Read Amped: A Kid Sensation Companion Novel Online
Authors: Kevin Hardman
The first indication the Kraken got that something was wrong came from one of the techs, who said that the instruments had detected a massive amount of power that was inbound. I’m sure it must have given him an eerie sense of déjà vu.
“Electra,” he said, “what are you doing?”
“I’m trying to do what you asked,” I lied.
“The instrument readings say something else. You really don’t want to test my patience here.”
I gave him an evil glare. “Test
your
patience?! How about you remember that you’ve had this machine for almost twenty years and I’ve been using it for ten seconds! How about a minute for me to figure out how it all works before you start whining about not getting your way?”
“Very well,” the Kraken said with a smile as he pulled a pocket watch from the interior of his suit jacket. “You have your minute, as requested.”
“Wait a minute!” I said. “Be fair!”
The Kraken gave me a bemused grin. “What’s not fair? You asked for a minute; I’m giving it to you. At the end of that time, if these instruments indicate that you’re doing anything other than what I’ve asked, Beguile gets to meet her maker.” He glanced at the pocket watch. “Forty seconds left.”
Beguile, who had appeared to be disconnected from real-time events up until now, suddenly seemed to understand the stakes.
“Alexis,” she said, turning to me. “Please, I need you to do as your grandfather asks.”
Her plea caught me off guard, as it seemed to be sincere and heartfelt.
“I understand that I’ve been less than a fit parent,” she continued in an endearing tone, “but it’s not difficult to understand why. I mean, look at the stock I come from.”
I frowned in confusion. Deep down, I knew this was a ploy on Beguile’s part, a survival mechanism. At the same time, though, it was something I had desperately wanted to hear my entire life.
“Twenty-five seconds,” said the Kraken.
“I can work on being a better mother to you,” Beguile said, “but not if I’m dead. Don’t let me die.”
Beguile’s antics were throwing me off my game plan. I tried to shut her out – focus on what I needed to do. I looked towards Esper, hoping the mere sight of her would give me some kind of guidance, as she had done my entire life.
“Fifteen seconds,” the Kraken announced.
“Alexis! Please!” Beguile screeched. “Please! You have to do this!”
She was starting to sound frantic, more like the Beguile who had tried to choke me out.
The Kraken calmly looked at his watch. “Ten seconds.”
Beguile’s brow suddenly furrowed in anger. “Did you hear me, you brat! Do what you’re told!”
I shut her out, focusing solely on Esper.
The Kraken raised his hand, like a gal holding the flag at the beginning of a drag race. “Seven seconds. Six. Five.”
“
Are you listening to me??!!
” Beguile shrieked as her father continued counting down, spittle flying from her mouth. “
Are you listening to your mother??!!
”
I turned to her, giving her a very frank stare, and said, “As a matter of fact, I am.”
“Zero,” said the Kraken, dropping his arm.
There followed the sound of a gun being fired – almost deafening in the room despite its size – and the Kraken jerked a little. Slowly, as if in surprise, he lifted the bottom of his suit jacket, and I saw a red stain blooming on his shirt in the area of his abdomen. I looked around and saw that the guard who’d had his gun on Beguile now had his weapon trained on the Kraken.
As if following his colleague’s lead, the other security guard suddenly drew his weapon and shot the three telepaths who were supposed to be keeping watch on Esper, dropping them where they stood. He then turned his weapon on the Kraken as well.
Groaning slightly, Esper then sat up. The Kraken stared at her, and then let out a harsh breath. He was clearly not used to being out-maneuvered.
“It’s over, Kraken!” I yelled. “Give up!”
“Never!”
“Then stay here and die!” I yelled.
My timing was perfect, because all of a sudden, alarms began blasting throughout the place, accompanied by flashing lights. The techs, who had all frozen at the sound of shots being fired, suddenly began scrambling for the exits, heedless of the fact that they might be shot. As they ran out, I could hear shouting and what sounded like more gunfire coming from the hallway outside.
The Kraken jerked his head around several times, trying to make sense of what was going on.
“What have you done?!” he finally shouted at me.
