Council of Peacocks (42 page)

“You know, where I come from they wait till
after breakfast before they start insulting people. Why don’t
you….?”

“Quiet! Both of you.” Todd pushed Jessica
further into the lunchroom so their voices would not carry so far.
“We’re in enough trouble as it is. Last thing we need is for Wisdom
to know I’ve been playing psychic detective. See, I woke up this
morning and everything just felt, I don’t know, wrong somehow. So I
took a quick peek into Wisdom’s mind.”

“You did what?” David felt his mouth go dry
and knew there was no way he was going to be able to eat the
chocolate bar now. “You can do that?”

Jessica started pacing again. “Well,
obviously he can do it or he wouldn’t have just done it. Loser.
Keep up, will you?”

“Again with the no-rude rule. In case you
forgot, I’m not the heroic type. I am not above hitting little
girls, you know.”

“Please, keep quiet! Jessica, behave
yourself. He obviously has no idea what’s going on.”

“What
is
going on?” David found it
hard to concentrate on the drama being played out before him.
Something kept drawing his attention away. He found it hard to
focus on anything.

Jessica cupped a hand to her mouth and
whispered as if she did not want anyone to overhear. “Todd thinks
Wisdom’s gone crazy.”

“I did not say that!” Todd realized how loud
he was, moved to within a few feet of David and continued at a
barely audible volume. “I didn’t even think that. Remember, be
careful what you think around here. Having said that, I can feel
him, Wisdom. He’s all over the place. His anger, actually I don’t
even think anger is the right word. It’s like the kind of rage you
see in caged tigers, when you just know they would rip you to
shreds if it wasn’t for the bars keeping them in.”

“So how is that different from
yesterday?”

Jessica walked over to him and punched him in
the stomach. “Stop being stupid. Maybe we should have gone to Josh
instead.”

“Don’t do that again.” David resisted the
urge to smack her upside the head, and then decided there was no
reason to resist. He slapped the back of her head, not hard, but
enough to set her ponytail swinging. “And if you want to go see
blondie, be my guest. Let him be all heroic and noble.”

Jessica, her face turning steadily red,
raised her fist again. Todd grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her
away from David. “We don’t have time for this. I’m glad you two
have bonded so well, but you can act like brother and sister later.
We are going to see Josh, but you were on the way to him so we
thought we’d come get you first.”

“Come on, Todd, let’s just leave the baby
alone.”

“Jessica, enough!” Todd’s voice rose above a
whisper again.

Behind them, someone cleared their
throat.

***

Josh was confused. “Jared, what are you doing
in here?”

Jared’s upper lip twitched and the light in
the room dimmed ever further. “I don’t see what’s so special about
you. But Propates says you can’t be allowed to stay here anymore.
He says you’re dangerous and I have to bring you in. You don’t look
so dangerous to me, though.”

Josh licked his lips and backed up. He
quickly searched the room, looking for a weapon. Then he saw it,
exactly where it was last night. Now he just had to make his way
over to it before….

Jared rolled his eyes. “Idiot. I am a mind
reader, you know?” He looked over at the letter opener on a nearby
desk. The sharp blade jumped into the air and flew toward Josh.
Josh threw himself down and rolled back into the bathroom, losing
the towel in the process. He got to his feet and closed the door
just as Jared approached it. Luckily for him, he was able to get
the lock in place before Jared could reach the handle.

Josh backed away from the door and stared at
the handle. For a moment everything was completely still and
silent. Then, with a small popping sound, the handle dropped off
the door and landed on the tiled floor with a clink.

“If there was ever time for a miracle,” Josh
said, “this would be it.”

***

“Mr. Ross?” The Chinese man had returned. He
stood just outside the lunchroom and David was now fully aware of a
small protrusion under his suit jacket that could only be a gun.
David looked back at the other two. Jessica put a finger to her
lips and Todd just shook his head.

“Answer him,” Todd said.

“What?” David asked.

“Just answer him. I’ll take care of the
rest.”

David turned back to the Chinese man and
smiled. “Yes. I’m Mr. Ross. Can I help you?”

