‘No. I remember her telling me why she named you John. It had nothing to do with your father.’
He looks at me expectantly.
‘One day, when all the children were playing, she pulled me aside and asked me why I called you John when I knew you didn’t like it. I told her it was because it was your name. And I’ll admit it, because I knew it annoyed you.’ A hint of a smile appears on Jay’s face. ‘She smiled at me and said thank you, she liked to hear you being called John.’
‘Why?’
‘It was her brother’s name.’
‘What brother?’
‘He died when they were kids. She liked hearing me say your name – his name – because no one else would call you by it.’
‘She never told me that.’
‘I guess she knew you didn’t like your name and she didn’t want you to make people call you John just for her.’
He seems deflated. I didn’t think he would jump for joy but I expected him to show some happiness that he wasn’t exactly named after his father. He walks back to the edge of the Chamber, sliding down the glass wall to sit. I join him.
He curls his hands. ‘He took her from me.’
I cover his left fist with my hand. ‘I know. I remember now. I’m sorry.’
I’m still mad at him but now I remember him and his life, which includes his mother and father. Corbin would change from laughing and playing to blazing anger in an instant. I remember the feelings of uncertainty I experienced whenever Corbin was around. I never understood why Elena, who was so sweet, stayed with him. Relationships are an odd thing.
‘Your mother, though, she was amazing,’ I say. ‘I was only seven when she died but I remember her kindness, like when she would braid my hair or sing to me when you boys made me cry.’
Jay doesn’t look up. I know it wasn’t easy for him after his mother’s death. Corbin always pushed his son to be better, to be stronger. I can’t imagine what it’s like for him to be around his father again. Especially now his suspicions about him have been confirmed.
‘I’m sorry, Thea.’ His voice is the softest I’ve ever heard it, barely audible. He looks up at me. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I should have but he’s . . . he’s awful and I didn’t want you connecting me with him, especially since he was the one who took you.’
I believe him. I know he didn’t do it to hurt me. ‘You should have told me.’
‘I know.’
‘I understand. I wouldn’t want him as a father.’
His fists uncurl. ‘I suppose for the last few years you’ve known what it’s like to have a horrible father.’
I laugh. ‘I guess you’re right. But he’s not really my father. And neither is Corbin.’ He looks at me, confused. ‘I know he’s your father biologically. But that doesn’t make him your dad. He was never your dad, long before he took me or killed your mum.’
Our heads snap up as the non-dad exits the stairwell, trailed by Dr Kelvin, the familiar scientist, the scar-faced sentinel and a younger sentinel.
Jay stands, his hands reforming into fists. I scramble to my feet and he inclines his head at me, still looking at Corbin. ‘Remember, Thea, whatever happens, don’t use your Ability.’
I stand straight, trying to look confident and unafraid. Corbin and his entourage enter the Chamber, directly opposite us. It worries me that they seem entirely unconcerned we are unchained. Corbin, Dr Kelvin and the scientist stop just inside the door while the two sentinels continue towards us. The scientist holds some sort of machine while Dr Kelvin holds the cords that run from it. She smiles at me as if it were a normal day and she has come to take my blood for ‘tests’.
Jay takes a small step forward, putting his arm across me to keep me back.
‘Are you ready to begin?’ Corbin’s raspy voice makes my hands shake.
Scar-face stops in front of us. I am trembling. It takes all my willpower to not Catch them in time and run for the door. Scar-face reaches for me but Jay pushes him away while pushing me behind him.
‘Stay away from her!’
‘Son, you can’t protect her. Well, you can, but will you?’ Each syllable sends a shiver down my spine.
Scar-face takes a menacing step forward and the younger sentinel marches towards us. Jay lets go of me and swings his fist into Scar-face’s jaw and then elbows the other sentinel in the gut. Jay launches a kick but Scar-face punches him in the stomach, sending him stumbling back into me. He regains his balance and leaps at Scar-face, clasping him around the waist and tackling him to the ground. He lays in a few punches before the younger sentinel unhooks his baton and beats his back.
