by SM Olivier
“What do you want to know?” I asked him hesitantly.
“I mean,” he shifted uncomfortably as he continued to peel his potatoes. “I’ve noticed you with at least three other men, and some of the guys think you’re with all of them. Another guy said you are…gifted and gifted people have connections. They say it’s normal to be in a relationship with more than one person.”
I noticed the other two guys were now silent and watching me covertly. They didn’t seem like they were treating me like a freak or they were judging me, so I took no offense. “I am.” I explained simply. “In the gifted community, some of us are marked. If we find our connections and we…connect with them we become stronger.”
“Marked?” G asked with slight horror and understanding.
I turned my head and showed him my mark. “We all got marked around the same time. One day it wasn’t there and the next it was.”
G gaped at me. “What happens if you don’t make the connections, and how do you connect?”
I gave him a rueful smile. “A physical connection. If we didn’t make them we would have lost our gifts…eventually.”
“What happens if we didn’t want the gift,” he colored. “I mean if you didn’t want the gift.”
I looked at him shrewdly before I pushed my thoughts to him. Do you have a gift? A mark?
His eyes widened in surprise before he slowly nodded his head.
Both? I asked him, to clarify.
He nodded once more.
We’ll talk later. I reassured him, knowing he didn’t want to carry this conversation in front of the others.
He gave me a small relieved smile.
“Why do you need the Nons if you guys have gifts?” a young black man I barely interacted with before asked.
I smiled at him. It was no surprise that the word we used for the non-gifted had spread like wild fire. I knew now some people didn’t like the little nick name we gave them, while others embraced it. “Without going into much detail,” I explained gently. “The enemy we are up against has more resources than we do, and we need everyone willing to fight our…war.”
“So how do I join,” the black man, Turtle, asked. “I’ve watched you guys in training and you guys are like super human warrior ninjas.”
I started to laugh. “Hardly and−” I looked at him shrewdly. “I thought you weren’t allowed in the restricted areas. All the operatives are carefully selected. I doubt they’ll just choose a guy that was hired to work in the kitchens to start the intensive training we have to do.”
He sucked his teeth. “Man, you know it gets boring living underground. When I took this job, I didn’t realize we were going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with little to do. I had more things to do in juvie. If they carefully select people, why do they have a young girl such as yourself working for them?”
I shook my head. “I heard they pay you well. I already explained to you that I am gifted. My gift makes me…valuable. If I were you, I would try to be careful not to be caught.”
“You gonna tell on me?” he asked with narrowed eyes.
I shook my head once more. “It’s not my place to.”
He looked relieved by my answer.
“So, you have how many boyfriends?” the third guy, Harry, asked. He was considerably older than most of the cooks here and was called Dad by many of them. He was the one the kitchen staff ran to when they wanted advice. He was the one who ‘fathered’ all of them despite the fact he didn’t hold a leadership position in the kitchens.
“Six,” I stated with no hesitation.
“Where’s your Daddy?” Harry asked in concern.
I gave him a crooked smile knowing he thought I was too young and immature to make decisions like having six boyfriends. “The man I thought was my father or my bio? My father was murdered and my bio…isn’t in the picture. Being gifted doesn’t follow social norms. I may be young, but I’ve lived a long life.”
Harry made a loud harrumph noise before he went back to mincing some garlic.
“So, what can you do?” Turtle asked.
I gave him a feigned coy look. “If I show you, I’ll have to kill you.”
“Man,” Turtle sucked his teeth once more. “Someone got jokes. What comic book character are you?”
“Which one am I not?” I joked back.
The beep of the kitchen door warned us the main door had opened. I looked up, curious to see who was coming in.
Paul and Senator Bowen came into the kitchen at that moment. I nearly forgot the man had ever been here. I hadn’t seen him since the night he basically accused me of lying about Bradford. I felt a tightness in my stomach. Flash backs of that night came flooding back to me, and I had to resist the urge to get physically sick. My head started to spin, and I grabbed the edge of the prep table.
Drake looked up, and our eyes met across the room before he quickly made his way by my side.
“Blake, may I have a word?” Senator Bowen asked as he stopped in front of me.
I was overwhelmed with a sense of fear and anger. In my weakened state, I had dropped my empath barrier. My brows knitted in confusion before I realized the feelings weren’t emanating from Paul, Senator Bowen, or Drake. I had been so focused on Senator Bowen, I hadn’t noticed the young girl of around eleven or twelve hiding behind him.
She was slight and wore all black clothing far too large for her small petite frame. She wore black gloves with the fingers cut off. Her dark hair hung in her face as if she was trying to hide herself from everyone. I recognized her tactics well. I just wondered who she was and what she was hiding from. My stomach revolted once more, hoping she was trying to hide because of the same reason I had hid myself.
“Blake?” Paul asked with concern lacing his voice.
What is your name? I asked the girl as I tried in vain to get her to meet my eyes.
They said a person’s eyes were a window into their souls, and I truly believed that.
She looked up at me startled before she stared back down at her black converses. I saw a flash of dark brown eyes before she made an effort to pretend like she hadn’t heard me.
