Soul Frequency (Frequency Series Book 2)

by Shane Scollins

  Bella nodded. She looked oddly at the apple-cinnamon flavored bar but didn’t bite it.

  “You should eat something, you must be starved.” Kayci said, wondering when Bella was finally going to talk to her. It has been pure chaos since that moment on the boat. Rushing Jordan to the hospital and all, this was the first quiet moment they’d had.

  Bella said, “I’m not supposed to eat these.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s not pure, too many ingredients.”

  “Says who?”

  “Evan. But my mom would let me sneak things.”

  “It’s not that bad.”

  Bella read the ingredients. “It has more than ten ingredients. Evan said that foods that are processed ruin my mind.”

  Kayci sighed. “That’s not entirely true, Bella. It is good to eat healthy but not all things with more than ten ingredients are bad once in a while.”

  “My mom would give me treats when Evan wasn’t around. She gave me cookies sometimes.”

  “Can I ask you, why do you call Rachel your mom but your dad, Evan?”

  “Because Rachel loves me, she was a mom. Evan hates me. I don’t know who my real parents are. I know a lot of stuff, like, a lot of stuff. But those things don’t come to me so easily.”

  “Do you know who I am?” Kayci asked.

  Bella looked at her but didn’t answer.

  “I’m your big sister. My name is Kayci Taylor. Your real name is Bella Taylor.”

  Bella stared at the granola for several long seconds, then she finally bit off a piece of the bar and chewed it slowly. After swallowing she said, “My sister. You’re my sister? I didn’t know I had a sister. I always wanted a sister. I didn’t know I had a mother or father.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Evan said I was made in a lab for science.”

  Kayci laughed a little. “Well, he was wrong. But you know if I’m your sister, we had the same father right?”

  “But not the same mother, I think I get it.”

  “Okay, so you know we can be friends right?”

  “I guess so.”

  “You guess so?”

  Bella swallowed her latest bite and met her eyes. “I know so.”

  “Okay, good. You can talk to me and tell me anything. You can trust me.”

  “I know.” Bella smiled.

  “Sisters share a special bond, and even though you just met me, you’re my little sister and I’ll always protect you.”

  Bella popped the last bite of granola into her mouth. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. I know you’ve been through a lot, but I’m going to take care of you now. And part of taking care of you, is making sure you know you’re safe.” Kayci touched Bella’s hand. “Is there anything you need to ask?”

  She looked up at Kayci. “My real mom is dead, isn’t she?”

  Kayci sighed. “Yes, I’m sorry, Bella. She wanted so badly to meet you, she tried she really did try.”

  “That’s okay, now I can talk to her whenever I want. I can feel things I couldn’t before, about my family. And about other things too.”

  “That’s because I’m here now. Being close to me, we share a connection, so now you’ll know some things that I know because of our special bond.”

  “Oh, I think I understand. I’m happy about that but I’m just sad about knowing now both my moms died.”

  “I know how you feel. I’ve lost my parents too. When I was just a little older than you were, I lost them both.”

  Bella sighed. “I don’t really remember our dad. I only saw him in person once and I didn’t know he was my dad until just now.”

  Kayci wasn’t going to sugarcoat anything. Bella was smart and it was time for her to grow into herself in a positive way. Treating her like a child wouldn’t foster that. “Our father, his name was Cayden, he wasn’t a very nice man. At one time he was, maybe, but that was long—long ago before you were born.”

  “He did bad things.”

  “You know a lot don’t you?”

  Bella looked up at her with just her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  Kayci smiled. “Don’t be sorry, Bella. You have nothing to be sorry for.”

  “I’m not supposed to know things.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “Evan, he said I knew too much for my own good.”

  “Bella, all that’s over now, I want you to know things. I want you to explore your mind and use the gifts you have. I know that you understand them, and you must know that I understand them.”

  “Do you have a nugget too?”

  “No. Why would you say that?”

  Bella shrugged. “Because I thought only people with those things could be like me. I’m a freak, there’s no one like me. But, you—you are like me.”

