Age of Power 1: Legacy (17 page)

CHAPTER TEN

Another ambulance, another group of police, but this time,
beyond the street barriers and crime-scene tape, cameras
were
recording, lights were flashing, and reporters were sounding frantic as they
told the nation about the terrible accident that had taken ‘innocent’ lives in
this small town in the American
midwest
. No, they
didn’t know Riverlite. 

I heard it all as I sat in the ambulance. I was on a gurney
while Jim Houseman checked me out. Looking out the back door, I saw the
reporters talking into cameras while newspaper photographers took their
pictures. Jim told me that they were the ‘fringe nut’ reporters. They were here
to get stories about the growing Avatar movement.

After weeks of relatively boring stories, they wanted something
edgier. I
had been recognized
, and I could hear
speculation about a psychotic attack by some fanatic. Nope, sorry reporters, it
was only a drunk guy, wanting me dead for what had happened to his brother. But
that wasn’t my problem now. No, my problem was how I’d tell people that I’d
done this…thing. I didn’t have the words for what I’d done.
Not
yet.

After putting away a stethoscope, Jim tilted my head up and
flashed a penlight in my eyes. I said dumbly, “Nope, not in shock.”

He looked at me with this expression of utter sympathy and said,
“Oh yeah, shock. Sit, your mom’s coming.”

“Vaughn!” I looked up to see my mom coming up to the ambulance.
Climbing in, she came up and hugged me. For a moment, we held onto each other.
I seriously wished I were the little boy she used to hug when I was growing up.
Childhood was a thousand times preferable to what was going on now. I looked
past my mom. Outside
  the
ambulance, an EMT
was zipping up a body bag.

They were finally able to pull the dead man after the
investigators had processed the scene. The one now going into the body bag was
the last of the three thugs. Now, only the car sat there, all but mocking me
with its rippled look. I swallowed bile and tried to push the sight of it to
the back of my mind, if only for a few moments.

My dad ruined the attempt, though, when I saw him coming up to
the ambulance, staring over at the car. After Jim got out, Dad climbed in to
look at me, his face was full of questions.

I couldn’t begin to answer them, so, to distract him, I asked,
“How’s Brand? He looked sick as a dog when he got into the ambulance.”

He gave me a fake smile and said, “He should be fine. He was
just affected by the cold and running around. He’s going to stay in the
hospital overnight, though, just to be safe.”

Brand had been the first person the EMTs had put into an
ambulance when they’d arrived. Someone had finally called the police, and they
showed up while Brand and I were still staring at the rippled looking car. To
my shock, although Brand had seemed to recover, he fell to the ground as the
police and EMTs ran up to us. I realized that it had been adrenaline keeping
him upright. When they were looking him over, I saw that Brand looked worse
than before Nathan showed up. After they put him in the ambulance and it left,
I lost track as more and more people appeared and began sorting things out.

Joe Tindal was dead. But Nathan and the man who went out the
front window were still alive and
had been quickly taken
away. The police kept me behind as a witness to tell them what had happened.
Since I only felt tired and not actually hurt, I told them it was okay. I
didn’t mind. After all, I
was only in a small bit
of
shock…right, ‘small.’

Now, here, Dad hugged me and asked how I was. After a moment of
looking at him, I finally settled on a shrug. What could I say? Dare I say
anything? Maybe I had just imagined everything. After all, I really didn’t
remember letting loose. No, I couldn't possibly remember a bizarre feeling of
forcing the car into resembling something like a rippled potato chip. I didn’t
remember one bit of it.

Yes, I did.

Motioning for my parents to back away, I stood and stretched my
muscles to get them to relax. I felt achy, like I’d just run a marathon.
Looking out, I saw onlookers standing on the sides of the alley. I realized
they were the homeowners who hadn’t done a thing to help Brand and me during
our panicked run. But now, knowing they were safe, they had come to watch the
spectacle in the yellow-white lighting of police car spotlights as well as
construction lights used for night work.

How nice that they could see what
a single
phone call
by any one of them could have prevented. Ugh. I was getting
mean. This wasn’t their fault. For all anyone had known, we could have been
just playing some silly game. I glanced at the scene. No, this was no game.
Under the brightness of lights set up by the police, my parents kept looking at
me, clearly worried about what had happened. What could I tell them?
Nothing…yet.
 I needed to figure this out first. But I
also knew they wanted answers.

So I said, “Mom, he came after us. We were just walking home.
But he saw us and it went downhill from there, I—”

My dad interrupted me, “Vaughn, not here, son. The police have
to take statements, but not at the moment. Not with 
reporters
right outside.”

He motioned with his head, and I looked over his shoulder to see
reporters using boom microphones in an effort to get any part of the story they
could. I sighed. Just then, Hector Gutierrez came up to the ambulance. With a
gesture, he motioned for my parents to follow him. They nodded and left me
alone for a moment.

I just sat there, trying to figure out what had happened with
the car. No, I knew what happened with the car. But I didn’t want to believe
it. And slowly, I forced myself to accept it. In some way, I had ‘powered up.’
Yeah, that was a good phrase for turning into some sort of superhuman. Crap. I
was like Alex. I didn’t know how it had happened, but somehow, I was now able
to do things.

Memories of what had happened kept flashing in my mind. After
the memorial, I had thought that my weird experience of hearing everything at
once had been something to do with my recovery. But now I knew it had been
something else altogether. It wasn’t possible, though. It couldn’t be possible.
Alex—it had to be from what Alex had done. He had stared at Brand and me, and
then he flew—

“Vaughn?” I looked up to see Chief Sinclair standing between my
parents. Without waiting for me to react, he climbed into the ambulance and sat
on a gurney across from me. I took a calming breath. Could I tell him the truth
about what was going on? His flickering glance to the reporters gave me the
answer. I couldn’t say anything, not with all the reporters. I did not want to
be tomorrow’s new Avatar sighting. So I stayed silent and just looked at him.

