Elevated (Book 1): Elevated (20 page)

Zach is up next, and my lungs tighten as he takes his position. He jumps off and maneuvers through the hoops like an expert. He careens around the obstacles and when the fans turn on, it only takes a slight adjustment. The crowd cheers. He soars forward and towards his final test, the height test. I grip the cold metal bleachers. His wings flap, taking him upwards. He goes higher and higher, but then glances at the ground. His wings freeze and his body goes limp.

“No, Zach!” I scream as he plummets like a rock.

“Zach!” Shelly screams next to me.

“You can do it!” I yell.

The audience around me is chuckling. “Some Flier, he can’t even fly up!” says an obnoxious boy near me.

Zach rights himself and starts upwards again.

“You can do it!” I yell.

“He’ll fall again, that chicken is afraid of heights,” the obnoxious boy says.

I stare down at him. “That chicken has more bravery that you can imagine.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Why don’t you let me watch your Elevated test, and then we’ll talk.”

The boy shuts up. Before I tilt my head back at the sky, I catch a glimpse of Shelly. She smiles at me.

Zach continues upwards. He’s getting close, just a few feet to go. The crowd is on his side now. He reaches the top and snatches the flag, before soaring down like an attacking eagle. I wipe a tear from my eye.

Zach is a registered Flier. And no one deserves it more.

***

Recovering from the excitement of the test, my thoughts turn back to the plan for tonight. I’m starting to get the idea that there is no turning back. Even once we find Dad, I don’t know what we can do. Rescuing him will be near impossible.

Of course, that’s assuming he’s still alive.

Then there’s the matter of the team. Jex says I need two other people. Aaron is in for sure, but it’s hard for me to ask anyone else. Elliott has already has enough to worry about, trying to stay under the radar. Zach deserves to have a normal life. I don’t even want to think about inviting Shelly.

“Maybe Jex can work his plan with just the two of us,” Aaron says as we walk through the hallways after class.

“Work what plan?” Shelly asks.

A surge of heat boils up through me like a volcano.

“We’ve got to stop having these discussions in the hallway,” Aaron says.

I turn towards her. “Shelly, you can’t.”

She laughs. Ugh, that laugh. “Like I would want to join you. Oh no, you’ve given me enough fun for a while.”

It takes effort, but I keep my eyes from rolling. Trying to focus on anything other than Shelly, I look down the hallway and am thrilled to see Zach marching toward us. His wings drift behind him and his face drips with sweat.

“You were great today,” I say.

“Thanks. I heard you up there, you know.”

My face feels flush.

“And, of course, I heard you,” he says, turning towards Shelly. “You gave me that extra boost I needed, dear.”

Dear? How serious did they get?

“I see you’re having a hallway meeting. What’s up?” he asks.

Aaron laughs. “We’re planning a secret break-in.”

“I’m not quite sure why you thought this would be a good location for this sort of conversation,” Zach says.

“No kidding,” Aaron says.

“You know that I’m in,” he says.

“Zach, you can’t be serious,” Shelly says. “You know what they are going to do.”

“Her dad needs help. It’s not her fault.”

“Then I’m coming too,” she says.

I shake my head. “Absolutely not.”

“You don’t have a choice. Or should I call Pops and tell him of your little plan?”

“Why do you want to go?” Aaron asks.

“What,” Shelly says, “a gal can’t want to help a friend out?”

Aaron snorts. I know exactly why she wants to go, and that’s because she’s afraid of letting Zach out of her sight. As if I would try to steal him away from her or something.

A buzz comes from my phone. It’s Elliott. Answering it, I notice his voice sounds rather worried.

 “Hey Rose, I’m sorry I walked out last night. Is everything ok?”

 “Everything is fine.”

 “I was wondering if you’d like to go take a stroll through Fowler’s Grove tonight.”

 “Sorry, I’m a little busy at the moment.”

 “What’s going on?”

 “I—uh—well—Zach, can you watch your wings!” I say as Zach smacks me in the head.

 “Zach?”

 “Yeah. He just smacked me.”

 Elliott’s voice drops. “I see. Have a good time with him.”

 “No Elliott, it’s just Aaron, me and Zach are going to hang out.”

 “Hang out? Really? Rose, what are you doing?”

