by Kelly Oram
Half of the main room was basically a geek’s paradise—computers, gadgets, and gigantic monitors galore. The other half felt much like a studio apartment with a kitchenette, living area, and a couple of military-style bunk beds off in the corner. I’d tried to add a little color to it with some throw pillows on the couch and some artwork on the walls, but it still felt very zombie-apocalypse-survival-camp-ish. “It’s like it was built to help you survive a nuclear winter,” Tyson muttered.
“Or a hostile alien takeover,” I corrected. “Tony said the man he bought the place from—the guy who built it—had been one of the soldiers involved with the Roswell Crash of 1947. The guy was paranoid out of his mind. A lot like Tony, actually. That’s probably why the guy agreed to leave the house to Tony. He was dying and would have taken the secret of this place with him to the grave, but Tony somehow tracked him down online and spent months corresponding with him, convincing him we were trapped in a secret lab being used as human test subjects.”
Reminded of Tony’s lies, I choked on a ball of sudden anger in my chest. When Tony’s computer and numerous different monitors clicked on, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I hadn’t been this out of control of my powers in months. I opened my eyes again and found myself staring at the textbox on the computer monitor asking for Tony’s password. I froze. It couldn’t be.
“Angel,” Major Wilks asked, “is something wrong?”
“What’s my last name?”
“Baker,” Ryan said. “Why?”
I sat down at the computer, feeling a sick satisfaction as I shook the mouse and clicked in the textbox. Tony almost never let me touch his computer. I had my own upstairs—the one I’m pretty sure he’d put restrictions on.
“Tony used to tease me that I was somehow the clue to his password. I tried everything I could think of—every word in my personality notebook, and then some—trying to figure it out. Not that I really cared to use his computer; I just wanted to see if I could figure out the big secret.”
Settling my hands on the keys, I glanced over my shoulder at Ryan. “How did I spell Jamie?”
“J-A-M-I-E.”
I typed in Jamie Baker and was surprisingly disappointed when the screen flashed “incorrect password.” I was sure that would be it.
“Try Jamielynn.”
“Jamielynn?”
“That’s your full name.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Ryan laughed. “It’s a family name. Your parents only call you Jamielynn when you’re in trouble, and Carter calls you that because he knows it annoys you.”
It was amazing how every time Ryan gave me another answer, I came up with a hundred more questions. Trying to focus on one thing at a time, I pushed my curiosity aside and typed Jamielynn Baker into the passcode box. Teddy’s desktop flared to life.
My hands fell from the keyboard as I sat back and blinked at the screen. “My real name was his password.” I suddenly wanted to put my fist through the stupid computer. What an unbelievable jerk. “All that time he told me he was looking for my family. He said he searched all the missing persons databases for anyone who fit my age. He held me while I cried about not knowing dumb things like my real name and birthday, and the whole time my name was his freaking password!”
The lights and computer blitzed.
“Hey.” Ryan’s soft voice was right behind me. “Look on the bright side, Jamie. You can’t do anything about the past, but you can control your life from here on out.”
He was right, but I still couldn’t pull myself together. I used anger to keep myself from completely falling apart. “Let’s see what else the stupid jerk was keeping from me.”
The desktop background was a selfie of Tony and me at the Grand Canyon that he’d taken on his phone. It was the first time I’d been there. I loved it so much. In the picture, I was smiling as if I were the happiest person on Earth. The picture was salt in the wound now. I didn’t want to see the two of us together like that. Not now that I knew what he’d done to me.
I typed my name into the search box at the upper right corner of the screen. The top hit was a folder. Inside it, there was file after file on me. There were pictures of me at all ages, medical records, newspaper articles, even confidential notes taken by a therapist I used to see after being in a car accident when I was in high school. Tony’s Jamie Baker file was basically a detailed biography on my life before the Visticorp explosion.
