Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (56 page)

Did I really think these people were
powerful?
They’re like little insects.

Melissa cried out to Jack in warning. Neil’s
fist crashed down on Jack’s face with all the power he was capable
of using. Jack didn’t move—he didn’t even raise an arm to defend
himself. He allowed Neil to attack him with every bit of power the
man had.

Neil’s eyes widened and his arm trembled. Jack
was not moved by his punch. He didn’t even feel it. Using a sense
he didn’t know he had, Jack saw the bones in Neil’s wrist explode.
It was the result of a fist colliding with an unbreakable
object.

Neil dropped to his knees and let out a
bloodcurdling howl. “
Ahh!
Cemmera, my arm, my bones have
been shattered!”

Jack knew that the man was done for, no longer
a threat to him. There was no longer a reason for him to attack the
Reinforcer. Had he been his normal self, he’d know that it’d be
wrong to continue to attack the man. Yet, he was not his normal
self. Jack gave the man a punch of his own, for no other reason
than it seemed an interesting thing to do at the time.

The man’s cries were silenced as Jack’s fist
knocked out the other half of the teeth that Melissa had missed.
Neil was sent flying across the room, landing in front of Paro.
Jack turned, ready to finish him off and end his life.

Melissa blocked his path. “No!” she yelled.
“Jack, he’s down for the count. Listen to me, please. You don’t
want to do what you’re about to.”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t really want to do
anything,” he said. “I guess I’ll just do what I think I
wanted.”

“
Be careful,” Melissa warned. “It
looks like Cemmera and the Kinetics are getting ready to attack
you.”

“
Who? Those three?” Jack asked,
pointing. “They’ve been trying for a while now, look closely.” The
three of them were sweating, panting, and exerting a great deal of
force against Jack.

Requiem was looking at him like he was some
kind of God, her eyes sparkling in wonder. Jack bent down and
picked her up, cradling her in his arms like she was a small child.
Jack drew power into himself. He erected a barrier around them. No
one would be able to pass, he was certain of it.

I shouldn’t stay like this,
Jack
realized.
But I can’t forget everything, either. I need to make
sure I remember just enough to understand my situation. It’s
dangerous, but I think I know how.

Jack closed his eyes for a moment, and when he
opened them, he looked around in confusion. All at once he felt the
weight in his arms, and he peered down at the face of Requiem,
looking back up at him. She was worn, tired, but she seemed to
understand her situation.

“
You saved me, Darling,” she
said.

Melissa turned around and called out to Sarah.
“He’s back!” she said with cheer. All at once they came running,
every member of the team.

“
Wait!” Jack shouted. “I’ve put up
some kind of barrier, and I don’t think anyone can get through. Not
sure how I did it.”

Cemmera was getting back to her feet, her face
covered in a blinding fury. “Harris,” she hissed. “For assaulting
an Op, team during the removal of targets, I now exercise my right
as a Captain and Team-leader of the Operations Department to
execute you for treason.”

Cemmera charged at Jack and screamed out in
pain as she was thrown back almost ten feet then sent rolling
across the ground. She stood back up. Blood dripped from her lips.
She charged again, only to meet the same result.

“
You two!” she screamed at her
Kinetics. “Knock down whatever barrier he has and kill
him!”

“
We don’t know how,” answered
Joseph. “I don’t even know what he’s done.”

Jack ignored the commotion going on around him,
knowing somehow instinctually that he was safe. He felt the warmth
of the girl in his arms, her face red from the tears that were
still falling.

“
He was my everything, Jack,” she
said. “Ruin … Anthony was my everything.”

“
Can you do something for me,
Sandra?”

“
What is it, Darling?”

“
Just for once, just for me, I want
to see you.”

“
But you’re looking at me right
now.”

“
Without the mask, Sandra. I want to
see the real you. Please, just this once.”

She nodded, and for a moment, however brief,
the madness left her face. She looked up at him, with her fiery red
hair and the most beautiful blue eyes Jack had ever seen. For a
moment, she was an angel, a thing of beauty, a Goddess.

Jack pulled her in, still cradling her in his
arms, and he kissed her. He knew Melissa was watching, and he knew
he’d feel guilty later on, but for the moment it was only him and
the girl that could have been like him, had the world not turned
its back on her.

The kiss lasted a lifetime, a perfect moment
between Jack and the misunderstood girl. He heard screams from his
team, screams from the Op. team, and screams from what sounded like
a thousand recon officers surrounding the two with weapons drawn.
None of that mattered. There was only him, and Sandra. Never again
would he call her by another name.

She gripped him tighter, pulling him in from
his shoulders. Jack knew she felt secure in his arms. He had taken
her away from those disgusting animals that hunted her, the animals
that were no different than the one who had destroyed her
life.

When they finally separated, Sandra looked into
his eyes, and Jack was relieved to see that the madness did not
return. “If you live, Jack, I promise that I will too. Darling, I
love you.”

Jack felt his heart beat faster at the words.
No one had ever told him that before. “How can you love me? You
don’t even know me?”

“
I knew you the moment I saw you,
Jack. I was passing by the day you made the fire, and I knew it was
you, I knew the moment I saw your beautiful eyes, the ones that I
used to have.”

“
They can be yours again, I
promise.”

“
How? Look around you. Your friends
are surrounding us. By the way, Darling, why is that woman
grinning?”

With great effort he tore his eyes away from
the beautiful Sandra. Standing at the edge of the barrier, four
feet away from him, with one of the most amused, devilish grins
he’d ever seen, was his mother.

