Age of Power 1: Legacy (10 page)

Kular said, “I’m sorry you went through that. Angela Tursow
is something of a troublemaker. She’s been trying to get near you for a while
now. I should have expected this.”

Ah, I took that to mean that Angela must have tried getting in
to see me before now, and Kular had turned her down. So, Angela resorted to
subterfuge. For some odd reason I found myself terribly disappointed. I liked
her.

I sighed. “They’re going to keep coming, aren’t they? I mean,
how much longer are we going to be in here? Eventually another reporter is
going to pop up and disrupt the staff again. I've seen people 
being mobbed
 down near the emergency entrance. What if
they cause someone to be seriously hurt because they end up interfering with
someone needing help?”

Kular gave me a surprising smile and said, “Actually, that’s
what I came to tell you. I don’t think we’ll have to worry about the situation
much longer. After some discussions with Dr. Kirksten, I feel that you and
Brand have recovered enough. His last scans showed no problems since the
incident with the reporter in the bathroom.”

I grinned and said, “Great! Now, if we can just get past the
reporters, we’ll be fine. But, reporters or not, at least we can go home!”

Kular coughed and said, “Unfortunately, you will have to deal
with reporters there, as well. But as of the week’s end, you and Brand are
getting out, just the same. Perhaps you can find a way to deal with them at the
memorial.”

I cocked my head to the side and asked, “Memorial?”

Kular gave me a pointed look. “Oh, it hasn’t been brought up?
Yes, they’re having a memorial for the Avatar. Your parents didn’t tell you?”

“No…” I said. That was a bit annoying. But it might have a
logical explanation. Mom and Dad may have thought that Brand and I were still
going to be here. And my mom would know that if they had told me, I would’ve
have insisted on going. Brand might not have wanted to go, but I would have. As
I thought about the memorial, I realized that it might be a great opportunity
for me.

Kular made a point to search around the room once more. She
found one more microphone under my bed and put it in her pocket with the
others. Looking down at me, she smiled with self-satisfaction and
said, “There, that should be all of her little tricks. I’ll get rid of
these. And yes, come Friday, you two should be out. And, if I might suggest,
perhaps giving the reporters an interview would slake their thirst. Perhaps
not, though. American journalists tend to dig in deep with their claws.
Especially if it means they can embarrass someone for a story.”

I said, “Oh, fun.”

Kular gave a lighthearted laugh. Then she said, “Don’t worry,
Vaughn. You’ll get back to your life soon enough. And I’ll be here to make
certain of it!”

With that rather odd comment, she walked out. I stared after
her. After days of her acting so uptight, her smiles were kind of 
creeping
 me out. But, as to what she’d said about 
getting
 out sank in, I jumped out of the chair. I
whispered, “Yes, finally!”

Brand didn’t bother whispering. No, he whooped raucously after I
told him when he returned. For the rest of the week, we were bouncing off the
walls, kept in check only by the final once-over by Dr. Kirksten and Dr. Kular.
They were both happy with the results of our latest tests, and told us that
everything was normal. The only problem I had was that they asked us to
give a few more samples to send to Ryan Tech. They had lost the first batch. Oh
yeah, it was easy to see that the professionals were back in charge out there.
Bah.

But Kirksten did tell us we could go. When he did, I grinned and
said, “Oh, good. I can talk about Alex at that memorial, after all!”

Kirksten grunted slightly. He said, “Good, maybe the reporters
will be satisfied.”

Brand, who was on his bed with his knees pulled halfway to his
chest said, “I doubt it. But hey, it’s back to living life again, at least!”

Dr. Kirksten smiled and said, “Such as it is. So, Vaughn, do you
know what you’ll say about Alex?”

I smiled at the mention of Alex’s name. I didn’t ask how he felt
about the situation with the growing Avatar movement, but not once had he used
the word. 
That made me feel
 better about him
both as my doctor and, as time went on, a friend.

In answer to his question, I said, “Oh yeah. I’ve been thinking
about it.”

Something in my words made Brand give me a look of suspicion. I
looked back at him with a slight smile. After a moment, I said, “You’ll see.
Trust me. I’ll know what to say.”

