by H. L. Burke
Laleh’s defiance wavered. What if this was her chance to escape her mother’s influence and forge her own path? It almost seemed too good to be true—and if Cyra had signed off on it, it probably was. Cyra wouldn’t okay any plan that gave Laleh a chance to disrupt the program.
She angled away from Prism. “Like you said, it’s not like I have a choice.”
“I’ll tell your mother we’re good then.” Prism walked to the door, opened it, and called out, “We’re done. Everything’s set.”
Cyra hurried back in and thrust Ruby at her mother.
“I’ll wait outside so you two can say your goodbyes,” Prism said before stepping out, taking Ruby with her.
Cyra faced her daughter. “Don’t screw this up. It may be your last chance to make things right. Even our family’s influence has limits.”
Laleh stood. “Whatever.”
Cyra sighed. “Why do you have to be so—never mind. I do love you, Laleh, my princess. You know that, right?”
Laleh’s chest tightened, and she just shrugged.
For a moment Cyra’s flawless face creased ever so slightly, but then she pulled herself tall again. “I had my assistant pack for you, and the flight is settled as well. If there’s anything you need or want, make sure to tell me.”
“How about a little bit of personal agency? How do I get that?”
“Don’t be a smart mouth.” Cyra stepped closer.
The backpack shifted.
“What in the ...” Cyra bent and yanked it open, staring into the cavernous backpack.
Nothing stared back at her—well, at least nothing she could see.
Laleh had to clench her jaw to keep from beaming. Apparently she now had a pet invisible ferret. Well, that was one good thing to come out of this whole mess.
Chapter Six
A slamming door jerked Jake awake, and he sat up. The car wasn’t moving. In fact, Fade wasn’t even in the car. Jake peeled himself off the back seat and peered into the front. No one was there and beyond the windshield was an empty parking lot. Had Fade really left him unsupervised? This could be his chance—
A rapping on the window made him jump. Fade gazed in at him then opened the door. Behind the tall DOSA sable were two average sized men, one of possibly hispanic descent, maybe in his late twenties, and a slightly older white guy in a nondescript black suit and sunglasses.
“Porter and I are going inside for a bit.” Fade nodded towards the younger of the two men. “You want to come or you want to stay out here?”
“I’ll stay.” Jake tried to appear nonchalant. He’d wait until he was alone to plan his great escape.
“All right. Don’t try anything. Agent Edwards here is one of DOSA’s best. He’s transported real supervillains. Some punk kid in a disruptor cuff isn’t going to be much trouble for him.” Fade shut the door. Agent Edwards stood silently, staring directly at Jake, as Porter and Fade walked away.
Several minutes passed. Jake shifted awkwardly in the back seat of the DOSA SUV, trying not to dwell on the irritating energy of the disruptor cuff on his ankle. He glanced at his babysitter. The man’s expression was inscrutable, his eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses.
Man, DOSA is such a cliche. Jake shook his head in disgust. If not for the anklet, getting away from a single normie officer would’ve been a cinch. Heck, without the anklet, even Fade wouldn’t be much of a challenge—though it would be nice to know what the guy’s powers were. Most sables couldn’t wait to brag about their abilities, splashing clues all over their uniforms and hero handles. Fade kept it close to the vest. Based on his name, Jake guessed he might have some sort of invisibility or camouflage ability, though, which wouldn’t pose much of a roadblock to escape.
Closing his eyes, he went over his uncle’s instructions for encounters with DOSA.
First rule, don’t get caught. Second rule, if you are incompetent enough to get caught, escape. Finally, if you’re too stupid to escape, don’t talk. Sit down, shut up, and if we need you, we’ll come get you.
Having already broken rule one, Jake would have to work extra hard at rule two if he wanted to redeem himself in the eyes of the gang.
A car door opening roused him from his thoughts, and he glared in the direction of the noise. A skinny kid, maybe a couple of years younger than Jake, recoiled, shrinking even smaller. He had huge brown eyes, dark curls, and bronzy skin and wore a red sweatshirt that hung off his body almost to his knees.
