The Prisoner of Cell 25 (27 page)

His words hit me like a bucket of ice water. “No!” I shouted. “He wouldn’t do that. He was a good man.”

Hatch nodded. “You’re right, he was a good man. He was a visionary. And, like me, he never intended to hurt anyone. He wanted to advance science and save lives. He wanted to make the world a better place.” Hatch’s voice fell. “Unfortunately, he never got that chance.” Hatch exhaled slowly. “I know what happened to your father, Michael.” Hatch turned around and lifted a folder from his desk, extracting from it a single paper. “I’ve been saving this for some time now, haven’t I, Nichelle?”

I had forgotten that she was in the room. “Yes, sir,” Nichelle said. “Years.”

Hatch held up a paper with a gold border around it. “Michael, have you ever seen a death certificate?”

I shook my head.

“I didn’t think so.” He turned the paper back around. “Let me read the important parts. State of California, County of Los Angeles . . . Carl T. Vey died at 7:56 P.M. in Los Angeles County on the fifth day of October, 2006 . . . Cause of death: Cardiac arrest from an electric shock.” He set down the  paper. “It’s about time you owned up to the truth about your father’s death.” His eyes turned dark. “You stopped your father’s heart.”

At that moment, I had a flashback. I was sitting on my father’s lap. My father was grasping his chest, his eyes wide and panicked.

Then flashing red and blue lights illuminated our kitchen drapes, and sirens wailed in chorus with my mother crying. It was true. That’s what my mother was hiding from me. I had killed my own father.

Darkness filled my heart and mind.

“I was barely eight!” I shouted. “I didn’t know how to control my electricity.”

Hatch just stared at me. “Isn’t that interesting. We wanted to save lives, so we created a machine that could do that. Like you, we didn’t know better. Yet you condemn us—” His voice rose and he pointed at me. “How dare you call me, or your father, a murderer. You’re no different than us, not one iota.” He walked behind his desk and sat down. He looked calmer and his voice was gentle again. “But you can atone for this, Michael. Just as we are trying to atone for our mistake. We’re trying to do the right thing.”

“That’s why you’re torturing Taylor?”

The loud screech went through my head and I fell forward, grabbing my temples. “Aaah.”

Hatch spun around to Nichelle. “Stop it!”

The pain stopped.

“Get her out of here,” I said.

“I can’t do that,” Hatch said. “I don’t fully trust you yet.”

“You don’t trust me?”

“You’re still brainwashed from the outside world. Until you see clearly, I can only trust you to behave like a human.”

“I just want my mother.”

“Of course you do. Which, of course, is precisely why we took her. And whether you see her again depends entirely upon you.  If you comply with my instructions, your mother will be set free.

We’ll fly her here to see you, joyful reunion and all that. If not,” his expression fell. “If not, sadly, I cannot guarantee her safety. Even if I wanted to.”

I looked at him quietly. “What are your ‘instructions’?”

“Simple, really. Let’s call them demonstrations of loyalty.”

“What kind of demonstrations?”

“I trust you remember Clyde. You met him in the parking lot and you spoke with him in the jail, didn’t you?”

I nodded.

“Clyde was, is, what we call a GP. It’s a nickname we give our human guinea pigs.”

I suddenly understood why Clyde had reacted with such fear and hostility toward me.

“GPs are inconsequential—the coffee grounds of humanity. They are America’s untouchables, criminals and losers, none of them worth the carbon their bodies are made of. So, from time to time, we use them for the advancement of our scientific pursuits.” 

What he was telling me horrified me. “Where do you get them?”

I asked.

“From all over. Sometimes we pull them off the streets or from homeless shelters. Sometimes we find them engaged in some kind of criminal activity. In fact we brought in two new ones just today. Would you like to meet them?”

“No,” I said.

“These, I think you will.” He pushed a button on his desk. “Bring GPs Seven Sixty-Four and Seven Sixty-Five to my office immediately.”

I looked at him incredulously. “You kidnap people and use them for experiments?”

