Dedication
To my Nanny and Poppy.
They have always been there for me no matter what.
Also by Chris B. Porter
Implanted book 1: Disconnected
Implanted book 2: Infiltration
Vital Assignment
Contents
Dedication
Also by Chris B. Porter
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Jamie jerked around, ripping the dainty hand off his shoulder. A woman with short, spiky blonde hair shook her head at him. “It’s your fault. You overloaded them. They can only take so much.”
“Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
“Becca. I brought your children to you. You should thank me. I thought it was too soon, but Michael said otherwise.” She put her hands on her hips. “Well? Now we have to wait till they’re back so we can go to Michael.”
Jamie took a step away from her. “I’m not going anywhere with you. What have you people done to my kids? Look at them! They’re…there’s something wrong with them. They aren’t even children!”
She seemed to force herself to relax, lowering her shoulders and tilting her head to one side. “You’ll understand soon enough. I’m like you. You and I will soon know all about each other.” A small smile turned her lips up. “Everything.”
He got in her face. “Get out of my house. Never come back. We are nothing alike and I’ll be damned if I take the twins back to that maniac. I’ll die before I let any of you touch them again.”
Becca’s eyes widened and she stepped backward. He’d frightened her. Good.
“Do it the hard way, then.” Her voice had toughened again. “You’ll be with us in a week.” With that, she turned and went out the treehouse door. Jamie heard her climb down the boards nailed to the tree.
He turned back to the twins. They’d stopped the unnerving twitching and their eyes were closed. He gently lifted each limp body and carried it over to the pile of blankets where he slept. He made sure they looked comfortable, and then he sat there and watched them in their unconscious state for the rest of the night.
*
Mandy woke up first, just after the sun’s rays made their way through the open window and spilled across her cheeks. Jamie instinctively smiled at her. She smiled back, looking like a child for the first time since he’d seen her.
“Hi, Daddy. Did you sleep well?” She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Next to her, Junior moved his arms and legs as though slowly waking from a dream.
“I slept great, thank you. And you?”
“I slept well. Your home is comfortable. I don’t remember falling asleep. Just Becca coming in and then now.”
Junior opened his eyes and stretched. “That happens to us sometimes. We forget what happens.”
They spoke like elderly patients. Jamie sighed. “You both went into convulsions. I carried you to bed afterwards, and that’s that.”
They looked at each other in silent communication, and then Mandy said, “We wonder if that’s what always happens.” She looked at Jamie.
“What do you mean?” he asked, his eyes going from one serious little face to the other and back.
“Uncle Michael tells us we are special, that we go to the seat of the soul when we forget. But now…” Junior paused and looked at his sister again. “We’re wondering if we’ve been having convulsions this whole time.”
Jamie shook himself. They were so strange…like puppets of children whose puppet master was an old man who’d never had kids. He may as well talk on their level—if he could. “That woman who came here last night. Becca. She seemed to think you two did that a lot. She blamed it on me.”
Both their eyes widened. “Oh, no, Daddy!” said Mandy and Junior shook his curls back and forth dramatically. “You didn’t cause anything!” she continued. “It’s only logical that if it’s been happening all our lives—and you’ve not been in our lives till now—then you couldn’t possibly have caused it to happen. See?”
He chuckled. “That’s some good logic.”
They both relaxed, smiling at him.
“You must be hungry. I don’t have much, but I set some traps yesterday afternoon. I’ll check them and maybe we’ll have some rabbit and beans for breakfast.”
“That will be wonderful, Daddy,” said Junior. “Would you like help?”
He paused before answering. Would seeing dead animals—or worse, half-dead ones that Jamie had to kill—be hard on him? He was just a kid…but not. Jamie couldn’t underestimate what the two of them must have been through in their short lives. “Sure. That would be great.”
“Can I come too?” Mandy asked.
“Of course.”
They left the treehouse and Jamie led them down a trail heading to where he’d put traps out the day before. “It’s about a kilometer away from here. But it’s a nice morning. Don’t you think?”
They walked on either side of him and he looked at each of them, still unable to believe they were here. They nodded up at him and said, “Yes,” at the same time.
He wanted to pick their brains, ask them about everything that had ever happened to them. Find out if they knew anything about Cecily, and if she was with Becca, McElroy, and the others.
At the same time, he wanted to keep things light for their first day together. He knew they should be on the move. The Company people knew where they were.
He decided on easy conversation. Small talk. He’d see how they reacted to the full traps before asking prying questions.
Besides, he was learning a lot just from observing them.
They’d walked about half the kilometer to the site, with Jamie talking about different tree and plant species—what to eat, what not to eat—and basic things like that.
Just as Jamie was about to offer them water from his canteen, everything went black.
Chapter 2
He felt McElroy. Jamie was once more in the void.
“Dammit!” he cried out.
“You’re going the wrong way, Jamie.” McElroy’s voice was flat and bored, echoing in his head.
