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“Now, you don’t dislike me,” he chided softly.

  I swallowed. “I think I might.”

  He stood and stepped over to me, reached out and took my wrist, pulling until I also stood. I watched him guardedly, wondering what sort of juju he was going to try on me now. I almost flinched when he brought his hand up, but he only ran his finger along my jaw from my ear to my chin. “I like you,” he said softly. I looked into his big brown eyes. My breathing sped up, but I couldn’t seem to tear my gaze away from him this time. He leaned down and brushed my lips with his.

  My knees weakened, and I would have crumpled into a heap on the floor, but he caught me and helped me back to the couch. He very deliberately moved away from me, back to the desk, only sitting behind it this time, as if he wanted to put it between him and me.

  I slowly calmed, but was still blushing when I looked up at him. His gaze was thoughtful. “Oh, Madde Moreton, you have it, all right.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “And you definitely don’t dislike me.” Now he smiled.

  We looked at each other in silence. Finally he broke it. “What will you do now? Will you go out and tell everyone that big bad Gabriel is playing with their minds?”

  I shook my head. “All you’d have to do is look at them, and they would believe in you.”

  “Yes,” he agreed.

  “What will you do with this power you have?”

  He sat back in the chair, which creaked. “I’m going to put us back together.”

  “The United States?”

  He shook his head, smiling. “No, I don’t want to be a part of the U.S. after what they did to us.”

  I actually understood his anger. I felt a good portion of it myself.

  He continued, “I’m going to do this slowly, and while I have my long term goals, I don’t necessarily wish to share them with you right now.”

  “Oh?” I acted surprised, although I wasn’t. “And should I use this ‘gift’ you think I have to make you tell me?”

  For a split second, Gabriel the all-powerful looked worried. Then he smiled slowly. “I’d like to see what form your convincing would take.” He beckoned to me as if he were inviting me to fight. “Do your worst, Madde.”

  I shook my head. I didn’t think I’d have a chance if we went head-to-head, so to speak. “Then don’t tell me,” I said airily.

  “You disappoint me,” he said a little chidingly.

  “What about Catfish Lake?” I said, hoping to distract him.

  “What about it?” he asked.

  “Why do you want us?”

  “I want it all. The whole state, the whole Hot Zone. I have people out meeting with cities every day.”

  I sat forward, “And do most of them immediately fall into line?”

  He didn’t look annoyed with my challenge. “The closer they are to the Cities, the more likely they are to just join without a visit. The ones further away, like Catfish Lake, tend to be more independent. So I invite them for a visit, and viola, they join up.”

  “But your gift doesn’t work on me.”

  “It does, just not completely,” he returned.

  I considered pushing the point, but was afraid that he would come over and prove that I wasn’t immune to him, so I let it go. “I want Catfish Lake to stay independent,” I said instead.

  “Think about it, Madde. Do you really or are you just trying to provoke me? The benefits are all on your side: protection, help with larger issues such as power and supplies, and a more national voice.”

  I had to admit that all sounded good. “But don’t you think the quarantine will be over soon?”

  “No.”

  “Just no? You’re so sure?” I watched him. “How are you so sure?”

  His grin grew. “I helped put the quarantine together.”

  I gaped at him. “What?”

  He seemed pleased to have someone to tell. “I already knew that the disease was not contagious. However, I needed a quarantine in place so I could get us consolidated.”

  “You—” I was so mad I could barely form words. “How could you? Do you realize the far-reaching effects of this? Why not just tell them it’s not contagious and then—”

  “And then they’d ask, ‘well, why are people getting sick then?’ And I’d have to tell them the truth. That would not work out well for me, for you, or for anyone else in the Zone.”

  “Why?”

  “Not today, Madde. Ask me again another time. But I think I can offer Catfish a special deal. We’ll go ahead and take you in as part of the new country, yet I’ll allow you to continue to make your own decisions.” He smiled a little evilly. “I’ll look forward to meeting with you on numerous occasions so that we can discuss Catfish Lake’s independent status.”

