Root

by LeeAnn McLennan

  I really wanted to say yes, but I managed to say, “Not yet.” I straightened up. “We should see what we can do to help, I guess.”

  “Okay.”

  “Benjamin Hallowfield.” Everyone jumped, even the technicians, when Six spoke for the first time since we’d entered the room. “We require your services.” Her eyes were back to normal, no longer dilated in send-to-The-Octad mode.

  Ugh, she was talking about requiring people to do stuff again. That never went well for her. I looked at Ben for his reaction. He’d lifted his head, the only part of his body he could move, and gazed at Six as if she was an exotic animal who’d wandered into the room by accident.

  Six kept talking, ignoring his stare. “We had hoped Olivia Brighthall’s presence would compel you to help, but since you don’t seem as connected to her as we expected –”

  I winced, but Ben interrupted with, “Who are you? And what are you talking about?”

  Mrs. Hallowfield answered, “Ben, this is Six. She’s one of The Octad. They are –”

  “Yeah. I know who they are.” Ben dropped his head back, staring at the ceiling, his voice full of scorn. “Mind readers who get a pass because their scope is limited.” He lifted his head again, gaze on me. “Why does everyone keep going on about visions?”

  I opened my mouth to explain, but Six spoke over me. “You sent Olivia Brighthall visions of what Emma Brighthall was experiencing. We assumed this meant you had a strong connection with her.”

  “I got through?” Ben’s green eyes were wide, and a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “You got through?” I echoed dumbly.

  “I was so desperate to tell someone what I could see Emma doing and all I could think about was that you would help.” Ben smiled at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners as I remembered. “I tried and tried, but I didn’t know if I got to you. It was like pushing a thought through a wall of honey.”

  “Poetic,” was all I could manage over my pounding heart.

  “Well, I had a lot of time to think.” Now he looked bitter, eyes hooded over his glowering brow.

  A lot of time to think? How aware had he been during his coma? From his expression, I had a bad feeling the answer was very aware.

  Six spoke again with her unerring way of hitting just the wrong moment. “Benjamin Hallowfield, will you help us find Emma Brighthall?” She sounded super annoyed that Ben was ignoring her.

  “Can someone take these straps off me? I promise not to go crazy again.” Ben looked at Murray hopefully.

  Murray glanced at Dr. Nolan for permission. At Dr. Nolan’s nod, Murray and Carter released the straps around Ben’s chest and legs, then the restraints around his ankles and wrists. Next, they carefully disconnected all of the wires except the one attached to his head. This one they reconnected to a small, credit-card-sized box and hooked it to Ben’s gown around the collar. Harrington tapped on a tablet a few times, her intent expression making me a little homesick for Aunt Kate. After a moment, she looked up and nodded.

  Dr. Nolan said, “You can get up and move around, but this device will tell us if you try to use your ability.”

  Ben glanced at the device, then at his parents, with a curious expression. They shared a moment before he sat up, rubbing his wrists. He scanned the room and then looked at Six. His lips twisted in a sour expression. I didn’t need to be able to read minds to see he despised her and the rest of The Octad.

  “Can someone help me out of this thing?” Ben put his hands on the side of the pod, trying to leverage himself out. Even though he looked stronger than I’d expected, I realized he was weak from his confinement.

  Uncle Alex and Mr. Hallowfield helped lift him from the stretcher. They held him steady while he stretched and groaned. The gown slipped and he grabbed the back with a chagrined look. “And maybe give me some pants?” Carter reached into a cabinet and pulled out a pair of scrub pants. Ben took them. “Okay, so turn around please?” He blushed.

  I spun around, my own cheeks red.

  “Okay. I’m decent.”

  When I faced him, he’d stumbled over to a chair where he sat down with a sigh. “Man, it’s good to be out of that nasty thing.” He flicked a glance at the stretcher and then looked away. His mother sat beside him, taking his hand, and he gave her a little smile.

  Six spoke, clipping off her words. “Benjamin Hallowfield, will you –”

  “I’ll help as long as you and your sisters don’t come near me,” Ben snapped out his terms without looking at Six.

