by Jalex Hansen
They all shook their heads.
“So what do we do now?” Shake asked.
Hikari wanted to go home and go to bed, but that wasn’t going to happen, not tonight, probably not ever. “We can’t go home,” she said.
They were all nodding, looking sad but accepting. They weren’t stupid. “Has anybody watched the news?”
“Yeah, we’re not on it.”
“That’s even worse then.”
Kym put her feet up on a closed pizza box. “They have video. I only had ten minutes backed up on the cameras, remember? They would have caught the grand finale at least. I’m guessing they don’t want the world to know about us, or really about you, Kari. Spooky stuff.”
Hikari rubbed her wrist and they all tried not to look. “Then they think they can find us themselves, whoever they are.”
“You think you know who it is, don’t you?” Metti asked.
“Senator Angine was in the helicopter,” Hikari said. “I don’t know how I know, but I do.”
“I think we should tell everybody.” Shake said, “Give these files to the FBI, call the local media.”
Kym snorted, “Yeah, cause they’ll totally believe a bunch of teenagers when we say that the government is after them because one of them has super powers, and they know Senator Angine’s plan to destroy the world.”
“They might,” Shake said, trying to fool herself.
“Like when does anyone ever believe what we say? And some of us have criminal records. Forget it okay. We’re on our own.” Kym put her feet back on the floor and stomped over to the window.
The rest of them looked back at Hikari like ping pong balls. “Kym’s right. We’re on our own. And it won’t take long for them to find us here. I think we need to be on the move.”
“Where do we go?”
“Where they wouldn’t think to look,” Hikari said.
“Will they hurt our parents?” Shake asked.
None of them knew what to say.
Hikari went and sat beside her friend, put her arm around her. “I hope not. They probably expect us to contact them though, and so the best thing is not to. It might keep them alive if they really don’t know what happened to us.”
Dimitri was watching Kym at the window. “So where do we go?”
“The sewers,” Kym said.
“Eeewww,” they said collectively.
“Not the ones in use. The old ones. Mostly old service tunnels and stuff. I know some people that use them sometimes, homeless kids, and well, other people.”
Hikari thought that might work. “We’ll need camping gear and stuff.”
“I’ve got that in my truck right now,” Dave said.
“And weapons,” added Kym. “Don’t look at me like that. We have to protect ourselves. It’s L.A. after all, it’s not like the nice folk hang underground. And besides, what if they find us again? Just in case Hikari isn’t, you know, recharged or whatever.” Kym smiled.
“You got weapons in your truck too, Dave?” Yerik asked only half joking.
“Uh,” Dimitri cleared his throat. “I have a few friends that owe me some favors. You just tell me where you’ll be and I’ll meet you there in a few hours.”
They spent another hour looking up schematics online and gathering gear before Hikari remembered Jason. “I’ll be back in a sec, guys. I have to check on my... on my brother.”
He was asleep with one long arm hanging off the bed. He had smeared pizza sauce on the pillow case. His mouth was open, wet with little boy drool, and his eyes puffed with crying.
She wished more than anything that she could just call Papa and tell him to come get him, but images of her brother tortured to get information, or just murdered, shot in the head--she shook herself and sat down beside him.
“Hey, little bro.”
“Don’t call me that,” he mumbled.
“Jace. I’m still your sister. No stupid piece of paper can change that. Ever.”
He turned slowly and looked at her. “Is it true what they said, that you made those things disappear?”
“I guess so.”
“Cool. Can I see your arm?’
She held out her wrist and he took it in his long fingers, piano player’s fingers, though he had hated the piano, refused to play it after the first lesson. He studied the gleaming mark, held it up close to his face, poked at it.
“That’s enough already.” She pulled her wrist away.
“I wish I really was your brother,” Jace said, “Then I could have one too.”
You wouldn’t want one, she thought, but then again he might. “I already told you, you are my brother, and I never want to hear you say anything different again. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Pinky swear?”
“Pinky swear.” He kissed the tip of her finger with a solemn face. “Can we go home now?”
This was the part she was dreading. “Not just yet. It might not be safe.”
“Are the bad guys after you?”
“I think so.” She licked her finger and reached for the smear on his face.
“Yuck, stop it.” He squirmed away from her. “Do you think Papa’s okay?”
“I hope so.”
“Me too.” He straightened his shoulders trying hard to man up. “So where are we going?”
“Some place really cool. It’ll be like camping, under the city.”
He looked dubious.
“It’s just for a little while. Until we can figure out what to do with you, I mean, how to get you home safe.”
He nodded. “Okay. I said I’d be your sidekick, right?”
“You did.”
“Then I’m ready to go.” He got to his feet and checked to make sure his ear buds were still attached. He looked up at her. “Are you in charge now? I mean, of all of us?”
She remembered the way they had all looked to her, waited to see what she thought. She wondered if she would have been their chosen leader even if she hadn’t been, special. She remembered her father telling her once, “Leaders are born to lead, and no matter what their station in life that position will find them.”