“Blake?” Drake said gently as he placed an arm around my shoulders.
I looked over at Senator Bowen. “I think you’ve already said enough to me,” I said slowly with steel behind my words.
Senator Bowen shifted as he looked around at all the eyes watching us. He was dressed in a three-piece suit. His salt and pepper hair carefully gelled down. I was used to Will wearing his suits often but he looked less smarmy, less…pompous.
“I just want a quick word…please.”
I could tell it took everything in him to murmur the polite phrase. I doubted he had to use the word often.
I looked over at Drake. He nodded slowly. I had a feeling there was a reason why the young girl was accompanying the Senator.
“If Drake can come with me,” I stated firmly.
“Drake can stay here,” Jace said quietly from behind me, Remy by his side.
Who’s the girl? Jace pushed his thoughts to me. I could feel her anger and fear from the training room.
I’m not sure, I responded back.
What is he doing here? Remy could barely conceal his contempt for the Senator as he glowered at him.
I guess we’re about to find out, I answered him back before I turned to Paul and the Senator. “Where would you like to go?” I asked them.
Paul led us down the hall to the kitchen manager’s office. I let Paul, Senator Bowen, and the girl go in first. Paul sat on the edge of the desk as the Senator pointed to the two chairs in front of the desk.
“Sit,” he guided the girl in one chair and indicated the other to me.
I looked at him with a raised brow before I made a point to take a step back between Jace and Remy.
Senator Bowen looked perturbed by my show of rebellion but nodded, capitulating. I didn’t know what he wanted but it was clear he wanted this meeting more than protecting his pri
de.
He cleared his throat. “I wanted to apologize for our initial meeting. I was out of line and shouldn’t have doubted you the way I did.”
I was suspicious of his total one-eighty. “Okay, and you couldn’t say that out there? Today’s a busy day. It’s Thanksgiving, and we have only a few more hours before we have to serve the Thanksgiving meal.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw Paul smirk, but it was gone as quickly as it arrived as Senator Bowen looked over at him.
“Who’s the girl?” I asked bluntly as I looked at the girl staring down at her lap.
“Victoria.” Senator Bowen looked at the little girl, fondness encompassing his features immediately. “She’s my daughter.”
“And,” I prodded. “I doubt you came on a day that most families spend it together to an underground facility to partake of our Thanksgiving meal. A man such as your self must have the best chefs in…” I looked over at Jace, knowing he would know what state the Senator came from.
“New Jersey,” he supplied. I smiled my thanks at him.
“New Jersey to cook your meals,” I continued.
“We don’t have cooks,” Victoria muttered before she looked up at her dad. “This is stupid. I want to go.”
Senator Bowen sighed before rubbing the bridge of his nose. “A few months ago, I was part of a meeting discussing the merits of tagging and registering gifted individuals. We wanted to reduce the risk of gifted people harming our citizens.”
“That’s absurd,” I blurted out. “We are citizens of the United States. Just because we are born with extra abilities doesn’t make us any different than anyone else that was born with different attributes. I can’t say all of us are inherently good, but neither is the normal everyday citizen.”
“I realize that now, and now I am here to ask for your assistance. I did my research, and I know Will’s school was one of the best ones to send children coming into their gifts. Since he is no longer there, I don’t want to send my child to his school. Victoria needs to have guidance and people like her around her, and she needs to be in a facility such as this, just in case some of my peers in Congress decide to pass this gifted registration.” Senator Bowen explained.
For the first time since I met Senator Bowen, he seemed vulnerable and genuinely remorseful.
“A month ago,” Jace began, “You were all for the registration of the gifted, and now that your daughter is gifted you want to send her here. Why are you coming to Blake?” he asked bluntly.
He shifted uncomfortably. “My views on the registration have changed. Considerably. After my…assumptions and behavior, Will and Paul said they cannot jeopardize their mission and your training if you were to see me or know my daughter was being sheltered here. It is your decision to make.”
“I don’t want to stay here,” Victoria said bitterly. “I lost Mom, and now you’re leaving me, too?”
Senator Bowen knelt down beside his daughter. “I’m not leaving you, honey, but I can’t help you. I don’t know how to. You need to learn how to control your…gift, and I can’t do that. These are the best people to help you do it. I’ll come here to visit as often as possible.”
“It’s not a gift. It’s a curse. I’m a freak. I killed Mom. It’s my fault!” Victoria cried out in pain and anger.
“You’re not a freak, and it is a gift,” Patrick said quietly from behind the desk.
We all were startled to see Micah, Patrick, and Alex were standing behind the desk.
Micah looked at me apologetically. “They wouldn’t let us back here, and Ella said we needed to be here to meet Victoria.”
“How do you know who I am?” the young girl shrieked as she looked at them distrustfully.
“Ella saw your arrival,” Patrick offered. “Alex can see your thoughts. I saw your mother’s death. You didn’t know about your gift. You were angry. How were you suppose to know you could vanish? You didn’t. It was the other man’s fault. He was drinking and driving. Just because your mother took her eyes off the road for a moment doesn’t mean she wasn’t still going to be hit.”
