**
On their first day they got a tour of the facility. It was a sleek building in downtown Seattle; a convenient bus ride from his apartment. There were 25 floors, the majority of them dedicated to research in a variety of fields, although Hugo had read that their current focus was on genetics. There were several floors towards the top that looked more like an apartment complex. Their second to last stop on the tour was the test labs. They were 3 floors of various observation rooms filled with equipment and a variety of obstacle courses. Some of them looked impossible.
Christian dropped CJ off on one floor and then took Hugo to the bottom floor, a long room that looked in on the wind tunnel from his dream. “Wait here, the doctor will be in in a minute for your physical. And relax.”
Hugo smiled weakly as Christian exited, but what he really wanted to do was smoke. A few moments later, when he’d started fidgeting, the doctor game in. Doctor McFadden. She was wearing a pink shirt underneath a black, pin-stripe, fitted vest with a dark, knee-length skirt; and over all of that, a white lab coat.
“Hello Hugo,” she said, smiling brightly at him; a clipboard in one hand. She sat down at the table across from him. “Welcome to Gideon Enterprises. I’m-”
“Hi, Doctor McFadden.” Hugo cringed, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
The doctor blinked a few times, and then peered at him thoughtfully. She didn’t recognize him. He shouldn’t be surprised; it had been over a week since she’d seen him. “Do I know you?”
Hugo blushed. “N-not really. I just ran into you at the hospital the other day…”
The doctor lifted her eyes to the right, then smiled again. “Oh yes, you were lost. I remember now. Wow, I’m surprised you remembered my name. Well, I suppose I shouldn’t be, after what I’ve heard about you. But please, you can call me Crysta.” She offered her hand to him, and Hugo took it. She was in a cell, standing next to a man that was wasting away. She looked terrified. And then she just toppled over, sliding off the edge of the bed. “Pleased to meet you. I’d like to take a blood sample and administer a few tests to assess the strength of your abilities. If you wouldn’t mind, of course.”
“Of course not Doct-Crysta.”
She clicked over to a small table along the wall of the observation room and removed a few items to draw the blood sample. She didn’t make a single mistake.
The first assessment was an IQ test; it was incredibly easy. The second test was for him to administer the test to her without the papers. He had to draw all the little shape diagrams from memory. That also wasn’t hard. She did pretty well on the test, but made several mistakes. He tried really hard not to give any indication, but she laughed each time he failed, which was every time.
Once he finished giving her the test, she smiled that same bright smile at him. “Impressive. Mr. Hansen suggested you might be super intelligent, it’s just fascinating to see it in action.”
“I’m…not…” Hugo picked at a belt loop in his pants. He really wanted to smoke now.
“Please, don’t sell yourself short. No one has ever gotten 100% on this particular test.”
“But, maybe you got the wrong test. It really wasn’t that hard.”
Crysta just shook her head and laughed. “So how would you explain how I missed so many of the questions then?”
“Oh, no! I didn’t mean, shit, shit sorry…” Hugo decided it was best to just stop talking. Forever. The doctor didn’t seem offended however; just amused that he was so flustered. He stared at the wall.
“Alright, now let’s test your more elemental abilities. Can you shield yourself from high winds?”
Hugo nodded enthusiastically, thankful for the distraction. “Yeah, or else I’d have knocked myself off the roof of my apartment building a long time ago.”
Dr. McFadden hesitated, and then smiled slightly, “Well then, can I get you to step in that wind tunnel so we can test a few things?” She motioned to a door in the side of the room and Hugo nodded. He could feel his heart beating faster. Someone was going to watch him. What if he screwed up or broke something? Oh god don’t let me fail at this while she’s watching!
Hugo stepped into the tunnel making sure he firmly shut the door. Vents hissed and a variety of colors rose up in the air in small clouds.
“Ready?” He heard over the intercom into the room. He waved in response. “First, I want you to focus all the air into that pressure plate above you, then try speeding up the wind and then slow it down. Understood?”
Hugo nodded and backed up a few steps so that he could see the pressure plate without craning his neck. Then the fan at the end of the room whirled to life, sending colorful smoke slamming into the wall. It caught the edge of his scarf and tugged hard, choking him. He quickly pulled it back into the shield so that it would stop moving and tried not to curl up in an embarrassed ball on the ground. The doctor was just smiling. More smoke poured in and he pulled all of it rushing towards him and diverted it to the plate above his head. The thing slammed into the ceiling, but didn’t cause any damage.
