Stealing Phoenix Page 9

  In what way were they enemies? To me, Yves had started out as just another mark.

  ‘Makes us wonder what you told them.’ He used his power to open the fire-door, not waiting for Tony to answer a knock.

  ‘I told them nothing! I escaped as soon as I could. There were three of them, Dragon, in case you didn’t notice!’

  Heads quickly withdrew from doorways as we passed. No one wanted to be picked out for being too curious.

  ‘Three people who know all about us now. Three Savants. Three problems. And maybe more if they tell others.’

  ‘But there’s nothing to tell!’ I could feel that my protests were falling like cries in deep space—in the emptiness of Dragon’s heart, there was nothing to carry the sound. Unicorn was worse: his soul was stuffed with evil and cruelty. Being on the wrong side of him was to be a mouse in the paws of a vindictive alley cat.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, explain that to the Seer.’ Dragon shoved me up the stairs.

  We reached the fifth floor. I was cursing my decision under my breath. I should’ve taken my chance with Yves; coming back hadn’t saved Tony but only made everything much, much worse.

  Phee, I can feel you are upset. Speak to me. It was Yves, trying to find me again. His telepathic message was faint as he didn’t quite know where to direct it. I couldn’t reply. Some telepaths can eavesdrop on the conversations of others and block them if they try. One of the Seer’s companions, a woman called Kasia, had these gifts and she was never very far from him. The last thing I wanted was Yves and his brothers to storm into a fight they could not possibly win.

  Unicorn went on ahead into the Seer’s rooms while I stood with Dragon on the balcony. This must be what it felt like to wait for an execution. I was consumed by a strange kind of panic, searching for options while knowing that there was no escape. Yves’s voice whispered pleas but I had to ignore him.

  Unicorn came back too quickly and nodded to signal that we could enter. I was alarmed to see most of the Seer’s hangers-on were leaving, only his core team of a couple of henchmen and Kasia remaining behind. I studied her quickly, hoping for an ally. I had had several OK conversations with her in the past months. A bleached blonde thirty-something with the prematurely aged skin of a heavy smoker, she wasn’t unkind, just very much under the sway of the Seer. I often wondered if he used his gift to plant the seed of adoration in his female companions, knowing that a normal woman would be repulsed by being close to him.

  No one spoke as we approached the Seer’s throne. My knees were shaking—something I was sure everyone had noticed as I could barely stand.

  Sprawled on the sofa, the Seer turned to me, his small, dark eyes as malevolent as the button features of a voodoo doll’s face and about as human.

  Still no questions.

  Unable to stand the tension, I gave a little whimper of distress, quickly swallowed.

  He raised a finger. I was lifted into the air and let fall back to the floor, landing on my back, all the wind knocked from my lungs by Dragon’s mental punch to my stomach.

  ‘You betrayed us.’

  I curled up, hands over my head. ‘No, no, I didn’t.’

  Dragon’s next attack sent me spinning over the floor to crash into the wall like a squash ball. Pain slammed through my body.

  ‘You told the Benedicts about us and now the Savant Net will be aware of our cell.’

  ‘Please, I said nothing. I escaped as soon as I could, but I was tired and weak—I had to rest before I tried to break out.’

  My excuses disappeared like raindrops falling on cracked, dry earth. I was never listened to, never heard in the Community; just a tool to be used. The Seer turned to Unicorn. ‘Did she have anything on her?’

  Unicorn folded his arms. ‘Nothing. She was trying to evade them in the Barbican Centre when we caught up with her. If she managed to steal any items she must have dumped them.’

  The Seer flicked his gaze back to me. ‘Did you?’

  ‘No, I tried.’ He glowered. ‘I really did, but they had a fail-safe mechanism, a kind of self-destruct. There was an iPhone and an iPad but both were destroyed.’

  ‘That is unfortunate,’ the Seer tapped his fingers on his stomach, ‘for you.’

  I curled up even tighter.

  ‘So what do we do now, sir?’ Dragon asked, perhaps to distract him from thoughts of inflicting immediate punishment. Some flicker of brotherly sympathy might still glow in the depths of his heart like the light of a dying star. ‘And what’s going on? Unicorn and I, we were wondering why you wanted her to hit these men in particular.’

