The Hidden Gift

by Ian Somers

  ‘I could get into the apartment,’ Janice said as Hunter drove towards the building. ‘I can make a jump though time and space and land inside that apartment.’

  ‘I know you can,’ Farrier said, turning to her. ‘But you don’t have the skills to fight a pyrokinetic once you reappear.’

  ‘I can grab hold of her; drag her out of this universe. I’m well able to handle myself.’

  ‘No,’ Hunter demanded. ‘Ania will set you alight the instant she sees you. Linda and I can handle this.’

  ‘There is another way,’ I interrupted. ‘It might be safer and it wouldn’t put Ania in a position where she feels the need to attack us.’

  ‘Make it fast, Bentley.’

  ‘I can scale up the balconies and sneak into that apartment. I might be able to get the child out without Ania noticing.’

  ‘You’re not one for stealth, Bentley.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter. I’m a precog. I’ll sense an attack before it comes.’

  Hunter looked in the rear view mirror. ‘Linda, what do you think?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Ross, you do realise how dangerous this will be? You’ve never fought a pyro before.’

  ‘I know – I’ve fought worse.’

  Hunter drove through the car park and brought the 4x4 to a halt near the building’s main entrance.

  ‘We need to make a call on this,’ he insisted. ‘Fast!’

  ‘I can do it, Hunter. Let me try.’

  ‘I don’t know if you’re brave or just stupid,’ he replied. He turned to Farrier and nodded. ‘I’m willing to let him try.’

  ‘It’s as good a plan as any.’ She leaned forward and clapped me on the shoulder. ‘Good luck, Ross.’

  I opened the door and stepped out into the cool evening air. My heart was pounding like never before and my hands started shaking at the prospect of a gifted duel. I was determined to get this right even though I was nervous. I was going to rescue that kid, even if I had to fight Ania Zalech to the death. Ania was young – just a child – but I knew what she was capable of, and I wasn’t going to make the same mistake that Romand made with Marianne.

  Hunter left the vehicle and walked by my side as I approached the foot of the tower block.

  ‘Just try to remain as calm as possible.’ He sounded almost like my old football coach. ‘Don’t let your emotions rule your powers. That’s when things get messy.’

  ‘I know. Thanks for letting me do this.’

  ‘Thank me when it’s over. Time to get moving.’

  I shook his hand and walked towards the wall. I craned my neck and focused on the balcony on the seventh floor; the one we’d watched Ania standing on the night before. I took a few steps forward and prepared myself to make the first jump.

  ‘Bentley!’

  ‘Yeah?’ I asked, turning back to Hunter. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Don’t fall,’ he smirked.

  ‘You’re an asshole, Hunter.’

  I looked up at the first balcony which was about fifteen feet above me. I took a few fast breaths before I forced a powerful burst of energy downwards that propelled me up into the air, just high enough for me to grab hold of the guard rail of the lowest balcony. I gripped it with both hands then pulled myself up before blasting out another wave of energy which sent me shooting upward again. Within a minute I was hanging off a fourth-floor balcony and there were only three more before I reached my destination.

  I took a moment to compose myself then pushed another burst of energy down at my feet and I leaped up to the next balcony, this time adding a somersault just for good measure. I stood on the railings of the fifth-floor balcony and prepared my next jump but paused. There was a small child standing by the window in front of me and was waving furiously. I gave him a wink then fired myself up to the next floor where I took another few seconds before making the final jump.

  I had no idea what was waiting for me up there. There was a good chance that death was anticipating my arrival and that this was my final moment in life. I couldn’t delay any further, I had to throw caution to the wind and make the final leap.

  I sent out a pulse towards my feet and I was lifted into the air. I reached out with both hands as I levitated upwards and snatched at the rough ironwork of the balcony railing. I hung there for a few seconds then slowly pulled myself up until I could peek into the apartment.

