*
When I got up the next morning, Uncle Mike was sitting on the back porch with Mom, and I had a feeling they'd been there for a while. I've met all my uncles, Mom's brothers, and she looks completely different from all of them. I'm not talking about just looking younger. All of her brothers are around six feet tall, while my mom is tiny, around five foot. I already towered over her at thirteen, and I hadn't reached my full height yet. If you ignore the gray in Jacob and Patrick's hair, their hair color varies through different shades of brown. My mom's is red -- not auburn, but red. Mikey's hair is the darkest, but he got the weird eyes -- one is a hazel and the other half blue and half green, divided roughly down the center.
It's hard to believe they are twins, at least until they speak. Then they remind me eerily of Ari and Zoe. Finishing each other's sentences. Shoot, you can practically see them sending entire dialogues of information to one another as they talk aloud. Hard to believe that one day I'll be able to do the same.
*Well, Ben, you ready for this?* It was Mike's voice in my mind and Mom whapped him on the arm.
"Don't start, you," she said to him. But she was smiling and then she turned to me. "Mikey wants to check you over. He can check for things I can't."
I shrugged. "Sure." It wasn't like it was the first time Uncle Mike had given me one of these exams...or maybe tests was a better word for it. One thing for sure, I knew I'd be both ravenous and tired by the end of it. Mom got to her feet. "I'll get breakfast started." I watched as she wandered out towards the kitchen, shutting the door behind her. She seemed a lot more relaxed and calm this morning.
"Come on, Ben," Mike said as he stood up.
I didn't argue, and I knew exactly where he was taking me. Out to the garden my mom used for her exercises. It was kind of like a Zen garden with attitude, surrounded by bushes that flowered most of the year -- flowered in colored patterns, mind you. There was the traditional sand containing small islands of greenery, trees, flowers, or small pools of water, some with fish or other small creatures. You'd never know that there was a house just a hundred yards away.
Mom must have been out here yesterday -- the patterns were all new, and some were quite intricate. I've watched her do the patterns with her mind, lifting the boulders to place them in just the right spot. Today it was all curlicues and swirls. Some of the lines were so fine they could not have been done by hand. Once again she had managed to amaze me.
Mike stopped at one of the benches which doubled as storage and pulled out a couple of oversized cushions. From there he led me to the ten foot square of grass in the very center of the garden. I waited patiently as we both sat and got reasonably comfortable in the early morning sunshine.
When he looked at me with those odd eyes of his, I paid attention. Next to my mom and dad, Mike was the one adult I really listened to.
"So, your mom tells me you've been having headaches," he said casually, like I hadn't been keeping this a secret.
Which I had; I should have known better than to try and hide it from my mom. I shrugged. "A few. Nothing too bad." They hadn't been, though they had been getting worse and were coming a bit more often. I didn't mention that.
"Expected. If you have any other symptoms -- bloodshot eyes or nose bleeds -- tell someone. It's important," Mike said.
"But, why? My telepathy is active, what more could happen?" I asked. I'd been told the stories, heard about the potential problems. But heck, all of Mom's first kids had gone through the process themselves. What could be different about me?
"Ben, your mom had a really bad time when she went through it and, although all your older siblings went through it with little trouble, you are the first..." he paused to sort out his thoughts. "Your mom's powers weren't active when she was pregnant with them, or rather only minimally active. You're the first she was pregnant with at full power, and your dad still had the gland back then. We don't know what, if any, difference this will make."
Okay, so he had a point. No one had expected me to become telepathically active at age five. No one had expected Ari and Zoe to be fully aware when they were born. No one had expected my mom would ever be able to have more kids, and some had accused her of being a complete fool for doing so, both because of what she did for a living and because of what she was. Some things are more important, or so she said. I believe her.
"So, what are we doing out here?" I asked Uncle Mike, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"I'm going to test you. We'll try and get an idea of you will be able to do, and perhaps how close you are to getting your full strength." He tipped his head a bit to look at me. "Have you decided?"
I knew what he meant, and yeah, I had. "I'm going to wait a few years and then have it done. I still want to just be me for a while."
He nodded satisfied with my answer. "Wise. You can always change your mind later. It is a serious commitment."
I looked down at my hands and said a bit sheepishly, "I'm beginning to realize that."
Mike laughed. "Center yourself. We have work to do."
I did as he asked and I remembered the first time I had ever done this.
// I sat on the living room floor, playing with the dominoes my mom had gotten out for me. To distract me while she talked with Uncle Mike in the kitchen. It was weird -- I knew I wasn't supposed to be listening, that the conversation was private, but it was like I couldn't stop myself and I heard every word.
My dad was upstairs with my twin sisters. I still hadn't decided whether or not I liked them, they were still too small. Guess I would have to be patient and give them a chance to grow up a bit first.
Dad was still real careful around me, like he was afraid that I was angry at him for what happened. I may have been a kid, but I was smart enough to know that it wasn't his fault, that in many ways it had not been him who had gone after me that day, that it was a side effect of the quicksilver gland. I just wished he'd start treating me normally again.
*Mikey, he's got some natural shields, but that's not enough, and I'm not going to be around enough to block out the rest. I'm going back to work in a couple of weeks.* I swear I felt her sigh.
Then it was my uncle Mike's voice in my head. *It's been four months? Then it's not going to go dormant. All right, I'll see what I can do.*
I continued setting up the dominoes, carefully following the intricate pattern I had decided upon. I felt my mom and uncle enter the room and stop to look at my creation.
