Wild-born (27 page)

Whether playing sentry at the bathroom door while she bathed or lying in bed with her and shielding her from the airlock, I felt silly pretending to be Alia’s bodyguard. I knew there was nothing I could do to protect her if the doctors decided to take her away. Nevertheless, I dutifully played the part, reminding myself that it was worth it if only to keep her calm, and since I was the idiot who got her into this mess in the first place, I had little right to complain. Besides, I knew how frightening it was to be at the mercy of powers beyond my control. At least Alia could think she was being protected by someone.

A few days of idleness later, Dr. Kellogg came with two large bags full of new toys and books. As per my request, there were several board games as well as lots of storybooks and coloring books. One of the coloring books was dedicated exclusively to unicorns, and though Alia still kept her distance from Dr. Kellogg, I could tell that she was pretty happy with him.

“I did my best in the unicorn department, but this is all I could find in my limited time,” Dr. Kellogg said apologetically.

In addition to the unicorn coloring book, there were a few babyish picture books that featured horses and unicorns. However, many of Dr. Kellogg’s selections were pretty common stories that Alia already knew well. There was
Alice in Wonderland
and
The Wizard of Oz
as well as popular Disney adaptations of Brothers Grimm stuff like
Rapunzel
and
Hansel and Gretel.
But I knew that Alia wouldn’t mind repeats because Cindy used to read these stories to her every night. Despite being entirely unicorn-free,
Hansel and Gretel
was one of Alia’s all-time favorites. (I never asked, but this was probably because being lost in a forest was something that Alia identified with.)

“Thank you, Doctor,” I said, meaning it.

“It is my pleasure,” said Dr. Kellogg.

Then he told me that my first experiments would begin the very next day. I somehow managed not to frown.

The following morning, Alia tagged along with me to a place called Lab-C, which was at the far end of Level 10. This was where my telekinetic powers would be tested.

The Lab-C Testing Room was slightly larger than a gymnasium. It looked like one too, except that the floor was made of stone and there were various items such as concrete blocks, metal bars, broken televisions, washing machines, and even an old and busted grand piano there. Mounted on the far end wall was a series of targets made of paper, plastic, and metal, and on the other end was a large and very thick rectangular window. Behind this window was the Lab-C Control Room, which was a smaller room filled with computers and occupied by a handful of lab technicians, researchers, and well-armed military guards.

Dr. Kellogg, who was escorting us, introduced Alia and me to the researchers in the Lab-C Control Room. I won’t bother you with their names except for one Dr. Denman who was the only researcher that refused to shake my hand during the greetings. Dr. Denman was almost as old as Dr. Otis, taller, and had thin, gray hair and hawk-like eyes. He scowled at Alia and me, making Alia even more frightened than she already was in the presence of so many unfamiliar faces. Dr. Otis was in Lab-C Control too, so I did my best to “convince him of my good intentions.”

Alia, however, did not. That morning had already been a shaky one for her, ever since she had demanded that I stay with her in our room. Not wanting to be left there alone, she had reluctantly accompanied me to Lab-C, but the military guards and researchers here, especially Dr. Denman, really freaked her out. We both had our control rods extended so I couldn’t hear Alia’s voice in my head, but I could see that she was trembling during the introductions, refusing to shake hands with anyone. Still, the draining effect I myself was experiencing kept me from caring too much.

Dr. Otis asked me to start showing them what I was capable of by going down into the Lab-C Testing Room alone and doing anything I wanted. When Alia had a fit of separation anxiety, Dr. Kellogg talked Dr. Otis into allowing Alia to enter the Testing Room with me.

Our control rods retracted as soon as the heavy door closed behind us, and I immediately heard Alia’s telepathic voice frantically begging me to take her back to our room.

“Dr. Kellogg can probably take you back if you really want to go,” I said, “but you’ll still have to stay there by yourself.”

“No, Addy,”
she whimpered into my head.
“You come with me too.”

“You can’t have it both ways,” I told her firmly.

Alia looked up at me, her eyes dripping tears.

