by James Riley
“Yet she’s clearly still using her magic. She sent him my thoughts, and from what Ambrose said, implanted spells in his head to help him pass his test.”
Fort tried to keep his face perfectly still even as his mind reacted to these incredible revelations, finally explaining everything that had been happening. Somehow, Sierra’s unconscious mind was still accessing her magic?
And they might wipe his mind to keep her from doing it again.
“Her scans don’t show any conscious activity,” the doctor said. “Whatever connection they have, I’d guess that his emotional state probably triggered each of those instances. But who’s to say? There’s so much we don’t understand about the brain as it is. Throw in magic, and I’m completely in the dark.”
Before Dr. Opps could respond, someone else entered the room.
“Dr. Oppenheimer, Dr. Magellan,” said a voice that sounded like Colonel Charles. “I see things have gotten completely out of control down here?”
“Colonel, now is not the time—” Dr. Opps started to say, but the colonel interrupted him.
“I’d say this is exactly the time, Oppenheimer. How could Forsythe have gotten down here? He doesn’t appear anywhere on our cameras, and we’ve had increased patrols since that creature showed up.”
Dr. Opps sighed. “We don’t know yet. When he wakes up, we’ll question him, and then wipe his memories and send him home.”
Fort’s hands clenched into fists before he could stop himself.
“When he wakes up?” Colonel Charles said, and Fort froze. “I think our patient has been listening to our conversation.”
And that was it. If he was going to escape a mind wiping, this was his only chance.
Before the others could move, Fort bolted up, clambered over the bed, and tried to leap between the woman in the white lab coat and Dr. Opps for the exit.
Unfortunately, he didn’t take into account how fast Colonel Charles was. The colonel grabbed Fort’s arm as he passed, then yanked it behind Fort’s back painfully. Fort immediately stopped short, groaning in pain, as two guards ran into the room.
“If he says even one word you don’t understand, Taser him,” Colonel Charles told the guards. “Don’t let him even start a spell. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir,” both soldiers said at once.
“Colonel, this is my patient!” Dr. Magellan said, leaning down next to Fort and putting two fingers on his neck. “Are you okay, Forsythe?”
“I’ve been better,” Fort admitted.
“How much did you hear?” Dr. Opps asked, his face red with either embarrassment or anger.
“Enough to know you want to wipe my mind!” Fort shouted, then groaned as Colonel Charles pushed up on his arm, sending pain radiating up into his shoulder.
“Respectfully, Colonel, I disagree with Dr. Oppenheimer,” Dr. Magellan said. “Sierra almost woke up when Forsythe came into contact with her. Think of what she could do with her magic if she came back to us.”
“Her power could also destroy the minds of everyone on this base!” Dr. Oppenheimer yelled.
“Oppenheimer, there’s a student present,” Colonel Charles practically spat. “Watch what you say.”
“This student broke into a secure facility just to find the girl,” Dr. Opps shouted back. “Think of what that could lead to!”
“Damian,” Colonel Charles said, his voice cold and distant. At least he seemed to have turned his attention away from Fort, as the grip on Fort’s arm lessened slightly. If he could just break away quick enough . . .
“And if he does wake up?” Dr. Opps said. “Look at what happened six months ago! You of all people should be against this—”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” Colonel Charles said. “Doctor, is our patient ready for discharge?” The grip on Fort’s arm tightened again, and he sighed, realizing he’d missed his opportunity. If he’d ever had one.
“He seems to be doing fine,” she said. “We can move him now, if you’d like.”
“I would,” Colonel Charles said, then nodded at the two soldiers. “Bring the boy to the disciplinary barracks and stand soldiers on guard. I want to speak to him alone.” He handed Fort over to the guards, who each took ahold of an arm, though at least they weren’t twisting them behind his back.
“This is insane!” Dr. Opps said. “We’re sending the boy home now, for his good and ours.”
