My gut had the sneaking suspicion that I wasn’t going to like the reason I couldn’t control Elisha’s army, but I needed to see for myself.
Turner led us up to the roof through a series of secret hallways that were closed off to employees and, more importantly, to the warring civilians.
When we reached the top, all I saw below us was an ocean of black. Everyone else except Max just saw fighting men. Gunfire echoed off the walls of the buildings though it was much quieter from this far up.
“There, there and there.” Turner pointed. “I count ten.”
My eyes went to where Turner indicated.
Yup. He was right.
There were ten of them.
Ten Franklin clones, all controlling the dead army.
“Wait,” Ryan announced suddenly.
He must have felt conspicuous as the entire lot of us focused on him. “I can feel them, the I.Q. kids are in the clones. I’m…” He couldn’t seem to put what he was feeling into words. “I’m not sure what I’m seeing,” Ryan said, distress clearly written across his face.
Roberta was the one that comforted him as she touched his arm gently, “Just describe everything, even if it doesn’t make sense.”
Ryan nodded, then after a few seconds said, “It’s like the I.Q. kids and the clones are seeing as one, but the I.Q. kids are fighting with the clones they’ve been planted inside of. Some of the clones don’t like what they’re doing. The clones are mad that they’re destroying their home?” Ryan wasn’t sure he was interpreting the Franklin clones correctly, but he continued, “The I.Q. kids’ consciousness’s are stronger, but I feel the clones fighting them for control over their bodies.”
“This could be good.” Roberta seemed encouraged by this news.
I didn’t know what it meant, but the more time we wasted the more black holes were forming down there.
Ryan stopped and looked at me with horror in his eyes. “One of the clones. The one that broke into the lab. He just drank some of the serum. He’s going to get the other clones to drink from it as well.”
“We have to stop them!” I exclaimed. Not only did Elisha want to be immortal herself, but she wanted her generals indestructible as well.
Not going to happen.
I reached for Max’s hand and he took it immediately. “Tell me what to do,” he said.
Connect to every single hole down there. I instructed Max in his head.
“Get ready,” Turner instructed a handful of his live soldiers.
I couldn’t think about what he had planned, I could only think of stopping Elisha’s dead soldiers from killing anyone else.
The enormous power of the Franklins was like an invisible barrier of steel. Their strange head connection that Ryan appeared to be a part of made them stronger than when Elisha and Eva were teamed up.
“I can’t break through,” Max said through gritted teeth.
“Keep trying. We can do it,” I urged.
I felt us connecting to Turner’s dead soldiers first, since the clones hadn’t had time to solidify their power over the newly dead. This seemed to inspire Max and I felt a new wave of power flow from him. I grabbed onto it and added my own strength. I could feel the Franklins’ hold over the corpses start to wane.
“Almost there, Max,” I said evenly, trying to maintain my concentration.
SLAM!
We were in.
“We don’t have much time before they gain back control,” I instructed Max. “Channel your energy through me and I’ll do the rest.”
Out of the corner of my eye I could see Max nod, then I felt a surge of power so intoxicating my knees almost buckled. Wow. Max had some serious mojo. It was all I needed.
Before the Franklins could take back control of their army, I disconnected all the dead bodies from their black holes.
Corpses collapsed everywhere and the decaying body stench flew up to our nostrils like it had wings. Depending on when each body had actually died determined the level of corpse-rot that lay below. Some had been dead so long they were now skeletons.
Instead of the gunfire stopping, I heard ten distinct shots blast out from right beside me.
I turned next to me to see Turner’s soldiers with full-on sniper rifles shooting at...
My heart jumped in my chest.
…The Franklins.
Nine of the clones lay dead on the ground next to their rotting army.
The tenth Franklin, the one that had already taken the serum, shrugged off the bullet wound and ran to his hover-shuttle.
Turner swore and whirled on me, “Did you have to destroy all of the dead soldiers? I don’t have any men to follow the clone!”