“I’m sorry, Ali,” I said in a softer tone as I crouched down in front of her, “but I can’t do anything about this. I wish I could, but I can’t. I’m really sorry. Do you want to stay here with me or do you want to stay in your room?”

Wiping her eyes, Alia silently weighed both unacceptable options for a moment before saying miserably,
“I’ll stay with you, Addy.”

“Okay,” I said, giving her a smile.

I turned my attention back to the Testing Room, knowing that if I was going to convince Dr. Otis to let me be Alia’s guardian, I would have to show him that I was at least as worthy a test subject as Alia.

I started by levitating some of the smaller concrete blocks into the air and throwing them one at a time at a metal target. I flew Alia once around the room, and then switched with her, bouncing off the ceiling and hovering upside down near the observation window. I carefully pushed the piano keys one by one from yards away.

Next, I showed them what I could do to the targets without the concrete blocks. I quickly shredded the paper targets with normal telekinetic blasts, and then moved on to cracking the plastic ones with a few well-placed focused shots through my right index finger. Of course, the heavy steel targets were left completely undamaged, but surely they didn’t expect me to break those. Deciding to show some initiative, I asked them to dim the lighting so that they could see the streaks of silvery light as I released my blasts in the dark.

“That is very impressive, Adrian,” I heard Dr. Otis say over the speaker as the lights came back on. “We’ve seen telekinesis here before, but nothing of your caliber. Can you fire while in the air?”

I had never tried that before, and I was getting tired. Still, it was a request by the head researcher. I lifted myself up about five feet off the floor and extended both arms toward a plastic target. As soon as I shot my energy at it, however, I lost my focus and fell back onto the hard, stone floor.

Alia came running up to me, and so did Dr. Otis and Dr. Kellogg from the Lab-C Control Room, dutifully followed by the guards.

“You could have just said it wasn’t possible,” said Dr. Otis.

“I didn’t know if I could do it,” I replied, holding Alia’s hand so she wouldn’t start panicking near the guards. Our control rods had extended the moment the doctors entered the Testing Room, and once again I couldn’t hear what Alia was saying.

I wasn’t hurt too badly, but it was already nearly noon so Dr. Otis ended the session.

After lunch, I was taken to a smaller laboratory to take various physical examinations, so Alia, tagging along, missed her nap. The doctors had a database containing all of my medical records from the day I was born so that they could compare them to my present condition. They drew my blood and took other samples, as well as checked my eyes and ears.

It was mostly routine stuff, but one test really scared me at first. The doctors called it an “electrocardiogram,” but I had no clue what that meant. A series of wires called “electrodes” were attached to me, all over my bare body, and you can imagine what I thought was about to happen next. Fortunately, the electrocardiogram was entirely painless, as were most of the other tests.

The only real problem was Alia. Watching my examination from the side, Alia was constantly on edge, and when she saw the fear in my eyes during my electrocardiogram, she completely lost it. It took forever to get her to stop crying, and that night she latched herself onto me so tightly that, as tired as I was, I found it difficult to fall asleep.

The next three days were no better. During the mornings and early afternoons, I was given more physical examinations. I was also interviewed at length about everything that had happened to me since I was in kindergarten. They asked me how I had initially trained my powers. They wanted to know every detail of my two confrontations with Ralph. I even told them about my run-in with the cycling graviton.

My main interviewer, a comparatively young doctor at the facility, was particularly interested in my account of how I seemed to have possessed a touch of uncontrolled telekinetic power for years before I became a full-blown psionic.

“How old were you when you used your power for the first time?” he asked.

“I honestly don’t know when it started,” I replied. “All my life, things around me sometimes just moved a bit. I always thought that was normal so I didn’t think about it. I never suspected that it was me.”

“That’s quite intriguing!” said the doctor, whose perky personality I instantly disliked. “Psionics usually gain their powers over a much shorter time. Anywhere from a few days to a few months at the very longest. Before that, they have nothing.”

The young doctor suggested that perhaps my telekinetic power had been simmering just below the surface of my consciousness for most of my life, and that my abrupt contact with a moving vehicle might have jolted my body into accepting the change. Only after I gained control over my power did it become strong enough for psionic finders to sense my presence from afar.