  Ania was sitting on the other side of the glass door watching TV and combing her long, black hair. She was a very thin girl with pale skin and a gaunt face. Her large green eyes were glazed over as if she was in a trance and I noticed a few strands of grey in her raven hair. I knew she’d had a very difficult childhood, and in any other circumstance I would have said the poor girl looked traumatised. But the word that came into my mind while I watched her was ‘demented’ – she looked demented.

  I looked around the room, but there was no sign of Sarah Fisher. She had to be in the next room over, which had a separate balcony. I quickly shuffled across the ledge then fired a modest amount of energy to my side that forced me out into the air, just far enough that I could catch the rail of the next balcony.

  This time I simply climbed over the railing onto the narrow balcony. Sarah Fisher was sitting on a bed and staring right at me. She was small for her age, and had short blonde hair dangling either side of her round face. Her brown eyes were large and filled with terror. Somewhere deep inside them I caught a glimmer of relief that I had appeared.

  I raised a finger to my lips then stepped forward and tested the glass door. It was unlocked and I gently pulled it open, without making a sound.

  ‘I’m going to get you out of here,’ I whispered to the child. ‘I’m with some people who can protect you.’

  She slowly stepped off the bed and nodded at me without saying a word.

  ‘I want you to get up on my back and hold on tight. We have seven floors to climb down so don’t let go no matter what happens. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said softly. ‘I just need to bring my diary.’

  ‘Hurry,’ I whispered back.

  I don’t why I allowed her to retrieve the diary when we were in such precarious situation. It turned out to the biggest mistake I would ever make.

  Sarah tip-toed across the room and reached for thick diary that was on top of chest of drawers in the corner of the room. She slid it off and when she did, the diary nudged a glass jug filled with water that was next to it. Even my lightening reflexes weren’t enough to stop the glass from smashing on the wooden floor. It was loud enough to be heard over the TV in the next room and I would soon be under attack from a demented young girl who just happened to be a pure pyrokinetic.

  I grabbed hold of Sarah and threw her over my shoulder then ran for the balcony. I stepped outside and was ready to climb over the railing but halted and looked right to see Ania standing on the next balcony over, her big, crazy eyes fixed on me.

  ‘Bring Sarah back inside,’ she said very calmly. ‘She has to stay with us.’

  ‘Ania, I think you should go back inside before there’s any trouble,’ I replied, doing a good job of hiding my fear. ‘You don’t want trouble, do you?’

  ‘You’re the only one here who’s in trouble.’

  It felt like my brain shivered when I sensed the attack was coming. I leaped up onto the railing with Sarah over my shoulder. I sent out a burst of kinetic energy at Ania – she was quicker than I expected and spun out of the way then countered my attack by reaching out and screaming at the top of her voice. Suddenly there was cloud of fire around her and it came flowing at me. I ducked and it went rushing over my head and dispersed into the evening air.

  Before I knew it, there was another wave of flame rushed at my face and I lost balance. I fell backward and the firebolt swept over my head as Sarah and I went toppling over the railing, with a fall of over one hundred feet below us.

  Paranoia was a ghost that haunted me for most of the twenty-seven years of life. It became somewhat overwhelming when The Ea
stern Shadow murdered my parents, and were threatening to kill my sister, Ania.

  The torturous feeling left me temporarily – while I was working as an assassin for the Guild of the True. It then returned with a vengeance when I killed the Cramers and those children of theirs. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, expecting a trained killer to be bearing down on me. I did not know if they were already searching for me. Eventually they would come after me … and probably find me.

  I was extremely paranoid after I left the apartment that night. I did not want to leave the girls alone, but I had little choice. There was not enough food in the apartment to last us for more than a day. The short drive to the shopping centre was a necessary one.

  I had kidnapped Sarah Fisher for money. Somehow JNCOR had picked up on the article written by that little coward, Lambell. Apparently they had been without a prophet for decades and would not allow this opportunity pass them by. But there was a problem: they had a truce with the Guild for years and did not want to break it. The agreement between the two groups was simple: The Guild had to stay out of Asia; JNCOR had to stay out of Europe. That meant JNCOR had to hire someone from the Guild to kidnap Sarah Fisher. I gratefully accepted their generous offer.

