Betrayed

CHAPTER 10

"So why can't we tell Neferet about this mess? All she'd have to do is make a few calls, like she did last month when Aphrodite had a vision about that plane going down at the Denver airport," Damien said, careful to keep his voice low. I'd hurried back to the dorm, huddled my group together, and given them the short ver­sion of Aphrodite's vision.

"She made me promise I wouldn't go to Neferet. The two of them are having some kind of weird fight."

"It's about time Neferet started seeing her as the bitch she is," Stevie Rae said.

"Hateful cow," Shaunee said.

"Hag from hell," Erin agreed.

"Yeah, well, what she is doesn't really matter. It's her visions and the people who are in danger of dying that matter," I said.

"I heard that her visions aren't really believable anymore be­cause Nyx has withdrawn her favor from Aphrodite," Damien said. "Maybe that's why she made you promise not to go to Nef­eret, because this is all something she made up and she wants you to freak out and do something that will either embarrass you and make you look bad, or get you in trouble."

"I'd think that too if I hadn't watched her having the vision. She wasn't faking it, I'm sure of that."

"But is she telling you the whole truth?" Stevie Rae asked.

I thought about that for a second. Aphrodite had already ad­mitted to me that she could withhold parts of her visions from Neferet. What made me think she wasn't doing that with me, too? Then I remembered the whiteness of her face, the way she had gripped my hand, and the fear in her voice as she joined my grandma in her death. I shivered.

"She was telling me the truth," I said. "You guys will just have to trust that my intuition is right." I looked at my four friends. None of them were happy about this, but I knew that each of them trusted me and that I could count on them. "So, here's the deal, I've already called my grandma. She won't be on that bridge, but a bunch of other people will. We need to figure out a way to save those other people."

"Aphrodite said that a bargelike boat hit the bridge causing it to collapse?" Damien asked.

I nodded.

"Well, you could pretend to be Neferet and do what she does, call whoever's in charge of the barge and tell them one of your students has had a vision of a tragedy. People listen to Neferet; they're scared not to. It's a well-known fact that her information has saved lots of human lives."

"I already thought about that, but it won't work because Aphrodite didn't see the boat clearly. She wasn't even sure it was a barge. So I have no way of knowing how to even begin contacting anyone about stopping it. And I can't pretend to be Neferet. It feels way wrong. I mean, talk about asking to get in trouble. You can't tell me that whoever I call won't call back with some kind of follow-up report to Neferet. Then all hell would break loose."

"Ugly scene," Shaunee said.

"Yeah, Neferet would find out that the hag had another vision, so your promise to keep it quiet would be broken," Erin said.

"Okay, so stopping the boat is out, and pretending to be Nef­eret is out. That leaves closing the bridge as our only option," Damien said.

"That's what I thought, too," I said.

"Bomb threat!" Stevie Rae said suddenly. We all looked at her. "Huh?" Erin asked.

"Explain," Shaunee said.

"We call whoever those freaks who make bomb threats call."

"That could actually work," said Damien. "When there's a bomb threat in a building they always evacuate it. So it figures that if there's a bomb threat about a bridge, the bridge will be closed, at least until they find out the bomb threat is fake."

"If I call from my cell phone they won't be able to tell who I am, will they?" I asked.

"Oh, please," Damien said, shaking his head like I was a total moron. "Of course they can trace cell phones. This isn't the nineties."

"Then what do I do?"

"You can still use a cell. It just has to be a disposable one," Damien explained.

"You mean like a disposable camera?"

"Where have you been?" Shaunee asked.

"Who doesn't know about disposable cells?" Erin said.

"I don't," Stevie Rae said.

"Exactly," the Twins said together.

"Here"—Damien pulled a big dorky looking Nokia out of his pocket—"use mine."

"Why do you have a disposable?" I studied the phone. It looked fairly normal.

"I got it after my parents freaked about me being gay. Until I was Marked and came here it felt like they were grounding me for life from life. I mean, not that I really expected them to lock me in a closet somewhere, but it's good to be prepared. Since then I've made sure I always have one."

None of us knew what to say. It really sucked that Damien's parents were so psycho about him being gay.

"Thanks, Damien," I finally said.

"No problem. When you're done making the call be sure you turn it off and then give it back to me. I'll destroy it."

"Okay."

"And be sure you tell them that the bomb's planted under the waterline. That way they'll have to close the bridge long enough for them to send in divers to check it out."

I nodded. "Good idea. I'll tell them that the bomb's going to explode at three fifteen, which is the exact time Aphrodite saw on my grandma's dashboard clock when she crashed."

"I don't know how long these things take, but you should prob­ably call about two thirty, that sounds like enough time for them to get out there and close the bridge, but not so much that they'll have time to figure out it's a fake threat, and let cars back on the bridge too soon," Stevie Rae said.

"Uh, guys," Shaunee said. "Who are you go

"Hell, I don't know." I was feeling the stress settle around my shoulders and knew I was going to have a major headache very soon.

"Google it," Erin said.

"No," Damien said quickly. "We don't want any kind of com­puter trail. You just need to call the local branch of the FBI. That'll be in the phone book. They'll do whatever it is they do when freaks call."

"Like track them down and put them in jail for the rest of eter­nity," I muttered gloomily.

"No, they're not going to catch you. You're not leaving any kind of a trail. They'll have no reason to think it's any of us. Call at about two thirty. Tell them you've planted a bomb under the bridge because …" Damien hesitated.

"Because of pollution!" Stevie Rae chirped.

"Pollution?" Shaunee said.

"I don't think it should be because of pollution. I think it should be because you're sick and tired of government interfer­ence in the private sector's lives," Erin said.

I just blinked at her. What the hell did she just say?

"Excellent point, Twin," Shaunee said.

Erin gri

"We understand, Twin," Shaunee said.

"I still like saying that it's because you're tired of pollution. Pollution's a real problem," Stevie Rae said stubbornly.

"Okay, how about I say it's because of government interference and pollution in our rivers? That'll be the reason the bomb's on a bridge." They looked at me with blank expressions. I sighed. "Be­cause of pollution in the river."

"Ohhh," they said.

"We'd make dorky terrorists," Stevie Rae said with a giggle.

"I think that's actually a good thing," Damien said.

"So we're in agreement? I call the FBI, and we all keep our mouths shut about Aphrodite's vision."

They nodded.

"Good. Okay. Guess I'll find a phone book and look up the number for the FBI, and then—"

A movement caught at the corner of my vision, and I glanced up to see Neferet escorting two men in suits into the dorm. Everyone went instantly silent, and I heard a whisper of "They're human ... " begin to buzz through the room. Then I didn't have time to think or to listen, because it was obvious that Neferet and the two human men were walking directly over to me.