The Sway

by Ruby Knight

  Hank looked at me then like I was Exhibit A and nodded.

  “I decided at the time to establish a counter measure to the Eisenhower project and put it away in a remote location. It took years to build the facilities under the radar. I had to find the right people to run the institute, people I could trust like family … because they would be watching over my only son.”

  Hank took a steadying breath.

  “Cole, I am the head of The Sway.”

  Chapter Seven

  Freaking seriously? Hank Thomas, number one on the watch list for the government, was heading The Sway? As in, he wanted to improve the world, not destroy it? How did someone not pick up on this? Sneaky sneaky, sneakster! Well played, Hank. Well played.

  “So, wait. What you’re trying to say is that you are distributing WMD’s to the most evil men in the world … but really, you are in fact trying to save the world. I just wanted to clarify the situation. It got all jumbled up in my head.”

  Hank pressed a smile through his lips and his eyes were laughing at me.

  “I would say that is a pretty accurate assessment, Julia.”

  I looked at Cole; he hadn’t moved yet.

  This didn’t last for long. He suddenly shot up like someone had lit a fire under him as he practically hurdled the table before landing in one fluid motion in front of his dad, placing both palms against his forehead. His eyes fluttered shut and the rapid eye movement twitched behind his eyelids.

  “He’s telling the truth, Julia,” Cole said, meeting my eyes. “He has nothing but pride and respect for The Sway. He is trying to stop the plan to restart the world.”

  Like he could, just, you know, erase every single major city off the map and see how things went.

  “What does this mean? Why did you bring us here? Why did you bring me here?”

  My brain had gone into overdrive mode. Something inside of me clicked and shifted my focus. My viewpoint switched and things slowed down. I saw each expression line press into Hank’s face as a look of surprise scattered across it.

  Before I knew it, I had reached for the vase holding tropical flowers and thrown it like a football at the person who was simultaneously throwing a knife aimed at Hank’s head.

  The vase and the knife collided in a spray of glass; the water splashed against the tiled patio as the flowers slowly floated to the floor. In the same second, Harrison popped into existence and detained the threat. When I say popped, he literally was not there and then, poof, he was. Holy crap, was everyone on the island a, um, well … did they have abilities? Did everyone in The Sway have abilities?

  “Yes, Julia, to answer the question screaming in your mind. Yes. Every one of my soldiers has an ability, as you so gently put it. Everyone in The Sway is recruited because of said abilities.”

  Hank had his hand placed against his chest, like he was checking his heart.

  My jaw dropped. “There are that many of you?”

  Hank nodded, flashing his eyes to watch as Harrison zip-tied the knife thrower’s hands.

  “Transcendent. That is what I call people with abilities,” he said.

  Cole walked up to the person trussed up like a hog and reached down to pull off the black nylon mask. He pushed the guy over to look at his face. Recognition flared in his eyes before anger and betrayal spread across his features. He stepped away from the person, giving me my first look at the man who’d nearly killed Hank.

  Freaking Jimmy, the CIA agent slash undercover door guy at the building we all lived in.

  Jimmy narrowed his eyes on me. “Agent Caldwell. What the hell are you doing? You are betraying your country by choosing to protect known terrorists.”

  I stood and walked over to him, kneeling down in front of him. “I know what this probably looks like to you as an outsider. But I have to ask you a question, and I need you to focus. Can you do that?”

  Jimmy’s eyes shifted quickly back and forth almost like he was in REM sleep with his eyes open. A sweat broke out on his brow.

  “Isn’t anyone going to ask him how he got here? How he knew where to look?”

  The slow-motion thing happened again as my brain tried to figure out the situation. I glanced to Jimmy’s neck and his pulse seemed out of control. I could hear the blood pumping in his heart, almost like I could see the cells in his body fighting against each other. His eyes cleared and he looked at me in confusion, then he started seizing.

