The Seven (18 page)

Sebbins sucked in a sharp breath. "Yes." Sebbins paused, waiting for their reactions.

Indigo glanced at John and gave him an almost imperceptible nod. "Go on, Doc," said Indigo. "What about the rest of us?"

"Sarah was Subject Two, codenamed 'Blink.' Her body has been enhanced with tachyons, sub-atomic particles that can exceed the speed of light. Obviously Sarah cannot exceed the speed of light, but she can sprint faster than any vehicle on the planet can move. At speed, she should be able to run across the surface of water. She is an experiment in lightning assault. Why would you need a gun if you could move faster than bullets and hit a target and be gone before anyone could react?"

"A human sniper rifle," said John. "One shot, one body...no witnesses."

Sebbins' face seemed to grow sadder. "John, you were the third subject. Codename: 'Elite.' Your body has been enhanced beyond human limitations. You're stronger than almost every man, except Andy of course, and your stamina is nearly limitless. Your reactions are faster, too. Your brain has also been enhanced by artificially stimulating areas relating to hand-eye coordination, balance and grace, and leaping. You can turn anything into a weapon and fire it with accuracy---from pea shooters to heavy artillery. You are the ultimate soldier. You can take orders as well as give them. In your education, you've been hypnotically trained with all the military information Dr. Cormair could gather so that you react to military situations unconsciously. Your mind will tell you what to do and how to do it. Your brain is a tactical military supercomputer."

"The ultimate soldier," Indigo repeated. "A modern day Alexander."

John scowled, but stayed silent. Sebbins continued, "Holly, you were fourth---they called your project 'Animalia.' You've already figured out your powers, haven't you? Commanding animals, enhanced senses?"

"Yes, Doctor," said Holly. Her voice was thin and her eyes showed the awe that everyone was feeling. "How do I do it?"

"Your body can secrete pheromone command signals to animals. You can send out messages and hypnotize animals into following you. You can also receive their signals and interpret them."

"That's amazing," said John.

"Yes," said Sebbins. "It is. Holly, what I want to know is how well your interpretation of signals works. Do animals actually 'talk' to you, like in a language?"

Holly shook her head. "They send me messages based on emotions or actions. I can command them based on the same cues. Different animals have different perspectives, needs, and reactions. It's not like there are words and sentences."

"Fascinating," said Sebbins.

"And my telekinesis?" Indigo prodded.

"Ah, Subject Seven, or 'Anomaly' as they called you."

"Anomaly? Screw them."

"Telekinetic ability would make you an anomaly," Sebbins said, her tone reassuring. "You have had your hypothalamus enhanced both genetically and mechanically. As you all know now, many emotions are controlled by the hypothalamus and the endocrine system." Sebbins paused and nodded to the pen on the desk. "Indigo---move that pen, please."

Indigo's eyes narrowed and she focused on the pen. For several moments, no one breathed. The pen refused to move.

"Aw, c'mon!" Indigo shouted. "What the hell is wrong with me? I could do it before! You all saw! You all saw me do it! This is complete bullsh--"

The pen suddenly rocketed off the desk and narrowly missed hitting Sebbins. Indigo froze mid-rant.

"Your hypothalamus wasn't engaged when you first started to move the pen. When you failed, you threw a...tantrum, shall we say? When the endocrine system began responding to the hypothalamus, your telekinetic field extended. The angrier you get, Indigo, the more your power works."

"What about the helicopter? I wasn't angry then. I could move that stick."

"Were you scared?"

Indigo didn't answer. She opened her mouth and quickly shut it, slumping back in the corner and crossing her arms petulantly.

"Fear, anger, lust, anxiety, sexual urges---powerful negative emotions of all sorts can all trigger the expansion of your telekinetic field. With time and training, you may be able to do far more."

"What about Posey?" Holly asked.

"Subject Six, called 'Nightingale.' Posey was the avian project," Sebbins said. She sounded as if she were reading from a dossier. "As you can tell from the wings, Posey was grafted with bird-like characteristics. Wings, hollow bones, thin but strong muscles, and even a sonic weapon modeled after an eagle's cry. Posey was intended to be a spy weapon. High or low altitude reconnaissance, undetectable by radar, silent---she could even be an assassin."

