Page 55 of The Presidents Shadow

“Yeah, sure. I’ll ask the governor later tonight when we’re having dinner.”

“Give me a break, buddy,” Maddy says.

“A break,” the guard says. “What a great idea.” He thenswivels around in his chair and faces the computer screen, pressing a button on his keyboard.

The screen flickers and he begins an online poker game.

“Nice,” Maddy says, then turns her back to walk away. She’s halfway to the door, using her mind power to monitor the guard’s game, when she calls over her shoulder, “Bet you wish you’d kept that three of hearts, am I right?”

She doesn’t see him tip over in his chair, but she does hear the crash.

Smiling, she lets herself out.

CHAPTER 74

MADDY COULD CONTACT Lamont. Or she could connect with Dache. If she were really desperate, she could try again with R.J.

When it comes to her next move, Maddy has a lot of choices. But she also realizes that any of the three will lead to some unpleasant conversations, not to mention loads of “here’s what you should have done” advice.

Feeling stuck, she decides to use the drive home to clear her head, but it’s almost impossible. The lack of traffic on the roads should make her less stressed, but it only serves to remind her about the Newbola outbreak and how everyone is blaming Lamont for it. Her usual playlists can’t even calm her mind. She snaps the music off with irritation, and a live news update takes its place on the radio.

The drug wars in Bolivia are raging. The economic update from President Townsend is packed with lies. Nuclear drones are flying over Malaterra, the country that wasformerly called Mexico. Everything is falling apart. It’s all so frightening.

She decides to find a classical music station, something from a less-chaotic time period. But before she can turn the dial, the newscaster’s voice rises in volume with a breaking update.

“To the astonishment and concern of the entire medical community, the spread of the dreaded Newbola virus is overwhelming the resources of the world everywhere. From East Africa to northern Canada, Newbola is ravaging every area of the earth.”

Maddy snaps off the radio, not wanting to hear the expected follow-up—blaming Lamont for everything.

Suddenly, a huge green Cadillac swerves in front of her and purposely slows down. Maddy yells, slamming on her brakes. Her entire body is tense as she braces for the impact, but she manages to stop right before rear-ending the larger vehicle. It’s so much higher than her car that the license plate is directly in her face when she comes to a stop.

LT4 63Z2

“Oh, shit!” Maddy yells, just as the Cadillac gasses it.

Maddy accelerates as well, not wanting to let the car out of her sight.

Suddenly, the Cadillac’s trunk flies open and spews a small flood of bright blue liquid onto the roadway. Maddy’s car is now completely out of her control. She skids off the road and onto the muddy embankment.

Ahead of her, the Cadillac does a U-turn and comes back in her direction, stopping with its nose only two feet from her ditched car. Three masked men jump from the green car and rush toward her.

Panicked, she tries to think what Dache would tell her to do right now. Calm down. Concentrate. But that’s the last thing she’s capable of right now.

Should she shape-shift? Into what? A German shepherd? A poison arrow? She tries. She tries so hard. But her powers fail her. She cannot grab calm from out of terror.

The masked men pull her from the car and drag her to the Cadillac. They push her in, zip-tying her hands in front of her, as well as her ankles. One of the men presses a blue handkerchief to her face. She tries not to breathe in but can do it for only so long. The first whiff of chemically laced air puts her out. But not for long.

When Maddy comes to, she does not know how many miles they have traveled. It could have been five miles; it could have been five hundred. All she knows is that she is awake, alive—and abducted.

She is inside a moving vehicle, but when she stretches her legs out, she meets no resistance. Much too roomy to be the trunk of a car, even a Cadillac.

Her eyes adjust to the dark and Maddy looks around. A simple little room, sheetrock walls, nothing else inside there but Maddy herself and a modest wooden trunk. Her mind is churning with anxious possibilities.

It could be she’s being transported in a different vehicle.Maybe they’ve transferred her from the green car to a truck, a van, or even a trailer.

It’s dark, but not pitch black. A farm animal odor. Strands of hay are on the floor. Yes, it must be a trailer of some kind.

She focuses on the wooden trunk. Maybe there’s something helpful inside. She calls upon her shape-shifting powers, but they don’t appear. She calls upon her superior-strength abilities, but, for all of her work with Dache, they don’t take hold of her.

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