Elevated (Book 1): Elevated (12 page)

I ignore Aaron’s comment. “He’s a Flier. It makes perfect sense. He can soar above and keep an eye on the car.”

Aaron snorts. “He can’t even find his way to the restroom.”

I shoot Aaron a disapproving look. Zach might be a little directionally challenged, but he can help us.

“Can we trust him?” Jex asks.

“Not a good idea,” Aaron says. “Do we want to include an Elevated in our group?”

“I’m in the group, remember?” I say.

“I don’t count you.”

“Why? I’m an Elevated.”

“I don’t count you.”

“Not all Elevateds are government drones!”

Aaron turns away. I focus on Jex. “How many tries do we get at this before Maddock catches on? He’s bound to notice the same car following him after a while.”

“We risk exposing our cover,” Aaron says, turning back around.

“Fine, then don’t invite him down here. He doesn’t have to know anything. The only risk is that he blows our mission. I don’t see any reason he’d want to mess that up.”

“Agreed,” Jex says. “Find out if he’s interested. He could be a valuable asset.”

Aaron shakes his head. “If Elevateds invade our organization, it goes against everything we stand for.”

“I thought what you stood for was truth,” I say. “The truth is power.”

 “Right,” Jex says. “Look, we don’t have time. This is our best plan. Aaron, can you grab some supplies from the back closet? We’re going to need some notebooks.”

Aaron nods and heads through the clutter and into the backroom. When he disappears, Jex leans over to me. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your ability.”

“My ability?”

Jex types something and points at the screen. It’s the outline of my body in a picture, the scan from Jex’s security door. The photograph resembles a thermal image. My body glows in different hues of reds, greens, and blues.

“Fascinating,” Jex says. “Unlike most people, who have a sign of a GEMO ray blast, your body doesn’t have any.”

Jex watches me as if he expects me to say something.

“Now, I know black market GEMO rays can show weird results, but I’ve never seen anything like this.”

I have no response.

“You have something to say, Rose?” Jex asks. “Who did you use?”

“I-I-”

“Don’t you understand, this is critical. If someone has invented a new type of—”

“Elliott did it,” I blurt out. “He zapped me.”

Jex leans back in his chair in disbelief. “Elliott zapped you? What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure, neither of us is. Somehow he has the ability to, I don’t know, to unlock abilities or something.”

Jex’s face morphs into an expression of complete awe. “And he ‘zapped’ you?”

“Yeah, and his dog Snowy.”

“His dog?”

“Yeah, he can lift park benches now.”

“I see.”

Jex sits there, completely stunned, with a little smirk on his face. Then his jaw drops and the color drains out of his face.

“Does anyone else know?” he asks.

“Just me, Aaron and Elliott.”

“You need to keep it that way,” Jex says, his voice growing intense. “No one must know. I’m afraid if anyone in the government were to find out, he would be—”

“Arrested, I know.”

Jex glares at me in a way that makes me shiver. “The government usually responds to competition with one response—annihilation.”

CHAPTER TEN

The floor to roof windows of the GEMO Control and Regulation Department reflect a grassy hillside that defies the building’s artificiality. A white steel structure snakes through the windows in a geometric pattern both beautiful and calculated. The structure gleams obnoxiously bright, even though the sky is full of clouds.

I sit next to Aaron in the large parking lot, my eyes fixated on the front door. “Think we’ll spot him?”

Aaron’s words mush together as he bites into his candy bar. “I don’t know, his pale skin might blend him into the building.”

I smile. It’s 4:50, only ten minutes before the office closes.

“Of course, odds are this ends up being the day he works extra-long in the office,” Aaron says.

“Don’t even.” I pull out my phone to read a message from Zach. “Zach’s in place.”

“Hey, I see him! No wait, that’s a woman. How is everyone in this department so pasty? They have tons of windows.”

“Maybe some work in the basement.”

Employees continue to file out and my pulse quickens as the trickle turns into a crowd. I bounce my attention as fast as I can from person to person, trying to catch Maddock’s face.

“There he is!” yells Aaron, pointing to the left. “No wait, sorry.”

Aaron should stop helping. It’s hard finding the spot I left off at before he distracted me. The people keep pouring out and my mind strains keeping track. I try to recall the image of Maddock. Blond hair. That’s right. I skim over the crowd, searching for anyone blond. Then I see him. “There he is!” I say as I point at Maddock. His wiry hair is a dead giveaway.

