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The sight of his mother discouraged Morgan. She had deteriorated in the few days since he’d left, and her complexion had turned to the color of dust. She moaned in her bothered sleep. He adjusted the settings of the medication to wake her.
He considered the possibility of bringing her back to health. To use his ability, excise the cancer, and pull her from this senseless disease that had made her suffer far too long. Did he have any right to save whom he wanted from the precipice of death? Could he play the role of God? If the Qintellect could, why shouldn’t he? His mother didn’t deserve any of this. She was a kind and generous lady. Even if their past together was mostly fabricated, Vi had convinced him that what he felt in this moment was real. He cared for her—there was no denying that.
“Don’t cry...son... There is no—”
“What if I could save you, mother? Find the cure, make you healthy again...”
“Shhhhhh...” She stopped him. “Turn off the machines. Let me go in peace.”
“You don’t need to die, not now. This could be prevented.”
“No, it can’t. Even if you could do something, it’s not what I want. I’ve prepared myself to accept this peacefully.” She reached over to touch his face. “I’ve just been waiting to see you one last time... I’m glad I did...”
She glanced over at the machine. Morgan switched it off.
“You’re a wonderful boy,” she said. She settled back and closed her eyes.
He cradled her frail hand, wanting to pump fresh and nourishing blood through her veins to give her vitality, to turn her lips from gray to pink. He didn’t do it. The grip of her hand loosened, became limp and cold. He cried.
“I’m sorry,” said a voice from behind him. Catch came by his side limping with his cane. Morgan placed the sheet over his mother’s face. He turned to Catch.
“What are you doing here?” he said.
“I knew you’d come back.”
“It’s not safe for you here.”
“It wasn’t safe for me in the hospital either.”
Morgan walked to the window to examine the street. “This makes everything so much more complicated.”
“How?” asked Catch.
Morgan couldn’t explain what he meant. He couldn’t explain that without Catch there, he could vanish to travel across the globe and escape the FBI in the blink of an eye. Now, he needed to worry about Catch and how to deal with the arsenal of agents that would be coming for him any minute.
“We got to get out of here, now.”
They ran down the stairs, startled to find Summer half-way.
“I asked you to wait outside,” said Catch.
“Who’s she?” Morgan asked.
“Hospital buddies,” they replied synchronously.
“Let’s go!” said Morgan.
“Too late,” said Summer. “They’ve already surrounded the place.”
***
The agent kneeled on Morgan’s back, his face pressed against the living room floor while his hands were being tied. Morgan was tired of being treated like a criminal. He considered making the ceiling fan behind them crash into the agent holding him down—to teach him a lesson of respect. But that would only delay the situation and possibly endanger the teens. He didn’t want that. Catch had already been through enough ordeals. He would wait for a more strategic moment to try something.
They were pushing him when he noticed Catch and Summer being treated violently.
“Take it easy. They’re only teens,” Morgan said.
“Criminals, that’s what they are,” said an agent standing midway up the stairs. The railing against which he was leaning collapsed, and he fell over and onto a small table in the vestibule.
They were guided outside into the back of a van. Inside, Morgan recognized the two agents who had first interrogated him. The square-shouldered lady and the tall lanky man. They secured him by strapping his lap to the bench and locking his ankles to chains bolted in the van’s floor. He sat across from Catch and Summer, who had their hands tied behind their backs.
“You really thought you could run from us forever,” said the female agent to Morgan.
Morgan smirked. She was arrogant and clueless.
“You think this is funny,” she said.
“New York’s in danger, and you’re wasting your time with me,” he said.
She ignored his comment
An audible locking mechanism could be heard securing the rear door shut. The van left the house.
Morgan could feel Catch eyeing him, wanting to know who he was. The poor boy had come back for answers, trying to understand the inexplicable behavior of his mother. He must believe she’d lost her mind. There was no other way to look at it. His life had been upended, and he didn’t have a clue why.
“Your mother,” Morgan said to Catch, “she’s extremely brave.”
“You know her,” Catch said, surprised by the unexpected acknowledgement.
“It was a long time ago,” he said. “She was like a sister to me. She feels terrible for what happened the other night.”
“I’d suggest you not share sensitive information with them, if you don’t want them to get involved,” said the female agent to Morgan.
Morgan had carefully considered what he said to Catch, wanting to offer reassuring words to the boy while providing information that would send the agents scrambling for information that they could never find.
Morgan assessed the situation from the van’s cameras. They weren’t taking any chances to let them escape. The van was escorted with an armed drone flying a few feet above it and four vehicles, two in the front and two in the back. Nothing he couldn’t handle. The problem was making sure Catch escaped unharmed with his friend. He needed to think this through a bit more before endangering anyone.
“You two really pulled a number back there,” said the lanky man to the teens, his head shaking like a disappointed dad.
“Pulled a number?” said Summer, mockingly.
“Yeah, you pulled a number.”
“What number? A perfect ten, like in figure skating,” Summer said.
Catch laughed.
Morgan needed to find a way to get these two agents out of the van. Guns rested on their laps, not the stun guns that he could easily lower the settings on, but classic firearms. He made the bullets disappear. He was confident they were gone but wasn’t ready to risk the teens’ lives on it.
“It’s an expression,” continued the lanky man. “You might not understand from skipping school all these years. I know you’re trouble, Summer.”
“Just don’t call it a number then,” Summer said. “Say it as it is. We accomplished a flawless escape, slipping unnoticed right under the guard outside our door. A guard, who is just like you, too stupid to see what’s about to happen.”
“All right,” the man said, smirking. “What’s about to happen?”
“We’re about to escape.”
The rear door flung open.
“Stop the van,” ordered the male agent. The van accelerated. They could feel it bumping into the vehicle in front. The tall lanky guy pulled on a red emergency door latch. Nothing happened.
“How are you doing this?” the female agent asked Morgan.
Through the open door they could see the drone lag behind them. It shot out the tires of the two cars following them. They spun out of control.
“Close the door,” she ordered her partner. She placed the tip of her gun against Morgan’s ribs. “You try anything, I’ll shoot.”
The tall lanky man reached out to grab the door. Morgan watched Summer. He could tell that she was smart and knew what she had to do. The chains holding Morgan’s ankles fell to the ground. The woman noticed and faithful to her threat, she pulled the trigger.
Click.
Summer kicked the man in the ass, sending him out and rolling into the street. Morgan, no longer restrained, grabbed the woman and swung her toward the back. She tripped over Catch’s extended good leg and rolled out the back onto the pavement.
“There’s another perfect ten for you,” screamed Summer out the back door while giving them the finger.
The door shut, and the van sped away, unfollowed.
“We need to find you a place for you two to hide,” said Morgan. “Somewhere close. They will be sweeping the streets to find us.”
“Where are we?” asked Summer.
Morgan raised the display showing a map of the city and their current location.
“I know an abandoned place near here,” said Summer, pointing at the destination on the map.
“Perfect, we will drop you off several blocks from there. I will find your mother and send her there to join you.”
“You’re not coming with us?”
“I have things I must deal with first.”
