Untrained Eye (36 page)

There was genuine shock and misty eyes from her in response. The
cloud shrank again.

“Why not?” Ian said, getting to his feet with a shrug. Ryan
gripped his hand and he was yanked to his feet.

“Yeah, beats running alone, right?” Ryan grinned. “I want to wipe
that smug grin off Smyth’s face.”

Light bounced from them, one to the other, student after student.
Belief, light, hope.

“I’m not sure if I can get up,” Miroslav said with a wry smile.
“But I am in. I’d follow you anywhere.”

Jed hoisted him up and wrapped an arm under his shoulder. “Not
alone,” he whispered to Miroslav. “Didn’t you hear her?”

“I’m in too,” Miranda said. She met my eyes and I knew she
understood how much would rest on her.

I felt Renee shift on her feet behind me and turned to see her
tears dribble down her cheeks. Her hand was over her mouth as her eyes filled
with wonder. The cloud faded, weakened as each heart shone with courage. I’d
never seen anything as beautiful. I was fighting to hold back my own tears and
turned to Jones’s kid.

“If you run, all we ask is that you keep the confidence of your
family.” The tentacle dangled there, straining to reach him. “And these guys
are
your family.”

He gripped his knees, the girl next to him fought her own battle.
She gulped back her breath. “Sawyer found the ones who ran . . . he . . .” She
shook her head. Tears flowed from her eyes.

“He was once terrified like you.” Frei knelt beside me. “He lost
everything he cared about. They took everything from him.” There was no
judgment in her voice only regret.

The girl bit her lip. “I don’t want to be like him.” She got to
her feet. “I don’t want anyone else to be like him either.”

Every student was on their feet bar one.

One boy.

The cloud was anchored overhead, gripping on. No one spoke, no one
demanded, or berated him for his fear. Instead I could feel every one of them
urging him on. Urging him on with every ounce of love they had.

Light, warmth, the energy crackled around the room.

“What are you scared of?” I asked.

He met my eyes. “I don’t know where I would go. I’ve never left
here. Where would I go? How am I going to look after myself?”

Renee sniffled behind me and I knew why. I was once the kid who
sat in front of me.

I ran. I ran so fast that none of the guards could catch me. I ran
to the only place that I could hide. I was on the roof before anyone realized.
Not to jump, just to think. The place was littered with old pallets and plastic
crates but I could breathe here . . . breathe in fresh air. I was going to
faint. I couldn’t process it.

The panic hammered through my heart. I’d never survive out there.
Out there hated me, in here was bad enough but I knew in here, I knew how it
worked. Out there I didn’t know, I didn’t know a thing.

“Aeron, please. Calm down. Listen to me . . . for a moment.”

I spun to look at Renee. The guards were all gathered down in the
yard below.

“What did I do to you? What did I ever do to you?” I picked up a
broken crate and hurled it down at the guards below, making them scatter.

“Nothing, Aeron. You should have never been here for this long.
You could go to Nan’s cabin. Maybe she—”

“She’s dead. That’s why I met Sam. Nan abandoned me too!” I picked
up a pallet. “How am I gonna feed myself?”

Renee moved forward. I hurled the pallet from the roof. “You’ll
find a way. You can find peace there. Nature . . . fishing . . . Do you like
fishing?”

“I hate fishing! I know what it does to them.” I hurled another
pallet.

“How about gardening? Hiking in the woods? Aeron, there’s a beautiful
world of nature out there . . . waiting for you.”

I rubbed my arms. I felt cold all of a sudden, really cold and
tired. My jaw trembled and I lost every ounce of energy I had. I slumped onto
the roof. There was a world out there. A world that I had resigned myself that
I would never see. Now Renee was offering it to me. I looked past the concrete
to the patchwork of fields beyond—so green, so bright, so vivid. Life in
abundance.

“What if I end up on the street?”

Renee sat beside me and took my gloved hand. “It won’t be easy but
I will have to see you once a month to satisfy parole requirements. The girls
will expect letters and I’m pretty sure that there’s a set of high heels
waiting for you to hang.”

I squeezed Renee’s hand. Then I felt something warm on my cold
cheeks. I took off my glove and touched it. I looked down and my fingers were
wet. I rubbed them together and looked up to the sky—was it raining? Warm rain?
No—I was crying.

I was free.

I took the boy’s trembling hands in mine. “You like the
mountains?”

He nodded. “I’ve seen them in books. The ones with snow on top.”

“I know a place just like that, in fact I ain’t long left there.”
I held onto him, knowing only I could reach him now. “I’d never left the state
before. When I got out of the institution, I didn’t think I’d make it through
the bus ride home.”

“So how did you?” His eyes twinkled with tears. “How did you do
it?”

“Baby steps,” Renee said. She knelt on the other side of me and
took his hand. “I’ll help you.”

