Cassie was impressed that he could say this in a calm, seemingly sane way. Because he is clearly not firing on all cylinders.
“Right,” She said under her breath. Then, louder, “So why do you want them so badly if you have ten others?”
“Because we do not have ten others. I have not finished my story. At the end of the year, we were delighted by the unexpected effects. Or, I was. I had no idea Tom did not feel the same way. A month after the final treatments were given we were supposed to have the Congressional committee here and exhibit the effects. We hadn’t told them, fearing that they would think we were crazy. We waited for their arrival with excitement.
“However, the day before we expected them Tom lost it. He just—well, we found him locked in his lab with all ten subjects, all the documents and all the extra treatments. We didn’t do anything in time because we didn’t understand,” He paused, furious. “Or, I didn’t understand. I’d assumed he was as thrilled as I was. I didn’t notice the signs until it was too late.
“He explained to me, as they waited in the room. Through the speaker, he told me that no one should have the kind of power he’d created. It wasn’t right, he said. And though we would start out intending to only use it to help others it wouldn’t stay that way. He was afraid he had changed the world forever. That he had created a super-race. He was right, but we could have controlled it, if only he had stayed and helped. I was in the middle of a sentence, trying to reason with him, when it happened. The whole lab exploded. Everything and everyone in it was destroyed.”
Cassie shook her head, empathizing with the horror in his voice.
His hands shook with anger as he continued. “Years of work. Every test subject. The formulas. The extra serum. The videos and documents showing the effects. All gone. It was horrifying. And the committee coming the very next day. I’d lost everything, I was ruined.” His anger faded a little. “And yet, I still felt worse for Tom’s family. I thought they had lost even more. They wouldn’t get anything from the government, since he had killed himself. And worse, he had killed others. They would be ostracized by the other families on the base. I knew they would lose their house on her salary. I had been close with their family; I knew the children well.
“So I tried to help them. I gave Tom’s son a job on the base, with a ludicrous salary. It was what saved them. But Marie... she never got over her husband’s suicide. A year later we found her dead in her bathroom. She had overdosed on painkillers.
“By this time Kyler was eighteen. I think that was all she was waiting for. He was old enough to adopt Halle, which he did with my help. He enlisted and I put him to work on the base, still giving him too much money. I became their second father. They came to my house for Sunday dinners. Halle invited me to her school play and her science fair.” He stopped again, and Cassie could see his emotion was real. He roughly cleared his throat and continued. “One day they decided they could trust me. They came to me and told me the truth. They told me how their father had injected them as well. They proved it to me with their abilities.
“I was shocked, and very happy. The only reason I was still in charge of the base was because the committee didn’t want to admit the reason for firing me. They didn’t want their superiors to know that the experiments were completed, but I knew my days here were numbered. When they told me, though, I knew everything could change! It could go back to normal. All my former plans were set up again. The committee, though skeptical, agreed to come out again. I knew once I proved their abilities to the committee that I could have gained funding to continue the project, only in reverse. We got to work, doing some tests, seeing how far their abilities had advanced. We recorded more video footage of them. It was interesting to see how the skills had developed and diverged between the two different psyches.”
“Kyler became excellent at projecting thoughts and images on others. Much better than Halle. But Halle... she could sense things that were going to happen. It wasn’t very specific. But you could never sneak up on her. She could figure out who was a spy in a group of people. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to fully explore her abilities.”
Despite her disbelief, Cassie was absorbed in the story and she saw where this was going before he got there. Maybe because she knew Kyler better than he ever would.
“Again, I was too blind to see! I let them live their normal lives, other than a few extra hours in a new lab. I should have guessed their father would have instilled in them the same crazy nonsense he believed. I naïvely thought I was important to them, and they wouldn’t ruin me the way he had.”
Cassie nodded sympathetically. “They ran away.”
“Yes,” He said sadly. “One night they were just gone. He was 19, she was still 17.”
“I’m sorry,” She said, meaning it. He’d been abandoned and that was something she understood only too well.
His voice went gruff and he continued, “Well anyway, the committee came, saw the footage and gave me a budget to get them back. And that’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since.”
“But that’s one thing that I don’t understand, sir. If they can change what people think, and what they see, how do you have a hope of finding them? Maybe he was in the room when you got back, how on earth would you know?” She asked, playing along, despite her common sense.
“Remember how I told you we took video footage of them?” He asked in response. “We also did tests while they were exhibiting their abilities. One test recorded a particular brainwave that is emitted when they use their extra skills. Curiously, it’s only emitted when they influence people, not objects. About five and a half years ago we developed a scan that picks up these brainwaves, allowing us to track them.
“It isn’t easy to monitor the world for them. As it is, our only hope is to either know where they will be, or hope they stay in one area long enough for our systematic checks to find them. This time we got lucky. A young man was reported to have acted unaccountably and not under his own control. He is not your typical military recruit, and he made a formal complaint, which was reported officially. We look for that sort of thing as well, so we suspected they were close by and quickly located Kyler. He was using his real name!” General Ramford shook his head in confusion, “He never does that, and I still don’t understand it.”
