Two
Page 15
President Masters’ eyebrow looks like it’s permanently stuck in an upward curve. “I’m just going to do an intake form on them, okay, Elias? Even though they’re not here, it’s the first step in getting them some help.”
“Yes, sir.” I realize my hands are trembling with relief at the news that someone wants to take this seriously. The stress and exhaustion of it all washes over me as I sit down in a chair opposite his desk.
For long minutes, President Masters asks me mundane questions about my two extraordinary sisters. Features, height, weight. I don’t know all of the answers. When he asks for a catalogue of their abilities, I list the ones I know but then end with, “And I’m pretty sure they got more in the Biotech Hub.”
He pauses. “Got more…what?”
“Supers, Sir.”
“You mean to say that they attained new abilities?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Masters sits back in his chair and does that thing with his hand on his chin again. “And your concern with these girls is…”
“I don’t know. That Biotech is after them? That what those experiments have done to their abilities is killing them?” After a ridiculous pause — because I don’t believe I actually have to say it — I add, “Because they’re my sisters and I need to know they’re safe.”
“I know you and Miss Grey were at Social Welfare when that biobomb hit. That’s not exactly something we want to deal with here, especially not when we have five new youngsters to keep safe. I know they’re your sisters, and your concern for them is admirable. But if all the things you’re saying are true, they’re very valuable to Biotech , and they would certainly make us pay for finding and sheltering them.”
“But — ”
He raises his hand. “And from the sound of it, they can take care of themselves.”
Masters is the third person that’s pointed that out to me about my sisters, and every time, it pisses me off even more. I sit back in my chair, look to the side, and grind my teeth together for a couple seconds. And then it hits me.
I lean forward and stare at the president. “I came to you, President Masters, because I assumed you’d be interested in them. My sisters went to a special program at Biotech, a gap year for high school graduates, and came out with new abilities. That’s everything you believe is possible here at CS, right? Your mission? Having them here wouldn’t only help them — it would help you, too. It would help all Supers.”
Damn, I’m laying it on thick. But if Clandestine Services doesn’t have the tools to help me find my sisters, I don’t think anyone does. And that thought terrifies me.
Masters places his palms together, raises them to his face, breathes into the space there. After a long sigh, he says, “If your sisters are using their powers, if they are as out of control as you say, we would know.”
“I know you’re Clandestine Services, but…”
“We have infallible ways of knowing.”
Something flashes in his eye — the same confidence I always saw in Fisk when he was sure he was right about a formula or a procedure or a testing method. Sure that it was foolproof.
I lean forward and lower my gaze. “With all I’ve been through and all I’ve seen, I don’t believe that anything is foolproof.”
Masters studies me for a moment. “It’s your plan to remain with us here at Clandestine Services, is that correct, Mr. VanDyne? Train here, become part of the team?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I took a look at Gallagher’s notes on your intake from yesterday. He says he’d like to see a mind like yours behind mission control. Is that something that sounds agreeable to you?”
“Yes, sir.” Just like that, I realize that it really does. I’d always thought that the Clandestine Services Hub was all about risking your life and showing off your powers, something that conflicted with my pipe dream for living a quiet life with the people I love. But now I realize that, while it could be that, it could also be about doing respectable work – selfless work.
Masters nods. “Okay, then. Follow me.” He opens his office door and speaks to his secretary as we pass through the waiting room. “Amanda, I’m going to step out of my office for a few minutes, and I won’t be available. Would you please take messages from all my calls?”
She nods, and he switches off the sound on his cuff. Even though I’m not expecting any calls, I do the same. He leads me through the labyrinth of hallways. The map I’ve drawn in my head serves me well, and just when we should be walking into the testing arena, Masters takes a sharp left turn into a small alcove that holds a pair of sliding elevator doors.
When they open, he enters without a word, and I follow, though I slant him a glance. He looks completely relaxed and at ease. Too bad I can’t say the same for myself. My foot wants to tap with impatience, and my stomach churns.
The elevator sinks down about a hundred yards before stopping. The black panel at the door flashes red, and Masters presses his palm into it, then motions for me to do the same.
“Welcome, President Masters and Elias VanDyne,” a voice says. This one is male and smooth. Almost human.
“Why isn’t that Kara?” I ask.
“The Funnel needs a whole different security system. The system behind these doors is the most powerful tool at this Hub’s disposal. Follow me.”
The elevator doors slide back open, and we walk into the space directly beneath the arena. It’s just a huge white room, just like the bioprofiling cell was.
“Another bioprofile?” I ask.
“Oh, no. Same concept, though. Elias, this is the Funnel. It can locate any special ability usage on the planet. As long as a Gifted individual is using his or her ability, we’re able to see it.”
“How… I don’t even understand. Is it a computer?”
