Elevated (Book 1): Elevated (13 page)

I scan the house. “Yes. I don’t see Shelly or her mom anywhere.”

“What’s Maddock doing?” Zach asks quietly.

“Sitting on a sofa,” I whisper.

Aaron keeps fidgeting, his body trembling against the tree. “I’m still not sure what we are supposed to be watching for.”

“Any sign of—he’s getting up.” I watch as the shadow moves out of the living room, into a room in the back and out of sight. “I’ve lost him.”

As the evening wears on, I surmise from the short duration and length of trips into that room that it must be the bathroom. At least, I assume so, since I don’t apply special concentration to make sure. The next few hours drag. I watch Maddock sit on the couch for an hour, then microwave a frozen meal for dinner, then talk to someone on the phone. Zach and Aaron continue to stare at me nervously, depending on my play-by-play of his mundane life. It’s awkward. A few times, I’m tempted to tell them he pulled out a large elephant gun, but that would be too cruel.

“He’s getting back up off the couch.” The shadow moves towards the room closest to us, which I’ve determined from the furniture to be the bedroom. “Guess he’s getting ready for bed.”

Aaron snickers. “At eight o’clock? Must be an old dude. What’s he doing now?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “He started to get undressed and, well, I’m not going to watch that.”

Aaron and Zach smirk. I give him a few moments to change before concentrating again on the room. But he’s gone. I search the bedroom, the living room, what I can see of the kitchen. Nowhere.

A sudden door slam makes us jump. We peak around the tree to see Maddock moving from the side of the house towards his car. Aaron begins to open his mouth, but I shut it with my hand. “Shhh, he can’t see us behind this tree.”

He gives me a “I can’t believe you got me into this mess” glare as the car starts. The headlights illuminate the tree, sending us into the shadows. We watch the shadow stretch as the car crackles down the noisy driveway and onto the winding forest road.

Aaron starts to move around the tree and Zach pulls him back. “I’d suggest waiting. Maybe he forgot his wallet. I often do.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Aaron says.

After a few minutes, we decide it’s safe and head towards the house.

“Maybe he didn’t lock the front door,” I suggest.

“Really?” Zach says.

“It’s pretty quiet out here. Might not see a reason.”

It only takes a moment and a locked front door to blow a hole in that theory. Closer in, I get a better view of the inside of the house. The back room is definitely the bathroom. I try to find any objects or anything that could provide us with information on my Dad. All I can tell is that the couch is leather and most of the other furniture is wood. We need an opening, a breach somewhere. I try scanning the windows to locate an unlocked switch.

“Where did Zach go?” Aaron asks.

We search the front yard and can’t find him anywhere. Finally, Aaron points up. Zach stands on the roof of the house, peering down the chimney.

Aaron taps my shoulder. “He’s not going to—”

Zach shakes his head. “Nope, contrary to the myths, not nearly wide enough. But it was worth a try.”

Aaron chuckles, but my attention is on the second story balcony on Zach’s left. I point to it and suggest he tries the doors there. They open. Zach goes inside and within a few minutes, he’s opened the front door to let us inside.

My assumption of Maddock being a hunter proved right. Heads from mutant animals line the wooden walls, which perfume the room with the scent of oak. We step lightly inside, as if the ground were made of glass. Once we venture further, our tiny steps give way to normal strides. The three of us search the room for anything we can find: files, documents, anything of interest. Aaron picks a piece of paper up off the floor.

“This is interesting,” he says as he reads it. “List of GEMO violators from last month. Didn’t realize so many people used the black market.”

“Dangerous,” says Zach. “Had an aunt that died that way.”

I grab it from him and put it back on the table. “Put it down. We can’t move anything. Can’t let him know we were here.”

Zach gestures at the ground. “You two should have wiped your feet then.”

To my horror, our footprints tracked mud in a scattered pattern across the living room carpet. I grab Aaron’s shoulders to stop him from going further. “Take off your shoes now. We can’t afford to make any more prints.”

Aaron removes his shoes and glances down at the carpet. “Well—uh—what do we do with these then?”

“We’re going to have to clean them up.” I search for something to wipe them away with. Then I realize that anything we get dirty would also be a sign of us breaking into the house.

