Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  Dickie did not stop until there was nothing left of the ball of string.

  “As you can see,” Estes said in a subdued tone, “the PI injection is definitely having an effect, not just in terms of ferocity, but also in strength, agility, and cunning. The practical applications have probably already occurred to you. Imagine having a fleet of small but determined, useful though expendable, workers endowed not only with amazing strength but a considerable degree of intelligence. Imagine what they might do. Imagine the risk-filled tasks that could pass from humans to these enhanced servants.”

  “Imagine what might happen if one of those workers decided to go on strike,” Fisher said. “I for one will not be breaking that picket line.”

  A smattering of laughter followed, but it was akin to the nervous sniggering heard in a movie theater after a macabre one-liner has been pronounced over a corpse.

  The brunette pushed away from the table. “This is what you thought would reel me in? A rat too big to fit in a mailbox?”

  “Sit.” Estes spoke quietly, but as if there were no question about her compliance.

  “I won’t participate—”

  “Sit.” Two men in lab coats moved in front of the doors. Were they technicians or security cops? “There is nowhere for you to go.”

  “Are you holding me against my will?”

  “No. I’m suggesting that you want to sit down. For your own good. I have something else I want to show you.”

  They locked eyes for a moment. And the brunette sat down.

  Afterward, Coutant tried to recall the exact chain of events that transpired, the cause and effect, the action and the reaction. Sometimes she got it confused. But these were the essential facts as they occurred:

  Estes removed his taser.

  The brunette rose from her chair.

  Estes activated his taser and pushed it toward Dickie.

  The brunette’s knees hit the table, knocking over a goblet of water. It splashed toward the cage.

  Both the water and a thousand volts of electricity hit Dickie at the same time.

  The rat was electrocuted. Its entire body tensed, then shook, vibrating at an impossible speed.

  But it didn’t kill Dickie.

  It just made Dickie mad.

  Dickie battered the front door of the cage, growling with such ferocity that everyone at the table jumped back. The second time Dickie lunged, they moved even further back.

  The wall of the cage started to give. Dickie sunk its teeth into the screen and ripped out a chunk.

  The third time Dickie lunged the screen burst and the rat and skidded sideways across the tabletop.

  Someone screamed. Dickie skittered upright with astonishing speed, then leaped into the air—landing on the brunette’s throat.

  The room descended into chaos. Everyone scrambled, pushing chairs backward, crawling over the tabletop. Scientists shoved one another aside and stepped over fallen bodies. Water glasses crashed to the tile floor.

  Dickie clung to the brunette like a Titanic passenger clutching a lifeboat. The desperate woman tried to pull away, but the rat dug its half-inch talons deep into her flesh. She screamed again.

  Dickie bit her neck. Blood shot out like a bullet from a pistol. The brunette’s eyelids fluttered and she lost consciousness, tumbling to the floor.

  Coutant wanted to run out the door like all the others—but she couldn’t. She grabbed the rat from behind, trying to pull it away from the brunette’s neck.

  Dickie clung tight.

  She squeezed both fists, hoping she could crush the beast in her hands, or at least cut off its respiration.

  Dickie dug in deeper. Its only reaction was a chilling noise she didn’t know how to describe. Something between a rumble and a warning.

  She mustered all her strength and pulled even harder.

  She managed to yank the rat free, but it took a chunk of the brunette’s neck with it. Blood and flesh spurted everywhere.

  She threw Dickie onto the floor, then slammed her foot down for the kill, but it skittered across the floor, too fast for her.

  In their haste to depart, the other scientists left the door open.

  If that rat escaped into the main lab, it might attack hundreds of victims before someone caught it.

  She ran toward the door, unsure what she was going to do.

  Dr. Estes crawled out from under the table. He held a knife long enough to skin a deer, sharp and curved and serrated. Funny he should have that on him that during a scientific presentation.

  As Dickie raced past, Estes impaled the beast. Blood and rat guts splattered in a gruesome rainbow. Even pinioned to the floor, the rat struggled, thrashed, and squirmed, blood and froth oozing from its mouth. At least a minute passed before it finally gave in to the inevitable and died.

  She fell into the nearest chair. Estes rolled onto his back.

  “If nothing else,” the scientist said, “this work has definitely improved my hand-to-eye coordination.”

  ***

  The bathroom did not have enough soap or water to get Coutant as clean as she desperately wanted to be. Every time she immersed her hands, some new piece of rat slid out from a previously unforeseen crevice. She had never wanted a bath so much in her life.

  Even as she finished, she knew she wasn’t entirely clean, but perhaps she was clean enough to drive home. Tonight, there was no telling how long she might soak in the tub.

  Estes waited for her outside the ladies room.

  “I, uh, wanted to thank you for your help in there, Dr. Coutant.”

  “I wish I could have saved the woman.”

  “Yes. I regret that. Very much.”

  “I assume this means you’ll be shutting down the project.”

  Estes looked puzzled, as if she had just suggested the moon was made of green cheese. “Why would I do that? Did you not see how dramatically that rat was transformed?”

