Рейчел Кейн – Line Of Sight (страница 2)

There was a brief sound of shuffling, and then Kayla’s no-nonsense voice said, “I’m right here. We’ve got a situation here, and I don’t think the local resources are enough to handle it. We need you, Katie.” Kayla was a cop, a good one, besides being a fellow Athena graduate and friend. Not a close friend, exactly—Katie didn’t seem to attract many of those—but more of a sister. Athena alumni were all sisters. It was an implicit responsibility they all took very seriously. They’d suffered losses these past few years that had hurt them all. At least Jazz was safe. That was something.

“What happened?”

“I’ll let Jazz tell you.”

Another handoff, and Jazz’s higher voice came back on the line. “It’s Teal and Lena—Teal Arnett and Lena Poole. They’re at the Academy with me. They’re my friends. They were taken.”

“Taken,” Katie repeated. Her fingers tightened on the phone, and she forced them to relax. She’d seen the tragic aftermath of too many stories that began just this way, but none of them had involved girls from the Athena Academy—her own very extended family. If all of the Athena Force women were sisters, then all the girls at the Academy were nieces. “How did it happen?”

The very slight hesitation before Jazz answered raised a red flag in Katie’s mind. Need to get her away from her mother and get the full story, she thought. Even though Kayla was a cop, and Athena Force, that didn’t mean mothers and daughters should or could share everything. Daughters had secrets, and in cases like this, secrets cost lives. “We were going to the movies,” Jazz said. “Off the school grounds, in town. But they were waiting for us, I don’t know how. It was a coordinated attack. Teal and Lena gave me time to get away, they told me to run. I didn’t want to leave them, I swear I didn’t!”

“I know you didn’t. Jazz, tell me what you saw. Exactly what you saw.”

Jazz took a deep breath. “We were walking on the sidewalk, talking, and a van pulled up to the curb ahead of us. It was a blue cargo van, and the license plates were muddy. I couldn’t see any letters or numbers. There was dark tinting on the windows. I think it was a Ford van, probably about eight years old. Oh, and there was a fresh scratch on the passenger side, like somebody had keyed it in a parking lot.”

Katie raised a commanding finger to the paramedic to back off when he tried to speak to her. He did, finally taking the look in her eyes seriously. “And?”

“The side door slid open, and two men jumped out. They were both tall, but one was bigger than the other one—I think they were about six feet and six feet four inches.”

“What did they look like?”

“I couldn’t tell,” Jazz said unhappily. “They were wearing these mesh masks and bodysuits. I guess that was to keep from leaving trace evidence. They didn’t say anything at all, and they were really fast and strong. Lena almost got away, but they caught her.”

Sometime during Jazz’s recital, Katie had closed her eyes, painting the picture in her mind. A cloudless Arizona day, clear and sunny. The van pulling to a smooth stop at the curb so as not to alarm the girls into flight. A blitz attack, scientifically calculated. Two abductors, plus a third to drive the van. They’d cut their losses once they’d realized they’d lost the initiative and Jazz was beyond their control…. More impulsive predators would have gone after her, allowed Teal and Lena space to act. Instead, these men had disengaged to minimize their exposure.

Dangerously competent. And the fact that they’d succeeded at all meant that they’d known what they’d be dealing with.

“Tell me about the girls,” she said. “Teal and Lena.”

“Teal’s the oldest, she’s seventeen. She’s really fast—the fastest runner in the school. She looks a little bit like you in the face, and she’s tall, too—she has lighter hair, and her eyes are more green.” Jazz took a breath. “Lena’s fifteen. You can’t miss her. She’s got purple streaks in her hair, it’s cut all different lengths, you know? She was wearing a purple skirt and a hot-pink top.” Jazz’s voice wavered. “They’re my friends, Katie. Really my friends. I should have stayed with them. I let them down.”

Jazz was small, but she was a dynamo, like her mother. Self-possessed. A fiercer friend Katie couldn’t imagine. Jazz was someone who wouldn’t take failure easily in a situation like this. Athena Academy instilled that quality in those who hadn’t come in the doors gifted with it, but in Jazz tenacity was a purely natural talent.

