Joss the Seven

by J. Philip Horne

  “Should we?” Mom asked. “Give him what he wants?”

  My stomach clenched. “Do you want me to turn myself in to him?” I asked. “I’ll do it if you want me to.”

  Mom’s eyes opened wide in shock. “No! No, I didn’t mean that. I don’t know what I meant. I just want Janey safe.”

  “We go get her, right?” Dad said, looking at Mara.

  Mara nodded, but she bit her lip. “I only saw two guys with Jordan. The others may have gotten busted if they’d showed up at the apartment this morning at the same time the cops arrived. But we don’t know for sure. And there’s a complication. They must have started working on this facility months ago. That would fit Jordan’s M.O. He’s careful. Covers all his risks.”

  “So what is it?” I asked. “What’d you see?”

  “He’s got a wire mesh covering everything on the inside that I could see. Even the windows. It’s got to be silver.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Yeah, it never came up,” Mara said. “You know all those stories about silver bullets killing mythical creatures? It’s loosely based in reality. Silver grounded in the earth is like a talent killer. It leaches the power out of you.”

  “So I can’t, what? I can’t ghost through it?”

  “You might, but probably not. And if you tried to push through it and failed...”

  “Weren’t you training him?” Dad said. “How can he just be learning about this?”

  Mom put a hand on Dad’s shoulder. He glanced at her and scowled, but settled down.

  “What about the floor?” I asked. It terrified me down to my toes, just thinking about ghosting into the ground, but if I had to do it, I would.

  “I couldn’t see much of the floor,” Mara said, “but I saw areas covered with the mesh. The ceiling, though, looked clear.”

  “So we get me on the roof and I ghost through it?”

  “Yeah,” Mara said, “I figure that’s what he wants you to do. He’s leaving you one clear way in. It’s a trap, for sure.”

  “So what do we do?” Mom said. Her voice was edged with despair.

  “We spring the trap,” Mara said. “We send Joss through the roof.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Dad said. Those were the words, at least. His facial expression said something closer to, “Over my dead body.”

  “Deadly serious,” Mara said, “but I’m not saying we have Joss ghost through the ceiling. I’ve got something else in mind.”

  She laid it out. It started with Mara and I shifting into giant eagles and her towing me with the rope to get airborne. The plan went downhill from there. I’d been acting out plans that had almost gotten me killed all day. To hear a plan practically designed to get me killed, though, was a new experience. I didn’t like it, but it did sound like it could work. Worse, it sounded like our only good option.

  “Mara, can we talk for a moment?” I nodded my head off to the side, away from the group. “Seven to Seven?”

  “Joss…” Dad said, but Mom laid a hand on his arm to cut him off.

  We moved a few steps away and leaned in close.

  “I don’t like it, but it’s a good plan,” I said. “Bold, simple, shocking. Just one problem. The part about me shifting into an eagle. Remember? We never practiced that? You guys were too busy turning me into a Thief?”

  “You think I haven’t considered that?” Mara’s eyebrows came together as she spoke. “Joss, all I’ve been doing is thinking of ways this could fail. But you can do it. Trust me.”

  “No, I can’t.”

  “You can. You must. Look, being the Seventy-Seven isn’t just about having all the talents. It’s about your strength. Your ability to learn. You think a normal Seven could ghost like you can after a couple months? It’d take years.”

  Again with the new information. “Why am I just hearing about this?”

  “Jordan wanted you on a tight leash. He didn’t want you knowing too much until he had firm control of you.”

  It made sense. And it made me angry. I shook my head in frustration. “So I’m going to be able to shift? Just like that? Like you do?”

  “I doubt it. No way you’ll be able to change your weight. At least, not much. We’re going to have to go big. It’ll make it harder, but I’ll be there to help.”

  I looked back toward my parents and gave them a thumbs up, and then turned back to Mara. “Okay, so I manage to shift somehow. Then what? How do you help me?”

  “We use the rope. Once you shift, you’ll intuitively know what to do, but the size will be unnatural. It will throw things off. I’m going to tow you to give you some needed speed. It’ll work.”

