Nightrise (11 page)

"Reading minds wasn't the only thing we could do," he said.

The Accident. Alicia remembered he had mentioned it when he began talking. She guessed that he was coming to it now.

"After Salt Lake, we were moved back to Nevada, to Carson City. We were fostered by a couple named Ed and Leanne. Ed worked in a local hospital. He did maintenance. Leanne didn't do anything.

"We were still going to school at that time. We were ten years old. And we still didn't fit in. We were flunking most of our classes. Anyway, there was a big kid at the school. His name was Ray Cavalli and he used to pick on us all the time. Everyone was scared of him because he threw his weight around and nobody would go to the teachers because they didn't want to tattle. Anyway, I got into a fight with Cavalli and he was really beating me and of course Scott knew what was happening as soon as it started and suddenly he was there. And he came between us and I'll never forget the look in his eyes. He just looked straight at Cavalli and told him to get lost.

"And you know what happened? Cavalli stepped back like he was dazed and didn't understand what was going on. And then he just sort of walked…stumbled out of the school and kept going.

"It took the police two days to find him and he nearly died. He'd walked into the desert and became totally lost. This was the summer and it can easily get into the hundreds out there and he had no water.

When they found him, he had no idea where he was or how he'd got there. Anyway, that was about it. I heard he got better in the end and the family moved to another state. I never saw him again."

'You think the two of you were responsible?"

"I know we were. You want to hear the rest of it?"

Alicia nodded. Jamie took another sip of Coke.

"Ed and Leanne weren't too bad. We liked Carson City. We used to see bald eagles and hawks in the summer. It was okay. But trouble always followed us around. And this time it was my fault. There was this teacher, Mr. Dempster, and he used to pick on us. Maybe Scott and I knew a bit too much about him. Maybe he guessed that somehow. Anyway, he was always putting us in detention and stuff like that, and one day I decided to get back at him and slashed the tires on his car. He had this Beetle and he was so proud of it. It was a dumb thing to do, and the worst thing was…I got caught.

"I never thought the whole thing would get so out of hand, but the next thing I knew, I was under arrest and I

had a probation officer and suddenly I was in front of a judge — and the upshot of it was, what Ed had always been saying came true."

'You were sent to jail?"

"I was sent to a juvenile hall…just for a couple of weeks. The judge said it would be a wake-up call. I ended up in a place just outside Reno. I was also told I'd have to work after school hours to pay back the cost of the tires."

He drank again. The sun was dipping behind the other houses. The shadows stretched across the patio, and suddenly the air was filled with the smell of flowers. Somewhere in the distance, an ambulance screamed its way along the boulevards.

"Juvie wasn't too bad," Jamie went on. "It was clean and the food was okay and I actually got on with the other kids. It was just boring, mainly. The worst thing was when I got home again. Scott was waiting for me and I thought he'd be happy to see me — but he wasn't. He was furious. He said what I'd done was stupid. He said things were bad for us already and I'd just made them worse.

"And he was right. After I got back, things were never the same with Ed and Leanne. They were having problems anyway. They were always fighting…shouting at each other. But now they decided that Scott and I were just in the way and that they should never have taken us in to begin with. Ed had started drinking. Vodka, mainly. He'd get through half a bottle a night, easily. About a month after I got back, he had an argument with Scott and hit him. That was the first time he ever did that. And the power was still working — the link between us — because I was the one who got the bruise even though I wasn't even in the room at the time.

"And at the same time, Derry — our caseworker — got sick. She'd been looking out for us right from the start, but now she couldn't work anymore and all her files were farmed out. She wrote to us, but I never saw her again and I never saw anyone else either. They couldn't handle the number of cases they were already dealing with, and they figured Scott and I were okay, so they just let us go. They probably think we're still with Ed and Leanne even now. I don't know…

"We weren't okay. Ed's temper was getting worse and worse. He lost his job and that was when he told us we were going to be moving again. I remember it se well. Leanne was out. She did an evening shift at the Carson Nugget and we were alone with Ed. He'd been drinking again and, maybe just for the fun of it, he started taunting Scott. He said that he'd already spoken to the Child and Family Services and the two of us were finally going to be separated. Scott was staying in Carson City. But I'd be in another state.

