Kinetics: In Search of Willow (12 page)

"But, nothing." She frowned. "Your
friend is no more important than the operatives I would have to
send in after her. It's far too dangerous, especially when it comes
to Isiro's personal security. They are highly trained Kinetics with
no qualms about killing."

"But I..."

She shook her head. "...could do
little. The amount of time it would take for you to learn the
basics of your powers exceed the time limit before the girl is lost
to us completely."

"But there's still a chance!" I cried.
"She's not gone yet! You said so yourself. We could--we could still
save her!"

She shook her head.
"Impossible."

"Then I'm not training." I said,
nearly spitting out the last word. "I'll go after her
now!"

"Mr. Yoshida, you haven't
been out of Ohio for most of your life and you are
a 
Vunjika
.
What makes you think you know anything about where she is or how
you could save her?"

"Well I better at least try! It's my
duty as a friend."

"I'm sorry," Her eyes narrowed. "If
you refuse the training, then we have no choice."

I stood up ready to begin yelling but
Dad came up behind me and clenched my shoulder. "It has been a
hectic day, Chief Lancaster. Let me take my son home and we will
return in a few days with our decision."

"Very well." She clasped her fingers
together and smirked at me as we left.

I refused to speak to Dad the whole
ride home.

CHAPTER 9

"It's better to act and to
regret / Than to regret not to have acted
." ~ Mellin de Saint-Gelais

A single light from my iguana's
terrarium illuminated my room. The darkness was comforting in some
small way, but it made the hole in my heart where Willow should
have been feel that much larger.

It was a whole day later since Willow
had been stolen away from all of us. Her parents had been by, but I
hadn't left my room to see them, despite the prompting from my
mother. I was in no mood to be around anyone else.

I stared at the picture of Willow on
my wall. It was of us, smiling on a soccer field in a happier time,
a time I couldn't feel anymore. She was gone, and the people around
me couldn't, or wouldn't, do anything to save her. How bad could
this Isiro person be that she was unreachable? All these people
with abilities beyond anything I ever could have imagined and she
was truly gone?

Impossible.

But what could I do? I was fifteen,
gifted with average grades and average friends. Anything I could do
was limited by my severe lack of… ability. I traced the faded
outline of the X on the back of my hand. I had nothing to offer a
rescue if I could even start one myself. Whatever power I was
supposed to possess was out of my reach for the time being, even if
I knew what it was.

I couldn't see myself returning to
school like nothing was wrong. I couldn't see myself letting her
go. I couldn't see myself taking another step outside my bedroom
door that didn't include some thought of her.

I buried my face in my hands and
imagined the faces of everyone I knew. My parents were adamant that
what this Chief Lancaster said was rule and law; Jacob would
probably be no better. All my friends were… well, kids. They were
involved in sports or clubs but nothing that could possibly benefit
a crackpot rescue plan. If Nick were in town right now, I could
probably go to him for help, but he was thousands of miles away in
Amsterdam on some job thing.

I let out a laugh. I was actually
considering going after her with no knowledge, no powers, no money,
nothing but me, myself, and I. Hell, I wasn't even that smart. Not
as smart as people like Nick or Harry, the nerdy football
player.

Harry? Harry knew Willow. Harry was
smart. Even I had to admit he was probably genius level. Could
Harry make sense of the crazy that was happening to me right now?
Could Harry figure out a way to save Willow that wouldn't get us
killed? I didn't know him well, and I certainly didn't consider him
a friend, but Willow called him her friend. I wanted to trust her
judgment.

I waited until I was certain my
parents were asleep and then I slipped out into the night. I
remembered passing by his house one day with Willow. She had
pointed it out not long after her and Harry had become friends. He
was the only hope I could think of right now, and if he wasn't able
to help me, then I… I didn't know what I could do.

I yanked my bike out of the garage
and, as silently as possible, I pushed it out into the night. The
night was stuffy. The last bits of the cool months were about to
start fading away. The hot night air of summer was well on its way
in. I huffed the thick air all the way to Harry's house, riding as
fast as I could. It wasn't that far from the school and I couldn't
help but remember the incident at school with Laura and her
nightmares. I had really hoped to go a few more days without
thinking about those things again.

I rolled the bike to a halt in the
driveway and stared toward the single lit window on the first floor
facing the house next to Harry's. It was late, and I didn't know
what Harry's folks did, so it could very well have been them awake,
but I took a chance and crept up to the window. The room was
obviously inhabited by a teenager. A few gaming posters and a stack
of textbooks from our school were scattered around the room. I
didn't see anyone asleep on the bed or sitting at the desk. I was
only moments away from calling defeat when the door opened and
Harry stepped in. He was typing something on his cellphone and
didn't look up.

I tapped on the glass.

Harry's head shot up and he squinted
at me through the window, confusion contorting his face. He popped
the latch on the window and slid it open. Cold air-conditioned air
washed over my face. "Eugene? Why are you here?"

