"I'm glad you're okay," said Casey.
Jet sat up, slowly. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "I just...." He looked around and took in the rows of benches, windows with mannequins, and behind him a series of glowing rocks. Suddenly he had his energy back and he scrambled to his feet. "Casey, I shut off the lights."
Casey's eyes widened as he looked up at Jet. "Whoa," he said. "That was you?"
Jet's heart raced, this time not out of fear, but excitement. "Yeah, that was me. I felt this energy coming through, and..." he looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. The memory of reaching through the electrical circuits, overloading each individual light bulb, was fresh in his mind. It had felt so good.
"I thought it was Matty or Ellie," Casey said, "getting a new power." He stood up. "But this is flippin' awesome!" He jumped up and down a few times and cuffed Jet playfully on the arm.
Jet laughed. "Yeah. I guess. Man." Then he remembered again. "What about the others? Did Ellie make it out? What about my dad? He can't teleport or anything."
Casey put up a hand to stop Jet talking and got a faraway look in his eyes for a second. "I called Ellie," he said. "All she said was can’t talk, running. So I guess she'll let me know."
"I hope she's with him," said Jet.
"I'm sure she heard you," said Casey. He paused again, concentrating. "No answer from Matty."
"Man," said Jet. I hope he's okay too. Trying to take that hit for the rest of us and all."
"Yup," said Casey. "What do you think we should do? I mean, besides hook you into the telepathy machine, of course."
Jet's heart fluttered as Casey led him towards the rocks. "What do I do?" he asked.
"Just pick one of the ones that isn’t lit up," said Casey.
"Any one?"
Casey nodded. "I think so."
Jet looked around. One rock was good as another, right? He let his body step forward, and move on his own. His hand pressed down on the unlit stone between the red and the green. It was warm, and he could almost feel it pulsing – like it was in sync with his heartbeat. The stone lit up, bright yellow, giving a cheery tinge to the light that filled the church. "That's it?" Jet asked.
That's it, said Casey inside his head.
Wow, said Jet. And then again, Wow! This would be so cool if they all weren't still in danger of being killed by government agents. He felt another pang; he wouldn't be able to stop worrying until he knew everyone was okay, especially his dad. Though they barely saw each other, Jet had the feeling this whole mess would bring them closer together.
"Hey, Jet..." said Casey.
"Yeah?"
"We... haven't really had a chance to talk since I brought Ellie to your place, and... I'm sorry."
Jet looked his friend over. "Sorry for what?"
"Sorry for... bringing her there, for causing you all this trouble. And making you feel bad."
"You didn't make me feel bad."
Casey crossed his arms. "That's not exactly something you can hide from me," he said.
Jet felt his cheeks flush. That was true enough. He'd have to watch it around Casey, from now on especially. "Well, maybe I felt a little left out," he admitted. "But... that's not exactly a problem anymore, is it?" He looked up at one of the few lit fixtures on the ceiling. The light began to wax and wane as he breathed in and out in an attempt to calm his pounding heart.
Casey laughed. "Nope!" Then he swallowed. "That guy, Jester... I didn't think about it at the time because I was scared, but I couldn't read his mind."
"You couldn't?" asked Jet. "That's... that's so weird. Did you tell Matty and Ellie?"
Casey looked down at his scuffed sneakers. "No, I..."
Jet took a seat on one of the ragged pews. "What's wrong, Case?"
Casey sat down next to him. "I haven't told Matty and Ellie about that. I don't..." He suddenly looked like he was going to cry.
Jet put an arm around him. "Casey?"
"I can feel it, you know," Casey said. "Now that you know I can do it, you're always a little bit on guard around me, and I don't... I just want them to think I'm normal."
Jet laughed. "None of us is normal. We got teleporters, a telekinetic, and now a..." he paused. "A whatever-I-did."
Casey sighed. "Yeah, but... I'll still be the odd one out. I just... I just want to keep that between us for now, okay? I don't want them to be afraid of me, afraid of what I know."
