08-28-2018, 12:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-28-2018, 12:34 AM by Jay Carpenter.)
"That's what I am trying to tell you!" Dr. Diaz interrupted. Jay could only see an angle of his head, but the man gripped the steering wheel of his immaculate car like he wanted to rip it off and throw it at whoever he was talking to.
"The patient you sent me to monitor is cured. I saw it myself...."
Sent to monitor? Someone sent the doc to monitor Cayli.
"I don't know. One of them must have guided her through the toxic stage. From what you told me, I gather it was the woman..."
The toxic stage had to be the sickness. While the someone on the other side spoke, Jay quickly pieced together the concept. With the exception of Evelyn Avalon, neither him nor any of the Nine knew a woman channeler. Barely even came up. Running into another guy channeler was rare enough. Like Vanders and Nox tried to tell him, to survive the sickness, you have to consciously seize the source of this power. Natalie walked Cayli through it. But the words she used...Drift.. Let go.. The vaguest suggestion that he let go and drift away in the power would burn him to a cinder. It was almost like Natalie and Cayli had an entirely different power at their reach. It hit him. So obvious that Jay was washed with waves of stupidity for not seeing it sooner. Men and women couldn't guide each other through grasping the power. Like sensed like kind. Jay would have failed if he told Cayli all the ways he seized the power. She never would have done it and she would have died anyway. That this doctor and his evil overlord also knew it while Jay, an actual channeler, didn't grated like sandpaper on skin.
"She's useless to us now, and I was certain that she was a key. She survived the sickness so long. I thought it was her youth, too. Fourteen."
A swell of pride filled his chest. Cay was tough as nails. Damn right she was a survivor.
The doctor's voice grew calmer. Perhaps like not all was lost after all. "Yes, I have all her records scans, DNA, samples. I'll submit them to your office as soon as possible. I have no reason to stay now. I'll be in the office tomorrow night, assuming these people have heard of airplanes."
He started to disconnect when a sudden burst of new information interrupted. "I forgot to tell you, the patient's sibling - I told you about him - can channel."
Jay was immediately wrenched from his thoughts. Diaz told the someone about him. What did he say?
"Definitely. He used it on me. I knew it when I saw it. There was no doubt. Competent too. Nothing like the waifs and orphans.. not even that one promising subject, that homeless schmuck.. nothing like we've seen yet.... I don't think I can talk my way into samples from him, Ross. ... I don't know. The girl rambled on about a brother. I never paid attention. Only that he wasn't around. I see why. This one's not a nice guy."
Hey! Jay frowned.
"I'm leaving tonight if possible. After I send the records, I'm packing my office and coming back."
The call disconnected and Jay slid into hiding as Diaz emerged. He pinched a spasm gripping his neck from twisting around to watch. The door smacked. Diaz hurried back to the hospital to send Cayli's records to someone who by all sounds of it had no business seeing it.
Jay ducked toward the car. It was locked, of course. Biometric mechanism on the handle. Advanced stuff. Not like the good old days of rigging the handle loose from the window pane.
He scanned the interior of the car, hand to his eyes. Leather interior. A few personal items. Nothing obviously nefarious. Except an empty diet pepsi bottle. Who drank that shit? Even if it was diet, Jay wouldn't turn one down right then. The darkness of the dashboard hid the identity of the caller. The power buzzed on his periphery.
Worth a shot.
Earth to ground, spirit to spark, fire to short.. A baseball sized tangle sank into the door handle until it glowed red hot. A flash. Jay winced, but the mechanism failed. He opened the door and slipped into the leather seat like putting on a glove.
Damn that was a nice car.
He checked the perimeter just in case while activating the dashboard system. Last call: ten minutes. Location: Baltimore, MD. A relief it wasn't Arlington, VA. A call to the Pentagon would not have bode well. Contact: Roswell Jenkins.
Jay stared at the name. It meant nothing to him. But he memorized as much as he could about the contact in the meantime. Finally, he rifled through the car's compartments. Gum wrappers. A weird necklace that Jay held up to the light only to discard a moment later. But this. This was interesting. A security badge with NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH on the top.
Maybe this wasn't boding well after all. He slipped the badge into his jacket pocket and made his way back inside. But not without stopping at a drink machine for a soda. Technically, he carried two in each hand. Something of an offering as he returned to Cayli's room.