“Re-enacted a bit of history,” I said. “There’s a colossal amount of energy headed this way – more than the system can handle. It’s going to take out this machine, this room…probably this entire site!”
The Kraken looked as though he didn’t believe me, but then his face morphed into a mask of complete fury.
“You!” he screamed, his eyes glowing red. “You’re as deceitful as your father! When I finish with you, being shot in the head is going to sound like a Christmas present!”
Before I knew it, he raised his cane and had the end of it pointed in my direction.
“No!” I heard Esper scream as something like laser light came streaking out of the cane. I twisted away as much as the restraints would allow me to, and then felt searing pain in my side.
Sounds of gunfire suddenly erupted, and when I looked, I saw the two security guards emptying their clips in the direction of the Kraken. To my amazement, the old man wasn’t getting riddled with bullets; eyes glowing red, he was twirling the cane so fast between his fingers that it almost couldn’t be seen.
It took me a moment to realize what was happening: the Kraken was using his cane to parry the shots being fired at him. At the same time, he was walking backwards, heading towards one of the exits.
I hunkered down into the metal chair as much as I could as bullets ricocheted around the room. A few moments later, the gunfire ceased.
Suddenly, Esper was over me, undoing the restraints. Even though I had known what was coming, I was still surprised.
Needless to say, Esper had regained consciousness earlier and had been faking her sedation. The fact that she had done so while under the watch of three other elite telepaths was a true testament to her abilities. (She would later tell me that fooling those three had been child’s play.) She had, of course, taken over the guards as well before mentally communicating with me while the Kraken performed his countdown. (Thankfully, she had agreed with my hasty plan to destroy this place.)
“Sweetie,” she said, voice full of concern as she undid the last of the restraints, “are you okay?”
“I think so,” I replied. “The Kraken?”
“He made it to the exit. Beguile and that other woman got out as well, through another door.”
I touched my side, where the Kraken had shot me, and winced in pain at the contact. When I looked at my hand, I saw blood.
“Oh no!” Esper gasped. “We have to get you to a hospital.”
She began yanking the electrodes off me, but I slapped her hand away, before she was able to disconnect more than a few.
“No,” I said. “I have to stay here.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“I wasn’t lying,” I said. “There’s enough power headed this way to blow this place sky-high – but only if I stay in place.”
“What?”
“If I leave the chair or break the connection, the machine shuts down. That means all that energy gets released at whatever junction it’s at in the transmission process.”
“Just like Aberdeen.”
“Yeah, and right now I’m pretty sure it’s over the city – millions of people. We’ve probably got more residents in one square block than Aberdeen had in the whole town.”
It took her a moment to process what I was saying, and then she started crying.
“Esper, we don’t have time for this,” I said. “You need to leave.
Now
.”
Tears streaming down her face, she just shook her head and took my hand. “No. I can’t. You go – I’ll stay.”
“You can’t. It won’t work for anyone but me.”
At that, the remaining color drained from her face.
“Esper, you have to leave,” I insisted. However, it didn’t seem that she was listening to me. It was almost as if she hadn’t heard me.
“Esper,” I said, trying to get her attention. “Esper!
Aunt
Esper!!”
Finally, she seemed to snap out of whatever fugue state she’d been in.
“It’s time,” I said. “You have to go.”
She nodded silently, and then stepped back. The two guards – the only other people left in the room and obviously still under Esper’s control – moved in unison to flank her.
“Aunt Esper,” I said as she turned to go. “Thank you for everything. I love you.”
“I know, baby,” she said. “And thank you – for making everything I did worthwhile.”
At that moment, one of the doors flew open, shoved with such intensity that it banged against the wall.
“Anyone need help in here?” said a male voice.
I stared, not believing what I was seeing, still surprised at who had just walked into the room.
It was my father, Vir.
Wearing street clothes, Vir stepped confidently over to where I sat in the chair, casually glancing around the room.
“Hey, Amp,” he said, bending down to give me a kiss on the cheek. He then turned to my aunt, greeting her with a mere “Esper” before kissing her on the cheek as well.
He put his hands on his hip and spun in a circle, taking in the room.
