No ordinary hero (Keepers of justice # 1) (10 page)

The footsteps grow fainter and fainter.
Stretch appears at the doorway. “He went into the bathroom. Let’s move!”

We
make a mad dash out of the room, scout the area to make sure no one’s around, then lock the door, and jump into the elevator. We sigh in relief. Well, Stretch and I do. X leans his back on the wall and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Please tell me you found something,” Stretch says, out of breath. His heartbeat’s probably pulsing a thousand times
per minute like mine.

“We found something all right,” X says, his eyes dark.

Stretch plays with his fingers. “Is it bad?”

I shrug. “Didn’t really get a good look at it. X?”

He pushes off the wall. “They have this guy contained in their facility. Virus Boy.” Yeah, I read that much. “Once released to the public, this guy will infect everyone with the virus. It will start a pandemic and everyone will die.”

“Everyone?”
Stretch squeaks.

“It’s not
that surprising, since they’ve planned these types of things before,” I say. “But something doesn’t make sense. Why would the Blades want to kill everyone? Why kill themselves, too?”

X shakes his head. “People with powers are immune. The virus will only affect normies.”

Both Stretch and X look at me. Stretch’s face is the palest I’ve ever seen. “Fantastic,” I mumble. “It makes sense, though. Like the last time when the Blades wanted to start a war between the humans. But this? It’s crazy! Wars can be stopped, peace can be attained. But once a virus is released, it kills and there’s no stopping it.”

“What do we do?” Stretch asks.

“We tell Samson,” X says, pressing the button on the elevator that’ll take us to the top floor, to Dad’s office. “I’m sick of this. I want those bastards gone.”

The elevator doors open and we make our way toward Dad’s office. I open the door, and Dad
, still dressed in his uniform, looks up from whatever he’s doing.

“Hello, boys,” he says.

We return the hello. I say, “The ShadowBlades are planning to kill all the normies again.” Before Dad can say anything, I continue. “They’re going to release this virus guy into the world. The normies will die.” I will die.

I expect my father to
be shocked or worried or something like that. But he’s mad, and I mean MAD. “How did you find out about this boy?” he asks, eyeing all three of us.

I exchange glances with my friends. I’m not going to lie to him.
“We sorta, um...”

“We hacked Lightning’s laptop,”
X says like it’s no big deal. Stretch tries to hide his head by digging it into his neck. Dad doesn’t say a word. His eyes say enough.

“Dad, I know this looks bad—”

“Who gave you the impression that it’s okay to go through other people’s things?” he says. I don’t answer. “What you did was...” He shakes his head. “I can’t believe you would do such a thing, Kale. I’ve raised you to be better than this.”

Wow, I’m not feeling so g
ood right now. Like I’m going to lose my lunch. But I don’t regret what we did. We had to do it. “We had to see what the Blades are up to. Lightning—”

“Is
assigned to handle the Virus Boy. I’ve appointed him for that. Him and only him. He monitors the child and makes sure he’s safe and secure. No one has access to him except for Lightning and myself. No one is going to release him.”

Wait a minute...

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” I say, feeling really stupid. “Lightning has the information on Virus Boy because he’s in charge of him.”

Dad nods, his lips set in a firm line.

“Sorry, Dad,” I say.

He
sighs and shakes his head. “I know you meant well, but I specifically told you that Lightning runs top secret jobs and errands for me. Hacking an official’s computer is wrong. You could be exposed to things you don’t understand and are not mature enough to handle. I don’t want you to ever do anything like that again. Is that clear?”

“Yeah,” I say. “We got it.”

Without another word, we leave the office. As we make our way to X’s room, we’re still quiet. I don’t know what they’re thinking about, but I can’t stop feeling really stupid. Dad was starting to trust me. Heck, I was starting to trust myself and my instincts. But I’ve been wrong. We’ve all been wrong.

“So...
” Stretch says once we’re in X’s room. “That sucked.”

“No kidding,” I mutter.
X is quiet. “What you think, man?” I ask him.

He turns to me and shrugs. “I know I’m right. Lightning is spying for the Blades.”

“What makes you so sure? Maybe Dad’s right and you saw things that you don’t understand.”