I was still in shock from Turner killing my father, or fathers. I knew they were just clones, and I knew that they were wrong, but they still looked and acted and were made of my dad. Seeing them lying there dead brought up emotions I wasn’t expecting. And I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit relieved or grateful or…I didn’t even know what… that one of them would live forever. Maybe someday there’d be some way to make him whole, to make him my dad.
The last Franklin’s hover-car was in the air and out of sight before Turner could order a team of living soldiers to follow.
Before I could respond to Gramps’s outrage, Roberta stepped in and talked him down. “We have Isabelle’s blood tracker, she’s on route now to join Elisha. You should get going.”
Turner kind of grumbled under his breath, but he didn’t attack me. He was just frustrated…
Did I really just make an excuse for him?
I was seriously going nuts.
Everyone started to follow Turner to the five newly landed hover-SUVs on the roof when I made the group stop.
“Jason, you and Nancy need to stay here, spin the story. To all the civilians, it’s going to look like those men out there died today. Bill and Jill, you can’t come either, it’s too dangerous.” I couldn’t let the four of them stand in the line of fire for me one more time, but Max and Ryan were needed.
“I’m not leaving Max again!” Jill was adamant.
“He can’t die, Jill, you can!” I didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but it was the truth and it was enough to jar Jill out of protection mode.
“Fine,” Jill huffed and crossed her arms.
Jason, of course, didn’t argue at all. That guy seriously hated a fight.
Nancy and Bill on the other hand were on the verge of another argument, but I put up my hand to stop them. “Please, I don’t have the strength to fight you. Elisha will kill you just to torture me, and she’ll do it quick. She has nothing to lose, now that she can’t have the full extent of my powers. You’ll both help me out best by staying put here, so just nod and say good luck.”
Nancy’s nostrils flared, but she didn’t argue. She bear-hugged me and whispered, “Good luck.”
Bill hugged me after and surprisingly said, “Look out for Ryan, he’s not indestructible.”
It was sweet, but it felt like a knife in my gut. Ryan wouldn’t be safe and Elisha knew how much he meant to me. She could try to kill him as soon as we landed. I knew I had to protect Ryan with my life.
Then I caught something in Bill’s eyes. Bill was usually so easy to read, but in that moment, I caught a glimpse of a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. I didn’t know what to make of it.
“Let’s go!” Turner yelled.
Impatient, much?
But he was right, we needed to stop this once and for all. Maybe taking down the head of the snake would stop the plans for world destruction. Oh boy.
I sat in one of the SUV’s back seats in-between Max and Ryan, with Turner and two live guards in front of us. The driver had Isabelle’s blood tracker ID number typed into his GPS. In seconds we were up and away following the little yellow dot.
It was weird sitting in the back of a car driving to your destiny. The scenery below whizzed by in a blur. My life was so peculiar. I fidgeted with the seatbelt. The most mundane of act
ivities somehow seemed blown up out of proportion. Everything felt too real. Turner had the news blazing on the radio: reports on what happened at Population Control alternated with advertising jingles. It felt like I was dreaming.
No one spoke.
Everyone waited as we followed that little yellow dot.
The driver broke the silence after an hour of driving, “The target has stopped twenty miles ahead.”
Turner didn’t even acknowledge the driver. He didn’t have to: we’d be landing soon and everyone was preparing in their own ways on how to approach what was to come. I was probably going to take on Elisha and whatever live or dead things she used to protect her. Max technically should do the same, but I had a feeling his mind was on rescuing Eva, if she was even there. Ryan was going to try and connect to the I.Q. kids’ bodies and see if he could influence the Franklins to take over and maybe stop them from obeying Elisha’s commands.
And Gramps. What was he going to do? I wasn’t sure, but he’d most likely be the only one to take Harry down. Isabelle could help with that. It seemed a fight between Gramps and Harry was inevitable.
Too many people. Too many agendas. My mind almost went blank at the enormity of it.
