“I can feel her. She’s still in the city.”
“How can you know that?”
William maneuvered around scattered trashcans in the street. Even the headlights seemed insignificant in the black.
“It’s the touch.”
“Touch?”
“I realized it in the hospital, right before the hurricane hit. When I physically touched Jane, I knew it. I could feel it. I had complete control over her abilities. Together… we moved the winds in the room from striking us. And then stopped the storm.”
“My God,” Steven said softly.
“It’s the same with Lily, once we made a physical connection. All I had to do was think… tell Lily to stop, and she would.“
“You can communicate with her telepathically?”
William glanced at him. “It sounds ridiculous. But yes. I didn’t realize the extent of it until I touched Jane. Once we made that connection… not only can I talk to her…”
“You can actually control her movements. Even if she doesn’t want to do it. William…”
“I know.”
“It’s incredible. Is that by design? Or did they even realize this could happen?”
“I don’t think so. In fact… I don’t think they’re happy about it at all.”
“How do you know?”
“They’re clearly controlling me when I dream to connect to the others, to spark their weapons. But back at the shotgun house, when I entered the dream, or connection, whatever you want to call it, and I tried to move on my own volition to find Jane, there was heavy resistance; a strong feeling that I was defying them. I got that same feeling when Jane and I stopped the storm: an anger from afar.”
“Son, I know you are shouldering a lot. And we’re all scared as hell. But this is the first sign of hope.”
“Hope?” William’s forehead wrinkled. “I have to physically touch them to stop their abilities. The others like us are all over the world. How I can begin to stop them all?”
“I’ve spent a lifetime of defeat after defeat. Heartbreak after heartbreak. When you get to my age, you celebrate the signs of possibility. And speaking of signs, that one reads we’re in Uptown. She said it’s where she lived.”
“I vaguely remember these streets,” William said as a strand of beads in a magnolia flashed momentarily in the headlights. “My parents used to take us here all the time for the kid-safe parades in Mardi Gras. It was one of the few times I could blend into a crowd without being identified. Quincy actually made a joke about drinking too many hurricanes and not remembering the times he’d been here.”
“Bizarre to wish that someone who is practically a stranger was still here,” Steven said.
William smiled sadly. “I didn’t even know who he was before all this.”
“We used him. I’ll admit it now. We didn’t know what it would take to get you where you needed to go. With Quincy, though, your options were endless. We’d hoped the realization that both your great-grandparents started on this path would help you see past his… eccentric ways, and his insulting job offer. I’ve seen his YouTube videos and read his interviews. He believes in stuff that even I find farfetched. I wonder, now, what he’ll do with what he knows. If he goes to the FBI, tells them where we’re headed…”
“I doubt that. He saw enough to know to stay away from any government agent.”
“That’s true. He’s probably holed up in some posh hotel or maybe a boardroom, being grilled by his board of directors on how to handle this PR crisis. Eventually, though, they’ll have to alert his shareholders that he is alive, in order to reverse the plunging stock. His company took a big hit when he disappeared. And once that’s out, the FBI will come to him. We don’t have much time.”
“But even if we do convince Jane to come with us, which sounds almost impossible given her reaction to what we told her… I believe the others are on the East and West coasts. And that’s just in the United States. They’re all over the world. I can’t get to them all.”
“I learned this in those terrible days when the Suits raided my home and I was on the run for the first time: You take one day at a time. One hour at a time if you must. And I know it probably isn’t much of a comfort, but as long as I’m breathing, I’m with you.”
“Here,” William said, taking the chain with the flash drive off his neck. “Take it. Should we ever get to Nanna, it needs to come from you.”
Steven accepted it, putting it around his neck. He held the flash drive in his hand. “Just don’t forget it, if something happens to me. I haven’t taken my meds for a day or so now.”
“Jane is a doctor. Maybe she can help.”
“How far away are we now?”
William could feel her, just as he could sense exactly where Lily was sitting in the back seat.
“I need to turn there. Wait, wait. It looks flooded. I’ll find another way around. You OK Lily?” He looked over his shoulder.
She nodded, perspiration on her forehead.
“I know it’s hot. Want to lay down?” William asked.
“That’s OK.”
She had to be hungry, and they were down to the last of the chips and peanuts they’d bought at the gas station in Alabama.
“We’ll find some food and a place to rest once we hit the road. A place with air-conditioning,” William promised.
“William, there’s something else,” Steven said. “Are you prepared… if Jane refuses to come with us…?”
“To force her to come? I hope to avoid that.”
“You realize you may not have that chance. You have no idea how far your control over her reaches. I don’t think she will come willingly. You saw how she grilled us. You’re asking someone who believes only in science to believe science fiction.”
“There.” William pointed, his headlights flashing on another shotgun. “The one with the white trim.”
The house, like all the others, was completely dark. Jane’s Honda was parked in the drive.
He pulled up, aware he was blocking her in. William took Lily by the hand as they exited the car. When she started to drag her feet in weariness, he lifted her till they got to the door.
They knocked. After a few moments, they heard a muffled reply from inside. William opened the door.
“Jane?”
They walked in, the humidity of the room almost overwhelming. He set Lily down, hating to use what was left of the phone battery for light. Holding it out, he saw a glimpse of Jane lying on the couch, apparently asleep.
The light revealed the two men standing over her, dressed in black suits.
He felt the injection in his neck. Steven grunted while Lily cried out.
William whirled around with the light, the movement causing such dizziness he almost fell.
Before he hit the ground, he swore he saw, just for a moment, the face of his Aunt Kate standing in the corner, watching, with her hands covering her mouth.
FOURTEEN
He was so groggy at first that it was difficult even opening his eyes. Even when he could focus enough to sit up, he immediately had to lie back down, the nausea so strong he feared he might vomit.
Drugged now, twice. Not just him, but Lily too. Injected with God knows what. It can’t be good for a little girl.
William sat up again, slowly this time. There were no windows, so the only light came from fluorescents above. The queen-sized bed took up much of the space, as if it were hastily crammed in. Books were stacked in columns, even on the floor. A Sports Illustrated issue covered a nightstand. A small TV was placed in the corner, with a connected Xbox.
It took him a moment to realize everything was tailor-made for him.