Both he and Brad were dressed. I looked down at my flannel pajamas and sighed. My head hurt so badly.
Bernard checked the windows. The only interruption to the silence of night was a chorus of crickets singing to the moon. He sat down next to me and held my hands. "How much do you think they saw?"
"I really have no idea. My defenses were good, but the Seeker is very strong. I couldn't push him all the way out until Drake helped. Now Drake is gone again and I don't know what to do."
Bernard looked to Brad. "Make sure all the doors are locked and the alarms are set. When Drake comes back we'll make a plan."
I closed my eyes against more tears. "What if he doesn't come back?"
The professor squeezed my hand. "He'll come back. Trust me."
The couch cushioned my aching body, and my exhaustion caught up with me. I closed my eyes.
***
A scream.
I jolted awake. Was I dreaming? A nightmare?
I sat alone in the living room. Something crashed in the kitchen, and another scream rang out.
Not a nightmare.
We were under attack.
What could I do? For all of my martial arts training, I'd never been especially good at it. Lucy always kicked my butt. Add to that my pregnancy, and the fact I'd used up all my strength earlier, and I was pretty useless in a fight—at least physically.
I hid behind the couch and peeked around the side, mentally scanning the house. The professor and Brad fought someone in the kitchen. Their thoughts spun wildly through my mind: pain, fear, anger, protectiveness towards me and my baby.
I tried to push into the attacker's mind, but he forced me away like bug repellent.
Another scream.
I pushed harder. Bright red light shot through my mind as pain swirled in and out. My head spun, held together only by sheer will and the hands I pressed to it.
A splinter of an opening grazed my mind. Little by little, I wiggled my way through the enemy's defenses until I found the pulsing center that protected him. With one great heave of energy, I attacked.
His thoughts rushed into me in such a jumble that I couldn't understand anything, but I could feel the kill instinct and knew my friends didn't have much time. It would be so easy to wrap my will around his and force him to stop.
I hated my hypocrisy even as I forced him to his knees and pried his fingers off the bloody knife in his hand.
It was too easy.
The man sucked up my energy like a dry sponge in water. I'd never felt anything like it. Something fed on my power. I tried to pull out, to release his mind, but a sticky coil had wrapped itself around my mind. I was stuck.
This connection would kill me if someone didn't beat him or knock him unconscious.
My feet carried me to the kitchen. Everything around me took on a blurry, Monet-like quality—not my favorite artist. But wouldn't it be fun to paint the house with all the swirls I see right now? What? I'm losing it. I need to stay focused.
Brad lay on the floor, covered in blood and bruises. A large knife stuck out of the professor's chest. The world felt far away; even my emotions hovered just out of reach.
A void grew in me, a dimness that brushed away the colors of life in small strokes, leaving only grey.
The man in black looked at me. His eyes bugged out as though something pushed at them from the inside.
He fought my control with a power not his own. The Seeker.
I blasted questions into his mind. "Where is he? Where is the Seeker? How do we find him and destroy him?"
'I can't tell you.'
"Then I'll find out for myself."
I dug—past his recent memories, past his thoughts, into the locked doors in the creepy corners of his mind.
There, as from a disorganized filing system, I extracted bits and pieces of what I needed.
Then my powers failed completely.
Chapter 18 – Sam
It helps to have a superhero boyfriend when your own super powers die.
Drake smashed through the kitchen door just as the man in black picked his knife up off the floor and raised it above my chest.
Drake crashed into him.
I sat paralyzed while my boyfriend unleashed a rage unlike anything I'd ever seen.
A fist into the man's skull, crashing through bone and brain.
A foot through his guts, splashing intestines onto the tile floor.
Bloody shreds of body parts, no longer human, covering the kitchen.
Bile rose in my gut, and vomit forced itself out to mix with the gore.
Brad stirred, and relief filled up the parts of me not mesmerized by the horror.
He was alive.
I crawled over to him, puddles of blood staining my pajama knees. "How badly are you hurt?"
"I don't think anything's broken."
The professor still hadn't moved. His chest rose in shallow, rapid hiccups, and blood pooled around the knife stuck in his chest. "Brad, you have to call 911. Now!"
Brad pulled a cell phone from his pocket and dialed.
The blows of Drake's fists slowed and finally stopped, and the man with more power than any one person should have, slumped to the floor. "I should've been here. I thought I could protect you better if I left. I'm so sorry, Sam."
An instinct to comfort him warred with the revulsion I felt for what he'd just done.
The bloody kitchen and dead man on the floor overwhelmed my emotions, however. "The cops and ambulance will be here soon. What do we do with the body... what's left of it?"
Drake stood, walked to the sink and ran water over his hands. "We need to get out of here, before they come."
I looked up in surprise. "No! I'm not leaving Bernard until we know he's okay. He risked his life to save me tonight."
Drake dried his hands. "Then don't make his sacrifice worthless by staying and getting caught. He'd want us to leave."
Brad closed the cell phone and stared at us, his pale face lined with tears. "I can't stand the thought of leaving him, but I have to agree with Drake. Sam, I knew him best. He would want you to be somewhere safe. We need to leave, now."
