Tremble (Denazen #3)(45)

He dug his cell out. “I put it on vibrate. Just to be safe.” After staring at the screen for a moment, he motioned for me to follow him around the side of the nearest building and answered it. “Start talking.”

Speaker was out of the question, but I was able to lean close enough to hear the other end of the conversation. It was Aubrey.

“Not a lot of time, so listen up. She’s telling you the truth—Dez. Everything Cross and Roz told you is a lie. They’re going to be at the Burns airport in Connecticut tomorrow to get a Six named Ben Simmons. You need to get to him first.”

Kale was silent for a moment. His eyes stayed fixed on the ground at our feet, but his shoulders tensed. He took a deep breath and asked, “Why are you telling me this?”

There was a small pause, then a sigh. “We’re friends, man. We didn’t start that way, but we are now. That’s not a lie. You don’t remember, but we talked before they did this to you. I trusted you with something. Now you have to trust me.”

“Denazen attacked me,” Kale said, voice dangerous. His free hand balled into a tight fist. “You’re with them. Why should I trust you?”

“I’m not with them, man. Not really. I’ll be at the airport with them tomorrow, and I’ll do what I can to slow them down, but no promises. First things first, though. In your right shoulder there’s a chip. They’ve been tracking you. It’s how they found you at the hotel, and how they were able to follow you to Penny Mills’s house. You need to get it out now or there’s no place you can run that they won’t be able to find you.” A slight pause. “Look, I know you, dude. You’re not sure if you can believe me and I get it, but I’ll give you proof. There’s a bathroom on the first floor at the airport. It will be marked with an Out of Order sign. Check under the last sink. There will be something there for you.”

And the line went dead.

“Aubrey?” When he got no response, he growled and I was sure he’d toss the phone, but he didn’t. He crammed it into his back pocket, and in a single swift movement, he had his jacket off. Shoulder of his T-shirt pulled aside, he turned to me. “Can you see anything?”

“Yeah,” I said, backing up so I could see his face. He looked angry, but more than that, he looked worried. Aubrey was right. There was no place we could go that they wouldn’t find us. Tugging his collar back into place, I frowned. “I see darkness.”

I could have sworn he rolled his eyes. He snatched up his jacket, stuffing both arms through the sleeves, and said, “It needs to come out.”

“I totally agree, but it’s not coming out here. First off, like I said, I can’t see crap. Second, what am I going to do, dig it out with my fingers?”

Kale poked his head around the side of the building and scanned the area. “Okay. They know we went into the sewers. So if we keep moving, we might be able to throw them off track long enough to get it out.”

“That’s brilliant, but how exactly are we supposed to do that?” I wiggled my fingers in front of him, frowning. “My nails aren’t quite that epic.”

He nodded across the street with a sly smile. There was a small mom and pop convenience store on the corner. “We’ll need supplies.”

We dashed across the road and around to the back of the store. The outer door was easy to get through. It was old and the handle was rusted, breaking easily in Kale’s capable hands. When we got to the second door, he drew his elbow back, then smashed it into the small window. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the air and I held my breath waiting for the betraying high-pitched squeal of an alarm—but there was nothing. With a twist of his arm, he was able to slip through the opening and undo the locks.

“I’ll find a knife,” he said, closing the door behind me. “You grab medical supplies.”

We dashed in separate directions. Luckily, the medical supplies were close to where we came in, so I didn’t need to go searching in the dark. I stuffed several packages of gauze, some tape, and antiseptic into my pockets, then moved a few aisles over to the medicine. It took a minute, but I finally found a bottle of Advil. As a rule, Kale didn’t like taking medicine. Pills, liquids—it didn’t matter. Mom once said it was because they’d drugged him so often as a child. I couldn’t blame him, but I took the bottle anyway. Just in case. I’d never had anyone carve something from my skin, but I imagined it would hurt like hell.

Supplies in hand, I turned back to the door, but something occurred to me. Kale’s blood. His abilities were different now, but we didn’t know what else the drug might have changed—or not changed. Scanning the shelves, I found a small box of gloves. Better to be safe. Kale’s blood had the ability to render Sixes mindless and compliant. Denazen used it to control us.

Kale emerged from behind the counter with what looked like a Leatherman tool and a yellow Sponge Bob lighter. “Time’s up. We need to move.”

“Where to? It’ll take time to get out. Wherever we stop, they’ll find us.”

“I have an idea.” He grabbed my hand and my breath caught. I couldn’t help the familiar tingle I felt when his fingers closed around mine.





18


We ran seven blocks to the transportation depot on the edge of town and were lucky enough to catch a train just before it pulled from the station. Kale’s plan was brilliant. We’d set up on the train, dig out the tracker, all while staying mobile.