Regenerate

Chapter 20

The plan really is quite simple. We know where the killer is. He’s renting a room in a motel. Easy to find.

Mantis has given me plenty of toys to help get the job done. I’ve got a pen that actually is a needle filled with sedative. I’ve got a gun. I’ve got a pager that connects me to Derek. All I need to do is push one button, and he’ll be able to use the built in GPS to find me.

And of course Mantis has given me an earpiece so that he can talk directly into my ear without anyone else hearing. It's hard to see anyway this could go wrong. Unless I do something really wrong and off script. We should have this one in the bag.

I actually find the man outside his motel, which is a skeevy little place that nobody decent should ever stay. He has his eyes on a girl walking just a few feet in front of him.

He reaches out and touches her. She falls limp to the ground.

"Hey!" I yell as he hovers over her, ready to take her wherever it was he intended to kill her.

He looks up at the sound of my voice. He had no idea I was trailing him, but he recognizes me the instant he sees me. Even in this poorly lit alleyway, he knows who I am.

He doesn't look alarmed. Even when I pull my gun on him.

"Well," he says, stepping away from the girl's body. "If it isn't the girl who can't be killed."

"We have unfinished business," I say. "I don't really appreciate being dumped in a fish tank."

He puts his hands up in the air, though he doesn't really look like he's surrendering. "It was nothing personal. But I couldn't have you following me. You heal almost as fast as I can drain you. Surely you can see the conflict of interest."

"How about you leave that girl alone before I shoot you?"

"You aren't going to kill me," He says. "As mad as you are about your little swim, you're not a killer."

I narrow my eyes. "You don't know anything about me."

He takes a step closer. "I know you don't hold a gun like somebody who's spent a lot of time shooting one." He's called my bluff there. Derek and I spent an hour at a shooting range this afternoon, but I'm still not really familiar with the weapon.

"Your right," I say. "My aim my not be good enough to kill you cleanly. Might hit somewhere it would really hurt."

He laughs. "You talk big. I sort of find that admirable."

I lower the gun a little. "I have a proposition for you."

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Now you have me intrigued."

"We're not going to talk here."

I hear Mantis's voice buzzing through my earpiece. "Thalia, what are you doing? This is not part of the plan."

I ignore him. I know it's not part of the plan. I'm not following his plan anymore.

Without taking my eyes off the killer, I pull the bug out of my ear and crush it under my foot. "That was my boss," I say. He wants me to bring you in."

The man looks at me with a curious interest as I pull the device I'm supposed to summon Derek with out of my pocket. "That's supposed to call in back up. I'm going to leave it on the ground here, and we're going to go somewhere else and talk."

"What about?" the man asks.

"You said there were other people like me," I say. "That I'm one of the gifted. I want to know more about them. Meet some of these people, if possible."