by Gow, Kailin
“What happened?”
“You know what happened, Grayson,” I say. I don’t want to think about what I’ve just done. Sadly though, it seems that Grayson does.
“Why is it that every time Jack is in trouble, your powers come out?”
“I don’t know.” Actually, I think I might, but I don’t want to hurt Grayson’s feelings like that. There are some things he won’t want to hear.
Unfortunately, he’s a good guesser. “Maybe it’s because you care a lot for him, Celes.”
“I don’t know,” I say again. I don’t know what else to say. Grayson doesn’t want to hear how much I care about Jack. He doesn’t want to hear every detail of the weeks we spent together when I was pretending to be the tycoon’s daughter, Celeste Channing. He certainly doesn’t want to hear how the kisses and close moments designed to convince the world that Jack and I were a couple in love gradually became real, until neither one of us knew how to untangle ourselves from the closeness we’d created.
“It’s because you love him,” Grayson insists, and he doesn’t sound angry. Just sad. So very, very sad.
The truth is that’s probably only part of it. A big part of it, admittedly, but not the whole truth. Jack is at least partly what I am. His mother was the same as me, and I’m sure that connection is part of what makes the fire I can use burn. Through love… yes, it probably is down to that too. After all, the two times I’ve used my powers have been moments of incredibly strong emotions, and what emotion is stronger than love?
Jack stands, looking like he’s going to make his way over to me. He doesn’t get a chance though, because in that moment, the large hangar that serves as a front for the Underground’s base blossoms into fire, an explosion ripping through it. The blast is not just deafening, it’s palpable. The shock wave of it knocks everyone who was standing from their feet. Jack, the Others, everyone. In the silence that follows, part of the Underground’s building collapses inwards, flames licking at its framework.
People start to struggle to their feet, but I see that Sebastian Cook isn’t one of them. He was closer to the explosion than almost anyone, and he’s down on the ground, unmoving. Jack races over to him, heedless of the potential for getting shot, and I find myself doing the same. We need to get him clear of the base, because there’s no way of knowing if there will be more explosions or not.
Sebastian rolls onto his back as we approach. “It’s a good distraction, don’t you think?”
That’s one way of putting it.
“Plus it stops what we have to leave behind from falling into the wrong hands. Oh, don’t worry. We moved your family’s memories out before we blew it up.”
I hadn’t even thought of that, but I sigh in relief to hear it as Sebastian struggles to his feet. He doesn’t seem to be moving very well. And there are bigger problems. Over by the cars, I see Grayson’s father start to stir. He looks at me standing next to Sebastian, and he points.
“What are you waiting for? Get her!”
Most of them seem a little reluctant, but one of the black clad mob of Others is quicker than the rest, and he grabs for me. I half expect to feel the same power as before rising up to incinerate him as his hands close on me, but nothing happens. I’m left trying to fight him off with nothing more than my ordinary strength, and I simply don’t know enough about protecting myself for it to work. I try to hit him, and he blocks the blow. I try to wrestle free of his grip and it’s solid.
At least it is until Jack gets there. Jack hits the man once, twice, and he falls back, then Jack raises his pistol and shoots him without so much as a warning. Jack tosses me his gun, and then takes one from the belt of the man he has just killed, firing with that uncanny calmness and accuracy he seems to have. I try to join in too, but this isn’t the same as facing down an irate trucker, the way I had to when Jack was first taking me to the Underground. This isn’t a test designed to see how willing I would be to pull the trigger. This is real.
Real, and chaotic. There are bullets flying everywhere now. Grayson has recovered the pistol he threatened his father with, and is shooting blind. Jack is firing back at the Others precisely, neatly. I… I try to help. I try to stand and shoot back, but it seems like every time I poke my head around the car I’m taking cover behind, I have to jerk it back as a dozen of the Others target me. This is the kind of full blown battle that needs special training, and I simply don’t have it.
Of course, Grayson shouldn’t have it either. What did they do to him in that memory fading room before he escaped?
Jack swears, and I know that can’t be a good sign. “They’re getting the better position,” he says to me, throwing himself into a roll so that he can end up next to me. A spray of bullets follows his movement. “Pretty soon, they’ll be in a position to catch us in a cross fire, and then we’re done for, Celes.”
I shake my head. “No, there has to be something we can do.”
“There is,” Jack says, looking at his father. Sebastian nods.
“She’s the priority,” Sebastian says, and then whispers something to his son.
“What?” I ask. “What are you planning?”
Jack reaches into his inside pocket, pulling out his phone while continuing to send occasional shots over the car one handed. He punches in a number. “Are you in the air? Good. What’s your ETA? I know that. We’ll have two to pick up. Be ready.”
“Jack,” I demand, “what do you have planned?”
“There’s a helicopter inbound,” Jack says. “It will take you to a safe place.” He looks at Grayson. “My father says you have received a partial Fade, and that you have also been imprinted with some of the knowledge required of Faders.”
Grayson doesn’t look certain. “I-”
“If that’s true, you’re too dangerous to allow to fall into the Others’ hands.”