He stopped talking abruptly, as if only just remembering he had an audience. He cleared his throat.
“So you see why we need them back. Kyler is a member of the military, he belongs here! He is a deserter.”
“And Halle?” Cassie asked quietly.
His face softened. “This is her home. She belongs here, not with Kyler. He’s changed her… influenced her. She wouldn’t have left me if he hadn’t.”
Cassie studied him carefully. He seemed sincere, but she didn’t have time to figure everything out right now; she needed to act like she was on his side, and then figure things out later. Whether he was crazy or not, evil or not, it didn’t matter. What did was that he let her go. She thought carefully before responding. She knew that he wouldn’t believe a complete allegiance change. She had to make it believable.
“So when you catch them, you’ll just figure out how to recreate them, and then what? You wouldn’t lock them up, would you?” She asked. His answers didn’t matter to her. Not much, anyway. A man willing to lock up an innocent, only tangentially connected, college student, lacked basic scruples. He would say whatever he thought would help his cause.
“No! Of course not!” He stopped, searching for words. “Granted, we would need to know where they are at all times. Given the power they have... surely you can understand that!”
She was startled; he was surprisingly honest with her. She thought for a moment, the beginnings of a convincing plan coming to her. Then she answered, “Yes, I guess. Sir, could Kyler—” She stopped with a theatrical shudder.
“What, my dear?” He asked kindly.
“Could he –possibly- make someone think they were in love?” She asked, lo
oking down at her hands, hoping he would interpret it as her hiding her emotion.
“Yes, I’m afraid he could,” He said sadly, convincingly.
Oh, yeah right! Cassie thought, but she kept looking down, playing with her hands.
“You begin to understand their power… and danger. I’m very sorry, Cassie. But given the threats surrounding this country, and believe me, there are more than you know, you can see why we need this power. We need them and their abilities.”
Cassie, concentrating very hard, managed to get her eyes to water, and then she looked at him. “Yes, I understand. But I don’t have any idea how to help you. He never told me any of this. All we did was take a bus to Cleveland and stay in the Abri there. We were only together one day; I don’t know how to help.”
“Just take a moment and try to think of anything,” He encouraged.
“Well, he left his phone at school, and mine on a different bus, so cell phones were out of the question. And he talked to the cabby and the hotel host, but that’s all. I guess his ‘reservation’ at the hotel makes sense now. I couldn’t account for it at the time,” She said, trying to keep as much truth to her story as possible. She paused, and then added as if just remembering, “Oh yeah! He left me alone at the bus station for like 20 minutes. He might have made a call there.” Cassie fervently hoped that he hadn’t. While he had left her, it had been for five minutes at most, and she didn’t think he would have risked a phone call.
“Excellent! We’ll question the attendants there and check the public phone records. Thank you, Cassie,” He said with excitement, pushing a button on his desk.
“Um, sir, what are you going to do with me?” Cass asked meekly.
He looked at her shrewdly, but his door opened before he could respond. He turned to his secretary. “Oh, yes. Get me Lt. Franks. And… then set up a guest room.”
She nodded and backed out of the room.
“Cassie,” the General turned to her apologetically, “I’m very sorry. Now that we understand each other, you are not a prisoner, but we need you to stay. He may still come for you. Give us a little more time, and then we’ll take you wherever you need to go. Is that alright?”
Knowing there was no real choice, Cassie politely agreed. The general excused her and she went to wait outside his office for the secretary to take her to her room.
But it seemed the secretary was in no hurry. Cassie sat in the waiting room outside General Ramford’s office. Over half an hour later the general came out of his office.
“Lt. Berg, I need the BES.” Then he spotted Cassie. “What are you still doing here? Diana?”
The secretary cleared her throat, and went into the office. Cassie could hear a few scattered words of their conversation.
“—can’t trust her!” Diana said.
“I know.” The General sounded surprisingly patient. “Look, you can’t let your personal feelings get in the way. Our first priority is to get them here to the base.”
There was more frustrated mumblings from Diana, and she came out looking very annoyed, but said, “Follow me.” Cassie hurried after her as she left the outer office.
The elevator stopped several floors down. Diana unlocked a door, showing Cassie into a room with a large bed, window, bathroom and a TV. At least she would have something to do. She even had a clock!
“Hit 202 on your phone if you need anything. I’ll be back at 6:00 with your dinner. And a change of clothes,” she said reluctantly.
Cassie, feeling extremely happy about her new prison, chuckled once at the oddness of these circumstances being good. She turned back to the door and secretary, “Thank—” but she was already gone. Curiously, Cassie tried the door. It was locked from the outside. She turned the deadbolt. She wanted a warning before being interrupted. She needed to think.
Chapter 12: Memories
She walked to the window and opened the blinds. Her window exposed a few smaller buildings scattered across the ground, along with a cluster of military vehicles. The floor she was on was too low to give her a view of the layout or landscape. She saw a cloudless sky, but nothing else to give her a clue as to where the base was located. She tried to open the window, but it was solid.
