The Madrona Heroes Register: Echoes of the Past (29 page)

It was not the first time on this long
day that Jay and Julie felt that they were not able to protect
their children from the painful experiences they were about to go
through.

§

Binny continued, “Listen to me closely
Cassie. We all have a job to do. And this is your job.”

“
What’s my job again?”
Cassie was whimpering. To Binny it looked like Cassie’s image was
being projected by a faulty film projector, dancing on a fine line
between functional and completely broken.

Binny repeated herself
slowly and calmly in the hopes that it would help her sister
collect herself. “Your job is to stay calm and
not
turn invisible.”

“
Why not?”

Binny didn’t want to scare Cassie even
worse, but she needed to impress upon her the importance of staying
visible. “You are a special girl. You can turn invisible. It’s
amazing. It’s your super power.”

Cassie gave a faint smile, as Binny
continued, “But it’s YOUR superpower. Nobody else’s. Adults, when
they see something special, like your ability, they want to find a
way to be able to do it themselves.”

“
How could they do
that?”

“
Well, I don’t know. But
it’s not gonna happen.”

“
Like E.T.?”

“
Like E.T.?” Binny
repeated Cassie’s question not exactly sure what Cassie was
asking.

“
Daddy said that when they
take you apart to see what makes you tick, you don’t come back to
life.”

Binny silently chastised her father
for showing Cassie that movie.

Cassie turned decidedly more
transparent.

§

Feeling that the discussion was now
concluded, Samantha Trace nodded to the Jordans and turned toward
the door from which she’d entered. Dr. Huitre made to go with
her.

“
Oh, Henry, that’s
alright. What I’d really appreciate is if you could stay here with
Mr. and Mrs. Jordan. I’m sure you’d be great at answering any
questions that might come up. I promise to be quick.”

“
But – ” Huitre blurted
out, but Trace was already through the door and striding down the
long hallway beyond. Grater’s position at the door made it clear
that nobody would be following her.

§

Binny could sense a solid purple
presence heading in the general direction of Cassie’s room and knew
she was running out of time to help Cassie stay calm.

“
Cassie, you can do this.
You’re a big kid now. Like me and Zach.”

“
I am?” Cassie’s face
brightened and her entire body looked a little less
transparent.

Binny felt in her pocket for
something, grasping it in the palm of her hand. “Cassie, you are my
one and only sister. I promise, I will keep you safe.”

“
Then come be here with me
right now. I don’t like it here, and I don’t want to be alone.”
Cassie was completely visible for the moment.

“
I have to go do
something, but I have something to give you before I go. Now that
you’re a big kid, you’re ready for it. It will keep you strong,
keep you from turning invisible.” Binny took a small round object
from her pocket and carefully pushed it through the slot towards
her sister.

Cassie grabbed the ornate silver
compact mirror just before it fell to the ground. Her eyes got
wide. “I can borrow this?”

“
Cassie, it’s yours
now.”

“
Really?”

“
Really.” Binny nodded up
and down and then continued. “Open it, read what it
says.”

Cassie opened the compact and read
from the inscription. “You’re a vision?”

“
It means that you’re
special, you stand out. You’re not invisible.” Binny smiled
sweetly, “Read the rest.”

Cassie read. “I will always be there
for you.”

“
See? I will always be
there for you Cassie. Hold on to that mirror and everything will be
just fine.”

“
Thank you
Binny.”

“
I gotta go now. I’ll be
back real soon. I promise.”

Binny carefully closed the slot just
as the door to Cassie’s room opened. Through the door strode the
thin annoyed woman from that morning. Dr. Trace. Binny was
stunned.

She almost screamed thinking that the
woman had seen her, but then remembered that while Binny could see
in to the room, all the thin woman could see was her own
reflection.

Binny hoped that Cassie and the mirror
would do their jobs. Now it was time to do hers. Heart beating
faster than it ever had, Binny tried her best to exit
quietly.

22

The sun had mostly set on this already
very long summer day. It was still too light to see any stars, but
easy to get lost if you didn’t know the way. Zach knew where he was
going. He hoped that Penny did as well. She didn’t have his memory.
While not immediately visible from the building they’d been in, the
records room with its big glass dome seemed like it would be pretty
recognizable. Though maybe less so without the summer sun making it
sparkle.

Zach didn’t know how many more
security guards might be patrolling the campus, and he didn’t
intend to find out. At least not through a firsthand encounter
anyway.

Zach wasn’t used to taking orders from
his younger sister. And to her credit, they didn’t really feel like
orders. They were more like plans that she was crazy certain of and
wanted them to fulfill together. But if Zach was being honest with
himself, he wasn’t used to doing much of anything with Binny other
than fighting. These last few days were very different than their
standard routine.

Zach could remember every fight
between him and his sister for the past year, but he couldn’t
remember ever feeling so at ease with her. He wasn’t sure exactly
what had changed. Was it his parents finally coming clean that they
were splitting up? He shuddered at the knowledge that he’d held
onto for so long, always hoping that he was wrong. Was it the
danger to their baby sister Cassie? Maybe they had no choice but to
get closer so they could work together to keep her safe.

