The Secret (24 page)

Episode 27: Outgunned

The blood boiled red—a mesmerizing dark pool collecting around the lapel of Dr. Luth’s jacket. The doors opened and a noiseless swarm of men began reaching into the car.

Karen screamed. Jake punched into the suited men. Reed’s fist crunched against bone as he leapt from the limo.

There were three things that crossed my mind in the same millisecond; my friends and my brother were in danger, my mother was somewhere in that warehouse, and I could kill them…all.

I closed my eyes and pictured the men falling to the ground along with Nicholi—where ever he might be in the warehouse.

An immediate silence roared like the sound after an explosion.

“Lanie.”

Rob’s voice made me open my eyes.

Sprawled out on the seat in front of me and covered in blood from being drug across Luth’s body, Rob’s glasses were half off his face. “Did you just do that?”

A booming ‘boo-yeah’ sounded from outside the limo. “Yeah—you blood-sucking, zombified mummies! Take that!”

Jake pushed a suited man off of him and out the limo door. He turned, and the look he gave me was a mixture of heavy uncertainty and fear. “Are they dead?”

I could feel the bile rising inside of me, wanting to be sickened by what I’d done. But I wasn’t. I inhaled deeply and let myself bask in a moment of victory. “No.”

Marsha kicked a lifeless, suited man out the other door of the limo. She pushed her hair out of her makeup-smeared face. “Thanks.”

I nodded. “Let’s go find Nicholi.”

I started to get out, but Jake didn’t move. He stared at Luth’s limp body.

“Come on.” I put a hand on his shoulder.

He glanced at my hand and then held me with his blue eyes, glistening with emotion. “Why would he say he needs to save my mother? I found her body. She’s dead. I saw her.”

My heart constricted in my chest and the vulnerability in his voice made me instantly forgive him for not telling me about giving the computer to Sam. I hugged him briefly. “It’s okay, Jake. We’ll get answers—I promise.”

I followed Jake out of the limo and stopped beside the others as they surveyed the mess.

Karen looked at me uncertainly. “Did you do this to Nicholi, too?”

I shrugged and walked down into the sloping garage, searching for signs of Nicholi or my mother. “I tried.”

Jake wrapped his hand around my bicep to stop me. “Lanie, hold up. Let’s think about this for a minute. We don’t know what Luth was talking about—but we know this is a trap.”

Sam flanked my other side and pinched the front of his forehead. “He can mind control people.” He gestured back to the men on the ground. “That’s obviously what he did with them.” Sam blinked. “You need to be careful, Lanie. You don’t know what he can do to you.”

Rob and the others joined us. “If he wanted to control Lanie, he would have already. It must have something to do with ruining us—he doesn’t want to fry our brains like he did with Molly.”

Reed moved behind me and gave me a soft slug in the shoulder. “Lanie’s the bomb. She’s tougher than him. We’re unstoppable.”

An echoed clapping sound moved toward us out of the garage. “Oh, that is impressive. I mean, it’s amazing what you can do when you’re pushed to it, Lanie. All those months at The Foundation toughened you up—gave you gumption. And the rest of you—Luth obviously enlightened you with highlights from my past.”

Cold fire pushed through my chest and down through my hands. It hadn’t worked on him. My powers didn’t affect him. A different kind of fear went through me. I couldn’t stop Nicholi—I couldn’t protect my friends—or my mother.

Nicholi’s beard as Stewart was gone. And he looked thinner. Not lean kind of thin—but wiry thin.

I tried to stop him from moving toward us and felt a sharp, needled pain go through the top center of my head.

He stopped walking and a smile swept over his face. “Oh. Does that bother you?”

The pain intensified and I fell to my knees. “Ah!”

Rob fell down next to me. “Lanie.”

The pain increased like a button on a volume speaker being turned up.

“Ahh!”

Shouts of pain resounded with my own and I saw the others fall to the ground next to me.

And then the pain stopped.

I heaved in a raspy breath and looked around at the others.

“I
could
fry your brains.” Nicholi’s voice was soft and thoughtful. “But then I wouldn’t get what I want. You’re outgunned here, kids. Come on Lanie, get up. You too, Sam, we’ve got some mind hopping to do.”

I looked up into his calm face.

He huffed out a breath and disgust filled his features. “I see Phillip managed an escape. He always was good at running. He could never stand to face the truth of anything. That’s okay, he’ll be back. I’ve got some leverage.”

Thoughts of Mr. Drake’s son, Tim, flashed into my head. Nicholi must have taken him. I kept my voice as even as I could. “He’s just a kid…”

Nicholi shook his head and let out a sigh. “I’ve been trying to spare you. I’ve been trying to get this done the easy way. Do you think I want to be the bad guy? Really? I like you. I wanted to give you a choice. I know we got off on the wrong foot after the incident with your father, but I thought eventually I’d just let you decide your own fate. However—”

“Your power grew with the spells in the book. You unlocked the code before me. You didn’t even need my help.” Rob’s voice was tight.

I turned to my brother, seeing Karen clutching the pavement, her eyes scared—like an animal caught in a trap and afraid to move because it might mean pain.

Stewart cocked an eyebrow at Rob. “I
did
need you. You did well. You have been like a son to me.” His face broke into a sneer. “But you didn’t tell me when you cracked it—did you? I had to hear it from Sam. All the work we had put into it together—and you didn’t call me first?”

“Ahh!” Rob’s whole body shook and he dropped completely to the ground.

“Stop!” I stood, my legs wobbly.

