Contained (Evolution Series Book 5) (8 page)

Leaving Mum and Jack behind, I transported Aiden with me to Kai. We found him behind a laptop in a hotel room that didn’t look to have been touched since room service had been there.

The sound of waves crashing onto the shoreline could be heard in the distance but looking out the window, I couldn’t work out where we were.

Kai looked up from the screen. “I’ve got everything set up but we might need to move to a new location if it takes longer for the initial one to go viral.”

He got off the desk-chair and positioned the laptop so the camera would pick us up while sitting on the bed. “Take a seat and we’ll get things started.”

Doing as we were told, Aiden and I sat on the foot of the bed.

“What do you want us to say?” Aiden asked.

“Ah… just say that you’ve got an announcement that will go live once we get five-million hits.”

“That’s it?” Aiden asked.

Kai shrugged. “That’s it. And we’ll work on what you should say on the next one while we’re waiting for this one to go viral.”

Aiden put his hand on my leg. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Kai stood to the side of the computer, pressed something, and the little red light turned on.

I was about to ask Aiden if he wanted me to do the talking but he took charge.

“Hi, everyone,” he gave a little wave, “Most of you already know who we are and we’ve come here to let you all know that we’d like to make an announcement. But we want as much media coverage as possible in as little time as possible. So, we won’t be making this announcement until we have reached five-million hits. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

“It will?”
I asked.

Aiden glanced at me and shrugged ever so slightly.
“It will be for the next gens.”

Kai quickly stopped the feed. “Okay, so now let’s see how this goes.” He positioned the laptop in front of him and started typing. A few seconds later, he pushed the chair back as he stood. “That’s all set up, keep an eye on the numbers.” He then grabbed the TV remote and flicked on to the news channels. “Let’s see how quickly they pick it up.”

The three of us sat in silence as we waited for the numbers to start moving, and within a minute it was already having the effect we were hoping for.

Smiling, I turned to the boys. “Let’s get working on the other details.”

Kai pulled the chair to the side of the bed so he could keep an eye on both the computer and TV then sat back down. “The others were thinking it’s probably a good idea if we give everyone a pretty well known address and tell them to be there in five minutes. Then from there we take everyone to another location. One that’s more secure than the first; that way we’ll have more time to clear up any objections others might have about doing things our way.”

I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying something to Kai about acting all responsible for a change; I didn’t want to ruin the frame of mind he was in.

“And how are we going to get everyone to the other location?” Aiden asked.

A devilish smile spread across Kai’s face. “That’s where your girlfriend comes in. We’re not going to tell anyone the next location. Jade’s going to take everyone.”

Aiden shot a glance in my direction before returning his gaze to Kai. “You can’t expect her to do it to that many.”

I put my hand on Aiden’s thigh. “It’ll be fine.” When he was about to object I said, “Really. It’ll be the easiest and safest option.” Everyone was so used to protecting me that it was hard for them to accept the transformation—especially Aiden. “I’m not the same girl I was a few days ago. I can handle this.”

He knew I was right, but he still didn’t like it. It was almost as if his need for protecting me was built into his DNA. However, as always, he respected whatever decision I made, which made me love him even more.

“So, where’s the first meeting point?” I asked, getting back on track.

“It’s…” Kai trailed off as the news programme cut to breaking news. A moment later, we were watching Aiden and me delivering our message. How they managed to get expert commentary on such short notice was beyond me since we’d only recorded the message about a minute earlier, but there was a panel of professionals from different fields giving their opinions on what Aiden and I were going to announce. Opinions differed from us helping the sick to us wanting to take over the world. I almost laughed at the last one. If we’d wanted to take over the world we would’ve done that by now. Their guns and ammunition were no match for us. They could never hold us. And even if they did manage to catch us, I was pretty sure they didn’t have the recipe for the concoction we were using on Nathan.

Kai picked up the remote and flicked through the channels. “Looks like we’re ready to go.” He looked over to the laptop and chuckled. “We’re already over six million hits. They really want you guys.”

“What can I say, we’re irresistible,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Aiden grinned. “That you are.”

“I said
we.
”

Kai rolled his eyes as he shuffled his chair back to the desk. He pressed a few buttons on the keyboard then positioned the camera toward Aiden and me.

“So, where is this place we’re telling them to get to?” Aiden asked.

“We don’t know how many people are going to turn up and how big an area we might need. So we were thinking of hi-jacking the stadium used in the UK Olympics. There would’ve been crap loads of next gens who attended at least one event and the TV coverage it got, would probably do for a heap more.”

Aiden nodded. “Then where to after that?”

Kai shrugged. “It will depend how many we have. We might have to split them up and each of us takes a group.”

Neither Aiden nor I liked the idea but Kai wasn’t suggesting for Aiden and me to split up and it never crossed Aiden’s mind that he would. As far as Aiden and everyone else were concerned, we were like one half of the other. It was funny, because I could feel the connection between us growing stronger every day, and I never thought we could get any closer than when Aiden fell back in love with me. But, it was what it was. And I wasn’t complaining.

“You two ready?” Kai asked with his finger hovering above a button.

“Ready,” we said in unison.

Again, Aiden took the lead. “Hi, everyone. I bet you’ve been wondering what this big announcement is. Well, it’s kind of silly…” A second later, time slowed to the same speed as when I was in Thailand and Jaidee’s place was getting blown to bits. “Now, the reason for this video is that we want to organise a meeting for as many next gens who can make it to UK’s Olympic stadium in the next five minutes. We will be waiting there for you with further instruction.” A moment later, time sped up to it’s usual pace and Aiden continued, “We…” He looked to me and smiled. “We just wanted to say hi. So, hi.”