“I heard voices.” The man’s voice was dark
with strength and menace. It left David feeling like he was back in
school and being sent to the principal’s office. The Chinese man
slipped into the lunchroom and looked around. “Where are they?”

“Where are who?” David stared at Todd. He
stood exactly where he had been, right hand pressed to his
forehead, left hand held out before him, fingers stretched and palm
pressed outwards. But the guard’s eyes did not seem to land on
him.

“I saw them when I passed by before. The
other Anomalies. Where are they?”

David shrugged and tried to look innocent. He
also tried to keep his eyes from straying to the other two. He had
never been a very good liar. “Oh, them. They left. Don’t know where
they are now. Really. But there’s no one else here, right? I mean,
you’re here and I’m here and we can see each other. You could see
someone else if they were here and since there is no one you can’t
see them. That means there are no other people, or another person
here. Are you sure you saw them before? Maybe it was shadows
or…I’ll just shut up now.” Five words in, David realized he should
have just shook his head and kept quiet. As it was, he just let his
voice fade away before his rambling looked any more suspicious than
it already had.

The man looked at David and slightly shook
his head. Then he walked back out into the corridor and disappeared
again. When he was gone, David let out a breath he was not aware he
had been holding and wiped his forehead with a shaking hand.

“Don’t do that to me again.” He walked
briskly away from the door and stood in front of Todd. “I don’t
think I’ve got a heart condition, but I’d rather not find out.”

“Wow,” Jessica said. “Nerves of steel. Can’t
wait to see you in the battlefield.”

“Jessica!” Todd lowered his hands and sat on
a nearby table. “Can’t you go back to the way you were yesterday?
You were actually tolerable then.”

“How did you do that?” David kept looking
back at the door. He was sure the man would be back any second now.
“It was like you were invisible to them.”

Todd smiled. “It’s easy once you know what to
do. You just alter the way their brain interprets the signals the
eyes send it. You make someone see something that isn’t there or
make them not see something that is there. Bethany used to be
really good at doing it. I always told her the two of us could make
a mint as international thieves. You know what she said? She said
it was too dangerous. Irony is she’d still be alive if we had.”

“We don’t have time for this, Todd.” Jessica
crossed her arms over her chest and stared at the ceiling.
“Wisdom’s almost ready.”

“Ready to do what?” David looked at her, but
once again his eyes refused to stay focused on her. Something was
distracting him.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you.”
Todd rubbed at his eyes and got to his feet. “From what I can read
from the crap he’s throwing off, Wisdom plans on attacking the
Council of Peacocks. And he’s going to use us as the weapons.”

David raised his eyebrows and felt his mouth
go dry. He kept looking at Todd, expecting him to say he was joking
any minute now. When that did not happen, he lowered his eyebrows
and felt the strength bleed out of his knees.

“I think you’re right. I think Wisdom has
gone crazy.”

***

The door swung open slowly.

Josh backed up until his back struck the back
wall. He licked his lips – too dry – and tried to focus. ‘Think’,
he thought. ‘I’ve faced Edimmu, escaped a slaughterhouse and broke
a demon’s neck. One little boy should be no problem.’

Only it was. Josh had no idea how he did the
things he did. He had never called them up at will. They just
happened. Miracles. He was just extremely lucky. Or was he? Back in
the Laurentians, the chains fell out of the wall when he thought
about them. The car drove on missing wheels because he wanted it
to. The pitchfork stopped in mid-air when he willed it to stop.
Back in high school, at the bush party when he killed Edimmu, he
made a conscious decision for his hand not to burn. And when he was
a child, hit by a bus, had he not thought, just the moment before
impact, please don’t hit me, please don’t touch me? Was it really
that simple? Did he just have to will something to have it
happen?

The bathroom door hit the inside wall,
bounced slightly and settled into place. Jared stood in the empty
frame, smiling.

“Yeah, not so tough at all,” he said. Jared
looked over to the shower and the taps spun alive. Hot water
spurted from the nozzle, filling the air with steam. Jared looked
over to the sink and spun the hot water tap so hard it flew forward
and struck the side of the shower.

