Superluminary

by Olivia Rising

  “Why’s the knife so important?” Chris raised her voice over the music trickling from the Counselor’s headphones.

  “It was his trapping knife. He never left without it,” the Counselor replied, his eyes distant. “He must have had it with him when he died.” His gaze suddenly snapped back to the present. “Follow me. I think we should go to the last place where he was known to be. Maybe we’ll find something new there.” With that, he hurried out the back door.

  “Sure, whatever, let’s hunt some knife,” Noire muttered, following their team leader outside.

  Kid shifted her attention from the carved bear figurine that she had been examining to see Chris looking at her. She shrugged her shoulders and headed through the back door, and hopped down from the back step.

  She looks cheery enough, Chris noted with relief as she followed the girl. She figured the bogeyman’s aura was long gone, if it had ever been there at all.

  Overdrive trudged along behind them, his heavy steps sending a lizard scurrying for cover. He was no doubt bummed because he couldn’t do anything heroic to help solve the case.

  Or that there weren’t any pretty teenage girls to cheer for him.

  “Come on,” the Counselor said once they were all outside. “I think we need to go just over that rise.” He indicated a point somewhere a ways across the sparse landscape.

  “Jeeze, I wish we were all Speedy Gonzalez.” Kid grinned at Chris.

  The Wardens set off as a group, Chris carrying her helmet under her arm while the others wore their helmets. Their designs weren’t nearly as bulky nor did they impair their eyesight like the bear helmet she was issued. After a twenty minute walk, the Counselor stopped them in the middle of a nondescript wooded area far from the town of Cowley. It was peaceful. Insects buzzed in the air, and the birds made more noise than they did in the city. Chris could understand how someone who wanted solitude might find happiness here.

  Happiness, maybe. But no knife. Nothing except wilderness actually.

  “So how do you know this was one of the last places where Chayton had been?” she asked.

  The Counselor pointed at the surrounding forest. “The dogs lost his scent somewhere around here, but they were following an old scent. He lived alone, so the police weren’t informed that he was missing right away.”

  “Shame they couldn’t put power-boosting headphones on the dogs,” Noire commented.

  Overdrive snorted a half-choked laugh before stifling it with the back of a hand. Chris caught herself smirking a little in turn, but the Counselor’s expression remained deadpan. He just squatted in the middle of the clearing.

  Overdrive kicked at a rock and a cloud of dust rose up. “Well, I don’t see anything here but dirt.” He sounded bored.

  The Counselor abruptly straightened. “Let’s try … over here,” he said, strumming the invisible chords again while walking away without waiting for an answer.

  Five minutes later, they reached a small clearing with a toppled tree trunk and an empty rabbit trap.

  Chayton used the missing knife for trapping rabbits, Chris recalled. “Was this place part of the original investigation?” she asked the Counselor.

  He shook his head, his eyes fixated on the fallen tree trunk. “Nope. I’ve never been here before. I must have … missed it somehow,” he said before wandering off.

  That must have been a powerful boost to his abilities, Chris concluded. She glanced at the small music player dangling over the Counselor’s checkered jacket. The fact that music, infused by another Evolved’s powers, could make such a difference in their investigation was kind of awesome.

  Kid peered at a squirrel on a branch. “Oh, look!” she exclaimed, shielding her eyes from the golden sunlight piercing the canopy above.

  The unintended juxtaposition of werekitten versus wild rodent was unintentionally amusing.

  “Cute,” Chris replied. In a softer voice she asked, “How are you doing?”

  “Oh, fine. It’s been so long since anyone was here, I don’t sense anything.”

  “Nothing at all?”

  Kid shrugged her skinny shoulders. “Except in the house because he was there so much, but nothing bad.”

  “Hey, look!” Overdrive’s voice cut through the quiet forest. He was bent over the fallen tree trunk, running his fingers along a series of circles and stick figures that were carved into the bark. He straightened up with an intense expression of self-satisfaction.

  “I think the Counselor already saw those,” Chris told him, remembering how their leader’s attention had been drawn there when they first arrived. “Sorry.”

  Overdrive’s face fell. “He did?”

  They both looked across the small field at the Counselor, who had just stopped to stoop beside a patch of shrubbery.

  He’s found something.

  She used a quick burst of hyperspeed to catch up with their team leader and see what he was holding: a hunting knife with an elaborately carved grip. The Counselor weighed the knife in his hand while he stared at Kid, who was still standing beside the fallen tree with Overdrive.

  “Do you sense anything now?” he called over to the girl.

  Kid shook her head, disappointed that she couldn’t be of help.

  The Counselor’s eyes flicked to Chris. “We need to give Kid a power boost.” His flat voice didn’t bode well.

  “What? Why?”

  “Because the last thing this knife did was carve those Anasazi protection symbols into that tree trunk. And we need to know why.”

  4.4 Investigation

  Cowley, USA

  Saturday, the 9th of June, 2012

  12:39 p.m.

  When she heard mention of another power boost, Kid trudged over to the Counselor and Chris with small, cautious steps. Noire and Overdrive followed the girl a few seconds later, making much more noise than she had along the way.

