But the hallway was impassable now. It was fully engulfed in flames. With the boy crying, she slammed the door to keep out the fire and began to panic.
She’d have to find a different way out.
Charlie felt her way to the bedroom window, flinging the curtains aside. She ripped down the shade and threw it on the floor, opened the window, and pressed her forehead against the screen to see what was below. There were no flames, but it was a sheer drop to the backyard—no overhangs, no pipe to climb down. Only some smoldering window shutters to hold on to several feet below her. “Good grief,” she muttered. She punched the screen with her fist, sending it flying, and leaned out, watching it hit the ground. Her heart was in her throat.
The house groaned, and she heard some popping noises and a crash outside the child’s room. She turned quickly at the sound, the curtains fluttering near her face. And then she sucked in a breath. The curtains! Could she climb down them? She set the boy on the floor, ripped down one panel, and tied it to the bottom of the other. Leaving the other panel attached to the curtain rod, she flung the makeshift rope out the window. Then she picked up the child and hoped the strength ability was still activated so she could hold on.
Just then a window on the first floor below them exploded, and flames began climbing up toward Charlie and the boy. With the dangling curtain in danger of bursting into flames, and no time to ponder other options, Charlie grabbed it and stepped out of the window.
The people outside gasped. Holding the child with one arm, Charlie used the other to rappel down the side of the house until she ran out of curtain length. She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do next other than hang there and wait for help.
Without warning, the curtain rod broke. Charlie screamed and let go, instinctively slapping her free hand against the house, trying to grasp at anything to keep them from falling. And while the curtain fluttered to the ground, Charlie and the boy did not. They hung suspended, Charlie’s hand somehow magically sticking to the side of the house.
What just happened? she thought. Both hands and feet tingled.
Once she realized they were stable, for the moment at least, Charlie quickly kicked off her shoes and pressed her tingly bare feet against the house. They stuck. Gingerly, she lifted one foot and moved it down to see if it would stick again.
It did. Slowly she slid her hand down, then her feet, then her hand again, and before anyone could comprehend what Charlie was doing, she was safely on the ground, her body shaking. Maria and Mac charged toward her. With sirens sounding in the distance, Charlie handed the child to Maria.
“That was insane!” Maria shouted. “How did you do that?”
Charlie shook her head, trying to catch her breath. “I don’t know,” she rasped. “I’ve got to go after the lady.”
Mac nodded furiously. “I think you must have activated another ability!”
Charlie didn’t have time to check the bracelet now. “Be right back,” she croaked. Her hands and feet still tingled, but they didn’t look any different. With reckless trust in the bracelet, Charlie ran toward the house and, without slowing down, flung herself at it, spread-eagle. Her hands and feet stuck. She scrambled quickly up the side to the rooftop where the woman clung as fire devoured the structure all around her.
“It’s going to collapse!” somebody shouted just as a fire truck turned onto the street. There wasn’t time to wait for help—the fire was uncomfortably hot on Charlie’s body already. “Come on!” she said, hoping the woman would understand. She pointed down at Maria, who held up the boy so the woman could see her child was safe, then reached out and grabbed the woman around the waist. The baby’s mother clung to Charlie’s neck and screamed as Charlie gripped the edge of the roof, dangling over the side of the house. With the woman bigger than her and practically choking her to death, Charlie started back down. They made a strange sight. Firefighters rushed to the chaotic scene below.
“Look out!” someone cried.
Charlie didn’t have to look. She felt the house shake, and then it began to crack and crumble. Flames shot out, singeing Charlie’s legs. She held the woman tightly and leaped the rest of the way to the ground. The two tumbled in the rocky landscaping, and then Charlie scooped up the woman and ran away from the house until they were at a safe distance.
They both collapsed, breathing hard. Strangers swarmed around them, saying things Charlie couldn’t comprehend. All she wanted was some fresh air.
“Gracias,” the woman cried. “Thank you.”
Charlie nodded, unable to speak.
Seconds later Mac and Maria were pushing through to Charlie’s side. Maria handed the screaming child to his mother, and they began dragging Charlie out of the crowd to find her a place to sit down.
“Are you okay?” Maria exclaimed.
Charlie nodded. Her throat was sore from the smoke. She whipped off her makeshift mask, wiped her face with it, coughed hard into it a few times, and threw it on the ground.
Mac ran off and came back with bottles of ice-cold water from a neighbor. Charlie grabbed one with her burned hand, cringed, and poured the liquid down her throat and over her head.
“Is the baby okay?” she asked when she could speak. She watched the firefighters work to extinguish the blaze, then examined her blistered hand and legs, and found the redness was already subsiding. The pain was lessening too.
“I think so,” Mac reported. “They’re taking him and the woman to the hospital, it looks like. And now people are pointing this way. Here comes a paramedic.”
Charlie glanced at Maria and bit her lip. “Do you think anybody’s suspicious about the climbing?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Maria said quietly as the woman approached. “You saved people. Just play it down. You’re a climber.”
Charlie nodded. She peeked at her hand, wishing the blisters to disappear, and then held the water bottle in that hand again to help it along.
