Root

by LeeAnn McLennan

  Now was my chance to slip out.

  “Olivia, we still need to talk about Jack.” My aunt’s statement stopped me at the door. My cousins paused, but I waved them on, knowing I couldn’t avoid the talk with Aunt Kate.

  “I told you, I can make sure he doesn’t tell anyone.” I spun around, ready to fight. “You have to let me at least try.”

  Aunt Kate shook her head. “Olivia, Jack is young and impulsive. And he works with the police, so I’m guessing he won’t want to hide anything from them that he thinks would help them solve crimes.” She glanced at her watch, frowning. “It may already be too late.” She looked frustrated. “In fact, I’d better get some spin going on the events at the theater.” She left the containment room. With a grimace, I followed her to her workstation. Six trailed after us.

  Aunt Kate sat down. “Olivia, get Lange to go with you and find Jack. Bring him here.” Her tone was final.

  I bit my lip angrily and turned away, muttering, “Dammit.” I pulled out my phone to text Lange.

  “Olivia! Help!” I caught my breath as Ben’s voice slammed into my mind. I stumbled, knocking my shin into the coffee table, “Oh God, Olivia, they’re attacking us. The guards are dying. I, I, oh no, please stop!”

  I clutched my head, falling to my knees under the onslaught of Ben’s cries for help. His voice pleaded, “Help me, Three’s dead. They’ve got me. It’s not Emma, it’s –” His voice cut off abruptly, the silence worse than his cries. I was left with the image of a highway sign – NV-140.

  I gave a shuddering sob, tuning into Aunt Kate’s voice. “Olivia, what’s wrong?” She crouched next me, with a hand on my shoulder.

  Six screamed, collapsing to the floor in a heap. “No, no, Three!” She convulsed, her arms and legs flailing, knocking over the large monitor with a crash. “I can’t!” She stopped thrashing to lie still on her back, her eyes open, staring blankly at the ceiling.

  Aunt Kate ran to her side, pressing her fingers to Six’s neck.

  “Is she…” I could barely speak through the cowl of fear around my throat.

  “She’s alive.” Aunt Kate gave me a puzzled and concerned frown as she pulled out her phone, rapidly punching keys. “I don’t understand. What just happened?”

  “Ben’s in trouble.” I covered my eyes with my hands. “I think Three is dead.”

  “Ben’s in trouble? How do you know?”

  I dropped my hands to my knees, peering up at my aunt. “He’s been sending me updates since Colorado.” Desperate to push through my aunt’s inevitable arguments, I stood up. “We have to go after him and save him.”

  “Olivia,” Aunt Kate started. When her phone chimed, she answered it in an impatient voice. “Yes, I know. I just found out.” She kept her gaze on mine. “I’ll tell you later. Yes, Six is here. She collapsed, but she’s still breathing. Do you want –” She frowned at whatever she heard and I wondered who was on the other end. “Okay, I’ll wait here. Alex is on his way.” Aunt Kate crouched beside Six again. “See you shortly.”

  The warehouse door slammed open and Uncle Alex dashed in, pulling off his jacket as he ran to Six. He knelt down on the opposite side from Aunt Kate and placed his hands on Six’s head. He closed his eyes as pain etched into his face. “She’s in there, just in shock.” He opened his eyes with a startled expression. “I can feel her emotions,” he looked down at Six’s prone body, “for the first time ever.” He spoke softly to her. “It’ll be okay. We’re here with you, and you’re not alone.”

  Aunt Kate asked, “What do you mean, she’s not alone?”

  I drew a sharp breath. “He means she’s cut off from The Octad.” I wasn’t sure how I knew – maybe it was insight from my experience communicating with Ben. “Since Three, um, died…I think The Octad sort of rebooted or something. So they’re cut off from each other.” I shivered. Being cut off from Ben was scary enough. I couldn’t imagine how Six felt losing contact from her sisters after a lifetime of having them in her mind.

  Uncle Alex nodded, gently releasing Six’s head from his hands. “I get fear and emptiness from her.” He crossed his legs, taking her hand in his own. His voice was deliberately calm as he asked, “What happened?”