"Impressive," Uncle Mike said. "You got a minute, Ben?"
I stood up and made my way out of the room, without disturbing the dominoes. I looked up at him. "You aren't going to take it away are you?"
His eyebrows went up.
"I told you, Mikey," my mom said, but she didn't sound angry, just amused.
"No, kiddo. Just want to make it a bit easier for you and for your mom." He waved for me to come sit down next to him as he sat on the staircase. *You're giving your mom headaches.*
I just about fell over in surprise. I mean, I remembered my mom doing that, talking into my head on that...that day, but I thought it must have been my imagination or something. *Is that really you?*
He laughed. "Yes. It's me." He turned to my mom. "No wonder you've been getting headaches."
She sighed, and I thought she was mad at me. She disabused me of that immediately. "No sweets, I'm not mad. Never mad about this. But I am getting tired. Let me show you something."
She did something in my head and all of a sudden I heard...voices. Lots of voices. All in my head. All shouting at me. All from somewhere else. My hands came up to cover my ears, but it didn't help. If anything, the voices got louder, and I was tempted to shout at them to go away. Then, suddenly, they stopped. I looked up at my mom, feeling a bit scared.
"I've been keeping all those other voices out." She sat down next to me. "It takes a lot of energy, plus I'm doing all my regular stuff and taking care of your sisters. Mom's tired, kiddo." She turned to Mikey. "He's going to teach you how to keep them out yourself. He's better suited to do it; you guys have the same talent."
"Huh?" I was confused. "I thought you did that, too?"
She nodded. "I do it a bit differently though." She leaned closer and whispered, "I cheat."
That made me laugh.
"You might as well show him," Mike said to her.
"Yeah, I guess so. Watch the dominoes, love." She did something. I could almost feel it. The dominoes began to fall, and within minutes my hours of work were undone. Then, much to my surprise, they began to stand up again, in reverse. They...the only thing I could think of was...unfell. In seconds, the design I had created was back. Then more dominoes flew out of the box, and in mere moments the design I had been working on was complete.
I turned to her. "You can do a lot more than make puppets dance, can't you?"
"Lots more. Watch." I did. This liquid silver stuff appeared upon her and began to cover her, hiding her from sight. I flinched away, frightened, not understanding. Once it covered her completely she... disappeared.
"Mom?"
"I'm still here." Her voice came from the same spot; I reached out to encounter cold, but under the cold was her arm. As I touched her, the stuff hardened and fell away with a bright metallic sound as it hit the wood of the floor. "It's called quicksilver."
"You turned invisible." I was in complete awe. "Cool!"
Both she and Mike laughed. "One day you may be able to do the same, but..."
I waited, holding my breath, wondering what miracle she was going to perform next.
"First you have to learn to control the power you do have. Will you let Mikey teach you?"
I nodded. Invisible. I'd sit through lots more lessons if it got me closer to being able to turn invisible.
Mom looked at Mike, shaking her head. Upstairs, the twins began to cry. With a pat on my head, Mom got up to go help Dad. I looked at Mike. "Can we get started?" As far as I was concerned, the sooner I learned what they wanted the better. //
When I opened my eyes I looked at Mike, who was smiling a bit wryly at me. He handed me a combination lock, the old fashioned kind with the turn knob. "Try to open it." I took it from him and, after a moment, I spun the knob. Right, left, then right again, and it popped open.
"How did you know the combination?" he asked me.
I shrugged. "I guessed is all."
Just then I noticed something in the grass and leaned over slightly to pick it up. Turned out to be an earring. My mom must have lost it at some point. I straightened to see Mike holding a ball in his hand. Looking past me he said, "You're right. I don't understand it, but you're right."
I turned around to see my mom appear, the quicksilver falling away and onto the sand she stood upon, but there were no footprints to where she was. She threw something then, something I could not see. I put my hand up without thinking and caught the...whatever it was. After a moment the quicksilver fell off it, revealing it to be another ball, identical to the one Mike had in his hand.
"How did you know the ball was there?" Mike asked me.
I shook my head. I hadn't known it was even a ball.
"It's not intuition. That I can tell. This is something new." Mike took the ball from my hand and began to juggle the two with one hand.
My mom came over and sat beside me. "Nah, he just inherited this one from his dad. Darien always had incredible luck just when he needed it."
"Now, if he can learn to control it..." Mike mused.
"Exactly," Mom said in agreement.
I was a little confused. "Ummm. What are you guys talking about?"
"Ben, you got an extra talent that you didn't get from me," Mom said with a laugh. "Your dad will be pleased to know you inherited more than just his good looks from him."
I managed not to blush, barely.
"I don't know how, but it is an active talent, just uncontrolled. We'll have to wait and see how strong it becomes, but right now I wouldn't try and train it. If it can be trained." Mike paused shaking his head. "There may be no way to consciously control it."
I held up the earring for her to see. "Found this."
She took it from me. "So this is why you leaned over. I lost this weeks ago."
Just then my stomach growled. I was starved, just like I expected.
Mike got to his feet and held out his hand to me. "Let's get you fed. I'm betting within an hour you'll be ready for a nap."
I took his hand and allowed myself to be pulled upright. He was correct. I could already feel the need for sleep creeping up on me. Good thing they only do these little tests twice a year. They were lots of work. I turned to look back at my mom.
