Prologue #2
Next came gifts. There were pictures and crafts from the littlies and the three biggest had pooled a few dollars to get him a black ceramic takeout cup with a skull and cross bones on it. “I love it.” Bryn was genuinely touched. “It’ll be so useful at school. Thanks, guys.”
Annie gave him a hand-knitted black scarf with a single pale blue line across each end. “It’ll get cold at Harvard.” She hugged him and suddenly he was mobbed with lots of warm bodies, all demanding hugs. Tears pricked at his eyes.
“You guys! Stop!” The kids drifted away and Bryn was left with Annie. “That was…sweet.”
“They like you, despite that emo facade you put on.”
“Hey!”
“We’ll have cake after dinner tonight, okay?”
“Yeah. I’m full of pancakes now.”
“I’ve put a little money in the bank account we set up for you…no arguing, it’s what you’re due. A little kick-starter for college books, that kind of thing.”
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
“That’ll do. How’s the head?”
“Pounding. Strange—I don’t tend to get headaches.” Bryn knuckled his temples. “Think I’ll go lie down. Try to catch up on some of the sleep I didn’t get last night. Now I know I’m not…special.”
“You’ll always be special to me, sweet cheeks.” Annie ruffled his hair.
Bryn made gagging noises. “Stop already!”
“Go to bed.”
The next thing Bryn knew was someone shaking him awake. He groaned and cranked an eyelid. “Annie?”
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty. You’ve been out cold for eight hours. You need to get your rear downstairs.” Annie yanked open the drapes, flooding the room with light. “I hope you haven’t picked up the flu or something.”
“Ow, fuck!” Bryn hid beneath the covers. Sleep had not improved his headache.
“Language, young man. The screening bureau officer is downstairs eating my cookies. You need to come show him the gene hasn’t activated.”
“Sorry. Okay. On it. Give me two seconds.” He winced at the door closing, the noise pounding his skull like a jackhammer.
He grabbed his shades and put them on. Gently.
Shielding his eyes from the light helped a bit.
Must have been more stressed out about today than I realized. This has to be a migraine.
Bryn counted it a win that he made it down the stairs without falling on his ass. Annie was waiting with the official in the TV room. They were both seated on the sectional, chattering away like old pals.
“Here he is, Charlie. The latest of a long line.”
“And no indications?”
“None. He’s his normal teenage self.”
“Oh dear. Congratulations on your birthday, Bryn. I’m Charles Donovan from the screening bureau and this visit is nothing to worry about.” He held out a hand and Bryn shook it.
“Hey.”
“I’m going to give you a finger prick for a blood sample. It’s a quick and easy test for gene activation which shows us sanguine or lupine indications. A visual assessment isn’t always accurate.”
Bryn slumped on the sectional, trying not to look as belligerent as he felt. “This is pointless.”
“Probably,” Charlie said. “But wouldn’t you rather have it noted on your record that you have no active gene so that you don’t have people hounding you in the future?”
“I suppose.”
“Be nice, Bryn.” Annie’s warning tone was enough to have him sitting a bit straighter.
Charlie got out his testing kit. “Don’t worry, you won’t miss the tiny bit I’m going to take.” He jabbed Bryn’s middle finger pad then collected a bead of blood on a dropper that went into a tiny test tube of clear liquid. “It’s red at least.”
“You say that to everyone, don’t you?” Bryn muttered.
“Sure do. Perk of the job. Right, I’m looking for what color the liquid changes to. Lupine goes green, sanguine is purple. No gene change is golden yellow.” He shook the tube.
“So what the fuck is sky blue?” Bryn felt sick. He stared at the little glass vial.
“I…need to make a call. Don’t move.” Charlie went into the hall.
Bryn watched him go. “Annie, what’s happening?”
“I don’t know.” She came to sit next to him on the couch and grabbed his hand.
A pulse of sharp pain shot through Bryn’s already throbbing head and his vision dimmed. In his head he had a picture of Annie standing in the dock of a courtroom facing a judge. She looked resigned. Bryn yanked his hand away in horror and the image faded.
“If you go now, you’ll have time to grab a few things and get out through the back yard,” Annie whispered. “I’ll tell Charlie you went to the bathroom.”
“What? Why would I do that?”
“Because if that test is showing that you have some rare variation of the gene, you’ll be taken by the security services and put through God knows what kind of experimentation while they work out what you can do.”
“And if I run, they’ll hunt me down. When you touched me Annie, I saw…
well, let’s just say things wouldn’t work out well for you either.
” It was tempting to try it. Bryn thought he could make a good go of disappearing, but he couldn’t do that to Annie.
If she was blamed, what would happen to all the other kids in her care? He wasn’t that much of an asshole.
“You shouldn’t think about me. I’d happily go to court for you. Be selfish. Go.”
Bryn slumped on the couch. “No. Not an option.” Tentatively, he touched Annie’s hand. He flinched at the pain but now the image in his head was of a smiling Annie watching over kids playing in the yard. His vision cleared and he sighed. “I guess Harvard is off the cards. Fuck.”
When Charlie came back into the room, he seemed tense. “Your test result is…unusual, Bryn. You felt fine this morning?”
“Yeah, apart from a headache. I didn’t sleep well last night. It got worse, though.”
“Do you know what time you were born?”
“Eight-thirty in the morning,” Annie contributed. “It’s in his records.”
“Gene activation can be very precise. The change must have happened after you got up this morning. Would you take off your sunglasses for me?”
Hand trembling, Bryn removed the glasses. The light hurt his eyes.
“Oh my.” Annie stared at him.
“What?” Panicked, Bryn went to look in the mirror on the mantel over the fire. “Fuck me.” His eyes were a far brighter shade of green than they had been and they seemed backlit, glowing like a cat’s in the dark. He put the glasses back on. “They weren’t like that earlier.”
