Drip, Drip, Drip.
I closed my eyes tighter, in an effort to stay asleep, even though the brightness of the morning tried to pierce my closed lids. What was that annoying dripping noise? No tap leaked in the apartment. Could I have forgotten to close the one in the kitchen? Maybe Cole had forgotten as he’d been there last—
The events from the night before flashed through my brain like a slide show on crack.
The Sway—whoever they were—had taken me captive. Through Cole, who’d been put on me. The dripping and slow beep now registering could only mean being in some sort of medical facility. I pulled on my wrist to find no restraint there. Bad choice by them; they should restrain someone with my particular skill set.
An IV ran into a vein on my right hand. I opened my eyes slowly so that I could take in my surroundings. Nobody else in the room with me. Light grey scrubs covering my body. White walls devoid of decor. The only things in the room were a bed, an IV pole, and me. I glanced out the window, trying to find out the position of the sun to figure out if it was late or early in the morning.
“Julia, good. You’re awake.”
I looked around the room to find the source of the voice, but it’d boomed from the speakers integrated into the ceiling.
“Once you’ve been debriefed, we can get you to more comfortable accommodations. A nurse will be in shortly to take out your IV. Welcome to The Sway,” the guy over the speaker said with perfectly enunciated words. Slight New England accent, nothing heavy.
As if I would wait here like a docile little thing. They had another think coming.
I stood up from the bed and placed my feet on white linoleum before pressing the stop button on the IV and removing it from my hand. I didn't need a nurse to do something I could very well do myself.
“Ah, apparently, the nurse isn't needed. Do you want a bandage?” he mocked.
I nodded to the wall, assuming cameras monitored my every breath. A panel slid away from the center of the space, and a girl who had to be younger than me came in with a clear plastic box holding nothing else but gauze and medical tape in it.
I wouldn't be able to incapacitate her with the tiny box. But I could with my legs. They really should’ve restrained me.
I let the girl, who actually looked kind of nice, put a Spiderman Band-Aid on my hand. She smiled at me and her deep brown eyes knew. She knew I was going to try something. She seemed excited about it. Sick bitch! I gripped her forearm and her eyes lit up. Her innocent demeanor wasn't fooling me anymore. I was sure she got away with a lot because of her petite frame and big eyes.
“Thank you so much.” I released her arm.
She slowly nodded and smirked at me. “You’re as good as Cole said you were.”
I sat back onto the standard hospital bed and swung my legs up.
“I have no idea what you're talking about,” I said, examining my nails and not paying her any more attention. Now that must have bugged Little Miss Too Innocent, to be dismissed without a glance.
She replaced her supplies in the box. “Right, of course you don't. I’ll see you at training.”
What the hell? My brows furrowed and I immediately released the wrinkles from my forehead. Not before she saw the emotion, though.
“We all train together. You’ll have to fight our best physically, mentally, and emotionally. The Sway isn't for the weak,” she said with an air of promise.
I nodded. “And if I don't comply?”
She barked out a laugh. “You can decide on your compliance after your initiation in five minutes.”
Her eyes narrowed on mine, and she purposefully pushed the long sleeves of her black spandex jacket up her arms. Around her dark skinned wrists were tattoos of different numbers and words that formed into bands that looked exotic.
“I'll see you tonight, Julia,” she said through a smile and slammed the door to my room shut.
A panel on the wall directly across from the bed slid open to reveal all-black clothing. “Caldwell, the camera feed will go dead for exactly sixty seconds. If you don't want everyone in this room to see you naked, I suggest you change quickly. In three, two, one…”
I scrambled off the bed, smiling like an idiot at the notion that someone, somewhere, was giving me sixty seconds of privacy. Thank God for small comforts. For the moment, I could focus on this and not on all the creepy stuff Little Miss Too Innocent had spewed.
I stripped off the scrubs and left them in a pile on the ground while glimpsing black boy-cut panties and a black sports bra to my right on a little white plastic shelf. I slipped them on and examined what to wear.