“Geez, your old man has made a mess of my work,” he stated a moment later. He then began pointing at various items around the room. “That’s configured all wrong. That’s misconnected. The alignment on those two is off. And that…I don’t even know what that’s doing in here.”
He turned back to me. “Well, what are you waiting on? Get up, get outta here.”
“I can’t,” I said. “There’s an elec–”
“I know,” he said, interrupting me. “I can read it on the instruments. That’s why you need to go. Trust me, you don’t want to be here when this thing goes kaboom.”
I was about to say that he didn’t understand, that I
couldn’t
just leave. Then I realized that he did understand, and I could
definitely
leave – if he took my place.
Without warning, I started feeling the weird signal in my head again.
I stared at him for a moment, and then nodded.
*****
It took less than a minute for me to swap places with my father. (It turned out that the induction engine could stay functional for a limited period – roughly thirty seconds – without the bio-interface being active, which gave Vir time to take my place.)
It disturbed me to a certain extent that he could be so stoic about dying, and I said so.
“But I’m not dying,” he said with a smile. “I’ll keep living through you.”
After that, there wasn’t much time other than to give him a hug and a kiss him on the forehead. I turned and headed towards the door then, giving him and Esper a moment alone. It was the least they deserved.
Seconds later, Esper and the two security guards joined me at the door and we left.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that we escaped by the skin of our teeth. Reading the minds of the guards, Esper was able to locate several routes, paths, and points of egress that were limited to the use of security personnel. Since most organizations want their security on the scene as fast as possible when needed, these avenues basically provided faster access through the complex.
Still, the place was a little bit of a madhouse, with everyone scrambling to escape impending doom. (This occasionally prompted Esper to use our two escorts for crowd control – especially when someone was blocking our way.) Ignoring the pain in my side, I thought I did a fair job of keeping up as we dashed down corridors, through hallways, up stairwells and more, until we arrived at what looked like a subway tunnel.
From what Esper had learned from the guards, this was an underground rail shuttle mostly used to deliver supplies. From our perspective, it made a perfect emergency exit. All four of us piled in and soon we were zooming away. (Shortly thereafter, we heard what sounded like a large explosion and felt tremors, but thankfully our shuttle didn’t appear to be affected.)
Our end destination turned out to be a warehouse that was bustling with activity as people were loading various items onto trucks, railcars, and more. If anyone found it strange to see us step off the shuttle, they had the good manners to keep their opinion to themselves. A moment later, we were outside.
“What are you going to do with them?” I asked Esper, tilting my head towards the guards. “Make them turn themselves in and confess?”
“No,” she said. “That’s the telepathic equivalent of beating a confession out of someone. If that was fine, I’d have had the Kraken do it years ago.”
Well, that certainly shed light on a few things. It also made me feel better to know that my aunt (it still felt weird to apply that term to her) practiced what she preached from the standpoint of using her powers responsibly.
In the end, she settled for having the guards stay in place until the police (whom we promptly called) came for them. From what she’d seen in their heads, they were already wanted in connection with various crimes, so a confession wasn’t necessary.
“The Kraken tends to do a reverse security check when it comes to hiring decisions,” Esper said. “The worse your background, the more likely you are to get a job.”
We then went straight to League HQ. While I received medical attention, Esper reported what had happened to us and had a team sent to sweep our house and make sure it was secure. They must have given me something, because I don’t remember much of what happened afterwards. When I woke up, however, I was in a hospital room. Unsurprisingly, Esper was sitting in a chair next to my bed.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” she said. “How are you?”
“Good, I think.” I touched my side where I’d been wounded and felt bandages. “I’ve definitely been better, though.”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know that the house is secure. We can go home whenever they let you out of here.”
“What about the Kraken? Will he be coming after us? You said he doesn’t make idle threats.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about him. I replanted the memory of your death – along with a few new ones – as well as the compulsion to stay away.”
“Will that be enough? I mean, he’s met me now. Doesn’t that make it more likely that he’ll remember something?”
