Kinetics: In Search of Willow (16 page)

"Yeah, you know the name?"

"Know it? Anyone in the Alliance that
doesn't know his name must have been living under a rock. No
offense."

"None taken."

"He was responsible for a lot of the
guerilla activity in the Isiroans in the 70's and 80's. He was the
friend of the guy who started the Second Great Kinetic
War."

"I don't know what that
is."

"Don't worry about it now. I'll give
you some reading materials."

I moved my leg and a spike of pain
shot up it. "Jeez, what the hell."

"What do you expect, a Vunjika using
his powers like that?"

"You said that earlier. I haven't used
my powers. I don't even know what they are. Willow tried to teach
me telepathy but..."

"Not telepathy, Eugene. Your
Pyrokinesis."

"Py-what?"

"Do you really not know? That's...
rare."

I shook my head. "I really
don't."

"Well, no point in trying to talk
about it. I'll show you. Come here." He pushed himself out of the
chair and held out an arm for me to use if I needed it. I felt a
little unstable on my feet, but when the room quit tilting, I was
comfortable enough to follow Nick on my own. The pain coursing
through my whole body subsided to a dull ache.

Nick led me to a room with a ton of
monitors. He tapped a keyboard and on the largest of the screens I
saw words on the screen say: "File Footage." The date was the day
that Harry and I had broken in to the headquarters.

On the screen I saw myself fall. Then
I saw myself stand back up and what came next made my blood run
cold. The fire. The fire engulfed everything. I pushed the chair
back and tried to leave. The EOS or whatever the heck was disabling
my body, made me fall to my knees. Nick tried to help me up but I
waved him away.

I glanced back at the screen where
Nick had paused the video. All I could see was a blurry image of me
surrounded by fire. I held onto the chair in front of the desk and
pushed myself up. It was strange seeing that other me in video
form. I had no memory of that.

The last think I could remember was
hitting the carpet and the deadening darkness that
followed.

"It's really amazing." Nick said while
looking at the screen. "Your power is Pyrokinesis. I never thought
a Vunjika would be able to do what you did just then."

"No, I don't... I don't want that."
The air in my chest constricted and I forced myself to
breathe.

"Hey." Nick's voice was the last thing
I heard before my forehead hit the corner of a desk.

Part 2:

A Journey of a Thousand
Miles…

Chapter 12

"A journey of a thousand
miles begins with a single step." 
~
Confucius.

I spent the next three
days recovering. The bump on the head was nothing, but the residual
effects of the EOS were turning me into paraplegic dodo bird. I
spent a lot of time on
Nick's laptop
reading some of the history of the Kinetics. It was just about as
dry and dull as most history I had ever read in school.

We weren't talking about the thing
with the Pyrokinesis. Every time I thought about it, my head hurt,
like something deeper than my subconscious was trying to prevent me
from thinking about it. The one time I did try to really delve into
what it meant to be a Pyrokinetic, flashes of incoherent memories
and feelings rose up out of a long-forgotten part of my mind, and
all I felt was sorrow. So I pushed it away.

"Don't worry. You're safe here from
Trackers." Nick had assured me when I had asked how safe I was
here. "You have something running in your system right now called
the A.D." He pulled a small bag out from under the chair and opened
it to show me a series of quarter sized patches.

"These are kind of like nicotine
patches, ya know? They inhibit the chemicals in your brain that
allow access to your powers. It also has the added effect of
cancelling out a tracker's abilities, so they don't see you." He
snapped his fingers trying to think of something.

"You know how the Stealth works?
Normal radar doesn't see it. Kinda like that. You, my friend, are
essentially invisible."

I wasn't sure how we were going to get
there yet. I didn't have a lot of money and what I did was in a
pickle jar under my bed at home. Nick was quick to advise me not to
go home. That was the first place they would look for me. There was
no doubt that the Alliance would have the house under constant
surveillance.

"I don't know what to do. I don't want
to do nothing..." I had said to Nick one day.

