Elevated (Book 1): Elevated (11 page)

I get up out of my bed. “If I hadn’t recorded them, I wouldn’t have anything! This is all I have.”

I reach for the laptop and he pulls it away, yanking the power cord out from the wall. “You can’t have them. It’s too dangerous. If caught, you’d be convicted of a felony. You don’t want that on your record, do you?”

He holds the laptop behind his back and I reach around trying to grab it. “I don’t give a crap what’s on my record!”

His face tenses and he stares through me. “If you won’t look after your future, I’m afraid I must.”

Mr. Roberts hands glow with bright electric sparks. I’ve never seen him use his ability before. He always told me his Sparker ability was something that helped him sleep at night after convicting murderers, knowing he could always protect the family. His hands would destroy anything that threatened us. He pulls the laptop from behind his back, which begins to melt and smoke from electric current pulsating from his hands.

“Mr. Roberts, stop!”

The electric pulses glow even brighter, the sparks so bright I have to shield my eyes. “You can’t do this!”

“I am your legal guardian, and this for your own good!”

Mr. Roberts doesn’t care that it’s the only thing I have from my dad, or what it means to me. He always acted jealous of him. His death gave Mr. Roberts a reason to be happy. Now he’s finishing the job and clearing out any sign that Dad ever existed

Letting out a big sigh, his hands return to normal. He loosens his grip on the laptop and leaves the scorched remains on the table, now an unrecognizable mass of black metal and wires. He gives me a curt nod, then stomps out of the room and slams the door behind him. Everything is gone now. All of the information I collected these past years. Whatever secrets my dad left me, all I could learn, is lost.

Stunned, I collapse into my bed. My gaze wanders towards the ceiling, where the glow-in-the-dark stars shine down, reflecting the light they absorbed from the electric sparks. A warm feeling comes over me and I crack a smile. No matter how hard he tries, Mr. Roberts can’t erase my dad from my life.

And I still have that message. It means something, and I’ll figure out what it is.

Even if it takes me the rest of my life.

CHAPTER NINE

Elliott sits in front of a table covered in scattered papers with words, letters, and numbers. “I wish I could help you, but we’ve been through these time and time again, and I can’t make sense of it.”

“I’m sorry,” I say with a shrug. “I feel like I’m letting him down.”

“You’re not. You need to take a break. You’ve barely touched your food.”

Actually, my plate hasn’t been touched at all. I usually dive into meals at Basic Cuisine, but I’m not hungry.

“It’s harder to think on an empty stomach,” Elliott says.

“Yeah.”

Taking my fork in my hand, I force down a bite of mashed potatoes. My stomach makes me regret it right after.

“So, it’s been fun around my house, as you can imagine,” Elliott says. “Grandma still doesn’t know about Snowy. Thankfully, he’s an outside dog. I had to move our patio set to the garage though. He’s developed this weird fixation with throwing lawn furniture. He took out our side fence, so for now I’ve got some extra strength cable around the biggest oak tree in the backyard. He’s got room to run around but not create devastation.”

I laugh picturing the little dog wreaking havoc on Elliott’s backyard. “When are you going to tell her?”

“Don’t know. I have no idea how she’ll react when she finds out what my ability is.”

“I would think she would be proud.”

“Proud?”

“Yeah, it’s a cool ability.”

Elliott’s face falls into a frown. “I’m not sure if you’re thinking it through.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look at this way: the government has complete control over GEMO right now. They track who is zapped, what their power is, they know everything. Do you think they would want someone rogue going around creating powers?”

It’s a scary thought. Elliott represents a threat to their whole system, a backdoor into GEMO technology without the risk from the black market. “So what are you going to do?”

“I’m not going to tell anyone,” Elliott says. “At least for now. I need a plan.”

“I guess we’re in the same boat. The only people who know about my ability are Aaron and Jex.”

“Jex?”

“Head of the Basic Brigade.”

“Those freaks who want to shut down the government?”

“That’s a bit harsh.”

“Sorry,” Elliott says. “Just surprised you would hang around with people like that.”

“I’m not sure where I belong right now. I can’t develop my powers out in the open. Besides, Jex has given me a lot of information on my father.”

“Hope it’s good information.”

“Jex knows what he’s talking about.”

