“Yeeee-hawwwwww!!!!!!!!” Piper jiggled Conrad in the embrace, and he wondered if the news had completely made her take leave of her senses.
“I thought I was wrong. I thought I couldn’t trust my heart, but I can. I can. There’s not a thing wrong with my heart!!”
As Piper’s laughter grew, Conrad became increasingly furious. It quickly got to the point where he couldn’t take a second more of it.
“STOP IT!!! Stop it!” Conrad pulled Piper away from him. “What is wrong with you! Don’t you understand anything? I—BETRAYED—YOU! That is bad. Get that? I’m BAD.”
“Think you’re the only fool who ever made a mistake?” Piper looked at Conrad as if he was crazy. “Phhhh! Talk about delusions of grandeur. One mistake isn’t nothing. Heck, I’ve made more than that before I even get up in the morning. Can’t learn nothing worth knowing without makin’ a few mistakes first!”
Conrad wanted to argue, but then his face broke into a grin and his eyes grew strangely moist, and he didn’t know whether to hug or slug Piper. He knew without a doubt, though, that she was the most infuriating person he’d ever met.
“Conrad, we gotta get out of here!” Smitty was dancing back and forth between his two feet. All at once everyone remembered what was at stake. “Nurse Tolle’s almost got all those papers together.”
“Yeah, let’s go! Go now!” Myrtle was practically jumping out of her skin.
Piper saw the diagram on the board and the children’s expectant faces. “We’re getting out, Piper,” Conrad explained. “All of us, just like you wanted. Right now!”
Piper silently walked up to the board, looking at the diagrams.
“We’ll b-b-be out before s-s-s-sunset.”
“And we’ll do all our dreams, just like you told us we would.”
“It’s all ’cause of you, Piper. It was your idea in the first place.”
Piper shook her head. “No. It won’t work.” Picking up a cloth, Piper erased the plans from the board. Throwing the cloth to the ground, Piper moved to the window overlooking the atrium. As precious seconds slipped by, Piper thought.
“Escape isn’t the answer,” Piper finally declared with finality. “I’ve got a better idea.”
AT LONG last, Nurse Tolle collected the remaining stray papers belonging to Boris’s file and put them all back in order. Anytime there was a new inmate, there was double the normal work and triple the worries. The first twenty-four hours were always the most dangerous too. He hoped for the hundredth time that Boris wasn’t going to have a personality conflict with Kimber. They were both two tough cookies and could potentially do a lot of damage to each other. At the science room, Nurse Tolle checked the window on the door to the class.
Surprisingly, Professor Mumbleby was sitting at his desk in an entirely empty room. Nurse Tolle knocked smartly on the door. When he received no response, he opened it.
“Professor?” Nurse Tolle waited, but Professor Mumbleby didn’t respond—didn’t turn around. “Professor, you alright?” No response again. Nurse Tolle’s internal warning system lit up like a Christmas tree, and he strode forward and rounded the desk to discover that Professor Mumbleby had been bound and gagged and was furiously fighting against his restraints.
“Vhhhet iiiis ffffff meeee,” Professor Mumbleby barked from beneath the gag, pointing at the door. Nurse Tolle’s eyes went wide and he spun around to find Kimber, Lily, and Boris standing behind the door. Kimber closed the door with a bang.
“You all are in for a world of hurt when Dr. Hellion finds out about this,” Nurse Tolle seethed.
“We don’t think so.” Even now, Lily was the picture of sweet innocence.
“Well, I know so.” Nurse Tolle was furious. “You’ll sit yourselves down now and wait right here.”
“No.”
“What did you say to me, Kimber?”
“I said no, and you don’t get to tell us what to do anymore.”
Nurse Tolle lunged forward, but Lily telekinetically lifted him into the air and kept him safely out of reach. As he dangled several feet above the ground, Nurse Tolle struggled to grab at the kids.
“You don’t look so tough anymore, Nurse Tolle.”
“You better put me down! I’ll see to it you get what’s coming to you!”
