by Sybil Nelson
"In ten minutes, we'll tell you anything you want to know." Josh smiled and winked at her. He was such a flirt. Was he really trying to hit on the doctor? She was kind of cute in a bookish kind of way, but she had to be like twice his age.
And what was he talking about telling her anything she wanted to know? We couldn't do that. I was just about to ask him this when I stepped through the door and saw my dad lying in his hospital bed. My normally huge scary looking father looked small and pale in his bed. I ran to him and threw my arms around him ignoring the wires and beeping monitors.
He groaned. "Where...am I?"
"We brought you to the hospital, Dad,” Josh said.
"Didn't...I say...no hospitals?"
"We had to, Daddy. You almost died!” I wiped my tears on his hospital gown before anyone could see them. I wanted to be strong for my dad's sake. I didn't want him to know how scared we really were.
"Okay, Okay,” he said. "But I'm fine now, right?"
"The doctor says you're stable. They sealed the hole in your lung as well,” Josh said.
"Great, then I'm good as new. Now, how are we getting out of here?” My dad leaned up on his left elbow and started ripping out needles and cords with his right hand.
"Already? Shouldn't you talk to the doctor first or something?” I asked a little worried. I stepped away from him and crossed my arms. What did he think he was doing? I mean he'd just come out of surgery. I was pretty sure they'd want to keep him for surveillance or observation or whatever they call it.
My dad flung his legs over the bed and tried to stand. When he got woozy and started to tip over, Josh rushed to his side. They both ended up tumbling onto the bed.
"Let's try that again," my dad said, standing more slowly this time. Josh hopped up, grabbed Dad's clothes and tossed them to him.
"Josh, you're okay with this? Didn't the doctor just say she was coming back in ten minutes and that she wanted answers? We're going to have to figure out a way to explain how Dad got hurt."
"Let's just say Dr. Amy is going to change her mind."
"How?"
Josh shook his head. "You really underestimate me, Priss."
That's when I remembered my brother's special talent. He wasn't a regular psychic that looked into crystal balls or flipped over weird looking cards. No, Josh had the ability to connect with someone's mental wavelength and manipulate it anyway he wanted. We called it hypnotic suggestion. Once he was able to get a group of gun-toting guards to spontaneously gyrate to a Christina Aguilera song. I hoped today's antic would be a little less disturbing.
"Here you go, Mr. Doe,” Dr. Amy said as she pushed a wheelchair into the room.
"Doe?” I said, looking at Josh. "You couldn't come up with anything more creative than Doe?"
"Shut up, Priss,” was his clever response.
"Your paperwork is all in order,” Dr. Amy continued. "I hope you've had a lovely stay." The poor woman sounded like a hotel bellman. I hoped Josh hadn't done any permanent damage to her brain or anything.
As my dad slowly sat down in the wheelchair, Dr. Amy took out a folded slip of paper and seductively slipped it into Josh's back pocket. "Give me a call some time," she said with a toss of her hair.
Josh just smiled and watched her walk out.
I punched him in the arm.
"Ow, Priss. That hurt!"
"Good. You enjoyed that way too much."
Chapter 4: All Kinds of Chips
Dad slept all the way home from the hospital. Then I carried him to bed and tucked him in just like he used to do to me. Four years ago when my mom started fighting against the Selliwood Institute full time, my dad became the house husband. He was the one who took us to school, helped us with homework and cooked dinner. For a while he was both mom and dad. I don't know what I'd do if I lost him.
When Josh went to take a shower, I used the family computer to type an email to my best friend, Taiana Houston. She was in Denmark representing the United States in some science competition so I wasn't sure what time it was there. I thought it would be easier to just explain everything that happened in an email instead of calling her and possibly waking her up. I knew she wouldn't mind being woken up. But honestly I didn't feel like explaining everything at the moment. Somehow saying it out loud made it even more real.
No one knew about our little family secret except Tai. We told each other everything. Besides, since she was a genius, maybe she could help us figure out what to do next.
An hour or so later, Josh, Marco, Ryan and I met in the kitchen and tried to come up with a plan.
"So what do we know?” Marco asked, pacing the floor with his hands clasped behind his back. The immediate threat of danger was gone so he had converted back to human form, but he still radiated an intensity that showed just how scary the situation really was. "We know that Q is now working for Colonel Selliwood again,” he continued, “but we don't know why and we don't know how."
I sat at the kitchen table and stared out of the window at the mid-morning sun. I didn't like the way he suddenly started referring to my mother by her Specimen name again. She wasn't Specimen Q anymore no matter what Selliwood had done to her. She was my mother. She'd always be my mother.
"Maybe it's mind control,” Josh volunteered.
