"Don't worry. That's perfectly normal." Deena was having success in getting her breath and staying calmer this time as the dark substance leaked out and went about its work. "Take your hand away. It'll be OK."

They watched as the wound did the same thing it had last time. The blood stopped flowing, replaced by the black ooze, then that also stopped and the wound became just another dot. The difference this time was that it still burned inside. She suspected that would pa.s.s, but it was hard to say. She'd never been this terribly injured when she was under the Shadow Energy's control. She thought of it like that now. It wasn't a power that she'd been wielding all that time; the power was wielding her. Now that she was free of it, how would it affect her and how long would it still work?

There were two more shots from their unseen foe, before it got quiet again.

"What other exits are there?" Garrett asked.

Deena considered a tactical perspective that she'd never applied to her home. "Back door, bedroom windows. And I just discovered a trap door out of the bas.e.m.e.nt."

"Our car is so exposed out there. How are we going to get to it?" Pel snuck a look before crouching and moving to the next room to look out the window.

"I have a car out back," Deena said. "Should be easy to get to. I mean, if you want to stay here and track this guy down, I get it, but I'd rather put some distance between us and this place. What do you think Agent Garrett?"

Pel motioned toward the area where the gunfire originated. "He's already out the back and circling in on the guy. Give him a second."

Deena could feel the agent's gaze. "I'll be fine. I think." She touched the area where the bullet had penetrated, which was now nothing but a streak of blood and grime. "I got shot on the train and it feels just dandy now."

The blonde agent didn't look terribly convinced. "If you say so." Pel looked back out the door. "Here we go."

Agent Garrett had made his way around and was moving from tree to tree for cover. Deena could see him slowly moving forward, pointing his weapon at the treehouse, pausing to watch for movement before moving on again. As best Deena could tell, nothing was happening. After a couple of minutes, the agent made it to the old hideout and looked up from below before climbing up the old wooden rungs. He shook his head for Pel's benefit before pulling out his radio. "There's some blood up here," Garrett's voice crackled from speaker. "Not a lot. I'm going down and have a look around. See if I can figure which direction he went."

"Got it, I'll stay with Riordan," Pel replied. Her partner climbed down and moved off stealthily in the woods again.

"He's long gone," Deena said. "Hard to tell how far he's gone or if he'll be back, but he's gone for now."

"Friend of yours?"

"Not anymore, I guess." She looked out of the window for Garrett, but couldn't find him in the tangle of trees that surrounded the house. "If you didn't know who we were dealing with before, you know now. They want me dead and they don't care who gets in the way. They'll kill you, your partner, my sister..."

"Look, not to be indelicate, how do you know they haven't killed her already?"

"I get the feeling Marsh believes I'll come in, change my mind and things'll go right back to normal," Deena said. "That I'll take one look at his wrinkled old face and fall back under his spell."

"That's not going to happen?"

"Nope." Deena tried to rally her voice to sound as sure as should could to the agent. The reality was she wasn't positive of anything. She didn't trust her instincts and still found herself drifting into teenage thinking and flawed logic. "Look, if you don't think your partner will let us go after my sister, I can run out back and jump in my car and zip off to the big city by myself. It's not really my car; I stole it from a b.i.t.c.hy exercise lady. It's a little car, but it's peppy, it moves like you wouldn't believe. "

52.

It was quiet in the car for the longest time as Garrett drove down the interstate toward Los Angeles.

"Soooo..." Pel was in the backseat with Deena.

Garrett had already made up his mind that he wasn't calling in anything to Rivers or Rice. They should've let the agents know they had Deena, they'd been attacked, h.e.l.l, there were any number of things that they should have told their superiors, but they didn't. Deena had saved them from that sniper's bullet. Garrett really didn't see any reason to draw attention to their situation. As far as he knew there weren't any other killers, monsters or freaks following them and there was no reason to think otherwise, so he didn't want to ask for backup.

No one responded to Pel, so she dropped the question, such as it was.

Garrett himself hated the silence, hated driving these stretches of highway. All the flat fields and cows. He let the silence go for ten more minutes, which allowed him to count six more tractors and two dozen sheep.

"So where are we going?" Deena asked.

It was quiet for another moment.

"I think we need to start back at Marsh's office," Garrett said.

