“To begin, imagine what it is you want to accomplish.”
Since all I could do was get people to like me or help me, I focused on getting Derek to pat me on the back. It felt silly, but I did it. I tried to focus, imagining him taking steps over to me to pat me on the back. I saw him doing this in my mind. I was surprised when at that moment I felt a solid pat on my back a few times. It somehow didn’t feel right that I was manipulating this guy. “Hey, I’m sure you can do it if you try,” he said.
“I just did,” I said.
“Really? Was that your goal, to get me to pat you on the back?”
“That was it,” I said.
“Wow,” he said. “I thought I came up with that on my own. I just felt like giving you a pat on the back. If I knew better, and was trying to resist, I would have been able to. If, however, I didn’t know you had such a power at all, I would have been putty in your hands. Now let's keep working on this. Pick another thing, and try not to embarrass me too much.”
This went on for a couple more hours and I got him to give me a handshake, pick up something I dropped, and even give me a backrub. I still wasn’t sure I felt right about what I was doing though. After that, we went to lunch.
At lunch I sat with Han and we talked about what had happened. “Let me guess,” I said. “Did he talk about focusing?”
“Yes, that's it,” he said.
“Did you learn anything about their plans?” I asked Han.
“No, not yet,” he said.
“We still don’t have anything on their intentions,” I said. “Or why they’re kidnapping kids. That’s what we came for. Did you hear that thing about power to conquer?”
“Yeah, scary,” he said.
“And what happened to the others?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” said Han.
Just then I saw Abe walking towards our table. “Hey, since you are the new guys, I wanted you to know that after lunch everyone from both sides meet in the main auditorium where the Focused Arts kids meet. It’s our lecture time.”
“Great,” I said with a groan, “lecture time.”
After eating, we cleared our table and headed toward the auditorium again. We saw Tracy and Guido sitting halfway down the room and sat next to them. “What happened to you guys?” I asked.
“We’ll tell you later,” said Tracy. “I want to hear this.”
The students got quiet as a portly man in a white lab coat stood up front and began to speak. “I would like to present to you some recent groundbreaking research from our labs,” he said. “You have heard much about our research into the phenomenon you call powers. As far as we know, no other countries have learned as much or delved as deeply into understanding these powers. In fact, most have yet to discover them!” He seemed excited by this. “What you possess is so rare, that there may be small countries that don’t even have a single child with your abilities. And always around the age of ten! This, we cannot figure out.”
He paused for a second, as if he forgot what he was talking about. Then continued, “This has made discovery very difficult because not everyone who has these abilities want others to know about it. For instance, in Tanzania. . .” I began to tune him out. He just got started and I was already bored. And tired. I closed my eyes and nodded off.
I was elbowed sometime later by Tracy. “Listen,” she whispered.
“Now let me tell you about one of our newest theories,” the man went on excitedly. “We do see increased brain activity in those who have these powers, so we always knew it had to do with the brain. And for some reason, these powers only show up in children from the ages of nine through twelve. But why this is the case has always puzzled us, so that we imagined that once a boy can shave, he shaves his abilities away, right down the drain they go. Makes us want to check our drains.”
He stopped again, realizing he had somehow gotten off topic. Then he remembered himself again. “But new studies have shown a common trend that at first confused us, but now may make sense. You see, each of the children, prior to showing these new powers, got sick for an extended period. The symptoms were usually like a flu and lasted for about two weeks. Once over that sickness, each of these children found that they gradually had these new abilities.”
“It is now our new theory that these two are linked and that the powers might be triggered by a virus. It is true that there are thousands of undocumented viruses floating around out there, yet to be discovered. . .” I nodded off again.
This is how the talk went and it continued with pictures and videos, seemingly forever. Guido woke me up later and I heard people talking and shuffling out of the room. “We have free time until dinner,” said the voice of Guido.
“You want to do some exploring?” I said.
“I don’t think so,” said Guido. “You don’t want to do that here.”
“Why not?” I said.
“That’s what Tracy and I did during lunch and it’s not safe.” Guido looked worried. “We found a whole section of this building that’s off limits to kids. Tracy waited while I snuck myself in as far as I dared. No one may notice me by looking, but if someone had bumped into me, all bets are off!”
“Get to the point, Guido!” said Tracy, impatiently.
“It was a whole military compound. While kids are being trained here, adults are training for combat over there. They were practicing with guns and heavy artillery. Not firing anything really heavy at the time or we would have heard them over here. I’m not sure what the general thought he was sending us to, but there’s more going on here than they told us. More than they probably even know themselves!”
Now I was interested. “Can you show me where you found it?” I asked.
“Sure, but don’t let anyone catch you there. I’m not sure what they would do, but it can’t be good.”
Tracy chimed in. “Come on, Guido. It’ll be fun!”
Chapter 12: A tempting offer
Once out of the room, Han and I followed Guido and Tracy. We made sure no one saw us leave, then we headed down some hallways until we came to a door labeled “LTF-Keep Out!”