When I came across a picture of a younger blonde-haired blue-eyed me wearing a sash and crown being hugged from both sides by a man and woman I assumed were my parents, I finally lost it. “Everything he ever told me was a lie. Every. Single. Thing.”
With a gut-wrenching scream, I directed all of my anger and frustration at that stupid computer and released two lightning bolts from my hands that made the entire system explode. The blast knocked me backward a few feet.
“Jamie!” Ryan shouted from where he and the rest of his team had been blown to the ground. “You might be durable, babe, but we’d rather not die right now.”
I’d forgotten they were even there.
With the rage out of my system, sadness and grief were able to break through my defenses. I finally understood the full extent of Teddy’s deceit, and it made me sick to my stomach. My eyes flooded and I crashed to the small couch, sobbing into my hands.
“Jamie?”
“How could he do that to me?” I screamed at no one in particular.
“Angel, we need to go now,” Major Wilks said.
He was going for the tough love approach of making me ignore the trauma while there were more important things to do. He probably used it on his soldiers all the time. But I wasn’t one of his men, and I didn’t want to ignore the trauma. I’d been through enough today, and I’d reached my coping limits. “So go,” I snapped. I’m sure my eyes were glowing bright yellow as I glowered at the man.
Frowning, he pulled his shoulders back, straightening to his full height. I knew what he was trying to do, but it wasn’t going to work. His dominance would have no effect on me. “Angel, this location is compromised. It’s not safe. Your friend is gone. We need to leave before—”
I rose to my feet and let my energy consume me. Whenever I did that, my eyes took on a scary glow and my hair started whipping around my head as if I were standing in the middle of a raging storm. Saying it made me look intimidating would be the understatement of a lifetime. “Leave. Me. Alone.”
The entire group gasped and collectively took a few steps back when energy began to crackle along the surface of my skin. They were right to do so. The threat I posed with just my physical presence was real. I wouldn’t have done any true damage on purpose, but one wrong move and someone was going to get hurt whether I meant for it to happen or not. I was unstable and known to have accidents when I lost control. But I couldn’t calm down. I was so upset at the moment that I wouldn’t have even cared. Not then, anyway.
“Major, may I speak with you upstairs, sir?” Ryan asked.
Major Wilks considered Ryan’s request for a long moment before he finally nodded. He looked around the room and jerked his head toward the stairs. “ACEs move out.”
No one questioned the major. As soon as he gave the command, the ACEs vacated the bunker, leaving me alone to have my breakdown privately. I was grateful to Ryan for making them give me space. As soon as they were gone, I sat back down and pulled my knees up to my chest, letting my tears flow but trying to gain control of my sobs. I was emotional, but I hated that about myself.
The soldiers must have left the bunker door open when they went upstairs because I could hear them as they left the house and climbed in the truck, leaving Ryan and the major to their conversation. One of the men made his way into the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards.
“What is it, Romeo?”
There was some more rustling and the clank of a cup, and then the faucet turned on. “Sir, I think you should take the team back to Las Vegas and
let me stay behind with Jamie for a little while.”
I was as shocked by the request as Major Wilks was. “Absolutely not. This location is compromised, and she is the most important asset our agency has ever come across. She’s too valuable to leave unprotected like that. I want you both on that truck as quickly as possible.”
His statement made me see red, but before I had time to barge upstairs and give him a piece of my mind, Ryan said, “With all due respect, sir, she’s not an asset, and treating her as if she were one would be a huge mistake.”
I could have kissed him. Not that I was ready to even consider the possibility of getting into a relationship with him, but I had to hand it to my pre-amnesiac self. I had excellent taste in guys. I waited for the major to blow a gasket at the defiance, but he didn’t. “Explain.”
Ryan let out a loud puff of air that somehow sounded tired. “Jamie is…delicate.”
I wanted to scoff. I was hardly a fragile little girl in need of a big, strong man to take care of me. But, then again, I had just fallen apart in front of them all, so maybe he had a point—a small one—as much as I hated to admit it.
