“That's not important. It's what happened after.”
John looked thoughtful, then shook his head. “I remember that the guy signed an important document into effect,” he paused. “Sophie?”
She nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, you're getting warmer. You remember all the adults were raging about how it would change the face of France?”
I remembered that, my parents had talked about it. “Yeah, so?”
“He didn't actually sign it. Well, he did and he didn't.”
“Oh Sophie!” Jade said impatiently. “Just tell them, or I will.”
Sophie glared at Jade then went on, “He was dead when he signed it. Dead.” She leaned back in her chair triumphantly, stabbing a helpless curlicue noodle and popping it into her mouth, chewing on it slowly while we all sat, mouths agape, digesting this latest disaster.
“Parker,” I said.
Swallowed her bite, she pointed her fork at me. “Bingo.”
John said, “So... if I am following this, Parker was used by somebody,” John turned to me to confirm and I gave a terse nod, “and made sure that after the assassination, in which the Prime Minister was probably marked for death so he could not sign this document, he was then raised by Parker, who directed him to sign it and faked the nation out.”
“What? Did the dude die twice?” Jonesy asked.
Jade sighed. “No, listen, there was an attempt to kill him. It worked, but the bad guys made it look like it hadn't. The prime minister signed the thing, as a zombie, then they made it look like he didn't make it after all.”
“Ah-huh, well I did my CE on some Greenpeace thing.”
No wonder he didn't have a clue.
“Ugh!” Sophie said, disgusted with the general ignorance that was Jonesy.
“Everybody knows I don't dig that civic crap.”
“What-ev-er! It was kinda important,” Jade said.
Jonesy shrugged, completely unconcerned.
“The bottom line is, Parker changed history,” I said.
We were all quiet at that revelation.
“You're in deep shit,” Jonesy said.
“Ya think?” I replied. He had put that together, at least.
“I do,” Jonesy nodded.
Wonderful.
Sophie said, “Listen, I'm a witness, what do you think about that? Imagine the trouble I'd be in if they knew that I knew, huh?”
More silence. Our little group was becoming quite a threat. I cast a secretive (or circumspect... ha,ha) glance around us, the formula-people were still by the doors. The pulse clock was counting down, only five minutes, forty-seven seconds left until the rest of the AP Test.
“We need some kind of plan, an objective,” John said.
“A what?” Jonesy asked.
John just looked at him; we did a lot of that.
“Listen, have any of you freaks-o-nature considered that the Jones-Man here doesn't have any cool stuff at my awesome disposal?”
He was right. He was a mundane in a pond of paranormals.
John ducked his head, shamed. “You're right, I'll try to be more patient. After all, you get stuff done.”
“Yeah! Damn straight! I'm accomplished, I'm legitimate, I'm...”
“Okay, Jonesy, we know your importance,” Sophie conceded, suppressing an eye roll.
“Listen, let's not get distracted. We've got,” I glanced at the pulse clock, “less than three minutes to formulate a plan. And, let me just restate the obvious, we still don't know what the blue hell John is.”
“That's true, Caleb. But we have bigger problems than just that, like Carson and Brett and getting through this test,” John said.
“Well I, for one, want to meet somewhere and figure it out,” Sophie said.
“Where?” Jade asked, glancing at the clock again.
Jonesy let a slow grin spread over his face.
I started to shake my head. “NO-oh, don't you even think it.”
Jade joined in, “No way, Jonesy.”
“Yes way, sista!”
“Oh crap,” John moaned, doing a face-palm.
“What?” Sophie asked, confused.
“The Cemetery!” Jonesy clapped his hands together gleefully, barely containing his joy.
We hung our heads, while Sophie looked confused at Jonesy's triumph. He was in his element, let the games begin.
The pulse clock chimed; it was back to AP Testing. We were almost done and hopefully I'd be just a two or three pointer, not a Parker-worthy five pointer.
A glimmer of hope sparkled in my mind's eye, wrapping a fist around it. I held it tight like the world depended on it.
Maybe it did.
CHAPTER 20
The testing wrapped at the end of school. A damn good thing, as after lunch, I could feel myself “sharpening right up.” As we filed out of Delta, we were scanned again for dismissal. This time, our pulse pad's results were scanned as well.
Now, and forevermore, the committee of “they” would know what our collective aptitudes were, paranormal or otherwise. We would all know what each other was. The results would determine the next four years of our education and where we'd receive it.
After I was scanned, I could only hope that the drug's effect had lasted long enough that the remainder of the questions were answered and completed without giving myself away.
No pressure.
I grabbed my backpack out of my locker, noticing that it was not in the place that I'd left it. Huh, I looked around, unconsciously looking for the formula-people, none were in sight.
They were top on my list of suspects. Lurking around doorways and such, not doing much of anything. Didn't like it.
Just then, Jade strolled up in all her blackness, looking dark and mysterious.
Hotness.
“Hi.”
I smiled, smitten as usual. Then I had a thought.
“Before we go, would you,” I gave her the helpless look and her eyes narrowed, huh, better ask straight out, “do a 'feelie' on my locker?”
“A which?”
