The Awakening (15 page)

Colin turned to Razor. “What about you?”

“I’ll be around,” Razor said. “Max offered me a job. Said that he didn’t trust me not to talk to the wrong people. After all this is over, I’m going to New York with him and his team.” He lowered his voice and added, “Though I wouldn’t mind hanging around here for a while. Give the girls a chance to get to know me.”

For a second, Colin almost changed his mind about going with Solomon and the others.
No, that’s crazy,
he said to himself.
I can’t be thinking about girls at a time like this!
To change the subject, he said, “What’s going to happen to Ritchie’s car?”

Razor grinned. “Oh, I lied about that. We
did
steal it. Max said he’ll arrange for it to be returned to the owner in Florida.”

Solomon Cord said good-bye to his wife and daughters, then called, “Colin?”

“Good luck,” Razor said. He tentatively held out his hand.

Colin shook it. “Thanks for everything. I hope I see you again.”

“Me too.” Razor grinned. “Man, this has been a weird couple of days!”

Colin felt a sudden, stomach-wrenching lurch as the StratoTruck soared into the air.

Sitting at the controls, Max glanced back at Colin. “All right, we can talk freely here. Any questions?”

“Where are we going?”

“We figured out the most likely transport they took and traced the jet’s path to a small airfield in California. Our sources say that there’s been a lot of copter activity a few miles from there. My guess is that they’re holed up in an abandoned mine. The infrared satellite pictures show some unusual readings from one particular area, the site of a mine that was officially abandoned in 1881.”

“You don’t know who’s behind everything?”

“No. But we do know that a few days ago someone was broken out of a top-secret prison in Nevada. Whoever was behind that was pretty clued-up; even
I
didn’t know where the place was.”

“So who was the prisoner?”

“The only name they had for him was Joseph. He was arrested during the mop-up after Ragnarök’s battle-tank. They never found out anything about him.”

Colin asked, “So did
everyone
survive that day?”

“No,” Cord said. “Not everyone.”

“But the rest of you lost your powers?”

Max nodded.

Colin said, “Well, this guy Joseph can’t be the one who’s in charge. He couldn’t have organized everything from prison. So it must be someone else. I’m pretty sure it’s not Façade. He was undercover for eleven years.”

“What are our resources?” Solomon asked Max. “Did you manage to get in contact with any of the others? What about Josh and Roz?”

Max shook his head. “Roz is in South Africa and Josh is working on something for the Department of Defense. There’s no way to contact either of them right now. They wouldn’t be much help anyway. As Colin said, everyone’s lost their powers. Right now, as far as we know, the only superpowered people on the whole planet are Colin and Daniel Cooper.”

“And
my
powers aren’t even reliable,” Colin said.

“Right,” Max said. “When we find them, we’ll have to figure out a way into their base to get Daniel and Colin’s parents out. Let’s hope your superhearing returns by then, Colin, because we’re going to need it.”

29

“D
ANNY, YOU CAN’T KEEP US HERE FOREVER
,” Façade said. Along with the others, he was tied up, sitting on the floor in the center of the examination room. For the past three hours, there had been no activity from the soldiers outside. Before that, they had made several unsuccessful attempts to break into the room and overpower him. Each time they’d tried, they’d barely made it past the door before discovering that their weapons were suddenly empty or missing.

“I know that,” Danny said. “Just give the order to free Colin’s parents and the girl. I’m not leaving them behind. Free them and I’ll let you go.”

It was a stalemate. Danny knew it, but he couldn’t see an alternative.

Rachel said, “Danny, in order to calibrate the machine we need to run some tests on a superhuman. So we need either you or the girl. Don’t you know how important this is?” She looked toward Joseph. “I thought you explained everything.”

Joseph nodded. “I did,” he said, his voice barely a whisper. “I told him the truth.” He slumped to the side and lay unmoving on the floor.

Danny laughed. “Oh please! How many movies have we seen that trick in?”

“Damn it! I was afraid of that,” Rachel said. “We’ve been here too long. He’s crashing.”

“What are you talking about?” Danny asked.

“We’ve been dosing him with thiopentone sodium. A truth serum. It keeps him submissive.”

“Why do you need him submissive?”

Façade said, “Danny, untie Rachel. She’s a doctor. Joseph needs medical attention right
now
!”

Danny shook his head. “No.”

“I swear, this is not a trick!”

“Why should I believe
you
?” Danny screamed.

They stared at him in silence.

Danny turned to Rachel. “Supposing that it
is
true…Why were you drugging him?”

Rachel said nothing.

Façade looked from Rachel down to Joseph, then up at Danny. “You want to know the truth? You want to know what they’re really up to? I’ll tell you.”

“Shut the hell up, Façade!” Victor Cross cut in.