  “I’m just like you. And we’re not freaks. The only difference is that I didn’t know I was like you until I was fourteen.”

  “I’m eight. My Mommy-Rachel didn’t get mad when I read her zig-zag-bolt but he did.”

  “Those zig-zags you see in your head are called frequency lines. We all have them. But people like you and me, and Jordan, we can read them and understand them and see things through them.”

  “I know. I just like to call them zig-zags-bolts. I like Jordan, he’s nice.”

  “He is nice.”

  “He’s your boyfriend.”

  “Yes he is.”

  “You love him.”

  “I do.”

  Bella winced. “Oh, I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?”

  “I read things again.”

  “Bella, don’t be sorry around me or Jordan. But you do know not to do that around regular people all the time. Right? I mean you can read them but don’t always tell them what you know. Sometimes you can.”

  “I know. People will think I’m a spectacle.”

  Kayci nodded. “That’s right. Regular people don’t understand. You have to pick your spots.”

  “Pick my spots? You mean like I have to…wait what do you mean?”

  “I mean, sometimes you’ll be able to talk to regular people about it. But you have to read the people and understand the situation. It has to be a proper place and time. You’ll learn it as you get older.”

  The short, balding doctor came out towards Kayci and she stood to meet him. “What’s the news doc?”

  He adjusted his glasses. “He’s going to be fine. We removed the slug, stitched him up, it was a soft tissue hit there’s no organ damage or anything, minimal blood loss.”

  “Thanks doc.”

  “You can see him, he’s wide awake.” The doctor turned and headed back down the long beige hallway.

  Kayci held her hand out to Bella. “C’mon, let’s go see Jordan.”

  Bella looked at her hand for a moment and then took hold as she stood. They headed down the hallway and around a corner, passing a bustling nurses’ station.

  Kayci peeked into the room. Jordan was sitting up, looking oddly at the television.

  “Hey, how’re you doing?” Kacyi asked Jordan.

  He shook his head. “It’s been so long since I just watched television I kinda forgot how lame it’s become.”

  Kayci laughed, “Guess that means you’re doing okay?”

  Jordan dropped the wire-attached remote on the bed next to him. “I’m fine, I’m a little disappointed.”

  “About what?”

  “I passed out like a chump.”

  “Jordan, you got shot.”

  “Yeah, but not like you did. This is like a flesh wound.”

  “It was a pretty nasty hit.”

  He shrugged, “I just don’t want you to think I’m some sort of pansy. I mean I’ve seen guys in movies take worse hits and keep going.” He smiled.

  “You’re such a dope.” Kayci slapped him on the arm then bent to hug him. She whispered in his ear, “I’m glad you’re okay, you did a great thing.”

  Kayci motioned to Bella, “I’
m sure someone wants to thank you.”

  Bella stepped closer to Jordan, a soft smile and playfulness teased at her face. “Thank you.”

  Jordan smiled back and winked. “Anytime.”

  She looked up at Kayci and whispered, “He’s cute.”

  Kayci laughed. “Yes, very.”

  Bella looked back at Jordan. “You saved me twice.” Bella looked up at Kacyi. “You saved me too. You both saved me twice.”

  Kayci nodded. “If I had known who you were the first time, I’d’ve never let you out of my sight.”

  Bella’s smiled suddenly faded. “He’s going to come for me again.”

  Kayci frowned. “Evan?”

  “Yeah, he needs me to complete his plan.”

  “What is his plan?”

  “Chaos and fear.”

  Kayci glanced at Jordan. “What does that mean?”

  Bella sighed. “He wants to shoot everyone. He likes the shootings. He gets very excited like people do when they watch sports. Mommy-Rachel called it an overly developed sense of morbid curiosity.”

  Jordan asked, “How were you helping him?”

  Bella frowned. “I’m sorry about that. I didn’t want to do those things. But he made me.”

  “It’s okay,” Kayci said. “What were you doing for him?”