“It’s okay, Marco. Jake doesn’t bite,” Fade’s dry voice came from behind the boy. “As much as he’d like to, we’ve defanged him for now.”
Jake redirected his scowl to the DOSA sable. No longer under Jake’s scrutiny, the kid scrambled up onto the seat across from Jake.
Fade passed him a black plastic bag which the kid tucked onto the floor between his feet before buckling.
Fade gave an approving nod. “Sit tight. I have a few more papers to sign then we can get going.”
“Okay.” The kid smiled at Fade.
Jake cast the kid a skeptical glance. Whoever this new guy was, he wasn’t wearing an anklet plus he just seemed way too happy to be under arrest. Jake’s curiosity was piqued, but he pushed it down. After all, he wasn’t planning to stick around long enough to get to know anyone.
“Hey, I’m Marco!” The kid stuck out his hand as if expecting Jake to shake it. “What’s your name?”
Jake eyed the extended limb skeptically. “Jake.”
“Cool. Are you going to camp too?”
Jake arched an eyebrow. “Camp?”
“Yeah, Camp Sable.” Marco buckled his seatbelt and leaned back in the seat. “Do you have superpowers? I just found out about mine. What are yours like?”
“You do realize we’re prisoners, right?” Jake pointed out. “I mean, at least I am. Are you?”
“Nah ... well, not really.” Marco’s smile faded. “I kind of was, but it was all a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?” Jake repeated.
“Yeah, so I didn’t know about my powers until recently, like I said. It’s just me and my mom, and she has to leave me home alone a lot—which is okay. Don’t get me wrong. I can take care of myself. I’ve always been able to, but a couple of weeks ago, she left me alone and someone tried to break into our apartment while she was gone. I don’t have a phone, and mom takes hers with her when she leaves, so I kind of panicked. That’s when it happened.” He glanced down at his hands as if they belonged to someone else and had somehow gotten attached to him. “It’s hard to explain, but I felt all hot inside and I just needed to get it out of me and it burst ... kind of all over the place.” His tone grew sheepish. “Next thing I know, the apartment’s on fire and sprinklers and sirens are going off—whoever was trying to break in ran away though, so that turned out okay.”
“You have fire based powers?” Jake frowned. He’d heard of that before. Not a common power type, but a few high profile sables on both sides of the law boasted fire abilities. Pretty dangerous ones, too.
“That’s what they tell me ... now, anyway.” Marco frowned. “When the police and fire guys got there, they didn’t believe me. My mom doesn’t have powers and while my dad’s never been around, I don’t think he has them either, so no one expected me to. Even my mom thought I was making it up to cover for the fact that I went all Fire Nation on our living room.”
“Fire Nation?” Jake asked.
“Oh, yeah.” Marco’s eyes lit up. “Do you like Avatar: The Last Airbender? It’s one of my—”
“I’m kind of old for cartoons.” Jake turned to face the front seat again.
“Oh, well, anyway, I ended up in there.” For the first time Marco’s expression darkened as he cast a side-eye towards the juvenile detention center he’d just left. “Thought I’d never get out. Couldn’t make the fire happen again to prove I was telling the truth, and people were acting like I was dangerous or crazy or both—but then some big kid knocked me down in the cafeteria and whoosh!” He thr
ew his hands over his head. His fingers sparked.
Jake inhaled sharply, flinching back. “Watch it!”
“Oh, whoops.” Marco examined his hands. Smoke wafted around his fingertips. “Wow. That’s the third time, and I wasn’t even scared. Maybe it’s getting easier for me. I just wish it would happen when I wanted it to instead of ... whenever.”
Jake coughed. Why did he have a disruptor cuff when this literal fire bomb waiting to go off didn’t?
“Anyway, the lunch lady and about a half dozen other kids saw it happen that time, so someone called DOSA. Fade told me we’re going someplace I can safely learn to use my powers. I’m hoping it doesn’t take too long.” Marco’s tone grew more subdued. “I miss my mom.”
