The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (27 page)

And then, without warning, they had
arrived. When the security guards opened the back doors to the van,
Binny, Zach, and Cassie were all in their original places. The
tarps remained on the floor in a pile just as they were when the
kids had entered the vehicle.

Jay and Julie Jordan, as well as Dr.
Huitre in his car, had also arrived and were gathered by the back
door of the van. Binny tried hard not to glance back at the pile of
tarps. When she looked up at her parents, Binny saw that her
mother’s eyes were puffy again and wondered what her parents had
been discussing in the car. The stern look on her father’s face
didn’t give Binny any better clue.

“
Let’s get this over with
as quickly as possible.” Jay almost barked at Dr. Huitre and the
security guards.

“
Of course, of course.”
Huitre tried his best to sound reassuring.

The three vehicles had parked near one
of the oddly shaped modern buildings that populated the Luce
Laboratories campus. The lettering on the side spelled out
“Epaphus”. Binny didn’t recognize the building or the name. Nor did
she see the Records Room with its signature glass dome. She hoped
that wouldn’t be a problem for Zach or Penny as that’s where she
needed them to go.

The Epaphus building was shaped like a
three-dimensional parallelogram stood up on its side. It looked
like it had been dropped from space with such force that one side
of the parallelogram had lodged itself in the earth while the
remainder stuck up at an odd angle. A suspended walkway jutted out
from the high end connecting the parallelogram to a building that
looked like a squat white cartoon tornado. It reminded Binny of a
museum her parents had taken her to on a trip to New York
City.

Grater finally spoke up. “Patients to
the right, others to the left.”

A pained look on his face, Huitre
reminded the Jordan’s about the quarantine requirements.

If Binny was going to keep the truth
from her parents, she thought it might actually be easier if they
weren’t in the same room as the kids. “Mom, I promise, we’ll be
ok.” She looked at Zach for help.

Zach took a second to process what
Binny was saying and then quickly jumped in, “Yes, I agree. Don’t
worry, we’ll be fine!”

Binny smiled her best smile and after
taking Cassie’s hand in hers added, “I promise, we will take care
of each other. Just like when you leave us to take care of Cassie
at home,” added Binny, not realizing how unsettling that might
sound after the events of the past couple of days.

While Julie wasn’t exactly at ease,
she was proud of her children’s independence and maturity. Jay
wasn’t quite as reassured given the history.

Huitre looked reassuringly at the
Jordans and said, “I will introduce you to the doctor who ran the
clinical trial before any tests happen. I am sure that will put you
at ease.”

Jay and Julie reluctantly agreed and
started walking with Huitre to the non-patient entrance to one side
of the building. As they rounded the corner, Binny saw the glint in
Grater’s eye as he cocked his head signaling the three children to
move towards the patient entrance.

As the party got closer to the
building Binny suddenly realized that the other guard, what was his
name, Barrios, wasn’t with them. He was still at the van, opening
the back door. Binny froze.

When Grater noticed that Binny had
stopped walking he followed her gaze and saw that his partner was
in the van. “Hey, Victor, you thinking of joining us? Or have you
had enough work for one day?” Binny sensed the undertone of anger
in the man’s joke. It felt to her like Grater was angry a lot of
the time.

Barrios poked his head out of the back
of the van, “I’m just going to clean up these tarps. They’re a
mess, and shouldn’t be here anyway. I’ll be inside in a
minute.”

When Zach saw Barrios head back into
the van he stiffened abruptly. If they discovered Penny under the
tarps who knew what would happen to all of them?

Binny looked like her eyes were going
to pop out of her head. She turned to Zach and mouthed “DO
something.”

“
I’ll go help with the
tarps.” Zach suggested cheerily. He was already sprinting towards
the van before Grater could react.

“
Hey, what are you doing?
Come back here!” Grater yelled. But it was too late. Zach had
already reached the van and was climbing inside.

Binny could feel Grater’s anger rise.
She had already sensed him starting to boil when Barrios had taken
the initiative to clean up the tarps without getting told to do so.
But when Zach took off it was the straw that broke the camel’s
back. Now even a child wouldn’t follow Grater’s orders! Grater ran
over to the van yelling for Zach. “Hey, get back out
here!”

Binny and Cassie were left standing on
their own. A thought struck Binny, “Hey Cassie, let’s go pick
flowers.”

“
Ok.” Cassie
smiled.

Binny started walking purposefully
away from both the van and the building with Cassie in
tow.

“
Barrios, bring that kid
out here. Now!” In a few seconds Zach appeared out the back of the
van with Barrios right behind him.

“
What the hell do you
think you’re doing?” Grater barked.

Zach wasn’t entirely sure whether the
man was talking to him or the other guard. In the end it seemed
maybe both. Zach decided to answer anyway, “I was just trying to
help.”

“
Do you think he needs
your help? That way. Now!” Grater pointed towards the entrance but
as he turned his head he saw that Binny and Cassie had made
significant progress in a completely different direction. “What???”
He sputtered. “What are you two doing?!” Grater turned to Barrios
exasperated, “Do you think you could do tarp duty later? I could
use your help corralling these little monsters.”

Barrios responded, resigned, “Yes
boss. Of course.”

Even though Binny and Cassie were
moving at a leisurely pace, Grater ran as if they were trying to
escape on a motorcycle. When he caught up with them, demanding that
they return, Cassie turned to him, puzzled, saying sweetly, “We
were just gonna pick some flowers.”

§

The guards marched the children inside
through the patient entrance. Binny was nervous but strangely
excited. She felt almost as if her body was vibrating. The way that
she and Zach had distracted the guards and kept Penny’s presence a
secret exhilarated her. Hopefully these guards would escort them to
their destination quickly and Binny and Zach could get to
work.

