Jaden Baker (72 page)

There were two men in the observation room, the third had left. Seth plucked two sharp pieces of glass from the air, aimed them, squinting one eye as he looked at the men. Blowing air through his lips, the glass blew through the air like bullets, and struck each man in the heart. Like puppets whose strings were cut, they collapsed to the floor.

Seth strode toward the now open room, when part of the padded wall slid into the ceiling. He saw it from the side of his right eye. He waited for something to happen, for a team of men to come in with tranquilizer guns, coming to their deaths.

Joseph Madrid came instead, holding his remote control that got this body in here. Seth whipped it out of Madrid’s hand and held it in his own.

Seth examined it. “How interesting,” he said. His first words. The sound of his voice was thrilling. “I wondered how you had so much control. So this is what controls the brain? Those wires just turn him on and off. Fascinating.”

Madrid’s eyes were wide in fear. It pleased Seth, and he wished Jaden could see that face, feel that heart thrumming like the beating wings of a hummingbird.

The remote, held in the palm of his hand, broke apart. Dismantled itself. “Problem solved.”

“You’re not Jaden,” Madrid said, snapping his fingers.

“No I’m not,” Seth replied. “You shouldn’t be so surprised. You suspected me.” Seth watched Madrid’s fingers, wondered why the snapping.

“Where’s Jaden?” Madrid asked, backing away, toward the entrance he’d come through.

“Why do you ask?” Seth said. “Did you have more torture in mind?”

Madrid shook his head. Seth wasn’t going to let this man escape, not after what he’d done. He deserved pain and punishment before death. Powering on his mind again, Seth grabbed Madrid and flung him across the room. The thud into the padded wall wasn’t as loud or as forceful as he’d hoped, but that didn’t matter.

Groping at his neck, Madrid slid up the wall, his eyes wide, face growing red. Seth selected a long, sharp, knife-like shard of glass, and held it in his hand, twirling it to see his reflection.

“I warned you twelve years ago that you couldn’t control me,” Seth said, and Madrid slid down to his level. “You wouldn’t listen. You had to torture Jaden to make him do what you wanted. I’ll return the favor.”

Seth slid the glass along Madrid’s stomach and up to his chest, cutting through his shirt. Seth ripped it off and threw it to the floor.

“Is this reminding you of anything?” Seth asked. “If only I had a rod to beat you with. You’ll find I’m quite adaptable, though. The glass will work.”

Madrid flipped around, his stomach against the wall, his arms spread wide.

Seth let his anger and sense of injustice consume him, inviting Jaden to watch as he cut his enemy, administered the pain deserved. Standing back so as not to go too deep, Seth gripped the glass and swept it across Madrid’s exposed back. He didn’t scream as loud as Seth would have liked, so he did it a few more times, finally getting the decibel he desired.

“Now,” Seth said, grinning, “we have to establish our relationship.”

A beeping sound came from behind him, and Seth turned to see what interrupted him.

It was a robot with a computer monitor rigged to the top of it. As it rolled closer, the monitor powered on. Seth watched.

Dr. Sam’s face appeared on the screen. “Release him,” Sam commanded, his voice coming out of a speaker strapped to the robot, which rolled on track wheels like a tank.

“No,” Seth replied.

“Keep watching the screen.” Sam reached forward and pressed a button, and the feed changed.

A man wearing black, with a mask over his face, held a frightened woman to his chest, hand over her groaning mouth, a knife to her throat.

“Libby!” Jaden said, his image reflected dozens of times in the floating mirror shards. But Jaden wasn’t really there, he watched from the sidelines.

“Calm down,” Seth said, feeling the edge of the glass in his hand, making sure he still had control. “I said I’d help you out of here, we have to do this my way.”

Sam’s voice came back, though the feed of a terrified Libby with a knife to her throat was still there. “Release Madrid or we kill her.”

Seth laughed. “She’s the only leverage you have over Jaden. You won’t kill her.”

There was a moments pause. “You’re right. We can cut off her nose to prove we’re serious.”

The masked man put knife to Libby’s nose.

“Seth, no!” Jaden screamed. “Stop!”