“And we’ll see you get what’s coming to you.” Kimber sent approximately fifty thousand volts into Nurse Tolle’s arm.
“Ahhhhh!”
“His shoes?” Boris asked. Not only had he been scooped out of Moscow earlier that day, and taken to a strange and hidden place, but now he was involved with these kids whom he’d never seen before. None of which mattered to Boris though, because he discovered his destiny the moment he set his eyes on Lily Yakimoto. She was the love of his life, he instantly decided, and he’d do anything her little, red button mouth told him to.
“Yes.” Lily nodded, finding Boris’s attention entirely appropriate. As far as Lily was concerned, everyone should be her willing servant. And that went double for boys.
Boris lumbered to Nurse Tolle’s feet.
“What you doing back there, boy? You leave me be. Don’t be doing that now.” Nurse Tolle wiggled in the air, but Boris effortlessly got hold of his shoes. “Hey, hey!”
With one touch, the leather tightened and hardened and then turned to stone. The weight of the stone shoes dragged Nurse Tolle out of the air and to the ground with a THUD.
“Ummph.” Nurse Tolle recovered. Once again he lunged forward at Kimber, who was standing closest to him. The stone shoes encasing his feet weighed more than fifty pounds per foot and held him firmly to the floor. Instead of reaching Kimber, Nurse Tolle fell flat on his face.
“I told you you were going to get what was coming to you.” Kimber gave him a helping of her voltage.
“COME IN,” Dr. Hellion responded absentmindedly to the knock on her door. Agent A. Agent was due to present the security reports, and as usual he was right on time. She’d had a hectic day, but the intake numbers were way down, which indicated that there was a growing trend of fewer and fewer incidences of abnormality. Little by little, Dr. Hellion’s methods were proving themselves to be successful. The day was fast approaching when abnormality would be completely obliterated from the population.
“You can leave the report on my desk, Agent Agent.” Dr. Hellion didn’t look up. “I’ll also need your revised security protocols for level thirteen in respect to the new inmate.”
“Dr. Hellion, it’s time for you to leave.” Piper stated it simply, as though it was obvious.
Dr. Hellion’s head snapped up from her work to discover Piper McCloud and Conrad Harrington standing before her desk. Had Dr. Hellion been able to feel anything, she would have felt surprise and horror. As she wasn’t bothered by such emotions, she calmly leaned back in her chair and selected her helpful expression, while taking everything in—the fact that Piper was completely healed and walking, that Piper and Conrad were together, and that Daisy was restraining Agent A. Agent in a chair in the adjoining waiting room.
“Is there something that I can help you with?”
“You’re gonna havta leave now. We don’t want you here anymore.”
The smile broke on Dr. Hellion’s face. She struggled to keep it in place. “Pardon me, Piper. What did you say?”
“Please leave.”
Piper’s words literally made no sense to Letitia Hellion, like she was speaking a strange foreign language. Dr. Hellion couched the situation in terms she could comprehend. “I suppose you are trying to escape again. It won’t work, and even if it does, there is no place for you to go once you get out.”
“Yeah, we figured that one out too. Fact is we’re tired of hiding and we don’t wanna run. So we’re not going to escape. We’re gonna stay right here. You’ll havta leave instead.”
“What?” Dr. Hellion’s mind traveled over the idea like the fingers of a pianist on the keys of a piano. The notes started to form a song, and the song Letitia Hellion was heari
ng had the same effect as hearing nails on a chalkboard. They weren’t going to escape!!?!?! But, of course, they must want to escape! All her preparation and planning and security had been geared toward preventing an escape. Never had it crossed her mind that they would—“Revolt!!” She breathed the words. “You’re revolting?!?”
“That’s a real fancy way of putting it. I didn’t think of it like that, but now that you mention it—yup. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Dr. Hellion held tightly to her self-control, unaware that she was pumping air in and out of her chest at an alarming rate. “You . . . it’s not possible . . . I can’t . . .” Dr. Hellion reached for the thoughts going through her head, but could not actually grasp any of them. “The thing is,” she said finally, “there is something you should know.” She was buying time. “You’re so lucky and you don’t even know it.”