“What are
you
going to do about it, Cross?” To Danny, Façade said, “Joseph was brought here because of his visions: his prophecies. He saw you leading a war against the rest of the world. He saw a lot of other things too: just flashes, mostly, things he wasn’t able to put into context. Things that have been giving him nightmares since even before you were born. When he was in prison, they kept him under a mild sedation to keep him calm. We broke him out because we want to know what those visions were. That’s what the truth serum is for. It helps him to relax enough for him to describe—in detail—everything he saw. And now it’s wearing off. Danny, you remember that documentary about drug users we watched a couple of months back?”

Danny nodded. “You’re saying that Joseph is suffering from withdrawal symptoms?”

Rachel said, “Exactly. I have to check his breathing, circulation, reflexes and blood sugar. Then I’ll know how to treat him.”

Danny hesitated.

Façade said, “At the very least, let Rachel put him in the recovery position!”

“All right,” Danny said. He reached down and untied Rachel’s hands and feet. “Try anything, though, and you’ll be sorry.”

Doesn’t this guy
ever
get tired?
Renata wondered.

The guard had been on his feet for hours now, standing in the same position, his gun pointed at her. And he was
still
talking: “It’s a fact that in every conflict, innocent people have suffered. It’s not fair, you might say, but you’d be wrong.”

Renata sighed.
Just my luck to get stuck with a henchman who thinks he’s a philosopher.
Aloud, she said, “You think that it
is
fair that the innocent suffer?”

“No, that’s not what I mean. You see…”

Renata held up her hands. “OK! OK! Stop! Now, listen carefully! I. Want. Something. To.
Eat!
”

The guard sighed. “Hold on.” He unclipped his walkie-talkie and spoke into it. “This is Escher, level one. The girl is hungry. So am I, come to think of it.”

“Hold tight, Escher,” Davison’s voice said. “Things are starting to happen in the examination room.”

“Roger.”

He clipped the walkie-talkie back onto his belt.

Renata pointed to the ground at his feet. “You dropped something.”

He looked down.

Renata whipped the chair out from under her and threw it at him as hard as she could.

The soldier glanced up just as the chair hit him in the face.

At the same time, Renata was running forward. She knocked the gun from his hands, then lifted him up into the air and slammed him hard against the wall.

She let him go and he dropped to the floor.

Renata crouched over him. “Where are you keeping Energy and Titan?”

She felt something hard pressing against her stomach and glanced down to see that he had a second gun.

“Back away, or I shoot!”

“I can solidify faster than you can pull the trigger.”

“Go ahead. If you’re solid you can’t move.”

“If I’m solid the bullet will ricochet and hit you.”

They stared at each other.

“So it’s a draw,” Renata said.

“No. You lose. You can’t stay in that position forever.”

Renata stepped back.

The guard got to his feet and kicked the chair back to her. “Sit down.”

Reluctantly, Renata uprighted the chair and sat down.

The guard scooped up his other gun and resumed his old position. “So anyway. We were talking about whether the innocent have to suffer. See, what you don’t understand is that…”

Renata groaned.
God, this is worse than being in school!

“How are you doing now?” Danny asked Joseph as he retied Rachel’s hands.

“Better, thank you. And clearer.”

“Clearer?”

“The drugs were clouding my judgment.”

Danny regarded him. “So whose side are you on now? Mine or theirs?”

“Nobody’s side, Danny. And everybody’s.”

“Don’t tell me you still think that you need to strip my powers. You still think I’m a threat?”

“Yes. Yes, you are.”

Danny looked away in disgust. “God, that’s crazy! I’m one of the good guys!”

Victor Cross said quietly, “How do you know?”

“What?”

“You don’t know whether you’re one of the good guys. You couldn’t possibly know. You’re too young.”

Joseph said, “Danny, when I saw that vision of you, I knew that I couldn’t just sit back and let it happen. I had to do something about it. All this came about as a result of that.”

“If I’m such a threat to the world, wouldn’t it have been
simpler
to just have killed me when I was a baby?” Rachel said, “We had to be certain that your powers
would
develop. Just because your father had powers didn’t mean that you would. It’s not like we could test your blood or profile your DNA to see whether you were a carrier. That’s not how it works. It does happen that the powers are passed on from one generation to the next, but it’s certainly not guaranteed.”

Joseph shifted around to face his son. “When I saw your future, I had to make that decision. Believe me, I didn’t want to. I
really
didn’t want to. I wanted to pretend that it wasn’t going to happen, that everything would turn out all right. I was sure that I could come up with a better solution, but—” He frowned. “I can’t remember now. Sometimes the past is like a page with the ink starting to run. I
know
that we talked about other ways, but the memories are blurred now. But one thing that’s clear is the vision I had of you.”

“So you’re saying that it
will
happen? That I have no control over my own future? If that’s the case, why did you even bother trying to do anything about it?”