"I'll be along in a few," she said and I got a bit worried about her. "I made pancakes; go eat, before your sisters inhale them all."
I followed Mike out of the garden, but stopped to look back at her one last time. She was lying down across the two cushions and staring up at the sky while she played with the earring I had found.
"She's okay, Ben. Focus on her and feel for a moment. She won't mind." Mike had set his hand on my shoulder.
I did what he suggested. Not eavesdropping, but just that light contact she sometimes did to make sure I was okay. I'd been practicing this, at her request. She said it was an easy way to verify who someone was. Telling friend from foe quickly could never be a bad thing. My mom was calm, content, at peace, with only the slightest undercurrent of worry.
I closed the contact, satisfied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the doorbell rang, Alyx bounced up with a whoop and rushed through the house to the door. Flinging it open, she threw herself at the gentleman on the other side with an enthusiastic, "Hobbesy!"
"Hey, kid, take it easy. I'm not as young as you." He was laughing, though, and returned the hug with as much feeling as she had put into it. In truth, he was only a few years older than her true age.
"It's been months since I've seen you, Bobby. You've been hiding from me," Alyx accused as she stepped back. He still called her 'kid', but it no longer bothered her. Hadn't for years. It was just Hobbes' way.
Moving aside, she looked him over as she followed him into the house. He actually didn't look that much different from when she had first met him. Maybe less hair, which had gone a bit gray over the years, but he was still fit and tough. He walked with a slight limp; he'd taken a bullet to his right femur several years before that had done a hell of a lot of damage. The bone had been shattered in places, and the healing and reconstruction process had not been fun. The fact that he could even walk again had surprised quite a few of his doctors. He'd been forced into a semi-retirement after it had happened, and after a few months of desk duty he had quit.
Now he worked freelance for various companies, including Darien's, doing security and self-defense type training.
"Where is that husband of yours?" he asked her as they walked through the house.
"The thundering herd is all outside. Got too loud indoors," Alyx said, opening the back door for him to walk through.
"Uncle Bobby!" Two redheaded hellions appeared as if by magic and attacked him.
"Hey, kidlettes. Take it easy." He was grinning broadly. He could still be talked into to playing his modified version of hide and seek with them. The objective of his version was to not be found while trying to get to 'home base.' So yeah, he was teaching eight years olds infiltration techniques, but considering who they were, it made sense. Hell, it was almost mandatory.
"Girls, remember our deal?" Alyx said to the twins.
"Yes, Mom," Ari said.
"We remember, but..." Zoe continued.
"We're bored," they said together. "And we don't want to wait for our treat."
Alyx sighed. "Tell you what, I'll give you a little treat now, and big one tomorrow if you let us get through this work. It's not like you're being ignored or anything."
The girls looked at each other, and it was obvious even to Hobbes that a silent conversation was going on between them. Hobbes leaned over to Alyx and whispered. "Were you this bad?"
"No, Bobby, there was only one of me," Alyx replied with a chuckle.
The girls turned to her then. "Agreed. But we want..." Zoe began this time.
"The really 'special' one though." Ari completed their thought.
"Girls, no nasties, understand? Or the next time you get to do it, you'll be doing it yourselves." Alyx admonished them with a serious look.
"We promise," they said as one. "You can check if you want."
Alyx shook her head. "You two are more than smart enough to do the right thing. Just remember that we expect you to."
Both girls looked up at her solemnly and nodded.
"All right, come here." The girls moved closer. Alyx set a hand on a shoulder of each and quicksilvered them. With squeals of delight, the two invisible hellions took off into the yard.
Hobbes shook his head. "Who would have thought that kids would beg to be invisible as a treat?" He turned to Alyx. "How long will it hold?"
"With them? About ten minutes." It was odd, but Ben and the twins had this weird ability to keep the quicksilver active on them for longer that it would normally stay on its own. It was at least partially due to the slightly higher concentration of quicksilver that they had been born with. It wasn't enough for them to go invisible on their own, but it did allow them some limited control when they were quicksilvered by someone else.
"Come on, Bobby. Let's get this over with." Alyx led him out into the yard.
There were three tables set up, one laden with nothing but food. The other two were covered with papers and a variety of electronics. There was a huge map unrolled on one, with several smaller maps also lying atop it.
"Mom, the damn tri-D rig is down again, can you..." Manda sounded rather tired and exasperated.
Jase spoke up then. "You mean you broke it already, Manda? It's not even on the market yet." Most of the group began to laugh, and poor Manda sighed and tried to smile.
"Sure, sweets. I'll see what I can do," Alyx said. She went over to the main computer for the rig and poked at it with her finger. "Hmmm. It's not working."
"Mother!" Manda rolled her eyes.
"Hon, relax. We'll get through this one way or another. This is just the beginning. There's a lot of work to do yet." Alyx went to her and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Manda, you need to do some field work. You're in a rut." That came from Rose, who was looking over the map. Rose was the only one of Alyx's first set of kids who had gotten the red hair, but hers was that copper penny red, with liberal freckles sprinkled across her cheeks and nose. She stood, much like her sisters, at least six inches taller than her mother. Dani, who wasn't here, was the tallest of the girls, standing a respectable five-foot-eight.
Darien got up and walked over to Hobbes, who said, "You know Fawkes, you guys don't need the Agency anymore. You could just do it by yourselves."