I thought about that for a second. "That makes sense,” I said, looking at Josh. "When I overheard Colonel Selliwood and Dr. Witherall talking five months ago, Selliwood said that the problem with the specimens was that they thought too much. He said he'd finally figured out a way to control them."
The boys grew silent as they thought about how he could possibly make this happen. My thoughts kept going back to my dad and what my mother had done to him less than twelve hours ago. I was still worried about him, but I couldn't show it. I had to be strong and brave. That's how girls who can shoot fire out of their fingers feel. They don't feel scared to death and overwhelmed as I did right now.
Little Ryan levitated to the corner of the ceiling and hugged himself. He, too, was upset. He probably felt lost without his twin. I stood up and grabbed a tin of Dad's homemade chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies from the counter. I held them out to him hoping they would make him feel a little better. He shook his head and rejected them. What was I thinking? Yes, the cookies were amazing, but they were no substitute for a lost sibling. No amount of chocolate chips...chips...wait a minute.
Suddenly I remembered a conversation I had with my mother about how she fell in love with my father. She said while she lived in the Institute she was once bedridden for a week because of a malfunction with the computer chip in her head. My father, who was a guard at the Institute, came to visit her every day while she was sick.
I dropped the tin of cookies on the floor. Everyone stared at me.
"I think I got it. Chips. Computer chips in...in...in your head. All the specimens have microchips in their heads...my mother's headaches. It all makes sense now." The words were flowing out of my mouth faster than I could control them.
For months, my mother had been grouchy and suffering from constant migraines. When we found out she was pregnant, we all just assumed that pregnancy hormones were causing the problem. But what if it was Selliwood?
"Priss, slow down. What are you trying to say?"
"All of the specimens born or created or whatever at the Selliwood Institute were implanted with microchips in their brains to help further the mutation. My mother told me about them herself. What if Dr. Witherall and Colonel Selliwood figured out a way to use those microchips to control them?"
Marco and Ryan looked at each other. They knew of the microchips I was talking about. They each had one. Ryan even touched the left side of his head self-consciously. I guess he even knew where it was.
"Josh, when you and everyone were kidnapped by Selliwood, they tortured Mom on this machine. All this time, we thought the machine stripped the genetic mutations off of her DNA, leaving her powerless. What if we were wrong? What if that machine just subdued her
powers until Selliwood and Witherall were ready to take control of her?"
"That could be why she held a device to Katya and Peter's head. She could have been activating their computer chips,” Marco said
Our spirits lifted and crashed at the same time. On the one hand it was great that we were finally starting to put things together. On the other hand, there was no way we could defeat a device implanted into someone's brain. Not only that, but both Ryan and Marco were at risk for being overtaken and reprogrammed. That was probably what happened to Will Smith. It had been over twelve hours since he left and we hadn't heard anything from him. He was probably now the enemy. Any second, Ryan and Marco could become the enemy as well.
And there was no telling what the microchip was doing to Mom's body. She was nine weeks pregnant with my little sister. Okay, so I didn't know for sure it was a girl, but I can hope right? I couldn't deal with another brother. I had too many as it was. Anyway, what if something happened to the baby?
The one good thing in all this was that Josh and I didn't have computer chips in our brains. Josh and I were safe. For now, anyway.
Chapter 5: Too Little Too Late
An awkward silence fell over the kitchen as we stared at each other. We were probably all asking the same questions in our heads. What would happen if we actually had to fight each other? What if we had to kill Katya, or Peter, or even my mother? How long would it take before Selliwood came back for Marco and Ryan?
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath trying not to think about having to one day fight my friends or my mother. That's when Josh sent me a telepathic message:
Priss, if you're right about the microchips, which I think you are, then we need to keep an eye on Marco and Ryan. We don't know how Selliwood is controlling Mom. Any second he could take them over as well.
I didn't know how to respond to that. First of all, my telepathy sucked. Okay, well, to be honest, it was nonexistent. Mom thought that as time went on I would develop the ability since she and Josh were such powerful psychics. But so far, nothing. Half the time I didn't know what I was thinking let alone anyone else. So I really had no way of sending a telepathic message back to Josh. Second of all, I'd hate to think Marco would turn against me.
I opened my eyes and noticed Marco staring at me. Had he heard what Josh said? I still wasn't too sure how this telepathy thing worked some times. Was he able to like intercept signals like a transistor radio or something? Or was there some sort of call waiting plan or telepaths?
"I'm going to go check on the twins,” Josh said, heading out the door with Ryan right behind him. Ryan would want to make sure the twins were alright as well. Even though he was three years older than my little brothers, they had developed quite a friendship.
Marco was still staring at me.
"What?” I said when I couldn't take it anymore.
He took a step toward me, forcing me to step back as well. It's not like I was afraid of him or anything. I mean, I think I could take him in a fight. I didn't really want to have to find out. I mean, that would be miserable having to fight him. I momentarily wondered if my super strength and fire power could trump the whole metal thing he had going on with his body.
