Evan stopped to take a deep breath and rub his hands on his jeans. However intelligent he was and however sure of his story, sitting there and telling their previously secret story to these strangers was nerve-racking at best.
“The problem was many of his human test subjects did not survive the first week. Alik, Meg and I were the first three who did. Dr. Margo Pullman was assigned to the Infinite project and had just been given a tour of her new duties when she saw us. That night, she snuck back into the Institute and stole us away.”
“Dr. Pullman kidnapped you and your siblings?” Agent Boyle’s fingers were typing notes into his laptop.
“No. She rescued us.” Evan’s temper flared and his scarred hand itched at the suggestion that his mom did anything but make selfless choices.
“Go on with your story, Mr. Winter.” Agent Garza nodded encouragingly.
Evan narrowed his eyes at her. He didn’t like the good-cop, bad-cop game he was sure they were playing. They had no idea how brilliant he was and their feeble attempt at manipulation was incredibly patronizing.
“Dr. Margo Pullman contacted an old professor of hers. He helped her establish a new identity not only for herself, but for us, too. She named us and raised us as her own on a remote Texas ranch for twelve years.”
“Let’s skip to the part where your abilities become enhanced. Can you sprout wings? Grow gills? Turn into a hulking green figure?” Boyle sat back in his chair. It objected by groaning beneath his two-hundred eighty pound mix of muscle and fat.
Evan rubbed his temples.
“Dr. St. Paul, Dr. Andrews and I studied our blood back in Hawaii where Dr. St. Paul had a private lab built onto his house. We found a sort of countdown was happening. At first we thought it was a countdown to our death, but we learned it was really a countdown to a sort of metamorphosis.”
“Like a butterfly?” Agent Garza was leaning in and listening intently.
“Sort of, yes. Minus the chrysalis and wings.”
“What an idiot. They’re called cocoons, genius.” Boyle’s meaty face smirked at Evan.
Evan just stared, jaw slightly agape. “Is he serious?” Evan asked the other agent in a conspirator’s whisper.
“Sadly, yes.” She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She hated being on assignment with Special Agent Marcus the Meathead, as he was known throughout the agency. He was fine for duties that involved physical aggression, but should not have been given the task of interrogating a child genius.
That’s why her superiors sent her in. She knew Meathead would be no help, and this Q&A would be all on her. Everyone underestimated this Evan kid. She wasn’t going to fall into the same assumptions.
Agent Garza cleared her throat and pressed forward. “You said you helped the doctors study your blood to make this determination?”
“Yes.”
“Have you been to medical school?”
“No.”
“How did you gain the medical knowledge to research your own biology?”
“I read books.”
“Whose books?”
“My mother’s, of course.”
“You mean the woman who rescued you from the Institute? Dr. Pullman?”
“She goes by Dr. Margo Winter.” Evan was nodding, relieved to finally talk with someone who could at least hold an intelligent conversation. He glanced over at Special Agent Boyle and dreamed for a moment of kicking his ass for being so annoying over the past two hours. He forced himself to breathe.
“Okay, Dr. Winter. She gave you access to a medical library?”
“Yes, back at our ranch in Texas.”
“And you taught yourself?”
“Yes.”
“Is that your evolution?”
“No.”
“Well?” Boyle pretended to be hanging on his every word.
“I cannot show you my evolved gift here.”
“Of course, you can’t,” Boyle smirked.
“Why not, Evan?” Garza asked.
“Because it’s highly destructive. I’d need an outdoor shooting range with fire extinguishers.”
“Oh, hot damn, I’ve got to see this!” Boyle rubbed his hands together in sarcastic excitement.
“This really isn’t getting us to where we need to be, Agent Garza,” Evan shook his head slightly.
“Isn’t it?”
“I’m going to get coffee,” Agent Boyle interrupted, standing and hulking out of the smallish room.
Evan felt much better now that the idiot who smoked like a chemical plant was gone.
Rosario Garza waited until her partner had closed the door behind him before speaking. “Where do we need to be, Evan?”
“We need your help protecting my family.”
“Why come to us now? It sounds as though you’ve been battling this Dr. Williams character on your own for years. Have you ever contacted the authorities before?”
“No, ma’am.” Evan’s head hung, shoulders slightly slumped.
“Why not? If your story is true, it would seem like the first thing any one of you should have done.”
“We were afraid of involving the authorities.”
“Why?”
“Because of what’s happening right now. We were sure you wouldn’t believe us, or worse…that you would and we’d be turned into lab rats again as the world studied the metahuman freaks.”
Rosario chewed on this for just a moment before asking the pivotal question.