I scream and leap onto the younger sentinel’s back but I’m thrown off and Jay crumples to the ground as the sentinel keeps hitting him. Scar-face gets up, dragging me away from Jay. I elbow him in the stomach a few times with no result before landing a blow to his groin. The sound he makes is a mixture of a howl and a yelp.
While he clutches himself, I tackle the younger sentinel, sending both of us to the ground. The sentinel quickly pins me down. Behind him I see Jay, writhing in pain, being dragged by Scar-face to Corbin, who looks on with amusement.
The younger sentinel lifts me to my feet, pinning my hands behind me. A clanking from above makes me look up. The chains are being lowered from the ceiling. The sentinel rips my navy coat off and forcefully lifts my hands up, clasping the manacles around my wrists despite my struggles. I can’t use my Ability with my hands trapped. Jay remains unchained, held by Scar-face in front of Corbin.
The scientist approaches me with the machine. On the ends of the cords are little, white, circular pads. Dr Kelvin presses the pads to my arms while the scientist places the machine on the tiles.
Dr Kelvin says softly, ‘It will be all right, Althea.’
‘And how is your little girl, Dr Kelvin?’ I say, and she lowers her wide eyes.
Jay lifts his bloodied face and looks over at me, leaving a red imprint on the floor. ‘No! Don’t!’ He tries to get up but Scar-face stamps on Jay’s back. ‘Stop! Don’t do it to her!’
Meeting Jay’s eyes, my breathing becomes rapid and my muscles tense. Under my shirt, Dr Kelvin attaches more cords to my back and stomach.
The scientist takes a step back.
Dr Kelvin clears her throat. ‘Dr Veldt,’ she says.
Her colleague leans down, his hand reaching towards the machine. At his name, I remember this Dr Veldt. His touch was never as gentle as Dr Kelvin’s when he would skewer my arm with a needle. While Dr Kelvin and the other scientists called me the Heir or Althea, I remember him only ever calling me the ‘Manipulator Heir’.
‘Please, don’t!’ Jay cries.
I watch Dr Veldt turn a knob on the machine. Instantly, I cry out. Each pad sends a bolt of electricity screaming into my skin, like a thousand tiny pinpricks. He turns the knob again and the pain stops. I am shaking.
This is the machine they used on Jay. I wonder how many shocks it will take to mark me like the burns seared into his back.
‘Now, son, you understand what you have to do to protect her,’ Corbin says. ‘It’s very simple, actually.’
The only sounds from Jay are his shallow breaths.
‘No? You don’t want to help her?’ Corbin nods to Dr Veldt and he turns the knob.
I scream, lost in a world of jagged horror.
It is over. My muscles twitch from the aftershock. I don’t know if the pain was more intense because the electricity hit the same spots as the first wave, or if the machine is on a higher setting – but I do know I can’t take it anymore. Sweat streams down my back and my forehead.
‘Well, son, what’s it to be?’
I know what he is asking Jay to do – the same thing they asked him to do when they tortured him in this Chamber. Corbin is so eager I know Jay must not use his Ability. But why? What will happen if he does? How can it be worse than the pain?
‘Still silent, I see. That is a shame. Perhaps another round of her scream
s will make you remember how it feels.’
My back arches as the pain strikes again. My relief at not being able to direct my hand to use my Ability is gone. I would give anything to freeze time. To freeze the pain.
I feel like I am about to faint when it stops.
‘Will you allow this to continue, son? Will you keep the electricity shooting through her body? You can stop this. You can save her.’
From the floor, Jay looks up at me. I’ve seen so much anguish in his eyes over the last few hours, but the torment in them now surpasses even that. I quirk my lips in the semblance of a smile – I must stay strong for him.
Corbin walks in front of Jay, blocking my view. ‘You have a fondness for Thea Reid, don’t you, son? Your mother showed that same fondness to people, but never to me. And look what happened to her.’ Corbin moves beside Jay.
Jay grimaces at the mention of his mother. I can’t help grimacing too. But I suspect mine is due to the pain.
Corbin leans down. ‘You know how to save her, son,’ he says softly, close to Jay’s ear. ‘Only you have the power to stop this pain.’
‘No!’ I croak. ‘Don’t do it!’
Jay stares at me, agonised by indecision.
Corbin continues. ‘Yes, son, you must. You know what those bolts of pain feel like. Save her from this suffering.’
