by C. C. Bolick
“I want my old life back.”
“Your old life before learning you have a power? That life no longer exists.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Travis took you back, didn’t he? He took you back to Florida.”
I nodded. “He thought I should see my best friend.”
“How was she?”
“She looked happy. She had a boyfriend and… I never talked to her. I realized she was better off without me. What we had no longer exists.”
“Taking you back there was my suggestion. I told Travis you needed to see the past one last time before moving forward.”
“He never told me.”
Dr. Greene cleared his throat. “Don’t think of him differently because of what I said. Travis cares about you. If you’ve ever doubted the authenticity of his feelings, I can tell you he’s the real deal. The problem is the baggage that comes with his past is even heavier than yours.”
“Then we can help each other.”
He rose. “Maybe you already have. I would say goodnight, but we’ve got a whole new day ahead of us. New chances to make mistakes. New chances to make things right.” At the door, he glanced back before leaving. “A world of possibilities.”
Chapter Fourteen
A few hours later, Dad shook me out of bed. He insisted I get dressed immediately and walked me to the elevator where Agent Lockhart was waiting.
“What time is it?” I asked with a yawn.
He ushered me into the elevator and pressed Travis’s special sequence of buttons. “Eight o’clock.”
“Where are we going?”
“Louis is here in Atlanta. He’s in the airport above us.”
“He has a bomb,” Agent Lockhart said. “We’ve confirmed the threat is real and imminent. He’s waiting for you to disarm it.”
“Probably a trap,” I said. “He’ll have one of his twins waiting to snatch me when I arrive. Too bad no one at the agency can teleport.”
When the elevator opened, the room before us was empty.
“We’re in the airport,” Dad said.
“Oh, really?” I asked. No way would I tell him about Travis bringing me up here. “Where are all the people?”
“We’ve evacuated the airport,” Agent Lockhart said. He pulled out his gun and led us up the escalator.
“I bet that was fun.”
“The sarcasm isn’t necessary,” Dad said, also reaching for his gun. “We announced a bomb threat. Louis is one of a handful of people remaining in the terminal above.”
“Wow, bomb threat,” I said. “You do know how to tell the truth.”
Dad gripped my arm. “We’re not doing this today. Louis wants to see you or he’s threatened to blow all of us up. I don’t want to die today.”
Not that I wanted to die. If this explosion happened as the aliens predicted, Travis would also die, along with Alfie. Dad was right. Save the world now and blast him with sarcasm later.
At the top of the escalator, an automated voice pumped an evacuation plan out of every speaker. I almost ran along the tiled walkway to keep up with Dad and Agent Lockhart, shocked at how fast they moved. Maybe I needed to join their fitness club. Other agents looked on as we ran ahead.
When we reached the end of the walkway, the terminal opened to a large area with several gates. Sunlight shone through windows with planes on the other side. Rows of chairs sat empty. Rolling bags covered several of the chairs. Monitors flashed arrivals and departure times, showing all flights canceled. Half-eaten plates of food sat on tables to my left.
In front of the farthest window stood Louis and Bethany. An open suitcase with flashing lights sat on a chair in front of him.
“I can’t stop it,” Louis said. “I designed this one without a failsafe. If you can’t disarm the bomb, Regina, everyone dies.” He held up a device that fit in the palm of his hand. “I can speed up the detonation, though. If anyone other than Regina comes near us, you’ll be dealing with seconds.”
Dad’s eyes darted around the room. He gripped his gun in his outstretched hands.
At Louis’s side, Bethany said nothing, only watched as I approached. Neither moved when I reached the bomb. I stood close enough for Louis to touch me, but he only stared with the same intensity he’d shown at our first meeting. What could he gain by coming here?
The bomb had a counter. We were nearing the three-minute mark.
“Cutting it close, Agent Mason?” Louis asked.
Dad pointed his gun at Louis. “I could shoot you and end this.”
“But you won’t,” Bethany said softly. “For Regina’s sake you won’t.”
Dad’s hands shook as he met her eyes. Did he feel the familiar closeness? Even while staring at a different face, I felt Mama’s presence in the room. It made me hate her and want to hug her at the same time. If this really was Mama back from the dead, how could she stand beside Louis?
“The counter,” Dad said. “We’re almost out of time.”
Two minutes thirty seconds, twenty-five… We had an eternity before the bomb exploded. If only he could see time as I did.
“Regina,” Bethany said. “Your father is getting anxious.”
I nodded and closed my eyes. Someone called out two minutes from behind me. Despite watching Travis get ripped away from me, I felt in control. Why wait for the detonation to stop the bomb? Maybe flying and then almost dying set something right inside of me. I reached out to the neutrons and nudged one into motion.
The aliens were right to worry. This bomb was larger than anything I’d faced. Endless rows of atoms spread before me. Louis had built a beautiful bomb. I felt the raw power of the nuclear reaction flow through my veins as I unleashed an infinite series of explosions.
I also felt control. Flying had changed me since the last time I diffused a bomb. It gave me the focus I needed to complete this task.
