At least we finally had a few things going for us. They didn't know I could still read minds, and Drake and I were together. Sort of. Now we just needed a way of getting the hell out of here. If not for myself, then for Drake and our baby—and so that Gar's sacrifice wasn't for nothing.
"We need a plan, Drake. We can't stay here."
'Agreed. If we can figure out a way to get these drugs out of my system, we'll have a better chance of escaping.'
With renewed hope, my impatience grew. How long would they leave me lying here in this uncomfortable position? My muscles ached and my head still hurt. My arms had some range of motion, but not much.
The door opened again, and Dr. Pana entered. His energy rushed into me and I fought the false calm it tried to induce. I would not be seduced by this man's powers.
"Hello, Sam, nice to see you again. You're a strong girl. We didn't expect you to wake up so soon."
His syrupy sweet voice, the kind of voice that plotted unimaginable tortures while telling you how lovely the day was, enraged me.
"So I gathered." I tried to keep the sarcasm out of my voice. Best to stay on neutral ground for now. "What happened?"
He chuckled as if we were old pals. Yeah right. "Oh, I think you know what happened. Your guard made a grave, and ultimately fatal, mistake in trying to escape with you. Did you put him up to that or did he go renegade on his own?"
The moment of truth. How much should I reveal?
Drake answered my question before I could find my own thoughts. 'You need to claim ignorance for as long as possible.'
"And make Gar out to be the bad guy? After everything he did for me?"
'He's dead, Sam. Nothing you do now can hurt or help him. You need to protect yourself. He'd want that for you.'
Sometimes pragmatism and self-preservation left a bad taste in my mouth.
"I have no idea what happened, doctor. My guard went psycho, said he couldn't let me go free, that I would ruin everything."
Did I sound believable? I pushed into his mind and faced a wall, just like last time. When I pushed harder, a sensation of fingers wrapped around my mind and plucked threads of memory from me. Is this what others felt when I read them? I didn't think so.
"You can't read my mind, Sam, but I can read yours, and I know you're not telling me the truth. Maybe some time as our guest will loosen your tongue."
No... this isn't what others felt. This is what it felt like to have my own powers used against me. Shock stunned me, and my brain tumbled around trying to rearrange all I knew into something that made sense. When I put the final piece in place, I gasped.
Dr. Pana smiled, and the overwhelming sincerity of it scared me more than any blatant evil could. "I see you've finally completed the puzzle. Yes, I destroyed your precious art. You caused quite a ruckus with this organization, garnering attention we couldn't allow."
Grief and fear blasted through my body and shook me to my core. "And Mr. K?"
"He won't be bothering us again."
My heart shattered and my lungs stopped working. I coughed out a sob. The fingers around my mind tightened, and my grief burned into pure rage. He had destroyed my life, my dreams, and Mr. K. I would make him pay... for everything.
A stillness settled on my mind, and I stopped fighting his influence. Instead, I observed every detail of the experience, and then I noticed—he was clumsy, unskilled. He couldn't dig deeper, couldn't unearth my secrets. He may have had access to my powers, but he lacked my training and skill. I could use that against him, somehow.
Too much had happened, too many new revelations. I needed time alone to consider, to talk it through with Drake. And I needed access to my own body.
"Can you at least get these restraints off me? It's not like I'm a threat in my current state."
He pushed his body against my hospital bed, blocking any view I had of the door and trapping me in his scent—a cloying blend of too-sweet body odor and too-musky cologne. "That could be arranged. Just remember, Sam, you have no power here. I control you and everyone at this hospital. Don't resist me and don't fight me, are we clear?"
I smiled sweetly. "Crystal."
Like a snake, his skin slithered against mine as he undid the latches on my restraints. I rubbed my raw wrists and ankles, and stretched my sore, cramped body.
"Nurse Susie will be in shortly to show you to your room and explain the rules. Feel free to make yourself at home. We want you to enjoy your stay here, however long it might be." He turned and left.
