“He’s hurting them,” she whisperedshakily.
Kyle froze, hands going still against her back and head. “Phaedra? Do you know where Alexei andSeanare?”
She nodded, sniffing loudly. “It’s dark, andtheyhurt.”
Kyle closed his eyes, trying not to let his anger show through his body. He wasn’t angry at Phaedra—could never be angry at a child like that—but what her words suggested left him feeling devastatinglyhelpless.
Katie came and knelt on one knee beside them, resting her hand on Phaedra’s back. “Will youshowme?”
“Ovechkina,” Nazariwarned.
“We didn’t ask her to use her power, sir,” Katie said, not looking away from Phaedra. “She did so onherown.”
“The courts won’t see itthatway.”
“All due respect, sir, but if the courts can find a way to let me strip memories from the traitors in the interrogation room behind us, then the courts can find a way to make sharing the information Phaedra has legal. We need what she’s capable ofseeing.”
Mercedes caught Kyle’s eyes, her expression blandly neutral, even if her telepathic voice was not.If Nazari says no, Ekaterina and I will work with Phaedra regardless of the consequences. I have no love for the bastards who makeSplice.
Everyone knew Mercedes had lost her family while on vacation in Brazil at the age of twelve. She’d become a ward of the state before signing up with the MDF at eighteen, turning her back on a civilian life. During her early teenage years, Mercedes had been strictly monitored by the MDF. Phaedra was in the same predicament, the two of them sharing a similar childhood. If anyone understood what it was like living a life while being bound by laws restricting an integral part of themselves, it wasMercedes.
Maybe the director understood that. Maybe Nazari knew he risked losing their trust if he continued by the book and denied the request. But the MDF needed Alpha Team more than they needed the agency. Kyle had no problem walking off the base, never to return again, if the agency wouldn’t let him fight to get Alexei and Sean backalive.
“See what you can find out. I’ll get Legal to start working on a brief outlining our reasons why we recruited a minor to help,”Nazarisaid.
Kyle couldn’t hear any reluctance in the director’s voice, but then again, he doubted they would ever be privy to his true feelings. Like any good commanding officer, Nazari exuded an outward calm in moments of crisis that had rarely been shaken. Today was nodifferent.
“Link me,” Kyle toldKatie.
You think I’m stupid enough not to?sheretorted.
Katie’s telepathy locked his mind to hers, pulling him back down into the weird sensation of another person’s mind. Only this time, the thoughts weren’t as sharp, the breadth of a mind he could sense through Katie’s power notsodeep.
Minds grow as a person getsolder.
That made sense. That didn’t stop how fucking weird it was sliding through another person’s mind. He had no control, no ability to think beyond the space of Katie’spower.
You get usedtoit.
I hope not,Kylemuttered.
Her laughter was a soft echo in the center of his brain. Beneath it was the curious mental touch of a child, bright and open, reaching for them with far more ease than Kyle would ever be able toproduce.
Here,Phaedrasaid.
Her mind opened like a hothouse flower blooming in a green-zone farm tower. Kyle wasn’t ready for the cascade of images that slammed into his mind, even with Katie there to mentally steady him and sift expertly through what Phaedra’s clairvoyant powerpickedup.
Kyle’s stomach crawled up his throat when he got a good look at Alexei in the basement room. Before he could process much more than how broken and bloody his older brother looked, the roomdisappeared.
Show me,Katie coaxed.Pull outward through their location. Yes,likethat.
With a dizzying mesh of colors that burned against his eyelids, Kyle watched as Phaedra’s power stretched through occupied rooms before reforming onto a street. The sky was overcast, dim, almost-winter sun reflecting dully off plas-glass windows and rooftops lined with solar panels. Seawall barriers that protected the city from storm surge and flooding during hurricanes and heavy winter storms glinted on thehorizon.
Heknewthose seawallbarriers.
The static in the back of Kyle’s mind, present since losing Alexei, finally quieted. The calmness that settled over him was like a breath of fresh air as Kyle opened his eyes and craned his head around to look over his shoulder athisteam.
“They’re inBoston.”
