The Gifted Ones: A Reader

by Maria Elizabeth Romana

  Ellie wasn’t sure what team they were talking about, but she knew a compliment when she heard one and blushed a little herself.

  Nadia once more emerged from the bedroom, this time sans make-up and with two blonde braids and a couple of freckles. Cooper made a low whistling noise, to which she tartly replied, “Can it, McCann.” Then she looked to Joe. “Is this it?”

  He nodded his approval. “Oh yeah, nailed it. You guys should have no problem pulling this off.”

  “Actually, Joe, there is a problem.” Cooper pulled his phone from a side pocket of the jumpsuit. He tapped on it, and then showed the screen to Joe. “I got some intel on the tour guide. She’s a stickler. Does a body count on every floor. If Nadia leaves the group to enter Stanhope’s office and doesn’t return before the tour gets to the end of the next level, they’ll go on full lock-down.”

  Joe made a face. “There’s no way she can do it that quickly. It’ll be tough enough for her to get it all done before he comes back from that meeting.”

  Nadia slumped. “Ah, hell. Our plan is screwed.”

  # # #

  While Joe, Nadia, and Cooper put their heads together over the flaw in their plan, Ellie caught Angel’s eye. She moved over into the sitting area, and Angel followed. “What’s going on, Angel? What are they talking about?”

  Angel glanced back toward Joe, as if she wasn’t sure how much it was okay to tell Ellie, but then plunged in, “Remember I mentioned earlier how the Council tries to help Gifted people make the best use of their Gifts?” Ellie nodded. “Well, they also try to help Gifted people not abuse their Gifts, like using them to cheat or lie or hurt people. If stuff like that started happening, and people started finding out about us and about the gene, it would make people hate us or fear us or just want to study us. None of us would be safe if that happened.”

  Ellie hadn’t thought about that. So far, being Gifted had seemed like a purely positive thing, maybe the best thing that had ever happened to her. Perhaps she could understand better now why Aunt Grace had hid it from her all these years. “So, who is this Stanhope person? Is he a Gifted One who’s done something bad? And how’s the moving guy gonna help?”

  Angel laughed. “Coop’s not really a furniture mover. That’s just a cover. He’s a Builder, one of us. He’s a genius with electronics, mechanics, engines. If it’s got moving parts, he can make it go.”

  “Okay, so what are they doing?”

  Angel seemed a little impatient with Ellie’s pestering, but she gave in and explained the issue. “Senator Stanhope is not a Gifted One. He’s a slimeball. He’s been accepting bribes to permit an algal energy system to be built in his home state. We suspect some others are, too, but he’s the only one we know for sure. See, algae has great potential as a fuel source and could eventually replace petroleum. It’s cheaper and better for the environment, but there’s a problem with this particular pond design. The designer is a Gifted One, and he knows his design is flawed, and the pond will leech dangerous chemicals into the surrounding environment.”

  “And he doesn’t care?”

  “Well, maybe he does, but he won’t speak up. He’s not telling the truth about it.” She shrugged. “Maybe he’s being blackmailed or something. Anyway, without him, we’ve got no proof. Our only hope is to out Senator Slimeball.”

  Ellie looked back toward Uncle Joe, Cooper, and Nadia. They were all leaning over the dining table looking at some plans and charts and talking heatedly. “Okay, so what’s the Catholic school thing got to do with it?”

  “And aren’t you the curious one? Look, if you have to know, Joe cooked up a plan. Cooper’s going to deliver this fancy armchair to the senator’s office, and then the senator’s staff will tell him they didn’t order a new chair. He’s going to leave it with them while he investigates the mix-up. Meanwhile, Nadia’s going in to the Capitol Building with a bunch of students from St. Piperio’s. They’ve got fifteen minutes scheduled with the senator, during which Nadia’s going to slip into his private bathroom and hide until he leaves for a meeting he’s got soon after. Then she’ll have about thirty minutes alone in his office to photograph a bunch of incriminating documents that he keeps locked in his desk. When she’s done, she tucks herself into a secret compartment in the base of the chair, and when Coop shows back up to reclaim the chair, he wheels her out of there on a handtruck.” Angel stopped for a breath.

