Chapter Four
I never really had been a curious girl; I usually felt that some things were better left unknown. Maybe that was because I was often forced to know things I would rather not have known, through people’s thoughts. I don’t really know why, but when Kevin gave me this offer I could not refuse. I had to know more; more about my ability, why the government would be watching, how they could help my little financial problems. I simply had to know. It was most of the reasoning behind my decision. The other bit that factored in was how it felt when Hailey said, “She’s one of us now.” It was like a spark went off. Like I finally found where I belonged, or that I even belonged at all.
I couldn’t have known then what I was getting myself into; I couldn’t have known that it was going to end the way it did. Maybe that’s what they meant when they said that it was curiosity that killed the cat.
I nodded signifying that I was in fact in. Kevin smiled again and pulled one of the chairs out from around the table; motioning for me to sit down, “We have a lot to talk about then.” He said. The others all sat down too. I got excited and nervous at the same time. I had never really liked the abilities, but I had never had much control over them either; if they could teach me to control my mind reading, maybe I could shut out the thoughts once in a while. I relished in the thought. While I was relishing I had also missed whatever Kevin had asked me.
“What?” I asked looking up.
“I said: how far are you willing to go to get what you want?” His face was serious; I pushed all thoughts from my head and tried to concentrate on his question. I suddenly felt pressure.
“I don’t know really, I guess it depends.” I began to fidget with the hem of my skirt and stared at the wood lines in the table. It felt like everyone else was staring at me which made me flush, which made me even more embarrassed.
“We all know what we want,” He continued motioning around the table, “and we can get it by using our abilities.”
“I don’t exactly understand.” I said furrowing my brows but still concentrating on the table.
“Enough equivocation,” he said in exasperation, “Emery, we are planning a bank robbery.” I snapped my head up to see Kevin smiling. At first my heart started to beat faster, then I realized. I had to be a joke they were kidding. I started to laugh and look around at the others, but they weren’t laughing.
“You-You’re kidding, right?” I choked out, my smile fading. Everyone shook their heads, Kevin’s smile gone from his face. I started to get nervous, they really weren’t kidding. I looked around wild eyed. What could I do? I had said I was in, if I tried to get out who knew what they would do? If they were willing to rob a bank maybe they were willing to kill me too, “This is insane! You can’t rob a bank!” I half shouted. Everyone shushed me and Caleb’s hand covered my mouth as a shadow passed over the window in the door. The footsteps on the cement hallway faded completely before anyone spoke again.
“Just keep your voice down, someone is watching us we know that now.” He said. I nodded and he moved his hand from my mouth; not that necessarily minded him touching me. I was officially freaking out now.
“So that was what was up with that game of go fish earlier?” Everyone nodded.
“We realized that we must have been doing something suspicious that made somebody start watching us, though we’re not sure what.” Veronica said, running her hand through her perfectly straight blonde hair.
“You think it’s the government.” I asked Kevin, trying not to look at Caleb too much; it was hard not to though.
“We’re not sure exactly,” He answered leaning back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest, “We just know we have to be more careful now. Fewer meetings at later times, and not using our powers as much.” He looked around at the others when he said the last part. Kwest groaned.
“Are you serious?” He whined.
“Stop being such a baby Kwest,” Hailey said, “after we finish the job down you can use your powers as much as you want.”
A million questions rushed into my mind at one time and I couldn’t seem to get just one out completely, “Why? How? Powers?” was all I managed to say.
“We have more than just the ability to read minds Emery,” Caleb said resting his hand on my arm, “Even you.”
“She’s not ready Caleb,” Kevin said.
“What do you mean I’m not ready?” I shot back defensively, a little surprised at myself. I had gained a little confidence, but I didn’t really think of it that way then.
“We don’t exactly have all the time in the world Kevin, we’re two months out.” Caleb replied, brushing over my defiant comment.
“Don’t worry; she’ll get her training, all in good time. But for now, we need to talk about the job.” Kevin answered, seeming relaxed at the talk of bank robbery.
“Okay,” I said taking a deep breath. I put my elbows on the table and rested my head in my hands. My head was starting to hurt from all the confusion and stress that was now over taking me now, “What bank are we robbing? And why, I guess?”
“You’re not the only one with money problems Emery.” Veronica snapped, and everyone seemed to accept that as the answer to why. I sighed, there was no point in arguing, I was in; past the point of no return.
“We’re robbing the Federal Reserve.” Kwest answered my ‘which bank’ question, and my mouth fell to the floor.
“Now you’re kidding.” I said, hoping to God that they were. There were more head shakes and I dropped my forehead onto the table. I heard a low chuckle, “This really is not funny.” I said but smiled a little myself. I couldn’t deny how comfortable I felt around them, how normal they made me feel. I didn’t want to lose that feeling; another reason why I didn’t go against the bank robbing.
I sat back up and sunk down into my chair, “I know this is a lot to process right now,” Caleb said, “But, after a while you get used to it,” a slick smile slid over his face and I giggled. I giggled, and I sounded ridiculous and started blushing. Another shadow passed in the hallway and everyone fell quiet.
“I think we should end this little meeting and pick things up tomorrow,” Hailey said standing up.
“That sounds like a good idea,” Kevin answered remaining seated, “Caleb make sure Emery gets home, Kwest same with Hailey and Veronica.” Caleb and Kwest nodded and walked to the door, “Meet here tomorrow night at eleven, it’s likely you are all being followed. Since Emery hasn’t been trained yet, one of you is responsible to get her here without causing suspicion.” Caleb nodded again and pulled the door open. We all walked through the hallway, up the stairs to the main lobby of the building and out onto the street in silence.
