by Lan Chan
“What have you got?”
Every esper in the room, in my mind, felt it at the same time, but only Selina had the wherewithal to react. It spoke a lot about her that her first instinct was to throw herself in front of Gabe as the explosives sailed through the broken window and detonated.
The breath was sucked out of my lungs as anti-psi tech ramped into activation all around. There was only time to register the bloom of a fireball before Fake Spectra succumbed to the pain of the severing of her telepathy. A frustrated scream tore from my mind as she retreated back into the vents. I frantically tried to steer her consciousness in another direction, forcing her to stay so I could keep track of what was happening. Disgust grappled with despair inside me. Was she really just going to run? Bile rose in my throat at the image of Selina’s slack expression on her charred face. Where was Gabe?
Soothing comfort transmitted to me from both of the boys, but it failed to take the edge off my terror. Cool night air brushed against Fake Spectra’s face, travelling down to me as wisps over an unexplainable telepathic connection. Right now, I was thoroughly sick of this woman. She was more than happy to take advantage of abilities my body was supplying her, but she refused to use what she had been given to save the people I cared about.
Now was not the time for the shot of pride and then clarity that radiated from Oz to me. Not when my insides were burning with pure hatred.
The wind carried with it the stench of cinders and sulphur. At least she was smart enough to realise her roof access had been compromised. Instead, she curled up into a crouch and waited. For what I wasn’t sure. All around, shouts rang out. The metal walls of the vent were paper thin.
“Psionic Special Operations, hands in the air,” a familiar voice said. Iannou. And then a second later, “I said hands in the air!”
Didn’t he know the Kings had absolutely no regard for authority? Gunshots cracked and I braced myself, fearing another round of explosions. If he was alive, Gabe might be able to survive a firefight. Being blown up not so much. Zeke’s anxiety and regret layered clearly over my own feelings. We both had a massive case of ‘if only I were there.’
“The perimeter is clear, sir,” Collins’s voice said from the rooftop. Fake Spectra’s ears pricked up. There went my theory about Collins being Fake Spectra. Still, that didn’t account for her sudden interest. Before now, I wouldn’t have figured wild dogs could have coaxed her out of her burrowed position in the vents.
Crawling on her belly, she ventured out as far as she could without the possibility of being seen. Through the grate, half a dozen Psi-Ops agents in their black stealth suits were monitoring the rooftop. Grappling hooks bit into the edges of the roof where black boxes the size of concert speakers had been positioned. The settings on the anti-psi booths had been dialled to maximum. Over on the edge, Collins stood with her fingers pressed to her earpiece.
“No one’s come out the other exits so far. We’ll keep a lookout.”
She wasn’t looking out well enough. The agent closest to her, who had been monitoring what was happening on the ground, suddenly flopped about. The assault rifle that had been held so rigidly in his grip dropped from his hands. With her back turned to him, Collins didn’t notice him fall over the edge until the next agent cried out. This one lost control of his nerves and his trigger finger compressed. Shots fired into the darkness causing the others on the roof to drop down onto their stomachs. His dance didn’t last long before he too plummeted over.
“We’re under attack,” Collins hissed into her earpiece. “Repeat, we are under attack. Sir? Sir!” Voice dripping with fear, Collins attempted to roll so that her back was at least protected by the bulk of the anti-psi machines. All around, the other agents shouted out as, one by one, they seemed to be compelled by whatever it was that had taken over their comrades.
Collins gasped. She groped at her neck and pulled a dart from the soft skin behind her ear. It took all of three seconds for her to pass out. The voice that emanated as if from thin air froze the blood inside my veins.
“Check the building for survivors,” the Shadowman said. “Leave none of them alive.” His steps across the roof were preternaturally quiet. Flanked on either side by two of his foot soldiers and shrouded in darkness, he was every bit the ghost that all of Melbourne feared. The foot soldiers moved to switch off the anti-psi tech, making it abundantly clear they were espers. A poisoned arrow pierced at the inner heart of me.