Marco kept coming toward me. His green eyes were so intense they kind of made my heart speed up. If he did intercept the message, was he angry that we thought he could be a danger?
I stopped backing up when my back hit the counter. Marco leaned toward me and said, “I’d die before I obey Colonel Selliwood again." His voice was so deep and powerful it made the hair on my arms stand on end. And his cute French accent actually made my stomach tingle. Just the sight of him made me want to throw on a beret and start spouting out romantic poetry. And I don't even like poetry...that is unless it's backed by a hip hop beat.
"Okay,” I said, nodding. I couldn't think of anything more intelligent to say. I was too...too...I don't really know what I was feeling. It was like a cross between excitement and anxiety. Let's call it exciety.
Then he leaned toward me even more like he was about to kiss me. He licked his lips and brushed a strand of hair out of my face.
"I will never hurt you,” he said before turning and dashing out of the back door.
"I sure hope you mean that,” I said to the empty room.
***
It took like ten minutes for me to calm down enough to leave the kitchen. Marco added a whole new level of complications to the situation. I was already worried enough about my mom, Peter, and Katya. Now I also had to worry about Marco's chip somehow being activated. I didn't know if I could emotionally handle him turning against me as well. I didn't mean to fall for him, but I kinda did. I really liked him and I couldn't deny it.
Josh was waiting for me on the couch when I left the kitchen and entered the living room.
"I think Marco knows we're afraid his chip might be activated,” I said, plopping next to him on the couch.
"It's a legitimate concern. He should understand,” Josh said, crossing his arms and staring at the blank television. "And if necessary, he should be willing to sacrifice himself for the mission."
"Sacrifice? What are you talking about, Josh?"
"Nothing. Look, I'm beat. I'm gonna take a nap." He stood up and started heading to his room.
"Nap? What are you? A kindergartener? There's no nap time for us. Shouldn't we get moving? Shouldn't we do something?"
"There's nothing we can do right now, Priss. We just have to wait."
"Wait? I don't want to wait, Josh,” I said, hoping off the couch. "What if we wait too long and then we're too late to save Mom? Dad is stable now so I think we should hop in the jet and go - "
"Go where, huh? We have no idea where she is or where she's taken Katya and Peter."
"But we know Specimen W followed her. We can get in the jet and track the hovercopter. It's only been a few hours."
"It's too dangerous. Who's gonna take care of the twins? Dad's still not completely recovered. We can't just jump into a mission without the proper plan and preparation. I'm the oldest. I'm in charge. I say we wait."
I shook my head and crossed my arms. He wanted me to wait and do nothing while my mother fell deeper and deeper into Selliwood's control. Not to mention Katya and Peter. They were probably getting brainwashed as well. They were probably the enemy by now. And since Specimen W hadn't come back or contacted us, I could only assume the worse had happened to him. By the time Josh decided it was time for action, I was afraid whatever we did would be too little too late.
After Josh stormed off to his room, I sat back down on the couch fuming with anger. "He's the oldest, he's in charge,” I said in a mocking tone to the empty room. There had to be a way I could get him to see that we needed to act now. But if he didn't see it my way, maybe I'd just have to take action myself.
***
"What is it?” I heard Charlie whisper. At first I couldn't tell where I was or where they were. Sometimes having super hearing can be really confusing. In my sleepy state of mind, I wasn't really sure if they were right next to me or two rooms away. I peeked out of one eye and noticed that my twin little brothers were standing right over me and staring intently at my neck. I closed my eyes and tried to remember where I was and what I was doing. I must have fallen asleep on the couch after my fight with Josh. He was right about the whole napping thing. I must have been completely exhausted to fall asleep at a time like this.
"I don't know,” Chester answered.
"Is it alive?"
"Do you think she can feel it?"
I tried to ignore them, but the more they pointed and stared at me, the more I wanted to know what had captured their attention so much. Was there a bug crawling on me or something?
"We should name it!” Charlie said.
"Yeah, like a pet!"
"We'll call it Spot."
I sat up on the couch so fast both Charlie and Chester jumped back. "Alright, that's it. What in the world is going on? What are you looking at?"
&
nbsp; "You have something on your neck, Prissy,” Chester said.
"Yeah, it's so big I think it's breathing. Maybe it's a tumor."
"What are you talking -” I stopped abruptly when I reached up and touched my neck. No, it couldn't be. I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to try to disprove what my fingers had just felt.
When I clicked on the bathroom light and stared in the mirror, I gasped. There was no way I had just gotten my first pimple.
Chapter 6: The Pimple
I ran from the bathroom and bumped right into Josh. I tried to cover up the monster growing out of my neck but I wasn't fast enough.