  The words burst out of me. “They were attacked. Ben’s been captured. We have to save him – them.” I ran to the couch, grabbing my sword and slinging it on my back. “Where is everyone else?”

  “Olivia.” Aunt Kate’s tone was the sharpest I’d ever heard her use. “How could you? Breaking the law so blatantly?” She huffed out an exasperated sigh. “I’m not surprised to hear you wanted to stay in touch with the boy, but don’t you know how difficult this makes things?”

  “Difficult?” I waved my hands in the air. “Difficult? Aunt Kate, that’s not the point! Ben’s been captured or worse.” She obviously wasn’t getting how urgent the situation was. “I’m pretty sure the rest of the people with him are dead.” I closed my eyes, the afterimage of a highway sign NV-140 still in my head. “I think –”

  “You’re still in touch with Ben?” Uncle Alex didn’t sound very surprised.

  I opened my eyes to glare at him. “Yes, obviously. He’s been sending me updates since Colorado, blah, blah, blah… Can we get past that and get on with rescuing him?”

  Uncle Alex looked at his sister. “Kate, has anyone reached out?”

  She nodded. “Smitty is on his way back from dropping off the lymph monster now. He wants one of us to go with him to talk to Ben’s parents.”

  I’d forgotten about Ben’s parents. This was going to knock Mrs. Hallowfield down.

  Uncle Alex sighed. “Are you okay going without me?” He glanced down at Six. “I need to stay with Six.”

  “Aren’t you going to help save Ben?” I wasn’t sure which ‘rent I was yelling at – both were acting like Ben’s life wasn’t in danger.

  Uncle Alex ignored me. “Did Smitty say if they are sending anyone after the team?”

  “Yes.” Aunt Kate’s answer stirred alarm in me. “They’re preparing to leave for the last known contact spot now.”

  When Uncle Alex reached out to touch my shoulder, I twisted away, testing my shields. I wasn’t certain he wouldn’t try to soothe me with his ability. He couldn’t break through most shields.

  “Olivia, the military will rescue Ben and handle anything that needs to be dealt with.” Uncle Alex sat down on the couch and patted the cushion beside him. I sat in the armchair across from him. He raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment.

  Aunt Kate stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. “Olivia, I hate to do this, but I have to punish you for communicating with Ben, for breaking the rules. For telling Jack about us.” She sat down next to her brother. “Since this is the first offense, we won’t tell the Council.” She gave me a stern look. “But you’re grounded from the warehouse for three days.”

  I stared at them, open-mouthed. Ben was in trouble and all they cared about was teaching me a lesson. That was so wrong. I stood up, my stomach churning with emotion. I barely trusted myself to say, “Okay, whatever. Can I go now?”

  I didn’t wait for an answer before leaving. A block from the warehouse, away from any cameras Aunt Kate had installed, I texted Zoe, Kevin, and Lange – Help, meet at my house.

  When I reached the intersection of 20th and Stark, I staggered to a stop, grabbing the street sign for support as fragments of images flooded my mind. Faces covered with monochromatic whirls of paint loomed, replaced by what looked like the back of van, and finally a road sign with Winnemucca, Nevada, written on it flashed by outside the van window. The images faded away slowly.

  I stood for a moment, hoping for more images or, better yet, Ben’s voice in my head. I tried reaching out, calling Ben’s name loudly in my head. I heard nothing but my own inner voice calling out. I swallowed down the anxiety inside my throat, telling myself Ben just couldn’t answer right now; maybe he was out of range, not worse. It didn’t help. Fear spurred my feet as I started running home ag
ain.

  My steps slowed as a thought came to me. Pulling out my phone, I looked up NV-140 and then Winnemucca. It appeared Ben’s captors were bringing him northwest. Into Oregon. I shoved my phone in my pocket and took off, full of purpose.

  At home, I found Anna sitting on the dark front porch steps. I stopped in astonishment. “What are you doing here?”

  She gripped her backpack strap tightly. “You sounded really upset earlier. I wanted to make sure you were okay.” She shrugged uncomfortably. “And, well, you don’t look okay.”

  “I’m fine.” An idea of what I was going to do about Ben was forming in my head and I needed Anna to go before my cousins arrived. “You don’t need to hang around.” It was going to be hard enough to convince them of my plan without a normal listening.