  “Jimmy? Jimmy!” I put my ear to his mouth and couldn’t hear any breathing. When I checked for a pulse, there wasn’t one. I looked up to Hank and Cole. “What the hell just happened?”

  Hank shook his head in disgust. “That is how the Eisenhower protocol works. That is what would have happened to you, if you had been activated.”

  Holy hell. Jimmy had had no control of himself?

  But I could see it in his eyes. Like he was being controlled up until the last second when his eyes cleared. That had been the only time he’d even recognized me, seconds before being murdered.

  “So if Cole hadn’t given me those drugs this week, I would be dead?” I asked in a whisper. A solider came and picked up Jimmy’s body, my eyes followed him out of the room.

  “What will you do with his body?”

  “Return it to the CIA, give him the proper government burial he deserves.”

  I nodded my head. Cole blinked a few times in rapid succession as if to wipe away what we had just witnessed.

  Hank nodded. “I’m glad I pointed The Sway in your direction. I could tell you were transcendent. I just wasn’t sure what your ability was. You will be incredibly helpful in stopping the reorganization of the world as we currently know it.”

  Right. Somehow, I still hadn’t got it through my head that A, I was “transcendent,” and B, that this ability I was just barely recognizing could help save the world. No pressure or anything.

  Hank snorted. “Julia, you have tons of people to help you A, figure out your ability, and B, save the world.”

  Freaking mind readers. “How can I turn my mind off? I don’t really like you blasting my thoughts. It’s kind of messed up, actually.”

  Cole stood up and walked to his dad. “Why have you never told me?”

  I took this as my cue to leave. The confusion Cole must be feeling had to be overwhelming, and my want to shut off my brain could wait. I was inching my way toward the house when Cole looked my direction.

  “Don’t go. I need someone that I trust here, or I will go insane.”

  I froze mid-step.

  Weird how over a few short days, I had felt such an array of emotions for this boy. For the longest time, I’d completely shut my emotions down, so for them to be swallowing me up was something entirely new to me. I went back to my previous seat, before the whole assassin dilemma. Cole followed my lead and reached over to put his hand on my leg.

  Sparks shot through me as he mindlessly caressed my thigh. What in the hell was this emotion, and why did it feel like I was choking on my own breath? This must be what people talk about when they get butterflies or whatever. I honestly felt like I was going to puke, though; there was nothing romantic about this crap.

  Cole’s hand tightened on my leg and he leaned toward me, trying to give the illusion of privacy, even though his dad could hear every thought, anyways.

  “Am I doing something wrong? You are reading with so much panic and confusion. You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to,” he said.

  I swallowed the butterflies and smiled toward him. “No, I’m fine. I need to know how to block your dad, anyways.”

  Cole smiled and picked up his caressing where he’d left off. A blush spread across my face. I’d never considered myself to be naive until this moment. A boy had never felt like this to me before; the feeling was exciting and all consuming. Or at least, it was until I remembered said boy could read my freaking emotions. I blushed for an entirely different reason.

  Hank leaned forward in his chair. “Well, as fun as that was to witness, le
t me tell you how to block me, hmm? Cole, we can discuss this in more detail over time. Will that be okay, son?”

  Cole nodded.

  Asshat. Asshat. Asshat. Can you hear me? Asshat.

  Hank smirked at me.

  “I need you to put your thoughts into a box in your brain. Actually, imagine you are filing them away. Yes? Okay. Then you need to lock the files in a safe.”

  I rolled my eyes but was already organizing like crazy in my head while picturing the highest security vault I could imagine. Hank smirked at me again. Obviously, my safe wasn’t good enough.

  “Then you need to put up walls around your thoughts. Actually feel yourself shielding me away. With being transcendent, you should eventually be able to feel when someone is trying to get in your head.”

  I dropped a metal security wall in front of my brain. It felt like a thin thread got cut in half when I closed the last barrier. Hello? Can you hear me?