  “Okay, tell me what to do, I’ll do it.”

  Mara gave my arm a squeeze, and turned back toward the others. I followed her over and gave my mom a big hug. She clung to me like she didn’t want to let go, but I finally managed to break free. I gave my dad a more respectable bro hug.

  “I don’t think waiting’s gonna make it any easier,” I said. “Dad, can you get the rope?”

  “Once we lift off,” Mara said, “be in position in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll keep the kids with me,” Mom said. “But if I don’t hear from you in twenty minutes, I’m calling 911.”

  “Jennifer, you can’t do that.” Mara stepped over to Isabella and put an arm around her. “I don’t want my sister deported without me.”

  Isabella gave Mara a hug and stepped away. “It will be okay. We will call the police if we need to, and we will figure out what to do with me.”

  Mara looked from Isabella to Mom, and gave a quick nod and stepped toward the train track. Dad brought the rope back, tied off a large loop on either end, and laid it out along the track. It was probably fifty feet in length. I pulled my mask out and put it on. I’d gotten used to wearing it.

  “You ready?” Mara asked me.

  I nodded, and she shifted into a freakishly large bald eagle, almost as tall as me. My parents both took a step back. I didn’t blame them. Her beak looked wicked.

  Thomas stepped over to me let out a low whistle. “Merica.” He held out his fist. I bumped it.

  “Can you do this?” he asked.

  “Here’s hoping,” I said.

  Mara’s eagle-head cocked to the side. One huge bird-eye stared at me. It was my turn. I started my breathing exercise. A count of four in, hold for four, and breath out for four. Repeat. It all came down to this. We’d rescued Isabella and set up Jordan so he’d be hunted down, but none of that mattered if I couldn’t make this shift.

  While breathing, I tried to let my vision, my entire world, dwindle down to the giant eagle standing in front of me. It should have been easy. It was a giant eagle, after all, but I kept thinking of Janey, scared and alone. Well, not alone, and that was the problem. Jordan had played me from the moment I found the note in my locker, and now he thought he’d just lead me into a trap. It was time to turn the tables on him.

  Giant eagle. I concentrated on overlapping that one image with my sense of self. My identity. I breathed out my fears. Actually, I didn’t, but I tried to pretend that’s what I was doing. I wasn’t sure it was possible to breathe out fear. The whole concept seemed weird. And I was getting sidetracked. I had to concentrate! Out with the fears, and in with the monstrous eagle. I closed my eyes, but kept the image of the eagle firmly in mind. Breathe in, breathe out.

  I shifted. Just like that. My big bird-eyes opened in surprise. The world was a different place. My field of view was enormous, with rich details popping out into the distance. I saw it all. Mara’s eagle head nodding. Dad catching Mom as she passed out. Thomas giving Isabella a high five.

  Mara shifted back to herself and picked up the loop of rope near us. She held it out to me. I opened my mouth, now a giant beak, and grabbed hold of it. The strangest part of being an eagle was how natural it felt. The beak felt right. I spread my wings. My wings! It felt as though they belonged. Nothing unusual here, just a giant set of eagle wings.
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  Mara walked to the other end of the rope. “Joss, just hold that rope and do what feels natural.” She turned to Dad. “Is she okay?”

  Mom was sitting on the ground fanning herself, my dad beside her. Dad gave a thumbs up. “I’ll be in place in ten minutes,” he said.

  Mara nodded, and shifted back to a giant eagle. She grabbed the other end of the rope in her talons and launched herself into the air. I followed her lead, leaping as I spread my wings and flapped down hard. The rope pulled taut and tugged me into the air as I frantically flapped. Being an eagle had felt a lot more natural when I was on the ground.

  Mara flew straight down the railroad track as I flapped along on the other end of the rope like a drunken kite, fending off the ground every few flaps with an outstretched claw. The only part of the whole arrangement that worked well was my beak. It was really good at holding on to the rope. Slowly, beat by beat, I found the rhythm, and suddenly we were gaining altitude. My stomach lurched as we rose above the nearby buildings, but the newfound eagle in me rejoiced.

