Dead.
Lucy killed him.
She screams.
***
Lucy jolted awake. A dream. It was just a dream. Relief poured through her.
A familiar voice called to her. "Lucy, Lucy." She responded to it, cautiously, moving slowly to assess her whereabouts. Her subconscious trusted that voice.
Desirai lay next to her. They both rested in a large, comfortable bed in a fancy house.
The mansion.
"Des, it's you!" Lucy gave her a hug. "Oh my God, I can't tell you how happy I am to see you. I don't even know what's going on! I've had the craziest dreams! First, Luke and I were stranded in this crazy jungle, and then Luke was killed by an alligator. I'm just so glad to be home."
Desirai smiled sadly. "Lucy, you're still dreaming. I brought you here to show you something."
Lucy frowned. Right. Des is a dream-walker. She'd given Sam important information about Rent-A-Kid security once, before they took down the whole facility.
So, what part was real? Not Luke dying; that couldn't be. Looking back, none of the dreams seemed especially desirable. They were all nightmares, so where was her body?
The dream world Desirai created felt so warm and happy, Lucy didn't want to ever leave.
Des smiled. "I finally found you. How are you?"
What to say? "I'm good, I guess. We're on our mission to save the kids, right?"
Des nodded. "Yes."
"Okay then, I guess we're still working out the details on that." Why did it feel so hard to distinguish reality from dream? This inability to access her own life scared Lucy more than all of her scary dreams. Well, almost more.
But Lucy couldn't stay scared in Desirai's dream world; too much happiness and joy lived there.
Des reached for Lucy. "Come, I have something exciting to show you. You're going to love it."
Lucy couldn't imagine what it could be, but she allowed the girl to lead her through a door and into a brightly lit room full of life and golden light.
Several people stood around a bed. Is someone sick? No, that wouldn't be happy.
Desirai pulled her forward, and Lucy saw.
Sam lay in the bed holding a baby.
"Oh my God, Ana was born." Tears stung Lucy's eyes.
The baby gurgled and then opened her eyes and smiled. She had Sam's smile, and blue eyes that matched both of her parents'.
"Sam, your baby is so cute. She's beautiful." Lucy reached out to touch the baby's cheek, but her fingers slid right through. She pulled back, scared and sad.
"This is just a dream," Des said. "A memory, really. My memory. I'll show you what I can."
Disappointment surged through Lucy, but she felt grateful to have this, at least, since she couldn't be there for the birth.
"Sam did such a great job. And she felt your love and support the whole time."
Desirai showed her flashes of the birth. Lucy's heart skipped when Sam's vitals slipped, but she and the baby had both survived and were now doing well. That was all that mattered.
The baby gurgled again, and everyone in the room oohed and ahhed. Lucy spotted Des, the memory-Des, standing by the bed with Brad's arm around her.
"So you and Brad...?"
"Yeah, we're together. Totally unexpected but really incredible."
"I'm really happy for you." A twinge of jealousy aside, Lucy wanted Des to be happy. She'd just hoped... well... Brad was hot and nice and really talented. She'd been hoping to spend more time with him when she returned from this mission, but it looked like that wasn't going to happen.
The baby cooed again, and Lucy looked back at her. So tiny and fragile. She and Luke had to complete their assignment and destroy Rent-A-Kid for good. They couldn't let anything happen to Baby Ana or any of the kids.
"Have you shown Luke yet? He needs to see this."
Luke needed to focus, and maybe this would help.
Des shook her head. "No, I'll connect with him next. I can only do one at a time."
Mary stood in the doorway, hidden partially by the frame. "How is Mary here? She's dead!"
"She survived. We just found out. I'm as surprised as you are."
Something shifted. The room faded and a man's voice, quiet, raspy and old, broke through. "Wake up, Lucy."
It sounded familiar. "Who is this?"
"Wake up," the voice repeated.
Lucy looked around but couldn't see anything. "Where are you?"
"Wake up, Lucy. Your brother needs you." The voice melted away, and Sam's room reappeared with all its colors and sounds.