  The Seer played with a gold ring squashed on his puffy finger. ‘I suppose there is no harm in you knowing. The Savant Net has recently come to my attention—and they have crossed some other Savants, business contacts.’

  ‘What is the Net?’ Unicorn frowned at me as I made to crawl out of the Seer’s eyeline. I lay still.

  The Seer debated for a second if he was prepared to share information; he usually kept all knowledge to himself, aware it gave him extra power over us. This time he made an exception. ‘It’s an international organization, very loose-knit, a group of fools misusing Savant gifts for what they term “good” causes.’

  Unicorn smirked; Dragon laughed; but for me the news was welcome. So there were good Savants? Gifts did not have to be used in the shadows like we did with ours? That was encouraging to know even if it was unlikely to help me.

  ‘They try to crack down on the activities of those of us who wish to be free to exercise our powers in whatever way we see fit. If they give the authorities too much of an insight into our methods, we will find our hunting grounds much reduced, and some of us may even be put out of business.’ The Seer flicked a hand at me. ‘Phoenix was sent to acquire the possessions of the one in charge of communications but she has disappointed me. I’d counted on her gift to get the information our colleagues require to eliminate the threat to our operations.’

  ‘What kind of information?’ asked Unicorn.

  ‘Names, addresses, all kinds of valuable intelligence about those involved in the Savant Net were stored on that Savant’s computer and now she tells us they have gone up in smoke. That data was our bargaining chip and now we don’t have it.’

  Savant Net? I could make a guess what he was talking about—an online group of those of us with gifts—but why did he want to know about it now? I could understand that he saw it as a threat but the Seer was usually only interested in the gains of petty theft and quick money; taking on the Savant Net was in another league. Normally he would move on if he thought the authorities had got wind of us. Had his horizons expanded to selling information in some form of Savant espionage? Or had he already been involved and I had just never known? It had not escaped me that the fact that they were talking so freely in front of me was not a good sign. No indication of trust, it was more likely they knew I’d be unable to share what I was learning.

  Dragon folded his arms, standing over me like a prison warden, ready to kick me if I dared move. ‘There were three of them chasing her. Are there more?’

  The Seer nodded. ‘Many more. That particular branch destroyed the Kelly business empire in Las Vegas last year. As far as we can make out, they are at the centre of the US operations of the Savant Net.’

  ‘Forgive me, sir,’ Unicorn said smoothly, ‘but you have said “we” a number of times. I’m not quite sure who you mean.’

  The Seer glared at him, his head sinking deeper into his triple chins. ‘I’ll tell you when I’m ready to tell you and not a moment earlier.’

  Unicorn backed down immediately. ‘Of course, sir.’

  The Seer took a cigar from a box at a sidetable and lit the tip. ‘I see you clearly, Unicorn. Like the creature I named you after, you have only one point and you’ll skewer anything on that horn of a brain of yours to get your way. You want to rule and you secretly look down on me.’

  ‘No, no, sir.’ Unicorn went quite pale. ‘I’m just curious.’


  The Seer gave a poisonous bubble of laughter, a belch of cigar smoke. ‘I do not mind your ruthless drive for power, my son, as long as you do not act on your thoughts to dispose of me.’ He leaned forward, the sofa creaking as he moved. ‘Let me tell you now, you won’t be able to. I have planted enough seeds of loyalty in all your brains to make any step against me the same as suicide.’

  Of course he had. We all knew that trying to escape him was impossible.

  ‘If—when—one of you takes over, it will be by my invitation. But you should know that there is a world of other Savants outside my organization, one that I will very soon introduce you to, but on my terms and on my say-so. Understood?’

  Cowed, Unicorn nodded. ‘Completely, sir.’

  ‘Now, Phoenix.’ He sucked on the cigar.

  Oh God, he was turning his attention back to me.

  ‘I fear you have not told us everything.’ His power was pushing at my mind but I was too terrified to have any thoughts but fear; he wasn’t learning anything that way.

  ‘She spent all afternoon with them,’ Unicorn said hurriedly, trying to prove his suspect loyalty by tattling on me.

