by Sybil Nelson
When the transmission was over, Dad came back on the holophone screen. "We just wanted to let you know what was going on. Be careful out there and hurry back. Apparently, Selliwood knows how to track the jet. There's no telling -"
My dad was interrupted by a loud blast. Katya and I lurched forward. The jet started shaking. I was losing control.
"Dad, we've been hit!"
Another blast hit and the lights in the cockpit started blinking on and off.
"Priss, are you there? What happened? I'm losing you."
"Daddy, someone's shooting at us," I tried to tell him, but his image was gone. We were losing power. The jet diverted all available power to the engines which meant the communications device had to be sacrificed. The jet started diving forward.
"Hang on, Kat," I said, pulling up on the controls trying to get us out of the nose dive. I looked on the radar and saw that another aircraft was only about two hundred yards behind us. "Do you know who that is?" I figured she might recognize the person from when she was in the institute. Maybe she could use her powers to see who was flying it.
Katya closed her eyes, trying to use her telepathy to figure out what was going on.
"It is Specimen T. He is right on our tail. He is aiming again. Priss, do something!"
I went to work on the console, converting all the reserve energy I could find to the engines. Then I quickly turned the jet on its side and looped around the aircraft that was attacking us. I hoped that with a few quick maneuvers I'd be able to lose him. He wasn't that easy to shake. I went hundreds of miles out of our way trying to get rid of him. Every which way I turned he was right behind me. Sometimes I think he even anticipated my moves. He probably did.
He shot at us three more times. Somehow I was able to dodge each missile, but I didn't know how much longer I could keep up this fight. I knew the jet had missiles but I didn't know how to use them. Mom never taught me.
"Kat, we're gonna have to work together to get rid of him."
"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
"I'm gonna shut down one of our engines to send the energy to the cloaking mechanism. I want him to think that he hit us and that we're spinning out of control. When we're almost in the water, I'm gonna activate the cloaking device and pull up. But I want him to think we've crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Can you do that?"
"I don't know. I am not as good at hypnotic suggestion as Joshua. And it is even more difficult to use against a Specimen."
"You gotta try, Kat."
"I will do my best."
Katya closed her eyes and focused. The platinum blonde strands of hair on her head were standing on end.
A few seconds later she shook her head. "I can't do it. He is too strong for me. What are we gonna do?"
Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I saw another aircraft appear on the radar.
"Oh snap! There's another one!"
I made the preparations to shut down the left engine. It was our only chance. I just hoped I could maintain enough control over the jet so that we didn't spiral out of control and crash into the water.
"Priss wait," Katya said leaning toward the radar screen. "That is the hovercopter!" She closed her eyes, and then said, "It is W and your dad. They have come to help us."
I breathed a sigh of relief. We at least had a chance of getting out of this now. But it was still gonna be tough.
W was sending me a telepathic message. On the count of three, I was to pull up while he blasted T from behind.
On three I pulled up sharply. A blast and a flash of light followed. Remnants of the fighter jet that had been tailing us for the past half hour fell into the Gulf of Mexico. My heart started to return to a normal rhythm.
Suddenly, the lights in the jet flickered back on. "What was that?" I asked looking around and checking the console. How did we suddenly get power back to all the operating systems?
"That was W. He can manipulate anything electrical, remember?"
"Right," I said as I clicked on the holophone trying to reach my dad.
"You okay, Priss?" My dad's face popped up again.
"We're fine, Daddy," I said, trying to sound calm and brave.
"Thank goodness." Now it was my dad's turn to breathe a sigh of relief. "We're gonna follow you back to Missouri."
"Can I say it? Can I say it now?" Specimen W said trying to shove his face into the holophone screen.
My dad sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, say it."
Specimen W cleared his throat and with a huge grin on his face said, "And that is how we do it Big Willie Style!"
Chapter 20: Chips and Salsa
As soon as we landed the jet and the hovercopter in the corn fields near our house, my dad ran out to sweep me into his arms.
My dad was too emotional to speak as he smothered me with a bear hug. I should have known my dad would come to my rescue. He would never let anything bad happen to me if it was in his power to stop it.
After my dad set me down and wiped the tears from his face, he and Will Smith started working on the repairs to the jet. They wanted to make sure it was in working order in case we needed to use it again soon. They also wanted to figure out a way to keep it from being tracked.
Suddenly exhausted, I went to my room and crashed on my bed. Before I could fall into the deep sleep that my body really needed, I heard a tapping on my door.
"Priss it's me, Mom." She opened the door part way and poked her head in. "Can I come in? I thought you might like a bedtime story."
It might seem kind of odd that my mother wanted to read her thirteen-year-old daughter a bedtime story. I mean, I'm too old for that, right? But I knew exactly what she was trying to do. She wanted to make up for lost time. See, when I was little, every night my mom would tuck me in and read me a bedtime story. It was our special mother daughter time. But right after I turned eight, she started disappearing for months at a time. I found out later that she was saving lives and rescuing people from Selliwood's clutches, but at the time I just missed my mommy. I resented her for a long time because of how much she was away. Now I think she was incredibly brave and caring to risk her life for so many other people like that. I wanted to be just like her.