"I need your help." I said. I was
mildly surprised he even remembered my name.

He stared at me for a moment, the
confusion on his face suddenly turning to realization. "Does this
have to do with Willow?"

"Yeah," I said, surprised. "How'd you
know?"

"She was supposed to call me today and
hasn't answered any of my texts or calls."

"Yeah… she… she was kidnapped." I
swallowed. It felt a little awkward standing at his
window.

"Kidnapped?" Harry's eyebrows nearly
shot up to his hairline.

"It's a long story." I said, not
really wanting to explain from the outside of his window. Harry
seemed to realize that at the same moment.

"Come to the front door," he said, and
pushed the window closed.

He let me in and tapped the couch in
his living room. I looked around at the sparsely decorated house.
There were a few photos on the walls of a kid who was probably
Harry in various stages of childhood on up. "We're not going to
wake your parents?" I asked in a low voice, taking a seat on the
couch.

"It's just my dad, and no, he's out of
town on a business trip."

"You're… all by yourself?" I was a
little shocked.

Harry shrugged, and changed the
subject. "Willow?"

"Yeah… uhm, I don't know where to
start…"

"Well, how about who kidnapped her for
starters." Harry sat down in the chair across from me and eyed
me.

I took a deep breath. "Some guy named
Isiro."

Harry's eyes narrowed.
"Isiro?"

"Yeah."

He frowned, "What kind of name is
that?"

I shook my head. "I don't know, all I
know is that he took her from this conference we were at with our
parents, and..."

"Why did he take her?"

"They said that he wanted her to be a
host."

"They?" Harry’s eyes got even more
narrow and I’m pretty sure he hadn’t blinked since I started
talking.

"My parents… the lady my Dad works
for. Apparently they want her to be the host for some kind of
parasitic alien."

“
Wait,
she was taken to be a
host
… for an alien?”

“
I know it sounds
crazy…”

“
It’s more than crazy,
Eugene. It’s absurd.”

I sighed, frustrated. “I know. But I
don’t know who else to go to, Harry.”

“
Alright, day of the body
snatchers aside, what’s stopping you from going to the
police?”

“
Well…
nothing really… but Harry these people are powerful. If I went to
the cops
my
people would send this InfoCon organization in to wipe
everyone’s memories. ”

“
Wait…InfoCon?”

“
Oh, my god, Harry. I
don’t even know how to tell you all this stuff. Look, there are two
organizations of Kinetics. I’m what’s called a Kinetic. Supposedly,
I’ve got powers or something and so does every other Kinetic.
Willow has powers! She can heal people.

“
Anyway, one organization
is the A…Anyan’s Alliance? And the other is led by this alien guy
Isiro, the Isiroans. The Alliance and the Isiroans have been in a
war for centuries. Willow was taken to be a host by the alien guy,
and the Alliance thinks she’s a lost cause.”

Harry considered me for a moment. His
face was serious, but there was something being worked behind his
eyes. Finally he said, "What do you want me to do?"

I licked my lips. I felt
dry all too suddenly. "I can't let her be taken like that. They,
Lancaster, the lady my dad works for say there's nothing they can
do. I… refuse, 
refuse 
to believe that she
can't be saved. Help me make a plan or something, anything that I
can do that will let me make sure she gets home safe."

Harry let out a sign. "Tell me… tell
me everything you know."

So I started. I figured he would call
me out, call me crazy, and tell me I was imagining things, but he
was blissfully silent while I began from the moment in school where
Laura loosed the nightmares on us all. "Wait," Harry said. "When
did all this, these nightmares, happen?"

I blinked, surprised. "You were there.
It was just a couple days ago."

Harry frowned at me and searched my
face with his eyes. "Are you sure? I don't remember anything. Last
time you were in school, there was a late fire drill, but no
nightmares."

"Oh." Then it clicked. "I forgot.
That's because you're not a Kinetic. They wiped the memories of all
the Non-Kinetics there."

Harry shook his head. "That's strange.
Knowing that you should know something, but it's just not
there."

I shrugged. "It's all very new to me,
too."

I continued and told him about the
InfoCon. How they had piled us all into the gym and one-by-one had
sorted us between Kinetic and Non-Kinetic. I talked about the
contract they wanted me to sign, the conference yesterday morning
that now seemed too far away. I explained in as much detail as I
could about the attack and Willow's kidnapping.

"This woman called him Grey?" he
finally asked, referring to the woman who had pounced on Grey right
before they had disappeared. I barely dared to look him in the face
for fear he was laughing at me, but his voice was merely
curious.

"Yeah."

He smiled at me. "That's your first
clue. And I think I have an idea."

Harry and I continued talking through
the night. I answered what questions I could for him. At this
point, though, he knew just about as much as I did. Up until today
I hadn't exchanged more than a greeting with Harry. This leap of
faith had been more beneficial to me and to Willow then all the
conversations with my parents, my brother, and that Lancaster woman
combined.