“She’s emotional. She’s so tough, but she needs a lot of TLC at the same time. She needs a while to freak out over everything she’s been through today, and she should be able to do that without the guys seeing it. Not to mention she’s still a civilian, sir. She’s independent, untrusting, and has always had a problem with authority. She won’t like it if you try to force any rules on her, even if it’s for her own safety. Offer her protection and she’ll come to you, but try to force it on her, and you’ll lose her.”
Who needed a personality notebook when I had a living Jamie Baker encyclopedia? Man, he was scarily accurate with his assessment of me. Dead on.
There was silence for a minute, and then the major grumbled. “That is…inconvenient.”
Ryan chuckled. “Jamie is anything but convenient. But she’s worth the trouble, sir, I promise. Trust me, if you want her to work with you, you’ll have to give her plenty of freedom, and time to be a girl when she needs it. Right now, she needs it.”
The major paused again and then reluctantly said, “What do you propose?”
“Leave, and give her the option to follow you. Prove to her that you really aren’t trying to simply take her. Respect her freedom. Give her time to settle down and process everything privately. She’ll come to you when she’s ready.”
The microwave beeped again, informing the world that its contents were nice and hot. “And if she doesn’t?”
I held my breath for Ryan’s answer. “Then that’s her choice. No one can force Jamie to do anything she doesn’t want to do. You’d only make an enemy of her if you tried.”
“And you?” Major Wilks asked. “What would you do in that case? If she takes off, do I lose you as well?”
“That would be up to Jamie. She’s got a strong head on her shoulders. She’s temperamental, but she always thinks long and hard about her decisions. If she tells me she needs time away, then I’ll trust that. If she asks me to leave, I’ll give her my number and pray she calls. But if she lets me stay with her… Sir, you’ve always known my position there. I respect your organization very much, but Jamie comes first. Always.”
His loyalty and devotion confused me. It was flattering, but it was so intense that it was scary. He was a complete stranger. Granted, a very kind and good-looking stranger, but a stranger all the same. This was exactly how it had all started with Tony. He knew everything, had all the answers, and flattered me with his feelings. But with all of that support came expectations. Ryan would be the same. Sure, he’d be patient, understanding Mr. Incredible right now, but when I didn’t fall for him? When I needed a friend and nothing more? What happened then? I couldn’t go through that twice.
The sound of someone taking whatever it was out of the microwave pulled me from my thoughts just in time to hear Ryan say, “I’ll try. She’s always wanted to help people. It’s why she became Chelsea’s Angel. But she’s also always feared and mistrusted the government. She’s got to be feeling extremely vulnerable right now, and she hates that. She needs to regain control over her life, and feeling like she’s being caged in or manipulated by the ACEs will have the opposite effect. Unless she comes to you on her terms, she won’t feel protected; she’ll feel threatened.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“Positive, sir. Giving her freedom and trusting her decisions is the only chance you have.”
Major Wilks sighed heavily. “All right. But be safe, Romeo. Stay down in that bunker and lock that door while you’re here. I doubt even the supersoldiers could rip that thing off its hinges. And get out of here as quickly as you can; even if Angel doesn’t want to come with us, I’d hate to see either of you hurt or fall into Donovan’s hands. And keep me posted.”
“I will. Thank you, sir.”
They actually left. I was stunned. The U.S. military found me and then they left. They didn’t even say good-bye. It was obvious that the major really didn’t like the idea, but he trusted Ryan and gave me my freedom. And I was free. I had several identities that they didn’t know about and more money attached to each than I could ever spend. I could take off right now and disappear forever.
I was so surprised by their conversation and the major’s departure that I’d completely calmed down by the time Ryan rejoined me in the basement. He shut and secured the hatch door at the top of the stairs as he’d promised the major, and then entered the room wearing a smile much too confident considering the awkwardness of this situation. He moved across the room to me with so much ease that it was as if he didn’t have a care in the world. How did he do that?