“Just like she helped me.” I smiled at her, realizing how much
she’d done for me all over again.

“Hey, Stevie,” Jed called out. “You can join us if you want to.”

“How does being free sound to you?” Frei asked and offered him her
hand.

“Good.” He nodded. The tentacle recoiled. “I’d like that.”

She smiled. “Help us free the others too?”

The boy took a breath. He glanced from me to Renee and back up to
Frei. Energy spread through him. Light, courage, hope. The ripple of something
flitted into my consciousness. It was the passage Frei and I had talked about.
And
now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is
love.

He held out his hand and gripped Frei’s.

The fear cloud shriveled and disappeared as he rose to his feet.
“I’m in.”

Chapter 43

FREI DIVIDED THE students into groups. There were sixteen, not
counting Kevin, left in all. Her group of four would help set up a series of
booby traps throughout the school that would slow down anyone pursuing us on
gala night. They would also create a diversion in case we needed a well-timed
distraction. It was a dangerous task but the group was enthusiastic. I admired
their bravery.

Jones’s pair had their wires back on but this time Frei could hear
everything that was being said. Both were keeping a log of the staff routines
and the guard patrol routes ready. Being sneaky was their thing. They were
playing to their strengths.

My group had a mixture of things to do. Jed, Sawyer’s kid, and the
boys were systematically darting kids with blow pipes. It looked pretty mean
but Frei had given the “darts” to them. I didn’t understand the specifics as it
was way over my head but somehow the dart injected a GPS chip under their skin.
It didn’t hurt apart from the initial impact but it would give our guys at CIG a
chance to keep track of all the students.

Of course, every time anyone came and told us that Jed was being a
bully, we had to go yell at him like we meant it. Renee was the best at it. If
her aura wasn’t in full swing, I would have thought she
was
mad. Good
thing Jed was used to getting hollered at ’cause it went straight over his
head.

Ty, Jane, and Leigh-Anne had started packing away the year groups’
belongings and smuggling them out to a school bus that was in the garage. I was
sure it hadn’t ever been used and was there for show but Frei seemed pretty
confident that it was going to get us out.

Owens had stayed away. It felt like she was keeping her head down
after messing up with Kevin and Miranda. I still didn’t trust her and I’d
caught her watching from her office window a couple of times when I was in the
quadrant. I’d felt her glaring when Renee had stopped me to ask something. 

Jessie had caught Frei’s eye, so she had become mini-Frankenfrei.
Jessie had been taught such moral skills as hot-wiring a car, how to remove its
battery, and break into just about any space that could fit her. It was funny
to watch. Frei looked like she had a soft spot for the kid.

Talking of soft spots, my guy Miroslav was trying to figure out a
way to get Miranda to play to a recording during the performance. The problem
was, there was no margin for error when she played to the recording. She was
having difficulty just moving her wrist to mime it in one section.

Miroslav had thought about me playing and recording it, slowing on
that section so she could use that. It was difficult knowing how to work around
electrics blowing up near me. The second I got near a microphone, it let off a
high-pitched whine.

He was panicking. The performance had to buy time for everyone to
escape. No played masterpiece, no
convincingly
played masterpiece and we
were all busted.

Miroslav, Miranda, and I kept it to ourselves. I wanted to give
them time to figure something out and Frei had good as said that without that
performance, she’d have to leave the other kids behind.

The day before the gala found Miroslav sweating over the
electrics, Miranda in tears, and me trying my best not to be affected by them
enough to keep them calm.

It wasn’t easy.

I knew I should have told Frei but I couldn’t give up. Even if I
was on the verge of panicking myself.

By the time Renee wandered into the little rehearsal room we were
camped in, I was close to throwing the borrowed violin through the window.

“What’s wrong?”

Okay, now that was freaky. I was looking out the window not at the
door and I could
feel
her come in. She couldn’t see my face or know what
I was thinking so
how
did she know what I felt?

“Nothin’,” I chimed as cheerily as I could.

“
Aeron
, I know very well that there is just by looking at
you.” I got the flashed image of her putting her hands on her hips. I glanced
at Miroslav and Miranda who exchanged a look. Good thing Frei had the whole
floor scrambled and had done something with the locks. Only her, Renee, Me,
Miranda, and Miroslav could get in.

I sighed and turned around. “Apparently I mess up her ability to
hide stuff,” I told them. “But then, I guess you figured that I ain’t really
called Samson.”

Renee shut her eyes and mumbled enough cuss words that Miranda
giggled.

“It’s not funny,” she muttered, rubbing her hand over her face.
“Every time,
Lorelei
.”

I sighed as they kept on laughing. “You want to give them a zip
code too?”

Renee turned and walked to the door. She shut it, held onto the
handle, took a deep breath, and turned back.

Miranda giggled again. I was glad she had something to cheer her
up.