“I’ve got it, take off your shirt.”

Aaron jerked. “What?”

“Take off your shirt. I can wipe it off with that.”

“Why does it have to be my shirt?”

“Because I’m not taking mine off,” I say.

“I’ll do it,” says Zach.

He starts to remove his shirt, revealing his toned body, when Aaron pulls it back down. “That’s ok. That won’t be necessary.”

Aaron removes his shirt, scowling at me. Sometimes I don’t know why I’m friends with him.

 With his shirt in hand, we start wiping up the prints. Thankfully, they’re fresh and come off easily enough. The parts we can’t remove blend in with the already dirty floor anyway. Maddock probably didn’t wipe his feet much after his hunting trips.

We continue to search his house and continue to come up empty. However, we learn about the unusual taste that Shelly’s family has in home décor, which ranges from a collection of kitschy porcelain zebra figurines to a terrifying sword collection.

Finally, we find an office. My hope of finding a file or something dissolves when I discover he has equal organizational skills as Jex. Stacks of papers are scattered around. I browse through some quickly, snapping photos when I can.

“Look at this,” Aaron says, holding a piece of paper. “Investigation on the death of Jason Wesson. Must be part of the cover-up job. Everyone knows the government murdered him.”

Jason Wesson is credited with the discovery of GEMO technology. The government’s story behind Jason’s disappearance is that a scientific experiment went awry and created a gigantic explosion. It so devastated the remains of his home that finding any sort of identifiable evidence was impossible. Without any concrete information to go on, rumors and debate continue to this day. Some believe he’s still alive.

An unexpected voice sounds in my ear.

“I’m quite sure he was murdered too,” whispers Zach.

“Why do you say that?” I ask.

“He taught my dad at school. My dad said he was the kind who dines on raw eggs for breakfast and never dresses beyond the usual male color palette. If you look at pictures of the incident, you can see fragments of a teddy bear with purple polka dots. He lived all alone, so I can’t imagine a reason why it would be in his home.”

I smirk.

“And you think the murderer dropped a teddy bear?” he asks.

“No, that’s ridiculous.”

“Of course.”

“No, clearly the government must have sent an explosive device disguised inside the teddy bear.”

I’m speechless. I’ve heard some out-there theories before, but a teddy bear as a murder weapon?

“So I make a point never to receive a stuffed animal from anyone. One can’t be too careful.”

“Right.”

We keep searching papers, but there is nothing about my father.

“Maybe there’s something on his computer,” Zach says as he goes over to the desk.

“Not sure if you should do that,” comes a voice from behind us.

We turn to see Shelly standing in the doorway.

Aaron punches my arm. “You couldn’t have noticed that?”

“I was focused on the paper,” I say.

Shelly crosses her arms. “What are you doing here?”

“Your dad wrote the file for my dad and made him an Unsound.”

Shelly covers her mouth in shock, then shakes her head. “If you’re trying to find out anything about GEMO, you won’t. I’ve searched his office before.”

I nod.

“You’ve got to go before—don’t do that!”

An alarm blares through the house. Zach jumps away from the desk.

I turn towards Zach. “What did you do?”

Zach trembles. “Just turned on the computer. Sorry.”

“Get out of here!” Shelly yells. “That alarm is synced with Dad’s phone!”

We dash down the stairs. I stumble on the bottom step and squash Zach’s foot. His wings fly open knock over a zebra statue, which smashes into a million pieces. We keep running. In seconds, we’re at the front door and on the lawn.

“Maybe you should fly,” I say as best as I can through my huffing and puffing.

“Can’t, don’t remember where we parked,” Zach responds.

“Thankfully I do!” Aaron yells.

We hustle into the car and he cranks the key.

“Come on, Julie, start baby!” he begs.

The car sputters for a bit. Aaron breathes a deep sigh, and then bangs on the wheel. It starts.

“I’ll have to remember that trick,” Aaron says.

He pulls the car out and onto the main road. We swerve through the woods at a blinding rate. I hold tightly to the door to prevent being thrown out of my seat as Aaron turns to take us back to Gardenview. Speeding down the main road, there’s a sense of calm. We made it out without getting caught.

