Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  "So. Did you see the calculating way he looked at us when he realized we're Shines?" Sophia asked, exasperated.

  "I told him we'd contact him in an hour. He has no idea how or where," she said and fought the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. This girl was some serious uptight.

  "Do you?"

  She glanced over at Sophia, whose skeptical face could now be seen in the early morning light just peeking over the horizon. "Are you always this big a negative nag?"

  Sophia's face flushed red and her eyes narrowed. "Well excuse me for wanting to understand the plan." Her accent thickened as her frustration increased. "Is smart, you think, to trust someone you don't know with your life?" She turned to face the window as she tapped her thumb against her leg.

  Camille hunched over the steering wheel, guilt setting heavy on her shoulders. She tried to imagine what she'd have done in the same situation. She glanced toward Sophia, then back to the road. Resisting the urge to bang her head on the steering wheel, she clenched her jaw. She hated apologizing. She locked her gaze on the brightening horizon.

  "I'm sorry. I forget that the rest of you don't have the same goal that I do." She glanced at Sophia, who'd stopped muttering to herself and turned back toward Camille. "I'm going to take you to the place we're staying and introduce you to the others. Then I'll go to an internet cafe in a nearby town and use their facilities to contact Mr. Graham and get the information he promised."

  Sophia stared down at her lap. "What is your goal?"

  Camille exited the highway and turned into an older neighborhood. "I made a promise to find other Shines and fight what is happening to us. Supposedly, a resistance organization called Ohm is located somewhere in the California desert." She glanced toward Sophia. "I plan to find this Ohm and take as many Shine with me as I can."

  She turned the car onto a tired street lined with small houses. Rachel's blue 1970s Ford truck was parked in the street in front of a dingy white house hidden by shrubs. They'd found the house in a For Rent column on an Amarillo news site. The toothless old owner had been more than happy to take two months’ rent in cash with a promise for the same if they stayed that long. She pulled into the sagging single car garage and shut off the ignition.

  Turning toward Sophia, she studied the other girl's dark auburn hair, bright blue eyes, and narrow Eastern European features. "How long have you lived in the U.S.?"

  "Since I was eleven. My parents came here to give me a better future." Sophia laughed without humor. "Some future, no?"

  "Would things be any better in Russia?"

  Sophia looked up, face grim. "Actually, they are for Shine. Instead of hunting them down and experimenting on them, Russia is protecting her Shine. She is training them."

  Camille knew her jaw hung open, but she didn't care. "How do you know?"

  "My cousin and I are very close and used to sleep over at each other's house when we were younger. She is also a Shine. One of only a handful that lives in Russia. She came to visit last year and told me how different it is there."

  "Why didn't you and your parents go back to Russia?" Camille asked, stunned.

  "It is very expensive. My parents declared bankruptcy two years ago. Some of our family sent money from Russia, but not enough. We would have had the money to at least send me by the summer," Sophia said, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. "And now it is too late. They know about me. The minute I hand my passport to customs, I'll be taken into custody."

  Camille chewed on her lip. There had to be a way to get Sophia a fake passport. She covered Sophia's hand with hers and squeezed. "We can't do anything about it now, but I promise if there is a way to send you there, we'll find it."

  Sophia gave her a tight smile, her eyes shuttered as if she didn't believe Camille. She'd learn. Jenni's death had given Camille a purpose for her life. Jeremy's betrayal had taught her she was strong.

  She could still see his bright blue eyes looking down at her with what she’d believed had been the beginning of love. The memory shifted and she was in a SSS cage praying the band on her head wouldn’t go off again. Jeremy’s unexpected voice startled her into moving and setting the band off as he told the Reverend everything the organization had learned about her in an emotionless voice. She could still hear the echo of his boots after the Reverend had left and he’d moved to stand in front of her cage. His voice moved through her mind. Things aren't always what they seem, Camille. Look past the surface.

  She shoved aside the words that plagued her day and night. That was the past. She'd never see him again. Her heart clenched in her chest. She could only move forward. She'd find Ohm and somehow send Sophia to Russia.