  “He needed me to help him control the people. He could find them and get a hold on one of them, but he could only do one at a time, he wanted to do two at a time and I had to help do those things, mean things. I didn’t want to help him but he said he’d kill the puppies.”

  “What puppies?” Kayci asked.

  “All the puppies. He took me to the shelter once, and there were all these dogs and puppies and kitties and I loved them all and wanted to take them all home with me and he said he’d kill them if I didn’t do what he said. And I didn’t want him to kill the puppies and kitties, it hurt my heart.” Tears formed in her delicate hazel eyes.

  “Oh,” Kayci bent to hug her. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to let him hurt the puppies or kitties.”

  Jordan asked, “Bella, how was he able to use the nugget?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t understand all that mumbo-jumbo, but he makes people do stuff. But he can only keep’em for, like, an hour or something. But I can keep’em for much longer.”

  “Oh okay,” Jordan said. “So you hold them while he gets another one.”

  “Yeah, the nugget only gets one and a time. But he was trying to fix that on the new one. That’s why he kidnapped me, it was to work out bugs on the new one. He had to test it out but I had to be close to that smelly man. The new one is small, much—much smaller so he could take it with him. That way he could watch the shootings. That’s what he really wanted to do. He didn’t want to watch them on television after they happened. He wanted to be there and watch it all live.”

  Kayci nodded, then, what Bella had just said hit her. “Bella, what do you mean the new one?”

  “The new nugget he made. The old one was too big and it can’t travel or go far, too big and the goo inside moved too much. The new one is pocket sized like a phone and he made the goo run through tiny tubes and circulate so it’s fixed. No bugs.”

  Kayci met Jordan’s eyes as concern built on his face. He shook his head slowly and said, “A new one? This is not good.”

  “Not at all.”

  “We can’t wait for him to come after us. We need to go after him.”

  Kayci nodded. “It’s time to end this.” She looked to Bella. “Where was he taking you?”

  “To a tiny island.”

  “Why?”

  “Until I was old enough he wanted to marry me.”

  She looked back to Jordan and they knew right away what Evan was looking for. Now they just had to find him before he could find them.

  Chapter 39

  Jordan had that familiar feeling that something was about to go wrong. Yeah, there’s a shocker. Maybe he should start working on knowing when things are going to go right. Something was always either going wrong, or about to go wrong. It was becoming kind of funny to him at this point. He’d always maintained a good sense of humor in the face of the insanity that is his life.

  Finding Evan Hill had proved to be all but impossible. His natural frequency was just not strong enough to stand out, especially if he was somewhere remote, which was likely the case. He didn’t want to be found of course. He was probably hiding out, just waiting for the perfect time to cause some chaos and watch it all unfold. Without Bella at his side, it was almost like he didn’t even exist.

  “This is frustrating.” Kayci admitted.

  “It’s not making sense.” Jordan took a sip of orange soda and leaned back in brown leather booth of yet another nondescript café. Bella really wanted a meal so they stopped to get her some tuna on rye, which is what she was craving.

  Jordan offered, “I’m wondering if because he was masked before, we don’t really know his signature. I mean, not the real one anyway.”

  Kayci nodded. “Yeah, but, even so it would be different now. He’s just not significant enough. He’s certainly not the cobalt blue color we’d see earlier that was a side effect of the nugget. He’s got some ability so I’d guess he was maybe a pink or something like that. Though, he should still be something similar, unless this new nugget has a different type of signature.”

  “Huh,” Jordan said. “That’s why we didn’t see him on the grid when we tailed him to where he was holding you. And that’s why he was able to see us. He had that new nugget thing with him.”

  “He’s been playing us at both ends of the rope.”

  Jordan looked to Bella as she scribbled on a blank piece of white paper with a blue crayon. He got the feeling she had something to say. “Bella? Is there anything you can help us with to fine Evan?”

  The girl didn’t look up but she said, “The new nugget makes eggs.”