Jake looked away. He couldn’t really remember his biological parents. His mother had been Uncle Vic’s sister, at least that’s what he’d been told, but she’d died on a gang mission when he was two. After that, an elderly aunt had raised both Jake and Caleb until their powers had manifested and Uncle Vic had brought them to start their work with the family.
The boy’s dad had been gone even before they’d lost their mom, another member of the gang who had hooked up with Erin Lucas off and on—enough times to produce two sons at least. He had, according to Uncle Vic, been arrested when Erin was pregnant with Jake and had died in prison shortly after.
The thought of dying in prison made Jake’s stomach twist. What would happen to Caleb?
Fade and Porter approached the car again. The men said a quick farewell. Fade shook the hands of both Porter and Agent Edwards before he got behind the wheel again.
“Everything’s set. You guys ready to go?”
“Yep!” Marco piped up.
Jake didn’t speak.
How did everything in my life go to crap so quickly?
Chapter Seven
Traveling took forever. Jake had never flown before, and he hadn’t realized how much of it would be waiting and sitting in one place. It didn’t help that Marco immediately begged to get the window seat. Not that Jake would’ve asked. Sure, he would’ve liked to see out the window, but he wasn’t going to ask to.
While it was the longest in terms of distance, the flight actually proved to be the shortest leg of the boys’ journey. After they landed in Portland, they claimed Fade’s SUV out of long term parking before spending the night in a hotel. The next morning Fade woke both boys up stupid early and then they drove ... and drove, and drove, and drove. By the second hour on the road, Jake was certain his brain was melting.
Worse, Marco wouldn’t shut up. Every five minutes the kid piped up with a question. Jake kept an ear out for any useful information. Through Marco’s inquiries, he found out that the true leader of the camp wasn’t actually Fade but his wife Prism, and that Prism had gone to pick up the third subject—a girl—from the east coast. Prism and Fade had a baby daughter. They’d gotten the land from a friend who had bought it years ago to found a wildlife sanctuary but somehow never gotten around to it ... Jake wondered how much money that friend had to be buying up random patches of land in the middle of nowhere only to give them away like that.
The land outside their vehicle changed from vibrant forested hills on either side of a wide, slate gray river to treeless rolling hills, some still snowcapped, with distant craggy mountains looming on the horizon. After this, it dipped into lush, farm filled valleys like something off a jigsaw puzzle, then finally passed through a small city and climbed back into a forest filled with ruler straight pine trees stretching on forever. After the city, though, even Marco fell silent before drifting off to sleep with his face pressed against the window.
“You’re being awful quiet back there,” Fade said after a long stretch where no one spoke.
“Nothing to say,” Jake replied.
“Fine by me. We’re almost to camp, though, about another half hour.” Fade glanced at the dash clock. “We made good time. We’ll be there before lunch.”
Jake’s stomach ached. The memory of the quick sampling of continental breakfast he’d gotten at the hotel that morning seemed faint and intangible.
The SUV turned off onto a dirt road filled with potholes and mud puddles. Jake braced his feet against the floorboards as the vehicle shook.
“Could you have picked any place more remote?” he asked wryly.
“You’re just lucky you’re arriving here at the end of the winter,” Fade said. “We spent several weeks snowed in this year. Speaking of which, Prism texted me this morning and said she’d ordered a few changes of clothes for you, and also some things for Marco since most of what he has is made for California weather. We get pretty reliable two day shipping, but if you need anything before that, let me know. You’ve been wearing that same outfit for a few days now.”
“I’m fine.” Jake crossed his arms over his chest.
“You might be fine, but if you stink, the rest of us have to live with it.”
Jake ignored him, staring out the window. Not much out there but trees. If he could somehow get rid of the disruptor cuff, he might be able to hike out—or hike to the highway and thumb a ride. Sure, people said hitchhiking was dangerous, but most people didn’t have superpowers. He’d be fine—again, presuming he could find a way to get the anklet off.