“
Sweetie, show a little modesty.
You’ve been kissing that girl for over twenty minutes.”

Jack blushed, embarrassment spreading over him.
“Is that you, Mom? Gah! What are you doing here?”

Paro’s team—his team—stood around the barrier.
There were now over two-hundred men swarming the room, and outside
there were sirens and police cars surrounding the building.
Standing closest to him, Jack saw his mother with a man he didn’t
recognize. He was a tall, muscular black man, with a kind face, and
a look of deep, complex intelligence.

“
Mr. Harris, my name is General
Deven Moore.” The man wore a white uniform with the emblem of a
crow on the left shoulder. Come to think of it, his mother was
wearing the same thing.

“
This is quite the barrier you’ve
put up, hmm, I’d say one part Manipulation, one part Telekinesis,
but …” He reached out a hand, and Jack tried to scream a warning.
Nothing happened, and the General was able to put first his hand,
then his entire body inside of it. “Two parts Telepathy,” he
finished.

Jack backed away from him. Sandra held him
tighter, shaking with fear. “I won’t let you kill her,” Jack
growled.

Deven smiled. “I’ll do no such thing,
Jack.”

“
How do I know I can trust
you?”

“
Just look into my eyes and see for
yourself.”

Jack did as he was asked, and looking into the
older man’s face, he could see the kindness that was within, the
sincerity, and the hope. Jack did not know who this man was, but at
once he trusted him implicitly. Jack set Sandra down, and she ran
behind him, hugging his waist.

“
Darling, I don’t want to go,” she
said.

Jack spun around and made her meet his gaze.
“You have to, Sandra. I promise you, I won’t let anyone hurt you,
ever again.”

Deven held out his hand, but did not make any
attempt to approach the girl. “Your name is Sandra, yes? If Jack
likes you, then I like you. Come on, why don’t I take you to a
nicer place?”

Sandra took one step, and then two, before
crossing the third step, and holding the General’s hand. “That’s a
good girl,” he said.

Alana took a step forward. “Did you take down
my son’s barrier? Wow, that’s a weird thing to ask. I never thought
I’d ask that in my lifetime.”

Deven laughed. “It’s down,” he said.

Alana took Sandra’s hand and led her
away.

“
So, what do we do now?” Jack asked.
“How much trouble am I in? And why is my mom wearing the same
clothing as you? Also, what time is it? I think I might have missed
Dancing with the Stars.”

Deven’s face filled with mirth. “I’ll tell you
about your mother later, but for now just know that she’s a
General. And as for you being in trouble, well, consider yourself
lucky this time. The moment that Op. team attacked your mother,
they were no longer operating under an official capacity. All you
did was beat up a bunch of rogue Psychs.”

“
Umm, General, sir, can I ask you a
question?” Jack had no idea why he was about to ask this to a
complete stranger, yet something felt right. Something told Jack
that if he didn’t say what he was only moments away from saying,
then something horrible would happen.

“
Why of course, Jack, go ahead. What
is it?”

“
Does the name Redemption mean
anything to you?”

Deven’s lips quivered, and he seemed to twitch,
but those were the only indications he gave that he was troubled.
“It might. Let’s get you home.”

Paro was alone with Kazou in the planning room.
For almost twenty minutes neither spoke, content to simply stare at
each other with a fierce intensity. Paro was not going to speak the
first word, of that he was certain. Even if he had to wait all
night, he wasn’t going to make a sound.

It hurt to sit up straight, and in all honesty,
he should still be in the med center. He’d broken quite a few ribs.
Thankfully, he’d make a full recovery. Even breathing hurt, and
Paro’s body begged him to lie down. Paro knew he couldn’t, though.
He would show no weakness in the face of his Reinforcer.

Kazou tried to hide his emotion, but Paro knew
him too well. There was worry in his eyes—a great deal of it, and
as the twenty-minutes turned to twenty-five, sweat began to drip
down the Japanese man’s forehead. By a half-hour, his face was
drenched. Finally, after close to an hour, he opened his mouth to
speak.

“
Paro,” he whispered, “I know what
you’re thinking, but there’s more to it.”

“
You know what I’m thinking, do
you?” Paro said. It still hurt to speak. “Choose your words
carefully, Kazou, because if you tell me anything that isn’t true,
I’m throwing you out of a window. And no, that isn’t a joke. So
help me God, I am serious.”

Kazou looked down at the glass table, refusing
to meet Paro’s eyes. “I …” he said. “I was the one who called the
Op. teams, and I was the one who gave them the files.”

Paro forced his face to remain free of emotion,
and he succeeded. What Kazou couldn’t see was Paro biting down on
his inner lip until he tasted blood. It wasn’t nearly as painful as
the wounds to his body.

Paro stood up from the chair and paced around
the room. “Kazou,” he said. “Do you realize that by doing so, you
brought upon us a problem even greater than the two Psychs we were
after? You almost got Alana Harris, Jack Harris, and Melissa Sayre
killed. Cemmera Wilson, as you’ve no doubt seen for yourself, was
an even bigger basket-case than the murderers we were
chasing.”

Paro watched as Kazou swished his mouth,
struggling to gain the moisture to form words.

“
They’d killed so many people, Paro.
I never wanted to hurt the team, I swear it. It’s just that every
time I saw another person die, I felt like there was more I could
be doing. Please, I’m so, so sorry. I swear to you, upon my life,
my honor, and everything that I am worth, that I only acted in what
I believed was the team’s best interests.”