Chapter Twelve

 

Three days had passed since the surgery, and already he felt more like his old self. It was too bad it wasn’t enough to let him out of this hospital, but they did move him from ICU to his own room. The bandages were still wrapped around his head, and he lay in the peacefulness of his own room, looking somewhat better than before; the pain in his head had subsided, leaving only a slight numbness to the side of his face. Something drove him out of eons of sleep during the night, this time louder and more real, rousing him from a restful recovery.

He had heard the voice loud and clear...“Sidney, hear me. Help me! Hadley!”

The loud mental cry for help was the clapping hand that stirred him in bed, and with a start, he opened his eyes. It was Ryan; what was wrong with him, and why had he mentioned Roman Hadley? He knew something was going on and that they were definitely keeping something from him.

Susan, Dylan, even Leah, all of them acted strangely when they were here, and now it was time for him to find out why. He would ask them to come to his room, immediately. The nurse arrived within seconds of Sidney pressing the call button.

“Tell Dr. Logan and my friends to get here, right now!” Even the troubled look on her face as she turned away told him exactly what he’d already suspected: something had happened while he lingered near death.

* * * *

“He’s waiting for us,” Susan said, as the team arrived in the hospital lobby.

“And I told you this would happen,” Dylan said. “I assure you, he knows.”

“Ryan must be calling out to him,” Brett said. “Sidney may have heard him. Ryan spoke to him the night of the accident, and he’s probably doing it again.”

“Don’t you all think Agent Wiley should be here?” Leah asked. “He did want to be notified if Sidney mentioned hearing Ryan.”

“First, let’s find out for ourselves if that is what’s happened.” Then, Susan relented. “We may as well face it: Sidney is going to have to be told. I, along with Dr. Talbot, was hoping for a little more time, but I guess there isn’t any.”

Minutes later, they phoned Wiley from Susan’s office to tell him what was happening, and from there, walked to Sidney’s room. They saw the expression on his face as they entered.

“So, which one of you is going to tell me the truth, because I know something has happened.” He stared at them with suspicion, seeing the relief on their faces that he was pulling through, though he was still extremely weak. He wouldn’t let them distract him. “Where’s Ryan? What has happened?”

Susan said that first, he needed to sit back and relax, that she had to obtain permission from Talbot just to tell him what she was about to tell him. Then, Dylan interceded...

“It should be on us to tell him,” he said to Susan. “Let me start from the beginning.” She shrugged and sat back.

Dylan told Sidney about how Ryan came to the hospital to see him when he was in surgery, having heard with his clairaudient ear that something was wrong.

“He came into the lounge, adamant that he’d heard a conversation, a plot to kidnap him. He swore that the name he heard was Hadley.”

Sidney’s face melted at what he was hearing. Dylan continued...

“He said something about Hadley calling him a far more powerful clairaudient than Sidney Pratt, and that he wanted to study him and his ability. When Ryan came here, he was serious, scared; he knew things that he would have no way of knowing, Sid.”

“We told Ryan that we would protect him,” Brett volunteered. “We failed at that. His mother followed him here, but when Ryan went to the men’s room, he was abducted out of this hospital, right under our watch.”

Brett’s voice wavered and creaked.

“Hadley has disappeared,” Leah said. “And we have every reason to believe that he has Ryan, right now.

“It turns out that our friend, Roman Hadley, is part of some underground, psychic rogue group that broke away from the FBI’s remote psychic studies years ago. They are committing espionage, and Hadley is the front man; he was never with the FBI. Apparently, he has been listening to you, to us, the whole time, Sid. He has been studying you from afar, hoping that you might be the protégé that was needed for this group, but he discovered the file on Ryan, and he found a better candidate.

“He infiltrated the society to get to you, Sidney.” Leah’s voice was gentle, regretful.

“I know,” he said, with a searching stare across his face and a squint of wonder in his eyes. “I don’t know how, but somehow, I’ve always suspected him of something.”

