“I just made her feel better so she didn’t suffer.”
“She touched her,” Gany said, “and the girl just calmed down. She touched the mother, too. And when we went back to the car, she held my hand and it . . . it was like I could still feel it going on inside her. It made my knees weak. It was like magic.”
“Is that what you do?” Jumpsuit said. He bent down on his knees now so that he was face-to-face with Ellie. “You touch people and make them feel better?”
“Yes.”
“Can you heal the sick?”
“No.”
“I’ll bet you can,” said Jumpsuit, “only you just don’t know it yet.” He extended his hand, palm-up. There was grit beneath his fingernails. “Go on,” he said. “Touch me. Let me see what you can do.”
Ellie looked at David. Despite a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach, he nodded for her to go ahead.
Ellie reached out and placed her hand atop Jumpsuit’s open palm. Her pale flesh against his olive skin made her look like a ghost. Jumpsuit’s fingers closed around Ellie’s hand, his eyes locked onto hers.
At first, nothing happened. But then Jumpsuit’s smile faltered. His eyes widened, as if in surprise.
“You’re nervous,” Ellie said. “You’re acting tough on the outside, but on the inside, you’re scared.”
David thought he saw doubt briefly pass over Jumpsuit’s face.
And then it was like some great vacuum had sucked the air out of the room. The hairs on David’s arms stood up, and he could tell, judging by the looks on everyone else’s faces, that they felt it, too. The air had become charged with some preternatural energy.
“Your name is Aaron Kahle,” Ellie said.
“Jesus fuck,” said Aaron Kahle. That smile returned, but it wasn’t just for show anymore—there was genuine awe there, an unmasked incredulity. He turned to Gany and said, “Touching her, it’s like a sedative. It’s . . . it’s almost euphoric.” He turned back to Ellie. “What else can you tell just from touching me?”
“That you’re not a nice man,” Ellie said. “That you’ve hurt people. You’ve killed them.”
Kahle quickly withdrew his hand, that wolfish smile morphing into a grimace. The moment he did so, David could suddenly breathe again; the hairs on his arms relaxed. Kahle held his hand up before his eyes, as if to see if she’d left behind any marks, any side effects. He flexed the fingers, wiggled them. Made a fist. Then he lowered his hand and leaned closer to Ellie.
“You’re a very special little girl,” said Kahle. “I’ll bet there’s a whole world of things you can do in time.” That wolfish grin reappeared. “Not to mention that special blood you’ve got pumping through your veins.” Kahle turned that grin on David. “She’s immune?”
David looked at Tim.
“I never said a word to anyone,” Tim said.
“I heard you talking,” Gany said. “And I’ve read the news and know that people are after the girl.”
“We’ve got a whole group of people who would love to meet you,” Kahle said to Ellie.
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” David said.
Kahle stood. “What’s this ‘we’ business?”
“We’re not going to hurt her, David,” Gany said. “She’ll be okay.”
“She isn’t going with you,” said David.
Tim leaned forward on the sofa and stared up at Gany. When he spoke, his voice was low, his tone compassionate. “Gany, honey, what’s this all about? Who are these people?”
“We’re true Worlders, Tim,” she said. “But we’re not just going to sit by and wait to die. Someone like Ellie—someone with her abilities—might be enough to keep us healthy. She might even learn to cure the Folly in time.”
“So you’re turning her in?”
Kahle laughed, a series of loud barks. “Turning her in? Are you kidding me? We’ve got no moral responsibility to the rest of the world. Let them die, for all I care. Not us, though.”
“So you’ll take her as a hostage,” David said. “Use her like a drug and hope that she can keep you all from getting sick.”
“I can’t do it!” Ellie cried. “I’ve tried and I can’t! I can’t cure anybody.”
“Well, maybe, sweetheart,” Kahle shouted back at her, his face suddenly cold as stone, “you’ll figure it out.”
“You’re all mad,” David said.
“You’re no humanitarian yourself, David.” It was Gany, a trace of anger in her voice now. As if she had been the one betrayed. “What difference does it make if she’s our hostage or yours? You’re letting the world die anyway.”
“Don’t do this, Gany,” Tim said. “This isn’t what you really believe.”
“Don’t tell me what I believe!” Gany shouted at him. Her eyes were fierce. “I’ve watched enough people die! I buried my whole goddamn family!”
“Gany—”
“Enough.” Kahle reached out for Ellie. “Come on, kid. Let’s go.”
David wrapped her tightly in his arms.
“Don’t make me kill you, Daddy-O,” Kahle said. “Let her go.”