Reborn(72)

“Yeah, I know that.” I started pacing, leaves from last fall crunching beneath my boots. “That doesn’t mean she’s safe.”

When I first heard Elizabeth’s mother speak, I’d thought her voice sounded familiar. And now that I knew she was working with Riley, it all made sense.

“The audio files,” I said to Trev. “The doctor? Dr. Turrow?”

“Yeah? What about her?”

“She’s Elizabeth’s mother.”

“Son of a bitch,” Trev muttered.

Anna sighed and scrubbed at her face. She of all people understood the complications of mixing family with the Branch. Her uncle was the guy who’d created the organization after all.

“They might not kill Elizabeth if she has family on the inside,” I said, “but if we know anything about the Branch, it’s this: if they can’t kill you—”

“Then they’ll alter your memories,” Anna said.

I nodded. “We all know what it’s like to have our memories gone, and then to suffer the pain of them when they return. I can’t let them do that to her.”

I grabbed a gun from one of the fallen agents and stuffed it beneath my shirt. “I’m going—with or without you guys.”

I started off through the woods and was relieved when they all followed.





37

ELIZABETH



DARKENED GLASSES WERE PUT OVER MY eyes. The female tech flipped a switch on the frame, and several green lines flickered on the lenses.

“This won’t hurt,” she said. “In fact, you won’t feel a thing. It’ll be over before you know it.”

They’d inserted a rubber guard into my mouth so I could no longer talk. There was no point in trying anyway. My mother was gone. And there was no one here who would save me.

Nick had told me he suffered from partial amnesia. I could still recall the pain of the emptiness in his eyes. How not knowing, while freeing in some ways, was also damaging. And I would be just like him when I awoke.

My eyes clouded with tears.

“Ready?” the male tech said.

“Ready,” the woman confirmed.

“Here we go.” He pushed a button. The machine clicked. The glasses lit up, images flashing in quick succession. A house. An ant. A woman. A tree. A dying tree. A tree falling down. A woman again.

“Listen to my voice,” she said, but the words didn’t match the movement of her lips.

A needle pricked the back of my neck. I flinched and bit down hard on the mouth guard. My toes curled in my shoes. Whatever came out of the needle was warm at first, then turned biting hot, like melted wax running down my neck.

I flailed. Trying to wipe the burning away.

Ants. Ants again. Ants on my arms.

I arched my back.

The ants tore the flesh away from my bones, piece by piece.

The burning in my neck faded, and my body relaxed until I felt like I was floating.

The mouth guard was pulled from my mouth, and my teeth clicked together.

“Listen to my voice,” the woman said again. “Your name is Elizabeth. Your name is Bethany. Your name is Tiffany. Your name is blank. You live in Trademarr. You live in Illinois. You live nowhere.

“What is your name?”

“Eliz…” I murmured.

“What is your name?” she said again. “Your name is…” Static filled my ears. Then a sharp rapping. A clap. Clap. Clap. Beep.

My mind grew fuzzy, as if my thoughts were clouds burned off by the sun.

“You live nowhere,” she continued.

An image of a forest flashed in front of my eyes, and then the same forest shed its leaves and the branches fell to the ground and a great inferno filled my vision with a blaze of blinding orange light.

When the light faded, the forest was gone.

“Listen to my voice,” the woman said. “What is your name?”

“My name is blank,” I answered.

“Where do you live?”

“Nowhere.”





38

NICK



“CHLOE SAID THE VENT WAS A HUNDRED yards from the back of the barn,” Trev whispered.

We were crouched in the woods, the barn a dusky shadow in the distance. “Is it hidden?”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

“Once we get in, then what?” Anna asked. She was on my left and Trev was on my right. Sam and Cas were behind us. “We don’t know the layout, so anything you can give us will help.”

“I’m not sure where the vent runs to.” I shifted, dropping onto one knee. “But the layout is a maze of office partition walls, and they’re tall enough that even I can’t see over the top. If Elizabeth isn’t in an exam room, then she’ll be in one of the holding cells along the back wall.”

“And if she is in an exam room?” Sam asked over my shoulder.