Enders(78)

I wanted to run to my father, but I had to maintain focus. I still had the connection to Brockman; I only had to reverse it, to see myself in his body. I felt myself going into Brockman. It felt cold, as if ice water were running through my veins. But I was in his body.

I made him walk to the gun. I felt his resistance.

No sense fighting me, I communicated to him.

You can’t do this.

“Just watch yourself,” I said.

I made his body bend down and pick up the gun. He tried to resist me, but it was a losing battle.

“How does it feel now?” I said.

I swung him around and made him point the gun at the guards at the back of the stage. I make Brockman speak.

“Lay down your weapons,” I made Brockman say.

The guards hesitated, their faces taut with confusion.

“Do it now!” I made Brockman command. “And throw down your cuffs.”

The guards obeyed, placing their guns and cuffs on the floor.

“Keep your hands in the air,” Brockman said.

The audience murmured, obviously confused. Some seemed unclear whether this was part of the show.

“It’s part of the act,” the perv with the diamond ring said, laughing.

A few laughed nervously along with him. I made Brockman point the gun at the perv and he stopped laughing.

“The show is over,” I made Brockman say.

I aimed Brockman’s gun high, pointing at the empty back row, over the heads of the audience, who were all seated in the lower seats. I fired off some shots.

The crowd leapt out of their seats and dashed for the exits, tripping over their gowns and each other.

I swung Brockman around to check the guards. They were scattering, not to be trampled by the crowd scrambling for the exits. I shot a few rounds in the wall behind them, and the last guards also ran out the doors.

My father and Hyden were left, but I couldn’t think about them. I was still seeing the room through Brockman’s eyes, still in control of his body. I made him walk to the cuffs on the floor left by the guards. I had him set his gun on the floor and pick up a pair of cuffs. I moved his hands so he clamped the cuffs around his ankles. Then I picked up another set and clamped those around his wrists.

Done. Time to leave this creepy body. I let go and was soon seeing the room through my own eyes.

Brockman started screaming at the top of his lungs.

I rushed to my father’s side.

“Daddy!”

“Cal Girl.”

I threw my arms around him, kissing his cheek, until Hyden came over to untie his restraints. My dad rose on wobbly legs and held me tightly.

“Callie, baby.” He held my head with one hand against his chest.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE





Some three dozen marshals came to arrest Brockman, the guards, and any of the billionaires who hadn’t escaped by helis. They confiscated the airscreens and led the hundred-plus Metals to sit at the back of the auditorium to begin debriefing. I saw all the Metals who had been taken from our lab, including Savannah, Avery, Lily, and Jeremy. I was glad to see nobody was hurt. And I was thrilled when I spotted Kevin, Lauren’s missing grandson. She was going to be ecstatic.

We gathered in the large atrium downstairs, my father and I sitting in the lobby seating just below where Brockman had stood when I first saw him.

The marshals brought one more Metal into the room—Michael. He was all right. I ran over to give him a hug.

“What happened to you?” I asked.

“The guards caught me, but I managed to escape and join the other Starters.”

We sat next to my father, who put his arm around my shoulder. He felt so bony. He was about thirty pounds thinner than when I’d last seen him, and the year in captivity showed in his eyes. But he was alive. I couldn’t stop smiling when I looked at him.

Hyden entered from a door at the far end of the room, where the head investigator was standing. Following Hyden was a group of Enders dressed mostly in black. Dawson and his gang. I tensed and looked at Michael. At the same instant, we got up and went over to the head investigator.

“That man,” I said, gesturing to Dawson, “kept us prisoner.”

Dawson approached. I stepped back, my body tensing at the sight of him and his leopard tattoo. He flashed his air badge. A ray of color sparkled from a symbol I couldn’t make out.

“Callie, I’m Matt Dawson, head of the Transposition Research Team.”

“No way you’re with the government,” I said.

Hyden came closer and stood next to me. Michael was on the other side.

Dawson lowered his voice, conspiratorial. “We operate off-book, so officially we don’t exist. We do things outside the rules because we have to.”

Images of the horrendous treatment we suffered flashed through my mind. “What about Emma?”