Talent Storm (30 page)

Lilly and I had broken the rule about being apart, but that was different. Right?

“You had a right to be with her,” he said. “Why should you follow the rules of the weak?”

He read my mind. I barely even registered it. Damn, did he already have my secrets? No, I guarded them too well. “I wouldn’t break the important rules.”

“Who’s to say what’s important? You’ll change your mind over time.”

I gritted my teeth. “No, I’m not like you.”

“You’ll see. We have power over all other people. They are meant to serve us. They are tools to perform a task, just like Lilly’s death was a tool to break you.”

Her death flashed in my mind. He killed her. I clenched my jaw, its muscles tensing. Pain spiked through the nerves of my teeth, but I just clamped down harder. He had destroyed my entire life, and now he had to die. My mind snapped like steel cables that were given too much weight to bear. Rage steamed inside me in a bubbling cauldron of hate. My vision blurred and heart raced, driven by coursing adrenaline.

With a surge, my talent returned, rejuvenating me. In one fluid motion, I jerked my chest upward while slamming my legs into the stone slab. In a flash of green sparks, the stone bed sheared in two. The steel bands holding me hostage exploded outward. The instant my feet hit the ground, I constricted my muscles, then exploded at him. In the air, I wound my arm back. My fist shot forward with the full force of my talent and fury behind it, ready to destroy him.

My hand smashed into his glowing black face. It exploded with pain, my entire arm instantly going numb. It was like I punched a block of steel without my talent protecting me. I groaned, my eyes jerking wide. Black light burst around him as his huge hand gripped my neck before I could hit the ground. His fingers dug into my soft flesh, and he slammed me down. Blinding pain shot through my back and head, and darkness took me.

☼☼☼

At some point, I returned to consciousness. Blinking, I tried to clear my vision. Goldwater stood above me like a god with his glowing, black boot crushing my chest. His hair was still perfectly in place, his suit unwrinkled. I grabbed his foot and strained to remove it, talent aiding my taut muscles.

It didn’t budge. I flared my talent, gritting my teeth and growling, pouring forth every ounce of power to free myself. It was like trying to move a mountain. My life had come full circle. First, Sven tormented me, now Goldwater. I never had a chance against either of them.

“I’ll kill you,” I yelled, thrashing, kicking, and failing my arms in a struggle to break free.

He let out a deep belly laugh. “You’ve already tried that. I let you go without inhibitor to see what you’ve got. I could have nullified your puny talent at any time, but I wanted you to know that you’re nothing compared to me.”

As if on cue, his telepathy washed over me, and my talent aura blinked out. I squirmed under his heel as he pressed his foot down harder. Choking for air and racked with pain, I slammed my fists into his rock-hard legs.

My ribs compressed further, allowing only short breaths. “Please,” I begged, knowing I’d lost.

“How pathetic. I could crush you like a worm, just like everyone else. You’re mine, and you’ll tell me what I want to know. Then you’ll become my drone, a mobile weapon of unparalleled destruction. Why do my own fighting when I have you?” He chuckled.

His gigantic foot depressed until my ribs popped with a sickening crunch. Pain spiked through me, and once again, the world darkened.

☼☼☼

Conscious and alone, I lay on a new rock slab, in the same prison cell. I strained to move, to ease my aching back but failed. The steel clamp that imprisoned me stood a foot above my body. Ten massive locks prevented my escape. Although my head was free of the clamp, it was affixed by a steel band that was screwed into the bed below me. Feeling dizzy, I sucked in air, but my chest hit the clamp and spiked with pain.

Goldwater was right. What chance did I have against him? He was invincible. If only a man of such power cared, he could protect everyone. Oh, but what a dangerous combination his sadism and talent was. He was the reason people needed to unite for the greater good. If no one else could kill him, it had to be me, but how could I? I tried and failed.

I felt tears in my eyes as I remembered my mom reading the ancient American ‘Choose your own Adventures’ books. If I could only redo my life’s choices as I could in the book, I would have left Liberty Kingdom with Lilly. Staying was the worst mistake of my life. Now, Lilly was dead, and Goldwater would continue to break me. I would do whatever I could to protect Coalition citizens. Ultimately, though, my situation was hopeless. I would break, just like anyone. I shut my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

CHAPTER 15

An explosion sent adrenaline pumping through my body. Glancing around, I surveyed the room and gasped. A ten-foot hole inhabited the outer wall. Chunks of rubble were strewn about the breech. Two dust-covered men threw rocks aside before dashing in. “I’m Pavel Berzen and this is Kevin Kelsey. We’re members of The Underground.”