The uniformed woman smiled. “I hear you’re a hero,” she said. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” Charlie said. “Just a little singed around the edges.” She pointed to her clothes.
“I’m Alice. What’s your name?”
“Charlie.”
The woman crouched next to Charlie and looked into her eyes. “Any pain or dizziness, Charlie? Trouble breathing? Cold? Hot? Any burns?”
Charlie didn’t mention her hand or the minor burns on her legs. “Nope, not really.” In the distance a TV news van pulled up.
“Do you live nearby? Are your parents around? We can get you checked out at the hospital just to make sure everything looks good.”
Charlie frowned. “No, that’s okay. My mom’s a doctor. I’ll have her check me over when I get home. But I feel fine.”
“How about we just take a peek at you back at the ambulance and keep an eye on you until your parents get here?” asked Alice. “We’ll just listen to your lungs and look for burns, stuff like that. No big deal.”
The camera operator hopped out of the news van and started setting up, and a reporter got out and began talking to the crowd.
“I’m fine,” insisted Charlie. She stood up and started walking away, warily eyeing the action nearby. Mac and Maria hurried after her.
The paramedic turned to see what Charlie was looking at just as people in the crowd pointed in Charlie’s direction. “Let me at least call your parents,” pleaded Alice.
But Charlie walked faster. The man in the suit started coming toward her.
Alice gave up. “Stay out of burning buildings, all right?” she called after her. Charlie ignored her and looked at Maria and Mac. “We need to get out of here,” she said, her voice shaking. “I don’t know my way around this neighborhood. Where are we?” She could barely remember which direction she’d come from.
“On it,” Mac said, taking the lead. “We’ll get you out of here.”
Maria ran up next to him. “There’s that big cement culvert behind these houses,” she said.
> “Good idea. Is it dry?” He headed that way.
“Should be. It hasn’t rained.” Maria glanced back to see the reporter gaining on them. She grabbed Charlie’s arm to help her along.
“Hi there!” the reporter called out. “Excuse me! Kids?” The reporter broke into a run, following them. He shouted out his name and TV station. “Wait! I heard one of you saved the people inside. Is that true?” In between shouts he was frantically waving at his camera operator to hurry up.
“Run,” said Charlie under her breath. They turned behind the row of houses, jumped down into the culvert, and started running toward Maria’s house.
Now that reality was setting in, Charlie was beginning to feel uneasy. Showing her abilities in public in such an obvious way, barely escaping being on the news . . . it made her feel like a spectacle. Did anybody get a good look at her? They weren’t far from Maria’s neighborhood. Had anybody from school been in the crowd? People don’t just climb up and stick to the side of a house. She didn’t have a good feeling about it.
After a few minutes, with Maria and Mac glancing behind them, they slowed.
“I think we lost him,” Maria said.
“Thank goodness,” said Charlie, dropping her pace to a walk. Her voice was still raspy from smoke, and her lungs hurt from breathing hard. She didn’t tell her friends how uneasy she felt, but she figured they must have a decent idea. All she wanted to do now was hang out at Maria’s and be normal again.
Affected by the smoke and the hard run, Mac was wheezing too. He pulled out his inhaler and used it.
They entered through the back door to Maria’s house. The smell of delicious cooking wafted through the air. Charlie sneaked into the bathroom and cleaned up, and Maria gave her some clothes to change into. When Charlie went back into the bedroom, Maria and Mac were discussing her newest abilities.
“So you’ve got this new wall-climbing ability,” Mac said excitedly. “I got great video footage of it.”
“Yeah?”
“For sure. Watch.” He played it for Charlie.
“Whoa,” she murmured. “I could totally be on American Ninja Warrior.”
Mac laughed. “Understatement of the year.”
“Why did you take your shoes off?” asked Maria.
“My feet were tingling,” Charlie said wearily.
Mac and Maria exchanged a puzzled look. Mac shrugged. “Can I see the bracelet?”
She held out her wrist to him, wishing for the millionth time she could just take off the dumb thing, if only for the convenience of letting Mac look at it without her having to hang her arm in the air. She was getting tired of Mac yanking and pawing at her all the time.
He wiped a bit of residual grime off the screen with his thumb and held down the two buttons. The screen changed to the pie chart, and now all five of the vine-like drawings in the gray slices were animated.
“Check it out!” Mac studied it and looked at the girls. “You got them both somehow. What are they?”
Maria hopped up to see. Charlie puzzled over the animations for a moment. “Oh, that one must be a lizard climbing,” she said. “The four squiggly vines are its legs and feet, see?”
“I see it,” said Mac.
“Yep,” said Maria. “Well, we kind of figured that one out already just watching you in action.” She caught Charlie’s eye and gave her an admiring look. “You really were the coolest.”
“Thanks,” Charlie said.
“Hey,” said Mac with a frown, but then he laughed. “Kidding. Maria’s right—you’re pretty great.” He pointed at the bracelet. “Did you know geckos can hang on to a wall using only one finger?”
“I wonder if Chuck can do that,” said Maria.