  She opened the car door. "Come on. Let's go meet the others."

  5

  Camille walked into a small, dingy kitchen to see Rachel and a freckle-faced, redheaded Shine preparing breakfast. Rachel stirred something bubbling in a pot on the stove, while the other woman chopped tomatoes at the counter. Both turned when she walked in with Sophia.

  "Bout time, Cam," Rachel said, one dirty blonde eyebrow raised. "With that fancy invisibility thing going for ya, I'd have thought you'd have been back before me."

  "Can it, Magneto."

  Ignoring Rachel's low growl, she moved past the scowling Shine and stopped in front of the redhead. "I'm Camille. Ignore everything she," she pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Rachel, "complained to you about. We're all Shine. We all have different abilities. We will all get along." She turned and raised an eyebrow at Rachel, who rolled her dark brown eyes and looked away.

  "I'm Karen Rider. I'm nineteen and I am–" she flushed and blinked away tears – “was working toward my Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech."

  Camille shook the Shine's outstretched hand and squeezed. "You'll finish that degree someday, even if we have to give you a new identity and enroll you in online courses."

  Karen nodded and forced a smile, then changed the subject. "So, what's everyone's Shine?" Her smile melted. "Or is it rude to ask? I've never been around other Shines before. I can control motor function in the body of whoever I'm touching."

  Camille's forehead wrinkled as her eyebrows lifted. "So you're like, a puppet master, or something? Cool." She pointed to Rachel. "Human magnet." Then she moved her finger to herself. "Invisibility." She pointed to Sophia. "This is Sophia. She's near your age and a teleporter." She raised her voice. "And the anti-social one is a human lie detector."

  "Hey, I can introduce myself," Brenna said, stumbling into the kitchen. Catching her balance as Rachel rolled her eyes and turned back to the stove, Brenna pushed her glasses back up her nose and patted her Afro. "Hi, I'm Brenna. And I'm not," she turned to glare at Camille with large hazel eyes that were a startling contrast to her light brown skin and tightly curled dark hair, "a human lie detector." She turned back to face Karen and Sophia. "My Shine works more like a truth serum. I place pressure on the right temporal lobe that causes the person to lose their inhibitions, thereby saying whatever is on their mind. If I do this while asking questions, they'll speak the truth rather than censoring."

  "Here we go again," Rachel muttered.

  Brenna swung around. "Just because you don't hold the mental capacity–"

  "Bren," Camille warned. Brenna scowled at Rachel's back and Camille rolled her eyes and looked back at the two new Shines. "Welcome to the clownfest." She shifted her gaze to Karen. "Did Rachel show you where you'll be sleeping?

  "No, we waited in the living room with Brenna until word came in about you and Sophia, then we came in here and started making breakfast," Karen said in a soft voice.

  "Then I'll show you to your room." She waited while Karen grabbed a large duffel bag from the living room, then led both teens out of the kitchen and down a narrow hall. "This is only a two bedroom house. Brenna and I share the smaller room. You'll both be joining Rachel in the larger room." She opened the door to the room at the end of the hall. Inside, two sets of bunks were pushed into an “L” shape acro
ss from a walk-in closet and a bathroom. "This was the master bedroom and has its own bath. Brenna and I use the hall bath. We'll go out and get any necessities you may need later."

  Karen tossed her duffel on the bed above the one Rachel slept in, then took the stack of plain cream sheets and began to make the bed. Sophia tossed her backpack on the bottom of the other set of bunks and sat. Camille left them to get to know each other and went to the living room where Brenna sat at an old corner desk Rachel had salvaged from the side of the road.

  "What'd you find on Phil Graham?"

  Brenna opened the notebook app on her tablet. "He's the Potter County DA. It came out that he refused the backing of the Texas branches of the SSS and that he's the main reason that the West Texas Shine Rehab Facility was built in El Paso instead of Amarillo. He's up for re-election next year, but he's lost favor because of what's considered his pro-Shine stance. Rumors began circulating that he is pro-Shine because his two daughters are Shine."