  “Oh, you found the knife!” Kid exclaimed. “Do you know the connection yet?”

  “All I know is that this knife carved the symbols in this trunk,” the Counselor said.

  “So if that’s the last thing it did, why is it over here?” Chris swiveled her finger to indicate the distance.

  “That’s what I’m about to find out, I hope.”

  “With symbols? You mean those hieroglyphs I found?” Overdrive asked.

  “We aren’t in Egypt, dumbass,” Noire scoffed.

  “Those are Anasazi protection symbols,” the Counselor corrected.

  “Huh?” Overdrive stared at him with a blank expression. “What the hell are Azanawsi protection symbols?”

  Good question, Chris thought. This was a question for people who watched mystery shows or had a degree in parapsychology. She didn’t fit into either category, but the potential relevance these symbols had for their case intrigued her.

  “Anasazi,” the Counselor corrected. “The natives who lived in the southwestern United States thousands of years before the United States was a country.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Overdrive’s face lit up. “I think I saw a book about it in the cabin.”

  “That’s not surprising. Informants have told us how Chayton became interested in Native American myths after his transition.”

  “Because he thought they would protect him from the bogeyman?” Chris asked, piecing it all together.

  The Counselor raised his shoulders in a shrug. “Those symbols are believed to ward off evil.”

  “Why didn’t he just go underground?” Overdrive asked. “That’s what I would’ve done if I had his powers.”

  “That’s a good question. Kid, can you pick up anything now?”

  The girl frowned. “It was too long ago. Everything just feels fuzzy and foresty now.”

  The Counselor removed the MP3 player that he had worn around his neck and held it out to Kid. “How about you give this a try?”

  Kid raised her eyebrows, unsure.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Chris asked him. “I mean, what if something g
oes wrong?”

  “I wasn’t the only one cleared for a power boost,” the Counselor revealed. “Headquarters cleared Kid, too. They believe it’s safe, at least enough to try it to see what happens.”

  Isn’t there any way to solve this without getting Kid involved? Chris thought, anger welling up inside her. “Try it to see what happens?” she echoed. “But aren’t these tracks designed for Visionaries like you? There could be, I don’t know, side effects.”

  “If it turns out they work for her, then great. If not, no harm done.”

  You better hope there’s no harm done. Chris kept her mouth shut because she knew he wouldn’t listen to her. He was the guy in charge here.

  “Try tracks four and five,” he suggested when Kid accepted the player from his outstretched hand. “See if they do anything for you.”

  “Righty-o. I’m on it!” Kid chose a track before slipping the earphones into her ears, waiting.

  Chris looked on, wary. After a long moment of nothing happening, she allowed herself to relax.

  Kid’s auburn eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t like this music. It’s sad. Sounds like giraffes crying because they can’t see anything because their heads are stuck in the clouds.”

  “That’s what it sounds like?” Overdrive chuckled.

  “Crazy shit,” Noire agreed.

  “You don’t have to like it,” the Counselor said. “Do you feel any change to your powers?”

  “Nope,” Kid said.

  “Then try the next one,” he suggested.

  Kid skipped ahead to the next track, and her face lit up in an instant. “This one’s kinda cool,” she said, bouncing along to music only she could hear. “It sounds like that laundry detergent commercial where everyone chases the dirty burglar.”

  Chris smirked. She knew that commercial. The burglar in question bore an uncanny resemblance to the Counselor.

  “And?” the Counselor prompted. “Do you feel anything now?”

  Kid stopped smiling, her small face contorted in concentration instead. “Everything’s still a bit fuzzy, but it’s changed a bit too. It’s hard to explain what it feels like. Maybe if I had something of his in my hand….”

  He better not give her that huge knife, Chris thought, ready to remove it from the scene if necessary.

  But the Counselor handed over Chayton’s house keys instead, along with a Polaroid photo from the small checkered briefcase.

  Kid stared at the photograph, holding it a few inches from her face with one hand. She wrapped her fingers around the key ring, absentmindedly loosening and tightening her grip. The finger movements reminded Chris of the day when the girl had delved into a dolphin’s identity to imitate its squeaking voice for her.

  “Okay. Go,” Kid said after a moment, her eyes still fixed on the photograph even though she was giving the a-okay to the Counselor.

  So far so good, Chris decided. But Kid’s next words sent a shiver down her spine. They came from the little girl’s mouth, but the voice wasn’t her own. It had deepened to a soft baritone, assuming an eerie mix of young girl and older man.

  “He was here,” her transformed voice said.

  Noire and Overdrive had drifted off to the edge of the clearing, and turned their heads at the sound of the unfamiliar voice.

  The Counselor didn’t look flustered in the least. “Did Chayton Wallace draw those symbols because he felt threatened?”

  “Yes. No. Maybe,” came the creepy voice from Kid’s mouth.

  “The answer is all of those?”

  “Yes.”

