by Eaton, Pam
“We told you. You saw those kids in Myanmar,” I say to him. “Some of those experiments worked.”
He runs a hand roughly through his hair. “I never thought…so this place is called Fordlandia?” Xavier asks, like we’re making up the name of the place.
Tiberius’s eyes roam the area. “This was once a settlement for a tire factory built by the Ford Motor Company. They tried to take a Midwest American town and plop it into the middle of the Amazon jungle.”
“Well, that’s different,” Xavier says, more to himself than to us.
“Now, it’s a safe haven for people like Melanie,” Tiberius tells him.
All of us watch the little girls run through the tall grass, probably heading to see Maria. She always has fresh-baked cookies in the afternoon.
“How?” Xavier asks.
“Someone out there is kidnapping children and adults so they can experiment on them and try to make more people with powers.” My stomach rolls in disgust at the memories of where we’ve found these people and the conditions they were in.
Tiberius tells him a little about Lucy and rescuing her. About the horrors we’ve seen since we started raiding these labs. And about some of the people we’ve saved. “Fordlandia is a place where these people can feel safe and have a life. Some of them will never be able to live in the normal world again.”
“You’re gonna see things that will startle you; try to hide it,” I tell him, thinking about Luca.
He raises a brow at that, but nods.
“One more thing,” I say in all seriousness. “No one knows Tiberius is my true uncle, and it needs to stay that way for obvious reasons.”
“No one? Not even Tony?”
“Walter, Tiberius’s wife Lucy, and now you. That’s all. Again, I’m trusting you with all of this. Don’t blow it.”
Xavier holds my stare and nods once.
“Let’s take you to meet Lucy, and the little girl we’re hoping you’ll help,” Tiberius’s gruff voice says, breaking our tense standoff.
Six
Lucy leans against the doorframe waiting for us. I’m not surprised; she was probably alerted the second we appeared by some gadget she created. If whoever kidnapped her knew that their experiment worked with her, she would be hunted to the ends of the earth. Nothing was more amazing than the first time I came here and watched the jungle landscape peel back like a curtain, revealing a hidden dock.
Thankfully they don’t know about her, and we benefit from her scarily genius knowledge of all things involving technology.
“Lucy, I’d like you to meet Xavier,” Tiberius says, walking up to her.
Xavier holds out his hand for Lucy, but she just stares him down. “Don’t betray our trust. There’s nowhere on this earth you can hide now,” she says to him.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, ma’am,” he says while lowering his hand.
She stares him down for a moment longer, and then turns and walks into the house, Tiberius following close behind.
“She’s scary,” Xavier whispers.
“She’s awesome,” I say.
We walk into the house and follow Lucy to the back where the little girl is staying. She opens the door and we see her on the bed, legs curled under her. “Hey, we’ve got someone we hope can help you,” Lucy says as she kneels in front of the girl.
Xavier steps forward and gives her the biggest smile to her. Her whole face lights up, but I swear every kid loves him instantly. “My name’s Xavier.”
She waves back at him, her giraffe clutched tightly in her other hand. He sits down next to her on the bed. “What you got there?” he asks.
She lifts her giraffe in front of Xavier’s face. “Very nice to meet you, Mr. Giraffe,” he says, shaking one of its feet.
She gives him a huge smile. He points to her locket.
“Well, isn’t that pretty? Can I see it?” he asks.
She lifts it over her head and hands it to him. He takes it gently from her and closes his palm. He closes his eyes. I walk closer and sit next to him. I put my hand lightly on his shoulder and make like I’m trying to get a better look, but I pump a lot of my enhancing power into him.
“Whoa,” he says, almost breathless.
“What is it?” Lucy asks as she steps closer.
I shush her with my free hand.
Xavier opens his eyes and looks at the little girl with a gentle smile. “Hi, Eloise,” he says softly.
At the sound of her name, tears stream down her face. And I swear I hear my heart crack a tiny bit.
“No one will ever put you in another cage. Do you understand?” He asks her, and she slowly nods. “Good. I won’t ever let that happen, and neither will they,” he says pointing at the rest of us.
“Can you sit with Lucy while I talk to Becca and Tiberius?” he asks her.
She nods, and Lucy comes over, sweeping her into her arms. Xavier stands and runs his hand down the length of Eloise’s hair. She gives him a watery smile.
We follow Xavier out of the room and into the living room. “What did you see?” I ask.
He places his hands on his hips and puffs out a strained breath. “I don’t know if she realizes they killed her parents in front of her. But I’m thinking she does. It was a hard thing to watch. Someone was strapped to a bed, but I couldn’t focus well. It was a strain to see that far. Only the more powerful events stuck out. And unfortunately, that was what happened to her parents.”
I turn around at his words and see Eloise looking me straight in the eye. And my heart just breaks, because she knows what happened. It’s there in her haunted eyes. It’s probably the reason she won’t speak.
“She had been in France with her parents,” Xavier says, causing me to turn back at the sound of his voice. “They were holding her in another lab. Lots of tests, some blood draws. They gave her some shots, but I’ve got no clue what was in those needles. I’m not sure why they moved her to Spain, but it wasn’t in a hurry. There was no rush to get her out of France. She traveled in a tractor-trailer with others.” His eyes spear mine. “This is human trafficking at its worst.” His voice is heavy with disgust and I don’t blame him.