“What are you doing?” Josh tried to back up
but there was nowhere else to run.

“Calling them. Don’t worry. You’ll be home
soon.”

Josh found it hard to see now. The bathroom
filled with steam impossibly fast. Jared was a blur of shadow that
seemed miles away. A sound like the rapping of a lead pipe against
ceramic tiles built from a distant echo to a loud ringing. Josh
looked around for the source of the sound and noticed the mirrors.
They were completely covered with mist except for a small vaguely
circular patch that was dark, like a skylight looking up at a
starless sky.

“You’re calling the Edimmu?” Josh realized
how naked and powerless he was and wondered if they would still
look at him with love now that he had killed their kind.

“No,” Jared answered, his voice faint, like a
whisper from a dream. “Not them. I’m calling the others. Like I
said, you’re heading home. Back to your father, Ehpslab.”

Josh looked at the circle of darkness.
Strength drained from every inch of his body. He saw now what was
making the circle. A hand, covered in red blisters and pussing
sores was wiping the mist away from the other side of the
mirror.

“No!” Josh jumped up. He suddenly knew beyond
a shadow of doubt that he could not allow the creature on the other
side of the mirror to make that circle any larger. If it was big
enough, something would come through into this world, something he
knew he would not be strong enough to fight. He focused on the
mirror and channeled his fear. With a sharp deafening crack the
mirror shattered into hundreds of pieces. He could feel the glass
wanting to shoot out in all directions, to fill the room with
shrapnel, but he kept it in place. The glass settled gently around
the base of the floor.

Josh clenched his fists and turned to the
doorway. The mist had dissipated. He saw Jared clearly now, saw the
expression of shock and fear dawning on the young boy’s face. Then
Josh pushed with the force of his will and Jared flew back twenty
feet and hit the wall in the bedroom. Pictures fell to the carpeted
floor, glass shattering. Jared slid down the wall, shook his head
and then jumped quickly to his feet.

“I am so going to kill you,” Jared said.

Before Josh could react, Jared stopped and
slowly turned to look at something to his right. Someone was in the
door to his quarters. He could feel them. Could feel her.

“Jessica,” Josh said and ran out of the
bathroom. He was just in time to see Jessica jump into the air. The
air around her turn to puddles and eddies of darkness and
quasi-solid shapes. Then the darkness shot out from her and hit
Jared square in the chest. It twisted around his body like pythons,
squeezing and crushing his body. Then, with a final sick wet
crunch, Jared’s body bent backwards at a ninety-degree angle,
breaking his back. A second later the legs bent sideways at the
knee. Two more wet crunching sounds. For a moment, Jared’s body
hung suspended in the air. Then it collapsed and was still. A thin
stream of blood trickled out of his left eye.

“Oh my God,” Josh fell to his knees. He could
not take his eyes of the dead body. ‘He was just a kid,’ he
thought. Then he looked over at Jessica. She stood in the doorway
with Todd and David. No one seemed to notice that Josh was naked.
They were all looking at Jared’s corpse.

“Humph,” Jessica said. “Never liked him that
much, anyway.”

***

Wisdom arrived several long minutes later. No
one had called him. He had just felt the use of power and the
coming of death. Wisdom spoke briefly with Garnet who had arrived
alongside him, making arrangements for the removal of the body.
Josh dressed in the bathroom but did not trust himself to speak
yet. When he came out, Elaine was there questioning the other
Anomalies. Everyone fell silent as they became aware of him. Josh
stared at the spot where Jared had hit the wall, where Josh had
thrown him with a power he did not understand. Then he sat in a
chair and told everyone what had happened.

In the end, Wisdom shook his head and turned
to Elaine. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. You understand what I’m
saying, Elaine?”

Just for a moment, Elaine’s eyes went wide.
Then she nodded. “Perhaps we should talk.”

Wisdom nodded and left the room without
another word. Elaine followed.

Jessica snuck to the door, looked up and down
the hallway, then stepped back inside and closed the door.

“Okay they’re gone,” she said. “We can get
back to business.”