“And how do you explain Scar? He told us Lightning shouldn’t be trusted. He told us Robert’s being controlled by
a telepath. You saying Scar’s made a mistake, too?”

I don’t know what to say or think. None of this makes sense. I want
to believe X and Scar, but I need to trust my dad. He knows things we don’t. But X has a point—why would Scar tell us we’re in danger when we’re not? Why would he freak us out for no reason? Does he hate the League? Does he want us gone? When I ask X that, he shakes his head. “Scar wouldn’t do that. He told us he likes the League. We’re missing something here.”

We’re quiet for a bit. I kinda wish X
hadn’t seen suspicious behavior from Lightning. Then we’d be in the Game Room busting up stuff like every other kid.

I don’t like this at all.

X has this look in his eyes. I’m not sure what it means. “What’s up?” I ask.

“I just thought of something. Think I found the perfect person to
talk to Samson about all this.”

“Another telepath?” I ask.

X shakes his head. “Premonition.”

“Premo
nition?” I ask.

“He can see the future.
Sooner or later, he’s going to have a vision of releasing Virus Boy, or whatever the Blades have planned.”

“And he’ll tell Dad. Dad will believe Premo
nition.” I can’t hide the excitement from my voice.

He nods. “And if we tell
Premonition first, he’ll believe us.”

“How?” St
retch says. “How’re you so sure Premonition will believe us?”

“He will
. He and I are tight.”

“Okay,” I say. “I just hope this doesn’t backfire. All we need is another Elite member thinking we’re looking for attention
, and pissing off Dad even more.”

X waves his hand. “He won’t. Let’s go.”

As we make our way into the elevator, I feel elated. Maybe today was a complete disaster, but if X is right about Premonition, then Dad will
have
to do something about it. I just wish X could have come up with this idea sooner. Or that Premonition would get a vision already. His visions aren’t always clear and many times he gets them too late. I hope that doesn’t happen here.

The elevator stops at the top floor
, and we climb out and go toward the CR. Even when there are no meetings going on, Premonition hangs around Dad, or keeps himself hooked to the machine that displays his visions. Like I said, the guy’s got no social life.

“He inside?” I ask X.

X narrows his eyes at the door. “No. No one is in there.”

“Dad’s office?”

“No.” His eyes roll around a little bit. They get dark. “He’s not here. Not on this floor.” He falls to his knees and gazes at the carpet. “Not in his room.” He jumps up and dashes down the halls. He’s running all over the Tower. Up the stairs, down the stairs, and Stretch and I try to keep up. Finally, in the basement, he bends over to catch his breath.

“X?” I say. “You cool?”

“No. He’s not here.” I’ve never seen or heard X freak out like this. It’s starting to freak me out.

“He probably went out or something,” Stretch says. We all give him a look, because “out” would be the last place Premo
nition would go. “Um, or not?”

“There are only two places Premo
nition goes to,” X says. “The CR, his bedroom, and the Decoy House.”

“That’s three,” Stretch says, holding up three stringy fingers. X’s hands ball into fists and he starts to pace around the basement, cursing.

“We need to relax,” I say. “How about we go to Dad and ask him where Premonition went? I’m sure whatever it is, it’s not what it seems. I mean, the man could get himself a girl, right?”

We all laugh at the thought. It feels good for a second. Then we step into an elevator and take it up to Dad’s office. X makes sure no one’s inside before I open the door.
I hope he’s not too upset or annoyed to see us again.

Uh, yeah, he’s still mad.

“What is it?” he asks as he fills out forms on his desk.

I say, “Dad, have you seen Premo
nition?”

His focus is still on the papers.
“Premonition? No, he’s not here.”

All three of us exchange confused faces.
Premonition, the most socially inept person on the planet, isn’t here, yet Dad’s not making a big deal out of it. “Where is he?” I ask.

“He left to take care of a personal matter. He’ll be gone for a little while.”

We look at each other again. Premonition’s gone right when we need him the most? “Dad.” My voice gets urgent. “It’s really important that we talk to him. Did he leave a phone number?”

“He did.”

“Can we have it?”

X shoots me a glare. Dad raises his head and gives me a puzzled look. “What’s going on, Kale?” he asks.

