The Awakening (17 page)

32

C
AROLINE
W
AGNER JUMPED AS THE DOOR
to the cell was unlocked. Earlier, there had been a lot of shouting outside, but apart from that, it had been hours since they’d seen or heard anyone.

Lying on the next bunk, Warren sat up.

As the door was pushed open, Warren leaped off the bunk, rolled across the ground and pulled it fully open. This was a trick he’d done once before, back when he’d had his powers. He’d been captured by Brawn and locked up. When one of the villain’s henchmen had opened the door to check on him, he hadn’t thought to look down. Warren had crashed into the man’s legs and knocked him over, then made his escape.

This time, however, he found himself facing the barrel of a gun.

He looked up and smiled when he saw Max Dalton accompanied by three soldiers. Warren pushed himself to his feet. “So, the rescue team is here at last!”

Then he realized that Max wasn’t lowering his gun and that the soldiers accompanying him were some of those he’d seen earlier. “You’re part of this? What the hell is going on here, Dalton?”

“I’m taking you to see your son.”

“Is he OK?” Caroline asked.

“For now, yes.” Max turned to the soldiers. “Cuff them.”

As they were escorted through the mine, Caroline asked, “Where’s Danny?”

“I’m afraid that he’s escaped.”

“Good.”

“Good?
Good?
” Max stopped walking. “I was told that Quantum had explained everything to you. Don’t you understand how important it is that we recapture Danny?”

“Oh, he told us. And I think I even believe him. But it’s wrong to condemn an innocent boy because of something that he
might
do.”

“Danny Cooper is far from innocent,” Max said. “He killed his father.”

Warren and Caroline stared at him in silence, then Warren asked, “Which one? His real father, or the one who was masquerading as his father for the past eleven years?”

“His real father.”

“How did it happen?”

“Danny’s powers are now almost fully developed, but he hasn’t learned how to control them. He’s fast. He hit his father across the head with the butt of a gun. Apparently it was done in anger; I doubt that he intended any real harm, but what’s done is done. He’s murdered a man.”

“I’m sure he can claim that it was self-defense,” Caroline said. “You people had him held prisoner.”

Max shrugged. “Perhaps.” He resumed walking. “I’ll take you to see Colin. We have a few things to discuss.”

“What the hell have you
done
to him?” Caroline screamed.

Colin was in the examination room, hanging by his wrists from cables tied to the ceiling, keeping his arms outstretched. He’d been stripped down to his jeans and his chest was covered in hundreds of electrodes. Wires leading from a computer console ended in a helmet on Colin’s head, completely covering his face.

“The helmet is feeding white noise into his ears, to make sure that he can’t listen to us,” Max said. “And these cables…He wouldn’t cooperate. They were the only way we could restrain him. Trust me, he’s not in any pain. The tests we’ve done suggest that he’s going to be strong, did you know that? Maybe even stronger than
you
were, Warren.”

Warren said, “Max, get my son down and take all that crap off him, or I swear to God I’ll make you pay.”

“This is necessary. We’re monitoring every square inch of him. We need to see the effect of the power-damper as it happens.”

“Your machine is working?”

“Almost. The nucleus is operational, but we need to charge it. Unfortunately, without Joseph’s knowledge we’ve run into some problems. We’re trying to finish it by guesswork. This could take some time.”

“And you’re doing all this just because Quantum told you he had a vision of the future?” Caroline said.

“He’d had other visions and they all came true, except in the few cases where we were in a position to prevent them. I have no doubt that this one will prove to be accurate too. Unless we can complete the power-damper.”

“It was you,” Caroline said. “Wasn’t it? You used your mind-controlling power on Quantum, made him agree with your decisions.”

Max paused for a second before answering. “Yes. Quantum was unstable for a long time before Mystery Day. All those visions over the years had left him…confused. He was finding it hard to distinguish reality from fantasy. But you must understand:
he
came to
me.
He wanted me to help him control the visions, or at least his reactions to them.”

“And you saw this as an opportunity to get rid of all of us?”

“No, not at all. Caroline, I could control some people, but not everyone. Not enough to save the world. The only way I could ensure that we wouldn’t all die from some superhuman threat was to remove all the superhumans’ powers.”

“Even your own?” Warren asked.

