by Eaton, Pam
Mr. Smith lifts Gregory up like he weighs nothing and quickly moves him to the table. The doctor grabs a heart monitor and oxygen mask and rushes over to Gregory. They start hooking him up to all these different things. “Becca, pick up the phone on the desk. Tell the person on the other line we need nurses in here stat,” the doctor says, and I hurry to follow his orders.
Not even a minute later, three medics come rushing in and I back up against the wall so they can work without me interfering.
Mr. Smith leaves Gregory’s side and heads for me, and his eyes widen as he gets a good look at me. I know I look like a hot mess, but at the moment I’m still standing and that’s all that matters.
We lock stares on one another as he walks closer, so many emotions crossing his face. Is he going to yell at me? Kick me out of here? I can never get a read on this guy.
He reaches for me, and I flinch, waiting for a blow, but he drags me in for a hug. “Thank you,” he says softly into my hair. “Thank you for bringing my son back to me.”
Whoa.
Wait.
What?
Eighteen
I take a step back and look at him. “How?” I ask, because Gregory has powers.
“It’s a long story, and we don’t have time for that right now. But I didn’t know about him until he was nine. After his mom died and his grandparents reached out to me,” he says, his eyes unfocused like he’s picturing her now.
“Does he know?” I ask.
“No,” he tells me, his eyes drifting back to where they’re working on Gregory.
He’s going to freak out. “He needs to know,” I tell him firmly. Lies destroy so much, and to keep this lie of omission is just as bad.
“He will,” he promises me. “I thought I’d lost him.” He looks as broken as he sounds.
“So did I,” I say, my eyes running over the parts of Gregory’s body that I can see.
“We’ll talk soon,” he says, and I nod, but I wonder if he’ll actually tell me more.
We both watch everyone working, but my mind can’t compute what Mr. Smith said. Especially since he’s hammered into us over and over again that Gregory and I can’t have any type of relationship. He always made it seem like it was my parents that caused the no-fraternizing policy, but it must have really been him. And a thought suddenly comes to me; he’s going to be like me one day. He’ll have two powers. Not only would he be able to read minds, but nobody would be able to lie to him. What is that going to be like?
The frenzy surrounding Gregory dies down a bit, and the doctor walks over to us. “He’s stable for now.” He directs his comments to Mr. Smith, but I step closer. “I want to keep him in the coma until I can run some blood tests on him. I’ve got no clue what’s in his system or what’s happened to him, and I’m afraid if we bring him out of it too quickly it could cause brain damage.”
“Good. I want reports every hour. I’m going to be posting a guard on the door. No one is allowed in this room aside from who is in here now,” Mr. Smith tells him, back to his usual authoritative tone.
The doctor nods and walks back over to Gregory.
Mr. Smith turns and levels me with a serious look. “We need to talk,” he all but commands me.
I know he’s got lots of questions, but Tiberius’s face plays in my mind. I have to leave. “We will, but I need to check on everyone else I left. I don’t even know if they made it out okay.”
My heart starts to race. The last thing I heard before I disappeared was gunshots. Did they get out of there? Were they captured? I’m praying that Tony is okay. I don’t know how much he can handle.
“Are you going to come back?” he asks nervously.
I know he’s afraid to let me out of his sight. I disappeared off the face of the earth when everything happened the last time.
My eyes drift to Gregory. “I’ll be back,” I promise him.
He lets out a deep breath. “See you soon,” he tells me.
I close my eyes and picture the living room in Tiberius’s house. Lucy will know where they are.
* * *
“Becca!” Lucy’s voice startles me and I open my eyes to see her rushing towards me.
Before she can reach me, my body collapses to the floor. “Luca! Run for Walter!” she screams, and I hear the front door open and close on a bang.
“What the hell happened to you?” she asks as she drops to her knees at my side.
“Later,” I tell her. “Where is everyone? Are they okay?”
“Still in France,” she tells me as she studies my face. It’s probably horrid shades of black and blue.
I try to get up and fail. “I need to get back to them,” I tell her.
“You can’t go anywhere yet. I don’t even know how you’re coherent right now,” she tells me, reaching out a hand to touch me, but quickly pulls it back. She’s probably afraid she’ll hurt me.
The front door crashes open and Walter comes charging into the room, his black doctor’s bag with him. He comes to an abrupt halt.
“What happened, serduszko?” he asks, full of concern, as he drops to the floor.
I try and fail to sit up again. “I’m pretty sure my ribs are broken, and possibly my cheek,” I tell him, trying to remain indifferent about my injuries.
Polish flies out of his mouth, and from the tone I’m pretty sure he’s cursing. He pulls a bottle and syringe out of his bag. At the sight of the needle I try squirming away from him. Lucy and Walter watch me, concern lining their faces.
“What did they do to you?” Lucy asks on a whisper.
“It’s just ibuprofen. I promise. Here, look at the bottle,” Walter says as he hands me the bottle.
I take it with shaking hands, reading the label. I hand it back to him and lie back on the floor. “They kept injecting me with this serum to knock me out and to block my power,” I tell them without looking at them.
Someone inhales a deep breath, but I keep my eyes averted from them. “I’m going to give you the shot now,” Walter tells me, a lot softer.