"That's sick," said Holly. "She's not an assassin."

"I know she's not. But, if they trained her in the art, she could have advantages that no one else could have."

"Fly in, hit a target, and fly out. Even the most remote targets wouldn't stand a chance. If she could intercept a plane, how easy would it be for her to drop a C-4 charge on the wing? Wing blows up, plane goes down," said John. "I don't know if any counter-terrorism team could stop that."

"What about me?" Kenny said so little that his voice seemed foreign.

"Ah, Subject Five. I could tell you about your abilities...but, I think you're in a much better position to do than I am, right?" Sebbins fixed Kenny with a knowing smile. To her surprise, Kenny returned it. Sebbins couldn't remember Kenny ever smiling.

"What does she mean by that, Kenny?" said John. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," said Kenny. A slow smile spread over his face. As it did, the shy, quiet Kenny seemed to fade into the background, replaced by a more confident, more self-assured Kenny whose eyes crackled with fire. "I'm considered a binary telepath, codenamed 'Psiber.' I can mentally manipulate computers and electronics. I have a memory capacity greater than most supercomputers and I can calculate as fast as any microprocessor, hundreds of thousands per second. I can browse the Internet and send e-mail with my mind if I'm in the broadcast area of a Wi-Fi source. However, they haven't been able to find a way to compensate for the physical drain on my body. My body basically serves as a battery for my mind. When my mind works double-time to talk to the computers, my body pays for it. That's why I pass out after big hacks."

"You know all that?" said John. "You been holding out on us, Ken?"

"Before we left the lab, I absorbed all the computers there. It's here," Kenny said, tapping his temple with a slim finger. I blanked all the hard drives and stored their collective info up here. I know it
all
, John. At least, everything that was connected to that computer system. Even the deep files, the ones they tried to hide under layers of encryption."

"All?" Sebbins said. She hadn't been told everything when she joined. Even after all her service, a lot of the project was still classified to her.

"Well, I know as much as was on the hard drives. Files, e-mails, spreadsheets on our performance during those tests---it's all here. I know a lot, everyone. I know that the United States Government has no idea we exist. I know the true identity of our investors. I know that our parents aren't alive anymore." There was a gasp from Holly, and John bit his lip. Even Indigo raised a hand to her mouth in disbelief. "You weren't going to tell us that bit, were you, Doc?"

Four pairs of eyes fell on Sebbins and she could feel them burning into her flesh. "No," she said. Air caught in her throat and she was barely audible.

Kenny gave a half-smile. "Not like it was a big deal, though, right? We've all moved past them, haven't we? I mean, we all pretty much thought our parents gave up on us. In a way, it's kind of nice to know that they didn't."

"That's why their letters stopped?" Holly wailed. Tears were streaming down her face and she snuffled into the back of her arm. John bit his knuckles thoughtfully.

Indigo just glared at Dr. Sebbins. "You knew?"

Tears began pricking at the corners of her eyes. "Guilty," said Sebbins. "Your families were systematically eliminated as the project advanced. Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and then---aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Everyone who knew you existed." Holly let out a loud, heart-wrenching sob and buried her face in her hands. "I guess that's why I got so close to all of you," Sebbins continued. "I knew you didn't have families anymore. Please, please forgive me for not telling you."

"All this time, I actually hated them because I thought they just didn't care," Holly collapsed in a heap and sobbed.

"That's cold," said John. "That's really cold."

"They erased our birth records, too," said Kenny. "Anything that could identify us in the world has been eliminated. Technically, none of us exist."

"Did you know that too, Doc?" Indigo hissed.

Sebbins could only nod. So many nights she thought about this information, laid in bed just thinking about it. She had wanted to tell the kids, but Cormair had insisted they not know.
They've already given up on their families,
he'd said.
The anger they feel toward their families will help their abilities develop!

"I also know about the
other
experiments. I bet ol' Doc Sebbins here doesn't even know about those." Kenny sneered. "December thirty-first of this year, Doc: We were all going to turn eighteen. And what was going to happen then?"

