CHAPTER 26
“I’m okay, Mom.”
I focus on sending only to her, but sending as hard as I can.
Mom’s head snaps around, her gaze fastening on mine.
She changes direction and strides toward me, her purse banging against her hip. “Oh, Caitlyn, I was so worried!”
“Daniel’s alive! He’s here. But he’s turned,”
I send quickly, shielding my thoughts.
“His trooper’s here, too.
There was a fire; they know I saved the others. We have to
be careful.”
I worry the shock will be too much for her, but she manages a half smile. Her gaze passes over Alex, Rachel, Emily, and the reporter, then rests on Daniel, her eyelids flickering. Mom looks at Daniel’s handler, then back to me.
“When I heard about the fire on the news, I came right over—”
“And what station would that be, ma’am?” Daniel asks, unsmiling, and steps forward. “Odd, isn’t it, that none of the other parents are here?”
Mom’s skin pales, her breath catching in her throat.
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“My god,” she says and I can see the restraint it takes to not say his name.
Daniel’s eyes don’t waver. He reaches out his hand to shake hers. “I’m Daniel Fallon. And you’re
Caitlyn’s
mom.”
There’s a low rumbling, like a monster clearing his throat, and the sky turns dark.
“That’s right,” Mom says, her voice wavering. “I’m Caitlyn’s mom.” She pulls me to her, putting her arm around me. Her eyes are caverns of pain.
I lean into her, trying to give her strength. With her beside me I can think more clearly.
“This story is going
nowhere,”
I send the reporter, using my persuasion.
“There’s a more interesting story going on by the stairs.
Don’t want to get scooped!”
The reporter wavers, then half turns.
But Daniel clears his throat and the reporter turns back to him.
“I’m curious how the radio station got the news so soon,” Daniel says, stuffing his hands in his pockets and rocking back and forth on his heels. “The reporters just got here.”
“Oh, you know newscasters,” Mom says, not even blinking. “Always listening in on the police scanners—and a good thing for us!” She squeezes my shoulder. “I’m going to get my daughter home. I can see she’s had quite an experience. . . . I think you should get yourself home, too, young man.”
Daniel gulps and I see he knows that Mom was telling 251
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him she loves him and wants him with us. But that would mean we’d be enslaved, too. He couldn’t come back to us without his handler knowing.
“Do we have something here, Fallon, or not?” Daniel’s handler taps the screen of his ParaController again.
A small shudder passes through Daniel, jerking his body, the pain making his face gaunt.
Mom gasps and starts to reach toward them but I grab her arm. Beside me, Alex clenches his hands, unable to do anything. Rachel looks away, her eyes wet. I can see the pain still shuddering through Daniel. I bite my lip until I taste blood.
“Not,” Daniel says through gritted teeth, his gaze on me.
I want to tear the ParaController out of the trooper’s hands, turn the electroshock on him and wipe that smug look off his face. And I want to hold Daniel, to take away his pain. But I can’t do either. Not if I want to stay free. Just thinking that weighs me down with guilt.
Scattered drops of rain plunk on my face and arms, and a raindrop slides down Daniel’s cheek like a tear.
A girl shrieks at the rain, half laughing. Others hold their books and backpacks over their heads. The sound breaks up the stillness of our group.
“I don’t think you have any cause to shock your young charge,” Mom snaps at the trooper. “It looked to me like he was cooperating.”
“Yeah? You wanna make an issue out of it?” the trooper says, chomping on his gum. “Maybe you need to be questioned, too. I’d be happy to give you a once-over.” 252
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Mom glances pointedly at the camera operator, then the reporter. “You getting all this?” she asks. “Here are our tax dollars at work—brutality and misuse of power.”
“Yeah!” Rachel shouts. “Trooper brutality.” Alex loudly agrees. The reporter focuses on them, then back at the trooper and Daniel, who is still writhing in pain.
“Hey, now wait a minute—,” the trooper says. He looks at the reporter, then back at Mom. He taps the screen again and Daniel stops shuddering. My brother breathes in small gulps of air and I want to cry.
“Daniel, I’m so sorry.”
“That was nothing.”
Mom turns me with her, and we start to walk away.
I’ve never been more proud of her.
But Daniel’s handler blocks us. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to wait. I want to question this girl.” Mom squares her shoulders, her grip on me tightening. “Are you seriously suggesting my daughter had anything to do with this? Are you accusing her?”
“She appeared to know the students were in trouble before anyone else did,” the trooper huffs.