“Let me go. I need to get back to my children!”
“To them, you’ll be gone for half a second. Don’t worry. I brought you here to tell you that I will not allow you, nor them, to pass beyond this point within the radius of your treehouse unless you’re going in my direction. You should have gone with Becca last night. But you’re like my daughter. You have to learn everything the hard way.”
Jamie opened his eyes. He was lying on his back in the middle of the little trail. Two pale faces leaned over him, blonde curls tickling his nose and cheeks.
“You went to the seat,” said Mandy. “I can tell. Who did you see there?”
He sat up, rubbing his face. He hated McElroy more than ever. “It was your uncle, kids. He said he won’t allow us to go anywhere but to him.” He tried to say it without too much anger in his voice. He didn’t want things to be too serious, and he wanted these two to trust him, not Michael. Right now, he didn’t know where their loyalties lay. “We can go back to the treehouse though. At least eat some beans. What do you say?”
“I’ll eat anything, Daddy,” said Junior. “I’ve never had beans before, but I know if you make them, they’re wonderful.”
Jamie stood, his knees shaking. The twins each took one of his hands in one of theirs.
“Let’s go back,” said Mandy. “We’ll eat beans.”
They went to the treehouse and Jamie cooked up breakfast, trying to think of a way to broach the subject of his children’s past.
After they ate, he invited them to sit on the porch with him. “You two can fit on the bench. I’ll sit on the floor.”
“That’s awfully nice of you,” Mandy told him, a pretty smile curving on her face.
Once outside, they enjoyed a soft breeze and the sound of leaves rustling above as clouds covered the sun. After some time in silence, he said to the kids, “Tell me about yourselves. What are your lives like? What do you like to do?”
They looked at each other. Junior turned his gaze to Jamie. “We like animals,” he offered.
“I had a cat in Phoenix,” Mandy said and looked sad for the briefest of moments. “I couldn’t bring him with me though. We had to leave quickly. Uncle Michael and the others said the UNE was after us.”
Jamie licked his lips and considered an appropriate question. “What was your cat’s name?”
“Micah. It’s a name from history, and I know you like history. That’s what Uncle Michael told us.”
He twitched, not liking that Uncle Michael knew that much about him. “Do you miss Micah?”
Mandy held his gaze and her stoic expression didn’t change. “I don’t miss him. I’ll get another cat someday. Maybe more than one.”
“I’d like to have a dog,” Junior said.
“What else did Uncle Michael tell you about me?”
They were quiet, staring at him. Finally, Mandy said, “He won’t let us see all of you in the seat.” Her face was expressionless.
Jamie found it strange that she answered a different question than he asked.
“Why not?” Jamie asked, knowing the answer. McElroy didn’t want them to see Amanda’s death and know that their mother was murdered because he ordered it.
“He said the three of us needed to talk in person and get to know each other like the non-progressives. He thought that would be a good idea,” Mandy answered.
“Who are the non-progressives?”
“You don’t know?” asked Junior. His head tilted as he spoke.
He shook his head.
“The non-progressives are everyone but us. The thirteen. We are meant to bring in a new age to humanity. One in which we are all connected at the highest level of psychic awareness. There will be no more hiding truths, no more lying and deceit,” Mandy explained.
Jamie looked at the trees to his left. McElroy hadn’t explain to them that he would be in control of it all, of course. Or that it wasn’t mysticism, but manipulating satellites and technology that made this possible.
Should he point it out?
His intuition told him it wasn’t time to set more doubt in their little minds as to Michael’s real character, not by outright saying it. They had to figure it out themselves. They’d already showed they had an independent thought about the “thirteen” when they talked about their convulsions. It also showed they had the capacity for free thought, even if Michael monitored them.
“Has Uncle Michael talked to you since you came here?”
They shook their heads.
“Did he tell you why he sent you here to see me?”
“He didn’t send us,” Junior said. “We wanted to come. We told him that.”
“Why?”
“Because we wanted to meet you in person,” Mandy explained. “We wanted to bring you back to the ranch.”
“Where is the ranch?”
“It’s south of here. We know the way, but we don’t want to make you go. We want you to want to go,” said Mandy.
Jamie felt it was the perfect time to ask. “And is his daughter, Cecily, there?”
Mandy’s eyebrows shot up. “I love Aunt Cecily. She’s so nice and pretty. She hates her father though. I’ve been in the seat with her. She misses you.”
“Did you see all of her in the…seat?”
Mandy looked down. “No, Uncle Michael said we needed to get to know her in person more before that. Like with you.”
The wind picked up some more, blowing their long curls around their little heads. Goose bumps popped up on their arms. Jamie said, “Maybe we should go in. It looks like a storm is coming.”
They stood up and walked inside without a word, and he followed them.
As the day went on, rain sprinkles began to fall, and then a hard rain pounded the treehouse. The wind shook the small dwelling. The children seemed a little frightened to Jamie, so he dug up a deck of playing cards he had traded a wooden carved owl for, and taught them how to play a few games.