Desirai reached out. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Lucy shook from fear. "No. Something's wrong. I need to wake up. How do I wake up?" Panic gripped her. Luke!
Des looked around in alarm. "I don't know. I mean... you can... I've heard that when you die, you wake up."
"I thought it was when you die in your dream, you die in real life?"
Des shook her head. "No. Not true."
Okay, I can do this. "You're sure."
Des looked scared, but nodded.
Lucy walked to the open window. They were on the third floor.
Des looked out. "That's not high enough to kill you."
"It is if I land on my head."
She jumped headfirst out the window.
***
She jolted awake. Again. Was this real or another dream? She didn't know anymore, but she had to find her brother.
She lay in their camp, where she'd fallen asleep the night before. The dark sky dumped buckets of rain on her. She should've slept under shelter like Luke, but it had been a perfect night, and she liked the warmth of the fire, which Mother Nature had now drowned.
Lucy grabbed her gun and ran toward Luke's shelter.
He lay still on his makeshift bed, asleep.
Something stood over him. A figure.
Lightning flashed, and her eyes focused.
Beleth reached for her brother, and Lucy aimed her gun.
Chapter 76 – Lucy
"Get away from my brother." Lucy's finger pressed against the trigger, ready to pull it if Beleth so much as twitched wrong.
But he didn't move. He maintained that annoying stillness and appeared to be thinking of something. "Don't do anything hasty, Lucy. I have a proposition for you."
Right. Like anything he could offer her would make a difference. The Seeker had tried that approach once. It didn't work then and it wouldn't work now.
She inched closer and shouted at Luke. "Wake up! Wake up." When he didn't move, she kicked him in the leg. "Come on, Luke."
Luke moaned but still didn't wake. The smell of alcohol seeped out of his pores and gagged Lucy. Drool pooled by his chin.
If all the girls could see him now. She was half tempted to use her cell to capture this moment on camera. She would have too, if for no other reason than to remind Luke what he looked like when he drank, but she couldn't afford to take her eyes off of Beleth. The Show and Tell lesson would have to wait.
"No need to wake him," Beleth said, "I just wish to talk."
Uh-huh. Sure. "Okay fine, I'll bite. What's your offer?" She wasn't interested, but the more information she had on him, the better.
Beleth walked around Luke to stand closer to Lucy.
Her finger twitched, but she didn't pull the trigger. Why didn't she? She told herself it was because she needed the intel he could provide, that it had nothing to do with fear of shooting another person.
"This isn't my offer," he said. "This offer... comes from Mr. Steele." He looked at her as if this name should have significance.
"Who's he?"
Beleth tilted his head. "Your sworn enemy and you don't even know his name? He is your friend's father—the reason you never knew your mother."
Lucy made the connection. The bastard in charge of Rent-A-Kid, and father to both Sam and the Seeker. But Beleth was wrong on one account, she had met her mother, briefly, through Sam and Drake, just before her mother was killed
by Rent-A-Kid. Now she knew she wasn't interested.
Words fired out of her mouth like acid. "And what could he possibly offer me that I'd ever be interested in?"
"Control." Beleth whispered the word. "Control over all the madness. You grew up in the organization. You've carried out the assignments. No one knows what it's like better than you. Mr. Steele wants what's best, but he's uncertain. He hasn't been through what you have. You can give him that knowledge."
"So what, I go work for him? Not happening."
"You become my second in command," said Beleth. "You decide how the children are raised."
"Bullshit."
Beleth didn't respond, didn't move at all, and Lucy wondered if it could really be possible. If they really put her in charge, she could make things so much better. And it could happen, couldn't it? The Seeker had told her how he wanted things to be better, and he truly believed it. Maybe Lucy could do what the Seeker couldn't. But....
"Why me? There has to be someone else."
Beleth seemed to think about it. "You're an asset Mr. Steele can't afford to lose."
"Am I? I thought he lost me already."