“I heard the fire alarm and I smelled the smoke. I made the connection,” I say, keeping my face as flat and as empty of emotion as I can.
The rain is coming down faster now, the fat drops sliding down my face and neck, soaking my T-shirt.
“Are you accusing her?” Mom asks again.
“She ran right to the fire, when nearby classrooms—,” the trooper starts.
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“You heard my daughter,” Mom says, shielding her head from the downpour with her purse. “If you or your colleagues have any more questions for her, you can question her at home. Because that’s where she’ll be. Come on, Caitlyn. Let’s get out of this rain.” She steers me around the trooper and this time he doesn’t try to stop us.
We walk to the car with Mom’s arm around my shoulders. I haven’t felt this happy to see her in a long time.
“Thank you—”
“Get in the car,” she says.
I get in and buckle my seatbelt, shivering in my soggy T-shirt and jeans. Mom doesn’t look at me; she just starts the engine with a trembling hand. Then she drives onto the road, the windshield wipers thunking back and forth.
“Your seatbelt,” I say.
She buckles it up with one hand, her gaze firmly on the road. “Why didn’t you tell me Daniel was here? How long have you known?”
I swallow. I don’t know what to say. “Mom—”
“He’s a Government Paranormal,” Mom says quietly.
“Daniel—my Daniel—is a government tool.”
“It’s true,” I say.
Mom clenches the steering wheel in a death grip. “He endured torture to protect you—to protect us both.” It’s not that simple, but I can’t tell her that. I still don’t even know how to sort it out myself. I keep seeing his body jerk as electricity coursed through him, his teeth gritted against the pain.
I lean against the cold glass of the window and let my 254
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head bump against it. I know Mom’s taking us back to the motel to pack and run.
“We can’t leave yet, Mom,” I say. “I have friends here—”
“Friends?” Mom says. “This is your
life
—all our lives—that we’re talking about. Friends don’t matter. And Daniel—oh, Daniel—” She hits the steering wheel, her voice breaking. “You knew Daniel was here, didn’t you?
You knew.”
She turns to look at me.
I wish she’d keep her gaze on the road.
“How long have you known?” she repeats.
“A—About a week.”
Huge gusts of wind shake our car, battering us from side to side.
“A week?” Mom stares out the windshield. “A whole
week
! I cannot believe you didn’t tell me! I have the right to know, Caitlyn. He’s my son!” She pounds the steering wheel again. “It’s that boy, isn’t it? You’re willing to risk everything for that boy.”
“Alex has nothing to do with this! I didn’t
know
it was Daniel, not at first—and once I found out, he begged me not to tell you.” It sounds bad, I know it does. “I wanted to tell you. But Mom—Daniel’s changed. He’s not . . . sweet anymore. He’s not . . . on our side.” Mom makes a choking noise and I’m afraid to look at her. “Of course they trained him,” she says. “But he’s still our Daniel.” Her voice is uncertain.
“He’s not, Mom,” I say quietly.
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“He endured torture for you!” Mom says again.
“And he put doubt about me into his handler’s mind.
He called attention to me, too.”
“Damn it, Caitlyn—how do you expect me to trust you after this?” Her voice quivers.
“I don’t know.” I scrunch down lower in my seat. She’s so angry, she’s trembling. Yet only a few seconds ago, her pain was so raw I could almost taste it. I wonder if she’s using her anger to protect herself. To keep from falling apart.
“Is there anything else you’re not telling me?” Mom asks in a clipped voice.
I swallow hard. “The principal—Mr. Temple—suspects that I’m a Para.”
“This just gets better and better,” Mom mutters. “And yet you somehow want to convince me that we should stay.”
“He hasn’t turned me in. I—I made him forget.”
Even
though he’s already remembered it again.
That knowledge sits like a chunk of ice in my stomach.
“You
made
him—?” Mom shakes her head. “How did you do that? This isn’t you, Caitlyn. I don’t know you!” There’s a coldness in her voice that I haven’t heard before. It makes me struggle to breathe. “Mom—”
“No. I don’t want to hear it. I’m too angry with you right now.”
The rain is pelting down in sheets and Mom slows the car to a crawl. She leans forward, peering out the windshield. The thunk of the wipers is loud in the silence.
I’m shivering hard now, my clothes heavy and cold.
Mom glances at me, then turns the heater on.
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Tears burn down my cheeks. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to hurt you. But Daniel is mixed up in some bad stuff.”