“I’m afraid to try,” said Charlie. “And isn’t hanging by one hand close enough? I almost tore my arm out of its socket. But what’s the other ability?” She massaged her shoulder, though it didn’t hurt much anymore.
“I don’t know,” said Maria. “Did something else happen inside the house?”
Charlie had been thinking a lot about that. “I’m not sure how to explain it,” she said. “But when I got inside, it was dark—there was smoke everywhere. I didn’t think I’d be able to find the boy.”
“What happened?” asked Mac.
Charlie blushed. “I started, um, well, chirping. I guess.”
Maria stared. “You did what?”
“Your fifth ability comes from a bird?” asked Mac. “That’s boring. Really disappointing, actually.”
“I don’t think this GIF is a bird,” she said, looking at the fifth wedge on the bracelet.
“Then what is it? What good would chirping do?”
“Well, when I chirped, it sort of helped me tell where things were. I know that sounds weird, but there I was in the pitch-dark, and I just started chirping in this really high voice, not able to control it at all. And suddenly a silver outline of walls and doorways shimmered in front of me and I could see.”
Mac had the weirdest look on his face. “High-pitched chirping?” He snorted. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, it was kind of awkward,” said Charlie. “Like when you get the hiccups and you can’t stop them. But I’ve never heard a bird do anything like that, so I don’t know. . . .”
Maria looked at the bracelet. “Maybe it’s some sort of sonar. Like a dolphin uses.” She sat up, excited. “Yeah, that would make sense!” But then her face fell. “There is no way that is a picture of a dolphin.”
“Sonar . . . ,” said Mac thoughtfully. “You chirped, and the walls appeared. . . .” He scrambled for his iPad and typed in something. In seconds he was playing a video. “Did it sound like this?” He turned up the volume.
On the screen was a video of a bat chirping and diving to catch a moth. Bat chirps were inaudible to human ears, but scientists had altered the pitch on the video so that humans could hear it.
Charlie watched, fascinated. “That’s it,” she said. “That’s the sound.” She looked at the graphic on the bracelet, and the depicted animal became obvious. “It’s a bat all right, flying toward us. The circle is its head, and the wavy vines on either side are wings flapping. The half-circle vines above it are . . . sound waves?”
“Echolocation!” Mac said, and then he frowned. “But . . . you mean you could actually hear your own chirps?”
“Maybe she can hear them because they’re coming from her, and other people can’t,” said Maria. “Or maybe it’s just her own lower-frequency noises echoing—I saw this video in science class once about a boy in England who is blind, and he makes a clicking noise with his tongue to use echolocation. It’s really cool! I’ll see if I can find it and send it to you.”
Mac just sat back and looked at Charlie with reluctant admiration. “Big props. Echolocation, wall climbing, strength, speed, and healing? That is a whole mess of awesomeness.”
Charlie shrugged. It was hard to fathom.
Mac turned back to his iPad. He closed out the bat video, and then clicked on his Twitter feed. He scanned it quickly, then narrowed in on a tweet. “Uh-oh,” he said.
Maria and Charlie moved closer. “What?”
He clicked on a link that opened to a local news page. “‘Mystery Youth Saves Child, Mother from Fire,’” he read. “‘Footage of the daring rescue. Coverage at six.’”
He located the video, and they watched a slightly shaky, slightly blurry film of Charlie scaling the side of the burning house.
CHAPTER 37
Visual Confirmation
In the corner of Dr. Gray’s dimly lit lab, one of his mysterious-looking soldiers watched five screens simultaneously. The large man typed constantly, recording everything he saw. Every now and then the muscles along his back rippled, and he shook his head the slightest bit, but this unusual tic didn’t appear to interrupt his concentration.
At 6:23 p.m. local time, he stopped typing and stared at one of the screens, then restarted the video to watch it again. He paused it and looked at the person
scaling the side of the burning house. He zoomed in, refocused, and zoomed in again, until her face and arms filled the frame. The person appeared to be a girl wearing a cloth mask . . . and a metal bracelet.
“Ahh,” said the man, and then he snorted in anger. He pressed a button on the earpiece that was embedded in his bodysuit. “Zed? It’s Cyke. Alert Dr. Gray. We have visual confirmation.”
Shortly thereafter several doorways opened, and a dozen or so similarly suited men and women filed into the room.
When everyone had assembled, Cyke directed them to look at the screen. He pointed to the device on the girl’s arm. “What do you think, Doctor?”
Dr. Gray peered at the still shot, his eyes narrowing. “I think you’ve got it. Run a visual test. What’s she doing? How did you locate it?”
Cyke touched the screen, drawing a box around the girl’s arm, and magnified the area. “This afternoon our scanners turned up a second web search for Chimera Mark Five from the same IP address in Arizona as before,” he explained, “and we believe we’ve identified the residence from which the query took place. Our surveillance team there has been staking out the neighborhood since the first incidence. They’ve monitored local news as well, but nothing’s turned up until this.” He performed a few more operations on the magnified shot, and soon a box opened on that screen with numbers scrolling and a red bar moving across it. “Official match on the bracelet is in progress.”
“How did you get this footage?”