Red and blue lights flash against the rear view mirror. It’s the police. Did his alarm send a signal for them to wait for us? We look like burglars. What excuse could we possibly have for breaking into Maddock’s home?

Aaron doesn’t say anything to me. He shakes his head with a scowl. Zach starts tearing up in the back seat. A twinge of guilt hits me for putting them in this situation.

The policeman taps the window and Aaron lowers it. His voice booms like it’s the voice of God come to punish us. “Good evening, boys. In a hurry?”

Aaron can hardly speak. “Yes, well no, well, we wanted to get home.”

“I see,” the policeman says. “I’ve seen this before. Boys going out for a joy ride. Macho rite of passage. Trying to impress your girlfriend there?”

He points at me and I try to bury myself in the seat.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Aaron says. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

“You switched it to manual and drove 20 miles over the speed limit. Come on, you know what you were doing.”

There’s a loud hum as Maddock’s car comes racing towards us on the other side of the road.

Please don’t stop, please don’t stop.

He zips past us.

The officer grumbles. “People tonight. This road isn’t a drag strip.”

The whole situation has me on edge. I wipe a bead of sweat from my face. Zach is bawling in the back seat.

“I really should write you a ticket,” he says.

“Yes sir,” Aaron says.

“However,” the officer says, adjusting his belt. “I’m feeling generous tonight. But don’t let me catch you again.”

Zach leans forward, his tears streaming from his eyes like fountains. “We are forever in your debt, kind sir.”

The officer suppresses a laugh, then walks away. Aaron rolls up the window. Thankfully, Julie cranks up on the first try and we start driving again. We’re a mile down the road when I see him crack a smile, which then turns into a snicker. “Next time, Rose, let’s go in with a better plan.”

Next time? I guess there will have to be a next time. We didn’t find out much. After the risk and nearly getting in huge trouble, we came out empty, except for a few photos on my phone. Maybe Jex will find them helpful.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

I sit at my desk, and wait for a text from Jex to let me know he found something in the pictures. Nothing yet. Today we begin our preparation for the Standard Knowledge Test, or SKT. It’s what the good universities use to determine if you have the intelligence to be a part of their school. Elevateds want to get a good score too, although some rare powers make it easy to get into their programs. Having a brain-related ability makes the test even more difficult. Those Elevateds are required to take specialized tests, as their scores would otherwise be off the charts. But just because your brain processes information quickly doesn’t mean you know how to use it.

“Before we begin,” says Miss Laura. “I have an announcement to make. Today we will be joined by fellow classmates from the Undetermined group.”

Aaron leans over. “Lessers.”

I smack his arm. He knows I hate that term.

“These students do not know their ability, and some may not develop one. So, I ask that each of you behave courteously towards them. Alright?”

The class voices their agreement. Miss Laura leaves the room and after a few minutes, returns with a group of students. I notice Lillia enter and I wave her over. Her face lights up and she takes the seat next to mine.

“Nice to see you here,” I say and I immediately kick myself. Stupid. Here she is, unaware of her ability or what it could be. Of course it’s not nice to be here.

She gives a worn out sigh. “Glad to be here too. It was getting depressing in the other class.”

I can only imagine. Sitting there watching others develop powers while you can’t get anywhere had to be incredibly frustrating.

***

It’s the end of the day and I still haven’t received a message from Jex. Any hope of receiving information is disappearing by the second.

Class ends and we head out to the hallway. Shelly stands by the door, as if waiting for us to tell her something. Aaron storms past her as if she doesn’t exist. I just give a shake of my head. She nods sadly and exits the room behind us. I should be grateful she didn’t rat us out to her father, but I don’t like feeling like I owe her something now.

Lillia gently tugs on my arm. “Is she still upset about being a Flier?”

I explain what I can, minus the breaking into her house part.

“I’ve decided that I can’t worry,” Lillia says. “I don’t know what I have, but I know it’s not important.”

I put my arm around her shoulder. “You don’t know that. Some great powers develop later. Like, you could be a Regenerator, or maybe a Resilient. They don’t test for that. I mean, how could they? Can’t exactly set you on fire and see if you don’t burn.”