Maddock takes a few steps from the front door and enters his mammoth-sized white truck, which straddles two parking spaces.

“Bet the other hot shots love him, taking up their VIP spaces,” Aaron says as he turns the key.

The engine cranks and coughs but quickly stops.

“Alright Julie, not now,” Aaron says.

He tries again. The engine stammers. Dead.

“Come on!” Aaron says, twisting the key harder as if to force the car to life.

“Come on, Julie!” I shout out.

Aaron gives me a befuddled expression.

“What, only you can call it Julie?” I ask.

The car springs to life right as I pick up my phone. Aaron tears out of the space. Maddock is near the exit.

“Hey, Zach,” I say over the phone. “We’re following Maddock right now. He’s in a white car headed out of the parking lot.”

“Alright,” Zach says. “En route.”

Maddock pulls out of the parking lot and turns onto the main road. Thankfully, he heads away from the city. Less traffic. It’ll be easy to keep up. The car swerves and Aaron races ahead, pinning my body against the door.

“How close do you think I should follow,” Aaron says.

“Not too close, don’t want him to be suspicious.”

“Right.”

Maddock’s car careens down the road. Aaron speeds to catch us up.

I turn the phone to speaker. “You nearby, Zach?”

“Getting there. Haven’t had much practice yet with these wings. Technically shouldn’t even be flying yet,” says Zach. “You’ve reached the rain?”

Right as Zach finishes his sentence, our windshield fills with raindrops. The pouring rain cuts our visibility in half.

I speak into the phone. “We’re headed down Gardenview, away from the city.”

“Gardenview,” Zach says. “That’s the wide road right?”

“You gotta be kidding me,” Aaron says.

Maddock swerves and changes lanes. Aaron begins to turn but quickly snaps back as a mini-van pulls up from behind and speeds past us.

“I hate manual steering,” Aaron says.

My voice shakes from the sudden lurch. “Yes, Zach, it’s the wide road. Do you see our car?”

“Are you behind the lemon colored mini-van with horrendously tacky luggage on top?”

“Sure, yes.”

“I see him.”

“Right. Just stay with him.”

“I’ll do my best,” Zach says. “The rain’s clouding my view.”

He’s not kidding. The rain pelts us so hard that Maddock’s car nearly disappears in front of us. Aaron cranks the wipers full blast. They struggle to keep up with the downpour. Thankfully, it shouldn’t be a problem to keep up with Maddock. We should be on this road for a while. There aren’t any major roads until after the next few miles of forest. Just have to stay with him.

“He turned his left signal on,” Zach says.

“Where is he going?” I wonder aloud.

“Left apparently,” Aaron says.

A small dirt road on the left winds into the woods. What could be back there?

“Hey, Zach, see anything off to your left from up there?” I ask.

“Trees. Loads of trees,” Zach says.

“I don’t know about you,” Aaron says as he yanks the steering wheel, careening us down the narrow trail. “But I’m glad we brought him along.”

We bounce around like ping pong balls as the car bumps over the unpaved path. It’s clearly not designed for Aaron’s little car.

“Great!” Aaron says. “Can’t imagine he won’t figure out something is up now. Who else goes down this road?”

Maddock takes a sudden sharp turn to the left. Aaron jerks the wheel, tossing me to the side and sending my head smack into his shoulder. I yelp in pain.

“Sorry,” Aaron says.

My eyes hurry to reclaim focus. Maddock’s car is out of sight down the winding road ahead. I scan through the hammering raindrops, but the interference from them prevents me from detecting his car. We follow the curvy path in and out of the trees, hoping we can catch up. Then the road forks.

With no time to decide, Aaron charges to the left. He slams on the accelerator but Maddock’s car has vanished. Nothing around but trees and the occasional trailer home.

“You have him, Zach?” I ask.

No answer.

“Zach?”

A horrific sound of yelling comes over the speaker, followed by the sounds of wings flapping and Zach gasping for breath. Then comes a strange noise. Quacking?

“My apologies,” Zach says, panting. “Duck flock.”

Aaron snorts as he zooms ahead, which sends my head crashing against the headrest.

