Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel (14 page)

I came to on something like a military cot in a small room with insulated walls. There was a slight ache on my sternum where that old fart had shot me, presumably with a tranquilizer. I wanted to kick myself for having let my guard down, but there was nothing to do about it now. Looking at my watch, I saw that I had been out about ten hours.

I touched the material coating the walls and realized that it was non-conductive. I wouldn’t be using my powers to escape this place. The room had no windows but did have a single door. Knowing what to expect, I grabbed the knob and turned it anyway. Much to my surprise, it was unlocked.

I stepped out of the room and into a featureless but well-lit hallway. There were a number of people walking by, plainly intent on running various errands. None of them spared me more than a glance.

My initial inclination – if no one was going to stop me – was to find Esper and get out of here. (If they had me, they certainly had her.) I reflected for a moment on the best way to locate her, preparing to reach out with my power to see if she was anywhere near.

All of a sudden, I noticed a young man dressed like a security guard moving towards me. Unlike the others in the hallway, he looked at me directly and didn’t glance away. I surreptitiously began gathering a ball of electricity in my palm.

“Ma’am,” the security guard said after stopping a few feet away. “Please follow me.” He then turned and began walking away.

Unsure of where I was or what was happening, I reabsorbed the electricity I’d been planning to fry the guard with and began walking behind him.

*****

We walked for about fifteen minutes through what appeared to be a large complex of some sort. I didn’t see a lot of visual features other than unadorned white walls and a few storage areas full of unmarked boxes. However, reaching out with my electrophoric ability, I could sense massive power fluctuations nearby, giving me the impression that we were at some type of industrial site.

I tried to engage my escort by asking questions: where are we, what is this place, etcetera. He blatantly ignored all attempts at conversation, and – in my opinion – only deigned to occasionally look at me because he wanted to make sure I didn’t go wandering off.

After traversing numerous hallways, we ended up entering an elevator and – from what I could discern – descending in it to an area that was probably well below ground. Once the elevator came to a halt, we exited into what seemed to be the hub for a number of corridors. I followed my guide down one of them, ending up at something like the entrance to an executive office. My escort knocked once, and then opened the door. Understanding what was expected of me, I went inside.

I found myself in what appeared to be a spacious executive office. In contrast to the drab corridors I’d been through on my way here, the room was alive with colors: hardwood floors, a mahogany desk, expensive artwork on the walls. Along one wall was a line of built-in bookshelves housing leather-bound classics of literature. Near the desk was a beautifully crafted office bar, on which sat a gorgeous decanter of alcohol with matching glasses. Behind the desk was a large glass window.

I took all of this in with a glance before focusing on the one other person in the room – a man standing near the glass window looking out (although I couldn’t imagine what there was to look at this deep underground). Even before he turned to look at me, I knew who it was. It was the man who had been at our house the night before. The man I had almost run into on the street. The man who had shot me.

The Kraken.

He turned towards me, giving me my first look at the man who’d had such a powerful and lasting influence on my life.

He was still dressed in a suit, as I’d seen him before. He was maybe six-two in height, with a neatly trimmed gray beard and dark gray hair that was combed back. He had only a few wrinkles in his face, but I pegged his age at around the late sixties. That said, he didn’t seem old or feeble. In fact, as he began walking towards me using the cane, it became plainly evident that he didn’t need it; the walking stick was being used solely for appearance and effect rather than actual utility.

“My dear,” he said, approaching me with arms outstretched. “They told me you were stirring, so I asked to see you as soon as you were awake.”

Although wary, I allowed him to give me a hug, which he followed up with a peck on the cheek.

“It’s so good to meet you,” he said in a kindly tone. “I suppose you already know who I am.”

“The Kraken,” I responded vehemently, noting the tattoo on his wrist.

He seemed slightly taken aback by the fierceness of my tone, but quickly recovered. “Well, I was hoping we could start with something more affectionate, like ‘Grandfather,’ but I sup–”

“Where’s Esper?” I asked, cutting him off. My knee-jerk reaction when I saw who I was meeting with had been to start blasting my way out of this place, but I couldn’t do it without Esper.

