Sharron McClellan - Breathless

Always to the point. Jess swallowed, wondering how much more bad news she would have to endure. “Will I be court-martialed?”

“We will do what is needed to prevent your conviction.”

A typical quasi-evasive answer but still, Jess’s muscles relaxed a micron. If anyone could bring the saboteur, Chuck’s killer, to light, it was Delphi’s network of agents. Delphi continued, “In the meantime, we have an assignment for you.”

Jess perked up, grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil, relieved to focus on something besides images of Leavenworth. “I’m listening.”

“We have booked you a flight to Puerto Isla, an island located two hundred miles off the coast of Belize. Once there, we want you to rendezvous with Zach Holiday. He runs a salvage operation. A cocaine ship named Paradise Lost sank off the coast three years ago during the Puerto Isla Revolution, and we want you to locate it.”

Jess scribbled the information in her personal shorthand then stopped. “Three years?” She knew how the ocean worked, and three years was a long time. Objects moved. Or were buried by sand.

“We’ve collated the available data and have come up with a search grid,” Delphi said.

“Of course,” Jess said, knowing Delphi would think of everything. “How much does Zach know?”

“Minimal. That we’re looking for a specific ship but not why.”

“Didn’t he ask questions?” Jess asked.

“Yes, but I chose Zach and his crew because they have worked with the government before, and Zach is aware that he cannot be privy to all details.”

“What type of projects has he done?”

“Recovery of drug planes and cargo. Some data encryption. Even a recovery mission for the Marine Corps.”

Jess perked up at the information.

Delphi continued, “Still, I would prefer our information remain on a need-to-know basis. I’ll trust your judgment in that regard.”

“Thank you,” Jess replied.

Delphi continued. “We believe the ship contains equipment, a laptop that belonged to Arachne and data that might lead to her whereabouts.”

The hairs on Jess’s neck rose in response to the name. “The one who set me up? The one who killed Chuck?”

“Yes.”

She could have sworn she heard a smile in that singular, positive response. “Good.” Whoever this Arachne was, Jess wanted her dead.

“Jess, do not underestimate her,” Delphi warned. “Arachne’s vendetta against Athena Academy and her students goes back twenty-four years.”

“Twenty-four years?” The thought that a criminal had been around that long and had not been caught boggled Jess’s mind.

“Yes,” Delphi confirmed. “All the way back to Marion Gracelyn’s death.”

“She killed her?”

“Coordinated it, at least. Since that time, she’s threatened the Academy, tried to destroy it and now she’s showing an unusual interest in the special attendees.”

“Special? Like me?” Jess asked. She’d always wondered if there were others, girls with gifts. She and Nikki had discussed it before and had found they had something in common—they were both conceived using in vitro fertilization, IVF. Since that time, she’d met more than one IVF at the Academy and had watched her, looking for anything that made her different. She’d seen nothing but that didn’t stop her from watching and wondering.

“Yes, girls like you,” Delphi confirmed.

Interesting. Jess filed the information away for future reference then returned to the topic at hand. “Do you know why she wants us?” Jess asked.

“No. Perhaps breeding—”

Jess shuddered in disgust.

“—study, or just to hurt the Academy as much as possible. It’s hard to say. But she knows about your ability to breathe underwater and has obtained information on other women and girls conceived using IVF at one specific clinic in Zuni, New Mexico.”

Nikki.

“Don’t worry about your friends,” Delphi said, answering her unspoken worry.

Jess stared at the phone in surprise, unsettled that Delphi knew her so well.

Delphi continued, “We’ll make sure everyone else is safe. The best way for you to help is to obtain the laptop and anything else you deem useful,” Delphi said. “Delivery will be to Allison Gracelyn.”

Curiosity made Jess want to ask why Allison, but she held back her question. Allison Gracelyn was a member of the Athena Academy Board, and one did not question that kind of influence or importance. “When do I leave?”

“This afternoon. Check your e-mail. I have sent you directions for meeting with Zach, the search coordinates and an airline ticket.”

“Thank you,” Jess said. “I appreciate the opportunity.”

“Jess,” Delphi said, a cautionary tone evident despite the voice distortion. “Be careful. Do not let vengeance cloud your judgment and do not underestimate Arachne.”

“I won’t,” Jess replied. “I know the order of importance. If this brings us closer to catching Arachne, revenge is icing on the cake.”

“Understood.”

The line went dead, and Jess set the phone back in its cradle. Arachne’d had twenty-four years to plot revenge on Athena Academy and its students. Chuck never stood a chance. Neither had she. But now that she knew the enemy, maybe she could help bring her to justice.

“Arachne will pay for what she did, Chuck,” Jess whispered. “I promise.”

“An e-mail? You sent me an e-mail and expected that to be enough?” Nikki said as soon as Jess answered the call.

“Hello, to you, too,” Jess replied, a small smile curling the corners of her mouth as she held the receiver away from her ear. After her conversation with Delphi, she’d e-mailed Nikki the basic information about what she was doing. She wanted to call but e-mail was easier. Impersonal. And right now she needed the distance.

She should have known it wouldn’t work.

“Yeah. Well. Hi,” Nikki returned.

Nikki still sounded irritated. “I was going to call as soon as I packed,” Jess explained. “I’m just on a tight schedule right now.”

“Packed?” Nikki asked. “Where are you heading?”

“To the beach,” Jess said, cradling the cordless phone between her neck and ear. As much as she loathed hauling her personal dive gear—she didn’t need much other than a wet suit for protection against coral and fins for additional speed—it would look strange for her to use rental when she was a professional.

Besides, the thought of putting her mouth around a used snorkel and regulator was repulsive. “Since I have time on my hands, I thought I’d work on my tan.”

“They’re letting you leave? What about the accident?”

“It’s under investigation.” She tucked her fins in the bottom of her dive bag.

“You mean, you’re under investigation,” Nikki said, her voice terse.

“The situation is under investigation,” Jess corrected as she folded her full-body black wet suit and tucked it on top of the fins.

Through the receiver, she heard Nikki inhale. “I bet if I was there right now, I’d smell honey, wouldn’t I?” Nikki pressed, her voice terse.

Jess sighed. That was Nikki’s undercover way of calling her a liar. Trust her friend not to let her get away with anything. Even a fib. “Yes,” Jess admitted. To Nikki’s olfactory-based psi sense, spoken lies had always smelled a little too sweet. “But I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay,” Nikki said, her tone finally softening. “Anything I can do to help?”

Find Arachne? Bring Chuck back to life? Jess wished she could tell Nikki what was happening and hated the fact that she couldn’t. If she did, then Nikki would want to know how Jess got her information, and getting into a discussion about being an Oracle agent—especially a discussion on an unsecured line—was as dumb as one got and would put them both at risk.