by Eaton, Pam
“We’re going to need Lucy,” he says in a shaky voice, breaking the image of Xavier in my mind.
I look at him, totally confused.
“He’s in Brazil,” Tiberius says.
Four
Tiberius and I sit on the couch behind Lucy’s workstation. She’s typing furiously and clicking things on three different monitors. I don’t bother to ask any questions; I learned pretty quickly to just let her do her thing. Interrupting her is like poking a beehive. Just don’t do it. Plus, she’s on a mission to help this little girl. Nothing is going to interrupt her.
“Aha! Got him,” Lucy crows triumphantly.
She pushes back her chair and turns to us with a smug look. We walk over to the screen, and sure enough, there’s Xavier standing at Beira Do Rio, the original restaurant where I met Lucy for the first time in Itaituba. He’s a lot rougher than the last time I saw him, like he’s been traveling for weeks. His beautiful raven hair is unbrushed and tangled, and he’s in desperate need of a shave.
“When was that taken?” I ask, anxiety filling my stomach.
Lucy leans forward and types in something. “Looks like about two hours ago. Those cameras I put up around town are excellent quality.”
“I’m going to give Paulo a call and see if he talked with him,” Tiberius says, and walks out of the room.
I stare at the picture of Xavier. “He’s here for me,” I say, not taking my eyes off the screen.
“He is,” Lucy says, her tone careful.
I rub a hand across my eyes. How would he know where to look? No one knew about Tiberius. I was so careful. But was Grandpa?
“I wonder if he found something at my home,” I tell her.
“But how?” she asks. I know she’s thinking that there wasn’t anything there to salvage. Anything in that house is gone. But we haven’t talked about that. I can’t.
I fill her in on Xavier’s power. She lets out a low whistle. “He must have found out by using his powers at your home,” she agrees.
I start pacing back and forth behind Lucy, her eyes tracking my every move. I know I’m agitated, and I can see that she’s concerned, but I can’t deal with that now. It’s not a new look for her. I see it all the time, especially when she thinks I’m not looking.
“But why wait four months to come and find me?” It just doesn’t add up.
She leans back in her chair. “Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s looking for you.”
I stop at her words. Maybe he doesn’t. But there’s only one way to find out. “I need to talk to him. I need to know what he knows, and we need his help. We don’t have much time.”
“You won’t go alone,” Tiberius says as he walks back into the room. “Paulo talked to Xavier today. Found it odd because not many Americans visit this area. He just asked some generic questions. Nothing to raise concern.”
I run a hand through my hair. “He was probably trying to see if I had been there recently. It’s been a while since I’ve been to town though,” I tell them.
“That’s good. And Paulo gave him real generic answers back.”
“Well, let’s go pay him a visit then,” I say and hold my hand out to Tiberius.
He looks at my hand. “I want your word that if he’s there for nefarious reasons, we’re leaving right away,” Tiberius says.
“I won’t put this place in danger,” I vow to him. I won’t do anything to ever jeopardize the people here.
He nods and places his hand in mine. “He’s staying at Hotel Açaí, that’s not far from Paulo’s place. I don’t know if he’s alone, just that there isn’t anyone with powers around. He’s there now.”
I close my eyes and with Tiberius’s help we transport to the alley behind the hotel. Tiberius staggers out of my hold and props himself up against the building. It takes only a moment for him to get his bearings, and that’s such an improvement.
After I realized that my second power was to enhance, I practiced and practiced being able to transport people. At first, they would only let me try it with one of the village chickens, Henrietta. She got to travel the globe, but she’s still alive. Since then I’ve been able to transport all of us on missions. I can only take three others with me at a time, but it’s been worth it…and no one has died, so that’s a plus.
A subtle shudder goes through him.
“You good?” I ask him. The first time I tried enhancing his power he passed out, but since then I’ve learned how to control it. It’s taken a lot of trial and error, but it’s gotten better. Tiberius is still the only one who knows about me being able to enhance.