  “Did you not see what that rat did to that woman’s throat?”

  “It was excessively provoked.”

  “It was dangerous and potentially homicidal.”

  “Perhaps we need to institute stronger security protocols.”

  She couldn’t believe what she heard. “I don’t know what they’re teaching at Harvard these days, but in my book, when your lab rat breaks loose and kills someone, it’s time to shut down the project.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “You’ll never get anyone to work with you.”

  “In fact, I have already signed everyone I wanted. Except you.”

  She stared at the man. Could that possibly be true? “I don’t believe it.”

  “I can be quite persuasive when I want to be.”

  “Well, you’ll never get me. Look, I can’t make you see the obvious. And really, I don’t care what you do. But there’s no chance I’m going to be any part of it. Zero. None.”

  Estes’s expression was hard to read. “Did you really think I was giving you a choice? When you apped that money into your account, you forged a binding contract.”

  “No way. There is not the slightest—”

  That’s when Estes showed her the photograph.

  “Funny how love makes us vulnerable. Wouldn’t you agree, Dr. Coutant?”

  And that’s when she knew the discussion was over.

  She would work on this despicable project. She would do anything Estes wanted her to do.

  Because whether she liked it or not—he owned her.

  57

  Present Day

  Agent Coal touched her glasses stem and dictated the URL. She hated being in the hospital. But she’d suffered two cracked ribs and a minor concussion in the struggle with the Shines.

  Her neck, of course, was just fine. And the lost blood was mostly replaced before she left the island, thanks to Aura Meadows. But the hospital staff took MRIs and lots of other tests. Just to be sure. And rest, her least favorite prescription, was ordered.

  So she had to put up with the ho
spital, at least for the time being.

  The newsreader on the screen droned on. “…the recent Santa Monica disaster, authorities are dealing with a mysterious plague that swept through the Getty Museum grounds. At least twenty-three people are confirmed dead, and more than a hundred became violently ill, all within a five-minute period. The bizarre aspect, though, is that all the victims are male. The museum curator said there were many women present, but none were affected. Channel Six interviewed a research scientist at the—”

  She turned the set off and closed her eyes. It just went on and on and got worse and worse. Perhaps that should be expected as an apocalypse approached. She couldn’t predict how all this would shake out.

  “Wakey-wakey, little Coal. Time to talk to your master and commander.”

  Her eyelids fluttered. She tried speaking. Voice box worked surprisingly well. “Why…are you here?”

  “I was concerned about you, of course.”

  “Aren’t you taking a big risk? Coming in person?”

  “I’ve made arrangements. We won’t be interrupted.”

  “Meaning…”

  “You’ll have to change your own bedpan.”

  Lovely. “As soon as they release me, I’ll finish my paperwork and contact you for a complete debriefing.”

  “That won’t be soon enough.” The Chief took the chair beside the bed. “I have questions I want answered immediately.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like how you got your ass kicked by a bunch of little girls.”

  Coal’s lips pressed tightly together. “It was a little more complicated than that.”

  “What, they charmed you with their good looks?”

  “No. They Shined.”

  “Like that was a surprise? You knew they had abilities—”

  “They are far more powerful than anyone realized.”

  “Didn’t you take the mobile Faraday cage?”

  “Yes, but we didn’t have a chance to deploy it. And the Shines have acquired a new power, possibly greater than all the previous ones.”

  “Which is?”

  “The ability to work together. To combine their abilities strategically. So the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”

  The Chief fell silent for a moment. “You’re certain of this?”

  “Positive. That large one, the girl they call Tank? I’d estimate she has the brute force of eight strong men. Maybe more. She lifted me into the air like you might lift a paper clip.”

  “Is that why they call her Tank?”

  “It’s a videogame thing. The tank is the character you send in to take all the damage. Without dying. You hope.”

  “So they sent in this Tank and she overwhelmed you and your operatives.”

  “She had help. I heard someone talking about nightmares. I assume that was Dream.”

  “Yes. And one of your foot soldiers insists a Shine made him defecate in his pants. Though I personally think he just lost it. In fact, I think you all did.”

  “Those girls are a formidable force. We underestimated them.”

  “But according to your reports, they had been cowed into suppressing their powers. And they didn’t like or trust one another. They fought all the time.”

  She grabbed the pitcher on the table beside the hospital bed and poured herself a cup of water. “Things have changed. Now they have a leader.”

  The Chief’s brow creased. “Who?”

  “Who do you think? You’ve said all along she was the most dangerous one.”

  “Not for that reason. Aura has rallied the troops?”

  “Maybe the urgency of the moment brought them together. It probably won’t last. I wouldn’t want to lead an army of teenage girls, would you? Like herding cats with severe hormonal issues.”

  “But Aura managed it?”

  “This time.”

  “Did you talk to her?”

  “Yes. I tried to mess with her mind. Tried to get her to turn herself in. But she was too stubborn.”

  “Or too smart. I heard several of your men fired their weapons. Did they injure anyone?”

  “Just me.”

  The Chief fell silent for a moment. “You know what this means?”