  "Two?”

  “Yes, the older daughter disappeared from her college dorm last year. The same time he began taking a stronger stand against the anti-Shine movement.” Brenna said.

  “Hmm, I wonder if her disappearance inspired his stand or his stand prompted the disappearance?” She shoved aside her lingering doubts and sighed. “He's promised to get me information on the Shine holding building near the airport so that we can rescue her. Do you believe he'll turn us in?"

  "He's an attorney. I honestly think he could go either way, but his history says he would be friendly to the Shine cause," Brenna said with a shrug. "Either way, I think it'd be best if we set up a temporary email account and delete it after you get whatever information he's planning to supply."

  Camille nodded. "Send the email login and his contact information to my tablet. It's time to go out on a limb. Let's hope he believes we can get his daughter back."

  Brenna moved her fingers over the tablet and Camille headed back to the kitchen, stifling a yawn. Damn, it'd been a long night. Rachel glanced over her shoulder, then reached into a cabinet and pulled out a coffee mug and a bowl.

  Knowing better than to enter the other girl's domain without permission, Camille sat at the breakfast bar. "I'm going to drive down to Canyon. I noticed a little coffee shop that sold that Topeca Coffee you like so much next door to the Internet Cafe, if you want to go."

  Rachel set a bowl of oatmeal and a plate of bacon in front of Camille. "Nice. We're almost out of what I brought with me," she said with a smile before turning to her little espresso machine.

  Camille smiled. She'd never had coffee made from freshly ground beans, much less enjoyed a homemade latte before Rachel had joined them. The machine was loud, but worth the noise as Rachel frothed the milk in her mug then poured in the shot of espresso and placed the cup in front of her.

  Seeing her smile, Rachel lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

  "Thank you," Camille said as she stirred the dried cranberries and brown sugar into her oatmeal.

  Rachel's eyes narrowed, then she shrugged. "If you're all set, I'm going to go get ready."

  Camille waved her away and sipped her coffee. The situation with Phil Graham made her nervous. Could they really trust him? What if they were walking into an ambush? She pinched the bridge of her nose. Did it matter? The man's daughter was on Camille's list of known Shines.

  Camille's father had left the list on a thumb drive for her before her parents' deaths eight months ago. She and Jenni had planned to find each girl on the list and find a way to fight back against the anti-Shine movement, but Jenni had been killed by Camille's ex-fiancé, Gary, a crazy SSS fanatic before they could implement their plan. A burning knot formed in Camille's stomach. She stood and took her half-eaten bowl of oatmeal to the sink, her appetite gone.

  She'd keep her promise to Jenni and find the Shines on her list. She'd figure out where Ohm, the rumored Shine resistance organization, was located. She'd figure out how to fight back against the entire world to keep her promise. Even if she did feel like she was on the road to nowhere.

  She rubbed her gritty, tired eyes and turned on the faucet to rinse her dishes. The memory of strong arms lifting her up and holding her after she found the letter and list from her father filled her mind. She'd give anything to be there again. With him. Jeremy. She fought the warmth of the memory. He'd betrayed her.

  Hadn't he?

  She remembered the gruff sound of his voice as she'd huddled in the SSS cage. It's a sin to kill a Mockingbird. Was she judging him unfairly like Scout had Boo Radley in her father's favorite book? The memory shifted. They sat in a black SUV. Jeremy's bright blue eyes met hers. He squeezed her arm as if trying to tell her something, but what? The crash of metal and the SUV rolling. Jeremy wrapped his arms around her, protecting her from flying glass.

  She struggled against her soft heart. He'd betrayed them. How else could the SSS have known she and Jenni were about to leave town? Uncertainty churned in her stomach. She'd give anything to have him in front of her so she could demand he tell her the truth. Her eyes burned. She blinked. She would not cry again for what could have been. She leaned over the sink and splashed her face with water, willing the tears away. Someday, she'd find him. She'd get an explanation. If it turned out he'd been the one responsible for Jenni's death, she'd make him pay. She pushed up from the sink, face dripping. Wasn't she about to go e-mail from a temporary account? Why not take advantage of it to also tell Jeremy exactly how she felt about his role in Jenni's death? She grabbed the towel sitting beside the sink and buried her face in it. Did she dare contact him and risk giving away the area in which she hid?