Still, it all centered on Elisha. I mean, we were talking about a violet-eyed girl planning a terrorist attack so big and so vast that it would take out a large portion of the world’s population. She’d already killed so many people. All those soldiers at all those army bases. Dead. And now poised to kill even more innocent victims.
Our hover-SUV landed near a two-story brick building in the middle of nowhere. It looked broken down and abandoned, with ivy growing up its walls and weeds that covered the entire circumference. Beyond the weeds a pine forest surrounded the structure, like the building was the eye of a storm.
And, in this case, it actually was.
We exited the vehicle. It truly did appear as if the building was deserted. Broken windows, doors shredded and worn with age and weather, the place looked like it had stepped out of a horror movie. As if to reiterate my point, a faded, cracked sign in front of the dilapidated structure said, Willtonby Asylum.
Of course it did.
“Trap?” Turner asked me directly.
I shrugged. “Probably, but what choice do we have?”
“Not to walk into it,” Gramps stated logically.
Well, there is that.
I guess I was an act first, ask questions later kind of a gal because I just wanted to go in there and get this over with. I wasn’t looking forward to doing what everyone else thought needed to be done, namely killing Elisha, but I wasn’t going to stop them either. Too many people had died and my mercy was making me feel guilty about all the lives that may have been saved if Elisha had just been executed. It depressed me more than I cared to think about.
“I’ll go in first with Max. She can’t kill us.” I didn’t wait for a reply.
Max joined me as I walked through the already busted in front door.
Inside was far more frightening than the outside. This place was a dump. The walls were barely visible from all the peeling paints, like popped blisters on skin.
I wasn’t sure which way to go, neither was Max, but instinct guided us forward, through the main hallway.
Isabelle’s voice reached out to me, We’re upstairs. There’s a sanctuary up here, it must have been an old church. I hope you two are hearing this. Okay. Bye.
Max and I exchanged glances. We’d both heard her.
I responded back, Is Elisha expecting us?
Yes. Tell Turner to execute a Flamingo formation. He’ll know what that means.
Will do, I said back.
I conveyed the message to Gramps and he spoke back to me instantly, Flamingo formation? All right, that means you two are the distractions, go in and keep Elisha’s eyes off the ceiling and side windows, that will be our point of entry.
Turner didn’t elaborate or give me any words of encouragement, but what did I expect?
I told him to keep Ryan safe and that I’d literally kill him if Ryan had a scratch on him. I think I felt him groan and roll his eyes if that were possible.
I relayed everything back to Max since he couldn’t mind-hear Gramps and he nodded in agreement. I had to give it to Max: whether in ghost form or live in-person he was a good partner to have around. I almost felt like Max and I were super heroes walking up the stairs and toward our confrontation with Elisha. Indestructible and the power to control the dead. We were kind of bad-asses.
The wooden stairs were rickety to say the least, but they held our weight. Once we reached the second level landing I saw the double doors that led to the sanctuary Isabelle had described. Only Elisha would pick that room. She obviously felt a connection to religion because of the way she was raised, or had had that connection at least until she was seven. I just couldn’t tell if she was mocking it or actually believed in it. Knowing Elisha, probably a little bit of both.
The double heavy wood doors were in good shape and arched up to a point. Might as well go in big. Max and I each took a knob and opened the doors wide.
The room inside was the complete opposite of the rest of the asylum. Pristine and modern, not even a speck of dust dirtied the floor. Stained glass windows adorned the back and sides of the room giving off a yellow/orange tint. Elisha stood behind the minister’s podium overlooking the empty room where the pews should have been.
Eva stood on her right and a Franklin clone on her left and my whole body froze when I saw the bullet hole tear in his shirt. We were too late.
As if sealing my coffin shut, Elisha wiggled the empty vial in front of me. “Now we both can’t die.”
I saw Eva’s skin. She no longer had the stretch marks or any injuries. She had taken the formula too. But the most heartening thing that I saw in Eva was how her eyes lit up when she saw Max.
