My bed never felt so fluffy and inviting as it did that night. I barely remember feeling Ryan wrap his arm around me as my head hit the pillow and I fell fast asleep.
Chapter Three
Wednesday April 6, 2321
“I knew you’d let me come,” Roberta’s voice sounded in the darkness.
She materialized in front of me and I had to admit I was relieved. All I could think about was Ryan and making sure he could get the help he needed. I knew Turner and Roberta were okay with me when they sent the hover-limo, but I wasn’t sure until this moment, when I saw Roberta’s face, that all was forgiven. She was looking at me with relief and affection. It didn’t repulse me like it normally did.
“Ryan still needs help,” I responded.
I was getting good at this whole dream-astral-thingy. Since we were on my turf, I decided to make it creative and put us on top of a mountain. We stood in a small cove surrounded by gargantuan snow-covered peaks towering over us like guardians. The sky was a deep blue and I made a couple white fluffy clouds float lazily by. The best part about the whole thing was the fact that, since this was all just inside my head, there wasn’t any temperature gauge, so to enjoy being up in the mountains while really being snuggled up in bed made it all the more perfect.
“Geoffrey and Dr. Johnson are still going to be waiting for Ryan tomorrow. Your little tirade didn’t stop that.”
I visibly sighed in relief. Thank goodness. Just knowing Ryan was going to be okay made me want to wake up and tell him the good news, but I knew Ryan wouldn’t see it that way because he’d rather not go at all. I decided I’d fish some information out of Roberta instead.
“Isabelle visited me this evening and says she wants to protect me. She doesn’t like you two very much.” That was an understatement, but I kind of figured Roberta knew more about Isabelle’s hatred of them than I did.
“Do you know what her powers are?” Roberta asked me, eyeing me for my reaction.
“She can stop hearts?” I thought I was stating the obvious.
“That’s like saying you can control corpses.” Roberta shook her head.
“But I can control corpses.” I didn’t understand what she was trying to say.
“Yes, it’s one component of your abilities,” Roberta continued. “If Isabelle knew the extent of what she could do, this world would be in big trouble. Much more of a threat than Elisha.”
Um.
Huh?
“What can she do?” I asked, not at all expecting to hear an answer.
“As much as it would fill my heart to trust you, you know I can’t.” See?! Though Roberta actually looked like it upset her to say that. It probably did, but it was annoying. She was such a tease. “Isabelle came to see you, which means she’ll be back for an answer. She’ll want to know if you want her protection or not… What are you going to tell her?”
“Um… no?”
Why was I being so wishy-washy? I didn’t want to give anyone a straight answer. Maybe because I didn’t have one. I didn’t want anyone’s protection, but now that Elisha had herself and two other people all with my exact same powers, it made me feel neutralized. Sure, I could best Eva, but maybe she had tricked me into thinking that. Actually, no, Eva’s ego was too big for that. She probably would have made the dead branches fly around for the press while acting terrified and pointing her finger at me. Most likely it pissed her off that I disconnected their black holes so that they dropped to the ground.
“You don’t like needing protection. You’re like me,” Roberta preened.
Ick. (Although it was nicer to see her preen as a twenty-year-old as opposed to a Feline. But still.)
Eew.
“Yeah, well, you better go. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow when I drop off Ryan.” I wanted to end this transmission. It was grossing me out. My Roberta threshold had been reached.
“Wait.” Roberta reached out and touched my arm.
I felt a tingling sensation even thought I was asleep. Roberta was bringing me into her realm.
“Don’t,” I hissed. No really. I hissed. I shocked myself. But it upset me that she was trying to rip me out of my own world of protection and drag me into hers.
“I have to show you something, and I can’t show you here,” Roberta said.
As far as I could tell she was being sincere, but still…
“Can’t you just tell me?” The tingling was lessening. Roberta was listening to me for once.
“It’s important. In fact, it’s the key to everything.” I felt the hairs on my dream-neck prickle. “Elisha knows about them.”
“Them?” I whispered. I was suddenly extremely afraid and I didn’t know why.
“You’re going to be upset, but believe me, we did it to protect him.” Roberta was trying to convince me of her innocence, which was never a good sign.
“Who’s him? Who’s them?” I almost shoved her out of my head. I couldn’t explain it, but I was terrified.
“Just let me show you,” Roberta pleaded.
I swallowed hard and nodded.
I don’t know why I agreed, but I did.
Roberta took a deep breath and clasped my hand.
The tingling sensation turned into an all out vibration until…
…We were standing in a room, just like in my dream with Roberta a couple of nights ago.
There were coffin-like boxes everywhere, but all were child size.
Clones.
When I peered inside the closest one to me, my heart nearly stopped.
A young boy about seven years of age lay sleeping inside the stasis-container.
If I could have thrown up in my dream I would have.
I recognized the boy from Roberta’s memories.
It was my father.
There were hundreds of stasis-containers all holding clones of Franklin Turner.
“They all have your power,” Roberta’s voice was barely a whisper. “They’re soulless. They feel nothing. They only take orders.”
I stood in shock until Roberta said the last four words that drove a stake through my heart in terror.
“Elisha’s coming for them.”