Brand looked at me for a moment, his eyes narrowed with thought.
But he said nothing. Dr. Kirksten finished writing up our stats on the digital
boards at the end of each bed. He started to leave. On the way out, he said,
“Just try not to anger too many people, young man, we don’t need a riot.”

I said, “Oh, I won’t do anything that bad. But I’m done with
this crap.”

The door closed, and Brand asked, “What are you up to?”

I didn’t say anything for a moment. Brand knew me well enough to
know when I was planning something. But honestly, I wasn’t sure what I was
going to do just yet. I just knew that someone had to remind everyone that Alex
had been a human being.

So I just said, “I’m going to give them what they want. I’m
going to tell them about the Avatar.”

“Dude, be careful. People aren’t kidding around about how they
feel about Alex. You really could set off a riot.”

I looked at Brand for a few moments before I answered him. “Alex
saved the world Brand. That’s great, that’s wonderful. But now people want to
turn him into some kind of saint. But saints usually have their scripts written
for them by the survivors.”

Giving him a grin, I said, “I plan on doing a revision or two
with this script before it even gets written.”

CHAPTER SIX

Attending the memorial proved harder than I expected. On
the 
day
 we checked out, the reporters were
yelling questions as we left the building. But really, they weren’t a problem.
No the bigger problem was in actually going to the memorial, thanks to my mom.

 Mom and Brand’s father had picked us up from the hospital.
And on the way home, I told her I wanted to speak at the memorial. I also asked
her why Brand and I 
were never told
 about it.
Mom said she didn’t want us going to it so she held back that part of the
paper. I told her I needed to do it. She was against it, however. Jim Houseman
tried to placate us by telling us that there was going to be a 
more local
 memorial later on, but that wasn’t good
enough for me.

I hadn’t changed her mind by the time we got home. But, things
did change, though, when someone from the memorial called for me. They wanted
me as one of the speakers. That’s when Dad became involved and 
told
 Mom to let me do it. They argued about it until I
went to bed. Since my bedroom is in the basement of the house, I didn’t hear
any more of their heated exchange.

Nonetheless, I ended up staying awake. I needed to work out what
I wanted to say. It wasn’t as hard as I’d thought it would be. The words just
seemed to flow onto the note cards. It took a long while, though. That left me
with hardly any time for sleep. And because the thought of speaking had left me
so energized, I finally quit trying to sleep and got up early. I put on a brown
turtleneck, black dress slacks, and a pair of dark brown dress shoes. A quick
glance in the mirror was enough for me. I looked fine.

When I walked into the living room, I saw that Mom and Dad were
awake and ready. My mom seemed to have gotten past the night before. But I did
notice that she was acting a bit too cheerful. We finished a breakfast of
pancakes and orange juice. The reception after the memorial itself would have
food, so we ate lightly.

My mom was still acting edgy as we drove to the high school.
Don’t get me wrong; my mom will always let a person know how she feels about
things when she gets angry. But on some subjects, she puts on what she calls
her ‘game face.’ I knew that she had to do it regularly at the courthouse. She
considered it necessary in order to deal with the idiots she called the
‘general public.’ Her words, not mine. That was all she ever said about her
job. My mom rarely speaks about the ins and outs of what goes on in court.

This morning, my mom was cheerfully snapping at the traffic as
she drove. She seldom did that. She didn’t like the idea of road rage. Smartly,
my dad and I said nothing to earn any of her snappy retorts. My dad just
looked out his window. Me? I kept busy looking over note cards. Finally, as we
neared the high school, I saw the parking lot filled with cars, trucks, news
vans, and more than a few limousines.

In a joking tone, I said, “Guess this is a serious event.”

Dad gave me a worried glance over his shoulder, but said nothing
as Mom found a place to park. She pulled in and shut off the engine. But before
we got out, she turned to look at me. “Honey, I know you crack jokes when you
get nervous, but please, don’t do that on stage.”

“I won’t.”

She looked at me for a few seconds more, and then said, “Good
enough. Let’s do this.”

We made our way through the crowd of reporters into the high
school. On the way in, I noticed that the one reporter that Brand had fought
with was in the crowd. We all ignored him. I would have forgotten him
completely after that if not for seeing Brand waiting in the hall in front of
the cafeteria. I saw his parents. Mom and Dad went to join them after they gave
me their coats to hang up in my old locker.

