Kinetics (23 page)

Jack knelt down and scooped up the dead
body with no effort. 

My father opened the door next the where
the body lay.  Inside the room slept Isabella.  I could see the sadness and the
age in my father that he was going to have to let us go.

The world began to shake.

I could feel myself losing the dream.

I still didn’t know anything.

~//~

My eyes burst opened and I was
surrounded by flames.  Not my hottest but they were hot.  I made them vanish. 
I saw Alice standing outside of the large spinning ring taking notes on her
tablet.

“What happened?” I pushed myself up on
the chair and watched the ring slow.

“You have been out for about three hours
and about a quarter of the way in, you burst into flames.” She said helping me
out of the machine, she handed me a robe.

“What exactly was the large ring for?”

“It is a magnetic restrictor to keep you
from sleep walking.  It also projects an electromagnetic shield, that
thankfully held your flames; much hotter though and you would have melted
everything.” She showed me a place on the edge of the ring that had begun to
melt.

“I wonder why I did that.  None of the
dreams threatened me.” I scratched my head.

“What did you see?” Alice asked.

“A few things, first a little girl
running through rubble… Then a young me being scolded for saying something mean
to my mother while she was pregnant with Isabella.  The next was my father
having an argument with James Scott, that raises more questions, and sending me
to my room, but he called me Isabella.  The last memory was my father and
someone named Jack finding a dead body in the hallway outside of Isabella’s
bedroom.” I explained leaning on the nearest wall.

“There is no way to be sure that what
you saw was even the right thing to be looking for and on top of that, you
don’t know if what you are looking for is in your memories to begin with.”
Alice said inspiring great confidence.

“I guess it won’t hurt to try based on
what I’ve seen.” I left the room.

Everything seemed newer then it had in
the dreams.

I went to my father’s office to try and
log into his computer.

Dark clouds had covered the sky so that
when I entered the office it was pitch black.  The light flickered on as I
walked across the room to the desk at the back.

I sat down in front of the computer.  I
didn’t even know how to turn it on.  I reached up and wiped the layer of dust
off the monitor.  A blue box appeared in the center of the screen.  It read
please
speak password
, with a line flashing at the end.

“Isabella Ward.” I said crossing my
fingers.

Sorry incorrect… Try again

“Isabella Madison.” I tried.

Sorry incorrect… Try again… twenty-four
hour lock out pending

“Isabella.” I reduced to gripping at
straws.

Commencing orientation, please wait
while holographic projectors are calibrated.

I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned
back in the chair.  I was exhausted, but I didn’t want to stop and go to bed
just yet.

When the holographic projectors were
warm, they began to build line by line a perfect replica of my father before my
eyes.  I stood up from the desk and walked around to the front to look at the
perfect recreation of my father.

“Grace.” He smiled clapping his hands
together.

“You know who I am?” I asked.

“Of course I know who you are.  My
programming is based on recorded memory algorithms from your father.  So in
essence I am your father.” He said lacing his fingers and letting his hands
fall very life like.

“Well…Um…” I said stammering.

“I guess I should speak first.” He
chuckled.

“I just didn’t expect to see my father.”
I said leaning back on the desk and rubbing my eyes.

“Your father worked for a long time to
perfect my programming.  He knew that you would come here, and deduce the
password from those memories.” He said.  His smile and movements were very life
like.

“How did he know what memories I would
see?” I asked.

“He put a trigger in your memory that
would set off those memories if you went looking for them.  Some were real,
some belonged to other people.  I’ll bet you are wondering why the password was
Isabella
?”

I nodded but didn’t say anything.  I
didn’t know what to say.

“Your father wanted you to find your
sister.  Just like if she were to have been the one who came here first.  She
was to look for you.

Now...  Here are the ground rules, young
lady.  First: You are allowed to access the entire knowledge base left behind
by your father, except for these fourteen files.” He held out his hand and
light blue representations of the forbidden files hover just over his palm.

“Why are they off limits?”

“These are files of things that your
father wishes that he had never been a part of, or contain information that is
not relevant to our current situation.  I wish you to be free of them unless
for some reason you are forced to be involved.  If you ask the right question
they will be unlocked.” He explained, closing his fist making the files vanish.

“Fair enough, what other rules are
there?”

“The only other thing is, your father
would like you to continue his work, however, that is more of a request, not a
rule.”

“Ok then, down to business.  I need to
know if there is any way with any of my father’s many inventions to track a
kinetic user.” I said pacing around the room.

“Ah yes, the AdvaGen satellite system is
equipped with a kinetic brain wave detection component that can do what you
ask.  That is, if you have a profile of the user you wish to find.” He said,
showing me an image of dozens of satellites orbiting the planet. 

I bit my thumb nail and paced around the
room.  I didn’t have a profile for Ryder or Vanish.  I tried to call any of the
numbers in my phone to contact the Last Line, but all of the numbers were busy.

“What about an exact time and place that
an occurrence happened on a pretty large scale.” I asked, turning back to look
at the hologram that was doing nothing but watching me as I processed the
information.

“As long as the usage was in the tier
two range or higher and it was within the last ten days.”

