by Sarah Noffke
“It wasn’t,” I say, with a guilty smile.
“Why did you say that?” my father says.
What kind of game is she playing? he thinks in his head.
“The kind you’ve played on me my entire life,” I say.
He raises a knowing eyebrow, a wicked grin on his face. So you’re telepathic? Well, congratulations, but very soon it won’t matter, he thinks.
Oh, yes, I’m telepathic, as well as other things, I say in my mind.
He tapers his eyes at me. What else?
You’ll find out, I think.
“Em,” he says out loud, a strange edge to his voice, a bit of nervousness escaping. “Tell me what other gifts you have.”
“Damien,” President Vider says, snapping my father’s attention on him, “what’s going on?”
“It appears my daughter has inherited my main gift.”
“Oh,” President Vider says, sounding pleased. “So you’ll know exactly what I want, when I want it, won’t you, Em? This keeps getting better.”
No! Behind me I hear Rogue’s heart pound faster, louder. I turn and give him an encouraging look.
“Don’t worry, Rogue,” President Vider says, sensing the rise in tension in his son, the same as me. “We have plans for you too. You’ll be converted and your memories receded. The people of Austin Valley will be so touched when my son returns to me, after being lost for so long. And after I’m done with Em, you two can live in some awful Middling dwelling, where you can be complacent and serve us as you were intended.”
I flash a look at Rogue again, but it’s Maurice’s round face that catches my attention. There’s a confused expression on it. But I thought I was supposed to kill him tonight, the ogre thinks.
I turn with a slow stealth and face my father.
He shrugs, a relaxed grin on his face. Oops. Now you know. “Em,” he says out loud, “I want you to come here. This time you won’t be escaping conversion.”
The little girl in me cowers. The old subservience overtakes me, the one I’ve been plagued by since childhood. My feet move forward, like I don’t control them, but he does.
Down the hallway, far off, a door clinks. I stop, focus my attention on it and the tiny noises that follow. Someone shuffles into a room. Moves multiple metal objects, placing them on a metal tray. Their breath smells of barley and plantains. They haven’t showered since this morning. And they walk with a slight limp.
I raise my eyes to my father’s just as President Vider says, in a delighted growl, “Dr. Sanders is ready for her?” he says, looking confused, having heard the same noises I did. “But I thought we were going to wait to do her conversion tomorrow.”
My father shakes his head at me, his face slack. “I want it done now. You can do what you like afterwards. Kill her for all I care.”
“Oh, no, she’s way too valuable to our campaign,” the President says.
Instinctively I back up. My eyes flick in the direction of where I hear this doctor preparing to convert me. I’m scanning for options. My eyes take in thousands of objects all at once, a dozen possibilities occurring to me. “Maurice plans to kill Rogue, but how do you plan to take me?” I say.
President Vider shakes his head, clicks his tongue. “I’d never kill my dearest son,” he says. Lies. “But if you don’t consent to follow us then I will have him tortured.” He flicks his eyes at Maurice and nods, such a subtle movement, but instantly Rogue wails behind me and I almost lose the ability to hold myself up. His pain is so distinct in his cries, more so than when he’s been plagued by the headaches.
I’m growing more into my gift, and suddenly surrounded by Dream Travelers I feel all the distinct powers around me. With the need to survive and protect leading my motivation, I feel everyone’s abilities at my fingertips. President Vider’s enhanced senses and my father’s telepathy are strongest right now because they use their gifts automatically, like breathing. But I believe the other gifts, Rogue’s apportation and Maurice’s killing touch, are at my disposal too. And still I sense other powers around me, and I don’t know what they all are, although I sense someone has the gift to shield, because I know I’m easily keeping my father out of my head right now, only feeding him the thoughts I want him to hear. It’s easier to shield him than ever before. Behind me Rogue groans again, this one a guttural sound.
I spin and face Maurice. “Stop! Don’t touch him again or I’ll kill you.”