  “A new country?” I asked.

  “No more information today,” he said firmly.

  I sighed.

  He glanced at the clock on his desk and frowned, irritated. “I have other meetings. I would like you to meet with an associate of mine. He’ll explain to you what I want.” He pressed a button on the desk, and said, “Send in someone to escort Miss Moreton to Si.”

  There was no answer, but of course, everyone would jump to see that what he wanted was done immediately. He stood, and I knew the meeting was over. “I will give you a week to bring your community into line with our agreement.” His eyes warned me now. “But if I have to come and make a personal appearance, I will. I assume you would like to avoid that?”

  Damn right. “Yes.” The last thing I wanted was to have the entire town under his spell.

  “I can trust, then, that when you come back to meet me in one week, no more, that you will tell me that the town agrees that they will be part of our group, yet have special leeway in making decisions that affect them?”

  I didn’t want to say yes, but I couldn’t see any way out of it. If he visited—no, I couldn’t have that. I nodded.

  “And Madde, anything I have shared with you here is between us. You will respect that and keep it to yourself?”

  Crap, I didn’t want to agree to this one. He tipped his head, looking at me like I was a naughty child. “Come now, don’t make me threaten you. I don’t like threats. I’m not, however, about to let one person, no matter how … appealing that person is, get in the way of what I’m doing.”

  I swallowed, making myself stay silent. Part of me wanted to throw myself at him. Ugh.

  His voice became serious, and the desire to do whatever he wanted, to make this great man happy, surged. “Madde. I have told you more than anyone else in this world knows. I backed off when I saw you teetering on the brink of falling under. I could make you as obedient as the rest, I think. Don’t push me to that point.”

  I gasped for air. Oh, he could topple me all right. Damn. “Okay, I won’t tell anyone.”

  “Good. I will see you in one week.” He hadn’t approached me again. As a respectful knock came, he called, “Come.” A man was there, who must be my escort. I wasn’t exactly sure where I was being escorted to, but it had to be safer than sitting here waiting to fall prey to this man. As I neared the door, I heard his soft voice say, “I’ll look forward to it.” I couldn’t control the shiver that raced along my spine at his words.

  Chapter 11: Think Before You Speak

  I followed the man without paying a lot of attention, thinking over my meeting with Gabriel. Now that I was away from him I thought of so many questions: What had he done before? Was his name really Gabriel? How does his power work? Did he have to be in the same room, or did anyone seeing him become affected? Was it just visual? I’d seen him on TV, although it was more at a distance. The TV viewing didn’t seem to affect people so strongly. Did it work over the phone? The list went on and on. And I’d gotten so few answers.

  We reached a room, and a short man, heavy, with prematurely graying hair was sitting at a desk, talking on a cell phone. He held up a hand for us to wait, and spoke some more to whoever was on the other end of the line. Suddenl
y he looked at the man, “What?” he asked a little impatiently.

  “Dr. English, Gabriel wanted me to bring Miss Moreton to you.”

  The man blinked, then abruptly hung up the phone without saying good-bye to the caller. He checked the phone for text messages and paled a little. “Oh, dear, I thought the message was from . . .” He seemed to pull himself together. He looked at me. “I’m so sorry, I was on the phone, and I didn’t immediately read Gabriel’s message.” His voice softened with adoration when he said Gabriel’s name.

  He put out his hand for me to shake. “I’m Si English. I see that Gabriel wants you to be scanned.” He looked unsure suddenly. “I assume that he doesn’t mean right now. I hope so. I wonder if I should … No, I believe he means soon, maybe tomorrow?”

  “I plan to head back to my home today,” I said. I added somewhat reluctantly, “But I’ll be back next week.”

  “That will work out fine.” He sat down at the computer. “All right.” He tapped keys, humming to himself. “One week exactly?”

  Gabriel had said ‘a week, no more’ so I figured that one week exactly was right. I nodded.

  Si mumbled, “Complete testing and scans.”