For a moment, I think Jack means he’s going to have to kill Grayson, and I start to panic. Jack can’t do something like that. He just can’t. Jack obviously catches my expression, because he shakes his head sharply.
“That means you’re going to have to get on the helicopter with Celes. You know where Location Two is?”
Grayson hesitates a moment, then nods.
“Then get Celes there safely. I’m trusting you, Grayson.”
“Jack?” I ask.
“I want you to be safe. I won’t chance your safety at all. Go with Grayson. He knows where to go.”
“And you?” I ask. “What about you, Jack?”
Jack shrugs. “There’s only two places on the helicopter. I’ll be fine, Celes.”
Fine. In a situation Jack has already described as hopeless. He’s lying, and I know it, but there isn’t time to argue because Jack is on his feet again, shooting one of the Others who tries to get too close. The man falls back, wounded but not dead, taking cover behind another of the cars.
“Why aren’t you stopping them?” Richard demands of his troops. A couple more rush forward and Diana, the Fader who was so eager to come out and fight, cuts them down with a burst from her submachine gun before throwing what looks a lot like a grenade. It sails over the Others to explode behind them. I keep my head down. It’s gone from being a fight to something out of a war movie in the space of a few seconds.
At least it fits with the helicopter. That’s a dull, matt black as it whirs its way in closer. It’s not big. As Jack says, there will be barely enough room for Grayson and me. It circles the area once, then picks out a spot between us and the now destroyed base on which to land.
Jack kisses me, fiercely and briefly. “I’ll see you again, I promise. Now you need to run, because they won’t be able to touch down properly.”
I don’t want to run. I don’t want to leave Jack to whatever is going to happen next. Grayson, however, grabs my arm and half drags me to the waiting vehicle, which is hovering inches above the ground with the rotors running fully. He shoves me inside and closes the door after us.
“Fly,” he says.
/>
The pilot doesn’t need any more encouragement than that. We head up, and I’m forced to watch from above as the rest of the action starts to unfold. I see the others spreading out around the remaining Faders. I see Diana fall, shot by one of the Others. I see Jack unload the remainder of his pistol’s magazine, then toss it aside as a couple of the others get close, covering him with rifles. One strikes him in the stomach with the butt of his, and I wince. We barely made it out, and I know I should feel relieved, but all I can think about in that moment is Jack.
Grayson seems to be thinking more clearly. He turns to the pilot, takes a headset so that he can speak over the sound of the rotors, and relays Jack’s instructions about our destination. It seems that were going to this Location Two, wherever it is.
FOUR
I look down from the helicopter, and I know we have to go back. Jack’s in trouble, with several of the Others attacking him now, beating him while their friends cover him with rifles. They’ll kill him like that. They’ll kill him, and up here, there’s nothing I can do about it. We need to go back.
“Turn the helicopter around,” I say to the pilot, but he either doesn’t hear me over the noise of the rotors, or he isn’t listening. I grab a headset. “Turn it around!”
“Take us to Location Two,” Grayson insists, and then rattles off a string of numbers that sound like a latitude and longitude. The pilot nods.
“Turn it around!” I insist, looking down, Jack is on the ground now, barely moving. He’s almost too small to see from up here. In another second or two, he’ll be gone. I can’t allow that to happen. I just can’t. I reach forward, trying to grab the pilot. Trying to force him to listen to me.
“Hey! You’ll make us crash!”
“Then do what I tell you to,” I say, shaking him. “Help me to get back there.”
The helicopter lurches violently, and I guess it’s only the skill of the pilot that keeps it in the air at all. That doesn’t stop me from trying to get him to listen, because I’m frantic now, trying to climb over the seats. Trying to take charge.
Grayson pulls me back. “Celes, you’ll kill us.”
I rip free of his grip. “I don’t care. We have to go back, Grayson.”
“We can’t go back,” he insists. “The Others are all back there. It’s too dangerous.”
“Then I’ll kill them. Turn this thing around, Grayson. We have to help Jack.”
If Grayson looks hurt by that, I’m not in a position to care right then. Besides, he manages to stay largely calm, even though I can’t. “Jack doesn’t want us to go back, Celes. He’s the one who sent us away.”
“And he said he would be fine,” I counter. “He isn’t fine. He’s going to get killed, or don’t you care about that?”
“He cares about whether you get killed,” Grayson shoots back. “You’re the important one here. You have to be kept safe, whatever the cost. Don’t make Jack’s-”
“Don’t say it! Don’t say ‘sacrifice’. He isn’t dead. I won’t let him be dead. I’ll kill them all before I let them do that.”
“And what about what they’ll do to you?” Grayson asks. “They have guns, Celes. They can shoot you before you even get close to them. This is probably the one thing Jack and I agree on. You have to stay out of danger, even if it means other people get hurt. Even if it means Jack gets hurt.”
I shake my head. I won’t accept that. I won’t just fly away and leave Jack to his fate. We’ll go back, and we’ll collect him, and everything will be all right. Even as I think it, I know I’m not thinking straight, but I can’t help it. I make another lunge for the pilot, and again, the helicopter jerks.