“Yes, even my own. We’re doing this because it
has
to be done. Danny Cooper will become one of the most powerful and dangerous men on this planet. He will recruit an army and wage war. It will be devastating. Billions will die in the war, and those few who survive will be left with a burned-out ruin of a planet. No food, the ecology destroyed, the seas poisoned. Whole cities consumed by fire. Plagues, radiation, famine…The survivors will
wish
that they’d died in the war. But we can prevent that. All we have to do is finish the power-damper.”

“And Danny will be otherwise unharmed?”

“Of course,” Max said. “Ragnarök’s power-damper didn’t do
us
any physical harm, did it? If you don’t like this, Warren, then that’s just tough. Remember, all this is
your
fault. The damage you did to Ragnarök’s battle-tank was enough to destroy the first power-damper seconds after it was used. If it had remained active, Danny would never have developed his powers, and we wouldn’t be in this situation. But this time, the machine
will
remain active. Forever. You have to agree that the removal of Danny’s powers is a small price to pay for salvation.”

Caroline bit her lip. “Warren…he could be right.”

Her husband shook his head. “No. He’s still condemning Danny before he’s done anything.”

Max said, “Danny’s already killed a man, Warren.”

Warren said nothing.

“I want to talk to Colin,” Caroline said.

“I’m sorry, but that’s just not possible.”

“He’ll calm down once he sees we’re all right.”

“I’m sorry, no.” Max turned to Rachel. “Get the girl down here. If Colin doesn’t stop struggling, we might have to completely sedate him. I’d rather have a conscious subject for the tests.”

Rachel nodded and moved toward the door.

Max called after her, “And see if you can get someone to find out where Victor is!”

Rachel paused. “Wait…You haven’t seen him?”

“No.”

She frowned. “That’s not good. The last time I saw him was shortly after Danny disappeared.”

Victor Cross loaded the last of his emergency supplies into the back of the truck. “Hop on board, Laurie,” he said.

The technician hesitated. “Mr. Cross…I really don’t think that this is a good idea.”

“You leave the thinking to me.”

Laurie opened the passenger door and climbed in.

Victor got into the driver’s seat. “All right…We’ve got food, water, weapons and ammunition. We’ve got this little gizmo,” he said, pointing to the watch-sized device on his wrist, “and we have a little over five million dollars of Max’s money. We’re all set.” He turned the ignition key and the truck rumbled into life.

Laurie stared at the miniature force field generator. “I thought you wanted that for Danny Cooper, to shield him against the power-damper.”

“You thought wrong. This is for someone very special who really doesn’t want to lose his superhuman abilities.”

“But the others…Won’t they tell Dalton what you’ve been doing?”

“No, they won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Dead men don’t tell tales, Laurie. And neither do dead women.”

33

R
ENATA’S GUARD HAD BEEN SILENT FOR
over half an hour. He’d finally stopped lecturing her about morality after she started agreeing with absolutely everything he said.

She smiled to herself. It was the same trick she and her little sister used when their mother was ranting about something.

I wonder where they are now,
she asked herself.
It’s been ten years. They might have moved. Dad’s always talking about moving to Denver. Maybe after I went missing they decided to stay where they were, just in case I came home. Unless…unless they think that I’m dead! Oh God, I hope not! No, Max will have told them what happened to me. But they didn’t even know I was a superhuman. In the newspaper article Max said that The High Command weren’t at the last battle with Ragnarök. But they
were
there! Why would they lie about that? And why did Max say that Energy and Titan were dead?

Renata jumped when the door to the room finally opened.

Another soldier stepped in. “We’re to take her down to the lab,” he told the guard.

They approached Renata, one standing on each side of her. “Come with us.”

“What if I say no?”

“Then we’ll carry you.”

Renata stood up and walked toward the door.

“We know what you can do,” the soldier said. “So you walk ahead of us at all times.”

The door opened out onto a walkway above the main cavern. A long, narrow metal staircase led down to the ground.

Renata started down the stairs, then grabbed her leg. “Ow! Cramp! I was sitting in the same position for too long!”

She glanced around. Both of the men were right behind her.

If I turn solid, they’ll just carry me. And if I’m in front of them, I can’t disarm them. I could jump over the edge and turn solid before I hit the ground, but they’d just raise the alarm.

One of the soldiers prodded her in the shoulder with the barrel of his rifle. “Move!”

Renata stood up and stretched. “Give me a second.” She turned around, stamping her foot. “That’s better.”

