by JA Huss
Sadie, Sadie, Sadie. Come closer, Sadie. We’re waiting for you.
But it’s not Thomas and it’s not Sullivan.
It’s Cyan. Thank you for bringing the boys along too. We’ll bring you all back into the fold in just a few minutes. It’s over. You belong to Prodigy. You always have and you always will.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN - THOMAS
“Ten. Nine. Eight…” The minions are counting down to world domination when the roar of a helicopter fills the room.
Cyan looks over at Uzi. I feel her—me—us—smile.
“Seven. Six…” A garage door begins rolling up on the other side of the thug-filled space. Everyone turns to watch. “Five. Four…” A hard thud as the helicopter lands on the roof. The enormous warehouse doors are halfway up.
“Three. Two. One…”
The anarchists burst forward, trampling each other as they push their way out of the warehouse and spill out into the city.
“Get them,” Uzi says to Cyan.
I feel my head nod. Then words come out of my mouth. My voice says, “Our purpose is chaos, but our prize will be the Alphas. All three of them will be back under Prodigy control. Just like we planned when we set Sadie loose.”
Uzi takes my hand and we follow their minions out of the warehouse.
Riots fill the streets as the protocol begins. Bus stop screens are flashing. Lights in all the open businesses are flashing. Traffic lights, and street lights. Every SkyEye phone is ringing.
The blinking lights and ringing phones create a trance that no one can escape from. We made sure of it. We planned this down to the very last detail. I see the moment things change. It happens right before my eyes. Their faces go slack. They stand completely still as anarchy explodes around them, their eyes trained on the signal flashing across their faces. Red. White. Red. White.
Then they all look up. The haze of the trance evaporates. They scream. They roar, arms in the air, waving whatever they’re holding in their hands. They strike each other. Some of them have nothing to hit back with, so they throw their phones. One phone hits a woman in the forehead and a burst of blood spurts from her split skin.
Cyan makes us look around, take it all in. Burns it into our memories. And then she spies the prize.
Lincoln, Case, Iziah and Sadie. The four of them are standing on the roof of the warehouse, staring down at us.
“There she is,” Cyan says through my mouth. I feel her reaching for Sadie’s mind. I try to stop it, but I can’t. I can’t. She’s not under the control of another mentalist right now. That place inside her mind where we fit together like a lock in a key is empty and open.
So I slip inside and Cyan takes over.
I’m sorry, Sadie, I say in my head. I’m sorry.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT - SADIE
No, no, no. She cannot come back in.
But it’s too late. She’s there.
While I was distracted by my intruder sister the helicopter has landed on the roof of the warehouse. Lincoln and Case jump out and Iziah is pushing me to go next so he can follow, but I double over and scream, “Iziah!” I grab his arm as a pain goes shooting through my head.
“What?” he yells back over the thumping helicopter rotors. “What’s wrong?”
“Cyan!” I yell back. “She’s inside me!”
“Fuck that,” he says, pulling me out of the helicopter.
“Fight her off, Sadie,” Lincoln says, grabbing my other arm to keep me upright. “Sheila’s coming right now.”
“What’s all that noise?” Case asks, running over to the edge of the roof. “Shit! What the fuck is happening?”
Lincoln and Iziah drag me over to the roof with them and we look down onto a horror that takes my breath away.
An entire city block of rioting people. Some of them are wearing all black. They hold bats and clubs, and metal bars, swinging them at storefront windows.
“They did it,” Lincoln yells over the roar of the crowd.
The helicopter has powered down, and I can feel Cyan even stronger now. Then I see her looking up at me. She bares her teeth in a diabolical smile. I’ve got you, she whispers in my brain.
The hell you do, Sheila whispers back.
Now I have them both inside me. Sheila, in the computer interface Prodigy implanted to control me. And Cyan, the one who thinks she owns that space.
I fall to my knees just as bullets begin spraying up at us. Case takes one in the chest and stumbles backwards. Lincoln has his arm cannon powered up and aimed down below.