One black spandex racerback tank top, a pair of size two black cargo pants, black athletic socks, combat boots, and the same spandex jacket the other girl was wearing. Standard. Simple. All in my exact sizes. Kind of creepy.
“Caldwell, the feed will be live in twenty seconds. I hope you’re decent. Otherwise, the guys in this room will start catcalling.”
I smirked. Right, like they would be catcalling at me. I also had bigger things to worry about. I pulled the tank top over my head and slid the cargo pants up. I was doing up the zipper when three gentle beeps echoed softly around the space.
“Good, the guys back here were getting a little too excited. I'm glad you could pull yourself together. If you want to tie your hair up, there are supplies in the bathroom.”
Bright blue lights illuminated another panel. I walked over to it barefoot and stared at the door.
“Abracadabra.” There was probably a magic word to make it open.
“Smart ass. Press the door.”
I pressed in and it clicked and slid into the wall. The Sway obviously had some very wealthy investors.
“No cameras in here either, right?” I asked.
“Right.”
I slid the door shut and took care of business, used a washcloth to wipe down my face and armpits, washed my hands, and pulled my hair into a high ponytail at the top of my head. I shrugged at the blonde girl staring back at me in a “eh, you'll do” gesture. I scanned the room—no windows. No route for escape. At this point, I wasn’t sure if it was worth making a break for it. This wasn’t some back door operation. This was militant, precise. It reminded me of Eisenhower but also better, more advanced. Which also meant I better be damn careful and on my guard.
When I walked back into the stale room, Cole was sitting on the bed looking at the floor. I grabbed the socks and boots, then parked myself on the ground to get to work lacing up the shoes. I could feel him watching me; he didn't owe me anything. He’d made that clear when he took me hostage and shot me up with a gigantic needle. Jerk.
“I'm sorry about earlier. We couldn't bring you in until the time was right,” he said.
I tied the boots, keeping my face devoid of emotions.
“Julia, please. I think we could be real friends now. No fake bullshit to hide behind. No more five-inch heels that you wouldn't wear if you had a choice. You can be you. You can even dye your hair back brown, if you want.” Cole slammed back onto the bed and threw his arm across his face. “I like it blonde, though.”
He mumbled the last part so quietly that I almost didn't hear him, not sure if even the cameras could pick up the words. I looked up at him and his head dropped to the side. Damn his boy-next-door charm. I smiled, even though I shouldn't have. Worth it, though. Cole's eyes lit up in response to me. I wanted to punch his perfectly symmetrical model face and break his nose, but I just smiled and pretended.
Cole escorted me out of my room to four armed guards who were waiting outside the door when I exited.
I lifted my eyebrow to them. My lips turned up. “At ease, boys. I'm not going to try to break your necks.”
A hand settled flat in the small of my back; Cole now stood inches away from me. The guys ushered me down the hall. Left, two rights, another left, and then toward two double doors at the end of a dead-end hall. Above the door, a statement had been printed on the wall.
Bravery is required, honesty is necessary. Trust is only given when earned. The brotherhood will sway the world to unite. Never underestimate the power of loyalty.
Interesting. The morals were sound, not enforcing a religious view, but rather one of goodness that could be found in mankind. I wish I wasn't impressed, but I was. The similarities to Eisenhower were creepy on an “I swear someone is following me” level. Everything that I couldn’t wrap my head around at Eisenhower as a child, that made me want to rebel, made sense here. Only because I was older. Not because they were better. They were still the enemy, for Hell’s sake. The double doors had slid open.
Over two hundred faces stared back at me. I moved forward like Marie Antoinette going to the guillotine, the guards flanking me. By default, they ushered me to the front of the room. Nerves ransacked my body as I forced myself to swallow them. My body was on fire with so much attention focused on me, a flush creeping up my body from the prolonged staring. Not going to happen. Best quell this before it shone on my face. I half-considered waving like a beauty queen in a parade, but that wasn’t my style.
