by Rock, R. A.
We had discovered that there was a side-effect from being in adamantium. It drained our powers. No one had figured that out before because no one except Grace had ever been contained in the alloy for so long. Because of this, she was still too drained to attempt teleporting all of us back to Sipwesk right now and we were terribly impatient to get home after everything that had happened.
We could go collect The Concordia — the starship we had arrived in — from Pisew Falls once we were back. And because Shiv had really fixed the bracelets properly this time with the right tools and the right materials, we felt that it was worth the risk. Yumi wasn’t happy about it but she had agreed. She wanted to get back to our own time as much as any of the rest of us.
“Ready?” Shiv said and he waited until he got verbal confirmation from everyone. “Three, two, one and press.”
I instantly blacked out.
“LOOK,” GRACE said and I tried to, eventually opening my eyes. “It’s a city. Over there in the distance. We must back because there was no city there in 2020.”
“I have to agree,” Shiv said. “That is definitely Winnipeg.”
I squinted and had to admit that it did look exactly like Winnipeg in the 25th century.
There was cheering and hooting from everyone and high fives and hugging all around.
“Oh thank God,” Yumi said, wrapping her arms around me and holding me tightly. “I thought we would never get back.”
“Well we made it,” I said, pulling away so I could look at her. “And I think I’m ready for us to be parents. We need to try and re-implant the fetus, Yumi.”
“Really?” she said, tears in her eyes.
“Of course. Shiv and Grace say they have a plan. I think that if anyone can save our baby, it’s them.”
“Okay,” she said, eagerly. “Let’s get back to the city and catch a starship to the cryogenic centre where she is. This really is a new beginning, Red. We get a chance to start over.”
“Here’s to second chances,” I said, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Or third or fourth or fifth chances,” Yumi said, grinning.
“Enough canoodling you two and let’s get to the city,” Audrey said, stepping forward as she spoke. “I want to sleep in a real bed.”
Grace spoke for all of us when she took a deep breath and said, “I can’t wait to get home.”
And as we walked towards the city, side by side, I sent on a band that was meant only for Yumi.
“Wherever you are, Tanaka, I’m home.”
“I couldn’t agree more, Red,” she sent, her mental voice full of happiness.
She took my hand and we smiled into the future.
But it doesn’t have to be...
Want more Yumi and Chad? Check out Forbidden Minds!
She attacks other peoples’ minds. He can read them.
Will their powers make them the perfect match?
Keep reading for a Sneak Peek at Forbidden Minds
NO.
I felt as if I had been stabbed in the guts.
And I’ve actually been stabbed in the guts. I know what that feels like, so I wasn’t making idle comparisons here.
I had been called in for some emergency top secret meeting in Boardroom 24. Everyone knew what Boardroom 24 meant. The department-that-must-not-be-named held their meetings in Boardroom 24. So, I had been prepared for some Agency bullshit. But this: I hadn’t expected this.
I kept my face impassive. He looked… beyond shocked. He hadn’t expected to see me either.
Fuck.
I looked away from him and used my training to try and calm down. Standing perfectly still, I took stock of the room in about five seconds.
Two humans — unarmed, but I didn’t rule them out as threats. One exit out the door I had just come through. One exit out the vent in the wall that was large enough for me. Four screws to remove, which would take about thirty to forty seconds. I couldn’t tell what kind of screwdriver I would need. Room to fight if necessary. Possible weapons — chairs, a wastebasket, and a pen someone had left on the table.
“Please sit down, Ms. Tanaka,” Merrywell said, interrupting my assessment. She gestured toward a chair directly beside Chad.
I remained standing by the door a moment too long, causing her to scowl at me. Then I moved to a different chair than the one she wanted me to sit in. Chad watched my every movement — unsurprised by my actions. He knew me too well to be startled by my resistance to authority. And if I knew him at all, he was probably wishing he had the balls to do the same.
I sat down and leaned back in the slouching posture that seemed to most annoy the powers that be at The Agency. Merrywell pressed her lips together — displeased. Too bad. I wasn’t going to fawn over her. Or even be particularly respectful. Not after what she’d done. She didn’t deserve respect or even basic manners.
Of course, Melody — Chad and Gracie’s mom — would say that you gave respect for yourself, not the other person. But I didn’t want to think about Melody. It hurt too much and would distract me. And I had the feeling I would need all my wits about me in the next few minutes.
I stared at the woman who had attacked Sarah. She was the lowest of the low in my books — picking on someone so much less than herself. Sarah was small and sweet and, well, weak. She couldn’t defend herself, and she certainly hadn’t been able to protect herself against what Merrywell had done. I had wanted to kill the woman when I found out, but Sarah wouldn’t let me.
I had heard that Merrywell had done some unspeakable things to get to the top. The worst things didn’t bear repeating. The least reprehensible acts included sleeping with certain men that could help her get a promotion. She was known as Ms. Shagwell in certain circles, but nobody had ever said it to her face that I knew of. I was tempted though, very tempted. I reined in my disgust. She had called me here for a reason, and I at least needed to hear her out and find out what that reason was.
