The Forbidden Trilogy (39 page)

My mind flashed to Ana, to her still, dead form.

Too many people had died for this. I had to stop Rent-A-Kid,
once and for all.

"Let's go. I don't like it, but you're right. We have
to stop the Seeker, and I know where he is."

Mr. Black threw Lucy against the white brick wall in an
interrogation room. Before she could clear her ears of the buzzing, his fist
crashed into her cheek and sent an explosion of pain through her head.

She raised her leg to kick him, but fell back, too dizzy and
disoriented to stay on her feet.

He yelled, but it took a moment for Lucy to make sense of
the words. "You little piece of shit. You put this whole operation at risk
by disobeying orders!"

Another fist. A kick. Every part of her body swelled under
the torment.

"You also put my job at risk, and that is not
tolerable. They have let you little shits run around doing what you want for
too long. Well, not under my watch."

Blood filled her mouth. Tears streaked her face. Her lungs
expanded and collapsed only with an effort that took all her strength.

There had to be a way to fight him.

She willed him to lie, to get on his walkie-talkie and say
he needed backup. Anything to distract him.

Nothing happened.

Just more punches, more slaps, more kicks.

She fell to the floor.

She pushed again.

Mr. Black didn't stop.

She tried to sit up, but couldn't. She wrapped her arms
around her head and let him beat her.

"Get up. Get up and fight me, you bitch."

He kicked her ribs, and sharp bites of pain spread through
her. She screamed out, but still couldn't move.

She spat on his shoe—the only way she could fight back.
"Kill me if you think that'll make you a real man." She coughed.
So
hard to get air.
"Such a hero, beating up kids. Your family must be
proud."

He leaned over and spat in her face. Rather than enrage him
further, her taunts seemed to calm him.

"I'm not going to kill you, bitch. It wouldn't make a
difference. You're not going to be here long anyways."

He smiled like the oily bastard he was, and left Lucy lying
on the ground, broken and bloody.

No one helped her. No one cared.

Time held no meaning. She slipped in and out of
consciousness. Darkness had fallen by the time she finally managed to stand and
walk—Mr. Black had taken her to the interrogation room early in the day.

Lucy wished real life came with a soundtrack as she stumbled
to her dorm. For this scene, she would've played something by Clint Mansell,
one of his beautiful instrumental compositions suited a miserable walk home.

Imaginary music filled the air around her. She tried to hum
with it, but couldn't spare the extra breath.

She entered her suite and collapsed onto the couch.

***

"Luce? Lucy? Oh my God, what happened to you? Who did
this?"

Luke stood over her, but he was blurry. No, wait, her eyes
didn't work. Why wouldn't they open all the way?

"Lucy, don't move. You're hurt, bad. Just... stay
still. I'm going to get the nurse."

Darkness came again.
Fists—so many fists—slamming into me
again and again.
Her dream cry turned real when hands pressed into her
bruises, jolting her awake.

A calm voice soothed her. "Shh. It's okay. I'm giving
you something to help. It's experimental, but it should have you right as rain
in no time."

Images flickered in and out of her mind until cohesive
thought returned to her. When she opened her eyes again, and fully, she saw
Luke asleep on the floor next to the couch.

"Luke, wake up."

He sat up and hugged her as he might hug a butterfly.
"You look a lot better. That drug could make them a fortune in the
professional boxing circuit."

Lucy laughed, and it didn't hurt as much as she had
expected.
Like being kicked in the ribs rather than stabbed with a knife—now
that's improvement!

Luke brushed a stray hair out of her eyes. "Who did
this to you?"

"Mr. Black. It was payback for botching the
operation."

Luke balled his fists and hopped up. "I'm going to kill
him, right now. I'm going to smash his face in until it isn't a face
anymore."

"Bro, believe me, no one wants to bash his skull in
more than me, but we can't. It'd be a suicide mission, and then we'd lose all
chance of helping our friends." She reached for his hand and pulled him to
sit next to her. "It's time for another meeting. Do you think you can do
that shield thing again? You know, the way you blocked the bullets with your
new power? Because I have an idea."