Next was speeding it up. This was his favorite part. The wind screamed as it rushed past him, a few threads of smoke getting caught up in the shield, swirling around him so that he was a small, colorful tornado. Then reluctantly he slowed the wind down to the point that the smoke just hung languidly in the air. The doctor used that as her cue to turn the fan off.
“Good job. You can come back in now.”
Once he was back inside the doctor shook his hand again. “Thank you for your time, Hugo. Christian will be back here in a moment to complete your tour.”
“Thanks.”
“It was a pleasure meeting you. See you later.”
Hugo nodded, unable to come up with anything to say until after she’d left the room. He probably should have said it was a pleasure to meet her too. Or maybe ask her why she had joined the company, or maybe where had they put the exploding guy. Any of those probably would have been acceptable, but now it was too late. Maybe he could ask her later.
Hugo sat back down and fidgeted until Christian showed up again, this time with CJ.
“Alright, CJ is done with her testing too, time for our last stop on the tour. I’ll introduce you to Mr. Gideon.”
Hugo wondered if he was having a heart attack.
“Did you get tested too, Hugo? They had to set up a lab special for me and let me break the crap out of stuff. It was really cool. What is that back there?”
“A wind tunnel.”
“Ohhhh. You got to be awesome too then?”
Hugo laughed, “I tried.”
CJ grinned at him, “Good job. Alright let’s go meet the head honcho!”
Hugo got a detailed description of CJ’s tests all the way up to the top floor. They’d welded lighting rods to the floor of one of the testing chambers and measured the voltage. They’d also let her blast a few targets, which thrilled CJ to no end.
Mr. Gideon’s office was down a long hallway lined with awards the company had received in both their research and their philanthropic endeavors. There were a lot of awards for a company that was only 5 years old. If you could be super intelligent, was it possible to be super good at business?
“Hello Sandra,” Christian addressed the rather immaculate looking blonde sitting at a clear desk outside of the double doors to Mr. Gideon’s office.
“Hello Christian. Is this Hugo and CJ?”
“Yeah, is Mr. Gideon available?”
The receptionist glanced at the double doors, “One moment.” She lightly tapped a button inlaid in the desk with a perfect nail, “Mr. Gideon, do you have a moment? Hugo Meyers and CJ are here to see you.”
A clear, warm voice responded over the speaker, “Send them in.”
Sandra stood and motioned to the doors, smiling pleasantly, “Go right in, please.”
They did as they were told. Christian did not follow them in. Hugo tried to keep breathing.
Alexander Gideon was a handsome man.
He looked much better than his photos. He was wearing a double breasted suit, the jacket off, in a dark navy with a vest in a lighter shade. He met them at the center of the elegant (but not tackily lavish) oval office. There was his desk and a large window overlooking the water. It was, admittedly, quite impressive.
“Wow, fancy!” CJ voiced both their assessments of the room.
“Why thank you. Welcome CJ, Hugo. I’m Alexander Gideon. Pleased to meet you.” He shook both their hands, his grip perfect; not too strong, not too week. For once, Hugo was a little disappointed he didn’t get anything off the guy.
Alexander ushered them both to plush seats in front of his desk, but casually leaned against the edge facing them himself. Hugo glanced around the office, at the big screen TV mounted in one wall with a beautiful dark blue and gold couch facing it off to the right of the desk, at the small conference room table and chairs for 6 people, and at the precise array of desk organizers on the cherry wood desk, memorizing all of it.
“Both of you, welcome to Gideon Enterprises. I hope your first day has been a pleasant one?”
CJ straightened briefly, eyes bright, “I got to blast the crap out of stuff!”
Mr. Gideon’s eyes lit up and his smile widened, “I’m glad you’re already enjoying yourself, CJ. I think you’ll be a wonderful addition to the team. And you Hugo? How are you finding things?”
Hugo found himself ducking his head and looking slightly off to the side, “Um…the tests were interesting and uh, the building is really nice. And the equipment in the labs is really amazing.”
“Only the best for some of the top scientists and doctors in the country, of course!” Somehow, his intonation made it seem like he wasn’t bragging. Hugo didn’t know how, but it just didn’t. “Now, are there any questions about this company that I can answer for you?”