Jet nodded, and brought his arm back to his lap. "All right. I'll respect that for now." He would re-evaluate that if a situation came up where the group might need that information. For now, he just wanted to survive the night. He looked around the room. Other than a few empty water bottles and a plastic bag full of trash, you wouldn't know that anyone had been here in years. "So what do we do now?"
Casey’s face sobered. "I guess we wait to hear back from Ellie."
* * *
Ellie ripped free of her bonds, grabbed the first wrist she found – by the size of it, Dr. Cooper’s – and dashed towards where she thought the door was. A flash of blue light and Casey was gone, and by the looks of it Jet with him. His teleporting illuminated the hallway outside the door for one precious instant. She didn’t know which way to the stairs, but Dr. Cooper did. He gripped her wrist tightly and said "This way" before they both took off.
Ellie ran as hard as she ever had, even harder than when the men had first caught her – she couldn't get caught now. She stumbled, unable to run as fast as the doctor, but she didn’t fall.
Casey called her telepathically, but all she could tell him was Can’t talk. Running. Any focus she gave to telepathy right now was focus stolen from her escape.
Luckily, no one appeared to block their way into the stairwell. Ellie slammed the door behind her. "Does this have a deadbolt?" she asked.
"Yeah, but it's controlled electronically," said Dr. Cooper.
Ellie reached out with her mind and found the bolt, and it only took a little push to snap it into the locked position. "Let’s go."
They took the stairs two at a time. Ellie went as fast as she dared, but Dr. Cooper still surpassed her quickly. "My office," he said. "Fifth floor."
"Can we get in without the keycard?"
Dr. Cooper patted his pants pocket. "I get called in at night so often that I don’t go to bed without it. Even on vacation, old habits die hard."
Ellie’s lungs began to ache, raw and dry, but the memory of being caught once before fueled her resolve. A little farther and she could rest, a little farther and she wouldn’t hear the yelling and the banging of Jester’s men trying in vain to open the door they’d escaped through – they'd either have to cut the bolt or find a backup power source. How had the power gone out? No matter, she could worry about that when they were safe.
Dr. Cooper reached the door to the fifth floor and held it open for her until she caught up. The lights here were still on. She stumbled, still running behind Dr. Cooper, but no pursuers appeared before he got to the door. He held up his keycard, punched in his code, and then pressed his thumb on a scanner. The electronic lock mechanism went beep. He held the door open, Ellie went in and fell to the floor, and then he shut the door behind them and locked it manually for good measure.
"There," he said, sitting down against the door. "They'll have to blow that down with explosives. The glass in the window is bulletproof."
"Oh," said Ellie, "good." She lay there for several minutes, catching her breath. Her lungs hurt so badly that she wouldn’t have been surprised to find that she’d been axed in the chest and failed to notice in the confusion.
Dr. Cooper crawled from the door over to his desk. He extended a hand towards Ellie. "Hi. Adam Cooper."
Ellie shook his hand. "Ellie," she said. "I’m…"
"…telekinetic," Dr. Cooper said. "It’s amazing. We’d be dead meat if not for you. Thanks."
"Thanks for getting us to the stairs in the first place," Ellie wheezed.
Dr. Cooper went to his desk and picked up the
phone, but frowned when he held it to his ear. "Damn it. They disabled my phone line. And I don't have my cell phone on me." He grimaced. "We'll have to find another way to call for help."
"Oh," said Ellie. She swallowed, trying to wet her throat. Were they just delaying the inevitable, waiting here?
"If we can get the police here, I think we have a chance," said Dr. Cooper. "No one came from anywhere else to stop us getting to my office, so there's probably only a handful of people involved in this conspiracy."
"Conspiracy?" Ellie asked.
The doctor grimaced. "This is not the sanctioned work of the BSU," he said. "This is an infiltration."
Ellie nodded. She wasn't sure if that should make her feel better or not.
"So if I promise my kid won't be in trouble," Dr. Cooper said, "will you tell me how you wound up at my house?"
Ellie lay back on the floor. "Well, I live in Santa Barbara," she said, and then launched into another explanation of the incident, being taken away, being rescued, and then finally being deposited at Jet's house.
