by Andrew Peed
"There was some kind of aircraft or something following us. I don't know if we lost it or not." I told the pilot. He was standing outside of the door waiting on us.
"My name is Opaque." he said. He reached up and placed his hand on the plane's hull. He closed his eyes and the entire plane vanished along with everything inside it, "I've got this covered."
I sighed in relief, finally some good news. We all got into the plane and took our seats.
I strapped my harness over my chest and pulled the straps tight with a little too much anger. I looked at everyone. They were tired, hurt, and dirty.
"He is going to be alright." Arch said sitting down next to me. Blackout rested her head on Arch's shoulder.
"How are you so sure, he could barely breathe." I said worried about what we might come home to, "Besides that, Vanish wasn't looking so good when she appeared."
"Don't worry."
"Thanks."
The engines fired up and revved to full power. I could feel the plane begin to move down the runway. The nose lifted, and my stomach shifted as we gained altitude.
I laid my head back and closed my eyes. Everything raced through my head, I knew I had to find my parents and help them, but I wanted to know why Aurora was working so hard to keep them alive, and why they had him attached to a computer.
"So is this information going to be worth everything that we just went through to get it?" Chrono asked from across the plane.
"The information that I got from just talking to the computer was worth almost everything that we had to do, but nothing is worth what happened to Silence." I said.
"And what did you get?" he asked.
"My parents..."
"What about them?" he asked.
"They are both alive and Aurora has them." I said.
Chapter 25: Gone
Opaque landed the plane gently and taxied into the safety of the hanger. There was a truck waiting to pick up everyone and take us to the clinic. Sam waited for us in the lobby. He had a look of white hot anger on his face.
Doctor Z was waiting for me; his assistant took care of the others. He took me to the exam room that I had been to before.
"How is Silence?" I asked as he began to check my vitals.
"Let's finish this first." he said with a stern look on his face. He brought out the brain scanner and placed it on my head. He recorded the new data.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I am taking scans. I'm aware of what happened while you were on the mission." he said, "Use your abilities."
I held out my hand and created a small ball of flame that hovered a few inches from my palm. I watched the screen. The normal lines appeared on the chart and no signs of the mental block. It was as if it never existed.
"Everything seems to check out. Some bumps and bruises, nothing more, and it looks like your abilities have been returned to normal." he said.
"Great, I'm fine. Now, take me to Sam." I said loudly.
He sighed, "Alright come on."
I left the exam room and returned to the clinic's lobby. Sam stood looking out of the window.
"Where is Ryder?" I asked eager to see him. Sam didn’t take his eyes away from the window as I spoke.
"I hoped that he was going to come back with you. I had hoped that Vanish was too bad off to make the return trip and they were on that plane with you." he said putting his hands on the back of his head.
"Well he didn't, he disappeared with Vanish." I said. I screamed in my head at the building frustration.
"They are not here. They haven't returned." He said looking at the ground.
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know what to do."
I didn't even respond. I had no idea what to say to him.
I turned and left the clinic.
Our house was empty and dark. If I moved quickly I could pack my things and leave before anyone tried to stop me. I walked up to my room and grabbed a bag. I began to stuff clothes into it without paying any attention to what items I was taking hold of, fury clouded my vision.
I took the stairs down to the first floor two at a time but I wasn’t fast enough. Ronnie stood in my path of the door.
"Where are you going?"
“I’m leaving.” I said shoving him out of my path, which even with enhanced strength, was a difficult task.
“Grace, why are you leaving?” He demanded following me out onto the front lawn.
“Because someone has to do something and I’m not going to sit around and do nothing while there are so many unknowns.” I yelled over my shoulder.
I ran to where Ryder had parked his car. He’d left the keys in the center console and I didn’t think he would object to me borrowing it for now.
Sam’s truck was parked at the town’s entrance, but I blew past it like it wasn’t even there. I flew down the road at eighty miles per hour before slamming on the brakes outside of the road leading to my father's house.
I parked the car and slammed the door with so much heat that the window shattered. I was thinking about finally finding people that I fit in with and that particular life is so messed up.
The front door to the house opened automatically as I approached it, sliding almost silently into the thick wall. Alrick was waiting inside as well as a woman that I hadn’t met and assumed was Alice.
"Who is this?" I asked in an angry tone.
"This is number four, your father called her Alice." he said cheerfully.
"The doctor?"
"Yes ma'am." Alrick said.
"What did I tell you about that?" I snapped at Alrick.
"Sorry...Grace."
"I'll be in the office. No calls."
"No calls?" He asked, "I don't think that anyone will be calling you here." he said bewildered.
"Just don't disturb me." I walked away from them.
"She is like her father." Alice said quietly as they turned to walk in the other direction.
I opened the door to the office. The lights came on as I walked into the room. It was clean but I could feel how used the room was. In fact the way the room felt, I thought that the only reason that Alrick was able to clean it was because my father was gone.
