“Everything’s happening as planned,” Alik whispered, while looking through his binoculars at the tall white building.
“Yep, so far, so good,” Evan whispered back. He was examining the remote detonator. Once he was satisfied with the way it looked to be functioning, he put it carefully down beside him in the grass and picked up his binoculars.
“What time do you have?” Alik asked.
“Seven minutes. She has seven minutes left.” Evan was sounding a lot more confident than Alik felt. Alik was starting to worry. They hadn’t seen any sign of their sister since she first walked into the building nearly forty-five minutes before. What if they lost both their mom and sister? How would he be able to take care of Evan and himself? How could he live with all the detailed memories of how awesome life used to be before a real-life monster killed half his family?
There was nothing he or Evan could do, but wait these last few minutes. That was the plan. But the dark scenarios continued to burn through his mind. This whole plan they’d devised was feeling less and less airtight. Too many variables were beyond their control. Things could go very badly. Very.
Chapter 48 All That Glitters…
“Would you excuse me for a moment, dear? I must get a message to an old friend. They’ll be anxious to hear of your arrival. I’ll only be a moment. Please relax.” Dr. Williams shuffled out of this main part of his office to what looked like an adjoining private suite and closed the door gently behind him.
I was grateful for the time to think. I needed to clear my head. I needed to check the time. Seven minutes. I only had seven minutes left before part two of the plan went into effect.
What was I going to do? Was Williams a bad guy like I believed for the last week, or was he just misunderstood? Was it really my mom who had chosen badly for us when she took us away from all this science and privilege? We could be so much more useful to our society.
Metahumans like us were far superior, far more capable of accomplishing great things. Imagine if a brain like Evan’s worked on that cure for autism mom was always searching for? Or if we had a president like my brother Alik who could memorize and juggle all historical facts and apply that knowledge to future decisions for the betterment of our country? Or what if I worked as a diplomat? I could use my extrasensory emotions to say and do the right things so we could avoid wars. I could help keep peace between nations.
Those are great things—great uses of the gifts Dr. Williams gave us. Living in seclusion like mom would have us do is a waste! Maybe she is holding us back.
And then, out of the edge of my awareness came a cry of such absolute pain, it made me sit bolt upright. Mom! What was happening with mom? I opened myself up by concentrating on her.
Chapter 49 Visiting Hour
“Your daughter has come to see me, Margo. I thought you would like to know.” Dr. Williams had used his private elevator to leave his seventh story suite and made his way to the southeast corner to pay one last visit to his old friend.
Margo was in a fog of pain so thick she was sure she was hallucinating when she saw that demon of a man walk into her cell. His voice brought her back to consciousness, and his words cut like razors.
“Meg? Meg is here?” Her voice was raspy and she had a lot of difficulty moving her mouth because of the broken jaw she’d suffered.
“Oh yes, she’s here. She’s right upstairs lying down in my office. She’s had such a rough time, Margo. But she understands now that I was the good guy. I gave her gifts and nurtured those gifts. She’s come home to live with me now. I just didn’t want you to worry anymore about her. She’s safe.” He said all this with a triumphant excitement in his voice.
“No, no, NNnnooo!” Margo was screaming now. The anguish she felt for her daughter was a deep pool of black water that slipped up around her nose and mouth choking off any chance of breath.
“You can’t have her! You can’t have my baby!” she continued to scream and drowned in the horrific realization that the demon had his claws in her little girl.
She lay sobbing on the dirty floor feeling no hope, no peace—only darkness.
Dr. Williams smiled gleefully, nearly giggling with joy and closed her door behind him. As he walked away from the broken woman, he was thinking about all the wondrous times that lay ahead for him and his newly returned children.
Oh, but he had to talk Alik and Evan into joining their sister. Just a matter of time, really, and then we’ll be one big, happy, powerful family!
Chapter 50 Awake
Meg heard everything through her mother’s broken heart. That devil of a man went to gloat to my dying mother that he had won my allegiance!
Monster!