He stared at me for a moment, then cleared his throat before speaking. “Your aunt is indisposed at the moment. She is–”

“What does that mean?” I interjected. “‘Indisposed’?”

Seemingly irritated, the Kraken pursed his lips, and then tapped his cane on the floor. “My dear, I understand that the youth of today have little respect for their elders and that an upbringing under your aunt probably meant the lack of a firm hand or discipline. Nevertheless, I must insist that you grant me the courtesy of finishing a statement without interruption. Can you do that?”

I crossed my arms defiantly but nodded. “Sure.”

“Excellent. Now as to Esper, she is sedated.”

Immediately angry, I opened my mouth to speak but the Kraken held up a hand, firmly indicating that I remain silent.

“Her powers, as you know, are formidable, and she’s used them to manipulate members of her own family. For instance, she had me laboring under the false impression that you were deceased, and placed an urge on me to stay away that was so powerful that I practically forgot she was my daughter.”

“So what changed the status quo?”

“You did.”

I frowned, not sure what he was talking about. Noting my confusion, he walked back towards his desk, motioning for me to follow. Once there, he grabbed a piece of paper from the desktop and handed it to me. I took a look at it and drew in a deep breath. It was the hospital record with Mary Jones’ contact information.

I flipped through my mind, trying to remember where I’d last seen it. Then the clouds in my mind parted and I remembered: I had given it to Riley in his fabrication shop when he went into his office.

“That was my first clue,” the Kraken said. “When Riley called saying some girl was at his place asking about an alias my elder daughter had used almost twenty years ago.”

“So Riley
did
know something.”

“Not really. He owed our organization a favor back then, so we told him we needed to use his address. His place was basically nothing more than a mail drop, and we didn’t use it for very long. In fact, he had practically forgotten that it ever happened.”

That certainly explained why Riley initially didn’t know what I was talking about.

“Then why kill him?” I asked, suddenly sure of what had happened – especially if the hospital record I’d left with Riley was now in the hands of Novercalis.

“That was an accident – the unfortunate outcome of sending underlings with the wrong dispositions to handle a matter that required a more delicate touch.”

“Or it was simply your way of tying up loose ends.”

The Kraken smiled in a way that gave me the creeps, but quickly recovered and resumed the kindly grandfather routine.

“Be that as it may, it wasn’t difficult to determine where that hospital record had come from, so I sent some couriers to retrieve the rest of them.”

“And would those couriers have the same dispositions as the underlings who visited Riley?”

“Oddly enough, Whipcord and Smiley make an effective team, perfectly complementing each other. For instance, whereas Whipcord never seems to shut up, your uncle rarely speaks at all.”

“Don’t call him that!” I said, suddenly angry. “He’s not my uncle!”

The Kraken made a tsking noise. “Denying it doesn’t make it any less true. But if it’s any consolation, he would have been far less aggressive had he known you were his niece.”

“I find that hard to believe coming from a man who sliced his own son’s throat.”

To my great surprise, the grandfatherly mask came off then, with his eyes suddenly glowing red and the Kraken shouting, “I will not brook disobedience! The will of the Kraken is paramount!”

Breathing heavily through gritted teeth, he looked like he wanted to break something…or someone. After a moment, however, he seemed to regain his composure. His breathing shifted back to normal and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, the red glow was gone.

“Besides,” he went on, “your uncle was a recalcitrant child, with no respect for the sacred canons and edicts of Novercalis.”

“Really? You’re going to complain about a member of a secret society of criminals not obeying the rules?”

“Even criminals have to have a code.”

“A-ha!” I screeched. “You admit that you’re criminals!”

For a second, I thought he was going to shout again, but the Kraken’s expression was sober. Then he laughed.