Happen? If anything was scheduled to happen, she hadn't been told. "I have no idea," Sebbins said.

"Liar!" Indigo shouted.

"No," Kenny waved Indigo back. "I believe her. I know she didn't know. It was in an encrypted, classified file deep in the computers, an email exchange between two of the higher-ups. I don't even think Cormair knew."

"What 'other' experiments, Ken?" John urged.

"The other kids---the second project."

"Stop playing with us, Ken. Just let us have it!"

"Seven years ago, in a separate lab, they started another group of kids with strange genetic profiles on the path to becoming enhanced like we all were. They have a super soldier, a strongman, and a bird girl. And they have a few of kids that aren't like any of us."

"There are more kids like us?" Indigo sounded incredulous.

"
Better
than us," said Kenny. "They are benefiting from all our testing in order to enhance their abilities faster. They're us, but tuned-up, better, faster, stronger, and smarter. They are our replacements."

"Replacements?" John said.

"On our birthday this year, as a present, the program at the Home was scheduled to end. Didn't know that either, did you, Doc?"

"No, I didn't!" Sebbins felt anger bubbling up in her. She felt like some newbie junior researcher rather than someone who had given up her life for this project.

"The program was going to end?" Indigo shouted. "That means we could have just walked away free in a few months?"

Kenny laughed. His laugh was something other than human: shallow, breathy, and low. "Free? No. Think about it, Indigo! We're billions of dollars and a decade's worth of astronomically ground-breaking research! We're too valuable to simply be turned loose."

"Jail?" John asked. "Servitude?"

Kenny's voice was flat and hollow, "Termination."

Andy spent several hours lying in a copse of trees not far from where soldiers were picking up the wreckage of the disaster at the Home. The pain of his transformation had kept him from sleeping. He had lain in tall grass, oblivious to the chill of the morning, with tears streaming down the sides of his face as he was wracked with aches and agony, trembling and gritting his teeth to keep from crying out as his muscles bubbled under his skin and his bones increased in mass and thickness. The last thing he needed was to alert some soldier to his position.

From what he gathered, the activity around the Home had quieted down considerably. The soldiers must have assumed that all of the experiments had escaped, save for the one they caught. That would work to Andy's advantage. He might still be able to sneak around, though running might trigger seismic sensors.

He was still wrapped in the flimsy hospital gown. It barely covered him and left him feeling rather exposed. New clothes would be a necessity if he was going to mount a rescue mission, but those clothes would have to be loose-fitting. He wondered if there was something beyond a Big and Tall Men's store, like maybe a Freakishly Big Men's Store.

He forced the pain to the back of his mind and hoisted himself up on an elbow, just above the grass level. Only a few soldiers still milled about in front of the Home and none of them were in a position to spot him in the trees. He could make his way toward town without too much trouble as long as he stayed in the trees.

His feet had grown and expanded during his transformation, shredding his shoes as they did. Each foot was wider and longer. His toes had become thick, bulky rods that jutted out from the meat of his foot and the skin on the soles of his feet thickened and toughened. To balance his enormous bulk, his feet were like steel. With each step, that's what it felt like. Every motion felt as if he was moving in pudding and each step seemed to shake the ground.

The town was on alert. By the time Andy reached the village, the streets were patrolled by armed soldiers. They stood on street corners chatting quietly and smoking cigarettes, their guns hanging idly from shoulder straps. They looked like they were at ease, but from his vantage point, hidden behind a fallen maple, camouflaged by thick shrubs, Andy could see their eyes darting and he could almost sense their edginess. The soldiers were looking for trouble. No one out of uniform walked the streets, and Andy couldn't see if any stores were even open. He could see the gas station on the corner of the town and no one was at the pumping stations.

Andy didn't have a clue to Sarah's whereabouts. John would know what to do in this situation; John was good at figuring out things like that. In class, John was always able to lay out winning strategies in games or projects. Take chess, for instance. John was slick---laying out extensive pawn strategies, utilizing his knights for quick strikes, moving his rooks and bishops in conjunction to pin Andy back deep. Andy just tore straight ahead, going for the quick kills and usually lost his queen before the tenth move. John usually didn't even need his queen.