“Well, the word
people
might be a bit strong but the rest of what you said is accurate.” He looked at me with a grim smile. “We’re doing them a favor, really. Out in society they would only selfdestruct. Most of them already had. This way we preserve their lives a little longer, improve their standard of living, and give meaning to their pathetic existences. They are actually contributing to society instead of just staining it.”

A moment later one of the guards opened Hatch’s door. “They’re here, sir.”

“Bring them in.”

The guard signaled to someone outside the door and two other guards brought in the shackled GPs. I couldn’t believe what I saw.

Jack and Wade. They looked terrified, especially Wade, who was trembling so hard his chains were rattling. They were both barefoot and dressed in Day-Glo orange jumpsuits. In addition to the shackles and chains on their legs and wrists they had large plastic and stainless steel collars fastened around their necks. The collars had green flashing lights. The sight of them bound made me sick to my stomach.

“I’m sorry,” I said to them, shaking my head. “I’m so sorry.”

Jack and Wade just looked at me with fearful eyes. I didn’t understand why they didn’t say anything.

I turned back to Hatch. “What are those things around their necks?” I asked angrily.

“Simple devices to ensure they don’t decide to leave us,” Hatch said. “It’s based on the invisible fence theory.” He looked at me. “Are you familiar with that?”

“No.”

“That’s right, you had neither a dog nor a yard. Some dog owners put special electric shock collars on their pets that will administer a mild shock to their dog when it crosses an invisible boundary. It trains the dog to not leave the yard. These collars your associates are sporting operate on the same principle. If your friends leave this building they will be shocked.

“The collar also monitors their vocal cords. If they attempt to shout or even speak they will be shocked. But I’m afraid it’s a bit more potent than that painful little wake-up call a dog gets. The charge these collars generate is quite a bit more lively and will completely incapacitate them.” His eyes moved back and forth between Jack and Wade. “Maybe even kill them.”

“You need to let them go,” I said. “They’re not part of this.”

“You’re quite wrong about that, Michael. The moment they chose to help you they became a part of this.” His voice rose and he looked at Jack and Wade with disdain. “The moment they violated our academy they became a part of this.”

“What are you going to do with them?”

“The same thing we do with all our GPs—whatever furthers our cause.” He looked at the guard. “Take them back to their cells.”

“You heard him,” the guard said to Jack and Wade. They turned and shuffled out of the room.

“How many prisoners do you have here?” I asked.

“Only a few dozen. Our Pasadena facility is quite small compared to the others. In fact, now that we have you and Miss Ridley, we’ll be shutting down this facility and moving elsewhere. Someplace where we have a little more . . . flexibility.”

“Flexibility to do what?”

He looked at me gravely. “I’m a scientist, Michael. And I have a vision. I’ve been trying to create the perfect Glow. And we’re getting close. You and Miss Ridley are very much a part of my plans.

“We’ve tested thousands of DNA samples. We’ve run thousands of blood tests, searching for the one link that all you survivors have in common. We’ve even been testing diets and nutritional supplements to gauge how eating affects your powers. We’ve discovered that with a nonsugar diet high in minerals and potassium we can actually increase electrical flow.

“But you, Michael, are something else. Even without our help, you’ve been increasing your electrical capacity nearly two percent a day. That means you’re doubling in power just about every two months. In a year you may be the most powerful Glow of all—if your electricity doesn’t kill you first.”

“What do you mean, ‘kill me first’?”

“Like I told you before, we’ve already lost four of you to cancer.  That’s why I sent you in for the checkup. You’re going to need our help. The doctors out there can’t help you; they’ve never seen anyone like you before. There are no medical books on your condition. If you want to live to manhood, you had better stay close to us.”

His words filled me with even greater fear. What had they found in my exam? Was I really dying? It was too big to think about and I pushed it from my mind. “Why did you take my mother instead of me?”

“Trust me, your mother would rather it had been her than you. Mothers are like that. Actually we tried to take you both, but your chubby friend ruined that when he showed up with all those people around. We only had time to take one of you and, frankly, better her than you.”

“But I’m the one with the power.”

“Yes, but as you well know, power, undirected, is worthless—an engine without wheels. It’s the old saying, isn’t it? You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Unless you happen to have your horse’s mother locked away in a cage somewhere. Having collateral will make you much more . . . malleable.

