"Judd's mate, Brenna," Clay said, lips brushing her ear.
Brenna's expression shifted to pure astonishment. "Good Lord, the rumors are true - Clay actually talks to you."
Talin couldn't help it, she burst out laughing despite the painful thoughts swirling in her head. "Does he?" She gestured at Judd.
"If I'm very good, he sometimes says two whole sentences in a row."
Talin was about to reply when Clay clamped a hand over her mouth from behind - at the same time that Judd wrapped an arm around Brenna's neck. "Before they start comparing other things," he said to Clay, "let's talk." Taking Brenna with him, he walked up the steps and grabbed a chair, while Brenna curled up on the swing.
Following the other couple onto the porch, Clay chose to lean against the railing. Talin stayed attached to his side, all amusement gone. Judd wouldn't have asked them to sit unless he had something to tell them, which meant Dev was probably right - the Psy were kidnapping the children...doing things to Jon she might not be able to erase.
"You trust her?" Judd asked, cold gaze fixed on Talin.
The blunt question froze her in place. She told herself not to hope, not to wish for the impossible. Yet, when Clay replied, she felt as if he'd flayed the skin off her flesh. "Tally's mine." Possession, not an affirmation of trust.
But it seemed to satisfy Judd. "Are you aware that Silence functions by conditioning young Psy not to feel?" he asked her.
She scrambled to regather her shattered resources. "Yes. Clay explained."
"The process no longer works well enough for the Psy Council," he responded.
Sliding a hand behind Clay's back, Talin held on to him as Judd continued speaking. Clay's arm - already around her shoulders - tightened.
"Because of the number of people who aren't taking to, or who are breaking, Silence," Judd continued, his voice getting ever more arctic, his eyes shifting to killing black, "the Council has initiated the beginnings of an Implant Protocol."
As Talin watched, Brenna reached out to curl her hand around Judd's upper arm. Though he didn't seem to notice the touch, when he next spoke, his voice was less inhuman. "They want to put implants in children's brains to ensure full implementation of Silence. The chips will turn the PsyNet - currently composed of individuals - into a hive mind, with the Councilors as the controlling entities."
"Don't they see that it'll kill the Psy?" Talin asked, horrified at the idea of cutting into developing brains. "It'll destroy innovation, bury brilliance for the sake of conformity."
Judd's classically handsome face burned with deep anger. "The Council sees power. That's the only thing that matters to them."
"What's the connection to the kidnappings?" Clay asked.
"Until a few months ago, the Implant lab was located in this state. But after it was sabotaged and the research destroyed, the Council moved its activities to a hidden location."
Talin felt her hand turn into a claw against Clay's chest. "You're saying the kids are being taken to this hidden lab?"
"I'm guessing," Judd corrected. "They could have other facilities. But this one is isolated enough to provide the perfect base of operations."
Clay put his hand over hers. "Any way to find out for sure?"
"My contact was able to confirm Psy involvement, but nothing further."
"Do you believe him?"
Judd shrugged. "He's loyal to the Psy race, so he won't betray them. But he considers the Implant Protocol the worse evil. I pointed out that there is a possibility the kidnapped children are being used as test subjects."
Talin choked back her rising terror. "Do you really believe that?"
"I can't see the worth of using non-Psy organs to test such a sensitive implant." He paused. "However, things are chaotic in the Net at present. The Council's attention is scattered. It may be losing control over some of those it previously contained."
Brenna's expression grew solemn. "The monsters are starting to escape."
"That could explain why we're finding bodies at all - if the Council was running this, they wouldn't have left a trail," Clay said, as Judd picked up his mate's hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. "Is there any way to infiltrate this lab and verify whether or not it is the base of operations?"
"That," Judd said, continuing to keep Brenna's hand in his, "is the issue. If I give you the location of the lab and you go in openly, it may blow my contact's cover. Only a select few have access to that data."
"But if we could save Jon - and others they haven't yet taken - wouldn't it be worth it?" Talin asked, angry at the SnowDancer male for being so damn uninvolved.
Then she saw the quiet fury in his gaze and realized her mistake. "If my contact is unmasked and the Council shifts the lab again, we might not be able to stop the Implant Protocol. It'll affect hundreds of thousands. I'm not asking you to make a choice between this boy and the Psy children who will be implanted. I'm telling you there is no easy answer."
With those words, he turned black and white into gray, left her grappling with a moral dilemma that appeared to have no solution. "I don't suppose we could sneak in?"
"It's located in the middle of cornfields deep in Nebraska, open visibility in every direction."
Clay found himself thinking of the story Tally had told him about her secret caves. "What about underground? There has to be some system to bring in supplies - even if it's just replacement medical equipment. It can't be a hermetically sealed environment." He also knew that if the children were being taken to this facility, the Psy would need to have a system in place to transport the bodies out. But he kept his silence. Tally's heart was already breaking - she didn't need to hear that.