“Aeron.” Miroslav gazed at me. “From the Celtic or just a
derivative of the Hebrew Aaron?”

There was a Celtic version? I thought my folks had just made it
up. “Aaron.”

He beamed at me. “Mountain of strength in Hebrew. Wild berry in
Celtic.” He cocked his head. “It suits you.”

I folded my arms. “’Cause I look like a hulking great mountain or
that I’m a fruit?”

“
Because
,” he grinned at me, battering his long eyelashes,
“it’s beautiful . . . like you.” He blushed.

Miranda nodded as if in agreement and Miroslav went back to
fiddling with the crackling equipment.

Renee let out a heavy sigh. “You too?” She rolled her eyes,
muttering away to herself. “At this rate we’ll need to start a conference.”

I was too busy blushing myself, I could feel my cheeks roasting. I
didn’t quite know how to take Miroslav’s words. I rubbed my hand over the back
of my neck and shrugged. “Hey, wait.” I frowned. “Conference?”

Miranda’s giggles turned to tears, which then turned to big
howling sobs.

Renee hurried to her. “I’m teasing her, I—”

She yelped, gripped her wrist, and snapped it away from Miranda
who yelped too. I winced with my own shot of pain.

“What happened?” Renee shook her wrist and tried to examine
Miranda’s but kept shaking hers . . . like she
felt
it.

I put my hands on my hips. “She can’t play. It’s not healing.
We’re trying to figure out how she can mime but the stupid piece of junk ain’t
liking my playing.”

Renee bit her lip as she moved the wrist about. “How long has it
been like this?”

“Drinkin’ with Jed.” I put down my violin. We were busted now
anyhow.

“Can’t you fix it?” Her eyes met mine. I sighed and looked at the
two teenagers now staring at me for an explanation.

“Do I look like a doctor?” I shot Renee a frown.

“Forget the stupid cover.” She waved her arm in the air like it
still hurt her. “It’s important. We can’t do this without her.”

Because we all needed reminding of that.

“I drove you too hard, I know, I’m sorry. It’s not going to make
you suffer like before, is it?” She raised her eyebrows, her clear gray eyes
pleading with me. “I’ll help you to—”

“I can’t,” I whispered, hoping she’d quit
looking at me that way.

Miroslav and Miranda had hope in their eyes.

“Can’t or won’t?” Her scowl appeared. Here came her temper.

“
Can’t
. I would if I could but I ain’t got that ability no
more.” I was now getting gawked at, something I hated.

“When, why?” Renee’s temper had vanished and her aura did the
concern swish and wriggle like always. I loved her aura.

“Don’t matter.” I tried to smile, pretending that it didn’t suck.
“Still causing chaos with electrical stuff.”

“Aeron.” She took me by the hand. “When?”

I glanced at Miroslav and Miranda who were trying their best not
to look like they were watching. I didn’t know what they were thinking but if I
was them, I’d want a pretty good explanation.

“Now’s not the time, okay. We got a per—”

“Tell me. That’s a direct order.” Her aura rumbled like her stormy
eyes.

Miroslav shot me an “uh oh” look.

“I fixed you when I shouldn’t have, okay?” I ran my hand through
my hair. “You didn’t ask for my help, so I got a load of burdens taken off me
till I learn my lesson.”

I waited for the slap or for her to yell but instead she threw herself
into my arms. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry you felt you couldn’t tell me.”

I gripped her to me. I’d missed her hugs. Her energy flowed around
me, soothing me, sheer comfort in a
cwtch
. She pulled back and beamed up
at me.

I cleared my throat. “You’ll have a lot of explaining if Owens
struts in right now.”

Renee shot away from me, her eyes on the door.

I chuckled. “Missed you too.”

Renee straightened up, brushed herself off. She glanced at the
teenagers then turned and shot me a scowl. There was the Renee I knew. “Yes,
well . . . That leaves us with a situation to fix.” She turned back to Miroslav
and Miranda who didn’t know where to look, judging by the way they stared down
at the floor.

“Aeron blows electrical things.” Both of them raised their eyes to
Renee who was attempting some kind of control. I knew full well she wanted
nothing more than to hug me again. “So . . . let’s make it part of the show.”

I cocked my head.

She smiled. “We’ll record you playing it, which Miranda can mime
to.” She held up her hand to stop me butting in. “And you’ll be on stage to
cover it. They will know it’s coming from you.” She walked over to Miroslav. “A
duel sounds like a perfect way to get through
Chaconne
.”

I looked at Miranda and Miroslav. “But Miroslav will have to get
it to play when I stop.”

He grinned. “I can do that.”

Miranda frowned. “But it means you’ll have to be there the whole
way through.” She fiddled with her sleeves. “How will you get to the bus in
time?”

“He’ll have a mountain to carry him,” I said.

Renee grinned at me and I grinned right back. It was a plan. It
could work. It was worth a shot.