The Prisoner of Cell 25 (31 page)

He turned to her. “You said it.”

“You’re named after a god. You could be, like, the ruler of the world.”

He dropped his hands to his side. “What’s your point?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. I’m just surprised that you’re taking orders from Hatch. He should be taking orders from you. He tells you to kill us, you obey like a dog.”

Zeus looked confused. “Enough talking.” He turned back to Ostin. “You’re a nobody. You go first.” He again raised his hands.

“Hey, Zits,” I shouted. “What kind of electro
wimp
picks on kids without powers?”

He turned back to me. “What did you call me?”

“Zits,” I said. “Z-I-T-S. Actually, I don’t think you even need electric bolts. You could just breathe on us.” I looked him in the eyes and smiled. “Seriously, dude, when was the last time you brushed your teeth?”

“Shut up!”

“No, really. Did you eat a diaper?”

“Shut up!” he shouted. He squinted. “Do you know how much I enjoyed guarding your mother? I shocked her at least a dozen times just to watch her squeal.”

“Yeah, well you could have just sat next to her and let her smell you. That would have been much worse. I’ve had hamsters with better hygiene.”

“Enough! Don’t think I won’t electrocute you, Vey!”

Taylor looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “It’s his Tourette’s, he can’t help it.”

“I’m scared, Zits,” I said. “You know Hatch would have your head if you did. But here’s my promise: after I’m in charge, my first command is to make you my shoeshine boy. You’ll be following me around with a towel.”

“You’ll never be in charge.”

“No, that’s what Hatch said. You heard him. He wants my power.  I’m not kidding, Zits. When Hatch was trying to get me to join you guys, he promised me that you would be my servant.”

Zeus looked at me with a worried expression. After a moment he shouted, “Shut up! And stop calling me Zits!”

“I don’t think I will. In fact, it’s going to be the first rule I make. I’m going to have everyone else call you that.”

“I don’t care what Hatch says. I’m gonna fry you, Vey.”

“Oooh, now I’m really shaking. You don’t have enough juice in you to light a flashlight.”

“Michael!” Taylor shouted. “Stop it. He’s got a temper. I’ve seen it.”

“You should listen to the cheerleader, Vey.” He stepped toward me. “You think you’re so cool. But you can’t shoot electricity like me, can you? You’re just a flesh-covered battery.”

“And you’re a flesh-covered outhouse. You should tie a couple hundred of those car air fresheners around your neck.”

“Last warning!” Zeus shouted.

“I’m not kidding, Zits. There are porta-potties with better aromas. Would a little deodorant kill you? What was the last year you took a bath?”

“That’s it!” He lifted his arms in front of himself and electricity arced between his fingers. “You’re gonna die!”

He pointed his hands toward me, letting loose a storm of crackling blue-white electricity. I surged at that precise moment and the sound of his electricity hitting the field of my electricity was like the crash of two cymbals. The room lit up as bright as a welder’s lamp.

To my surprise, I felt absolutely fine. Not only was my surge protecting me, but it wasn’t going away either. The longest I had ever held a surge was ten or fifteen seconds, but I wasn’t tiring at all. In fact, I was growing stronger. I was absorbing Zeus’s electricity. Even the weakness I felt from before was leaving me.  There was so much electricity in the room that all of our hair was standing straight up. I looked over at Taylor. She stared at me in disbelief.

It’s not hurting me,
I thought.

She nodded.

Can you read my mind?

She nodded again. The electricity in the room had caused some kind of bridge.

I can
, I heard her say, even though her lips didn’t move. Now I could read her thoughts as well.

Zeus could see that his electricity wasn’t hurting me and he was getting angrier. He looked like a crazy man, his hands raised and moving. “Burn, Energizer!”

The foul stench of burning plastic filled the room. I looked down to see that my chair was melting. The plastic ties that the guard used to bind my wrists and legs had melted through and the vinyl band around my waist had melted as well. I was free.

I looked back up and smiled at Zeus. Rage burned in his eyes. He clenched his teeth and intensified his assault. But the force of his electricity only added to mine. I was getting stronger, and, from his appearance, he was growing weaker. Sweat was beading on his forehead and his breathing was heavy.

My skin began to glow a pale white, growing brighter and brighter until I was lit up like an incandescent lightbulb.