Darien rubbed the back of his neck. The gesture had become a habit, after so many years with the gland. "We've thought about it, but they're not ready yet. There's still people who will do anything to get a hold of one of them. As this proves." He waved his hand at the bustle about them.
"I won't be coming with you this time, my friend," Bobby said in a quiet voice. Darien directed him over to some chairs that were an island of quiet among the burgeoning chaos. "My damn leg is not up to an adventure like this." Bobby saw the look on Darien's face and shook his finger at him. "Don't you dare try and blame yourself. It happened two years after you left."
"I know, but...."
"But nothing, Fawkes. You did the right thing. You had a family to worry about. Hell, I'm not sure why you waited so long. We all thought you'd be out of there as soon as you got the good news."
Darien laughed. "I know, but I had my reasons."
Bobby chuckled. "You always did, even if no one else understood them. Look, me and Claire will stay and watch the girls for you. We'll even run info or whatever for you from here, but it's the best I can do these days."
"Bobby, I'm still surprised when you agree to have a lunch with me," Darien said, with a seriousness that was uncommon for him.
"Fawkes, we're friends," Bobby said quietly.
Darien shook his head. "No, Bobby, you and Claire are family." He smiled at him then. "And I would suggest you go say 'Hi' to her before she's forced to hunt you down."
"Guess I should. Between you and the kid working us to death, we don't see nearly as much of each other as we'd like." Bobby got to his feet and patted Darien on the shoulder. "Just so you know, we feel the same way about you guys."
Darien stood up as well. "We should probably go find out if we're as disorganized as we usually are."
Bobby chuckled. "You have to ask?"
They wandered back to the main group, where everyone was trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do. Alyx whapped the power unit for the holographic display with her hand and it suddenly sprang to life. Everyone stared at her.
"What? Sometimes the normal method does work, you know," she said, stepping aside as the image changed.
Manda focused the image on a satellite view of a building. "Okay, here's the target Dani was after. Rumors about this place have been rampant for months and we had supposedly gotten good intel that they were building next generation neutron weapons here." She adjusted the view, superimposing an interior diagram over the existing building. "Dani got in, and then we lost the tracking signal. We didn't get the death confirm, which cannot be prevented if the tracker is removed or if she dies. So either they knew about the tracker and disabled it correctly, or she's in a shielded building and the signal can't get out."
"So she's still in there?" Bobby asked. He'd worked with Dani for a few years and hated the thought that she might be hurt.
"We don't know. We have a six hour gap before we knew there was a problem. If they disabled the tracker, she could have been moved then," Manda answered. She fiddled with the control pad and made some changes to the image. "This is real-time. There has been no movement since we started watching it."
Alyx picked up another control pad and altered the image, zooming out until she could see the location of the building in relation to other features of the land. "The place is remote, perfect for a multi-use lab, but it also makes it difficult to get to." She zoomed out further, studying the area.
"What do you see?" Darien asked.
She shook her head. "Not sure yet."
Rose walked up to the image. "What's this?" She traced her finger along a feature in the landscape.
Manda tapped the pad. "Riverbed."
Rose turned to her. "Where's the river?"
Alyx zoomed the image out a bit more until they could see the start of the river, which began in the nearby mountains. As it flowed down, it vanished. She zoomed in on the area. "They diverted it, it seems."
"Underground," Ben suddenly said.
"Huh?" Just about every adult said at once.
He got up and walked to the image. He glanced at his mom and she zoomed in, anticipating his request. "Look, it doesn't stop flowing or anything, it just disappears into this...wall they put across the river. See, the actual river bed keeps going after about a half mile." He walked around the image as if trying to get a better angle on the view. "They built...something...and diverted the water into it."
"Crap. Manda, what sats are in range?" Alyx asked.
"Give me a sec...got one." The picture was replaced with an enhanced thermal image; it was quite clear now that the river had indeed been diverted and was flowing below ground.
"And gee, big surprise, it flows right past the installation. That explains the lake just a few miles away. That must be where they resurfaced the river." Alyx set the pad back down. "Shit."
"They're generating their own power. No wonder we haven't been able to tap in; they're off the grid. No phone lines, either," Manda said. "This is not good."
Almost as one, Darien, Bobby, and Alyx said, "Is it ever?"
That got a laugh out of everyone else. They had once again proved that they had worked together for far too long.
"How are you going to get in?" Mike asked. "It's not like the Chinese government is just going to let you in with travel visas. We don't even have an embassy there anymore."
Alyx walked back to the display. This time, without her holding the pad, the images began to change. "I can get us close." They looked at the screen. It was a long distance, but the general area where the installation was bordered one of the former Russian states that had been a country in its own right for over twenty years now.
"Piotr," Darien stated. "You think he'll help?"
Alyx looked over at him and nodded. "Oh yeah, I did a little favor for him a couple of years ago and he owes me big time."
"Mom, he'd do it if you just asked. You are god-mom to little..." Rose fumbled for the name.
"Serina. Serina Anatolia," Alyx finished. "I won't repeat the entire thing. Gods, the names they inflict upon their children."
"And he still hasn't caught up with you on number, although he's still working on it from what I understand." Manda added with a grin. "Last count they had five."
"I have something you might find useful," Jase broke in.
"And what technological miracle have you come up with this time?" Darien still couldn't get over how much Jase looked like Kevin. Hell, he looked identical except for the glasses. Jase had had his vision surgically corrected and didn't need them.