When we got outside into the cool night air Caleb shook Kwest’s hand, and then we separated walking in opposite directions. I looked up at the moon and realized I had lost all concepts of time today.
There were cars crowding the streets and people walking along the sidewalks talking on cell phones and carrying babies; how normal their lives must be? As if my life wasn’t already weird, it was now overcomplicated with bank robbing and training.
“Are you okay?” Caleb asked me, shoving his hands in his pockets and staring me down.
“Yeah,” I lied. I was not really okay, but at least I was happy, which was weird, “I don’t think Veronica likes me very much.” I joked. He laughed and shook his head and I became surprised at myself again, this was the first time I had been alone with Caleb, well any boy at that matter; and I was joking and not being weird and shy. I hoped this new confidence thing would stick. I still couldn’t figure out where it had come from, maybe the normalcy of the company. Feeling normal could only last so long for me. We stopped along with a group of people waiting to cross the street. There were three women in jogging suits, running in place chatting animatedly, a young boy with a dog on a leash, and a brunette boy in a leather jacket leaning against the light post. The tallest of the three jogging women’s thoughts floated into my head first.
…Ann sometimes you really shouldn’t open your mouth. I knew we shouldn’t have invited her to jog with us! I should have brought my ipod…
Next was the boy with the dog.
…come on stupid light! I have to pee so bad! Ahhh...
Caleb said somethign to me, but I heard the thoughts of the brunette in the leather jacket instead. At first I thought he was thinking about one of the joggers, but then he wondered if I was standing with my boyfriend or my brother, and if he could get some ass tonight. I flushed because I knew Caleb could hear his thoughts too; and I knew Caleb was listening to his thoughts because he began to stare at the guy. Whoever the guy was he was a pig, I wasn’t even flattered that he thought I was pretty. I turned away from the guy and flushed an even deeper shade of rouge as he wondered how I looked naked. I felt like crying, I was so embarrassed. So much for confidence; I should have slapped him across the face. Seeing as he didn’t know I could hear his thoughts he might be a little confused, but I was getting more embarrassed and angry by the second.
I was staring at the sidewalk holding back tears when I felt the arm slide around my waist. The brunette had been debating with himself if he should come talk to me or not and I thought it was him. I gasped and looked up into Caleb’s eyes. I gave him a feeble smile and he pulled me closer to him.
…Damn!.. The brunette thought and I smiled to myself. The lights finally turned and we crossed the street. Luckily the brunette turned after he crossed and we continued straight.
“Thanks.” I said shaking my head. Caleb, to my disappointment, dropped his arm from my waist.
“No problem, he was a pig anyways.” I nodded; I could tell I was still blushing. Caleb shook my shoulders and I managed a smile.
“Gee what a night.” I said sarcastically.
“I want to apologize.” He said looking down at the ground.
“Why?” I asked genuinely confused.
“Well, because it’s my fault you’re caught up in this. I knew I shouldn’t have told Kevin I found another one at the airport. I knew I shouldn’t have involved you.”
“So, that’s what you were doing at the airport? Scoping for more mind readers?” I said with a laugh in my tone, it just sounded like a funny job.
“Yeah, sorry if I freaked you out with the eye thing, you’ll get used to that too.”
“What were you doing that made your eyes all black?”
“I was hacking.”
“Hacking?” I dared a sideways glance and caught his eye for a second before looking back.
“Yeah, even though since we are readers and we can’t read each other’s minds, we can hack. You have to have a lot of training to be able to hack though; it takes a lot of concentration. But if it is done properly it enables me to read you mind for a short period of time, and not just whatever you were thinking that moment; deeper thoughts, secrets. Like, that you have the ability to read minds.”
“Why did your eyes turn all black? You looked…possessed or something.”
“Again, I’m sorry if I freaked you out. Mind reading was given to us, it is sort of an enabler. With practice and effort we can do a lot of other things that most people can only dream about, but there are slight side effects. Some times we black out, especially in the beginning. You are going to pass out a lot. The black eye is just a minor side effect of hacking, it happens with most of the more difficult abilities that we can use,” he explained.
“Oh,” I said, “So how did you get caught up in all of this?” I asked casually, but secretly desperate to know more about him.
“I’ve lived in D.C. with my dad since I was ten. That was when it all started happening. I was of course afraid to tell my dad, afraid I might be crazy. But, Kevin was a friend of his, a colleague actually, and he hacked into my brain and figured out that I was like him. He’s been my mentor since then.”
“And you dad still doesn’t know?”
“My dad died a couple years after that. Kevin took me in since my mom wanted nothing to do with me.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. So Kevin is like your family.”
“Yeah pretty much, I’ve got a younger sister in Florida, but my mom won’t let me visit her. I’m sorry; you probably don’t want to hear my sob story.” He said putting the laughter back into his tone.
I decided he probably didn’t want to talk about it any more so I dropped the subject, also wanting to avoid talking about my own family, “Why does Kevin want to um..” I was hesitant to ask my question, thinking we could be being followed.
“Why don’t we wait to finish this conversation until we’re inside?” Caleb said thinking the same thing I had been. I nodded and spotted the Aston about a block away. We crossed another street and passed a student rec center before finally reaching our destination.
When the elevator stopped on the fourth floor I stepped out but Caleb didn’t, “Something wrong?” I asked.
“I can answer your questions tomorrow; I think it would be better if I went now.” He said and my hopes fell. There were so many things I wanted to ask him. I nodded and the elevator doors swooshed shut. I got into my dorm and flopped down on the bed. Sleep grabbed me tight and I didn’t object.
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Okay, I was really nervous about posting this chapter..critiques appreciated..
I hope you guys like this chapter..and now you know where the story is headed or at least what the goal is..I hope it is okay...
-Rory
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