He shakes out his hands and lifts off against the wall, standing to his impressive height. “That was a lot better than last time. Hardly any draining,” he says, and I let out a little sigh of relief. That first times I transported others after Tony, they all needed to sit down for a good ten minutes.
“All right, let’s go upstairs and pay him a visit,” I say.
We head up the back staircase to the second floor and down the hall to Xavier’s room. Tiberius stops in front of the door; he lifts his hand and looks at me questioningly. I look up and down the hall one last time. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I nod. I lay my hand on his back, just in case we need to get out of here quickly.
As Tiberius’s hand knocks softly, my stomach flips and my mind races. What’s Xavier going to say? How’s he going to explain what happened to Gregory? Why wasn’t he there, or was he? And where’s Raven?
Xavier’s door slowly opens, and his face appears in the crack. His mouth pulls in a hard line when he sees Tiberius, but as soon as his eyes swing to me and connect with mine, he rips the door open all the way.
In a blink, his arms are wrapped around me and he’s crushing my body to his. Everything in me seizes. I haven’t let anyone touch me, outside of my hand to transport, since I lost everyone I love, and it’s like my body doesn’t know what to do. “I never thought I’d find you,” he says into the top of my head.
I struggle in his arms, making his arms drop. My hands start to shake, and I cross my arms tightly across my chest. “Let’s step into the room for this conversation,” Tiberius says as he steps in front of me.
“Who the hell are you?” Xavier asks, getting into Tiberius’s personal space.
I step out from behind Tiberius, back into Xavier’s view. “Meet my uncle Tiberius.”
Five
Xavier’s eyes linger on me for a minute before he comes to a decision, and he slowly backs into his room. We follow him inside and Tiberius shuts the door. Xavier sits on the end of his bed, his eyes going back and forth between us.
The silence in the room stretches, causing the tension to ratchet up several notches. I scan Xavier, looking for clues as to why he’s here, but all I see is a tired man with wrinkled clothes, bags under his eyes, and his long beautiful hair a mess.
“Since when do you have an uncle?” he asks, sitting on the edge of his bed.
“We’re not talking about that right now, because I’m pretty sure you’re here hunting me down.” I pull out the chair in front of the desk and take a seat. “Why are you here? How are you here? Did they send you to retrieve me?” I ask, my voice deadly quiet.
He takes a deep breath and leans forward, clasping his hands between his knees. “I’ll get to your questions in a minute, but first, I’m so sorry about your grandparents.” His eyes pierce me, and his words alone drive a spike right into my heart, letting agony wiggle its way past the numbness I’ve encased myself in. If I weren’t sitting, I’d probably collapse to the floor.
“When we left Myanmar, we’d only been in the air for a few minutes when things took a drastic turn. Those men dressed in black…two were behind me and Raven. I didn’t even feel the initial stick of the needle, I just heard Raven cry out.”
I close my eyes at the images his words are creating. That one guy, the only one that spoke had sounded so familiar, but I still don’t know who it was.
“The
y injected us with a tranquilizer, and as my vision started to go, I felt the plane landing. Gregory leaned into me and whispered into my ear to get to you, to protect you.”
A sound starts to fill the room, a low keening. And it takes me a moment to realize it’s coming from me. Tiberius puts a hand on my shoulder, but I shake it off and take several deep breaths.
“The kids?” I ask, my voice rough.
Xavier stares at me, but I turn my head and look at the window. I don’t want to see his pity. “Back with their parents,” he tells me gently.
My whole body deflates at that. But why would they leave the kids? Why leave Raven and Xavier? Things aren’t adding up. I get to my feet and head for the lone window. I scrub a hand over my face.
“Did Mr. Smith send you after me?” I ask, because that’s the only reason he’d be here.
“Yes, sort of, but not for the reason you think. He’s worried. We all are. When we showed up at your grandparents’—”
The silence in the roof is deafening, and I know they can see my whole body stiffen, but I still don’t turn around.
