by J. R. Rain
She didn’t respond, and I had lost the rhythm of her breathing.
I tried to contact her again and got nothing. I would have to try and work with the tiger moth, but needed to share this with the guys in case they had any ideas. I stood up and headed to the front of the plane to join them. “I got something.”
“We got something, too,” Noah replied.
“Ladies first,” Ayden insisted.
“I was able to converse with Hope. She claims she’s somewhere fancy, pretty, and it looks like a movie. She says the windows are oddly arched and there are tiles on the ceiling. She said it reminded her of The Adventures of Tintin.”
Ayden snapped his fingers and stood up, going to the cockpit door. He opened it, and I heard him say, “We need to go to Morocco.”
He turned back to us and shrugged. “In 2011, Spielberg did an animated movie of The Adventures of Tintin. The kid and dog wind up in a port in Morocco. Good news is that I know that town like the back of my hand.”
“Oh, holy hell,” Noah blurted.
I started laughing. “Now, your turn. Do tell...what do you have?”
Chapter Seventeen
Hope sat up in bed, confused.
Only occasionally had she had a remote conversation with another audial. Truth was, most audials were not powerful enough to communicate long distance. Sure, they could listen long distance—and often not accurately—but most were not able to establish a long-distance connection.
Although their connection had been lost, Hope still sensed a hawk nearby, sitting vigilantly on a branch, watching out for her, waiting for her. She saw the hawk in her mind’s eye. A beautiful red-tailed creature protecting her. Hope, for the first time in many days, felt just that, hope.
Whoever had communicated to her was powerful...almost as powerful as Hope. That made her smile. Hope wanted to meet such a woman...and she had sounded so kind, so sincere, so strong.
Yes, Hope very much wanted to meet her audial equivalent.
Back at the School, a place that Hope hated, she had quickly surpassed that of her fellow students...and most of the teachers. There was one who could still match her, but Hope was certain that with each passing day she was leaving him behind. She didn’t like him. He was mean and had cold eyes. If anything, Hope was glad to be away from him.
Mr. Simms was kinder, but he’d changed recently. He went from being friendly and kind enough, to...distracted. Moody. Hope quit wanting to be around him, too.
Which is why she had planned her great escape.
She had planned it carefully, down to the last detail. She had even drawn a map of her escape route. A lot had hinged on some of the guards not paying attention and, amazingly, on the night of her escape, the guards weren’t even there!
Hope had been ecstatic and had tasted sweet freedom, certain that soon she would be reunited with her mother. And that’s when they were waiting for her. The men who took her to Orlenda.
Hope was psychic enough to sense that something had not been right about her escape, that it had been a little too easy, but that was as far as she had gotten with it.
Mostly, she just wanted to go home. She almost, almost, missed the School.
But not yet. Not until she knew what Orlenda had planned for her. Luckily, she had been trained to do just that. Most curious, of course, was that someone had told Orlenda and the woman who called herself Echidna to guard themselves from an audial like her, which meant, Hope was certain, that they were familiar with the way psychics work.
But, they were not strong enough, or clever enough. Hope giggled at this. She always giggled when she was able to outsmart adults.
And so, as the hawk kept vigilance nearby, fading in and out of Hope’s consciousness, as their connection was tenuous at this point—it always took a while for two audials to make a lasting connection, even she knew that, Hope used her little friend to find a way through the shield...and into the room, where the voices came in loud and clear:
“Any casualties?” That was Orlenda speaking.
“Two. Both local field agents. The bodies have been disposed.”
“Any witnesses?”
“None. The accident happened on a remote road.”
“A remote road in southern California?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t think it was possible. Go on.”
“The bodies were removed and the area cleaned. The local police did investigate, but by then, another field agent posed as the driver.”
“And the bodies?”
“The Safe House furnace, of course.”
“Of course,” said Orlenda. To Hope the woman sounded both pleased and irritated.
“Did they file a flight plan?”
“Officially, they are headed to Paris.”
“Unofficially?” asked Orlenda.
There was a pause, then the woman said, “Unofficially, I’ve received word that they might be headed here.”
Chapter Eighteen
Noah leaned in over the table as I took a drink from my water bottle. “You really believe that Simms is part of a program that is schooling these kids? Kids like Hope?” I asked.
Noah nodded. “I do. I don’t believe they are only being schooled wherever this place is, I also believe that they are basically imprisoned there.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and pointer finger, closing my eyes and taking this all in. If this was true, it goes against all ethics and practices. It’s what my father never wanted to occur when I was a kid. He’d sheltered me as much as he could because of my gift. He didn’t want me to be used or manipulated.
“This shouldn’t be too difficult to believe,” Ayden interrupted my thoughts. “If you look at it, Ky, isn’t that what Simms has in a way done to you since you were a kid?”