“Jazz, it’s going to be all right. We’re going to find them. Now, put your mom on the line, will you?” Jazz did. Katie dropped the warm-and-fuzzy from her voice. “I’m heading for the airport now,” she said and slid off of the tail end of the ambulance. “I’ll take a cab to the crime scene. What are the cross streets?”

Kayla gave them to her, relief evident in her voice. “Thanks for agreeing to help. I know you’re the best at this, Katie, and I have the feeling we need to find these girls quickly. This wasn’t random. No way was it random.”

Kayla was being careful, not saying things that they were both thinking.

“Did they have enhancements?” Katie asked. She would have asked straight out, psychic abilities, but Kayla knew what she meant, knew exactly what made many of the girls fostered by the Athena Academy special. She and Kayla were included in that number, most definitely, although Katie herself had tried her best to downplay it throughout her career.

Kayla confirmed her worst fears. “Yes. Definitely…enhanced abilities.”

“What about Teal and Lena’s parents? Has somebody talked to them?”

“We’re handling notifications through the school. I’ve already talked to Ms. Evans.” Christine Evans, the principal of the Athena Academy—as tough as they came, even by Katie’s admittedly high standards. So tough, cops and FBI agents still automatically called her Ms. Evans years after graduation. “I’ll book you a seat on the first available flight. I’ll wait for you at the scene.”

“Soon as I can,” Katie promised, and was about to hang up when she hesitated. “Kayla? Is Jazz okay? Physically?”

“As far as I can tell.” Her friend’s voice was tight. “I want to take her to the hospital. Just to be sure.”

It was what Katie would have advised, but she was glad she didn’t have to. Kayla had enough on her mind.

“Do that. I’m on my way,” she promised and flipped the phone closed.

The paramedic, frowning, rushed into the silence. “Agent, you can’t go anywhere before those ribs are X-rayed,” he said. “They might be broken.”

“They’re not broken,” she said and pulled on her jacket after tucking the FBI identification flap back into its Velcro pocket. “You got forms for me to sign? Because you have one minute to get them in front of me before I’m gone.”

She didn’t wait for him; he could damn well catch up. She strode off, looking for Evangelista, and found him talking with two other agents. They all nodded to her.

“I need a minute,” she said. Evangelista gave the other two a crisp dismissal and turned to her with his full attention. “Two girls have been abducted in Phoenix. One other girl got away, she’s the kid of a friend of mine. I need some personal time, okay? E-mail the paperwork to my Web account. I’ll get it completed tonight.”

“Katie, you sure that’s a good idea? You took a couple of hard hits. Paramedics released you?”

“Sure.” She lied like the professional she was. “Good to go?”

“Can I stop you?” He shrugged. “I’ll need you to make yourself available tomorrow sometime for a recorded statement. If you need me to make a call to the Phoenix field office, let me know.”

He extended his hand. She shook it briskly, not letting the pain in her ribs show. “No heroics, Rush,” he reminded her.

“No, sir. No heroics.”

That was it. He turned away and was immediately lost in the wash of detail and documentation that was the bane of every investigator’s existence.

“Sign here,” said the paramedic, appearing at her shoulder with a metal clipboard and pen. He pointed to a line, and she scribbled her name. “Agent, seriously, get yourself checked out wherever you’re going. Those ribs don’t look good.”

“I’m fine,” she said, and remembered to smile at him. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

“My job.” He nodded. No smile back. She supposed she was screwing up his ability to do his work. It occurred to her, a little late, that he was pretty cute—her type, too, with big dark eyes and nice shoulders. Ah well. She didn’t have time for romance, anyway. She never did.

She retrieved her car, parked three blocks away, and drove to the airport without stopping for anything.

Chapter 2

The girl leaning over the table was wearing the tiniest orange bikini he’d ever seen. Stefan was a connoisseur of bikinis—some people watched birds or butterflies; he watched girls in outrageously small scraps of fabric. Today was a spectacular day for it, in fact—a cloudless deep-blue sky, a cool ocean breeze, a bright summer sun. Venice Beach at its finest, and the girls were in full bloom.

Life, he reflected, was very good to him. A great profession, a great place to live, stimulation of all kinds. Yeah, not bad. Not bad at all.