The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse (9 page)

He led me to an elevator which took us up to the top floor of the building. The doors opened and we stepped out into a large hallway. Everything was elegant. We walked on a deep red carpet, and every few feet there was either a sculpture, painting, or some other kind of decoration. Even the curtains were color matched, and a thick material. I looked up to the lights that lit the building. I wondered if they used generators here, or if there was another source of power. It seemed too far away from any civilization to be on the grid.

"You'll be staying in a room up here for the night. Your tour and induction will be in the morning, but until then you can't wander around the place, okay? Dinner will brought up to you at nineteen-hundred hours."

I grit my teeth. "So I can't go anywhere? Thought you said I wasn't a prisoner."

"It's just procedure since you're not a recruit yet. We can't have you wandering the halls and stealing our secrets." He tried to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal, but when he saw I wasn't buying it he shrugged. "Don't stress about it."

I shook. "Whatever."

We got up to the room that was to be mine, but before he could open the door I stopped him.

"I want to ask you something. How old are you?"

Bradley frowned for a moment, before his half smile crept back onto his face. "Why do you want to know?"

"It's just, well, you seem a little young to be going out on missions."

He nodded his understanding. "I guess it would seem a little strange, but I assure you it's standard procedure on missions such as these." He pointed to a pin on his jacket. It was a small, silver circle with a hole in the middle. "This is a training officer's pendant. Real officers have gold ones, but I'm still in the process. Part of that process is taking low risk missions. Getting new recruits is as low risk as they come. Most recruits don't get any field experience until they graduate, but a few can become officers if they show the aptitude."

"I'm low risk, huh?"

"That's what they told me." Bradley grinned. "I thought you were until you almost took a swan dive onto the pavement."

I frowned and looked down at my feet for a few seconds.

"Look, I just want to say that I'm thankful—"

"Don't mention it." He had the first honest smile I had seen on his face since I met him. "Anyone else here would have done the same."

I looked up at him and into his eyes. As I stared it felt like I was being sucked into them for a second time.

He nodded at me and handed me the keys, and I turned to unlock the door in an attempt to hide my face. My cheeks felt as if they were on fire. I looked back to say goodbye, but Bradley was already gone. I grit my teeth in frustration and stomped into the room, slamming the door behind me.

For a few moments I stood there unsure what to do, but then stalked over the the window and threw the curtain closed. Now that nobody could see I pulled a pillow off the bed, stuffed it in my face, and screamed as hard as I could. After a few seconds of hard breathing I let the pillow dropped and stared at the closed door in frustration. What the hell was it about this boy that had me so worked up. I wasn't even sure why I was angry. On that note, I wasn't even sure that I
was angry. I just felt so… annoyed. Here was this boy who had pulled me out of my life, but not before saving it. He was someone who I knew I should have been trying to get away from, but also felt drawn to. I wanted to both draw that smirk from him, and then punch the damn thing right off his face.

I took a few deep breaths and made my way back to the door to lock it before laying down on the bed again and closing my eyes. This has to have been the second weirdest day of my life.

TWELVE

A banging woke me and I threw myself into a roll off the side of the bed. With a gasp I fell to the floor with a thud that pushed the wind from my lungs. I remembered as I hit the floor that I was no longer in my room in my old home, and the bed that I was on was a bit higher than a mattress on the ground. The banging stopped.

Bradley's voice came through the door. "Are you alright in there?"

I gasped for air. "I—I'm fine.".

"Okay. Breakfast is in fifteen and thought you would want to shower or something beforehand."

"I'll be out soon."

I sighed in relief as I heard his footsteps recede, and lifted my hands up in front of me. I had drawn the curtains the night before, but enough light was creeping through the gap for me to stare down at my shaking hands. With trepidation I rose and made my way to the bathroom. It wasn't until I saw my reflection in the mirror that I realized I was crying. I closed my eyes. "He isn't here." I shook my head hard to clear it. When I opened my eyes again they were no longer leaking. I had the shower, scrubbing off the filth from the last few days, then redressed in the same clothes and stepped out of the room to find Bradley waiting by the door.

"Let's go down to breakfast."

As we walked toward the elevator he turned to me. "How's the leg?"

I opened my eyes in surprise—it had slipped my mind. I reached down through my jeans where I knew the wound to be, but could find only skin. It was smooth to the touch, like scar tissue, but I couldn't feel any pain at all.

I blinked away my surprise. "How?"

"Medical science has come a long way, but it's expensive and rare outside of the military. Give it another day or so and there will only be the smallest mark. You'll barely know you were ever injured."

I shook my head. I knew developments in medicine had been good in the past few years, but I'd had no idea this kind of thing was possible. I wondered if this medicine would work on people like Trey's mom? At the thought of Trey I felt a fresh wave of anger.

"Problem?"

I pushed thoughts of Trey from my mind. When I looked up at Bradley I realized I had my jaw clenched. I relaxed it, shook my head no, and followed him into the now waiting elevator.

Minutes later Bradley led me into a large room filled with tables. Most of them were empty, but pair of middle-aged men sat off to one side. In front was a small table with hot and cold food sitting in trays.

Bradley raised a hand, gesturing to the the area. "Welcome to the officer's mess. It's pretty empty at the moment seeing as how most people have been up for a few hours already. Grab whatever you want."

I walked over to the table and felt my mouth water. Sitting in front of me was more food than I'd probably eaten in the last year. I turned to Bradley. "All of this gets eaten?"

Bradley shrugged. "Probably not. The leftovers will be tossed."

I grimaced at the thought of such a waste. "It's so much food."

Bradley shrugged, missing my point. "Wait until you've seen the mess hall for the recruits. This is tiny in comparison."