“I found your phone there. I don’t think you realized it, but you whispered ‘Brazil.’” I hear him take a quick breath. “Why didn’t you come back to headquarters?” Xavier asks, genuinely sounding confused.
“There’s nothing left for me there,” I tell him, no emotion in my voice. Just dead, like how I’ve felt for a while now.
“Step back,” Tiberius orders.
I turn my head, surprised at Tiberius’s tone, and even more so at seeing Xavier up from the bed. Tiberius stands between us, acting as a physical barrier.
“We needed you. We needed your help in finding Gregory.” Xavier’s voice is harsh, cutting.
I turn fully to face him. “What?” I ask, completely shocked at his tone. He’s never talked to me like this. Or to anyone, from what I’ve seen.
“I thought you loved him! How could you not come back and help find him? Was it a lie? Are you just hiding with him?” He points at Tiberius. “Why do you think I’m here?”
I shake my head, anger washing over me. How dare he? “Don’t you dare.” The words snap out of me like a whip. “I saw the pictures. I had to look at those damn things while my grandparents’ house burned to the ground with them in—” My voice cracks, anger quickly giving way to the ever-present sadness that resides within my heart.
“Enough.” I’ve never heard Tiberius so lethal before.
“What are you talking about? What pictures?” Xavier asks, his eyes darting between Tiberius and myself.
“Gregory’s gone.” I know my voice is cold, dull. But I can’t let it be any other way. As it is, I’m breaking inside. And I promised myself that I wouldn’t break again. But I can feel the agony ripping my heart to shreds.
Xavier takes a step back, bumping into the bed behind him. “What? No.”
His hands shoot up and grip his hair. He starts pacing back and forth in front of the bed. Tiberius steps closer to him and tells Xavier what I can’t—that the pictures were of Gregory being killed.
“No. He can’t be gone.” Xavier says the words, but they’re not directed at me or Tiberius.
How did he not know? It’s been months. Did they not send Mr. Smith messages like they did me? When they kidnapped Tony, they didn’t wait this long to send a ransom. But, maybe?
“Tiberius?” I look up at him. And this stupid little niggle of hope tries to sprout, but I shove it down.
“You never asked. And I’ve never met him,” he says, basically reading my thoughts.
Xavier stops his pacing. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Do you trust him?” Tiberius asks me.
“Trust me?” Xavier asks, but I ignore the question.
I look over at Xavier. His face is set like stone. Do I trust him? A memory flashes in my mind. When we were rescuing Tony in Myanmar, he didn’t want to leave me there. They had to force him to leave. And I know he’d do anything in his power for Gregory.
“There’s so much you don’t know,” I tell Xavier, but most of that information will have to wait. I take a deep breath and trust my gut. “Tiberius can find anyone in the world with powers. If Gregory is alive, he’ll find him.”
Xavier curses, but I don’t pay him any attention. I never bothered to ask Tiberius to look. Those pictures they sent me—there’s no way they were fake. I take a step towards Tiberius and put a hand on his arm. I steel myself, and then let the onslaught of images flood my mind. Gregory’s smirk the first time I rode in an elevator with him. He knew I was ogling him. I picture our time in the basement at the cabin, working to perfect my power. I watch as he charged back down that hallway to kiss me for the first time. And finally I think of the smile he gave me before he boarded that plane, and how he told me he loved me.
Tiberius’s body sways a little as he closes his eyes. I’m probably pumping too much of my enhancing power into him, but I can’t help it. My emotions are way too involved at this point. He taps my hand twice, our signal for me to let go, and I step back.
My breath comes in short bursts. Did he find him? Were the pictures fake?
After several moments of his eyes still being closed, I can’t wait anymore. I’m on the verge of a heart attack over here. “Well?” I ask.
He opens his eyes and with that look he doesn’t even have to open his mouth; I already know. “I’m sorry.” He says the words so gently, but it feels like a gunshot to the chest.
