Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel (15 page)

We were in another part of the building, not far from the Kraken’s office. He and I were standing in front of a locked door, along with a woman in a nurse’s uniform.

“How is she, Celia?” the Kraken asked.

The nurse, Celia, shrugged slightly. “She seems to be having one of her better days.”

“Alright,” the Kraken said. “Let us in.”

Celia unlocked the door and opened it. The Kraken went in, with me right on his heels. The door closed and locked behind us.

We were in what appeared to be a spacious bedroom. There was a flat-screen television sitting on an entertainment center. I also saw a desk, a dresser, and a nightstand. There was a door in one wall that presumably led to a bathroom.

The bed itself was large – at least king-sized. On it sat a woman with long, dark hair. I looked at the Kraken, who motioned that I should approach. I took a few tentative steps in the direction of the bed. The woman was sitting with her right side facing our direction, giving me a profile view of her features.

I could see what the Kraken had meant earlier. Just from what I could observe at an angle, I saw much that was similar to myself, from her jawline to the way she sat to the way she held her head.

The woman (purportedly Beguile) was humming softly – some kind of lullaby – and appeared to be brushing the hair of an infant-sized doll.

“Uh, hello,” I said.

Beguile stopped humming and tilted her head in an odd, jerky fashion, almost like a bird, but continued brushing the doll’s hair.

“Hello,” she said in a voice that was kind of hollow.

“How are you?” I asked. I leaned forward slightly, trying to get a better view of her face but she angled her visage away in a matching move.

“I’m well, today,” she answered, but the words sounded empty, like she was saying them by rote. “And yourself?”

“I’m fine, thank you. Uh…do you know who I am?”

“Of course. You’re Alexis. Daddy told me you’d be coming to visit.”

I glanced at the Kraken, who was still back by the door, silent.

“Yes,” I said, “Alexis is my name. But do you know who I
am
?”

She sighed, as if she were having to explain something she’d just told me ten times. “Alexis Minerva Peale. Amp, your father used to call you. My daughter.”

“Yes. I’m happy to finally meet you.”

Beguile shook her head as if she were talking to an idiot, although still only presenting me no more than a profile view. “We’ve already met. I carried you for nine months. Gave birth to you. I think that counts as an introduction and more.”

“Agreed,” I said nervously, “but it’s been awhile since we last enjoyed each other’s company.”

“Enjoyed? Is that how you’d phrase it?”

“I suppose,” I said. Then, frustrated with talking to the side of her face, I said, “Look, I don’t like speaking to your ear, jaw, and neckline. Could you look at me, please?”

“If I do that, you’ll have to look at
me
.”

I shrugged. “Okay, so?”

“So be it,” Beguile said, setting the doll and brush down. Then she turned to face me, and I gasped.

The left side of her face was a ruin. She had clearly been in some sort of accident, as that portion of her skin was ravaged by the effects of severe burns. The epidermis – even on her scalp – was entirely gone, giving that side of her face and head a skeletal appearance. The bizarre amalgam of the two halves of her countenance, one beautiful and the other desolate, was more horrific and disturbing than if the damage had been complete.

“Oh my,” she said, staring at me. “You’re beautiful. You remind me so much of myself at your age.”

“Th-th-thank you,” I murmured, trying to get over my shock. “I see the resemblance, too. It’s like looking in a mirror.”

Without warning, a tenseness seemed to fill the air as Beguile simply stared at me. I had no idea what had caused it, but I could sense a change in her demeanor – from the set of her shoulders, to the way she now held her head, and in a dozen other little ways.

“A mirror?” she suddenly said. “A mirror?!”

Suddenly she drew her legs in under her, and – screaming – leaped towards me, hands stretched out like claws.

I was definitely caught by surprise, but a moment later, instinct and training took over. Grabbing the wrist of one of her hands, I turned my body and bent slightly, thereby throwing her over my hip and slamming her to the floor.

She groaned in pain, and I blinked, suddenly realizing what I had done.

“I’m so sorry!” I said. “Are you al–”

My words were cut off as Beguile swung an arm, sweeping my legs out from under me. I hit the floor with a thud, all the wind knocked out of me.