“Ya know, touch my locker and see who's been in it.”
Jade put her hands on her hips (still hot). Then she got that look, ya know the one, where the girl may go all emo on you. So I rushed in with some explaining.
“The thing is, I always hang my backpack here,” I pointed to the double hook on the left side.
Okay... her look said.
“And I hang my cap on the right.”
“Which you never wear,” she noted.
“True, but my mom makes me take it to school in case I get cold.”
“You never get cold.”
“Right, but my mom feels better about it. And when she asks, I can say it's in my locker just in case.”
“Okay?”
“Anyways, when I came back from the AP Testing, the backpack was on the right and the cap on the left.”
That cute little frown between her eyes made an appearance. She was thinking it through; no cluttering up the moment with chatter. Love that.
Jade came to some decision. Reaching forward with her hand, she touched the hook, wrapping delicately built fingers around the cool metal.
I had a moment when I didn't think anything would happen and then her body stiffened, her eyes taking on a glazed expression. I didn't like where this was going, getting up close behind her. Just as her eyelids fluttered and she started to sway, I moved in against her, cradling her small body against my larger one.
“I think I'm gonna be sick,” she said, eyes still closed.
Like... right here?
The Js charged up out of nowhere.
“What's wrong with Jade?” John asked.
“I don't know. Jonesy, get my water in there, no... in the backpack.”
Jonesy tore through my backpack, jerking out my water bottle. John grabbed a chair from one of the commons' tables and put it next to Jade. I carefully lowered her down on the seat, a fragile commodity.
“Jade, can you hear
me?” John asked.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Put your head between your knees.”
Jade did it. Jonesy hopped from one foot to the other, not knowing what to do with the water.
John looked at me, the flat of his palm on Jade's back.
“What's going on, Caleb?”
“I don't know, I had her do the whammy on my locker because someone's been messin' around in there, and she had like, I don't know, a moment or something and got all dizzy.”
“The whammy?” Jonesy asked.
“She used her Empath powers to find out who infiltrated Caleb's locker,” John translated, using his fancy vocab.
Jonesy surprised us all with, “someone rippin' off your crap?”
Accurate for Jonesy.
“Nothing's missing, but someone was in here.”
“But... it's a pulse lock.” Jonesy's look said double-duh... fingerprint security.
Pulse security.
John nodded slowly, Jade began to raise her head. Jonesy gave her the water, which she uncapped.
“Just sip that Jade, no gulping,” John said.
She nodded.
“That means a manual by-pass,” John said.
Jonesy smiled. “Bringin' up that civic crap again. That bores me 'til I weep, dude.”
“How do you figure?” I asked.
“Because, who is going to be able to by-pass a pulse lock unless they're 'The Government'?”
“Not bad Jonesy, not bad at all,” John said.
Jade looked scared.
“He's right. They're total posers.”
“Who are posers Jade?” John asked.
“The formula-people,” she replied.
I sucked in a big breath. Hell, that had been the name I gave those people when I saw them. But, that wasn't their real name. It's just what I thought of them as.
“I know what you thought Caleb. You touched the hook too,” she said.
“How can you tell it's me and not them thinking?”
Jade did a huge eye roll. Definitely feeling better now.
She lowered her voice and we all leaned in to hear, “How do you know one zombie from another?”
Well, that was easy, they just, felt different. It was like hearing a voice, no two were alike. Some of what I thought must have shown on my face.
She leaned back in the chair, satisfied.
“See, it's like that,” she said.
“So, you knew it was me. As if it was my voice talking?”
“That's not completely accurate, but it'll do,” Jade said.
“It's like a signature?” John asked.
“I guess. It's hard to explain this stuff to someone that doesn't do it,” she shrugged.
I noticed the death volume wasn't loud for me at this moment and mentioned that. The drug was definitely flushed by now.
“It's kinda random now anyway, right?” Jonesy asked.
Yeah, now that I thought about it, sometimes the voices were loud, sometimes hardly there. I couldn't figure out why it came and went but it was a recent development.
“Who was it Jade?”
“I don't know who they are but I know what they are.”
“What?” Jonesy asked.
“They're government alright, just not the government that we know about. They're like a subdivision of a subdivision.”
That sounded bad. I thought of my ransacked house, where nothing had been stolen but everything had been looked at, touched, moved.
“Let's split. I don't want to talk about this here,” John said, looking around.
Good idea. We gathered our crap up and started to walk away.
“Wait,” Jade said.
I turned toward her. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Getting there. Let me go find Sophie first.”
Jonesy made a face. Uh-oh. Jade put her hands back on her hips and marched over to Jonesy.
Almost nose to nose but she was still shorter. “You got a problem with Sophie?” she demanded, her face fierce.
“No, no problem,” Jonesy sputtered, caving.
“You looked like you had one.”
“It's just, we used to be an all-guy thing, and now... well, we may be getting too many hens in the chicken coop.”
“Oh... please! You bunch of roosters need all the help you can get. Be grateful!”
And with that parting shot she pivoted on her heel and went off in search of Sophie. Sophie of the Astral-Projection persuasion.
We stood silently looking after Jade.
