True Heroes (31 page)

              Howard’s hands crossed and wrung across his stomach as he sat back again in his chair. A look of contemplative disbelief rang from his eyes. “How could someone like this go undiscovered by us?”

              “My brother knows how to cover his tracks.”

              “You never suspected a thing?”

              “No, sir.”

              “He looked after this boy for forty years and you didn’t know?”

              “He never mentioned it a single time.”

              “How do you know if his energy output is even compatible with the type we’re working with?”

              “Well, I don’t have complete clearance to view the biometrical data, but the type shouldn’t be a problem. The amount of power Whitmor is dealing with is nearly five-times what the white coats can churn out here. If we can mix my brother’s notes with his body and our technology, we may be able to push it even further.”

              The Major was beginning to be swayed. “What are the risk factors?”

              General Fink had been prepared for this question and a thousand of its variances. He didn’t miss a beat. “My brother noted over his last few sessions with the boy that he had become more cynical and detached. His psyche profile changed recently. Strong sense of right and wrong, smart, calm was earlier in life, then look here: angry, distant, corrosive to his self-sufficiency. The change revolves around his girlfriend’s mental health being poor and physical health in decline. The prediction was that if she died then Caleb may become unstable.”

              “Well if we got him in here, we could control it at least. Maybe. Or he’d tear us a new one real quick…. I can’t clear you to use the suit for this, Robert. It’s mostly hearsay and guesses that went into making that machine and a failure at this stage would be too big to recover from.”

              “I’m not asking for the suit, sir. We need to meet this boy, get his data, and see where his allegiances lie personally. All I need for that is your permission and a unit for back-up.”

              Major Howard let his hands fall to the edge of his desk. “Permission granted. Send whatever data your brother compiled down to the boys in white, grab a unit, and play it soft. I’m giving you Trekky status only: no provocation just observation. If he gives you any grief, then it’ll be to the autopsy lab for him, but don’t you be the one to paddle the waters. We don’t need a building taken down from a hissy fit.”

              “There won’t be a need for violence, sir, I can promise that.”

-                            -                            -             

              The room around Caleb moved slowly, setting the pace for his careful move of a black disk into a corner of the board. “King me.”

              The encapsulated room held older trodden people as well as some too young to have seen a peaceful time. Their bodies wandered or stationed with a will that didn’t seem their own. Caleb glanced over to Circles: the man who walked spherical paths anywhere he went. Caleb had often wondered what type of disabling past could crash a psyche into a wall such as his was. It went beyond physicality, beyond an inner ear problem or circular dementia. He truly only ever saw the world as a grouping of circles, as if his irises projected their simple shape everywhere he looked. Hairs on his head were brushed circularly by his hand every morning as his mustache was curled in black spirals at the ends, all surely while wandering in his circular fashion through the current of his room. Caleb glanced at him again and wondered how many corners the minds in this room were hiding in, and if Circles would ever find his own corner to dwell in.

              Caleb’s divided attention still saw his disk cornering its final opposite like a wounded, lonely rabbit. “Got me again. How do you do that, Caleb?”

              He looked up at the orderly who was playfully oblivious to many things and perhaps none as much as the gap between Caleb’s and his intelligence. It was both tickling and frustrating; Caleb couldn’t help but hope for more while the reality of the world seemed to always beg his difference. “The first six games were all luck, but I think I finally got the hang of it this last time. Good game, Clay.”