“Can you stop injuring me?” I yell.

“I can’t see him,” Aaron says.

We wind through the trees. Out of nowhere, a giant wall emerges at the end of the road. It’s only a few feet in front of us. Aaron slams on the brakes, plunging me into the seatbelt. My stomach churns as the car spins like a top on the wet road. There’s a sudden lurch as Aaron wrenches the steering wheel around. The car steadies to a stop on some grass by the road.

We sit and wait for our breath and heart rates to return to normal. Beside our car, a raggedy man sleeps in front of his trailer on a flimsy lawn chair. He’s unaffected by the commotion.

A voice comes over the speakerphone and startles us back to life. “I see him! He’s—um—I’m, um—he’s in the woods somewhere.”

“That oughta narrow it down,” Aaron says.

“Wait. It’s near the compound wall. He’s slowing down as I speak.”

“We’re right by the wall too,” Aaron says. “You can come and find us and—”

“Zach, take a picture with your phone,” I say.

“A picture?” Aaron asks.

“Phones have GPS coordinates. If he takes a picture we’ll know the GPS coordinates of Maddock’s house. We can send him ours too.”

“Clever.”

We wait for Zach to find us and I watch the sky, which has begun to clear up from the downpour. It takes a few minutes for Zach to appear, his body drenched with clumps of duck feathers pitifully stuck to his clothes. He leans over towards the open window. “I don’t mean to complain, but do you suppose can ride over with you? I’m a tad drenched.”

“Get in, dumbo,” Aaron says. “We’re not going to leave you outside.”

Zach grins and slides into the back seat, which quickly becomes a pool of water. “I must say, not bad at all for my first solo flight. I think my teacher and Dad would be proud.”

Aaron gives the car the GPS coordinates from Zach’s picture and it drives towards Maddock’s house. The road winds through dense woods and we pass musty homes and abandoned vehicles.

“Hard to believe Shelly lives out here,” I say.

“It is strange,” Aaron says. “Why would Maddock want to live near the compound? Thought a big shot like him could afford better real estate.”

“I’d live out here,” Zach says. “It would be wonderful to spend the day on top of the wall watching the mutant herds.”

“Like Explorer Rob,” Aaron says. “Last episode I saw he showed this coconut crab that spouted out acid. It was three feet long! Glad there aren’t too many of those nasty things around. One thing the government did right was lifting restrictions on hunting out there.”

“I like crabs,” Zach says.

“Maybe he’s a hunter,” I say. “Would be convenient to the Mutant Forest.”

“Great idea,” Aaron says. “Then he would have big guns to aim at us.”

We zigzag through the woods until at last we arrive at a makeshift driveway dug into the grass. Maddock’s home stands about a half mile off the road. It’s rustic, but the large two-story home stands in direct contrast to the other shacks in the neighborhood. A sign reading, “No Trespassing” in red letters hangs on a steel chain-link fence.

“We can’t park here long,” Aaron says.

He’s right. With no other buildings or cars around, hanging around and waiting for something to happen would raise suspicion. I suggest searching for a place to park the car and after a few minutes, we find a hidden spot behind an abandoned trailer.

We sneak back over to Maddock’s property and find the fence line. Tapping into my sonar waves, everything in motion around me becomes clear, from dragonflies and birds to a family of deer off in the woods. I focus on Maddock’s house but can’t filter past the walls.

“We’re going to need to get closer,” I whisper. “Not picking up anything.”

As we inch nearer to the house, I continue to concentrate on the building, hoping to get a clearer image.

“How close do we need to get?” whispers Aaron.

“Not sure.”

We creep along the chain-link fence and reach the opening. We turn to each other for approval and then start down the driveway.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

We stop. The gravely driveway settles under our feet. After a deep breath to regain our bravery, we begin to tiptoe and attempt to place as little weight as possible on our feet. I find the shortest path out of the driveway and onto the grass. At this distance, the interior of the house becomes clearer.

“Follow me,” I whisper and lead Aaron and Zach over to a tree that we duck behind.

Aaron rubs his hands, his head jerking around, anxious to spot Maddock.

“Do you see him now?” he whispers.

“Yeah.” The shadowy image of a man comes into focus. “At least. I think it’s him. All I can see are shadows.”

“Is he alone?”