“Hey,” he said as he sat down next to me on the couch. I still had my knees tucked up under my chin, so he couldn’t sit exactly right next to me, but he did sit just inches away from my feet. The guy didn’t seem to need a lot of personal space.
I didn’t return the greeting, but my eyes tracked his every movement. Something about him unsettled me and gave me hope all at once.
He’d come back, carrying a small teacup on a saucer. It was odd to see such a masculine guy holding a delicate cup with tiny little rosebuds painted on it. As he offered me the cup, I couldn’t help giving him a hard time instead of thanking him properly, as I should have. I’m capable of being polite, but it’s not very high up on my personalities list in my notebook. “Do you bust out the good china for all your tea parties, or am I just special?”
I don’t know what it was about my comment that changed Ryan’s countenance, but he suddenly got that head-over-heels lovesick look in his eyes again. “It’s your cup, funny girl,” he said, “and Magic Tea is your favorite. I was lucky I found some stashed away in your cupboards. Drink it. It should help soothe your nerves.”
The dark-gold liquid smelled wonderful. I tentatively took a sip and was pleasantly surprised. Ryan was right; I did like it. He let me sip the tea in silence, and after a few minutes the bitter liquid warmed me from the inside out, relaxing every part of me. Even the pounding in my head faded into a dull ache.
“I bought us a little time,” Ryan said.
“I heard. Thank you.”
Ryan was momentarily startled, but he quickly pulled the corner of his mouth up into a half smile. “I keep forgetting. It’s been a while since I had to deal with the queen of eavesdropping. Sorry about the emotional girl comments.”
My injured pride wanted me to defend myself. Impossible to do with my face wet, eyes swollen, and nose running. I shrugged. “It seems to be true.”
“Yes, but you hardly like to admit it.”
I cracked a smile and took another sip of my tea.
Ryan watched me with his intense gaze, as if he simply couldn’t tear his eyes off of me, so I asked a question in order to break the tension. “How did you join up with the ACEs? There’s no way you were a part of the team before the explosion, if we were together. Superman was an idiot for dating Lois La
ne, you know. I don’t think I’d be dumb enough to date a soldier and play superhero at the same time, especially not if I had a problem with authority.”
A small smile played across Ryan’s lips. “You’re right. I had nothing to do with the ACEs before the explosion. I was just a regular guy—a college football player with an undecided major. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life besides spend it with you.”
Ignoring that last statement, I re-asked my original question. “So how’d you end up with the ACEs?”
I’m not sure what made him smirk, but he obviously found something amusing. His voice was dry when he answered. “Carter wrote a story about you.”
There was that name again: Carter. “He was the reporter who’d written that story about Chelsea’s Angel and Visticorp, right?”
Ryan nodded. “The two of you have a strange relationship, but somehow it works. He blew the whistle on Visticorp’s human testing and explained how you died trying to free him. After his story broke, a couple of things happened. First, you’d freed four other Visticorp test subjects that day, and told them that you had a friend who could help them. When you didn’t find them after the explosion, they saw the story and assumed Carter was the friend you meant.”
“Was he?”
Ryan shrugged. “You could have meant him, but most likely you meant me or Teddy. It was the two of us who could have helped them hide from Visticorp. Carter didn’t really know what to do with them, so he called me. I let them stay at my stepdad’s cabin for a few days and was planning on helping them get new identities and all that, but then the ACEs showed up on my doorstep.”
“Why? How did they connect you with the explosion?”
Ryan smirked again. “I told you, you and Carter have a history. He wrote that story about Chelsea’s Angel rescuing him, but he’d also written quite a few other stories about you as Jamie Baker over the years. The ACEs put two and two together that you were Chelsea’s Angel. After getting all the info they could out of Carter, they came to question your parents and me. I joined up the second they told me what they were about. When they left my house that day, I left with them.”