But all of a sudden their destination
seemed less certain. Binny had assumed that the three kids would be
together. But the guard named Barrios was escorting Cassie through
one set of doors while the mean guard was directing Zach and Binny
through another.

“
Wait, what are you
doing?” Binny had stopped in her tracks. “We need to stay
together!”

“
Doctor’s orders. Everyone
separate.” The mean guard answered.

Before Binny could say anything else
Cassie was out of sight. Once through the doors, Binny found that
she and Zach were in a short hallway. On one side, in the direction
that Cassie was taken, were two big windows. Facing each window
across the hallway were two more doors. Zach was sent through the
first. Grater closed the door on Zach without a word.

“
There.” Grater grunted,
pointing Binny towards the next door.

“
How long do we have to
wait in here?” Binny said as she reluctantly entered the room. But
by the time she turned around to get her answer, Grater had closed
the door.

§

Binny had to focus. They’d managed to
keep Penny from getting found out. They could handle this. She
could handle this. Binny explored her surroundings.

The room was simple. The
walls were bare. There were a couple of chairs and a table. A small
sad plant sat in a pot on the floor in the corner. Binny thought it
might be fake. At the other end of the room opposite the door was a
big mirror. Under the mirror was a small slot framed in metal. The
room was like no doctor’s exam room she’d ever been in. Binny
walked over to the door. Above the handle was a numerical keypad. A
light on it blinked red. Binny tried the handle. It didn’t
move.
That would have been too
easy
, she thought to herself.

Binny tried to remember the hallway
and the two windows opposite the doors through which she and Zach
had been hustled. She hadn’t looked hard, but the windows had
looked in on rooms that as best as she could recall looked kind of
like this one. Binny suspected that on the other side of the mirror
in her room was just such a hallway. Anyone standing in it would be
able to look in on her, but she would only see her own reflection.
Binny was willing to bet several weeks’ allowance that Zach and
Cassie’s rooms were identical.

It was time, Binny thought. If her
plan was going to work she and Zach needed to get out of these
rooms and past the guards. Now or never.

When Zach had told her about his power
at the park as they ate their ice creams, Binny had been telling
the truth that she didn’t mind being the only one without a special
ability. Mostly the truth any way. She was genuinely happy for
Zach. But she’d be lying if she said that wasn’t mixed with a
little bit of jealousy. She’d suspected Zach was hiding something,
so maybe it was easier for her to act like it was no big deal
because she already kind of knew.

But she would also not be telling the
truth if she didn’t admit that when she finally realized that she
too had a special ability, it filled her with joy. Well, joy and
fear.

She usually knew when her brother was
trying to deceive their parents. That was easy. In her estimation
he was pretty much always lying about something. But there was
something else. Binny had learned to trust her feelings about
people, about Caleb, and about Huitre, for example.

It had ‘clicked’ for her on the front
porch as her parents were arguing with Huitre about bringing the
kids to Luce Laboratories. As she had pondered Huitre’s statements,
she decided to point her mind’s eye, upwards. There was no other
way to describe it. It was as if there was a window, hanging above
where her thoughts usually congregated that she’d never noticed,
and through which she could see things that no one else saw. She
saw images and colors and textures too. It was kind of like having
a second pair of eyes.

When Huitre was talking about getting
notified by Luce Laboratories, Binny could see an image of him
arguing with someone on the phone. The image looked slightly yellow
and was flecked with little lines that resembled cracks in an old
painting. But when Huitre spoke about caring about her and her
siblings, she saw an image of him facing someone in a Luce
Laboratories lab coat, standing in front of Cassie as if to protect
her. That image was tinged red – a solid red.

The events of the day had been so
emotional and nerve-wracking that Binny hadn’t really had time to
let it sink in. Binny Jordan did have a super power – she could
read minds! For a fleeting moment Binny let her competitiveness
with her siblings get the best of her, as she basked in the idea
that her power may be the most special of all. But then she tried
to banish those thoughts from her mind. It wasn’t nice, and she had
a job to do. But still, she couldn’t help that her power was way
cool.

Binny set her mind to the task in
front of her. Closing her eyes, she focused on the window in her
mind. It was blank. Well, that wasn’t quite right, it wasn’t
entirely blank. There were a few small colored spots. Some were
slightly bigger, some a little on the small side.

Binny willed her mind to zoom in on
the nearest dot. It had a touch of dark green around it. The image
slowly got bigger and then she was looking at something. Her mind
filled with the image of a door handle with a keypad. It was the
door handle keypad combination in the room she was in right now.
But her eyes were closed. Binny’s eyes opened in surprise and then
she was looking up at her own door. But her angle was wrong. Binny
was sitting on the floor and looking from below. The image in her
mind’s eye was straight on and much closer.

Binny closed her eyes again and zoomed
back in. Now there was writing, like writing on a chalkboard but
floating in air above the keypad image. It was a list being written
as she looked. The first line said “4 digits – 10,000”. She watched
as the second line came out “5 digits – 100,000”. Then a third, “6
digits 1,000,000.”

Binny had no idea what it meant. Then
the words faded and the keypad came back into focus. An index
finger traced over the keypad and then punched in the number
“0000”. The blinking red light paused momentarily and then
continued blinking. Then the finger pressed “0001”. The red light
still blinked.

Binny recognized that finger. The
fingernails weren’t exactly what you would call clean. It suddenly
hit her. This was what her brother was seeing. He was staring at
his door handle, and the numbers were calculations. Zach was trying
to figure out how much time it would take him to crack the code on
the door handle. A four digit code meant 10,000 different possible
combinations. A five digit code meant 100,000 possibilities. As
annoying as her brother could be, Binny did admire that he hadn’t
given up even though they’d been separated.