Xavier drops to his knees, a tortured moaning sound coming out of him.
I take a deep breath. Desperately seeking that numbness I’ve been living in the past four months. But it’s so hard when things feel so fresh. It’s so hard when I hear Xavier’s agonizing grief.
Breathe, Becca. Just. Breathe.
A heavy, oppressive silence hangs in the room for several minutes. But I can’t take it anymore. I can’t dwell on it. It hurts. It hurts so much.
I drag in a lungful of air, and then blow it out slowly. “We didn’t come here to tell you this. We came here because we need your help,” I tell Xavier, desperate to get past this. To focus on something I can control.
He looks up at me, his face drawn. “What is it?”
I clasp my hands together, trying to stop them from shaking. “Remember all the things I found at the lab in Myanmar?”
A shudder runs through him. “Yeah.”
“That lab we found when we rescued the kids in Myanmar. That’s not the only lab out there. It was just a drop in the bucket.”
His face becomes haunted, because he knows about the experiments that were occurring there. About the embryos, and the things they did to those kids we saved. “How?” he asks.
“We don’t know who’s behind it. That’s the big problem. After every lab we raid, there’s another out there that we don’t know about. We keep getting tips and some are nothing, but last night we rescued a little girl who won’t talk, and we can’t help her. I think you can,” I say.
He sits up taller. “I’ll help,” he says without hesitation.
“Thank you,” I say, letting the relief pour into my voice. “But I need to know: does Mr. Smith know you’re in Brazil?” I ask. Because if he does, this won’t work.
“No. After not being able to find you after the first two months, he told me they were calling off the search for the time being. I’ve been trying to track down Gregory, but I knew I needed to find you. Because I was hoping if I found you, we’d find him,” he says.
“Are you carrying your issued phone?” I ask. Tiberius shifts next to me, like he knows the answer to this question can cause a whole host of problems.
Xavier looks between the two of us. “No. I left it so I could keep looking for you.” The relief is instant.
“There’s something, a place actually, I need to show you,” I tell him. I turn to Tiberius. “Want to give Lucy a heads-up?”
He takes out his cell and shoots out a text to her.
“You
’re going to need to hold my hand,” I tell him.
Tiberius walks over to me and grabs one hand and I hold the other out to Xavier. “I thought you couldn’t do that,” he says, staring at my hand.
“Things change,” I tell him matter-of-factly.
He reaches it and grabs it. “I’m trusting you,” he says.
“This is going both ways,” I respond. Because aside from Tony and myself, they’ve never had anyone from Project Lightning come to Fordlandia.
I squeeze his hand and transport us out of the room.
* * *
In a blink we’re standing beside the old rusted-out water tower.
“What is this place?” Xavier asks in awe.
I don’t blame him for being floored. This place is like the set of a 1950’s dystopian movie, with its rusted outbuildings and random old Fords half-covered in vines. It’s pretty surreal.
“Welcome to Fordlandia,” Tiberius says.
Three little girls run by us, their giggles filling the air. A huge smile spreads across Xavier’s face, and then little Melanie shoots a lightning bolt at the feet of Becky, and his jaw drops.
“Melanie Ann.” Tiberius’s Russian accent always gets thicker when he scolds someone. Melanie stops and slowly turns around to face us.
He squats down to her eye level. “Are you supposed to shoot people with your lightning?”
“Lightning?” I hear Xavier mumble to himself.
“No, Uncle Ti,” Melanie says in her sweet little voice.
“You could have really hurt Becky,” he tells her, and Melanie’s face collapses. He places his hand gently on her shoulder. “Don’t cry, little one, just be more careful,” he tells her kindly, but firmly.
She nods and runs off with her friends.
“Did she just…?” Xavier asks.
“Yes,” I tell him, while he continues to stare at Melanie in complete shock.
“Welcome to the safe haven for those who shouldn’t exist,” Tiberius tells him, making Xavier look between us and the little girls running off.