“If he does remember anything, it’ll be like a dream. And which do you think he’ll be more accepting of – the on-going conviction he’s had for seventeen years that his granddaughter is dead, or the dream that for a day or so she was still alive?”
“I get that, but how will he accept the destruction of that industrial complex?”
“I embedded the notion that he simply wanted to try the induction engine again. He ended up with the same results as last time, and got injured in the process of escaping.”
“Okay, but there are still other people who saw me. Smiley, Whipcord, Beguile…”
“Beguile and her nurse I took care of before they even left the room with the induction engine. Besides, Beguile is unstable and no one listens to her anyway. As to Smiley and Whipcord, they got arrested after the incident at Locke Infinite and still haven’t recovered their sight. But I paid them a little visit while you were out and they won’t remember you either.”
She gave me a wink and I laughed.
“So,” I concluded, “you’re telling me that I don’t have to worry about Novercalis at all.”
“Well, they’re still out there, and at some point the League – hopefully – is going to take them down, so they may not be
completely
out of your future.”
“That raises a question,” I said, frowning. “With all the interaction that you and Vir had with Novercalis, with everything you told the League about them, why wasn’t there anything in the databases about them?”
Esper was silent for a moment, and then stated, “I had it removed. That info resides on an isolated network that’s not connected to the main databases.”
“Why’d you do that?”
“Because I saw this day coming. I knew there’d be a time when you’d figure things out – get close to the truth – and I didn’t want you crossing paths with them until you were ready. So I tried to hide some pieces of the puzzle to keep you from seeing the big picture too soon.”
I lowered my eyes. “I’m sorry. I know now that you were just trying to protect me. I should have waited. If I had, then none of this mess would have happened.”
Esper reached out and lifted my chin until my eyes met hers. “No,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s
my
fault. I should have realized you were ready to know the truth a long time ago.”
“Still, if I had just waited, Vir wouldn’t be dead.”
“Who’s dead?” said a voice from the doorway.
I looked up – and couldn’t believe it.
Vir was standing there, grinning.
Before I knew what I was doing, I had scrambled out of bed, pulling the IV loose from my arm as I ran over to give him a fierce hug. I closed my eyes, feeling incredibly safe as he hugged me back and kissed the top of my head.
“Excuse me,” said a nurse. “She needs to get back in bed.”
It was then that I noticed that a beeper was going off, probably as a result of the IV coming out. I climbed back into bed and let the nurse reinsert it. Then, after giving me a stern warning, she left and closed the door.
“I thought you were dead!” I exclaimed to Vir.
“No,” he said, pulling up a chair and sitting next to Esper. “It’s bad form to be killed by your own invention. You’ll never live it down.”
Esper and I laughed at that, and then my aunt excused herself.
“So,” he said, “I’m sure you must have questions.”
I shrugged. “Most of the background stuff I already heard from Esper – I mean,
Aunt
Esper. I do want to know how you survived, though.”
“That’s easy enough. I basically just slowed down the approach of the incoming power. That gave you and your aunt enough time to skedaddle, and me, too.”
“Notwithstanding the thirty seconds that the machine could stay functional without the interface, I thought that if no one was connected to it, the induction engine would shut down and the energy would release explosively from wherever it was in the transmission process.”
Vir shook his head disdainfully. “The Kraken told you that, right? He and his minions have no clue how a device like that works or how it can be adjusted. Their thinking is way too linear.”
“So you’re saying you modified it? In just a few minutes?”
He winked. “It’s easy when you know how.”
I suddenly recalled Esper’s description of Vir, how he was absolutely brilliant. It appeared that she hadn’t been exaggerating.
“By the way, kudos to you for figuring out where to get enough power to destroy that facility,” said Vir.
“I tore a page out of your book,” I said.
He smiled. “Great minds think alike. Most people don’t realize just how much electricity is in the planet’s atmosphere.”
I nodded in agreement. Almost everyone is aware that electricity exists in the atmosphere in the form of thunderstorms. However, outside of occasionally experiencing static shock, the general public seems blissfully unaware that there is a gargantuan amount of electricity all around us on a daily basis. In short, like Vir had done with the first induction engine, I had simply siphoned energy right out of the atmosphere.