Senator Bowen looked utterly astonished before he looked over at Jace distrustfully. “From my understanding, the gifted don’t get their gifts until they hit adolescence, how does that boy have a gift?”
Jace crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged before looking at me. Are you going to be okay with Victoria being here?
She’s just a child. She needs guidance. I don’t know why he wouldn’t just send her to Knightstown. She can be around a lot more children her age, and she would have a better life than living in the heart of the mountain, I projected my thoughts back to him.
“Something’s not adding up,” Remy said out loud his eyes narrowed on Senator Bowen. “Micah and Patrick, can you take Alex and Victoria back to the apartment?”
Micah nodded. “Come on, Victoria. We’re watching movies but the girls are doing some kind of arts and crafts.”
“I’m not going anywhere! I’m staying here,” Victoria said mutinously.
I could see that Victoria wasn’t going to go willingly so I compelled her to follow Micah, Patrick, and Alex. I could feel Jace pushing comfort and reassurance onto her. She stood up and left.
“See you at dinner, Dad?” Victoria asked her father expectantly.
He nodded dumbfounded before he looked at us suspiciously. “What did you do to my daughter?” he asked the moment she left the room.
“Nothing that would harm her. We just put her at ease.” I shrugged nonchalantly. I knew my flippancy was irritating the great Senator.
“Now that Victoria isn’t here, we were wondering why you want to send your daughter here instead of Knightstown. The facilities there are more conducive to a growing adolescent girl than in a mountain facility in the middle of now where. Knightstown has the best teachers around. Low student to teacher ratios. An excellent music, sports, and educational program. In short, she would probably adjust better there.” Remy stated frankly.
“There’s not much here for children here. They have one play yard outdoors that they can’t even use now that the weather is setting in. This facility was built with training in mind, not entertaining children.” I added
“There are children in this facility, and Victoria is…was a child that adjusts to any situation and adapts to it with ease. She’ll be fine with time.” Senator Bowen seemed to want to convince himself just as much as us.
“There’s still something you’re not telling us,” Jace said suspiciously as he perched on the side of the desk. Can we ask what happened to your wife and why she feels responsible? What gift does she have?”
Remy sat down and guided me to sit on his knee.
Senator Bowen looked down at his hands. “My wife died in a car accident three weeks ago. She was driving back from picking Victoria up at a friend’s house. Victoria’s a good kid. She’s also feeling the strain of being in the spotlight at all times. She doesn’t, didn’t lead a normal life. There are restrictions that she has and freedoms we can’t give her. Not while I’m in office. Her grades were suffering, and we found out she skipped school that afternoon. My wife finally found her and was on the way home with her. They were having an argument, according to Victoria. She said she was in the back seat and my wife started yelling for her. She said my wife could hear her but couldn’t see her. She vanished, and when my wife looked back up, a drunk driver crossed over the median and hit them head on. My wife was killed on impact and my daughter only suffered minor contusions and abrasions.
Since then, I’ve experienced her…gift a few times. One moment she is there, and the next she’s not. I can hear her, and she says she can hear me, but she…blinks out.”
“Invisibility,” Jace nodded. “When the gifted come into gifts, they can be volatile. They don’t know how to control their gifts. The frustration from normal growing pains combined with something they may not have been exposed to can be difficult.”
“But you’re still
evading our original question and not being completely upfront with us. Why here and not Knightstown?” Remy was like a dog with a bone. I knew he wasn’t being callous, but I also knew his natural distrust of people motivated him at times.
Senator Bowen set his jaw in determination. “The bill for registering the gifted will be up for review in January. If it passes, I would be required to register my own child. I will not register my child. I’m not proud of my stance before. I have realized the error of my ways. Especially now. I am ashamed to admit to have even taken a test to verify if my child was my own because I’ve never had a gifted individual in my family, ever. I didn’t even know you guys existed until those videos started surfacing.
“One of the exemptions they will be giving to registration is for the government contractors that already had certain wordage in their contracts. Paul was one of them. The federal and state government cannot enforce new laws on them due to the secrecy of their program. Everyone here is exempt from registering.”
I exchanged a knowing glance with Remy and Jace.
“So, a government official is finding yet another way to scam the system,” Remy snorted. “It’s not like Victoria is employed here. Who is her guardian while she is here?”
Senator Bowen cleared his throat like he was hesitant with what he was about to say. “There are several levels not being utilized in this base. Since finding out my daughter is gifted, I’ve done my research, and I’ve been making plans just in case the votes don’t go our way. Paul’s facility is also unique in the fact that he is allowed to accept donations from private sectors. My daughter will be coming with a nanny, and several staff members would be added to the facility. The children will have more options for entertainment by the end of December.”
“So, the moral of the story is, with enough money and power, laws cannot touch you,” Remy huffed.
“Mr. Murphy,” the Senator said to Remy. “I’ve seen your financial records. I’m well aware that you’re not a pauper, either, and I know charges brought against you as a teen were dropped once Will stepped in. So, the moral of the story is, with enough love, you would do anything to protect your child or the ones you love,” Senator Bowen said in clipped tones.