“It looks that way, Jace,” she said. “So, yeah, I guess I am.”
And she walked out to take her position.
Chapter
Nineteen
The sun had barely cracked the horizon when Connor’s cell phone went off, playing the flying monkey theme from the wizard of Oz. He groaned and answered “Yes, Herr Senator.”
Angine ignored this, but Connor was sure he wrote it down in some mental ledger where he kept track of his insubordination. He had a quick flickering image of Tom’s crooked nose and wondered how long it would be before Angine chose to punish him for his cocky attitude.
“I want you and Joanne to pack what you need for tonight. I’ll have the rest sent to us.”
Connor looked at the clock. It was 5:15 in the morning. “I thought we weren’t leaving for D.C. until tomorrow.”
“Change of plans. Be ready at six.” The phone went black.
Con rubbed his temples, wondered how long it would be before they turned gray like his eyes.
He laid his hand on Joanne’s hip, she was cool to the touch. He couldn’t believe he was here with her again, same song, different verse. His was a very slow learning curve. He hoped that this time maybe they would make it. If Angine didn’t get in the way. And what was that anyway, that game she was playing with him, a man old enough to be her father? He decided he would ask her as soon as he got the chance.
He shook her gently. “Baby, get up, we have to go.”
“Where?”
“D.C. The big man has called and we have to answer.”
“What time is it?”
“You don’t want to know.”
She dragged herself out of bed and shuffled into the shower. Neither of them were sleeping very well these days.
He was dressed when she came out with her hair styled, eyes bright, makeup done, all those years of
early morning set calls working their magic.
“Angine know you’ve been sleeping over?” He didn’t mean for it to come out as snarky and jealous sounding as it did, but there it was.
She kept her eyes on him, a cat watching a goldfish swim around in the bowl just for the sheer predatory pleasure of it. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh come off it, Jo.” He was screwing this up again but who cared, “You know what. You’ve been fawning all over him, giggling and blushing and letting your skirt ride up just a little.” He mimicked this, wiggling his leg back and forth.
“Fawning, who says that?” She bent to put on her shoes, her hair covering her face so he couldn’t see her expression.
“Joanne. I’m not stupid. You’d like that wouldn’t you? But I’m not. I’ve known every time you had the hots for some guy. This is sick, he’s twenty years older than us.”
“Probably more,” she said straightening and looking at him dead center again. “Maybe a lot more.”
“Why? Why are you even here with me?”
He hadn’t expected to find fear in her eyes, or remorse. She took two steps toward him and he retreated. She took two more steps and reached out to touch his face. “Connor, I don’t know how to make you understand. I’m doing this for you.”
He recoiled. “Thanks for whoring around for me but--.”
She struck out fast, slapping him hard enough to leave an instant handprint. The rage filled him and behind him the lamps on the dresser began to rise.
Joanne kneeled on the floor and laid her face against the carpet. She started to cry big breathless sobs, gulps of air and low moans. Just a broken nineteen-year-old girl.
The anger died abruptly and the lamp fell over harmlessly onto the carpet.
Connor went down to the floor beside her and gathered her up in his arms. “Shhh. Shhh,” he crooned, as tender now, as he had been out of control before.
“I’m sorry,” she cried. “I’m so, so sorry I got you into this mess, but he would have found you anyway... and now I’m just trying to keep you safe.”
He held her until she had passed from loud sobs into shuddering breaths, and at last she lay quiet and still and small.
She sat up and wiped her nose with the back of her hand and looked at him from the sides of her eyes.
He reached for her chin and turned her face until she was looking directly at him. “Jo, what have you done?”
“Only what I had to, to keep us both from getting killed.”
Connor was on his feet again moving for the door. “I’m going to kill him.” The objects in the room were unsteady on their feet again, jittering with deadly intent.
“No, stop.” Somehow she beat him to the door and put herself in front of it. “I did it because I love you. I said I didn’t but I lied. I love you, Con, I’ve always loved you. I never stopped. I was only trying to get him to care about me so I could make sure you were safe.”
Connor was sick to his stomach. Sick to the bone. Sick all the way to his soul.
“I can take care of myself from now on. I did what he wanted and so did you. We’re quits with him.”
“It’s not that easy, and you know it. He owns us both now.”
Tom’s words. And if she said no to Angine and so did he... what then? Was any life worth having if it wasn’t yours to live?
“Please just tell me you believe me, please. I can’t stand this. No matter where we go he’ll find us.” She laid her head on his chest, and her vulnerability, the way she shuddered against him, pulled him as it always had. How could he blame her for something he was essentially doing himself? But he did blame her. He blamed her very much.
He breathed into her hair. “It’s okay. I’ll get us out of this. We’ll go to D.C. and I’ll figure out a way to get us both free. I promise. I forgive you,” he said.
But he really didn’t forgive her at all.
August 20th
Lissa looked over the remains of their camp. Gideon had almost everything bundled into their packs. She was going to miss it. It was the hardest three months she’s ever had, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but in many ways it was the first time she had ever felt really alive, not just a strange girl stuck in a box with her secretive parents, but a woman with knowledge and power.
