by Gow, Kailin
“What do you care?” I demand. “It’s not like you even like Jack.”
“I care that it hurts you,” Grayson says, trying to put his arm around me again.
I shrug him off. “But you wouldn’t be upset if he were dead, would you?”
“That isn’t fair, Celes.”
I shake my head. “No, what isn’t fair is that Jack is probably dead. That or captured, and from the sounds of it, the Others wouldn’t keep him alive for long. What isn’t fair is that there were only two seats on the helicopter, and suddenly you knew so much that they couldn’t risk leaving you behind.”
“So you’d rather they captured me?” Grayson demands.
“Your father wouldn’t have hurt you, Grayson. He’ll kill Jack though.”
“That was before,” Grayson says. “Now… now I have a bunch of stuff in my head I didn’t have before. I know things I shouldn’t know. I can do things I shouldn’t be able to do. Now, I don’t even know who I am, so how is my father really going to react to me. I wish this situation didn’t have to be like this, Celes, but it is-”
“And Jack and Sebastian are either dead or captured,” I finish for him.
Lionel pats me on the shoulder then. It’s a slightly stiff, awkward seeming gesture for him, but he does it. “Now, we don’t know that for certain, young lady. Jack remains a very resourceful agent, while Sebastian is a highly intelligent man. It may be that they were able to come up with a solution to their situation that we simply haven’t been able to think of.”
“But it isn’t very likely,” I say.
Lionel shakes his head. “You mustn’t give up hope like that. As I said, Jack is a highly skilled Fader, and he has gotten out of tight spots in the past.”
I want to believe him. I do. I can still remember the ease with which Jack got us away from his apartment when the Others showed up there. The way he tracked me down to save me and Grayson when we were being chased along the highway. It’s just that the circumstances seem so hopeless that I can’t see how even Jack could possibly get out of them.
I open my mouth to say something, and an alarm goes off. Lionel’s head whips round, and he taps something into his keyboard. Instantly, the screens around us change, becoming an outline map of Europe with a dark background. Mostly dark, anyway. There are spots of brightness here and there, mostly not very intense. There’s a brighter one in the south of England, and another brighter one further away, on the continent.
“What is this?” I ask.
“This is the display for our main scanners,” Lionel explains. “The ones that allowed us to identify you, and which have allowed us to explore a number of other… phenomena over the years. You see the bright spots? Each one represents something that the Underground would need to investigate further.”
“Why are some of the spots brighter than others?” I ask.
“That is simply a question of signal strength.”
I remember then what Sebastian told me back at the Underground’s other base. “And I give off a strong signal, right?”
“Exactly.” Lionel jabs his finger at the first of the bright dots. The one in England. “This one is you, Celes. Or at least the signal our scanners pick up of you. This one…” he moves his finger to the other glowing spot “…this one is new. And it’s intense, if it’s enough to set off the alarm.”
“So that’s emitting the same kind of signal Celes did?” Grayson asks.
“That would appear to be the case, yes,” Lionel says. He sounds like he wants to be excited, but is restraining himself from letting too much of it show with a certain amount of difficulty. “It also appears to be of a similar strength. Which suggests that there may be something else like you out there.”
He says it so calmly that the implications don’t sink in for a moment or two. “There’s someone else like me out there?” I ask.
Lionel nods. “That’s what it looks like, at least.”
“Where?”
I need to know. I need to know that I am not alone. That there might actually be some answers for me out there somewhere. Lionel looks at the map, then taps in yet more instructions to the computer. A more detailed map overlays itself on the first one.
“It looks like Switzerland to me.”
SEVEN
Lionel stares at the computer screen for a moment or two longer, then pulls out a phone and started speaking into it.
“How soon can you have a full team ready to fly? We have a signal. Twenty minutes? Good. Switzerland. Yes, I know. We’ll be taking them with us.”
By ‘them’ I guess that he means me and Grayson. That guess is confirmed almost as soon as Lionel puts his phone away.
“Come on,” he says. “Looks like you are not going to get much of a rest here. We can’t very well leave you behind while we’re all off chasing after things in Switzerland, so you’re going to have to come with us. The helicopters will be touching down shortly.”
Lionel doesn’t give us a chance to say anything, but leads the way up, back out of the base. There are Faders waiting for us as we reach the surface, all armed, and all dressed in cold weather gear. One, a woman in her mid-twenties, tosses warm coats to both Grayson and me.
“If we’re heading into the alps,” she says, in an accent not as pronounced as Lionel’s, but somewhere closer to Jack’s, “then it could get cold quickly, just with the altitude. You’ll want to wrap up.”
Helicopters arrive. There are two of them; big dual rotor things that look like they’re built for long distance travel. Grayson, Lionel, a couple of Faders and I get on the first of them, while the remainder take the second. It hardly seems like we’ve been in England any time at all, and already we’re leaving.
The journey is a long one, and despite the design of the helicopters, we have to stop several times to refuel. At each stop, Lionel gets out to talk to local officials, and they quickly hurry to help. It seems that the middle-aged man has quite a lot of connections.