"JT's a really good kid," said Dr. Cooper. "He'd never know it because I'm never home, but I'm so proud of him." The worry in his voice was palpable. "I hope he got out of there."
"Oh, I’ll ask Casey," said Ellie. "I think he grabbed Jet." I don’t know what I’ll do if he didn’t. "I forgot to call him."
"You can do that?" Dr. Cooper asked.
"Yeah," said Ellie. "With telepathy." It sounded so silly, coming from her mouth, but Dr. Cooper hadn't flinched at any of this thus far. "We, uh, tapped into a machine or something to do it."
"Well, when we get out of here, you'll all have to tell me all about it."
Ellie nodded. Hey, Casey, you there?
I’m here, he said. Jet’s with me.
Oh, good. She reported this back to Dr. Cooper, who shut his eyes and sighed, smiling.
Hey. That voice was definitely not Casey’s, nor Matty’s.
Ellie wrinkled her brow in concentration. Is that… Jet?
Yeah, it’s me. Long story.
Where are you? asked Casey.
We made it to Dr. Cooper’s office, said Ellie. I locked the door to the stairs and they'll have to force it open. The office door's bolted, too. I bet they come looking for us, but we should have a few minutes, at least.
Okay, said Casey. We’ll be right there.
* * *
London BSU Headquarters
Medical floor
They brought Matty into a room with a gurney – maybe the same one Ellie had been in, maybe a different one. What did it matter? Half-formed thoughts swam in his head like a school of fish and he couldn't seem to catch hold of one for more than a second.
His captor's walkie-talkie crackled."Yeah?" the man said, releasing Matty for the moment. He immediately fell to his side, too ill to stand on his own.
"They've escaped," said the voice on the other end. "We think some of them might have barred themselves in Cooper's office."
Hearing that was a panacea to Matty's aching heart. Even though he didn’t know who or how many of them were safe, it was better than what he’d thought was about to happen – Jet and his father executed with Casey and Ellie captured as well. Maybe that meant it was safe to try and escape – but the minute he even thought of teleporting all sort of painful knots tightened in his head. His hand glowed red for a minute, but on the floor of the medical room he remained.
His captor left the room and slammed the door. Either he'd forgotten Matty or didn't think a drugged-up teenager was a threat. Matty struggled to get to his knees, and then his feet. He tried again to teleport, but the drugs had turned his brain into a tangled mess. He fell back to the floor. He tried to reach out to Ellie or Casey, but found he couldn't do that, either – his messages all turned to static. He drew a rattly breath and his chest ached. The floor was cold; he'd be better off lying on the gurney, but the strength in his legs was long gone, and now the world grew dark and gray around him. This was all wrong, falling asleep wasn't like this, but...
* * *
They landed next to the desk, and Jet’s view of the room was immediately obscured when his father embraced him tightly. Ellie was there, too, and gave them a smile and a small wave.
"Dad," Jet gasped. "I made the lights explode."
"You what?" his father asked.
"I reached into the lights and made them explode," Jet reiterated. "I can... oh man."
Jet looked up at the door. The low lights in the hall provided the little office a small amount of illumination. "What does that make me?"
"Possibly a technopath."
He studied his father's expression for a moment. "You really do know all about this, don't you?"
"Not all about it," said his father.
"What’s that mean?" asked Jet.
His father hesitated. "Ashby and I and some of our other friends were really into the… idea of this stuff while we were in college. I had an article published, one that talked about the implications for psychologists if we were dealing with… well, with people like you. I guess that article developed a cult following, but a few years later, I moved on."
"But Ashby stuck with it," said Jet.
"Ashby stuck with it and I attempted to dedicate myself to my family," said his father, "something I eventually failed at. But I wouldn’t have wanted to stay with Ashby and them if it meant holding kids against their will."
Jet nodded. "Well, thanks for being my dad."
His father smiled.
"JT… Jet," his father said quietly. "If you could explode the lights, do you think you could reach into a circuit that's been disabled and make it work?"