The heat was unbelievable. I allowed the explosion to expand enough for me to see the colors. Flaming reds and searing blues. Greens that made me think of fresh-cut grass in spring. For the world, this expansion happened in less than a second. For me, I slowed time enough I could enjoy the sight for hours.
Eventually, I did tire of holding the heat at bay. I reversed the field of power and the explosion collapsed on itself. With the remaining heat, I toasted the suitcase into a mountain of black dust that rained from the sides of the chair.
A collective sigh of relief was the first sound I heard.
“Amazing,” Louis said.
Before I could respond, one of the Thompson Twins appeared and grabbed my arm. Now that time was back to normal, I couldn’t move fast enough to dodge his reach.
“I render our deal null,” Louis said as he stared at Dad.
“What deal?” I asked.
“That he would leave you alone until you turn eighteen,” Dad said, his gun now pointed at the man who held my arm. “Louis and I made a deal when I first left Florida. I wouldn’t say anything to turn you against Louis. He wouldn’t turn you against me. You’d have the chance to decide who you want to live with.”
“How about neither of you?” I spat.
Louis shuddered at my words. “You’ve never had the chance to know me. That’s not my fault.”
I twisted my arm but couldn’t break free. “You think kidnapping is the way to make me want to know you?”
Dad rushed at Louis, but the other twin appeared and grabbed his arm.
“Take them both,” Louis yelled.
Before the men could take us anywhere, Van appeared in front of me with what looked like a ray gun. He fired a purple beam at each of the men and they collapsed on the floor. Two men dressed in black and blue uniforms appeared and teleported the twins out of the room.
No one said a word as every set of eyes in the room focused on Van.
“Sorry for the intrusion.” Van looked at me. “Excellent work diffusing the bomb.”
“Did you kill them?” I asked.
Van smiled.
“There are worse fates than death. I have three planned for them, starting with a dark prison cell that contains flesh-eating spiders.”
I put a hand over my mouth. “You’re making that up.”
Agent Lockhart shuddered. “He’s not making that up.”
“I would have captured them sooner,” Van said. “But I had to wait for the second one to arrive.”
Agent Lockhart nodded to Van. “I pity them for crossing you.”
Van gave him a grave look. “This isn’t about what they’ve done. I made a deal with Agent Payne. His debt will be worth my efforts here today.”
Made a deal with… I thought back to our conversation on the cliffs. Travis slipped him a paper with a list of demands. “Travis asked you to save me?”
He nodded. “We made a deal.” Van pointed to Louis. “Should I take this one also? I’d like to see if he can survive a Golvern prison.”
“No,” Dad said. “We’ve got this.”
“Tell Travis I’ll be waiting for him,” Van said.
Dad and Agent Lockhart exchanged a glance. Before either could answer, Van disappeared.
The agents behind us swarmed ahead and arrested Louis and Bethany.
* * * * *
Back in the underground halls, I grabbed the fastest meal I could find and went to the isolation floor. Dad caught me as I stepped out of the elevator.
“I thought you would be here,” he said. “I need you to follow me to an interrogation room.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I don’t want you to be upset, but the woman with Louis claims she’s your mother.”
“Have you talked to her?”
His voice shook. “Agent Lockhart interviewed her while I watched from outside. It’s hard to know if she’s telling the truth of if Louis programmed her with his lies. Sylvia is trying to determine if her memory should be erased.”
I gripped his arm. “You want me to help her decide?”
He wiped the emotion from his face and nodded.
We took the elevator to a floor with interrogation rooms. Once again, I sat at a table surrounded by snot-green walls. This time I sat across from Bethany.
Dad looked at her. “You asked to talk off the record. I agreed to make that happen. Don’t make me regret this.”
Bethany nodded and he closed the door, leaving us alone in the room. She raised the cup of water before her and the movement took my breath away. Her mannerisms were so like Mama’s. As she turned up the cup, her little finger rose as Mama’s always did. She put the cup down. Her hands shook nervously and she hid them under the table as I always did.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked in a shaky voice. “You have more questions.”
“It was different when I thought I’d never see you again.”
“Do you regret that I told you the truth? Would it have been better for me never to tell you what you mean to me?”
I folded my arms on the table’s cold surface. “Why did you come back?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it has to do with my power. After I died, I could appear in places like a ghost.”
I thought of the pictures from the surveillance cameras. “The agency showed me pictures of you taken earlier this year.”
“It’s hard to explain.” She reached for my arms and I pulled back. “What else do you want to know?”
“I’m not sure what to ask. I’m not sure how to deal with any of this.”
“The day Bethany woke up was the day you used your power to stop Louis’s bombs.”
I thought back to when I diffused the first bomb. “You think our powers are connected somehow?”
She shrugged. “Anything is possible, I guess.”
“You came back to life and I never thought that was possible.”