Jason Fawkes been working with Alyx's brother Patrick at his computer company for years. Patrick had already made one major leap forward by taking miniaturization of the microchips far beyond what had been available before. Then Jase had joined the company, and dumped the entire industry on its proverbial ass. With a little help from Alyx and Chris, he had created the now-standard holographic display system. With the miniaturization technology that Patrick had perfected, the system was more than feasible. It had been disgustingly simple to create.
Alyx had helped by showing him how she could interface with systems, literally overriding some rules that were considered standard by the industry. They were able to completely redesign how a computer 'thought,' making it much more flexible and adaptable. Chris helped by showing him some variants of quicksilver. That was the real secret to the display. An alternate version of quicksilver was used to refract the light, bending it to a specific area instead of around an object, creating the images of the display that hovered in the air over the projector. Until Jase and Chris met, no one had really considered that quicksilver could be used for anything else. Alyx pulled monumental strings to get Jase access to the formulas. You could say she sold her firstborn to the Agency for it, except that Dani had already been working there.
Jase pulled out a small box and set it on the table. "Say cheese, Cousin." He pressed a series of buttons on the box and across the yard the image of Ben sitting at a table appeared, looking completely solid.
"You did it," Alyx crowed as she walked over to the image and waved her hand through it. "Interesting wavelength. I can actually feel it." She did something and the image wavered for a moment, then returned to normal. "How much data can it store?"
"Only a couple dozen gigs at this point, but that's enough for a short recording, and the image can track to a small degree." He did something, and the image changed to one of the twins walking across the yard. She walked about seven steps and then the image repeated itself. But the image actually moved, walking those seven steps across the grass.
"Hmmm. It'll show on thermals. Using a low heat laser?" Alyx asked, still examining the image. Both twins had come over now and found it fascinating. They began to argue about who would get to try and break it first. Their version of beta testing.
"Yeah. It works best so far. Thought you might find a use for it on your little jaunt," Jase said as he shut it down. "I'll give you the full specs later."
"So, we really going to do this?" Rose asked the group. "Manda?"
"Johnson has no plans to make a rescue attempt, and near as I can tell he has not even informed his superiors that she's been taken." Manda actually sounded angry.
"He's trying to cover his own ass," Bobby commented, and Manda nodded in agreement.
"First, who would be going?" Darien asked.
Voices began to echo across the yard. The final breakdown was this: Michael, Jase, Claire, and Bobby would stay behind, to guard the twins and act as their stateside contacts, dig up info, stuff like that. Those going were Darien, Alyx, Manda, Rose, Chris, and Ben. If Chris going sounded odd, because he did more research than anything else, it really wasn't. Field assignments were mandatory for him, and he could and would act as the medic for the group.
That settled, Darien asked, "Now, how are you guys going to get out of work? This isn't something we can do over the weekend."
Manda coughed and looked a bit embarrassed. "Actually, we're all on medical leave because 'a family member is in a life-threatening situation and it may affect our performance if we stay on the job.'"
Bobby wagged a finger at her. "So not only did you get yourself indefinite leave, but the Agency is paying for it?" She nodded at him. "Where were you when I needed a vacation?"
"How did you get him to sign that?" Rose asked her sister.
"I didn't. You don't think he actually signs most of his paperwork do you? Too busy to be bothered most of the time." Manda sounded disgusted.
Darien got this wistful look in his eyes. "Never much got into forgery. Want a job?"
Everyone laughed.
"Okay guys," Alyx said, breaking up the fun. "Time for the real work. I'm going to make a call. You guys see if you can come up with at least a basic plan for this fiasco-to-be."
The real work had begun.
*
When I got up the next morning, Uncle Mike was sitting on the back porch with Mom, and I had a feeling they'd been there for a while. I've met all my uncles, Mom's brothers, and she looks completely different from all of them. I'm not talking about just looking younger. All of her brothers are around six feet tall, while my mom is tiny, around five foot. I already towered over her at thirteen, and I hadn't reached my full height yet. If you ignore the gray in Jacob and Patrick's hair, their hair color varies through different shades of brown. My mom's is red -- not auburn, but red. Mikey's hair is the darkest, but he got the weird eyes -- one is a hazel and the other half blue and half green, divided roughly down the center.
It's hard to believe they are twins, at least until they speak. Then they remind me eerily of Ari and Zoe. Finishing each other's sentences. Shoot, you can practically see them sending entire dialogues of information to one another as they talk aloud. Hard to believe that one day I'll be able to do the same.
*Well, Ben, you ready for this?* It was Mike's voice in my mind and Mom whapped him on the arm.
"Don't start, you," she said to him. But she was smiling and then she turned to me. "Mikey wants to check you over. He can check for things I can't."
I shrugged. "Sure." It wasn't like it was the first time Uncle Mike had given me one of these exams...or maybe tests was a better word for it. One thing for sure, I knew I'd be both ravenous and tired by the end of it. Mom got to her feet. "I'll get breakfast started." I watched as she wandered out towards the kitchen, shutting the door behind her. She seemed a lot more relaxed and calm this morning.
"Come on, Ben," Mike said as he stood up.