I smiled and nodded. A bedtime story would be just the thing I needed to help me relax after that air fight I had just endured.
My mother came into my room and sat next to me on the bed. I scooted closer to her and rested my head on her lap.
"What story do you want to hear?"
"You know, you never really told me how you and Dad met. I mean, I know he was a guard at the Institute, but how exactly did you fall in love?"
My mother smiled at the thought. "Well, like you said, he was a guard," she began snuggling in closer to me, "but right away I knew he was different from the other guards. First of all, I realized immediately he was way too smart to be a bodyguard."
"How?"
"Well, when I was a teenager at the Institute, they tried out using these medicine droids to administer medication to the specimens. It was so creepy to have a three foot robot stick you with needles day in and day out." My mother shivered a little. "Anyway, one day, one of your dad's friends accidently broke one of them by spilling his coffee on it. Colonel Selliwood would have been extremely upset and probably fired him on the spot, but your dad came to the rescue. He was able to take the robot apart and put it back together as good as new in less than an hour."
"Wow," I said.
"Yeah, he was pretty amazing. He saved his friend's job. Anyway, it turns out that your dad was just working at the institute as a summer job to earn a little extra cash to get him through college."
"Did you talk to all the guards? How did you end up finding out so much about Daddy? What brought you two together?"
"Patience, Prissy, I'll get to that." She smiled again while smoothing my red hair behind my ears. "Anyway, once I figured out how cute your father was and how smart he was, I became obsessed with finding opportunities
to talk to him."
"So, what did you do?"
"I was such a love sick idiot. I would walk past the guard's lounge three and four times a day just hoping to get a glimpse of him. Once, I finally caught him when he was alone in there and I went in. He was eating chips and salsa and watching TV. Two things I had never done before."
"You'd never had chips and salsa or watched TV?"
She shook her head. "Dr. Witherall had me on a strict diet of basically steroids and Wheat Germ. Colonel Selliwood didn't allow me to watch TV because he didn't want me forming my own opinions of the world." Her smile faded at the mention of those two. I didn't want her to get upset and stop talking so I had to guide the conversation back to my dad.
"Did you sit down and watch TV with him?"
That brought the smile back. "Yeah, he must have thought I was the biggest idiot in the world. I thought the people in the TV were real. I actually wanted to visit the Cosby family and learn what it was like to have a mother and father and siblings. For a while I wished that I could run away and be adopted by the Cosbys. It was then that I decided I wanted a family. I wanted a husband and a house and children just like you." My mother leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. "Then your father let me try his chips and salsa. I thought it was the most amazing thing in the world. I ate the entire bag. He actually ran to the vending machine to buy me two more bags of chips."
"Was it really hard? Not having parents or anything?"
My mother sighed. "For most of my life, I didn't even realize anything was wrong. Not until I watched The Cosby Show. After that I really did miss having a family. I felt so deprived. But now that I think about it, it wasn't always needles torture and murder. I mean the other Specimens became like my brothers and sisters. And Dr. Witherall was even like a father to us."
"Really?" I asked, shocked that Dr. Witherall was ever anything other than creepy.
"Yeah, I mean, he made sure we were healthy, he took care of our needs, and he even bought us Christmas presents. I think in his own sick little way...he actually loved us." My mother raised her eyebrows in surprise as if this was a new realization. "As long as Colonel Selliwood never found out about the little extra things he did for us, everything was fine."
Well, I guess that explained why he gave me that birthday present. He was just carrying on his weird little tradition. I still didn't understand why the gift had to be something so expensive. I kinda wondered if the necklace had some sort of special significance. I wondered if it was time to tell my mother about it. Just as I was about to bring it up, I changed my mind and bit my tongue. Something inside told me I better not.
My mother grew quiet as she probably thought about what she had been through at the Institute and what the Colonel had made her do. I needed to change the subject again.
"So then what happened with Dad?" I asked so excited to be hearing this story. I couldn't believe that I had never learned the details of how my parents fell in love.
"Well, we made it a habit of meeting every Thursday and watching The Cosby Show together," she began again with new excitement. "That went on for months. I was completely in love with Greg, but I had no way of knowing how he really felt about me. I was kind of socially awkward and didn't know how to pick up on social signals. Until one day, I got really sick."
"From what?"
"The computer chip in my brain started malfunctioning. I literally couldn't move for almost a week. Well, Greg came to visit me even on his days off until they were able to deactivate the chip and I could function again. He would switch his shifts with another guard just so he could see me when I needed him. He even brought me chips and salsa."
"That is sooo cute, Mom."
"So, after that, I kinda knew that he liked me too. So when I got better, I decided to tell him how I felt. Unfortunately, I tried to do it telepathically and I -"
"You put him in a coma," I said finishing her sentence. I knew this part of the story. Daddy often joked that Mom had tried to kill him when they were dating.
