Edgewood Series: Books 1 - 3

by Karen McQuestion

  Nadia spent a lot of her phone time reassuring her mother that everything was fine, and thanking her dad for letting her come on the trip. She could have been an inmate thanking the governor for a pardon. There was a lot of gratitude going over the telephone line.

  When Mallory talked to her parents, I caught her saying, “I miss you too, Dad!” After that, she spent a long time on the phone with her mom getting updates on her friends’ Facebook statuses, and listening to what happened on some trashy reality show they usually watched together. Mallory laughed like every other sentence. She and her mom seemed extra chatty, like best friends who hadn’t talked in months. Seriously, it was hard to get her off the phone. “Love you, Mom!” she trilled at the end.

  When it was my turn, the phone at home was passed around starting with my folks, who wished me well on the academic competition, something I’d almost forgotten about. Both of them said they missed me, especially my mom. Frank and Carly happened to be over that evening so I got to speak to my nephew (he hadn’t beaten any of my high scores yet, but thought he would soon) and finally to my sister. Carly whispered into the phone. “Did you find out anything about David?” When I said, “No,” I could tell she was disappointed but it was all I could tell her at the time. Even though I didn’t have any news about her old boyfriend, I would have liked to have told her about the cat park and the attack by masked gunmen, but I was fully aware the adults in the room were listening and that they wouldn’t approve. There was so much more to say, but it would have to wait until I was back.

  Listening to Jameson talking to Kevin now, there was no sign of his caring big brother personality. He was just insufferable. He was happiest when he was the center of attention, and he also loved knowing things other people didn’t, so right now he was in his glory. Kevin was properly impressed with this whole surveillance thing. Jameson didn’t give out many details, but insinuated that this was going to be mind blowing, over-the-top big. Someday, he said, we’d look back and remember him talking about it, the way people who worked for Steve Jobs in the early days bragged about being part of Apple right from the start. “But even bigger than that,” Jameson said, spreading his arms wide.

  “Like Facebook when the main guys were all college students?” Kevin suggested.

  “Yeah, but even bigger than that,” Jameson said. “When my system becomes public knowledge it will be like when TV replaced radio. After a while, no one will remember it being any other way.” He went on and on—worldwide domination, something, something, blah, blah. Able to broadcast anything anywhere. No one on the planet would be out of the range of his device. There’d be nowhere to hide that his invention couldn’t capture your image, your voice, your actions. In bazaars in Marrakesh, in Times Square in New York City, on a cattle ranch in Montana—nowhere was out of reach, and no one was safe. He sounded like a villain in a comic book. A villain who liked to brag a lot. Mwah hah ha!

  I retreated into my thoughts, tapping my fingers on the arm of my chair. Like when TV replaced radio. No one will remember it being any other way. His words gave me the nagging feeling I was forgetting something, or at least not remembering something. Whatever it was, it was just out of reach. Like trying to recall a dream hours after waking up. Fragments of words and images slipped out of my grasp.

  I was still puzzling over this fifteen minutes later when Mallory came back with Mr. Specter. “How’d it go?” Kevin asked Mallory. “Did he show you the secret handshake?”

  Mallory just smiled and shook her head. She looked a little confused actually, as if she should know the secret handshake, but somehow missed that part.

  “Your turn, Russ,” Mr. Specter said, beckoning with a crook of his finger. His backpack was looped over one shoulder, like he was a forty-eight year-old college student.

  We walked down the hallway, and he clapped a hand on my shoulder. “This should only take ten or fifteen minutes. Just a quick assessment of your powers.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Nadia

  Mrs. Whitehouse walked like an arthritic grandma. If I’d known the way, I would have blown past her, but since I was dependent on her to guide me, I had to match her excruciatingly slow pace. “Mr. Becker was most concerned about your well being,” she said. “If you want my opinion, I think he’s a little sweet on you.” She stopped to gauge my reaction and I could have screamed at the delay.

  “Russ is a good guy,” I said. “And a good friend.”