“I wonder what that means,” I said.
“I wondered that too,” said Guido from somewhere ahead of me. “I found out and it scared me so bad I came right back out.”
“Okay,” I said. “What is it?”
“Lethal Training Facility,” he said. “It’s where they train with all kinds of weapons for killing. These guys are playing for keeps!”
“Oooh,” said Tracy, “that just means they have the best toys!” Tracy approached the door and tried the handle. “Locked,” she said.
“Of course it is,” said Guido. “It was locked for me too, remember?”
“Then how did you get in?” I asked.
I heard a laugh. “I waited until someone came out and then waved at the guy as I walked inside. He didn’t see a thing.”
“You’re so lucky,” said Tracy. “I wish I had that gift.”
“Hey, you could have lit him up like a torch,” said Guido. “Mine is downright boring compared to yours.”
“Okay guys,” I said. “It looks like there is no way inside unless your name’s Guido, so let’s give it up.”
“Oh, can’t we just take a peek?” asked Tracy.
“Too risky,” I said. “If I heard right, we were sent to gather information without getting killed. I distinctly remember that being important.”
“I’m with him,” said Guido.
“Me too,” said Han.
I turned to leave and Tracy gave up and followed us.
***
When we got back to the cafeteria it was mostly empty. I walked up to some kid I didn’t know and tapped him on the shoulder. “Where is everyone? Isn’t it dinner yet?”
“Not yet, they’re at Conditioning and Sports,” he said, like I was dumber than rock. He pointed to the south section, so we headed that way. Following the noise, we found a hallway to the right that led to an enor
mous gym. I say gym, but it was probably as large as five gyms put together. There was a ropes course, an obstacle course, and a weight lifting area on one side of the room. On the other there were various sports going on. I saw basketball, soccer, and what looked to be capture the flag, all happening at once. All of these had one thing in common. They were used to condition and train the kids. There were no video games, bean bag chairs, or vending machines. This place was a training facility from beginning to end.
“Oh well,” I said. “What do you want to do?”
At that moment someone blew a loud whistle and everyone dropped what they were doing and headed for the doors. I asked one of the kids what was going on. “Dinner!” he said as if I was a few marbles short of a full collection.
We followed them.
***
Dinner was mostly uneventful. I ate rice, fish, and some kind of cooked leafy greens while trying to piece together what we had learned so far. As it turns out, we hadn’t learned much. We were trapped on this island with no way to communicate with the base we came from. We were here to get information about what they were planning, but we didn’t know much of anything yet.
Most of us were tired, so we only talked a little. Afterwards we learned that we were given free time, but most of the kids went back to Conditioning and Sports. These guys had no life. Didn’t they play like normal kids?
***
We headed back to our rooms and talked. Tracy said she wanted to hang out with some of the girls and see if she could find out anything more.
Meanwhile, I played a game of chess in our room with Guido, who borrowed a small chessboard from one of the kids, while Han worked on some origami.
Guido was about to take my king for the second time, “You’ve got to take some chances if you are going to win,” he said. “Stop trying to play it safe! You can’t win that way.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. There was a knock at the door of our room.
I opened it and saw Abe. “Andy,” he said. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”
“Sure,” I said. Han looked up at me and then went back to his folding.
I stepped out with Abe and we walked along the corridor. Kids were mostly in their rooms now, so it was quiet and empty. Abe began speaking in his smooth tone of voice. “It took me awhile to recognize it, but now I know. Andy, you are a leader. A leader is someone who has power over other people. When he speaks, they obey. You have that kind of gift. A gift you should use.” Now we were at the cafeteria in dim light. We kept walking, silent for a moment.
“Here’s what I am proposing,” he said. “Come be a part of our leadership here at the facility, and you and I can double our influence. I do pretty well on my own, I won’t lie about that.” We were in some hallway now I didn’t recognize, having taken a few turns. “But we could be almost unstoppable if the two of us joined our powers together. People would flock to follow us, whether they wanted to or not. That’s the beauty of the power we each have.” He turned the switch of a light and I saw that we were on the stage of the auditorium where I had seen Abe speak earlier. “I’m offering all of this to you!” He motioned toward the imaginary audience. There must have been enough chairs for a thousand. “I can teach you what I know so that people will hang on each word you say. So, what do you think?”
“Can I think about it?” I said.
Abe looked disappointed. “Sure,” he said, “but not too long.” He paused and looked intently at me for a moment, and then turned and left the stage, heading back the way we had come.
Once he had gone, I looked out over the seats in the auditorium and imagined everyone hanging on my words. I imagined a crowd of people who would do anything I wanted them to do. I thought of the respect I would get, the cheers and applause. I thought of how I could disprove the general’s words.
Then another thought came to me. It was a story I had heard when I was at school. The teacher often told Bible stories and there was one about when Jesus had been taken to the top of some tall building or something. Satan showed him the whole world and told him that if he just bowed down to him, he would give Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth. All he had to do was bow to Satan and he would get all that.