In front of me my father laughs, one full of ridicule. President Vider joins in with him. “Em, do you really think that you can pull something out of this young man’s thoughts that will help your cause, let alone give you the opportunity to kill him? You’re out of options. So admit defeat and come with me now.”
“As you wish,” I say and step forward, my hands loose by my side, my head giddy with the opportunity to have close proximity to my father. I’ll take him hostage, leeching Maurice’s powers. I’ll get Rogue out of this.
Behind me I hear an object slip out of Rogue’s pocket. The air swishes by the sides of the container as it falls. I twist around and seize it with my eyes before it’s even touched the ground. The bottle of meds clatters to the tile floor and rolls off under a cabinet, but I spy it easily. My reflexes when I turned around had been strange, too fast. Like how I’d spied Rogue moving when we first entered the lab.
Rogue doesn’t look remorseful, but rather has a cunning look on his pained face, held hostage by Maurice standing too close beside him. “Oops,” he says, “I’m such a damn klutz. Maurice, you mind picking up those pills for me? I’ve got a migraine coming on.”
I have no idea what he’s up to or why he doesn’t look perturbed by the fact that he’s lost the meds we came here for. Maurice shakes his head at him. I turn back around to my father, but his eyes are not on Rogue, they’re studying me. He pushes his heel into the ground, a tiny movement, but I notice it before it even happens, having telegraphed his move. President Vider’s eyes flick down to his heel too. My father rubs the heel against the linoleum, making the slightest of movements, creating the slightest of irritating noises. Instantly it soaks up my attention. Soaks up the President’s.
“Why are you doing that?” the President asks.
Because, my father thinks.
And then he rubs his fingers together. My eyes flick to them. So do President Vider’s. He stops, rubs his fingers together on the other hand. Instantly my eyes are there.
Too late I realize what’s he’s doing. I rush forward.
My father holds up his hand. “Stay away from me, Em.”
“You told me to come with you,” I say, continuing forward.
My father looks at Maurice. Nods. Instantly Rogue screams out in pain.
“Stop!” I say, freezing in place. “Stop!”
“Don’t come a step farther, Em,” my father says. “Actually I’d feel more comfortable if you backed up a few steps.”
“Like the President said to me earlier,” I say, gritting my teeth together, “I don’t think you’re in a position to make requests.”
He raises a single eyebrow at me, nods his head again, and Rogue’s scream makes me crumble. Why do I think I can win at their game? I’ve already lost. Obviously. Okay, fine, you win, I think and hold up my hands in surrender.
“Well, well, well. How extremely interesting. It appears that my daughter is a leech,” my father says with almost a hint of pride in his voice.
Alarm registers on President Vider’s face. “Oh gods!” he says, taking three steps back.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“That’s right,” I say, taking a step forward. “I’m a leech.” I leech the energy out of Maurice, feel it tingle on my fingertips. Hold it in my hand with a new confidence. I reach out both my hands to the President. “Still want me?”
“Stay away,” the President says, a sneer in his voice.
“I read your thoughts. I hear your heartbeat. And I can make you feel a lot of pain,” I say, angling my head over my shoulder a
t Maurice.
“You forget,” President Vider says, with a growl, “that we still have control here.” A tiny nod and behind me I know what I’ll hear next.
I whip around and face Maurice, again my movements like that of a cat’s or more appropriately a cheetah’s. Quick. Efficient. “Stop!” I yell. After a delay he does. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to do what they say.”
The boy—I call him that because he’s younger than me—looks at me with strange, sad eyes. After a quick perusal of his thoughts I realize that he does. He absolutely has to do everything that President Vider says. Where does my advantage lie if they can torture and kill Rogue and I’m unable to stop it, even having all of their abilities? I need to have something they want, to hold it over their head, but I don’t know what that is. From below the cabinet I spy the white bottle peek back at me. I’m not sure why, and I know that it robs him of energy, but I still leech Rogue, apportioning the bottle of meds into my hands and then slipping it into my pocket. If we get out of this, then we’ll need these.