  Six frowned. No one admonished Ben for his rudeness. If I’d spoken to an adult like that, Dad or the ‘rents would have had words with me.

  Mrs. Hallowfield simply murmured to Ben, “I missed you.” Mr. Hallowfield sat in the seat on the other side of Ben, sandwiching him between his parents.

  Six said, “Where is Emma Brighthall now?”

  Ben leaned forward, looking at the floor, his hair, longer than I remembered, falling into his face. He said in a distant voice, “I’m not sure. She’s out of range. I can’t reach her from here.” He looked up to meet Six’s stare.

  “Out of range?” Six looked frustrated and smug, a strange combination. “The Octad are never out of range of each other.”

  Ben rolled his eyes. “Whatever, anyway, Emma’s too far away for me to hear. She dropped off after they,” he swallowed hard, “blew up the planetarium.”

  “Could she be blocking you?” I asked. “Maybe she figured out you were reading her?”

  Ben shook his head. “I lost her gradually. And besides, I don’t think she could figure out I’m reading her.” He ducked his head guiltily. “Most people can’t.”

  Six tapped a hand on her leg, frowning, eyes dilated again. Suddenly her face relaxed and she turned to the door expectantly. The door opened and three mirror images of Six walked in. The only noticeable difference between the women was clothing; each woman wore a different shade of gray, from the woman in the lead wearing dark gray, almost black, to the last woman wearing almost white. Compared to them, Six’s gray clothing was somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

  The tension level in the room, already high, ratcheted up several notches.

  Six smiled. “Hello, sisters.”

  The woman in dark gray nodded back but didn’t return the smile. “Hello Six.” Her gaze raked over the rest of the room, settling on Ben and me. She looked more severe than Six ever had – the other two wore equally stern expressions. They looked incapable of smiling. I had a sudden, peculiar thought – Six might be the most flexible of her sisters. I couldn’t imagine any of these three coming on a hunt with us.

  Uncle Alex broke the strain by stepping forward. “Hello, I’m Alexander Brighthall.” He held out his hand to the dark gray sister, but she just stared as if cataloging him. Her eyes weren’t dilated though.

  Six made a soft noise before saying, “Alexander Brighthall, this is One.” She pointed to the woman in dark gray. “Three, and Eight.” Three wore darker grays than Six, and Eight wore the palest gray. “We are half of The Octad. We felt it was necessary to have more sisters directly experience Benjamin Hallowfield before making a decision.”

  “A decision?” I shoved my hands in my pockets, fighting against the urge to frost or flame something. “About what? Seems obvious that Ben has to go after Emma.” My leg felt warm and I realized I’d released a few sparks after all.

  One gave me a cold look. “This is Olivia Brighthall?” Eight and Three mirrored her look.

  Six nodded. “Yes.”

  “Interesting.” One turned back to Ben without answering me. “Benjamin Hallowfield, you claim to have lost track of Emma Brighthall, that she is,” she held up a hand to forestall any interruptions, “out of range.”

  Was that sarcasm I heard in her tone? Ben seemed to think so. He scowled. He was sitting rod-straight in the chair, hands gripping the sides.

  “We had assumed that your ability had no limit, especially since you were able to s
end visions to Olivia Brighthall in Portland through the damping field. Surely Emma Brighthall is not as far away as Portland?”

  Shock ran through me. Emma in Portland? There was no way she’d come back, not after last fall. I shivered at the idea of Emma bringing Black Gaea to Portland – Black Gaea wouldn’t stop at just blowing up statues and killing a relatively small number of people. Suddenly, I wanted to leave, to go home to check on Dad, Anna, Jack, even Mindy.

  Ben shook his head wearily. “No, it’s different, sending vs receiving.” He eyed One with a curl of his lip. “With Olivia, I was just pushing information at her and hoping for the best.” He gave me a faint smile. “With Emma, since most people naturally resist being read, it’s a little harder to do long distance. There comes a point where I don’t have the strength. Maybe if I hadn’t been in prison for the past –” He looked at his mother for information.

  “Six months,” Mrs. Hallowfield answered in a strained voice.

