The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (21 page)

“Why? Why do you have to listen to him?”

“Because he runs LA, Kathryn.”

“Runs it? What do you mean runs it?”

“He runs LA. He's the one who brought us together. He's organized us all. He created the community here and protects it. Who do you think owns the Basement?”

Kathryn’s jaw fell open. Jonathan was the one responsible for the entire underground deviant community? It seemed . . . impossible.

“So that's why I have to go to New York. He's sending me.”

“Wait.” Kathryn had so many questions, but she didn't know which one to ask first. “So are you saying that you work for him?”

Charge seemed surprised at her question. “Sure I do. So does Susan.” He looked at Kathryn. “And so do you.”

Kathryn laughed sharply. “The hell I work for Jonathan.” It dawned on her that now would be a good time to tell them that she was going back. “The only people I work for are part of a university in St. Louis, and they are looking for me to come back. So when you go to the airport tonight to go off to New York, I'm coming too because I have my own plane to catch.”

“You can't go back now,” Susan pleaded.

“I'm sorry, Susan,” Kathryn said firmly. “But I have to. I've made up my mind.”

“But,” Susan began to object, but Charge held up his hand to stop her.

“Look, baby,” he said gently. “I know you need to go back. But can you just do me a favor? Can you wait until I get back? I won't be able to do what I need to do in New York missing you and knowing that when I get back to LA you won't be here.” He grabbed Kathryn's hands and squeezed them firmly. “Please stay until I get back. I need to know that you'll be in my bed when I return.”

Charge's plea melted Kathryn's heart, but she didn't want to reveal it right away. “Well . . .” she hesitated. “When will you get back?”

“It shouldn't take longer than a week or ten days.” His brown eyes stared at her earnestly. “Please say that you'll stay.”

A week to ten days wasn’t all that long. Kathryn knew she had a little time to spare. It was still only July. She could go back after Charge's return and still have almost a month to get done what she needed to do.

“Okay,” she said softly. “I'll stay.”

“Great, babe. I knew you would.” Charge leaned over and kissed her passionately. Kathryn had a feeling that it was going to be a long and lonely ten days without him. “Okay.” Charge stood up. “I've got to go and get packed. My flight leaves at 7:00.” He looked down at Kathryn and winked. “Wanna help me?”

Kathryn immediately got the hint and jumped up. “Absolutely. I'll see you later, Susan.” Kathryn grabbed Charge's hand and teleported them both up to the bedroom.

Chapter Twenty One

Kathryn and Charge spent the next few hours in bed. She tried to store away every touch, every scent, every memory of him so that she would have something to hold on to while he was gone. Charge finally, and reluctantly, got out of bed, packed a few things, and took a shower. Kathryn got ready herself, and she and Susan drove Charge to the airport.

“I'm going to miss you, baby,” Charge said as he hugged her tightly.

“I'm going to miss you, too.” Kathryn sighed into his firm chest. She looked up at him. “Don't stay away too long.”

Charge stroked her face. “With you to come back to, how could I?” He kissed her, grabbed his bags, and headed off into the terminal.

Kathryn slid into the front seat of the car, and Susan drove off. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Susan finally said, “Call me a bitch for saying this, but you know that if you go back to St. Louis, you'll miss us and feel like shit.”

“I know.” Kathryn rolled down the window and lit a cigarette. She really felt like a drink. “But sometimes you have to do shit that you don't feel like doing.” Susan said nothing in response. Kathryn knew she’d be lonely again when she returned, but she did have responsibilities. It would be so hard to return, but she had to. Hell, if for no other reason, she had to pay her rent. She wouldn't be surprised if she returned to find all her stuff outside on the street.

Once back at the cabin, Kathryn teleported up to her room. She looked at the crumpled sheets on the bed and decided to do some laundry. If anything, it would keep her occupied for a little while and perhaps keep her mind off Charge. She doubted it, but it would be worth a shot. She stripped the bed, teleported down to the basement, threw the sheets and soap into the washing machine, and started it up. She then teleported up to the kitchen, grabbed a beer out of the fridge, and teleported outside. The sun was still up in the summer evening, but it had begun to take on an orange glow. A small bird hopped a few feet away from her, pecking at invisible bugs in the dust, before flying away. Kathryn froze it a few inches off the ground and marveled at the angle of its deployed wings and its fragile feet just beginning to retract into its body.

“It’s a wondrous thing, isn't it?” Jonathan's voice startled her.

“Oh. Yeah, I guess it is.” Kathryn released the bird and it flew away, unaware of what had just happened.

Jonathan sat down beside her. “I'm not talking about the bird, Kathryn. I'm talking about you and what you can do.”

Kathryn looked at Jonathan for a moment before taking another drink. She repeated, “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“I know you have a lot of questions. Feel free to ask them. I have nothing to hide.”

Kathryn didn't speak. She had a million questions, but she didn't know which one to start with. She grabbed a cigarette out of the pack, lit it, took a deep drag and exhaled slowly. She decided to start with the biggest question of them all. “Why didn't you tell me?”

“I was going to tell you,” he said without hesitation. “But I was waiting until the right moment. You didn't know anything about the deviant community, so I didn't want to overwhelm you by saying, 'Hey, I know that six months ago you thought you were the only one who had escaped detection, but guess what, we’re not the only little tribe who has banded together. In fact, there’s an entire network of people just like us peppered throughout the country, and oh yes, I happen to run the network in LA.'“ Jonathan paused for dramatic effect. “You would have thought me crazy, right?”