“I’m afraid your failure tonight was the last straw, Oppenheimer,” Colonel Charles said as another group of soldiers entered the room. “Sergeant, escort Dr. Oppenheimer to the disciplinary barracks as well—separate from the boy, of course.”
Whoa. Dr. Opps was being thrown into . . . well, whatever the disciplinary barracks were, too? At least that meant Fort wouldn’t have his mind wiped.
“Don’t do this, Charles!” Dr. Opps shouted, struggling against two soldiers who grabbed his arms. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with!”
“You should have been thrown in jail for your part in the attacks, Doctor,” Colonel Charles said. “I can’t believe you held on for this long. But tonight gave me plenty of justification to see you relieved of your duties. I’ve already spoken to the committee. The school is now under my authority. I imagine they’ll want your mind wiped as well, but that decision has yet to be made.”
“Please!” Dr. Opps shouted. “You weren’t there, not when it all happened. I saw how easily it controlled the boy—”
“Sergeant, if he continues to resist, you have my permission to use force,” Colonel Charles said.
“No!” Dr. Opps shouted, but the soldiers pulled him from the room, followed by Colonel Charles, and the closing door cut off any further sounds.
“I’m sorry about all of this,” Dr. Magellan whispered to Fort as the two guards waited a moment to give the other group time to leave first. “I don’t know how you got down here, but I’m glad you did. You could be the key to waking up Sierra, and if that’s the case, you have my thanks. Her magic is just too powerful to be locked away down here.”
“Yeah, I think we’re both on the same page there,” he said. Whatever connection he had with this Sierra girl, he did need her awake. At this point, she might be the only person at the school who knew what was going on and might actually tell him.
One of the guards at his side held up a pair of handcuffs. “Are you going to be trouble?” he asked, looking far too eager to use them.
“Nope, I surrender,” Fort said. And that was true; he’d definitely be going along quietly. If Colonel Charles wanted to talk to him, that was fine. He’d have some questions of his own for the good colonel too.
- THIRTY-EIGHT -
FORSYTHE,” COLONEL CHARLES SAID, SITTING down outside Fort’s cell in the disciplinary barracks, which apparently was just a nice name for a military jail. “I’m sorry for the accommodations, but I’m sure we won’t need to keep you here for very long. I just have some questions I need answered, and then we’ll try to replicate your experience with Sierra from a few hours back. But this time, we’ll ensure your safety and monitor the entire process.”
Fort nodded. He already expected this, given who’d won the argument between Colonel Charles and Dr. Opps earlier.
“First, an easy one,” Colonel Charles said, smiling in a friendly manner. “How exactly did you get into that room without being seen? Did someone help you?”
Fort paused before answering. No one else was going to get in trouble for this; that was the least he could do. “No, I got there all on my own.”
“That’s simply not possible.”
“You should talk to your guards,” Fort said with a shrug. “None of them were paying any attention, I guess. I just walked right in.”
Colonel Charles narrowed his eyes, his smile fading. “This isn’t the time for jokes, Forsythe. I can have you sent home with your memory wiped if I need to. But I know you want to serve your country just as much as I do. I remember your testing a couple of days ago; you’re a fighter
, just like I am. So help me on this, and maybe we can keep you at the school, transferred to the Destruction classes. I just need to know how you got down there, and who helped you.”
Fort paused, taking that in. It was everything he’d wanted from the first time he’d even heard of the Oppenheimer School. And all he had to do was sell out his friends to get it. To abandon them, just like he’d abandoned his father.
That was never going to happen.
“Why do you want to wake up Damian?” Fort asked. “Everything that happened is because of him.”
Colonel Charles leaned back, then looked over Fort’s shoulder. “How much did you see in Sierra’s mind?”
“I saw him open a . . . a portal or something, to another dimension,” Fort said, staring at the colonel. “Whatever it was, it led somewhere dark and awful. And out of it came the same monsters that attacked Washington.”