  She can still channel Chayton after all this time? Chris thought with a shudder, more disturbed than impressed. She watched on, suspicious, ready to put a stop to this at the first indication that the girl was upset by any of it. She wouldn’t care if the interference pissed off any of the higher-ups.

  “Did he see something he considered evil? Supernatural?” The Counselor continued his questioning.

  “Maybe evil, and definitely supernatural.”

  “The thing Chayton Wallace saw, did it appear from underground?” The Counselor watched Kid’s reaction as close as Chris was scrutinizing the scene.

  Chris recalled the photos that she had seen in the slide presentation. The discarded clothes from three of the other disappeared, scattered in the woods or on abandoned fields. The evidence suggested that something had pulled the victims underground.

  “No,” Kid responded in the same strange voice.

  So much for your menace from below theory, Sherlock, Chris thought. Unless the killer was able to mimic Chayton’s powers after encountering him. But that was an idea to pursue later after she had more information to consider and nothing to distract her.

  The Counselor’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “I can see it came from that direction,” he said, pointing off somewhere into the distance. “The Northeast, correct?”

  “Yes,” Kid confirmed. “It was a long, long journey.”

  Chris perked up at that. The Counselor’s ability to sense the directional connection was both impressive and helpful to their case if it turned out to be accurate.

  “Was it a human form?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was it a man?”

  “Yes and no.”

  The Counselor looked surprised. “It was a man and a woman? Two people?” he clarified.

  “No. One person.”

  This isn’t working. Chris wasn’t as disappointed as she could have been. Hopefully that meant the authorities would just send Kid back home and bring in the Covenant like they should have done all along. Chris wouldn’t mind helping if they asked.

  Not that they would ask. Not her.

  The Counselor took a moment before moving on to the next question. “He was approached by someone who was both man and woman?”

  “Yes.”

  What, like a transgender or something?

  “Did Chayton Wallace know right away that the person was both man and woman?”

  “No.”

  This wasn’t getting them anywhere.

  The Counselor’s face took on a strange expression. As he looked at the knife, his gaze darted off into the distance. Was a new connection forming in his mind’s eye?

  “Did Chayton and this visitor have a conversation?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Kid said with her strange voice, toying with the music player controls while staring into space.

  Chayton must have wanted to talk to the person, or he would have just entered mole mode and escaped, Chris deduced. But what’s with the protection symbols? What did the person say that frightened him?

  “Did he carve the Anasazi symbols into the trunk after hearing the visitor speak?” The Counselor tugged again at the invisible strings.

  “Yes.”

  But why? Chris wondered. Why would he carve the symbols after hearing the visitor speak? She leaned in closer, waiting for the Counselor to ask the question. But he didn’t, and she made a mental note to ask about it later.

  She looked over at the tree trunk where Overdrive was pacing beside it with restless energy. It was obvious he didn’t enjoy being left on the sidelines of this investigation because it looked as if he wanted a chance to mess with another radio somewhere. Or something bigger than a radio. Noire, on the other hand, just sat on the tree trunk, watching the insects buzzing around her.

  She doesn’t make an effort to look tough when nobody’s watching her, Chris mused.

  “Did Chayton Wallace feel intimidated by the visitor?” The Counselor asked.

  “No,” Kid replied in that unnatural deep voice. “He was curious, seeking answers.”

  Then why did he carve those protection symbols if he wasn’t intimidated?

  After a dozen more questions to verify the time frame and that no one else was involved, Chris didn’t feel any closer to the truth. The Counselor must have felt the same way because he told Kid to switch off the player. She smiled as she handed it back to him.

  About time, Chris though
t, brushing a ladybug off her furry bear costume before she stepped up to Kid’s side. “Are we done here?”

  The Counselor ignored the challenge in her tone. “Yes.”

  The girl was rubbing her face with both hands, as if trying to remember what it was like to be herself.

  If there are side effects, someone’s going to pay for this. “Are you okay?” Chris asked Kid.

  “Yeah, totally,” the girl said with some feeble happiness in her voice. Hearing her speak in her own child’s voice instead of a distorted male baritone was a great relief.

  “And?” Peter walked up to them with Noire by his side. “Did our munchkin save the day like I predicted?”

  “We learned that Chayton Wallace considered the visitor an incarnation of a Native American spirit, but only after some initial shock. Still, I believe his disappearance might have happened with his consent,” the Counselor explained.

  Huh? When did we learn this? Chris looked over at the Counselor, waiting for an explanation that never came. He must have sensed more connections than he shared with them.

  “That’s twisted,” Noire said. “The guy must have been seriously depressed or something.”

  “That isn’t the impression Kid got from the house,” Chris reminded her.

  The Counselor nodded. “I believe the visitor knew enough about Native American customs that Chayton Wallace developed a deep respect for this person over the course of their talk.”

  “So maybe he chose to heed the visitor’s guidance,” Chris suggested, thinking out loud. “This could mean we’re looking for two individuals—Chayton and another person—instead of just one.”

  “Exactly,” the Counselor said.

  “But the fact that he left his knife behind suggests something different,” Noire argued. “The police didn’t find any of his clothes like they did with the later victims, right?”