The Talented

by Steve Delaney

  “So, where is she now?” I asked, struggling to keep my voice steady. “Where has my mother been all these years?”

  Gus fell silent for a time, then replied, “When I heard that the Fortress was burning, all I could think about was that Clare was in there. The fire wasn’t the main threat down there. It was the smoke. Thick black smoke filled the entire complex. Without psionics I never would have found her. By the time I got to her, she was on her hands and knees, keeping her mouth an inch from the ground. Apparently there was a thin layer of fresh air down there. The only way out was to leap through space, a skill that Clare had not yet mastered. I had the skill, but lacked the raw power. Clare was my opposite. We joined our minds as one and teleported together into the surrounding forest.”

  His eyes brimming with emotion, Gus continued, “We struggled together to get to a hospital but I couldn’t stop coughing, and after a while my legs gave out. I couldn’t walk any more. Clare was hurting as well, but she was stronger than me. Seven months pregnant and she still had enough strength for the both of us. She insisted on staying with me when I knew that she desperately needed medical care. That you both did. So I summoned every ounce of strength that I had left and I teleported us both to the hospital. By myself. Miraculously, it worked, but at a terrible cost. I arrived at the hospital unconscious, and never woke up. The strain of it all caused Clare to go into labor prematurely. You were born that night, and both of you almost died. You couldn’t have weighed more than a few pounds. Clare was treated and released, but I never saw her again. Sorry, son, but I do not know where she is.”

  I closed my eyes and shook my head, “I need some time to work this out. This is too much to deal with right now.”

  “Take your time, son,” Gus replied, “You know where to find me.”

  I walked down the beach toward the lapping waves.

  When I woke up for real I found myself sitting on a bench next to a deserted bus stop. The bench stood in front of an exclusive shoe store named Antonio’s. My favorite sharkskin boots were from Antonio’s. It was an upscale place, but not ridiculous, and it was located in Troy, not too far from the Usher house. Alicia! It dawned on me that I was on my way to meet her for coffee. We had not seen each other since I dropped her off a few weeks ago at her father’s house. According to my mobile the time was 10:16 in the morning and I was already sixteen minutes late. How could I have fallen asleep at a time like this, and on a public bench of all places? I didn’t even remember sitting down. I ran the few blocks until I could see the coffee house. It was a local place, not one of those chains from Seattle. The chrome-edged, rounded furniture had a retro 50’s nostalgia about it. Even the corner of the building rounded off smoothly, sloping away from the revolving door. The name of the establishment, the Arbor House, glowed in cursive blue neon lights over the entrance. There were some tables and chairs outside, though few sat there. The sky was overcast and the chill in the air suggested that the end of summer was here. A pretty young woman with hair the color of freshly ground cinnamon and perfect skin just a shade lighter zipped her fleece jacket and took a sip of water. Alicia’s eyes lit up when I sat across from her, and she smiled.

  “Hi, beautiful,” I said.

  She raised an eyebrow and responded, “Hi, beautiful? That is what you say to me after leaving me hanging for weeks wondering if you were alive or dead? How about ‘I’m so sorry, beautiful,’ or ‘I was an idiot, beautiful.’ Maybe even, ‘I’ll never cause you to worry like that again, beautiful!’”

  Taking her hand, I said, “I’m so sorry, beautiful. I was an idiot, beautiful. I’ll never cause you to worry like that again. Beautiful.”

  Alicia seemed to soak that in for a moment when I asked, “How are things going at home?”

  She shrugged and replied, “My dad is just as stubborn as he ever was, but I guess we are getting along better. He wants me to work at Olympus, but that is so not happening. It’s bad enough with him as a dad, can you imagine him as your boss?”

  The corner of my mouth turned up, “I think I can.”

  She paused for a second then said, “Oh, that’s right. Of course you know all about it. But enough about me, what happened to you? You were gone for weeks!”

  I proceeded to tell her everything about what happened: The accidental time travel, my arrest and shooting, the escape attempt, Harrison’s past crimes and Stuart’s current ones. The Prophesier and Gus. All of it.

  Several refills of coffee later, Alicia still held my large hand with both of hers. Despite the chill in the air, her hands were warm and dry. She responded, “Where did Kate and the rest of them get beamed to?”

  Good question. “That’s one detail Talon didn’t share with me. Maybe that is for the better. Dr. Grauer informed me that its owners have liquidated Fortress Investments. The funds were untraceable, so really they could be anywhere. The Alliance does not care much at this point, since the investment company is dissolved and Stuart is…gone.”

  I could tell that she wanted to ask me more about the void where Stuart was sent, as if I had any idea, but instead she asked, “What will happen with Harrison?”

  This was the part of the story that worried me the most. “Harrison escaped with the help of that guard who shot me. Ericka, I think. In a way I feel less guilty knowing that he is free, but that does not change the fact that he was responsible for a fire that killed hundreds of people. He needs to be put away.”

  Alicia mulled that over for a moment, then asked, “So you got a job offer and turned it down. Thank God you had the sense to do that. Those Alliance folks are bad news.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Do you think they will leave you alone?”

  To that I replied, “Who knows? They could contact me at any time, but I haven’t heard from them yet. I can’t see the future at all lately, but that doesn’t matter.”

  “Why is that?” she asked.

  I answered, “Because I have you, and nothing else matters.”

  “But do I have you?” She replied fiercely, tears brimming. “Are you here to stay? That matters. That matters to me.”

  With tears stinging my eyes I replied, “It matters. We have each other now. We have each other. I’m not going to let anything happen to that.”

  We held hands and just stared deep into each other’s eyes, past the pain, past the fear and the loneliness. We bared our true selves without any more words or promises.

  A gust of wind swept down from the north, sending the first few fallen leaves of the season skittering past. A shift in the clouds allowed the sun to shine through briefly. Then the air grew still, gracing us with a fleeting yet blessed moment of warmth.