“Yeah, I’m here. Go ‘head,” came a garbled reply, over what sounded like a walkie-talkie.
“It looks like the boy’s starting to wake up. Just wanted to let you know.”
“Thanks, Jesse. I’ll send Ashley down with a tray from the kitchen. Come up and see me when you’re done and we’ll talk.”
“Sounds good. Will do,” the man, who must have been Jesse, responded.
Toby recognized the voice; he had spoken with him on a few occasions and could picture what he looked like. Stylishly dressed, he was a muscular, built man of African-American descent. Toby guessed him to be in his early twenties. The last time they had spoken, he had surreptitiously coerced Toby into providing the identities of other uniquely gifted individuals. Toby had worried that once the individuals were identified and located, they would end up no better off than he was now—locked up and held captive. Somehow, Jesse had persuaded him to use his psychic abilities to provide the names; after that, Toby had shut down and refused to talk.
His eyes remained closed as he lay on the hard, uncomfortable bed and listened to Jesse and the voice on the other end of the walkie-talkie, discuss him. He had tried to pretend that he was still asleep, but obviously the man knew that he was waking up.
Toby slowly turned his head to look at the man, who was leaning against a desk near the door.
“How long have I been here? Where am I?”
“Two weeks. And where you are is of no concern, right now. You are…here.” He indicated the room with a sweep of his hands.
Toby looked around; except for the desk, a single chair, and a bed, the room was bare. With the exception of a small, attached room, which he remembered was a bathroom, it was a prison cell.
“Two weeks! Are you kidding? How did I lose that much time?”
“You’ve been…in an altered state of mind.”
“An altered state of mind? That’s putting it mildly. So, now what? Why am I awake now? Or maybe I’m not really awake. Are you just a figment of my altered state of mind, too?”
Jesse set the walkie-talkie on the desk, folded his arms, and smiled. “No, this is all very real.”
“So why have you decided to talk to me now?” Toby sat up in bed. He realized too late that this move was a mistake and closed his eyes; his hands immediately cradled his pounding head. Even with his eyes closed, it felt as though the room was spinning, and he decided that it would be best to lie down, once more. He didn’t drink, so he had never experienced a hangover, but he imagined that this was what it would undoubtedly feel like.
When the pain had somewhat subsided, he gradually opened one eye and then the other. He slowly turned his head on the flat pillow and looked at Jesse, who eyed him carefully.
“The headache is typical. It should go away soon. It’s just a reaction from the sedatives. You’ve been out for…a while, but you should feel normal in a few hours. I imagine you’re probably hungry. Ashley’s going to bring you down some lunch.”
“Why now?” Toby asked again. “I’ve been here for two weeks. Why have you decided to talk to me now?”
“Well, we tried once. Do you remember? You provided us with a list of names. You were a great help.”
Toby sighed. It was his fault that his brother and several others were now in danger. “Yeah, I remember.”
“After that, you didn’t show much interest in talking with us, so we thought we’d give you some time to cool off. If you’re willing to hear me out and listen to what I have to say, I think you’ll find that this place isn’t as bad as it first appeared.”
“Not as bad as it first appeared? You mean there’s another way to view getting kidnapped and held against my will?”
“Actually, there is. I was once in a position similar to yours, and once I was able to see the big picture, I realized how fortunate I really was.”
“Fortunate? That’s not exactly the first word that comes to mind.”
“Give me a chance to explain, and you might see things a bit differently. At least try to keep an open mind, okay?”
“Yeah, whatever.” Toby shook his head, but the movement caused immediate pain, and he placed a hand over his forehead and groaned.
“Hey, Ashley,” Jesse spoke into the walkie, “when you bring lunch down for my friend here, could you bring him a couple of ibuprofen, as well?”
There was a brief pause, and then a girl’s voice crackled back in response, “Not a problem, Jess. Anything else you need?”
“I could use a bottle of water. Would you mind?”
“You got it. I was just on my way down. I’ll see you in a minute.”
“Thanks, Ash,” Jesse responded. Then he turned to Toby. “Now then, I’m sure you have a thousand questions. Let me explain why you’re here, and then you can ask whatever questions you have. You at least willing to listen?”
“Yeah…I suppose.”
Jesse nodded. “Good enough. To begin with, I know you’re wondering why you’re here. I’ll try to explain as succinctly as possible. There’s a special group who’s been commissioned to study people like you…and me. We are, what they call, Indigos.”
“Indigos? What does that mean?”
“It would take a long time to explain, and I will explain it all to you in great detail, later. Simply put, for now, ‘Indigo Children’ is a term that’s been coined to describe people who are born with a difference in their DNA. This difference allows them access to parts of the brain that are usually untouched by most people, and thus provides them with special abilities.
“The people who have…relocated you, here, want to study your DNA and learn why you have special abilities. More importantly, they want to discover the extent of your powers and learn what you can do.”
“But why? Why kidnap me? They were already going to take me to some special school. Couldn’t they have just studied me there?”
Jesse stared, unblinking, at Toby, and in a moment, the answer silently floated into his mind. Think about it, and you’ll see that you already know the answer.
Toby furled his eyebrows in confusion. “They want to keep it a secret?”