I tested the limits of my battered body. When I stood, all the blood rushed from my head, leaving my feet feeling heavy and awkward, and my head pounding.
I gripped the railing of my hospital bed and pulled aside my gown to examine myself. Red and purple bruises had created a new map on my pale skin. My stomach curved out in a barely noticeable bump. I wrapped my gown around me before anyone else could see—just in time to avoid the prying eyes of Nurse Susie as she pushed open the door.
The shift of attention offset my balance, and I reached for the nurse's arm to steady myself. She started to shy away, but apparently remembering her job, put her hand on my waist to steady me. She helped me sit in the wheelchair and hold onto my IV pole, and we made our way down the hall.
Bare, boring beige walls led to my new room, which had a twin bed with a blue comforter that looked clean enough. A modest closet, a private—but basic—bathroom, dresser, desk, and a small nightstand by the bed made it seem less like a prison. Any apartment I could have found in the Big Apple would probably have been smaller. The remote next to my bed controlled a television hooked to the wall, beyond my reach. A small barred window overlooking the woods reminded me that I was still in prison. Once again, I wished for Luke's superpower of walking through walls.
"Your personal items have already been put away. I'll bring your meals at 7:30 AM, 12:30 PM and 5:30 PM. If you need anything else, just ring that bell by your bed, and someone will respond immediately." She said this as if to suggest that ringing the bell would be frowned on.
"Am I allowed to go outside, walk around or work out anywhere?"
She eyed me and placed her hands on her hips. "You'll get one hour of outdoor time every day after lunch. There's a gated courtyard where you can take a walk."
"Wow, this is just like I always imagined prison would be."
"I suggest you learn to appreciate what you have here. Not all are so lucky."
I thought of Drake, strapped down and drugged. When was the last time he got to exercise or move around? Better off than him, but lucky? Not so much.
The nurse left me alone in my room, with only the monotony of my new life to occupy my mind.
Thank God I still had my connection to Drake, but first I needed to get cleaned up. They'd stripped me of my bloody, torn dress, but I still smelled of airplane debris and death.
I pulled my IV across the room to my bathroom and used up what little strength remained to wash myself. Dirty water swirled into the drain, and I kept rinsing and washing until that water ran clear. If only I could cleanse my insides so easily.
Sapped to near exhaustion, I searched the closet for clothes—something familiar and comfortable—and found some sweatpants and a t-shirt. I took the IV bag down and pulled it through the sleeve in my shirt, allowing me to dress. I was tempted to tear the damn thing out, but my loving nurse probably wouldn't like that very much.
Once tucked into bed, and before sleep could overtake me, I reached out to Drake. "I think I have a plan."
Chapter 19 – Sam
I tried to infuse my mental voice with more authority and confidence than I actually possessed. "We need to get your powers back. So I'm thinking I need to find a way to switch the medicine they have you on, so we can get the drugs out of your system. When your strength returns and you can manipulate people with your mind again, we can work together to get out of here."
'That was my thought, too. Next time the nurse comes to replace the fluid, I'll look at th
e bag more closely and tell you what it's called. You can poke around in her mind to see where they keep it.'
"Sounds good. I'll just have to figure out how to get out of here to make the switch. I'm hoping they won't keep a pregnant girl locked up all the time. I need to walk around and stuff, to keep the baby healthy. Don't I?"
'I guess so. One of my foster moms had some complications while pregnant. She was forced into bed rest for months. That's when I had to go to another home. It was too much for them. So I don't know.'
No way did I want bed rest for months! "Great, thanks for the pep talk."
'Hey, just trying to be helpful. We might want to have a Plan B in place.'
"We're going to have to be careful. Dr. Pana can use my powers against me. He was also able to use Kyle's fire powers. I'm guessing Dr. Pana can tap into any paranormal's powers and use them. How can we possibly fight against that?"
'He's got to have some weaknesses, some way to gain the upper hand.'