“He sure does,” Aaron says, entering from behind. He sits down next to me. “Wow, you haven’t touched your food.”

“No, she hasn’t,” Elliott says.

Aaron gives me his hungry eyes and I slide over the plate. He dives into the food like a starved wolf.

Elliott coughs. “You should have let Rose eat, um—”

“Aaron,” he says, barely understandable with his mouthful of mashed potatoes.

Aaron reaches out his hand, covered in food. Elliott grimaces and he pulls it back, quickly wipes it, and reaches it out again.

Elliott shakes his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Aaron nods and disappears back into the food. A hand taps me on the shoulder.

“Hi, Rose,” Zach says.

“H-h-hi.”

Zach plops down next to Elliott, forcing him to slide over, then stretches his hand out.

“I’m Zach,” he says as Elliott shakes his hand.

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” I say.

“Wanted to tag along,” Aaron glances over and lifts an eyebrow.

I take a deep slurp of my drink.

“I heard about your father. Tragic,” Zach says. “I wanted to share my condolences.”

I can’t believe it. Zach wants to give me condolences. My mouth can barely form words. “Thanks.”

Zach lifts the bottle of ketchup up off the table. “Wow! This is the real deal. None of that bio-farm rubbish. I read a report today on how tomatoes grown from non-Basic farms are a leading cause of tooth decay.”

“Where did you hear that?” Elliott asks.

“Oh, everyone knows, but ‘they’ keep it a secret. Rather like how they inject cows with chemicals so they produce more milk. Makes your buttocks plump up like a biscuit.”

Elliott snorts on his soda while Aaron snickers.

“Guys, be nice,” I say.

Zach examines the scattered notes on the table. “Is this some sort of puzzle?”

“Something like that,” Elliott says.

“Rose’s father’s been sending her secret messages,” Aaron says.

“Sure you should be telling him this?” asks Elliott.

“I can’t figure it out.” I say. Truth is, I would trust Zach with anything, especially if it meant him hanging out at the table longer.

“So it’s a different number each time,” Aaron says. “And the numbers correspond to these words, right?”

“Right.”

Aaron studies the table and shifts words and numbers around, trying to make sense of it and marking the papers with turkey gravy colored fingerprints. No matter how he arranges the words and numbers, no pattern develops. “We need to show Jex. He’ll be able to figure it out.”

“I think I need to meet this Jex,” Elliott says. “He seems to know everything.”

“Pretty much,” Aaron says, gnawing on a turkey drumstick.

“Excuse me, Jex?” Zach asks. “As in, the Basic News Jex?”

“Yeah,” Aaron says.

Zach claps his hands together. “Fantastic! I can’t believe it. I’ve been reading that newsletter for ages. It’s where I get some of my best information!”

Elliott gives a smug grin. “This Jex guy is sounding more and more credible.”

“I thought no one knew his whereabouts,” Zach says.

“No one does,” Aaron says. “Which is why you won’t tell anyone we know him.”

“Do you suppose I can meet him?” Zach asks, eyes as big as saucers.

“I think something can be arranged,” I say.

“Unlikely. He doesn’t like Elevateds,” Aaron says.

Zach slumps down into the booth. I elbow Aaron hard in the side.

“We can come up with something,” I say.

Aaron shakes his head. “I really—”

I step on Aaron’s foot and he yelps in pain.

“What is going on?” Elliott asks.

I shoot Aaron a look.

“Sorry,” Aaron says. “Must have sat on something.”

“This is so exciting,” Zach says, practically jumping in his seat before glancing down at the papers on the table. “So, you’re looking for a pattern to these words?”

We nod.

“How very perplexing,” Zack says.

We continue to move the words and numbers, but it’s futile. Maybe I am just grasping at straws.

Zach groans. “I consider myself quite good at crossword puzzles, but in those cases you have an opening letter or something to start with.”

An opening letter. I look at the words again:

be every love tonight

B-E-L-T.

“Belt!” I yell.

All the others stare back at me.

“Belt?” Aaron asks.

“Like he said, an opening letter.”

“I see,” Zach says. “If you take the first letter of each of the words in order, you have ‘be’, ‘every’, ‘love’, and ‘tonight.’ Or b-e-l-t. Belt.”

