TRANCE, Inc. 19

I squeezed my eyes closed, fell into the moment. I fell into the profound relief, into the knowledge that there was something we could do to escape TRANCE's dangerous maze. But, even as my anxiety receded, I knew it was just a wave going back out to sea before the next one washed ashore. There was still too much to do. There was so much at stake. And, beneath it all, beneath my fear for my family and my desire to see them safe, flowed a single haunting question.

If I helped my companions to free themselves from TRANCE, for good, would they even want to stay?

"We don't have much time," I told Victoria, once I'd pulled back and given her a chance to collect herself. I explained what had I'd just heard over the phone, and what I had figured out about breaking free from TRANCE programming.

The woman was furious that she'd been the one to turn against me.

"I thought I was helping you..." Victoria muttered, rubbing her temples. Her mouth was a hard line. "And I was betraying you. For him." She didn't even have to use Shrike's name. The venom in her voice was enough for me to know who she was talking about.

But I shook my head. "It's not your fault," I told her sternly, flipping the light switch and stooping to seize my clothes from the floor. I started to get dressed. "Besides, right now we don't need to worry about what's done. We can't. All we can do is get the hell out of here as fast as possible and come up with a plan. This is the first place Shrike's guys will look for us."

The brunette steeled herself, then nodded. "I'll make a go-bag," she said. "Cash. Electronics. Anything useful. And we should expect that anything we leave behind is going to be gone for good."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I don't think these guys plan on being gentle with the place."

While Victoria went out into the hallway closet to grab a duffel, I grabbed my wallet, as much cash as I had on hand, and the snarl of interconnected charging cables at the foot of the bed. These last I simply yanked out of the wall and coiled into a fist-sized bundle. I could worry about untangling that knot when it came to it. In college, I used to take hours to pack for a weekend trip with my small friend group. Tonight, I was ready in five minutes flat.

Victoria and I stood in the entry, cold air blowing down the front hallway through the open door. I looked back into my darkened apartment.

So long, I thought.

Then, we were gone.

Victoria drove, and I didn't need to give her directions for her to take the quickest, more direct route away from my place. We passed the turnoff towards Downing Street, and I wondered if we'd ever be back at Daphne Park, all together, like we had been only a few weeks ago at Thanksgiving.

"Chance," Victoria said finally. She was only a few feet away, but her face was in shadow. It was almost two o'clock in the morning. "I know you're trying to come up with a plan, but where exactly am I going?"

I frowned. I had no idea. And I had other things on my mind.

"We need to get Carmen separated from Seth," I said, not yet answering her question. "So that we can talk to her without him confusing matters and muddying the water. And in order to do that, we're going to need something to distract him."

Victoria took a turn, and something slid across the passenger side floorspace and bumped into my foot. "So what's big enough to distract that self-centered, arrogant little prick? As much as I hate to say it, he seemed pretty goddamn self-assured."

Bending down, I stretched against the seatbelt and snagged the object up into my hands. It had a clunky heft to it, and as I stared at it several things clicked together in my mind. A dozen complaints, conversations and stories, swirling and rearranging themselves from one shape into another.

What if they're wrong? I wondered. What if, the whole time...

"What have you got there?" Victoria asked, not looking over.

"Just a hunch," I said, digging in my pocket. But it might be the only card I could play that would be guaranteed to put Seth off balance.

I slid Daisy's phone from my pants and hesitated before I started to type a new message. Then, my fingers froze. I needed an immediate response. The stakes were too high for me to leave anything to luck.

The phone at the other end picked up after the second ring.

"Hello?" The voice was groggy, but urgent. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Good morning," I said, forcing myself to speak past the ball of nervous tension in my chest. "My name is Chance Laurenzi. How soon can you be in the City?"

* * *

We ended up where I always seemed to end up — back at the Black Dragon Dojo. It was the first time Victoria had visited, but along the way I filled her in with the relevant details.

"So," she commented as we eased into the deserted strip mall parking lot. "This is the place you come every day to learn combat techniques from a mysterious, drug-dealing ninja."