Then, Sidney snapped out of his brief pause.

“I have heard Ryan. I heard him last night, and also faintly, the night before. I heard him the night of the accident. That’s what I never had a chance to tell you all. It was Ryan’s voice I heard, directing me where to go. I couldn’t figure it out because something was different about the voice; he wasn’t dead. I couldn’t identify the voice at first, but then it came to me while I was dreaming, or dying, or whatever it was that was happening to me. You’ll never believe where I’ve been.”

He relayed to them all of the scenes he’d endured, telling them about the strange purple sun, then the bright, brilliant luminance that suddenly surrounded him. He told them about his grandfather, and how he called his being there a ‘journey,’ and that it was not his time. The scenes of his life had flashed by him, as though he was watching a movie, and he described the process in detail, as well as what he saw. He’d seen his life with his parents, the sessions with Susan, the incident in her office, moving to college, meeting and joining the team, but it was hard to recall everything.

He explained that when he woke, he asked for Ryan because Ryan had been there, staring at him, and that’s when he remembered the boy’s name and who he was, realizing that he’d heard a boy that night who was not a spirit.

“Then, Tracy confirmed it for me,” he said, waiting for their responses.

“Tracy, Tracy Kimball?” Susan had learned long ago not to doubt Sidney, but still, her voice remained skeptical.

He told how, as he was about to meet Leah in the parking lot, the pains in his head had become unbearable. He noticed the blood coming from his nose and ears as the static on the main TV screen in Room 208 grew harsh and vociferous. The voice coming from the screen—another pipeline connection and it was Tracy, calling his name. He had no knowledge of what came next, except the blackness, draping down like a stage curtain in the dark.

“I saw her when I was there,” he said. “She was with David; they were together, peaceful, happy. She told me that it wasn’t my fault, that she had caused what happened to her, just like you said, Susan. She said there was nothing I could have done.”

Susan hung on every word, her interest keen and unbroken. Leah was recording with her cell camera, and Brett was taking notes, documenting. All of it would go into Sidney’s file because there was the chance that the more time went on, the less Sidney would remember.

“Then she told me about Ryan. She said he was in danger, and that I had to help him. She knew everything, and in life, she didn’t even know Ryan.” Sidney thought for a moment, his eyes staring off in fatigued curiosity.

“What is it Sidney?” Susan asked.

“There was something else she told me; it was strange. She said to remember the voices that were familiar to me in the journey, to remember what I’d heard, that it was important, somehow.”

“What do you think she meant by that?” Susan asked, and Sidney thought for a moment. The look on his face was of someone trying to grasp a dangling object just out of reach. He sighed in exasperation, giving up.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I can’t figure out what it is. It’s there, yet it isn’t there.”

“Well, don’t stress on it, now,” Susan said. “Talbot would have my head if you had a setback.” She eased him backward into the bed, fixing the pillow behind him, making sure he was comfortable.

It was then that Agent Wiley whisked into the room. He nodded to Susan and the others, then stared at the person he had come to see, Sidney Pratt, who looked up at him curiously. Susan quickly made the introductions.

“Agent Wiley, this is Sidney Pratt; Sidney, this is Agent Wiley of the FBI. He is investigating Hadley and conducting the search for Ryan.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Sidney, though under unfortunate circumstances.” Wiley spoke quickly, avoiding any delays in what he needed to say. “As Dr. Logan has told you, I am investigating what happened to Ryan Quinn. Now, Sidney, I have read the file on you, kept by your investigative society; I have also read the file on Ryan Quinn. I am familiar with the both of you, the extent of your abilities, and the difference in your abilities.

Wiley assured Sidney of his familiarity in subjects such as clairaudience and remote viewing. He detailed his experience investigating the rogue group, whom he gave Sidney a full explanation of, as well as their activities and intentions. Then, Wiley circled in on his central point.

