Mindsiege (Mindspeak #2)(69)
“This is crazy.” Jack came close to yelling. “What do we think has happened to Georgia?” He grabbed my forearm and turned me to him. His furrowed brows shadowed his already dark navy eyes. This was not the plan. You were supposed to take Georgia, find Addison, get rid of her tracker, and get out.
“I left her a dozen or so messages on our very private voicemail,” Jonas said. “She hasn’t answered a single one. She and Fred have gone completely off the grid. Which is where we all should have gone.”
I’ll be fine. I promise. I prayed I could keep that promise.
“So, there’s a chance she’ll get in touch with you.”
Jonas nodded, but it was not a convincing nod.
“So, back to the plan.” Seth began packing away some of the weapons that weren’t chosen. “Cathy and Roger are out of town.”
I glanced at Jack.
They received an email from my father explaining that he had information about the journals, and asked them to meet him at the Louisville airport.
I raised an eyebrow. Was it really from your father? Or did you send that email?
He smirked, confirming that he, in fact, had sent the decoy. He still had no idea what had happened to Dr. DeWeese.
“Coach and I will be with other select FBI agents on campus,” Seth continued. “We cannot interfere. The FBI has their own investigation into the IIA going on… but the feds know nothing about you. They’ve asked for our help in a case against my sister, and it just so happens they have a temporary mobile office set up in the middle of campus.”
So the FBI was obviously watching the IIA. “How much does the FBI know?” I was sure there had to be Americans who predicted the existence of cloned humans, but I’d always hoped it was the same type of people who were certain aliens lived among us and that the government hid the aliens’ spaceships in Area 51.
“So far, they don’t seem to have hard proof that the IIA is doing anything illegal, let alone harming Americans,” Coach explained. “And the federal government offers quite a bit of leniency to this rogue agency.”
I couldn’t decide if that was a good or a bad thing. I wasn’t ready for the public to become obsessed with the idea that people existed among them that “might” have the ability to cure their every ailment or injury.
“So we’re ready, then?” I was asking everybody in the room, but only looking at Jack, who remained stoic.
~~~~~
It was after two a.m. when we arrived on the University of Kentucky campus. We parked next to a bar that had closed an hour before. Beside the bar was a twenty-four-hour diner. It was packed.
We climbed out of the SUV Seth had allowed us to borrow. The sounds of kids just slightly older than me were loud on the other side of the restaurant’s glass windows. I felt a sudden pang in my heart—the same twinge I got when I longed for normalcy that I’d never known, and just might never experience.
Jonas laughed.
“What are you laughing at?” Briana asked.
“I was just thinking about what I would give to taste a good old-fashioned grilled cheese right about now.”
“And that’s funny?” Briana didn’t look like she understood, but I sure did.
“Not funny, but something most of the kids in there won’t even remember in the morning. Yet I’d cherish it.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Jack placed his hand on the small of my back. “We need to keep moving. Hopefully, The Farm won’t be heavily staffed in the middle of the night. Maybe we can get in there, find what we need and get out.”
You mean, hopefully we can find Addison, trash the IIA’s tracker server, talk as many clones as possible into leaving with us, and hightail it back to Wellington before crazy woman Sandra kills us all?
A guy in love with you can hope, right?
I reached around and grabbed his hand. I lifted it to my mouth and kissed each of his knuckles.
He pulled on me. “You guys go ahead. I just need to say one thing to Lexi.”
Jonas grumbled something unintelligible, then urged Kyle and Briana forward.
I studied his eyes. He and I had already had a long talk. We both had refused to say goodbye, and I wouldn’t say it now. This could go well—or this could go very, very badly. Neither of us wanted to put odds on the outcome.
He brushed hair back off my face. “Promise me,” he whispered. “You’ll at least try to make it back out of there. If things get bad… if we get separated… I don’t know. Promise me you’ll do what you can to make it back to me.”
I can’t believe you’re even saying these things to me. I mindspoke to hide the shakiness and fear in my voice. I will fight with everything in me to make it back out to you. If not tonight, then tomorrow. And every day after that.
He reached down and planted a kiss on my lips, closing his eyes tight. I’m holding you to it.
~~~~~
The University of Kentucky campus was beautiful at night. Ornate street lamps lit the sidewalks. Spotlights were strategically placed against buildings and under trees, providing additional aesthetic light. Shadows danced off leaves blowing onto sides of buildings in the cool autumn wind. Limbs creaked against each other, creating an eerie ambiance so close to Halloween.
As we neared the agriscience building, we attempted to stay off the main sidewalks, walking along dark and less-traveled paths at this late hour.