The masked man lowered the knife
—
Libby’s eyes were wide.

There was a solid minute of silence.

“Seth,” Sam said, a lightness to his voice, “Jaden knows we’re serious. Drop the glass, release Madrid.”

Seth turned to Jaden, angry that Jaden was heard by others. It shouldn’t have been that way. Seth had never been heard when Jaden was in control…“They’re bluffing,” Seth said. “You have to let me do this, it’s the only way to get us out of here.”

Jaden shook his head. “No. They’ll hurt her. They’ll do it. Drop the glass, let him go.”

“Can you hear yourself?” Seth said, a taste of disgust in his mouth, his stomach churning with anger and a sense of abandonment. “Don’t you remember what he did to you? What Dalton did to you? They deserve this. No one can stop us, Jaden.”

“They’ll hurt her,” Jaden whined, coming closer to Seth. “Put the glass down, let him go!”

Seth used the blood tipped mirror in his hand to see Madrid, his bleeding back, then watched the live feed of Libby, knife to her throat, mouth covered. She was the only thing they could use against Jaden, not against Seth. What would he do without Jaden? If something happened to her, would Jaden understand and forgive him in time?

“You need me,” Seth said to Jaden. “You need me to help you out of here. They’re controlling you with her.”

“I don’t care,” Jaden replied. “She’s innocent in this. It’s my fault she’s here.”

Sam’s voice came back over the speaker. “You’re running out of time. Ten seconds and Libby loses her nose.”

“Seth, drop it!” Jaden said.

“Ten.”

“She’s nothing. She’s the knife to your throat!” Seth yelled.

“Nine.”

Jaden grabbed at his own hair. “Drop the glass!”

“Eight.”

“No, you can’t let them win. Stop letting them control you.”

“Seven.”

Jaden’s eyes were wild with panic. “Drop the glass!” he screamed.

“Six.”

“NO! She’s nothing to us!” Seth screamed.

“I love her!” Jaden roared. “I love her!”

Ringing silence.

Seth exhaled, his shoulders slumped. “You don’t,” he said, but it didn’t matter. Jaden had chosen. He could only help with Jaden’s cooperation.

“Four.”

Pulling back his fist, Jaden hit Seth with all the power, mental and physical, he could muster, knocking Seth backwards, the glass bouncing to the padded floor. Seth made a final dive for it, but Jaden knocked it away and punched him again.

Jaden crawled off the floor and strode over to Madrid, who had slumped to the ground. He hoisted him up by his armpits, dragged him to the robot with the monitor and camera.

“Let her go,” Jaden said, pleading into the tiny camera. “Please, let her go. I did what you asked.”

The knife came away from Libby’s neck, her chin lowered as the man slackened his grip. Libby’s eyes glistened with tears, her cheeks streaked with them.

Jaden stepped back but kept his eyes on the screen, looking at her face.

A team of ten men, ran into the room, all with tranquilizer rifles pointed at him. Jaden raised his hands, trying to show his submission. One of the men put a blanket around Madrid and helped him up, wincing as he stood.

“Where’s Seth?” Madrid asked weakly, massaging his neck.

Jaden shrugged. “Gone,” he said, and he knew it was true. Seth wasn’t here. If he would ever come back, Jaden couldn’t say. Seth said he’d always been with Jaden, and maybe he always would be. But he wasn’t here now.

Madrid breathed hard, his eyebrows pulled down. “Get on your knees. Hands on your head,” he growled.

Jaden fell to his knees, laced his fingers to the back of his head. He took his eyes away from Madrid and found Libby on the screen. She was crying still, shaking her head in defeat.

“You do something like that again,” Madrid said, “and I’ll kill her.”

“I won’t,” Jaden replied, watching Libby.

Madrid walked to one of the surrounding men and pulled a tranquilizer gun from a holster. He walked to Jaden’s back and pointed the gun at his neck.

“Say goodbye to Libby,” Madrid said. “You won’t be seeing her again.”

Jaden held back tears as he memorized her beautiful face, her auburn hair, the way she looked at him. “Goodbye, Libby,” he said, his bottom lip trembling.

