* * *
The following day the group met at the clubhouse after school. Over the past few days they had started moving things into the building to make it into a more friendly space. A number of mismatched, battered chairs were arranged around a rickety card table that had been set up by the shuttered window. Someone had found a dented mini fridge and someone else had brought in a scratched up microwave oven. In spite of their appearance both machines worked, although neither was being used at the moment since no one had brought anything to eat.
At the back of the building a large section of the workbench was strewn with assorted monitors and other pieces of computer equipment. Much to his mother’s relief, Danny had cleared the old computers he had been working on out of his room. Most of the machines were little more than exposed circuitry racks without covers, but all of it worked and most of it had been enhanced and upgraded until it ran even better than it had originally.
“Isn’t that from my dad’s old computer?” Paige said, pointing at the old fashioned, boxy monitor Danny was working on.
“Yup,” Danny said as he stepped back and checked his handiwork. They were setting up to Skype with Paige’s sister at school. He had attached an old fashioned ball camera to the top of the monitor. On another screen next to that monitor he could see the image of himself that the camera was transmitting. He reached out and adjusted the camera slightly until he was satisfied that it was centered properly. Once that was done he started typing on a keyboard.
At lunch that day Dimitri had told them about the attempt to kidnap him. Everyone had been stunned by his story. Not only had two armed men tried to ambush him, they had somehow known exactly who he was. As soon as Paige had heard his story she texted Shay. She was worried about her sister being all alone more than an hour away at school. Shay sent back that she would be in classes all day but would be free in the afternoon. They had gathered at the clubhouse to update her on what was happening.
“Okay, everything’s all set,” Danny said. He hit the enter key and waited. It was only a few moments before Shay’s image appeared on the screen. The group crowded around the monitor.
“Shay, thank goodness! Are you alright?” Paige asked.
“Of course I’m okay. What did you expect? Wait, are all of you there?”
“Yeah, we’re at the clubhouse. Danny set up some of his computers for us.”
“Cool. So what did you want to talk to me about?”
Paige quickly told her sister about the attempt to kidnap Dimitri. As she spoke she watched her sister’s expression slowly change from curiosity to one of shock. When Paige finished talking Shay’s eyes sought out Dimitri.
“Are you okay?” she asked him.
Dimitri smiled self-consciously. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was gone before they even got close to me.”
“You should go to the police,” Shay said.
“I thought about it but I’m not sure how to explain how I got away from a couple of men with guns.” He glanced at Magda. “But I’m not the only one with news. Magda got questioned by the FBI on Monday.”
Shay’s eyes went wide.
“They wanted to know about Matt,” Magda said as she stepped to the front. She took a breath and launched into a brief recounting of her story.
“Wow, I go away for a couple of days and everything goes to pieces,” Shay said, drawing a slight smile from Magda. An awkward silence hung in the air for the next few moments. When it became obvious that no one was going to broach the topic that was on everyone’s mind, Shay decided on the direct approach.
“Do you think the serial killer got Matt?”
Magda winced, then said, “I don’t know.” In spite of her initial reaction Magda was actually relieved to be talking openly about what had been bothering her. “But the FBI agents were really worried. I’m scared, Shay.”
“They haven’t found his body,” Shay pointed out.
“I know, but it’s really scary not knowing.”
“I understand,” Shay said. Another awkward silence hung between them for several moments. Then Shay said, “Well, I have something to share with you guys, too. After everything that happened over the weekend I got to thinking: why us? How come we have these special abilities? I mean, if you think about it, none of us have anything in common. Before this weekend I thought it was only me and Paige, something to do with our family. But now I don’t know. We’re all from different backgrounds. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Then I started thinking that maybe we aren’t the only ones. Maybe we’re just the only ones we know about. So in my spare time I started doing an Internet search. If there is anyone else like us out there I should be able to find something online. But I couldn’t find anything. There’s all this crap about alien abductions and government conspiracies but nothing about people with powers like us.”
“Maybe they’re keeping quiet,” Amanda said. “We’re not exactly running around telling everybody that we have special powers. And most of us have known we were different for years.”