‘No, please don’t–’ My words are interrupted by the machine. The pain jags through my body. My vision dims; I feel light-headed. The pain is too much. I focus on Jay, the room dark around him. He lifts his hand.
‘John,’ I gasp. ‘No!’
A flash of blue light shoots towards me. The electricity bolts stop and I sag in my manacles. But the blue light hasn’t reached me, hasn’t flung me back in my chains. It hovers centimetres from my face. All of a sudden, the blue light starts moving. But not in my direction. The light zooms back towards Corbin’s direction, his left hand raised and his eyes narrowed in concentration. The blue light disappears into his hand.
Smiling widely, he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, opening and closing his hand. ‘Thank you, son.’ He walks out of the Chamber, scratching his left forearm as he strides to the stairs leading to the lobby.
Dr Kelvin peels off the pads while Dr Veldt picks up the machine – a routine they don’t have to talk about. She strokes my cold, slick face. ‘You will be all right, Althea,’ she says with a comforting smile and then leaves the Chamber, taking a seat at the long metal desk beside Dr Veldt. She doesn’t look at me.
On the floor, Jay lies flat on his stomach, unmoving.
The younger sentinel unclasps my manacles and leaves with Scar-face, locking the Chamber door behind them.
I run to Jay. He is cold. I try to lift him but his body is slack and heavy. ‘Jay!’ I roll him onto his back, trying to shake him awake. His face is pale and I reach for his wrist to check his pulse, my own beating fast. As I find his pulse, I notice his Token is gone.
I try to piece together what has just happened. How did the blue light just stop, mid air? Jay couldn’t have stopped the blue light after releasing it. It was almost as if I stopped time, Catching it in the air. But I didn’t. Why did the light go to Corbin? Why did it disappear into Corbin’s hand?
I need Jay to wake up. I need him to explain. I need him to be all right.
I rest my head on his chest, feeling it rise and fall. Keep the breath coming, I repeat silently.
I whisper, ‘John, please wake up.’
I hear a chortle behind me. I whip my head around and see Corbin, standing just outside the glass wall.
Worry is overtaken by anger. I leap up and bang my hands against the glass. Dr Kelvin looks over and frowns. ‘What did you do to him?’ I demand.
‘Oh, don’t worry, Thea, he’ll be perfectly . . . normal when he wakes up.’
By his lopsided smile, I think he is telling the truth, but not the whole truth. ‘What does that mean? What have you done to him?’
‘I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise for you, especially as it is one you, too, will receive.’ Corbin smiles, scratching his forearm absentmindedly.
I didn’t think it was possible to hate someone more than Duncan Cardiff, but I do. John Corbin laughs at me in my glass prison, his son unconscious on the floor because of something he did.
A connection clicks in my mind. ‘They were yours! You wrote the letters to Duncan about me! About testing me, torturing me to reveal my Ability! You’re JC!’
‘How do you know about my letters?’ He smiles benignly, only mildly curious.
‘I’ve read them, you serpat! It seems your best scientists couldn’t accomplish what you asked. They couldn’t keep my memories from my dreams.’
‘Apparently,’ he says casually, not as easily annoyed as Duncan. ‘But it’s all worked out in the end, hasn’t it? You have unlocked your Ability . . . ’ A tic of irritation crosses his face. ‘And I have you here, right where I want you.’
I seize on his moment of uncertainty, trying to hide my fear. ‘So you can waste more time trying to discover what my Ability is? You couldn’t figure it out before, what makes you think you can now?’
‘Ah, but, Thea, I hold the trump card.’
‘And what is that?’ I ask slowly. I don’t know if I want to hear his answer.
He looks over my shoulder and I follow his gaze. Jay lies still and silent on the floor. ‘He is my trump.’
I look back at Corbin, confused.
‘I will know your Ability because you will tell me.’
‘No, I won’t.’
He leans in, his breath misting the glass. ‘You will. To save my son, you will.’
My heart skips a beat. ‘To save him? You said he would be fine!’
‘He will be. If you help him. And the only way to save him is to tell me your Ability.’ His eyes hungrily stare into mine. ‘What is it, Thea?’