Marsha lunged for Nicholi like a tiger attacking its prey. “Murderer!”

Nicholi immediately flicked his attention to Marsha and she dropped mid-air and yelled out in pain.

But Reed was faster. He landed a punch across Nicholi’s face, who then fell to the ground.

“Payback’s a—” Reed’s face contorted with pain and he crumbled on top of Nicholi before he could finish.

All of them cried out in agony.

I felt my insides getting soft and slimy; helplessness making me weak. “I’ll go with you. Just stop it!”

The wails of pain stopped instantly and Nicholi pushed Reed off of him and stood. “Please don’t make me hurt you. Don’t you see how much it pains me?”

The sound of sirens in the distance caught my attention and I turned to see a line of police cars heading down the exit off of the interstate.

Nicholi looked up and twirled his hand in a circling gesture. “I guess it’s time to go.”

The sound of a helicopter roared to life and lifted in the air from the roof of the building.

A metallic fear tasted inside of my mouth. I lifted my hand in the air to draw a weapon. If I couldn’t use my mind—maybe I could find another way.

A crazed laugh came from Nicholi and he cleared his throat. “Lanie, would you stop? You’re
killing
me.” Nicholi lifted his eyebrows. “Unless you’ve missed the memo—I’m in your head, Lanie. Do you really think I’d let you create a weapon? I’m stronger, I’m smarter, and I know that hurting your mother is not what you want. Get in the helicopter.”

Blood pounded in a whooshing sound through my ears.

The helicopter landed and the police sirens grew louder.

“We have to be going.”

I hesitated, longing for the sirens to get closer, but knowing it would just mean more people would get hurt.

I turned to the helicopter, the door was open and I could see Mom lying on some type of gurney. My chest constricted and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I ran to the helicopter, flinging myself inside.

“Lanie!” Jake’s voice yelled behind me.

“Sam…” Nicholi’s tone was that of a parent patronizing a child that didn’t want to mind.

“Go to hell.”

Marsha dropped back to the ground, crying out in pain.

“Do you like causing your siblings pain?”

A moment later, I watched Sam enter the door of the helicopter and slide in next to me.

I leaned down and took my mother’s hand into my own. The air swooshed loudly around us.

Nicholi closed the door and the helicopter rose into the air.

“Mom?
Mom
?”

“She’s okay.” The woman sitting next to Nicholi stared down at me with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. I felt something start inside of me as I realized whose eyes they reminded me of.

Nicholi put his arm around her and gave the woman’s shoulder a squeeze. “That’s right. She’ll be fine, Ruth. Everything is fine.”

Episode 28: Refusal

Jake

The leather binding of my mother’s last journal didn’t comfort me like it used to. Before I knew my mother was alive. Before I thought she could possibly be in on Nicholi’s whole crazy plan. And before I’d realized that her journals might be a clue.

I pushed down the top on the cheap pen I held poised in my hand. Then released it and pushed it down again. I’d been combing the last few entries for a sign. Anything that would tell me how to fight Nicholi. Anything that would help me save Lanie.

The only thing that was consistent on every page was the symbol of The Foundation. The mark we all bore behind our left ears; the half-moon shape that made up the
Arche
. I traced it over and over on the pages, hoping that maybe there was some kind of connection that would reach out to me.

“It’ll be over soon.” Karen walked into the kitchen, a purple bath robe pulled tightly around her and a haggard, soft expression on her face. She gave me a resigned smile. “Good morning, Jake.”

I tried to smile at her, but I knew it was pointless. I reached behind my ear, running my index finger over it. What was I missing? “I guess you didn’t discover anything else in the late-night digging?”

She sighed. “No. I’m worried about Rob. He’s lived off of Mountain Dew and adrenaline the past two days. He finally crashed about two o’clock this morning.”

I looked into her brown eyes. The usual contentment that Karen had always had a gift for carrying with her was gone. I pulled her into my shoulder. “It will be okay.” I knew it wouldn’t. I knew it was even worse than we had ever, ever imagined anything could be—but I had to say it. A small bit of comfort was the only thing I could offer anyone right now. However lame and pathetic I knew it was.

Karen started to shake, tucking her head deeper into my chest. “No it won’t. Rob thinks Nicholi might be the only one who can really use any of the spells from the book. Like he was the only one gifted with it or something.”

A hopeless, forsaken feeling surrounded me. I rubbed the mark behind my ear again. Power. Everything was linked to our powers.

Rob flew into the kitchen. “I’ve got it.” He wore his standard gym shorts and the black Boston sweatshirt he never took off.

Karen pulled back from me and wiped at her face. “What?”

Rob sat down at the make-shift computer station he’d put together at the kitchen table. “I know the variable I was missing.”

A surge of hope went through my chest and I moved to stand behind him.

He started to type in code, and then I recognized the symbol he was typing over and over as the
Arche
.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

Rob turned his bloodshot eyes to me. “It’s the answer.”

Adrenaline shot through me.

Rob turned back to the screen, a deep scowl replacing the hope I’d seen just seconds ago. “It’s not working.”

I put my hand on his shoulder, the puzzle clicking into place. “It will work. But it has nothing to do with the computer…”

Gravel crunching on the driveway signaled that someone was here. I turned and saw a police car pull up and park next to the deck.

Rob glowered. “You’ve got to get them off our backs. I thought you had your attorney guy on it.”

I turned to walk across the room and pulled my phone out of my pocket. “You know they don’t know anything. But Sheriff Boyle refuses to believe you’re not guilty for Tamara Fuentes.”