  “Uh, Dr. English? What tests? What scans?” I was getting a little nervous about this.

  “No need to fear,” he said absently. “Just a few blood tests, an MRI, MEG, things like that.”

  I had no idea what any of the letters meant, but I had at least heard of an MRI before. “Why do I need these tests?”

  Si looked surprised. “Because Gabriel wishes it,” he said simply, as if such a thing should have occurred to me. I was nearly expecting him to follow it up with an emphatic, ‘duh!’

  “What if I don’t want to be tested?” I saw both Dr. English and the man who had escorted me here shift uneasily. I sighed. “Never mind.”

  Si looked at the computer. “I have you down for one week from now, 2:00 in the afternoon, over at the medical center. Do you know where that is?” At the shake of my head, he found a map of the city, hastily done—was if from Google Earth? It showed St. Paul as it was now, and a red line was drawn from the Hill House to the Medical Center.

  I took the map. “Uh, does Gabriel have a lot of people get these scans?”

  Si smiled at me. “He’d like to have a map of everyone’s brain in the Zone eventually, but right now we just get the ones who have unusual abilities.”

  So the presence of gifts hadn’t gone unnoticed here, either. Funny, it hadn’t been mentioned on any of the TV stations. Of course, Gabriel now controlled all the local ones, and apparently he wasn’t sharing this information with the world at large. A brain scan for everyone—that was a little creepy. I wondered what they showed. Were we physically altered? I suddenly had a thought—were we still changing? Was it harmful in any way? It would be the height of irony if after this entire struggle the bioweapons would eventually kill the rest of us too. I looked at Si, intending to ask some more questions, but the little doctor was back on his cell phone, his back turned to us. I guess my questions would wait.

  I was led back to the entryway where the rest of my enraptured delegation waited. I gave them a collective glare, but then felt bad about that. It wasn’t their fault if Gabriel had entranced them. I smiled at them and we quietly went back out to the van we’d come in. I discovered that Gabriel had asked that not one but two SUV-loads of people to escort us back to Catfish Lake. I wondered about that as I pulled out after the first SUV, the second one following. Was he interested in making sure that the one person who saw through him, at least partially, was safely delivered? Or was he unsure of what I might do, promise or no promise? I finally decided that regardless of the reason, I was glad to have the guys there. I didn’t really like the idea of having someone stop us on the mostly deserted Interstate and rob or kill us. That was just about at the bottom of my list of ‘great ways to end the day.’

  I tried not to listen to the talk that swirled around me in the SUV. It was all about Gabriel, how great he was, how talented, how many wonderful things he was doing, blah, blah, blah. I was conspicuously silent, and finally Luis asked me what had happened when they had left me alone with him. He was sitting in the other front seat, and I gave him a sidelong glance. “We sort of hammered out a compromise,” I said a little warily.

  “A compromise? But we all want to join him in whatever he wants to do.”

  “Please,” I broke in. “Do not tell me he is a great man.”

  Luis frowned at me, and his posture tightened, somehow. I didn’t understand it at first.

  “You do not think he is a great man?” There was an edge to his voice that I really should have listened to. Unfortunately, I was deep in my own worries and the warning flew past me. I just shrugged. Luis continued, “I would die for him.”

  “Really?” I snapped back. “I think I might like to run over him.”

  I wasn’t looking at Luis now, so was completely confused when something hit me, hard, graying everything around me as my brain considered taking an unexpected holiday from consciousness.

  The SUV swerved, and if Luis didn’t have great reflexes, we’d have probably flipped end over end, and all of Gabriel’s protection wouldn’t have saved us. By the time I felt myself relatively aware again, the SUV was stopped. I had been dragged out of the seat and loud voices were ringing around me.

  I sat up, trying not to move my head much, since one side of it felt like it had doubled in size. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but it was clear to me that there was a new problem now. Luis was being taken bodily out of the SUV, his foot grazing my shoulder as he was yanked out.