  One hundred feet. Two hundred. After that, I had no good way to estimate how high we were. Mara swung out in a broad arc as we climbed, so that we spiraled higher. We followed a broad circle and returned to the track, now far below, and then repeated. Each spiral took us further along the tracks toward the building that held Janey. I had no clue which building it was. That was Mara’s job.

  Mara was a much stronger flier. If not for the rope pulling me along, I didn’t think I could have gotten into the air, let alone soared up toward the clouds. We climbed, and I distracted myself from what I had to do next by focusing on the raw delight of flight. The view was incredible, and my eyes were like binoculars. As we swept around in a curve, I spotted my parents getting into Dad’s SUV with Isabella and Thomas. On the next pass, I saw the SUV driving along the road parallel to the railroad tracks.

  We climbed higher, now thousands of feet in the air. I finally found a rhythm that worked and was able to gain a few feet on Mara so that the rope went slack. The wind was cold but held at bay by my feathers. My wings cut through the air, holding me aloft. This was what being a Seven was all about. I was flying!

  Mara banked hard into a much tighter spiral and leveled off. We had arrived. I didn’t feel ready for step two of the plan. How could I? It was suicide.

  We circled high in the sky. It was coming. I knew it, and thought I might throw up, which made me wonder what giant eagle throw up looked like. Mara’s eagle claws opened, and her end of the rope dropped and whipped back below me. I opened my mouth and let my end go as well. The rope tumbled toward the earth far below.

  I closed my eyes and pictured Janey. Now or never. I shifted back to little ol’ me, and tumbled from the sky.

  Chapter 27

  ICARUS

  WHEN I WAS little, Dad had read me the story of Icarus. There was a super important point to the story, but I didn’t remember what it was. I had latched onto that scene of Icarus, flying high, then falling from the sky. I’d secretly wondered if that fall had made it all worth it. I’d always loved the big drops on roller coasters. Icarus had taken the ultimate big drop.

  My first impression of dropping from the sky was buried under a horrific scream. It took me a moment to realize I was the one screaming. Then the cold hit me. Thankfully, my work clothes and mask protected me. Eventually, I ran out of breath and quieted down.

  I wondered if I could survive without a stomach, because I was pretty sure I’d left mine behind when I started falling. After a few seconds of windmilling my arms, I managed to orient my body head-down and stretched to my full length, like a rocket falling back to earth. I caught fragments of the earth far below, but the wind and cold made my eyes sting and water, so I had trouble keeping them open.

  An eagle’s cry cut through the sound of rushing wind. I twisted around and saw Mara the eagle directly behind me, wings folded, keeping pace with my fall. I straightened back out and held my arms rigid along my body. Her claws grasped my upper arms and adjusted my course as we fell. I glanced down and got a good look at ground, still far below, rushing up toward us.

  Little rectangular and square roofs sat between a road and the railroad track. Mara adjusted our angle a bit more, and we lined up with a large, blackish roof sitting at the intersection of the road with another road that cut across the tracks. I blinked away tears and stared down at the building. It was getting larger. Approaching fast. Mara had thought we’d have between thirty and forty seconds of falling, and I guessed I had about ten seconds left. I thought I saw someone running toward the back of the building.

  The talons released me. That was my cue. Mara had done what she could to aim me, now I just had to bruise like my life depended on it. Because it did. I tucked my knees up under my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs, pulling them tightly against my chest.

  I glanced one last time toward the ground. I was definitely going to hit right in the middle of that roof in a few seconds. Mara had been certain she could keep me away from the area of the building where Janey was held. I tucked my head against my knees, closed my eyes, and willed my body to harden. To become steel. No, to become diamond. Diamond was supposed to be really hard. Wait, diamond could shatter, couldn’t it? I went for it all. Diamond steel.

  Jordan wanted me to come through the roof? To walk into a trap? Wish granted. I hit the building like a diamond-steel asteroid.

  Pain. For a time, that was all I knew. Then confusion. I opened my eyes, but I saw only a warm, beige light. The pain tried to conquer me. A single thought rallied me to fight back—Janey! I had to move. To act. To rescue her.