I jumped awake and gasped for breath. It took me a few moments to stop my heart from racing when I realized something was off.
Why weren’t Ryan’s arms wrapped around me like they normally were when I awoke from one of my astral nightmares? He must really be tired. Normally, Ryan was such a light sleeper.
That’s when I heard the choking.
I turned to see Ryan.
He was lying on his back, jaw clenched, arms clenched, legs clenched and jerking violently at the same time.
“Ryan!” I yelled uselessly.
Ryan’s eyes rolled back in his head and the sound of him choking was terrifying.
I didn’t know what to do.
I was too scared to touch him for fear of making it worse.
So I screamed for help.
George, Vianne and Nancy were all in my room in seconds.
Nancy gasped when she saw Ryan while George and Vianne instantly went to his side.
George turned to me and said in a steadying voice, “He’s having a seizure. You need to call Turner and have him send Dr. Johnson right away.” Seeing the shocked state his daughter was in, he added, “Take Nancy with you. We’ll take care of Ryan.”
I didn’t want to leave him.
He was going to die.
I was going to lose Ryan forever.
I could see the beginnings of his swirling black hole forming in his chest.
“He’s dying,” I sputtered.
Vianne stood up and made forced eye contact with me. “Not if you get him the help he needs.”
She was right.
I needed to snap out of it and get Ryan help.
I grabbed Nancy’s stiff hand and pulled her out of the room with me. Once we were in the hallway Nancy shook herself into alertness. “Where’s your phone?” she asked.
Downstairs. We
hurried to the phone and I dialed Turner.
Roberta answered Turner’s phone, “Chelsan, I didn’t mean to scare you, but you had to know.”
What?
Then I realized she was referring to the room full of Dad clones in their basement.
“No, it’s Ryan. He’s having a seizure. He’s dying,” my voice cracked. I was about to fall into hysterics in less than five seconds.
“I’ll send Dr. Johnson immediately,” Roberta spoke with an authority that made me feel slightly better. “Ryan will be fine. I promise.”
I didn’t know why, but as I hung up the phone I believed her.
Nancy and I raced upstairs to see how Ryan was doing.
My heart surged in relief when I saw Ryan propped up on pillows while Vianne held a wet cloth to his forehead. I ran to the bed and crawled up next to him.
He smiled weakly and pulled me in close. “I’m sorry I scared you,” his voice was hoarse from coughing.
I held him tighter. “Help is coming.”
Ryan squirmed a bit. “I’ll be okay.”
I peered up at him. “Don’t even think about arguing.”
“It looked worse than it was…” Ryan began.
I cut him off, “Your black hole was starting to form. You were dying.” There were tears in my eyes and it took every ounce of control I had in me not to bawl like a baby.
Ryan said nothing. For the first time, he looked scared. I felt horrible, but I didn’t want him to brush the doctor off again. Ryan needed help and he was going to get it whether he liked it or not!
And before I knew it, Ryan was being led away by Dr. Johnson.
“I’ll take him from here,” Dr. Johnson said in an irked sort of way. He was apparently still mad about not being able to take Ryan with him yesterday. I didn’t blame him. Ryan probably wouldn’t have had the seizure if he had gone with the doc.
Ryan shrugged Dr. Johnson off and leaned down to kiss me.
Toes officially curled.
“I love you,” he whispered in my ear.
“I love you too,” I whispered back, reining in my tears.
Ryan kissed me once again for good measure, then left with Dr. Johnson out the front door and off to the main I.Q. Farm at Population Control. I imagined it was pretty deserted since all the former members of the I.Q. Farm were currently residing in Ryan’s head. Still, it was a freaky place to be. I just hoped the doc would be able to fix Ryan.
We all just kind of stood in the foyer staring at the closed door. In less than an hour Ryan had almost died…
And now he was in Turner’s clutches.
It made me feel nauseous. I didn’t know what I’d do if Ryan died.
I couldn’t think about it.
Not even for a second.
Nancy put her arm around me. “He’ll be fine. Let’s just try and get some sleep. Maybe we can visit him in the morning,” she suggested optimistically.
I nodded. Everyone was exhausted and I didn’t want to keep them up any longer.
“Can I stay in your room?” I asked Nancy. I couldn’t be by myself. I just couldn’t.
“Duh.” Nancy nudged me affectionately.
George and Vianne gave their well-wishes and said goodnight.
I crawled into Nancy’s gigantic double-king bed. After a few minutes of talking, Nancy fell asleep in mid-sentence. I stayed up for at least an hour longer, maybe even two. I couldn’t stop seeing Ryan convulsing, playing the memory over and over in my mind. I thought I would go insane.
Then I remembered.
The room full of clones.
How many clones of my dad were in there? And if they all had my powers and Elisha was after them, she’d have an army of generals that could control the dead.
Elisha would be unstoppable.
I was grateful that the clones were all children. It would have been more difficult for me if his clones were older. I might have had considered keeping one, as crazy as that sounds, I knew, of course (or at least according to Roberta), that they were soulless empty shells. But they had to possess some traits that were like my dad. I never had the chance to know him, or even meet him. He died to bring me back to life. It would be nice just to talk to him.