  “Wow, six months, okay then.” He faced The Octad. “Maybe if you hadn’t locked me away, then I’d have the strength to track her from here.”

  The Octad gave him a collective hairy eyeball. After moment of silent conversation, One spoke up. “What is your range?”

  Ben said, “Usually about six hundred miles, I think.” He lifted his chin defiantly. “That is, when I’m healthy. Right now, it’s shorter.”

  Uncle Alex asked, frowning, “And how do you know this?”

  Ben hunched his shoulders under my uncle’s hard gaze. “Um, well. I practiced, at first, when I got my ability.” All of the adults in the room seemed to draw breath at once, but Ben rushed on before anyone could speak. “I thought if I could show that I could control it, maybe find a way to prove it wasn’t all that dangerous, maybe then I could use it.” He shrugged, looking down at his feet. “Guess it didn’t really work out.”

  Uncle Alex asked, his words coming out slowly, “Who helped you test your ability?”

  Ben looked at him with a mixture of defiance and shame. “Emma.” He grimaced. “Until you all figured out I was using my ability and issued a warning. After that, I didn’t want to risk getting her in trouble.” He added softly, “She didn’t want to stop, but I had to.”

  Well that explained Emma’s behavior towards Ben. They had connected, and then he stopped. It must have felt like a breakup. For the first time in months, I felt a spark of sympathy for Emma.

  Mr. Hallowfield shut his eyes tightly, as if he was trying to block out Ben’s words. “Ben…”

  “Sorry, Dad.” Ben picked at a loose thread in his gown.

  “You should be glad he did some training,” I said, my voice shocking me at how loud it came out. “Otherwise he couldn’t have stopped Emma six months ago and he couldn’t help us today.” I put my hands on my hips and glared at everyone. “So get over it and figure out what you’re going to do about Emma.”

  Mrs. Hallowfield’s mouth quirked into a half smile at my defiant statement, but The Octad all glowered harder. Ben winked at me.

  Chapter 20

  I didn’t know how I felt anymore. Happy to see Ben awake, hopeful he would be able to find Emma before she hurt anyone else, and hurt that my dreams of him seeking me out from his coma weren’t exactly true.

  The Octad questioned Ben in a round, each woman snapping out a question, impatiently waiting for Ben’s answer before the next member asked the next question. “Could you hear what Emma was thinking?” “Could you see where she was going?” “Do you think she knows you are able to read her mind?” “Are you sure she’s out of range and not just blocking you?”

  “No, since I was in a coma I couldn’t go deeper than the first level of her mind.” Ben seemed pleased to talk about his ability. “I couldn’t focus enough.”

  “Didn’t she think about where they were going?” I blurted out the question, wincing when the half-Octad glared at me for interrupting. All four women stared at me with their pale blue eyes as if cataloging me. I frowned back at them, hoping they couldn’t tell how much their collective gaze weirded me out.

  Ben’s answer turned their attention back to him and I sighed with relief. “People don’t always think in direct lines. Mostly it’s all mixed up, jumping around from a phrase to a memory to something else random, like a shopping list.” Ben shrugged. “When I read someone’s mind, I get a series of images and words. Sometimes it makes sense; sometimes it doesn’t.” Ben gave us a guilty glance. “I can dig in, looking for something specific, but I have go down further than the first level.” He cocked his head at One’s soft “humph” noise. “You guys don’t communicate that way?” He directed his question to Six, who was the only member of The Octad not frowning at him. She wore her usual passive expression.

  “No, it’s more of a conversation and data dump –” Six started to answer.

  One cut her off with, “Enough of your questions. We need to discuss how to handle this turn of events now that Benjamin Hallowfield isn’t as helpful as we hoped.”

  The present members of The Octad clustered together – all eyes dilated. I’d thought it was freaky when Six communicated with her sisters. It was even freakier when there were four of them doing it in front of me. One, Three, and Eight formed a neat semi-circle, but Six didn’t quite close the ring. She stood a little away from her sisters, making the circle more oblong.

  I bit my lip to suppress nervous laughter as I wondered – when all eight of them were together, did they even bother to speak aloud? The thought of it made me wince – seemed like it would be noisy inside their heads. Was there any room for individual thoughts?

