“He started to murder citizens for the sake of experimentation. I began to protest.” He straightened his back. “The others’ abilities have grown.”
“What do you mean?”
“Wouldn’t you rather see for yourself?”
It felt strange for him to invite her into his mind; she, like her siblings, had been forbidden to use her abilities on her father or his assistant. After the files she’d found on the computer, she understood why.
She easily blocked out Woody as she focused on Leland and delved into his thoughts. Everything opened before her, like pages in a book. A story unfolded, from the time he had come to assist her father, when she was about five, to when the doctor had released him.
Finished, she blinked and looked at Leland. “Aalexis?”
“Her power has grown beyond all expectations.”
“What do you mean?” asked Woody.
Ellyssa touched his arm to silence him. “I will explain later.” She faced Leland. “What now?”
“Tell me what brings you here, first.”
Ellyssa exhanged a look with Woody. “We are going to The Center. One of our friends is a captive.”
Shock flitted across Leland’s face. “You’re risking your life?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve grown, Ellyssa.” He paused, thoughtful, and raked his fingers through his hair. “Dr. Hirch’s coding has failed. If it happened to you, then what of your siblings? Aalexis is already showing signs.”
Ellyssa thought about Leland’s experience with Aalexis. She’d wondered how her younger sister was developing. “I don’t know.”
“And you just used a contraction,” he said, with a slight shake of his head. “So much has changed. To answer your question…we were just discussing what to do when you showed up. Of course, I had no idea the visitors would include you.” He paused for a moment, smiling. “I think you both had better come with me.”
As soon as Ellyssa walked inside behind Leland, everyone quieted, all of them watching her. Some looked concerned, but most were uncertain.
Without a word, Leland walked through the throng, into a back room and kicked aside a rug to reveal a door in the floor. He pulled it open and moved down a set of lighted steps.
“You’ll like this,” Leland said.
Grasping Woody’s hand, Ellyssa followed Leland into the basement. The room was small, with brick walls and a cement floor. The air was cool, but amazingly dry. A dehumidifier hummed in the corner.
“Weapons?” she asked, indicating the unmarked boxes.
“Some of it, yes,” he answered, looking at hers and Woody’s interlaced hands. “But that is not what I wanted to show you.”
He approached a table set against the wall closest to the stairwell. A white tarp covered the contents.
“This is right up your alley,” he said, pulling off the cover.
Sticks of dynamite coiled together in sets of five, held by black tape. Wires ran from a digital timer to a thin golden bridge wire, inserted into an electric blasting cap.
“We were discussing the possibility of destroying the entire Center,” Leland said.
40
Rein woke on his back, with no memory of how he’d gotten to where he was. Absolute darkness spun before his eyes. Not even a sliver of light spilled from under a door or through a crack.
His mouth felt like a desert, tongue swollen, lips dried and cracked. The cool of the tiled floor felt great against the side of his face. Despite his fevered state, chills swept through him. With every shiver, his muscles shrieked.
The only parts of him that didn’t hurt were his arms. The deadened limbs were still tied behind his back, and he was lying on them. He carefully rolled over to one side. Blood rushed into his numb arms, sending needles that stabbed from within.
Unimaginably unbearable.
Rein mewed pitifully, as tears welled in his eyes.
Ellyssa had told him what her sister could do, but she’d said nothing about the actual power the little girl wielded. He’d never felt anything as intense as the sense of being disemboweled and coals burning in his stomach.
Not once had she touched him.
Not once.
Aalexis had crawled inside his head, pulling and tugging, making him experience pain that wasn’t really there.
Even worse, Rein had almost betrayed his family. The treachery had formed on his lips more than once during his torture.
He hadn’t divulged their location, though.
He’d been too busy screaming.
Light stormed into the room, its shards stabbing Rein’s eyes. He slammed his lids shut. When he finally peeked from beneath his lashes, two figures stood silhouetted against the brightness, distorted by the shine curving around the edges of his vision. One was tall and broad, the other small and thin. Foreign words were exchanged between them as they stepped toward him.
Rein screamed.
41
Ellyssa felt better than she had for the last few days. She was clean, she was fed, and she was going to get Rein.
Hopefully, he was still alive. Hope—just like the characters had in
Ellyssa glanced at Woody, who kept turning the bomb over in his hands while he studied it. As Woody’s nervous fingers fumbled with the wiring, the strain of worry crumpled his face. Ellyssa wondered if his unease was because of Rein, or because he held enough explosives to blast the house off the map.
“Once we are inside, we report to Maintenance. They will assign us floors, and we go to work. That simple.” Ellyssa patted his shoulder. “Everything will be fine.”
Woody’s eyes met Ellyssa’s, his grey mixing with her sky-blue, like the heavens were brewing up a storm.
“Ellyssa, I want to tell you something.” Woody hesitated, and he looked away.
“Go ahead,” she urged.
Woody leaned over, face intense. “Before we do this, I want you to know how much I care for you.” He gazed at her pointedly, brows arched, as if this sudden revelation was supposed to enlighten her. Nothing extraordinary happened.
Confused, Ellyssa scrutinized him. He kept staring at her, encouraging her to find the answer. Denying herself the easiest route to explanation, she said, “I care for you, too.”
Sighing, the corner of his mouth drawn back in frustration. Those signs were easy for her to read.
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Woody said, sharp and irritated. The same tone he had used when she’d first met him.
She placed her hands on her hips. “Then, tell me what you do mean.”
Woody opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Leland bounded down the steps. Looking back