I clench my hands so I won’t knock the needle away. “Lucy, can you call Tiberius so I can talk with him?” I ask her as Walter cleans off my arm.
I hear the rustle of fabric and then the ringing of a phone on speaker.
It only rings once before it’s answered. “Is she okay?” Tiberius asks in a rush.
“Still alive,” I yell to him from my spot still on the floor.
A huge huff of air blasts across the speaker. “Thank God.”
“Did everyone get out safe?” I ask, my voice strained from feeling Walter pierce my skin with the needle.
“Tony is pretty banged up and won’t talk. Thank goodness for Raven and those rats, though. They bought us time.”
Tony. How am I going to help you this time? How does someone come back from this?
“Give me a minute and I’ll come get you guys,” I say through gritted teeth, trying to sit up.
Lucy rips the phone away from its spot next to me on the floor. “No, you won’t,” she says. “She’s got a couple broken ribs, and a possible fracture to her cheek bone. She’s been drugged and tortured.”
“I need to get them back here,” I argue, trying to muster myself into standing.
“They can grab a flight like every other damn person on the planet,” she spits back at me.
I flop back down and then yell at the jarring of my ribs.
She points a finger in my face. “Right there is why you aren’t going anywhere.”
“Becca, it’s fine. We’re flying back,” Tiberius tells me, probably glad he’s not here right now to deal with Lucy and me.
I hear Lucy start to walk away. “Wait, he needs to know about Tony,” I call out to her.
Lucy stops and turns back around. “What’s going on?” Tiberius asks, sounding concerned.
“I don’t think he’ll do it again, and I already know he regrets what he did—”
“Spit it out,” Lucy yells.
�
��He set up that trap,” I tell them. “They said they had his mom, and you know how he’s been lately.”
Walter sucks in a harsh breath. “That’s no excuse,” he says.
“They broke him, Walter. They broke him in unimaginable ways. He was just trying to hang on to the only thing he had left. I won’t fault him for that. I’d do the same thing if they had Grandpa Joe.” It’s hard to confess that. The words are brutal. But now having lost them, I’d do whatever was in my power to have them back and whole.
“I’ll be watchful,” Tiberius says carefully; Tony must be close by. “We’ll see you tomorrow,” he tells us.
Lucy walks out of the room, her phone off speaker and against her ear.
I look back at Walter. “What do you need?” he asks me just like Grandpa would, and it sends a bolt of agony to my chest.
I reach out and grab his hand, not answering with words. He clasps his hand in mine and stays like that for long minutes, filling the room with silence, but with the warmth of love too.
Nineteen
Lucy walks back in the room some time later, a glass of water in her hand. “They’re headed to the airport now. Mr. Smith is flying them to Peru. Tiberius won’t tell him where in South America we are,” she says as she makes her way over to me on the couch.
“Smart man,” Walter says from his spot beside me.
“Too many leaks at Project Lightning,” I tell them as I take the glass from Lucy.
We sit in a heavy silence. I know they have questions, and I know I need to fill them in, but there’s so much. And what Mr. Smith told me about Gregory…how can I share that before he even has a chance to know?
“Gregory’s alive,” I tell them while staring at my water.
“We know, Tiberius filled us in,” Lucy says.
Good, I’m glad he told them. “He’s with Mr. Smith. I didn’t know where else to take him. And I knew Walter wouldn’t have what he needs to help him.”
Walter lays his hand on top of mine. “It was the best move,” he tells me. “I don’t have the equipment to do blood tests or keep him in the coma. We could have lost him.”
I tug my hand from under his and run my fingers through my hair. “I trust Mr. Smith to protect him. He’ll be safe. I just wish I knew what they did to him.”
“Don’t let that fester. He’ll wake up. Trust in that,” Lucy says, and I nod.
“They kept asking where I was stashing all the people we rescued. And they wanted to know who was helping me find them,” I tell them, eyes fixed to the wall. From the bruises littering my body they can see how that conversation went.
“Let them come,” Luca says from the doorway, his Italian extra heavy and filled with wrath, causing us all to jump a little. “I won’t let them hurt any of us again.” His large shoulders shudder, and his hands clench and unclench at his sides.
“I don’t know what the next move is. Project Lightning is involved now. Maybe that means we’ll be able to put a stop to this,” I tell him.
Luca walks into the room and sits across from me. “I want to keep working on shifting. I want to be able to go on missions to help you. They don’t get to do what they did to you and Eloise and get away with it. Non va bene.”
“We need a plan. We can’t go in there guns blazing,” Walter says, being the logical one we need. “But we’ll need to strike soon. They won’t be happy that they lost Gregory, Becca, and Tony. Not to mention it seems that you found a major lab of theirs.”
I haven’t even had a chance to tell them about what we found. So much has happened. “They had all these canisters filled with bones and other things, from people long gone. Do you think they’re trying to get DNA from that? I just don’t know what their endgame is.”
“Maybe they’re building an army.” Lucy says it offhandedly, but we all suck in a breath. Her eyes dart between us. “No…you don’t think?”