My eyes flick to Rogue’s, which are rimmed in pain, but still looking relieved for some reason. Thank you. Now take my other gift, he thinks.
Other? I think to myself. I don’t know what he means so I turn and face our fathers, who look like they’ve backed up a few paces.
“I want you to let Rogue go,” I say. “If you do then I won’t race forward and put you both in debilitating pain.”
“If you take a single step forward, then Rogue will die,” President Vider says too matter-of-factly.
My father shakes his head at me, a dismissive look. He slips a phone out of his inside jacket pocket and holds it to his face. “Send in unit eleven to the second floor of the labs.” Without another word he drops the phone into his pocket. It simultaneously terrifies and frustrates me that I can’t find the upper hand. I have the skill of every person in this room and still I can’t overpower my father.
He smiles, having sensed my thoughts. “That’s right, Em. Read our thoughts, sense everything around us, use Rogue’s apportational ability, but know that we still control you, because we have what you want. You can have it all, but you’re still powerless against us. And soon, you’ll be even more powerless.” He nods again and Rogue screams. Fury wraps around my head, constricting my rationality. If you hurt him again I’m going to sprint forward and kill you.
“He’ll die too,” my father says in response to the words in my head. “Will it be worth it then?”
President Vider eyes my father and then me, realizing he’s missing parts of conversations between us. “Enough of this. It’s time you’re relieved of this gift and all the pressures it puts on you. So sad you ended up being so powerful because I was really looking forward to your company tonight.”
And my father, who should have looked sickened by such a thing, doesn’t make a single grimace. You’re a sicko, I think at him.
And you’re a slow learner. He glances at Maurice and again Rogue howls with pain. My legs weaken, my body weight falling forward, and I almost tumble to my knees. But right before my knees hit the ground I hear Rogue’s voice in my head.
NO! DON’T!
My reflexes catch me with a strength I don’t own and pull me back up to a standing position. I turn to the person who I hear in my head. Rogue stares at me, looking half drunk but also determined. He rights himself to a full standing position.
Watch, Rogue thinks at me. And I do, taking in every ounce of him like I’m about to never see him again. I see his form as it is to me, perfect and strong and full of a grace which seems like it belongs to the gods. And then it hits me like a bullet in the chest. I watch him again swipe his hand across his hair, so fast that without President Vider’s gift of sight I would have missed it. Would have never seen his hand move away from his side. I watch the way his feet shift and realize what I missed before. I realize he’s giving me a display. To be able to see Rogue in that light is a gift in itself.
Now I know what Rogue’s other ability is. I know why he can’t use it to his favor, with Maurice too close to him. But I also recognize how I could employ it if given the right opportunity.
My father, who I realize only sees a fraction of his world because he’s trained on thoughts, watches me with a quiet annoyance. President Vider watches the hallway behind them as well as my every movement, afraid I’m about to turn Maurice’s gift on them.
“Soon,” my father says, “this ugly mess will be over with.”
“Because I’ll have killed you all and you’ll be hanging out in hell,” I say.
He shakes his head at me. “Em, if you want to leave then do it. We all know you have that power, but we also know that if you do Rogue will die, and if you try and attack us using Maurice’s skill then Rogue will die. So will you please stop with the threats, because they’re quite tiresome?”
“Oh, and after the long day you’ve had screwing your secretary, I’m sure this is too much,” I say.
Don’t say that!
“Come and stop me, Father.”
“And this is exactly why you were put on the Defect list, Em,” my father says, looking at me with a tired expression.
“Yeah, kudos for trying to exterminate the Defects,” I say.
“It’s not an attempt. It will happen,” the President says with a conceited knowing.
“What about these new Dream Travelers you’re recruiting into the Valley? Aren’t you afraid they may be Defects?”
“We screen them,” the President says.