One thing the journey does is give me time to think. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, because it’s too easy for my thoughts to slide back to Jack, and what has happened to him, yet I manage to distract myself for at least some of the journey with thoughts of what might be waiting for us. Lionel has already said that the signal is similar to the one the Underground’s sensors get from me, so does that mean that there’s someone else like me out there somewhere, living their life in some pretty little Swiss village? That thought seems like too much to hope for, but I can’t help thinking about what it would be like to meet someone else with my strange talents. Someone else who knows what it’s like to be me.
The Swiss Alps are beautiful. They’re also, as the Fader who gave us the coats predicts, cold. I guess that’s why some places there can offer year round skiing. That’s not what we’re there for though, and we fly with purpose, following Lionel’s instructions as he stares at the screen of a laptop. We fly around for what feels like forever before he points a finger at a mountain slope.
“There. Take us down there. The signal is coming from that direction.”
The pilot takes the helicopter down, managing to find enough flat land to touch down on. The other helicopter lands beside us. From ground level, it’s easy to see the cave that cuts into the mountainside, though it was impossible to spot from above.
“Check it out,” Lionel says to the woman Fader, and she nods. In seconds, all the Faders are off the helicopters, all with pistols or heavier weapons drawn. It seems they aren’t taking any chances.
“Shouldn’t we go with them?” I suggest.
Lionel shakes his head. “We wait here and monitor things until we know it is safe.”
“What could possibly go wrong?” I ask.
I get an answer to that almost immediately. The sound of gunfire comes from the cave, along with shouts and barked orders. Grayson has a gun in his hand, I don’t know where it has come from, while his other arm is on mine, preventing me from running towards the sound. He know
s me well enough to know that I need to know what is going on.
I find out quickly enough. The woman whom Lionel had ordered into the cave runs out from it, wounded in the side. She’s been shot. She makes it over to the helicopter.
“What happened, Annette?” Lionel asks.
The woman’s face is ashen. “It was a fake signal. The Others… they’re in there.”
I start to leap down from the helicopter, but Lionel grabs me and pulls me back with surprising strength for a man his age.
“Grayson?” he says, making a question of it. Grayson seems to understand, even though I don’t, and hops down from the helicopter. Why is he allowed to do it when I’m not?
“You and Annette need to hold the perimeter around the cave mouth. Kill any of the Others who make an appearance.”
They move back towards the cave mouth, and Grayson shoots at something inside. Lionel looks to the cockpit of the helicopter.
“Pilot? Prepare for takeoff.”
“Takeoff?” the word is out of my mouth almost instantly. “You’re planning to just leave Grayson and the others behind?”
“I’m planning to get you to safety, you stupid girl. We’ve been set up. Besides, there’s another helicopter.”
“I don’t care, about that,” I say. “Get Grayson in here now, because I’m not leaving him!”
Before he can do anything to stop me, I’m out of the helicopter. The biting cold of the Alpine mountainside cuts into me, but I don’t care. I’ve already lost Jack. I’m not about to lose Grayson too. He and Annette are by the entrance, exchanging fire with people inside the cave I assume to be the Others. For the briefest of instants, I think that they might actually be containing them, but it’s clear that they aren’t when a hail of gunfire comes back at us, and we’re forced to hit the floor.
“There are too many,” Annette says, and I have to admire her stoicism. She hasn’t said anything about the bullet wound in her side. “Get ready to retreat back to the helicopter. On three. One. Two. Three!”
She fires a quick series of shots into the cave, then grabs my arm as she runs for the helicopter. Except that the one we came in is in the air, hovering neatly, with Lionel Lancaster in the open doorway, a vicious looking machine gun in his hands.
It roars over our heads, and several of the Others who leave the cave in that moment are cut down. Meanwhile, I find myself half dragged to the second helicopter, where the pilot is already powering up the engines.
“Get us out of here,” Annette says to the pilot. It sounds like exactly what we should be doing in that moment.
Except that somehow, I know we can’t leave. There’s something… almost pulling me back towards the cave.
“Wait!”
Annette looks at me. “This is no time to wait. I’m wounded, and there’s only so long the major will be able to lay down suppressing fire. The whole operation is a waste of time, and we need to go.”
“That’s just it,” I say. “There’s something there. I’m sure of it. I can feel it.”
“You can feel it?” Annette says. “I’m not risking your life on a feeling. This is a trick by the Others, and nothing more. The major would have my hide if I let anything happen to you.”
“No,” I say, moving to the edge of the helicopter. “Please wait. I have to see this. I’ll jump if I have to.”
Annette’s face creases in pain. “And then I’d have to jump off and drag you back. You are not making my day any easier, you know.”
“I know,” I say, feeling slightly ashamed. This woman has gotten herself shot over this, after all. “And I’m sorry, but I’m right about this, I know I am.”
“Oh, for… pilot, get the major on coms. Now please.”
“Lionel here,” the voice comes out of speakers. “What’s going on down there, Annette?”
“Celes here thinks that there’s something real in the cave, sir. She’s refusing to leave. I need further instructions.”
“Well then, take off.”