With a side-eye glance to make sure Fade was looking ahead and not at him, he bent down and pretended to scratch his ankle. He felt around the cold metal of the disruptor cuff. The power prickled at his fingers like static electricity. The cuff seemed to be made of interlocking sections that telescoped into each other, but with no space between the pieces that he could find. That explained how it could conform so exactly to the size of his ankle. He couldn’t detect any sort of latch or lock, but maybe if he could get a hold of some tools he could saw it off.
Well, it wasn’t like he could do that now.
They hit another pothole, this one filled to the brim with muddy water. Brown liquid splashed up against the windows, and Marco awoke with a jolt.
He rubbed his eyes. “Where are we?”
“We’re home.” Fade nodded towards the road ahead.
The trees parted revealing a two story log cabin with a long porch and a brick chimney on the side. There were a few outbuildings including a chicken coop with dingy looking hens scratching around out front. As they pulled up in front of the house, a petite woman with blue-tipped blond hair strode out and waved.
“Huh.” Fade clicked his tongue before climbing out of the car and approaching her.
Eager to stretch his legs, Jake followed him with Marco close behind.
“Hey, handsome.” The woman strode up and stood on her tiptoes. Fade bent down to kiss her, looking even more massive by comparison. Jake’s muscles tensed. Superpowers generally trumped brute strength, but Jake still wouldn’t want to take Fade on in a fight.
“How’d you beat us home?” Fade glanced around. “Also, how’d you get here without a car? I thought I was going to have to drive to Portland to get you tomorrow.”
“Ashe family’s private jet dropped me right in Bend then they had a contracted driver bring me and Laleh the rest of the way,” the woman, presumably Prism, explained. “Man, that was an experience.”
“I see how it is,” Fade said. “You take the cushy assignments for yourself and send me to drive halfway across the southwest and fly coach.”
“Well, I have to remind you that I’m the one in charge occasionally, don’t I?” Prism winked at him then turned to look at the two boys. “You must be Jake and Marco. DOSA forwarded me your files.”
“Hi!” Marco waved at her as if she wasn’t standing just a few feet from him.
Jake’s gaze landed on Prism’s stomach, and his jaw dropped. “Holy crap, are you pregnant?”
She clicked her tongue. “Luckily for you, yes. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that’s not something you should ever ask a woman?”
“Why not? You are.” Jake frowned.
“We can talk about etiquette later. Let’s ge
t you both settled in for now.” Prism motioned towards the house. “Your third ... oh, gosh, I haven’t thought about what you kids should call each other. Teammates? Campmates? Future best friends?” She laughed.
Jake scoffed inwardly. Yeah, not gonna happen.
“Well, whatever we decide on, her name is Laleh Ashe, and she’s in the kitchen. Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
Jake managed to keep his expression stoic as he followed Prism into the house. The girl’s last name was the same as the name of the family who owned the private jet. What was she doing here?
They entered a narrow entryway with a small mud room off to the side where Prism made them leave their shoes. To one side, an archway opened up to a living room with a sort of rustic, woodsy look like something from an old cowboy movie only updated to about the 90s. In front of them a hallway divided into a staircase leading up to a second level and a hall cutting through the center of the house with a few doors opening onto it. To the other side was a dining room and beyond that a kitchen.
Prism led the small group into the kitchen where a girl roughly Jake’s age sat at the kitchen island drinking something out of a mug. She had a small frame mostly hidden in a mint green oversized sweater and long dark hair tied back in a ponytail.
“Laleh, this is Jake and Marco. You three will be staying here together—though Marco and Jake will be in a separate bedroom from you,” Prism quickly added the last bit.
Jake’s cheeks heated. While he was certain he had a lot more experience with pretty much everything than either of these other kids did, the exception was probably girls. The Sand Foxes were an almost exclusively male operation, and the few women who did wander in and out of the gang rarely interacted with the boys. Also none of them were fellow kids, as the meme went.
“Hi!” Marco waved again.
Jake grimaced. This kid was like a walking cartoon.
“Hey.” Laleh gave an awkward smile.
“Where’s Ruby?” Fade asked from the doorway.