 “Ok, so we’re actually going to break into the GEMO Control Center.”

 There’s a pause on the other end. Then his voice returns, strong and loud. “I’m coming too.”

 “No, it’s too dangerous. You need to lay low.”

 “And you don’t?”

 “It’s different, I have to find my dad.”

 “And I want to help.”

 “Fine. I’ll text you the directions.”

 I hang up the phone, and look around at my friends. And Shelly. It’s time to get things started.

***

“Can you take off this blindfold now?” Shelly asks from the back seat. I nod to Zach, who removes it.

We had to blindfold Shelly and leave her in the car when we spoke with Jex. The last thing we need is for her to tell her father where Jex lives. And the less she knows of our plan, the better.

Elliott holds the badge given to me by Jex. It has the name Wendy Silvers but my picture on it. “I’m still confused,” he says. “How could an ex-employee ID card still work?”

“Eh, the government is slow at updating things, “Aaron says.

“That’s not true,” Shelly says. “My uncle got in huge trouble when he tried to use his badge after getting fired. And that was the next day. He claimed he was coming in to get some knickknacks from his office.”

“Maybe Jex is setting us up,” Elliott says.

Aaron turns in his seat to face Elliott. “Jex wouldn’t set us up.”

“He has yet to lead us astray before,” Zach says. “There is no need to question him now.”

“We have to go on faith,” I say, clutching onto the ID card. He would have checked the card to see if it was still active for sure. He had to know it would work.

No one has asked my biggest question. How did Jex get the card in the first place? If he could have gotten it this whole time, why didn’t he hand it to me a few weeks ago?

Jex couldn’t be working for the government, it doesn’t make sense. Unless for some reason he’s holding out for some big reward. Undocumented mutants do fetch a nice sum, and I can only imagine the amount of money he’d receive for discovering Elliott.

No, he would have turned us in a long time ago if that were the case. We have to press forward and hope for the best. I bring up a picture of my dad and me on my phone. He stands there beaming, holding me in his arms. A teddy bear with lavender polka dots is in my hands. Funny, I can’t remember what happened to that stuffed animal.

“That’s the bear,” Zach says from behind me, peeking over my shoulder at the picture. “The bear at Jason Wesson’s house, with purple polka dots!”

I shake my head. “Doubt it’s the only bear with purple polka dots.”

“No, but…” Zach pulls out his phone and after pressing a few buttons, brings up a picture of the teddy bear in rubble. It’s identical to the one in the picture. He points at the foot. “Not too many have a big “R” written on their foot, do they?”

I take back my picture and my mouth falls open as I see the ‘R’ on the teddy bear’s foot. Aaron, Elliott and Shelly lean over for a better view.

“What was your bear doing at Jason Wesson’s house?” Aaron asks.

“Don’t know. From the e-mails, it seems my dad had some sort of theory about GEMO radiation,” I say. “Maybe he went over to visit.”

“And took your bear?” Shelly asks.

“Maybe we both went over to visit.”

“Or he could have had something to do with the explosion,” Aaron says.

Everyone stares at him.

Aaron shrugs his shoulders. “What? It’s possible.”

No one responds. Anything is possible. Mom never told me anything about Dad talking to Jason Wesson. I shudder as I wonder if my dad had something to do with Jason Wesson’s disappearance. Maybe the government got rid of him so the secret wouldn’t get out. I shake it off. My dad wouldn’t do anything like that. Somehow, I can feel it.  

***

Reaching the center, we go over our plan one more time before leaving the car. Each step as we take is a step closer to danger. 

I  pull up on the dress that threatens to fall off me. Shelly’s one suggestion for this plan is that I dress up. With sunglasses and a professional appearance, my height could allow me to pass for an adult. The problem is Shelly’s idea of office attire teeters right on the edge of taste. Here I am, about to sneak into an office, and I haven’t ever felt so exposed in my life. Steps away from the building, Zach splits off. Taking a deep breath, I head inside.

“I’m with you,” whispers Shelly behind me.

This is not the plan. Shelly should have waited in the car. Too late to argue now.

I reach the security gate and swipe the card. There’s a loud beep, and my mind races to remember if it beeped like that when our tour guide walked through last time. Thankfully, the gate opens and we start to enter when the receptionist yells over at us.