Another truth hit me in that moment.
Roberta and Turner never experimented on the real Franklin. That’s the one thing Roberta couldn’t tell me because if she had she’d have to admit to the room full of Franklins. They did all their testing on the clones. That’s why when I first met Turner he was always shocked at what I could do with my powers. It meant that as a result of the clones being wrong in the brain, they may not have the full extent of my dad’s powers.
My brain was spinning a mile a minute, so I figured I should at least try and get some sleep. I closed my eyes and tried to relax.
Nope.
No good.
After a while I must have caved, because I remember dreaming about Ryan being hooked up to the I.Q. Farm machine and him screaming.
“Is he going to be okay?” I heard Jason’s voice a few feet away.
I awoke to see Jason and Nancy talking in her doorway. She was still in her pajamas and trying to shoo Jason away.
“We don’t know yet, but you’re going to wake up Chelsan. We’ll talk downstairs,” Nancy scolded.
“Don’t bother. I’m awake,” I announced.
“Oh good.” Jason maneuvered past Nancy and sat at the foot of the bed. “We need to talk.”
“So talk,” I encouraged. Jason was simply salivating to spill his guts.
“I did some digging and I found out a couple of very interesting facts about your grandfather and Harry Clifton.” Jason scooted in to make himself more comfortable. “First off, Geoffrey Turner was born in 1970 in Austin, Texas. He joined the Navy when he graduated high school in 1988 and became a Navy Seal. A Seal? Can you believe that?” Jason was obviously impressed.
I had no idea what a Seal was besides a really adorable sea mammal.
Before I had to ask, Nancy chimed in, “We have no idea what a Seal is, Dork Boy.”
Jason groaned at our ignorance. “They were the elite of the elite. Before the military became what it is today, basically a glorified exercise camp, they were every country’s defense and offense. And the Seals were sent in for all the impossible missions. Trust me, you did not want to mess with a Seal.”
Gramps was a badass? It was hard to picture with him being so old. I couldn’t imagine him as a young, agile, gun-toting soldier.
Jason continued, “Turner served in a war in the early 1990’s called the Gulf War. His team performed re-con and assassination missions in Kuwait and Iraq.” Jason shook his head in admiration, “The guy was ambitious and apparently the best on his team because he made Lt. Commander in only a few years.”
I didn’t know rankings for the military since there wasn’t really a military left to speak of nowadays. Like Jason said, army bases these days were basically places where people went to get in shape, but I knew from history class that soldiers used to be more like Isabelle. Stealthy, unafraid and driven. But I always thought of Gramps as a politician. It scared me to think of how capable he actually was of doing the killing himself and not through his lackeys.
Jason folded his arms, “Turner met Harry Clifton in the Gulf and according to everything I read: they became inseparable. So inseparable, in fact, that it was actually Clifton that introduced Roberta to Turner in 1994. Roberta and Clifton grew up together in Chillicothe, Ohio. So this trio goes back about as far as you can get. Your grandparents were both in their mid-twenties when they met. They married a week after being introduced. As disgusted as you are with your grandparents, they definitely belong with each other.”
Normally a story like that would garner a few “aawwws,” but Jason was talking about Turner and Roberta so I had to settle with a little throw-up in my mouth.
Jason switched topics upon seeing the nausea in my face, “Turner and Clifton were sanctioned by the U.S. government to cr
eate an elite team. A team that ended up being so good that the government propositioned them to be the President’s secret right arm. They agreed and were paid extremely well. That’s the team that Isabelle was part of. We can’t find much on her, just what she told you already, that she was a foster kid and Turner brought her in and trained her. There were others. I’ll dig some more, but nothing stood out to me as a red flag. At some point, Turner obviously wanted something more than just being a military force because according to the records, Clifton and the rest of team died in an oil fire in the Middle East. After that Turner became V.P. of Population Control. A title he created and all the world leaders signed off on.”
“That must be the fire they faked to convince Turner of their deaths,” I surmised.
Jason nodded in agreement. “That’s all I got, but it’s definitely more than we ever knew about your Gramps.”
“I don’t know if it’ll help, but it gives us some background at least,” I said.
Jason rubbed his hands together, concluding his part of the conversation. “Can we see Ryan now?”
It was nice to see Jason so concerned. Jason was obviously worried about Ryan and that made me grateful for some reason. I reached across the bed and hugged him, which surprised Jason, but he hugged me back.
“I’ll call Turner and find out, in the mean time, I have something to tell you guys.” I told them about the cloned Franklins.
Jason was visibly rocked. “That’s bad.”
“Understatement.” Nancy shook her head.
“I know.” I fell back into the soft pillows. “We can’t let Elisha take them. She’s already broken out I.Q. kids and a bagillion pregnant ladies from Baby Centers. Elisha is really good at helping people escape,” I groaned. It was true. She had bombed the L.A. Baby Center and helped thousands of women escape to Havenville. And that was high security. Then she actually broke into Turner’s headquarters and busted out all the I.Q. kids. Even higher security. There was nothing she couldn’t do. And now that she had my abilities…
I shuddered.
The Riser Saga Page 75