“You know,” I said, “that device could solve the world’s energy problems.”
“It could,” he agreed. “But how are you going to guarantee that it doesn’t get used for bad things, like Novercalis had planned? Are you just going to take everyone’s word for it?” When I had no ready response, he said, “No, it’s better to just let the world find its own solution to that problem.”
“Anyway,” I said, changing the subject, “how’d you even know where we were? How’d you get there, for that matter?”
“Well, as to knowing where you were, we’re connected. You and I, that is. So I could feel when you were in distress.”
“Wait,” I said, not liking the implications of what I was hearing. “Are you saying you can sense my emotions, like when I’m bummed out about getting a bad grade, or, um, if, um, I’m out with a boy that I like and I’m, uh, excited?”
He laughed. “Don’t worry. I don’t know why, but it’s only when you’re in distress – danger.”
“Good to know,” I said, relief flooding through me.
“Besides, there’ll be no dating on my watch.”
I looked at him, noting that he appeared deadly serious. And then we both burst out laughing.
“Truth be told,” he said after a few moments of chuckling, “this was the first time it happened. I mean, I had this overriding sense that you were in danger.”
He gave me a few more details, and – based on when the feeling of dread hit him – it appeared to have coincided with the attack on me and Esper at our house.
“That brings us back to how you got there,” I said.
“Yeah, about that,” Vir said, suddenly looking sheepish. “I guess I sorta…broke out.”
“What?! How?!” I exclaimed. Then I remembered. “Never mind. I already know: the flawed nullifier.”
He nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”
“So how’d you get here?”
“Believe it or not, I still have friends – people in high places willing to do me favors. One of them has a plane that they put at my disposal. Of course, I don’t want to get them in trouble, so they’ll have to remain nameless.”
“Of course,” I agreed, although I already had a pretty good idea of who this friend was.
“Anyway,” he continued, “I’ve already called the authorities and told them that I turned myself in to the League. They’ll be sending a car for me soon, so if you have any questions for me, better get them out now.”
“I still have a couple.”
“Shoot.”
“When’s my birthday?”
“Your birthday is your birthday.”
“Huh?”
“The date on your birth certificate is your actual birthday. There was no reason to lie about that.”
I smiled. “Thanks. It’s great to know that I’ve actually been celebrating on the proper day. Oh, and my name? Where did that come from?”
“Your aunt came up with that, based on the fact that I always referred to you as my little Amp. Plus, it suited your power set. I could feel it in you before you were even born.”
“And what about this mental-talk we can do? It’s not telepathy…”
“No, it isn’t. It’s more like a radio station frequency that only the two of us can tune in to.”
I didn’t bother hiding my surprise. “I didn’t know anything like that existed.”
He leaned forward, as if telling me a secret. “Amp, you have no idea the things we’re capable of – people like us. Generating and controlling electricity? Sweetheart, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg. Your potential is so much more than you could ever imagine. Don’t diminish your ability to achieve that greatness by defining limits for yourself.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Now,” he said, “if those are all
your
questions, I have two for you.”
“Okay, shoot.”
He looked away for a second. “I’ll be heading back to lock-up soon. They’ll probably tack a few more years onto my sentence for the breakout, but I don’t care about that. If, um, if I put you on my approved visitors list, do you think you could come see me sometime?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I can’t stand the idea of seeing you locked up, especially when I know that everything you did was for me.”
He nodded solemnly, looking down at the floor. “That’s fine. I can accept that.”
“But I will write and call – as often as they’ll let me.”
A bright smile broke out on his face. “That’ll be fine. Great, in fact.”
“So what’s your second question?”
For the first time, Vir seemed somewhat at a loss for words. Whatever it was, I couldn’t imagine that it could be harder than asking me to visit him in prison, but apparently he felt it was. Finally, he took a deep breath and said, “If enough time goes by and we get to know each other – and I’m not expecting it to happen overnight – but at some juncture, do you think you might be able to call me ‘Dad’?”
“Absolutely,” I said with a smile. “Dad.”
Practically beaming, he leaned over and gave me a warm hug.