  “Julia, when you broadcast your thoughts at me, I can hear them still. Which is good for you to know, say, if you are ever in trouble and get abducted or something.”

  Or something, right, because that was the world I was involved in. I put some barbed wire on top of my barriers, just in case.

  “Cole, I can’t hear anything at all from you. It’s odd. I’ve known your thoughts since you were a baby. It made figuring out your needs when you were little really simple. This is a new sensation for me. I’ve only ever taught Quade to do this.”

  Cole nodded but frustration still covered his features. “I just don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me the truth all along. I mean, I wanted to believe that what we saw happening in The Sway wasn’t true, and I was going to find a way to prove it. So that says something, I guess, but why didn’t you tell me?”

  Hank reached out and poured a new glass of lemonade. He took a long sip before answering his son. “It wasn’t due to a lack of trust or respect. You are my son, and I know I raised you to be a strong man. It was more a matter of me protecting you. In telling you this, we will all be in danger, like Jimmy following us here, once they find out I am trying to stop them. You most of all, Cole. You are the only family I have.”

  Realization dawned on me. The exact same reason I’d been assigned to Cole was also the reason his father had kept his agenda hidden. By keeping Cole in the dark, he was saving him. If I had seen any involvement from Cole, I would have quickly reported it and the government would have taken him in a heartbeat. Hank truly loved his son, beyond measure. Cole must have been thinking the same thing, because he was up and had closed the distance to his dad by pulling him into a fierce hug.

  I slipped into the house and found Harrison sitting at the counter. I walked over to him and tapped his shoulder, interrupting his Candy Crush Saga game.

  “Sorry. Where is my room?”

  It was absolutely necessary that I take a shower in the next five minutes. I was gross, and my hair had that kind of sticky feel to it, where it was constantly wet from sweat. My shirt had been sticking to my back for the last four hours, and I didn’t even want to imagine what I smelled like if I actually took a moment to acknowledge it.

  Harrison turned and pointed to the stairs. “You owe me a life. Second door on the left.”

  He turned his back to me and clicked on the screen of his phone.

  All right, the dude obviously had an insane love for that game. As I made my way up the stairs, I stopped to look at a picture of the Thomas family. Cole's mom was stunning and the seven-year-old Cole so adorable. I traced my finger along his face, missing my little brother something fierce. What if he had an ability? I hadn't talked to my parents in months. What if he was recruited, too? I quickly made my way up the remainder of the stairs and burst through the door Harrison had indicated.

  On the four-poster bed sat my backpack, as well as a cell phone in a box with a red bow on it. I pulled out the sleek white iPhone and powered it on. Relief washed over me to find all of my previous contacts programmed in there. I dialed my family’s home. My brother answered on the second ring. His voice was deeper than I remembered and he sounded sad.

  “James, hi. It's me.”

  Realization dawned on me. Shit. Did my family think I was dead? Stupid, stupid, stupid. I hung up the phone. How could I be so dumb? Without a doubt, the government had told them I had died in service to my country. The phone immediately started ringing again, with an 801 area code. Utah.

  “Hello?” I answered cautiously.

  “Julia. Is it really you?” James said.

  “I shouldn't have called. You can't tell anyone you spoke with me. James, promise me.”

  “Julia. They came two days ago and told Mom and Dad that you were dead. They gave them a flag and a medal. I just got in this morning.”

  I bit my lip. “James, where did you just get in from?”

  “DC. Jules, I don't like being at the private school you went to. They barely let me come home for this. They were pissed because I’d just barely got there, you know. They usually don't let anyone leave the first six months because they do all that testing.”

  I nodded, remembering my beginning at Eisenhower. They couldn’t rope my kid brother in. Over my dead body!

  “James, is this line secure?”

  “Yeah. It's a burner. We shouldn't talk that long, though.”

  “Have you finished the testing at Eisenhower? Have you been divided yet?”

  James let out a breath. “That's why they were so mad. That was supposed to happen today. They have to hold off until next Monday now.”

