“You have a sister?” I asked, astonished. “And she’s being held in Containment?”
Aiden nodded grimly. “Shortly before I quit – or, as my father prefers to say, ‘betrayed’ – the Asterian Order, my parents came to me one day, out of the blue, to inform me that my little sister and her fiancé had eloped, abruptly left the state, and no longer wanted anything to do with the family.”
I took a sharp intake of breath.
“But my sister and I had always been close, and I knew she would never leave like that, not without telling me. I knew there had to be more to the story.” He stared out a tall nearby window as he spoke, his eyes dark and distant. “I told my parents that I didn’t believe them. I demanded they tell me the truth, but they swore there was nothing else to tell. I tried calling her, but her number had been disconnected. Just like that, my sister was gone. I knew then that I had to get out of there, that I couldn’t trust them or anyone else in that place. I’ve been trying to track her down for years. This scrap of paper is the first I’ve heard of her whereabouts in four years.”
“Tulsa,” Robert sighed. “That’s the Containment Center the Order repurposed from what used to be an abandoned high-security prison. I read a short article on it a few months ago.”
“What exactly is a ‘Containment Center’?” I asked, fairly certain I could already guess the answer.
“It’s a facility the Order uses to detain Elementalists who don’t play by their rules,” Aiden replied darkly. “In some cases, such as repeated unauthorized use of powers outside designated areas, stays are brief – perhaps just a few months. In other cases, such as deliberate betrayal against the Order or revealing our existence to non-Elementals… contained Elementalists never come home.”
We were all very quiet for a moment. Evelyn shifted rather uncomfortably in her chair. After a minute or two of rumination, Robert spoke again, addressing his next words to me.
“They can’t keep very many Elementalists locked in these places at a time without drastically increasing the risk of incident, so the facilities tend to be small, out of the public eye, and singular Element-based to maintain control. The two United States chapters have more Elemental Containment facilities than all of the other overseas chapters combined, which mostly has to do with our nation’s propensity towards creating and maintaining privately-funded penitentiaries,” Robert said, his opinion on the subject made quite clear by the condemnatory tone in his voice. “The Tulsa Containment Center was opened only about a year ago, created specifically for Pyromantic offenders such as Aiden’s sister… Unfortunately, I am not aware of the present locations of any Electromantic facilities, other than the D.C. site from where the woman in the memo had already been transferred,” he added, sensing my question before I asked.
“I have to go to Tulsa,” Aiden announced abruptly, addressing his comment to all of us, though he was looking directly at me.
“Now, really, Aiden,” Robert replied in exasperation, giving him a stern look, “that’s exactly the kind of impetuous thinking that got you into this mess in the first place…”
“And I need to go to Sacramento,” I replied, my eyes locked on Aiden’s. He nodded. I could tell he knew that was coming.
“Absolutely not!” Evelyn cried, nearly jumping out of her chair. “Are you crazy? With those psychotic people looking for you? No. No! We are all going straight to the police.”
Robert was nodding enthusiastically, clearly in whole-hearted agreement with Evelyn… right until the moment she uttered the word ‘police.’ Then he immediately grimaced, shaking his head vigorously in her direction. Evelyn’s expression crumpled. He emphasized his next words with a raised, gesticulating finger.
“They cannot go to the police. If word of their abilities spreads through law enforcement officials to the government, they will be scooped up and dropped off in some hidden underground lab miles beneath the Pentagon. They will never see the light of day again as they spend the rest of their lives confined to a tiny padded room, subject to decades of military-funded experiments. It is a fact; I have read concurring accounts from multiple sources.”
Throughout Robert’s vociferous sermon, my eyes remained on Aiden’s. Evelyn had started to protest Robert’s line of reasoning, but I cut her off.
“My parents left a key, along with a note that says ‘Start here.’ I think it’s for a safe deposit box in Sacramento. There might be more answers there. I don’t need the police, Evelyn; I need to go to that bank, and the sooner, the better. Especially if there’s a chance my mother’s still alive.”
Aiden nodded, gripping my hand in his tightly. “I don’t want you going alone… but I don’t know how long Sarah has been held in captivity. As long as I have a lead to where she might be, I have to try to get to her.”