Libby’s feed had no sound. She reached for him and screamed, struggling against the man who held her, but he did not hear her. It was better that way, he didn’t want to hear her sad voice. Seeing her grieved by losing him, that was enough. She would miss him. Strangely, that made him happier. To be missed.

Jaden heard the soft air of the pistol release, felt the dart hit his neck. His heart slowed to a rhythmic pace and his eyes drooped to a close just as his body weakened and fell forward.

Loneliness, a state she was so familiar with, had never hurt like this. She was curled in a ball on a bed, sobbing freely, the recent memory replaying in her mind, burned there forever. Never in her life had she seen something so horrible, felt so powerless and used, and she knew nothing would ever match it. To see someone arguing like that, for her sake, to save her life, only to be shot in the back after saying goodbye to her. Was there anything more terrible?

Three months had passed since the accident in Seattle. Libby had known during her hospital stay and recovery time that someone from Archcroft watched her. Then, two days ago, they’d taken her. Part of her was surprised, the other was not: Jaden had not come back to see her. She knew something had gone wrong.

They used her against him. In a way, Seth, whoever or whatever he was, was right: Libby was the knife to Jaden’s throat.

A door opened, Joseph Madrid came inside, his movements stiff. Two bodyguards accompanied him, rightly assuming Libby wanted to pound the shit out of him.

Libby wiped her face and sat forward.

“Miss Dalton,” Madrid said, folding his hands in front of him. “It appears you’ve made quite the impression on our Mr. Baker. I’m sorry to have used you so. Believe me when I say we thought we took every measure possible to make sure that didn’t happen. You were our insurance policy.”

Libby shook with rage.

“I come offering peace,” he said. “Believe it or not, I never intended on harming you. I knew Jaden would pull through for me, for you. He’s full of surprises, isn’t he?”

The anger pulsating through her finally reached her mouth. “You fucking bastard.”

A smile spread over his face. “I don’t expect you to understand.”

“I understand perfectly,” she said. Her teeth chattered and she shivered. “You kidnapped a boy, brought him down here, tortured him to get him to do things for you, he got out, and now you’ve got him back. You’re sick.”

“That’s a succinct way of putting it,” Madrid responded. “Someone that powerful is valuable, but only if he can be controlled. I’ll have you know it took a long time to break him. He’s strong willed and stubborn. A lot like you,” Madrid said, smiling in a paternal sort of way. He eased himself down on the bed. “I wore him down eventually. People give in after so much pain.”

Libby fought the tears that came as she imagined Jaden as a little boy, screaming as Madrid tortured him. She felt horrible about it, wishing she could soften some of her past words to Jaden.

“He didn’t give you everything,” she said, her voice warbling.

Madrid clucked his tongue. “No, you’re right. We had to make some adjustments to him, to ensure he’d bend to our commands.”

“You put things in his head because he’d never stop fighting you,” she snarled. “He wouldn’t let you take him.”

A soft, knowing laughter escaped him. “He put it in his own head.” He smiled at her again. “I convinced him that to avoid more pain, we just had to put something in his head that would allow him to follow my orders exactly. The work was too precise to be put in by a surgeon. It took a lot of planning and careful work for Jaden to wire his own brain. At first I didn’t think it was possible. The conscious mind of a psychokinetic like him believes he can’t affect anything inside himself. Some rules are meant to be broken. I doubt he remembers the procedure.”

Her sense of sympathy for Jaden intensified.

Madrid withdrew a tri-folded paper from the inside pocket of his coat. He handed it to her.

“What is this?” Libby asked, unfolding it.

“Compensation for your troubles,” he said, yawning. “It’s a bank account we set up in your name, your current name, I should say, Miss James. There’s enough money in there for you to never work again, to buy a horse ranch and whatever else you may want. Inheritance for your children.”

It was blood money and it made her sick. She handed it back to him, and when he didn’t take it, she tore it up, threw it to the floor and watched the paper drift.

“It’s yours. If you want to give it all away, that’s your business. It’s our gift to you.”

“I don’t want money.”