I needed to come up with an image that would allow me to control my emotions. That’s the technique they’d taught us at Eisenhower, to take the focus to something else and center around this picture. Sometimes, imagining beach waves rolling in and out worked, but not right now. Not with an entire militia staring me down, like I was the devil himself.
With focus, the people around me blurred until it just looked like fields of tan and gray, no distinctive eyes staring holes through my skin. Someone cleared their throat and it echoed throughout the room. All eyes went to a well-built man standing behind a podium and dressed in the standard black uniform, except he had on some trendy, plastic-framed glasses.
“This is Julia Caldwell. We head-hunted her away from the government last night; she was part of the Eisenhower protocol,” Hipster Dude said.
The guards around me inched away, giving me a wider area of space. Apparently, I was a threat.
“She’s been given her first round of treatment to kill the link that would make her active. There’s no reason you should fear her at this point. She’ll get her next round tonight and her final tomorrow,” he continued.
Some people in the group nodded along, and a few smiles beamed in my direction. No one in the room could’ve been older than twenty-five. Including the guy speaking up front who was obviously the leader.
“Julia, we’d like to debrief you first. We think every person in The Sway should know who you are and what we plan to do with you. Then we can vote on initiation. This has been done with every recruit here, so please don’t feel like we are singling you out,” he said.
Polite of him to debrief me after being kidnapped and jabbed with a needle. Then inviting everyone to be involved in the torture, like a team-building activity.
Three distinctive beeps went off and shifted my attention to a chair set in the center of a platform. The contraption was in the process of releasing metal arm restraints that were pressurized automatically. A nurse stood by—rather, she looked like a nurse in a child’s body—organizing cords to monitor vitals and brain.
I’d sat in a lot of lie detector chairs before, but this one seemed to have more components to it than the standard Government Issue.
Joy. Why in the world would a group that took me put me through rounds of questioning? I was the captive? I should be questioning. This is some twisted form of Stockholm’s syndrome.
The room dimmed slightly as they put me up on stage. I was on display and pushed down into a chair. They started to restrain my ankles and I kicked at them. My hands were next as I jerked and twitched away. My hundred-and-twenty pound frame was nothing against four grown men.
The nurse leaned into my ear. “This will monitor your heart, brain waves, pulse, perspiration, and your brain will be displayed on the screen behind you as we proceed, showing which parts are responding to the sequence of questions.”
Yes, much more intricate than the standard government lie detector. I looked around, slowing my breathing, remembering to dig my nails into the chair handles to cause pain, in an attempt to beat the lie detector. I had no idea what they wanted, but I knew too much and if they wanted it, I had to protect my knowledge.
They slid a mesh net of electrodes over my head; probably was what would be mapping my brain. This was going to be fun. Did they think this would break me? Of all of the things I’d been through, of everything I’d seen, this was what they thought would bring me down? Which part would light up when I controlled my emotions? The screen was behind me and the crowd of The Sway sat in front of me. What did that even mean? The Sway? Who went by that name? At least Eisenhower was named after someone. The Sway. Lame. I could see their reactions, but not the reasons for them. A control freak’s worst nightmare. I tried not to fidget in my chair as beads of sweat dripped down my neck.
“Please state your name.”
Okay, here we go. Bring it.
“Julia Katherine Caldwell.”
“Where are you from?”
“Salt Lake City.”
“Who do you work for?”
“The Central Intelligence Agency.”
“What is your current mission?”
I hesitated and felt my temperature go up. A blush crept across my chest as I glanced around the room for Cole. I felt my tongue get tied, swelling up in my mouth as I stumbled out the words. Why was I feeling the need to tell the truth? This could be an easy lie to fake. What did they give me? I scraped my nail beds against the chair, pushing pain through my system, but the truth slipped out of my mouth.
“To infiltrate Cole Thomas and gain his trust on behalf of the United States government. If his father were to step out of bounds according to their standards, I was to take Cole hostage on behalf of the CIA to use as leverage.”