I didn’t respond right away. That’s probably because I knew that he was right. As much as my dad had done a good job trying to protect me, if I really looked at things, I could admit to myself that Grant had been the opposite of my father. He had pushed for me to know things, learn things, and then he’d led the CIA into establishing a department for people like us—like me—the PSI. “How...I mean why do you guys think this?”
“I’ve been able to get small reads here and there, and got even more of an energetic surge when you were communicating with Hope,” Ayden said. “I’ve seen glimpses of what looks like a prison yard, with guards, and wire—the whole nine yards. I’ve received images of other kids, of other adults, and the clincher was one of Simms talking to Hope’s mother, and although I can’t hear the conversation, she looks afraid. I’ve seen him leave the room they were in, and a light comes on and flashes above the door when he walks out.”
“Like an alarm has been set?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
“Then why is he sending us to find her? I mean, if Simms is involved in a school that imprisons kids in order to train them to work for the government, which isn’t any better than Orlenda’s motives, isn’t he afraid when she’s been found that there will be repercussions? Isn’t he afraid of us? Of this very moment? Of what we might learn?”
Noah nodded. “He probably is. But he’s probably more afraid of what Hope knows or is capable of herself.”
“And, what do you think that is? Because I have no clue.” I looked back and forth between the two men, and got my answer in their eyes—they were as clueless as I was to the answer of the question of the hour. What did this little girl know? What made her so dangerous?
“We don’t know.” Noah sighed.
I looked at Ayden and he shook his head. “Think I’ll lie down for a few. I think we have a long day and night ahead of us.” He stood and walked to the back of the plane where there was a curtain that partitioned off a cot. He closed the curtain.
I trained my eyes on Noah. He reached out and covered the top of my hand. A surge of electricity traveled down my backside and settled into my stomach. I tried not to pay attention to it.
&n
bsp; “There’s something else, Kylie. Something I’ve gotten. I did some remote viewing and I did something I don’t usually do. I tapped into Simms, which means he may know we are onto him. He’d figure that out anyway, and we’ll deal with it.”
There was an edge to his voice, and something in his eyes—concern, worry—I wasn’t sure. “What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
He sighed and looked directly into my eyes. “I’m almost positive that Hope Mitchell is your sister.”
Chapter Nineteen
Although the stupid Orlenda woman hadn’t done anything truly scary to her, Hope was afraid of her because she had enough sense—and not just psychic sense—to know that Orlenda was a very bad woman who had some very bad intentions.
What Hope did know was that she had something they all wanted. She knew how to “travel” or “transfer”—whatever they all wanted to call it. She’d started doing it about six weeks ago back at the School, when her training had intensified with one-on-one sessions with her teachers—especially with Mr. Simms, who only came to the School, it seemed like, when there was a problem. He questioned her repeatedly about a conversation that she had “heard.” She really didn’t understand it.
All she had heard was Simms and another man talking and the man had said to him, “Yes, the program will include my donations.” That was it. It was odd, because that conversation was different to her than most of the others she’d had. That time, although very brief, she actually seemed to be in the room with them. She could see them talking, feel the air around her, smell the smells—almost like a dream, but she knew it hadn’t been. She’d been there. Or at least she thought she had because the other man looked right at her and smiled. Grant turned and looked at her too, but in that moment from what Hope remembered of it, he didn’t seem to see her like the other man. There was one other brief exchange after the man smiled at her. He’d said, “She’s one of my donations.”
Then Hope had found herself back in her room—her prison back at the School. It had not happened again that way, but Mr. Simms had been coming to see her more often and discussing that “dialogue,” which is what her teachers called it when she heard things. She really hated all of this. If she didn’t have this ability, Hope knew that she would be a normal kid who lived in a normal house with her mom, and went to a normal school. She knew that most of the kids she went to school with felt the same way. There weren’t many of them—around fifty in total, but before she’d escaped she had discovered a separate wing to the School, and it was there that she spotted maybe six or seven pregnant women. Hope was smart enough to know that it was very likely the babies those women were carrying would have some kind of ability, and they would be brought up within the confines of the School.
But there was much more for Hope to worry about at the moment besides why Mr. Simms had taken such an interest in her, and now why this crazy lady had her tied to a bed in some crazy palace-looking-place.
At that moment she was worried about her new friend—the one who she really hoped was on her way to save her. The other audial—Kylie.
Hope had “heard” Orlenda talking to that other woman, Echidna, which through her schooling she knew meant in Greek mythology that it was half woman half snake, known as the “Mother of All Monsters” because most of the monsters in Greek myth were mothered by her. Hope hadn’t seen this woman yet, and she wasn’t too sure the woman was even in the house, mansion—wherever they were. Orlenda could have been speaking to her on the phone. That was Hope’s sense anyway. But what she had learned was that Kylie was with a man and whoever this man was, he was married to the woman Orlenda had been speaking with. This possibly meant a few things. The first was that the man with Kylie was bad. The second possibility was that the man and Kylie were both bad and either lying to Hope about coming to save her, or planning on “saving” her only for their own purposes, which could be the same reason that Orlenda had her kidnapped in the first place.