“I understand,” I said, squeezing his hand. “You have to try to find her. I’ll meet you as soon as I can, the moment I find what I’m looking for.”
“Now, wait just a minute—” Evelyn started.
“Evelyn,” I said gently, turning to look at her. She looked so small and dejected, anxiously wringing her blue scarf in her hands, it was almost enough to make me change my mind. Almost. “If my mom is out there somewhere, I have to track her down, and there might be more answers in the area where we used to live. I have to do this… I know you understand that.”
She clamped her mouth shut, her narrowed eyes glistening brightly. “We’ll go together. We’ll take the Buick.”
I shook my head gently, right as Robert interjected.
“Evelyn, you cannot be implicated in any of this. The Order will use you to get to Aspen. They’ll try to harm you. I cannot allow it.”
“True, but she can’t go back home, either,” Aiden replied. “Frankly, none of us can.”
“Aiden’s right,” I replied. “If Evelyn goes home, she’ll be in danger. They’ll send Strauss back there, maybe someone else. Someone worse. They might hurt her…” I felt the panic rising in my chest as I spoke.
Robert held up his hand gently. “Aiden, I will accompany you to Tulsa. We’ll take my car, leaving yours here.” Aiden started to protest, but Robert continued, ignoring him. “They saw your car at the Order tonight, so that’s the vehicle they’ll be looking for. We’ll take my car, and on the way to Tulsa, we’ll drop Evelyn off at my sister’s house in Wichita. Just temporarily – it’s the only safe place for you right now, my dear,” he said, turning to face Evelyn.
As the two of them started squabbling over the details, Aiden leaned towards me.
“I hate leaving you,” he said quietly.
“I’ll be okay,” I replied, squeezing his hand. “It’s you I’m worried about. I’m glad Robert is going with you. Please look after Evelyn. The moment I’m done in Sacramento, I’ll come find you.”
“Do you still have your burner phone?”
I smiled, patting my jacket. “I have it, Agent Eighty-Six.”
Robert stood up then, with Evelyn sullenly following suit. She had a sour look on her face.
“Okay, it’s settled,” he said. “Aiden and I will head to Tulsa to see if we can’t find Sarah in the Containment facility there. Evelyn will come with us all the way to Wichita, where we’ll drop her off – just for a few days,” he quickly added in a placating tone, “until we come right back to get her a few days later. And the sooner we go, I think, the better.”
“What about the class?” Aiden asked. “We can’t both leave the state in the middle of the semester.”
“One of the other professors owes me a favor, after I took over his class for a month when he developed mono at the end of the semester a couple years back. Some of us had our own bawdy theories about how he came down with it, but that’s another story…” Evelyn had a disgruntled look on her face. “Regardless, I’ll call him first thing in the morning. Have you uploaded the three different exam versions to the drive? And the test answer keys…?”
Evelyn caught my eye as the two of them talked, motioning for me to come over. I followed her back towards the elevators, where she retrieved another envelope from her purse. The money from under my bed.
“Thank you for bringing this to me,” I said gratefully, taking the envelope from her.
She nodded. “I want you to call me every day. Twice a day. Look over your shoulder constantly. Cover that… thing on your arm,” she said, frowning at my tattoo. “If something were to happen to you, I just don’t know what I’d do…”
“I’ll be fine,” I told her firmly. “Just running a quick errand at the bank… in California.” I smiled.
She chuckled, then gently cupped my face with two hands.
“I’m so sorry that all of this has happened to you. But, selfishly, I’m also so glad I can finally tell you the truth. It’s been the greatest joy of my life to have the chance to be close to you these last few years, Rowan.”
I put my hand over hers, which rested against my cheek.
“I love you, Evelyn. And you know what? I hope you don’t mind, but I think I still prefer Aspen. This Rowan chick is still a stranger to me.”
“You would have liked her,” Evelyn smiled.
“I hope one day I’ll get to meet her again.”
“You will,” she replied firmly. “I believe that. If your mother is alive somewhere out there, then she has the key to unlocking all those memories from your past. I’m sure of it.”