Beguile was on me a second later, a wild woman locking her hands around my throat and squeezing. Fighting panic as she cut off my air, I sent a jolt of electricity through my body. Beguile scrambled back, screaming at the shock she’d just received. Coughing and massaging my throat, I propped myself up on my elbows.

Chattering madly, Beguile came at me again. As soon as she touched me, I let her have another shot of juice and she hooted in pain again and leaped away. She hissed at me and then shuffled over to the far side of the room.

Thinking she’d had enough, I slowly got to my feet. As I stood, however, I heard something like a war cry and saw Beguile rushing at me, holding a wooden chair over her head. Apparently she
hadn’t
had enough; she’d just realized that she shouldn’t touch me directly.

She was about five feet from me when her legs seem to go out from under her. She face-planted on the floor and the chair went skittering away, stopping just a few feet to the side of me. Looking at the scene, it only took a second to see what had happened; as Beguile had charged, the Kraken had stuck out his cane and tripped her.

Faster than I would have thought possible, Beguile got up and came at her father. He took a step back and pointed the tip of his cane in her direction. There was a sound like a firecracker going off in a soda can, accompanied by a flash of blue light, and Beguile went soaring backwards, knocked off her feet. She landed on the bed, arms outstretched, and lay there, unmoving.

The Kraken rapped on the door with his cane; a moment later, I heard the click of locks turning and then the door opened. As we stepped out, the nurse closed and locked the door again.

“You were right, Celia,” the Kraken said to the nurse. “This
is
one of her better days.”

“I should have warned you about her,” the Kraken said a few minutes after we left the area where Beguile resided. “Anything related to mirrors sets her off. I don’t know if you noticed, but there were no mirrors in her quarters – not even the bathroom.”

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“Your father happened to her.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ll explain in a moment.”

We were now at the end of another long corridor, which ended at a door. Smiling, the Kraken turned the knob and stepped inside.

I looked around this new room in surprise. It was about four thousand square feet in size, with lots of odd machinery lining the walls and an extremely high ceiling. (Oddly enough, I saw a large glass window high up one wall, and realized it was the Kraken’s office.) There were also at least twenty people milling about, checking on various devices, computers, and instruments.

In the center of the room (which seemed to be our destination) was an odd contraption. It seemed to be a metal chair set up in a reclining position on some sort of mechanical dais. There were all kinds of wires and cables running to and from it, connecting it to most – if not all – of the machinery in the room. Frankly speaking, it looked like an electric chair on steroids, and I pitied the poor soul who’d have the misfortune of having to sit there and be subjected to…whatever the heck all this was.

As we reached the bizarre chair, the Kraken waved his hand in an all-encompassing gesture, and asked, “Do you know what this is?”

I shrugged. “New home theater system?”

“Your father’s greatest invention,” the Kraken said, ignoring my comment.

I’m sure the surprise showed on my face as I looked around the room again with fresh eyes. “The induction engine?”

“Yes.”

“I thought it was destroyed.”

“It was, but not beyond repair. So I had it reconstructed shortly thereafter.” He then leaned towards me conspiratorially and whispered, “We reversed-engineered your father’s schematics.”

“And now you intend to use it again.”

“I’d argue that I really didn’t get to use it the first time, thanks to Vir.”

“What do you mean?”

“First things first. Now, you asked what happened to your mother.”

“And you said my father did it.”

“Not exactly. But to understand what occurred, I need to give you some context. Your father was supposed to hand this device over, fully functional, for your safety. He didn’t exactly do that.”

“What do you mean? I thought it worked.”

“It did. But only for him.”

I shook my head. “I’m not following you.”

“Then I’ll explain. The device your father built wasn’t designed to be powered by conventional means. There’s a bioelectric interface that’s part of the machine’s ignition switch. It won’t turn on or stay active without it.”

I frowned. “Wait a minute. Are you saying the induction engine has to be powered by a living person?”

“An electrophorus person, to be exact. In other words, someone with an innate power over electricity, like you or Vir.”

“Okay. People like us aren’t common, so I’m guessing you couldn’t find anyone.”