“Don’t hit Thomas!” But that makes no sense. Thomas is Cyan now. We might have to take him out. That was Lincoln’s instruction before we left the mansion. We won’t let them get him, Sadie. Ever. So if it means we have to splatter him into pieces, so be it. We made a promise to each other when we started this plan. No one goes back. We’d all rather die.
But he doesn’t shoot. He can’t shoot. He’ll kill all those people down there and that was never their plan.
My head is nothing but pressure now. Cyan is winning this battle. I feel her powering me up. Getting ready to do something. What is she doing?
What do you think she’s doing, Sadie? She’s gonna use you to mind-blast us!
No. Thomas is the most dangerous mentalist ever known. But Thomas and Uzi combined…
That’s when I realize, it’s me. I’m the one in control of Thomas. I’m the link between them both.
That thought defeats me. I lose all control over my powers. I lose Sheila too. I double over, the pain in my head unbearable, and she’s in. She’s in control now.
When I stand up I am her. I am Cyan. I am Thomas. And Sullivan.
I look at Lincoln and Case and know what I have to do. Cyan trips my illusion, even as Case and Lincoln try to figure out what’s going on. I become Molly. Then Lulu. Back and forth. They are after all, their greatest weaknesses.
My objective is, and always has been, to take them alive.
And that’s just what I plan on doing.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE - THOMAS
Be ready.
The words flash through my head and confuse me for a second.
I was ready. Sadie came for me in the hospital and we got out.
No, Thomas. You’re not thinking clearly. Quick! You don’t have any more time to decide. Are you ready now? Because this is your last chance. I won’t give you another one. Yes. Or no.
Who—
Time’s running out, Thomas. Better make a decision.
Everything but what’s happening all around me falls away into the nothingness I’ve been in since Cyan took over. Uzi’s in control now. But that’s not who’s talking to me. Someone else is inside me too.
How many fucking people can fit inside my mind?
Doesn’t matter, the unknown voice says. Just be ready.
Pressure builds in my head. Pressing against my skull until I feel like I will—
The mind blast explodes out of me. Uzi, I realize. He’s aimed the concussion wave up at the roof where Case, Lincoln, Sadie, and Iziah are standing. Case, Linc, and Iziah are all distracted by something Sadie is doing. They don’t even see it coming. The mind blast hits them head on and all four bodies tumble over the side, crashing into the ground below. Mobs of people attack as Uzi moves forward to take our prize.
No!
They will never get us back alive.
But you can’t die, my friend. Are you ready? Because they will get you unless you let me help you.
Who are you?
Does it matter? Your friends are about to be made into good little minion slaves again. So does it really matter who I am?
No, I guess it doesn’t. It’s the only chance I have. Whoever this person is, they’re the only way out of this fuck-up now.
There is more pressure, but this time it comes with mental screaming. I bend over, my hands cupping the sides of my head, like that can do anything.
Obey me! It’s Cyan. She’s… struggling.
Sadi
e is screaming in my head. Then Uzi is there along with Cyan and the newcomer.
My mind is filled with nothing but insane screaming.
Then… quietly… Thomas.
One word. From a voice I recognize. Mine.
Sullivan, I realize. Sullivan is back. But how? How is he so in control?
Who cares, he says. Who fucking cares. Just get that bitch out of us!
We come together, maybe for the first time ever, and fight our common enemy.
Fight, fight, fight… Sullivan is chanting in my head.
Then Iziah is there too. Cyan is one stupid bitch if she thinks we’ll give up on fifteen years of planning. Fifteen years we spent dreaming about one thing and one thing only.
Revenge.
Because we are two Alphas teamed up with an illusionist.
And we are pissed.
CHAPTER FORTY – SADIE
The anarchy isn’t on the streets of Cathedral City. It’s inside my head as I wrestle back a little bit of control.
But I’m not me anymore.
I am everyone.
I am no one.