Kathryn couldn't help smiling. “Yeah, maybe.” She took another drag. “But what does that mean exactly? 'Run the network?'“

“Well, if you think of the deviant network here in LA as a company, I would be the CEO. I keep abreast on all of the activities. I personally know all of the deviants who live in and frequent the greater Los Angeles area—what they do for a living, who their families are, whether they’re out to their partners or spouses, how they are avoiding detection, those kinds of things. Consequently, if someone gets in trouble, I get a call and try to help remedy the situation.”

“What kind of trouble?”

Jonathan shrugged. “A spouse who might be beginning to suspect, a slip up at the job, suspicion that the government might be tracking them. Those kinds of things.”

“And you can help with that kind of stuff?”

“Many times, yes.”

“How?”

“Well, the personal gifts among deviants are great and varied, so I decide who would be best to help with a particular situation and give that person a call.”

“Give me an example.”

“Okay.” Jonathan paused and looked at the sky. Kathryn could see him thumbing through a mental rolodex. “Okay, here's a good one. There’s a young lady who has the gift of invisibility. The only problem is that she can't control it very well. I’d been working with her, and she’d gotten better, but she then moved to San Diego, and with her new job combined with the drive, she didn't have to time to come up here for her sessions. So we stopped, and she assured me that she had enough control not to disappear at awkward and unfortunate moments.” Kathryn listened, completely captivated. Jonathan continued. “That was her Achilles heel. Her invisibility was often tied to stress. She would become stressed out or overwhelmed in a situation and would just slowly fade away. It was quite an interesting phenomena. In our sessions, we had been working on some relaxation techniques to keep this from occurring. Anyway, you can imagine what happened. Her new job, while an advancement over her old one, came with a lot of stress. She was working late one day, pouring over some files, and her boss stormed in, dropped a pile of work on her desk and demanded that it be completed by the next day. Of course, this was too much for her to handle and POOF, she was gone! Well, you can guess the boss' reaction. The young lady was still sitting at her desk, of course, watching her boss scream and run out of the room. She immediately called me crying and begged to help her before word got around and she was rounded up and institutionalized.”

“So what did you do?”

“Well, I know a young man who has the power to alter and erase people's memories. So I called him and dispatched him immediately to take care of the young lady's predicament.”

“So he did what? Erased the boss' memory?”

“Yes, just a small portion, mind you. The young lady informed me the next day that her boss was shocked when she brought in all of the completed work early the next morning. Her boss didn’t remember giving it to her the night before.”

Kathryn sat there in shock. “And you do stuff like this all the time? Help people out?”

“Not all the time,” Jonathan said nonchalantly. “But frequently enough.”

“And approximately how many deviants are there in LA?”

“One thousand seventy three,” he answered. “Approximately.”

Kathryn was stunned. “Really? And you know them all?”

“Yes.”

“And how many are there in other cities?”

“Well, there are about two thousand in New York, at least according to my counterpart there. Also, we have an organization of about 600 or so in Chicago, and a few hundred scattered about in pockets throughout the south. We’re still working on getting our numbers for other regions of the country.”

Kathryn's mind was reeling. “And you started all of this here? How did you do it?”

“Oh, no. I only inherited this from my predecessor. He was the true visionary. He organized all of this, and I was chosen to follow his legacy when he passed away.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Wow.” Jonathan exhaled sharply and thought for a moment. “Almost 20 years ago now.”

Kathryn wanted to take the conversation in so many different directions that she had a hard time choosing which avenue to pursue first. She finally picked one.

“And Charge. How long has he been working for you?”

Jonathan smiled. “Oh, I met Charge about eight years ago. In Dallas. I'm sure he’ll tell you his story one day, but I’ll leave the moment up to him.”

Kathryn respected that answer. She had a story of her own that she had never shared with anyone. “And he said that he knows all the people in New York. He used to work out there?”

“Yes. His first assignment was to ingratiate himself into the New York community. Back then, I really had no connections there and knew that having someone I trusted who was a part of that community would be invaluable. Charge's work exceeded my expectations.”

“And in exchange for this work, he gets paid?”

“Mmm, in a manner of speaking, yes. Neither he, nor Susan, gets a salary per se, but they get free room and board and open access to a bank account, which I supplement.”

Kathryn thought that sounded like a sweet deal. “And what does Susan do for you?”

“Anything I ask. Her last assignment, as I'm sure she's told you, was to meet you and bring you into the fold.”

“Yeah, she told me that,” Kathryn said a bit bitterly.

“Don't be angry, dear Kathryn. We needed to bring you into the family, so I sent Susan to meet you and introduce herself as an introduction to the rest of us. You proved to be,” Jonathan chuckled, “a more difficult assignment than we had initially imagined.”

Kathryn had to admit, “Yeah, I can be a bit . . . difficult. But why me? Why did you come searching for me?”

“Well, all of the heads of the different networks are on a continuous search for deviants scattered throughout the country who have escaped detection by the government. We want them to know they're not alone. But I was on a special quest to meet you and bring you here because of your unique abilities.”

“Yeah, what’s up with this 'unique abilities' thing? Susan basically said the same thing last night. I have met some amazing people. What’s so special about me?”

“Oh, my dear.” Jonathan's light brown eyes glittered in the setting sun. “You don't just have the power to freeze things or to teleport. You have the ability to manipulate time itself. Currently, you can rob people of the passage of time by stopping them in their tracks, but I have full confidence that with practice, you’ll be able to do so much more. And the ability to change and control the nature of time is to control the essence of the universe.” Jonathan paused. “And that’s what makes you very very special.”

Kathryn let the weight of his words fall down on her as the sun slipped below the horizon. The first few stars of the evening began to twinkle through the trees, and the air was filled with the chirps of the crickets as they began to sing to each other. “I don't know, Jonathan. I don't think that I—”