The doc was no where to be seen. Presumably he was shooting all kinds of secure shit off to Maryland now. The Jenkins guy was the one in power, though. Diaz was a minion.
It was like a bubble burst when he returned. Dad looked up with a permanent scowl etched into the weight of his cheeks. Mom was trying to get Cayli to brush the mass of her hair. It was a darker blonde, similar to Jay's, and glossy and thick. Her cheeks were pink now. Her eyes bright. She all but hopped out of bed if she hadn't been tethered to machines when he came back in.
He grinned at the room, whom collectively seemed to have been holding their breath the entire time he was gone.
"Which one you want, kiddo?" He offered her the four soda options. She picked the electric yellow one much to mom's horror. Dad took one. Mom waved it away going on about drinking poison. Which was a little dramatic. Jay shrugged and offered the last two to Jensen and Natalie. Probably could have carried enough for everyone if he'd used the power, but given how he might make some poor guy have a heart attack, he opted to wait to being around healthier folks before channeling openly.
Dad seemed to be staring at him like he was expecting them to pick up their stuff and scoot on out the door right then. Jay just smirked and sat on the foot of Cayli's bed, shoving her foot up and out of the way before he crushed it.
"Comfortable," he said as his palm bounced on the flimsy mattress sarcastically. "You know, I once slept on a rock in Uganda more comfortable than this." Cayli laughed.
"What's Dr. Diaz been like? He take good care of you?" Jay ignored the others for now. He only had eyes for his little sister. She could lie to anyone except him. For the most part.
She tipped a shoulder. "Yah I guess so. He's funny though. Kept telling me I was a special case. He asked about weird stuff that doctors don't usually talk about."
Jay casually sipped at the drink. "Like what?"
She thought a moment. "Like what my favorite food was. Or if I remember the first time I ever got really hurt as a kid. And my dreams. He asked about my dreams a lot."
Yep. Definitely some weird cult like shit going on. Maybe he was Atharim? But it didn't make sense. Didn't Atharim want to kill them all off? No snake symbols marked him Atharim.
He twisted around when a nurse entered the room. She was pretty irritated that there were so many people packed inside.
"I have your discharge papers, Miss Cayli." She elbowed her way in.
Cayli's grin beamed like the sun.
"Discharge?! What?" Mom and dad both interrupted. They may fight more often than not, but they agreed Cayli belonged in the hospital.
"Dr. Diaz has discharged her." She said simply and went about disconnecting Cayli from all the equipment and tubes. Jay opted to give the teenager some privacy so she could get dressed, but his own elated grin equaled hers.
He downed the rest of the soda, chucked the can in the trash, and found the red face of his father.
"You did something, boy. What did you do? Threaten the poor doc?" Jay blinked.
"Dad, If I threatened the guy, he'd be signing his soul over to us not signing some paperwork." He smirked, but the morbid humor did not amuse David. "No I didn't do anything." He crossed his arms and glanced down the hall. He'd pay good money to see the doc peek around the corner just then.
Instead, someone else came around the corner. Two someone elses.
He stepped around David who was otherwise oblivious to the oddity. Two guys stalked, gaits locked in step. Strong, brick-walls of guys that either spent way too many hours in the weight room or they were professional muscle. Their clothes were far too strategic for comfort. Guys like that did not look at hospital 'anti-gun' signs, shrug and turn around like they weren't allowed to enter. That's not what drew Jay's eye, though.
He recognized one of them: a little shit cousin of Amengual's. He studied every Amengual face he could find on the internet on the plane. Goddammit. That mother fucker.
His heart beat hard as he let the power fill him again and he rubbed his temple. He barely even realized it had been released at some point between the drink machine and Cayli's room. Through the flood, he latched onto the gaze of the nearest one, ready for the merest sign of threat to lash out. Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe he was seeing arrows in the dark.. Don't make a scene. Don't blow up a hospital.
They did nothing, though. The pair proceeded without slowing. One glanced casually into Cay's room. The other held Jay's gaze like he wanted to crush his throat instead.
When they were gone, Jay hurried back inside, modesty be damned, and helped Cayli pack her stuff. Two minutes later, he was rushing them out to the parking lot, ordering them to fuck the truck and climb in the rental.