  “A good friend.” She put her hands on her hips and made a clucking noise with her tongue. “So that’s how you’re playing it, huh?” She resumed walking again, still too slowly as far as I was concerned. “Okay, if you don’t want to confide in me just yet, I understand. But I must say that you seem to be in an awful hurry to join up with him.”

  Sometimes it’s best just to say nothing, and I was sensing this was one of these times. But mentally I was going come on, come on, come on, would it kill you to go a little faster? She either didn’t pick up on my thoughts or else didn’t care, because she dawdled along like peoples’ lives weren’t at stake. I was usually shy and even tempered by nature, but I wanted to shove her from behind to get some momentum going. “We’re nearly there,” she said after we’d gotten downstairs and headed down a long hallway, only to discover that we’d made a wrong turn and had to retrace our steps. When I could hear Jameson’s voice off in the distance, I broke ranks and took off running. Mrs. Whitehouse yelled after me, “So who’s the eager beaver now?” I heard her mutter to herself that she knew it, she knew it all along.

  I burst into the room where I encountered Jameson leaning against the back of a sofa, having a lively conversation with Kevin. Mallory sat quietly off to one side staring at a framed picture. “Where’s Russ?” I asked of the room in general, but no one answered. “Anyone know where Russ is?” Louder this time. “People? Someone?”

  “Mr. Specter took him for testing,” Kevin said.

  “Where?” I asked.

  Kevin shrugged, and he and Jameson resumed their conversation.

  “No one knows where they went?” I said. Unbelievable.

  Jameson said, “Mallory just came from there.” He snapped his fingers. “Mallory! Where did you and Mr. Specter go to do the assessment?”

  She lifted her head and stared blankly. “I’m not sure,” she said.

  Oh man, she had the same dazed look Professor Neverman had after his encounter with the Deleo. He’d already gotten to her. I knelt down in front of her. “Mallory, this is really important. I need to find Russ. Where did you go? Was it a room here in the convent?”

  “Yes.” Her forehead scrunched as she tried to remember. “A hallway. We went down a long hallway and then...”

  “Then what?”

  Her forehead scrunched. She was trying so hard. “We went left.”

  “You turned left?”

  Her mouth opened, but no words came out. She’d already given it her all. Her answer came in the form of a slight dip of her chin.

  I stood up. They went down a long hallway and turned left. Yeah, like that narrowed it down. Mrs. Whitehouse entered the room, huffing from exertion. “Nadia, you really know how to move, girl.”

  “I need to find where Mr. Specter took Russ. Can you point me to the room?”

  “Oh, I’d love to help you out, but I don’t know. I wasn’t here, you know. I was upstairs getting you.”

  I shifted my weight in frustration. “This is ridiculous. Someone has to know where they went.”

  Mrs. Whitehouse said, “I think maybe you’re a little cranky from low blood sugar. You eat some breakfast, you’ll feel better. Why don’t you come with me to the kitchen? I’ll make you eggs and toast—”

  “Never mind, I’ll find them myself,” I said. She was heading for me, arm extended to guide me to the kitchen, but I pushed past her and went out the door. I’d glanced in her direction for only a second, but it was long enough to see the hurt expression on her face. On one level, I hated to mak
e her feel bad, but on a higher, more important level, I didn’t care at all. Once out of the room, I paused. This place was a labyrinth of twisting hallways and staircases. A person could get lost here even when they had a clue as to where they were going. And I would just be aimless. Walking and hoping.

  Mrs. Whitehouse’s voice called after me. “Nadia, if you’d just wait, they’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  A few minutes too late, I thought. I tried to think this through. The grounds had more than one building, but Mallory thought that the testing was here, in the convent. Down a long hallway and left. Nothing about stairs, so I could assume they were on this floor. The building was big, and complicated, with a courtyard in the middle, but it wasn’t Buckingham Palace. I had to be able to find them. I made a decision and headed down a hallway. When I’d gone forty feet or so, the hallway zig-zagged ending at a prayer area—two rows of pews facing a statue of the Virgin Mary. Not this way, I decided. When I turned around to go back, I jumped and screamed, startled to see Elena just a few feet behind me.

