by Drew Hayes
“That would be a correct guess,” Mr. Transport agreed.
“Then where are they?” Alice asked. “We got slowed down by worming through all the people out celebrating the end of finals on campus, crowds Mary could detect and avoid with her telepathy. They should have easily beaten us here, but they didn’t. So where are they?”
“Excuse me,” said a new voice, one soft and female. “The door was open so I...”
Mr. Transport and the three students whirled on their feet at the intruder, only to find one of the HCP freshmen girls looking awkward in the doorway.
“I’m sorry, young lady, but this is not an opportune time for visiting,” Mr. Transport said briskly.
“I know. I mean, obviously. I mean, I was underground and everything and heard the announcement,” she said. “But there’s something I really need to tell you guys.”
Nick gave her a brief nod.
“Then you better say it quick, because I think this place is going to empty pretty soon.”
“Right, um, so, my name is Agatha, and I’m in class with you guys,” Agatha said. “But I mean, you knew that, I’m the only animator in our year. Anyway, I know none of us really hang out or talk or anything, but over spring break Mary helped me out when I was stuck in the library so I know she’s a really nice girl and I guess we’re kind of friends. So I was using my power to just sort of eavesdrop on everyone tonight with some folded paper figures.”
“Not to be rude, but I trust there’s a point coming around the bend,” Nick said.
“There is. I had one hanging out in an empty classroom when Hershel and Mary walked in. I was going to have him leave but then they started talking and it was really sweet, so I kept listening in. And that’s why my creation was still around to see what happened,” Agatha said. She took in a deep breath and stared miserably at the floor. She wasn’t one for speaking to groups of people, and this was going to be hardest part to tell.
“They were knocked out and taken.”
“They were what?” Vince yelled, his back jerking straight as a flagpole and his hand curling into fists.
“What? No, no, no, that’s crazy,” Alice said, aggressive denial setting in. “I don’t believe it. This is a horrible joke to play on tonight of all nights.”
“Both of you shut up,” Nick said, not quite raising his voice to yell, but projecting loud enough overwhelm them both. He stepped toward Agatha, taking in every last detail about the girl. The angle of her eyes, the position of her feet, the wrinkling around her eyebrow, not one piece of it escaped Nick’s focus. This was unfortunate, because it all pointed to a single conclusion.
“She’s telling the truth,” Nick announced. “But there’s something I don’t understand. Hershel might be powerless in his normal form, but Mary is a juggernaut. Who could have subdued both of them without causing a ruckus and then slipped them out of the gym?”
Agatha somehow managed to look even more uncomfortable as she squirmed in place.
“That’s why I came to tell you all instead of getting a professor or the dean,” she said. “I’m really hoping there’s a logical explanation for this, but just in case there isn’t I thought you should know.”
“Tell us who took them,” Vince said. The initial panic had passed from his voice; what remained was a tone that was flat as a blade and just as sharp.
Agatha licked her lips and tried to remember the kind act of the girl she was worried about. The probably was a good reason for what she had seen, but as she remembered Mary’s unconscious body being tossed over that man’s shoulder so unceremoniously, she couldn’t think of a single one that would fully explain the situation.
“The people who took them... It was the coaches. George and Persephone.”
143.
“This is ridiculous,” Alice said, shaking her head. “We’re really going to believe a crazy story given to us by some girl we’ve never even talked to?”
“She was telling the truth,” Nick reiterated. He used the past tense because after her revelation Agatha had quickly excused herself. In her defense, the room had reacted somewhat less than calmly to such an accusation and only now was reason reasserting its dominance. “That doesn’t mean she really saw what she thinks she saw, but it means she believes it.”
“So then maybe she made a mistake,” Alice said hopefully. “Maybe Hershel and Mary just went somewhere on their own.”
“And turned off their phones?” Vince asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t want to be interrupted,” Alice said, clinging desperately to the hope of her fantasy.
“I’m afraid we have to assume the girl was right,” Mr. Numbers said, walking into the room and joining the conversation.
“You heard what happened?” Vince asked.
Before Mr. Numbers could bother coming up with an explanation, Nick beat him to it with the truth.
“They constructed this whole place to monitor us, Vince; obviously the room is bugged.”
“Correct, but hardly the most pressing matter at the moment,” Mr. Numbers said, ending the conversation on ethics before it could even begin. Though normally such a discovery would undoubtedly hurt the goodwill his charges held toward him and Mr. Transport, at present Mr. Numbers would rank it as a “non-concern.”
“Hershel and Mary’s phones were both dumped in a trash can near the edge of campus,” Mr. Numbers said. “There are also tracking chips in some of their pieces of clothing, and in their bodies, all of which I’ve confirmed seem to have been disabled. Whoever orchestrated this abduction had a tremendous level of skill and a high level of knowledge regarding the safety procedures we put in place to deal with situations just like this one. I’m afraid both of the coaches fall into that category.”
“Wait, you bugged our bodies?”