“Take your fellow Glow, Tanner. He has an amazing power. He can bring down an airplane from the ground. The first time I told him to crash a 747 he refused. Until we let him see his little brother getting nearly electrocuted by one of your peers. It only took ten minutes of his screams before he was quite eager to help out.

“You know how it goes, Michael. The first time you resist. The second time you relent. The third time you volunteer. It’s that easy.

Today, I tell Tanner to bring down a commercial flight and he says, ‘which plane?’” He looked into my eyes. “We’re creating an army, Michael. And you are a natural leader. You would make a very good general.”

“An army to fight who?”

“Whomever we need to fight. Whoever stands in our way as we reach for our destiny. Just think of the powers at our disposal. Just consider Tanner. He can bring down a jet airliner without a bomb, missile, or security risk. There’s no tracking, there’s no preventing. Sudden and complete mechanical failure and the plane drops out of the sky. Do you have any idea what his talent is worth? Terrorists would pay tens of millions. Governments would pay hundreds of millions. Or billions. Especially if that plane were carrying a nuclear weapon—or the president of the United States.

“And that’s just one of many of your graduating class’s talents. We just need more of you. A lot more of you.”

“What makes you think anyone will follow you?”

“They will and they do. Most of them have, at least. It’s amazing what you can do to a young mind before the rest of the world contaminates it. It’s you older kids, the brainwashed, who are the problem. Like poor, misguided Miss Ridley. I offered her the world and she spat it back in my face.”

“Taylor’s a good person,” I said, my right eye twitching.

“That depends entirely on what you mean by ‘good.’ If, by ‘good’ you mean shortsighted, ungrateful, and small-minded, then you’re right.”

He stood and his expression relaxed. “That’s enough for today.  I’m going to let you stay in one of the guest suites tonight. You’ll be much more comfortable there. Unfortunately, for now, you will still be assigned a guard. Don’t get me wrong, Michael. I trust you. I really do. I just don’t trust the world you come from. Too much of it is still in your head. But we’ll work on it. “In the meantime, if you have any seditious schemes, remember, your mother will pay severely for your mistakes. You shock someone, she’ll be shocked twice. You hurt someone, well, you get the picture. It’s beautifully ironic. For centuries the sins of the parents have been answered on the heads of their children. Now the opposite is true.”

He walked to the door. “It’s time for you to go.”

I stood and walked to the door, followed a few yards back by Nichelle.

“I’m giving you a few days to consider your predicament. I urge you to seriously do so. Lives are at stake here. You’ve already killed your father. Will you kill your mother too?”

His words cut like razor blades.

“And then there are your friends. If you choose to disregard my offer, Jack and Wade will be the first to go. Then Ostin and finally Taylor. It’s your call. They’re all counting on you to do the right thing. If you don’t, they’ll disappear one by one. Think carefully now.  Are you going to lose a few of them before you change your mind?  Or will you do the right thing the first time?

“As you grow older, Michael, you’ll learn an important lesson—that most people spend their entire lives wishing for a second chance to do what they should have done right the first time. Don’t be like them, Michael.” He smiled at me, placing his hand on my shoulder, which made me feel sick inside. “I believe in you. I know you think you’re doing the right thing by resisting, but it’s because your point of view is skewed. All you have to do is walk across the aisle and see it from our side. And as your reward, I’m offering you everything you’ve dreamed of. You’ll be the head of the electric children. You’ll have a life a rock star would envy. And you’ll have your Taylor.” He smiled. “Yes, I know how you feel about Taylor. And she’ll be all yours. Your little friend, Ostin, will be allowed to go home to his mommy and daddy. And your mother will be set free. And some day you’ll have the adoration of millions. All around the world, children will want to be you. “Remember, history is made by those willing to tear up the last mapmaker’s map. Make history, Michael. You have two days to make up your mind. I dare say that these are the two most important days of your life. I know your heart may not entirely be in it at first; I don’t expect it to be. There’s too much brainwashing in there. I just want to see that you’re willing to commit. That’s all I ask. And for that simple commitment I offer you the world.” He turned and nodded to the guard. “Have a good night, Michael.”