Oh, no. I’ve said too much. “Nothing,” I quickly say. “I’ve been thinking about, um, Lindsay, and I’m worried that if Premonition has a vision and...” I shrug, avoiding his penetrating gaze. “Just want to ask him if he had any.”

Dad shakes his head. “
I know where you’re going with this. Glen would inform me if he had any visions.”

“Dad, can’t I—”

“Kale.” His voice gets serious. “Enough.” Now he stands up and walks around his desk. “I don’t want to hear any more of Lightning or the ShadowBlades.” His eyes go to X and Stretch, then back to me.

“Just trust us, Dad,” I say, some desperation in my voice. “We think he might be in trouble.
Please, you gotta believe us.”

Again Dad looks from me to the guys. Then he sighs. “All right. I’ll call him right now with you three present. Will that make you feel better?”

“Yeah,” Stretch and I say while X nods.

Dad puts his office phone on speaker and dials a number.

“Premonition here.”

Dad says,
“Hello, Glen. How is your brother doing?”

A pause before Premo
nition says, “All right, considering the circumstances.” I wonder what circumstances he’s talking about.

“I have Kale, Ray, and Andrew with me. They have a question for you.” Dad motions for us to talk. No one volunteers
, so I step forward.

“Hey, Premo
nition. I hope everything is okay with your, uh, brother and stuff.”

“Thank you, Kale.” His voice sounds wary and confused.

I clear my throat. “Uh, the guys and I were wondering if you had any, um, strange visions lately.” Dad’s looking at me. I keep my eyes on the floor.

“No, nothing out of the ordinary.”

All our shoulders sag. X looks the most defeated. “Nothing about Lindsay?”

“There is something,” he says.

Dad sits up. Seems intrigued. Curious, I say, “What?”

Premo
nition pauses. “It’s a personal matter between Lindsay and yourself, and should not be shared publicly.”

What
the heck does that mean? I feel three pairs of eyes on me.

“Glen...
” Dad says.

Premo
nition laughs. The guy doesn’t laugh often and it sounds kind of creepy. “Nothing but teenage hormones, Samson.”

X and Stretch snicker. I want to
punch them. Dad asks, “Everything is all right, though?”

“All is well.”

With that, Dad thanks Premonition, hangs up, and tells us to wait a minute before leaving. Stretch plays with his fingers, X crosses his arms over his chest, and I shove my hands into my pockets. “You heard Glen, boys,” he says. “I don’t want to hear any more nonsense about Lightning. I’ve appointed Robert to keep a close watch on him.” He leans back and shakes his head. “I feel betrayed. Hurt that you would ever question the confidence of our League leaders.”

It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him everything—about Scar and everything we learned. But we promised Scar we wouldn’t tell a soul about it, and I’d like to keep my mind intact, if you know what I mean. The three of us walk out of the office baffled, and depressed as ever.

We get in the elevator and I jab the button for our floor and lean my back against the wall, crossing my arms over my chest like X. Stretch is goofing off, stretching his body from one end of the elevator to the other.

“It makes no sense,” I mutter. I’m so mad my blood is rushing through my veins faster than Speed. “Why didn’t he have a vision?”

“Who knows?” Stretch says.

The elevator doors open and we head to X’s room, sitting down on his bed. “Maybe he didn’t have one yet?” I ask.

“Possible,” X says.

We’re quiet for a few seconds. Then I say, “So maybe he
will
have one soon. Maybe then he’ll tell my dad and he’ll believe us.”

“Maybe,” X says. “Premo
nition’s visions aren’t clear sometimes. I say we keep doing what we’re doing.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“So on to more important things,” Stretch says, raising his eyebrows. “What’s this hot vision Premonition was talking about?”

I groan. Who knows what he was talking about? Who knows what he saw? Something private? What
could it be? What am I going to do to her? With her? Man, it sucks. I should have grabbed the phone and gone to some secluded area to ask Premonition. Maybe I should call him back? I need to know what’s going to happen.

“Something you want to tell us?” Stretch says, poking a long finger into my chest.

I whack it away. “I got some stuff I need to do for school, so I’ll catch ya later.”

“Right,” Stretch says as I head to the door. “Kale’s off to do some
homework
.”

I grab X’s Rubik’s cube off his shelf and hurl it at Stretch. I hear him lau
ghing as I walk toward my room.