“I think they can only help you with the sandwich part.This part of the country ain’t known for health food.”Cath stepped over onto the pavement.“You’re worrying again.”
Rowan nodded.“I’m sorry, Cath.I know I should be focusing on?—”
“The thing I can’t understand,” Cath bowled right over the top of Rowan’s sentence, “is why you picked him.I mean, he’sDelgado, for chrissake.He used to be Sigma, and he’s scary.Was it just because he rescued you?”
“You don’t know,” Rowan said flatly.“They did terrible things to him, Catherine.And he…”
How could she explain that he was the only person who had truly seen her?
Sigma saw her as a resource to be obtained, and the Society as a powerful psionic to be kept out of Sigma’s hands.Her father had seen her as his little princess, and even Hilary had only known Rowan as her slightly weird and geeky best friend.The only person who hadseenRowan as thoroughly as Justin Delgado had been her mother, long dead of a stroke.
“He’s different,” she finally said, as they headed for the front entrance of the restaurant.Mellow electric light shone through the windows; she saw a few nighttime customers and braced herself for the familiar wave of chaos that was normal minds.
“You can say that again.”Cath snorted.She exhaled a long stream of cigarette smoke.“You know what weirded me out the most?How he would just appear out of nowhere.One second, nobody there.Next,boom, Del’s saying hi.Freakiest fucking thing in the world.He even freaks Zeke out, and nothing scares Zeke.”
I know just how scared of him you all were.Rowan took a firm grip on the remains of her failing patience.Nobody ever thought that maybe he was traumatized by what those bastards did to him.Drugs and electroshock.And beatings, although he never really talked about those.What was it he said?“They wanted what I could do, and I was… resistant.”
The way he would stand so completely still, as if he’d forgotten to breathe, staring at Rowan with that oddly intent look.How shy he was—and that was something the rest of the Society wouldn’t have believed.They thought he was superhuman and coldly, efficiently robotic.Just a killing machine, a training machine.
None of them saw the man who had slept in a recliner for months while Rowan took over his bed and eventually his entire suite.She still cringed at the thought of how she had blithely assumed the space was empty because it had no betraying personal marks or possessions other than a few clothes and Justin’s weapons.
“He’s not scary.”She held the door open for Cath, who hadn’t even bothered to ditch her cigarette.“They tried to break him.I’m not sure they didn’t do it, in some ways.Emily asked me this too, you know.Why him?Well, he needs someone.Maybe I’m just a sucker for people who need me.”
“Well, we need you too.”As usual, Cath didn’t sugar the pill.“You keep insisting on chasing him down everywhere we go and you’re going to get someone killed—maybe one of us and maybe you.Let it go… Yes, table for two.Smoking.Thanks, sweetheart.”
Rowan sighed.Even keeping the faint blur which would disguise the fact that she was armed was a heavy weight.A bottle-blonde hostess shuffled to a back booth, settled them with overheated coffee, plastic menus, and glasses of tapwater.The smell of fried foods drenched Rowan’s skin, and she was suddenly very tired of running and hiding.
Even at Headquarters it had felt like hiding.
I don’t just want to stay alive.“I want to destroy them.”Her low murmur caught her by surprise.
“Sigma?”Cath took a slurp from her water glass, then inhaled another lungful of smoke.Her pack of Dunhills was placed ceremonially on the table, a battered Hello Kitty lighter atop the rich red glitter.“Me too.But they’re too big.”
“They are big,” Rowan agreed.“But I’m serious.I want them to go to jail.I want them to beaccountable.”
“Good luck.Theyownthe courts.”Cath blinked through a veil of smoke.She looked far older than her nineteen years.“Don’t go all Caped Crusader.You’ll burn out.”
They both fell silent as a tired-eyed waitress arrived.“Hey I’m Blair.What canna getcha?”
A little bit of hope,and a plan to take down a secret government agency.You got one in your back pocket?“Club sandwich, please, on sourdough if you have it.And french fries.”I might as well.I probably won’t live long enough to get clogged arteries.
“Chicken fried steak and baked potato, with the clam chowder,” Cath said cheerfully, collecting Ro’s menu and handing it to the waitress.“Can I have a side of Ranch dressing too?You’re a doll.Thanks a million.”
She lit another cigarette with the burning stub of her first as the waitress trundled away.“I mean it,” she continued.“You’re going to burn out.And if that happens we’re dead in the water.I thought we were goners after Headquarters bit it.But you managed to keep Henderson from going nuts and organized us, we’re actuallyfighting back.Stop thinking you have to go save Del.He’s tough enough.He can save himself.”She blew twin jets of smoke from her nose, the sheaf of earrings on each ear and her nose rings glittering.
She’d actually be quite pretty without all the metal.“I’ve done my duty,” Rowan said quietly.“If it was up to me we never would have left him behind.”
Cath made a short disgusted sound.“You know your problem, Price?You’re too goddamn serious.Now get out the map.I want to look at our next day of fun and games.”
CHAPTER10
He sprawledon the cheap bed, thin blanket rasping against his bare left arm; his right was flung over his eyes.The hypo sat on the bedside table, but he hadn’t used it yet.
Not while he had this to do.
Outside, Lubbock pulsed with electric lights under an endless star-scarred Texas sky.Del had managed to get this far by hitching rides with truckers, but he needed a car of his own.That meant he would need all his talents, which meant he had to use one of the precious hypos so he could think clearly for a few hours.
First, there was work.