  “Wait, if he can wheel her out, why can’t he just wheel her in?”

  Angel looked surprised that Ellie had actually followed all that. “Well, because it’s a lot easier to smuggle things out of the Capitol Building than in. They’ve got x-ray machines and bomb-sniffing dogs and all kinds of stuff on the front end.”

  “Oh, sure, didn’t think of that. Man, it’s such a cool plan. I mean, you guys are like Mission Impossible!”

  Angel laughed. “Well, maybe not quite, but it is pretty exciting sometimes. Problem is, it sounds like this one ain’t gonna fly, because the tour guide will notice Nadia’s missing when she counts at the end of the hall. We’ll probably have to abort and try something else.”

  The wheels started turning in Ellie’s head. “Maybe not.” She walked back to the dining area and interrupted them, “Uncle Joe, I’ve got an idea.”

  He looked up at her, distracted. “You’ve got a way to help us?”

  She grabbed the second uniform from where it was hanging over the back of one of the dining chairs and held it in front of her body. “Yeah, me!”

  # # #

  Hissssssss.

  “¡Mamacita!”

  “Hey, chicky-chicky-chicky!”

  Angel narrowed her eyes and blew out a deep, cleansing breath. Sometimes it was hard to stay in character when she was under cover. When sporting her black leather combo and standing well over six feet in her high-heeled boots, she was pretty intimidating to the average man on the street, and if any of them did dare whistle or cat-call, one slitty-eyed glare would shut them down. Dressed as she was this afternoon, however, as somebody’s maybe-legal Hispanic houseworker walking the kid home from her ritzy private school, it was a different story. Her sympathies went out to the hard-working ladies who had to pass this way every day.

  Ellie looked up at her, biting her lip, obviously concerned that her clever plan might not be as foolproof as she’d hoped. Angel gave her head a quick little shake. “Nothing to worry about, chica. We’re doing fine. Just keep walking.”

  Despite the fact that Ellie’s part in the plan put her in no real danger, it had still taken some serious lobbying to convince Joe that he should let Ellie help out. When Ellie pointed out a simple solution to their problem, Joe was the only one who wasn’t all for it. Even Nadia, the irksome little acrobat, jumped on board when she saw how easily Ellie could play her double with the Catholic school crowd. For a while, it had seemed as though Joe wouldn’t relent, even with all their assurances that they would fully prep Ellie with everything she needed to know, but when Ellie turned her big hazel eyes on Joe and begged pretty please, he folded like a house of cards. The next time she needed to change Joe’s mind about something, Angel was going straight to Ellie.

  As they neared the visitor’s entrance, Angel stopped and gave Ellie a final check. She pulled a few strands out of one of Ellie’s braids and let them fall into her face. Then she tugged on the collar of the white blouse to give it a more disheveled appearance. Angel casually raised her hand to her face, pretending to scratch her nose and spoke into her hand, “You got us, Joe? We’re goin’ in.”

  A tiny voice responded inside her ear, “I can hear you both, Angel. Loud and clear.”

  She tapped on her ear and looked at Ellie. “Joe can hear you, and I can, too. We’ll hear everything you say and do through that little mic inside your collar. Any sign of trouble, all you gotta do is say the code word. You remember it, right?”

  Ellie’s face said yes, she’d been drilled on it ten times already, but she was patient with Angel’s question. “I got it, Ange
l—if anything goes wrong, I just have to mention plaid.”

  “Good girl! Okay, chica, let’s do this. And remember, we’re supposed to be late.”

  They rushed up to the doorway, trying to appear panicked. Angel laid on her thickest Spanish accent and best broken English, “Oh, mister, sir, you must please help! My Leenda she is late for tour! Is all my fault. Now she no see wonderful American Capitol building and meet fine senator. My employer, he will be so angry. I lose my job.”

  The elderly man behind the desk regarded her with some suspicion, but before he had a chance to say anything, Ellie chimed in, impressing Angel with her improv skills, “She’s right, sir. Daddy will have an absolute fit if he finds out Marissa didn’t get me to the class trip on time. And then he’ll fire her and send her back to Mexico, and she won’t be able to support her sick mother anymore. Please, she’s the nicest nanny I’ve ever had! Oh, please tell me I can still catch up with my class!” She turned those same puppy dog eyes on the old guy, sounding like she was about to cry.