Conrad looked at Dr. Hellion like she was crazy. He was interested to see where she was going to take this thought.
“You probably don’t know this but I had a brother. Johnny, my parents called him. He was much younger than my sister, Sarah, and I were, and there was something about him that was . . . different. Not like other babies. My parents said he was special,” Letitia Hellion babbled. She hadn’t thought about Johnny in years, and she didn’t know why she spoke about him now, other than the fact that something inside her that she couldn’t control was bubbling up, and she didn’t like it. “You see, when he developed more and more of his specialness—when his abnormality grew—my parents encouraged it. Fools.
“After the accident I tried to tell them, tried to explain that Johnny had a problem and needed help, but they wouldn’t listen to me. They told me that I didn’t understand and that it was good. They said he was an example for me. So they encouraged him even more and this, of course, made the problem grow worse.”
Piper watched as Dr. Hellion’s face flushed and was genuinely moved by what the memory seemed to be doing inside of Dr. Hellion.
“Then one day I realized that if Johnny didn’t get help his specialness was going to hurt someone. Like Sarah had been hurt. My parents, they didn’t see things the way I did, and I knew they weren’t going to stop him. So I was forced to. I called the authorities and later that day Johnny was taken away. My parents never thanked me but I was the only one who could see that Johnny needed help, and so I gave him what he needed. Just like I can help you to overcome this terrible affliction that you both have. Don’t you know how much happier you will be without it? Do you want to hurt those you love? I can help you.”
“But, Dr. Hellion, we don’t want your help. We sure as heck didn’t ask for it.”
Dr. Hellion shook her head and a heavy silence hung in the room.
“Dr. Hellion, you can go quietly now or we’ll call Daisy in. Those are the only two choices you have.” Conrad battled Dr. Hellion with a firm gaze.
Letitia Hellion fished between Conrad and Piper and found that she had been completely unable to hook them. The most powerful weapon at her disposal was making the children feel helpless so they would reject their gifts. Without that, the residents of the thirteenth level were uncontainable and uncontrollable and, working together, there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop them. Had they been trying to escape, Dr. Hellion could have potentially managed a reasonable resistance, but ultimately even then they would likely prevail. But a revolt—that was a scenario that had never been considered. It was an idea outside of the box and it was her undoing.
Dr. Hellion stood up, but couldn’t manage to select an expression off of her menu to wrap her face in. She had somehow shrunken in the course of the last few minutes and, gathering herself up, she started to shake as she left her office. Daisy met her at the door.
“This way.” Daisy pointed down the hall and followed behind Dr. Hellion, watching her every move.
Conrad and Piper stood in Dr. Hellion’s office and looked at each other, and Piper’s face began to glow.
“We did it.” She grinned.
“Almost,” Conrad warned. He didn’t want to get ahead of himself. There were still several key steps that had to be taken before the facility would be completely secured.
“I knew it.” In Piper’s mind, victory was already achieved.
“And you were right.” Conrad smiled. Piper’s optimism was infectious and he wasn’t going to take away a moment of her happiness. Moving to sit at Dr. Hellion’s desk, Conrad opened her top drawer and found exactly what he was looking for. He pulled out a blue ribbon, attached to which was a little wooden bird, and placed it in Piper’s trembling hand. For Piper there were no words to express how she felt. She looked to Conrad, but he saved her from the effort of trying to speak. “Just put it back where it belongs.”
Piper nodded and Conrad helped her place the ribbon around her neck. The little wooden bird fell across her chest, resting against her heart, and at once the words came to her lips.
“I’m as light as a cloud, as free as a bird. I’m part of the sky and I can fly.”
Piper’s body tingled and then her whole body ascended into the air. Conrad watched as she flew about the room, and then zipped out through the open window and into the atrium.
“I can fly!” Piper called up and down the large well. She had had a long absence from flying and wasn’t exactly steady, but she made up for her wobbling with a blinding bliss. The air kissed her skin, her smile took over her face, and she flew faster and faster.