I walked past a shelf on the wall that held several pictures in frames of silver. My father and mother where standing around a plane. I picked up the picture and read some writing in the bottom left hand corner; BF-1030 Joseph and Abby Madison.
I put it down, walked to the desk, and sat down in my father's chair, and swiveled to look out of the window. The sun was coming up behind the mountain. I laid my head back and closed my eyes. It was peaceful. I could see the mountain and the entire lake from this one chair.
I went through my father's desk looking for some kind of journal or notes of any kind, but I found nothing. I tried to get onto his computer, but it was very thoroughly locked. My head was killing me and with each passing moment the pain got worse. I grabbed my head, laid it down on the desk.
It felt like I was crying. I wiped the tears but they were blood. I found something and wiped my face clean, and pushed through the pain. I stood up and walked over to the window.
I fell to my knees.
Darkness swallowed the room.
I didn’t feel myself collapsing to the floor.
~//~
I felt myself being lifted off the ground. I didn’t stay conscious long enough to know where I was taken.
~//~
There was a knock on the door.
“Yeah!” I yelled trying to keep both of my feet under the covers.
"I'm sorry to bother you." Alrick said walking into the room.
"It's alright, Alrick.” I said pushing myself up onto my hands.
"I have just a few things this morning. Your friend Ronnie stopped by this morning and requested to see you but I sent him away. I told him to come back once you have had a chance to get some real rest." he said.
My heart skipped a beat at the possibility that there may be news about
Ryder. “Any news?" I asked. I started to get out of the bed, but the pain was unbelievable.
"He told me to let you know that there was no more information on Silence, or Vanish's whereabouts, and Alice would like you to come up and see her today."
"Is there anything else?" I asked rubbing my eyes.
"No, let me know if you need anything." He said looking around the room.
"I will. Thank you for everything." I said wearily. I felt like I could use more sleep just getting out of bed.
"You do not need to thank me. You and your family are my family." he said.
Alrick turned and walked out of the room with a concerned look on his face.
~//~
“How do you feel?” Alice asked passing a scanner over my body focusing on the areas with the worst injuries.
"The pain is not as bad." I said, “But still pretty unbearable.”
That’s good to hear. I will be monitoring your brain scans. There are a few things that are out of the ordinary that I have never seen before. Nothing to be worried about I’m sure, but I want to be ready for anything." she explained.
"Alright, so can I get out of here? No offence, but I don’t like doctor’s offices or any place that is similar.” I said getting down gently from the table.
"Yeah, just take it easy for a while.” She said switching off the scanner and putting it in her pocket.
Chapter 26: Chuck
I stood in my father’s office with my arms crossed, chewing on my thumbnail. I had my phone on its loudest setting lying on the desk beside me. I couldn’t take my eyes from the screen no matter how hard I tried.
I wanted it to ring more than anything. I wanted Sam to tell me that Ryder and Vanish had reappeared and they were unharmed. I knew that call wasn’t going to come; something inside told me it would be very difficult to locate them.
There was a knock at the door and a throat clear. I looked up to see Alrick standing in the doorway.
“I’m sorry if I’ve disturbed you ma’am.” He said with a soft smile.
“No, you’re fine.” I said pressing the button on the side of the phone that woke the screen. I checked to see if I had missed anything, but I hadn’t. “Do you know how to unlock the computer?” I asked pointing to the main computer screen on the desk. There was no keyboard or mouse.
“Yes ma’am. Everything is voice controlled.” He explained, “Your father left a password for you and your sister that will unlock the computer main frame. It will make you the primary user.”
“What is the password?” I asked sitting down in front of the screen.
“I don’t know. Your father told me that you would know the password when you returned.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” I said leaning back in the chair.
“I’m sorry. Your father said that you and your sister were the only ones to have access to the database.” He turned to walk away but stopped and looked at me, “Alice asked me to have you go and visit her in her lab. She would like to take a few more scans.” He walked away in silence before I could say anything.
I rotated in the chair mindlessly and sighed. I had no clue what the password could have been. I looked around the room trying to think of anything from my past but I couldn’t remember anything from before I was about ten years old. What I had learned so far about my father helped none when trying to figure out a password.
Nothing came to mind.
I stood, picked up my phone, checked it one more time, and put it in my pocket. I left the room. The door closed behind me and the bolts locked into the wall. The house was built like a fortress. I wondered if my father was paranoid.
I roamed the halls trying to decide where I should go and getting an idea for the layout of the massive house. I wanted to find Ryder but I had no idea where to start looking. I had nothing that I could offer at this point to The Last Line besides setting things on fire.
I found my way into the kitchen where the android named Chuck was standing with the fridge door open staring inside.
“What are you doing?” I asked as I entered the room.