Tiberius lets out a low growl, and man, I can relate. I want to find these people and end them. End whatever horrors they’re inflicting on people. Stop this mess that’s already gone too far.
“Do you know where in France she was?” Tiberius asks, his voice dangerously low.
Xavier shakes his head in frustration. “All I saw was Collégiale Saint-Laurent carved into stone with some Latin words that I don’t understand.”
“That’s a big find,” Tiberius tells him. “We’ll have Lucy do some research on it later. See if we can figure out where Eloise was.”
The room falls silent as the three of us stand in the middle of the room, all lost in thought.
Tiberius lets out a heavy sigh. “We’re not going to figure this out right now.” He looks over at Xavier. “Can you give Becca and me a second?”
Xavier looks between us and nods. He heads out of the living room and back towards the room with Lucy and Eloise.
I follow Tiberius out the front door. “How do you feel about setting him up in your house?” he asks.
Wasn’t expecting that. But am I okay with it? I look back at the house, but I can’t see through walls. I’ve never felt unsafe with him, and I don’t now either. “It’ll be fine. But it’s not just me. Tony probably won’t care, but let me go talk to him. Send Xavier over in ten,” I tell him.
“Sounds good. But if anything changes, we’ll be here.”
I wave and walk across the dirt-packed street to the little shack where I’ve been staying at. I can’t call it home. It’s not that; I don’t know if anything will ever feel like home again. I open the front door into the living room and right away I see Tony lying on the couch.
“How was the gun range?” he asks, not even looking at me, his eyes trained on the book in front of him.
I sit down in the chai
r next to him and push the recliner back. “Well, we ended up having to cut it short because we tracked down Xavier from Project Lightning. I transported him here.”
The book falls to the floor with a heavy thud, and he shoots straight up. “You brought someone from there here? Are you completely insane?”
I sit up too. “Hey, Xavier was one of the guys that helped rescue you. Don’t forget that.”
He grips his hair with both hands. “Mr. Smith is going to come knocking on our door any time now and you—”
I reach out a hand and grab onto his arm. “No. He’s not. Xavier went rogue. He’s not supposed to be looking for me at all right now.”
He shakes his head back and forth. My stomach sinks; he doesn’t believe me. “I want you to meet Xavier,” I tell him.
He stands up and walks past me, probably to lock himself in his room. “I’m grateful for him helping to get me out of that hell hole, but I want nothing to do with anyone from Project Lightning.”
He’s almost out of my sight when I let the real bomb drop. “He’s staying here with us.”
Tony’s whole body freezes. He slowly turns and locks eyes with me. “Why would you want one of them here?”
I can hear his anger clearly, but I want to rail at him. If he would help us on these missions, he would get why Xavier is here and how important it is we get his help.
“Because during our last mission we rescued a little girl from a cage. And she either won’t talk, or she can’t.”
He looks away, but not before I see the guilt in his eyes. “We needed Xavier to help us figure out who she is, and where she came from before we rescued her from that laboratory from hell.”
He won’t look at me, just stares at his feet. I know they ran experiments on him, but he won’t tell me anything. I can only imagine this is bringing all of those memories to the surface, but he needs to tell us something. He needs to deal with this. And I know that I’m being super hypocritical, but maybe he saw someone or heard something that could help us figure out who’s behind all of this. I want to yell all of this at him, but we’ve been there before and the results were disastrous.
“Just keep him away from my room,” he says, and storms off.
I want to throw my hands up in the air. I want to yell at him to fight me more. I want him to explode. But I just sit here in my chair. We make quite the dysfunctional pair. Neither of us wanting to deal and yet wanting the other to succumb. But maybe having Xavier here will help Tony more than he realizes. Because I need Tony to help us. We can’t tackle this problem without him.
Seven
A knock at the door startles me from my thoughts. I ease from the chair, not really wanting to get the door, but knowing Xavier’s probably on the other side of it. There’s another knock, but this time it’s more hesitant.
“Coming,” I say as I reach for the knob.
As I open it, Xavier steps back, his hands shoved in his pockets. We stare at one another, too many heavy things between us. I take a deep breath and stand a little taller. “Come on in,” I tell him while I make a sweeping gesture into the house. “I’ll show you where you get to sleep.”
I step back and allow him to walk inside. He stops just past the entryway and I wonder what he’s thinking about what he sees. This place is bare. Aside from the thread-bare couches, old model TV, and Tony’s video game set-up, there’s nothing here. No pictures, paintings, throw pillows, nothing. It’s pretty depressing, but I try to spend as little time here as possible. Being here gets me lost in my own thoughts. And that’s not a place I like to be.
“If you’re thirsty, the only thing I’ve got to drink is water and soda,” I say while I shut the door.
“I’m fine, thank you,” he slowly drawls.
“Have a seat and I’ll see if I can get Tony out here,” I say.
He raises his brow at the mention of Tony. “We’re roommates,” I tell him.
