‘Gadge, it’s me, Elle, from the other day,’ I say, softly.
He looks down at the ground and fidgets restlessly, refusing to look at me.
‘Is everything okay?’ I ask him. I look around to see if there’s anyone else about who can help me get him back to camp, but we’re completely alone.
He opens his mouth as though to speak, but then shuts it again. He seems confused and scared. His eyes are wide and his breathing is laboured.
I crouch down on the ground and look up at him. ‘Hey, it’s okay. Why don’t we get you back to camp with the others?’
‘Not-t s-safe,’ he stutters. I glance over my shoulder, but the woods behind me are empty.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Not-t s-safe,’ he repeats. His eyes latch onto mine and I can see his fear clearly behind the look he’s giving me. He reaches out and wraps his hand tightly around my CommuCuff. ‘F-find him,’ he says, before abruptly letting go and running away from me, becoming lost in the woods moments later.
‘Gadge?’ I call after him, but silence meets my words. He’s gone.
I slowly stand and as I do I look down at my cuff to see a name written across the screen. Henry Moore. I look up at the area of forest where Gadge disappeared. What could I possibly need with Henry Moore?
April is already seated on the ground in the centre of the hangar when I get there, her legs are crossed and her eyes shut. She looks peaceful and I push down an irrational surge of envy. I will never be able to maintain such composure without my inhibitor band on.
‘The strangest thing just happened,’ I say, as I take a seat on the ground across from her.
Her eyes blink open and settle on me. ‘Hey yourself,’ she says. ‘What happened?’
I shake my head. ‘It doesn’t matter,’ I reply, feeling spooked by Gadge’s behaviour and not wanting to relive it. ‘Could you help me find someone?’
‘Who?’
‘A guy named Henry Moore. Does the name ring a bell?’
She shrugs. ‘I haven’t heard of him before, but I can check him out. What do you need to know?’
‘If you could just find out where he lives…’ I answer.
She frowns as she watches me. ‘Have you tried asking M about this?’
I pause as I consider how to respond to her question. I don’t know why Gadge was scared, but what if he was scared of M? Until I know who Henry Moore is, it’s probably best not to involve him. Part of me doesn’t even want to tell April about it, but I don’t have any choice if I want a realistic chance of finding him.
‘I’m not sure if I trust him, and to be honest, I doubt he’ll even listen to me right now.’ I don’t like admitting my distrust for him to April, but I need to be open with her. He was quick to lie to us about not being able to contact the ARC when he clearly could. I worry about what else he might be keeping from us.
April raises one eyebrow and folds her arms across her chest. ‘You can trust him. He can sometimes be a bit tough, but it’s only because he’s looking out for the well-being of everyone as a whole.’
‘Can we just keep him out of this for the moment?’ I plead. ‘Surely you can look into where he is without raising any flags?’
April hesitates, and looks like she’s going to continue to fight me on this, but then sighs. ‘Fine. You’re probably right about him not listening to you right now, I heard about the mess with Dr. Wilson. I’ll have a snoop and see what I can dig up. Should we get started with your training?’
I nod and proceed to remove the band.
Later that night, April comes by my tent. Kelsey is in a deep sleep, but I’ve been tossing and turning for hours.
She shakes my arm gently to wake me. ‘Can we talk outside?’ she whispers.
I glance at Kelsey and nod, following her out of the tent.
‘How did you get the name Henry Moore?’ she asks, once we’re outside.
I shake my head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Elle, where did you get the name?’
I consider telling her the truth, but something stops me. Gadge had been acting strangely when he gave it to me, and if she knew the truth she may not look into the man’s whereabouts. It seemed important to Gadge I find him.
‘I think I heard his name in the hospital,’ I lie. ‘Why? Did you find anything on him?’
She sighs and nods. ‘It’s not good.’
‘What do you mean, it’s not good?’