  Ben sighed and ran a hand through his bangs in an effort to get them out of his eyes. He glanced at his mother and appeared to really notice her for the first time since he woke up. He took her hand and squeezed it gently. She managed a smile. Mr. Hallowfield leaned in, completing the circle of family.

  The return of a horrible thought wiped away my musings about The Octad – after they used Ben to find Emma, would he have to go back into the forced coma? Surely not. It wasn’t as if the coma really worked anyway, right? Council Leader Jones’s words about not trusting Ben echoed in my head. Would they do something worse, more permanent than a coma? I pushed that thought away. The Council were the good guys. If Ben proved he was willing to help, then they wouldn’t hurt him.

  Rustling from The Octad brought the rest of us to alertness. Six stepped away from the cluster, her pupils returning to normal size. The rest of her sisters faced us, their pupils also back to normal. At the same time, a small man walked through the double doors and stood, waiting with hands clasped in front.

  Six opened her mouth, but One spoke first. “We have decided on the following test to determine the verity of Benjamin Hallowfield’s claim he cannot reach Emma Brighthall from this distance.” One’s eyes bored into Ben’s as if she wanted to open him up and see what was in his head. “One of our sisters is in Dallas, Texas. We have received permission for Benjamin Hallowfield to read the mind of Rick Wilson. Our sister in Dallas will verify for us.” One glanced at the man who had come into the room a few minutes ago.

  Ben looked as confused as I felt. What good was it to have Ben read this guy’s mind to prove he had a limited range? The guy was right in front of us.

  “Yeah, okay.” Ben cocked his head. “What’s your ability?”

  Rick Wilson grinned nervously, his eyes darting back and forth, never quite meeting Ben’s gaze. “I’m a teleporter.”

  Ben nodded as if he’d been expecting Rick’s answer.

  “Benjamin Hallowfield will read Rick Wilson’s mind here,” One said, “and then Rick Wilson will transport to Dallas, Texas. And Benjamin Hallowfield will read his mind there.”

  “Try to read his mind from that distance,” I corrected automatically.

  One turned her cold, pale gaze on me. “Of course.”

  I frowned. I knew she didn’t believe Ben. I caught Six watching me before she averted her gaze. I missed the da
ys when we only had one sister of The Octad to deal with – at least Six had mellowed out over the three days she was in Portland. I had a feeling One couldn’t even say “mellowed out” without cracking.

  “Okay, let’s get this over with.” Ben faced Rick.

  Mrs. Hallowfield stood up, her face pale. “No! I won’t have it.”

  “Kim.” Mr. Hallowfield and Uncle Alex spoke together.

  “Stop making my son out to be a criminal.” She moved in front of Ben as if her five-foot frame could shield her lanky son. “He’s done nothing wrong. He’s tried so hard to manage his ability the way you want him to, but this has to stop.” She waved a hand around, but I wasn’t sure if she meant the lab, the prison, or more. “We’ve done everything The Council told us to do: moving out to the country so there would be fewer people for Ben to read, teaching him all sorts of techniques to control his ability, punished any transgressions…” Tears ran down her face. Mr. Hallowfield caught her as she slumped, the lines in her face etched deeper than when we arrived at the prison.

  “Mom.” Ben crouched in front of her. “Mom, it’s okay. If you knew what Emma and the others were doing,” he flicked a quick glance at Uncle Alex, who looked sober at Emma’s name, “you’d understand that it’s worth it. They have to be stopped.” He took her hand. “Mom, I think they have some bad things planned, worse than Portland, worse than Salt Lake City. At least my ability can be useful.” He leaned closer to her and I barely heard his whispered words. “Maybe it’ll convince them I’m okay.”

  Mrs. Hallowfield stared at her son with a half-smile. Finally she nodded. “As you wish.” He smiled back at her words.

  “You must be monitored during the process.” One crossed her arms and regarded Ben sternly.

  Sure enough, Murray, Carter and Harrington were bustling around more equipment. I was relieved to see they weren’t using the pod; instead they rolled the enormous thing to one side and began pushing machines around a chair that looked uncomfortably like a dentist’s chair.