"So, when he came to from his little nap," my mother continued, "he told me how he felt about me as well. But by that time, Dr. Witherall had figured out our secret little romance and had ordered Greg to be transferred. We decided the only way for us to be together was for me to escape. So that's what we did."
"That's a great story, Mom," I said yawning.
"You better get some sleep," my mom said lifting me off her lap. "You've had a rough night. I'm really proud of you, by the way. You're a brave little girl."
After she stood up to leave, a question popped into my head. "Mom," I said with another yawn. "What happened to the computer chip?"
"What do you mean?"
"The computer chip in your head. Did they ever find out what was wrong with it?"
"As a matter of fact, I don't think they ever did."
Chapter 21: It's not a Fake
The next day, my brush phone rang at like six in the morning.
"What's going on, Tai?" I said, rolling over to my side and resting the phone on my ear. I didn't really want to wake up yet. I knew we had a lot of work to do in order to save Elizabeth Gonzalez. But I wasn't ready to just jump right into it yet. I was still exhausted. I noticed I had even fallen asleep wearing the same clothes from last night.
"What are you doing?"she asked.
"It's six a.m. What do you think I'm doing? I'm in the bed... and I was asleep."
There was a pause.
"Tai?"
"That's not possible. I just saw you thirty seconds ago walking around your old house. You were wearing glasses."
I sat up and swung my feet over the bed. Glasses? I would never wear glasses. I totally don’t have the right face structure for them. "In River's Bend?" I asked.
"Yeah, right across the street at your old house. I thought you had come by to help me get ready for the dance. I was just about to call your name and go over and talk to you, when you disappeared."
"It wasn't me. It must have been that kidnapping clone of me." I stood up and paced the room. "Listen, Tai. I don't know why she's there. And I don't know what she's capable of. Stay away from her, okay?"
"Should I call the police or something?"
I thought about this for a second. I wasn't sure if I should get the police involved or not. I mean, the police would think that she was me. That would entail too much explaining and at this point, I didn't have an explanation.
"Let me talk to my mom and dad. And take a picture if you get the chance, okay?"
I hung up the brush phone and tried not to panic. There was no need to panic, right? I’m sure Tai just made a mistake. I shook my head. Not possible. She knows what I look like. Okay, so the kidnapping clone of me was at my old house. There had to be a reason. I’m sure Mom and Dad could figure it out.
I went to my parent’s bedroom and knocked. When there was no response, I poked my head in. Mom was asleep...again. What in the world was going on with her? I didn’t have time to think about it too much. I just turned around and went to find my dad.
I walked into the kitchen and found Charlie and Chester covered head to toe in butter and snacking on a package of Lunchables. I looked at my watch. Did they always wake up this early? Weirdos.
"What are you doing?" I asked them, momentarily distracted from my search for dad.
"Eating," they said in unison.
"No, I mean the butter. What's up with the butter?"
"Mom says you are what you eat," Chester said.
"We want to be butter," Charlie added.
"What?" I said, staring at them.
"Well, I actually wanted to be bacon, but the bacon slices kept falling off my face," Chester said.
"That's because the bacon didn't like your stupid face. Your face is stupid," Charlie said.
"Your face is stupid," Chester replied with a shove.
"No, your face is stupid."
"Uh, boys, have you looked in a mirror lately? You have the same face. Morons."
They were such idiots.
Dad wasn't at home so I got dressed and jogged to the safe house. When I got there, I found Josh and Katya sitting on the couch watching The Notebook. Katya turned around and gave me a big cheesy thumbs up. I had never seen so much emotion from her before. For once, she didn't seem like a tall Russian robot. She looked like a typical teenager girl who had fallen hard for my brother. She turned back around then snuggled closer to her Joshua. When he wrapped his arm around her in preparation for his make out move, I rolled my eyes and headed for the basement.
I found Dad in the briefing room staring at the video footage of the kidnapping again. I wondered if he had gotten any sleep that night. He was unshaven and looked as though he hadn't even attempted to go to bed.
"Hmph," he said after I told him what Tai had told me. "I wonder what they want with our old house."
"Do you think we should go to River's Bend?"
He shook his head. "We don't have to. I installed a security system that acts as a force field around the house. They won't be able to get in. And if they do, we'll be the first to know. I'll do a surveillance sweep of the house just to be sure."
A few seconds later he pinched his chin and said, "There was a brief disturbance in the force field this morning. But nothing since. They must have given up trying to get through the encryption codes.”
“Do you think they’ll come back? Is River’s Bend in danger?”
My dad rubbed his bald head as he thought about this. “It’s hard to say Priss. I have no idea what they’re up to or what they’re after.” He shook his head. “I can’t imagine them putting their entire operation in jeopardy just to get into our house. There’s nothing in there.” He sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on it. If there’s any possibility that your friends are in danger, I’ll let you know immediately. Okay, Prissy?” After kissing the top of my head, my dad went back to his video footage for a second, but then said, "Wait a minute. When and how did you talk to Tai?"
"I...Um..." Snap! He was going to find out about the brush phone.