“It is. An extremely advanced artificial intelligence based on the abilities of one of our students from a few years back. She helped us implement it. Basically, every special ability involves a displacement of force, mass, or energy. When someone uses his Super, it is essentially manipulating one of those things. Make sense?”
I nod.
“This computer has the ability to map the entire globe via satellite — a very powerful one we obtained from the Weaponry Hub. We tweaked the programming so that it could detect the smallest of disturbances, so we are able to locate a Gifted individual any time they use his or her ability. If the use lasts long enough, we can map their biophyiscal profile.”
“So you know where Supers are at all times?”
“If they’re using their abilities, yes.”
A thousand questions race through my mind: how many of us there are, whether they can tell the strength of someone’s ability, whether the Funnel can tell if someone’s sick or about to die, whether there’s any way to block its tracking abilities, whether that Super whose brain could find other Supers is still out there.
Suddenly, every thought I ever had of living a quiet life where no one knew about my One, no one cared, feels like something less and less possible. The wide walls of my expansive world are caving in on me, and I concentrate on keeping my feet planted to the ground to feel steady.
“But you said you had no record of Merrin and me. Of our friends.”
“And I was telling you the truth. That is, up to a point. Something about Ones doesn’t disturb matter in the same way or maybe not with as much force… We’re still trying to work it out, although admittedly our biotech facilities are less extensive. When you figured out that you could combine your Ones, however, we saw those disturbances. We’ve been intrigued with you for a while actually, since we hadn’t previously matched those abilities with a Super.”
“When do you typically match an ability to a specific person?” I ask, trying to swallow away the dryness in my throat.
A whisper of wind, a slight vibration brushes my shoulder, like someone has stepped up behind me. I suck in a sharp breath and turn to see what it was.
Nothing.
“Yes, it’s just… I thought I heard… Nothing. It was nothing.”
Masters gives me a long look. “Display panel,” he says to the room, and a touchscreen on a sleek white column rises out of the floor.
The room’s light dims, and the panel projects a hologram of the globe into the center of the room. Around the globe, tiny pinpoints of green illuminate and then fade, one second or several later.
“Announcement mode,” Masters says, almost reverently.
The computerized voice begins its recitation. Super-strength: Kortemark, Belgium. Invisibility: Shurugwi, Zimbabwe. Teleportation: Rio Verde, Brazil. Enhanced hearing: Edmonton, Canada. As it reads off the powers and the locations, a backdrop of whispers sound like water rushing in the background. Male and female, young and old, scattered words and phrases fill the room. Different languages, resting, dreaming, awake, gasping for breath. It’s like the conversation of an entire audience lives in my head. A woman remembers she forgot to buy the milk, and a man uses water manipulation to put out a house fire. The whispers become a hum, filling in any space that was left between my ears, growing into a crazy clattering, then a dull roar, and in an instant, it’s all too overwhelming and…
“Stop!” I yell, covering my ears.
Masters looks at me with his head cocked to the side, his eyebrows furrowed. “It can get overwhelming, yes. Lights only.” The globe goes back to regular glowing, blinking lights in quick succession, a frantic heartbeat of Supers around the world.
“This, as I’m sure you will understand, is very classified equipment. None of the other Hubs know what we’ve done with the supplies we got from Weaponry. The United States government, our main source of funding, does not know it exists. Not even at the very highest levels.”
The whispers still run in the background, but they have calmed. Now I’d have to strain to pick out any clear words. I take a deep breath.
“We know about every Super on the planet, Elias. We know where they are and what they’re doing. Most of the time, we don’t watch. Most of the time, this record that the Funnel just read to you goes into the annals, unchecked and unnoticed. The behavior you’re describing from your sisters — multiple abilities, intense, uncontrollable strength — the sort of disturbance that would have caused would have been brought to my desk immediately. We are the reason, you see, that the ridiculous behavior exercised by some Supers goes unnoticed. The Funnel brings it to our attention, CSH sends operatives to deal with it, and we’re done.”
I give him a hard look. “As well as any behavior of concern?”
“Yes, that, too.”
“Can’t you just…type their names into a search bar or something?”
“I wish it was that easy. But, as you know, we don’t have bio profiles on them. The Biotech Hub was dead-set on keeping them a secret, and indeed, they have.”
My mind races through everything Nora and Lia did in their lives. Dance and piano recitals, school dances, soccer practice, senior portraits. We went on family vacation, but it was always secluded — a small casita in Arizona, camping, a hut on the beach.
We were never really exposed to the world outside Superior, Nebraska. Our parents made sure of that.
The whispers increase, not in volume, but in intensity. My head pounds with the pressure. I want to stagger backward, I want to sway, but I don’t want to show weakness in front of Masters, who is watching for my reaction.
“If we could have found them, Elias, we would have. You see?”