“I thought about that, but that doesn’t seem likely. I mean, with all the smart phones around nowadays, if there are more people like us out there, somebody should have gotten something on camera and posted it. People are recording all kinds of weird things and posting it on YouTube, but there’s nothing about people with powers like we have.”
“What if we are the only ones?” Magda said.
“Okay, let’s say that’s true,” Shay said. “We’re still stuck with the same question: why us? Out of everybody in the entire world, why are we the only ones with these powers? We’re not related so there has to be some other factor we all share that we haven’t thought about yet. The only thing I can think of is that we all live in the same town. Is there something here that’s affected us? But if that’s the connection, why are we the only ones? It doesn’t make any sense. We need to focus on trying to figure out what that connection between us all is.”
“There goes Ms. Scientist,” Paige said, rolling her eyes.
“Can I help it if I happen to have a logical mind?” Shay snapped defensively. “At least I’m thinking.”
“Oh, and I don’t think things through, is that it?” Paige shot back.
“You should come home!” Dimitri blurted out before the two sisters got into it.
Shay paused and looked in his direction. “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that, Dimitri,” she said.
Dimitri glanced around self consciously for a moment, as if he were surprised that anyone had heard him. He cleared his throat. “Well, it’s just that I don’t think it’s safe for you to be out there by yourself. You should come home.” As he spoke, Dimitri actually started blushing.
Shay’s expression softened. “Oh, thank you, Dimitri. I appreciate you worrying about me but I’ve got finals this week. I’ll be okay until the weekend.”
Dimitri didn’t seem convinced but nodded in response.
“In the meantime,” Tom said, “the rest of us have decided not to go out alone. Something weird is going on. Until we know more about those two guys who tried to grab Tree, we’re going around in pairs.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Shay said. “I’ll make sure I’m always with other people, too. I think you’re right about something funny going on. I wouldn’t be surprised if those two men had something to do with Matt disappearing.”
“Well I still think we need to go out and find these guys,” James said. “It was bad enough when it was just a lone whack-o, but now that it’s two guys with guns we need to take the fight to them.”
Tom turned to his cousin. “We’ve already been over this. We’re not going around looking for these guys. Especially now that we know they’re armed.”
James narrowed his eyes. “You know, I don’t remember anyone electing you the leader.”
“What are you saying? Do you want to be in charge?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Well, that’s not gon
na happen. And we’re not going around looking for those guys, either.”
“Well we have to do something!” James complained as he began gesturing in the air. “We’re not going to the police. We’re not going out looking for these guys. As far as I can see all we are doing is sitting on our butts!” He pointed at Tom. “You might be fine with standing around doing nothing, but not me.” James spun around and stormed toward the door.
“Where are you going?” Tom called after him.
“Home!” A moment later the door banged closed behind him.
“Don’t you think we should go after him?” Amanda said.
“No. When he gets wound up like this it’s best to just let him go,” Tom said. “He’s parked nearby and it’s still light out. I’ll call him later after he’s had a chance to cool off.”
“He may have a point,” Shay said.
Tom looked at the monitor. “What do you mean?”
“Well, if these guys are the ones going around kidnapping kids maybe we should be taking a more active stance.”
“We talked about that,” Tom said. “The problem is we don’t know anything about them. Tree didn’t see their faces so we don’t even know what they look like.”
“True, but there is a lot we do know,” Shay said. “First, we know they’re working as a team and that they’re strangers. Then there’s that black car Reed saw. It might have something to do with them.”
Tom thought about it and slowly nodded. “Yeah, you could be right. But don’t you think it’s dangerous for us to go looking for these guys?”
“I’m not saying you should go looking for them,” Shay said, “but you guys might want to keep your eyes open for two strange men in a black car.”
Tom nodded again. “Yeah. Good idea. We can do that.” He turned to the rest of the group. “Let’s keep an eye out for them—two strangers in a black car. If you can, take pictures of anyone who fits that description.”
“And if we get the plate number,” Danny said with an edge of excitement in his voice, “I can run a check through the DMV database.”
“You can do that?” Shay said.
Danny grinned. “If it’s on the Internet I can get into it.”
“Okay then,” Tom said, “we still need to make sure we have someone else with us whenever we go out but we’re also going to be keeping our eyes open for these guys. With any luck we can spot them before they have a chance to grab anyone else.”