Cassie lay down on the bed, still facing the window, and thought.
First, she tried to direct her thoughts to the more trivial. Lieutenant Diana Berg seemed to genuinely hate her. At first Cassie had thought she was just a truly unpleasant person, but it seemed more personal than that. Had she known Kyler and Halle?
She unclenched her fists and tried to relax. Obviously she couldn’t stop her mind from thinking of Kyler.
First, and most important, is General Ramford right? She wondered. There were times during his tale that he had looked a little insane. But maybe that is just fanaticism. What he was saying was unheard of, but did that make it impossible? She’d seen evidence of Kyler’s influence over objects, but had immediately rejected it as impossible.
But I’ve seen it. I’ve ignored it, and put it out of my mind, because that’s what I’ve been trained to do since I can remember. If something doesn’t make sense, or is too hard to process, just ignore it and move on. That definitely came from her mother. Laying there, noting the bed was much softer up here, Cassie accepted this new reality. He can move things with his mind.
She formed the words for the first time quietly, under her breath. She was quite disturbed by this discovery, partially because she actually believed it. Does that make me crazy, too? But she was almost more upset that he had never told her. He said that he loved her, but he never told her about this. She would have loved to learn this from him, with a demonstration! But he didn’t tell her. And now she was fairly confident that she would never see him again. Even if they did eventually let her go, they would always monitor her. She was, as the General had aptly pointed out, their best and only lead.
She sighed, and lay there for a moment, thoughtless. Then, despite her reservations, her thoughts turned to the most fantastic part of the conversation. It’s impossible to change someone’s thoughts! My brain is completely my own! And even if it is possible, it isn’t right! Kyler’s dad was spot on with that.
To take away someone’s freedom by altering their thoughts seemed fundamentally wrong, and Cassie couldn’t believe that the Kyler she knew would do that to people. But more importantly, no one could do anything that far-fetched. And yet… Kyler had said that his “inheritance,” as she had thought it then, couldn’t be allowed back into the military’s hands. And moving objects really wasn’t that bad. But this—
She flipped over onto her stomach, and wondered. She was far from totally convinced. But it has to be true. What other possible explanation can there be for everything that has happened? Both Kyler’s and the General’s story requires that for all of this to make any sense. But then… what had been real? Did he control my thoughts? She felt that while she might not remember images having been changed, she would remember having strange thoughts. Like the boy that the General had said led them to Kyler in the first place. Wouldn’t I?
She had pretended to the General that Kyler had made her think she was in love, but she was sure that wasn’t true. She had realized it when he was away from her, and the General had specified that he had to be close. Also, he said that changes in thoughts couldn’t last. And she was still very much in love with him.
And while she still didn’t know what to believe, that realization made her final decision for her. She would trust what he had told her, however limited that was. Which means the General cannot be trusted. Who knows which parts of his story he invented to gain my trust. I have to believe someone, and I choose Kyler.
Cassie wanted to view General Ramford as the enemy, callous and evil, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the General really did care for Halle. The same Halle Cassie was so attached to.
No, not the same! I’ve never even met her. I just love a dream-figure. She sighed again, frustrated with her situation. Laden wit
h disturbing answers that made unsettling sense, she lay down on her bed to go to sleep. There were answers to everything here. But what she wanted more than anything was to see Kyler again, to confront him and hear the truth from him.
She lay there, imagining what she would say to him, and it didn’t take long before she fell asleep.
“You girls ready to go?” Kyler asks from the doorway, with a charming smile.
Ignoring that I had been ready half an hour ago, despite having changed my hair and clothes at least three times apiece, I smile back, hoping it’s also charming, and say, “I am!”
Halle pokes her head out from the bathroom, “Actually, I’m not feeling too great. Maybe you should go on without me.”
Kyler’s eyes narrow. “Again?” He asks suspiciously.
“Oh, don’t worry about me, big brother,” Halle says innocently, deliberately misinterpreting him. “I’ll be fine. I’ll just stay home and go to bed early.”
He rolls his eyes. I’m sure he’s not fooled. But surprisingly, he agrees. “I’m sure you will. Alright then, Cassie. Shall we?” He half-bows at me, gesturing to the door.
Without noticing, I had been holding my breath, afraid he wouldn’t want to go out alone with me again. Now, I gushed out in relief, “Yes! Let’s go!” Then I remember and I bite my lip in nervous hesitation. I turn back toward Halle’s head.
“Hal… are you sure?” I ask, two questions in my voice.
“Of course! Trust me,” She says, answering the one she knows matters, and then, for Kyler’s benefit, “I’ll be fine.”
He opens the door for me, and even though I’m still nervous, I walk through.
“So where are we headed?” I ask once we’re in his car. I know we are going to dinner, but since I am new to Paris and he’s been here for a while, he chooses the places we patronize.
“To Le Fontaine. The food is supposed to be excellent.” He glances at me, and then his eyes flick back onto the road. “Is that okay?”
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