***

Lucy wore her black eye and not-quite-healed bruises in
front of the group like badges of honor.

When the room quieted, she began. "It's time. We can no
longer stay within the walls of this school and survive. Look what they did to
me." She gestured to her bruises. "When have we ever been beaten for
the way we completed a mission? And look at our school? We've become prisoners.
We have to act fast and hard, take them by surprise before they have a chance
to prepare for us.

"Luke, can you come up here?"

Luke met her at the front.

"There's more to our powers than we realize. You all
know my brother, Luke, and his para-power of walking through walls, right?
Well, I'd like you to see something." She turned to Gary, already prepped
for this demonstration, and nodded her head.

Gary flicked a penny at Luke, and Luke raised his hands. The
penny stopped in midair, held there by some unseen force.

The students gasped, and whispers rippled throughout the
room.

"As you know, he's never been able to do that before. I
think it's connected to his original power, but its inverse—a shadow power.
Luke can separate the molecular structure of something in order to pass through
it. Now, he can enforce that same structure outside himself, creating barriers
and fields. We discovered this while on our assignment. In addition to detecting
lies, I can now coerce someone to lie. I have a theory that each of us has a
shadow power to complement our normal para-power. We just have to tap into it
and practice it. Then, we will be twice as strong."

Everyone in the room smiled openly. For the first time in a
long time, hope filled them. The shift in energy was palpable. Her mind flashed
to Adam. They owed him so much and they would never know it.

"We need a bigger meeting place, somewhere secret where
we can train and improve our powers."

A girl stepped forward. "I could start looking. I know
this school well. Someone once showed the blueprints of the entire campus, and
I have a photographic memory."

Lucy frowned. "What's your name?"

"Linda."

Gary nudged Lucy and whispered to her. "She's been a
close friend of mine for a long time. We can trust her."

Lucy nodded but still had to check. "Linda, can you
come up here for a second?"

Everyone watched as Linda approached. She was a slight thing
with eyes too big for her head. Lucy softened her tone. "You're new.
Everyone has to pass a lie detector, just to be safe. It's not personal."

Some of the tension eased out of her. "Oh, right. Gary
told me about that. Sure."

After a few questions, some standard, others new, Lucy
trusted that Linda wouldn't betray them.

"Great. Everyone, consider what your shadow powers
might be, but don't get caught practicing them. We aren't safe here anymore.
We'll reconvene when Linda has found us a spot."

***

Lucy eyed her computer with evil intent, but resisted the
impulse to throw it through the window. After all, it wasn't her computer's
fault she couldn't crack the damn code on the damn disk she'd copied from her
damn assignment.

The scientist had said something about viruses. Were they
creating some kind of biological warfare to wipe out humans? A virus to infect
people with para-powers? A virus to control those with para-powers? The
possibilities were endless, which was why she needed to crack the code.

She stretched her back and stared out her window at the
moon. The campus looked so peaceful at night; it reminded her of life before
the men in black turned it into a prison.

The sphere in her pocket pulsed with energy of its own. Lucy
took it out and examined it again, tossing it back and forth in her hands.
There didn't appear to be a way to open it or use it—no buttons or triggers.
Still, some power surged through it, and Lucy could feel the same power rushing
through her own body.

The sphere mesmerized her and drew her in. It unlocked her
mind's secrets—

"Lucy!"

The sphere slipped from her hand, and she glared at the
interruption. Gary stood at her door with Greg beside him. "Sorry to bug
you, but we found a place to train. It's perfect."

Anger filled Lucy with a ferocity she'd never felt before.
"Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

The boy's head dropped. "We... did. You didn't answer,
and I thought you'd want to know, because of the timing and everything."

The web of emotion weighing her down vanished. She shook her
head to clear it. "No, of course. I'm sorry, I'm still recovering from my
injuries and I get a bit grumpy. You did the right thing. Let's get Luke and
head over."