He realized that it was telling Binny
that he had a super power that had made him feel the closest to
her. For the longest time he’d thought that maybe there was
something wrong with him. He’d read all about people with eidetic,
photographic, and even autobiographical memories. But somehow, his
abilities seemed to transcend them all. And he’d been afraid to
tell anyone what he could do.

Not so much out of fear that he’d be
the one being poked and prodded and end up with a bunch of tubes
sticking out of him – though that probably was in the back of his
mind. It was more that Zach was just kind of private. Zach had
friends at school. But he never felt the urge to tell a single one
of them about his power. Binny was the only person in a position to
understand how he was really feeling. Zach supposed Cassie might be
able to understand, too, but she was still on “planet Cassie”,
according to Zach’s father. “She’ll grow out of it eventually – I
hope,” he would usually add.

For now though, Zach needed to focus
his full attention on finding Penny and avoiding any security
guards that might get in the way of their plan.

§

Lucky for me, Binny thought to
herself, whoever designed this place loved hallways. Binny had
slowly found her way to the second floor of the building with the
interview/exam rooms, all the while avoiding the guards as well as
her parents. The radar that was now built into Binny’s head was
proving quite useful. It turned out that the bigger clumps of color
were closer and the smaller ones were further away. As long as she
kept a regular check on that screen in her mind, she had a pretty
good shot at staying undiscovered.

Eventually Binny found her target –
the suspended walkway that connected the Epaphus building to the
circular one next door. The sign on the wall referred to the
building next door as “Dionysus”. Hopefully Penny and Zach could
find the building labeled “Minos” among all these oddly named
buildings. Somewhere in that maze of file cabinets filled with
records was the truth about what they had injected into her mother.
She was sure of it.

The suspended walkway between the
buildings had doors at either end. Both had warning signs. They
read “After Hours Emergency Exit. ALARM WILL SOUND!” Binny let
herself smile just a little. She had found what she was looking
for.

§

Zach’s route to the records room was
punctuated by a series of starts and stops. He would run to a
relatively secluded spot, survey the area before him, and then run
to the next hiding place. At one point he thought he saw a
flashlight off in the distance, but otherwise he hadn’t encountered
a soul. Zach took off at a run to the final spot around the side of
the Minos building where he, Binny, and Penny had been earlier in
the day. He looked over his shoulder as he reached his destination
to make sure nobody was watching him from behind.

“
Took ya long
enough.”

Zach’s heart jumped right into his
throat.

“
You ok?” Penny was
standing there sporting a toothy grin.

“
You scared me half to
death!” Zach rebuked her.

Penny said she was sorry but seemed to
be enjoying herself a little too much to pull off a genuine
sounding apology. Changing the subject, Penny continued, “Remind me
what exactly we’re looking for again?”

“
Well that’s the thing.
Binny wasn’t exactly specific.”

“
I didn’t want to
interrupt her with questions. She seemed so certain about her
plan.” Penny smiled.

“
Yeah. She’s pretty
confident alright.” Zach smiled in return, sharing a conspiratorial
moment with Penny. He might feel closer to Binny these days, but
that didn’t mean he couldn’t joke about her a bit. “Binny believes
that the records explaining what they really did to our mom are in
this building. She believes there’s a smoking gun in those
records.”

“
A smoking
gun?”

“
Evidence that this study
is not what the Luce Laboratories people say it was. Of course,
finding that evidence is not our most pressing problem.”

“
What is?” Penny
asked.

“
Finding a way to get
inside the building.”

Penny pointed to the ladder she’d laid
at the side of the building responding, “Would this
help?”

§

Jay, Julie, and Dr. Huitre sat in the
waiting area, uncomfortable and fidgety under the gaze of the head
of Luce Laboratories security. Dr. Huitre had long stopped trying
to make things better as his comments were only making Jay more
angry and Julie more upset.

For his part, Grater just stood by the
door to the examination rooms, unmoving and unmoved.

§

Penny and Zach had pulled the ladder
up onto the roof of the Minos building so it wouldn’t be noticed by
anyone below and were now peering through the glass dome into the
records room. “You broke the door handle to get into the
greenhouse, right? Zach was confident he knew what Penny had
done.

“
I didn’t have to. It was
unlocked.” Penny smiled at their unexpected good luck.

“
Huh.” Zach pondered that
detail for a moment, puzzled.

“
I think if we break these
panes here, we can lower the ladder onto that filing cabinet and
get down there.” Penny pulled the base of the ladder into
position.

Zach put his hand out between Penny
and the glass, “Wait. Not yet. We’re supposed to wait for the
signal.”

§

Cassie stood still by the large
mirrored window as Dr. Trace made herself comfortable in one of the
undersized chairs. The room was designed for children, and the
small furniture was intended to put the adult clinician on the same
level as the child patient. “It’s ok, dear. Why don’t you come over
and sit next to me so we can talk?”

Cassie shook her head.

“
I promise, I won’t bite.
The only things I ever bite are sandwiches and I had one just an
hour ago. I’m quite full now.”