Forgotten (4 page)

“So you want to fade him?” Jack says. “You want to send him away and take away every memory of you?”

Hammond looks angry for a moment. “Of course I don’t
want
to, but it’s necessary. You sound just like your father.”

“You’ve already spoken to Sebastian about this?” I ask.

 “And he said no?” I ask.

“He said no,” Hammond agrees. “And Grayson’s father Richard did not have the fading machine. Which is where the three of you come in.”

“As hostages.”

Hammond shrugs. “That’s an ugly word, but I guess it’s an ugly situation. So this is what’s going to happen. You, Jack, obviously know more about all this than the other two, and I think your father is the better bet anyway, so I’m going to let you go.”

“So that I can help fade a little boy?” Jack demands. He shakes his head. “That isn’t going to happen, Hammond. What you’re suggesting… it’s wrong.”

“It’s what’s right for my son.”

Another shake of the head from Jack. “It’s what’s right for you, but trust me, I’ve been there, and there is no way that this is what is best for the boy.”

“
I
decide what’s best for my son,” Hammond snaps. He gestures to the two men with him and they hurry forward. One of them heads straight at me. I go to punch him but he manages to block the blow, driving into me and pinning me back against the wall through sheer bulk. He spins me around, wrenching one of my arms behind my back.

I want to burn him then. I want it, but I force myself to squash the feeling. I’m not killing anyone. Not here. Even if what Wilson Hammond is doing is wrong, I’m not killing him and his men just for trying to help his son. That doesn’t mean I won’t fight though. I stamp down with my foot on the shin of the man grabbing me, then try to drive my elbow back into him.

He holds tightly, and I feel something cold and metallic snap around my left wrist. He grabs my right, and too late I realize what he’s doing. He’s handcuffing me. For a moment, I start to panic, but then I realize that it isn’t a problem. I even stop fighting, letting him put the cuff on my other wrist and waiting until he lets go of me. I turn around, to see that Grayson is cuffed too, while Wilson Hammond is watching the whole thing impassively.

Then I burn.

I call up the power inside me, call to it until I can feel it blazing out through my eyes. Call to it and stare straight at Wilson Hammond so that he can see what he is dealing with, while I send that power into the handcuffs holding me. I figure that a pool of molten metal on the floor ought to persuade him that he shouldn’t be threatening us. So I drive the power in me down into that metal, waiting for it to fall from my wrists in ruins.

I keep going like that for almost a minute before I remember what happened with the walls. Before I realize that the cuffs aren’t even getting very hot, let alone melting away from my skin.

“What…” I begin, but by then it’s obvious that what I’m doing is useless, so I call the power back into me. No, not call. Drag. It’s an effort to shove it back down inside me when it hasn’t destroyed anything. An effort that leaves beads of sweat standing out on my forehead.

Hammond stares at me, not in shock, but with obvious satisfaction. “One of the research companies I own has been doing work with advanced materials. Once it became clear that we might need to snatch you, Celestra, it seemed like those would come in useful.”

Meaning that I’m trapped. Again, just the thought of that is enough to make fear spring up in me, enough that my breath comes quickly, and it’s hard to even think.

“Try to relax,” Hammond says, stepping past Jack as he starts to move to comfort me. “You aren’t in any danger right now, young lady.”

“It’s all right,” Jack says, finally reaching me. “It’s going to be fine, Celes.” He looks over at Hammond. “This is totally unnecessary.”

Hammond shakes his head. “I disagree. For one thing, I hope it shows you how serious I am about this. For another, it means that Celestra and Grayson here won’t be knocking out any more of my men. It also means that they’re able to come out of the cell when we need them to in order to allow us to study what Celestra can do.”

“Study me?” I take a step back towards the wall automatically. “I’m not a guinea pig.”

“But what you can do is fascinating,” Hammond says. “I’d like to be able to better understand it. If you’re really generating power from nowhere, it could potentially benefit a lot of people.”

“Leave Celes alone.” Jack and Grayson say that almost simultaneously. Grayson starts forward, but is dragged back by the minder who has cuffed him. Jack moves closer to Hammond.

“You want to think very carefully about what you’re doing,” Jack says. “If you know who the Underground are, and you know who the Others are, then you’ll know that you don’t want either group for enemies. Let Celes and Grayson go, and I’ll see what I can do for your son.”

Hammond shakes his head. “You’ve already shown that you aren’t interested in doing that, so we have to do things the other way. Bring me the means to alter my son’s memories, get your father to agree to help, or these two stay locked up. Help me, and they can go. I’m not interested in hurting them. If you’re in a mood to make threats though, remember this. Soon I’ll be the president of the United States, with all the resources that go with that. Trust me, son, you don’t want to go there.”

Jack stands there for several seconds. Is he calculating how to break us all out of there? Is he planning a sudden attack? No, it seems he isn’t. He nods instead.