  I reggied. It turned out that the sound of bones popping back into place was loud, and the feeling was worse. I vomited. With that out of the way, I tried opening my eyes again. This time, my brain kicked into gear and helped me figure out what I was seeing. A heavy mist of dust swirled around in the air, but was clearing. I sat at the bottom of a shallow pit made of shattered concrete, twisted rebar, and scattered pieces of a silvery mesh. I stood so my head cleared the top of the pit, careful to avoid the mesh.

  A man limped toward me, a gun clutched in his hand, dangling from a bloodied arm. Our eyes locked. The gun came up, aided by his other hand, and pointed at my chest. Seriously? I’d survived skydiving without a parachute just so some dude could shoot me?

  A little league bat took him on the side of the head and he dropped. Dad stood behind him, looking near panic and very angry. He looked up and ran toward me. “Joss!”

  I heard a menacing popping sound, and Dad twisted and fell toward me as blood sprayed from his shoulder. I’d seen the flash off to my right of the silenced gunfire. Dad collapsed a few feet from me, and his head hit the floor hard. He lay there, unmoving. I screamed and kinneyed. Time slowed. Dust motes hung frozen in the air.

  I surged out of the hole and ran toward the source of the gunfire. Two steps out of the hole, silver mesh covered the floor. Ahead, I saw the murky shape of the man who had shot my dad. I leapt.

  The speed from my kinneying shot me forward like a crossbow bolt. The man came into sharp view as I sailed through the air. He was a big guy, and had a big gun. I floated through the air, and he gradually raised his gun toward me. It was going to be close, but I thought I’d get there before he could get off a shot.

  I hardened my fist and arm, dropped the kinney, and took a swing at him. I was moving with incredible speed. My fist connected with him as I flashed by, and the force of the impact sent me into a tight spin as I tumbled to the floor. It had happened so fast, I wasn’t sure which part of him I’d hit.

  I spun across the floor on my belly, my guts screaming in pain from having the wind knocked out of me when I landed. I hit a doorframe and ricocheted a few feet into a room before coming to a stop. My head was facing back the way I’d come, and a smear of blood marked my route. My right thigh was on fire, and I was doing a solid impression of a fish out of water as my lungs struggled to draw in air.

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nbsp; I tried to reggie, but nothing happened. I rolled over and glanced around the room. A window provided a little light on the wall opposite the door. Janey sat on a wooden chair in the middle of the room. I scrambled to my feet, but my leg gave out and I settled for crawling over to her.

  “Janey!” I gasped. She didn’t respond. I looked more closely, and saw the rope securing her to the chair, and the duct tape across her mouth. Her eyes were locked on me. I hauled myself up using her chair and slowly pulled the tape off.

  “Joss!” That’s all she got out before she started crying.

  I gave her a fierce hug, then looked around the room for something to cut the rope. There was silver mesh covering the floor and walls, but nothing else in the room. Wait. Silver mesh. No wonder I hadn’t been able to reggie.

  “Janey, I’ve got to get off this silver to heal, okay? I’ve got to, uh, sit in your lap.”

  She nodded and tried to stop her sobs. I dragged myself up onto her lap, and used a hand to lift my bad leg clear of the floor. My pants had a four inch cut in them, and blood leaked out of my leg. He must have shot me just as I hit him.

  I reggied. Relief and weariness flooded my body. I looked back at my leg. The blood was still there, soaking the area just below my knife pocket, but it didn’t seem to be getting worse.

  My knife! I pulled the knife out and made short work of the rope binding Janey. Once free, she jumped up and grabbed me in a hug. “What happened out there? It sounded like a bomb?”

  “Yeah, that was me. Mara dropped me on the building from over a mile up.”

  She pulled away and looked at me, her eyebrows pulled together. “I don’t understand.”

  “Later. We’ve got to get out of here. Dad needs help.”

  We stepped toward the door and stopped. Jordan stood in the doorway. It looked like someone had attacked him with scissors. He must have been hit by flying debris when I had made my entrance through the roof.