  “Oh man,” I said, clasping my hands to my front in fright. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were there.”

  She was a small woman, no taller than me, and I’d nearly walked right into her. She said, “You are looking for the boy and the man, Sam?”

  “Yes.”

  “This way.” Elena turned and walked briskly. I followed blindly, not knowing if I should trust her, but not finding a reason not to.

  “You know where Mr. Specter took Russ?” I asked, catching up so I could walk alongside.

  She said, “Russ. He ees the one who looks like a young John F. Kennedy?”

  I thought for a second. “Yes.” Sure, I could see a slight resemblance. Not a spitting image, but he did look more like a young JFK than anyone else in our group.

  “Si, I know where they are.”

  After we retraced my steps, we went down another hallway and then, just as Mallory said, turned to one side. A minute later, Elena put an arm out to stop me, and lifted a finger to point to a closed door.

  “They’re in there?” I said. And when she nodded, I added. “Thank you.”

  “Ees no problem.” And then off she went, walking quickly as if she didn’t want to be caught outside the room.

  I put my hand on the door knob to go in, but it wouldn’t even turn. From inside, I heard Mr. Specter’s voice. I knocked. “Hello, could you open the door?”

  “Just a minute,” Mr. Specter’s voice rang out. “We’re just finishing up.”

  I knocked again, my knuckles coming down hard against the wood. “Let me in!” I jiggled the knob, but it didn’t move at all. I pressed my weight against the door, but it was solid. Even someone twice my size couldn’t have forced it open.

  When the door opened a second later, I almost fell into the room. I stumbled and then recovered, taking in the room at the same time. Small and windowless, it was the size of a walk-in closet and empty except for two padded chairs. The one facing the door held Mr. Specter’s backpack. Russ sat in the other, his back to me. Mr. Specter lit up at the sight of me. “Nadia, your timing is perfect. You can be next.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  Russ

  Even as Mr. Specter led me to the testing room, one hand on my shoulder, I had a bad feeling, the same nagging feeling I’d had earlier. I could clearly hear Nadia’s voice saying “they want to erase our memories,” but I didn’t remember the conversation. Was she talking about the Associates? Or was it a dream? If only we’d had a chance to speak this morning. I pulled away from Mr. Specter and said, “I have a thought. Why don’t you let Jameson go next? I’d feel better if I could go and check on Nadia. I’m kind of worried about her.”

  “But we’re here,” Mr. Specter said, pushing open the door. “It would take more time for you to go back and switch with Jameson than it will just to get this over with. Let’s just see it through, shall we?”

  “But…”

  Mr. Specter guided me into the room, one hand pressing against the small of my back. “Sit down, Russ. I promise to make this quick. And then you’ll have the rest of the day to do whatever you want.” He pushed in the button to lock the door.

  I sat down reluctantly. “Okay, as long as it’s really quick.”

  “Of course,” he said, sitting in the chair opposite me. The room was tiny and bare except for two padded chairs and a fluorescent light fixture, which buzzed overhead. Our chairs were so close our knees nearly touched. “First of all,” he said, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a notebook, “I have a few questions for you. Then, I’ll be conducting a test to evaluate the strength of your powers, and then we’ll be finished. Sound easy?”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” I rested my hands on my knees.

  Turned out, the questions were easy. Things like the correct spelling of my name. My home address. Had I ever lived anywhere else prior to my current residence? (Answer: No. ) When he asked me to confirm my date of birth, and I did, his eyes widened and he said, “Why, that’s tomorrow!”

  “Yup.” I grinned. I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, but I’d be turning sixteen during this trip. This had been sad news for my mother, since it would be the first time we’d be apart on my birthday. That didn’t seem like a big deal to me but apparently it was momentous on her end. She consoled herself by saying we’d celebrate after I got back.