I glared at Drake. "Are you going to use mind control on me if I don't?"
He dropped his head. "No. I'll stay with you, and we'll both get taken in. We won't be able to go after the Seeker. We won't be able to free your friends or the other kids. But I'll stay with you if you want."
My heart cracked into a million tiny pieces. How could I choose between them and our dear professor, the man who'd spent countless hours discussing philosophy and morality with me? I felt his pulse. His heart still beat, rapid but strong. The knife appeared to be closer to his shoulder than chest, nowhere near his heart.
My mind flashed to Ana, to her still, dead form.
Too many people had died for this. I had to stop Rent-A-Kid, once and for all.
"Let's go. I don't like it, but you're right. We have to stop the Seeker, and I know where he is."
Chapter 19 – Lucy
Mr. Black threw Lucy against the white brick wall in an interrogation room. Before she could clear her ears of the buzzing, his fist crashed into her cheek and sent an explosion of pain through her head.
She raised her leg to kick him, but fell back, too dizzy and disoriented to stay on her feet.
He yelled, but it took a moment for Lucy to make sense of the words. "You little piece of shit. You put this whole operation at risk by disobeying orders!"
Another fist. A kick. Every part of her body swelled under the torment.
"You also put my job at risk, and that is not tolerable. They have let you little shits run around doing what you want for too long. Well, not under my watch."
Blood filled her mouth. Tears streaked her face. Her lungs expanded and collapsed only with an effort that took all her strength.
There had to be a way to fight him.
She willed him to lie, to get on his walkie-talkie and say he needed backup. Anything to distract
him.
Nothing happened.
Just more punches, more slaps, more kicks.
She fell to the floor.
She pushed again.
Mr. Black didn't stop.
She tried to sit up, but couldn't. She wrapped her arms around her head and let him beat her.
"Get up. Get up and fight me, you bitch."
He kicked her ribs, and sharp bites of pain spread through her. She screamed out, but still couldn't move.
She spat on his shoe—the only way she could fight back. "Kill me if you think that'll make you a real man." She coughed. So hard to get air. "Such a hero, beating up kids. Your family must be proud."
He leaned over and spat in her face. Rather than enrage him further, her taunts seemed to calm him.
"I'm not going to kill you, bitch. It wouldn't make a difference. You're not going to be here long anyways."
He smiled like the oily bastard he was, and left Lucy lying on the ground, broken and bloody.
No one helped her. No one cared.
Time held no meaning. She slipped in and out of consciousness. Darkness had fallen by the time she finally managed to stand and walk—Mr. Black had taken her to the interrogation room early in the day.
Lucy wished real life came with a soundtrack as she stumbled to her dorm. For this scene, she would've played something by Clint Mansell, one of his beautiful instrumental compositions suited a miserable walk home.
Imaginary music filled the air around her. She tried to hum with it, but couldn't spare the extra breath.
She entered her suite and collapsed onto the couch.
***
"Luce? Lucy? Oh my God, what happened to you? Who did this?"
Luke stood over her, but he was blurry. No, wait, her eyes didn't work. Why wouldn't they open all the way?
"Lucy, don't move. You're hurt, bad. Just... stay still. I'm going to get the nurse."
Darkness came again. Fists—so many fists—slamming into me again and again. Her dream cry turned real when hands pressed into her bruises, jolting her awake.
A calm voice soothed her. "Shh. It's okay. I'm giving you something to help. It's experimental, but it should have you right as rain in no time."
Images flickered in and out of her mind until cohesive thought returned to her. When she opened her eyes again, and fully, she saw Luke asleep on the floor next to the couch.
"Luke, wake up."
He sat up and hugged her as he might hug a butterfly. "You look a lot better. That drug could make them a fortune in the professional boxing circuit."
Lucy laughed, and it didn't hurt as much as she had expected. Like being kicked in the ribs rather than stabbed with a knife—now that's improvement!
Luke brushed a stray hair out of her eyes. "Who did this to you?"
"Mr. Black. It was payback for botching the operation."
Luke balled his fists and hopped up. "I'm going to kill him, right now. I'm going to smash his face is until it isn't a face anymore."
"Bro, believe me, no one wants to bash his skull in more than me, but we can't. It'd be a suicide mission, and then we'd lose all chance of helping our friends." She reached for his hand and pulled him to sit next to her. "It's time for another meeting. Do you think you can do that shield thing again? You know, the way you blocked the bullets with your new power? Because I have an idea."
***
Lucy wore her black eye and not-quite-healed bruises in front of the group like badges of honor.
When the room quieted, she began. "It's time. We can no longer stay within the walls of this school and survive. Look what they did to me." She gestured to her bruises. "When have we ever been beaten for the way we completed a mission? And look at our school? We've become prisoners. We have to act fast and hard, take them by surprise before they have a chance to prepare for us.
"Luke, can you come up here?"
Luke met her at the front.
"There's more to our powers than we realize. You all know my brother, Luke, and his para-power of walking through walls, right? Well, I'd like you to see something." She turned to Gary, already prepped for this demonstration, and nodded her head.
