Authors: Adrian Howell
“But he’ll squeal!” argued the destroyer. “He’s got nothing to lose.”
“That’s why I got him drunk!” Terry said angrily. “He’s not going to remember anything.”
“I’m afraid we cannot take that chance,” said the peacemaker. “We’ll have to wipe him properly.”
The destroyer nodded, and then, carefully keeping his gun to my head, he stepped around behind me.
“You can’t!” shouted Terry, “He’s too young! If you destroy him, I’ll lose my alibi.”
“I’ll be careful,” I heard the destroyer say, and I realized that he must be a mind-writer as well. “I’m good at careful.”
The gray-haired peacemaker smiled down at me. “Sweet dreams, Adrian Gifford.”
I felt a sharp pain on the back of my head, saw a blinding flash of light, and then darkness.
“Adrian? Wake up, Adrian. I believe it’s over now.”
“It’s not over,” I gasped, staring at Mr. Koontz’s pale face in the darkness. “It’s not over. It’s not...”
Mr. Koontz put a calming hand on my shoulder. “Easy there. Sometimes dreams can be harder to bear than reality.”
“It’s not a dream,” I said, my breathing finally becoming a bit steadier. “It’s a memory.”
I stood up and, ignoring the fact that I was still dressed in my nightclothes, grabbed my keys and rushed to the door.
“Where are you going, Adrian?” asked Mr. Koontz.
“To talk to a friend,” I answered quietly. “I’m sorry, Mr. Koontz, but this can’t wait. If I don’t call you in thirty minutes, would you wake Mr. Baker and have him come up to the penthouse? Tell him to bring his Knights.”
“Sure, Adrian,” said Mr. Koontz, looking at me uncertainly. “Are you going to be okay?”
Chapter 14: The Shattered Room
I impatiently rode the elevator back up to the fortieth floor. Glancing at my watch, I realized that it was still only a few minutes past midnight. I was doing my best to stay calm, but my trembling fingers fumbled my door key twice before I could insert it into the keyhole.
Quietly entering the penthouse, I closed and locked the front door behind me. The living room was dark and silent, but I didn’t bother turning on the room lights as I carefully made my way around the couches and toward the corridor. I didn’t want to wake the house just yet. I wanted to talk to Terry first.
I was halfway across the living room when I heard a quiet male voice behind me say, “Welcome home, Adrian.”
I spun around, instinctively raising my right arm and pointing it toward the owner of the voice. He was leaning against the wall next to the front door, and as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see that he was none other than the Angel peacemaker with dark gray hair.
“I’m unarmed,” he said calmly. “They wouldn’t have let me through the lobby security check if I had a gun. I told you I would see you again.”
I pointed my index finger at him. At this distance, my focused blast would be as strong as a bullet.
“What’s your name, Angel?” I asked through clenched teeth. “I want to know who I’m about to kill!”
The Angel peacemaker merely grinned. “Those who can’t do, taunt. You don’t have it in you.”
“Bet your life?” I asked, keeping my finger pointed at the man’s face.
“No, but I’ll bet hers,” said the Angel, his eyes moving toward something behind me.
I heard the distinctive sound of a pistol hammer being pulled back. Turning my head, I saw Terry and Alia on the other side of the living room. Terry was firmly gripping Alia’s shoulder with her left hand, and in her right was a pistol pressed against the top of Alia’s head.
Terry asked softly, “Did you find your memory, Adrian?”
“I was so stupid,” I replied, shaking my head. “I actually believed you when you said my injuries were from falling down some stairs at the party. There were no stairs between the party hall and here.”
“I needed you that night,” said Terry. “If someone had seen us going down into the subbasement, I could have told them that you wanted to see the Angel spy to ask about Catherine.”
“So it’s true,” I breathed. “It’s all true.”
“I’m sorry, Adrian,” said Terry, “but I don’t think I’m going to make a very good Guardian either. I was hoping you wouldn’t come back here tonight.”
“You’re not going to hurt Alia, Terry,” I said. “You couldn’t.”
Keeping her pistol on my sister, Terry said sharply, “Don’t you dare presume to know what I can or can’t do!”
Alia was staring at me, almost in a daze. What was going through her head? What had she already seen here?
“Put your arm down, Adrian,” commanded Terry. “You know better than to test me.”
I still had my right arm extended, my finger pointed at the Angel peacemaker, but I slowly lowered it now, reabsorbing my focused telekinetic blast into my body. I found it hard to believe that Terry would really kill Alia, but nor could I take the risk.
“Where’s Cindy?” I asked.
“She’s okay,” said Terry. “She’s tied up in the greenhouse. I was hoping Alia wouldn’t have to see this, but Ms. Gifford screamed and woke her.”
The Angel said, “Aren’t you going to introduce us, Terry? It appears Adrian here doesn’t even know my name yet.”
Terry didn’t reply.
“You may call me Riles,” the man said to me, taking a few steps closer. “I am the Angel coordinator for this operation.”
Ignoring him, I asked Terry, “How did you get him in here?”
It was Riles who answered, “I got myself in. I’m a shape-shifter and peacemaker. Getting in was comparatively easy. The problem is getting Ms. Gifford out.”
I looked at Terry disgustedly, saying, “I was beginning to think I was wrong about you, Terry, but I wasn’t. You really are just like your grandfather.”
“My grandfather is a professional, Adrian,” Terry said evenly. “This is personal.”