  Finding her was simple though I had to kill people along the way. I had expected the body count to be higher. The waiting was the difficult part. Yanhao – my contact in JNCOR – could arrive at any moment to collect the child. But there was an equal chance that I could be kept waiting for a number of days.

  I had been given keys to the apartment when I arrived in England after my escape from Switzerland, by a woman who worked as a spy for JNCOR. She said she had left enough supplies for at least three days. She had lied; I found only mouldy bread and sour milk when I arrived at the apartment. The two girls and I had gone over twenty-four hours with only water and I could not allow myself or my sister to grow weak. We needed our strength now more than ever.

  I would have felt more comfortable if I had kept Ania close to me, but I could not risk taking Sarah Fisher out of the apartment. It was likely that she had been reported missing and had probably been mentioned on the news. It was too much of a risk to take. I had no choice but to leave Ania alone to watch over her.

  I stopped the car in the centre of the car park. I had a clear view of the building in front of me, and I could monitor the car park entrance from the road through the rear view mirror. The Guild had taught me such tactics while I was training to be an assassin. ‘Always have your back covered.’ It was one of the first things they told me.

  I sat there watching the building and the road in the mirror for more than fifteen minutes before I turned off the engine and stepped into the chilled air. I stood next to the car for a few minutes more then made my way to the building. I scanned every face as I passed through the electronic doors to the brightness inside. There were lots of people hurrying about – something that irritated me about the non-gifted – they were always in such a big hurry. I watched everything and everyone around me.

  I had to be vigilant at all times. The Guild would eventually find out that I faked my own death and would put out a contract on me. It was unlikely they had uncovered my ruse yet, but there were other potential dangers: Golding Scientific was watching everything that happened in the world of the gifted and it was likely their many assassins were searching for girl. JNCOR also represented a threat; it was easier for them to kill me and my sister than pay the ten million pounds ransom for the girl.

  I walked the aisles of the supermarket and loaded bread and tinned foods into a trolley that rolled ahead of me all by itself. I was no longer afraid to use my gifts in public. I did not care what the non-gifted thought of me. They were maggots, nothing more. They had taunted me so much when I was a child. ‘Freak!’ they called me. It was strange thinking back on it. I had wanted nothing more than to be normal. To be like those jeering children – who were most likely jealous or afraid of me. I was a fool to be envious of normality. I no longer envied them. When I became an adult I saw how superior I was. I became confident where once I had been frightened. I remained a quiet person, though. I did not like to share my thoughts and feelings with others. I learned a long time ago that shared feelings can be used against you.

  It was best to be a quiet man. A man who never ever reveals his true emotions. A man who never allows his strongest desires to dictate his actions. Cramer said I was repressed and needed help. He was saying something very different before I killed him! I took some pleasure in that. He thought he knew everything. He said I was nothing more than a novice. He deserved to die for that alone. He said I was not right for the Guild of the True. That was the only thing about me that he got right.

  Killing people, particularly the non-gifted, always gave me immense pleasure. The non-gifted were so feeble that I found it difficult not to toy with them before ending their miserable existence. I had also taken pleasure in killing other gifted people, like those in Switzerland, but all gifted people are dangerous, even in their final moments, so I had to be clinical and efficient when killing them. I had taken no chances when I murdered the Cramers. After that I drowned the children and then allowed Ania to burn the house down to hide any evidence, and to burn beyond recognition the bodies that would pose as our own.

  The two reporters and Sarah Fisher’s foster parents had been so pitiful when they faced death and I teased them before I finished them off. That was fun. Particularly the foster parents, they had both cried and begged me to spare them. I dismissed their pleas and murdered them both while Sarah Fisher watched. I wanted her to feel the same anguish that I had felt when my parents were killed. I wanted everyone to share the pain I had endured.