I huffed a laugh, then realized that the description was only half a joke. I shrugged. "Well, so far it's usually more cardio stuff than combat techniques, but... yeah. It sounds stranger when you say it your way."

"Hmm..." Victoria answered, parking. Then, she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to judge. I just worry. Now more than ever. And it worries me that you have such complete trust in someone I've never met." The woman bent forward and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. "I'm not usually so overprotective. Or suspicious. But..." She made an exasperated noise.

I reached out and softly rubbed her upper back. "I get it," I agreed. "If anyone has an excuse to be jaded and suspicious it's you. But Terra is a good person, a genuinely solid human being. At first, I was skeptical as well. She seemed hard to get along with. But I think she's just lonely and used to a hard life. Besides, I trusted her enough to tell her about us, and she was more than understanding. She was helpful."

I squeezed the brunette's shoulder gently, then added, "That's why I'm willing to ask her help again. And that's why I trust her to have my back when I go looking for Landon Shrike."

Victoria sat up very suddenly. "What?" she asked, turning my way.

I nodded, my features grim. Before tonight I would never have considered this kind of idea. Now, I knew the only way to win was to go on offense. "We can't deal with the Seth situation until morning. And we won't be able to save Amber until we can confront this Clayton guy with all the odds in our favor. If I don't get to Shrike now, his fucking murder squad is going to be at our backs hounding us until they get what he wants. And what he wants is probably my head on a stick and your head as empty as a blowup doll. You've met the guy. Am I wrong?"

A pause.

"He wants power, and to be in control," Victoria looked down. "And he doesn't let anything or anyone get in his way."

I nodded. "Alright then," I rested my hand lightly on her forearm. "I know that both of us have good cause to be worried. But we can't let it consume us. I need you to drop me at Terra's place and then get down to the airport. The flight should be arriving in a couple hours, but I need you to be ready when it lands. You let me know immediately, and we can meet up to rescue the twins. If all goes according to plan, Terra and I will have dealt with the Landon Shrike problem by then. If not..." I blew out a breath. Then, I stared into Victoria's face.

For the first time since I'd known her, Victoria seemed completely at a loss.

"I trust you," I told her. "If I can't be there, you'll get the twins away from Seth. Together, you'll find a way to get Amber away from the academy." I nodded, but couldn't go on.

Victoria bit her bottom lip, but then steeled herself. She knew we didn't have time to whine about what had happened or what might happen. I needed to get moving. So, she gripped the wheel and pulled us away from the curb.

"Alright," she said. "Where does this ninja master of yours live?"

As we turned the corner past the iron-fenced churchyard, I felt my heartbeat quicken in my chest. We pulled up in front of Terra's small house, and I unbuckled my seatbelt without looking over. However, when I turned to say goodbye I heard Victoria's own belt click.

"You're not thinking of coming with me?" I asked, frowning.

The woman's door thunked open and she stepped out into the night. "I'll wait at the airport," she agreed, bending down to speak to me across the front seat. "But first, I'm meeting this Terra woman. I'm going to make sure she's badass enough to keep my man alive. And, I'm going to make sure you two have a plan that's going to end with all of us walking away safe." Then, with a firm nod, she closed her door and strode around the front of the car.

I watched her for only a split second before I untangled myself from the seatbelt and followed. Together, we strode up to Terra's front porch, and I didn't try to stop her. I couldn't say no to a woman like that.

"You are back."

Terra had been sitting quietly on the porch swing, sitting so still that the thing wasn't even swaying back and forth.

"I am." I hurried up the steps after Victoria, lifting up a hand in greeting. "Terra, this is Victoria. And I hate to be a bother, but we need your help."

* * *

My martial arts instructor took in the whole story with surprising grace.

Despite my speed, and the convoluted narrative, she simply watched me and nodded along. I'd known Terra was hardcore. That's why I'd been willing to come to her with this, to open up and trust her with everything. But her response was almost underwhelming.

"Do you remember exactly what you heard them say?" she asked. "On the other end of the line, after they killed your spy." It was her only question.

I blinked. "Something about... The Gwennen doesn't appreciate traitors," I shrugged and massaged my temples. "I didn't get it. And Lassiter wasn't some spy, okay? He was my friend."