I squinted at the huge man. “Pavel. You set the explosives at the wall.”

He stared at me a second before nodding. “Yes and now we’re here to rescue you.”

Before now, I had no expectations for freedom. I had resigned to my fate. I couldn’t escape or die. So as the two unknown men waited for a response, I stared, unmoving. I was too broken to feel hope. I kept glancing at the door, waiting for the prison guards to burst in and kill both rebels.

An alarm blared outside my cell. The men’s eyes flicked up. There. The guards would be here soon to stop them.

“We’ve got to hurry,” said Pavel.

The silent one nodded and pulled a hacksaw from a well-worn messenger bag. He positioned it before sawing through the locks. Pavel removed my feeding tube, then took out a second saw. After just a few minutes, they helped me off the table. My atrophied legs hit the ground, and I collapsed. They were like two wet noodles after all this time. The two men wrapped their arms around me and carried me through the hole.

We appeared outside. Stars glimmered in the moonless night and the air was still. Was I free? It seemed impossible, but here I was. I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs.

“Let’s go,” said Pavel. With their arms around me, we jogged down streets.

Men shouted behind us. “Stop.”

Ah. Now they’d surely recapture us. We moved much slower than a single man could. Wait. I reached for my talent to bolster my legs. I banged into the inhibitor wall. The drug was still my system.

After a few more turns, we darted behind some steel crates. Kevin knelt, ran his hands along a crate, and tugged off a panel, revealing a large hole. Pavel’s muscles flexed, holding my entire weight. Kevin flicked his head toward the opening, and Pavel dragged me inside.

After descending a flight of stairs, we stood in a dim-lit underground tunnel. The air was thick and musty. After being confined to my cell for so long, I cringed at returning to a similar environment. My eyes adjusted to the dim light. Kevin was rummaging around in his pack with a frown. After muttering a few curses, he pulled out a torch and two smaller objects. He struck the two objects together, and a spark jumped onto the torch. In seconds, the rag was ablaze, illuminating the space. We stood in a prewar tunnel. Its windowless concrete walls were stained black with soot or maybe dirt. I didn’t know. After marching down the tunnel for what seemed to be hours, we arrived at a barred door.

Pavel knocked, saying, “Hey, Sofia. It's Pavel and Kevin. Open up.”

Footsteps approached, and then it sounded like a metal bar slid across the door. It creaked open, revealing an athletic woman with intense blue eyes. She looked me up and down while smiling.

“I see that you were successful,” she said.

Pavel flipped his hand toward her. “Of course, did you expect anything less? Now why don't you run off like a good little girl and tell the boss we're here?”

“You’re always such a jerk.” The woman spat on the ground before stomping off.

Pavel grabbed the edge of the door and flung it open before helping me inside. “That's Sofia. She's a real doll ain’t she?”

I shrugged. “She seemed all right.”

“Ha, right,” Kevin said, finally speaking up.

We walked down a hall and turned into a room. A woman with gray hair stood at a raised square table. She wore a brown blouse and a thin silver chain around her neck. A gold-framed mirror hung on the wall next to her. I glanced at it and saw the woman reflected back. On top of the table sat a blue vase. A fresh bouquet of red roses and purple May Day flowers stuck out of the top of it. It was odd to see Lilly’s favorite flowers after all this time and even stranger that the rebels had displayed flowers at all.

The woman’s mossy green eyes, which were fixed on me, drew my attention to her. “Ahh, you made it. It couldn't have been any sooner. I'm Valleri Delven. I’m the leader of this rag-tag, sorry group of rebels.”

Pavel hissed to my right. “Who you calling sorry. I'm the best illusionist there is. You could only hope to reach my greatness.”

Valleri glared at Pavel, and he lowered his eyes. “Have a seat. You look tired,” she said to me.

I looked behind me at a seemingly flimsy chair. Kevin helped me into it. I sat and expected it to creek or shift, but it was surprisingly strong. I glanced at a clock that hung behind Valleri as Kevin and Pavel joined her at the table. The hands pointed to ten and three. Ten fifteen. Time had no meaning for me for months. It felt good to be back in the world.

