I WAS . . . I WAS IN YOUR memory,” Fort said, his mind still trying to come to grips with what had just happened. “That was you. I was in your head!”
Dr. Opps nodded. “That was around thirteen and a half years ago. On that day we discovered several . . . artifacts. The book you saw and three others were all unearthed on the exact same day around the world, Forsythe. None of the digs were aware of each other at first, but my agency put it together.”
“You work at the National Security Agency?” Fort asked. “I thought you ran a school.”
“The digs themselves were shocking,” Dr. Opps continued, ignoring him. “But these books would become a thousand times more important. Not that we knew that at first.”
“What’s in the book?” Fort asked. “It said . . . magic. The Magic of Destruction, and—”
“The books contain knowledge,” Dr. Opps said. “Knowledge long lost. But now that we’ve found that knowledge again, it allows us to do things like, well, show you my memories.”
He took Fort’s hand again, and the scene shifted to a circular room with descending benches made from stone curving around the room, surrounding a podium in the middle with two books on it. Rachel, the girl who’d arrived with Dr. Opps, was standing in the middle, reading from the same book Fort had seen in Acadia National Park.
Another memory. But this time Dr. Opps looked older and seemed confident, much less nervous for what was about to happen.
Rachel returned the book to the podium and closed her eyes. She raised her hands and formed a circle with her fingers, then mumbled something too quiet for Fort to hear.
Instantly, her hands began to glow, getting brighter and brighter until she held a blinding ball of light in the air between them. Her words grew louder, but even hearing them aloud, Fort couldn’t understand them or repeat them. It was like they disappeared from his mind as soon as he registered them.
Rachel turned, energy crackling throughout the room. Dr. Opps’s hair began to rise on end as Rachel opened her eyes, now filled with the same energy that glowed between her hands. She pulled back, then launched the energy at the nearest wall, where it struck with a blinding flash that made Dr. Opps cover his eyes in pain.
It took a minute for his sight to return. When he was able to see, he found that the wall she’d hit was no longer there. In its place was a jagged hole easily six feet in diameter, the wall around it still sizzling with the same energy.
Rachel had been blown back against the other wall and was slowly picking herself up, a huge grin on her face.
“Did you see that?” she shouted, jumping up and down in excitement.
Dr. Opps stood, clapping his hands. “Well done, Rachel,” he said. “Though we’re going to have to get that wall fixed now.”
Rachel blushed, but her smile didn’t fade. “Just imagine this against one of those creatures that attacked D.C. I’ll totally destroy it!”
Dr. Opps started to nod, but the memory of the monster in D.C. appeared in his head, and it was like someone had slapped Fort in the face. The image filled his mind, and he began to scream silently inside Dr. Opps’s head, only to abruptly find himself back in the kitchen, screaming for real.
Dr. Opps raised a hand. “Calm down, Forsythe. You’re perfectly safe.”
He stopped yelling as Rachel walked back into the room with a new shirt, staring at him like he’d gone insane. “You’re . . . you’re going to fight those things?” Fort said to Dr. Opps, not sure whether he was afraid or excited at the idea. “With . . . with magic?”
“Well, I will,” Rachel said.
“No, she won’t,” Dr. Opps said, giving her an annoyed look. “Not for several years, if ever. The books we found, Fort . . . they contained formulas. These formulas, when read out loud, unlock previously inaccessible powers within the human body. We think it’s a significantly advanced form of quantum communication with the environment and other living things, but yes, the public would most likely see it as magic, if they found out. Many already think that’s what the attacks were, some kind of magical creature.”
Fort just stared at him. “You run a school to teach . . . magic?”
“No,” Dr. Opps said. “I run a school to give our country the power to protect itself from any further attacks like the one that took your father. That’s why I’m here, Forsythe. I want you to have a chance to make sure what happened to him never happens to anyone else.”
Dr. Opps took his hand again, and this time Fort found himself standing in front of the devastated Lincoln Memorial as the creature attacked an empty National Mall.