Gary flicked a penny at Luke, and Luke raised his hands. The penny stopped in midair, held there by some unseen force.
The students gasped, and whispers rippled throughout the room.
"As you know, he's never been able to do that before. I think it's connected to his original power, but its inverse—a shadow power. Luke can separate the molecular structure of something in order to pass through it. Now, he can enforce that same structure outside himself, creating barriers and fields. We discovered this while on our assignment. In addition to detecting lies, I can now coerce someone to lie. I have a theory that each of us has a shadow power to complement our normal para-power. We just have to tap into it and practice it. Then, we will be twice as strong."
Everyone in the room smiled openly. For the first time in a long time, hope filled them. The shift in energy was palpable. Her mind flashed to Adam. They owed him so much and they would never know it.
"We need a bigger meeting place, somewhere secret where we can train and improve our powers."
A girl stepped forward. "I could start looking. I know this school well. Someone once showed the blueprints of the entire campus, and I have a photographic memory."
Lucy frowned. "What's your name?"
"Linda."
Gary nudged Lucy and whispered to her. "She's been a close friend of mine for a long time. We can trust her."
Lucy nodded but still had to check. "Linda, can you come up here for a second?"
Everyone watched as Linda approached. She was a slight thing with eyes too big for her head. Lucy softened her tone. "You're new. Everyone has to pass a lie detector, just to be safe. It's not personal."
Some of the tension eased out of her. "Oh, right. Gary told me about that. Sure."
After a few questions, some standard, others new, Lucy trusted that Linda wouldn't betray them.
"Great. Everyone, consider what your shadow powers might be, but don't get caught practicing them. We aren't safe here anymore. We'll reconvene when Linda has found us a spot."
***
Lucy eyed her computer with evil intent, but resisted the impulse to throw it through the window. After all, it wasn't her computer's fault she couldn't crack the damn code on the damn disk she'd copied from her damn assignment.
The scientist had said something about viruses. Were they creating some kind of biological warfare to wipe out humans? A virus to infect people with para-powers? A virus to control those with para-powers? The possibilities were endless, which was why she needed to crack the code.
She stretched her back and stared out her window at the moon. The campus looked so peaceful at night; it reminded her of life before the men in black turned it into a prison.
The sphere in her pocket pulsed with energy of its own. Lucy took it out and examined it again, tossing it back and forth in her hands. There didn't appear to be a way to open it or use it—no buttons or triggers. Still, some power surged through it, and Lucy could feel the same power rushing through her own body.
The sphere mesmerized her and drew her in. It unlocked her mind's secrets—
"Lucy!"
The sphere slipped from her hand, and she glared at the interruption. Gary stood at her door with Greg beside him. "Sorry to bug you, but we found a place to train. It's perfect."
Anger filled Lucy with a ferocity she'd never felt before. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"
The boy's head dropped. "We... did. You didn't answer, and I thought you'd want to know, because of the timing and everything."
The web of emotion weighing her down vanished. She shook her head to clear it. "No, of course. I'm sorry, I'm still recovering from my injuries and I get a bit grumpy. You did the right thing. Let's get Luke and head over."
Lucy leaned over while the boys turned to leave, and grabbed the sphere. She shoved it
back into her pocket and followed them out.
***
The walk through campus at night was a risk, but Greg kept the surveillance off of them. It was too late to call a meeting, but they could at least set the place up.
Linda and a few other Freedom Fighters met them at the Hub and took them to an abandoned building that, before the soldiers had moved in, was going to be refurbished as a new gym.
A guard with a flashlight approached, and they all ran into the main doorway. Larry, a guy who could generate light, used his shadow power to shut down the guard's flashlight.
The guard slapped the useless metal against his palm, then swore and headed back in the direction he'd come.
Linda led them through the gym area and into a corridor none of them had ever noticed before. "There's a secret passage here, a door that leads to a basement. It's perfect for us. No one ever goes down there."
The basement gave them plenty of room to practice, and even had smaller rooms off to the side for the more dangerous para-powers.
Lucy brushed some dust off a chair, but didn't sit. "This is perfect, Linda. You did an awesome job."
They spent the next hour moving boxes and throwing away random bits of wood and trash. Then they set up some basic practice areas before they headed back to their dorms.
Luke grabbed her shoulder as they crossed the quad. "What's up, Sis? You've been distracted all night."
"I'm just thinking. What did Mr. Black mean when he said we wouldn't be here long? There are obviously bigger plans at work, and I want to know what they are. I wish the meeting you recorded in Russia had given us more information. It's all so confusing."
"Yeah, I've listened to it a thousand times, and I still don't know what it means—only that Rent-A-Kid isn't the only organization at play here. They talked about the I.P.I. as if it was the enemy, which means it might be an ally for us, but who knows? We don't even know what I.P.I. stands for, much less whether they really can stand up to whoever's in charge here."
A guard approached them and shone his flashlight in their faces, destroying their night vision. "Curfew is in ten minutes. What are you two still doing out?"
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