  The Seer blew out a stream of smoke. ‘And you wish us to believe that you told them nothing about us?’

  Dragon hauled me from the floor on to my knees. ‘Answer the Seer.’

  I grappled for safe things to tell them. ‘They gave me something to eat and sorted out a burn I got when the gear went up in flames.’ I held out the reddened palm. ‘One of them is a healer.’

  ‘A healer!’ snorted the Seer. ‘Not much of a threat then. And what else happened?’

  ‘He … they let me sleep. Then I escaped.’

  Unicorn strode towards me, hand outstretched. ‘She’s wasting our time. Let me use my power on her to loosen her tongue.’

  ‘No!’ The Seer stopped Unicorn in his tracks. ‘Phoenix has other uses. Her youth is part of her value to me. I don’t want her made to talk that way.’

  I breathed a subtle sigh of relief—too soon.

  ‘Fetch Tony. I’ve noticed that there seems to be some attachment between the two of them. Perhaps she will talk to save her friend.’

  ‘Please, there is nothing more to tell you!’

  But Unicorn had already left.

  The Seer ignored my frantic pleas, turning to the television as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. I crouched against the wall, hands covering my head to drown out the hateful sound of him crunching his way through a handful of peanuts. A talent show burbled away on the screen with its manufactured tension and false emotion, leather-faced judges passing judgement on those who were foolish enough to put themselves through the torture. The Seer was a bloated version of them, manipulating the futures of others with his least word, his punishment for failure not expulsion, but pain or death.

  Tony shuffled into the room, his worried dark eyes flitting from me to the Seer. ‘You sent for me, sir?’

  The Seer switched off the screen with a blink midway through some dance group. ‘Yes, Tony. I need your help.’

  Tony was understandably surprised by this statement. He smiled wanly. ‘Of course. Anything. You know I am loyal to you.’

  ‘Phoenix here is having difficulty telling us everything we need to know. We want you to persuade her otherwise.’

  Tony had no idea he was being toyed with. He turned a shaky, cajoling smile on me. ‘Come on, Phee, you know the Seer can’t be disobeyed. You have to tell him all you know.’

  I dug my nails into my knees. ‘I have, Tony, only he doesn’t believe me.’

  Tony rubbed his mangled hand with his good one. ‘I see, I see. Not sure what we can do then.’

  Then, in a fraction of a second, the mood in the room shot into the red spectrum. The Seer sent Unicorn an unspoken order. The younger man grabbed Tony by the scruff of the neck.

  ‘How old are you, Tony?’ the Seer asked as my friend quivered in Unicorn’s grip.

  ‘Fifty-eight I think, sir.’ Tony turned desperate eyes on me.

  ‘Please, don’t!’ I whispered.

  ‘You would give your life for me?’ the Seer continued.

  ‘Of … of course,’ agreed Tony.

  ‘Good. I want ten years now.’

  Smiling hungrily, Unicorn closed his eyes and spread his gift over Tony. I could see the dark grey pall falling over his victim; Tony’s hair was drained of colour, turning pure white, skin more lined, body stooped as bones bent arthritically. Oh God, oh God.

  ‘Phee!’ gasped Tony in shock. ‘Help me!’

  I scrambled up to my feet, intending to break the connection by force, but Dragon threw me back down with a flick of a finger.

  ‘Tell us what we want to know,’ droned the Seer.

  My mind howling with rage, I felt as if I was being ripped in two. Unicorn was killing Tony—I had no choice.

  ‘All right, all right, please stop!’ I screamed. ‘There’s one more thing I can tell you. But, please, I beg you, please stop hurting him!’

  Unicorn lifted his hand. Tony slumped to the ground, chest heaving.

  I swallowed. ‘The reason why the Benedicts took me in— it’s because I’m Yves’s soulfinder.’

  Silence met this claim. What had I done?

  ‘You have a soulfinder?’ Dragon said incredulously. Like me, he probably had doubted they even existed.

  I nodded. My whole body was shaking as though I had been shut in an industrial freezer, unable to get any warmth to my core. I had betrayed my other half.

  The Seer rocked slightly on the sofa making the frame groan. ‘Interesting. This has … possibilities.’