Beleth cocked his head. "Has he? There are many things Mr. Steele wants, Lucy, many things you are unaware of. We are puppets after all, all pieces in the same game."
She didn't like feeling like a piece in someone's game, and her instincts didn't trust this at all. Even the Seeker, who'd really believed he was helping, had been misguided and had ruined so many lives. She didn't for a second believe that Mr. Steele had pure motives, but she knew Beleth was telling her the truth about everything. So far.
"Shut up. I refuse the offer."
"Of course. You play your own game. What will you do instead? Spend more days on the beach drinking coconut milk? Your instincts are right, Lucy. Mr. Steele does plan to use the children. You could buy them some time, maybe save them, if you act."
Fury swelled up in her veins. She would save the children. She could have saved them already if her stupid brother wasn't acting all depressed. She focused her anger on Luke. It was his fault they still hadn't done anything to save the kids.
Something Beleth had said stopped her. "What did you mean... buy them some time?"
Beleth stared at her.
Lucy shook the gun and yelled. "Tell me!"
"The school, the assignments, were never the organization's goal. Collecting powers was. In a month, most of the children will be dead, and Mr. Steele will be the most powerful paranormal to ever walk this Earth." Beleth turned around and began to walk away.
Lucy stood, shocked. Her mind tumbled over itself as it made connections. The experiments. Adam. Creatures getting powers, changing. Where were they getting these powers? Likely, from other paranormals. Paranormals like the kids being raised at Rent-A-Kid.
So the breeding....
Oh my God. "He's breeding paranormals to steal their powers? That means...."
Sam. Her baby, Ana. He wanted the baby for the powers.
No! Beleth couldn't leave. She could use him. "Stop."
Beleth stopped walking, turned his head back to look at her, then started walking again. "You have two days to accept this offer, or you will die. Your choice."
Without thinking, Lucy rushed forward and attacked Beleth. She holstered her gun; she needed him alive. As she approached him, he dodged and grabbed her arm, then flipped her onto the ground.
Lucy fell into the mud, but quickly rolled backwards and up, clumps of the sticky brown mess clinging to her like shit. She spun into a roundhouse kick aimed at his face, but he blocked and lifted her leg, tipping her to the ground. She pulled her leg in, went with the momentum and rolled into a somersault, then jumped up and aimed lower. If she could kick his knee in, she could break it, thus rendering him immobile.
Her leg swung out but once again he blocked.
Round and round, with each kick and punch she threw, he blocked and knocked her off balance. She'd never fought anyone so strong, so skilled and so fast.
She couldn't predict his moves by watching his torso, like she could with other fighters. He was lightning fast and impossible to anticipate.
Still, she refused to give up. He was good. Too good. But she could beat him. She had to.
With another leap, she surprised herself by landing a side kick into his chest and knocking him to the ground.
Using a kick-up, he pushed off his hands and jumped up before she had time to register that she'd knocked him over. No time to think. She had to keep fighting.
Another kick. Another punch. Lucy kept attacking, furious that nothing she did impacted this guy at all. He was like a wall.
No matter what she did, it didn't seem to matter in the bigger picture. In that moment, her whole life felt as futile as that fight. They fought Rent-A-Kid, but now look where they were. They escaped, but they still weren't free. There were more prisoners. More problems. It was never going to be enough. Nothing they tried to do would ever end this.
Lucy lost focus as her hopelessness took over. She attacked off-balance, and with a small flick of his wrist, Beleth sent her into the mud again, this time pinning her with his foot on her chest.
This was it. The end. Lucy hoped she'd done enough to make way for someone else to finish the battle against Rent-A-Kid.
"IPI will stop you." She surprised herself, unafraid in the face of death. She felt calm.
Beleth dropped down, pinning Lucy with his knee instead of his foot.
The air in her lungs dwindled. His bulk was too much for her petite frame.
He didn't sound angry when he spoke, just certain. "IPI is responsible for so much blood. Now they seek to erase their past. They will fall, before the end."
She gasped through the pain. "What past?"