Sure, DC commented dryly. A "friend" who was forced to help you, who has been paying your bills off his credit card, and who died because you got him involved with—

"And you don't wish to inform the police?" Terra's voice was quiet, but it cut through my internal diatribe.

I hesitated, then shook my head firmly again. "No. Even if we got them involved, what would they do? One man is already dead, but I have no proof to connect it to Shrike or to TRANCE, Inc." Not for the first time, I wished I had been more prepared. If only I'd thought about the future, instead of just trying to put out fires in the present, I might have been ready for these bizarre and dangerous curveballs.

"Besides," I added. "TRANCE is a rich and powerful corporation. How am I supposed to know who to trust? Until now, I wasn't even able to trust the people closest to me." I shook my head. "Maybe I've seen too many movies about corrupt politicians and dirty cops, but we have to keep this between us."

What I didn't say out loud was that I knew if we got some outside authority involved then I would be out of the picture, powerless. There was no guarantee that I could put things back together again, but I didn't trust the job to any hands but my own.

Terra didn't disagree. In fact, she nodded along. "This is wise. It doesn't sound like these mercenaries or their organization would appreciate outside interference. So, what do you need me to do?"

I took a breath, then rolled my shoulders. "Victoria is going to go pick up our guest from the airport. You and I, meanwhile, are going to find Landon Shrike. If we can break into the TRANCE offices, I bet we can search the HR database or something and find out where he lives. Then—"

"I know his address."

Victoria's tone was low when she interrupted, but I stopped speaking immediately. "You do?"

"I do," she said. "A lot of things are still fuzzy in my mind, but I know he told me that I should come by his place after work sometime. After we finished our lunch yesterday, he told me that he wanted to get to know me better." The woman shuddered.

"Alright," I nodded. "Then that bastard gave us just what we needed to nail him." I punched my palm to emphasize the point. "You get on to the airport, Terra and I will track down Shrike. I'll call you as soon as I can, and we'll meet back at Seth's."

Victoria nodded, and then I turned to Terra. "I know this is a lot," I said, spreading my hands. "But right now you're one of the only people I can trust. And, as luck would have it, you're also uniquely suited to help me. I know you have things from the past that you don't want to think about, but those things turned you into exactly the person who can help me tonight. Will you?"

"Of course." The woman didn't hesitate for a second. "The enemies of my friend are my enemies."

"Thank you." By now, I hardly noticed the fact that she spoke like someone out of a high fantasy novel.

"If you will excuse me," Terra said. "I have one or two things I need to fetch from inside." Walking quickly past us, she opened the front door and slipped into the house.

Victoria and I stood outside in the chill air for a moment before the woman turned away. "I should get going," she said.

"Hey," I said, following and grabbing her arm as she started down the steps. "Wait."

"What?" The woman paused, not looking back. "If we're going to get through tonight then we need everything to go as smooth as possible. If I leave now, I can be at the airport in forty-five minutes. Maybe half an hour. I should be there in plenty of time. But what if the flight comes in early? I've got to be prepared. You're about to take enough risk, for all of us." She turned back toward me, but didn't look up into my face. "I won't be the weak link, babe."

It felt stupid and cliché and it was the wrong time. But I couldn't let her go without saying it. "I love you, Vi." My eyes searched for hers but she still didn't look up. "I love you and I didn't want you to go out there tonight not knowing it."

A momentary pause.

Thud thud thud went my heart.

Then, Victoria laughed softly. Her smile flashed in the darkness as she lifted her head. I could see the frown of worry that she had been trying to hide, but it melted away. "You would say it right now, of all times," she teased, and for a second there was a sense of levity. Then, the gorgeous brunette pulled me down toward her for a quick, searing kiss.

It made my head spin, and by the time it was over I swayed back against one of the wooden porch columns. Wow. By the time I stopped seeing stars, Victoria was striding confidently away toward the sidewalk and tossing the final words over her shoulder. "If you return from Landon's in one piece, I'll even say it back."