In return, Chief Sinclair sighed, but he said nothing, looking
at me. I looked down. I was going to have to lie, but I wasn’t sure what I
could say. If I told him the truth, what would happen? Would he stick me in a
lab or tell the government? The government wouldn’t have to travel far.
They were still around, hanging out at Ryan Tech to continue analyzing all the
information they had on Alex. No, I didn’t want to see some agent like Dane
Eisenhawk again.

Then Chief Sinclair brought me back to the here and now when he
said, “So…we appear to have a few oddities here. I’m hoping you can clear them
up.”

I told him what happened—the chase, the gunshots, no one helping
us. I told him all of it, right up to the moment when Brand collapsed. That’s
when I said, “I decided to lead them away from Brand, and thought that if I cut
through some yards I could lose them. I…I slipped on the ice and slid down
the alley. The next thing I knew, I heard this loud crash. When I turned back
to look…”

I swallowed and went silent. That was easier than I’d thought it
would be. I just didn’t mention the part where I’d screamed at the car and
somehow turned it into a giant ripple potato chip. But the tone of voice from
Sinclair made me wince. I’d heard that kind of sound from my dad when he didn’t
believe me. Then he said, “Look, Vaughn, I know you’ve been through a lot. But
do you know what the car hit to cause that sort of damage?”

I faked a guess, “What about the light pole? I had just passed
it when I slipped. Maybe Jessup hit it at high speed.”

He looked at me and shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. To
get that sort of damage, Jessup would’ve had to be traveling around sixty miles
an hour. But there was no damage to the pole.”

I put on my best poker face and waited for him to continue. He
said, “Look, son, I’m not saying you did anything wrong, but this is damn odd.
Could it be possible that he hit another wall and just kept driving after you?
The damage to the car…”

I shook my head, acting confused by the question. “Honestly, I
don’t remember seeing anything like that. Though I think he did sideswipe a few
cars.”

Then I looked at him and asked, “How did he get out of jail?
Last I heard he hadn’t even gone to court yet.”

Chief Sinclair sighed. Then he said, “He made bail. Someone let
him out so he could do interviews. Instead, he went and got drunk and came
after you.”

I blinked and said, “He got out today?”

Chief Sinclair said, “Yes, and he just couldn’t wait to get
after you two. I suspected he was going to go after you at your homes and sent
cars to patrol you neighborhoods. But when he saw both you and Brand at the
same time, it was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.”

Reaching over, he squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Vaughn. It
seems that you’ve made enemies. Given what happened with Bob Andrews, and with
what happened here…”

I sighed. “Oh
joy.”                        

The police chief chuckled, but as he started to say something
more, the door opened without warning. Turning his head, Sinclair yelled,
“Hey!”

He stopped when Dr. Kular climbed in, looking angry, clear
disdain for him on her face. Before he could say anything, she said, “When you
start doing your police work on one of my patients, I start getting testy! This
boy got out of the hospital only a few weeks ago, and already he’s getting into
trouble! Bad enough you have one of your officers trying to question Mr.
Houseman at the hospital; you couldn’t even wait to get Hagen there to do it!”

Chief Sinclair stared at the woman for a moment. Then he slowly
stood to move out of the space. Once outside, he looked back and said, “Look,
doctor, try to understand, we have a serious crime that occurred here. Vaughn
isn’t hurt physically.”

Kular was having none of it. “I see. Did you go through medical
school before playing at being both a soldier and a police officer? Amazing
capabilities you have! Damn it, Sinclair, he’s been overextending himself
for months! He threw up in the damn bushes! Houseman told me that!”

I said, “Um, I just had a bad reaction to seeing all the blood.”

She glared at me, and then it was my turn. “Amazing, you
have a license to practice medicine, as well? 
Such
amazing people in this town!
Have you been taking your medicine, young
man? Or are you like Mr. Houseman? He has not been taking his magnesium. So I’m
checking you over right now! And, if necessary, we’re going to the hospital!”

The chief looked at her for a moment and then sighed.
“All right.
I’m sorry. I’ll wait until you’ve checked him
out.”

Nodding, Kular closed the ambulance doors and sat down in front
of me. Checking me over, she asked how I was feeling. Her voice had a monotone
quality to it, making it surprisingly easy to relax. Then, without warning, she
grabbed my chin and lifted my head, meeting my eyes. Before I could react to
that, I felt like something was pushing at me. I started to pull back only
to have Kular tighten her hand along my jaw line.

In a dull tone, as if she were concentrating on something else,
she said, “Boy, stay calm, this will only take a moment.”

I tried to speak, but nothing came out. I could only swallow
against the pressure. Gods, I couldn’t even cry out for help. Then suddenly,
it ended. One moment, it had felt as if I were about to have my brain crushed.
The very next, a flash of Angela Tursow, walking toward me in the school
hallway appeared in my mind’s eye. The pressure faded just as quickly as it had
begun, and I heard Kular swearing.

I opened my eyes to find Kular looking grim. “You’re fine, there
is no shock. But I want you home in bed. I do not want you back in the
hospital. We have a rather full house as it is.”

I shook my head. “What the hell was that all about? What made my
head hurt?”

Kular shook her head. “You are likely having a reaction
headache. Adrenaline can cause this.”

Without another word, she left the ambulance. Outside, she
glared at Chief Sinclair and said, “The next time any my patients are in some
sort of altercation, I want to hear about it directly, not from some dying fool
mumbling about light poles and hit and run attempts! And I want to know about
it before I see one of the patients brought in, burning up from exhaustion and
cold!”