  Jordan looked to Kayci, she asked Bella, “Eggs? What do you mean?”

  Bella colored in a circle. “It’s a scrambler, you know like scrambled eggs. It messes stuff up but in the end it’s still just eggs.”

  Kayci squinted at him. “He built a scrambler into it?”

  “How is this guy that smart?” Jordan asked.

  Kayci turned her palms up. “No one disputes his intelligence. The guy has a pile of degrees in everything from mechanical engineering to theoretical physics.”

  Bella offered, “Oh he’s very smart, very—very smart but also very stupid.”

  “How so?” Kayci asked.

  “He knows a lot of stuff, about a lot of things. He can build things from a pile of junk and fix anything. He knows how everything works. But he’s dumb because he thinks no one else can be smart like him. He thinks all people are dumb and he’s the smartest of the smart. When Mommy used to school me, he would always say how the books were wrong and the dummies that wrote them should be shot. I just hated to go to school when he was home. I used to call him Mister Smarty Pants in my mind but never to his face.”

  “So how do we find him?” Jordan wondered aloud.

  Kayci rolled her lips inward, and then blew a long breath through flapping lips. “I guess we wait for another shooting, rush to the scene again and hope he’s there watching.”

  Jordan shook his head. “That’s a horrible idea.”

  “Maybe so, but we’ll never find him otherwise.”

  “No,” Jordan said. “There’s got to be a better way. I can’t sit here and wait for someone to die.”

  “Umm,” Bella said. “He’s in the box.”

  Kayci looked down at Bella. “You can find him?”

  Bella shrugged. “Sorta. I can see his zig—I mean his frequency. But I don’t know where it is. I know a lot of stuff but I don’t know places. I wasn’t allowed to leave the house very much except with Mom to go to the store to buy clothes. We went to the mall but never anywhere else. So I don’t know places I see but I can see them.”

  Jordan looked across the t
able. “Bella, can you describe it for us?”

  “I don’t know. It’s like a big box.”

  He pointed to the piece of paper. “Can you draw it?”

  Bella stopped drawing and looked up at him. She narrowed her eyes and then nodded. With crayon to paper, Bella started to sketch a crude rectangle with vertical lines. As she added details of things other people might not be able to get, Jordan was starting to see a picture that made perfect sense.

  “Bella,” He said. “Is that a container, like you’d see on truck or train?”

  She nodded. “Yeah I think so. There’s a bunch of them.”

  “I know where he is.” Jordan stood. “He’s at the container yard.”

  “Which one?”

  Jordan smiled. “There’s only one he’d go to. The junk yard.”

  “The junk yard?”

  “Just south of Hoboken where the Morris Canal empties out into the Hudson, there’s a container yard where the old beat up containers are dropped for repair and recycle. It has almost no foot traffic. It’s the perfect place to hide out.”

  Kayci got up. “Let’s go get him.”

  * * *

  The container yard sat right on the edge of the river. Looking east you could see the skyscrapers of New York City’s financial district, looking south, Ellis Island and the soaring torch of Lady Liberty.

  The heavy gray clouds seemed to usher in the drawing night more quickly, though it was still a good two hours before dark would take over. Tall spanning cranes stood over the hundreds of steel containers that varied from twenty feet up to fifty feet long.

  A train chugged just off in the distance as the aroma of salt water and diesel fuel mixed. Jordan looked playfully down at Bella and she smiled. He asked, “Are you scared?”

  “No. Are you?”

  He nodded. “Kinda.”

  “You shouldn’t be. He can’t get you.”

  Jordan reached out and took her hand. “Hang onto me.”

  Kayci looked back, “You two need to be quiet.”

  Bella looked up at him with a cute smile and gave him the universal zip-your-lip motion.

  They debated on leaving Bella in the SUV or somewhere, but there was no time and they agreed they didn’t want to leave her alone at all. They were loath to trust anyone with her right now. He was trying to keep it light so as not to scare her. Kayci was not being playful. As usual, she was all business.