I didn't argue, and I knew exactly where he was taking me. Out to the garden my mom used for her exercises. It was kind of like a Zen garden with attitude, surrounded by bushes that flowered most of the year -- flowered in colored patterns, mind you. There was the traditional sand containing small islands of greenery, trees, flowers, or small pools of water, some with fish or other small creatures. You'd never know that there was a house just a hundred yards away.
Mom must have been out here yesterday -- the patterns were all new, and some were quite intricate. I've watched her do the patterns with her mind, lifting the boulders to place them in just the right spot. Today it was all curlicues and swirls. Some of the lines were so fine they could not have been done by hand. Once again she had managed to amaze me.
Mike stopped at one of the benches which doubled as storage and pulled out a couple of oversized cushions. From there he led me to the ten foot square of grass in the very center of the garden. I waited patiently as we both sat and got reasonably comfortable in the early morning sunshine.
When he looked at me with those odd eyes of his, I paid attention. Next to my mom and dad, Mike was the one adult I really listened to.
"So, your mom tells me you've been having headaches," he said casually, like I hadn't been keeping this a secret.
Which I had; I should have known better than to try and hide it from my mom. I shrugged. "A few. Nothing too bad." They hadn't been, though they had been getting worse and were coming a bit more often. I didn't mention that.
"Expected. If you have any other symptoms -- bloodshot eyes or nose bleeds -- tell someone. It's important," Mike said.
"But, why? My telepathy is active, what more could happen?" I asked. I'd been told the stories, heard about the potential problems. But heck, all of Mom's first kids had gone through the process themselves. What could be different about me?
"Ben, your mom had a really bad time when she went through it and, although all your older siblings went through it with little trouble, you are the first..." he paused to sort out his thoughts. "Your mom's powers weren't active when she was pregnant with them, or rather only minimally active. You're the first she was pregnant with at full power, and your dad still had the gland back then. We don't know what, if any, difference this will make."
Okay, so he had a point. No one had expected me to become telepathically active at age five. No one had expected Ari and Zoe to be fully aware when they were born. No one had expected my mom would ever be able to have more kids, and some had accused her of being a complete fool for doing so, both because of what she did for a living and because of what she was. Some things are more important, or so she said. I believe her.
"So, what are we doing out here?" I asked Uncle Mike, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"I'm going to test you. We'll try and get an idea of you will be able to do, and perhaps how close you are to getting your full strength." He tipped his head a bit to look at me. "Have you decided?"
I knew what he meant, and yeah, I had. "I'm going to wait a few years and then have it done. I still want to just be me for a while."
He nodded satisfied with my answer. "Wise. You can always change your mind later. It is a serious commitment."
I looked down at my hands and said a bit sheepishly, "I'm beginning to realize that."
Mike laughed. "Center yourself. We have work to do."
I did as he asked and I remembered the first time I had ever done this.
// I sat on the living room floor, playing with the dominoes my mom had gotten out for me. To distract me while she talked with Uncle Mike in the kitchen. It was weird -- I knew I wasn't supposed to be listening, that the conversation was private, but it was like I couldn't stop myself and I heard every word.
My dad was upstairs with my twin sisters. I still hadn't decided whether or not I liked them, they were still too small. Guess I would have to be patient and give them a chance to grow up a bit first.
Dad was still real careful around me, like he was afraid that I was angry at him for what happened. I may have been a kid, but I was smart enough to know that it wasn't his fault, that in many ways it had not been him who had gone after me that day, that it was a side effect of the quicksilver gland. I just wished he'd start treating me normally again.
*Mikey, he's got some natural shields, but that's not enough, and I'm not going to be around enough to block out the rest. I'm going back to work in a couple of weeks.* I swear I felt her sigh.
Then it was my uncle Mike's voice in my head. *It's been four months? Then it's not going to go dormant. All right, I'll see what I can do.*
I continued setting up the dominoes, carefully following the intricate pattern I had decided upon. I felt my mom and uncle enter the room and stop to look at my creation.
"Impressive," Uncle Mike said. "You got a minute, Ben?"
I stood up and made my way out of the room, without disturbing the dominoes. I looked up at him. "You aren't going to take it away are you?"
His eyebrows went up.
"I told you, Mikey," my mom said, but she didn't sound angry, just amused.
"No, kiddo. Just want to make it a bit easier for you and for your mom." He waved for me to come sit down next to him as he sat on the staircase. *You're giving your mom headaches.*
I just about fell over in surprise. I mean, I remembered my mom doing that, talking into my head on that...that day, but I thought it must have been my imagination or something. *Is that really you?*
He laughed. "Yes. It's me." He turned to my mom. "No wonder you've been getting headaches."
She sighed, and I thought she was mad at me. She disabused me of that immediately. "No sweets, I'm not mad. Never mad about this. But I am getting tired. Let me show you something."
She did something in my head and all of a sudden I heard...voices. Lots of voices. All in my head. All shouting at me. All from somewhere else. My hands came up to cover my ears, but it didn't help. If anything, the voices got louder, and I was tempted to shout at them to go away. Then, suddenly, they stopped. I looked up at my mom, feeling a bit scared.
"I've been keeping all those other voices out." She sat down next to me. "It takes a lot of energy, plus I'm doing all my regular stuff and taking care of your sisters. Mom's tired, kiddo." She turned to Mikey. "He's going to teach you how to keep them out yourself. He's better suited to do it; you guys have the same talent."
"Huh?" I was confused. "I thought you did that, too?"