Now she was facing the soldiers, standing at the top of the stairway.

She put her hands out toward them, her wrists together. “Aren’t you going to cuff me?”

Before they could respond, Renata grabbed hold of each of them and threw herself backward.

She turned solid.

The three of them crashed down the staircase.

Unmoving and invulnerable, the fall had no effect on Renata, but by the time they stopped falling, the soldiers were badly bruised and unconscious.

That is such a good trick!

She turned herself back to normal, got to her feet and ran.

Colin couldn’t see or hear anything, but he could still feel pain. The cables cut into his skin where they were looped around his wrists. If his feet had been on the ground, he might have been able to jump high enough to loosen the cables. But as it was, his feet were dangling a meter above the floor.

At first, the woman—Rachel—had strapped him to the table, but he’d broken through the leather straps as though they were made of paper.

Rachel had used the shocker on him, set to full power, and when Colin recovered he found himself suspended from the ceiling.

Now, it was all he could do to remain conscious.

He tried to shift his weight to one arm and pull against the other cable, concentrate on flexing his muscles, but the noise blasting into his ears was too much of a distraction.

I need to go
up.
If I can rise up just a little, I can slip my hands out of the loops.

But there was no way up…unless he could swing himself back and forth; then maybe his feet would find something to push against. But he’d tried swinging before, and each time he’d been hit with the shocker.

Maybe I can pull myself up.

He twisted his right arm around so that his fingers were touching the cable, then grabbed hold of it.

He gave an experimental tug; his enhanced strength was still there. He was able to move upward by about a centimeter, but that only increased the tension on his other arm.

What else can I do? Maybe I can swing all the way around, get my wrists below me.

He tensed his stomach muscles, then raised his legs and let them drop. He swung back and forth a little. Then he felt the shocker again, this time completely numbing his left leg.

Warren saw what his son was trying to do. He also saw the young woman rush over and press a small device against Colin’s leg.

He tried to move forward, but two of Max’s guards grabbed his arms and held him back. “Touch him again and you’re dead!” Warren shouted.

Max looked at Warren as though he were nothing but an interesting lab specimen. “Warren, you’re not in a position to threaten anyone. You’re here as a courtesy. Remember that.”

Façade strode into the room and up to Max. “Cross is gone. He was working on something in one of the smaller labs. Four assistants, handpicked. Three of them are dead. No sign of the other one. Whatever they were building is gone too.”

Max swore. “Impossible! I’ve known him for years—he wouldn’t betray me!”

“You obviously didn’t know him as well as you thought you did,” Façade said.

Max ignored the comment. “Any clue what he was working on?” he asked.

Façade shook his head. “No. His computers have been wiped clean and the paperwork was destroyed.”

Rachel turned around. “Max? I think we have it. I think we’re ready.”

“You
think
?”

“Without Victor, we’re not sure. All the defenses are ready to go online and the nucleus itself seems to be functioning according to the specs, but…there could be some problems. This one doesn’t work exactly like Ragnarök’s did. The effect will be localized. According to Victor’s simulation, it’ll have a range of about three miles, maybe four. Ragnarök’s damper used a tachyon generator to give it an infinite range, but we can’t get that working. Aside from that, we’re pretty sure that it
will
work. Once you give the order, it’ll take a couple of minutes to get up to speed. Though the defenses will be active immediately.”

“A range of three or four miles is not good enough. The boy could be anywhere by now. I don’t want to have to track him down.”

Rachel said, “You know, we
can
boost the output, but it could be dangerous.”

“In what way?”

“The chances are high that it will cause an irreversible neural overload.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning that it’ll burn out Danny’s brain, probably kill him.” She glanced toward Colin. “Him too, and the girl. And not just them…Some normal people will be affected too. Maybe one in a hundred thousand will suffer a seizure of some kind. Most of them won’t be fatal, but they’ll be debilitating and permanent.”

“That’s out of the question,” Façade said. “We’re doing this to save innocent people, not kill them. Find another way.”

Rachel shrugged. “There
is
no other way. If you want the power-damper to work on a greater range, you get the seizures too.”

Max Dalton looked at Façade and Rachel. “One person out of every hundred thousand…That’s about sixty thousand people throughout the world.” He was silent for a few seconds, then said, “That’s far fewer than will die in the war. Acceptable losses. Do it, Rachel. Do it now.”