“Priorities, Miss Adair. There will be able time for you to mourn your violated privacy at a later date. Right now we have two of your group confirmed as abducted and no idea if the rest of you are being targeted for a similar attempt,” Mr. Numbers chastised her. He turned his attention to Mr. Transport. “I’ve spoken with our home office and we are going into an immediate lockdown. They will be sending an enforcer as additional protection until a safe extraction point in determined. He will arrive within the hour.”
“And what about Hershel and Mary?” Vince asked. “What’s the plan to help them?”
“We have been tasked with ensuring the safety of you, our remaining charges,” Mr. Numbers said, several degrees of cold forced into his voice. “I’m not certain what efforts will be undertaken to reclaim your friends, but I do know that we are not going to be part of it.”
Mr. Numbers and Mr. Transport looked at each other. They both knew their role in the company. If home office wasn’t sending their team after the abductees, then it meant no one was going after them. The company had decided to protect the three it had rather than chase the two it lost, and it was sending down a representative to make certain the orders were complied with.
“No,” Vince said, shaking his head. “We’re going after them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Mr. Numbers said. “You have no idea how to find them.”
“There has to be a way,” Vince replied with a shrug. “I’ll find it.”
“That is not a plan, that is a slapdash idea that will culminate in nothing more than putting yourself at risk by leaving a safe environment,” Mr. Numbers countered.
“I don’t care. I won’t sit around while my friends are in trouble,” Vince said. “Though I’ll admit I’m out of my depth and welcome your help.”
“Ludicrous; we have our orders and we are complying with them,” Mr. Numbers said.
Mr. Transport, on the other hand, stepped toward Vince and softened his voice to a kinder tone, as if in hopes of reasoning with the boy.
“Vince, you need to think about what you’re saying. Even if you could find them, what would you do when you caught up? Coach George is much stronger than you, and
Persephone has ample cunning to go with power.”
“No question about it,” Vince agreed. “But I won’t be alone. I’ll have Alice and Nick. Besides, I don’t have to beat them. I just have to keep them busy long enough to make sure everyone gets away.”
“What does that accomplish? You’d just be trading in your own freedom for theirs,” Mr. Transport pointed out.
“Yes. I would,” Vince agreed. “Though I doubt it would come to that. The coaches could have taken any of us. If they took those two then it is because they’re the ones they wanted.”
Mr. Transport stared at the boy for a long moment. He’d been in charge of these kids for nearly a year now and he’d seen them change and grow so much in that short time. Mr. Transport still remembered Vince on that first day, so awkward and uncertain in how to handle himself. The boy had gotten comfortable here, but the one thing he’d never truly overcome was that lingering fear about his power. It tainted everything he did, colored his own confidence and how he carried himself through life. There was no fear in his eyes right now, though, only a relentless drive to act. Looking at those eyes, Mr. Transport realized the only way he was going to stop Vince was to knock him unconscious, and even then he wasn’t one hundred percent sure the boy’s body wouldn’t keep crawling toward the door.
“We’ll help you,” Mr. Transport said.
“We most certainly will not,” Mr. Numbers disagreed. “Mr. Transport, do I need to remind you that-”
“Enough, Luke!” Mr. Transport said, whipping his head toward his partner and raising his voice. “They took our fucking kids. Mary and Hershel, the students we’ve watched over and we’ve said we were responsible for. We said we would protect them and that rat son-of-a-bitch snatched them right out from under us.”
“While I understand your attachment, there is no need to let emotion cloud our judgment,” Mr. Numbers said, his voice remaining perfectly even. “We have our orders and we will comply with them.”
Mr. Transport scooped something off the coffee table in a fluid motion and strode over to his partner. When he next spoke, his voice was no longer raised; instead it was a whisper with the intensity of a deathbed confession.
“They took our kids. I’m not the company and I’m not some stranger. Don’t pull the automaton act with me. I know you aren’t unfeeling. I know you’re pissed off. I know you’re aware that no one else is going to help them.”
“They are not ‘our kids’, Mr. Transport. They are just our latest assignment. An assignment that has been altered.”
“Sure they aren’t,” Mr. Transport said. He slapped his right hand into Mr. Numbers’ own palm, pressing the object he’d nabbed from the table into the shorter man’s flesh.
Mr. Numbers turned his hand up slowly, revealing the white king from the chess set resting between his fingers.
“They took Mary and Hershel. And the company is just going to let them go.”
“We have spent our lives as loyal employees. How do you recommend we even go about the act of committing treason against our handlers?” Mr. Numbers asked.
“Easy. With a whole lot of lying,” Mr. Transport replied.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” Mr. Numbers asked.
“I am.”
“We don’t have long before the enforcer arrives.”
“Then we’ll move fast.”
Mr. Numbers curled his fingers around the chess piece, grasping it tightly in the ball of his fist.
“I’ll go talk to the other half,” Mr. Numbers said.
“I’ll drop you off in a moment,” Mr. Transport said, giving his partner a brief smile. He turned to address the others, who had been watching their hushed exchange with growing trepidation.
“We can’t do much, but we’ll help,” Mr. Transport announced.
“Thank you,” Vince said. “With all of us working together I know we can help our friends.”
“Yeah, just one problem with that,” Nick chimed in, taking a few steps away from the other two. “You guys can have fun riding up and playing cowboy, but my ass is out of here.”