Deena's statement was simple. "Yeah. That sounds about right. We need to finish this one way or another I guess. But I can't put you in danger again. I think I should go in alone."

"The only reason we're going is because I'm letting you. We should take you straight in and put you in a cell," Garrett said. "Let's not talk too much about it. We'll go in with you, and if anyone gives us s.h.i.t, we'll make up some excuse."

"Thanks."

"Are you sure you're going to be able to handle Marsh?" Pel asked. "This imprinting thing might kick in and make you want to keep working for him."

"Just worry about your own a.s.s. He obviously has reacted poorly to finding out I'm no longer his favorite puppy. He's going to want to eliminate everyone involved in order to cover his trail," Deena said. She held up her wrists and jiggled the handcuffs. "You're going to take these off before we get there, right? Can't do much with these on."

It was something he knew they'd have to do eventually, if they really wanted to help her here. "You know much about his organization?" Garrett watched the road, but he kept eyeing Deena in the rearview mirror.

"Enough."

Garrett questioned his choice again. Someone that valuable shouldn't be walking into a situation where they could be killed. If her information was substantial enough to shut down Marsh's organization, she should be in a safe house, or a jail cell, or in a highly guarded convoy headed in the opposite direction from Marsh. Here he was, driving her right into the path of danger. Still, she'd never talk if he let something happen to her sister.

"We need to do this my way, though. I'll direct how we enter and how we handle Marsh's men. There may be a way yet to get out of this with minimal conflict," Garrett said. "I want you and Harper to come out of this intact, so you can tell us all about the fun things Marsh is doing."

"Garrett?" Pel said.

"If we can put that smarmy b.a.s.t.a.r.d away, it would truly make my day."

"Garrett?"

"Maybe you should start filling us in just a bit. You don't have to spill it all."

"She's asleep."

"What?" Garrett looked back up into the rearview mirror and saw that, indeed, Deena was leaning back in her seat with her eyes closed. She was even snoring lightly. "Guess she's had a rough day."

"We've all had a couple of busy days."

"What? You want to nap too?"

Pel leaned forward and talked over Garrett's shoulder. "Later. Look. I'm worried about making promises to her. We don't have the authority for any of that. That bus bombing her sister pulled is still fresh and the press is going nuts with crazy speculation."

"We've been on the move constantly since that happened. How do you know what they're saying?"

Pel waved her phone in front of him. "Seriously? You need to learn how to use this. They're saying it was a terrorist attack, but they can't agree if it was homegrown or foreign. They're all over the map."

"Figures. That's the first thing everyone would think in a situation like this," Garrett said.

"And it isn't going to go away. When they find out we've grabbed the prime suspect, they're going to want her and they're going to want to parade her around in public and show everyone its safe again. And let's face it: we know she did it." Pel messed around with her phone and shoved it in Garrett's face. He swerved as he tried to look from the phone to the road. "And look," Pel said. "Our old boss is even all over the news making statements."

A video played of Harris at the crime scene with a dozen microphones in front of him. He made a quick statement that was non-committal, but said they had leads. It was full of vagaries that said absolutely nothing about what was actually happening. Anyone with half a brain could tell that he knew nothing.

"That was our case," Pel said. "If Rivers and Rice hadn't pulled us out, we'd be the ones making the statements and we'd be the ones without a freaking clue what was going on." Pel sunk back into her seat.

It was true. The bombing wasn't going to go away. Unfortunately, being so far out of the loop made it tough for Garrett to know what exactly was going on with the investigation. What did they know? Was Harper Riordan even on anyone's radar back at Garrett's old office? Maybe the video Pel had given to Rivers and Rice was the only evidence anyone had on the girl.

"I think we take this to Rivers and get his take on things," Garrett said.

Pel paused for a minute. "Is Rivers the one in charge? I thought it was Rice."

"Rice is the nice guy."

Pel shook her head. "See, I didn't get that at all, he came off as kind of a jacka.s.s to me."

"They'll both take some getting used to." Garrett started rehearsing a conversation in his head. It was a discussion he wanted to have with Rivers about how Deena might actually be able to help the FEI without being locked up.

55.

There was only another half hour or so until they'd be back in the city, but Deena felt like c.r.a.p. She'd slept for a good hour and change, but it hadn't helped her. That last little healing trick, combined with all the other action of the past few days had completely done her system in. She'd fought sleep out of fear of what trouble was going to erupt within the car if she closed her eyes. She was paranoid that they would just take her in to some prison, despite their a.s.surances that they'd get her to Marsh's building. Still, she'd slept and nothing happened. "I could use a coffee," she said.