Mom’s lips tighten. “What kind of ‘stuff’? Worse than hunting down his own kind?”
“He thinks we’re better than Normals. That Normals don’t matter. He’s planning a rebellion and he doesn’t care if he kills Normals while putting Paras in control.” Mom is silently crying now, too.
My tears come faster, stinging my eyes and nose, seeping into my mouth.
Mom pulls over to the side of the road and turns off the engine. She bows her head as rain drums on the roof of the car.
“We can’t stay here, Caitlyn. Not now—though I can’t bear to leave Daniel again.” She sighs heavily. “I know how much you like Alex. But it’s not living if you’re always at the mercy of other people. What kind of a life is it if you’re a slave who doesn’t get to choose what she does or who she hurts? Do you understand what I’m saying?” I nod, too full of emotion to speak.
How can I ever leave Alex? But I know I have to. If I stay and they arrest me, they might arrest Alex, too. And Rachel. And maybe even Mrs. Vespa.
No. We have to leave. My chest aches.
I push the grief down to a cold, hard place inside of me.
“I’m sorry,”
I send to Alex, to Rachel. Then I shut myself off from them completely.
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CHAPTER 27
We’re carrying our duffel bags to the car when Rachel and Alex run panting up the street.
. . . She’s been crying . . .
“See? I told you something was wrong,” Alex says.
“What are you doing? You’re not leaving, are you?” Rachel asks, wrapping her arms around herself.
The sun beats down on us, steam rising from the glistening wet road as I drop my duffel bag into the trunk of the car. I can’t look at them, but I have to. I turn to Rachel. “I’m sorry I didn’t connect you to your dad. If you focus on him, maybe I can do it before—”
Rachel shakes her head, her eyes filling with tears.
“Are you leaving?” Alex asks, louder.
Mom sets her duffel bag firmly down on top of mine.
“Yes.”
“Because of Daniel?”
Mom puts her hands on her hips and looks back and forth between us. “I see you told them.”
“They’re good people, Mom,” I say dully. “If you’d just listen—”
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“Good people can make mistakes. If they slip up and tell your secret,
they
don’t have to pay.” Mom slams the trunk shut. “And that trooper was sniffing around. He really wanted to find something.”
“Mrs. Ellis—I’d never betray Caitlyn. I care about her.
And she
saved
a lot of people today,” Alex says. “You should be proud of her.”
“I’m happy they’re alive, but she put herself in danger by helping them. And she knew that’s what she was doing.”
“The trooper let me go, Mom!”
“For now. But you know it’s only a matter of time before he catches on. Daniel knows that. We’re risking ourselves—and him—by staying here. If his handler finds out he was protecting us . . . ” She turns her face away.
Torture. We’d be inflicting torture on Daniel. But if we’re found out, we’re the ones who’ll be tortured. And if I don’t stop Daniel, it could mean the death of an entire population—all the Normals, including many innocent people.
“You’re not alone,” Rachel says earnestly. “There are people here who want to protect you. Give us a chance.”
“How are you going to protect us from the government?” Mom takes out her keys and presses a button to unlock the car doors. “How are you going to protect us from the ParaTroopers, or even the ParaWatch? One phone call—
that’s all it takes. You want to help, then please don’t tell anyone you saw us.”
“But no one’s made the call!” I say, desperately. “Mr.
Temple isn’t going to; he’s already fingered two Normals.
And both troopers backed off when I mentioned the blue-259
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prints. They have no proof, and Daniel wasn’t revealing anything.” I know I should get in the car, but I don’t move.
I can’t.
“It doesn’t matter.” Mom jingles her keys. “We have to get out of here.”
“I hate this!” I cry. “It’s like
we’re
the criminals.” Mom clasps my face in her hands. “I know, baby. But the alternative is far, far worse. And you have nothing to be ashamed of.” She kisses my forehead and lets me go.
“Mom—Daniel shielded himself from me
completely
.
I didn’t even feel him until he touched me. No one’s ever managed to do that before—”
“Except your dad,” Mom says, her eyes sad.
And you.
“There’s got to be a way that I can do that, too. Disappear right off his radar. Or at the very least, I can shut down like you did. Wall him out.” A look of pain, like a wound cracking open, passes across Mom’s face. “It’s like losing your soul,” she says softly, so softly I almost don’t hear her.
“But what kind of life do we have if we’re always running? Sometimes it feels like I might as well be dead.” There. I said it. The thing I swore I’d never say.
The silence around me vibrates, as if my words are echoing between us.