“Sidney, I need to know, have you been hearing the voice of Ryan Quinn?”

The sound of the question caused all to recognize the magnitude of the situation, instilling an instant, silent shock through the room.

“Yes. I have heard him twice,” Sidney said. “His voice was faint the night before, but he kept calling, ‘Sidney.’ Last night, he spoke more clearly in my mind. I heard him say the name ‘Hadley’ and the word ‘help’ a few times. I just finished telling the team that I heard Ryan the night of our friend’s accident; he told me in which direction to look for her. He is the only living voice I have ever heard.”

Sidney looked at Agent Wiley, wondering if, despite all of his “research,” he was able to understand what he was about to tell him, wondering if there was anything that would surprise him.

“Most of the people that I chat with on a daily basis...are dead.” The slightest hint that Sidney’s humor had returned caused hands to quickly hide cracking smiles.

“Tell me about your experience studying Ryan two years ago.”

“What you’ve read is all of it,” Sidney said, then proceeded to tell him about the sessions with Ryan. He’d heard the dead much like he had, proving it with concrete details regarding Sidney’s grandfather. Then, during a test, Ryan picked up every word the four of them had spoken privately in another room. It was that day they discovered that Ryan had wielded a remote hearing ability with a razor sharp tenacity.

They had concluded that Ryan was also telepathic, and that is what scared Annie, causing her to halt the sessions. Sidney could never manage to get through to her.

“Yes, she explained it all,” Wiley said, and Susan filled in the details of Annie’s episode when Ryan went missing. Wiley then turned to Sidney and asked him the next question with the sharpness of a reporter. “Did Ryan sound hurt to you in any way?”

“He didn’t sound hurt,” Sidney said. “He sounded scared.”

“That’s exactly what I thought.” Wiley told Sidney about how the rogue group, and Hadley, was not interested in hurting Ryan, only using him. “That’s the one thing that is going to work in our favor, but we have to move fast, especially if I’m right about Hadley, there may be a showdown between him and the group. That would place Ryan right in middle.”

“So, let me get this straight, if I may,” Sidney said. “Hadley was originally interested in me as a subject, and then when he realized I wasn’t telepathic, he went through our files and found Ryan? So, Ryan was chosen in my place?”

Susan sighed at the truth spoken so poignantly, her expression indicating her concern with Sidney’s habit of guilt assumption.

“Hadley’s focus was to find someone within your group, had it been you, or someone else. I understand that Ryan is a smart kid. Is that correct?”

“Brilliant,” Sidney said, the team concurring.

“That may be a problem for us.” Wiley’s unexpected answer hadn’t been considered. What if Ryan resisted, to the point where they couldn’t control him? What would they do? When Wiley was confronted with these questions, he offered an unexpected explanation, one by his slight hesitation, he hadn’t wanted to give.

“I suspect their method is going to be to brainwash him.”

More silence filled the room as the unthinkable began to unfold.

“They might turn him against his mother, the one who tried to suppress his ability, build up his fascination, show him the extent of what he can do; all of which could work.”

Wiley quickly changed the subject and moved forward.

“Sidney, what I want you to do, is keep this pad with you.” Breaking the silence, he retrieved a small, yellow pad of paper from his inner jacket pocket. I want you to write down every word you hear, if Ryan calls out to you again. I want you to note the time, how long you hear him, how loudly, and any other noises associated with his voice as you are hearing it, understood?”

Sidney agreed, and kept the pad, as well as a pen, on the small, rectangular table that housed his tray next to his bed. Wiley announced that he would be leaving to check some things out. He had a theory that might lead somewhere, if he was right. Not ready to discuss details, he turned to leave.

Susan told Sidney that she would return to check on him in a bit, and the others decided to leave also, saying their goodbyes and leaving their friend to a much needed rest as his eyes began to droop.

He sat drowsing in his bed and breathed a deep sigh as guilt slightly tweaked him.