  ‘Do you have a club card, sir?’ The checkout girl asked when I wheeled the trolley up to the till. She was young and pretty, but her smile was false. I hated that type of plastic pleasantness that normal people seemed to think was necessary.

  ‘Do I look like someone who has a club card?’ I asked. I purposely made my voice sound strict. Most people found it intimidating. ‘Well?’

  ‘I guess not.’

  ‘Why do you guess? Are you unable to form an opinion?’

  ‘I have opinions,’ she said sheepishly.

  ‘Oh, you do? What is your opinion of me?’

  ‘I don’t have one.’ She began swiping the items over the laser as quickly as she could. ‘I’m not paid to have opinions on customers.’

  ‘So, they pay you not to have opinions or they pay you to adopt their opinions?’

  ‘I’d rather not give my opinion, sir.’

  I was using my mageletonia to stifle the blood circulating around her body. The girl’s heart had to beat faster to compensate. It was a little trick I had learned when I was a teenager and I enjoyed seeing the flustered expression on people’s faces when I used it. It could only be used on the docile, non-gifted. The technique takes time, which you rarely get when you are dealing with another gifted person.

  If she only knew how close she was to death. I could have stopped the blood from passing through her heart at any moment. I could have ended her life without raising a finger.

  ‘You seem to be in some discomfort,’ I said to her, feigning concern. ‘Was my questioning so difficult for you?’

  ‘Leave me alone, you jerk!’

  A security guard had noticed the girl’s unease and stood near the till and folded his thick arms over his barrel chest. He fixed his dull gaze on me. I returned his stare.

  ‘Everything all right here?’ he asked the girl, nodding towards me with his flabby chin.

  ‘Yeah. It’s nothing I can’t handle,’ she replied.

  ‘You just watch yourself, pal,’ the guard told me.

  ‘I will,’ I tittered. ‘I will watch myself.’

  The checkout girl dragged the last of the items over the scanner and the total blinked on the screen next to her.

  ‘Forty seven pounds fifty, sir.’

  I handed her a fifty poun
d note and told her to keep the change; she did not thank me. I dumped the shopping into plastic bags and grinned at the security guard as I walked towards the entrance.

  ‘You seem to be good at your job, but your heart is not in it.’

  ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Nothing of consequence.’

  I continued towards the exit while I was using my mageletonia to control the guard’s blood flow. Slowly the blood in his veins slowed and became stagnated. The burly guard hunched over clutching his chest. He crumbled to his knees and gurgled out a breath as his heart failed.

  I continued to the exit at an even pace. I had done that dozens of times before and no one ever guessed it was murder. I believed I was the most prolific serial killer in the history of the human race. I liked that idea. It was a curious sensation to feel special. Yes, that idea gave me great satisfaction.

  The paranoia returned as I crossed the car park.

  Sarah was knocked free from my grasp when we toppled over the balcony. I reached for her, but she was out of range and we were plummeting to the ground at speed. I had to create a cushion of energy to break my fall. I couldn’t be sure it would also save Sarah. I only had a couple of seconds to figure out what to do.

  ‘Save yourself, Bentley!’ I heard Hunter roar from the car park below. He was directly below us and I had to trust that he meant he would save Sarah from the impact.

  I reached out and channelled energy out of body as I came hurtling towards the ground. It felt as if I was physically throwing the panic out of my body and using it to form a cushion that would stop me from hitting the ground. I formed the bubble of energy just in time and I spun high into air when I bounced off it. I tumbled back down to earth at high speed and crashed onto the bonnet of a parked car.

  The deafening scream of the car alarm did not distract me from the stinging pain that was pulsing from the top of my arm. I had dislocated my shoulder when I landed on the car. I couldn’t let this slow me down and quickly used my psychokinesis to pull the bones in my upper arm back into the socket. It went in with a loud clunk and I cut my lower lip from biting down on it so hard.