Corrosive fury dripped from a trapped door inside my mind until it filled me with scorching purpose. We had unfinished business and now seemed like the perfect time to call him up on it. Without knowing how I was doing it, or if she had suddenly grown a set of balls, Fake Spectra emerged from her hiding spot.
“Get away from her,” Fake Spectra said. Voice husky from inhaling smoke, it took away from the command she just issued.
All three figures turned slowly to face her. Trembling but unwilling to back down, she earned back a smidgen on my respect. Oz’s despair shook the image in my head. Stranger though she was, his empathy for her was causing the link to waver. She was going to end up dead and there was nothing we could do about it.
“What do we have here?” the Shadowman said. Voice modified by a computerised translator, he looked and sounded like the embodiment of a monster. The bottom half of his face was covered in a mask embedded with a vocal transmitter. Both of his foot soldiers— one male, one female—were also masked. “So, we finally meet.”
“Who are you?”
All three of us cringed. Zeke’s incredulity flashed at the edge of my shield. I sent him a commiserating nod. I took it then that the Whispers didn’t get any of my memories the way the espers did. The Shadowman and I were well acquainted. He chuckled. It was a hollow sound that stripped Fake Spectra of all her bravado. “For a second,” he said, “I actually thought you might be her.”
“Who?”
This just continued to get better and better. “Fly away, little girl,” the Shadowman said. “Unless you want us to clip your wings.”
I pushed against her mind with as much power as I could. Go! I screamed inside her mind. For a second, her head turned as though she could hear me. In fact, I was certain that she might have because her confusion filtered through the link. It was confirmed a second later by a flash of electricity that passed across my eyes.
“Let me take the girl,” Fake Spectra said.
“I do not take prisoners.”
A strange mind brushed up against Fake Spectra’s thoughts. She shuddered at the intrusion, but thinking it was out of curiosity, she didn’t shield herself. This time, even Oz was chagrined. The female foot soldier whispered into her King’s ear. When his head turned back to Fake Spectra, none of the humour was left.
“So,” he said. “You’re a Whisper.” Only then did her sensibilities kick in. Only then did she raise her shields, as her sense of danger alarmed to life. Too little. Too late.
My mind flooded with the images of the people who had been shot through the head at point-blank range. I gulped and transmitted my theory to the boys. What was it that Nina had said to me? The Shadowman had the most to lose from Second Sight because he had the most esper firepower. It would really piss him off that these Whispers were showing up all over the place and pushing the balance in another direction.
The attack came without warning. Two pinpoint psychic blows from minds far superior in telepathic power than Fake Spectra’s. I screamed as she clutched at her head. Oz and Zeke moved to shield me but the electricity was already there. Except it wasn’t my electricity. It jumped in front of Fake Spectra like glowing whips, slashing at the two espers. They attempted to back up, throwing their arms out in front of them, but to no avail.
That was the thing about physical energy. It kept coming at you until stopped by something non-conductive. Sadly, skin was not that thing.
The espers’ screams would haunt my nightmares for a long time. Unable to control the power that she had manifested,
Fake Spectra stared at her hands. She looked up at the Shadowman who had retreated back into the shadows. Sparks skipped across the fingers that she held out in front of her as though they might burn her alive. Shooting pain radiated in her head and bled into mine.
“Interesting,” the Shadowman said. Then he disappeared over the edge of the building in a fluid motion that had to be well-practised. I tried to stop the shooting bolts that continued to wrack my body but a shield didn’t do much. Finally, after it seemed that things weren’t going to get any better for me, gentle hands shook me awake in the real world.
I gasped awake in Zeke’s arms. The pain receded immediately, leaving disbelief in its wake. There was no need for me to even reach for the vital link to understand the horror reflected in Zeke’s expression. Somewhere out there was a Whisper who could throw electricity the way I could. And she had almost no experience controlling it.