  “Now, now, little lady, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” He looked over her plaid uniform, then checked his computer. “You’re with the group from St. Piperio’s?” Ellie nodded emphatically. “And you have your school ID?”

  “Yes, sir, it’s right here.” She pulled the ID card from her shoulder bag and handed it over.

  He studied the card a moment, looked at Ellie, and then ran his finger down the length of his computer screen. “Linda Alcott. I see it right there.” He looked at her again, testing her, “And your teacher’s name is?”

  “Sister Bertha.”

  He smiled, apparently pleased with his own crafty, detective work, and handed back the ID. He printed out a bar-coded badge showing her name and the tour time, and plastered it on the front of her jumper. “All right, Linda, I’ll have the guard take you up there.” He glanced at the clock. “You might not make it in time to meet the senator, but you’ll get to see everything else.”

  “Oh, thank you so much, sir!” As the guard led her down the hall, Ellie threw one last glance back at Angel, who gave her a big thumbs up. As they crested the stairs to the second floor, though, Ellie’s excitement and enthusiasm for this brilliant idea was giving way to insecurity. What if the nuns figured out she didn’t belong in their group? What if the other kids started asking her questions that she didn’t know the answers to? What if Nadia got caught, and they were all hauled off to Guantanamo Bay as suspected terrorists? Uh, okay, maybe that wasn’t gonna happen, but still…

  “Young lady! Where have you been?” A heavy-set woman wearing a white blouse, navy sweater, and a skirt in that same awful plaid pattern was striding down the hall toward Ellie and the security guard. Her voice was sharp, “You were supposed to be in Senator Stanhope’s office with the rest of us!”

  “I, uh…”

  “Which class are you in? Who’s your teacher?”

  “Sister B—” Right before she said the woman’s name, Ellie’s eyes fell on the teacher’s bar-coded badge, which read: Sister Bertha Bartholomew. Ellie quickly backpedaled, “Uh, I’m in Sister Mary Elizabeth’s class. I’m new. I’ve only been at St. Piperio’s for two weeks.”

  “I see. Well, the first thing you’ll need to learn is how to follow directions.” The woman grabbed her arm and whisked her away from the security guard, then continued down the hall, berating her for leaving the group and embarrassing the entire school with her irresponsible behavior.

  Ellie looked down the hallway. They were approaching the rest of the tour group, and several of the students were looking back at her and Sister Bertha instead of focusing on the tour guide up ahead. One of the other adults in the group, probably Sister Mary Elizabeth herself, turned to look at them, too. She wrinkled her forehead and began checking a clipboard she had in her hands. Ellie’s heart started beating rapidly. Her hands felt clammy. She was supposed to be subtle and not draw attention to herself, so no one would notice her and start asking questions.

  Ellie glanced back over her shoulder. They weren’t too far past the ladies room. Maybe she could say she felt sick and dash in there. Maybe she should just make a run for it back the way she had come. Was there any other way out of here? She turned her eyes forward again, and blam! A door opened suddenly out into the hallway, and Ellie walked right into it. “O-o-ow!”

  “Oops, sorry!” A tall woman in a severe business suit and high heels, carrying an armload of files, tossed back her apology as she rushed on by and hurried down the hall.

  Now everyone was definitely looking at them. The combination of the scrutiny, the fear, and the sting on her forehead brought tears to Ellie’s eyes. Sister Bertha took Ellie’s face by the chin and studied her. Her tone changed from anger to sympathy, “Oh, my dear, are you all right?” Bertha shook her head, looking after the busy woman in high heels. “Hmph. Couldn’t even stop to see if you were hurt.” Then she glanced up the hallway at the tour group, and gave them an exasperated wave. “Well, go on, stop gawking. Nothin’ to see here.”

  The embarrassed onlookers turned back toward their tour guide, but Ellie was transfixed on Sister Bertha. Through her tears, she was seeing something—an odd glow. The woman’s face appeared to be beaming out a bright white light. There were streaks of pale pink and silvery shimmers, too. She looked almost like an angel. Wow, that whack on the head must’ve been harder than Ellie had thought.

