The Tower (20 page)

Cindy had said those same words to me back when she first started teaching me power balance: “You need to learn where your power starts, and where it ends.” Aside from the normal dizziness and nausea that came from being drained, for a brief moment, I did feel something different. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was yet, but it was enough to make me ask Terry and Alia for one more try that day. One try became three, but I still couldn’t take the remote control away from Alia.

But it was true that I was getting slightly closer with each try. And near the end of the next week...

“Gotcha!” I shouted triumphantly as my right hand caught Alia’s left pigtail from behind.

“Ow! Stop it!”
Alia yelled into my head as she cried out in pain. I refused to let go, pulling her pigtail up and forcing her to drop the remote control. (And no, I had not planned it this way when I braided my sister’s hair that morning.)

“Bravo!” cried Terry, clapping. “You did it!”

“Maybe I was just lucky,” I said lightly as I picked up the remote control and used it to snap the control band off of my wrist.

“Maybe,” agreed Terry, “but it’s time to make the circle bigger anyway.”

The very next day, the circle got even larger – twice. And at last, I understood why.

The following day was a Saturday, a week into August, and as luck would have it, it was drizzling from early morning. In the afternoon, I sat with Cindy and Alia in our greenhouse for an indoor picnic. Cindy didn’t notice what I was doing until dessert, when she suddenly cried out in surprise, “What are you holding, Adrian?!”

“A spoon,” I answered calmly, smiling at her.

“But that’s not plastic!”

“I know,” I said, scooping up more chocolate ice cream. The truth was that I was quite dizzy, and I wasn’t sure I could even stand up, but I had managed to use real silverware for the entire meal without dropping any of the food.

“You learned it!” said Cindy, beaming at me.

I accidentally plopped my spoonful of ice cream onto my lap.

“I’m still learning,” I laughed embarrassedly.

And I was, but after the initial breakthrough, it was amazing how much easier it was to make progress.

When, long ago, I had asked Cindy exactly what it was about power balance that I was supposed to be looking for, she had answered enigmatically, “It’ll find you.” Now I understood why she couldn’t explain it to me. Learning power balance is like learning to ride a bicycle or learning how to whistle – you can’t properly describe how it works in words. You have to experience it, and once you do, you wonder how it could ever have been so difficult.

For me, it was like learning how to open a door. When you move from one room to another, you open a door and close it behind you without thinking about how you’re doing it. In fact, if you really start to think of each and every hand and finger movement involved in operating a door, you probably wouldn’t be able to open it. It has to be done without conscious thought.

But when you open a door, you often do it in a certain way. Depending on the door, you might open it with your left or right hand, or you might even kick it open. But you probably wouldn’t try to open it by biting the doorknob and pulling it with your teeth. You may never consider pushing it open using just your nose.

Without ever realizing it, I had let my psionic power dictate to me how I opened the door to my own body, and without any thought, I had accepted that this was the one and only correct way to use my muscles. In fact, there had always been many other ways, but they simply didn’t occur to me. And if relearning to use my body without my psionic power was as difficult and awkward as opening a door with my teeth, at least I knew that the door was opening, and I could get through it with practice.

Another week passed, and it was nearly mid-August. Terry had removed the circle from the gym mats entirely and added an extra rod to my control band, but I still managed to catch Alia by the fourth try.

“I’ve got to hand it to you, Terry,” I said as I pushed the button on the remote control to unlock my bracelet, “you do know your psionics stuff.”

Terry smiled. “How does it feel to be free of your power reliance?”

“Honestly,” I said laughingly, “quite horrible.”

As I had suspected, power balance came with the serious drawback of being far less than superhuman. The pain never left my muscles these days as Terry’s CQC training got harder and harder. I was having trouble keeping up with Cindy’s morning tutoring because sometimes my body ached so much that I could barely hold a pencil.

“You’re still better off this way, Adrian,” said Terry.

“I know,” I replied. “But I’m not entirely free of it yet.”

“And you may never be. Very few psionics ever learn to separate their powers completely. In fact, Ms. Gifford is the only one I know who claims she can do it.”

“Still,” I said, “I’m getting there.”

“Definitely getting there,” agreed Terry. “Soon you’ll be doing your CQC training with that control band on.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

Terry laughed. “Anything can happen.”

Later that evening, I showed off my power balance to Cindy again, helping her load the silverware into the dishwasher. I probably should have stuck to loading glass plates. I got too dizzy and dropped one of the knives, nearly stabbing Cindy in the foot with it.

“But if I get better,” I said as I pulled the tip of the knife out of the wooden floor, “do you think I might be able to go back to school from September?”

“You don’t like my tutoring much, do you?” teased Cindy.

“You know it’s not that! And I don’t really miss school itself, either. I just wish I had some friends.”

“I know. And it’s possible,” Cindy said carefully. “But if you really want to start school at the same time as everyone else, you only have half a month left to be ready. You’re still behind on your schooling, but if you work a bit harder, we might get your seventh grade finished in time. Perhaps you could put in a little more time each day, and on the weekends?”

“I’ll do that.”