The car door shut, and she pulled away from the curb with a crunch of gravel. As I watched her drive away, Terra stepped up beside me. I glanced over, and saw that she'd thrown a big, bulky parka over her all-black workout attire.

"You never said what you planned to do to Landon Shrike." She wasn't asking me, just stating a fact.

The bright, warm feeling of affection in my chest turned hot, and a bold, righteous self-confidence burned in its place. I turned toward my teacher and gave her a long, hard look. Her dark hair looked jet black, framed by the grey-and-white fur-lined hood. Her face was coolly composed.

"He's never going to hurt me or mine again."

* * *

It must have been the first time in history that someone used a rideshare app to drive himself and his karate master to the home of his real-life nemesis.

I had given Terra a blank look when she asked how we would get to Shrike's address. "I figured we could take your car," I said.

"I do not drive." Terra frowned. "I have not needed to drive anywhere in a while."

Damn it. With a sigh, I pulled out my phone.

Now, as our Uber driver took the tight turns of the twisting road on the headland, Terra was watching me carefully across the backseat.

"And have you felt anything since the tea you drank earlier? Anything out of the ordinary?"

I shook my head, wondering why she'd been grilling me for the past five minutes. Wasn't there something more important we should be focused on? "No," I answered. "Nothing else. No aftershocks, or whatever they're called. Nothing." I felt like this was the kind of thing she should have worried about before giving me strange, mind-altering beverages rather than after.

Of course, what I said wasn't strictly true. I had felt something, several times. It was the fledgling power that had awakened in my core, the spark of vitality and self-confidence. The coal of anger that flared up when I pronounced my judgement against Landon Shrike. But that wasn't some drug. That was just the new me. And I liked him.

"Is this the place?"

Our Uber had come to a halt at an imposing front gate. The road continued up around a bend in the hillside, but beyond the wrought-iron entrance I could see a long, winding driveway that curled up past some trees. Beyond them, I could just make out the shadowy roof of a large building.

"Yeah," I agreed, pulling up the map application on my phone and checking our location against the marker I'd placed on Shrike's address. "This is it. Thanks."

Terra and I clambered out of the car, my instructor looking unusually bulky in her oversized parka. The furry lining of her hood looked bright in the moonlight. I wondered if the fur was real. It was cold out, I supposed, but something told me there was more hidden up those sleeves than a layer of synthetic down. I didn't know much about Terra's past, but I knew that she certainly wouldn't show up to a fight emptyhanded.

"We must move quickly," Terra ordered. "There will be cameras. We may already have been seen." She took the same commanding tone she used during workouts, and I felt myself relax a fraction.

I nodded. "What do we do?" For some reason, I felt absolutely confident that Terra knew how to stage a midnight break-in.

"Over the wall," the woman said curtly. She gestured downhill, where the tall stone wall extended out on one side of the gate. "You check downhill for a way over. I'll do the same."

I obeyed, stumbling down the ditch along the side of the road and looking up at the nine-foot wall. I wondered why someone living in this neighborhood felt the need for so much security. I hadn't spent any time here in the past, had only driven through a couple times on the way to one of the nearby beaches, but I knew that this was where the wealthy lived. The headlands were a bit outside city limits, true, but they were prime real estate. They commanded a view down over the bay and the City, and I could only imagine the tranquility of being beyond the bustle.

"Chance!"

Terra's quiet call reeled me back in from my thoughts. When I hastily returned to the front gate, I was surprised to find the dark-haired woman on the other side of it.

"There was a tree," she hissed in response to my astonished expression. "Up around the bend. I climbed it and jumped over. But you won't have to. Look." She walked half a dozen paces into the shadows up to the vague shape of a control box. Evidently Terra had no issue reading the keypad in the darkness, because I heard the soft click and beep of a button being punched.

The gate creaked and slowly began to swing open. The sound seemed loud, and I got the strange feeling that the scattered trees beyond the wall were swaying in closer to examine us.

The woman beckoned to me with both hands. "Let's go. Quickly!"

Following the woman in the parka, I sprinted up the asphalt driveway and into the shadow of the trees.

* * *

Landon Shrike was living large.