I scanned the crowd trying to find Cole. I’m sure he’d figured this much out already. No luck glimpsing him, though, and Hipster Dude fired off the next question.
“When were you recruited?”
“I was thirteen.” I breathed out, my words shakier than I’d anticipated. I lost my whole childhood. A swell of emotional panic rose inside me for the girl I could have been, for the child I would never be.
“Did you undergo treatment at Eisenhower?”
“Yes. Every new recruit had to go through a medical evaluation.”
“You’re stalling, Caldwell. What do you know about The Sway?”
Of course I was stalling. I wanted to tell them whole life story. I wanted to read them my diary. I mean, if I kept a diary, I’d want to read it to them. I kept glancing from side to side, trying to find something to ground me, to give me some sort of stability.
“Um … you have very nice facilities.”
Some people in the crowd chuckled. I cleared my throat and continued.
“Also that bravery, honesty, trust, and loyalty are vital to your success. I saw your sign. Do you force people to stay here?”
A few in the crowd smiled proudly at my answer and shook their heads in response to my question. My heart filled at their emotion. I knew the answer to my own question. They were here because they wanted to be here. I saw acceptance reflected in the eyes of the teenage soldiers.
A buzz seemed to go through my body. Was I drugged? This wasn’t me. I’d been trained better than this. What in the hell were these warm fuzzy feelings? My heart was never full but cold and solid. I didn’t want them to accept me. My path had been set since I was thirteen.
I took a deep breath. When I exhaled, the air broke apart and seemed to get caught in my lungs. The careful control I thought I had of my life was an illusion. The government had me perfectly pegged and gave me what looked just like control, only it wasn't. They could choose to shut me off and activate me in a way where I wouldn't be in control of my own actions. I just couldn’t wrap my head around how this place could be any different. None of this could be real. An elaborate set up. My final test for Eisenhower. I needed to prove my worth, that I was trustworthy. I wouldn’t break.
“Julia. Did you hear me?”
Crap. “I'm sorry, can you repeat that?”
“Will you walk away from your current allegiance to join our cause?”
What cause? Who am I joining?
“Why in the hell would I join you? I don’t even know you.”
A collective gasp went through the crowd, followed by about two hundred eyeballs giving me the stare down. My heart started to pick up pace. Sweat broke out on my hairline.
“Julia, this is a unique opportunity.”
Unique opportunity, my ass. The Sway, we have nice facilities, join us, be in our cult. Jab a needle in your thigh. Switch allegiance. Hell no. I started peeling the electrodes off my face and pulling at the wires.
“Take off the straps.” I started fighting against the chair. “Please, I just need a minute. I can’t think!”
I made the recliner jump back and forth, I must’ve looked slightly insane to half these kids, but I couldn’t breathe. It was like my mind had stopped calculating the exact outcome of scenarios and how I felt actually meant something. It made my lungs tighten and my head swim.
“Please, just give me a minute. Please,” I said through shaky breaths.
Apparently, I could resort to begging. Hipster Dude glanced down at a monitor, and a hiss of air released the cuffs around my wrist.
“Julia, we will expect an answer.”
My bodyguards came back, pulling me up and effectively putting me in a box between their four bodies, with me like a pinball in that space as we walked out. Sweat dripped from my brow. I glanced up and finally spotted Cole. I couldn’t understand the expression on his face. Disappointment? Regret? Fear? Why did I care? I was stronger than this; I could push the emotions back.
I stumbled over my feet as confusion clouded my brain, which seemed to cut synaptic responses to my legs. The guards put me in a tiny holding room. I hated being on the other end. How many prisoners, captives, had I held just like this? I wasn’t a bad person. Patriotic work was just work. Karma was on the side of justice; she wasn’t sadistic like this. I could probably lie down and have my toes reach one end and my head touch the other. The metal door slammed with a sort of finality to it. I looked around, the gray cement walls sending a chill through my skin.
“Where is the furniture?” I whispered to myself.
“You’re a prisoner, or did you forget?”
I glanced up, finding a speaker integrated into the ceiling.
