The Athena Effect (20 page)

“Hey,” he said, his voice velvety smooth.

“Hey,” she replied.

He took her bag and her hand, leading her out to where his bike was parked. Then he put everything down and greeted her with a kiss. Everything seemed brighter in the fresh new morning, and Caledonia had a renewed sense that somehow, someway, things were going to be okay after all.

When they got to school Calvin walked her to class with his arm draped around her. He was staking a claim on her for all to see, and it did not go unnoticed by the girls that competed for his attention. He was by her side at lunch too, lounging on the grass and nudging his head onto her lap as she tried to read a book. He made it nearly impossible for her to focus.

A couple of girls followed her into the library when she went to return her books, talking in loud voices for her benefit.

“I don’t get it,” said one of them. “I mean… Look at her.”

Caledonia turned around to see Hillary and Debbie. They were both scowling at her with open contempt, and neither one of them held any books.

“You know, you’re totally not his type,” Debbie snarled at her.

“He probably just feels sorry for you,” Hillary added. “He told
me
I was the hottest girl at school.”

Caledonia returned her books and tried to get past them to leave, but they stood blocking the doorway. She turned sideways to pass between them, surprised when she felt a sharp tug on her braid. She spun around to see them laughing, and her eyes flew open with a flash of indignation. They laughed even louder, unaware of how numerous and fierce her defenses were.

Lightening quick, she swung her leg around, scooping Hillary right off her platform heels, sending her crashing onto Debbie, toppling them like dominos. She stood staring down at them, delivering a powerful blast of ice-cold fear.

The librarian glanced up to see two girls sprawled on the floor, looking up at Caledonia with completely horrified faces. “What happened over there?” she called out.

“They tripped,” answered the quiet girl who’d been haunting the library for the past few weeks. She flipped her braid over her shoulder, and walked out the door with a lighter bag and a heavier heart.

After school Calvin was waiting for her again, throwing his arms around her like they’d been apart for days instead of just hours. She was a little taken aback, unused to being showered with so much affection. He kissed her worried face, and she relaxed a little, letting his sweet happiness flow over her, tempering her own dark mood.

She looked up to see a trio of girls walking by with stares so filled with vibrating red and green hostility that Caledonia could feel the burning heat coming off of them. “Slut,” she heard one of them say under her breath. She turned her face away from Cal’s, uncomfortable again.

“They hate me because of you.”

“Ignore them. They’re just jealous,” he said, kissing her behind her ear.

“I know,” she replied. “But now they want to hurt me.”

“They won’t do anything. They’re just a bunch of stupid girls,” he added, concentrating on the way she fit so perfectly into his arms.

“Then why did you kiss them?” she asked, stopping him.

“Uh… I don’t know.”

She pulled back from him, “I suppose I’m just a stupid girl too.”

“No! It’s not the same thing!”

“It looks exactly the same,” she said sadly.

He struggled with his words, “It’s different… You’re different. You’re not like other girls.”

She frowned, looking down, “I’m aware of that.”

He sighed, “That’s not what I mean. It’s me… I’m different. You make me feel different.”

Her eyes flashed angrily, “I told you, I’m not
making
you feel anything!” She tried to walk off but he grabbed her arm. She looked up to see the girls had been joined by Hillary and Debbie, watching them from across the courtyard with palpable hatred. All of their hurtful words came rushing back into her mind, “Let me go.”

He shook his head no, “Don’t let them get you all upset… They have nothing to do with us.”

She looked at them, and back at him, hesitating.

“C’mon, let me take you home… Please?”

She drew a shaky breath and agreed, following him out to the parking lot.

“Do you wanna come over and hang out for awhile?” he asked hopefully.

She shook her head no, afraid to look him in the eye, “I better go to my aunt’s. I have some things I need to take care of.”

Truthfully, she was shaken. Seeing girls he’d been intimate with so recently made her feel even more insecure and frightened than ever. She was scared because it was too late; despite all of her caution, whether she wanted to admit it or not, she’d already surrendered her wounded heart to him.

Calvin drove the short distance home extra slowly, racking his brain for a reason to make her change her mind. She promised to see him first thing in the morning, reminding him it would be their last day at school. He watched her make her way into the condo with a heavy heart, feeling lonely the minute the door closed behind her.

~

Chapter Fifteen – DISCOVERED

~

Professor Reed was having a bad day. His subjects kept inexplicably dying, his most senior employee was growing increasingly insolent, and he was having trouble procuring a rare synthetic compound. He logged onto his computer, sifting through investment accounts and bank statements until something stopped him cold in his tracks.

Mackenzie, David and Jennifer. The names had appeared on a long forgotten automated search; materializing like ghosts from the far distant past. He scanned the information with a dry mouth, reading an obituary notice posted in a small town newspaper. He picked up the phone and dialed it with shaking hands.

“I need you in the office immediately,” he said.

Within minutes a hulking man in a black suit appeared, taking a seat opposite him.

The Professor leaned forward in his chair, “Maximillion, I need you to drop everything and retrieve some information for me immediately.”

The big man frowned, “Listen doc. I have a little problem to dispose of, if you know what I mean. Two more of ‘em dropped dead this morning, and–”

“It can wait. This is a matter of the
utmost
urgency.”

“It’s your call,” Max shrugged.

“Someone crucial to this entire project has surfaced, and I need you to locate her at once.” Reed’s voice was vibrating with excitement, making the big man sit up and take notice. “There’s a substantial bonus in it for you if you get me her location within the hour.”