He nods and slowly sits on one of the couches, his focus drawn to Tony’s video games.
I head down the dark hallway towards the back of the house. He hasn’t been in there long, but I need to at least give him the chance to come out and really meet Xavier. I reach Tony’s door and knock once before I push it open.
He’s lying in his bed, his body facing away from the door. I can’t see what he’s holding, but it has all his attention. “Can you come out here and meet him?” I ask him.
“Maybe later.” His words are muffled against his pillow.
“Tony,” I say, completely irritated.
“Becca,” he says, trying to mock my tone.
I walk over to the bed and reach around him, pulling on whatever is making him refuse to look at me. It’s a picture of him and his dad. Oh, man.
“Hey,” he yells, lunging for the picture and ripping it out of my hand. “You’ve got no right.” He spits the words at me, his eyes showing the most fire I’ve seen since we rescued him.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I didn’t know what was in your hand.”
His only answer is a growly huff. But I can’t back down now.
“Please get out of bed and come talk to us,” I say, my voice still even, calm. And I know it sounds like I’m trying to coax a wounded animal, but in some ways I am.
He locks eyes with me, and I fold my arms across my chest. I will wait him out if I have to. After a few moments of our standoff, he sits up. “You’re not going to leave me alone until I come out there, are you?” he asks.
“No. I’m not.” If this is how I have to push him, then I will.
He blows out a breath, causing the hair dangling in front of his eyes to move. “Fine, give me a sec and I’ll meet you out there.”
I stare at him a little longer. “I promise I’ll be right out,” he says, throwing his arms out to the side, completely exasperated with me.
I give him one last warning look and then walk back out into the hallway. I lean against the wall next to his door and hang my head. His dad was his world, and I came in and pushed into that memory. But he needs the push.
It takes him five minutes, but true to his word, Tony comes out to join us on the couch. Xavier stands and extends his hand. “We haven’t officially met. I’m Xavier.”
Tony shakes his hand and clears his throat a few times. “Thanks for everything you did,” he says, and quickly drops his hand to sit down next to me on the couch.
Xavier takes a seat across from us, and an awkward silence fills the room as the two men stare at one another.
“So, uh, Tiberius say anything to you before you headed over?” I ask Xavier.
His eyes leave Tony and focus on me. “He said he’d be coming over here soon so we could plan out a scouting mission. Lucy is trying to find out where that stone with Latin on it is.”
“Scouting mission?” Tony asks me.
I adjust myself on the couch so I can face him. “The little girl we found came from another lab in France. She wasn’t rushed out of there in a hurry, so we’re assuming it’s still active. We could use your help on this one,” I say, and he tenses at the suggestion.
“I’ll think about it.” Which means no.
“This might lead to whoever is behind all this. Behind your kidnapping,” I tell him, pushing past where I know his comfort zone is.
Tony’s hand slices through the air. “I said I’ll think about.” The words whip out of him, fast and fierce.
“You can’t hide out forever.” Xavier’s words are delivered in a calm but firm manner.
“Who the hell are you to judge and say I’m hiding?” Tony leans forward and stabs a finger in his direction. “You’ve got no clue what happened to me.”
Xavier stands abruptly and I latch a hand onto Tony’s arm in case I need to transport us out of here. Xavier takes off his shirt to reveal a tanned chest covered in dark hair. But I soon see the faded scars that start from his hipbone and climb up all the way to the top of his ribs. There are seven of them on each side, and considering how wide they are, th
ey must have hurt like hell when it happened.
“When I was eighteen, I was on one of my first missions for Project Lightning. I was taken hostage in the Middle East for weeks. Every day I got the crap beaten out of me. I was waterboarded constantly. Every interrogation tactic they could think of they did. And when they realized I wasn’t going to talk, they kept up their tactics, but at the end of the day. Every. Damn. Day. They took a knife and ripped me open from groin to ribs.”
Tony and I sit frozen, both of our eyes tracing the deep gouges in his skin. “If it weren’t for Gregory, I would have died in that sand pit jail cell.”
He puts his shirt back on and sits back down. “I understand more than anyone what you’ve been through.”
Heavy silence blankets us. I look at Xavier and try to match the story with the guy I’ve worked with. How did he come back from that? How is he still doing this?
“When does it go away?” Tony asks the question so quietly I’m not sure I hear him.
“Which part?” Xavier asks, his voice gentled.
“The fear,” he whispers.
Xavier leans forward, and now it’s just him and Tony. Like I’m not even in the room anymore. “Never. It never goes away. You just learn to be stronger.”
I watch Tony slowly nod. And they don’t notice me, but I nod too. Because I might not have been kidnapped, but that fear…I feel it every day. And I pray like crazy I’ll be able to be stronger, because if I can’t, then how am I going to find the person responsible for my grandparents’ and Gregory’s deaths?
Eight
After watching Xavier and Tony go down a video game hole, I left to go wander the streets, and now I’ve been walking aimlessly for an hour.
“Ciao, Becca.” I turn at the sound of my name, and squint to make out Luca sitting on a nearby bench.
“You do realize it’s super creepy to be sitting out here alone in the dark,” I say as I make my way closer to him.