Of course. I sat down and crossed my legs, like a kid at circle time, and started to focus on my breathing, centering myself. That’s all I could do right now. Breathe.
Deep breath in. Was everything in my life defined by Eisenhower?
Deep breath out. I think I’m meditating wrong.
Deep breath in. Come on, mind. Slow down.
I kept breathing and trying to understand the situation I was in. Footsteps echoed beyond my tiny cell. Someone was coming. The door swung open. I slowly raised my eyes to meet Cole’s.
“Why is this a hard decision for you? We’re saving you! Can’t you just get that?” he said.
My hand curled into a fist as I imagined the satisfaction the sound of breaking his nose would bring me.
“Can’t I just get that? Really? So you, knowing exactly who I am and how I’ve been trained, think I can just blindly accept this new alternate path for my life? One that doesn’t exist as far as anyone knows. I don’t know, Cole. How easy would it be for you? And what is The Sway, anyways? Who are you people? What the hell do you do? What’s your end game?” I spat.
My breathing sped up and I clenched and unclenched my hands. Cole sat down across from me, mirroring my position.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I just want this for you.” He ran a hand through messy hair.
“What is this?” I waved my hand around me. “This is some secret society? Been there, done that. Graduated top of my class,” I said, placing my palms on my thighs and spreading my fingers out.
“It is so much more than that. Julia, these kids, they…” He stopped and looked up at the ceiling, seeking permission—or begging forgiveness, I’m not sure. “…Have you seen X-Men?”
“Have I seen X-Men? Like the new one or the old one?” I stumbled over my words.
“It doesn’t matter, either or.”
I nod. Where was he going with that? Next, he’d tell me all the kids here are superheroes in training.
“Well, everyone here is kind of like a version of X-Men.”
Oh, for God’s sake! Seriously? I mean…
I looked at Cole, really looked at him. “What?”
Three loud quick beeps blared over the speakers and the room went silent.
Cole grabbed my hand.
“Come on. Now! Hurry,” he said while pulling me to my feet.
“Where are we going? Why are we running?”
He pulled me through the fancy double doors. The kids were all still in the assembly room.
Every one sat perfectly at attention; no one moved a muscle.
I looked out at the crowd and noticed nearly everyone had stopped moving, besides Cole, ten feet from me now. Why weren’t they moving? He quickly closed the distance and came to my side.
The lights dimmed further and in an incredibly efficient manner, every person in the room made rows and columns, little squares of perfectly organized people. I looked up at Cole and he shook his head once. I didn't move. The screen behind me lit up. Little Miss Too Innocent and Cole turned to face it, so I stood and followed suit. Why was everyone so nervous, frozen? What the hell was going on? They were robots. The Sway turned them into robots, that was it.
We were looking at the interior of a government bunker. They had men and women who had to be foreign military commanders, because they were dressed in uniforms and definitely all from different countries judging by the insignia on the shoulders. Their faces were plastered on various flat screens throughout the room they were in.
“So we are in agreement. The World Order will go into effect.”
I knew that voice. A chill scattered goose bumps over my body. I turned to Cole and his eyes were wide.
His father was leading whatever group this was.
A few nods and affirmatives echoed in various languages. None of the men and women on the screen were leaders I recognized. This was a rogue group.
“We start with the largest targets. We will give anyone who wants to leave two weeks to evacuate their homes, showing them how generous we can be. London, Tokyo, Bangkok, Rome, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Moscow, Berlin, Montreal, Cairo, Chicago, Johannesburg, Mumbai, Austin, Karachi, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Hong Kong, Washington DC. We are in agreement, then? In two weeks’ time, we will move to change the world,” Hank Thomas said.
A screen in the middle of that room switched to a countdown. I looked at Cole and he grabbed my hand. The silence was deafening. The clock ticked: three, two, one.
“Citizens of the world, I come to you today in an offering of peace.” The screen zeroed in on the man speaking English, one I knew. “My name is Hank Thomas and these are my commanders.”