“Then you also are aware that he wasn’t in control of himself?” the colonel asked, turning back to Fort.
“Maybe not, but I saw him try to let that same tentacle monster through before that, too,” Fort said, his heart racing at the thought of it. “That makes all of this his fault. And since that’s the case, I want to know how you think you can control him this time, if that thing comes back and takes him over again?”
“The blame lies with Oppenheimer,” Colonel Charles hissed, his face contorting with anger before he regained control of himself. “Dr. Oppenheimer was the one in charge of Damian’s education,” he said more calmly this time. “He allowed, even encouraged Damian to experiment with Summoning magic, as it’s called. And because of him, not only your father, but other people’s loved ones are now gone.”
Fort gritted his teeth at the mention of his dad. “That’s not true, though, is it?” he said quietly. “Only my father died in the attack.”
Colonel Charles narrowed his eyes, and Fort could see his anger building again. “On the National Mall, yes. But my own son Michael was killed at the National Security Agency headquarters, boy. Another student of Oppenheimer’s that he failed.”
Fort’s eyes widened, and suddenly a bunch of things began to fall into place. The Destruction student in Sierra’s memories was Colonel Charles’s son? And he had lost his life in the NSA attack?
“I’m . . . I’m sorry,” Fort said, knowing exactly how useless that was to hear from someone else. “But doesn’t that just mean we definitely shouldn’t bring Damian back?”
“I’m not here to answer to you—” Colonel Charles started to say, then sat back and rubbed his forehead. “Forget about Damian for the moment. I need to know how you made your way down to Sierra’s room. You bypassed our entire security operation. How did you do it? Who helped you?”
“I told you, no one did,” Fort said. “It was all me.”
“Using magic?”
“What, my Healing spells?” Fort said, forcing a smile. “Yeah, I cured a few diseases, and there I was.”
Colonel Charles’s lips curled in anger. “I’m going to give you one more chance to tell me how you reached that floor, Forsythe,” Colonel Charles said. “I won’t tolerate this another minute longer.”
“Or what?” Fort said. “You won’t send me home. You need me to awaken Sierra and Damian, so he can put the entire world in danger.”
Colonel Charles leaped to his feet, his chair crashing down behind him. “How about if I expel all your friends, then? Oppenheimer tells me you’ve been hanging out with our resident clairvoyant. Why don’t I arrange to have him sent home, without his magic?”
“Good luck with that,” Fort said. “He’ll see you coming a mile away.”
“Then how about Sebastian? Jia? The entire Healing class?” He sneered. “I’m happy to send them all home and start fresh if you’d like. Maybe just cancel the entire program?”
Fort dug his fingernails into his palms, trying to stay strong. Sebastian going home would be great news, but the rest of the healers hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t deserve to lose their magic. And Jia . . . well, he still had a lot of questions for her, not to mention her spells were still in his head.
“Or how about your family?” Colonel Charles said, squeezing the bars with both hands. “Should I arrange for your aunt to lose her job? Her apartment? Whatever happens next, it’ll be on you, Forsythe.”
“Don’t you hurt her!” Fort roared, slamming his hand against the cell bars.
“Then tell me how you evaded our security!”
Fort growled in frustration, wanting to scream at the man, even attack him through the bars, but knowing he couldn’t risk anything that might set the colonel off. “Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’ll tell you the truth.”
“It better be the truth!”
Fort cursed the man silently. “I heard Sierra in my head, commanding me to come to her. I couldn’t stop myself. I had to do what she said.”
There. That was the truth. Not the full story, no, but he hadn’t lied.
Colonel Charles slowly blinked. “She had no conscious brain activity at that time. She couldn’t have commanded you in such a way.”
“Then you tell me how I knew she was there,” Fort said, turning back to glare at the colonel. “I’m not a doctor, but I know what it’s like to have my body taken over. And this was the second time she’s done it to me.”