"I don't know if he was lying or not. But he made it sound so real, like it was going to happen at any time. He and Scott were yelling at each other and he was drinking, straight out of the bottle, and laughing at us. And that was when it happened. Scott looked him in the eyes and I'll never forget what he said. I can tell you the exact words.

'Nobody's going to separate us. You can go hang yourself. "'

Jamie fell silent.

"Oh my God!" Alicia whispered.

Jamie nodded. "That's right. Ed got up and there was this weird look on his face. As if he'd been shocked…told something worse than anything he'd heard in his life. He just got up and walked out of the room and into the kitchen and then into the garage. We heard the door open and close. I thought about running after him but I was so fazed by what had happened — you have to remember I was only eleven years old.

"Leanne was the one who found him. When she came back from the casino. He'd gone into the garage.

He'd climbed a stepladder. And he'd hanged himself with a cord tied to a metal bracket. Of course, nobody was surprised — what with the drinking and the arguments and losing his job and everything.

He'd just had enough. That's what they all said.

"Only Scott and I knew the truth. We spoke about it only once and Scott said it was an accident, and that's how we always thought about it afterward. The Accident. Because Scott hadn't known what he was saying. He hadn't meant for anything to happen. It was just words."

"It wasn't Scott's fault," Alicia said. "Neither of you should blame yourselves."

Jamie shrugged. "The next few weeks were a mess. There was the funeral, of course, and that was where we met Don and Marcie. She was Leanne's sister. It turned out that Ed had been talking to Don, and the two of them must have known more about us than we thought because they were already planning to put us into some sort of show…"

The sun had dipped even lower now. The evening seemed to have come too soon. "We moved in with Don and Marcie. They were living in a trailer park near the Reno airport then. They took us out of school…Marcie said she'd homeschool us from now on, and after the business with the tires, the school wasn't going to complain. But she never taught us anything. Don persuaded us to perform for him. He hurt me because he knew that was the only way to get at Scott, and in the end we agreed. We worked out half a dozen tricks — but that was all we did. You remember the policeman at Marcie's house…?"

''Yes. Of course."

"What I did to him…that was the first time I ever did it. Scott made me swear that I would never try it with anyone. He was scared for me. Because if I started doing that, who knows what would happen?

What if I got angry with you and said something, and the next thing I knew you were injured or dead?

Don't you see? I can kill you just by thinking! That's my wonderful power! I can hurt you just with the blink of an eye."

"But you won't," Alicia said. "I trust you, Jamie."

"I won't because I won't let myself. And now you know why I reacted the way I did. Why I didn't want to do what you asked and read that man's mind. Because you think being a telepath means being able to reach into someone's head like picking an ace out of a deck of cards. But it's not like that. Even with Scott it isn't, and he's my brother. These men…if I go into one of their heads, I'll see everything bad they've ever done. I'll be part of it. The people they've killed. The kids they've hurt. Everything! It'll be like diving into a sewer and I still may not find out what he's done with Scott."

"We'll just have to find another way," Alicia said.

"No." Jamie shook his head miserably. "There is no other way. What else can we do?"

"Find Colton Banes. Follow him wherever he goes."

"That could take weeks. We don't have the time." Jamie looked exhausted. He had never talked as much as this. "I'll go in there first thing tomorrow. I'll find Banes and I'll ask him what he's done with Scott."

Jamie smiled grimly. "And even if he doesn't open his mouth, I think he'll tell me what I want to know."

EIGHT

Bad Thoughts

"I wish I hadn't talked you into this," Alicia said. "I'm going to be worried sick about you."

Jamie shrugged. 'You don't need to worry. I can look after myself."

"I just don't like the thought of you going in there alone."

