Undisclosed (23 page)

“Oh, please. You’re not getting in there,” Mason interjected.

“Au contraire, they’ve already had two sets of classes go through there on guided tours. Don’t forget, in their bid to deflect attention from the Lab, they’ve opened up the Lab to schools in the area, giving us a free pass—and our school class made the announcement last week—we go in tomorrow.”

“Well then, you’ll find this handy,” Ryan added, gesturing to Ty to open another file.

Inside, a live 360-degree transparent virtual blueprint map appeared on the screen, slowly zooming in from above, down to the giant plant, until it came to the main entrance and moved through it like a real estate guided tour. The video swerved its way through the entire interior of the plant at Los Alamos. Every room was named by its specialty. Full details of security times, alarms and security systems were highlighted and accessible alongside the virtual map at a press of the screen.

“Whoa, that’s one hell of a setup they’ve got going on there,” Ty said.

Mason frowned. “Okay, smart-ass, so you think they are going to let you just waltz into a restricted area without taking any opportunity to grab you?”

“That would be a risky move in front of a class of kids and teachers, don’t you think? Listen, if you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”

Mason looked away. Lincoln pointed to the Bioscience Division.

“And how do you propose to get past the security?”

Travis held up the security card that he had pocketed at Dr. Evans’ home.

“Uh, I think you forgot all the people working there, and the sensors that they no doubt have in place.”

“Well, that’s where you guys come in.”

Mason raised his hands. “Oh, no, you don’t!”

“Travis, we don’t even go to your school and there’s not enough time to try to enroll or figure out a course of action,” Jayde said.

Travis nodded and smiled. “I know, but I have an idea.”

Mason gripped his forehead. “Oh God.”

Travis spent the next fifteen minutes sharing what he had in mind; it required all of them to be involved, a highly strategic and detailed plan that would need to be timed down to the very second. One mistake and it could cost them their lives.

Chapter Twenty-Three

An hour had passed. Travis had phoned home to say he would be in late, around one a.m., with the usual excuse—he was at Ryan’s watching a movie. Travis now stood outside The Black Hole by himself, watching fireworks periodically appear, bursting into incredible patterns in the distance over the Jemez Mountains—teens, for sure. It was common to find teens heading into the mountains on Halloween to raise a little hell and party the night away.

His mind was so preoccupied that he barely heard the footsteps coming up behind him; he turned to see Lincoln coming out with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in his hand and two glasses clinking together.

“Use a drink?” He indicated to the bottle in his hand.

“Does Jack always let you drink?” Travis replied.

“This one does.” Lincoln winked and then poured the golden liquid into a glass with ice and handed it to him.

It hadn’t exactly been the first time he’d consumed alcohol; sure he was underage but unlike most kids his age Travis never really made it a habit to drink. He had seen enough kids from his school end up dead, and he’d decided to not mess around with it, but much more than that, he’d seen the toll it had taken on his mother and he knew if he went down that road he might not come back. But with thoughts of tomorrow weighing heavily on his mind, he thought one drink would be okay.

For a minute, they gazed out silently into the night sky. Both had taken a seat on top of an old rusted freezer that was out front. Travis sipped his drink and felt its fiery burn as it coursed its way down his throat. Across the yard Travis could see a light on inside the garage. He could make out Mason with his head under the hood of his car.

“So what’s the deal with Mason?”

“What?”

“The way he acts. You know, all up in everyone’s face.”

“Ah, you know—he’s Mason. You get used to it,” he said. “He really is a good guy when you get to know him. He’s as loyal as they come and will never leave you hanging. No matter what.”

“Seems a bit high-strung if you don’t mind saying.”

“Nah, I don’t mind. He has his reasons.”

“For what?”

“Not all Guardians are as dedicated to the cause as others. His parents just wanted a normal life. They bought into the idea they could turn a blind eye, buy the home with the white picket fence and live out a peaceful life. It cost them dearly.”

Lincoln took a swig of his drink.

“One night his father was away, his home was targeted, his mother was raped and killed—his mother had told him to hide, but he saw everything.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, and that’s not the worst of it. When his father returned home … he went to pieces. Began drinking heavily, began taking out his anger on Mason. He blamed Mason, said he should have done something.” He knocked back his drink absently, his attention focused on Mason. “He was only six years old.”

“God.” Travis looked over to the garage. “Where’s his father now?”

“No idea, Mason ran away when he was nine. My parents took him in.”

Travis swirled around the remaining whiskey at the bottom of his glass and downed it.

“What about yourself?”

Lincoln placed his empty glass beside him. “Not a lot to tell, really. My parents raised me as a Guardian, they’re both still alive and in the field. If I had my way I would be doing something else,” he said, “but that’s not who I am.”

Travis grinned. “Like what?”

“I dunno, maybe kick back on some beach with a few señoritas, open a surf shop.”

“Don’t believe a word of it, he loves what he does,” a voice rang out behind them. Travis turned to see Jayde heading towards them. “And he’s good at it.”

Lincoln raised his eyebrows. “That’s my cue to leave. Have a good night, Travis.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Lincoln took the glasses and passed Jayde, both of them grinning at each other. Lincoln shook his head and disappeared inside.

Jayde perched up on the freezer beside him and they remained quiet for a moment, staring out and then at the same time they both started to speak, only managing to stutter a few words before ….

“Go ahead,” Travis said.

“No, you.”

“I was just … just going to say that I’m sorry for earlier—”

“It’s okay.” She cut him off.

“No, I read the signs all wrong, I tend to do that,” he said. “I hope you know that I would never move in intentionally on someone else’s—”

Jayde twisted her feet together and rested them on an old box. “I guess I still expect him to walk back through the door. You know? Even after all this time.”