"It's all about resources, kiddo." He
leaned back and crossed his arms.

"What resources?"

"Right in front of you." Nick aimed
his thumbs at his chest and grinned. "I'm a first class
Tracker!"

"Can't you find Willow
then?"

"Well, see, here's when being a
Tracker fails. The Isiroans have Technologists. They have developed
tech with the ability to block Trackers."

"Then... you guys can't do
much?"

"Well there's the thing. The tech
creates an 'emptiness' or "Zero Zones" and we can sense that too.
There are only so many locations that have ZZ's around them, and
there are only so many locations where they would take a prisoner
like Willow."

"So, it's narrowed down."

"Exactly."

"So?"

"Wait." He stood up and went into his
work room. He came back with a laptop.

Nick set the laptop down in front of
me and pulled his chair up close. On the screen was a map of the
world. Six blue dots were scattered around. "These are the ZZs, and
these..." he clicked a button. "These are the places where they
take high profile prisoners." Three of the blue dots flashed red
and then turned purple.

He touched a finger to the screen.
"This is probably the first place they took her after they left
Columbus." The point was in the western United States.

"What is that? Colorado?"

"Wyoming. Your best bet is to start
there. After that, well, she could be anywhere. Once an Isiroan or
their prisoners of war are in a ZZ they could be moved to any of
the ZZs around the world and no one on the outside would know any
better."

I touched a finger to the point on the
screen. Willow might be there. "But what if she's not
there?"

"That's always a risk, isn't it? You
can always start there, though. Otherwise you're welcome to start
in Argentina."

"So, when do we go?"

Nick frowned. "It won't be 'we,'
kiddo."

"What? Why?"

"I have too many responsibilities
here. They would know if I went missing."

"But I can't go by myself. I don't
know anything, anyone!"

"Well, I don't know what to tell you,
Eugene. I can give you tons of information and tell you where you
need to go, but I have to stay here. I'm due back at the Saudi
Arabian office in less than three days for an internal
review."

"What do I do then?"

"Find someone to go with
you."

Nick took his laptop and disappeared
back into his office. I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. The
room was swimming a bit, and all I wanted to do was close my eyes
and sleep for a month. The thought that Willow was out there
somewhere stopped any and all thoughts of rest from taking
hold.

I wish she could be here now. She
always knew what to say to help me think things through. If I was
chasing anyone else, my first choice for a companion would have
been Willow. She was goofy and acted stupid at times, but I knew
she was far more intelligent then she let on. She also knew this
Kinetic society way better than I did.

I wasn't going to let my limitations
hold me back. I may have no usable powers and I may not be able to
do it on my own, but with Nick's information I would save Willow. I
just hoped that I could get Harry's help. As much as I didn't want
to take Harry, the Nerdy Football Player with me, he had helped me
once. He could probably help me again.

The last day of my recovery I tugged
on a borrowed and ratty Pink Floyd t-shirt and a pair of
one-size-too-large cargo pants. Nick didn't have much at this
house. Most of his life was now in Amsterdam.

Nick had left to do work at the
Alliance HQ, so I was on my own for the rest of the day. I pushed
out the back door of Nick's house and hiked through backyards and
back streets. Harry's house was almost five miles away.

Nick had informed me that the less I
showed my face the better off I would be. So taking the city bus
was a legit no-no. I don't know how much time passed by the time I
got to Harry's house, but I knew it was just as school was letting
out. I saw Harry walking with his backpack slung over one shoulder.
A friend of his walked next to him talking up a storm. Harry seemed
only mildly interested.

I waited until they split off from
each other and Harry walked by himself to his front doorstep. Just
as he was about to open his door I threw a rock at his feet. He
pondered the rock for a moment then with only a moment's pause he
casually moved from the door to the flower bed to the bushes where
I hid. He acted as if he had done that every day of his
life.

"Eugene," he said when he saw me. "I
was wondering when you would show up."

CHAPTER 13

“
The
best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
– Robert Burns. Scottish poet and lyricist.
1785.