“Aaaargh!” he shouted in exhaustion, and the electricity stopped.

He flicked his hands as if his fingers had been burned. “Okay, then I’ll burn her!”

He turned toward Taylor.

“No you won’t,” I said, standing up. He turned back to looked at me. I was now glowing brighter than the overhead lights. I lifted my arms and held my palms out toward Zeus. “Try this.” I pulsed.

A bright flash of light burst from me like a shock wave and Zeus screamed out as he was thrown against the wall. Taylor’s and Ostin’s chairs also flipped sideways. Zeus slid to the floor unconscious.

I ran to Taylor’s side. “Are you okay?”

It took her a moment to answer. “I think so. I can’t get loose.”

I grabbed the plastic ties on her hands and surged and they melted in my hands. She reached down and unfastened her legs.

Then I ran to Ostin. He was lying still. I knelt down by him. “Ostin?”

He wasn’t breathing.

“Buddy!” I put my head to his chest. His heart had stopped.

“Ostin!” I shouted. I burned off his bands and began to administer

CPR. “His heart stopped,” I shouted.

Taylor came to my side.

“Come on, Ostin,” she said.

I put my ear to his chest. Nothing. Tears began to fill my eyes.

“You can’t die, buddy. You can’t.”

I continued pressing his chest but nothing I did seemed to have any effect.

Then Taylor said, “Shock him.”

“What?”

“Shock his heart. That’s what doctors do when a heart stops.”

I put my hand over his heart and pulsed. His whole body shook. I put my head to his chest, but there was nothing. “Ostin, buddy. Hang in there.”

I put my hand on his heart again. “Surge.” His body shook again.

Suddenly his body trembled. I put my head on his chest. “His heart’s beating!”

“Yeah!” Taylor said.

A moment later Ostin groaned and his eyes opened. He looked at me, then said, “That hurt.”

I exhaled in relief. “Oh, man, that was close. Don’t ever scare us like that again.”

“Don’t ever shock me like that again.”

Zeus started to come to, groaning lightly. Taylor walked over and pulled off his helmet, throwing it behind her. He looked up at her.

“Where am I?”

“You’re on the ground,” she said. He began to lift his head but Taylor squinted and knocked him back down. “Don’t even think about it. And you better behave or Michael’s going to finish you.”

Ostin sat up, rubbing his chest. “How did you create a shock wave?”

“I’m not sure,” I said. “I think Zeus’s electricity made me stronger.”

Ostin smiled. “Just like I was theorizing, you can absorb electricity.”

Taylor pointed to a camera. “Hey, guys, whatever we’re doing we  better hurry. We’re being watched.”

“No,” Ostin said. “The light’s off. Michael must have blown the camera with his surge.”

“Still, Taylor’s right,” I said. “We’ve got to move fast. There are guards outside the door.”

“What should we do with him?” Taylor asked, looking at Zeus.

Zeus looked up at me fearfully.
Don’t hurt me.

I heard his voice clearly but his mouth hadn’t moved. There was still enough electricity in the room that I could read minds without touching.

“Please don’t hurt me,” he said aloud.

“Why shouldn’t I?” I asked.

He just stared at me, unable to come up with a reason.

I leaned close to him. “I’ll tell you why. Because I’m not you and I’m not Hatch.” I leaned in closer. “Think of a number between one and a million.”

He looked at me. “What?”

“Think of a number,” I said.

Five hundred twenty-six thousand and twelve,
he thought.

“Five hundred twenty-six thousand and twelve,” I said.

He looked at me in astonishment. “How did you do that?”

“I can read your mind, Zeus. And if you so much as think of shocking one of us, I’ll fry you like a chicken nugget. Do you understand?”

He nodded.

“Why are you loyal to Hatch?” I asked.

He didn’t answer in his thoughts or otherwise. I guess he didn’t know.

“He’s worthless,” Ostin said. “We can’t trust him.”

I am worthless
, Zeus thought.

Taylor looked at me.
Did you hear that?
she thought.

I nodded. What has he done?

Let’s find out, Taylor thought. I’m going in deep.

Taylor knelt down next to Zeus and put her head against his. We watched as she went through him, like she was reading a book. After several minutes, her expression changed and she sat back up. “I see.”

“What is it?” Ostin asked.

Taylor said to Zeus, “When you were a child did you kill your family in a swimming pool?”