It was something to look forward to, and Cindy started weekend lessons for me the very next morning, which was a Saturday. But weekends were usually reserved for cycling and swimming, and my sister was as obnoxious as ever about it all morning, so as painful as my muscles had become in recent days, I still took her to the pool after lunch.

Alia had become a regular ocean going vessel. She swam circles around me as I floated on my back, feeling the sun on my face and relaxing my aching limbs in the pool water. Terry, who had joined us at the pool the last two weekends, hadn’t shown up that day, and I wondered where she was.

“Come on, Ali,” I said after a while. “Let’s go home.”

Alia made a face.
“Already?”

I had promised Cindy I’d put in a few more hours for my academics in the afternoon, so just before 3pm, I dragged Alia out of the pool.

It was only a four-block walk back to New Haven One, with no turns or anything. It was a trip that we had made so many times that it was as second-nature to us as opening a door, and yet that day...

“Adrian and Alia Gifford?”

Alia and I had been waiting for an intersection light to change when I heard the quiet male voice from behind me. Turning around, I saw a dark-suited man looking at us. He had short, dark gray hair that matched his suit well, and I had the strangest feeling I had seen him before. Was he a member of Cindy’s guard? There was a black sedan stopped on the curb next to him, and in the driver’s seat was another dark suit peering at Alia and me, so I knew instantly that they were partners. I quickly glanced around the street. There were a few people walking along the sidewalks, and cars passing, but this wasn’t a serious commercial area so it was never all too crowded.

“Adrian Gifford?” the man asked again.

“Yes,” I answered carefully as Alia drew herself closer to me.

“We’re under orders from Guardian Command to take you into protective custody,” the man said in a tight, businesslike tone. “There has been an incident at your residence.”

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“Please just get in the car. We’ll explain everything on the way.”

I heard Alia in my head saying,
“Addy, no.”

“I know, Ali,” I whispered. Something didn’t feel right. This man might be a Guardian Knight, but he definitely wasn’t a member of Cindy’s personal guard. I knew their faces. This man was different. Where had I seen him before?

“Please,” the man said again in an ever-so-calm tone, “we don’t have much time.”

“I’m only two blocks from home,” I replied tersely. “Thanks, but I’ll walk.”

“Please,” the man said again. “Get in the car.”

I nodded slowly and started walking toward the sedan as the man opened the rear door for me.

“Addy, no!”

“It’s okay,”
I said quietly to Alia, pulling her along. “These are our friends.”

Alia started crying.
“No! No! No!”

I looked up at the man again. His mouth was smiling, but his eyes weren’t. I took a quick step back.

“Peacemaker!” I spat, focusing my anger to block him. “Angel!”

“I insist you both come with us immediately,” the man said in a cold voice. He was no longer smiling, and he opened his jacket a little, revealing a glint of silver: a pistol in a shoulder holster.

I glanced at the driver of the sedan. I couldn’t see his face well because the sunlight was reflecting off the windshield, but I could see that he already had his gun drawn and was pointing it at me. He could shoot me right through the glass.

“Nice try, but no,” I said fiercely to the gray-haired peacemaker, trying hard not to show how scared I was. “You guys are in the wrong neighborhood. There are Guardian Knights patrolling this place all the time. One shout for help and they’ll be all over you.”

In truth, I had no idea how many Knights were within earshot, or even if there were any at all. I couldn’t believe this was happening to us a mere two blocks from home in broad daylight.

“Just one shout,” I repeated warningly.

The gray-haired man said calmly, “One shout, Adrian Gifford, and you’ll be dead before they arrive.”

“If that’s the way you want it,” I replied evenly. My adrenaline had finally kicked in, and I was no longer afraid.

“What now, then, Gifford?” asked the man, looking amused.

“Get in your car and drive away,” I commanded in such a severe tone that I even surprised myself. “Don’t talk. Just go. Go, and I promise to give you a head start.”

I continued staring him in the eyes, and slowly the man nodded with a slight smirk.

“We’ll be seeing you again, Adrian Gifford,” said the man as he got into his car.

As the black sedan sped away, I looked down at my sister. She was no longer crying, but still holding onto me so tightly that she was starting to change color.

“It’s okay,” I said, putting my arms around her. “It’s okay, Ali. It’s over.”

My adrenaline faded, and my knees became so wobbly that I collapsed onto the curb.

“Adrian Howell? Alia?” I heard a man say from behind me.

Turning my head, I instantly recognized the man as one of the Knights that was sometimes down in the dojo with me.

“Is everything okay?” asked the Knight.

All I could get out of my mouth was, “Angels...”

The Knight accompanied Alia and me back to our building. I thanked him and we parted in the lobby. Taking Alia back up to the penthouse, I quickly told Cindy what had happened.

Hugging us both, Cindy said, “I’ll call Mr. Baker. If we’re quick, we might still catch them.”

“No,” I answered.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?!” Cindy asked sharply.

“I promised to give him a head start,” I said matter-of-factly.

“We’re not playing games here, Adrian!”

“Neither am I, Cindy. But the Angel let us go because I promised to let him go.”

Cindy looked long and hard at me, and then smiled warmly. “Okay, Adrian. We’ll call Mr. Baker after dinner.”