Mindbenders by Ted Krever

Author:Ted Krever [Krever, Ted]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780615487199
Google: CImPZwEACAAJ
Amazon: 061548719X
Publisher: Little David
Published: 2011-04-30T12:00:00+00:00

~~~~

Ten

At first, I assumed we were trying to get away.

It at least made sense to try—the black vans were all around us and I could feel the thickness in the air as Max blocked all of us at once, locking us out of the collective unconscious of the neighborhood, trapping all our free-floating thoughts inside the narrow car. Or maybe all that was in my head—now that we were free, my shoulders and neck felt like they’d been released from a clamp. I ached all over from sudden relaxing.

After ten minutes of changing roads and directions, I could see we really hadn’t gone very far. The airplanes were still close overhead. That got me real upset. I started sweating. We had to head back to the mountains, to the house on the cliffside. I don’t know why I fixated on that place but it all came rushing back to me at once. The wall of windows and the balcony and the crazy awning, the hillside I scrambled over like a maniac, trying not to get cut in half by Marat’s lightning bolts—and the town with the dance floor and Tess and Cindy. That whole memory was clear—I was in it, living in it. That was where we had to go. We’d be safe there, if only because that’s where they caught us, which made it the last place they’d expect us to go.

Every few minutes, some new airliner threatened to land on the roof of our car. And then we came out of a sidestreet and Max bought a ticket and we were in the long-term parking lot at Dulles Airport. We circulated the rows until he found a Maxima he liked. It had one of those touchpad things on the door and he was able to fry it with his fingers; Tauber hot-wired the car in about seven seconds. And then we were back on the road again. But again, we weren’t making any effort to get away. Max made a series of turns, as though looking for a location.

“Volkov lives ‘roundabouts,” Tauber said. “Miriam took me to his house when we first got up here.” He’d pulled a bottle of water from the center console and was holding it up to his puffy eye. “I was an idjit for staying with her.”

Max shook his head. “You knew her—you didn’t know me.”

“They want ya bad. They did everything to try to get your whereabouts out of me.”

“Which they knew immediately you didn’t have.”

“They didn’t trust my thoughts.”

“Ha! Spies not trusting? I’m shocked.” Max’s look at Tauber was sympathetic and even grateful.

“Volkov thought he could turn you,” Tauber continued. “Avery said you wouldn’t give, that they’d have to kill you. Anyway, I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. We’ve got to get the hell outta here—they all live nearby, the whole area’s crawling with shooters.”

“Shooters?”

“Yeah—they’ve got drones and shooters. Drones send out messages and don’t remember a thing after. Shooters are Volkov’s strike force. There’s not many of them but they’re dirty tricks mindbenders—and killers.

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