by Jena Leigh
Rage coursed through her veins like fire through a desiccated field, consuming her, body and soul. Blood dripped from her nose and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. There would be no room for weakness now. She could do this.
She had to do this.
For Nathaniel.
For herself.
For everyone.
A flame emerged from a rift in the ground beside the airstrip, rising upward from a pool of molten lava buried deep beneath the island.
She’d asked for a flame.
The earth was kind enough to oblige.
As she readied her next attack, a third dart hit her in the side. And then another. And another. The shields had produced tranq guns of their own and were now taking aim.
Alex held tight to the fiery substance suspended above her palm, trying valiantly to maintain her concentration. To fight off the creeping dark that threatened to overtake her.
In the end, it was no use.
The orb of molten fire fell from Alex’s hands.
Unable to resist the hypnotic lure of the wave spreading through the recesses of her mind, she gave in—and collapsed.
It was over.
Alex had just failed the Agency’s test.
— 30 —
The first thing Alex Parker did when she woke up in Agency custody three days later, was roll onto her side and grip tightly to the plastic railing of her hospital bed.
The second thing she did, was vomit the contents of her stomach onto the sparkling blue laminate floor.
Someone standing at the other side of the bed tugged her hair back and out of the way.
Incredibly helpful, since the churning in Alex’s stomach showed no immediate signs of stopping—and since her right wrist was currently handcuffed to the bedrail.
“Shit,” said a woman’s voice. “Ames, did you not see the Zofran order on her chart, or what?”
“I administered the antiemetic at the same time as everything else, Foster,” said a deeper, masculine voice tinged with an accent Alex couldn’t place.
She could only assume that the speaker was Ames. She couldn’t exactly turn around to look.
He huffed. “You try getting shot with six Sleeper Cocktails at one time and then we’ll see how you feel when you wake up. All the Zofran on the planet won’t stop her system from purging those chemicals.”
A plastic bucket was placed gently in Alex’s lap, just in time for round two.
Six tranqs? And she thought a three-dart whammy was bad.
“How long has she been conscious?” asked a new voice.
“Oh, Dr. Li. Welcome back,” said Foster in a saccharine sweet voice.
Well, at least Alex knew one thing about this woman she’d yet to lay eyes on—she was a terrible suck-up. Either that, or someone had a crush.
Another wave of nausea washed over Alex and she found herself gripping the bucket so tightly with her free arm that one of the sides caved in.
“And might I add, excellent timing,” Foster added.
Jesus, woman, Alex thought. I’m dying over here and you’re flirting.
“She regained consciousness only a few moments ago,” said Ames. “As you can see, she’s ah…” He trailed off. “Well, she’s still suffering the effects of the tranquilizers.”
“Yes, Mr. Ames, I can see that. The counteragent doesn’t appear to be working very well at all. We’ll need to increase the dosage. Oh, and Foster? Find a mop or something, will you? Get this mess cleaned up?”
Foster’s reply was less enthusiastic that time, but Alex heard her shuffling out of the room nonetheless. The sound was closely followed by the rustling noise of someone flipping through the pages of her chart.
Alex raised her head and stole a glance at the two men who remained.
Dr. Li was an attractive man of Asian decent, probably in his early to mid-thirties. Ames was dressed in scrubs and was—somewhat unexpectedly—a paunchy young man with brown hair and a pleasant face.
Odd.
She’d expected her captors to be more menacing.
A far more unpleasant sensation replaced the fleeting thought. Alex gripped the bucket in her lap even tighter.
“Ames,” said Li. “Go and check on the status of her latest blood work, will you? Those samples that were supposed to have been taken two hours ago—the results seem to be missing.”
“Sure thing, Dr. Li.”
Ames left. Alex heard a door closing behind him.
Her sickness had transformed into painful, dry heaves. Tears slipped down her cheeks.
Please, God, just make it stop… Let it be over. I can’t take much more of this.
“Alright, Alex, it’s alright. You’re going to be just fine,” Dr. Li’s voice was quiet, soothing as he sidled up beside her bed and pumped a syringe full of something clear into her IV.
Almost immediately, the nausea dulled to manageable levels.
Her entire body aching, Alex lowered herself back onto the pillows. Someone had raised the back of the bed up so that she didn’t have far to go—she was still essentially sitting up.
“On top of the tranquilizers, I’m afraid it was also necessary to keep you under heavy sedation until the effects of your borrowed abilities faded,” Li explained. “Makes for a less than pleasant return to the waking world, I know—and you have my sincerest apologies.”
He took the bucket out of her lap and set it aside.
Alex’s thoughts slowed to a crawl and became disorganized.
Li must have given her some sort of sedative.
He placed a cold, wet cloth in her hand and she used it to wipe her face and mouth. Afterward, she traded the cloth for a small cup of water.
“Only sip it, for now,” the doctor warned. “Too much could make you sick again.”