Merrywell waited — hoping I would change places, I suppose — or sit up straight, maybe. As if. After a moment, she began to speak.
“Now that you are both Protectors… ” I saw Chad’s eyes dart to the white bracelet I still held in my hand. One of her minions had given it to me before I entered, and I hadn’t quite believed that he was serious, so I hadn’t dared to put it on yet. I noticed that Chad was already wearing one. “… The Agency can assign you to more higher-level tasks.”
Well, shit, why didn’t she say so in the first place? If putting on the stupid white wristband meant I actually got off the baby assignments, I would have been kissing her feet the moment I walked in. I slipped on the wristband as casually as I could and didn’t show any interest in her words, waiting for her to finish her little spiel.
“You have been chosen to work as partners on a highly sensitive mission to the Milky Way Galaxy.”
Partners? My eyes cut over to Chad who had an unreadable expression on his face. Then my brain locked onto the second part of what she had said. The Milky Way. They were sending us home? We had been told we would likely never be assigned any mission in our home galaxy. The Agency didn’t like their agents getting homesick and trying to quit.
“A new wormhole has formed there — bigger and more powerful than any in the human cluster. It needs to be stabilized.”
“Right,” Chad said, speaking suddenly. The sound of his voice brought back a million memories that I didn’t want to think about. I focused hard on what he was saying and tried to ignore the smoothness of the sound with the bit of roughness at the edges that I had heard so many times before. “I heard it was going to take something like ten Protectors to get this one under control.”
“That was what we had initially foreseen, yes… ” Merrywell said.
“But… ” I could tell there was going to be a but in that sentence.
She looked at me.
“But we’ve since changed our plans.”
“To what?” I said, asking her a direct question. I know we’re the ones
who aren’t supposed to speak unless we’re spoken to, but, strangely enough, I just can’t seem to keep those damned rules straight.
“Don’t antagonize her, Yumi.”
I took a deep breath, not looking at Chad. When I did glance over at him, he had two bright-red spots on his cheeks and was staring at his hands. Having his voice in my mind again after all this time was a bit too much. I felt my eyebrows drop a fraction of an inch.
What was he doing?
If Merrywell was in such a position of power, there was no way she wasn’t a strong Telepath.
“That thought was tightly shielded, as is this one. I haven’t wasted my time the past three years,” he sent. “There’s no way she heard any of this.”
I was beside myself. I could handle being in the same room with him. But having him in my head? That was asking too much.
“Stop,” I sent him. My volume was a little too loud, and he winced. We were lucky that Merrywell was fiddling with the screen on her arm, presumably in answer to my question. Or maybe she was avoiding answering me. Either way, she hadn’t picked up on the fact that we were having a mental conversation.
And a good thing too. If she could tell we were conversing that meant that we really weren’t ready to be Protectors. Hiding the fact that you’re having a conversation in your head is Telepathy 101 and if Merrywell had known that we were sending to each other, it would mean that we really sucked at it.
I pressed my lips together in frustration and sent much more softly.
“Sorry.”
I felt a mental nod.
Jesus, four minutes in a room with him, and I couldn’t control the volume of my mental voice? It was one of the first things I had learned in training, and I had already lost control over it? I was seriously fucked. Now, what was Merrywell saying?
She had sat very silent when I asked my question, as if she were seeking control — not wanting to freak out on me. That’s one thing these Agency puppets liked: to be in control.
“Miss Tanaka,” she said, dragging me out of my thoughts. She pulled the corners of her mouth up in what seemed to be an imitation of a smile — not that I would know much about smiling. “If you would like to return your bracelet and finish out your time as a New Recruit for the next five years, that will be just fine. Please give me back the arm band, and you may go.”
I froze.
Well, that was going a little far.
I certainly didn’t want to be sent back to kindergarten. But I wasn’t going to let her know that.
“I could do that. Give back the pretty little band. But I doubt you mean it,” I said, leaning forward and looking her in the eye. “I’m the last New Recruit you would ever choose for this job… unless there was no one else who could do it.”
I smiled and sat back.
“Which means that that is an idle threat, Ms. Merrywell.” Folding my hands over my flat stomach still covered in a New Recruit beige T-shirt, I delivered the final verbal punch. “And we both know it.”
She looked like one of the characters in one of those old cartoons where the steam comes out of their ears when they get mad. Yeah, she was seriously pissed. And from that I assumed that I had been correct in my assessment of the situation.
I was the most ornery, rebellious, and least respectful of Agency rules of any of the New Recruits in known history. I knew this for a fact because The President himself had told me so — twice.
And yet they hadn’t kicked me out.
That told me that I was valuable to them. It also told me that I could pretty much do whatever I liked — within reason — and they still wouldn’t kick me out. That made life a lot more fun.
“Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” she said, red-faced. She got up and left the room. I watched her back disappear. Then I looked at Chad. He looked back at me.
And the silence lengthened.