“I’ll do what you ask.”

FIVE

H
ammond steps aside, gesturing to the door. “It’s time for you to go, Jack.”

            Jack nods. “In a second.”

            He steps over to me, putting his arms around my neck and staring into my eyes. Somehow, it always comes as a surprise to see how much he loves me in moments like that. Maybe it’s just that he keeps his emotions so shut down the rest of the time, or maybe it’s just that I can’t get the hang of anyone loving me that deeply. He leans in and kisses me sweetly, simply. Then, just for a moment or two, his lips brush my ear.

            “Don’t trust Hammond,” he whispers. “His story might have some truth in it, but there’s more going on here. I’m sure of it.”

            I can’t answer. All I can do is hold onto Jack a moment longer.

            “That’s enough,” Hammond says. “Assuming Jack here does as I’ve asked, then you’ll see one another again soon enough.”

            Jack pulls away and steps through the door to the cell ahead of Hammond. The two bodyguards follow. The instant they’re through that gap, the door slides shut again, trapping me and Grayson in that tiny, empty cell. Only now we’re both cuffed as well, which is anything but comfortable. I can’t help testing the limits of the things, so that pretty soon, my wrists start to chafe from being held like that. I sit down on the edge of the bed, trying to force myself to relax. It doesn’t work. I can’t relax in a place like this, not with what’s going on around us.

            “Jack will be back,” Grayson says, obviously seeing how worked up I’m getting.

            That makes me smile. “I never thought I’d see the day when you’d rely on Jack.”

            Grayson manages to shrug, even handcuffed. “He cares about you, Celes. I’m not going to deny that. He’ll do whatever it takes to get you to safety. Just remember that I would too.”

            That’s hard to forget, though thanks to being faded, Grayson managed it for a while. Now though, he obviously remembers everything, which doesn’t make things any easier, because I love Jack. I
love
him, more than just about anything. I can remember what I had with Grayson, and the way it ended… well, that wasn’t good, but it’s Jack my heart beats faster at the thought of, even though he isn’t here.

            “Do you think they’re just going to leave us like this?” I ask.

            Grayson shakes his head. “They can’t. Not for long, anyway. I’m more worried about what Hammond said about running tests on you.”

            “Maybe he just said that to frighten Jack.”

            “Maybe.” Grayson doesn’t look convinced. “I can’t believe this guy’s running for president and he’s still willing to do this.”

            “Whatever he’s doing, it must be a big deal,” I say.

            Grayson nods. “Jack doesn’t think he’s telling the truth, does he?”

            I shake my head. “You heard him?”

            “I heard him.”

            “What I don’t get,” I say, “is how Hammond knows so much about us. He knows about the Faders and the Others. Do you think what he said about there being secret committees that know about them is true?”

            “Probably,” Grayson says, like it makes sense. I guess it does, kind of. I can’t believe that two organizations as big as the Others and the Underground could exist without someone knowing about them, and the government would want to keep a watch on any group that large and powerful, even if it never did anything about it.

            “Of course,” Grayson says, “it could be something else.”

            “Like what?”

            “He could be connected to the Underground or the Others directly.”

            I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it makes a kind of sense. Hammond could be lying. It could all be a set-up of some kind. But if so, what is he trying to achieve. All he’s done so far is get Jack to go fetch his father. But isn’t that enough?

            “It could be the Others,” I say.

            Grayson looks at me questioningly. “Why them? Why not the Underground?”

            I try to explain, but I’m not sure it makes that much sense. “Because he only let Jack out. Why not send both of you? Your dad might not be Sebastian Cook, but he might still be able to help with fading someone. If he let you both go and kept me, wouldn’t that improve his odds of one of you coming back with the kind of help he says he wants?”

            “Maybe he thinks he needs more hostages,” Grayson suggests.

            “Or maybe it’s Sebastian that he wants,” I say.

            Grayson finally seems to get it, a look of surprise crossing his square jawed features. “You mean that this could all be about trying to capture Jack’s father again?”

            “Why not?” I say. “If the Others sent some kind of team to the farm to snatch him, but they couldn’t find him, maybe taking us was the next best thing.”

            “Or maybe it isn’t the Others at all,” Grayson points out.

            I shut my eyes for a moment. “Maybe not. I guess I just want this to be simple. It’s easier if I can blame it on the Others, I guess.”

            Grayson smiles at me like he understands. “I know. If it’s all the Others, rather than some guy just deciding to do this, then it’s easy. We beat them and it’s over. If it isn’t just them, then where does it end?”

            That’s it exactly. If I can blame this, and everything else, on just one twisted organization, then life gets easier. It means that things can be solved easily. It means that I don’t have to accept that normal people can do bad things. Like Grayson said, Hammond is meant to be running for president. If a man doing that can do something like this, then what about everyone else? No, I can’t think like that, or I’ll go crazy.