“Because it
isn’t
absolutely definite. It’s not like the future is already there, waiting for us to catch up with it. What I saw is the most likely future. But it’s one that we must do everything we can to prevent.”

“Including killing your own son?”

Joseph turned away. “No. I don’t want that. I never wanted that.”

“Why did you even
bring
me here? If the machine can strip my powers no matter where I am on the planet, you didn’t need me at all, did you?”

“We needed to know exactly how the powers worked before we could be certain that the power-damper would be effective.”

“Why? Why not just give it a go and see what happens?”

Victor sighed and looked at Danny as though he was being remarkably stupid. “Because, you idiot, without you here to test it on, how would we
know
whether it had worked?”

Joseph suddenly sat up straighter. “Wait…This isn’t right. I’m starting to remember something…I went to him, told him about the vision, and he said…he said that this was the best way. Not the only way. The best way. Why? Why did he say that? I don’t know.” He looked at Danny. “
I
said we’d have to watch you, train you carefully. But he told me that the best way was to strip everyone’s powers. And I believed him. Why did I believe him?”

“Who are you talking about?” Danny asked.

Before his father could reply, Victor interrupted. “Danny, the important thing is that right now, right at this moment,
you
are holding a gun on a group of people who are completely powerless against you. You think that’s the action of a good person?”

Danny shook his head. “No. We’re in this mess because of what
you
did, not because of anything I’ve done. I am not to blame for this.”

“You have to accept responsibility for your actions,” Victor said.

“Just as you have to accept responsibility for
yours
. You kidnapped me; all I’m trying to do is help my friends. Now…tell your people to order their release, or I
will
start shooting. It’s not like any of you are innocent.”

Joseph said, “Oh God, I remember! Danny, listen to me! First it was
him,
controlling me, persuading me that it should be done his way. And then he lost his powers like everyone else, and I was locked up.” His breathing became ragged; sweat broke out on his forehead. “But the vision
was
real. Danny, billions of people are going to die! You’ve got to let us finish the machine! It’ll take away your powers; then all this will be over. I wish to God that there was another way, but there isn’t—not anymore! If you don’t let us strip your powers, there will be a war like this world has never seen! Danny, I’m talking about the
end
of the
world
! You’re going to be responsible for that! And I won’t be there to stop you.”

“What do you mean? Where will you be?”

“Please, just do as I ask!”

“No.”

Joseph swallowed. “Danny…I’ve seen my own future. I remember now how it ends for me. When I was about your age, I saw the first glimpses of my death, but I wasn’t able to understand it until now.” He inhaled deeply, held it for a few seconds, then let it out. “Danny, if my vision was right, it’s going to happen very soon. But we can avoid it if you put down the gun. That’s all I ask, just put the gun down. You do that, I won’t die, and maybe that means that the future
can
be changed. Maybe we can avert this whole thing.”

Danny stared at him. “You think I’m going to
shoot
you? Is that what you saw in your vision of the future? All right. Let’s change it, then.”

Danny flipped the gun into the air and caught it by the barrel.

His father suddenly relaxed, his shoulders slumping forward. “Oh, thank God! Now, put the gun down.”

Danny unclipped the ammunition cartridge. “No need. See? It’s empty. I couldn’t possibly shoot you now. And in case you get any ideas, I can reload the gun faster than you can get to me.”

His father stared at him, wild-eyed with fear. “No, Danny, there’s more to it than that! The visions…Look, I don’t care what happens to me. My time is over. You’re the one who’s going to make a difference. Put the gun down
now
!”

“You have to listen to him, Danny,” Façade said. “I know you better than anybody here! I know you’re not evil, I know you’ll intend to use your powers only for good, but these things have a way of getting out of control!”

“Don’t give me that crap, Façade. You’re condemning me for things that will never happen. And
you
…Joseph…Quantum…whatever your real name is…” Danny crouched down in front of Joseph. “You judged me and found me guilty on the day I was
born
! You destroyed my life and all because of one vague vision of the future. Well, I’ve just changed one of your visions. How do you know the other one will come true? How do you know it wasn’t just a dream?”

“It was real. It will happen, unless you let us help you.”

“
Help
me? That’s what you call it? Help?”

“Listen to me, son!”

Danny lashed out and struck Joseph across the face with the butt of the gun. “Don’t call me that! I am
not
your son!”

Danny staggered back and stared. Joseph lay, unmoving, on the floor.

The others stared at him. Façade said, “Is he…?”

“Danny, untie me! Let me check on him!” Rachel said.

Danny didn’t move.
This isn’t my fault!
They
put me in this position!

He couldn’t help thinking of the rock he’d thrown at the cavern wall; how it had appeared to him to move at an ordinary speed and how it had exploded when it hit the wall.

On the floor, the pool of blood around Joseph’s body was beginning to spread.