  But the whole thing gave her an idea. “Y-yes, Sister. I think I’m okay. But please forgive me. I must be honest with you. The real reason I fell behind…I just got caught up in the Rotunda, looking at that big painting on the ceiling.”

  The nun brought her voice down to a whisper, “The Apotheosis?”

  “Is that what it’s called? Isn’t it marvelous? All those beautiful images…I couldn’t take my eyes off it.” Ellie sighed, “It looks just like God in heaven with the angels, doesn’t it?”

  Sister Bertha smiled like the angel she appeared to be. “Why, yes, child, I believe it does.” She laid a hand on Ellie’s shoulder then, and together, they slipped back into the tour group unnoticed.

  # # #

  Ellie understood that every day couldn’t be as exciting as the day before, when she’d gotten to help out Uncle Joe and Angel and two other Gifted Ones in their plan to expose a dirty politician, but did it have to be this bad? She could barely keep her eyes propped open at the painfully dull meeting Uncle Joe had dragged them to in some big fancy office building in downtown D.C. She shifted her focus from the presentation at the front of the room—some old geezer talking about that algae stuff again—to the world outside. Through the big windows on the side of the room, she could see several of Washington’s landmarks, including the glorious Capitol building where they’d carried out their little caper.

  She could still hardly believe the whole thing had happened. Here, she’d been excited just to be visiting a new place and meeting new people, and just like that, it had turned into the biggest adventure of her life. Even Uncle Joe, who’d initially resisted the idea of letting Ellie join in, had been thrilled with the outcome. “Ellie,” he’d said, “you were so fast on your feet! You handled Sister Bertha like a pro. That bit about the painting was genius!” Ellie had felt so much pride at his reaction, she imagined she was beaming white and silver streaks herself. And, thanks to Ellie’s improvisational skills and her standing in for Nadia, the plan had come off perfectly. Nadia managed to find and photograph the incriminating papers, and Cooper had smuggled her out in the base of the armchair. Early this morning, in some newsroom somewhere in the city, some lucky reporter had opened an anonymous package that would make her famous.

  It had all been so thrilling, so exciting—the kind of life she would fantasize about when watching those old movies with her dad. She wanted to tell her Aunt Grace all about it, every detail, but she knew she couldn’t. Grace would hit the roof if she knew Ellie had done something like that, and she would probably kill Uncle Joe for allowing it. Fortunately, Unc
le Joe had used some kind of super healing products he carried in his bag to help the bump on Ellie’s head go down, so they wouldn’t have to explain it.

  “Ow!” A quick, sharp jab in the rib cage brought Ellie back to the world of the living. She hadn’t even realized the meeting was breaking up until Angel’s elbow brought an abrupt end to her daydream. The speaker switched off his presentation, and folks started getting up and milling about. Angel grabbed Ellie by the elbow and pulled her up from her chair. “Vamos, chica. Let’s see if we can’t break you outta here.”

  They worked their way towards the front of the conference room where Uncle Joe, the algae guy, and a couple of other people were conversing animatedly. Ellie glanced out across the room. It was filled with a hodge-podge of races and nationalities. It could’ve been the U.N. for all the different clothing styles, hair styles, sizes, shapes, and ages of people that were gathered. Her ears were picking up dozens of different languages and accents, some speaking earnestly and some angrily, but most were laughing and chattering like friends at a party. Nadia the Gymnast, Cooper the Builder, Angel the Defender, Uncle Joe the Healer, and all these other super-talented people. What could she, Elodie Eggleston, possibly do that could compare to what all these people had to offer?

  As the group began migrating back toward their seats for the next presentation, Angel made a move toward Joe. She tapped on his shoulder to get his attention. “Hey, Joe, why don’t I take Ellie out and show her around a bit? You’ve got plenty of Defenders here. The kid’s really…uh, hungry. Aren’t you, El?”

  Ellie brightened. “Oh, oh yeah, starving. Absolutely starving. You don’t mind, do you, Uncle Joe?”

  He looked gloomy. “But Dr. Graber’s got these great artifacts from her last dig—” He stopped and grinned. “Never mind, you’ve earned it. Go ahead.” He pointed directly at Ellie. “But stay with Angel, got it? I mean, every minute.”