The Escape Read Online Free Page A

mortal father? Unless the vice president was also working for the Emporium. While that was exactly what I’d come here to determine, I could tell from Patrick’s thoughts that he didn’t know I could sense, so he wasn’t worried about me discovering whether or not his father was an agent. No, he thought we’d come to kill his father because of intel we already possessed before our arrival—and now he’d decided we didn’t have it after all. Interesting.
    Only a second had passed since my remark, though it seemed much longer to me from the viewpoint of our joined minds. Patrick took my proffered hand in a firm grip. “I believe I mistook you for someone else,” he said with an easy laugh that was echoed by the two couples in front of us, who were avidly watching the scene unfold. “Someone who’s created a tad of difficulty for my father in the past.” He let my hand go, leaving behind a touch of nervous moistness.
    “Couldn’t be them,” said the man in glasses, stepping closer to his sharp-nosed wife. “They’re from out west with—what did you say your firm’s name was?” This last to Keene, who relaxed marginally with the question.
    I let the chitchat slide over me as I pushed farther into Patrick’s mind, not touching the sand stream of thoughts but examining them closer. I clearly saw images of known Emporium agents, so his allegiance was clear, but there were no more mental references to his father or any type of plan—only the determination to play out this game so we wouldn’t suspect. Or at least not until it was too late.
    Too late for what?
    Something in his mind caught my attention. A shiny, black, snakelike cord stretching the entire length of his visible thought stream, but unlike the other thoughts and images, it didn’t slide forward and disappear with the rest, only moved up and down inside the sand, mostly buried and out of sight. Chill spread through me as I recognized the black cord. I’d created a similar substance in a corner of my own mind, a box where I’d locked up my fear of heights. While I wasn’t completely cured, I could function when it mattered. This black cord, however, was far more elegant, undulating with a hypnotic call. I moved closer.
    Was he a sensing Unbounded after all? Had he created this to hide important thoughts? No. I hadn’t been quiet or careful getting past his barriers, and he would have noticed me. Besides, this black cord wasn’t quite the same thing as my box. The signature was different—and I recognized it.
    With a shudder, I pulled away. I’d felt this mark in my ex-boyfriend before his death, and I’d suspected then that something had been done to his mind. Now I was sure. It belonged to Delia Vesey, a member of the Emporium Triad and also a sensing Unbounded who had the ability to control people using mere thoughts.
    I could feel the cord pulsating, seeming to beckon me to take it into my hands, to caress its length and steal its secrets. Except not only would disrupting the stream alert the Unbounded to my mental presence, but everything in my mind screamed out that Delia wouldn’t go to such effort unless she was sure no average sensing Unbounded would be able to extract the hidden information safely.
    No average Unbounded. What about me?
    I backed off, staying in his mind but keeping clear of the thought stream. We didn’t know much about how the sensing gift worked, but I’d learned that mental damage sometimes didn’t heal like our physical bodies did, and for all I knew the cord could contain some sort of a mental bomb.
    “I do apologize for the interruption,” Patrick said.
    “An honest mistake, I’m sure.” I was trying to decide how to handle this. A fist to his jaw would be my preferred manner, but that would blow our cover entirely. For now we appeared safe, his thoughts revealing his desire to signal his Emporium cronies to come deal with us. Either we kept him from doing that with conversation or we made a run for