There was only one thing she regretted.
She watched Gideon pack, his hair brushed his shoulders now and he looked stronger than he had when they had come, more fleshed out and as brown as the dusky sand. If he felt her looking at him, he didn’t acknowledge it.
She had tried to do what he wanted, to pack her feelings into a small compartment deep in her soul, hidden even from herself.
He had certainly managed that without any effort.
After he had kissed her they had a few tense days when she cried silent bitter tears into her pillow and he slept facing the wall of the tent. They didn’t speak except for the orders he barked at her all day long.
Eventually that tension evaporated, carried off by the soft balm of desert winds, and she found it was easier not thinking about him.
Her parents had been atheists, like most serious scientists and so she was not brought up to view religion as anything other than more philosophy, however, she had been made to read the great religious books, the Quran, The Bible, The Torah. She recalled the story of Jesus in the desert, how he had been tempted. That’s how she saw herself, as Gideon’s last temptation.
He probably couldn’t get out of the camp fast enough and back to the Tesero city, where he could hide from her in all the catacombs and tunnels of rock, like a frightened, little, furry animal.
She swallowed these feelings, refusing to allow any emotion other than a restless sort of peace.
She had focused instead, on harnessing the power that lay in her, pulling it out thread by thread, weaving a powerful net from it in which she could catch the energy around them and shape it to her will. She had accomplished everything he asked of her and then some.
She walked out into the desert where the sculptures were. That’s what she thought of them as. A week before, she had taken the metal boxes that stored their things and twisted them into swirling arcs of light, rainbows of light, bending them into fantastical shapes, curves and flowers and branches.
Gideon had studied her in thoughtful silence after she had accomplished that and then pointed to the rocks scattered all around them. “What about those?”
She hadn’t done more than move them around that day, but soon she was able to transform them back into sand, and eventually to make them disappear all together, calling them back into new shapes and different places.
When she was at peace and well rested, she could slip without much thought into that realm of light, and play with the energy she found there, get to know it. She had learned not just to try to control it, but at times to let it come through her the way it wanted to. She had no way to explain how this felt, but she lifted above everything around her and saw so clearly the makeup of every grain of sand, every cloud in the sky. She could hear a billion voices woven through her mind.
All except Gideon’s. He was an unassailable wall, thick and forbidding. She remembered though, remembered the vulnerability and desire in his eyes swimming with stars.
She lifted her hands up to the breeze, felt the particles carried in it, pieces of life that had traveled across the earth over and over again in too many forms to count. She had made peace with her parent’s deaths, nothing on earth ever really disappeared, it reformed, redistributed, rebirthed itself.
Aaron, the Tesero leader, approached her on whispering feet, she sensed him and turned her smile on him.
“You will miss this place?”
“I will. I don’t want to leave the desert.”
“But you must.”
He had arrived last night unexpected, appearing out of the dark and joining them at the fire. Gideon must have known he was coming, but Lissa had been surprised. He had nodded at her over the
flames and then turned to Gideon. “Is she ready?”
“She’s done well enough.”
Well enough? She had given him a look or reproach tried to show her thoughts on her face. Is that all you can say? Later she had heard them talking, and Gideon was not holding back praise. She heard him say, “There is nothing else I can teach her, she has outstripped me. Now she will have to learn on her own.”
That had given her a moment’s pause. She wanted Gideon to be stronger, better, faster, it made her feel safe. Otherwise she was truly alone.
“We are out of time at any rate,” Aaron had said. “It is getting closer, surely you’ve felt it?”
“I’ve felt it. And I think Lissa has too. She has an unusual connection to Angine--” They had moved away beyond her hearing, and she had not rested easy last night.
“I know. I’m willing to go,” she told Aaron now. “I just wish that I could stay here and live in this space forever.”
She brushed her hair out of her eyes, hers too had grown, and now tickled the bottom of her ears. She looked the older man in the face, finding beauty in the lines around his eyes, etched by decades in the sun and sand. “Am I going to die soon?” she asked him.
If he was surprised by her question, he didn’t show it. Gideon had stopped fussing with the packs and was watching her, his eyes deep and wide.
Aaron laid his hand on her head, a strange benediction. “I don’t think so,” he said. “But you will wish you had at times.” His eyes smiled into hers. “That is not something to worry about today. You cannot see the future at all?”
Gideon had attempted to work with her on this but it didn’t seem to be an ability that came naturally to her. Sometimes she saw images, distorted, unrecognizable, like snatches from a dream, nothing she could ever infer a clear idea or picture from.
She shook her head, and with one last glance at the open horizon she turned to pick up her pack. It would take at least two days walk to get back to the city, and she was glad to have Aaron’s company, she was sick of silence.
That night she went to bed early, sleeping out in the open under the sky, close enough that she could hear the comforting cadence of the men’s talk. She closed her eyes and for the first time since the night she had claimed her power on the rock, she opened herself up to whatever wanted in.