144.
“That’s not funny, Nick,” Alice chided him.
“I’m not joking,” Nick told her. Gone was his usual smirk and taunting tone. Instead his face was pinched and serious, coated with more gravity than any of the dorm’s residents could remember seeing before. “I’ll stay until we get the all clear, and then I’m going back to Vegas.”
“But our friends are in trouble,” Vince said.
“Your friends, Vince,” Nick corrected. “In case you missed the big reveal downstairs, our cover just got blown. Now, while you and Mary and probably Roy can all still get by after being outed, my only shot was to fly under the radar. The blowing of the whistle on us signaled the end of my career at Lander.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that Mary and Hershel need us, though,” Alice jumped in.
Nick laughed, a hard and bitter sound instead of usual robust chuckles.
“What part of this aren’t you getting? I’m leaving. That means I’m done with this whole facade. I’m not risking my neck to save those two because it’s not my problem. They mean nothing to me, and I no longer have to pretend otherwise.”
“I don’t understand,” Vince said slowly. “You’re our friend, a fellow former Powered. You’re one of us.”
“No, Vince, I’m just a great liar who wanted to learn as much about his abilities as he could,” Nick told him, something that might have been gentleness leaking into his voice. “Nothing personal; the day our secret came out was always going to be my exit. I just needed a group of allies to use during my time here.”
“I don’t believe you,” Vince said simply.
“I didn’t expect you to,” Nick said, half a smile twitching across his face.
“You’ll come help us. I know you will,” Vince told him, patting him on the shoulder. “I have to go get ready for the fight, but I have faith you’ll reach the right decision. There’s more to you than you think.”
Without another word Vince walked away, past Mr. Numbers and Mr. Transport who were furtively whispering in their own corner, content to let the students resolve their own problems while the duo tackled logistics of the rescue effort.
“Same old Vince,” Nick said, shaking his head. He turned to Alice. “Are you going to give you a cute little speech too?”
“No,” Alice said softly. “I just want to know something. You’re saying you were lying this entire time? About everything?”
“Sorry, Alice, but yes. I guess on the plus side I can finally admit your suspicions of my duplicitous nature were right. Kudos; you’re the only non-telepath one who caught on.”
“I guess I was,” Alice said. Nick expected a lot of things to follow. He was braced for tears, accusations, pleas, or even yelling. Unfortunately he was not braced for the right hook Alice deftly slammed into his face. There was an audible CRACK and a muffled thudding as Nick fell to the floor, his hands racing up to cover the eyes Alice had punched. Nearby his sunglasses tumbled to the ground as well, cleaved neatly in two by the blow with the left eye’s lens spinning to a stop some feet away.
“What the fuck?” Nick demanded from his prone position on the floor.
“You lied to us, you manipulated us, you want to abandon us, and you’re surprised I hit you? I thought you were supposed to be smart!” Alice shook her hand in pain with as much subtlety as she could muster, trying not to let her eyes tear up from a potent mixture of injury, outrage, and betrayal.
“I did what I had to in order to get by,” Nick spat at her.
“Bullshit. You could have gotten by on your own if you were so determined to stay alone. You didn’t have to be the bastard who makes people trust him only to bail when things get hard. You didn’t have to let us think we could... care.” Alice stared down at the boy she had spent so much of the year fighting with, pining after, verbally sparring with, and finding comfort in. And much as she hated herself f
or it, a part of her still wanted to offer him a hand up from the ground.
“You know what really turns my stomach, though? That night I kissed you, I did it hoping that under the slick veneer there was actually this decent guy with good reasons for hiding himself. I thought that the man behind the mask had to be better. And now I find out that the real you is nothing but a selfish coward who won’t risk anything for people who would put it on all the line for him if things were reversed.”
“Are you done yet?” Nick asked, glaring up at her unabashedly.
“Only with you,” Alice said, spinning on her heel and walking away.
* * *
Hershel’s eyes began to flutter as he came around. His first thought was wondering who had stuffed his head full of cotton. His second was to realize that probably wasn’t the case, but he was working through one hell of a groggy headache.
“I still wish we could have used the teleporter,” said a female voice, thought it sounded vaguely muffled, like it was coming through a wall.
“Wish in one hand, shit in the other,” barked back a harsh male voice. This one Hershel took only seconds to place; he’d heard far more of it, after all.
Hershel opened his eyes to see what was going on. He didn’t remember anything since kissing Mary, so he had no idea why his head hurt so bad. Or why he was apparently riding in the back of a moving truck. Or while he was handcuffed and shackled to the floor. What had been mere curiosity was quickly transitioning to apprehension.
“Looks like Sleeping Beauty is coming around,” Coach George said, giving him a smile. Hershel noticed that Mary was sitting next to him, not handcuffed but also not conscious. She had a silver mechanism wrapped around her head that he was certain hadn’t been there previously.
“Was goin ahn?” Hershel asked, his tongue feeling thick and slow in his mouth.
“Whew, seems like that slumber Persephone induced did a doozy on you, Daniels,” Coach George said. “I think she might have used too much. Sorry about that.”