All of this was a lot to think about, but Hope knew that she had to think about it because she was in some real trouble here no matter what those answers were.
She had to find another alliance to work with at the moment. It couldn’t be the tiger moth because she only used it to get through certain blocked spaces because of its size.
She couldn’t use the hawk. He was too much of a wild animal for what she needed in this moment.
She closed her eyes and began her breathing. She needed an alliance who was quick, but not completely wild, so she couldn’t use a cheetah even though she loved the cheetah energy. She needed something more tame and loyal. The dog came to mind, but a dog wasn’t fast enough for this.
She needed a quick alliance because she knew that with Kylie coming for her, it would be done quickly, and whether or not Kylie was who she said that she was, Hope knew it was a chance for her to get away.
A horse. That was what she needed. She would use the horse alliance to again try to reach Kylie.
Her breath slowed and she sensed, then saw the horse. It was a beautiful black horse, just like the horses in the movies. She had to focus on his energy and not his beauty because that could get her into some trouble and allow her message to either not be received or not understood.
She focused on his energy of being in tune, of being wary of predators, but being willing to take direction. As she did so, she sent her message to Kylie: Orlenda knows you’re coming. You’re being watched by someone who knows the man you’re with.
Hope didn’t receive a reply and her stomach twisted. She could only pray that the woman who she thought could be a friend and a savior heard what she’d said.
Chapter Twenty
Ayden appeared around the curtain.
He looked from me, then to Noah, then to Noah’s hand on my hand. Noah calmly lifted it. I pulled my hand back, still too shocked to care what Ayden thought. My sister? Surely Noah was mistaken...
But Noah almost certainly wouldn’t have mentioned it unless he was sure of what he saw. We all have hits that we keep to ourselves, hits that are fuzzy enough that we keep our mouths shut. Noah wouldn’t have said anything...not unless he was sure.
“Everything okay in here?” asked Ayden. “Something I should know?”
I considered not telling Ayden, but that’s the thing with working with psychics, yes, we all have our specialties, but we’re all excellent at reading everything from aura to body language, to getting a general feel for anyone.
“Noah thinks the girl, Hope, is my sister.”
Ayden turned to him. “You think, or you know?”
Noah looked at him, unphased by Ayden’s challenge. We all challenged each other every day. It’s how we kept on our toes, stayed sharp...and stayed alive.
Noah nodded once. “I know, as much as I can know.”
That was of course, good enough for us. I couldn’t recall the last time Noah was wrong when he was sure. For that matter, same with Ayden. My skill sets were different. I could literally listen to others’ conversation long distance. Hard to screw that up, unless I missed a word, or unless there was background noise. I was good, yes, but I couldn’t mute a TV in the background, or, say, a loud coffee shop.
“So what does that mean?” asked Ayden.
“We don’t know yet,” said Noah. “That’s pretty much where you walked in.”
“Well, let’s shelve it for now,” I said. Truth was, I was too shaken to wrap my brain around the information. But there was something bigger than just my family tree going on here, and I think we all felt it. I looked at Ayden. “You came in here to tell us something.”
“How did you—never mind. Stupid question. I just heard from my Moroccan contact. I had him sniff around for us, once we knew where we were headed.”
“And?”
“He says he’s got something. For a price, of course.”
“Of course,” I said. We often used personal and professional contacts around the world. If they were a government agent, we generally didn�
�t pay for the exchange of information. Private foot soldiers were different. A little cash went a long way. The PSI had funds for such occasions, as did other governmental agencies.
“He’s going to put us into contact with a scientist who knows something.”
“Knows what?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but, according to my contact, two other scientists working on the same project have turned up dead. He’s been in hiding since.”
“Then why speak to us?”
“Because his price is to get him out of Morocco alive, and as far away from Orlenda as possible.”
“If this guy is there then at least we know we are right about where they are. What did you say to your contact?” I asked.
“I told him to tell him we would do what we could.”
I nodded. I looked at Noah. “Good, so this is our first step, then?”
Noah nodded and looked down at his hand. “Yeah, I would say so.”
“Good,” said Ayden, as we felt the motor throttle back as the plane began its descent. “Because we’re about to land.”
Chapter Twenty-one
I was to make the exchange.
That was the first matter of business. My main concern was getting to Hope before Orlenda discovered that we were on the way. I did have that fear in the back of my mind, but if this scientist that we were supposed to contact had some further insight into why this child had been taken, and where she might be located, then we had to take the risk of spending an extra hour gaining information.
A dark van was waiting on the tarmac when we landed. The driver had already been given the directions via Ayden as we came in for a landing. He had been hired privately and someone Ayden had used before. We’d made this decision rather quickly out of need. At this point I think we really only trusted each other. We’d all come to the agreement that Simms involvement with Hope and her mother was not just about getting the kid safely back home. Like anyone who seemed to know about this little girl, I was afraid that ulterior motives and forces were at work.