Beleth increased the pressure on Lucy's chest with each sentence. "Who do you think first noticed the paranormals, first contained them when their powers lost control? Who do you think first experimented on them to better learn what they are?"
As Beleth finished, he lifted his knee, and Lucy inhaled deeply, each breath sending spirals of pain through her bruised ribs. She coughed as air flooded her lungs.
Could IPI really have done all of that? Could they have been like Rent-A-Kid?
Beleth towered over her. "You have a strong spirit, stronger than most I've known. I do not care for Mr. Steele's offer, but I do agree with him that you are an asset not to be wasted, so I'll make you my own offer. Agent Simmons has set up a base on the other side of the island. She appears to be your reinforcements. Likely, you know her. She's been with IPI since nearly the beginning."
Lucy knew her, of course. She'd been with Morrison when they showed up to help the Rent-A-Kids after they broke out of the school, and Beleth was right, she was her reinforcement.
Beleth looked straight into Lucy's eyes. "Kill her. And I'll let all the children go and spare your life... and your brother's."
Chapter 77 – Drake
Toby's finger twitched. Could that happen after death? It did in movies sometimes, but what if....
Drake hurried over to the small boy and checked for a pulse. Nothing. Defeat settled into him, but just as he was about to pull his hand away from the boy's neck, he felt it. Small, sporadic, but definitely a pulse of life.
"Toby, wake up. Toby, can you hear me?"
The boy moaned and coughed weakly, but didn't open his eyes or acknowledge Drake in any other way. He needed to find a phone, call for help. He searched the beaten down house until he spotted an old rotary phone in the kitchen.
Who uses these anymore? He picked up the receiver, but it was dead. Toby's mom probably hadn't paid the bill in a long time, by the looks of things.
Outside! He'd passed a pay phone down the street. Drake hated to leave the kid in such a state, but he had to get medical help immediately.
The run to the pay phone seemed to take hours, but in reality only took about three minutes at most. The graffiti-decorated phone booth looked as abando
ned and out of service as everything else in this neighborhood, but Drake couldn't allow himself to believe that the phone didn't work. It had to. When the dial tone on the other end confirmed his hope, he sighed and hit 9-1-1.
The nasally voice of a woman bored with her job greeted him. "This is the 9-1-1 operator, what is the nature of your emergency?"
"I need an ambulance right away. A boy and his mother OD'd on some drugs. I think she's dead, but he's still alive, though barely."
Drake searched for street signs and relayed his location as best he could. Then, despite the empty pleas of the emergency operator to "stay on the line until help arrives," Drake hung up and ran back to the house, praying to long dead gods that Toby was still alive.
The house smelled of desperation and hopelessness, but hadn't begun to stink of death. That would happen soon enough. Still, a house whose occupant lay dead inside had a certain feel to it, an emptiness and sadness that a vacant house didn't have. Drake didn't want to walk back in, but he had to. Toby needed him.
He argued with himself that this didn't concern him—wasn't his business. But despite his fall into darkness, Drake couldn't turn his back and walk away—no matter how strong the urge.
Toby reminded Drake of himself as a child—lost, alone, abandoned by the world. If Drake hadn't found Father Patrick, who knows what he would have become? He laughed sardonically at the thought when he realized the truth.
This. I would have become what I am right now.
Thinking of the old priest pushed him into action. He shoved open the door that no longer had a handle or latch, and entered the misery of this family's life. When he went back into the bedroom, he half expected to see Toby still and lifeless again. He didn't expect to find him gone.
The dead woman lay alone on the stained mattress, arm lying limp to her side.
"Toby, are you here?" Drake searched the small house quickly. No Toby.
What the hell? Where could he have gone?
Nothing looked disturbed. In fact, the bed still had an impression where the boy had lain. He reached his hand out to touch the mattress, but jerked back in surprise when his hand touched something that wasn't there.
As if in reaction to being touched, the air shimmered and Toby's body appeared where Drake's hand had been. The boy sighed and his eyelids fluttered, trying to open.
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