“Ok, great,” says Elliott. “But what does it mean?”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Aaron says.

“Belt is the closest we’ve gotten to something,” I say. “Thanks Zach.”

“No problem.” Zach slides out of the booth and heads to the back of the restaurant. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Elliott turns and waits until he is out of earshot. “Is he ok? What was he jabbering about? What’s with those wacko conspiracy theories?”

“Amazing some of the crazy stuff people buy into,” Aaron says.

Elliott rolls his eyes. A scream bursts from the back of the restaurant. Zach runs out of the ladies’ room, chased by an elderly woman.

“I’m sorry ma’am!” he says as she slaps him with her purse. “I thought it was the men’s room!”

Elliott shakes his head, but Aaron and I laugh. Watching his big frame cower at a little woman attacking him is a special kind of adorable. I want to give him a hug.

***

I go in to our meeting optimistic that Jex will help us solve the mysterious code, but he can’t make sense of it either. After spending the whole day racking my brain for any meaning to the world “belt” I come up with nothing. We’ve reached a dead end yet again. Jex sits back and gulps a beer.

“There’s only one person that could provide us those answers,” Jex says.

I know exactly whom he means. “Maddock.”

Jex nods. “What day did you say your father died?”

“They said he died on April 23rd.”

“Right.” He types on his keyboard and brings up a report. “So why does the record show April 21st?”

The screen displays dad’s name, Adam Williams, his vital statistics, and then a date of death: April 21st.

“Where did you get this?” Aaron asks.

“From the office of Maddock Steele of course,” Jex says. “He made this entry.”

Jex gets up to grab another beer. I sit down in Jex’s rickety office chair and swivel around in the seat for a moment. “It’s normal to delay telling the family right?”

“I suppose,” Aaron says.

I look around at the various newsletters stacked up in the room. “You believe a lot of this stuff?”

“Of course I do.”

Jex saunters back in with a beer and a bag of cheese puffs. I keep swiveling the chair. The truth is, I’m an unregistered mutant. And my friend Elliott possesses an ability that is volatile at best. Whatever Jex needed to have us do is going to be risky. But there isn’t anything else to do. Time to grab on and enjoy the ride. Only a matter of time before I end up on the government’s bad side anyway.

“What did you have in mind?” I ask.

“Yes!” Aaron says, giving me a high-five.

“I need my seat back first,” Jex says.

I spring up and he wheels the chair over to the keyboard. Typing at his usual blinding pace, he brings up the picture of Maddock.

“Whoa, scary dude,” Aaron says. “His skin is nearly as pale as yours, Jex.”

Jex gives Aaron a gentle jab to the stomach.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you keep yourself locked down here,” Aaron says. “Could at least invest in a tanning bed.”

Jex ignores Aaron. “I tried and tried to get any further info on him, but the computer system at the GEMO Control and Regulation Department is locked down. However, I was able to wrangle up some blueprints from painters who redid the second floor. Never trust vendors to secure their networks.”

Jex pulls up the blueprint of the building, which has a large circle highlighting the front door. “You see here, the front door is the only entrance typically used. The other doors are alarmed. So, we need to watch for him to come out the front door, then we can follow him home.”

“Ok, that’s great, but what do we do when we find his home? Knock?” Aaron asks.

“Rose’s power remember? She’s been getting much better at reading and seeing what’s going on. If we monitor Maddock for a while, we may be able to figure out a way in. An unlocked door, an open window, something.”

“Sounds riveting. Especially the long hours of watching him watching TV,” Aaron says.

“The truth is power. Don’t forget it,” Jex says.

I stare at Jex for a moment. “My dad used to say that.”

“Your dad was a smart man then,” Jex says. “We start tomorrow.”

“What’s the hurry?” Aaron asks.

“No reason to wait,” I say.

“Right, and it might take a couple of cracks to follow him home. There’s always the chance of you losing him in traffic, or at a red light,” Jex says.

Jex has a point. Following Maddock in a car won’t be easy, especially without him catching on to our plan. What would help us would be another way of watching him. In a perfect world, we would have someone track him from the air. Then it comes to me.

“We should use Zach.”

“Who’s Zach?” Jex says.

“A Flier we know,” Aaron says. “He’s a nut job.”