“There’ll be a car here for you shortly. More tests will need to be done. I can come with you to your room, if you want to pack a few things.”
“When will I be back?” Bryn asked the question even though he already knew the answer.
“Not sure. It could be a while.”
He means never. Why me? Bryn wanted to scream but decided it would hurt his head too much. “Fine. You and the kids will have to share that cake, Annie.”
Charlie trailed him up the stairs then stood in the doorway while Bryn threw a few things in a duffel.
“You thought about running, didn’t you?”
“Maybe.”
“What stopped you?”
“Annie’s been the closest thing to a mother I’ve ever had. She doesn’t deserve trouble because of me.”
“Yeah, she’s one of the good ones.”
“Has this ever happened to you before… I mean the blue reaction?”
“Never. I’ve had a few wolves in my time and one or two vamps. This was new.”
“Great. Just fucking great.” Should have bought that lottery ticket.
“You done? Let’s go see if the car’s here.”
Some of the other kids had gathered in the hall. There was a clamor of questions. Annie ushered them away and raised a hand in farewell. “Good luck,” she mouthed.
Bryn gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile rather than a grimace. When the door closed behind him, it had an air of finality.
“They’re here,” Charlie announced.
A black SUV with heavily tinted windows drew up at the curb. Two armed men in black fatigues got out and one walked over. The other stayed by the vehicle, scanning the street as if he expected an attack to come out of nowhere at any moment.
“This him?” the man addressed Charlie.
“What am I, invisible?” Bryn muttered.
“It is. I sent through his test result already.” Charlie took a step back.
“He give you any trouble?”
“Seriously? Does it look like I did?” Bryn made a conscious effort not to be intimidated by the excessive amount of firearms the guy carried.
“Get in the fucking car.”
“A please wouldn’t go amiss.” Bryn stomped down the path.
He tossed his duffel into the back seat then climbed in after it.
He was followed by one of the men in black and before Bryn could come up with a suitable epithet, the guy stuck him with a needle.
“What the actual…” He didn’t get to finish the sentence before the lights went out.
* * * *
Bryn came around with a start. He wasn’t sure what had woken him but had a vague sense that it had been a sharp noise.
His headache had faded a bit but he was groggy and confused.
“Where the fuck am I?” He was sitting on a plastic chair, head lolling, in a room that was in serious need of interior decoration.
The gray walls were less than inviting. There was one door and a large interior window across one wall.
He lifted his head, wincing at the crack his neck gave.
Has to be an interrogation room. There are probably people behind that window watching me.
It was then he realized that his wrists were cable-tied together.
This just gets better and better. He raised both hands then gave the window the finger.
Juvenile, I know, but it makes me feel better.
There was a table in front of him so he laid his head on his arms and closed his eyes. They’d better not have lost my shades.
A few minutes later, the door opened. Footsteps crossed the room and someone occupied the chair on the other side of the table.
Bryn’s curiosity got the better of him and he raised his head.
The man facing him looked to be in his forties, with silver-flecked dark hair and gray eyes.
Everything about him was nondescript, as if he dressed deliberately to blend into the background. He pinned Bryn with a sharp gaze.
“How are you feeling, Bryn?”
“Like someone drugged me without my permission,” Bryn muttered. “Where am I?”
“You were drugged specifically so that you wouldn’t know your location. It means you can’t tell anyone else and that helps us protect you.”
“Protect me from what, exactly?”
“If you turn out to be what we think you are, it makes you valuable. Criminal elements will want to get their hands on you and at the moment, you’re defenseless.”
“So why are my hands tied? Unless you guys have a bondage fetish?”
“That’s to stop you accidentally touching someone. It makes you more aware of where your hands are.”
“And you don’t want me touching anyone because…”
“We think you may be an augur.”
Bryn stared at him. “And what exactly is that?”
“I think you already know that. There have been two examples in the last thirty years of blue tests like the one you had today. Both of those people were able to see the future in some way. One could also look into past memories.” The man paused.
“Charlie told me that he thought you’d already experienced something like that today. Tell me about that.”
“How about you tell me who you are and why I should trust you, because I have to say, you’re not making the best first impression.”
“I work for the government, Bryn. For the organization that monitors and takes care of those who are gene gifted.”
“Gifted. Right. You have a name?”
“Call me Warden or Sir, whichever you prefer.”
“I wish I hadn’t asked.”
“The more cooperative you are, Bryn, the easier things will be. Now tell me what happened this morning.”
Bryn sighed. He didn’t want to spend more time than was necessary on the uncomfortable chair.
“My housemother, Annie…after we saw the test this morning, she grabbed my hand. In my mind, I saw her in a courtroom. Then, after I realized that trying to get away is what would put her there, and I decided not to run, I touched her again. The images changed and she was safe and happy.”
The warden grunted. “Sounds like you saw her future intent. And you haven’t had visions about anyone else since?”
Bryn shook his head. “Nope, but your thugs knocked me out, remember?”
“Okay, this is what’s going to happen. You’ll be taken from here to a training facility.
A kind of school, if you like. There, specialists will endeavor to gauge your abilities and test them.
Alongside that you will receive a college-level education, a health and fitness program and psychological support. ”
“And I guess I get no choice in the matter?”
“None. This is a government requirement for somebody like you, and is all clearly defined in law.”
“And how long am I supposed to stay at this place?”
“Between two and three years, depending on your progress and the strength of your abilities.”
“And after that?”
“To be determined. Potentially, a job in the security services.”
“What do the other people who tested blue do now?”
“They don’t. They didn’t survive their training.”
On that note, Warden stood and left the room. Bryn stared at the closed door. Wonderful. I am well and truly fucked.