“And what about all these ideas they have of the outside world?” I ask, stalling.
The President gives me a delighted look. “We recede most of their memories using the modifier. An especially useful technology. They have no memory of any outside influences.” His smile resembles a wolf with its hackles pulled up high. He also looks pleased, like he’s halfway to a feast.
I deflate, realizing how much further ahead they are than I realized.
Yes, that’s right, Em. There’s no stopping us, my father thinks.
“You know, I realize you have reinforcements coming, which I think is cute, since the three of you can’t handle me on your own,” I say. “But you do understand that I could just drain you all to death?”
President Vider laughs. “That would take all night.”
“You’re wrong,” I say, “I’ve drained—”
“Those who aren’t pregnant or sick aren’t as easily affected,” my father says in a tired voice, having read my thoughts.
Tammy’s pregnant? Rogue is sick? What? I shake my head at him.
Oh, didn’t you know? my father says in his mind.
I hate his answers. They make me feel like I’m constantly on the losing end of this battle, when I have every advantage. I keep listening for these reinforcements. So does President Vider. They aren’t in the building yet.
I should make my move now, but the problem is that using a skill of this sort before practicing it in a setting like this isn’t just dangerous, it is a lunatic move. And still so perfectly do I know what Rogue intends me to do. I know the skill he intends me to leech. I keep buying time. Delaying.
“You know, Dad,” I say and watch him cringe. He always made us call him Father.
“You’re downright evil. That’s not a judgment of you as my father, but rather a judgment of your thoughts. You make me sick.” I turn to President Vider. “And your thoughts are wicked and could easily put you behind bars. One day, I’ll make sure the Reverians know the truth about what you did.” And finally I turn and angle myself so I’m looking half at Maurice, but still have my father and the President in my eyesight. “And you, well, you’re just a minion who’s been brainwashed and are under mind control.”
I turn back to the President and take a step forward, which sends both men in front of me stumbling backwards. “I realize now why you really created the Defect list. It’s not just because we threaten your authority, it’s because we have a gene
inside us that prevents us from being put under your mind control. And how can you rule people who don’t do everything you make them? It’s nice to sense everything, but even better to control people. Too bad you can’t control everyone.”
“You will suffer for this,” the President says.
“You have to catch me first,” I say, and using the gift I just realized Rogue owns I race to Maurice in less than a quarter of a second. My feet hardly touch the ground. I feel myself blur across the space. Both my hands seize one of Maurice’s, which is easily the size of my head. Instantly I’m incapacitated by a shock so jarring it makes my teeth hurt. His face registers the same pain. But not the same pain. More. Between our skin to skin touch we suffer a double burn. His eyes widen as I push more of his power at him, having leeched a great deal of it while I stalled. Stored it for this moment. And still only a couple of seconds have passed. And then Maurice drops to the ground like a great ship sinking. His eyes wide open. Unmoving. He’s dead.
I almost pass out from the pain still surging through my limbs. Rogue reaches out for me, but then halts. Knowing I have to, I leech his power to move at rapid speed and dash out the door behind us, just catching the look of horror on my father’s face as his slow eyes take in what just happened. Behind me Rogue moves at the same pace. A super human one. The space around me blurs as I shoot through room after room and finally to a back hallway. I’m moving like I do during dream travel. Like I’m a roller coaster. Moving like this, beside Rogue, feels incredible. Like we’re two lions in a jungle, each movement so precise it makes my heart pause.
I don’t leech any more from Rogue after I leave the lab room. And soon I know this speed which is granting us a serious advantage will dissipate. We sprint down the stairwell, through a different hallway, to a set of double doors. The whole time I’m aware of the energies around me, the people. But none are dangerous. None are leechable. We break into a giant warehouse full of stacked boxes. It’s only halfway through that that Rogue’s energy leaks out of me and I slow until I’m moving at my usual pace. He passes me and then circles back when he realizes I’m no longer at his side.