“Where is he?” asked Alex. Even with water to soothe her aching throat, her voice still emerged in a rasp. “Where are you keeping Nathaniel? And what have you done to him? Is he even alive?”
Her voice broke on the last word.
Li regarded her with a curious expression. “Most people in your situation would be far more concerned about themselves, right now. Do you know where you are? Are you aware of what’s happened to you?”
Alex stared straight ahead, focusing in on the white wall opposite the bed.
“I failed my test,” she said. “I’ve been taken. But that’s stuff I already know. Stuff I can’t change. So, please. Answer me. Where is Nathaniel?”
“I can’t tell you,” said Li. “Not because I don’t want to, but because I don’t have the answers you’re looking for. Your friend arrived at this facility six days ago, but that is the extent of my knowledge. I cannot tell you anything more than that.”
Alex refused to look him in the eye.
“But I can tell you this, Alex Parker.” The doctor leaned closer in order to whisper the following words, “I am the man who hired Aaron Gale and sent him to Bay View—and I will help you to get out of this mess alive. You have my word.”
That caught her attention.
“You’re lying,” she said.
Li shook his head. “I’m not. And I’ll prove it to you in six hours time when the night shift breaks for their evening meal. In the meantime, say nothing to anyone who might come into this room. Ask no questions, and refuse to answer theirs. Fake sleep, if at all possible. It will buy us some time. Give me the chance to prove my claims, Alex. I only wish to help you.”
Before Alex could say more, the door opened and a short, blonde woman appeared pushing a mop bucket.
Li straightened. “Thank you, Foster. When Ames returns with those results, make sure he runs a copy by my office.”
“Sure thing, Dr. Li,” said Foster, smiling. As soon as Li left the room, her cheerful demeanor evaporated.
Alex closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. The charade only lasted for a few minutes. After that, Alex really did drift off, unable to fight the effects of the sedative.
She jerked ba
ck to wakefulness hours later to find that the lights in the room had been lowered and that the IV was gone from her left arm.
Li was in the process of unlocking the metal handcuffs that chained her to the bed’s railing.
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Better,” she said.
And she did.
Whatever drugs they’d pumped into her system while she’d been unconscious appeared to have finally taken affect.
After her first experience with the tranquilizers, the symptoms of nausea and headaches had lasted for days.
Despite the nasty shock of waking up sick as a dog earlier, the only lingering effects she could sense were exhaustion and a bit of a headache.
And those she could easily handle.
The cuffs fell away. Alex had a sudden vision of herself overpowering Li and running headlong into the hallway, but then what?
She had no way of knowing where she was being held within the facility—or the route she ought to take if she wanted to escape.
No abilities remained in her system.
Alex was exhausted and defenseless and dressed in a paper gown. How far would she get if she made a break for it now?
She sighed. Li had begged her to hear him out. And if he really was Aaron’s employer, then maybe he would be in a position to get her out of here at some point.
Even though she couldn’t yet discern his motives, it seemed clear that Li was working against the Agency.
For now, the enemy of her enemy was pretty much her only potential friend.
Li approached her once more with the cuffs. “I’m sorry, Alex, but if anyone sees you roaming the halls without restraints it’s going to raise an immediate red flag.”
With a sigh, Alex nodded and allowed Li to handcuff her wrists together.
Li positioned a wheelchair, beside the bed.
When she stared at him quizzically, he shrugged.
“It will help to sell it,” he said. “If anyone asks, we’ll tell them that I’m taking you for some tests on another floor.”
Alex slid out from between the sheets and off the bed—tugging her hospital gown back into place as much as she could manage while in handcuffs—and wincing as her bare feet connected with the cold tile floors.
She carefully deposited herself into the chair, and Li guided them out of the room and into the low light of the hallway. If there were other patients on this floor, she couldn’t see them. The doors they passed were all closed and dark.
The floor they were on looked just like any floor and any other hospital Alex had ever seen. They even rolled past an empty nurse’s station on their way to the elevator.
Once the doors slid closed behind them, Li focused in on a camera positioned in the upper right corner.
The red light blinked off.
Alex arched an eyebrow. “Are you a jumper?”
“I am,” he said. “And I would happily loan you my ability—except that it would be of very little use to you within the confines of this facility.”
They were descending.
“Why’s that?” she asked.
“There’s an EM shield surrounding the entire building,” he explained. “It’s an electromagnetic barrier designed to prevent teleportation in to or out of the site. It also seriously limits our control over electronics. The best I can ever seem to manage is a bit of troublesome interference. That camera will only be off a few moments longer.”
When the elevator reached B1, the doors dinged open to reveal a long hall with no other doors—only another elevator staring back at them from the far end of the corridor.
As Li guided her wheelchair down the hallway, he added, “And if the Director discovers you’ve absorbed an ability, it won’t just be my neck on the line. The rest of my staff will pay the price as well.” Li punched the button for the elevator. “They’re not bad people, Alex. Most of them don’t even realize the full extent of the Agency’s influence—or even what the current Director is capable of.”