After a couple rounds of each, they were beating him in every hand. He suspected they communicated through the implants after watching this. Maybe they always talked to each other this way. It made sense as to how they seemed in sync with each other. He’d thought it might be some twin thing, but now he believed differently.
Long before the sun set, the sky darkened, and they had to light the fire. Jamie also put some wood over the windows so that the heavy winds would stop shaking all the insides of the treehouse.
“Don’t worry,” he told his children, noticing their anxious faces as the tree swayed. “I’ve been in plenty of rough storms like this. It’s normal. We’re safe.”
They relaxed. “Thank you, Daddy,” said Mandy. A relaxed smile grew on her face. “You make us feel better.”
He smiled. “You two make me feel better too.”
“You’re afraid of the weather?” Junior asked with an arched eyebrow.
“No, it’s just great to be with you. Did you know I thought you were dead?”
They nodded in unison. “Uncle Michael told us that he had to keep us a secret from you until you were like us. He said you’d understand after that,” Junior told him.
“Understand what, exactly?”
“Why you were never told about us,” Mandy answered.
Jamie sighed, shuffling the cards. “A new game?” He couldn’t hide the fury in his voice, and the children must have heard it, but they didn’t comment on it.
“Yes, please,” they said together.
The evening continued with more games until Jamie couldn’t think of any new ones. “You two hungry?”
They nodded.
“I don’t have much left. Only corn. We have no meat because your uncle won’t let me go to the traps.” It was Jamie’s subtle way of putting doubt in their minds. He wanted them to question why McElroy wouldn’t let the three of them eat.
“We like corn,” Junior said.
“Well, I have two cans. I’ll make—”
Just then, a hard gust of wind hit the treehouse and shook them so hard they all fell to the floor. Mandy let out a small yelp.
“Are you okay?” Jamie said in a rush, scrambling to get up and go to her.
“It’s scary! This is no normal storm!” Mandy squealed, and then the two of them were on their backs, eyes rolling in their sockets, their hands and feet twitching.
“Kids! Kids, it’s okay!” Jamie shouted. “Come back, don’t do this!”
It was no use. They were gone, and the treehouse continued to shake and tremble so much that Jamie couldn’t stand without falling. He scooped them up under each arm and leaned against the wall, pushing their cheeks against his sides. They stopped twitching, but remained unconscious.
And then Jamie felt the now-familiar sensation of being taken into the void. He cried out, “Hell no!” but couldn’t control Michael taking over his mind.
Chapter 3
The void was no longer pure blackness and nothingness. It was quite the opposite. He was in a fairytale, it seemed. The grass was a vivid green, the sky cloudless and sun shining. He could feel the warmth of the day. Red and yellow daisies popped up all around him as he turned this way and that. A castle rode a hill on the horizon.
Then he realized he was moving. He looked down and saw his body, but he wore a purple knight’s tunic. He looked up just as a snow white unicorn came out of nowhere and approa
ched him. Its horn shined like pure gold.
“What the—”
“Well, don’t you just look so handsome!” a familiar little girl’s voice said from behind him. He spun around.
Emily sat in the grass and flowers, but her hair was black. He knew it was her though. She grinned up at him and pointed at her mouth. “Here I ain’t got no missing tooth. Look it.”
“How, what…how are you here? What is going on?”
“Don’t you worry. We’re here to help you.” She kept smiling. “It’s so good to see you again!”
“You too, sweetie,” he said, and leaned down to hug her.
“Just don’t you say my name.”
“Why not?”
“We don’t have much time,” she told him as he reluctantly pulled away. “Uncle Steven—oh,” she clapped a hand over her mouth. “I’m not supposed to say his name. Anyway, he said he might pick up on us talking in here any time. But he doesn’t know me. I ain’t never had the implant. Well, you know, that implant. And I don’t have your new implant, either. I’m using what Katie calls external tech. I got a thingy on my head that’s shootin’ a laser or something into my pin gland.”
“You mean your pineal gland?”
“Yeah! That’s it.” She stood up. “Do you like what I done with the place? It’s so pretty.” The unicorn came around to her and nuzzled her cheek. She giggled.
“Yes, it’s much better than McElroy’s place.”
“What’s his like?”
“There’s nothing but darkness, and I don’t even have a body.”
“Well, that sounds boring. I love seein’ other people’s places. Listen up. He doesn’t know we’re on to him. Katie knows so much about tech. She’s smart, you know that? And it’s so funny to see Uncle Steven—I mean. Oh well, you know, all in love with her. Anyway, I don’t really understand how it works, but I came to tell you our plan. And we just know you can do it. We been watchin’ you with the twins. They are buttons! Katie says they are different than the rest of you with implants. Something that has to do with their mama.”
That caught his attention. “What about Amanda? What was so different about her?”
Confrontation (Implanted Book 3) Page 1