              His goofy smile flashed as he nodded the politeness back his direction. Clay stood and extended his hand, Caleb gently noticing the nightstick at his belt. His power noticed it as well. ‘What possible good would that be against us?’ Caleb forced his power to swallow a gag in his mind for the time being. The grey doorway at his back was bustling with the sounds of clashing plastics and the ever-present gashing of the cafeteria’s smell. Caleb didn’t turn around in disinterest and reset the checker board. A sudden series of steps turned his eyes but not his head, allowing him to catch a glimpse of the woman running at him with a plastic fork in her hand. His head slowly swiveled with the sense of quickened movement and was caught off guard. He instinctively kept down his power as the plastic utensil stabbed into his left shoulder. Two of the prongs snapped off while the third stuck in his skin. The pain was minor compared to the effect of the nearly-feral Carol staring into his eyes. Her already stringed hair was a tangle of threads while her eyes tapped into whatever fire fueled her rage for everything it had but only managed to look awake and alive for the first time in years. Caleb winced with his left eye and studied her with his right, the latter watching her futility be eclipsed by a passion that once fell in his favor for a last few seconds before the orderlies dragged her from the room with two doses of sedative in her neck.

              Clay came back in the room a few minutes later as the nurses performed their impressive fun-house of calming tricks for each patient and Caleb gently yanked the fork from his shoulder and covered the wound. ‘Just like a normal person would do. Tactful.’ The bigger man with blonde hair leaned down to help Caleb up, but was waved off. “I’ll head to the cage and get this looked at.”

              “Ah, Mr. Caleb I’m so sorry for this. Some idiot must’ve let her in here without checking the room first. Did she getcha deep?”

              “Eh, I could hide half a toothpick in one of the holes probably. Could come in handy.” Clay smiled a bit at the humor and seemed relieved that Caleb wasn’t irreparably damaged. “Let me know when she’s in her bed and okay.”

              Clay simply nodded. Caleb stood and tried to play the part until he found an empty hallway. Then, his hand dropped and he had no choice but to allow his power a foothold again. ‘Do you not see her increased decline? The good doctor was right: she’ll be hunting you every full-moon in no time. And yet, here you are taking every emotional barb no matter the size or the bloodshed, playing the hero. You’re limits have always seemed too far off these twenty years plus, but you do have them and they are encroaching as she dissipates. You must see that.’

              Caleb closed his eyes and saw himself standing on a blank plane somewhere between his power and the tiny part that kept him anchored; the only middle-ground where one had no sway over the other. The grey floor didn’t reverberate as Caleb’s bare feet caressed the curved platform and stood his guard at the final checkpoint of his control. ‘Anyone would feel on edge with a psychopathic, energy-fueled entity constantly harping at them. I told you as long as she’s alive, I’ll never leave and I accept any and every pain that entails.’

              A calm laugh echoed in a way that Caleb’s steps could not; it filled the chamber, quickly running up and down Caleb’s spine and trapping itself in his depressed mind. His nerves took notice. ‘Your obstinacy makes the wait for the final curtain all that more enticing.’

              Caleb’s eyes opened as his face sneered at something nobody could see. His bloody shirt was quickly ripped off as he opened his room and kicked at the loose papers. The wound at his shoulder was nothing but crusted blood as new skin covered the holes in a few seconds. He clutched at the plastic bars on his window as hard as the angst and contempt for himself now reached under his ribs and gripped his heart’s warmth. His power stayed at bay, not taking control of his arms but not retreating from their middle-ground, and the wager seemed to hit him then: it really was willing to bide its time, to wait until Caleb ground the clutch a single time, and it would take the wheel. ‘You’ll be waiting for a while, friend.’

              The clamor of clumsy steps resounded from the hallway, relaxing Caleb’s grip and moving him to his shirt drawer. He slipped on a white T-shirt just as Clay appeared with another smile. “Hey, she’s out now. As good a time as you’re gonna get to see her without a spoon in your eye.”

              ‘That seemed a bit insensitive, don’t you think?’

              ‘Coming from the voice of the emotionless,’ Caleb retorted. “I’ll be right over.”

              Clay backed into the hall to allow Caleb passage. “I’m kinda surprised this doesn’t happen more often to be honest. You guys only live half a hallway apart and she’s only attacked you twice. How do you always avoid her?”

              “I’m good at keeping track of people, I guess.”

              “Huh, you gotta be.” They approached the door and opened it very quietly, revealing the biggest security guard standing in the corner while Carol lay on the bed with oxygen and a steady heart monitor. “Gotta be quiet all right?”