The screen flashed, showing people from varying ethnicities, the same ones we’d seen in the video prior.
“What’s going on? Who’s he talking to? Can he see us?” I asked.
Cole leaned into my ear and whispered, “This is on every channel.”
He motioned over his head to a command station in the corner that had multiple screens set up, all showing the same scene.
“They’ve hijacked every station, I would guess,” he said.
I nodded once, letting the magnitude of the situation set in.
Hank continued. “You should know that in two weeks from now, the world you know will no longer be in existence.”
He smiled charmingly, as handsome as George Clooney in his prime, but he held darkness in his eyes, and they made me feel like I was being suffocated by a snake.
“Every major city of the world will be destroyed as of noon, two weeks from today. This world and the wars we have fought have been in vain. It’s time to join as brothers and become stronger than any civilization in the past.”
The city names spoken moments before in the private feed flashed across the screen in huge, bold white letters.
“If you live in one of the cities listed, I strongly suggest you pack up and find new residence. Within forty-eight hours, you may also notice your smartphones will no longer work, your Internet will be down, and television will be a thing of the past. This is for your benefit. Letum will take care of you. Once the initial cleanse has been taken care of, we will broadcast across the world what you are to do next. A more simple way of life is coming. Get ready, act calmly, and support each other. You will hear from us soon.”
The feed of Hank and his commanders cut away, and the cities flashed across the screen along with evacuation orders. It ended with an intricate symbol and the word Letum flashing in bold letters.
What in the hell was Letum?
My body buzzed, like an electrical current ran through it and then stopped.
It buzzed again.
The Eisenhower protocol.
No, No. They couldn’t. Eisenhower had given us a backup, a fail-safe if we were missing,
gone, and they didn’t have conclusive evidence that we were dead. They would activate a protocol, a death protocol. A treatment so deeply implanted in our bodies that it was a part of our DNA, and it did one of two things. It either turned you into a government sort of zombie, pushing your body to do things you weren’t completely in control of, until you could get to safety. Or it flooded your system with cyanide, killing you. I wasn’t sure which of the two was happening. I couldn’t take the chance.
“Cole, they’re trying to activate me. I need the next treatment,” I said through gritted teeth. My body shook uncontrollably and sweat broke out in my hairline. “Cole, help!”
My knees gave out.
Before I hit the floor, Cole scooped me up. He glanced back at Little Miss Too Innocent. “Kiya, help me!”
Cole’s paces got quicker, and his feet slapped against the cement floor while he pulled me in tightly against his chest. Kiya ran in front of him, yelling out to people to make way. The leader of The Sway came over the loudspeakers.
“Cole, I’m right behind you. Marcus, meet with the squad leaders up front. Marcus will give the rest of you your orders. For now, everyone retreat to your regular schedule. Squad leaders we will meet at 0100 hours to assess the current climate,” Hipster Dude yelled out
It felt like my brain was in a blender, being stopped from trying to send little electrical pulses to my non-responsive limbs. I couldn’t keep track of the turns we took this time to get to wherever we were going. Cole slammed through two doors and barked out orders.
That was when I lost the fight to keep my eyes open. My body went slack in his arms.
“Now, she needs it now,” he yelled.
Someone wrestled with my jacket and slipped off the sleeve on my outside arm. Latex-encased fingers ran along my arm. Then the cool metal tip of the needle skimmed against my upper arm. The needle stabbed into my flesh, and my eyes shot open and I bit my lip to keep from letting out a scream. The taste of a metallic ting filled my mouth. Muffled sounds of pain escaped out of my lips, and when I looked up, Cole was only inches from my face.
“Shh, Julia. It will be fine. I know it hurts,” he whispered.
My eyes got wet and a few bastard tears slipped down my face. I hated crying, absolutely loathed it. I ducked my head into Cole’s chest, wanting to hide my tears from anyone else that might see them. My left arm hung limp across my stomach. Nearby, tennis shoes squeaked on the floor.