“Oh no, I found people with the appropriate power set easily enough. The problem is that your father also rigged the device so that the activation sequence is also DNA-coded.”

“You’ve lost me again.”

“It’s only supposed to work for a specific DNA structure. A specific individual. One single, solitary person on the entire planet.”

“My father.”

“Yes.”

“So how does this relate to what happened to Beguile?”

“We didn’t initially know about the electrophorus or DNA restrictions. Your father gave us a demonstration and we were satisfied that the device worked. We also didn’t know at the time that – during his demonstration – he had siphoned a monstrous amount of power from some source and was drawing it back to our location.”

“Hold on,” I said in confusion. “I thought you said it wouldn’t work if the person who was the power source wasn’t interfacing. How’d Vir make it work?”

“We don’t know, but the power he directed back to the induction engine was orders of magnitude higher than anything the device was designed to handle. We knew that much. It was going to blow up. We’d already made the exchange with your father and he’d taken off with you. So – in an effort to stop the impending explosion – we began ripping the device apart.”

“I take it your efforts were in vain.”

“Partially. Some of the siphoned power did make it back to the induction engine and basically caused the machine to self-destruct. However, much of the energy got released in the surrounding area.”

“Aberdeen.”

The Kraken nodded. “The release of energy was like bombs going off. Your mother happened to be in one of the affected regions and, well…her face tells the rest of the story. Since then, with the loss of her looks, her mind sort of fractured. She’s been completely unstable ever since.”

“And you blame Vir for that.”

“Who else?!” the Kraken demanded angrily. “It was his duplicity that caused all that damage in the first place!”

I waved towards the machinery in the room. “So what’s the point of all this, of reconstructing the induction engine, if Vir’s the only one who can work it?”

“I thought the same thing,” the Kraken said, “which is why, after rebuilding it, the induction stayed in storage for almost seventeen years.” Then he smiled. “But we may have found a workaround recently.”

I scoffed. “What, you’re going to break him out of prison, like one of your Novercalis bigwigs? Good luck with that.”

“No, nothing along those lines. You see, we don’t need your father here, just his DNA. Or rather, someone
with
his DNA.”

I was confused for a moment by his words, and then stared at him in shock as the meaning became clear.

“No,” I said simply. “Absolutely not.”

“Sure you will.”

“No, I won’t.”

“You will,” said the Kraken firmly, dropping the kindly grandfather routine, “or I’ll blow your mother’s head off right in front of you. Both of them.”

The Kraken gave me an hour to make my decision. In truth, I didn’t need an hour; I didn’t need five minutes or even thirty seconds. There was no way I was going to let Esper die.

She was the woman who had raised me. She had been there for me as long as I could remember. She was there to tuck me in at night when I was a toddler and scared. She was there to take care of me when I got sick. She was there the first time a boy broke my heart and I felt like I wanted to die.

No, I couldn’t let anything happen to Esper – I wouldn’t. Just like I knew she’d never let anything happen to me.

Suddenly, I understood what my father must have gone through when Novercalis was threatening my life. I realized the kind of unconditional, do-anything-for-you type of love he must have felt – still felt – for me. I almost wished he were here. Based on everything I’d heard, he was brilliant, and would probably find a way out of this situation.

I was still dwelling on that subject when they came to get me.

*****

When I walked in, I found the room with the induction engine to be fairly crowded. In addition to the various techs who were in the room before, there was the Kraken (of course), along with Beguile and her nurse, as well as two security guards. I glanced at Beguile, who didn’t seem to know where she was; eyes half-closed, she was swaying slightly from side to side, as if moving in time to music only she could hear.

Also present were two men and a woman who were gathered around what appeared to be a hospital gurney with a patient on it. A second later, having reached out with my power, I ran over to the gurney. Esper was lying on it.

“Esper!” I screamed, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. “Esper!”

“She’s still sedated,” the Kraken said, drawing my attention. “Plus I’ve got three other telepaths monitoring her to make sure she stays in check.”

I looked at the two men and woman around my aunt, fighting the urge to lash out at them.

“She’ll be fine,” the Kraken continued, “assuming you make the right decision.”

