The Tower (4 page)

“No way, Cindy,” I said, shaking my head. “There are three bedrooms in this house.”

“True,” admitted Cindy, “but if you two bunk together, we could save one of them as a guestroom or an extra play room or something.”

That was a very weak argument. “Cindy, I spent four months sharing a room with her.”

“And your bed!” laughed Cindy.

I scowled at her. “It’s not funny! I’m thirteen years old. I’d like to have some privacy in my life.”

“It would really mean a lot to Alia.”

“Is it such a big deal?” I asked exasperatedly.

“Well, apparently it is for her,” said Cindy. “Why is it for you?”

“I just want my own space, Cindy.”

“The bedroom is large enough for the both of you,” Cindy pointed out. “It’s not like you’re going to have to share your mattress with her again.”

By now I was pretty sure that I was going to lose this battle, but I had to give it one last push. “Didn’t Alia used to have her own room at your house?”

“You know she did, Adrian. But now I think it might be better for her if she had a roommate, just for a while.”

I groaned.

Cindy gave me her most pleading look, saying, “Listen, eventually Alia will want her own space too. Until then, do this for me, if not for her.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Oh, that is really unfair, Cindy.”

Cindy laughed and said, “Okay. If you’re that sure you don’t want to, I’ll just call Alia in and you can tell her yourself.”

“Okay, okay!” I shook my head in resignation. “I’ll share my room with her. Just lay off the guilt already.”

“Alia, come here!” called Cindy. “He agreed!”

Alia came running out of nowhere and pounced on me, wrapping her arms around my neck. I heard her telepathic voice in my head saying,
“Oh, thank you, Addy!”

Pulling her off of me, I gave her the sternest look I could muster as I asked, “You really want to share a room with me?”

“Yes,”
said Alia.

“Really?”

“Yes!”

I grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little, saying, “You’re weird, Alia! You know that? You’re a weird kid.”

Alia just grinned.
“I know.”

“Okay,” I sighed, “you win.”

Alia hugged me again.

“You’re smiling, Adrian,” said Cindy.

“I am not,” I replied stubbornly.

Alia laughed.
“Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

I might have been.

It took the three of us to move Alia’s bed into my room. The mattress had springs in it, which made it impossible for me to levitate. Once Alia’s bed was in place, Cindy and I moved her dresser and desk while Alia pranced back and forth between the rooms, relocating toys and unicorns. Cindy pinned the unicorn poster up over Alia’s desk while the biggest unicorn doll found a place at the end of her bed. Even with double the furniture, our bedroom was still quite spacious. Just like back at the research center, Alia took the farther side of the room.

Once the move was completed, Cindy asked Alia, “All better now?”

Alia gave Cindy a toothy smile.

Looking around the bedroom, I decided that it wasn’t so bad. At least Cindy didn’t replace my curtains with Alia’s pink ones. Besides, we weren’t trapped in this room, and the penthouse was quite spacious.

“I’m really glad you agreed to this, Adrian,” said Cindy. “I still can’t get over how Alia has taken to you.”

I shrugged. “It’s just how we survived.”

Cindy said brightly to Alia and me, “So, do you two want to go shopping with me? I need to stock the fridge or it’ll be stone soup for dinner.”

Alia immediately nodded, but I looked at Cindy in surprise, asking, “You mean I can actually go outside?”

Ever since turning psionic and leaving home, I was a “missing juvenile,” which meant that the police were looking for me. When I had been living at Cindy’s old house, the only way I could go outside was in disguise. Cindy had me wearing a long wig and a blue dress whenever we left the house.

“Sure you can go outside,” said Cindy, nodding.

“Just like that?” I asked.

“Just like that!”

“No embarrassing costumes?”

Cindy grinned. “Well, if you insist, Addy, I’m sure I could find you another cute dress.”

“Cindy!”

“I’m kidding, Adrian!” laughed Cindy, and then asked seriously, “What’s the matter?”

“It just feels a bit funny,” I said slowly, “being free to go out.”

“Get used to it,” suggested Cindy.

I smiled widely. “Oh, I will!”

We took the elevator down to the basement parking lot, where I discovered that the Guardians had provided Cindy with a brand-new silver sports sedan.

But as Cindy unlocked the door, I said to her in alarm, “Someone’s coming, Cindy!”

Most psionics could feel the presence of other psionics nearby as long as their powers were similar, and right now I sensed multiple destroyer powers fast approaching. But I couldn’t actually sense which direction they were coming from, so I looked nervously around the parking lot. As a telepathic and healer, Alia couldn’t sense destroyers, but she instantly sensed my fear and grabbed my arm.

“Relax, Adrian,” said Cindy, putting a reassuring hand on Alia’s shoulder.

“Where are they?!” I asked in mounting panic as I felt the destroyers drawing ever nearer. “Who are they?!”

“They’re my outdoor security,” Cindy calmly explained as she got into the sedan. “Just ignore them.”

“You’re sure?”

“Trust me,” said Cindy.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I sat in the front of the car next to Cindy while Alia took the back seat.
In addition to being a one-of-a-kind hider, Cindy was also a powerful psionic finder, which meant that she could
accurately sense the distance and direction of all types of psionic powers. She had identified her security team just by the combination and varying strengths of their approaching powers. And yes, I trusted her completely.