“Why else?” I ask. It’s the most logical answer. It’s just none of us have thought of that yet. “We need Mr. Smith’s helping us with this more than ever.”
“Let’s wait and talk to Tiberius. Once he’s here we can get a game plan. In the meantime, Becca, get some rest. You can stay in one of the spare rooms here,” Lucy says, and I’m glad she does, because I can’t go back to that empty house right now.
“Thanks. Where’s Eloise?” I ask, looking around.
“She’s playing with the other girls in the village,” Lucy says, and that makes me smile. It won’t change what she lost, but it’ll help find her home here.
I gingerly slide to the edge of the couch. Luca leans forward as if to help me, but I push away his hand. “I’m going to lie down. Let me know when they get here.”
“It’ll be awhile,” she tells me, and I nod.
* * *
“I’m surprised to see you so soon,” I tell my mom as I walk up behind her, tall grass grazing the tips of my fingers.
She looks over her shoulder at me. “There’s lots you need to know.”
Straight to business then. I walk through soft sand and stop by her side. “Where are we?” I ask.
A large lake stretches out before us. The water’s a pristine crystal blue. Boats in the distance look like small dots floating on the horizon. She looks off to her right, where a lone pier juts out into the lake. Her face softens and her eyes brighten. “This is where you dad proposed to me,” she says with reverence.
“Why is he never here?” I ask, fearing the answer.
“Only one of us could come. And it needed to be the one with the strongest connection. Your anger towards me has always been a thick thread.”
I feel ashamed about that now. I feel horrible that the way my mother was able to get to me was through my hatred for her.
“I don’t fault you for that anger,” she tells me.
I look down at the sand coating our feet, too guilty to look at her face.
“Becca.” My name is a plea from her lips.
I look up, and our eyes connect. “I was a horrible mother for a very long time. Towards the end…I was making my way back to you. There’s nothing we can do about that now. I can’t change the past. But maybe together we can make the future better.”
“I’m so scared.” I whisper my admission to her, the breeze taking it out to the ships kissing the horizon.
“How much more am I going to have to lose before this is over?” I ask her an impossible question.
She pulls me into her arms. And this time I don’t even flinch. “I don’t know. But I am so proud of you.” She gently runs her hand over my hair. “You’ve endured more than I could ever imagine. Keep fighting, my baby girl. And I’ll keep trying to do what I can from this side.”
I step back, but she still keeps her arms around me. “What now?” I ask.
“You know who’s behind this,” she tells me, gripping my arms.
“Mr. Rivers,” I say without hesitation.
Her arms drop and I feel her shudder at his name. “Yes.” Her response is weak, timid almost.
“I just don’t get why.” I don’t understand what he wants with all of this. He’s spent years working with Project Lightning. And he knows what he’s doing is morally and legally wrong.
She crosses her arms tightly over her chest. “Mr. Smith will have the answers.”
Mr. Smith. That man is keeping a lot of secrets too. “Did you know about Gregory being his son?” I ask her.
“I did,” she says.
I stagger back a step at her direct response. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shakes her head. “It’s not my secret to share.”
It may not be her secret, but she’s still my mom and she knows what’s been going on between us.
I turn and follow the coastline with my eyes, trying to rein in the words that want to spill out.
I clear my throat a few times. “Do you think Mr. Rivers knows?” I ask her.
She lets out a soft sigh, most likely grateful that I didn’t get on her for not telling m
e. “Probably not. He would have used that bargaining chip a long time ago. I’m pretty sure Gregory has no clue either. Mr. Smith is very good at hiding what he doesn’t want known.”
We stand there in silence, a warm breeze blowing our hair. “Things are going to happen—and soon,” she tells me.
“I know you said there are people helping us meet, but how do you know all of this? How does anyone know what’s coming?”
“Because it was foretold.”
I give her a look, because that’s so cliché. “Seriously?” I say, my voice thick with sarcasm. I spare her the eye-roll.
“Nostradamus kept most of his prophecies secret,” she says, completely ignoring my question. “Only sharing certain ones to the whole world. But he and his ancestors kept impeccable records.”
“Does Mr. Rivers know about these?” I ask.
“Yes, Gregory found them years ago.” A memory pushes to the forefront of my mind. Gregory told me about that. When we were on the boat to North Korea, he told us about his mission retrieving artifacts and scrolls. I forgot he told me that.
“Do you think them finding those scrolls is what set this all in motion?” I ask.
She nods. “I believe so. One of the prophecies said that there would be a time where our people would again flourish and spread across the globe. I think Rivers wants to control that. If he can control those powers, think of what he could do.”
I picture all the people at Fordlandia with powers that Rivers has no clue about. “He could topple countries.”
She throws her arms up in the air. “He could crush whoever he wants. What if he had an army of people like Ania? What if he knew what you could do? What Gregory will one day be able to do?”
Flashes of utter destruction cross my mind. He would destroy our world. Scenes from The Hunger Games fly before my mind.
Mom steps back. Her face goes blank, and her eyes dead. “The time has come to stop putting restrictions on our people.” Her voice is off, like it isn’t her speaking to me. “We need to become a part of society. Use our God-given gifts to bless this world, not destroy it.”