She glances over her shoulder into the darkness of the trees behind her before facing me again. ‘He didn’t come up on the reintegration system. So, I checked the ARC systems, and he wasn’t there either, which is strange. There are always records of people on at least the ARC system. I checked again, going deeper this time. His file was encrypted, but we found it.’
‘Who is he?’
‘He was a lead scientist in the Aries ARC, but now he’s being held at the government headquarters.’
‘Why?’
‘Because they think he can create a cure.’
I take a step back from her. ‘What?’
She shakes her head. ‘I don’t know how you heard of this guy, but he’s important and M will do anything to have him here with us.’
‘So, M knows?’
She looks away from me. ‘Yeah, he knows. There was no way I’d be able to get that level of access without his resources. I had to tell him. ’
I nod, feeling slightly betrayed she was so quick to tell M, but also understanding it had to be done. ‘So, if this guy can do what you say he can, we’re getting him out, right?’
She digs her hands into her pockets and huffs out a breath. ‘That’s the last place I’d want to break someone out of, but we’re going to have to. He could prove vital to everything we’re trying to achieve.’
‘When can we do it?’
‘I’ll need a few days to organise the extraction team, but you won’t be coming anywhere.’
‘You can’t expect me to stay here while you guys go.’
‘Actually, I can,’ she says. ‘You have barely any control over your talents. You’d be a liability. I won’t put other people in danger because you want to tag along. Not to mention the fact they have an alert out for you. You’d be walking right to them, which is exactly what they want. Look, I’ll keep you in the loop with what’s happening, but that’s all I can do.’
‘I don’t need to be talented to be useful,’ I say.
April shakes her head. ‘For this, you do. I have to head back to the Mason’s tonight, but I’ll be back tomorrow. We can do a training session then and I’ll let you know how I’m getting on with the preparations.’
She looks at me closely, waiting for a response, but I refuse to meet her eyes. She huffs out a short breath when I don’t say anything. ‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ she says, turning to walk away. I watch her disappear between the trees.
Once she’s gone I don’t return to my bed. Instead, I stroll away from the tents and out of the woods to the open concrete expanse. When I get far enough away from everything I sit and close my eyes.
I take deep breaths, trying to ground myself.
‘I’m not a liability,’ I murmur. With that I open my eyes and take my inhibitor band off my wrist, placing it beside me. I feel the rush of my talents being freed. I’ve slowly become accustomed to it in my sessions with April. But, without her here to help control my confidence, my fears easily resurface and they feel stronger and more erratic than I’m used to.
My fingers tingle and I try to ignore the sensation and focus on my sense of smell, like April had taught me. It helps a little, but not enough. My fingers itch to move, and I can feel power surging through my body and down my arms to my fingertips.
The feeling unnerves me, which only makes it stronger.
‘You can do this Elle,’ I tell myself aloud. I take a deep breath in through my nose and blow it out through my mouth. My heart only beats faster, and I can feel drops of sweat building on the back of
my neck.
I clench my hands into fists and place them down on the ground beside me. Doing so makes the rest of my body tingle and the hair on my head slowly lifts of its own accord, as though it’s alive with static electricity.
I squint my eyes shut again. ‘Concentrate Elle.’
I’m rattled though and the erratic energy pulsing through me is only getting stronger. I try to concentrate on each sense, like I would with April, but I’m overwhelmed by the power inside of me.
I clench my teeth together and I hold my body tense. I just want it out of me. I want it gone. I groan as my body shakes with it.
I need it out of me. I can’t take it anymore. ‘Just go!’ I scream. My whole body sags as the energy rushes out of me. It’s as though the floodgates have been opened and my talent has flowed out of me in one intense outburst.
As I slowly open my eyes I gasp. The dirt and pebbles that were on the ground around me are now floating through the air with tiny bolts of electricity dancing between them. I scramble to my feet and reach my hand out to grasp one of the small stones that floats leisurely by me, like it were an airborne feather. The tiny sparks that radiate along its surface transfer onto the back of my hand. They feel like a pencil lightly drawing on me as they skim across the top of my skin. Slowly each tiny bolt extinguishes into nothing.