“I don’t recognize you, Ma’am. Who gave you access?” she asks.

I start to open my mouth, but Shelly speaks before I have a chance.

“My dad. My friends and I have a book report I have to do on the center, and he said I could come and take some pictures. Miss Crystal is from my school and she’s my chaperone,” she says in a childlike voice that scrapes against my eardrums.

“Very well, but don’t touch anything,” she says.

Shelly gives me an obnoxious wink, and we enter. I hate owing Shelly anything, and now she’s bailed me out of trouble twice.

We make our way to the elevators. Shelly reaches for the button.

“Not yet,” I say. “We need to wait for Aaron’s signal.”

“How are we going to know?” Shelly asks.

Less than a minute later, a huge crash thunders through the atrium. The teeth of a Tyrannosaurus rex fill the augmented windows. Crowds of employees scuttle out to investigate the commotion, pointing and laughing at the comically large dinosaur.

“Jex isn’t exactly subtle, is he?” Elliott says, pushing the elevator button.

We step in and travel to the fourth floor. If everything goes to plan, we have about two minutes. The elevator doors open, and Jex’s window show has changed from a dinosaur to piles of cheese puffs raining from the sky. The employees go wild. Shelly and I sneak our way behind them and hide in the narrow hallway by the GEMO Control Wing.

It should be about time now.

Right on cue, a security guard runs past us and I can hear over his radio that an unknown Flier has landed on the roof, tripping the alarm. Two distractions down, one to go. It’s a good thing too, because the audience is beginning to get bored of Jex’s crazy window antics.

BZZZZZ!

The crowd covers their ears from the ear splitting sound of the fire alarm. Based on Jex’s calculations, we have about ten minutes before the fire department gets here. When the floor has cleared, we enter the GEMO Control Wing and make our way to Maddock’s office. Wasting no time, I pull up the e-mail that I hope holds the answers.It is my difficult responsibility to report that, on the eve of Jason Wesson’s tragic accident, another one has arisen.As I read the words again, I remember what Aaron said in the car. Could my dad have been involved with the accident?

Adam’s experiment unfortunately backfired. The result being Adam has been compromised and will now be classified as an Unsound. I’ve taken it upon myself to bring him into custody and he will remain sequestered at Sapphire Ward.I remember an article I read by Jex about Sapphire Ward. It made it sound like dank dungeon where Unsounds were unsupervised and murdered each other. My body shudders thinking of Dad having to spend his life there.

“Sapphire Ward,” Shelly says. “Makes sense. It’s been closed for years. It’s out beyond the compound wall.”

“Right near Maddock’s house,” I say.

“In the middle of the mutant forest.”

We both look at each other. Shelly breaks the silence.

“There’s no way I’m going in there,” she says. “You can have your fun.”

“You’re in this now,” I say.

“What are you going to do, kidnap me?” Shelly asks.

A vibration in my pocket startles me. It’s Zach.

“I can see the fire truck heading this way,” he says over the phone. “Must have been nearby or something. Everyone is congregating in the front.”

My heart leaps out of my chest. As soon as they get here, they’ll check the status of people in the building based on their ID swipes. And then they’ll know I’m still in the building.   

The three of us head out through the hallway and to the elevators before remembering that the elevators deactivate during a fire alarm. We find the five flights of stairs and race down them. We almost crash into Aaron running from the other direction. He gestures for us to quiet down.

“We’ve got a problem,” he whispers. “There are still some people down here. We’ll be caught for sure.”

“Follow my lead,” I whisper and lean next to the door.

I scan the atrium and after a minute of no activity, I decide the coast is clear. Turning, I open up the window without a second thought.

“What are you doing?” Aaron whispers. “There are people out there.”

“We’re fine,” I say, pointing to the empty atrium. “We need to head out the back.”

As we run towards the fire exits, I keep scanning the room. I see a man in an adjacent hallway with a ladder. He’s heading in our direction.

“Get down!” I crouch down behind one of the statues and the others follow.

He’s in the atrium now and keeps rotating his head. Probably a maintenance guy confused on where to find the exit. He cocks his head to the left and the right, then he stares at the statue we’re behind. He heads towards us. Then a woman meets him, and leads him in the right direction, out of the building.