she’s in Richmond, we’re going to go get her.”

He blinked, then nodded. “All right.”

“Gage? Go with him, please.”

Teresa was taking no chances and was sending the Human Lie Detector along for the phone call. Gage had read Kinsey several times in the last few months, and always correctly. He couldn’t do the same for Bennett, not over a wireless call, but he could observe from a distance.

After the pair left, we waited for Teresa to tell us what was next. We didn’t have to wait long.

“I’m leading this extraction,” she said. “I want Ethan, Marco, Lacey, Sebastian, Alexia, and Rick.”

“Rick?” I repeated. “Firework Boy, Rick?”

“His powers are as strong as mine, and he wasn’t badly injured last night. If Switch decides to use her other half, he can identify Uncle’s face for us.”

“He isn’t trained.”

“He’s coming with us. I want a small but powerful group on this, Renee. If we can capture Uncle, this is a huge win for us. It’s one step closer to identifying the Overseer and finding those clones.”

Finding the clones was our biggest headache at the moment, and Hinder’s throat had a pending date with my hand, so I stopped arguing with her. Being left behind didn’t hurt, because I understood her reasoning. I had nothing to add to her group. I’d be more of a hindrance than a help. No biggie.

“I’ll get Alexia and Rick down here,” Sebastian said as he headed for the door. “I take it you want to go right away?”

“Yes,” Teresa replied.

He left with a terse nod.

I didn’t like that Ethan was going with his fractured wrist, but he didn’t require a healthy arm to use his powers. And he needed to be doing something besides sitting around worrying about Double Trouble. Their problems would still be here when the team returned with Switch bundled up in chains.

Rick, though, was impulsive and emotional. And Sasha wasn’t going to like one of her people being roped into this little mission against Uncle. Or maybe she’d cheer him on—I didn’t really know her well enough to guess if she’d high-five him or lose her shit. And the one person I wanted to confide all of this to wasn’t in the loop, and I was forbidden to tell him. Derek wouldn’t like it, but he’d live with it.

Sebastian returned with Alexia and Rick at the same time as Gage and Dr. Kinsey.

“She’s at the lab,” Kinsey said. “She reports nothing new in her findings.”

“Shocking,” Ethan drawled.

“Who’s at what lab?” Rick asked. He glanced around the room, some of his bravado missing in the face of so many older, more experienced Metas. “What’s up?”

“We may have discovered the location and identity of the man you call Uncle,” Teresa said. “You want to help catch him?”

Twenty-two Raised Stakes

Staying behind while your loved ones go off to catch a crazy person as slippery as Uncle is never an easy thing to do. I knew why I wasn’t going, but that didn’t make it hurt any less to see the puddle-jumper take off from the landing pad.

Derek stood next to me, also watching, probably as confused as the majority of the folks who lived on the island. He knew something big was going down, hence Teresa leading the mission. And I respected him a bucket load for not asking questions I couldn’t answer.

Gage watched from my left, arms crossed over his chest, jaw clenched so tight I thought his teeth would break. He was second-in-command and it made sense for him to stay behind and hold down the fort here. Teresa had taken Marco along, so he could do any required sniffing around. Still, Gage was taking this personally. I knew him well enough to see it etched in the lines at the corners of his mouth and eyes, and I swear the gray streaks in his hair had gotten wider.

“I’ll be in the conference room,” Gage said. He walked away with a furious stiffness that he didn’t bother hiding.

“I know you can’t tell me what’s going on,” Derek said when we were alone on the stone pad, “but if I can do anything . . . ?”

“I’ll let you know,” I said. “I wish there was.”

“But right now it’s a matter of hurry up and wait?”

“Basically.”

“Does this have anything to do with Landon?”

I hesitated, unsure how much I’d be giving away by answering at all. “Tangentially, yes.”

“Uncle?”

“Can’t say.”

“All right.”

“How is Landon doing with all this?”

Derek exhaled hard. “He isn’t taking it well, which is to be expected. He and Bethany were raised like siblings. For better or worse, she was his sister, and he doesn’t know life without her.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you. Teresa and I discussed this briefly, but we both agree it’s best if Landon is the one to make the call.”

“The call?”

“About turning off her life support, if the second opinion supports Dr. Kinsey’s diagnosis.”

“Right.” My stomach turned at the idea of pulling the plug on an eighteen-year-old. It just wasn’t right, damn it. “I’m going to go check on the kids, okay?”

“Want some company?” Off my look, he added, “Landon’s sleeping.”

I smiled. “Sure, I’d like that.”

We found the Junior Meta Squad in one of the empty rooms along the main first-floor corridor. It had been set up with cots, tables, and chairs, and a stack of games. Tate and Barry were hunched over a chessboard and barely glanced up when we walked in. Nicolas was lounging on a bunk reading from a tablet. Sasha paced back and forth in front of the windows, her sparkly eyes flashing in the sunlight with each pass.