  She jerked as if I’d hit her. “Well, fine,” she said, biting off the words as Zoe and Lange came running up, followed quickly by Kevin from the opposite direction. I gritted my teeth, annoyed by their timing.

  “What’s going on?” Lange asked, looking from me to Anna and back.

  “Nothing, this isn’t why I texted you.” I needed Anna to leave so I could tell my cousins about Ben and explain what I had to do to save him.

  Anna blurted out, “You can’t hide from me anymore. I know what’s going on.” She raised her chin defiantly, spoiling her strong stance slightly by biting her lip.

  Lange kept his gaze on her while saying, “Olivia?”

  I sighed and gripped my hands in my hair. Dropping my arms to my side, I said, “I sort of told Anna a few days ago.”

  “Olivia.” Lange shook his head. “Have you forgotten we’re supposed be a secret? Jack, and now Anna?”

  Kevin looked blank, but Zoe considered Anna with a contemplative expression. Anna stood, still holding her backpack strap so tightly I could see the outlines of her knuckles. She said to me, “Jack knows?”

  I shrugged. “Long story.” A car drove by, briefly highlighting us in its headlights. We needed to get inside before we attracted attention, so I opened the front door. “Get inside.”

  My cousins filed in, but Anna hesitated. Lange poked at her, making her jump. “Come in. We need to talk to you.”

  Anna flicked her gaze at me nervously before following them inside. I wanted to reassure her we weren’t going to wipe her mind. I wouldn’t let them, and the machine was at the warehouse anyway. I wasn’t going back to the warehouse anytime soon, not if my cousins agreed to my plan.

  Everyone sat down in the living room and Lange started to speak, but I held up my hand. “Look, I know you want to gripe at me about telling Anna. However, that’s not the most important thing here.” I leaned forward. “Ben has been captured and I think the rest of the people with him are dead.”

  My cousins’ reactions were a study in contrasts.

  Zoe shot to her feet, fists raised. “Where? We’ve got to save him.”

  Kevin put his head in his hands, remaining seated with shoulders slumped.

  Lange sat back with a startled expression, which morphed into a suspicious frown. “And how did you come by this information?” He gave me a knowing look.

  Great, now Lange was going to get all snarky about my choices. “Look, yes, I let Ben keep sending me information.” I held up my hands. “Whatever. Do you really think the ‘rents would tell us what’s going on? They aren’t always forthcoming about stuff they think we don’t need to know.”

  “Olivia, you broke the law.”

  Zoe poked her brother’s arm. “Lange, let it go. That’s not the point.” She turned to me. “Do you know where they were when they were attacked?”

  I nodded. “Ben sent me an image of a city limit sign for somewhere called Winnemucca, Nevada.” As I said the words, I got another flash from Ben. The inside of the van again, the mask-covered faces of the people around him. A few phrases – “help me,” “I’m sorry” – that cut through me, increasing my urgency. The sending was gone as quickly as it had come. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment to clear my head.

  Lange stared out of the window at the dimly lit street. “So the ‘rents are leaving it up to the Council to save Ben?”

  “Yes,” I leaned forward, desperate to convince him of my plan, “but they don’t know where he is. I do. But if I tell the Council Ben has been talking to me,” I winced, “he’ll be in even more trouble and they’ll send him back to prison for sure.”

  “You think we should go after him?” Zoe bounced on the balls of her feet, eager to get started.

  I nodded. “I know the direction they’re heading.”

  “Where?” Zoe asked.

  “Northwest, into Oregon.”

  “Could they be coming to Portland?” Kevin lifted his head.

  No one spoke for a moment, contemplating why Ben’s capturers would come to Portland. I concentrated on the pattern of the brief sendings of highways signs from Ben. “I don’t know. Right now it’s more like they’re heading to eastern Oregon.”

  Lange tapped his fingers on the windowsill. “What’s out there?”

  “Not much.” Anna spoke up, shrinking back when we all stared at her. “I was out that way last summer, camping with Mom and Dad, remember?” She waited for my nod before continuing. “Not a lot of people, a bunch of ranches, stuff like that.”