I didn’t remember all the specifics of the story, but I remembered Jesus didn’t go for it because it wouldn’t be right. Because it would mean bowing to what was evil. I thought how power was great, but what would I be sacrificing for it?
I turned off the lights and headed back down the hallway. Eventually I got back to my room where my roommates were asleep. I sat up and thought about it some more until I was too tired to think. And that’s the way I fell asleep.
Chapter 13: Things learned
The next morning we had our jog and breakfast. While I ate, I mostly thought of two things: what the general had said about me not being a leader, and the offer Abe had made the night before.
“Did you know they have a live dragon?” said Tracy with excitement at breakfast.
“What?” I said, snapping out of it. “You're kidding.”
“Yup, you're right, I am,” she said. “But I did learn some things.”
“Like what?” I said.
“Some of the girls were talking about it last night. It turns out these gifts, or powers, as they call them, can do more than we ever believed.”
“What do you mean?” Han asked quietly.
“You know about magnetic resonance theory?” said Tracy.
“No,” I said. “What’s that?”
“If you’d been paying attention to the lecture yesterday instead of sleeping you would have known. The idea is that these gifts work a lot like magnets and iron. When you get two people working these gifts close to each other, they start to swap abilities. If I stay in the same room trying to set things on fire, while Guido is focusing on being unnoticed, I start to get his gift and he gets some of mine. But we both have to be using them at the same time. If only one of us uses our gift, it doesn’t work. That’s the main idea behind Mixed Arts.”
“Wow!” I said. “Maybe we should all be over there.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, “There’s a downside.”
“What is it?” I asked.”
“They don’t just add on top of each other. In order to make room for some of my gift, Guido has to lose some of his. To gain one you have to lose the other.”
“So what's the advantage?” I said. “If you spread yourself thin enough you won't have much of anything.”
“It seems people usually only pick up a few gifts at most.”
“What happens if you have similar gifts already?” I asked.
“Well, skin-to-skin contact magnifies it, but even without that, yours would get even more powerful,” she said.
More power, I thought. More like Abe.
***
Once breakfast was over, Tracy and Guido left together. I looked at Han and said, “Well, let’s see what’s next.”
“Okay,” said Han.
We followed the other kids back into the main lecture hall again. This time we both sat with Derek since his trainer was a girl.
I was able to find Derek near the middle of the room so I sat next to him, while Han was next to me. Derek was talking to someone. He introduced me, “Andy, hi. This is Mick.”
“Hi, Mick,” I said. “This is Han.” Han shook his hand.
Mick’s eyes were so dark they looked black. And they were sunk into his head with big dark bushy eyebrows. He reminded me of a Neanderthal caveman, but when he shook my hand, he smiled. I almost felt sorry for him, he probably didn’t even like to smile, but people almost have no choice when they meet me.
“So what’s your trick!” said Mick.
“Oh, he makes people like him,” said Derek. “It’s an influencing gift.”
“A what?” I said.
“One of the main categories,” he said as if I should have known this already. “We’ll talk about it another time.”
?
??Okay,” I said. “What about you, Mick?”
“Oh, just this,” he said. And then his skin grew scaly and dark green, and gills grew out of the side of his head. I almost jumped out of my seat.
“How do you like it?” he said.
“What are you?” He was creeping me out!
“Same guy,” said Mick. “I just make you see what I want you to see. You like it?”
“Sure, but you could give a guy nightmares,” I said.
He smiled, “Well, that’s the idea. For the enemy.”
Before I had a chance to ask any questions about who the enemy was, Abe came out on stage. Derek and Mick stopped talking and turned their full attention to Abe as if in a trance.
Abe lifted both hands in greeting as if embracing us all, “My friends, today let’s talk about one of the powers you may not see very often.” A young boy came out onto the stage. He looked nervous.
“I want Paul here to show you something,” said Abe. Abe backed away as Paul reached to the ground and lifted up a heavy looking barbell that I hadn’t noticed before. He raised it above his head, which I could tell was a bit of an effort for him. Then he let go. The weight stayed in the air. He then reached out his hand and spun it around and it just floated there, spinning wildly.”
Abe walked back up front, “What Paul has done here is not use some force to levitate the weight, but he has changed the atoms themselves so that they are as light as air. Now watch this!”
Paul closed his eyes for concentration and the floating weight turned colors from black to light brown with streaks in it. It immediately crashed to the ground and a part of it splintered off.
Abe chuckled, “What did you change it to now?”
“Wood,” he said in a shaky high voice. “I made it a light kind of wood, like balsa wood. I just imagined it.”
Everyone applauded like we were watching a magician. Paul left the stage, glad to be out of the limelight. Abe raised his hands again to calm the crowd. “Isn’t it amazing? So many of us have such remarkable abilities. And just think of the order we could bring when we conquer our enemies.”
Everyone clapped enthusiastically. I looked over to Mick and saw that he was clapping so hard his hands were red. He looked completely into it. So did the others.
Then I looked at Abe and I knew. He really was like me, only more powerful, and evil.
***