“Hi,” I said, giving a quick wave.

Kai reached for the keyboard.

“Wait,” I said, surprising myself. “Before we go, I just wanted to say that we appreciate all your messages and we will help when the time is right.” I wanted to tell them more. Tell them that Harry was slaving away in the lab, trying to find a way to help them but I couldn’t give any more information at that stage. But I wanted them to know their messages were not going unheard. We were doing something. I prayed it would give hope to those who needed it.

Kai turned off the feed. “Good work guys.” He stood. “Now, let’s get over to the stadium.”

“What about your laptop?” Aiden asked, when it was obvious he was going without it.”

“It’s not his,” I said.

“Yep. I just borrowed it from one of the guests down the hall,” he said then transported to the Olympic Stadium.

Aiden chuckled as he shook his head, thinking of the poor guy who was going to have the cops all over his computer. But we had to do what we had to do.

Taking my hand, Aiden transported us to the centre of the stadium.

There wasn’t a light on in the stadium but the moon was out and our enhanced eyesight made it look more like dusk than the night I knew it to be.

The UK clan was already there and so were my mum and her entourage. It was strange seeing everyone outdoors. Most of the time when we got together it was inside somewhere, which had more to do with privacy than the unnecessary need to travel to our destinations the conventional human way.

Anna strode toward us. “You two did good. But they’re probably going to know something is up with that message you left.”

Aiden shrugged. “We’ll be out of here by the time they figure it out.”

Just as he finished his sentence, the first of our kind started to appear, quickly followed by more and more. Within minutes we were surrounded by well over five-hundred people.

Chelsea spotted me and rushed over. “I can’t believe how many of you guys there are.” She was looking around at the crowd and of course checking out the nearby guys. But, unlike when she was with her previous boyfriends, she never wondered ‘what if’. For the first time in her life Chelsea was happy and content. Actually she had to pinch herself daily just to make sure Lucas wasn’t a dream.

Dave came over with my Mum and I was surprised to see that she was taking it all in her stride.

He looked at his watch. “We need to get going in the next couple of minutes.”

“Where to?” Aiden asked. “Do you think we need to split up?”

Dave turned around and scanned the crowd. There were still more coming in every second.

“We’re going to need to split up,” Mum said what we were all thinking.

Anna nodded. “Even if we each take half, that’s still going to be some big numbers.”

“We could do three groups,” I suggested but I already knew what the answer would be. They didn’t think we kids should be responsible for telling a group much older than we are what they needed to do. I could see their point and I didn’t feel right about making so many people accept things they didn’t initiate on their own accord. Before they had a chance to open their mouth, I said, “Forget about it. We’ll just stick with two groups.”

The three oldies were relieved they didn’t need to convince me what a bad idea that was.

“Now, we just have to figure out where to stash a crowd even half this size for however long it may take to get through to them,” Dave said.

Mum ran her hand through her hair as she looked at the people around her who were only just starting to take note of who we were. “It’s probably a good idea if we take them somewhere there won’t be a big police force to deal with if word gets out.

“So, somewhere in the middle of nowhere?” Anna asked absently, as different locations ran through her mind.

“Or we can just hire a room,” I suggested. “We can pick out a hotel, make the staff think we’ve had a booking with them for months and that we don’t want them to disturb us. Pretty easy.”

Aiden squeezed me tightly against him. He was proud of how much I’d changed from the girl who jumped into every situation without thinking, to the one who had come up with the solution to resolve the Nathan issue and now this.

“Already on it,” Jack said coming up behind me. “That was Gemma’s suggestion, too. And Lucas is already tracking down the rooms.”

Wow. That girl’s mind really works fast. Gemma was probably going to turn into another Kai or maybe just the girl with her ear to the ground who knows everything about everyone and everything. I bit down on a smile, wondering what she might be capable of when the rest of her abilities finally did come through. Of course she wasn’t going to be like me, but then again, no one else was. I was a phenomenon. But there was no doubt that Gemma would hold her own. She was resilient and quick thinking and didn’t jump into things without considering all the probabilities, unlike me. Though I was getting better—slowly.

As if on queue, I felt Lucas appear. I looked toward the top of the stadium where we locked eyes with one another then a second later he was standing in front of me. “Okay, we’ve got a hotel in—”

“Leave the details out,” I said, realising it wasn’t a good idea to tell everyone where they were going, just in case anyone was thinking of double-crossing us. “Just take me there first, and I’ll come back for everyone.”

Lucas nodded. “Let’s go.” He put his hand on me and transported us, including Aiden who was still attached to my side, to an expansive conference room that would have no problem housing over half the people in the stadium. Seats were already lined up facing a stage. The walls were soundproofed, which would make it easier for me to block those on the outside and concentrate on the people within the room. I needed to know what they were thinking and if there was anyone who was a potential threat.

“I hope the next one’s as good as this,” I said.

“The other was set up for a wedding that had been cancelled due to all of the shit going on around us. The bridal party apparently didn’t want to place a bad omen on their marriage.” He chuckled. “Some people are seriously crazy.”

“Lucky for us though,” Aiden said.

Lucas put his hand on my shoulder and transported us to the next destination. As he said, it was set up for a wedding. They’d even gone as far as decorating the tables and chairs. The flowers were absent which made me think they had cancelled it no later than that morning.