Lucy leaned over while the boys turned to leave, and grabbed
the sphere. She shoved it back into her pocket and followed them out.

***

The walk through campus at night was a risk, but Greg kept
the surveillance off of them. It was too late to call a meeting, but they could
at least set the place up.

Linda and a few other Freedom Fighters met them at The Hub
and took them to an abandoned building that, before the soldiers had moved in,
was going to be refurbished as a new gym.

A guard with a flashlight approached, and they all ran into
the main doorway. Larry, a guy who could generate light, used his shadow power
to shut down the guard's flashlight.

The guard slapped the useless metal against his palm, then
swore and headed back in the direction he'd come.

Linda led them through the gym area and into a corridor none
of them had ever noticed before. "There's a secret passage here, a door
that leads to a basement. It's perfect for us. No one ever goes down
there."

The basement gave them plenty of room to practice, and even
had smaller rooms off to the side for the more dangerous para-powers.

Lucy brushed some dust off a chair, but didn't sit.
"This is perfect, Linda. You did an awesome job."

They spent the next hour moving boxes and throwing away
random bits of wood and trash. Then they set up some basic practice areas
before they headed back to their dorms.

Luke grabbed her shoulder as they crossed the quad.
"What's up, Sis? You've been distracted all night."

"I'm just thinking. What did Mr. Black mean when he
said we wouldn't be here long? There are obviously bigger plans at work, and I
want to know what they are. I wish the meeting you recorded in Russia had given
us more information. It's all so confusing."

"Yeah, I've listened to it a thousand times, and I
still don't know what it means—only that Rent-A-Kid isn't the only organization
at play here. They talked about the IPI as if it was the enemy, which means it
might be an ally for us, but who knows? We don't even know what IPI stands for,
much less whether they really can stand up to whoever's in charge here."

A guard approached them and shone his flashlight in their
faces, destroying their night vision. "Curfew is in ten minutes. What are
you two still doing out?"

Lucy pursed her lips. "If it's in ten minutes, then
we're not breaking any rules, and therefore it's none of your business."

Luke elbowed her in the ribs. "What my sister means to
say is we're just out for some fresh air and a jog. We're heading back to our
dorm now and will be there before lockdown."

The guard grunted like some wild pig. "Hurry up,
then."

They jogged back to their dorm, and Luke pulled on Lucy's
ponytail. "You trying to get us busted."

"No, I'm sorry. It's just so irritating, these stupid
wannabe soldiers thinking they can boss us around. I hate them."

"I know. We'll figure a way out of here. Somehow."

***

Ms. Fenkle's computer class used to keep Lucy's
attention—she was, after all, the most advanced student. But, like everything
and everyone, Ms. Fenkle was affected by the school's change of leadership. Her
normal lessons were replaced by rote assignments a chimp with a typewriter
could do.

Lucy had the distinct impression this new regime didn't
actually want them to learn anything useful. Even more troubling was that she
had no idea what they wanted the students for, or why they kept up the charade
of an education.

She missed the days when school was fun, when she and Sam would
pass notes in class and talk about boys and compare powers, when life made
sense and they didn't have to worry about death and pregnancy and being beat
up.

When the bell rang, Lucy hustled back to her dorm. The
loudspeaker voice had strictly forbidden fraternizing in the hallways—or
anywhere else for that matter.

That didn't stop Mary from flirting with Darren.

When Lucy walked past them, Mary pushed her aside.
"Watch it, freak!"

In the past, Lucy would have had a witty retort to throw her
way, but it didn't matter anymore. Mary, with her stupid games and her stupid
flirtations... Lucy didn't have time for it. She had bigger worries.

To Lucy's surprise, Gary came out of his physics class and
approached Mary. "Have you given any thought to our new club?"

Mary flipped her hair back and turned on enough charm—AKA
para-power—to make most boys sweat. But Gary had a boyfriend, so Mary didn't
get far with him, much to her obvious chagrin.