"I have no idea where we are, or where to find coffee," Pel said. She'd taken over the driving from Garrett while he went over some files. Paper files. No one did that anymore, did they?

Garrett looked at the upcoming exit sign. "I don't think it matters where you stop. I'm pretty sure it's a law now that every city, town and hamlet has to have at least one coffee shop."

"Federal mandate?" Pel asked.

"Yep," Garrett answered. "d.a.m.n government has their hands in everything these days."

Pel guided the car off the highway and followed the signs to the center of a small town. "There's gotta be a gas station with a coffee maker somewhere here in Mayberry." She circled back toward a filling station on the other side of the square. As they got closer, she let out a yell. "Hey! Is that a picture of a coffee cup on the side of that building?"

"Yep. Looks like you're in luck, java fiend," Garrett agreed.

"I'll go get the coffee for you," Pel said. "I really need to stretch my legs."

"Let's all get out," Garrett said. He pointed to some picnic tables in the town square. "We'll meet you over there."

"Sure," Pel started toward the convenience store.

"Grab me a soda?" Garrett called.

Pel shook her head. "How about a water for a change?"

"No. And beef jerky?"

Pel grimaced. "You're joking. How are you still alive?"

Garrett looked around as they sat down under a shelter house. The picnic table was beat up and defaced with graffiti. Deena put her hands on the rough tabletop and sighed. She wished she'd just stayed asleep in the car. Her head felt like it was caving in.

Using a napkin he produced from his pocket, Garrett wiped off his side of the table and the bench before sitting down with a groan. "I hate being in the car this much. Hate traveling. I'd rather be in the office or at a crime scene. I feel like I'm getting nothing done." He took a second to think. "Driving's better than flying, I guess."

Deena watched him as his gaze fell on everything around them, except for her. He was making small talk. She was flattered, until she realized he might just be wasting time before Pel got back by talking about inane things. "So what is the story?" she asked. "What's the deal with you and agent ponytail?"

"What do you mean?"

Deena dug at some of the loose splinters of wood on the table. "I mean, you seem to be a long way from the city. Are you on some special mission to bring me in?"

Garrett turned and looked over at the gas station. Deena supposed he was searching for his partner to help. "Something like that. We just joined a little group called the FEI"

"Did you say FEI or FBI?"

"Yes, 'E'. The Federal Ent.i.ty Index. They... We... chase people like you, with powers that tend to cause mayhem and destruction." Garrett thought about how badly he wanted to suggest his bosses change the name of the agency. The FEI sounded so fake. Maybe something cool like the CAGE or Operation Thunder. Anything would be preferable. It was like drinking an off-brand of soda. Mountain Fog instead of Mountain Dew.

"OK. That's all you do?"

Garrett stood up as he saw Pel exit the store balancing three coffees and a bag of snacks. "Yes. That's all we do." He paused and waved to Pel, who'd already seen them anyway. He took a few steps toward her to help. "Hey. I was just filling Deena in on what we do."

Pel handed out the coffees and dropped a few sugar packets and creamer cups on the table. "And?"

"He hasn't gotten very far," Deena said as she tore the ends off several sugar packets and dumped them into her cup. "You guys hunt freaks."

"That's the very basic job description, yes." Pel took a drink. "But there's more to it."

"Is there?" Garrett asked.

"Are we going to discuss the research aspect with her, or not?" Pel took another quick sip of coffee.

Garrett didn't want to spook the girl and convey misgivings about the way the FEI treated their suspects and prisoners. If Deena got worried, she might lash out and bolt. They needed to keep her under control. "Look. We just came on board, but the Index has been doing what they can to make people with your powers normal again. They've tried to remove the thing that gives you power, but they haven't had any luck."

"We just want to make sure you get treated as fairly and humanely as possible," Pel said.

"Humanely as possible? I don't understand. I'm going to jail, right?" Deena looked up at Garrett.

Not even close, Garrett thought. "You'll be a prisoner, sure. But we'd like to find a way to make your incarceration more productive. Let us lay out what we're thinking. If you agree, we'll talk to our superiors and fight for the plan."