“Fine,” he said. “We’re criminals. And for the record, I knew your uncle would recover – he has augmented strength and a potent healing ability. It just doesn’t do much for scars.”

“And that made it okay for you to just carve him up like a pumpkin.”

The Kraken tapped his cane on the floor in irritation. “This conversation has gotten sidetracked. I was explaining how – despite your aunt’s best efforts – I found you again.”

“Please go on.”

“As you know, the Mary Jones record relates to my daughter Beguile. I started racking my brains, trying to figure out who would have an interest in these events. The only person I could think of was your father, and he’s been locked up for a lifetime. Besides, he was personally involved, so what need would he have to research any of this? And the more I thought about it, the more it felt like I was missing something. So on a whim, I decided to have Vir watched. And can you guess what happened?”

I didn’t say anything. I already knew what had occurred.

“This young girl shows up to visit him,” the Kraken continued. “When it’s reported to me, I ask to see the footage of this young lady.”

I fought to keep surprise from showing on my face. I knew I was being filmed at Vir’s prison, but if the Kraken was able to get a copy of the tape – and I didn’t doubt that he was – it was further evidence of the reach of Novercalis. But I really shouldn’t have been surprised; after all, Novercalis had once been able to compromise a member of the Alpha League.

“Lo and behold,” the Kraken went on, “when I see this footage it’s like I’m seeing a ghost. The girl on the tape is like a clone of my eldest girl from her teen years – her hair, her skin, her walk, her mannerisms. They’re all strikingly reminiscent of my daughter. Of course, Beguile had had a daughter of her own, but that child had died. Or had she? My memories on the topic started to get muddled as I tried to recall the exact details of her death. At that point, since I couldn’t seem to sort things out on my own, it occurred to me that I should seek professional help.”

I snorted. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all day.”

The Kraken’s lips pursed in anger for a second, and then he went on. “Since the problem seemed to be in my mind, and Novercalis has several powerful telepaths in its ranks, I sent for one of them. That’s when I discovered that my memories had been tampered with, among other things. It only took about an hour to fix everything, to undo the damage, but from all indications, it was your aunt who had scrambled my brains, so I decided to pay her a visit.”

“How’d you even know where we lived?”

The Kraken laughed. “Young lady, I was viewing the tape of you going to meet your father within thirty minutes of you stepping inside that prison. Finding out where my daughter lived was almost effortless. What came as a surprise was the fact that you lived with her. My agents are parked across the street, waiting for Esper, when you drive up. After that, it wasn’t difficult to figure out who you were. I was tempted to knock on the door and introduce myself, but decided to wait and see Esper first.”

“So that you could maybe cut her nose off to teach her a lesson?”

“Nonsense. I only wanted to talk.”

“And she just happens to pass out later and can’t be woken up?” I hissed angrily. “That’s bull! What did you do to her?”

“The same thing I did to you – greeted her with a hug. That said, I will admit that I covertly smeared a soporific on her skin, although it took longer than I anticipated to cause the intended effect.”

My eyes went wide as I thought about the hug I’d given him. He noted my reaction and laughed.

“Never fear,” he said. “I didn’t feel it necessary to take the same action with you as with your aunt.”

“Of course not. It was easier to shoot me in the chest.”

The Kraken scowled slightly. “I do apologize for that, but I needed you to come with me, and I didn’t have the time to debate the subject. But trust me when I say I have no intention of doing that again. If you fall to the floor unconscious from this point forward, it won’t be my doing.”

I didn’t know if I believed him or not, but it was too late to do anything about it. Of course, drugging Esper had been absolutely necessary to effectuate his raid on our house. Had she been conscious, Esper could have simply gone into the minds of our attackers and ended the battle before it began.

“Anyway,” he said, walking towards the door, “now that you are up to speed on current events, we should go.”

“Why would I go anywhere with you?”

“Because I have a surprise for you.”

“Keep it. I’m not interested.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I said insistently.

“Pity,” the Kraken said, looking wistful. “I thought you’d like to meet your mother.”