The real mystery was how Cindy’s outdoor security knew that we were trying to leave the building. Before Cindy could even start the engine, four dark-suited men came jogging down the exit ramp. They strode up to our car and asked Cindy where we were headed. Cindy told them that we were just going to the local grocery, but they insisted on accompanying us. If anyone was more annoyed with this than me, it was, to my surprise, Cindy. Most of the time, Cindy was the most calm, even-tempered person I knew, but she could be severe when the need arose.

“Tell Travis that I will not be hounded. I already have a bodyguard, thank you,” she said icily to them before pulling out of the parking lot, tires screeching.

Buckling my seatbelt, I asked anxiously, “Cindy, is this really okay?”

“Don’t worry, Adrian,” said Cindy. “We live in New Haven now. We’ll be safe in this neighborhood.”

“But Mr. Baker said that most of the Guardians have yet to gather.”

“I know, but look in the mirror.”

I didn’t have to. I could easily sense the destroyer quartet following us in their car. Cindy hadn’t set her hiding bubble over the city yet.

“Besides,” said Cindy, “the grocery store is just down this street.”

“You know this area already?” I asked.

“Sure. I lived here with Mr. Baker’s Guardians until Ralph could locate the research center.”

“Oh...”

Cindy looked at me curiously and asked, “Didn’t you look in your dresser?”

“No,” I said. “Why?”

“Well, why do you think we only bought one set of clothes for you on our way over here?”

I gave her a surprised look. “You mean my clothes are already in my room? But you told me you left everything behind when you ran from the Wolves.”

“I did,” said Cindy. “But then I went out and bought some more.”

We had managed to move Alia’s dresser without taking out the drawers, but I remembered now how the dresser was strangely heavy. “You went clothing shopping for us when you didn’t even know where we were, or if you’d ever find us?”

“That’s right, Adrian. Clothes, toys, you name it.”

“That’s crazy!”

“Maybe,” Cindy said slowly. “But I had to believe. That’s how I kept myself sane. Isn’t that why you keep that pendant around your neck?”

“Ah,” I said, looking away.

Cindy laughed. I laughed too, though considering Cindy’s taste in fashion, I had a feeling I was in for an unpleasant surprise when we got home.

Cindy parked in front of the large grocery store, and we ignored the psionic escort as they followed us in. I grabbed a shopping cart and pushed it along as Cindy tossed boxes of everything from breakfast cereal to baking powder into it. Alia happily ran circles around us.

I watched Alia closely as we walked through the store. She really had no trouble being out in the open, taking little notice of the other customers. I knew she had been slowly overcoming her fear of strangers over the past months, but still it was wonderful to see her like this. Well, if Alia had the courage to attack Dr. Denman with her bare, bloody hands, perhaps a walk through a store was no big deal for her anymore.

“Adrian!” Cindy said warningly.

I looked up at her. “What?”

“Put your hands on the cart handle.”

“Oh,” I said, grasping the plastic-covered handlebar. Busy watching Alia, I hadn’t even noticed that I was letting my telekinetic power push the cart for me.

“It’s one thing to walk without a disguise, Adrian, but you have to keep your psionics inconspicuous in public.”

“Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“You’re power has grown, hasn’t it?”

“Why do you say that?”

“That cart is solid steel, and yet you were pushing it without even focusing.”

It wasn’t like I had been levitating the shopping cart. It had wheels and I was just telekinetically pushing it along the aisle. But I noticed now that the cart was mostly thick steel wire, and lots of it.

“Maybe I have gotten a bit stronger,” I replied. “The doctors kept us pretty busy down there.”

Returning to our penthouse, my fears about my new wardrobe were confirmed. My dresser was filled with every hideously over-cute thing imaginable. Some of them could not possibly have been designed for boys. Back when I first started living with Cindy and Alia last year, I thought perhaps Cindy bought cutesy clothes like this for me just to make me look cuddlier for Alia, but now I wasn’t so sure.

Oh well
, I thought to myself, gingerly fingering a red and white polka-dotted shirt that looked suspiciously like a blouse,
I guess I can’t have everything in life.

I wandered over to the game room alone and tried knocking some of the pool balls around with the cue stick, but the only way I ever pocketed one was if I used my telekinesis to curve their paths on the pool table. I quickly gave up.

Cindy, Alia and I spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing together in the penthouse. I even tried watching some TV – something I hadn’t done for nearly a year. I had gotten so used to life without television that I ended up flipping through every channel before giving up and switching it off, never to bother with it again. I know that’s weird, but when you’re psionic, weird is just par for the course.

It was the first real day in freedom for Alia and me, and as I sat in the greenhouse watching the boats glide along the sparkling blue-green river off in the distance, I decided that I really didn’t care much about my clothes. Or the fact that I was sharing my room with an eight-year-old again. Or that we were going to be trailed by bodyguards wherever we went. Not even the fact that I would soon have to begin home tutoring and combat training, neither of which I was looking forward to. These were all just details. Details didn’t matter. We were free.