Chapter Eleven

 

He’d cleared out of his office as soon he’d picked up the voices. The waning decline of his clairaudient ear became more apparent through the random retrieval of only brief words, like a radio that only received quick blips of reception. It was the FBI, as he knew it would be sooner or later...

“...whereabouts whenever he contacted you?”

“...recognize this company name...Pittsburgh?”

“...have a lead.”

He also heard Brett Taylor’s voice, revealing that Sidney suspected his whereabouts as being in Pittsburgh. Now, he hoped the clandestine group would respond with a relocation plan; it could make his escape much easier. He knew it would ultimately come to a way out, one way or another.

After hearing the voices, he scrambled to get rid of anything in the office that could connect him to it, including the security monitors that diligently watched the compound, not to mention his guest. He had no immediate choice but to uproot himself to the underground, where a private office, as well as a substantial personal bunker, was always at his disposal. This office certainly didn’t equal the fashionable city suite he was used to, but it would suffice.

The time had come for an introduction with his guest. In the night while Ryan was asleep, he had the guards move the large computer screen into the boy’s room. He felt a video introduction worked best for their first meeting; it would be easier for the boy to understand and concentrate on what he was telling him.

His laptop sat in front of him; he clicked on the webcam software that would transfer his image to the screen in Ryan’s room.

* * * *

He’d awakened in what felt like morning, but he couldn’t be sure within these odd surroundings. The air was different, colder, muggier, and the smell that permeated throughout was like clay, wet, and raw. He felt alert now, strangely revived and noticing the scent of almonds had left him. Now, electric lighting filled the room, when during the night, only shades of incandescence glowed softly enough to see.

The nausea that churned his stomach had subsided, after he’d made a few trips to the small bathroom inside of his room. It was equipped with a toilet, shower, mirror, and sink. There weren’t any windows in this place, and he wondered why. Where am I?, he sat and wondered, ogling something in the room that wasn’t there when he awoke during the night.

It was a computer screen, not the personal, portable type, but the kind found in an auditorium, as the ones used during school assemblies. It loomed before his bed, a large, blank square situated on a moveable post, and someone had wheeled it in here while he was asleep, because it wasn’t here when he awoke in the wee hours.

It wasn’t the only thing he’d found when he woke; there was also a tray on a cart at the foot of his bed. The French toast, bacon, and hash browns told him for a fact that it was morning. He didn’t want to eat, eyeing the tray skeptically, apprehensive that it might be drugged or even poisoned; but it certainly didn’t smell like it. He tasted tiny bites at first, and the relief his stomach growled caused him to wolf down the remaining breakfast.

He waited. It wasn’t drugged, and definitely not poisoned.

Now he stared at the blankness of the screen, wondering what it was for, and suddenly a flash of gray light and a beeping sound brought the screen to life. Lines of static passed quickly to reveal a man’s face on the screen. The man was middle-aged with dark hair streaked with gray at his temples.

“Hello, Ryan,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve guessed who I am by now. After all, you’ve heard me loud and clear with your wondrous ear, haven’t you?”

Ryan recognized the voice in an instant. The name of the man he so urgently tried to warn Dylan and the others of lingered on his tongue, but he couldn’t think of it. He was slow to remember, trying to gather his thoughts and put them back in the right order.

“Allow me to introduce myself, Ryan. I am Hadley—Roman Hadley. I am your host for the time that you’re here. I’m sure we will become fast friends. You see, Ryan, no one is going to hurt you, least of all, me. That is not why you were brought here, and I apologize for the roughness, but there was no other way.”

A brief pause passed between them as Ryan thought of what to say.

“What do you want with me?” His lips moved, but he wasn’t sure if his voice had come out loud enough.

“I assure you Ryan, no one is going to hurt you,” Hadley’s voice was dismissive. “You are here so that we may study you, and your ability. You see, Ryan, I am also a clairaudient, like you. I am also aware that you overheard my conversation from a distance. My, what an extreme capability you possess my young friend, and how clumsy am I?”

His laughter, meant to buddy the boy, was lost on him.

“That’s the thing, Ryan,” Hadley continued. “I never really got the chance to understand my ability; I mean, there were those who studied me, but I never got the opportunity to fully understand my ability at a young age. I had to learn and understand as I went along with it, and soon, I got older. Of course, I came from a different time. So, you see, I’m still learning and finding out.

“You, on the other hand, are being given the chance that I never had. I am giving you the opportunity to fully understand what you have, to be able to utilize it to the best of your ability.”

“So, you kidnapped me?”

“It may seem that way to you now, my friend, but you must understand that there are those who still shun people like us. There is still a need to keep our studies hidden. Ryan, if you wanted to explore your ability to its fullest, you would be discouraged, frowned upon, isolated; the rest of the world would react the same way your mother did. I am giving you the chance to fully understand, to master what you have so that it won’t control you anymore.”

Hadley hit a note as Ryan thought of the voices when he tried to play his video games, coaching him, distracting him, stealing the fun away.

“But you were out to get Sidney, and you couldn’t get him, so you took me instead. I heard you!”

“That’s not true, Ryan. I have studied Sidney Pratt’s ability, but Sidney is limited in his clairaudience; he only hears the dead, not the living, remotely, like you and I do.”

“Yes, he can,” Ryan protested. “He heard me the night that girl was killed.”

Hadley dismissed it with a closing of his eyes and a shaking of his head, though he knew it to be true.

“But not as well as you and I, Ryan,” he said. “The thing about us is that our minds are more in touch with our telepathic side. That means you and I are both telepaths. Sidney cannot begin to understand or teach you what you need to know completely. Ryan, Sidney is in the hospital because something triggered inside his brain whenever he had a clairaudient moment. It had caused seizures and later, a cerebral hemorrhage. That is because he is unaware of how to manage and understand what he has.”

The outright lie had caused the tears to well up in Ryan’s eyes.

“I will help you understand, Ryan. I promise.”

“I want my mother! Where is she?”

Hadley assured him that Annie was fine and went on to tell him that he wouldn’t be here long, to think of it as a vacation. He would be returned home to his mother, soon.

“When we meet in person, Ryan, very soon, I want you to be comfortable with me. I want you to relax and take a small test of your abilities. It’s simple; in fact, you get to rest while you’re listening. Then I want you to explain what you heard, the best way you know how. I will see you soon my friend...until then...”

Ryan sat in awe as the screen went blank once again.

* * * *

He sat back in the chair in his bunker and sighed, relieved that part was over. He thought about one of the last things he’d told the boy, about being returned to his mother soon. This double-edged sword worked well in his favor, as the group would assume it was a lie meant for the boy to believe, a catch to keep him complying and hoping. In fact, Ryan would be going home, as soon as he could make his break and contact her.

She was on the society’s board of directors now; she would understand him. She would help Ryan. Whatever happened to him at this point, he didn’t care; he just wanted out.

* * * *

Right now, he felt trapped, caged, and almost wild, but the man hadn’t been the monster he’d expected. Ryan felt sure that he was not here to help him; he was helping himself in some way. The man said they were going to meet in person, soon. He hoped that meant that he’d be able to leave this room.

Thoughts of his mother, Sidney, as well as his father, ran rampant through his head. He heard his father’s voice just before the damp cloth over his mouth snuffed him out, and they grabbed him. There had been silence since then. He listened, engaging with his mind, and the tears burst forth again as he could not hear his father, not since he was brought here.

He continued to reach out to his father, but it was fruitless. He tightened his eyes in fierce determination, concentrating with his soul rather than his mind. In silence, he called out to the one person he knew could hear him...

“Sidney, hear me. Help me! Hadley! Help me!”