The Gifted (9 page)

Abe walked back up front, “What Paul has done
here is not use some force to levitate the weight, but he has
changed the atoms themselves so that they are as light as air. Now
watch this!”

Paul closed his eyes for concentration and
the floating weight turned colors from black to light brown with
streaks in it. It immediately crashed to the ground and a part of
it splintered off.

Abe chuckled, “What did you change it to
now?”

“Wood,” he said in a shaky high voice. “I
made it a light kind of wood, like balsa wood. I just imagined
it.”

Everyone applauded like we were watching a
magician. Paul left the stage, glad to be out of the limelight. Abe
raised his hands again to calm the crowd. “Isn’t it amazing? So
many of us have such remarkable abilities. And just think of the
order we could bring when we conquer our enemies.”

Everyone clapped enthusiastically. I looked
over to Mick and saw that he was clapping so hard his hands were
red. He looked completely into it. So did the others.

Then I looked at Abe and I knew. He really
was like me, only more powerful, and evil.

Later I had another session with Derek.
“Okay, let’s get on with our lesson. It’s tricky what you are about
to learn, but it can be very helpful. So far you worked on
focusing. That was a good start, but there is a lot more to learn
and especially practice. For instance, fear is also a great
motivator. Most people think of fear as a bad thing, but for our
purposes it can really be helpful. If you are afraid for your life,
for instance, you will use whatever is within your power to save
yourself. Now your power does not allow you to levitate off a
burning building or to be bulletproof, but if something came to
fight you, and you used your power out of a great fear, your power
would be much greater. For instance. . .”

In through the open door walked a tiger. An
actual tiger! Its eyes reflecting hunger as it stared at me like a
piece of meat and growled. I almost peed my pants. The tiger
crouched down as if it was about to attack, but then before it even
left the ground, something changed about the animal. Its eyes grew
sleepy, it stood up straighter, and I heard it purr like a hundred
pound kitten as it walked over to me and rubbed against my leg.

“That’s what I mean,” Derek was smiling. “I
knew you would be able to do it.”

“Are you nuts?” I said. “He almost ate me for
lunch!”

“No,” said Derek. “I didn’t think he would do
that or I wouldn’t have taken the risk.”

“Whose risk?” I shouted. “He wanted to eat
me!”

“But you stopped it using the fear and your
power,” said Derek. “You did very well.”

For the rest of that morning Derek had me try
focusing my gift on the tiger, because even though it was not
attacking me, I never felt comfortable with him in the room. That
fear remained.

At lunch it was just Han and I. “What
happened to the other two?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, just above a
whisper.

“You don’t think Tracy talked Guido into
getting her into that training facility, do you?” I said.

“I hope not,” said Han. “But possibly. I
think he likes her.”

“Hmm, I think you’re right,” I said.

There was an awkward pause for a couple of
minutes as I ate some vegetable stew with more rice. “So, learn
anything new lately?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Care to expand on that?” I said.

He laughed, “That’s what my mother says when
she’s trying to get me to talk.”

“Is your whole family this talkative?” I
asked.

“My mother and two sisters never stop
talking. My dad and I have given up trying to compete. Not that
we’d want to anyway.”

This was the most I had ever heard him
talk.

“I miss them,” he said.

“Yeah, I miss my family too,” I said. We
didn’t talk too much after that.

Once lunch was over we both cleared our table
and headed toward the lecture hall.

This time the presenter was a military man.
He wore glasses and looked a lot like my fourth grade teacher. Once
students got quiet, he began speaking.

“Our Superior, Pandemonium Inducing,
Destructive, Exoskeletal Robots are nearly ready.” A picture
flashed up on the screen in front. It was a picture of one of the
robots we had seen being built on the assembly line. “S.P.I.D.E.R.
for short,” he continued. “They are all-terrain ready, combat
optimal, and hyper-intelligent. But let me go into the details of
how we got these. A little computer science, engineering, and a lot
of money, thanks to a sizable donation, made it all possible. But
let’s go into the history. Here is one of our first prototype
models.” As the next picture was displayed I felt something bump my
arm, “Hey, it’s me,” he said. It was Guido.