“Of course, that’s just an uneducated guess, Adrian,” he added with a chuckle. “We’ve never heard a story like yours before. This could be quite a mystery to solve! You might be the key to an amazing discovery!”

Irked by the doctor’s excitement, I said dryly, “What makes you think I care about your discoveries?”

The doctor frowned, and I instantly regretted my words. I had to be a good boy for Alia’s sake. For the rest of the interview, I kept my responses professional and my attitude to myself.

Once the doctors ran out of questions, it was back to Lab-C, where I showed them more aerobatics. Dr. Otis was not there on the second or third day, and Dr. Denman terrified Alia by constantly glaring at her during the sessions.

It must have been only about 5am the next day, but my eyes had opened, probably because Alia had her arms wrapped tightly around my neck and was slowly suffocating me like a boa constrictor.

I heard the intercom crackle, and Dr. Kellogg’s voice came on. “Good morning, Adrian. I see you’re up early.”

“Morning, Dr. Kellogg,” I croaked, looking up at the ceiling camera.

“Mind if I come in?”

“Alia’s still sleeping.”

“I know. I’ll try not to wake her.”

A few minutes later, the door slid open and Dr. Kellogg entered quietly.

He leaned his back against the wall, looking down at us and remarking in a slightly amused tone, “She really does cling to you, doesn’t she?”

“Quite literally,” I replied hoarsely, feeling Alia’s arms around my neck tighten even more. Alia was giving me a hands-on lesson on what it felt like to be a teddy bear. “Can’t blame her, though, Doctor,” I said, “considering what she’s been through.”

“No, I suppose not,” agreed Dr. Kellogg. “And how about you?”

“Excuse me?” I said, wondering what I had just missed.

“Well, Alia deals with her insecurity by attaching herself to you. How are you managing yours? Surely you are not feeling much better than she is.”

He was, of course, right. I didn’t share Alia’s phobia of strangers in this place, but my fears were no less serious. Unlike Alia, who would be just as terrified walking into a shopping mall, I understood that the dangers we faced at the Psionic Research Center, despite Dr. Kellogg’s kindness, were very real. Here, psionics were not people. We did not share the rights of fellow human beings. The doctors could kill us on a whim with no consequences to themselves. At least one of them, I strongly felt, wanted to. And even if they didn’t, how long would the tests last? A month? A year? And would they let us go free when it was all over? Neither Dr. Otis nor Dr. Kellogg had mentioned anything about when we might be released, and I was afraid to ask, especially after Dr. Otis’s remark about how life as I knew it was over. If there were only four psionics at this facility aside from Alia and me, P-46 and P-47, what happened to the other forty-one? I feared for Cindy and Mark as well, and often wondered where they were, assuming, that is, they were still alive.

“I’m okay,” I lied quietly.

“Well, I’m still no expert on child psychology,” said Dr. Kellogg, “but I think that it would probably be best to keep the sleeping arrangements as they are, at least for the time being, if it’s alright with you.”

I cringed. I was already regretting my decision to return the army cot. It wasn’t that I disliked Alia or that I didn’t care about her wellbeing. Of course I wanted her to feel secure. But the bed was too small for the two of us, and Alia still slept with her arms around me every night, often all through the night, which meant that I was waking up every morning with a painfully stiff neck and shoulders.

“I noticed Alia’s birthday is coming up,” said Dr. Kellogg.

It was the first of March, meaning Alia’s birthday, or “finding day,” was only three weeks away. I realized that we had already been here ten days.

Dr. Kellogg smiled, saying, “Anything we can get for her, within reasonable bounds of course.”

“So I guess an elevator pass would be out of the question?” I asked jokingly.

“Unfortunately,” said Dr. Kellogg, chuckling.

“How about a double bed?” I suggested.

“Hmm, yes, I think we can arrange that, assuming we could get it through the airlock.”

“And some more unicorn stuff, if you can.”

“Certainly,” said Dr. Kellogg. “And Adrian, I believe Dr. Otis has come to his decision about your offer. You will have the day off today, but I will be around later to collect you and deliver you to his office.”