"It's broad daylight. We're in L.A. Nothing bad is going to happen."

Jamie looked through the windshield at the office building across the road. It seemed very ordinary in the morning light with the sunshine bouncing off the windows. There weren't so many people around now. The traffic had died down and the sidewalks were virtually empty. Jamie had quickly learned that in Los Angeles, nobody ever walked anywhere.

And yet there were at least a thousand people inside. Jamie tried to imagine what it must be like to work on the twentieth floor of a skyscraper with your own office and a personal assistant and a paycheck every two weeks. Ordinary life. There had been a time when this had been his dream, all that he wanted.

To have a job. Holidays. Promotions. He had looked at the office buildings in Reno with a sort of envy.

He could barely read and write. This sort of life would always be beyond his reach.

Once, he had said as much to Scott. But Scott had laughed at him.

"I don't want to work in one of those places, Jamie. You go in young, you come out old. And you don't notice what's happened in between."

"I thought you wanted to be Bill Gates."

"That's right. I don't want to work for anyone. Just like him."

Scott. Where was he now? Jamie quickly scanned the building, trying to feel for any sign of his brother's presence behind the monotonous rows of windows. There was nothing.

He opened the car door and felt the warm, heavy air rush into him. "Don't worry about me," he said. "I'll be fine."

"I'd much rather come in with you," Alicia said.

"Then we'd have twice as much chance of being stopped." He got out of the car, then turned around and leaned back in. "Give me ten minutes. Then make the call."

"Make sure you're there, Jamie. The timing has to be exactly right."

He tapped his wrist. He was wearing a cheap watch. Scott had bought it for him on their thirteenth birthday. "I'll be there."

He took a large envelope off the dashboard and got out. One last glance at Alicia and he closed the door behind him.

As he crossed the street, he was suddenly nervous. The revolving doors ahead of him looked like a trap.

When they turned around, they would swallow him. Was he so sure that they would let him out again?

What exactly was he walking into? He knew almost nothing about the Nightrise Corporation, but even its name gave him pause for thought. It employed a man called Colton Banes, and Banes had been there when Scott was taken. They were looking for kids like him. And now he was just walking in, delivering himself to them.

It's the middle of the day. We're in L.A. Nothing bad can happen.

But why not? Who really knew what went on in every street, or even in the building next door? It suddenly struck Jamie that even the brightest sunlight could hide many dark and ugly secrets.

He had reached the other side of the street. Briefly, he glanced back, just checking that Alicia was still there, that she hadn't driven off. He saw her raise a hand, reassuring him. Once again, he felt a spurt of annoyance. Why was he being so cowardly? He was the one who had thought up this plan. It was the only way to find Scott and if it had been the other way around, if he had been the one who had been kidnapped, Scott wouldn't even have hesitated.

He slapped his hand against the revolving door and pushed. The door turned. He was in.

The lobby was a black box that stretched the entire length of the building. The walls were black granite, the floor black marble. The furniture — there was a low glass table and four chairs — was black too.

One wall had a water feature. Streams of water trickled down endlessly, disappearing into a sort of trough. Otherwise there was no decoration. Two burly black men in black suits stood guard, watching anyone who came in. One of them walked over to him.

"Yeah?"

Jamie lifted the envelope. "I've got a package for Colton Banes. He's with Nightrise."

The guard looked at him quizzically. 'You're a bit young to be working in dispatch."

"I'm doing a week's work experience."

The guard nodded. If it had been anyone older, he would have been more suspicious. But it was just a kid. And the envelope was clearly labeled. "It's the forty-fifth floor," he said — and swiped his own security card to activate the elevator.

Jamie stepped in and waited for the doors to close. He felt his stomach shrink as the elevator moved silently up. He glanced at his watch. Only a couple of minutes had passed since he left the car and he was sure he still had plenty of time. However, the elevator stopped a couple of times before it reached his floor. People got in and got out. Another whole minute had ticked away before he finally arrived.