“Where were you?” I asked.

Tracy sat down on the other side of him.
“Exploring the place some more.” She had a bright smile on her
face. “I’ll tell you more later,” she said.

As I looked up front I saw that this lecture
was going all the way back into the beginnings of robotic
technology, something that was going to put me to sleep. And
thankfully, it did.

Afterwards it was free time, which meant
Conditioning and Sports.

I found a small three-on-three basketball
game already in progress. “Can I join?” I asked.

“Sure,” one of the kids said with a smile.
“Why don’t you join our team?” This was probably my gift at work
again. “My name’s Tran.”

“I’m Andy,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re taller than most of
us, but we’re playing with as few rules as possible, so powers are
allowed. If you’ve got it, use it. Are you in?”

“Sure,” I said. He introduced me to the other
player on our team, Jorge (pronounced Hor-hey). We got the ball
first, so Jorge took it to the top of the key. He bounced it a few
times and then threw it to me. I was a bit rusty on basketball, so
I held it for a second, trying to think. Suddenly the ball started
screaming, “What’s wrong with you, put me in the basket!” I looked
down and I could see a big smiling face on the ball. I almost
dropped it, but Jorge said, “Hey, it’s okay. It’s just me!”

I started dribbling the ball, but didn’t get
far when a girl with long brown pigtails from the other team flew
from the side and snatched the ball out of my hand. Without even
touching the ground, she bounced the ball once and then flew over
everyone’s heads and dunked the ball. Two points for their
team.

Now they got the ball at the top. The boy who
had it dribbled up to me. I waved my arms to block any shots or
passes, so he opened his mouth and breathed fire in my face,
freaking me out completely, and dribbled on past me. A second
later, he had scored two more points.

How was I going to figure this game out? It
was crazy. The girl on their team had the ball again at the top.
This time she passed it to the fire breathing guy as the ball
yelled, “What’s wrong with you, give the ball back!” He ignored
this and passed it to the girl who was already soaring above the
rest of us toward the hoop. He passed it to her and she threw it
down into the hoop scoring another two points. Now it was six to
zero. I still hadn’t seen their tall guy do anything.

They had the ball again at the top and this
time the tall guy took it. I went to guard him, but he just kept
dribbling, not going anywhere. I felt a pat on my shoulder and it
was the tall guy standing behind me handing me the ball.

“Dude, they just scored,” said Tran.

“But he didn’t even move,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s Larry,” he said. “He can make
any of your memories replay themselves in your head. Once you saw
him dribble the ball, you kept seeing that memory play over and
over in your head while he walked right on by.”

“But that’s crazy!” I said.

“Hey, welcome to the club,” he said.
“Whatever you’ve got, you’d better start using it.”

Again, the girl had the ball at the top and
Tran was guarding her. He reached out and lightly brushed her arm.
When he did, she misdribbled the ball and he grabbed it. Looking
over his shoulder he threw it to Jorge, who caught it. The ball
suddenly broke into applause, like a crowd of a thousand. When he
threw it to me, the ball became a face again and said, “Two points,
two points!” like some cheerleader. I dribbled closer to the hoop,
but then I started remembering eating oatmeal as a baby. All I
could see was my mom trying to get the spoon into my mouth. It must
have been a memory replay. I closed my eyes and I heard Tran say
next to me, give me the ball. I handed it to him and I was in the
present again. Tran shot the ball as I blocked his defender, making
two points. At this, the backboard started to dance. Was this for
real?

Now Tran had the ball at the top of the key.
He dribbled it, and then passed it to me. I dribbled, planted my
foot, pivoted around the flame thrower, and shot, making it in. Two
more points.