He drove like a bat out of hell out of that parking lot.
Cayli was absolutely ecstatic. Jay was fucking terrified.
"The patient you sent me to monitor is cured. I saw it myself...."
Sent to monitor? Someone sent the doc to monitor Cayli.
"I don't know. One of them must have guided her through the toxic stage. From what you told me, I gather it was the woman..."
The toxic stage had to be the sickness. While the someone on the other side spoke, Jay quickly pieced together the concept. With the exception of Evelyn Avalon, neither him nor any of the Nine knew a woman channeler. Barely even came up. Running into another guy channeler was rare enough. Like Vanders and Nox tried to tell him, to survive the sickness, you have to consciously seize the source of this power. Natalie walked Cayli through it. But the words she used...Drift.. Let go.. The vaguest suggestion that he let go and drift away in the power would burn him to a cinder. It was almost like Natalie and Cayli had an entirely different power at their reach. It hit him. So obvious that Jay was washed with waves of stupidity for not seeing it sooner. Men and women couldn't guide each other through grasping the power. Like sensed like kind. Jay would have failed if he told Cayli all the ways he seized the power. She never would have done it and she would have died anyway. That this doctor and his evil overlord also knew it while Jay, an actual channeler, didn't grated like sandpaper on skin.
"She's useless to us now, and I was certain that she was a key. She survived the sickness so long. I thought it was her youth, too. Fourteen."
A swell of pride filled his chest. Cay was tough as nails. Damn right she was a survivor.
The doctor's voice grew calmer. Perhaps like not all was lost after all. "Yes, I have all her records scans, DNA, samples. I'll submit them to your office as soon as possible. I have no reason to stay now. I'll be in the office tomorrow night, assuming these people have heard of airplanes."
He started to disconnect when a sudden burst of new information interrupted. "I forgot to tell you, the patient's sibling - I told you about him - can channel."
Jay was immediately wrenched from his thoughts. Diaz told the someone about him. What did he say?
"Definitely. He used it on me. I knew it when I saw it. There was no doubt. Competent too. Nothing like the waifs and orphans.. not even that one promising subject, that homeless schmuck.. nothing like we've seen yet.... I don't think I can talk my way into samples from him, Ross. ... I don't know. The girl rambled on about a brother. I never paid attention. Only that he wasn't around. I see why. This one's not a nice guy."
Hey! Jay frowned.
"I'm leaving tonight if possible. After I send the records, I'm packing my office and coming back."
The call disconnected and Jay slid into hiding as Diaz emerged. He pinched a spasm gripping his neck from twisting around to watch. The door smacked. Diaz hurried back to the hospital to send Cayli's records to someone who by all sounds of it had no business seeing it.
Jay ducked toward the car. It was locked, of course. Biometric mechanism on the handle. Advanced stuff. Not like the good old days of rigging the handle loose from the window pane.
He scanned the interior of the car, hand to his eyes. Leather interior. A few personal items. Nothing obviously nefarious. Except an empty diet pepsi bottle. Who drank that shit? Even if it was diet, Jay wouldn't turn one down right then. The darkness of the dashboard hid the identity of the caller. The power buzzed on his periphery.
Worth a shot.
Earth to ground, spirit to spark, fire to short.. A baseball sized tangle sank into the door handle until it glowed red hot. A flash. Jay winced, but the mechanism failed. He opened the door and slipped into the leather seat like putting on a glove.
Damn that was a nice car.
He checked the perimeter just in case while activating the dashboard system. Last call: ten minutes. Location: Baltimore, MD. A relief it wasn't Arlington, VA. A call to the Pentagon would not have bode well. Contact: Roswell Jenkins.
Jay stared at the name. It meant nothing to him. But he memorized as much as he could about the contact in the meantime. Finally, he rifled through the car's compartments. Gum wrappers. A weird necklace that Jay held up to the light only to discard a moment later. But this. This was interesting. A security badge with NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH on the top.
Maybe this wasn't boding well after all. He slipped the badge into his jacket pocket and made his way back inside. But not without stopping at a drink machine for a soda. Technically, he carried two in each hand. Something of an offering as he returned to Cayli's room.
The doc was no where to be seen. Presumably he was shooting all kinds of secure shit off to Maryland now. The Jenkins guy was the one in power, though. Diaz was a minion.