“It must be hard.”

Travis paused to make sure there wasn’t something else she wanted to add before he said slowly, “So we’re good?”

She arched an eyebrow, shot him a sideways glance and smiled. “Yeah. Of course.”

Travis jumped off the freezer, glad he only had the one small shot glass as he was already feeling quite mellow.

“Where’re you going?”

“Come, I’ll show you.”

* * * * *

They both hopped on Travis’s bike. She wrapped her arms around him, and this time, with no pain, it felt good. He drove out of the town along the winding roads, making their way up through the Jemez hills, a short detour along some bumpy trails, until they eventually reached a rocky clearing that overlooked the entire town. Travis brought the bike to a standstill and cut the engine. Jayde slipped off the bike and moved close to the edge of the cliff. Looking out over the tops of the buildings and homes, they could see all the lights twinkling, giving off a glowing aura. The only light illuminating them where they were, however, was the moon that shone down a bright white ray.

Travis stood beside her. “Incredible, isn’t it.”

“Breathtaking.”

The odd firework was still going off, periodically lighting up the sky in a kaleidoscope of patterns. They would eventually become less frequent in the early hours of the morning.

“I used to come up here with my brother. We’d sit for hours and talk about how we would one day get out of this town, the places we wanted to go, the things we wanted to do.”

“How did you lose him?”

“Car crash,” he mumbled. “What my parents don’t know is that my brother had been drinking that night—a lot.” Travis had an expression of deep sorrow.

“Both of them were working. So I offered to drive him out, but he wouldn’t have it. We had this huge argument; I mean he was in no state to drive. I just let him go, I should have …”

Travis bent down, gathered a couple of loose stones in his hand and threw a few out into the dark forest below, as if he was skimming rocks across water.

Jayde dropped her head. “I’m sorry.”

Travis looked down at one smooth stone he was tossing around in his hand. “I think you would have liked Will. He had this way about him, made you believe anything was possible. We would talk about how we would get out of this town. Become something more. Do something that had more significance than being a cog in a wheel.” He shook his head in exasperation. Standing there at the edge overlooking the town, he hurled the stone out harder than he had ever before, as if somehow hoping it would release the pent-up frustration. Instead, it offset his balance and caused him to lose his footing. For a split second he slipped forward, stumbling to what would have been a nasty fall, but almost instantly he felt a strong draft of air launch him backwards, like a magnet forcing him against the hard ground. He turned in time to see Jayde’s eyes returning to normal.

With a look of concern she said, “Whoa, steady, you’re meant to let it go, not go with it.”

Travis coughed. “Embarrassing,” he said, pulling himself up and brushing off the dirt. “Thank you.”

Jayde smirked.

Still shaking off the dust, he looked up at her. “Tell me something. How come you have all this power and yet you all still use weapons?”

“I wondered when you would ask,” she said. “Mason would say it’s for the heck of it, but truth is—we’re not superhuman, Travis, even we have limitations.”

“Is that why you couldn’t hold me up at the hospital?”

She nodded. “It’s not that I couldn’t, I just wasn’t able to at that time. From what we know, our kind never had this limitation until we came to this planet. We assume it’s something about the atmosphere. We need time to restore. Like … recouping energy when you sleep at night.”

“So you can’t do it all the time?”

“We’re able to tap into the energy that makes up everything at any time, but manipulating it with our mind is something entirely different. It takes effort. We’re stronger when we’re together but individually we have limits,” she replied.

“If I had that kind of ability …”

“You do. It’s just that part of you isn’t fully active. The part that allows you to manipulate it and, well …”

“Well, what?”

“You’ve never been shown how.”

“Show me.”

Jayde began to turn. “We should go, tomorrow is—”

Travis took her hands. “No, wait. Wait, please.”

Jayde considered him for a moment and then her eyes changed. “You will only be able to feel it.”

Travis nodded. Inside he wondered what he was meant to feel. She gently took hold of his hands.

A moment passed and then an overwhelming sensation came over his body, what he imagined being wrapped and encapsulated within a bubble would feel like. The evening up to then had been clear, not a cloud in sight, but suddenly, as if a storm had drawn in fast from out of nowhere, dark clouds were forming, silhouetted against the light of the moon above them. Then as quickly as they appeared, rain began.

They both raised their heads and watched as a few drops fell and then a heavy downfall soaked their clothes. Jayde gripped his hands tight and then what seemed like a surge of energy coursing its way through Travis’s body became like an invisible umbrella over them—the water that fell now went around them as if by magic. Travis’s lips parted into a smile as he watched in amazement as it continued to pour but now, not even one drop touched him or Jayde. If that wasn’t enough to shock him, the water then changed from liquid to solid frozen hailstones, some hitting the ground and breaking into pieces, others bouncing, but still none touched them. Instantly the downpour stopped as abruptly as it had started.

Standing there shivering, their bodies close together, hands joined and their clothes drenched, Travis noted the way the drops of rain trickled down her face like a myriad of tears. He could imagine staring at her for hours.

“God, you’re so beautiful.”

In a flash, he groaned inwardly, remembering what he had said earlier to her—he had done it again—he went to pull away. This time, however, she held on to him. He turned back and studied her.

“You didn’t read the signs wrong,” she admitted as she pulled his shivering body close.

That was all Travis needed to hear. He leaned in, his hand reaching to the side of her face, and their lips met slowly, then with passion. Though he was soaked to the skin and now chilled by the evening air, her body felt warm and electrical pressed against his. Leaning in to her so close he could feel each of her slow breaths, at that moment with his eyes closed, he forgot what tomorrow would bring, the pain of yesterday; instead, at that precise moment, nothing else mattered.