Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(84)

“Everyone makes a mistake eventually,” Smut offered. “We’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing, and one of these days we’ll get him. With the Angel on our team, we’ve got new resources at our disposal. And maybe Geek will eventually crack those microchips.”

Geek’s sigh suggested his doubt, but he still nodded and said, “I’ll keep trying.”

“What about the superthugs?” Tyson said. “We have part of Donovan’s retrieval team in our holding cells.”

My head snapped up as I caught another glimmer of hope. “He’s right. Those men have to know something. They have to at least know where the place is. Maybe they won’t know Donovan’s plans, but they could at least tell us more about his security and his numbers. They were part of the superthug army. They must know how many others were like them, and what their weaknesses are.”

Everyone recognized the hope in my voice. Several of the other ACEs shared it. Abiodun shook his head. His low, soft voice drifted over the table with a sympathetic tone. “They haven’t spoken so far.”

“But they’ve been going through major withdrawals,” Dr. Haggerty said, trying to offer me some hope when I frowned. “They’ve been too sick to really interrogate, but they’re doing much better now. We could try again.”

“Won’t do you any good,” Tex argued. He sounded certain. He and Abiodun had spent the most time guarding the prisoners. “We’ve tried several times, and withdrawals aside, whenever we question them about Donovan or anything related to him, they zone out.”

“It’s strange,” Abiodun agreed.

“It’s as if they physically can’t answer,” Tex said. “Like they have an off switch in their brain and they shut down when we interrogate them.”

I gasped. “Not an off switch.” I jumped to my feet, excitement bursting out of me in a wave of energy that everyone felt. It couldn’t be that simple. “It’s nanobots!”

“Of course,” Blake and Geek muttered simultaneously.

Geek pounced out of his chair next, sharing my excitement. “They’re being compelled to not answer!”

An evil grin stretched across my face, and I held up my hands. “And lucky us, thanks to Invisidude, we know how to stop the nanobots.”

I sent Tyson a wink, and he grinned proudly back.

“You think?” Geek asked.

I shrugged. “Worked on me, didn’t it?”

“You said they’re just robots. Anything electronic can be short-circuited.”

“You’re right. It could work.”

“Assuming we can cook the robots without frying their brains along with them,” Shortstop warned.

Dang it. He had a point, too. “What about the man I zapped in the motel? I fried him pretty good. Can we check to see if there are nanobots in his brain and if they’re still active?”

The room went quiet again. I knew by the looks on their faces that there was more bad news that I hadn’t been made aware of. They let Major Wilks do the honors. “He didn’t survive, Angel. We lost him while we were in Boston.”

I blanched. “He’s dead?” I’d killed him? I was going to be sick.

“It wasn’t you, Angel,” Major Wilks promised when he noticed my face turn green. “It was the serum.”

“You’re sure?”

“We’re sure,” Dr. Haggerty promised. “His heart gave out, but it wasn’t from the shock you gave him. It was the withdrawals. It was too worn down already to handle the stress. His liver and kidneys were giving out, too.”

“He was a dead man walking before he ever found you,” Johnny G said.

“We nearly lost one of the others as well,” Dr. Haggerty continued. “But I believe he’s out of the woods now. I expect both of the remaining prisoners to make full recoveries.”

That was good enough for me. “Sweet. Let’s go scramble their brains a little, then.”

Mouths dropped all around the conference table, except Major Wilks’s; his curved up into a smirk. “What?” I rolled my eyes at my team. Was my attitude really so shocking? “I’m not talking about torturing them. Not really. Well, not enough to make me lose any sleep over those jerks. We’ll just give ’em a good, healthy zap to clear their heads. It’ll sting for sure, but trust me: I know what it feels like to be mindjacked. They’ll thank me in the long run.”

It took a moment for everyone to snap out of their shock, and it started with a snicker from Smut. Shortstop was next, with an obnoxious snort. Then Eyes let out a real laugh, and the entire team lost it. “Remind me never to piss you off,” Smut said.

“No kidding,” Tex added.

“Definitely a motto to live by,” I agreed. “Now can we go extract some information from some superthugs, or what?”

They laughed even harder, but got up from their chairs and led the way out of the room. Major Wilks caught me by the shoulder as we entered the hallway. “Are you sure you’re up to this right now?”

I nodded. “I’ll be fine. The electricity’s not a problem.”

“It can wait, though, if you’d like to go find your parents first.”

“I appreciate that, sir, but honestly, I need the break from them as much as they do from me. It’s going to take a long time for me to sort out my feelings there, and now isn’t that time.”