I forced a smile, not feeling quite as confident as Evelyn. Even if I were somehow able to track down my mother’s facility, then manage to get her out… who knows how neuro-electrocution would work?
Robert and Aiden approached us then.
“Are we all ready?” Robert asked, rubbing his hands together brusquely. I glanced at Evelyn, who was giving me a reassuring smile.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I replied, reaching for Aiden’s hand. He took my hand to his lips, kissing the top of it gently.
“Time for a road trip,” he smiled at me over my hand, though it didn’t quite reach the corners of his eyes.
***
A half-hour later, after I retrieved my helmet and we moved Aiden’s car to the covered faculty lot, and he and Robert grabbed some cash from the ATM in the student center, the four of us piled back into Robert’s beige Mercedes, heading for the café where I left my bike.
“Are you sure you have enough money? Do you need more?” Evelyn asked me from the front seat.
“I have enough,” I replied, patting my jacket pocket where I had nearly $4,000 in cash stuffed inside. Thanks, Savannah, I thought to myself wryly.
“And you have a phone?” she pressed.
“Yes, and I’ve already programmed that number both in your cellphone and in Robert’s.”
“And you’re sure I can’t come with you?”
“Unless you plan on riding on the back of a motorcycle all the way to California…”
“I would!” she protested. Robert gave her a look. I, for one, believed her.
I glanced at Aiden, who had fallen silent, staring at something far away out the car window. I reached for his hand, squeezing it gently. He turned from the window and we locked eyes. For the briefest moment, I could almost feel his fear, his remorse, his pain, his overwhelming desire both to protect me, as well as find Sarah.
“You’ll find her, I know it,” I whispered. He didn’t reply. Instead, he just gazed deeply into my eyes. I could see the sorrow written in his.
“I think this is it,” Robert announced as we pulled into the coffee shop parking lot. “Aspen, where’s your bike?”
“Around the back,” I replied.
Evelyn turned around from the front seat to look at me. Passing streetlamps in the parking lot illuminated her tired face as she tried to give me a small smile.
“I hate that you’re going on your own,” she said wistfully, “but I have to say, you are your grandfather’s granddaughter.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Donald absolutely loved his motorcycle. He rode that bike cross country in the eighties. Absolutely terrified me every time he got on it. Once he made me ride on the seat behind him. I clutched him so hard I must have bruised his ribs. I screamed the entire time – he never once asked me to get on the back of his bike again.”
I laughed. Robert had pulled behind the building and parked the car. Up front, in the driver’s seat, he was glancing at me in the rearview mirror with crinkled eyes.
“You learned how to ride a motorcycle before you learned how to drive a car. It was the same year your grandfather died, and the last time I saw you before your parents brought you here three years ago.” She smiled tightly as she continued, fighting back tears. “You and your parents came to see him just before he passed. When he said he wanted to ride one last time, you took him out, on that very bike, and gave him his last ride. I cannot remember the last time he smiled the way he did, hanging onto you on the back of that bike.”
She rummaged around her purse for a moment, pulling out a small Polaroid photo, then turned back to hand it to me. The caption read “Rowan and Donald, c. May 2010” – and there we were. Me, at sixteen, straddling my grandfather’s bike wearing a black leather jacket and a bright red scarf, my round purple sunglasses far too big for my face. And there he was – my grandfather – sitting behind me on the bike in his brown leather jacket and Army-green steel helmet. He was frailer than the man I remember seeing in Evelyn’s photos, but he was smiling from ear-to-ear.
My heart caught roughly in my throat.
“Take it with you,” Evelyn said, her voice somewhat raspy.
I couldn’t find the words I wanted to say so I simply nodded.
“Give me a moment,” she said, dabbing her eyes with Robert’s handkerchief.
Tucking the faded photograph safely in my jacket pocket, I opened the door and stepped outside. Aiden followed. I started to put on my helmet as I walked toward the bike, which was perched a couple yards from the back door of the café, but he rested his hand on my arm, stopping me.
“We could go back for my car,” he said softly. “Head to Sacramento first, let Robert and Evelyn head to Wichita without us, where they can hang low for a while.”
I shook my head lightly. “I don’t have any guaranteed answers where I’m going – just more questions. Go find your family. When you do, I hope to have what I need to find mine.”