Conrad paused in his plans, appreciating the miracle and beauty of Piper’s flight. She was turning and twisting through the large atrium and skimming across the sides of the building so that she was reflected in the glass.
Not taking his eyes off of the spectacle of Piper McCloud flying, he made himself comfortable at Letitia Hellion’s desk and picked up the phone. “Yes, I’d like to speak to Senator Harrington, please.” Conrad sat back and put his feet up on the desk.
“I’m sorry, but the senator is not taking calls right now. May I take a message?”
His father had yet another snotty assistant who was once again going to try to give him the runaround. Any other day, they would have been successful. But not today. “Please tell the senator that his son, Conrad, is calling. If he can’t make time for me now, he will have the opportunity to see me on the six o’clock news, at which time I know he’ll make the time to hear what I have to say.”
Less than ten frenzied seconds later, Senator Harrington’s careful voice was on the line. “Hey, sport. Great to hear from you. Uh . . . is Dr. Hellion there?”
“No, Father, she is not. Nor will Dr. Hellion ever be here again, because I’m now here. And from now on you’ll be dealing with me.”
Piper zoomed past the experimental laboratory, where she could see Jasper placing his hands on the bent and broken gray giraffe. Moments later a glow brighter than the sun streamed through the windows. Piper laughed out loud as she shielded her eyes from the blinding light.
The giraffe’s wattage reached every part of the facility, and for the agents already captured it was yet another bizarre happening on this, their strangest day ever. The scientists and support staff followed the children’s demands without resistance and peacefully left their workstations and reported to makeshift detention centers. Only a few agents put up a struggle, and those unlucky fellows were welcomed by Smitty, Kimber, Lily, Boris, Daisy, and Myrtle, itching to hand out a taste of what they’d had to endure over the years.
Much to Kimber’s displeasure, by late evening there wasn’t a single agent left to wrestle with and her fun was all over. In less than ninety minutes flat, and with remarkable ease, I.N.S.A.N.E. was officially under the control of the kids. Needless to say, their boundless joy was only slightly tempered with chagrin—why had they waited for so long and been so fearful when release had actually been accomplished so effortlessly?
“Making the decision was a whole lot harder than actually doing it.” Smitty grinned, picking strawberry seeds out of his tee
th. The kids were celebrating their victory in the kitchen with a generous snack. Staging a revolt worked up a healthy appetite. It was soon unanimously decided that their first course of action would be to reach the surface and feel the sun upon their faces.
Nalen and Ahmed immediately volunteered to clear the sky of clouds and they all excitedly boarded the elevator for the journey to the surface.
“Sure wish Bella was here.” Piper sadly shook her head. “She’d have made a rainbow that stretched from here to kingdom come.”
The other kids nodded in agreement. There had been many casualties and things that just couldn’t be put right, not even under Jasper’s hands. Many creatures simply didn’t have the strength, after the long weeks and months of torture, to reclaim their abilities. It tempered the triumph of the day with sadness and made the kids appreciate their good fortune all the more.
“Level eight,” the computer voice reported, unperturbed by the goings-on of the day.
Despite themselves, the kids felt anxious as they rose to the top. What if something unexpected went wrong again?
“Level six.”
“Piper? You think my parents will be happy to see me?” A nervous quiver played with Lily’s voice.
Piper didn’t want to lie. The truth was that some parents were going to be less than pleased and Lily’s very well might fall into that category. “Will you be happy to see them?”
Lily thought before answering. “Yes,” she said finally. “Very happy.”
“Level five.”
“I’m going to run and run and never stop.” Myrtle’s face shone with excitement. Her remark seemed to unleash the others.
“I’m gonna look right up at the man in the moon and wave to him.”
“I’m going to brew up some thundershowers.”
“And then some sun.”
“And then some wind.”
“I’m going to shrink so small that I’ll ride on that wind like a leaf.”
Giggles and laughter.
“Level three.”
Piper looked at Conrad and he smiled. She smiled back. It was worth it. It was all worth it. There isn’t a thing I would change, Piper thought.
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