27
It was impossible to get any sleep after that. Not least because Oz rushed into my room shortly afterwards, his face completely bleached of colour. We found Adam awake in the entertainment room. The note he was playing jarred when I opened the door and scared him.
“Still not fully recovered, huh?” I asked, tapping my head for emphasis.
“Weirdest thing I’ve ever felt,” he said. Not the worst thing, I noticed. After what we discovered about the origin of my powers, Zeke and I always mentioned that not being espers was the worst thing we could think of happening. I had a feeling Adam could survive well enough without his. “What’s going on? It’s four in the morning. Why are you all up?”
I got to the part where Selina was killed and Adam paused. “We need to wake the others.”
“I don’t want to disturb them.”
He shook his head. “You don’t get it. Selina was Bianca’s mentor before she joined Hyper.”
“Shit.”
“No,” Bianca said when I told her. Half-dazed from sleep with her hair coming out of its high bun, she seemed suddenly vulnerable.
“I’m so sorry.”
Swallowing past the grief that we all felt radiating off her, she turned to me. “She was an alpha. Stronger than me. Invincible. You must be mistaken.”
On the couch beside her, Adam looped his arm around her shoulders and crushed her to him. She didn’t tremble, didn’t wince, didn’t react. In her mind, I could feel the walls building against the hysteria. It brought forth my own reaction when I’d learned about Mum’s supposed death. Above all else, I just couldn’t believe it was true, even if I’d seen it with my own two eyes.
“She threw herself in front of Gabe to save him,” Oz said. “She died protecting her friend.” The world blurred for a second until I could get my emotions under control. I had no right to be fearful for Gabe when Bianca’s friend had definitely lost her life.
“Screw Second Sight,” Bianca snapped. “Screw the Psi-Ops! Screw everybody!” She strode out the door, slamming it shut behind her, and ran towards the track. Adam made a move to go after her, but Rich flagged him back down.
“Don’t,” Rich said. “She won’t want us to see her like this.”
“What if she hurts herself?” I asked.
Shaking his head, Rich sighed. “She won’t. She just hates for people to see her cry. Courtesy of growing up in the Court.”
“Claudia is going to lose it when she finds out,” Adam said. None of us wanted to voice the obvious concern that the Queen of Industry Place was now minus one enforcer and the only other who could match Selina’s power was right now burning a hole in our running track.
“The Kings will be out for Psi-Ops blood,” Oz added.
“Haven’t they already gotten it?” Adam mentioned.
“No,” I said. “Oz is right. There was a drug problem. They dealt with it. There was no need for the Psi-Ops to come swooping in. There’s going to be payback.”
“It’s not like they knew about it,” Zeke said.
I laced my hands in front of me to stop them from shaking. “The anti-psi tech. The only way they would have known to bring it is if they knew there was an esper threat.”
Rich scrubbed a hand over his face. “Did Collins make it out?”
“We don’t know,” Oz said. “The last thing we saw was the other girl and the electricity.”
Zeke scrubbed a hand over his face. “She seemed pretty hell-bent on saving Collins’s life.”
“Connection perhaps?”
“Maybe,” Oz said. “Problem now is what to do about her.”
“The S2 will eventually dry up,” Adam said. “Takes care of that problem.”
“Does it?” I asked. “You should have seen the look on the Shadowman’s face. He’s going after her, and I’ll bet she’s going to get a bullet to the head like all the other espers.”
“How is it even possible?” Zeke asked.
I offered up a razor-thin theory. “She’s like me. A Whisper with heightened immune responses.”
Oz wasn’t so sure. “At the end there, when the electricity manifested, she was in excruciating pain. I don’t think her system is taking it the same way yours does. The nanobots in her body probably reacted, but they’re not contained the way yours are. She’s a danger to herself and everyone around her right now.”
“At least they’ve managed to get to the root of the problem,” Rich said.