“NICE TO SEE you again, Yumi,” Chad sent.
“Are you shielding?” I made sure my own thoughts were under a tight shield and that I had my volume under control.
“Of course. I’m not a first year. What are you thinking of, poking the bear like that? She’s really ticked off.”
“Can’t help it,” I sent back. “She’s annoying — among other things.”
“Of course she is, but she’s also our superior. You’re not a New Recruit anymore. You’re a Protector now — you have to act like it.”
“Don’t tell me what to do, Chad. You have no right.”
He dropped his eyes. It was silent in the room except for the nearly inaudible hum of the heating unit that was located in the far corner of the ceiling. I absently noted that the ventilation shaft was another possible escape route.
What else was there to say? There was too much that had been left unsaid. Too much that had been saved up during the long time that we had been apart. Too much to discuss based on this new turn of events. So, I said nothing. It was my default response. When in doubt, shut up.
“She’s got something on us, Yumi,” he sent tentatively, a few minutes later.
I looked up and met his eye.
“What do you mean? Did you pull out her brick?”
I gave him a look. Chad’s the most powerful Receiver ever born. He makes the rest of us Telepaths look stone deaf. He can hear every mind. Like, seriously. Every mind in existence.
As soon as he discovered his powers, he instinctively created a temporary shield. If he hadn’t, he would have gone completely insane. When The Agency found us and brought us to The Academy, his teachers helped him create the massive permanent shield that exists in his mind.
I’ve been in there, and it’s like this huge brick wall that goes on forever. He’s had it in place so long, he doesn’t even notice he’s maintaining it anymore.
Every brick in the wall is someone else’s mind. He has to shield himself all the time because otherwise he would go crazy with hearing so many people’s thoughts all at once. When he pulls out a brick, he can hear what that person is thinking.
He got up and moved one chair over. His proximity made me acutely uncomfortable.
“No. I swear I didn’t. I just nudged it, and it popped out a tiny crack. She was thinking in her public mind, and the whisper came through.”
“Okay, okay. Don’t worry about it. You were always too sticky about your morals anyway, Chad.”
He drew his eyebrows together.
“So? What did you hear?” I prompted him when he didn’t go on.
“I didn’t hear anything, but I got the feeling that she’s going to be able to pin us down because she knows something about us. Something that makes us very, very valuable to The Agency.”
“What is it?”
He shook his head, hearing the doors.
Just then, Merrywell returned looking sullen. I guessed that they had told her that she had to take whatever I dished out.
Awesome.
She sat down in the chair, folding her hands precisely and placing them on the tabletop. Calmly, she began to speak again.
“I will explain your mission. And you will not interrupt or make comments until I am finished. Is that clear, Ms. Tanaka?”
I nodded.
I felt relief emanating from Chad at my capitulation. I don’t know why. I’m respectful.
Usually.
Well, a large percentage of the time anyway. But this woman did not deserve my respect, and I wouldn’t bow and simper to her, pretending that she did. I would get kicked out of The Agency before I would do that.
“When I am done, then you may ask any questions you have and I will give you your orders.”
Neither of us responded.
“A new wormhole has formed at one end of the Milky Way. It is the largest and most powerful wormhole to have appeared in the human cluster for hundreds of years,” she began, speaking as if reading from a book. “The human settlements derive most of their income from their control of inter-cluster travel, which occurs through the wormholes. The wormholes are the s
ole source of income for many galaxies. This wormhole could be what brings your human settlement — Earth — into the Union.”
Earth as a part of the Union? I had thought that we weren’t socially stable enough as a planet to join the Union yet. If Earth were a part of the Union, I wondered if that meant I could go home. There was nothing I wanted more. But that was highly unlikely. Like I said, The Agency didn’t approve of Protectors going home.
“As you know, Earth is the home planet where all of the other human settlements that are spread all over the universe originated. And as you are probably aware, once the original ten or twelve generations of settlers had spread out through the stars, colonizing hundreds of planets — that’s when Earth was suddenly sent back into primitive times due to the meteorite that hit, which caused natural disasters unlike any in human history. All of the chaos destroyed civilization, and the Earth has been many years building back up to be able to join the Union of Planets. It is The Agency’s pleasure to help Earth gain entrance to the Union and return the birthplace of humanity to its rightful place in the stars.”
We still didn’t say anything, listening as she finished her rather poetic speech.
“The best thing about this wormhole is that there is already a trade partner at the other end, waiting to form a treaty. It seems the… ”
“Ifshom.” Chad interrupted her. Oooh. He was going to be in trouble. She said no interrupting.
But she only gave him a dirty look. Hm. He always was a bit of a golden boy. It was hard for anyone to get mad at him. I knew the feeling.
“Yes, the Ifshom. You’ve heard on the news, I suppose.”
I hadn’t. I didn’t follow the news.
“So, The Agency is sending Protectors to stabilize the wormhole and then facilitating the Ifshom’s first transport through it. The Protectors will also be emissaries… ”
She grimaced a little as she said this, glancing at me.