  Forgotten until this moment, Kasia laid delicate fingers, nails painted scarlet, on his shoulder. ‘It’s true. I can sense him trying to find her. I ignored it until now, not sure of what I was hearing, but there is a search underway.’

  The Seer glanced back at me. ‘And has she replied?’

  Kasia gave me a pitying look. ‘No. She’s blocking him.’

  The Seer tapped his fat lips with the tips of his fingers. ‘Curious. That seems to support her claim that she’s loyal to us. Perhaps I’ve judged her too harshly.’ He then noticed Tony lying at his feet. ‘Take the man away and make sure he’s looked after. He did well.’

  Tony’s eyes fluttered open as he was lifted up by two of the Seer’s guard.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered.

  His tired eyes closed, giving me no absolution.

  ‘So, tell us, Phoenix, what is it like to have a soulfinder?’ The Seer seemed genuinely interested. He patted the sofa cushion next to him. ‘Come and tell your daddy all about it.’

  I wished he would go back to torturing me. Choices long since given up, I moved to the seat he indicated. ‘It feels … ’ Frightening? Awful? Wonderful? ‘Special.’

  ‘And would you do anything to keep your soulfinder safe?’

  This question was much more dangerous. ‘I … I suppose. I hardly know. I only met him this morning.’

  He stroked his lips thoughtfully. ‘And does he like you?’

  I gave a choked laugh. ‘Like me? How could he? I’ve tried to steal from him—I ran away from him. I imagine he is pretty fed up with me right now.’

  He leaned over and patted my cheek. ‘You underestimate yourself, Phoenix. You have your mother’s looks and an interesting gift: he won’t have given up on you yet.’

  I wished he would. I did not like the direction this conversation was taking.

  ‘You may have failed to get the intelligence this time, but how much will he give to keep you, I wonder? Would he sacrifice the Savant Net if he knew that was the only way to save his soulfinder? A fascinating dilemma.’ The Seer licked his lips, calculating the fallout of human misery from his little experiment using me as bait.

  I doubted very much that Yves would put his family and friends at risk for me. Now we’d met, he had to know I wasn’t worth it, even with the soulfinder link between us. The legend was that your soulfind
er was supposed to give a Savant completeness, contentment and new strengths to their gift, but Yves could hardly hope for that when I was such a disaster area. The presence of the Seer in my life was like being raised in the shadow of the faulty Chernobyl nuclear reactor; I was going to be living with the effects of the radiation for years.

  The Seer offered me the peanuts but, as the bowl had been lodged on his lap, I would rather have eaten scorpions. ‘I think I will take you with me this evening,’ he mused. ‘Get dressed for a night out, my dear. You and I have some friends to meet. They will be eager to hear about our interesting situation.’

  ‘Going out?’ I’d never heard of the Seer venturing from his squalid penthouse, but then I had not dared track his movements.

  ‘Yes. The Waldorf Hotel. Kasia, make sure she is suitably kitted out to impress. You may use the jewellery.’ He tossed her a key from his top pocket. Kasia snatched it from the air. ‘I’ll need you along to ensure no security leaks.’

  ‘May I wear something from the box too?’ she asked hopefully, caressing the key in her fingers.

  The Seer sighed, hating the idea of any of his riches leaving his vaults. ‘I suppose you must. But my daughter gets the diamonds. Nothing above pearls for you.’

  Kasia flashed him a radiant smile. ‘Thank you. Come with me, Phoenix.’ She frowned at my scratched knees and faded shorts. ‘I can see I have my work cut out.’

  For the first time in my life, I was all dressed up with somewhere to go. If I hadn’t felt so depressed about Yves and Tony, I might have even enjoyed the experience. Kasia and I had had plenty of outfits to choose from as the Seer’s apartment had rooms stuffed with designer clothes, shoes, and jewels, none of which could have possibly been used, as his companions were usually to be seen in cheap imitations of the real thing. I was even more perplexed by his mentality of surrounding himself by tat when he easily could afford so much more. I could only guess that there was a strong miserly streak to the Seer, content to possess without enjoying, a character bent towards the gutter rather than aspiring to the swanky parts of town, like the West End, where we were now heading.