Once we were by ourselves, I said, “Hey I saw your friend the
reporter outside, if you want we could set him up to get flushed again.”

Brand laughed and then said, “You are one sick puppy
sometimes, 
you
 know that right? I think you
have been since the day we became friends.”

I chuckled and said, “Oh yeah, if I remember right, I beat you
up the day you tried bullying me for my lunch money. Since then, we’ve been
best friends since.”

Brand glared at me and said, “You tricked me with that comb! I
thought it was a knife!”

I said, “I was six, and you actually thought I had a knife. Dude,
could you get any more gullible?”

“Um, shut up. I thought it was a Swiss army or Cub Scout utility
knife…”

“I was never a Cub Scout!” I said with a laugh. Brand narrowed
his eyes, but he chuckled at the memory.

I stopped laughing when I looked back towards the cafeteria. I
saw her again. Walking toward us was the same blond wavy-haired reporter who
had tried to talk to me about Alex. Seeing me, she smiled and closed in on us.
It took a few seconds for Brand to get what I was staring 
at
. Then he realized who was walking up to us. I had
described her pretty well, after all. In fact, I hadn’t been able to get her
out of my head since that night.

She made a gesture of surrender and said, “Vaughn? Sorry, don’t
be mad please. I’m only here reporting on the memorial. They’re allowing me
inside the gym. But before I head in, I wanted to talk to you quick like.
Is that okay?”

Damn, she looked good with that ‘innocent’ look! That just
wasn’t fair! I wanted to stay angry with her. I had even contemplated horrible things
to say to her about that dirty trick she had pulled.

“I’m sorry. I owe you an apology. All I can say is that I’m just
starting out as a reporter, and this is a big story. I got caught up trying to get
a news scoop before anyone else.” she said fiendishly. She was good.

Then the evil temptress had the temerity to stick her hand out
for me to shake it. “Please, forgive me?”

The vamp!
 How dare
she bat those wide blue eyes at me, melting all my resolve in one quick flash
of her shining white teeth? I sighed and took her hand.

I said, “Okay…stick around. You’ll get something, all right.
What paper do you work for, Angela?”

Raising a brow, she said, “I’m with the 
Des Moines Register
.
So what’cha got?”

I grinned and said, “Take notes.”

She laughed and hugged me quickly, and then, after holding her
grasp on my hand for a beat longer than was necessary, she smiled and headed
toward the gym. I blinked for a few seconds, wondering what had just happened.
I looked at Brand. He looked annoyed and snorted once. I asked, “Okay…what?”

Brand sighed and then 
groused
. 
“Bastard.
 Why do you get the girl?”

I looked at him. “Excuse me? 
What about
Nurse Wells?
 How is she with the sponge baths?”

He turned red, and I laughed as we went into the cafeteria to
rejoin our families. We calmed down under the gaze of parental authority. I
guess we were a little too rambunctious for the setting. Once I composed
myself, I looked around and noticed that there were plasma screen televisions
set up throughout the room. Just past the cafeteria’s large picture windows, I
could see a satellite television van with people still hooking up lines leading
into the school. I saw two more vans in the distance, with broadcast dishes
out, pointed, and ready to broadcast.

“You have any thoughts on what to say?” my mom asked. I pulled
myself back to where I was and nodded.

I said, “Still working on it. Alex and I weren’t the best of
friends. But he was a friend.”

My mom’s brows furrowed as she looked at me. “Okay kiddo, I’m
not worried about you embarrassing us; I couldn’t care less about that. I just
don’t want to see you hurt. This memorial is going worldwide, and people will
remember everything you say. But you only had Alex over a few times. Are you
sure you can talk about him well enough?”

I said, “Yes, but we mainly just had comics as a shared
interest, Mom. Everything else he talked about seemed, well…beyond me. But
don’t worry. I’ll have something to say.”

“What was he like with you, Vaughn?” a voice asked from behind
me. I looked around and saw a woman with bright green eyes and dark red hair
walking up to us.

She was wearing a deep blue v-neck sweater and near-black
slacks. As her hands moved, I noticed that one hand had a turquoise ring on the
middle finger that seemed familiar somehow. Then I remembered; 
this was the redhead who had tried to stop Alex
.