“You handled that well, Jonester,” John said.
“Yeah,” he said glumly.
“Maybe next time just let the girls come,” I said.
“Yeah,” John said.
“This mundane thing blows goats. And the girls are taking over the world,” Jonesy stated.
“Not yet,” I said, winking.
Jonesy smiled and we walked out the door into the school parking lot where cars swarmed everywhere. We hiked over to a small grassy knoll, waiting for the girls. I threw my backpack behind my head and laid down, my head balancing on a lump of junk. Jonesy and John flanked me.
We waited as the sunlight warmed our bodies. Almost summer, I thought. Not hot and crummy yet, still spring.
“We have to find out what these...”
“Formula-people,” I supplied.
“Yeah them. What they really want from you,” John said.
“They're just rooting around, hoping to come up with something,” I said.
“Good thing you didn't put that pill bottle in your backpack,” Jonesy said.
“Right. Isn't that the truth,” John said.
We thought about who was watching.
We were lying there all languid when two shadows fell over our bodies. All three of us put our hands up to shield our eyes from the sun. It was the girls; Sophie's shadow, completely shading my body, Jade's covering Jonesy up to the neck.
“Let's go,” Sophie said.
“Where?” Jade asked.
“The cemetery,” Jonesy said.
“No,” I said.
“Oh, come on Hart! You can clean house if anyone shows up!”
Jonesy sat up, shaking off the languor and pantomiming punching.
“I don't want to. Every time I go to the cemetery a bunch of crap rains down on our heads! No.”
“What could happen?” Sophie asked.
We looked at her. She laughed. “It's that bad?”
“Yeah,” we said in unison.
“But it is the safest, the most private. They can't hear us.” Jade reasoned.
I thought about it, wavering. There really wasn't a very good alternative.
I made a decision. “Okay, everybody pulse the parental authority, get the go ahead, and let's book to the graveyard.”
“Wait,” everyone's attention turned to John. “Let's have a look-out. We don't want to be followed.”
“Brilliant. I'll do it,” Sophie said.
I nodded and we dug out our pulses, getting the parents handled.
Jade's face fell.
“What?” I asked, my hand landing on her shoulder and giving it a gentle squeeze.
“Aunt Andrea says I need to go home and check in,” Jade made airquotes.
John said, “I don't like it.”
That made two of us.
“Not normal Jade.”
“I know, right?”
“You don't think it's your crazy-ass dad?” Jonesy asked delicately.
I glared at him. Jade saw and said, “It's okay, he's crazier than a shit-house rat.”
Sophie barked a very un-girl like shout of laughter.
“Where did you get that one?” she asked.
“Andrea.”
“I guess she's good for something.”
“Sophie, she really tries. They were raised in the same family ya know.”
“I know,” her hand squeezed the opposite shoulder. Now we both had our hands on our girl. Sophie'
s eyes met mine, Jade was fragile and we loved her. A fierce grip of possession blossomed in me and I felt a new focus for my life.
She gave us that radiant smile reserved for us; me and her best friend, I'd take that.
CHAPTER 21
Any graveyard always affected me the same way. As I got closer the voices grew louder. It was Jade and I in front with Sophie slightly behind, the Js pulling up the rear. Voices of the dead droned; I hadn't missed their absence (internal sigh).
Jade and I, our hands held tightly as we swept under the arch of scrolling metal, looked up at me with questions. Touching me like she was, I was tuned to the frequency of the dead. Brave girl, her hand was still dry.
John trotted up to us and the whispering dimmed. “So, where do you want to go?”
That was easy. “Let's head over to Clyde's grave.”
“Clyde?”
“Yeah, he's by far my favorite corpse.”
Jade laughed. “Ah... okay, whatever you say.”
“I've never seen the fun, so I'll assume being in the cemetery is kinda risky,” Sophie said.
Jonesy caught up with us, hearing the last comment. “Hell yeah! That's the full throttle of hanging out with us! It's the way we roll,” Jonesy said, folding his arms across a muscular chest.
Sophie looked at him.“Well, good for you,” she snarked, turning to Jade, eyebrows shooting up. Gee, how did we ever live without them?
I figured Sophie had about five and a half minutes before she succumbed to Jonesy's charms.
The Js did a high five to cement the moment and I grinned. The friends were it, they just flat were. Sophie gave them a look, knowing her presence was not going to change our supreme maleness.
We made our way to Clyde's grave... ole' twice-raised Clyde. He looked a little “smart” on that last run and I'd felt uneasy. No guts, no glory. Jerking corpses out of the ground more than once, I pondered that. Nope, I really wanted to know.
We plopped down in a semi-circle around his grave. The thrumming of the dead sounded very low in the background. I just couldn't make sense of that. They should be shrieking with me being in the cemetery and all. Jade was on my left, John on my right. Jonesy and Sophie had an unspoken truce, sitting together. Jonesy had his legs splayed out in front of him with his elbows locked behind him and Sophie sat legs crossed, elbows on knees and palms holding her chin.
“Okay we're here, now what?” Sophie asked.
“I want to talk more about the testing,” I said.
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