“You need to do something about her, or we’ll all die,” he says to Grayson, as Grayson pulls me back.
“Like what?”
“There’s a kit under the seat.”
I don’t know what he means until Grayson scrambles under the seat, coming out with a wicked looking hypodermic needle, filled with a substance I don’t know enough about chemistry to identify.
“Please, Celes,” he says, “don’t make me use this.”
Right then, I don’t care. All I can think about is turning the helicopter around. I make a final grab for the pilot, and I feel something sharp press into my arm. I just have time to look around at Grayson accusingly before I slide into blissful oblivion.
Memories come to me drip by drip, inching their way into my consciousness and playing out as dreams as whatever substance Grayson has used to sedate me runs its course. The memories aren’t like the ones I saw at the Underground. They aren’t of me or those around me exhibiting special powers, or fighting the Others, or anything like that. Instead, they’re normal things, simple things. Though that only makes them more painful.
Jack and I are at a party. I don’t know which one. There were so many in my weeks as Celeste Channing. We’re dancing, and my head is on his shoulder as the music slows. There are people watching us, and I tell myself I’m doing it for their benefit, but now that I can look back on it, I know that I’m not. I’m doing it because I want to. Because I want to be that close to Jack, to take in the scent of him and feel the hardness of his muscles pressed against me.
Now Jack and I are driving. Just driving, for mile after mile. It’s just after he has taken me from his apartment, heading for the Underground. He isn’t saying much, and I spend a lot of my time sleeping, but now, I can see the concerned glances across at me, the protective looks. I can remember how comfortable it was, taking that long road trip with a man who was, at that point, a stranger to me.
We’re in the truck stop, where Jack arranged the test for me. I’m pointing a gun at an irate trucker, one who has been hurting Jack. He takes a step forward, and I pull the trigger without event thinking about it. I remember how proud Jack was afterwards. How confident that he could protect me if I followed his instructions.
Not all the memories are of Jack. Grayson’s there too. I remember being in the library with him one time after everyone at school had gone home. Just him and me, with the librarian away somewhere shelving books. We’re trying to study for a test, but we can’t stop ourselves from talking, and laughing, and kissing.
Now we’re on the running track. There are so many memories there, but I know this one well. It’s just after I’ve come back from an injury, and I’ve been worried about whether I’ll be able to run as fast again. Grayson runs alongside me, encouraging me the whole way, and I’m almost a second inside my personal best. Afterwards, we have dinner at my house to celebrate, with my whole family around, just enjoying the moment.
The memories start to mingle now, so that Jack and Grayson follow one another in rapid succession. There’s a memory of Jack in the penthouse apartment I had as Celeste Channing, followed by one of Grayson walking with me to school. There’s one of Jack firing back as the Others invaded the Underground safe house I first went to, followed by one of Grayson pulling a gun on his own father for my sake. Jack is showing me the memories of the only other person like me beside his mother, then Grayson is running with me to the helicopter. Jack is…
It’s going too fast. The memories are swirling now so that I can’t keep up with them. Jack and Grayson’s features begin to blur into one another, until I realize that I’m thinking about a club Jack accompanied me to, but I’m thinking about Grayson dancing with me. Their features stretch, and distort, and finally start to spin, in a way that reminds me of something. Something about where I am and what I’m doing…
“Celes. Celes, wake up, we’re almost there.”
My eyes flutter open, and I see rotor blades spinning above me. Grayson is beside me, looking at me with a mixture of concern and more general nervousness. It’s as I remember what he did that the second emotion makes sense.
“You drugged me,” I say.
Grayson doesn’t look even remotely happy. “I had to. You were going to kill us all if you crashed the helicopter.”
The helicopter. I look around, and a
lthough we’re definitely in a helicopter, it doesn’t look like the same one as before. That one was stripped down, military in tone, and clearly built for speed. The one we’re in at the moment is very different. It’s clearly more about luxury.
“What happened?” I ask. “Are we still near the base? What about Jack?”
I don’t care if this helicopter is a different one to the one we were in before, we can still turn it around to save Jack just as easily.
Grayson shakes his head. “It’s too late to think about him, Celes. You’ve been unconscious for hours.”
“Hours?” That one word feels like a hammer blow. If it has been hours, then it is too late. Far too late. Jack is… no, I won’t believe that he’s dead. I won’t. Not even when the certainty of it is pressing down on me like a lead weight. He’ll have found a way to survive. He has to.
Though I can’t think how he could have.
“Where are we?” I demand. “How could you just drag me away like that, Grayson?”
“I did it to keep you safe.”
I don’t want to have that argument again. Instead, I look out of the window of the helicopter, trying to get some sense of our location. The desert is gone. Instead, we seem to be travelling over countryside, interspersed with small villages and networks of twisting roads. It seems very… different, somehow.
“Where are we?” I ask again. I have to know.
“You know how you’ve always wanted to go on vacation to England?” Grayson says, and I look at him.
“You’re not serious.”
He nods. “We took a plane out here, then transferred to another helicopter for the last leg of the journey.”
“And you got an unconscious girl through customs?” I ask.