When I look around me, I feel as though I’ve stepped into a sandstorm, that’s been frozen for a moment in time, with a thousand tiny thunderbolts flashing between the small grains of sand. It’s magical the way they flicker and crackle, and it’s like I’m inside a spitting sparkler, illuminating the night around me.
I didn’t want to use my talents when I took the inhibitor off. All I wanted was to prove I could sit there and control them enough to have nothing happen. I couldn’t even slightly do that.
‘Elle?’ A voice yells, beyond my pocket of electric dust. I can’t see anyone, as they are hidden behind the wall of dirt I’ve surrounded myself in, but I’d know Sebastian’s voice anywhere.
The dirt and electricity all plunges to the ground in one heavy drop and I see him running across the open plain towards me. I kneel down and pick up the inhibitor, placing it back on my wrist.
April was right. Without her, I have no control over these talents of mine whatsoever. I am a burden.
‘Are you okay?’ he shouts, when he gets closer.
‘I’m fine.’
‘I heard you scream.’
‘How? I didn’t think anyone would be able to hear me out here.’
He stops and leans on his knees as he catches his breath for a moment. He looks a little guilty. ‘I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with April earlier. When you didn’t come back to your tent, I came looking to check you were alright.’
‘You heard that?’
‘Yes.’
I wrap my arms around my body and try to avoid looking at him directly in his eyes. ‘I wish you hadn’t.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t want you to think I’m a liability.’
‘Are you serious?’ he asks. ‘You are the last person I’d think was a liability. April doesn’t give you credit for the things you’ve achieved, all of which you did without having talents yourself.’
I shrug. ‘She’s right though, I can’t control myself.’
‘Control will come, but you were right, you have as much right to be a part of the team as anyone.’
I sigh. ‘Not if people could get hurt because they’re trying to look out for me.’
‘Look, leave April to me. You should be there.’
‘Maybe I shouldn’t, I just proved her right. I shouldn’t be going anywhere. I’ll only put others in danger. If me not going means a better chance of getting the cure, I have to accept that.’
‘Elle, you can’t doubt yourself. It only makes controlling your talent harder.’
I kick at one of the rocks by my feet. ‘I think we all need to come to terms with the fact that maybe some talents can’t be controlled and mine is one of them.’
‘Don’t give up on yourself yet,’ he says. ‘You may surprise everyone still.’
He looks at me, seeming confident I’ll overcome this. I wish more than anything I could be the girl he sees in me, but I feel like I’m failing.
‘I hope so,’ I reply, though I can feel my doubts swelling inside.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
‘Still no change?’ I ask Aiden, as I enter the medical clinic and approach Jane’s bed. I pass him the sandwich I brought for him from the mess tent and pull up a chair to sit next to him.
‘Thanks,’ he croaks, taking it from me. ‘And no, no change.’ His eyes hold such terror as he watches her. I worry how he’ll go on if she doesn’t make it.
‘I’m sorry we didn’t wait for you the night we escaped,’ I say.
‘I’m glad you didn’t,’ he replies. ‘We all could have been caught if you’d waited any longer. April made the right call.’
We can’t know for sure what would have happened if we’d stayed, but it comforts me to know he believes it was the right decision. ‘Why did you both stay there for so long?’
‘I was a part of a small team working on a way to stop the accelerated mutations that affected people who surfaced too soon when I met Jane. The mutations were slowly killing her and we both agreed her best chance of survival was in the hospital where I could help. I guess we were both wrong.’
His face screws up and I can easily see how much it torments him that he made the wrong decision. It’s not his fault and he didn’t do this to her, but he doesn’t see it that way.
‘Has there been any luck with the blood samples the doctors took from me?’ I ask, attempting to change the subject.