"He's unskilled. It's like he's a kid playing with toys he doesn't understand. I don't know if that makes him easier to beat or more dangerous, like a kid with a loaded gun. If only I had your ability to control minds!"
'That would be awesome. Wait, I wonder... have you ever tried to use another person's power?'
"No, why would I?" The idea intrigued me, but I had no reason to believe it was even possible.
'Maybe you couldn't do it with most powers, but what about other mental powers? Your mind-reading is similar to what I can do. You gather information from their minds, and I manipulate information. Either way, we're accessing a person's thoughts. I bet you could do it if you tried. Maybe that's why we have this mental connection, because our powers are so much alike. And maybe... maybe that's why they paired us up, because they want kids with our combined power.'
That made sense, although the thought of them genetically planning our babies, with some nefarious, long-term plot, made me ill. No time to think of that now. Could I learn to control minds like Drake? I'd never tried it, but... how to start?
'Next time the nurse comes in make sure you're linked to me, and see if you can get her to do one small thing mentally.'
"Okay, but how?"
'Well, how do you read minds?'
I'd never really thought about it before. I'd always known how to do it. The hard part had been learning to control it. "I form a link with them, like a colored chord that goes from my mind to theirs—kind of like plugging in a telephone. Once it's connected, the information flows through it. If I have to, I can go into their mind and extract more thoughts, not just the ones they're having in the moment, but previous thoughts. That's a lot harder, because it's not a neat filing system where I can just look up what I want. It's a mix of images, sounds and smells, all layered on itself. That's where the good doctor fails. From what I could tell, he can glean immediate and pressing thoughts from someone when tapped into my power, but he can't dig deeper."
'It's not that different then.' He sounded more excited than he had before. Maybe we did indeed have a chance at succeeding. 'When you're in their mind to read it, instead of just receiving the flow, send information back. Implant it there like it's their own thought. We did something very similar when Luke and Lucy were under the influence of those drugs. Only, instead of pushing against a fog, you'll be pushing a specific thought or command, but the energy and focus are the same.'
I remembered that feeling while in Luke and Lucy's mind, but the thought of my best friends filled me with a profound loneliness. I would probably never see them again, which seemed—unfathomable. Inconceivable.
'Sam, stay focused. We'll get out of here and then we'll help them. I promise.'
I had to believe him. So I would bide my time and wait for a chance to practice mind control.
***
My opportunity came that night when the nurse brought me dinner.
The sound of the door opening woke me from a nap I didn't realize I had taken. She placed a tray of food on the table next to my bed. I eyed the funky looking meatloaf and Jell-O mold suspiciously, but knew I'd have to eat it if I wanted to keep up my strength. Besides, if they wanted to feed me drugs, they had a straight line to my veins. They wouldn't have to rely on my food.
Before the nurse could leave, I decided to practice the mind control thing. Who knew when I would get another chance?
"Drake, are you ready?"
'Yes.'
First I reached into her mind.
'She thinks she's so much better than everyone because she has powers... just a freak... can't believe I felt sorry for her... can't believe they want to breed more like her... disgusting....'
I focused my will and planted a thought.
"You need to wash your hands... you should do that right now...."
For a moment, I thought I'd succeeded, that her will would bend to mine, and a heady rush of power filled me. But then her will rose up and pushed me out with a violent force. My head exploded in pain and I cried out.
"What's the matter now?" She sounded bored, not angry or suspicious. How could she not notice? She must not have sensitivity to anything.
"Just a headache. Migraine."
"I can authorize a pain medication if you'd like."
As tempting as that was, I wanted to stay alert.
"No, I'll be okay. Thanks."
She shrugged and left the room, and I slumped back into my bed, sad and defeated.
"Drake, why didn't it work? It should have worked. I could feel it. I was so close."
'Don't give up, Sam. You just need more practice. It took me time to master this, and you're pushing it pretty fast. Try again once you recover. Next time, instead of talking to the person, reframe the thought as something they would think to themselves, like 'I need to wash my hands.'