  I gave her an encouraging smile before turning back to Lange. “It fits. I bet Mountain of Ash has its lair out there.”

  “Yeah.” Lange sighed and ran his hands through his hair. “Makes sense, I guess.”

  Zoe poked her brother with her finger. “Lange, we have to help Ben.” She gave me a sideways look. “Ollie’s going after Ben, no matter what we decide.” She grinned at my frown. “So unless you want her to go alone…?”

  “I’m going with you,” Anna said, then shut her mouth with her eyes wide as if she couldn’t believe what she’d just declared.

  “You can’t,” Lange said.

  “Why not?” Anna glared at him defiantly. “Because I’m not all super amped up like you? That’s racism, or humanism, or some kind of ‘ism’.” She put her hands on her hips. “I’m not going to try to fight, but I can help. I can navigate or something. I just want to a part of Ollie’s world.” She poked me. “You owe me.”

  I knew I should tell her not to come, that it wasn’t safe, but I was too happy to have my friend on my side. “Okay,” I agreed while shoving down the little voice telling me this was a bad idea. I knew Anna well enough to worry she might find a way to follow along if I told her no. This way I could keep an eye on her. I winced as another series of images from Ben flashed through my head.

  “Olivia.” Lange put on his “I’m older than you voice,” but I jumped in.

  “Lange, you can try to stop me, us,” I said with a glance at Zoe and Anna, “or you can help us. Helping is faster.”

  “Okay, okay.” Lange held up his hands in surrender. “You seem to have a plan. What is it?”

  Relief coursed through my body, making my muscles limp. “We go tonight, take the van and some supplies, and follow Ben’s sendings.”

  “Ollie,” Lange sat down on the couch, “that’s not a plan. That’s a reaction.”

  Stung, impatient, scared, I flung back, “Then let’s make a plan. Now.” I stood over him, trying to hold in the fire threatening to escape my hands. “If they kill Ben…” My stomach clenched when I realized I hadn’t heard from Ben since he sent the barrage of images.

  “They won’t.” Kevin had been so quiet for the past several minutes; I’d almost forgotten he was in the room. “Otherwise why bother capturing him?”

  “What do you think they want with him?” I asked the question hoping his answer didn’t match my suspicions.

  “He’s a mind reader, the only one alive right now that we know of. He hasn’t exactly been treated all that well by the good guys.” Kevin shrugged. “My guess is Mountain of Ash plans to try to convert him. They could have a chance.”

  I gaped at my cousin, dismayed to h
ear the thoughts I’d been shoving away since Ben called for help. The idea of Ben going to the dark side was too much to deal with right now.. “Ben saved us last year,” I reminded Kevin.

  “Yeah and how did that turn out for him? We shoved him in prison, in a coma. Some thanks.” He chewed on his lip before adding, “Do you think Emma knew Ben was following her? I wonder if she helped them trap him or something?”

  I swallowed hard before saying to Lange, “We have to go. Now.”

  “Okay.” Lange stood up, taking charge. “We’ll go, but if we find Ben and need back up, you have to promise you’ll listen to me.” He gave me a stern stare until I nodded. “Alright, I’ll get the van and the weapons.”

  “How will you keep the ‘rents from stopping you?” Zoe asked.

  Lange stopped in the doorway. “I’m still working on that part.” He glanced at me. “Everyone be back here in thirty minutes ready to go.”

  Chapter 27

  After Lange left, Zoe and Kevin dashed out to grab supplies. I stared at Anna, uncertain what to say, how to get her ready for the full-on supernormal experience.

  Anna spoke first. “You can flame on and ice up,” she stated, counting off on her fingers. “What can your cousins do?”

  “Zoe is really, really fast and Lange is wicked strong.” I smiled a little as she ticked off each ability finger by finger. “Kevin can bounce.”

  “Bounce?” Anna laughed over her question.

  “Oh,” I realized the term for Kevin’s ability sounded sort of lame, “that’s what we call the ability to teleport in short bursts.”

  I blinked as a staccato burst of images from Ben hit me. Still the same van, no one around him, but I got the impression he was restrained somehow. Everything was fuzzy, like he was out of it.

  Anna was looking at me with a concerned expression. “You okay? You went a little glazed over for a moment.”