“I never planned for any of this to happen. After the wreck, I ‘woke up’ a few months later in a city in Russia. I didn’t understand any of the words that were spoken and I didn’t realize I was dead. For a while, I had no memory at all. Then it began coming back to me. I’d see images of you and your brother, of your dad.”
“Did you kill Lloyd?”
She looked at the table.
“There was a video. Sylvia’s grandson slowed the recording until we could see the image of you. That was right before Lloyd’s car crashed.”
“I don’t know how I got in the car, but there were people on the sidewalk. A group of kids. Lloyd was drinking and the car swerved into the crowd. I put all of my energy into shoving the wheel in the opposite direction. The car swerved and slammed into a light pole. If you want to think of me as a killer for that, go ahead.”
“I don’t want to think of you as a killer. I’m just trying to figure out who you are now.”
“I’m the same person I’ve always been, Regina.”
The sound of my name made me cringe. “You never told me about your powers.”
“I was trying to hide. I wasn’t sure if you inherited my gifts, but if not I didn’t want to burden you with the truth.”
“Tell me how you control the powers.”
“You already know. With fear.”
“No, fear makes the power work. How do you make yourself feel fear?”
She chuckled and slipped a hand in mine. This time, I didn’t pull away. “Donald did a better job with you than I ever imagined. He made sure you conquered all of your fears.”
“Which isn’t helping me now.”
“I fear many things, Rena. Most of all, I fear what might happen to you now that you’ve inherited my gift.”
“If you have fears, why aren’t things constantly blowing up?”
“Because I remember my fears but I don’t let them control me.” She put a hand to her chest. “I let my fears make their mark and keep that feeling close to my heart.”
“What gave you the right to take Bethany’s life?”
“I didn’t want to in the beginning. After I learned that Lloyd had put her in a coma, I went to visit Bethany at the long-term care facility. She’d been in the coma for ten years.”
“No one saw you?”
“No. I kept my emotions neutral and stayed away from the cameras. By then I’d realized electronics can sometimes record a glimpse of my energy signature. Although sometimes people can see ghosts, no one at the facility noticed me. I visited her daily. I spoke to her and gave her more attention than she’d ever received in this life. Bethany was a quiet girl and afraid of everything.”
“Everything?”
“After her parents were brutally murdered in her teens, Bethany shut herself off from the world. She only went to the party that night because of her sister. Bethany never considered they wouldn’t make it home. Her sister died that night and Bethany suffered from a head injury.”
“That’s a sad story.”
“Bethany slipped into the coma at the hospital and was eventually taken to the long-term care facility. Her vitals were stable and no one could figure out why she wouldn’t come out of the coma. No one considered the fact Bethany felt safe and didn’t want to wake up. I offered to show her another way.”
“You took over her life.”
“Temporarily,” she said with a long sigh. “I knew what Louis was planning and saw my chance. If I helped him then maybe he wouldn’t need you.”
“Is she still there, in your head?”
“Yes. I hope when I leave she’ll understand how to live a full and happy life without the crippling fear.”
Mama wasn’t staying. I took a deep breath and tried to hide the pain in my chest. “When will you leave?”
“I was thinking about leaving soon.”
“Do you know if Louis is my father?”
She hesitated.
“I deserve the truth.”
“You’ve got a lot to learn about life, Regina. Hiding the truth was my choice and I stand by it.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted you to grow up free.”
Free? When had I ever felt f
ree? I sighed and leaned back in the chair. “Louis is my dad, isn’t he?”
“Louis is your father, but he’s not your dad. There’s a huge difference.” Her voice filled with emotion. “Louis Castillo doesn’t deserve to own any part of your heart.”
“What happened between you?”
Mama stared at the table for what seemed like an eternity. “I was eighteen when I married Louis. His family was rich and supported our town in many ways. When he found out about my power, he refused to let me go.”
“Why marry him?”
“Because my mother was poor and could do without another mouth to feed. Five of us lived in a two-bedroom house. More like a shack. After my marriage, the Castillo family made sure she didn’t have to work another day. My siblings would have money for college. It was an easy decision.”
“Why you?”
“Louis had political motivations. He thought the people of this world should take back control of resources from their governments and distribute everything equally. It’s a grand notion but nothing that could be implemented without force. He realized my power could be used to persuade the governments to see his way.”
“The agency stopped him.”
“Donald persuaded me to leave Louis just after my twentieth birthday. I think I would have done anything he asked at that point.”
“Because you loved him?”
“That and I was desperate to leave Louis. The agency promised to protect me. When they couldn’t and I realized I was pregnant with you, we faked my death and I disappeared. I didn’t want Louis to know you existed.”
“Why didn’t Dad tell me the truth?”
“Louis was abusive, mentally and physically. He once tried to—” She stopped when she noticed my face. “I made Donald promise never to tell you. If anyone found out Louis was your father, he would have found a court that agreed to let him take you away.”
“You were protecting me by lying?”
“I didn’t want you to know the truth, but I knew one day we’d have that talk. I wanted you to be confident in who you are. But I never thought about dying before we could talk.”
“What is your worst fear?” I asked.