  Everyone was talking, and although it was a really bad idea as far as my burgeoning headache was concerned, I yelled for quiet. Surprisingly, I got it. Maybe it was because as Gabriel had suggested, I had some sort of gift. Maybe it was because the mostly unconscious girl had suddenly risen and yelled. Or maybe it was just surprise. Whatever it had been, I decided to seize the moment. “Everyone just stop right now!” I snarled. I hadn’t meant to sound so angry, but my head was sending explosion warnings to the rest of my body, and I wasn’t sure if I would continue with consciousness. “What is happening?” I stabbed a finger at the black-shirted ‘Gabriel’ man holding Luis who was struggling and looked as if he might break free any minute. I hissed at him. “Luis, stop!” To my shock, he did.

  I touched the side of my head that felt huge, looking at my fingers afterwards. A little blood, but not much. And it didn’t seem like my jaw was broken. My cheek, now that might be a different story.

  The man I had pointed at said in a sure voice, “This man assaulted you. We have orders from Gabriel that no one is to harm you.”

  I looked at Luis. “You hit me?” It came together suddenly. I should have known better. I should have thought for a minute before I spoke. Luis was under Gabriel’s spell. He loved him as if he were the second coming. And I’d said that I’d like to kill him. I really should have expected a reaction, although I don’t think I’d have ever expected that exact reaction. Not from Luis, who was supposed to be protecting me.

  Luis said, “She wants to kill him,” and I think every eye turned to look at me with various amounts of horrified shock.

  I put up my hands, palms out. “No, I don’t. I was just using hyperbole. An exaggeration.” Still they stared. “I was kidding.”

  Finally, the men from Gabriel thawed. “We cannot allow her to be harmed.” The man saying this was blond and had long hair to his shoulders and wire rim glasses. “You’re hurt,” he said, proving his ability to state the obvious. He turned to the others decisively, “I’m calling it in.” He whipped out a cell phone and pushed one button. While he waited for the call to go through, and over my protests, the other men pushed Luis against the SUV and handcuffed his hands behind his back. Luis didn’t resist.

  Another man ran back from the SUV with what looked like a tackle box. He opened it, and I realized it was a large and well-stocked fir
st aid kit. He pulled out a cold pack, whacked it against the side of the SUV to activate it, and gave it to me, indicating that I should put it to my sore face. I didn’t really want to touch my face with anything, even the cold pack but thought arguing at this point might be a bad idea.

  The Gabriel man had reached someone and stepped away from us while talking quickly into the phone. I was annoyed, wanting to know what was said. Would I be put in cuffs next? Now the man was waiting again. It seemed interminable. We sat where we had stopped, in the road, a perfect target for any bad guys who might have wanted to do their worst. But on the plus side, the empty Interstate meant we weren’t a problem traffic-wise. Had to look at the bright side.

  The ice felt good, but the pain was becoming less numb and more localized. My lip seemed to be bleeding, or maybe my mouth was bleeding inside. My temple throbbed like a sore tooth, and my cheek was coming alive with a vengeance. Luis was still being watched carefully, but I thought they might be watching me as well.

  Finally the blond man spoke into the cell phone again, his expression rapt. Was he actually talking to Gabriel now? He nodded and walked to me, handing me the cell phone. I took it, putting it to my ear on my unhurt side. “Hello?”

  Gabriel’s voice flowed over the phone, and for a brief moment, my pain disappeared completely. “What happened?”

  “It was just a misunderstanding. I was … uh, being crabby, and mumbled that I’d like to run over you, and Luis, one of the men in my delegation, heard and … uh … hit me.”

  There was silence, and I glanced at the readout on the phone to see if we’d been disconnected. Then I heard him ask politely, “Give the phone back to Tim.”

  I assumed that was the blond man, but I wasn’t quite so docile as to not ask any questions of my own. “What are you going to do?”

  He said with cutting force, “Give the phone to him!” And before I realized what I had done, I had given the phone back to Tim. My mouth tightened in irritation, causing me to gasp in pain. He’d used his juju on me. Damn. I guess I had my answer about it working over the phone.