A doubtful sound came out of Zeke’s throat. He glanced up embarrassed when everyone was looking in his direction. “Sorry. Not that I’m casting aspersions or anything, but did anyone else see anyone in charge at that site?”
“No.” Oz frowned. “But Jasmine’s body…”
“When the stiffs go through the evidence, if they’ve got half a brain, they’ll figure out Jasmine’s not the one creating the nanobots. She’s just a carrier. They’re not just going to let this investigation go because Jasmine’s dead.”
We all knew what he was getting at. Sooner or later, the Psi-Ops would come after me.
“I don’t think we’re getting anywhere trying to theorise,” Rich said. “There’s not much we can do until morning. You three need to get some sleep. Real sleep.”
I huffed. “I don’t ever want to sleep again.”
Which was why as soon as I crawled into bed, my brain went out like a light.
I woke three hours later feeling like hell. At least I wasn’t the only one. Sunlight glimmered through the gap in the curtain, catching Zeke directly in the face. Groaning, he tried to turn over but it was useless. Both of us had gotten used to sleeping very lightly, and once we were up that was normally the end of any rest.
It was almost nine and the others were gathered in the kitchen. Lily was in her usual spot in front of the television, the news turned up way too loud. Bianca gave my hand a squeeze when I reached out to her telepathically and found her shielded tight.
“Just for now,” she said. I couldn’t argue with that.
“Feed me,” I said to Adam who was in front of the stove cooking up eggs. I held my plate up absentmindedly as the news broadcaster spoke. “…scene of devastation outside of Sunbury last night as an abandoned warehouse formerly used to store printing cartridges went up in flames. The Psionic Special Operations Unit has not yet confirmed or denied the rumours that the factory was being used to manufacture the drug Second Sight. Several bodies, including six belonging to federal agents, have been recovered with seven others yet to be identified.”
The anchors went on to have a discussion about what the revelation could mean for the future of the drug and what repercussions the incident would have on the city.
“Kings haven’t stepped forward to claim the kills,” Oz observed.
“Why would they?” Lily said. “They didn’t win. Who broadcasts a loss?”
She had a point.
I almost choked on my eggs and toast when the news flipped to its next trending topic. The image of Fake Spectra on the roof with the Shadowman played on the television screen. For a second, the toast caught in my thr
oat as I feared that she would start throwing electricity for the world to see. Instead, the video played back with audio.
“Now, this is planted,” Lily said. “It’s not from any known source and wasn’t a clip lifted from a drone. The angle is slightly off too.”
The clip went for less than five seconds. As we watched, Fake Spectra took a step forward. “Get away from her,” she said.
“Not a chance,” the Shadowman responded. And then it replayed.
“What was the point of that?” Bianca asked.
Oz and I looked at each other, but the newscaster answered for us. “Rumours that the vigilante known as Spectra is a foot soldier for the Shadowman have been called into question with the leaking of this video.
“He’s rallying,” I said. “Soon he’ll make a move and the city is going to pay for it.”
Oz’s head tipped to the side. “All he’s done is disassociate himself from Spectra.”
Bianca pushed her food around her plate. “You don’t get it. The real Spectra has been around for a long time and he’s never dissuaded anyone from inferring their relationship. All of a sudden, after what happened last night, he decides to cut ties. Willow’s right. He’s making a play, and I’m afraid this time it means he’s decided Spectra is too much of a liability. The next time they meet, he’ll eliminate her.”
“But she’s not the real Spectra,” Lily said. Props to her for sounding affronted that someone might be trying to steal my secret identity.
“He doesn’t care. No one can be allowed to question his authority. The Kings understand that. This video is her death warrant.”
“Which means we need to find her and warn her as soon as possible,” Oz said.
An alert near Lily beeped. “Uh oh.” That was never a good sign. She looked at her tablet, the interest dimming from her eyes. “Oh, it’s just Collins.”
“What about her?” Oz asked.
“You said you wanted to know if someone checked her into a hospital. They’ve just registered her at St. Francis.”