Jet shrugged. "Maybe."
"Oh," said Ellie. "The phone!"
"I want to call for help," said Dr. Cooper. "I don't think my bosses are in on Jester's plan, and I'm sure the local police and the American Embassy would be very interested to know they're kidnapping minors from overseas."
Jet's father got to his feet and picked up the phone receiver, then handed it to his son.
Jet considered it. In his hand it was a mere piece of plastic. Last time he hadn't really thought about what he was doing, so he had to dig deep to find the ability again. He thought about not the plastic casing on the outside of the receiver, but the wires on the inside, going through to the phone's base, then to the wall, then into the hub...
And there it was. He found the connection, arranged everything in the right order, and suddenly he had a dial tone. How something like that could work he couldn't fathom, except for the little part of his brain insisting that he'd always known how, deep down. He gave the handset back to his father, watching it all the time to ensure he maintained his focus.
* * *
While Jet's father was on the phone, Casey watched out the window on the door for anyone in the hallway. So far, it was quiet.
"We need to figure out our plan from here," Ellie said to him.
"Yeah, I know," said Casey.
"We have to get Matty, too."
"Hey," said Casey to Dr. Cooper, who hadn't spoken into the receiver for a moment.
"They're transferring me," he said. "What's up, Casey?"
"After they drugged Matty," he said, "where do you think they took him?"
Dr. Cooper grimaced. "My guess would be the ninth floor. In reality, I don't know."
"I was in a hospital room earlier," said Ellie.
"Then that was the ninth – " Dr. Cooper's eyes lit up suddenly. "Yes! Hello. Adam Cooper, BSU, ID number..."
Okay, so we know where Matty is, Casey said, telepathically to keep the noise level down.
Or we think we know, Jet pointed out.
Ellie shrugged. It's the best lead we have so far.
Maybe I can teleport up and get him, said Casey.
I don't know, said Ellie. When I was in there they had guards outside. And if you teleport him back here, we'll still be stuck.
We could just teleport all of us out, sugg
ested Casey.
Yeah, said Jet, but if we do that then these guys probably come back for us. Removing ourselves is like removing all traces of illegal activity from the building. Then we might end up going through this all over again.
Frustrated that all his ideas were being shot down, Casey pressed his nose against the glass. Still no one. How much time did they have left, anyway? Jet's dad finished up his first phone call and began to make another.
We might be okay, riding this out... Ellie thought, but her words were saturated with doubt.
I don't relish the idea of anyone else getting shot tonight, said Jet. We'll have to be careful. I just figure if this gets settled now we don't have to go through it again. None of us wants to be a target their whole life. He paused for a moment, and looked up. Guys, I think someone's getting off the elevator here.
You can tell that? Casey asked.
I think so. They must have got a backup generator going.
Casey looked as far as he could to the left... and thought he could see someone moving, and ducked. Yeah, I think you're right.
Jet nudged his father. "Dad, I think they're coming."
Dr. Cooper nodded, and got under his desk. "Okay," he muttered into the phone. "Thanks. We'll be here."
"We gotta think fast," said Jet.
"Jet, scramble the lock on the door," said Dr. Cooper. "Ellie, hold the deadbolt for as long as you can."
"Never thinking of my old man the same way after this," said Jet, as he sidled up against the door and put his hand to it.
"Glad to hear it," said his father. "Never call me ‘old man’ again."
The door handle rattled violently, and everyone in the room flinched or gasped. A minute later, someone yelled in pain.
"I think I broke your keypad," said Jet.
"Well, sounds like it did some good," said Dr. Cooper.
Shots rang out, pinging the glass in the door. The bullets didn't do much, but the men were not deterred.
"We're not going to last long like this," said Jet.
"Someone's... trying to cut the bolt," said Ellie, her forehead screwed up in concentration. "I'm... trying to push them off, but..."
That wasn't going to work forever, everyone knew it. And then suddenly Casey had another idea. He dared not voice it, for he was sure everyone else would give him several reasons why he shouldn't do it, but it was now or never. Casey shut his eyes and teleported out into the hall.