He jumped and slammed the door shut. He stumbled backward, stammering but had no words.
“Whoa big guy calm down.” I said holding out my hands. It surprised me to see a robot jump like a startled child.
“I’m sorry ma’am.” He said looking down.
“I wish you would all stop calling me Ma’am.” I said rubbing my head. “I was just wondering why you were looking in the fridge.” I smiled.
“I like to look at food. I wish that I could eat it, but it’s a no go.” He shrugged.
I shook my head, “So, what do you party animals do for fun around here?” I put my hands in my pockets and rolled on the balls of my heels.
“I haven’t been able to completely grasp the concept of fun, but what I do in my spare time gives me a feeling of completion.” Chuck said emulating my behavior, putting his hands in his pockets then rolling the same way that I had.
“Well what is it you do to arrive at this feeling of completion?” I asked feeling as though I were being examined by an ape at the zoo.
“I work on your father’s vast collection of vehicles.” He said, a smile spread across his face, and he ceased the emulation.
“How many does he have?” I asked noting his excitement.
“Well he only has about thirty here, but in other garages around the country the numbers could be in the thousands. I haven’t seen them all and I am afraid that in your father’s absence, the vehicles are sure to have fallen into disrepair.” He explained, “Would you like to see?” he asked holding his hand out towards the way that I had come.
“Sure, why not?” I walked off in that direction.
I followed behind Chuck as we walked towards the front of the house but as we passed the front door he didn’t stop. We walked down the hall towards the left wing of the house where the labs and office was located. We came to the end of the hall where it appeared that the hall stopped at a dead-end. Chuck reached out and placed his hand on a seemingly random spot on the wall.
“What are you doing?” I asked but before he said anything, a blue laser scanned his hand. The wall morphed into a clear liquid and waved at his touch.
“It’s perfectly safe. Your father had a great many inventions that he was not able to get out of this house. On a daily basis he would come up with something new. He would not only design the contraptions, but he wouldn’t stop until he found a way to make whatever he envisioned work flawlessly.” Chuck explained walking through the clear liquid.
I hesitated for a second but gritted my teeth and pushed through. It was like walking through a warm breeze. It felt good making me smile.
“This gateway uses nano robotic technology and a chemical to create not only the illusion of a door, but the physical sensation that it is actually there.” Chuck explained as he turned to continue down the hallway. The floor fell at a slight decline into an underground thru-way.
We exited the thru-way into a garage that was lined like a packed parking lot with all different types of vehicles that I had never seen before. The wall behind us closed, solidifying into concrete and stone. I turned and rubbed my hand on the wall feeling the contours under my palm.
“Wonderful isn’t it?” Chuck asked.
“My father built this himself?” I asked, “He didn’t have someone else do the work?”
“Oh no, your father was only happy when he had his hands dirty. He would design as he built, and build as he designed, making adjustments, and corrections on the spot.” He seemed sad.
“Where did all of these cars come from?” I asked turning from the wall.
“Your father and I worked together to build them. I tried to build one after he left, but without him here to give me design ideas, all that I can do is make exact copies of the ones that we had already built.
“Why are there so many different kinds?” I asked walking up to a four door sedan and pulling on the door
handle. It was locked.
Chuck waved his hand and the doors unlocked.
“That’s a cool trick.” I said opening the door. I slid into the driver’s seat.
“I have a bluetooth transmitter in my head.” He said pointing to the base of his skull.
“Back to my question.” I said.
“Your father was trying to do away with the world’s dependence on Fossil fuels. He designed a new power cell that these vehicles use. The fuel in the cell, some element that he discovered, can power these vehicles for one hundred thousand miles.” He said.
“Holy crap, that’s a lot. What is the element?” I asked pulling the hood release.
“I don’t know, he assembled the power cells elsewhere. We just built the cars. We spent a great deal of time down here working.” Chuck explained pointing to a cylindrical device where the engine would normally be.
“How does it work?” I asked.
“You would have to ask your father. He is the mastermind.” He explained.
“This is amazing.” I said, “But why aren’t there any of these on the road? This could solve so many of the ‘oil shortage’ problems. I mean you could power more than just cars, what about space travel?” I said excited with the possibilities.
“The Aurora Corporation.” He said slamming the hood shut and walking away. The acquisition my father’s company was obviously a sour spot for him.
“What happened?” I asked following him.
“When they took over your father’s company they shut down all projects and pulled everything off of the market. It was some kind of punishment to your father’s memory. After six months, they rebranded tried and true money makers and rereleased them.” He explained.
Chapter 27: Possibility
I went around the outside of the house still wishing to become more familiar with the grounds. There was a beautiful forest pathway and fountain. There was a court yard but I didn’t go out to it because I didn’t want to get lost. I left Chuck with the cars. He seemed a bit wound up about the mention of my father. It was hard to imagine that I would ever be able to handle robots with emotions.