There was a pause, CJ glanced at Hugo, and a moment later Mr. Gideon was focusing on him as well. Hugo shifted in his seat. Would there be another chance to speak to Mr. Gideon? He had to say something. “So what can you do?” Even Hugo blinked in surprise at that. He hadn’t been aware of the thought, but Mr. Gideon having abilities made a lot of sense. He was probably in the five years ago group.
“And what makes you think I have abilities?” He didn’t seem angry, everything in his posture telegraphed that he was merely curious.
“During the tour, Christian told me that the abilities appear in waves, and that one of those was five years ago. I’m guessing right before you managed to, in a remarkably short amount of time; amass the considerable amount of capital necessary to start your company. And your focus is genetics, so you seem to have a vested interest in finding out what causes these abilities, or you know already and are trying to control the growth that Christian suggested sometimes causes problems.”
“You’ve been doing your research.” Mr. Gideon was incredibly pleased. Hugo blushed. “And you’re right. We haven’t quite identified what causes the abilities yet, but we are also looking into ways of suppressing them in the unfortunate few that have lost control.” Like the exploding man. During the tour, Hugo hadn’t seen a single place where they could safely keep someone like that, however he had noticed on the elevator they’d taken to get to the top floor and Mr. Gideon’s office, there had been several basement levels that required key card access. “We’ve come to an impasse, so we’ve stepped up recruiting, trying to attract more people to further the research. As for me, when I touch things I can sense their chemical composition and what else the object or person has recently come in contact with. I can also create portals.”
“You can make what?” CJ asked, tilting her head to punctuate her confusion.
“I can create doorways from one place to another, no matter how far away. Let me show you.” Mr. Gideon gestured to the side and the air there paled and faded, dissolving into the skyline of Paris, Eiffel Tower jutting up into the evening sky. It was like in movies when the camera view faded from one scene to another, the difference being here that you could still see the original scene, Mr. Gideon’s office, around the skyline.
CJ stood up and bounced over to it, sticking her hand into the portal. She withdrew it and it was slightly wet, “It’s kinda raining! That is sooo awesome! Can I go through?”
Mr. Gideon nodded, “Just don’t go too far.”
CJ jumped through the portal, which was probably unnecessary and ran towards the edge of the roof the portal was on. Hugo stood up and more cautiously approached the portal, stepping through it. The temperature instantly changed as he emerged in Paris, a light rain coating his hair. The air smelled different and Hugo’s ears popped at the elevation change. It was a little disorienting, but CJ didn’t seem to be having the same problem as she charged back across the roof and towards him.
“This is so awesome!” She exclaimed, pointing towards the tower, “We’re in Paris, where they speak French and stuff!” Hugo smiled and nodded, and then CJ bounced back into Mr. Gideon’s office and Hugo followed. The transition was a little less disorienting this time, since he was prepared for it. Mr. Gideon seemed almost as excited as CJ, just less physically animated about it. What was he so pleased about?
Hugo sifted through his thoughts, trying to look for all the questions he had for Mr. Gideon, but it was hard to remember them. “Why did you start Gideon Enterprises?” He finally found himself asking without putting any thought into the words.
Mr. Gideon smiled, “To help the world, of course. So if that’s all?”
Both CJ and Hugo nodded; Mr. Gideon shook their hands again, “Well, thank you for the entertaining visit, and welcome to the company. Please come and see me any time you like.”
They thanked him, and made their exit. Sandra let them know that if they knew the way, they could head back down to the security office where they’d be able to find Christian and he would let them know what to do next. Hugo easily remembered how to get there, so they headed down. As they were walking, and CJ was gushing about Mr. Gideon’s portal ability, Hugo realized that the man had never addressed his sudden ability to excel in a business environment. But after meeting him, Hugo realized it went beyond that. Mr. Gideon was good at putting people at ease, saying the right things, and just now, manipulating it so that he didn’t have to answer the questions he didn’t want to. He was charismatic. Incredibly charismatic. Perhaps you could be super charismatic in the same way you could apparently be super smart. In which case, it would make sense that Mr. Gideon wouldn’t want to talk about it; who wants to go into a conversation knowing they would be manipulated and probably couldn’t do anything about it? Hugo decided he would be more careful in the future, now that he knew what to expect. He would remember.
When they finally reached Christian he was distracted by something and let them know they could head home, or at least in CJ’s case, as she had elected to take a room in the building, take the rest of the day off. So they parted ways and Hugo headed home to kill some time before band practice.
The Sound of Wind Page 12