Rowan took this in.Her luminous eyes rested on Henderson for a long moment, and her shoulders relaxed.“Thank you, sir,” she said, and Delgado heard the echo of a military father.“I’m glad to be here, I suppose.From what I hear, the alternative is…” She glanced at Delgado.“Very unpleasant.”
Henderson nodded sharply.“Is there anything I can do to help smooth this out for you?”He took his hand back, standing in what Delgado recognized was parade rest.“Delgado has agreed to be your mentor, unless you have an objection.”
“No,” she said, looking at Delgado again.Was she looking to him for reassurance?“No objections.He saved my life.”
Good God.His heart began to pound.She is.Damn.
Catherine made a small, choked sound.Her dark eyes were sparkling.She was trying not to laugh.“Welcome to the Psion Parade, Price,” she said, setting the box on the table with a grunt.The front of her green mohawk bobbed, and six silver hoops decked each ear.Her nose was pierced once on either side, and she had a tongue-stud too.“I hear you’re off the charts.”
Rowan flinched.Brewster wiped his hands clean on a rag and approached cautiously, offering his hand too.“It’s very nice to meet you.”His British accent turned the words into softly precise syllables.His teeth were very white against the rest of his face.“Don’t pay any attention to Catherine.She has a constitutional inability to be nice.I’m Deacon Brewster.Nice to meet you.I’m a precog—I can sense danger.Just like Spiderman.”
Delgado didn’t think her eyes could get any rounder.“You just say it out loud?”She looked dazed.“Just like that?”
“Why not?”he replied.“We’re all psionic here, Miss Price.You’re probably the most powerful of all of us.No bloody fundies or deadheads here.”
“Fundies?”She let go of his hand.“Deadheads?”
“Fundies are fundamentalists—all those ‘don’t suffer a witch to live’ types.I had real trouble with those.Deadheads are people without psi.It’s just lingo.”Deke gave her a wide, white grin, and Delgado watched Rowan smile back tentatively.Brew could engage just about anybody if he wanted to, with an easy smile and calm voice.
“Deadheads,” she repeated, and his grin widened.
“That’s right.You just stick with us, Miss.We’ll teach you.”
“All right.”She gave him another one of those precious smiles.Delgado watched this, leaning against the door, his arms crossed.
“Hi.”Zeke stuck out his massive hand.Rowan flinched slightly away from his size, but covered it well.Zeke was used to it and didn’t say anything.“Ezekiel Keaton Summers, ma’am.Pleased ta meetcha.Call me Zeke.I’m the Tank.”
“The tank?”Her hand was lost in his.
“Zeke’s impervious to psionic attack,” Delgado supplied.“The punk over there—Catherine—is telekinetic.Can move things with her mind.”
“I hate to interrupt,” Yoshi said, “but we might want to think about moving.”
“Sigs?”Henderson turned on his heel.Zeke took his hand back and stepped away with a glance at Delgado.
“Absolutely.They’re setting up search grids.We’ve got maybe four hours at most.”Yoshi, light from the monitors reflecting off his wire-rim glasses, shook his thick, straight black hair back.
“Yoshi’s our tech guy,” Delgado said again.“All business while we’re on a job.”
“All right, people, let’smove!”Henderson barked.
Rowan flinched.He swung back to her.
“Miss Price,” he said, not quite so harshly, “we have a situation.Some very bad people are looking for us, and we need to get out of this house and to a safe location.Are you capable of taking orders?”
Rowan’s chin lifted.“I am.At least, when the orders are reasonable.”
Good girl.Del felt suddenly, absurdly proud of her.
“Good,” Henderson said crisply.“Then I’m going to ask you to go with Delgado.Listen to what he says, and we’ll meet you in two days at a safer location.”He waited for her assent, then turned his laser-like gaze on Delgado.“Del, find her some shoes.Take whatever car you need and take a few thousand from the petty and get heroutof the city and to Headquarters.It’s imperative to get her away from Sigma.She’s overloading the entire damping system.Got it?”
“Yes, sir.Did you get the telem rigs working?”Delgado straightened, his arms dropping to his sides.
“Yeah, we found the problem, but we’ve brought the whole damn house of cards down.”Henderson sighed.“It was the capacitors, of course.We finally had to cut the power in half, go node-by-node, and get it done that way?—”
“General!Call from Central!It’s Kate.”Yoshi broke in.“Nice to meet you, Rowan,” he threw over his shoulder.
“Th-thank you.”Rowan’s eyes were wide.“Likewise.”