‘What’s wrong with you?’
‘Tell me! All your life I’ve wanted to know! Please, tell me!’ he pleads.
He has all the power and yet he is begging me. His weakness gives me strength. ‘No.’
He slams his fists onto the glass and I take a step back. ‘TELL ME!’
His sleeve slides up and curiosity overcomes fear and I step forward. Three different Tokens come one after the other, trawling up the underside of his forearm. All three seem faded, not black like Eli’s. I recognise the tree Token closest to his elbow as Jay’s mark, but not the other two.
‘Tell me, Thea! I have to know!’
I ignore him, peering at his wrist. Why does Corbin have three Tokens? He has the same tree, so does that mean he has the same Ability as Jay? In the Token at his wrist, two black lines join together by the base of his palm, making a V-shape.
‘. . . have to know,’ he mutters, scratching at the tree Token. ‘. . . the key . . .’
The second mark is etched underneath the prongs of the first, a circle of swirling lines that make it seem like the circle is in motion.
Corbin turns around, his back to me, muttering to himself.
I look back at Jay. He doesn’t have a Token anymore and his blue light flowed into his father’s hand. ‘You stole it!’ I say, banging the glass. ‘You stole your son’s Ability!’
Corbin isn’t listening. He continues to mutter, creating red welts by his scratching.
Three Tokens. One must be Corbin’s own, the other is Jay’s, and the third . . . is a swirling circle, similar to Eli’s Token. ‘You took my father’s Ability, didn’t you?’ Eli told me someone stole it. The swirling circle must be my father’s, which means the V-shape prongs are Corbin’s own Token.
I scowl at him, mumbling and scratching, seemingly unaware of me.
In my nightmare I’m repeatedly pushed off the Rampart but never hit the ground. Corbin stole my father’s Space Vaulting, giving him the Ability to catch me each time I fell. And then he pushed me off again, trying to make me manifest my Ability.
‘Why did you take my father’s Abi
lity? He is a Variant, like you.’
Mumbles are all I receive.
‘Why, Corbin?’
All of a sudden, his ponytail flicks and he is facing me.
His eyes shift from side to side. ‘The virus, it’s the virus.’ He rolls up his sleeve and starts picking at the three Tokens, creating little scratches.
‘What virus?’
Rubbing the Tokens feverishly, he mutters more to himself than me, ‘Why does it show? Why can’t I handle them? The virus.’
Dr Kelvin stands up, exchanging a worried glance with Dr Veldt. He puts his hand on Corbin’s shoulder and Corbin jumps, lifting his hands and shooting blue light into Dr Veldt, who plummets back through the air, landing heavily on the floor. The scar-faced sentinel runs in from the stairwell.
‘Corbin, calm down,’ Dr Kelvin says soothingly, walking slowly towards him with a syringe.
‘I can control it!’ Corbin looks pleased and pulls down his cuff. He appears more composed, which is a worry for me.
‘Control what?’
‘The virus, Thea Reid, the virus. I can control it. I am controlling it.’
I have no inkling as to what he is talking about. ‘You are clearly not controlling whatever is happening to you.’
He leaps close to the glass and I take a startled step back. ‘Control the virus–’ Before he can continue, Dr Kelvin darts forward, jabbing him in the neck with the needle. Corbin drops to the ground. While consciousness leaves him, he mutters, ‘The virus. The virus.’
I didn’t think it was possible, but I am bored. Amidst all the fear, worry and uncertainty, I am bored. I sit at the back of the Chamber wondering if it is day or night. Jay is still unconscious but his face is losing its ashy tone, gaining colour.
The spots on my skin where the electric pads were placed are red and prickly. I try not to scratch but sometimes I can’t help it. If it’s not the burns on my arms annoying me, it’s the ones on my stomach and back.
I haven’t seen Corbin since he was drugged and carried away by the sentinels a few hours ago. Accompanied by the younger sentinel, Dr Kelvin brought in food about an hour ago without saying anything, before returning to work quietly at her desk. At first I refused to eat or drink anything but my hunger and thirst soon won out. I used a napkin and some of the water to wipe away the blood congealed on Jay’s face.
Time Catcher Page 23