As if on cue, each of the security guards pulled out a pistol. One pointed his weapon at Beguile’s head; the other stepped over and pointed his at Esper’s, placing the barrel against her temple. (For the record, Beguile seemed as oblivious as her unconscious sister to the danger she was in.) I stared for a moment, trying to figure out if this man really would kill his own two daughters if I defied him. I looked at him, and felt with utter conviction that he absolutely would.

“Well?” the Kraken said expectantly.

Mentally, I raced through my options. I could probably short the power and take out the lights, but there was no way the guards were going to miss – even in the dark – if shooting Beguile and Esper were their top priorities. Also, I didn’t know what the three telepaths were ordered to do if something untoward happened – maybe wipe Esper’s mind clean? And even if I did manage to snatch her up, I had no idea how to get out of this complex we were in. Simply put, there were simply too many unknowns. I had to play ball for now.

“I’ll do it,” I replied. “As if I have a choice.”

“There’s always a choice,” said the Kraken. “The trick is being able to live with the consequences.” He nodded at the two security guards, who put their weapons away.

I walked over to the chair. “What do I do?”

“Just climb up into the seat and get comfortable,” the Kraken said. “The techs will connect everything.”

“You realize that this may not even work. I’m not my father.”

“There are two women in this room praying that you’re enough of him to make this machine operate.”

With that, he stepped back and let the techs go to work. Five minutes later, I had something like a medical halo attached to my head and electrodes on just about every bare patch of skin (arms, neck, cheek, and so on). They had also strapped down my arms and legs, using restraints I hadn’t initially noticed.

The restraints, I quickly discerned, were going to be a real problem. With them on, I couldn’t get my hands in the proper position to blast anyone. Moreover, they were insulated, so I couldn’t just fry them with high voltage and free myself that way. And even if I were able to get loose, it was unlikely that I could take out all the bad guys before someone got hurt.

“The halo,” the Kraken explained, “will operate as part of the bio-interface. The electrodes will, among other things, scan your DNA via sweat and other secretions.”

“Sounds great,” I said. “I haven’t had my secretions scanned all week.”

The Kraken ignored me and turned to one of the technicians. “Begin.”

The technician turned to me. “You have to, uh, generate power.”

I didn’t say anything, just closed my eyes and concentrated for a second, and then began producing electricity. A moment later, I heard and sensed some odd piece of machinery going through some type of start-up procedure.

“It’s working,” said one of the techs. “It’s working!”

“More power,” said the Kraken to me.

I increased my output, as ordered, but began to note an odd sensation. I could feel the electricity coursing through the machines in the room, and – extending my senses – throughout the industrial complex we were in. And then even farther out…

Our current location was somewhere on the outer edge of the city. However, as I seemingly left my body behind, I could sense electricity in the environment all around me. I could perceive it in the cars on a nearby road. I could discern it in airplanes in the sky. I felt the hypnotic pull of the city’s power grid, calling me like a siren. I could even divine power in the air.

And with that, I had a very clear notion of how Vir had overloaded the first induction engine.

I began trying to formulate a plan, but I hadn’t progressed very far before I heard someone calling my name. At the same time, I felt rough hands shaking me.

“Electra!” the Kraken shouted, gripping me by the shoulders. “Electra!”

“Yes, yes,” I said, opening my eyes. “I can hear you.”

“Good,” said the Kraken, and I noticed he was wearing some kind of insulated gloves. “I need you to shut down the city’s power grid.”

“Wh-what?” I stammered.

The Kraken smiled. “I’ve decided that I’m going to charge the city for allowing it to have power. One million dollars per month. But to show those in charge that we mean business, I need you to shut down the city’s power grid for an hour.”

“But it’s the dead of winter,” I said. “People will freeze. There are hospitals that need to perform surgery. There are–”

“I don’t care,” the Kraken said. “Shut down the grid, or I shut down your mother.”

The security guard next to Beguile once again put the muzzle of his weapon to her head.

I reached out with my power, fully intent now on putting my plan into motion. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do, because there was no way I was giving that maniac what he wanted.

I looked at Esper and thought I saw her twitch slightly. She’d understand what I was about to do. At least, I hoped she would.