The door suddenly wrenched open, two guns aimed into their faces. And stepping between the two masked soldiers came the man from the screen in the briefing room.
“Hello again, Mr. Natch! And Mr. Caleb Crowe himself.” Boris Zeller pulled back his hood, grinning at them while eclipsing the sun emerging behind him, over the rooftop edge and through the thick clouds.
“So good of you to follow my directions.” He nodded and stepped back. The soldiers took aim and the tranqs found their targets.
“Ohhh,” Phoebe said when she rushed out of the elevator, pushing the baby carriage and the two gratefully-still-sleeping toddlers. She found herself on a shiny platform like a subway tunnel, except instead of a waiting train, this one had a familiar, if far more special, mode of transport.
“Wow,” said Alexander and Aria at the same time.
“Yeah.” Phoebe approached the spherical, transparent globe they had commandeered from the Shasta facility, and her heart skipped. “I thought we trashed this thing.”
“Guess someone fixed it,” Aria noted, eyes wide.
Alexander scanned the tunnel ahead. “Wonder where this winds up?”
“Away from here,” Phoebe said. “That’s all that matters. Get in.”
“But Dad, and uncle Orlando…”
“Nothing we can do now except take the time they bought us.”
“Live to fight another day,” Aria said, dragging Alexander in.
“Wait,” Phoebe said. “Aria, you might want to…”
“Shield us?” She smiled to Phoebe as she got in the craft and took a seat. “Raised it as soon as we got the alert. If they’re looking, they won’t see the three of us.”
“Which should make them crazy. Maybe buy us even more time as they scour the facility for us.”
“Good,” Alexander said through clenched teeth.
Phoebe got in, started the controls, all responding to her touch as if from memory. “Then we will have to see who’s left, find the others who weren’t there today.”
“They probably went after everyone,” Alexander said, taking a seat behind Phoebe and next to Aria. “This was all planned for a long time. Had to be.”
“You’re right,” Phoebe said. “But we will fight back. We’ll get your father, and Orlando, and everyone else.”
“How, just the three of us?” Aria asked. “And I’m no good at remote viewing, only protecting…”
“There are others,” Phoebe said. “Not many, but I know of one at least who more than proved her worth to join us.” Victoria…
“Wait,” Alexander said just as the craft began to hum and vibrate, preparing to take off. “I saw Mom earlier, in the park. She told me a name…”
“What name?”
“Namodal? I don’t know what it means.”
Phoebe whistled. “Nice and cryptic. Let’s talk later, after…”
“After we get our team back to strength,” Alexander said. “Dad also told us…”
Find your brother.
Find Nina.
Part 2
1
The 1,000-watt bulb and its resulting beam probed like a sweeping eye over the mist-cradled waves, and could be seen three miles down the approaching road.
“There it is,” Alexander pointed from the middle of the back seat. Phoebe drove, with Aria in the front. The twins were in car seats, one on either side of Alexander. He had had about enough of diaper and bottle duty the past nine hours, and this arrival — any end to this ride — couldn’t be more welcome. Not that he didn’t love these adorable little poop machines but he needed a break, a shower, and a blast of fresh air.
And besides, they hardly ever cry. It’s weird. They just stare at me as if they know too much. Given the talents in this family, that’s a frightening prospect.
Phoebe sped up until they could see the small farmhouse near the stone tower and the beacon. Aria leaned forward, craning her neck and rubbing it at the same time. It had been a long trip. “Someone’s up there.”
“Think they know we’re coming?” Alexander wondered.
“Not with your girlfriend up here shielding us,” Phoebe said.
“And no one else knows where we are either,” Aria added. “More importantly.”
“Still don’t know what’s going on back in DC…” Phoebe said, although it was more of a question. They hadn’t had time to really focus and probe, to scry their friends and the others.
“Know enough,” Alexander said. “They went after us. Hard. All psychics.”
Aria “They wanted to shut us down.”
“Well, they did that.”
“For now,” Phoebe said bitterly. “But we’re a long way from out.” She slowed the jeep — rented with cash and a fake ID back in Poughkeepsie.
“My dad…”
“Easy, Alex. We’re getting him back. And my husband, and uncle Xavier, but the first step is right here.”
They looked up together as she slowed. The figure at the top of the lighthouse, at the railing, resolved into a familiar woman, leaning forward as if waiting for them.
“We really need her?” Aria asked, craning her neck to see.
Phoebe sighed. “Much as I hate to admit it, yes.”
“And her son,” Alexander said, pointing to the farmhouse door, which opened on cue, admitting a smiling teenager, offering a slight wave.
“Why do I get the feeling,” Phoebe asked, “that they knew we were coming?”
The drawings were everywhere, and at first she had a flashback to her childhood, to her brother’s room back in Sodus, NY. A similar keeper’s house beside a similar beacon. “Like father, like…other son,” Phoebe said, glancing from Alexander to Jacob.
They were similar, only a year difference in age, with Alexander slightly taller. A result of Lydia’s genes, most likely as Nina Osseni was petite and just about Phoebe’s height. Jacob was the better half of twins who had to rise above his malicious upbringing at the hands of Mason Calderon while his mother slept in an induced coma. Caleb had been blissfully unaware of the existence of Isaac and Jacob, despite his psychic talents, a fact that occasionally still baffled Phoebe. Knowing the bond she had with her own children, she couldn’t imagine not being in tune with something so magnificent as a life she had created — let alone two lives.
But then again, she knew the adage (or was it a mantra?): he had never asked the right questions. Had no reason to suspect, no reason to go looking. And that had cost Caleb and the Morpheus Initiative dearly when Nina recovered and allowed her emotions and anger to be manipulated against them.
Water under the proverbial bridge right now. Now they were neck-deep and fighting for their very lives in a new crisis. A conspiracy against psychics, against them all, and a new adversary unlike anything they had seen before. One who could cloud their visions and prevent their greatest talents from being used. She didn’t know how it worked, how Boris did it, whether he had to be in visual range or could operate from any distance — much like changing the contents of someone’s webpage once he accessed its source code.
They would have to find out, but in the meantime, they needed allies. Ones with their own unique own skills.
Phoebe pulled her eyes away from the pictures taped all over the place in this otherwise neat and spotless living area. An Xbox, tons of comic books, a little light on other books — unlike Caleb’s place. So, not quite continuing the legacy, this lack of attention to the arts. Most likely Nina’s influence.