by A. D. McLain
Traymore sighed and looked at Brian. Then he strode in to go after Lexy.
Brian led Jared out to his father’s car and laid him across the backseat as sirens blared in the background. “Hold tight. I’m getting you out of here.”
“What about Lexy and Dad?”
“Jared,” Brian looked back at him from the front seat, “if I don’t get you to a doctor soon, you’re going to bleed out in this car. So sit tight and conserve your strength. This is going to be a long night.”
Brian cranked the car and pulled out and zoomed down the back streets. The bumps sent jarring pain through Jared’s body, but he didn’t complain. It wasn’t safe to go down the wired roads.
“I’m surprised there aren’t more police out around here,” Jared said.
“You can thank your girlfriend for that. She had a ton of files from her work. We’re talking every censored document since the Storm. They prove every cover-up and document every crime for the past thirty years. She gave it to your father, and he put the plan in motion.”
Jared sat up and instantly regretted it. “The plan. You mean, it’s happening? Now?”
“Yeah. And lay back down. Your dad figured it would be a good distraction to get you out. Just before I met up with him here, he got word that the last of the children were safe in their new homes.”
Jared slowly lowered himself back to the seat and tried to wrap his mind around everything. In the end, he only worried about Lexy and his dad.
Lexy felt him follow her. While waiting at the top of the stairs, she looked down and fought feelings of relief and agitation. She would’ve felt better if Traymore had gone with Jared. As strong as he was, she knew he could protect his son. But she would also be a lot safer with him by her side. His presence meant her safety. His absence meant Jared’s safety.
A wave of Psy energy came down the hall. A group of thirteen guards were searching the rooms one at a time. She didn’t sense any Readers with them. In fact, nearly all the Readers were now out of the building. She could still vaguely sense Tracy and her brother somewhere on the next floor, where Lexy thought she’d find her father. Also on that floor was a strong Reader’s energy not obscured by any Shields. But other than a few more guards on this floor and the next, she didn’t see anyone else in the building. All of the Psy signatures she’d felt inside earlier were now spread down the surrounding streets.
“How many?” Jared’s father came up behind her.
“Baker’s dozen. It’s a tight group about twenty to thirty feet down the hall, to the right. Can you hit them with that spider hallucination trick you did downstairs?”
“You could see what I did?”
“I saw it on the pulse. I just don’t understand how you did it.”
“It’s a manipulation of the electrical waves in their brains. I can modify what they see and hear. Then I throw in some light touches to strengthen the images their brain is sending them. But I can’t do it without seeing them, and I can’t do that many at once.”
“I can see them. If you send your pulse, I might be able to direct it. I’ve done that with Jared twice tonight.”
“Alright, then it’s worth a try. Show me what you can do.”
He sent out the pulse wave and she grabbed the energy and focused it on each of the guards. The first wave grabbed five people. He sent out another two pulses and she directed it to the remaining men. Though they were moving, she still hit her target. Stray images found their way into her own electrical currents, but she ignored them. She wouldn’t let herself be afraid.
More overwhelming than the fear was her proximity to his pulse attacks. What it lacked in subtlety and finesse, it made up for with raw power. She swayed and would’ve fallen, but he put a hand on her shoulder to keep her standing.
“Are there more?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Everyone else is on the next floor. But they have a Reader by their side, so we won’t be able to hide.”
“Is your father up there?”
“I think so.”
“Alright, then let’s go get him.”
The room was dark. Blue emergency lights cast an eerie glow. They threw a smoke bomb into the auditorium, obscuring even more from view. Logan could still see where each of them were standing, but he couldn’t see the furniture and fixtures. He felt her walk into the room and had to hold back his rage.
“Logan,” she called. “I don’t know what you hope to accomplish. You’re outnumbered. Your friends will be rounded up and brought back. Security will be tightened and you will all take part in our next round of tests, as punishment for your disobedience.”
“If that were true, you’d already have reinforcements here. There’s something going on out there. I know you see it, too. The Psy energy in the cities is growing stronger. People are removing their bands. They’ve stopped listening to you and your bosses.”
There were mumbles and rustling of feet.
“It’s the beginning of a new world you don’t control out there,” Logan said.
“There will always be a need for control, and I’m well suited to that task. Things will go back to normal shortly.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
Tentacles of light reached up through the stairwell and invaded the minds of the guards. They collapsed on the floor, groaning and murmuring. Logan dashed for the door. Shots fired from across the room and bullets whirled through the smoke. He dropped and let them sail over his head. They slammed into the wall. She continued to blast off. Then Logan felt a flash of Psy energy behind Val. She stopped firing. Through the dispersing smoke, he saw her turn and look down the barrel of a gun aimed right at her face. For the first time he could remember, the cold mask of her face cracked. At the other end of the gun was Tracy Lin. Beside her, still masking their presence, was her brother.
“Hello, partner,” Tracy said.
Logan came around the room so that he could see them more clearly. The women stood ten feet apart. Just enough distance to ensure Val couldn’t pulse or attempt to disarm her. Should she try, Tracy’s brother also carried a gun.
