So I ignored his mental knocking. He eventually gave up and concentrated on driving again. The van rolled on through the darkness, the silence stretching my nerves to breaking point.
When we finally stopped, Kade moved his arm from my shoulder and gave me a cheerful sort of smile. "It's almost over."
I didn't answer. Couldn't answer.
Because it wasn't over. Not by a long shot.
Jack rose, the bright light of the com-screen making his pale skin gleam in the darkness. "Kade, Rhoan, and I will be going in via the front entrance. Riley, you and Quinn are heading around to secure the back. Be careful in there, and stay close to Quinn."
Thanks, but that wasn't exactly safe right now, I wanted to say, but my tongue seemed glued to the roof of my mouth.
Jack and Kade got out and slammed the door shut. Rhoan gave me a brief thumbs-up, then disappeared into the night.
Quinn's gaze touched mine through the rearview mirror. "The seat up here is free is you want to be more comfortable."
"Thanks, but no. I'd rather not see where we are going right now."
He shrugged and drove on. Ten minutes later, we stopped again, this time deep in the trees off the side of the road. I opened the side door and climbed out.
The night was still and cold, the sky cloudy through the canopy of trees. Cicadas sung in the distance, and somewhere close to my right, a stream bubbled. It would almost have been tranquil if not for the harsh sound of my breathing. I needed to get control of my nerves. If there was something out there, keeping an eye on approaching trails, I'd give the game up a mile out.
Quinn came around the van, a shadow in black that merged with the night. "We've got twenty minutes to get up the mountain."
"What?"
"Afraid so." His gaze swept down me. "You ready?"
No, I wanted to say. Never. But I forced a nod and quietly followed as he led the way across the twig-strewn ground.
Twenty minutes isn't a whole lot of time to climb a damn mountain, so we went up it fast. Thankfully, there were no cliff edges or long drops to make my stomach go haywire, but by the time we'd reached the plateau that held the compound, my legs were jelly and my lungs burned. While I might claim to be reasonably fit, this mountain sure as hell made a mockery of it. I was really, really going to have to make an attempt to get to the gym more often.
When we finally reached the clearing that held the compound, my whole body was a mess of twitching, aching muscles. I stopped beside a big old gum tree, using its girth to hide behind as I desperately dragged air into my system. Quinn stopped behind me, wafting the rich scent of sandalwood my way. His breathing was even. He might be over a thousand years old, but he was a damn sight fitter than me.
"It's empty," he said softly.
I lifted my gaze Beyond the expanse of empty pasture stood the wire of the compound's fence. No lights shone in the darkness beyond that fence. The shadowy shapes of the buildings seemed to hold no life or movement in or around them. Not even under infrared. Everything was still. Eerily so.
Even so, I had to check. Just because I wasn't seeing it didn't mean it wasn't there. And Quinn could sense the thud of life, whereas I could not. "Completely empty? As in, no life at all, human, nonhuman, or otherwise?"
His gaze met mine, dark eyes seeming to gleam in the night. "Nothing at all."
"No one's there? At all?"
"From where we stand, I wouldn't be able to sense Rhoan and the others. It's too far. But it would appear that the complex has been evacuated."
"Why would they do that? From what I saw of the place, it was huge. Why suddenly abandon it?"
"I would hazard a guess that you were the cause."
I raised an eyebrow. "Because I'd escaped?"
He nodded. "They obviously know who you are. They would know you are connected to the Directorate, even if only at an assistant level. Given what happened to the Genoveve research facility, given your part in it, they would have had an evacuation plan in place."
"How would they know my part in that?"
"Talon's mind was partially burned away, remember. Whoever did that would have done a thorough search of all his memory and thought centers first, just to check what had been happening." He paused. "At least, that is what I would have done."
A shiver ran down my spine. I didn't want to contemplate the sort of telepathic strength it took to completely burn away someone's thoughts and memories. I certainly didn't want to contemplate the fact that this vampire could do it as easily as he breathed.