Max had never seen Reed so agitated, and he used it to his advantage, “It’ll cost you double my fee.”

The Professor nodded, showing Max the obituary. He pointed out the line that mentioned the couple was survived by a daughter. “Find the girl,” he ordered. Max got up, leaving Professor Reed to his thoughts.

The old man stared off into space, a faraway look in his eyes. How incredibly fortuitous, he mused, to have such a gift fall right into his lap just when things were looking so bleak. It must be a sign that all his hard work would soon be paying off, and all of his sacrifices would prove to be worthwhile.

He was stunned to know that David and Jennifer had not only survived all this time, but that they had eluded his efforts to find them. Somehow they had slipped through the electronic drag net that he’d monitored for years.

And there was a daughter! He had always assumed that they’d succumbed to the madness that had engulfed the others of the first generation, never imagining that they might be capable of raising a child.

He mustn’t get his hopes up, he thought. There was a possibility that the child wasn’t theirs, or perhaps some cretin at the small town newspaper had gotten the facts wrong. Still… the timeline was about right, and if it was true…

He remembered Jenny and David fondly, saddened that he didn’t get a chance to perform their autopsies. They truly were amazing, he thought, among the brightest of his little family of research students. He would have liked to have seen the condition of their brains after all these years.

He leaned back in his chair, fingertips together. The child would be, what… sixteen, seventeen years old. If his hypothesis was correct, she would be in possession of powerful second generation abilities. With both parents in the first generation she could have double the Athena effect; she would truly be a one of a kind specimen. He cursed the fact he’d been denied the opportunity to raise her as his own.

He must have her at all costs.

Max came back into the office within the hour, unbuttoning his suit coat and taking a chair with an air of satisfaction. The professor looked up eagerly, “Well?”

“The kid is in Santa Rosa, living with her aunt, one Angela Jenkins. The aunt has custody until she turns eighteen in October. Kid’s name’s Cal-ah-do-ni-a,” he said slowly. “That’s weird.”

“It’s lovely,” smiled the professor. “Ah yes, I met with Angela once when David and Jenny first went missing. It makes perfect sense. So she has guardianship?”

“Yep,” he slid a piece of paper over to the professor. “The address and phone.”

Professor Reed smiled, “I’ll have to call and offer my condolences.”

“My bonus?” Max asked.

“I’ll have it deposited immediately. I’m going to need a driver. We’ll be leaving to retrieve the girl as soon as possible.”

Max got up to leave, pausing at the door, “What if she doesn’t want to come?”

“We’ll make the aunt an offer.”

“What if she won’t take it?”

The professor was irritated by his questions, but he wasn’t going to let the big oaf’s doubts ruin his glorious day. He waved his hand dismissively, “I’ll take Layla with me. That should do the trick.”

“Whatever you say,” Max shrugged, turning to leave.

The professor’s brow knit together, thinking he really couldn’t afford to take a chance, “Wait… I’d like you to assemble a team and be ready to go… Just in case.”

When the door clicked shut he sat back in his chair with an excited smile. Jenny and David’s child– nearly within his grasp… And a girl to boot! It was almost too good to be true. Surely the offspring of two such brilliant minds would be extraordinary. He got up to pace, unable to contain his excitement as he considered the possibilities.

A door may have closed, but a window had just opened.

~

Calvin got home from school that day, passing through the partying crowd with a serious look on his face. They called for him to join in, but he waved them off, heading straight to his room to flop onto his bed and wrestle with his feelings.

Caledonia was driving him crazy.

He wanted to be with her every minute of the day, but she obviously didn’t feel the same way. She made him think about the future, and question the way he’d been living his life; she made him dream about having things that he never thought he’d want. He’d never felt this way about anyone ever before.

But she didn’t trust him, and he knew it.

He could feel her resistance, and it scared him; it seemed like she was always on the verge of slipping out of his reach. Her ability to control animals, and now even people, only pointed out to him how far out of his league she was. She might not know much about everyday life, but she was the smartest person he’d ever met, and from what he’d read on the internet, both of her parents had been practically geniuses. They would probably never have approved of her being with someone like him.

His feelings were so powerful it was alarming; he couldn’t imagine going back to the way his life was before he found her.

Or rather, she found him, he thought, recalling the night she’d saved him from a brutal beating. The fact that her aunt’s boyfriend was the reason she wandered the streets at night filled him with a renewed surge of vengeful hatred, and he had to fight the urge to run back to her house and beat the hell out of the big bastard. He sighed, remembering that the way she controlled his brother and the cops.

She really didn’t need his help.

She didn’t need him for anything at all, he thought, a lump of dread settling in his stomach. She could run away and disappear as mysteriously as she had arrived, and he had no idea where he would look for her if she did. As far as he knew, Caledonia was still planning on leaving, and he knew how elusive she could be when she wanted to hide.

He sat up with determination.

He had to find a way to make her trust him. He had to make her want to stay, and he started formulating plans, thinking about all the places he could take her. Her strange upbringing made her easy to impress, because even the simplest things were brand new to her. Maybe if he kept her entertained enough she’d want to stick around… Maybe even forever.

He wondered about her parents, finding it hard to imagine why two such intelligent and highly educated people would choose to raise their only child in such a primitive way. What could possibly be awful enough to make them hide out for all those years? The more he considered it, nothing about their story made sense at all. He reached for his laptop.

He went back to the group photo on a hunch, looking up a few of the other student researchers to see what had become of them. What he uncovered made his hair stand on end. All six of the other students in the photo with Caledonia’s parents had taken their own lives.