“Caldwell, we’re going to give you a sedative. But we want you somewhere comfortable first. The sedative will allow your body the time it needs to chemically rebalance. Giving the next dose only twelve hours after the first is going to make you feel increasingly sluggish. Give it time to work through your system. Okay?” the doctor said.
I nodded into Cole’s chest.
“Caldwell, I need you to look at me.”
I recognized the voice of the guy who spoke at my initiation. I rubbed the sleeve of my jacket on my face and turned my head out.
“We haven’t finished with the initiation yet, but for all intents and purposes, we are choosing to trust you. But you’ll need to be watched. We can put you in a room with Kiya, so someone can see that you’re cared for.”
Cole tensed slightly against me.
“I’ve got it, Quade,” he said.
So that was Hipster Dude’s name. Quade.
“Cole, that goes against protocol,” Quade said.
Cole managed to pull me even closer to his chest. “I get that, but she doesn’t have living quarters arranged yet and at least she knows me. It’s not like I am going to do something while she is unconscious. Give me a little credit.”
I blushed, not having the energy to fight my reaction. Cole chuckled.
“Fine, but only until we can get her living arrangements squared away. You’re lucky that we are friends, man, or you would be washing dishes for a month for talking to me like that,” Quade said sharply.
The squeaky shoes were back and I looked to see someone older, much older than anyone else I had seen, standing in front of us with a two-inch-thick plastic box. His name was sewn into his coat. Dr. Lynthcope. I looked down toward his clean teal running shoes to verify that he was indeed the one making the noise.
“Nice shoes, Doc,” I said.
The good doctor looked like he needed a shave and a solid twelve hours of sleep.
“Can you hold this, Caldwell?”
I held out my arm that wasn’t screaming in pain and took the box. Inside, it held a little vial and a plastic syringe, like the one for kids that distributed medicine sublingually.
“Tomorrow at noon, you’ll have your final dose. That one should be the easiest. Most of the active cells from Eisenhower should be dead by then. The anti-Eisenhower cure acts much like chemotherapy does, seeking out the cells that are actively mutating and trying to activate and destroying them. The difference in chemotherapy is that we have been able to isolate the isotopes within your DNA, so we know exactly what Eisenhower looks like, so the side effects that cancer patients experience aren’t going to be a difficulty for you. It’ll take time for your blood counts and energy to return to normal. Please try to be patient. I know how you kids are,” the doctor said.
Who was he calling a kid? He was barely past kid status himself. He looked thirty, at the oldest. I nodded to him and Cole’s grip on me tightened. Quade gripped Cole’s shoulder.
“She needs to decide,” Quade said.
“I already have decided.”
“Will you betray your country in order to better the world?” Quade asked.
The World Order was the biggest threat I’d seen in my lifetime. Maybe that anyone had ever seen. Eisenhower, God—I don’t know if they tried to kill me or use me. But it was enough. Enough for me to consider drinking whatever Kool-Aid they were trying to give me.
“If that’s what it takes.”
Confident.
“Will you dedicate your mind, body, and soul to The Sway?”
“If you’ll have me.”
“You need to have people you trust. You’ll need to make friends. No shutting down,” Quade said quietly.
“I’ll be her friend,” Kiya said, appearing in the doorway.
“Me, too,” Cole said as Quade rolled his eyes.
“Bring Julia down for dinner, but let her rest until then,” Quade said.
Cole nodded and strode away still carrying me. I was no better than a rag doll right now, but he didn’t even seem to care about hauling me around, and I didn’t have the energy to fight him on it. So I let him cart me all over the place like we were newlyweds.
As he walked down the halls, I grew almost positive three hundred days went by. I scanned the people as Cole gently pushed his way through them and noticed a lot of eyes on him, particularly female eyes, though a few males watched him lustfully, too.