The statement seemed to hit him as powerfully as my shock wave. He began trembling and he covered his face with his hands.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure about that?” she asked.

He peered up at her. “What do you mean?”

Taylor looked at me and then back at Zeus. “I looked through your memories but I couldn’t find a memory of the swimming pool.  
Any
swimming pool. I only found what Hatch told you when you were little.”

“That’s the way Hatch works,” I said to Taylor. “He makes people think they’re bad so they’ll do bad things. Zeus thinks he’s evil so he’s acting the part. Can you do anything with it?”

Taylor looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“Can you . . . change his mind?”

A smile came to her face. “I’ve never tried.”

Zeus looked back and forth between us. “What are you going to do?”

“You didn’t kill your family, Zeus,” Taylor said. “I’m guessing that Hatch did, then convinced you that you had done it. Are you willing to let me erase those lies?”

“Can you?”

“I’ve never done this before, but I’ll do my best.” She put her head against his. After about two minutes she moaned a little, then fell back.

“What happened?”

“I think I did it.”

Zeus lay there with his eyes closed.

I said, “Zeus, have you ever gone swimming?”

“No.”

“Never?”

He shook his head. “I can’t. I shock myself in water.”

“What happened to your family?”

He looked down. “I’m not sure.” His eyes welled up with tears.  “Something bad happened to them.”

I looked at Taylor. “Good job.”

“I don’t know why I tried to hurt you,” Zeus said.

“It’s because Hatch was controlling you,” I replied. “But he can’t anymore.”

“Tell me what to do.”

“Join the Electroclan. Help us bring this place down.”

He looked at me for a moment. Then I heard his thoughts. I’m with you. “I’m with you,” he said, his voice echoing his thoughts. “What do you want me to do?”

“You were with my mother when they took her. Do you know where she is?”

Zeus shook his head. “They took her to one of the other compounds.”

“There are other places like this?” Ostin asked.

“At least four. They’re in other countries and they’re bigger.”

“Do you know where they are?” I asked.

“There’s an office in Rome and a compound in the jungles of Peru. There’s at least one in Asia.” He frowned. “Sorry. That’s all I know.”

My heart ached. My mother had never seemed so far away. “Who runs the other compounds?” I asked.

“Hatch,” Zeus said. “He’s like the president. But he answers to the board.”

“Then Hatch will have records of the other compounds,” Ostin said.

Taylor said, “I don’t think Hatch will be eager to share.”

“No,” I said. “We’ll have to take them. But first, we’ve got to free the others.”

Just then the cell door swung all the way open and three guards ran into the room holding machine guns. “Everyone on the ground,” the first guard shouted. “Move your—” He stopped mid-sentence. “Move . . . uh.”

All three of the guards lowered their guns and looked at each other as if they’d suddenly forgotten why they cared. I smiled at Taylor.

“Zeus,” I said.

“No problem.”

Electricity arced from Zeus to all three guards. They dropped to the floor.

“Good job,” I said. “Let’s tie them up.”

We quickly cuffed two of the guards’ hands behind their backs.

As I was trying to get the handcuffs on the biggest of the guards, he suddenly turned on me. He jumped up, lifting me above his head. I pulsed and he screamed out, dropping me on top of him.

“You okay?” Ostin asked.

“Yeah,” I said, climbing off the guard. “He’s not.” I locked the guard’s hands in cuffs.

Ostin took their utility belts with concussion and smoke grenades and fastened one of them around his waist. “We’ve got to figure out how to get everyone out of here,” I said. “Let’s start with Ian and the girls, then we’ll get Jack and Wade.”

“What about Nichelle?” Taylor asked.

“Ostin, you’re the only one she can’t affect.”

He patted his weapons belt. “I’ll take care of her.”

“Zeus, while Ostin and I free Ian and the girls, you and Taylor go to the end of the hallway and make sure no one sneaks up on us.”

“What about the cameras in the hall?” Taylor asked.

“We’ve got to take them out,” I said.

“I know how do it,” Zeus said. “When I was eight I was fooling around and blew one out. Hatch put me on lockdown for an entire week.”

“Well, start with that one,” I said, pointing to a camera right outside our door. Zeus reached up and electricity jumped from his fingers to the camera. The camera’s light went off and the camera froze.