Why do you think that is? Jesse asked, silently.
Toby considered the little he knew of the people who had taken him. They had created a pretense of a school for the gifted so they would have the opportunity to kidnap him. Jesse had said it himself; these people wanted to discover what they could do with his powers.
“Is it like some secret agency with the CIA or something?” Toby asked, perplexed. “Do they want to use our gifts to spy on others?” The smile and lack of response from Jesse told him that his guess must be fairly close to the truth.
He was about to inquire further when a knock at the door interrupted the conversation. Jesse swiped an ID badge across a screen and the door slid open. He noticed there was no handle.
A petite girl, about eighteen or nineteen, with bright red hair entered the room. She set a large tray on the desk and picked up a small, clear plastic cup and a water bottle. She offered him the bottle and a sympathetic smile. “Here ya go. This should help.”
He sat up, slowly, as she proceeded to dump two white pills from the cup into his outstretched hand. “Thanks.”
“I brought the other water bottle there for you,” she said to Jesse, indicating the tray on the table. “Call me if you need anything else, okay?”
“I will. Thanks, Ashley.”
With a swipe of her own ID badge, Ashley left, and they were alone once again. Jesse lifted the silver dome cover from the plate and peered inside. “Looks like grilled ham and cheese and a cup of soup. Tasty. Why don’t you come enjoy it while it’s warm? We can talk while you eat if you like.”
“I am hungry,” Toby admitted. He stood carefully; his legs shook slightly as he made the four-step journey to the desk and sat.
After he had taken a few bites, he glanced at Jesse, who was still leaning against the wall and appeared to be playing a game on his phone.
“
So am I right? Is it the CIA or something like that?”
“Something like that.” His captor looked up from his phone. “We’re called the IIA, short for Indigo Intelligence Agency. I guess you could say our agency is like a second cousin to the CIA, but we’re the black sheep of the family. There aren’t many outsiders who know of our existence.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, basically because we do things that aren’t considered the ‘norm.' The agency is a little…unorthodox. It’s an off-shoot of the CIA. We help gather information when requested, but we also have our own agenda.”
“So why kidnap me?”
“They were going to take you to our school, just like they do with most of the other kids they’re interested in, but when Cecelia and Frank took you, they discovered rather quickly that your gifts are much more intricate than they had anticipated. They decided that it would be best to bring you straight here so that we could start working with you. What they didn’t foresee was that you wouldn’t want to readily cooperate.”
Toby snorted under his breath. “And why should I? Why would I want to cooperate with someone who kidnapped me? Why do you do it?” He looked at Jesse. “I mean, it sounds like you’re a lot like me. Why do you work for them? What’s in it for you?”
“I understand your skepticism. I was suspicious when I first met them, but I came around quickly, and I’m sure once I explain everything, you will too.”
“Explain it then, because right now all I see is a group of people who want to exploit my powers and hold me hostage.”
“Acknowledged.” Jesse crossed his arms and ankles and leaned against the wall. “That is one way to look at it, but just keep in mind, there are always two sides to every story.
“They found me when I was seventeen,” he continued. “I had been living in an impoverished neighborhood in Chicago, and I’d just graduated high school a year early. I’d been counting my days until I could move away, but the problem was, I didn’t know where to go. I didn’t have money to go to college, but I sure as hell didn’t want to stick around there and find a job, even though I hated the thought of leaving my momma and my brother.
“After I agreed to work for them, they sent me to college, and after that, I was trained with the CIA. Once my training was complete, they brought me here, and I’ve been working for them ever since. Considering where I came from and where I could have ended up, I can’t complain. It’s a good gig. And though I admit some of their methods might be a little dishonest at times, their intentions are in the right place. As far as I can see, they want to use our gifts to find the bad guys and stop them. They’ve always treated me real good, so I can’t complain.”
“You came here willingly though. This was not my choice. I had to leave my twin brother.”
“Yeah, that was unfortunate, but they’re trying to rectify the situation. They’re trying to find your brother as we speak, and when they find him, they’ll bring him here."
“Yeah, speaking of bringing him here, what’s that all about? That list of names that you had me create for you…You’re trying to bring all of them here? Why kidnap them? Why not recruit them, too?”
“They have their reasons. Ideally, they would recruit them or, if they’re under age, send them to one of our schools, but it’s not always practical. They aren’t always willing to wait until the kids are eighteen, so on occasion they deem it necessary to relocate them.”
“Relocate? You mean kidnap?”
“Well, it’s all in the terminology, I guess. They try not to see it that way. Kidnapping holds a negative connotation. We like to think of this more as a…lifetime opportunity.”
“Lifetime opportunity…right. So, the list of names that I provided—everyone on the list has a unique gift? It’s worth the risk to relocate them?”
Jesse nodded. “Yes. We have trackers who have been watching them. They’ve listened to their thoughts and have sensed their powers—powers that would be very valuable to the agency.”
“Wait a minute. Do you mean that those people on the list were already under your radar? I didn’t identify them for you after all?”
“Oh, you identified them all right, but it was more like an affirmation to see if you could identify the same people we had already identified. We wanted to see if you had the potential to be a tracker.”