I pulled out my phone and got the GPS
location and the time that I called Sam to ask him to send Vanish.  “At eight
o’clock PM three days ago, near these coordinates,” I showed him the phone, “A
teleporter used her abilities.  She was injured and she had another injured
person with her.  They didn’t reappear where they were supposed to.

“I will get you the most recent location
that this ability was used.  It will take roughly two hours.  You should go and
get some rest.” He patted my head and I could almost feel his hand but it was
only wishful thinking.

I left the office and as soon as the
door shut my stomach growled like a lion.  I followed the hallway to the
kitchen.  I started to go through the fridge.

“Would you like me to cook you
something?” Alrick asked entering the room from the deck out behind the house.

“I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”
I said, but my stomach interrupted me.

“Grace you must get something straight. 
I am here to take care of you and your family.  I take great pride in caring
for the bunch of you.  It is a difficult task at times but things like cooking
are never any trouble.” He pushed me out from the fridge. 

“How can you have pride in things?” I
asked.

“I am a caretaker not an engineer.  You
should direct questions such as those to Chuck; he would know the answers
before I would.  Go and wait on the deck, it is a beautiful day and you need to
relax for a while.” He pointed to the deck.

I held up my hands in mock surrender. 
Then I turned and left the kitchen.

I went out onto the deck and sat down in
one of the chairs.  I had a great view of the lake and the woods.  To my left I
could see the mountain and a glint at the top, the observatory.

I laid my head back and closed my eyes
for a moment.

~//~

“Grace, Grace.” Someone said softly
shaking my shoulder.  I jumped slightly and opened my eyes.

“What is it?” I asked slowly remembering
where I was sitting.

“Your dinner is served.” Alrick said
pointing to the two plates of food sitting on the table in front of me. 

“How long did I sleep?” I asked picking
up a fork.  I took a bite of the food and tried to contain myself as I chewed. 
It was the best steak that I had ever eaten.

“You slept for about an hour.  I take it
that the food is good.” He smiled with pride.

“It’s so good.” I was all but shoveling
the food into my mouth.

~//~

I returned to my father’s office when I
was finished with my meal.  The room was empty but shortly after the door shut,
he rematerialized in the center of the room.

“I hope that you got some rest like I
suggested.” The hologram said with a stern look.

“I got a few moments of shut-eye.  Did
you find anything?” I asked becoming impatient.

“Sorry, yes I did find something.” A map
appeared in the air between us. “With the coordinates and the time that you
gave me, I was able to generate a rough profile on the Kinetic in question. 
When you told me that the person was a teleporter, I assumed that there would
be another identical spike at the same time, but it didn’t.” he showed me the
spike when she disappeared.

“So they just disappeared?”

“For almost three hours they were not in
this plain of existence.  Take that at its face value, I have no clue where
they were.  When they did reappear it was several hundred miles away in the
dead center of a crowded intersection.”  He moved the map to the second spike.

“Are they alright?” I asked.

“Through some not so public channels I
was able to secure a police report.  A nearby police officer responded to two
unconscious people, one with a gunshot wound.  He took them to the hospital
where they are undergoing treatment and under twenty four hour police watch. 
At least until they get more information.”

“I need an address.”

“I assumed you would. It’s in the
printer.” He pointed to a freshly printed piece of paper.

I grabbed the page out of the printer
and left the office.  I needed to find a way to get from Eastcroft to a small
town south-east of Mankato, Minnesota where Ryder and Vanish had reappeared.  I
wasn’t exactly a legal driver and I wasn’t sure how a run in with the police
would end.

I contemplated going back to see if Sam
had some one that could drive me, but that whole place was still locked down
from the last mission.  Going there would only mean complications and wasted
time. 

I took out my phone and went to the map
app.  I entered the city of Mankato as my destination just to see how long the
drive would be from my current location.  It calculated for a few seconds and
returned eighteen hours give or take. 

I went down to see Chuck who I figured
would be the best person to ask about travel plans.  I returned to the garage
where I assumed he would still be working on the vehicles.  He had pulled
Ryder’s car into the garage and started to disassemble the thing.

“Chuck!” I yelled walking into the open
door. 

“Under the car.”

I walked around to the front side of the
car where his legs stuck out from underneath.   

I knelt down beside him, “Hey, got a
minute?  I need your help.”

“What do you need?” He slid out from
under the truck.  He stood up and wiped grease from his hands with a rag he had
hanging from his pocket.

“I have to go to Mankato, Minnesota. 
It’s an eighteen hour drive from here.  I was wondering if there were any toys
down here that could shorten that trip.” I followed him as he carried a part
from Ryder’s car to his work bench.

“Land or air?” he looked up from a part
that he was cleaning.

“Whatever is faster and can be used to
transport at least two extra people back.”

“There is a small aircraft that your
father was working on.  It was supposed to be a “behind enemy lines drop craft”
but he was never able to complete the stealth package.  It’s fast, flies, and
is very reliable.”

“I don’t think that we will need any
stealth.”

He walked away from the workbench towards
the back of the garage.  I followed him past the many cars lined up along the
walls.  A small camera scanned his face.  He then held up his hand.  The camera
then moved over to me.  I did the same as he’d done.