Lesser Gods (49 page)

Upon seeing us, the spark smiled and said, “We were told that you were coming. The prisoner is inside. He is not restrained. He has been peaceful so far, but please do be careful.”

“I’m sure we’ll be alright,” Terry replied coolly.

“Here’s the key and a radio,” said the telekinetic, handing a silver key and a transceiver to Terry. “We’ve been given a break until you’re finished, and we gratefully accept. God knows we’ve been standing down here too long. Call us when you need us back.”

The spark grinned, adding, “And take your time, please.”

With that, the sentries headed down the corridor toward the stairs. There was nobody else in sight.

“Too easy,” I remarked as Terry unlocked the steel door.

Inside was the building’s boiler room. As we entered, Mr. Jenson got up from a folding lawn chair. In addition to the chair, the Guardians had supplied him with a decent bedroll and a few magazines to pass the time.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Jenson,” I said pleasantly.

“Is it now?” he replied. “I’ve lost all track of time down here.”

“Do you remember me?”

“Yes,” said Mr. Jenson. “You were with the healer girl who saved me.”

“Hansel also saved your life,” said Terry, stepping closer to Mr. Jenson. “I’m Rabbit.”

“Yes, I know who you are, Ms. Henderson,” said Mr. Jenson. “This gathering was called on your account, after all.”

“Mr. Jenson, I’m Adrian Howell,” I said, choosing not to use my call sign as I walked up to him and put out my right hand.

Mr. Jenson seemed a little surprised, but recovered quickly and shook hands with me.

I decided to jump right to the point of my visit. “You’re a phantom, right?” I asked. “You can turn things invisible?”

“That is correct,” confirmed Mr. Jenson. “But you already know that.”

“If you were to turn me invisible, how long would I stay that way?”

“At you’re size... up to seven or eight hours, I suppose. Why?”

I ignored his question and asked another. “Is there a way for me to turn visible before that?”

“Sure,” Mr. Jenson said in a surprised tone. “All you have to do is shake it off. You’re a wild-born, aren’t you?”

Terry was staring at me in utter disbelief, so I said defensively, “What?”

“You came down here not even knowing how to reappear?” she asked, shaking her head.

Who knew how many other things I had yet to learn about psionic powers? I was quite used to being ignorant by now.

“What is all this about?” asked Mr. Jenson.

“It’s about you repaying a life debt you owe me,” I said. “I want you to turn me invisible.”

“Whatever for?”

“That’s none of your business,” I replied tersely. “I have my reasons.”

Mr. Jenson gave me a quizzical look. “If you are worried about my conversion, rest assured that I have no problem assisting you against the Angels. But what you are asking is rather bizarre. Surely there are phantoms among the Guardians that could help you. It seems to me that if the Guardians approved of whatever it is you are planning to do with your invisibility, you wouldn’t have had to come to me.”

“This isn’t for the Guardians,” I said uneasily.

Mr. Jenson shook his head. “Listen, I am grateful to you for saving me, Adrian, but please... I can’t do anything to risk my position with the Guardian Council. I nearly died to come back here.”

I glanced at Terry, who shrugged as if to say,
Don’t look at me for help.

I faced the phantom again and turned my tone to ice. “You may die yet, Mr. Jenson. You’ll either do this for me or I’ll kill you myself right here.”

Mr. Jenson remained composed. “I’m no use to you dead, young man.”

“You’re no use to me alive unless you help me,” I said evenly.

“You’re serious?” he asked, taken aback.

I pointed my right index finger at his face. “Does this answer your question?”

I hadn’t prepared a focused blast, and I doubt I could have carried out my threat, but I must have looked serious enough. Mr. Jenson nodded solemnly. Good thing I hadn’t brought Alia along to witness this. I looked at Terry again. My combat instructor was all smiles.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Jenson,” said Terry. “They won’t hold it against you if you had no choice. And believe me, you don’t.”

Mr. Jenson stared at Terry and me for a few seconds and then nodded. “Now?”

I asked, “It’ll last seven hours?”

“At least,” confirmed Mr. Jenson.

“Then now is as good a time as any.”

I wasn’t planning on crossing into the Angel camp until Terry’s match started at 4pm, but Terry and I couldn’t stay here until the last minute.

“Wait, Adrian,” said Terry. “We can’t call the sentries back for at least an hour. We’re here to pump Mr. Jenson for information, remember?”