Grayson chooses that moment to speak up. “Dr. Lancaster, I’ve known Celes for most of her life. When she’s stubborn like this, she usually has a good reason.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes, sir.”
Lionel makes an irritated sound over the speakers. “Oh, very well, I think I got most of the blighters with the Browning anyway.”
Annette nods. “Understood, major. I’ll cover her as she goes in. Over and out.” She passes me a pistol. “Jack tells me you’re good with one of these.”
She knows Jack? No, I don’t have time to think about that.
“I can use it,” I say.
“Good, then stay close to me, do as you’re told, and maybe we won’t all be killed. I just hope you’re right, that’s all.”
Annette, Grayson and I hop out of the helicopter, moving towards the cave. The Fader moves slowly, haltingly, and I wonder how much blood she has lost. She’s wary, her gun extended before her ready for the slightest hint of a threat. Yet we don’t come up against any opposition. There are bodies though, laying on the floor wherever they have fallen. Some are Faders, while some are obviously the Others.
I’m not looking at them. Instead, as my eyes adjust to the semi-dark of the cave, I find myself wondering why it is only semi-dark. It’s then that I realize it. There’s something glowing towards the back of the cave. I move towards it quickly. Almost as soon as I do though, it stops.
“I have a torch here somewhere,” Annette announces. That makes me smile, because even though I know she’s just using the English word for a flashlight, it makes me think of explorers wandering through caves with flaming torches.
Her flashlight illuminates the cave a little, and we move back, trying to get a better view. Almost as soon as we do, the glow returns, and now I can see what it’s coming from. It’s emanating from a rock, which is almost spherical, and looks a bright gold in the darkness of the rest of the cave.
Annette reaches out for it, putting away her gun.
“I really wouldn’t touch it, if I were you, Annette.”
I know that voice. I’ve been daydreaming about that voice for most of the last day. I’ve been wondering if I’ll ever hear it again, and trying to work out what I’ll say if I do. I almost don’t dare to turn around, but I do. In front of me is a tall figure, his face hooded and hidden by a scarf, wrapped up against the cold.
“Jack!”
“Celes,” Gray’s hand stops me before I can run to him. “You don’t know for certain if it’s-”
But I know, and a second later, I have the proof. Jack removes his hood, and pulls down the scarf, letting me see the features I’ve wanted to see since I left the desert. Even by the light of a single flashlight and a glowing rock, it can’t be anyone else.
“Celes.” He almost whispers it.
“Jack.”
EIGHT
Grayson can’t hold me back then. I run to Jack. I have to see him. I have to hold him. I know it will disappoint Grayson, even if they have taken the memories of us together from him, but I can’t hold back. Not when I’ve spent so much of the last day or so wondering if Jack was alive or dead.
I fall into his arms, wanting to kiss him so badly, so urgently that I can barely stop myself. I only manage it because I’m all too aware of Grayson standing there, and there are some things I don’t want to do in front of him. So I hold him by the dim light of the cave, looking up into those clear blue eyes of his.
Jack doesn’t seem as willing to hold back as I am. He bends down to kiss me, and when he does, I don’t stop him. I need this. I need to feel it. To know that it’s real. His lips meet mine, and for several long seconds I’m caught up in the moment, caught up in just kissing Jack back until I can’t do anything else.
When we pull apart, I’m actually out of breath from it. “Jack…I thought…I thought you were…”
“Dead,” Jack says. “I know. I’m sorry. For a moment or two there, I thought I was.”
“S
o how did you escape?” I ask. It hardly seems possible that Jack could have gotten away from the situation we left him in.
Jack shakes his head. “It’s a long story. One I promise I’ll tell you someday, but right now-”
“Now we have to get out of here!” Lionel’s voice booms from behind us all. He’s still carrying his machine gun, slung over his back in a way that doesn’t really fit with the rest of him. He has to have run from the helicopter to have gotten here this quickly. “Or had you forgotten the Others? They will be sending more people out here when they can’t get anyone to answer their communications.” He glances over to Jack, giving the other man a brief nod of acknowledgement. “Good to see you back, boy. I knew you had it in you.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Lionel shakes his head. “This is a tough business all round.”
I look at the bodies lying in the cave, Faders and Others both. Tough doesn’t begin to cover it. The last few days have been brutal, deadly. Senseless. Why do the Others need to hunt me like this? Why do they feel they have to risk so many lives? What is it about me that threatens them so much they would rather see carnage like this than just let me live my life?
“Anyway,” Lionel says, “we need to go.”
Annette, who is currently trying to put pressure on the wound in her side, looks from Lionel to the glowing rock. “What are we going to do about that?” she asks. “Are we taking it with us, or leaving it, or what?”
Jack steps close to it, kneeling beside it. “We need to be careful,” he says. “This is a source of intense energy.”
He points to one of the closest bodies to the rock. It could be one of the Others, or it could be one of the Faders. It’s hard to tell. Unlike the bodies cut down by bullets, this one is charred and blackened, burned almost beyond recognition. I know what Jack’s implying. This body looks just like the ones of the Others I have killed with the energy inside me. It’s the same. Powerfully, dangerously the same.