Valleri placed her palms together in front of her mouth. “As you know, you were a prisoner of the Liberty government. Our spies told us of your capture some time ago, but we couldn’t help until today. For that I am truly sorry. I can only imagine what they put you through.”

She couldn’t possibly imagine it; no one could.

“The warden assumed that you were a saboteur from Locke's Coalition. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

Her blue eyes met mine, and she nodded. “Good. Our spies recently told us that Liberty plans on invading the Coalition.”

My stomach churned at the news. The high general was right. I couldn’t allow it.

“Your people have been our biggest supporters and greatest hope for freedom,” she said. “We’ll help them in any way we can. We were also told that Goldwater plans to assassinate the Coalition's four generals prior to the invasion.”

Oh no, Ben’s dad. I couldn’t let them kill him. It would break Ms. Lockhart. They’d kill my uncle too. Even though I hated him, I didn’t want him dead. He was still family. The kingdom had obtained the information that I kept secret through all their torture. The realization smacked me, and I ground my teeth in frustration. “What can I do to help?”

“I can see you’re very upset. Believe me. We want to do whatever we can for the Coalition. The best thing that you can do is give us information. If we know who and where the generals are, we can move people in to warn them.”

“The location of the main underground base would also be a great help,” said Pavel.

I looked at him and nodded. His eye twitched, distracting me, but I refocused on the task at hand. “Adam Lockhart is one of the four generals and lives in Rapid City military housing, twelve K. Garson Stone, my uncle, is another general. He’s also in Rapid City, in military housing twenty-two B—”

I squinted at Pavel as his eye twitched again.

Valleri followed my gaze to the man and grimaced. “Pavel, step to the back of the room. You're disturbing our guest.”

I watched him go and glanced at the clock again. The minute hand pointed to the nine. A half hour had gone by. How could that be? It must have been broken.

A knot tied in my stomach, and I suddenly felt queasy. Maybe it was due to my lack of real food or maybe due the months of torture. I didn’t know. I scanned the room, feeling displaced. My eyes landed on the vase and the long shadow it cast. I looked to the left, but saw no light. Hmm. I held up my hand and waved it back and forth, looking at wall to my right.

Valleri snapped her fingers. “Jaden, what else do you know?”

I ignored her and looked back at the vase’s shadow, then back at the wall again. My hand cast no shadow. My eyes trailed around the well-lit room. No lamps or light fixtures were anywhere to be found. “Where are the lights?”

Pavel frowned and Valleri looked around the room before her eyes fixed on the wall behind me. She pointed.

I twisted to see a floor lamp. “Oh.”

“Now. What else do you know?”

I turned back around, thinking of anything else I could tell her when a glint of light from the mirror caught my attention. I glanced at it. A thick gold chain hung around Valleri’s neck. My eyes trailed from the mirror back to Valleri and then back to the mirror. Her reflection wore a thick gold chain, but she wore a thin silver necklace. What was going on? Was I hallucinating? Maybe the months of torture had broken my mind. Would she help me if she knew I was crazy?

“You look a little pale. Just relax,” said Valleri. “You’ve had it hard for a long time. You just need some water. Pavel get it for him.”

All right. Just breathe. It’s okay. I exhaled, relaxing back in my chair. Pavel filled a glass from the sink and handed it to me. I accepted it and sipped the cool water. The stress had finally caught up with me.

“Feeling better?” asked Valleri.

“Yes, much better. Thanks.”

She nodded. “Good. What else can you tell me?”

I scratched my head, my eyes wandering. They landed on the green vase and a frigid chill enveloped me, as if I had fallen through ice into an arctic lake.

The May Day flowers and roses, which were colorful and alive when I entered, lay limp and dried, as if aged by weeks. I shook my head, feeling unsteady. My stomach twisted, and bile crept up my throat.

“What's going on here?” Dizziness overtook me. I grabbed the arms of the chair to steady myself. Either I was going insane or this was a...

Realization crushed me, like a fully enhanced blow from Peacemaker. I was in an illusion. The world reeled around me, my mind spinning and my stomach twisting. All strength fled my body. The glass shattered on the ground, and I collapsed next to it.