I shook my head. “Mr. Baker knows I’m not here for that.”

“Yes, but the sentries and other Knights don’t. Neither does Laila.”

“Oh, right,” I said. “Fine. We’ll wait here for a while.”

Then I turned to Mr. Jenson again and said, “And as long as we’re waiting, you wouldn’t happen to know an Angel by the name of Catherine Howell, would you?”

“I’m sorry,” said Mr. Jenson, “but the name doesn’t ring a bell. I am merely a witness to the gathering.”

“She’s here with your Angels. She’s only thirteen years old. You must have seen her.”

“Here? At the gathering?” said Mr. Jenson. “Yes, I believe I have seen her, actually. She is the only child among our witnesses. I didn’t know her name, though.”

Terry asked, “Who are her parents?”

“I don’t rightly know,” said Mr. Jenson. “I was too concerned about my own escape to pay much attention to the other witnesses.”

“Please, Mr. Jenson,” I said. “Anything you know about her...”

“She is someone important to you?”

“Family.”

“I see,” said Mr. Jenson. “Then am I correct in assuming that you plan to use your invisibility to cross into the Angel camp, and that for whatever reason, the Guardians are unwilling to assist you?”

I nodded. “That just about sums it up.”

“The Seraphim will be on the lookout for phantoms, Adrian,” warned Mr. Jenson. “They will find you, just like the Guardians found me.”

“Nevertheless,” I replied, “if you are here for the reason you claim, you will understand.”

Mr. Jenson nodded solemnly. “This girl... I saw her once speaking with a member of the Divine family.”

“You mean your master controller?” I asked.

“No, I did not see her with Queen Divine, but with Mr. Randal Divine, one of the queen’s nephews. He is a high-ranking member of the Seraphim, though I am not quite sure of his specific position.”

“I’ve heard of Randal Divine,” said Terry, who showed no surprise at this news. “He’s one of their unit leaders. It’s possible that he may be Catherine’s keeper. Him or some other Angel VIP.”

“I must agree,” said Mr. Jenson. “The regular witnesses were strictly forbidden from bringing minors to this event. Making contact with this child will be next to impossible.”

“You let me worry about that,” I said firmly, unwilling to get into another discussion about how reckless this was. “Where in your camp is this Randal Divine staying?”

“He came in one of the large motorhomes that were used to make the outer barrier. It’s parked on the far side of the camp.”

That sounded like the one that Cat had stepped out of when I saw her yesterday. It would be the first place to check.

“Where else have you seen her in the camp?” I asked.

“I’m sorry, Adrian. I kept mostly to myself until I made my getaway. I wasn’t paying much attention to anything else.”

That was understandable, if not very helpful. “Alright. Thank you, Mr. Jenson. Now, perhaps you could tell me what you meant earlier by ‘shaking off’ invisibility.”

“Easy enough,” said Mr. Jenson.

The phantom gently touched my left hand with his right, and suddenly my entire left arm disappeared right up to the shoulder. I could still feel my arm there. I tried moving my fingers and then touched my stomach. My hand and arm felt quite normal. Just completely transparent.

“Give it a good shake,” said Mr. Jenson.

I did, and suddenly my arm was visible again.

“That’s all there is to it,” said Mr. Jenson. “You’ll have move carefully or you’ll lose your invisibility. Even a violent sneeze can cause you to turn visible again.”

And since I wasn’t a phantom myself, if I accidentally lost my invisibility, I wouldn’t be able to restore it.

“I’ll need to practice a little,” I said. “Make me completely invisible, please.”

“Alright,” said Mr. Jenson, touching my hand again.

I looked down at myself and saw that I was entirely transparent this time. Well, not entirely. “You missed my eyes,” I said.

“You will need them visible to see,” Mr. Jenson patiently explained to the clueless wild-born.

“I know that, Mr. Jenson. Now please make my eyes invisible.”

Mr. Jenson looked surprised, but he didn’t comment as he reached forward again.

And the world disappeared.

Having been blind for nearly nine months, I thought I knew what to expect, but I didn’t. True blindness wasn’t a world of darkness, but the utter absence of light
and
dark. I didn’t see darkness any more than I saw anything else. I saw nothing at all.

“This is really weird,” I breathed.