  “I’m sure you’ll tell me.”

  “We’ve lost the element of surprise.”

  “True.”

  “And they are no longer contained.”

  “Also true.”

  “They’ll be watching for us.”

  “And we have another problem to deal with.”

  “The media?”

  “Of course not. They’re the easiest people in the world to manipulate. They’ll print any idiotic cover story we give them, especially if we provide a scapegoat. Someone to heap disdain upon. We’re passing this off as a burst gas main.”

  “Lot of that going around.”

  “Because the city council failed to pass a proposal to replace weak and aged sections of pipe. Someone’s on the take. Didn’t you know? Heads will roll, after the press runs the story for several weeks. No one will have a clue what really happened. When do you think you’ll be out of here?”

  “Whenever you want me to be out of here.”

  “That would be now.”

  She jerked the IV out of her arm.

  “Those girls are holed up somewhere,” the Chief said. “Hiding.”

  “Can’t blame them for that.” She pushed out of bed and lowered herself to her feet. Her knees wobbled a bit, but she’d be okay. “I’d do the same thing.”

  The Chief clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Find them, Coal. Find them fast.”

  “I will. But you know, they’ll be cautious. After all…they must think we caused the explosion at TYL.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Why would we destroy our own installation?” The Chief smiled. “But let them think that. Much better they believe that illusion…than that they have any glimmer of the truth.”

  58

  Aura sat with the other Shines surrounded by tall stacks of books, creaky old furniture, and mountains of dust.

  Did all resistance leaders start this way? If she’d wanted a nice office, she was probably in the wrong line of work.

  She couldn’t complain. Well, she could, but what was the point? They were lucky to find this hideaway near Hacienda Hills. The basement gave them a quiet, relatively secure place to regroup and figure out what to do next.

  She knew she needed to get these girls organized, to find some direction. Find out what happened back at TYL. Find out where her mother and all the other underground prisoners went. Find out who killed Perfume. Find out who was pushing Coutant’s buttons. Find out who got all the biological information Dr. Hope excruciatingly collected. But how? They weren’t an organized army. They weren’t so much renegades as refugees. She didn’t have a St. Crispin’s Day speech in her, nor did she think they would listen if she tried. The only reason this group remained together was that no one knew what else to do.

  Ohm was a rumor, not a reality. None of them had any reason to believe this Shine paradise existed.

  But those nagging nightmares kept coming…

  She knew she couldn’t rest so long as her mother and all those girls were prisoners. And the people who tortured them went unpunished.

  “I feel like a mole,” Dream groused, hand on her chin. “When did we last see daylight?”

  “Cheer up,” Twinge said. “At least we escaped. No one knows where we are.”

  “But I miss the sun. This is making me nostalgic for rehab.”

  “You’d feel differently if you were there.”

  “True. But there was a pool. And a view of the ocean.”

  “Here are the facts, Dream. Someone tried to kill us. Every single one of us. They may have missed the target, but they killed some innocent people. Furthermore, we used our Shines. Every single one of us. Meaning we violated federal law. Face it—there’s nothing waiting for us out there except Mordock.”

  Aura felt a shudde
r course through her body. She had managed to get out before Dr. Hope’s experiments progressed too far—barely. “I will not let them experiment on me again. No matter what. Never.”

  “Easy to say. But once you’re locked up in Mordock, I doubt if they give you a wide range of choices.”

  “Then we have to be damn sure we never end up there.” Dream pushed herself to her feet and left the room. “I’m going to pretend I’m watching tv on the imaginary sun deck.”

  Mnemo entered, carrying a book. “All quiet on the Western front, Aura?”

  “A little too quiet. By the way, if I haven’t thanked you lately—thanks for coming up with our escape plan. And our hideout.”

  Mnemo shrugged. “No prob. People don’t realize Gearhead’s potential. She did a terrific job. In a short period of time. With very little briefing.”

  After they used the vanquished soldiers’ boat to return to the mainland, Gearhead jacked a choppercar and got them away from the coast just as emergency services arrived. Gearhead had never hotwired a boat, stolen a car or flown a chopper, but Mnemo had read books on the subjects. “You two make an excellent team.”

  Mnemo actually blushed. “Well…I think so.”

  She peered at the normally reserved girl’s awkward expression. What was that about? “Hiding out in this library was a great idea, too. Easy to get in. And no one ever seems to come down to the basement.”

  “It was boarded up years ago when they went to electronic data storage. Most of the librarians don’t even know it exists.”

  “How did you know about it?”

  “I used to work here,” Mnemo answered. “Upstairs, I mean.”

  “You were a librarian?”

  “Library aide. For a while. Used to sneak books down here so I could read without being bothered.”

  “Did you quit the library when they sent you to TYL?”

  “No. I quit before.”

  “Why?”

  “I’d read all the books.”

  “You mean, all the books that interested you?”

  “I mean all the books.”

  “In the entire library.”

  “Yes.”

  “Every single one?”

  “Some twice. The ones I liked. Even though rereading is completely unnecessary for me.”