I can feel all of them at once. Cyan, Iziah, Uzi, Thomas, and Sullivan. For a few seconds we are three bodies, but one common entity.
This is the definition of insanity. I have lost myself. I am gone. I have been wiped away and replaced with… a collective.
My body is twisted up on the ground in a defensive position as rioters come at us. They have clubs and bats, and flying fists. They want to end us.
But when they reach Iziah, they don’t try to kill him. They pick him up and hold him steady as he wobbles back and forth. They do the same to Lincoln and Case.
That’s when I realize. No. They’re not here to kill us, they’re here to take us back.
I lose a little more of myself as Cyan gains power. But Sullivan, Thomas, and Iziah are right there, fighting for me. Fighting for us.
A little bit more, Sadie.
Sheila! I want to cry with happiness. But I can’t even manage a single moment of relief, because the arms and hands are on me now. Pulling me to my feet, restraining me. Taking me prisoner until…
Uzi walks up to me tsking his tongue. “I was worried you’d get away, little Sadie. But not anymore. You are mine, bitch. My little fuck toy. We have a business to run down in the underbelly, remember? We’re such a great team, aren’t we?”
“Fuck you,” I spit, struggling in the arms of my captors. My mind is clear now. Everyone gone. Nothing left inside me but… me. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!”
But I’m powerless. Because in the instant it takes for me to realize all the others are gone, Uzi is there, filling me up again.
I struggle against the hands holding me steady for Uzi. He walks up to me, sick smile plastered across his face.
Sadie, Sheila whispers. Give me control. I know what to do.
I do it without hesitation. I blank myself out to make room for her. I am not going down without a fight this time.
Sheila’s awesome computing power sweeps through my whole body. Every nerve ending belongs to her now. Every thought, every motion, everything of me is hers to command.
I stand up straighter, the pain in my head gone. Cyan, gone. All of them gone. I am more myself with the creepy supercomputer inside me than I ever was with my sister or the psycho who thinks he owns me.
Uzi stops, some secret message from Cyan making him doubt his approach. He’s not far away though. And dozens of hands are still holding me captive.
But Sheila is with me. Sheila and all her big ideas. Sheila and all her insane power.
She laughs through my mouth.
“What’s so funny, little Sadie?” Uzi asks me. “You might’ve kicked Cyan out, but you’re not going to win.” He turns and sends a mind blast towards Iziah, Case, and Lincoln. They blow back from the force of his power.
And just as he’s distracted, Sheila uses me to throw a trip into the crowd.
A concentric wave bursts out of my mind and hits every one of Uzi’s little minions. They squint their eyes in confusion as they look at me.
I smile, and this time it’s not Sheila controlling my face. It’s me.
Because I know what she just did. Thanks to Prodigy, I have a hard drive in my brain.
Thanks to Lincoln and his software, I have data flowing through my brain.
Thanks to Case and his SpyGlass tablets, every face around me comes with a name. Facial recognition is a fact of life that no one even questions anymore.
And thanks to Sheila, I am myself, and I wield the trip with awesome power only I’m capable of.
I flicker in and out, my face changing every few seconds. I am him, and her, and him and her. I am that parent, that baby. That girl they wish didn’t get away. I am their loved ones in these moments. I am the only person that matters in their life.
The hands holding me release as the crowd stumbles back in confusion.
I watch Uzi for the moment, that one glorious moment when he realizes what’s happening. When he realizes who he’s really dealing with.
They don’t call them Alphas for nothing.
He turns, just a fraction of a second too late. And this time he’s the target of a mind-blowing blast that catches him off guard, throws his body back against the brick wall of the warehouse, and knocks him unconscious.
He’s not only dealing with one Alpha, he’s dealing with two. Thomas and Sullivan work as a team and Iziah is there too, helping them. Making them stronger together than they ever could be alone. They pound Uzi against that wall with blast after blast. They pummel him like a force of fucking nature.
Fuck the wind, I think to myself.
