Mercy turned her head and looked up into the eyes of the man holding her.
Flynn, it’s you. How the hell did you do that?
“Flynn… I…” Mercy mumbled.
“Come on babe, you’re freezing. Let’s get you inside, there’s a heater in the cab. We’ll get you warmed up,” Flynn said, helping Mercy to her feet.
They entered the train driver’s cabin.
Tawny was standing beside the driver’s seat. “Nice work dude,” she nodded at the fire extinguisher Flynn had wedged against the dead man’s pedal to keep the train going.
Flynn grunted, “Here, help me with Mercy, she had a close call back there.”
They manhandled Mercy into the driver’s seat and turned the wall heater on. Flynn took off his jacket and placed it around Mercy’s shoulders.
Mercy turned to Tawny, “Where’s Barnes? Is he OK?”
“Yeah, he’s fine, he’s riding shotgun up top. We wasted two of those jumpers from the bridge, close shave but it worked out. I saw part of what happened on your side. Flynn busted some sweet ninja moves, impressive—” Tawny said.
“Yeah, just lucky I guess,” Flynn replied.
Luck? I wonder if—?
Mercy turned to face Flynn. “I should be dead… I only had a second or two. You made those moves super quick, I mean you were fast—”
Flynn frowned, “What are you saying?”
Mercy shrugged and looked at Tawny, “You’ve both been enhanced by Cobalt Biotech. God knows what they had in mind for you. We have to assume you’re GPS tagged… like the alpha queen and her pack on that steam train. You’ve both got the NSA tattoos on your skin so—”
Tawny interrupted, “Good point. Wait, I’ll get Barnes to see if he can locate us on the tracker—”
Mercy nodded, “Sounds like a good idea.”
Tawny disappeared outside.
Mercy looked at the driver’s console. “How fast are we going?”
Flynn glanced over Mercy’s shoulder at the numbers on the screen, “About thirty miles an hour—”
Mercy stared out of the rain streaked driver’s window. “A hundred miles to Charlottesville, thirty miles an hour. So it’ll take us about three hours twenty to get there—”
Flynn grunted, “I guess. Provided there’s no shit on the way.”
“Provided there’s no shit on the way,” Mercy repeated.
Tawny entered the cabin holding the GPS tracker. “Barnes had a go, he couldn’t find me or Flynn registering on this thing. He told me to double check, so…” Tawny pulled a face and held the tracker up, scrolling through the search function.
Mercy glanced at Flynn.
“Nothing,” Tawny said, “nada—”
“Well ain’t that a surprise?” Mercy said. “I wonder why? What were they going to use you guys for?”
“Maybe they hadn’t finished the process,” Flynn replied. “Maybe they were going to tag us at the end—”
Mercy frowned, “Or maybe you’ve got a different tag? Something that requires a different tracker?”
Tawny frowned, “I guess we’ll never know.”
The cabin heater had steamed up the windows.
Mercy shrugged off Flynn’s jacket and handed it to him. “Well, you both know what I have to do… just in case?”
Tawny rolled her eyes. Flynn grinned.
“I’m going to check you both for tracking devices,” Mercy said. “Tawny, can you give us a few minutes? I’ll check Flynn first—”
Tawny shook her head and pulled a face. “Fine. Whatever. I’ll be outside keeping that hairy-arsed Sasquatch company. Give me a shout when you want me—”
Twenty minutes later Mercy sent Flynn out and called for Tawny. She checked her friend for tracking devices.
“Nothing. Not a thing,” Mercy announced. “The two of you are clear. Unless they’ve done something else—”
Maybe I’m just being paranoid—
“I guess we’ll just have to go with that then,” Tawny said, putting her shirt back on.
“We’ll have to keep a close eye on your… performance,” Mercy said. “Rose noticed some time back that her night vision had improved with her biotech. I seem to heal quickly and my pain tolerance has gone up… so you two might start to notice some weird stuff pretty soon.”
“Yeah, well. You said Flynn had super-fast reactions or reflexes… saving you back there like he did—” Tawny said, pulling on her boots.
“Super-fast,” Mercy smiled. “I like your choice of words. We could call him Broadband. What do you think?”
Tawny stopped doing up her laces and looked at Mercy, “Broadband? Why not just call him WiFi? We could call him WiFi Boy—”
Mercy laughed, “A helmet name? Like in the military? I like it—”
Oh my god, I just… laughed—
Mercy looked at Tawny and couldn’t stop smiling.
I missed you guys. I really did. You are family—
Mercy opened her eyes. Tawny was in the train driver’s seat.
No sleep but at least we’re warm and dry… and moving—
She checked her watch: 5:37 am.
Getting closer to Charlottesville—
Mercy sat up.
Charlottesville. Billy-Ray’s daughter—
The flashback was vivid, Billy-Ray’s voice filled Mercy’s head: “I need to get to Charlottesville, my daughter… she’s hiding out in Shenandoah, we’ve got a cabin there… my daughter, she’s like you. I saw how you walked through those tropes and they ignored you, she’s like you… and Rose. The NSA, they did something to her before I got her out of Richmond eighteen months ago. They were rounding up kids and young people, she’s fifteen, she can walk through tropes. She’s all alone up in the mountains, I need to get to her… if I don’t make it, once you’ve finished your business in D.C. find my Annalise and give her this—”
Mercy blinked.
I lost that envelope a long time ago. What was the address? What was the—?
She took a deep breath.
Annalise Young, Mission Home Road, Free Union, VA 22940. There it is, how in hell’s name did I remember that?
“You OK?” Tawny was staring at Mercy from the driver’s seat. “You look as if you’ve seen a ghost—”
Mercy shook her head, “No… not a ghost Tawny. I think I’ve just discovered another Cobalt Biotech enhancement—”
Flynn stirred and sat up rubbing his eyes, “What’s going on?”
Mercy shrugged, “I just remembered my conversation with Billy-Ray, about his daughter, Annalise—”
Flynn glanced at Tawny.
Mercy nodded, “I promised I’d try and find her once we were finished
