The Takeover by Teyla Branton Page A

more casual version.
    “Well, it’s just Jace. And Keene and Mari with red hair,” Spencer said. “ Ugly red hair, by the way, if anyone cares what I think. I liked their old hair.”
    “We could have been an Emporium hit team in disguise.” Jace caught the boy up in his arms.
    Spencer gave him a flat smile, his eyes drifting briefly to me. “Nope. Aunt Erin would have shot you, and dad would’ve fired when she did. Hey, you bring me anything?” He began checking Jace’s pockets for something of interest.
    “It’s not like I knew we were coming until about ten minutes ago,” Jace said, pushing Spencer’s hands away. “I’ll bring you something next time.”
    Spencer rolled his eyes and went back to his food, the dog begging at his side. With a smile that was too adult, Kathy joined Spencer.
    “I guess you’re here for the meeting,” I said to the newcomers with an internal sigh of regret. So much for my few minutes with the kids.
    “Yep,” Jace answered.
    “Speaking of which,” Mari said. “We have about thirty seconds before Ava wants us all in the conference room.”
    Having Mari around was like having the most accurate watch in the world at your fingertips. When it came to time or anything to do with math, Mari was queen. I could do the same to some extent when channeling her, but I didn’t understand any of it when we weren’t linked.
    “Already?” Chris muttered. “Guess we’ll see you in a bit, kids.”
    As a group, we started for the door. My last glimpse was of Spencer extending a hand overflowing with food to Max, and the dog’s tail thumping the rock-tiled floor with anticipation. Neither seemed disturbed by their time under the table, but I was disturbed. Children should never have to hide under a table, or worry that someone might kill their remaining parent. No kid should grow up thinking that dangerous ops were a fact of life.
    Of course, Kathy and Spencer weren’t the only children caught in the crossfire. If we didn’t find the senators’ families in time, the power might shift once and for all toward the Emporium, and if they controlled the world, no child—or adult, for that matter—would be safe.

“HAVE WE LOCATED ANY OF the other families?” Jace said from his seat at the foot of the conference table. His black high-backed chair leaned at an angle, his feet thrown up on the table. He looked comfortable in jeans and the leather jacket that fit snugly, as if it’d grown there instead of being purchased from a sale at his favorite Costco.
    “I’ve tracked two of the families with an eighty percent chance of accuracy,” Stella said from her usual place midway down the table opposite where Ritter and I sat. “There are still a few variables before I can say for sure, but one family appears to be at a house in Virginia and the other in Maryland. We also have possible leads that put a third family somewhere in Idaho. Fifty percent chance. But there’s nothing from the fourth family yet, and we can’t risk them for only a fifty percent probability of finding the third family.”
    “I’d take fifty percent from you over a hundred percent from anyone else,” said Mari, who sat between Stella and Keene near the end of their side of the table. Mari’s hands fidgeted as they always did when she wanted to be moving instead of talking. I could imagine that now with the entire world open to her, the feeling of being closed inside this room was even more intense.
    “Even if it were a hundred percent accuracy, we can’t move on those three until we know about the fourth.” Ritter spoke with an authority no one questioned. None of us had lost more than he because of the Emporium—or knew them as well. “Once they know we’re onto them, they’ll cut their losses and slaughter those we haven’t saved. We must save all of them.”
    “I’ll find them,” Stella said. “Patrick and I are following up on some leads right now.” I’d already guessed that from the furious