I sighed, grabbed a plate, and reached for the nearest tongs. Once my plate was full of potatoes, meat, and bread I made my way over to where Bradley was sitting. He had his own plate full of the same things as me, but he also had a token effort of vegetables too.

"How long have you been here?" I asked.

He swallowed and thought for a moment. "Been a recruit for three years now."

"You know you never did give me an answer last night."

He frowned and tilted his head. In a moment his smile returned. "I guess you're right! I'm seventeen."

"You look pretty big for a seventeen year old."

Bradley turned to me, his eyes wide in mock outrage. He placed a hand onto his chest. "Are you saying I'm fat?"

I rolled my eyes.

He grinned and nodded toward the door. "Come on. Let's go meet General Walker."

***

A gruff voice sounded from behind the large wooden double doors that Bradley had just knocked on. "Come."

Bradley turned and gave me a small smile before pushing the door open and entering. I followed on his heels and walked into the office.

The room was minimal, with a large window on one side and a wall to wall bookshelf on the other. The only piece of furniture in the room was a large solid wooden desk with a screen interface on the flat of it. Behind the desk stood a man.

He was well into his sixties, but still looked large and powerful. His well-defined muscles showed that he still kept in shape, and his hair-free face was still free of any major wrinkles. The only sign of his age was his hair, which was a mixture of gray and white. This only served to add to his air of dignity, rather than retract from it.

Bradley stopped in front of the desk and stood to attention, and by default I fell into line beside him and did the same. It seemed like the respectful thing to do.

His eyes scanned over the two of us before coming to rest on mine. "Welcome." I held his gaze as long as I could, but had to drop my eyes after only a few seconds. The man was intimidating. "What can I do for you, Officer?"

Bradley cleared his throat and said, "Potential new recruit Alex Murray here to meet you, sir."

I flinched at the unexpected use of my last name, but didn't say anything.

General Walker didn't take his eyes from my face. "I see. At ease, Alex."

I didn't realize how tense I was until I felt my body relax. I looked up to the general who smiled at me. His intimidating presence melted away, and I felt more comfortable right away. This was a man who exuded honor and trust.

"You're dismissed, Officer."

Bradley saluted and turned, making his way from the room and closing the door behind him with a click.

"My name, as you're likely aware, is General Walker. I'd like to welcome you to the Pulse Division Training Center. Please have a seat."

I swallowed, sat in the offered chair, and looked back up at his eyes. "Thank you, sir."

"I assume you have questions?"

"Many, sir."

"The foremost of which I would assume is 'What the heck is a Pulse'?"

A small smile touched my lips and I nodded.

Walker sighed and stood from his desk and began pacing. "What do you know about Washington D.C.?"

I frowned, taken aback by the unexpected question. I took a few moments to think before responding with all I knew which we had been taught in school. "Twenty years ago a terrorist attack set off a nuclear device in the city. Most of the buildings in a six mile radius were flattened, and the plant and wildlife in the surrounding area are still suffering from the effects. Not to mention the people who were in and around the area. It was the largest attack in the US since the Twin Towers were destroyed."

The general nodded. "Yes that is the official line, and you'd be hard pressed anywhere to find out what really happened. You will be one of the people who know the truth about that day."

I stood stunned, unable to think. Did he mean that it wasn't terrorists? Was someone else responsible?

"Twenty two years ago we, as in the US government, discovered a very special young boy. This boy was only five years old, but had the ability to set things on fire with his mind."

I looked up at the General with a frown on my face. "That… seems like science fiction."

Walker nodded. "And yet you wouldn't be standing here if something that seemed like science fiction hadn't happened to you, am I right?"

I frowned and thought about what had happened. I still wasn't sure what it was, but I knew that it wasn't natural. I nodded and the General gave me a small smile.

"This boy was taken to a research facility and studied, where we learned that it wasn't just fire. The boy could make small explosions out of thin air." He shook his head. "He was kept in that facility for two years before the decision was made to demo his abilities to some politicians."

I put two and two together. "They took him to D.C."

Walker sighed and sat back down in his chair. "I was head of security at the facility where we were keeping him at the time, and it was against my recommendation to remove him from there. We had no idea the capabilities of this child, and couldn't guarantee the safety of anyone there. I was overruled by my superiors."

I shook my head. "But that explosion. That was nuclear in proportion."

"Not just proportion. Function too, hence the radiation."

I couldn't think of anything to say. "The president died in that explosion."

"Along with half the leaders of the military and other government organizations."

I sat for a minutes thinking about the implications before a though occurred to me. "What does this have to do with this training facility?"

General Walker nodded and stood again. "This facility was designed to prevent anything like that from ever happening again. We collect children from around the globe who exhibit special talents, what we call the 'Pulse', and bring them here to train them to handle it." He looked up at me. "You, Ms Murray, are one of those people."

I slumped back into my chair. This was insane. I looked up at the General. "You're telling me I'm a superhero?"

He burst into laughter making me jump. I looked up at him in shock, but soon found myself smiling too. He stopped laughing and looked down at me. "All we're here to do is teach you to use your abilities and train you to keep them under control. Whether you end up being a superhero or not completely depends on you. The abilities though are of a lot smaller scale than what you think of with Superman."

I opened my mouth to object but he cut me off.

"Yes I know the explosion was large, but in the twenty years since that we have still not found anyone who could create anything on a scale that large. Everything we knew about the boy told us that he wouldn't have been capable of that explosion. I wish we could know what triggered it to happen in the first place, so we could avoid a similar scenario."

He cleared his throat and looked down at me with a more serious expression. "Now, tell me about your Pulse."

I raise my eyes back up to his. "You know you're the first person here to ask me about it?"

The general gave me a serious look. "Yes, it's a rule around here. By my personal order, you're not allowed to let anyone know about your ability."

I frowned at him. "If you'd excuse me, sir, but why?"