  Oh, thank you, sweet baby Jesus.

  “James, don't leave the house. I am going to send someone for you all. Don't lead on that you talked to me.”

  “Jules, Mom hasn't stopped crying since I got here. Your funeral is tomorrow.”

  “James, listen to me. You cannot go back with anyone from Eisenhower. Do you understand me?”

  “Yeah, I got you. Whatever.”

  “I'll talk to you soon.”

  “Love you, Jules.”

  “You, too, Jammer.”

  He snorted into the phone at his childhood nickname and I ended the call, dropped the phone on the bed, and sped out of the room. I jumped down the stairs, taking them two at a time. When I got to the bottom, I saw Cole and Hank in the kitchen.

  “I did something really stupid. You have to help me, Hank.”

  I let down my walls or whatever in the hell they were and pushed the conversation I’d just had with James to the forefront. Cole was making his way toward me and I met him halfway.

  He pulled me into him. “It’s fine. Whatever it is, it will be fine.”

  I leaned around him to look at Hank. His eyes were wide and he pulled his phone from his pants pocket, pressed a button, and held it to his ear.

  “Quade. Do we have anyone in Salt Lake City?” he spat out into the phone.

  So stupid. Gah, I knew better than this. But too much was going on, and I was losing myself to the emotions. Best to box them up. I hated them.

  “Julia, don't. Don't do that. You have to learn how to think with your emotions. I know it's hard. Kiya had the hardest time with it. She was from an Eisenhower-type place, too. Out of California.”

  My tear ducts betrayed me and pointless tears escaped from my eyes. “Cole, I don't know how to do this. When I leave myself open, I don't think as rationally. I called my parents’ house. James answered. They recruited him, Cole. He has been in Eisenhower since September.”

  Cole tightened his grip on me, and my tears made little wet spots on his shirt. Pull it together, I told myself. Put on your big girl panties and all that. I took a deep breath to slow my breathing.

  “Babe, I'm going to push some calm into you, okay? It will feel kind of like when a light switch shocks you.”

  I nodded, trying to slow my racing heart. Cole gripped my biceps and the tingling sensation buzzed through my body. My panic finally eased.

  Did Cole just call me babe? I pulled back a lit
tle bit to look at Hank. He was pacing in the kitchen.

  “Yes, Quade. I need you to finish coordinating this and let me know the moment they are in The Sway's custody. There is absolutely no room for error.” He paused. “Right, I want a play-by-play as soon as someone is within a block of the Caldwell home.”

  Hank rubbed his eyes. “Thanks. Talk to you soon.”

  I looked away from Hank, trying to hide my idiocy. I shied away from Cole, too, mentally chastising myself for using him as a shield. I was a highly trained badass government operative.

  “Hank, I'm sorry for my mistake. It won't happen again.”

  No excuses—he knew I was trying to sort this all out. I mentally started locking up my thoughts again.

  Hank had closed the distance between us and placed his hand on my shoulder. “Julia, you don't have to apologize. If we act quickly and assuming your family comes quietly, it should work out fine. My only worry is that even if your brother was on a burner, the government probably had their house bugged ages ago. I don't know if he had the foresight to go outside or not.”

  I racked my brain trying to remember if there’d been any indication that James had called me from outside. I wasn't sure. I attempted to run my fingers through my hair, until they got tangled in the snarls that my locks had become.

  “I'm going to go shower. I won't make any more calls. I promise.” I turned out of Cole's arms and went upstairs.

  When I got close to the door that led to the guest room, I heard the chiming of the phone. I turned to yell down the stairs. Panic bubbled in my throat. Why would he call? “My phone is ringing, Hank. My brother is the only with the number. What should I do?”

  Cole and Hank came charging up the steps and I ran into the room. I slid my finger across the screen and handed it to Hank. He turned on the loudspeaker and set the phone on the dresser.

  “Jules,” the voice whispered. “Jules?”