  “We’ll have to do something special,” Mr. Specter said. “Cake and candles, if possible.” He asked for the exact date that I’d seen the meteor shower in the field and how I first experienced my powers. After I’d answered, he said, “Just one more question. Who else knows about this?”

  “The trip?”

  “No,” he said dryly. “The fact that you can shoot lightning bolts out of your hands.”

  “Well you and Mrs. Whitehouse and Kevin…”

  “No,” he said, holding a hand up. “Besides the five of us and Mallory, Jameson, and Nadia, who else have you told?”

  “No one.” I tapped my knee, thinking.

  “None of your friends at school? Maybe Justin and Mick? I see you three together quite often. You are friends, correct?”

  “Yeah, we’re friends, but I haven’t told them. I swear.”

  “No one in your family knows, or has a clue?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Oh wait! My sister Carly knows, but I didn’t tell her. She just figured it out because of David.” My hand involuntarily went to the chain around my neck, the one with the key to the old train station given to me by Carly. I’d worn it every day since we’d been on the trip. The key had significance because when Carly was a teenager, she and David Hofstetter used it to get into the closed-up train station so they could spend time alone together and, I was sure, make out, drink beer, and more. Essentially, it was the key to her heart and she had entrusted it to me.

  “What about David?”

  “The same thing happened to him when they were in high school.” He knew this already, I know he did.

  “Ah yes,” he said, jotting down some notes. “Who else has Carly told? Your parents, maybe? Her son? What’s his name again?”

  “Frank? Frank doesn’t know anything. Neither do my parents.” I wanted him to know that Carly wasn’t the type to tell; she wasn’t the screw-up everyone thought she was. Until recently, I fell into that category, thinking she was a flake who kept losing her phone and switching jobs every few months. I had no idea she was constantly on the lookout for the enemy, painstakingly checking her apartment for bugs, and monitoring every acquaintance for fear they were undercover Associates. She lived a life of constant scrutiny and fear, all the while appearing to be unstable and skittish. “Carly hasn’t told anyone ever.” I said. “I’m sure of that.”

  “Good,” Mr. Specter said, closing the notebook. “And that concludes the question portion of the assessment. I told you it would be easy. Next we’ll test the strength of your powers.” He unzipped a compartment in the backpack and pulled out something
resembling safety goggles. He held it out for me to take and I could see that the solid part in front was curved at the top to go over my forehead with a cutout for my nose at the bottom. Attached on either side was a thick stretchy strap designed to hold the thing in place.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “This device will measure your power. A sort of meter, if you will. Go ahead and put it on. It won’t hurt.”

  I put the thing over my eyes and stretched the strap over the back of my head. Now I was in a world of darkness. “It’s heavy,” I observed.

  “Don’t worry, the Deleo won’t be on for very long,” he said.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “The what?” The word Deleo triggered a rush of memory fragments. The conversation with Nadia played out in its entirety. She’d astral projected to me last night, and told me a long story about Mr. Specter and Professor Neverman and the Deleo but I’d been asleep and hadn’t fully heard what she’d said. Until now.

  “The device. This will only take a few minutes. Try leaning your head back, that might help.”

  “I’m feeling claustrophobic,” I said, reaching up to take it off, but before I could it began whirring and suction-cupped to my face. “Really, I need to take it off.”

  “Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them.” Mr. Specter’s tone was sharp.

  I stood up and tried to pull off the goggles, but this thing, the Deleo, was part of me now, needling around the edges of my brain, and confusing me, so I wasn’t even sure what I was doing anymore.

  “Sit down!” Mr. Specter pushed me hard, so that I fell back into the chair. “Keep your eyes closed until I tell you to open them.”

  I wanted to pull it off, but within seconds, I’d lost the will to struggle. Resisting seemed like so much work and I was finding it pleasant in the world of the Deleo. I lowered my hands to my side. Nadia’s voice came back to me, telling me that Professor Neverman had said he’d never seen anything like it. And that he made it sound blissful. Beautiful. That didn’t sound so bad.