An immense sense of relief washed over him. He had thought it was his fault that his brother was in danger. He was curious then about something Jesse had said. “Tracker? Is that what you are? Do you go out and track people down?
“I did for a little while, but now, for the most part, I stay here and work with the people they bring in.”
“Like me.”
“Yeah, like you.”
“So, there are others, here, like me? How many?”
“Right now…there are ten.”
“Were they all kidnapped, too?”
“No, not all of them. Some were recruited, but yes, a few were…brought here unwillingly.”
“Kidnapped.”
“If that’s how you want to look at it, yes. But eventually they all come around when they realize how their gifts can be used to help others. So many of them have never even understood why they have special abilities. They’ve always felt alone, and that’s where I come in. I help them recognize their true potential and help them to see that they aren’t alone, that there are others like them. We become like a family. It’s our hope that you’ll come to feel that way, too. Besides your brother, you have no family. We can offer you a home.”
A home. A family. It was a tantalizing idea, but he still couldn’t get over the fact that he had been kidnapped and drugged for the past two weeks. That wasn’t the way family treated each other. Jesse made the whole thing sound like a fairy tale. According to him, he had been whisked away from a life of poverty and had lived happily ever after. Was it really that simple? Toby had his doubts.
“I sense that you still have your doubts,” Jesse said, reading his mind.
Toby was taken aback. Other than his brother, he wasn’t used to having anyone else inside of his head.
“Well, you’d better get used to it,” Jesse said. “There’s no such thing as a personal thought, anymore.” And just remember, they hear every word you say, too. Jesse’s thoughts invaded his mind while his eyes glanced nonchalantly to the camera anchored high on the wall in a far corner.
Toby retorted with a silent reply, So basically, the moral of the story is, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Is that it?
You’re a smart one, no doubt about that, Jesse thought. He stepped toward Toby, patted him on the shoulder, and then said out loud, “I’ll give you time to think about what I’ve said. I’ll come back later this evening.” He took his bottle of water from the desk, swiped his ID badge, and stepped out. The door automatically slid shut upon his departure, and then Toby was alone in the windowless room.
*****
Toby paced the room and then did a few push-ups. It felt good to move. His muscles were stiff, no doubt from the effects of the drugs and lying prone, on a thin mattress. Considering the fact that he had essentially slept for the past two weeks, he was surprised to discover that he was exhausted, and it wasn’t long before he decided to lie down.
As he lay on his back and stared at the black dots of the ceiling tiles, he wondered how long he would have to stay in his prison cell.
Unsure of the amount of time that had passed, Toby opened his eyes when the thoughts of a girl invaded his mind. Wake up… Come on, wake up.
Am I sleeping? he wondered.
Wake up already!
His eyes shot open and he stared at the ceiling once more.
I’m over here.
Toby sat up and looked around. There was no one by the door or at the foot of the bed. He shook his head. Was he delusional?
Behind you.
There she was, over his left shoulder, flush against the corner, beneath the camera mounted on the wall. She had light
, mocha-colored skin, dark brown, curly hair that hung in ringlets past her shoulders, and brilliant golden brown eyes. He was struck by her beauty and wondered for a moment if she was some sort of angel or guardian spirit, come to rescue him. He rubbed his eyes, blinked once, and looked again. She was still there.
Don’t say anything. She placed a finger over her lips and then pointed toward the camera above her head.
Toby nodded slightly. He understood. His right hand wandered to his disheveled hair, and he wondered about his appearance. Suddenly cognizant of the fact that he hadn’t showered or shaved in two weeks, he imagined that he must be quite the sight.
She smiled and her thoughts floated into his mind, once again. Don’t worry about it. It could be worse.
Who are you? he asked, silently.
My name’s Rebecka.
You’re one of them?
No, they’re keeping me here, just like you.
If you’re not one of them, then how did you get in here?
Are you familiar with the term, teleportation? I can transport myself short distances.
You’re serious? People can really do that? Do they know you can do that?
Yeah. That’s one of the reasons they’ve kept me here. They think I could be useful.
How long have you been here? Toby wondered.
About six months.
Six months? Why don’t you just teleport yourself right out of this place?
Because I can only send myself short distances. They’ve taken me outside and have made it perfectly clear that I have nowhere to go. We’re in the middle of nowhere. Even if I did get out, I’d be wandering around in the wilderness and wouldn’t have a clue which way to go.
What’s keeping you from just agreeing to work with them and going to their side? Jesse said that a lot of the people here have agreed to work with them.
Oh, they have, Rebecka thought. That’s why I came to see you, because I heard your thoughts. You have no interest in joining them either, do you?
Hell no! Tyler thought back. I just want to get out of here.
You’re smart. Don’t let them convince you to join their side. They’ll try. They’ll be all ready to persuade you with money and images of adventure. They’ll try to convince you that they are the ‘good guys,' that they’re doing important research to learn more about Indigo Children. But the truth is, they’re not. They use us to spy on other government agencies, including the CIA, the group who is supposedly funding their research, and then they use the information they gain and sell it to the highest bidder, regardless of what company or country they’re from.
Indigo Incite Page 11