The current Director.
It was odd to think that there had been others before Dana Carter took the job. Or that someone would one day replace her.
Alex had always viewed the Agency more like a totalitarian regime—not a bureaucratic office.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. As he wheeled her in, Alex glanced back at the panel of buttons to see what level he punched.
Six.
They began to descend.
Floor six was down? They were already at basement level. Just how far beneath the ground did this facility go?
The doors opened and he wheeled her out and into another long hall.
Gleaming black, glass-lined cells stretched the entire length of the corridor on either side of a wide hallway. Alex noted with distraction that every one of them stood empty—that is, until they reached the cell at the very end, on the right.
Li stopped the wheelchair as Alex squinted into the darkened cell. A red light high up on the far wall blinked off.
“Parker?” asked a tired voice.
In the next moment, Aaron Gale stood before her, his face caught in a shaft of light being cast by a lone fluorescent bulb in the hallway.
The teen’s face was pale and gray and covered in stubble. His curly black hair was tousled and looked as though it hadn’t seen a comb in a long while.
“Oh my god,” she said, scrambling to climb out of the wheel chair and approach the bars. “Aaron! How did you…? When did they take you? And why?”
Aaron reached through the bars and grabbed hold of her hands.
“You are real,” he said. “I thought I might be hallucinating.”
Realizing their hands were still connected, she withdrew—but not before she’d absorbed his ability.
Crap.
She’d have to deal with that later, and try to keep her mind clear in the meantime.
“Have they fed you since I was last here?” asked Li. “You don’t look well, Aaron.”
That was an understatement.
He looked half-starved.
Aaron glanced back and forth between Alex and Li as though unsure of who to answer first.
“They’ve fed me,” he said. “I just didn’t want to eat the food they brought me, at first, so I threw it back at them. After a while though… I guess I was too hungry to turn it down. They brought me here after school let out on Friday. I don’t know why. I don’t even know how long ago that was.”
“Six days,” said Li, quietly.
“That’s all?” Aaron asked. “Only six?”
“Why is he here?” Alex asked Li. “I thought Grayson forced the Agency to agree to leave Aaron alone?”
“Yes, well,” said Li. “That was before they connected the dots and figured out how valuable someone like Aaron would be to them. Especially, now that they’ve acquired you, Alex.”
“So… what?” asked Aaron. “They want Alex to destroy a few cities using my weather ability? Because that’s really all I can think of as far as my usefulness to the Agency goes.”
Alex studied Li’s face. He, in turn, darted another nervous glance at the camera.
Clearly, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep the camera off without someone noticing.
“Is that what they want us for? Truly?” asked Alex. “This is the Agency we’re talking about. I would have thought they’d have more efficient methods at their disposal for demolishing a city.”
Li shook his head. “They don’t want to destroy anything. They merely want to ensure that a very important event takes place. Something that hasn’t happened yet. And something that might not happen at all, if the two of you fall into the wrong hands.”
Alex arched an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The doctor sighed. “Alex, while you possessed Aaron’s ability did anything… odd happen to you?”
Her throat went dry. Suddenly, all of the pieces were beginning to fall into place.
“I affected time,” she sai
d. “More than once.”
Li didn’t seem the least bit surprised by her claim.
Aaron, on the other hand, appeared bemused. “You did what?” he said. “Time has absolutely nothing to do with my ability.”
“Actually, Aaron,” said Li. “It does. But first you have to understand how the teleportation ability works. By summoning an immense amount of electrical power, a jumper is able to travel to a seemingly infinite number of locations in space. Their only real limitation lies in the realm of time. Alone, they lack the energy required to travel through time as well as space. Do you follow?”
Aaron and Alex nodded.
They could jump anywhere, just not any-when, because they couldn’t summon enough electricity to make it possible.
“When combined with your weather ability, Aaron, Alex is able to call up enough energy through the lightning she summons, that she’s able to add that extra coordinate to her destination. She can travel to any place, and to any time… and it’s exceedingly likely she can do far more than just that.”
Things like freezing time, for instance.
Aaron’s face fell. “So you’re saying that the Agency wants to use us to rewrite time? To change the future?”
Li nodded. “That’s why they need you both here. Why they need you both alive. They brought you to this facility to ensure your safety until the exact moment you’re needed.”
The light in Aaron’s eyes faded. He retreated further into his cell as the doctor spoke, then spent a long, silent moment staring at his shadowy reflection in the glass wall.
“It can’t happen,” he said softly. “We can’t let it, Alex. I can’t let it.”
He crouched beside his cot and slipped below the shaft of light, disappearing into the shadows.
“We have to get out of here.” Aaron’s disembodied voice was hollow.
When he stepped into the light once more, he held a long shard of black glass in both hands, razor sharp at its edges and formed into the shape of a stake.
He must have shattered the wall of his cell at some point and had planned to use the obsidian stake as a means to overpower the guards and escape.