Fuck the wind to hell and back. We are more than one force of nature.
We are all of them.
We are all Alpha now.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE – THOMAS
It takes more strength to stop the beating than it ever did to start it. Sullivan and I pull back. Iziah eases his link to us and we stand there, panting hard with the effort as we take in the scene.
Uzi is… limp. I’d call him dead, but somehow, I don’t think he’s capable of dying. There will always be evil in this world.
The rioters are on the ground, weeping as they look up at Sadie. They encircle her like worshippers, only I know they’re not worshipping her. They’re being tripped.
She’s not Sadie though. She’s… everyone. Her face changes every few seconds. This person, that person. And the effect it has on the crowd is… sobering. They’re tripping, I think, then laugh out loud. What a nice trick to have in one’s arsenal.
“Thomas!” Case shouts. “Watch out!”
A force hits me in the back, making me stumble forward. I look down at my chest. At the gaping wound. Blood pours out of the bullet hole and it takes me a moment to realize I’ve just been shot.
“Fuck, no!” a voice shouts from behind.
I turn slowly, my head spinning from the massive chest wound and the blood loss. And I wonder, as I sway back and forth, if this is what Lincoln experienced when he took a bullet from the Blue Boar.
“Fuck, no! Fuck, no!” I force my head up and find Randy Shits coming at me, shotgun out in front of him. He pumps the barrel and pulls the trigger again. This time I go flying backwards, crashing against the ground so hard, my head bounces, cracks, and then blood spills out of there too.
“I did not,” Randy Shits spits, “come this fuckin’ far to have you Alphas rip victory away from me at the last second.”
“Think again, asshole,” Case says.
I turn my head towards his voice. He’s walking straight at Randy, eyes blazing with hate. Lincoln is behind him, cannon arm raised. He shoots, but Randy dives behind a corner. I hear the telltale sound of pump action. Randy reloading.
He shoots, hits Case dead in the chest, just like me.
Only Case doesn’t go down and blood doesn’t spill. Because… well, he’s fucking Alpha Case, that’s why. His superpower is healing.<
br />
Randy Shits is dead and he knows it. He reloads, pumps, shoots again. But Lincoln is behind Case, using him like a shield as they walk forward. They shoot each other at the same time. Randy’s shot hits Case in the leg, which only slows him down a little. But Lincoln’s… I laugh. Lincoln blows that motherfucker’s head off.
The whole city goes silent.
Every rioter, minion or otherwise, slumps to the ground. Every flashing light blinks its last blink as Cathedral City goes absolutely still.
Eternity passes in a moment of silence.
I take it in. The whole scene. Anarchy is everywhere. Everywhere but inside my head. Inside my head… everything is calm.
Lincoln walks over to me, claps me on the back. “You two OK?”
Case stumbles up, limping a little as he holds the two pieces of open flesh together. His nanites are doing their job efficiently, and right before my eyes, he heals.
“Damn,” I say, still looking at Case’s amazing power. “I might need a nanite upgrade. I’m not dead and I’m not out, but I’m definitely feeling the two bullets I took.” They both manage a smile.
“Sadie?” I ask, whirling around. My eyes searching for her.
She’s standing in the middle of the circle of slumped bodies, looking around like she can’t believe this just happened.
I know the feeling. I’ve been here at the edge of insane battles too many times to count.
I walk over to her, take her in my arms, and hold her tightly to my chest. If she minds the blood on my shirt and the half-healed hole in my body, she doesn’t show it. Because she holds me back just as tight. “Hey, Trip Chick?” I say, looking down at her head, which is pressed into my neck.
Her body shakes a little with her relived chuckle. “What, Mental Man?”
“That’s a helluva trick you have, baby.”
Her face turns up to mine and she smiles. Relief washes over her. I can feel her again. I don’t want to invade or anything, but she feels like home. And I want nothing more than to be inside her right now. “OK,” she says. “Maybe it’s not so stupid. You can be the wind, I guess.”