A bus roars by a few streets over. Kids shout as they play in the street. I steel myself and look at Mom. Her eyes are full of shadows and pain.
“I didn’t know you felt that badly. I’ve been trying to
give
you a life, not take it away. But honey—we have to go.”
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“If you’re leaving, I want to go with you,” Alex says, his chest swelling out. “Mrs. Ellis, I love your daughter. I don’t want to lose her.”
Hope flutters inside me.
Mom laughs. “A Normal—on the run with two Paranormals?”
“A person who loves another person. Period.”
“What happens when you have a lover’s spat? What happens when you realize how much power you hold over Caitlyn? Over me? I’m sorry, but it just won’t work.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” Alex says.
“You don’t know what you’ll do until you’re actually faced with it. What if they threatened your family? Or killed them? Would you give us up then?”
Alex goes silent.
Mom holds up her hands. “I wouldn’t expect you to make that kind of sacrifice. I’m just pointing out the reality—”
“I wouldn’t betray you,” Alex says quietly.
Mom nods slowly at Alex. “You care about her. I can see that. But—”
“There has to be something we can do!” Rachel says.
“We have huge Para-support here, the strongest in the country!”
“And a strong anti-Paranormal movement, too,” Mom says.
Listening to them, I feel like I’m waking up. “I can make Mr. Temple forget again—and the two troopers. And I don’t think Daniel actually wants to turn us in. Not while 261
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he’s trying to convince me to be on his side. We should be safe for a little while at least.”
Mom looks over the top of the car at me, raising one eyebrow. “What do you mean, convince you to be on his side?”
My face grows hot. “Daniel wants me to help him purge the world of Normals. Make it for Paras only.”
“The Authority!” Mom says, dropping her keys.
“The
what
?” I ask.
The lines on Mom’s face grow deeper, her eyes filling with despair. She leans a hand on the hood of the car for support.
Alex goes over to her. “Mrs. Ellis—maybe you should sit down.” He picks up her keys and hands them to her. She takes them with a shaking hand.
“Mom?” I say.
“The Authority has him,” she says hopelessly.
“What are you talking about?” I ask, my stomach clenching.
“The Authority! They’re an organized group of Paranormals who want to conquer Normals. They hated your father for trying to make peace and they murdered him for it.”
Ilene! Ilene is part of the Authority. And that means Daniel must be, too.
Now Mom leans both hands on the car’s hood, like it’s the only thing keeping her up. “I’ve heard they’ve been growing in strength and that they finally got a Paranormal with a lot of talent. Not the one they were searching for, but a powerful one. If Daniel’s part of the Authority . . .” Her 262
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eyes look sunken, her face old. She reaches out and touches my cheek. “I’m afraid you’re the one they’re looking for, Caitlyn. I’ve been trying to keep you safe from them for years. That settles it. Get in the car—we’re leaving right now!” Mom opens the car door.
“But someone’s got to stop them.” The words pop out of my mouth.
They all turn to stare at me.
I shift uneasily. “We can’t let the Authority take over the world and murder all the Normals.
We’re
the only ones who can stop other Paras. Normals won’t even know what’s happening until it’s too late.”
They stare at me, shocked, but what I said feels right.
“Mom, we have to
do
something. Not just for Normals, but for
all
of us.”
“She’s right,” Alex says hoarsely. “No way do I want to risk Caitlyn getting hurt. But if a Para doesn’t stand up to this, there might not be anything left, not for anyone. And Caitlyn’s the strongest person I know.” I feel a small glow of warmth at his words.
“Oh god.” Mom covers her mouth with her hands. “I was afraid of this.”
“Huh?” I stare at her stupidly.
“You don’t know how much you’re like your dad.
You’ve always had such a strong sense of justice, even when it put you in danger.” She rubs her cheek with the back of her hand. “But maybe you’re right.”
“I’ll practice shielding until Daniel can’t detect me. If Dad could do it, and Daniel can, then so can I. I just need a little more time. You know I have to try, Mom. We can’t 263
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let a massacre happen. Even if Daniel’s the one leading it.
Especially if he’s leading it.”
I plead with Mom with my eyes. I don’t bother shielding my despair; I send it, along with my trembling hope.
Mom’s lips tighten and she looks haggard. Then she says, “One more day. And if anyone comes sniffing around, we run. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” I laugh through my tears.
I still don’t know how to defeat Daniel. But I know that it’ll help if he can’t sense me.
I have to learn how—by tomorrow morning.
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