  "I'm ready," Rachel said as she walked back into the kitchen.

  Camille dried her face and turned from the sink. "Let's get this party started."

  6

  The drive to the Amarillo suburb passed quietly, neither girl feeling the need to fill the comfortable silence. They were more alike than either would probably ever admit to the other, both preferring to sink into their own thoughts for coveted alone time. Camille parked, then glanced at the other Shine. None of them were allowed to leave the house without the enhancements that made them look older. Rachel's nose looked sharper now, her cheeks less round, and she wore darker eye shadow and lipstick for a more mature look. The makeup combined with her height and professional knee-length pencil skirt and business jacket made her appear to be in her late twenties.

  Camille smoothed her hands down her own business slacks and jacket, only slightly wrinkled from her midnight antics. She'd used temporary hair dye to run a streak of gray through her long, dark hair and make-up to make her own age appear somewhere in the early thirties. So far their efforts had paid off and their neighbors thought them to be young professionals.

  Camille got out of the car and waited as Rachel joined her. "Across the street are a hair salon, boutique, and Thai food restaurant when you get done in the coffee shop. I'll find you when I'm done here."

  Rachel nodded.

  Camille watched her enter the coffee shop, then turned to enter the Internet Cafe. A row of tiny white cubicles lined either side of the narrow shop, each with its own tablet mounted to a stand, a keyboard, and a bright orange chair in a modern design. The white walls were broken by abstracts in the same orange as the chairs and an orange accent wall at the back behind a desk where an employee waited to sell cold drinks and snacks. Various Texas Tech college students sat at the stations absorbed in some assignment or the other. Camille used cash to pay for thirty minutes of Internet time, then took the card the employee handed her and sat down in front of a tablet. Typing in the temporary username and password Brenna had set up, Camille clicked on “compose message”.

  From: Prepared to help

  To: DAGraham

  Do you have the info we need?

  Camille hit send, then sat back to wait. Within minutes two emails appeared on the screen from a different email than the one she'd sent her message to. The first was a file of a set of floo
r plans that Camille sent to the cafe's printer and immediately retrieved while the bored employee watched. The next email was a message from Mr. Graham.

  From: Concerned Party

  To: Prepared to help

  I'll be at the Airport Hotel in the lobby after you retrieve her. Don't make the mistake of thinking she's to stay with you. I don't want to have to alert the FBI to your presence here.

  Camille sat back and glared at the tablet. What a jackass! She didn't have to help him. She could turn around now and leave. It'd be safer for her and her Shine. Jenni's determined face flashed in her mind. It's up to us to be the light, Cam. She took a deep breath. She couldn't break her promise. It wasn't the girl's fault that her dad was such a dog log. She hit reply.

  From: Prepared to help

  To: Jerk at top of sewer list

  Unless circumstances prevent it, she'll be returned to you.

  Camille hit send then checked the time. Five minutes left of her purchased time. She quickly hit “compose message” again. Their funds were getting low.

  From: Dorothy

  To: MSanders

  I could use those ruby shoes about now. There's sure no place like home and I miss Auntie Em.

  Dorothy Sanders

  PO Box 433, Canyon, TX

  Michael's reply came in with two minutes left on her time.

  From: MSanders

  To: Dorothy

  Overnight ruby shoe service just happens to be available. Auntie Em isn't the same. The wicked witch is everywhere. The Tin Man and the Lion have thrown the Scarecrow to the crows at every opportunity. Still have nothing on the Emerald City. Just stay on the yellow brick road.

  She sighed in relieve, thankful that Michael was able to manage the money she’d received for the sale of her parents’ house. She glanced at the time. One minute remaining. She closed her eyes, her pulse pounding. She shoved aside her uncertainty and started another new message.