He was quiet for a moment, then reached his hand into his pocket and retrieved the silver lighter – the same one he’d used to convince me to stay in the coffee shop. The one he’d used to help us escape just a few hours ago.
“Take this with you. If anyone tries to hurt you, I want you to melt their faces off.”
“Are we talking Raiders of the Lost Ark here?”
He put his face in his hands, groaning. “Are you telling me you’re an Indiana Jones fan?”
“Is that a bad thing?” I demanded.
He cupped my face in his hands, lowering his face to mine. “I never could have dreamt I’d have a girlfriend who rides a motorcycle, likes Godsmack and Indiana Jones, and is the most badass Elementalist in modern history.”
I gasped softly. “Did you just call me your girlfriend?”
He stepped back, half-feigning a horrified expression. “Do you mean to tell me you’d crack my sternum while rescuing me from drowning only to resuscitate me and break my heart?”
“Oh no…We should probably take you back to Dr. Chen,” I replied somberly.
“Come here, you,” he said, taking me in his arms.
From behind us, I could hear Evelyn clear her throat.
“Aspen, no granddaughter of mine is going to date a boy without him first passing my inspection,” she said, squinting an eye in Aiden’s direction. Robert stood just behind her, laughing to himself softly.
“Well… he’s an Associate Professor with a PhD, has a great sense of humor, keeps his house impeccably clean, and is a Pyromancer like Grandpa… Does that help?”
She gave me a wry smile. “I’ll think about it.”
I stepped forward to give her a tight hug. Robert gently clasped my good shoulder.
“You be safe out there, Aspen,” he said. “And the second you’ve opened that box, you come meet us. We might need a Pentamancer close by our side given the nonsense we’re about to embark upon.”
“I will,” I promised.
“Be safe, sweetheart. Take good care of yourself,” Evelyn said, pulling away to look at me. “I love you always.”
“I love you too, Grandma.”
She leaned in to kiss my cheek, then hurried back to the car with Robert close in tow. He turned to smile at me over his shoulder before he opened the passenger door to help Evelyn back into the car. I reached my hand to touch my cheek – it was wet, from her tears. My own eyes watered slightly.
“Find a safe place to sleep tonight, but not too close to the highway,” Aiden instructed, clasping my arms. “Message me the moment you can. Get a charger first thing, and a backpack, preferably one with a lock. And I meant what I said – if anyone looks at you cross-eyed…”
“Melt their faces off,” I finished solemnly.
“Exactly.”
We stood there awkwardly for a moment before Aiden leaned forward to kiss me goodbye. I raised my hand, gently pressing my fingers to his lips before they could reach mine.
“It’s not goodbye,” I whispered, taking his hand in mine. “Just ‘see you soon.’”
I kissed his fingertips softly, then turned towards my bike as I strapped on my helmet. I had just started to climb on when Aiden pulled me back, swiftly turning me around as he pulled my face to his.
He kissed me deeply, roughly entwining his fingers in my hair as though he had no intention of ever letting me go. I let out a soft gasp, then threw my arms around his neck, not caring about the captivated audience gaping at us from inside the Mercedes. The light above the coffee shop’s back door abruptly burst, mercifully bathing us in darkness.
“I’ll see you soon,” he whispered, kissing the tip of my nose before he let me go.
“I suppose I could go with you to Tulsa after all…” I muttered, only half-joking in that moment. Even in the darkness, I could see him smile wistfully.
Reluctantly, I took a small step away from him, nearly walking into a yellow concrete balustrade as I did. Deftly mounting my bike, my eyes met Aiden’s one last time, alighted by the red glow of my taillight. I could see sorrow written there – and pain, uncertainty, fear – all things I knew were clearly reflected in my eyes as well.
“I’ll see you soon,” I promised, kicking the motorcycle into gear. It roared to life and I pulled away without taking another look back, knowing that if I did, I might not go.
After tucking Aiden’s silver lighter into my back pocket, I pulled the throttle on my grandfather’s motorcycle, my hair whipping in the cool night air, hoping the small brass key I wore next to the blue tanzanite pendant around my neck would unlock the answers I needed to find my mother.
∞