“Assuming that’s true, that only explains how you knew where to go. But how did you get in unseen?”
Well, Fort had tried being truthful, but that was all he could say without getting his friends in trouble. So now it was time to lie. “I don’t know. She must have used her magic on the guards and had me avoid the cameras. I barely knew where I was. Before the guards brought me here, I didn’t even know I was underground.”
Colonel Charles stared at him for a moment, and Fort began to sweat, wondering if the colonel could see how nervous he was. But then Colonel Charles smiled slightly. “If she’s that close to waking, we might not actually require your services any further, Forsythe.” He stood up and turned to go.
“Hey, wait!” Fort yelled, jumping to his feet. “Don’t do this. You can’t wake up Damian. You haven’t seen what happened, what he did!”
“Enjoy your time here, Forsythe,” Colonel Charles said. “It looks like you’ll be heading home after all today, with no memory of the school. Your country thanks you for your service, such as it was.”
And with that, he left, and a soldier closed another barred door behind him.
Fort screamed in frustration and punched the pillow on the cell’s bed a few times before calming down. That wasn’t helping. But what else could he do? He didn’t have the power to stop Colonel Charles from waking up Sierra, and no one else would believe him, other than maybe Dr. Opps, who wasn’t any better off than Fort was.
Except there was someone with the power to fix everything. Someone who could wipe people’s memories herself, or even take over their minds. Wipe the magic from Damian’s head before Colonel Charles could make the boy use it, even.
And all Fort would have to do was get to Sierra first—and hope that waking her up didn’t destroy his own mind in the process.
He watched the door for a moment and counted to one hundred, just to be sure Colonel Charles was gone.
Then he cast Ethereal Spirit on himself and left the disciplinary barracks through the wall behind him.
- THIRTY-NINE -
FORT MADE HIS WAY THROUGH the ground as if he were swimming, each stroke pushing him forward against the slight pressure from the dirt. He came up every minute or so for air, carefully pushing as little of his face above ground as he could while still taking in a deep breath. It wasn’t quick, but at least no one would see him unless they happened to be staring down at the exact right moment.
He made it to the boys’ dorm without being discovered and crawled up through the floor. “Cyrus?” he said as quietly as he could, hoping the other boy would be waiting for him.
But the barracks were empty
. Either all the other kids were in class, or something else was going on. Would Colonel Charles have interrogated Cyrus, too? If so, would the other boy know not to give Rachel and Jia up? Fort wasn’t sure how his future magic might work with getting stories straight, but it didn’t seem like the most approved usage.
He cursed as he looked around one last time, then dove back into the floor, just like he’d seen Rachel do.
The Training Hall wasn’t that far by foot, but swimming through the ground was exhausting, especially while trying to stay out of sight. Whenever there was a hiding spot out of the security cameras’ view, Fort pulled half his body up above the ground and just lay there, like he was propped up against the side of a pool, letting himself rest a bit before diving back in.
Finally he arrived at the outer wall to the Training Hall, breathing a huge sigh of relief as he stopped, exhausted. Before just jumping inside, he moved slowly around the building until he found the elevator shaft leading down. Here, he pushed himself through the wall, then slid down the shaft with one hand inside the wall, the friction of the solid material slowing him down just enough to keep him from falling uncontrollably.
As he descended, something occurred to him: Why should he fall in the shaft, when he didn’t through floors? The air of the shaft was only a bit less substantial than the floor would be. Was his sense of reality really that strong that it kept him standing on floors and falling in elevator shafts?
A noise above him derailed his thoughts before he got an answer. The elevator was descending rapidly from above, coming straight at him. He yipped and threw himself into the wall just as the car passed, then threw himself out after it, landing on top of the elevator as it descended. Again, that shouldn’t have worked; the roof of the elevator wasn’t any more real to him right now than the air was. But whatever logic the magic had, at least he hadn’t fallen through the ceiling.