“No!” he screamed, and bent over, trying not to throw up as the monster roared. He covered his eyes and shook his head over and over, just wanting it to go away. “No no no no no no no!”
“Forsythe, listen to me!” Dr. Opps shouted over the monster. “This isn’t real. We’re in your mind, in your imagination. You don’t have to hide from the creature here. Give yourself the power that you saw Rachel use. Fight back against it! You can do it!”
Fort clenched his teeth, focusing on the wall that Rachel had destroyed with one ball of energy. If he could do that too . . .
He slowly stood up, though the ground shifted dangerously below him. He opened his eyes, and the clawed fingers emerged from the ground right in front of him. For a moment, he dry heaved, the fear just too great. But reminding himself that this wasn’t real, he positioned his hands like he’d seen Rachel do and summoned a ball of energy.
The heat from the magic almost burned him, but that didn’t matter. Instead, he just imagined it hotter and hotter, until it scalded his skin. Finally, screaming as loudly as he could, he launched the power at the nearest scaled finger.
The blast tore through the monster’s entire hand, and it shrieked in agony. The noise reverberated in Fort’s chest, and he felt a chill go through him, though for once, it wasn’t from fear.
He could destroy those things. He could get justice for his father.
He could make them feel pain.
“That’s it,” Dr. Opps said, and the kitchen appeared once more. “That’s the power I can give you, if you decide to serve your country at my school.”
Fort’s heart raced with excitement as he replayed the creature shrieking over and over in his mind. But even through the sense of satisfaction he felt, some part of Fort knew this wouldn’t be how it’d happen. “You’d never send kids against monsters like that. Why would you teach us instead of adults how to do this?”
Dr. Opps sat back in his seat. “When I flip through the books, all I see are blank pages. The books are unreadable by anyone born before the day the books were found, Forsythe. There’s a theory that along with the discovery of the books, some sort of power returned to the world on the same day. Whatever the reason, only children born from that day forward have been able to use the information within.” He rubbed his forehead. “It took us almost a decade just to discover that. And we never even considered the need to teach the magic until the unfortunate attacks in D.C. and Maryland. I opened my school soon afterward.”
He leaned forward and showed Fort the silver ball again. “But until our students are old enough to take to the field themselves, we’ve found a work-around. There are lessons within the books about infusing everyday objects with the power, just like this one. Imagine how safe our country would be if soldiers could use weapons as powerful as Rachel’s magic. Or how much more humane warfare could become if we could drop a bomb that put everyone to sleep, like I did your aunt. The possibilities are staggering.”
Fort frowned. “So you need us to make you magical weapons?”
“With enemies out there capable of attacks like the ones six months ago, we need all the help we can get,” Dr. Opps said, then paused. “I will caution you, however. Whoever orchestrated the attacks might learn of the school and seek to stop us before we’re able to protect ourselves. We believe that chance is remote, but the possibility of danger exists.”
“Don’t worry about that. You’ll have me there to protect you,” Rachel whispered to him.
“You think those creatures might attack the school?” Fort said, his excitement starting to tumble off a cliff.
“It would be a prime target,” Dr. Opps said. “But the school’s existence is known to only a few of the highest-ranking members of the military and one congressional committee. And even most of them aren’t aware of its location. Beyond the secrecy, though, we have the best protection you could possibly ask for, not to mention that you’ll be learning to create defenses yourself.”
That was true. And even if the school might be more of a target, was anywhere really safe anymore? Fort nodded. “I understand.”
“Then tell me, Forsythe,” Dr. Opps said. “Would you be interested in joining my school?”
Fort stood up. He knew the answer but had one last question. “You said my aunt couldn’t know about any of this. What happens if I say no?”
Dr. Opps smiled slightly and tapped the silver ball. “You won’t remember anything after the pizza arrived tonight, and your aunt will never have heard of my school. As I said, the existence of the school has to remain secret, for the protection of my students.”
Fort nodded, still imagining the pained screams of the creature. “I’m in.”