He shakes his head. ‘No. I’ve spent years working on a cure and made little progress. Even with your blood samples, we’re still a long way off.’
My shoulders sag and I look away from him. I worry about how long it will take them to find a way to help Will and Jane. A part of me thought they’d take one look at my blood and come up with an answer, but that’s clearly not the case.
‘I haven’t given up hope yet, and you shouldn’t either,’ he says.
I glance over my shoulder to Will, who is still asleep at the other end of the room, before looking back at Aiden. ‘How is Will really doing?’ I ask, keeping my voice low.
‘It’s hard to say. He seems to be steadily declining. If we don’t figure something out to help him soon, I fear the worst for him.’
I swallow uncomfortably. I want to turn and look at the sleeping boy again, but I can’t bring myself to do it. I can’t stand the thought of losing him.
‘He’s a fighter. He will be okay,’ I say, more to comfort myself than anything else. ‘I stumbled upon a spot in the forest yesterday that has all these amazing flowers. I’m planning to surprise him with it once he’s a bit better. He misses the outside.’
‘I’m sure he’ll love that,’ Aiden replies, though I catch a concerned look in his eyes.
I hear movement behind me, and turn to find Sebastian walking in.
‘Elle, I’m glad I found you,’ he says, pulling one hand through his hair. ‘April is back and she needs to talk with you.’
‘She’s back already?’ Sebastian nods. ‘Okay, I’m coming now. Can I get you anything while I’m out?’ I ask Aiden.
‘No, I’m fine.’
‘I haven’t seen you eat anything in days. You should eat.’ I nod my head at the sandwich he holds limply in his hands.
‘Yes, Mum,’ he replies, but the humour fails to reach his eyes. I don’t think he’ll give the sandwich a second look once I’m gone, but I can hardly stand over him to watch him eat it.
‘Okay, I’ll see you later,’ I say, before following Sebastian outside. Every time I leave Aiden in the clinic I feel bad. The thought of him there, spending all day and all night desperately struggling to find a cure for Jane is heartbreaking. I just wish I could do more to help.
‘I need a window maker for getting to Henry,’ she says, as soon as she zips the front flap shut. ‘Dalton is stationed in North Hope for M at the moment and he’s the only one we have.’
‘If you need someone to get to the other side of a wall, surely you could ask Ryan to help?’ I suggest.
She shakes her head. ‘Ryan is doing stuff for M, he won’t be able to help us with this.’
‘I could do it,’ Sebastian says.
She shakes her head again. ‘No, your talent won’t help as there’s more than one person involved.’ She looks at me seriously.
‘What?’ I ask her, when she fails to explain.
‘I want you to be the window maker,’ she says.
‘Is this a joke?’ I ask, thoroughly unimpressed.
‘Do you think I’d joke about something like this?’
‘No, but it’s crazy. I don’t think I even have that talent,’ I say.
This hardly dissuades her. ‘The doctors here have samples from everyone in camp. They could give you the talent.’
‘Can’t Dalton come back and help?’
April shakes her head. ‘He’d raise suspicion if he left at the moment. It needs to be you.’
‘I thought you said it would be too dangerous for Elle to go there because of the alert the recruiters have out for her?’ Sebastian says.
‘We should be able to get by them without any trouble. I’ll convince anyone who sees her that she’s someone else.’
‘Don’t you think Elle has enough talents to deal with already?’ Sebastian adds.
April ignores him. ‘I’ve only been giving you a bit of help with keeping your emotions in check during our training sessions. I can do a lot more than that. I could have you convinced you are Dalton if that helps, but it’s the best chance we have.’
I glance at Sebastian, who looks as unimpressed with April’s suggestion as I feel. Maybe with her help I could do it. My hopes sink though as I think of Ryan’s warning. He made me promise not to take on any other talents, but could one more really hurt? How can I say no, when without Henry there would be no cure for Will and Jane?
The ARC 03: Fractured Page 16