Apparently, the boy-next-door had quite a few admirers. I closed my eyes and listened to the room around me, trying to understand how so many kids had been snatched up by the government, only to be recruited by the Sway. The government had done some questionable things in the past, but I knew who I was and where I would draw my lines … or I thought I knew. This would change everything. How I defined myself, who I became. My god, who was I? I slowly opened my eyes and locked on a section of kids. They couldn't be older than nine or ten. How did they end up here?
“Those kids are taken from foster care. Once they developed their abilities, the kind that manifested in outward ways, their parents abandoned them. You’d be surprised how many of us aren't wanted by the people who made us,” Cole said.
He went into an elevator and up a couple of floors. He stepped off and continued toward the end of the hall. Only two doors stood in this hallway, one on each end.
“Cole Thomas,” he said in a monotone voice toward the wall.
The speaker blared.
“Identity verified,” a nice robotic computer voice echoed.
I heard pressurized locks release, and the door slid into the wall.
“Welcome to my humble abode. It doesn’t have a Central Park view, but it isn’t bad.”
He made his way over to a king-sized bed and put me gently on top of it. I looked around the room, getting a better idea of its layout. The bed sat in the far corner, close to a mini living area with a couch and recliner. A flat screen had been mounted on the wall. Another door I’d guess led to the bathroom to the side. It could almost pass for a hotel room. Cole walked over to a four-by-four inch computer screen flush with the wall and clicked on it.
The blinds opened up to a view of the Catskills, and I quietly gasped.
“This is amazing!”
If I’d had any energy left in me, I would’ve demanded to see the grounds of the property. Another day, hopefully sometime when peace had been re-established, thanks to the world war Hank Thomas had just started. Crap. I wish I had a chocolate marshmallow milkshake right now. Everything would be more manageable with chocolate. A sigh escaped me as my muscles tensed up.
“What’s going to happen with your dad? What are we going to do?”
Cole leaned back into the recliner and rocked slightly.
“This thing with my dad isn’t just about my dad. Because of the business he keeps and his personality, I think he has become the face of these people. Like he is a puppet. I wish I could find proof that he didn’t really want this. I swear I know my dad better than this, but some days, all I see in him is pure evil.”
I nodded, yawning. “So you don’t think he came up with the idea, but he was forced to collaborate?”
Cole looked into my eyes. “I think he was forced to collaborate because of me, because people think that I’m a weakness for him. They have no idea what I’m capable of.” A vein on his neck pulsed out.
What exactly was Cole capable of? He acted like there was more to him, that he was more than just a regular guy.
“If I’ve learned anything in the last twenty-four hours, it would be to never trust outward appearances. Some people look completely put together and beautiful, with their pressed suits and painted lips. But just because the outside is nice doesn’t mean the inside isn’t decaying with an ugly disease. Some of the most evil men in history were well-groomed and claimed to be doing things for the greater good, but their insanity was eating away at the very thing that made up the good in their souls, their own humanity,” I said.
Cole nodded to me and stood up. He made his way to me, squatted down, and ran his fingers along my arm. He gripped my hips with one arm, lifting me up, and pulled the blanket away from the bed, only to use the other arm to replace it. He leaned close enough to my ear that I could feel his breath tickling my neck before he lightly pressed his lips against my temple.
“I have to give you this medicine. You’re going to be out in thirty seconds flat, but you need to know that whatever Eisenhower took away from you, they didn’t take it all. I can still see the girl from a small town in there. It’s her I want to get to know,” he said before brushing a kiss on my forehead.
My skin heated up, and I pressed my lips together to hide an all-out grin.
“I’d like that. Give me some time to find out if there’s really any of what you see left or if I can be someone without the government,” I said quietly.
Cole nodded and smiled. “Don’t you see, Julia? You already are your own someone.”
He popped open the plastic container with the sedative in it and loaded the tube.
“This tastes like crap.” He held up the cup and a little candy wrapped in plastic. “So, I have a cherry Jolly Rancher right here, but if you fall asleep, like I think you will, I will most likely have to fish it out of your mouth so you don’t choke. So I’m just going to apologize for that in advance.”
I smiled.
“I can take it. Bring it on.”