We had it at the top of the key again. So far
I had not tried using my gift, but now I had an idea. I dribbled
the ball, but then out of the corner of my eye, I saw the girl
swooping toward me again. I focused my gift, and as she came near,
she suddenly stopped and then smiled. I dribbled forward and passed
it to Jorge, while I cut toward the basket. He saw me and passed it
back, while the ball was yelling, “Hooray for our side!” I grabbed
the ball, about to make the shot when a rerun of Bugs Bunny started
playing in my head. I was so close I closed my eyes and shot. When
I opened them, Tran said, “Great job, Andy!” You made it! He patted
me on the shoulder and my arm went immediately numb. “Sorry about
that,” he said. “I forgot about my power.”

I looked up at the hoop and it was dancing
again, and the ball was shouting. The boy behind me was breathing
fire while the girl was flying in circles. “This is nuts!” I said
to Tran.

“Yeah,” he said. “It does take some getting
used to. But if we practice, we’ll do better at taking down the
U.S. when we get a chance.”

That was it! That was the plan. Finally
someone spilled the beans. I had to tell the others. “I’m really
tired. Mind if I quit?” I said.

“Well, okay,” said Tran. “See you later?”

“Sure,” I said, hoping I wouldn’t.

Afterward we had dinner. Once everyone got
their food and sat down we put our heads together. “Guys,” I
whispered. “They’re planning to take on the U.S.”

“What?” said Guido too loudly. Then quietly,
“What?”

I whispered. “I heard a guy say they planned
to take down the U.S.”

“But that’s impossible,” said Tracy. “This
little island couldn’t take down the fifth ranked superpower. Look
how small it is.”

“Well, that’s what I heard,” I said.

“I’m sure they could do some damage,” said
Guido. “They sure have a lot of weapons.”

“Yeah,” said Tracy. “But compared to the
United States?”

“Tracy,” said Guido. “Tell them what we did
earlier today.”

“Oh, yeah. Well I got Guido to get us both
into the Lethal Training Facility. First he checked to make sure it
was clear, and then he kept the door open just a crack when one of
the men left. When we got in there I was shocked at how much
military they have, and how many weapons. Not that it could take on
the U.S., but still it was quite impressive.”

“But tell them what we did,” said Guido.

“We found a communications booth,” she said.
“Then we tried to use one of their radios.”

“Did you radio the general?” I asked.

“No, we don’t know how to run that kind of
equipment. I picked up a phone one of the guys left behind and
called base on that. They say they will send someone out here to
pick us up at the beach.”

“That’s great,” I said, “because this is
really getting scary. I want out.”

“Me too,” said Tracy and Guido together.

“Me too,” said Han.

Just past my friends, I saw the girl I had
played in basketball, with her dark braids, eating her broccoli and
staring at me. It made me feel uncomfortable.

Just beyond her table, two men in camouflage
with M16’s walked in from the hallway, looked around the room for a
few seconds, and then left.

“Yeah,” I said. “There’s definitely something
going on here.”

I didn’t say anything about the guards to the
others because I didn’t want to scare them even more, so I kept it
to myself. And I didn’t want to mention the girl because I would
get teased. I looked up again and she was still staring.

We finished the rest of our dinner slowly and
the clock on the wall said 7:15.

“Look at the time,” I said. “I didn’t know it
was that late.”

“It feels late to me,” said Guido. “I’m wiped
out. I’ll see you guys in the morning.” He got up to leave.

“Me too,” said Tracy, who followed Guido.

“Yup, I think something is going on between
those two,” I said. Han just nodded.

Han and I decided to call it a night too.
When we got back to our room, Guido was already snoring. Great. Han
just got in bed and closed his eyes. It took me awhile longer
because it was so early and due to the snoring, but finally, the
exhaustion was too much and I found my way back to dreamland.

This time, I dreamed of tigers with guns.

The next morning I got up early and took a
look out the window. The sky was blue with a few wispy clouds and
the tops of waves could be seen in the distance. A dark blur
flashed by my window and paused. It was a small, tan colored,
curly-haired dog. Perhaps it was a poodle of some sort. It sat
panting under my window, looking up at me, wagging its tail. I
opened my window. A gush of warm air hit me in the face as I
reached out my hand to pet the dog. I focused for a few seconds on
having this animal like me just as I had the tiger the day before.
Soon I felt the roughness of a small tongue licking my hand.