That made sense. The compulsion needed to feel like it generated from within the person being controlled. I considered future commands and practiced them in my head while waiting for the next opportunity.
***
Instant success did seem unlikely, but that didn't make the failures sting less. Still, I didn't give up.
I used the same command over and over, and each time the headache lessened—marginally, but enough to offer hope.
By dinner the next night, everything clicked into place. As per usual, I compelled her to wash her hands, and then waited for the onslaught of the headache.
Only it never came.
Her will bent to mine, and it stayed bent.
"Excuse me, I need to use your bathroom to wash my hands." She walked to the bathroom, washed her hands, and then left my room with a slightly baffled look on her face. The lock clicked shut as she went back to wherever she spent her time when she wasn't sitting in judgment of me.
I'd done it! She couldn't have had that impulse to wash her hands in my bathroom at the exact moment I implanted the thought.
Drake's voice filled my mind. 'I knew you could do it. Now you just need to practice more, in small ways. They'll remember what they did, unless you also tell them to forget after they do it. You need to get good at that, because the things you'll want her to do later will raise huge red flags if she remembers.'
"No kidding. I doubt she'll think it was normal to let me out of my room so I can swap your drugs. But, if I can control her mind, why not just have her swap the drugs, wouldn't that be easier?"
'Logistically it would be, but you would need to micromanage her mind and control each step of the process. If you slipped even once, you would fail. Getting someone to go against their own will, especially if it also violates their ethics, requires a tremendous amount of sustained power. It would be easier to lock her in a bathroom and compel her to forget, though there are obviously more risks to you if you have to leave the room and make the switch yourself. Speaking of that, I have the drug information you need.'
I grabbed a pen and paper and took notes, all the while wondering what would happen if she didn't forget as commanded, or if I got cau
ght in the halls. We'd have to avoid Dr. Pana, or I'd be screwed.
***
It had been two and a half days, and I hadn't seen anyone but the nurse and Dr. Pana. That changed during my afternoon exercise hour.
My assigned guard, an average man in every conceivable way—nothing like Gar at all—was leading me back to my room. During the short walk, a doctor escorted a pregnant girl out to the lawn. The girl looked to be close to her delivery date. My guard grabbed my arm harshly, steering me down the hall, but in that brief moment I locked eyes with the girl. Tears formed in her eyes as we recognized each other.
Rebeka had been in a few of my classes, and I liked her. She was supposed to be in Paris, but of course she wasn't. Paris and New York were dreams spun from naive innocence, something we'd both lost.
Rebeka's doctor, a petite woman with long dark hair and brown eyes—eyes that struck a familiar chord in me, though I couldn't place her—nearly knocked me to the ground when she spoke directly to my mind.
'Please do not make a scene. Go back to the room quietly and pretend you do not see us. I'm your friend. I'm here to help, but they won't let me near you. Lock onto my mental signature and find me later. My name is Ana.'
"Who are you?"
'We'll talk more later. I must go.'
When I got back to my room, I told Drake about Rebeka and Ana.
'Be careful. I don't trust anyone who works here,' he said.
"I don't either. I'm just surprised to find another mind reader. Wonder why I couldn't sense her during my scans?"
'I don't know, maybe she has a way of blocking someone else. That would be cool if you could learn that.'
"Yeah, well, one thing at a time."
We hadn't made much progress with our get-out-of-jail plan, but my mind-controlling abilities had improved. It seemed I was a natural—a big plus for us. It was like a game, to see what I could do, how far I could push it.
Over the next several days, I kept to little things that no one would notice or suspect, except for erasing memories. It worked. This gave me hope, though I was still too nervous to do anything major, and I never tried it while Dr. Pana was around. I had no idea if it would work on him, and I had no desire to alert him to my new abilities. Whenever he came to my room, I kept my mind clear of anything incriminating.
The Forbidden Trilogy Page 14