The fear left Val’s face and she smiled. “Hello, Tracy. How’s the family?”
Tracy’s eye twitched, but her hand remained steady. “I’d say you could ask them, but you aren’t going to the same place.”
“How sad. After claiming you weren’t a murderer, you’re going to finally prove me right. I guess that means you won’t get to see them either.”
“You’re the murderer. This is justice.”
“Well, there’s the charge, but I don’t see a jury and I haven’t been read my rights, so I’m afraid your claims of justice are faulty.”
“What rights did you give my husband when you strangled him in the pool? Or how about when you stabbed my sister in the head?”
“I never touched your husband, and it’s not my fault if you and your sister didn’t get along. After all, out of the two of us, you’re the only one who could have TK’d your husband. Too bad you couldn’t thought kill your sister, what with the block and all. So you had to default to a more rudimentary weapon, such as your handy kitchen knife.”
Tracy bored holes into Val with her glare. “Stop the bull. We both know you can pulse and read. You killed my husband and sister and framed me for the crimes because I wouldn’t help you set up the other guys on the force. I was your proof that everyone was at risk of snapping and becoming a danger to the public safety.”
“Still delusional I see. Killing your family was too much for you to handle, so you had to invent a story with me as the bad guy. I understand. Really, I do. Come with me and we can get you the help you need.”
“The only help I need is burying your body where no one will ever find it.”
Lexy came out from the stairwell and walked over to Tracy’s other side. She was followed by an older man who looked a lot like the injured man she came to rescue. His energy was similar as well.
“There’s another option,
” the man said. “Put her on trial. Giver her that jury she asked for.”
Tracy scoffed. “No judge will hear this case. She’s too powerful, and they can’t let the public know their secrets, all the crimes that’ve been covered up. It will never go to court.”
“Yesterday, you would’ve been right. But today isn’t yesterday. A little over an hour ago, every censored document and covered-up crime was released to the public. We paid special attention to the police departments, making sure each of them received a list of all the officers who’ve been wrongfully imprisoned over the past two decades. People are learning that they were lied to.”
“That’s impossible,” Val said.
“Not if you work for History Remembered, like I do,” Lexy said.
Val paled. “There’s no way you could distribute all that information before it can be scrubbed.”
“It’s already out,” the man said. “We printed it directly to the homes and distributed it through the churches.”
The man dismissed the guards on the floor. They looked at each other and then at Val. Stood and hurried out of the room. Val pulled in her energy and pulsed toward Tracy. Before it could touch her, the man sent out a pulse that hit Val in the chest. The blow sent her to her knees and left her choking and gasping. Logan thought he heard a few bones break. Tracy forced Val to her feet and pushed her from the room.
“How did you know she was about to attack?” Lexy asked the man.
“I saw the way the three of you tensed and figured she was about to try something.”
Lexy looked over at the man and sighed. A tear caught at the corner of her eye, and then she threw herself into her father’s waiting arms.
15
There was a cool breeze as crickets chirped and rain tapped against the roof. Jared took a deep breath and cringed at the stiffness in his side. There were fresh bandages around his waist. From the pull of his skin, he guessed he had stitches. He opened his eyes. It was nighttime, but he was grateful not to be in complete darkness and silence. Under his back was the not so soft cushion of a real bed. He closed his eyes and tried to recall getting here, but all he could remember was the bumpy car ride and excruciating pain.
His Psy energy surged and he tried to pull it back, but his mind was blurred from medication and exhaustion. There wasn’t any intention behind his pulsing and he couldn’t tell if he was hitting anyone or not. People unlucky enough to be caught around him when he was like this usually felt they were being repeatedly punched or bumped. Once, when he was younger, he knocked a doctor unconscious for several minutes. While fighting to keep his eyes open, he prayed there was no one around to get hurt.
Lexy roused when the car hit a deep pothole. Jared’s dad was driving. She was in the backseat, her head rested against her father’s chest and his arm wrapped around her. The intensity of her senses had dimmed from earlier. She couldn’t see as far as before, at least not without extreme focus. But she also wasn’t overwhelmed by the bombardment of sensations, as she’d expected with all the people removing their bands. It felt natural.
She looked out the window with her eyes and senses. She could see the outskirts of her city, but they weren’t going there. From a quick glance at the roads, she could tell they were headed toward The Valley. It would be the safest place for them to recover. She wondered how Jared was and searched for his light. It was barely visible, hidden behind a hazy glow.
They drove down the service roads and she looked at the bright lights of a group of un-banded people sitting around a water fountain. Others approached and removed their bands, adding their glow as they sat among the group. Similar light groups gathered around the city in other central locations. All the Bands Offs demonstrations took place in restricted areas where band use was mandatory.
“Have you heard anything about Jared?” she asked Traymore.
He shook his head. “Phone lines are down. We expected as much. From the last report I got, phone calls demanding answers from the media, police, and politicians were clogging the system. Then all the lines went down.”
“Cutting the phone lines is the first thing you want to do if you’re trying to limit the spread of information,” her father said.