              Caleb nodded at Clay then to the bigger guard—‘Gorilla I thought they called him.’

              ‘Just leave me and her alone right now.’

              His power seemed to mull the idea for a while. ‘Very well.’

              Caleb could feel his power finally retreating completely from his body, giving him a relaxed freedom he wished he’d feel more often. He carefully placed himself in the chair next to her bed before giving Gorilla and Clay a look, pleading for some solitude with his wife. Gorilla seemed to understand and pushed the slower Clay out of the room, “Let us know.” Caleb carefully took her hand in his and let it rest on the bed. She didn’t flinch or push it away as she surely would’ve done in an awakened state. It saddened him: her comatose resemblance to her old ways. She’d always been a peaceful sleeper, and even with her skin dried and hanging from her own bones, she was a bride as she slept. “I know you can’t hear me,” he whispered, “and even if you were awake I doubt you could, but that hasn’t stopped me from talking yet. What memory do you wanna hear today?”

              Her chest rose and fell.

              “My choice again? That’s unfair but okay. Remember when I met your mom for the first time? You were twice as nervous as me because you thought your dad would stop by. Never did get to meet him. She liked me well enough though, I think. She sat in her recliner with her tank-top and red shorts that showed off way too much fat skin. I let her interview me like a good boy as you just shook your head and turned beet-red every time she asked me a question. You…heh, you couldn’t get a word in. Every time you tried she’d shoot you down and say, ‘Now Carol let me finish,’ and I’d chuckle and try to reassure you.” Her body suddenly shuddered as she came out of sleep slightly, and his hand under hers felt slight pressure as she squeezed back. “I was always okay. You made me okay….” He lifted their locked hands to his forehead. “You made everything okay, and that wasn’t okay for me. I wanted you to make everything so disgustingly happy that we’d only ever need each other to survive. I…thought that’s how it was supposed to be for us. I’m sorry I know I’m ruining our time together, but…I’ve always wanted you to know that…that I know it was my fault that you’re here, and I know you have every reason to hate me. I failed so hard with you, but I need you. I need your breath in the air. Can you keep breathing for me?”

              Her heart monitor faltered. She was suddenly convulsing as her hand gripped tightly. “Clay!” The man burst in with Gorilla and quickly moved Caleb out of the way.

              “Seizure. Keep her still.”

              “I’ve got the ambulance it’ll be here in five. Caleb help us lift her.” Caleb bent down and felt his hands tremble to find strength, his power taking considerable stock of the situation from afar. Gorilla rolled in a gurney behind Caleb and they gently transferred her.

              They were gone down the hallway before Caleb could reset his senses. He stood in the hallway for eternal seconds, feeling his power calmly watch from luxury in his mind, before finally noticing the young nurse next to him. “Caleb, she’ll be fine.”

              He didn’t hear her. “What do you need, Judy?”

              “There’s a man here looking for you. He’s definitely a government type with an armed bunch. I can tell him it’s not a good time….”

              Caleb swallowed back worried tears. “Government types don’t care much for schedules and problems of others. Where is he?”

              “They’re all out back by the tree. Why is the government here?”

              “I don’t know, Judy. I’ll let you know.”

              She nodded and left Caleb to his mental stupor and physical function. He walked without a purpose as his fists clenched tighter with every step. The entirely too white hallway stretched farther than his slow waltz could ever conquer with travel. He treated the floor as glass, splintered by the cracks of reality spreading from whitened wall to whitened wall, and just beneath it, Caleb knew, was a patient, nearly omnipotent beast that awaited the final, carelessly heavy step that would bring the world down. The hall gave way to the warm concrete of the outside walkway and the white to the beating rays of the sun. Caleb’s eyes looked up, and it was in the shadow of the lone fig tree that the group of gunmen stood and a man in green sat. Caleb felt himself returning slightly as he walked through the lush grass and through the human cage.