“Max!” Eva’s whole demeanor changed from Elisha-side-kick-evil to beyond thrilled. “You’re alive!”
Max smiled warmly at her. “Chelsan gave me the serum. She saved my life.”
I noticed he was very clear when he said my name. He wanted Eva to know whose side he was on. Smart.
Eva looked more conflicted than I’d ever seen her.
Elisha stepped into the conversation, “And I gave the serum to Eva, so she’s loyal to me.”
I kind of wished Elisha was right, then I could write Eva off for good. But there was no denying the fact that Eva was debating where her loyalties lay. Which ultimately meant that Max was right: the girl did have feelings. Unlike Elisha, Eva wasn’t a complete sociopath.
I suddenly noticed Isabelle, Harry and Terence standing on my right watching the whole scene like they were statues in the church. Isabelle and I made brief eye contact, but it was enough for me to see that she was going to take my cue.
Harry stood there with the smug expression of a man who thought he had already won the prize. Terence didn’t wear any expression, but I could tell he was watching everything. Dean was probably behind me about to snap my neck, which wouldn’t kill me but would most likely be fun for Dean. I secretly hoped that Isabelle had told Dean about her allegiance and managed to sweet talk him to our side, although somehow I didn’t think that Isabelle trusted anyone enough to tell them her secrets. Not even Dean.
The bigger issue of all this being that Elisha couldn’t be killed. It’s funny because now that she couldn’t die, I realized I had been lying to myself. I wanted the girl dead.
“Welcome to my home away from home.” Elisha presented the room with a sweep of her arms like the host of a game show. “I spent my childhood here before dear old Geoffrey took me to the I.Q. Farm. My father,” she looked directly at me, “you remember him, Roland Light?” Elisha laughed, thoroughly enjoying herself, “He put me in here. Thought I was crazy. Then, when I was taken away, he just felt guilty, and a hundred years later, it’s just a lump of ruins.” Elisha actually looked nostalgic. “But this was the only place I ever felt at home. I w
as seven when Turner took me, and I became the woman I am today.”
Eva was listening with sympathy. How could that girl have any feelings other than utter terror for Elisha? She’d only been alive for five freaking months! I’m surprised she and Max could even think coherently.
“What now?” I asked Elisha foolishly.
Elisha snapped her fingers and a holo-projector lowered from the ceiling projecting images in the center of the room. The news flashed on and I wanted to scream.
People being mowed down by dead soldiers in the streets only to rise up and join their ranks.
Image after image, country after country, Elisha and her generals were slaughtering people like they were playing a video game.
And, in every country, there was the stark, contrasting image of the same little boy in the middle of every battle. Franklin clones controlling the armies and killing thousands of innocents. I needed it to stop. I needed to stop Elisha.
I had to look away so I stared at Eva. The holo-footage was bothering her as much as it was bothering me. It made me wonder if she really had wanted to kill those people at the mall. After all, I hadn’t been able to see her, maybe she’d been too terrified of Elisha to rebel. I couldn’t believe I was making excuses for the girl! That’s the problem when your best friend vouches for someone: you can’t help but try and see the good. Sure Bill has a wounded-bird complex, but it didn’t mean that his instincts weren’t right.
Grr. Not the time to think about Eva.
I needed to think about stopping Elisha’s army from killing more people.
At that moment, glass broke all around us as Turner and his men dropped down from the roof, feet-first shattering through the stained glass windows. They hit the floor, guns ready, quickly surrounding Harry’s team and Elisha, Eva and Franklin. It all happened so fast, I didn’t know how to respond.
Ryan was last to enter, walking in through the sanctuary doors and coming up protectively next to me. I felt his hand wrap around mine and felt instantly better.
“Don’t be mad,” I heard Nancy’s familiar voice come from behind me.
I whirled around to see Nancy, Bill, Jason and Jill.
The Riser Saga Page 93