I took a short walk around the room, feeling my way along the walls and trying not to trip.

“Ow!” I shouted as I bashed my left knee into something hard.

“Not good, Adrian,” said Terry.

My vision had returned. I was visible again.

“I’m going to need a cane,” I said as I massaged my throbbing knee.

“You can use my jo stick again,” offered Terry. “I won’t be needing it for today’s fight. I’ll go get it now. You want my gun too?”

“No,” I replied. “It’ll slow me down if I have to fly suddenly.”

“Alright.”

Locking us in the room, Terry made a quick run upstairs to fetch her jo stick from our room. What excuse she made about it to Laila I do not know.

Once I had Terry’s jo stick in my hands, I asked Mr. Jenson to turn me invisible again, stick and all. I had to be especially careful with the stick, though. Tapping it on the floor not only made me noisy but constantly ran the risk of knocking off its invisibility. Mr. Jenson warned me that if the stick turned visible while I was touching it, my whole body would turn visible as well.

It took a while, but my skills as a blind person returned, and I somehow made it three times around the room without crashing. That was no guarantee of how I might perform outside, but it made me a bit more confident.

I shook my body like a wet dog, and soon I was visible again.

Glancing down at my Braille watch, I realized that we had been with Mr. Jenson now for a little over an hour, leaving less than ninety minutes till Terry’s match. I didn’t want to spend it down here.

“We better get going,” agreed Terry. “It’s been long enough.”

Then Terry turned to Mr. Jenson and said in a calm but chilling tone, “I’m going to call your regular sentries back now, Mr. Jenson. Adrian might die today, but I guarantee that I won’t. If you tell the Guardians anything about what went on in here, I promise you that you won’t return to New Haven alive. Do I make myself clear?”

“Quite clear, Ms. Henderson,” said Mr. Jenson, visibly unsettled by the look in Terry’s eyes.

Terry smiled. “Call me Terry.”

“Thank you again for your help, Mr. Jenson,” I said, shaking his hand.

Mr. Jenson said uncomfortably, “I wish circumstances were such that I could help you without the death threat, but know that I wouldn’t do this if I had the choice. The Guardians no doubt have their reasons for not helping you. I hope that what I’m doing will not hurt them.”

“It won’t,” I promised.

“Good luck, Adrian,” said Mr. Jenson, touching me again.

After checking that every inch of me, my clothes and my stick were properly transparent, Terry took my hand and led me out of the boiler room, back up the stairs and to our room door. We didn’t enter, though.

“Stay here,” whispered Terry in the hallway. “Keep your back against the wall so no one trips over you. I’m going to go back downstairs and call the sentries back to their posts. I’ll tell them that you already left. Then we’ll go in the room together.”

Terry was gone longer than I expected, and twice I heard footsteps pass by me. One of them belonged to someone with destroyer powers. At this distance, he would be able to sense me despite the personal hiding bubble that Cindy had given me. I feared the worst, but his footsteps passed without stopping. Perhaps he was in a hurry and not paying much attention. There were so many destroyer psionics gathered in the factory compound that it was hard to tell the individual powers apart, anyway.

My heart nearly stopped when I felt someone tap my shoulder, but I somehow managed not to jump.

“You got some dust on your back,” said Terry. “I can see it.”

She gently brushed off whatever was visible on my shirt and then escorted me back into our room. I kept my stick off the floor and my footsteps and breathing as silent as possible.

I heard Laila’s voice say, “Where’s Adrian?”

Terry replied, “He’s still talking with Mr. Jenson. I’m not sure why, but he wanted it one-on-one.”

“Oh,” Laila said in a disappointed tone. “How long do you think he’ll be?”

“I’m not sure, Laila.”

I heard my sister’s voice in my head ask,
“Addy, are you in the room?”

Now how was I supposed to reply to that?!

“Addy, if you’re here, I’m sitting with Laila in the middle of the room. Be careful.”

Silently thanking Alia, I carefully made my way along the wall and stood in a corner.

Laila said, “My mother just stopped by. She said I have to be back at our camper by three o’clock. She wants me to stay right by her side during your fight today, Terry.”

“That makes sense,” said Terry.

“I wanted Adrian and Alia to come with me too, so we could all be together.”

“Well, if Adrian doesn’t get back up here by three, I’ll go get him myself and have him take Alia to your camper before the match.”