It was like a bubble burst when he returned. Dad looked up with a permanent scowl etched into the weight of his cheeks. Mom was trying to get Cayli to brush the mass of her hair. It was a darker blonde, similar to Jay's, and glossy and thick. Her cheeks were pink now. Her eyes bright. She all but hopped out of bed if she hadn't been tethered to machines when he came back in.
He grinned at the room, whom collectively seemed to have been holding their breath the entire time he was gone.
"Which one you want, kiddo?" He offered her the four soda options. She picked the electric yellow one much to mom's horror. Dad took one. Mom waved it away going on about drinking poison. Which was a little dramatic. Jay shrugged and offered the last two to Jensen and Natalie. Probably could have carried enough for everyone if he'd used the power, but given how he might make some poor guy have a heart attack, he opted to wait to being around healthier folks before channeling openly.
Dad seemed to be staring at him like he was expecting them to pick up their stuff and scoot on out the door right then. Jay just smirked and sat on the foot of Cayli's bed, shoving her foot up and out of the way before he crushed it.
"Comfortable," he said as his palm bounced on the flimsy mattress sarcastically. "You know, I once slept on a rock in Uganda more comfortable than this." Cayli laughed.
"What's Dr. Diaz been like? He take good care of you?" Jay ignored the others for now. He only had eyes for his little sister. She could lie to anyone except him. For the most part.
She tipped a shoulder. "Yah I guess so. He's funny though. Kept telling me I was a special case. He asked about weird stuff that doctors don't usually talk about."
Jay casually sipped at the drink. "Like what?"
She thought a moment. "Like what my favorite food was. Or if I remember the first time I ever got really hurt as a kid. And my dreams. He asked about my dreams a lot."
Yep. Definitely some weird cult like shit going on. Maybe he was Atharim? But it didn't make sense. Didn't Atharim want to kill them all off? No snake symbols marked him Atharim.
He twisted around when a nurse entered the room. She was pretty irritated that there were so many people packed inside.
"I have your discharge papers, Miss Cayli." She elbowed her way in.
Cayli's grin beamed like the sun.
"Discharge?! What?" Mom and dad both interrupted. They may fight more often than not, but they agreed Cayli belonged in the hospital.
"Dr. Diaz has discharged her." She said simply and went about disconnecting Cayli from all the equipment and tubes. Jay opted to give the teenager some privacy so she could get dressed, but his own elated grin equaled hers.
He downed the rest of the soda, chucked the can in the trash, and found the red face of his father.
"You did something, boy. What did you do? Threaten the poor doc?" Jay blinked.
"Dad, If I threatened the guy, he'd be signing his soul over to us not signing some paperwork." He smirked, but the morbid humor did not amuse David. "No I didn't do anything." He crossed his arms and glanced down the hall. He'd pay good money to see the doc peek around the corner just then.
Instead, someone else came around the corner. Two someone elses.
He stepped around David who was otherwise oblivious to the oddity. Two guys stalked, gaits locked in step. Strong, brick-walls of guys that either spent way too many hours in the weight room or they were professional muscle. Their clothes were far too strategic for comfort. Guys like that did not look at hospital 'anti-gun' signs, shrug and turn around like they weren't allowed to enter. That's not what drew Jay's eye, though.
He recognized one of them: a little shit cousin of Amengual's. He studied every Amengual face he could find on the internet on the plane. Goddammit. That mother fucker.
His heart beat hard as he let the power fill him again and he rubbed his temple. He barely even realized it had been released at some point between the drink machine and Cayli's room. Through the flood, he latched onto the gaze of the nearest one, ready for the merest sign of threat to lash out. Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe he was seeing arrows in the dark.. Don't make a scene. Don't blow up a hospital.
They did nothing, though. The pair proceeded without slowing. One glanced casually into Cay's room. The other held Jay's gaze like he wanted to crush his throat instead.
When they were gone, Jay hurried back inside, modesty be damned, and helped Cayli pack her stuff. Two minutes later, he was rushing them out to the parking lot, ordering them to fuck the truck and climb in the rental.
He drove like a bat out of hell out of that parking lot.
Cayli was absolutely ecstatic. Jay was fucking terrified.
Only darkness shows you the light.