He went through a few stations before he landed on something worthy of the word “news.” An aerial shot of a chunk of forest panned over until it picked up a massive gray stone building, the same color as the walls I’d stared at for the last year.
“Turn it up.”
A woman broadcaster’s voice filled the room.
“According to officials, three inmates broke out of the maximum-security facility earlier tonight. Two deaths are being reported, one guard and one of the counselors.”
Two pictures popped up on the screen, one of George smiling, holding up a drink with a hand he no longer had, and one of what must have been Eligor, though he was tagged as Dr. Ernest Snathy and looked completely different. Just a tallish man with a receding hairline and glasses.
“They are driving a dark blue truck, stolen from the Clearview Rehabilitation Center, and are considered extremely dangerous. If you see this truck,” a perfect image of the truck we’d been driving flashed on the screen, “do not approach them. Call 9-1-1 immediately and stay as far away from them as possible.”
“Fuck,” Cowboy said. “We need to change vehicles.”
“We would have anyway,” I said.
Carlos and Peter came back into the room. Carlos stared hard at Lacey. “Is she alive?”
“Yes, but she’ll have a real hangover tomorrow,” Peter said.
Carlos flipped printouts of the X-rays onto the desk. “You two gringos, your cases are simple. Two tracers in you that I can see.” He tapped the knee and neck on the X-rays of what I assumed were the two men. “You, though,” he gave me a look and pulled my X-rays out, spreading them across the desk. “I have never seen so many.”
“Holy shit.” Peter leaned over the image. “Just in this one shot I can see twenty, maybe twenty-five.”
Carlos nodded. “All her images are like this. You have one large one behind your ear like the other two, but that is a decoy, I think.” Smart man. I agreed with him.
We had to fry the tracers, and we had to do it fast. There would be no getting the ones out of our knees. No way to get all of them out of me, assuming we even managed to start.
“Let me think.” I stepped away from the desk, tapping Dinah against my leg as I walked down the hall away from the three men. “Dinah.”
“Yeah?”
“Any ideas?”
She was quiet a moment. “If Killian were here, I’d say have him run you through with a bolt of electricity. But he’s not, and the breakers . . .”
“They’ll switch off before we get hit with enough juice to do the job. The EMP that Cowboy can produce is a possibility.” I turned to look at Cowboy. “Think you can pulse enough juice through us to fry the tracers?”
He swallowed. “I can try. But I’m . . . it’s like I’m blocked.” He closed his eyes and after a tense minute that felt a hell of a lot longer where nothing happened, he shook his head. “I got nothing.”
Damn.
I turned and paced toward the reception desk, past the dark rooms of what was essentially the guts of the hospital. The X-ray machine likely didn’t bother the tracers.
A sign caught my eye and I stopped in front of it. Remove all metal piercings and jewelry. Alert technician to any metal pins you have.
I pointed at the sign. “Magnetic Radio Imaging. Would that work?”
Carlos hurried toward me. “This is a new machine, very powerful. We have not tested it on any RFIDs.”
Cowboy looked at him. “What?”
“Radio frequency identification,” I said, then looked at Carlos. “You test on them?”
He shrugged. “To make sure that the people tagged with them are safe when they go through. But that was the old machines. This one is higher tech and can give details the others couldn’t.”
“Magnetic interference could disrupt the guts of the tracers though, couldn’t it?” I was nodding even as I asked the question.
Carlos puckered his face. “Yes, I believe this machine would do that. We have to keep all cell phones far from it. The few that have gone in the room by accident had their computers completely fried.”
“Are you sure?” Cowboy pushed up beside me.
It was a childish question, and I refused to answer it. But I also refused to consider the possibility this wouldn’t work. If it didn’t . . . well, if it didn’t, Dinah was going to have only a few last shots in her.
“Who is first?” Peter said. “I can handle pain, but if it’s not going to work, I’m not doing it.”
“Me first,” I said. “You two next. Dinah, hang with Cowboy a bit,” I said, handing her over.
“Only if he tucks me in his waistband. I’m betting on a tattoo on his ass,” she snickered. I pushed the door open and they followed me in.
One way or another, we were stopping those bastards from the facility from following us.
9
Eligor floated in a state of semi-consciousness. He’d been dragged out of the little body that had been his vessel for the last ten years as they’d prepped to deal with the abnormals. Not that he was surprised it had been taken from him. That was what he got for turning on his own kind.
What a fool he’d been to think one of those monsters was not a monster. She’d fooled him, and . . . that was that. He’d believed she was kind and thoughtful, and he’d believed her lies. Maybe he should’ve been more like Susan. Maybe he should’ve been harder on them.
If he’d had a body, he would have groaned at that thought. He didn’t want to be like Susan. No. That was not his way. He would never let it be his way. Better to be a trusting fool than to be cruel. No doubt, he’d