I nod numbly, half because I have nothing to say and half because all the voices—hundreds, maybe thousands—are making me dizzy, and I just want to focus on remaining standing until we can get out of there. “Yes. Is there sort of…training or something people do to spend time in here?”
Again, Masters gives me that look with the weird eyebrows, like maybe something’s off about me and he can’t believe no one bothered to tell him. “The programming has a special training regimen, yes. For now, I’d like a report from you on all the different ways a tool like this could aid our missions. Or hinder them. Consider it your first assignment here, Elias. My professional welcome to you.”
This welcome is making my head hurt. I have no idea how Masters got through that without flinching.
He leads me out of the room, and now, the noise is mostly gone. God, I don’t know how anyone stands to be in there for thirty seconds, let alone long enough to do any work. I shake my head and blow out a breath.
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
I make a special effort to make eye contact with him and smile, and he continues.
“Elias, if I could find your sisters, I would. But I can’t. We’ll keep an eye out. I’m putting a special alert order on anything suspicious of the exact nature you described. Fair?”
I nod. “Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Just…one more thing. Do you think you could give me access?”
The combination of those noises — their specificity, their realness — and the way Masters looked at my reaction, like it wasn’t quite right, tugs at me. There’s something he’s missing. I’m hearing something he’s not, and it’s different from what most people hear or see or experience, in a system that supposedly sees everything.
What if they’re missing something important that somehow I can hear? What if that can lead me to finding the girls? Connecting with them?
“Actually,” I say with a voice that I hope is confident, casual, and polite all at the same time, “could I spend today down here instead of in the arena?”
“Of course. We’ll put you through a more official polygraph scan just as an added layer of security.”
I give him my most disarming smile. “Completely noble reasons, I swear.”
Masters nods. “Of course. There’s enough surveillance and security on the Funnel itself that I can’t see any obvious risk. Obviously, something about being in there resonated with you.”
“Thank you, sir,” I say, trying not to let my face betray the internal fist-pump I’m doing.
“We’re glad you’re here. We want it to stay that way.”
We stand silently in the elevator as it glides back upstairs. I catch a glimpse of the time, hovering in the air above the hallway, projected from a holoclock. We were only down there for twenty minutes; I have no idea why it seemed like so much longer.
Something hisses behind my left ear, and I jerk my gaze around again. Another slither of something strange behind my left eye.
My walk back to Masters’ office is mechanical. I’m walking next to him, but I’m really focusing inward, trying to shake the crazy sensation that I’m not alone.
Being in that room must have had a more lasting impression on my brain than I thought.
FOURTEEN
The polygraph is quick and painless. A Hub official puts me in a clear glass box, a fraction of the size they had Hayley in, and asks me all kinds of questions. He starts with the basics — my name, my abilities, where I’m from. Then he moves on to the harder stuff. What my intentions are here, do I intend to use this information for anything other than the good of CSH. Luckily, I’ve thought through everything and rationalized it down to exactly the same thing I said in Masters’ office earlier. Finding those girls is good for all Supers, everywhere.
There is no way this is selfish. There is no way I’m doing this only for myself or even only for them. Finding them and making sure they are safe is the first step to justice for all Supers who have been negatively affected by the Biotech Hub.
A long half hour after I finish the test, the official comes back in the room, flips his tablet out, and shows me the bright green letters that show I’ve been cleared.
“Passed with flying colors,” he says. “We can grant you access.” I nod my thanks and follow him out the door, into the elevator, and down again.
“The Funnel is actually a very simple system,” he explains, walking me back
into the dome. Immediately, the sensation of dozens of little streams of energy wrap around my body — not voices, but not solid airstreams either. Just a feeling, under my skin and inside my brain, like the buzz the first time I met Merrin.
The feeling of potential.
I push the thought away so I can pay attention to how this thing works. The official taps on the touchscreen panels in the middle to wake them up. “You can search according to several parameters and cross-parameters.” He brings up a menu, and I see type of ability, strength of ability, and several other options. “You can also cross-search abilities to find individuals who have more than one. Up to six at a time, even though I’ve only ever heard of one or two Supers with that many. If you only know two out of four in the individual you’re searching for, for example, that’s fine, but if you input more than the search target has, you won’t find him..”
”Can you see activity over an entire area?
“We usually only run it for individuals. It’s a targeted surveillance tool, not a general one. If you bring up all the Super activity for a large area — several hundred square miles, for example — all the displays will basically run together. There’s very little variation in the level of atmospheric disturbance of Supers. But I guess if you wanted to run a report on all the Super activity for a specific region…”
“Yeah. Show me that.”
I was never amazing at computers, but the small interface is easy enough to use. The official shows me the energy readout from a graph, and I can see the data per region, city, even street. It dips and spikes according to the amount of energy or mass disturbance.
“What about serious energy disturbance? Like, above average.”