She nodded. "I do it a bit differently though." She leaned closer and whispered, "I cheat."
That made me laugh.
"You might as well show him," Mike said to her.
"Yeah, I guess so. Watch the dominoes, love." She did something. I could almost feel it. The dominoes began to fall, and within minutes my hours of work were undone. Then, much to my surprise, they began to stand up again, in reverse. They...the only thing I could think of was...unfell. In seconds, the design I had created was back. Then more dominoes flew out of the box, and in mere moments the design I had been working on was complete.
I turned to her. "You can do a lot more than make puppets dance, can't you?"
"Lots more. Watch." I did. This liquid silver stuff appeared upon her and began to cover her, hiding her from sight. I flinched away, frightened, not understanding. Once it covered her completely she... disappeared.
"Mom?"
"I'm still here." Her voice came from the same spot; I reached out to encounter cold, but under the cold was her arm. As I touched her, the stuff hardened and fell away with a bright metallic sound as it hit the wood of the floor. "It's called quicksilver."
"You turned invisible." I was in complete awe. "Cool!"
Both she and Mike laughed. "One day you may be able to do the same, but..."
I waited, holding my breath, wondering what miracle she was going to perform next.
"First you have to learn to control the power you do have. Will you let Mikey teach you?"
I nodded. Invisible. I'd sit through lots more lessons if it got me closer to being able to turn invisible.
Mom looked at Mike, shaking her head. Upstairs, the twins began to cry. With a pat on my head, Mom got up to go help Dad. I looked at Mike. "Can we get started?" As far as I was concerned, the sooner I learned what they wanted the better. //
When I opened my eyes I looked at Mike, who was smiling a bit wryly at me. He handed me a combination lock, the old fashioned kind with the turn knob. "Try to open it." I took it from him and, after a moment, I spun the knob. Right, left, then right again, and it popped open.
"How did you know the combination?" he asked me.
I shrugged. "I guessed is all."
Just then I noticed something in the grass and leaned over slightly to pick it up. Turned out to be an earring. My mom must have lost it at some point. I straightened to see Mike holding a ball in his hand. Looking past me he said, "You're right. I don't understand it, but you're right."
I turned around to see my mom appear, the quicksilver falling away and onto the sand she stood upon, but there were no footprints to where she was. She threw something then, something I could not see. I put my hand up without thinking and caught the...whatever it was. After a moment the quicksilver fell off it, revealing it to be another ball, identical to the one Mike had in his hand.
"How did you know the ball was there?" Mike asked me.
I shook my head. I hadn't known it was even a ball.
"It's not intuition. That I can tell. This is something new." Mike took the ball from my hand and began to juggle the two with one hand.
My mom came over and sat beside me. "Nah, he just inherited this one from his dad. Darien always had incredible luck just when he needed it."
"Now, if he can learn to control it..." Mike mused.
"Exactly," Mom said in agreement.
I was a little confused. "Ummm. What are you guys talking about?"
"Ben, you got an extra talent that you didn't get from me," Mom said with a laugh. "Your dad will be pleased to know you inherited more than just his good looks from him."
I managed not to blush, barely.
"I don't know how, but it is an active talent, just uncontrolled. We'll have to wait and see how strong it becomes, but right now I wouldn't try and train it. If it can be trained." Mike paused shaking his head. "There may be no way to consciously control it."
I held up the earring for her to see. "Found this."
She took it from me. "So this is why you leaned over. I lost this weeks ago."
Just then my stomach growled. I was starved, just like I expected.
Mike got to his feet and held out his hand to me. "Let's get you fed. I'm betting within an hour you'll be ready for a nap."
I took his hand and allowed myself to be pulled upright. He was correct. I could already feel the need for sleep creeping up on me. Good thing they only do these little tests twice a year. They were lots of work. I turned to look back at my mom.
"I'll be along in a few," she said and I got a bit worried about her. "I made pancakes; go eat, before your sisters inhale them all."
I followed Mike out of the garden, but stopped to look back at her one last time. She was lying down across the two cushions and staring up at the sky while she played with the earring I had found.
"She's okay, Ben. Focus on her and feel for a moment. She won't mind." Mike had set his hand on my shoulder.
I did what he suggested. Not eavesdropping, but just that light contact she sometimes did to make sure I was okay. I'd been practicing this, at her request. She said it was an easy way to verify who someone was. Telling friend from foe quickly could never be a bad thing. My mom was calm, content, at peace, with only the slightest undercurrent of worry.
I closed the contact, satisfied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the doorbell rang, Alyx bounced up with a whoop and rushed through the house to the door. Flinging it open, she threw herself at the gentleman on the other side with an enthusiastic, "Hobbesy!"
"Hey, kid, take it easy. I'm not as young as you." He was laughing, though, and returned the hug with as much feeling as she had put into it. In truth, he was only a few years older than her true age.
"It's been months since I've seen you, Bobby. You've been hiding from me," Alyx accused as she stepped back. He still called her 'kid', but it no longer bothered her. Hadn't for years. It was just Hobbes' way.
Moving aside, she looked him over as she followed him into the house. He actually didn't look that much different from when she had first met him. Maybe less hair, which had gone a bit gray over the years, but he was still fit and tough. He walked with a slight limp; he'd taken a bullet to his right femur several years before that had done a hell of a lot of damage. The bone had been shattered in places, and the healing and reconstruction process had not been fun. The fact that he could even walk again had surprised quite a few of his doctors. He'd been forced into a semi-retirement after it had happened, and after a few months of desk duty he had quit.