Riles chuckled and said to Terry, “We still have about fifteen minutes to rendezvous. Why don’t to tell your little friend here what you’ve been up to these past few months.”
Terry looked at me silently for a moment, and then, in a near-whisper, said, “I’m doing this for my brother, Adrian. For Gabriel.”
“Your brother is dead, Terry!” I said furiously.
“He’s alive!” Terry replied with equal ferocity.
“You told me you buried him!”
“I buried his left arm, Adrian. The Angels couldn’t convert him, but they didn’t kill him either. They kept him alive because they knew he was related to my grandfather. When Ms. Gifford came to New Haven, I learned the truth. And Riles here offered a trade.”
“Your brother for Cindy?”
Terry nodded miserably.
Riles chuckled and said, “
People are worth more alive, even if they’re not in one piece.”
Terry glared at him. The Angel calmly walked over to her and said, “Why don’t you hand me the gun, Terry? You must be getting tired holding it on the child.”
Terry silently handed her pistol over. Alia broke free of Terry’s grasp and wrapped her arms around my waist.
“Terry doesn’t want to do this, Addy,”
she whispered into my head.
“I know, Ali,” I said, holding her. “It’ll be okay.”
Stepping away from Terry, Riles leaned his back against a wall. He was holding Terry’s pistol loosely at his side, and I wondered if I could telekinetically knock it out of his hands. But I realized that if I tried and failed, I might not be the only one who got shot. And even unarmed, Terry was out of my league. Even if I were to levitate her, the Angel would still be free to act.
“I don’t get it, Terry,” I said. “You were setting us up all along. Why did you train me to fight? Why did you help me balance my power? And teach Alia to talk?”
“You weren’t just my cover, Adrian,” said Terry. “I wanted to give you a fair chance. And once Cindy was gone, you’d have to take care of yourself anyway.”
“Cindy?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.
“Ms. Gifford,” Terry hastily corrected herself.
Riles laughed. “We always knew Cynthia Gifford was the best-protected psionic in New Haven, but even so, I never expected it would take this long to get her. Terry has been on a number of assignments for us this past year, but somehow she just kept screwing up. Like when she went back on her agreement to hand you all over during your camping trip.”
I gasped. “You were the one who told the Angels where we were?!”
Terry looked away, unable to answer, but Riles said, “She did. But then she turned around and told the Guardians too. Such double dealing couldn’t go unpunished, now could it?”
Riles turned to Terry and said, “Tell Adrian what we sent you to remind you where your loyalties should lie.”
Terry still remained silent.
Riles said callously, “An eye for a betrayal, Terry. I believe it was his right eye.”
Terry was shaking in fury, but Riles merely smiled and said to me, “I failed to nab you and Alia last summer, and Terry failed to deliver Cindy, so then we decided on a subtler approach. I asked Terry to locate the pass codes to New Haven One’s UPS system. To her credit, she refused at first, but then she changed her mind again when we sent her an early Christmas gift. I can’t remember which ear.”
“Shut up!” screamed Terry, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Just shut up!”
Alia tightened her grip on me, which I found annoying because I was hoping Terry would attack Riles, and if she did, I wanted to be ready to help her.
“Calm yourself, girl,” said Riles. “You’re hurting my ears.”
I noticed that Riles was pointing Terry’s pistol not at me, but at Terry.
“Terry isn’t on your side, Riles,” I said. “She could’ve helped you last month when your puppeteer tried to take Cindy during the battle, but she didn’t. Terry saved Cindy.”
Riles laughed again, saying, “How do you think we managed to set up a trap for your Knights at such short notice? Terry is the one who informed us of your mission to capture our finder. But after what happened at your camping trip, we couldn’t risk our sweet little girl having another conscience attack and giving us away, so we wiped her memory. I bet she still thinks she was out with her school friends the night you all left New Haven together.”
Terry was staring at Riles. She was no longer crying, but I noticed that her hands were still shaking a bit.
“I suspected,” mumbled Terry, her voice quivering.
“So that’s why you were so well-armed that night,” I said to Terry. “You were expecting an ambush because you thought you might have told the Angels about the mission.”
Terry nodded wretchedly.
Riles snorted. “I wonder how the Guardians are going to react when they discover that Terry here not only foiled their mission, but caused the deaths of so many precious Knights.”
Terry stared, ashen-faced, down at her feet as Riles continued quietly, “But we still hadn’t captured Cynthia Gifford. And while I couldn’t fault Terry for not knowing about our ambush, there was absolutely no excuse for her interference in it. I was quite prepared to remove her brother’s remaining limbs for her treachery, but Terry begged me to give her one last chance. We agreed on a deadline for her to deliver the codes to the UPS system, and I am pleased to say that she finally did come through.”
“What’s a UPS?” I asked, wondering how many minutes we had left.
“Uninterruptible power supply,” Terry explained in a dull voice. “It’s an emergency system that keeps the building from losing power even if it’s cut from outside.”
“You see, Adrian,” said Riles, “without power, the security here is completely worthless. The tracking systems on the building’s point-defense guns won’t work, meaning there’s nothing to stop an airborne approach. The security cameras, the Knights’ communication network... everything shuts down, and we will be free to free New Haven of its heart. Terry only managed to acquire the codes last week. We were going to take a few more days and plan this out better, but Terry informed me that you were getting close to unlocking your overwritten memory, so we had to step up our plans.”