“Dana Sinclair—
am
 I right?” I
asked a bit nervously. She was stunning. 
What?
 I’m
a red-blooded American male. Argh, fire bad, cave good, and all
that. Brand didn’t help, snickering right behind me.

As for her question, I said, “Um, he was like…well, all we did
was talk a lot about comic books. That’s it, really. Well, wait—he really got
into the science stuff. I think he wanted to go tour Ryan Technologies.”

Dana sighed, and then said, “Alex did love science. But he
talked about you, as well, Vaughn. I had hoped to meet you. I’m just sorry it
has to be under such circumstances.”

I wasn’t really thinking about Alex, though. 
Not at the moment.
 This woman was…beautiful…but, yeah,
okay, time to put away the virile teenage fantasies. So, I said, “Sure,
okay. I’d be happy to talk with you sometime.”

Dana smiled. Then, just as she was about to say something, there
was an announcement over the intercom that seating was about to begin. With a
wince, she said, “I’m sorry; I have to talk with my father before all this
starts. Would you mind if we talked later, Vaughn, Mr. and Mrs. Hagen?”

My mom smiled at her and said, “Of course we don’t mind Dana,
but please call me Andrea. And I wonder if you’ve seen Alex’s father. I wanted
to pay my respects.”

Dana’s eyes grew stormy, narrowing down. Her tone of her voice
turned hard and cold. It added to that sense of a building storm as she
answered my mom’s question. "No, the last I heard, he was still in the
Rockies with his wife and family. Only Brian Shaw’s father-in-law—Joe
Andrews—has returned. They’ve been in the Rockies since the day after the news
came out about Yama returning to hit the planet.”

With that, Dana gave her goodbyes and shook my mom’s hand before
walking away. I watched Dana walk towards the front. Her father was there with
Hector Gutierrez talking to other officers. Given their gestures towards the
front doors, I guessed it was about the reporters still outside.

Mom brushed my arm with a hand, asking, “Hon? I’ve seen Dana
around town, but I never talked to her. How did she and Alex know each other?”

“Um, I’m not sure, to be honest. Alex might have mentioned her,
but I don’t remember right off hand.” I answered.

“Hmm, well, hopefully we can talk to her about…well, never mind,
I suppose we should head in.” Mom said, and started walking off towards Dad.

I watched Dana for a few more moments wondering if she did know
something. I remembered that she had said something about Alex on the day he
flew. She said that ‘it’ would kill him. Did she know about his powers?

“Get past it—she’s older than you, sick boy.” Brand whispered to
me as he lightly smacked me on the back. I glanced at him and he nodded to
where our parents were waiting for us.

We headed over to our parents as the doors to the gym opened up
for people to enter. Walking up to Mom, I noticed that she was on edge about something.
I overheard her talking to Dad about what Dana said about Alex. That’s when I
realized exactly what it was Dana had said. “Oh man, Alex’s family was there
since the news about Yama came out. But that was weeks before it hit.”

Brand stared at me. He said, “That means…they left him behind.”

Mom stared at us, surprised. “We just assumed that the family
stayed home on the Day. No one knew how many stayed in Riverlite. I…I don’t
know what to say.”

Then I started and stared at Mom. “Joe Andrews is here,” I said.

Mom glanced pointedly away from me. Suddenly, I understood why
she’d been so adamant against coming here. Joe Andrews was Alex’s
step-grandfather by Brian Shaw’s marriage to Joe’s daughter, Janet. I’d met him
a few times. He was all business, even when he should have been relaxed and
easygoing. I’d never seen them together; Alex had once mentioned that Joe
ignored him because he wasn’t a blood relative.

But my mother knew him better as the man who had foreclosed on
more businesses in town in the past five years than any bank in town had done
in decades. She’d been in court to take down the notes as judgments 
were made
 against one defendant after another. She
hadn’t told me all of this directly; that would’ve gotten her fired. But I
could tell from reading the local news that she had been present for them. I
knew her schedule. And I understood why she was so angry during those times.

I had to put it aside as we entered the gym. Inside, I saw
that they weren’t seating people in the stands. Instead, everyone 
was being seated
 in chairs in the middle of the gym.
The stands had been set aside for reporters and camera crews.