“Only, they can’t limit it,” Jared’s father said. “We’ve had this in the works for a long time.”
He drove them through a back entrance to The Valley, which led to the back of a large warehouse. Inside, Lexy saw several people she recognized and many she hadn’t seen before. Mick was there with Curtis and Kara. Her mother sat, chatting with an older woman in a rocking chair. No sign of Jared or Brian, and Jared’s Psy signature was difficult to read.
Her mother looked up and her mouth dropped. She stared at Logan with wide eyes. Lexy stepped back as her parent’s rushed to each other. Their energies flared and surrounded each other. Lexy beamed as she watched them.
Her mom’s eyes grew wide again as she peered over Logan’s shoulder, at their daughter, and Kara jumped out of her seat, knocking over the chair. She rushed over and checked Lexy for any injuries.
“I’m fine. I know it looks bad, but it’s not my blood. Where’s Jared?”
“I’ll take you to him.” Paul led her and Jared’s father from the warehouse to a small infirmary attached to the meditation instruction center. “He was in a lot of pain, so we had to sedate him. Of course, he has much greater control over his abilities when in pain than when drugged, so we’ve had to pull every Shield in The Valley to take positions in the medical center.
There were Shields everywhere. Young and old, men and women. The stronger ones walked around. Weaker ones stayed closer to the infirmary’s closed door. With every step toward Jared, her senses dimmed. Lights winked out of her perception until all she could see was the glow of the shields created by Paul, Jared, and his father. Paul remained outside as they walked through the crystal-encrusted door. Lexy blinked as pulses shot across the room, bounced off the crystaled walls and shield fields. Ribbons of color swirled and combined. Light sparked and flared.
Jared’s father moved to the bed and grabbed his son’s hand. A pulse shot through Lexy and she gasped. She felt his touch on her skin. It lingered as though he was directing it, but his eyes remained closed. His breathing was deep.
“Are you alright?” his dad asked.
Lexy nodded and went to the other side of the bed. “There’s just a lot of Psy energy in here.”
She took Jared’s other hand and sat.
“It’ll get worse when he wakes up. At least, as long as he’s medicated. You know, you look like crap.”
She grinned. “Nothing a shower and a change of clothes won’t fix.”
“He’ll be worried about you if he wakes up and sees you like this. Why don’t you go get cleaned up and grab something to eat. I’ll sit with him until you get back.”
She stood, reluctantly. “You know, I just realized I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Lexy.”
“Traymore,” he smiled. “Now go.”
Paul showed her to a room and then brought her a white blouse and long brown skirt to change into. It wasn’t her usual style, but she it would feel good to be in clean clothes again.
After she showered, she was admiring her loose hair and how good it felt to brush her hair without having to avoid an inhibitor band, when a crash echoed from down in the hall. A pulse of Psy energy shot from Jared’s room, and a Shield was knocked down. She ran to Jared and dashed through the door. He groaned and writhed against the bed, his forehead wrinkled. She saw his energy pull in and shoot back out again. Paul, Traymore, and a doctor were leaning over the bed, trying to calm him down. Lexy pushed beside Paul and touched Jared’s arm. She joined her Psy energy to his, and her vision exploded into light. Her body shook. Every nerve ending buzzed and tingled until her fingers went numb. She focused on his energy and directed it away from other people. What energy remained in the room, she split between the two of them.
Time disintegrated. His grip tightened around her
hand, and she put her head on his chest. Her knees slid down to the floor. With his other hand, he threaded his fingers through her hair and clutching at her scalp. She closed her eyes and listened to his heartbeat slow down. She heard the doctor move around and check the IV.
“I’ve increased the pain medication slightly, but I can increase it more if you need me to.” His voice sounded far away.
Jared grunted.
“I know how much you hate it,” the doctor said, “but I also know how much pain you’ve got to be in. Between that rib, your two stab wounds, and the multiple fractures in your foot, you’re going to be out of commission for a while. If you need help, ask for it. We’ll move you out to the treehouse if we have to. I just need you here until we’re sure you won’t need any more blood transfusions. I don’t have the equipment out there for that.
“I’m fine,” Jared said.
“Call me if he needs anything,” the doctor said to Traymore and Paul.
“Lexy, do you need anything?” Paul whispered.
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Well, if you need anything let us know,” Paul said. “I’ll have someone outside all night.”
She heard footsteps, and then the door closed. She saw the haze of the many Shields disperse, though they didn’t go far.
“Lexy?” Jared’s whispered.
“I’m here.”
“You should go. I don’t want to hurt you.” His voice caught. “I can’t focus while I’m on these drugs.”
“I know. It’s okay. I got you covered. I’ll be your focus for now, like we did before.”
Blue light surrounded them, and Lexy felt warm all the way through.
“I love you,” she heard, through the pulse.
“I saw you,” he said. “In the prison, in the darkness, I saw a light and knew it was you. You’re all I saw. Did you find your father?”
“He’s with my mother.” She grinned. “What did my light look like?”