Now he worked freelance for various companies, including Darien's, doing security and self-defense type training.
"Where is that husband of yours?" he asked her as they walked through the house.
"The thundering herd is all outside. Got too loud indoors," Alyx said, opening the back door for him to walk through.
"Uncle Bobby!" Two redheaded hellions appeared as if by magic and attacked him.
"Hey, kidlettes. Take it easy." He was grinning broadly. He could still be talked into to playing his modified version of hide and seek with them. The objective of his version was to not be found while trying to get to 'home base.' So yeah, he was teaching eight years olds infiltration techniques, but considering who they were, it made sense. Hell, it was almost mandatory.
"Girls, remember our deal?" Alyx said to the twins.
"Yes, Mom," Ari said.
"We remember, but..." Zoe continued.
"We're bored," they said together. "And we don't want to wait for our treat."
Alyx sighed. "Tell you what, I'll give you a little treat now, and big one tomorrow if you let us get through this work. It's not like you're being ignored or anything."
The girls looked at each other, and it was obvious even to Hobbes that a silent conversation was going on between them. Hobbes leaned over to Alyx and whispered. "Were you this bad?"
"No, Bobby, there was only one of me," Alyx replied with a chuckle.
The girls turned to her then. "Agreed. But we want..." Zoe began this time.
"The really 'special' one though." Ari completed their thought.
"Girls, no nasties, understand? Or the next time you get to do it, you'll be doing it yourselves." Alyx admonished them with a serious look.
"We promise," they said as one. "You can check if you want."
Alyx shook her head. "You two are more than smart enough to do the right thing. Just remember that we expect you to."
Both girls looked up at her solemnly and nodded.
"All right, come here." The girls moved closer. Alyx set a hand on a shoulder of each and quicksilvered them. With squeals of delight, the two invisible hellions took off into the yard.
Hobbes shook his head. "Who would have thought that kids would beg to be invisible as a treat?" He turned to Alyx. "How long will it hold?"
"With them? About ten minutes." It was odd, but Ben and the twins had this weird ability to keep the quicksilver active on them for longer that it would normally stay on its own. It was at least partially due to the slightly higher concentration of quicksilver that they had been born with. It wasn't enough for them to go invisible on their own, but it did allow them some limited control when they were quicksilvered by someone else.
"Come on, Bobby. Let's get this over with." Alyx led him out into the yard.
There were three tables set up, one laden with nothing but food. The other two were covered with papers and a variety of electronics. There was a huge map unrolled on one, with several smaller maps also lying atop it.
"Mom, the damn tri-D rig is down again, can you..." Manda sounded rather tired and exasperated.
Jase spoke up then. "You mean you broke it already, Manda? It's not even on the market yet." Most of the group began to laugh, and poor Manda sighed and tried to smile.
"Sure, sweets. I'll see what I can do," Alyx said. She went over to the main computer for the rig and poked at it with her finger. "Hmmm. It's not working."
"Mother!" Manda rolled her eyes.
"Hon, relax. We'll get through this one way or another. This is just the beginning. There's a lot of work to do yet." Alyx went to her and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Manda, you need to do some field work. You're in a rut." That came from Rose, who was looking over the map. Rose was the only one of Alyx's first set of kids who had gotten the red hair, but hers was that copper penny red, with liberal freckles sprinkled across her cheeks and nose. She stood, much like her sisters, at least six inches taller than her mother. Dani, who wasn't here, was the tallest of the girls, standing a respectable five-foot-eight.
Darien got up and walked over to Hobbes, who said, "You know Fawkes, you guys don't need the Agency anymore. You could just do it by yourselves."
Darien rubbed the back of his neck. The gesture had become a habit, after so many years with the gland. "We've thought about it, but they're not ready yet. There's still people who will do anything to get a hold of one of them. As this proves." He waved his hand at the bustle about them.
"I won't be coming with you this time, my friend," Bobby said in a quiet voice. Darien directed him over to some chairs that were an island of quiet among the burgeoning chaos. "My damn leg is not up to an adventure like this." Bobby saw the look on Darien's face and shook his finger at him. "Don't you dare try and blame yourself. It happened two years after you left."
"I know, but...."
"But nothing, Fawkes. You did the right thing. You had a family to worry about. Hell, I'm not sure why you waited so long. We all thought you'd be out of there as soon as you got the good news."
Darien laughed. "I know, but I had my reasons."
Bobby chuckled. "You always did, even if no one else understood them. Look, me and Claire will stay and watch the girls for you. We'll even run info or whatever for you from here, but it's the best I can do these days."
"Bobby, I'm still surprised when you agree to have a lunch with me," Darien said, with a seriousness that was uncommon for him.
"Fawkes, we're friends," Bobby said quietly.
Darien shook his head. "No, Bobby, you and Claire are family." He smiled at him then. "And I would suggest you go say 'Hi' to her before she's forced to hunt you down."
"Guess I should. Between you and the kid working us to death, we don't see nearly as much of each other as we'd like." Bobby got to his feet and patted Darien on the shoulder. "Just so you know, we feel the same way about you guys."
Darien stood up as well. "We should probably go find out if we're as disorganized as we usually are."
Bobby chuckled. "You have to ask?"
They wandered back to the main group, where everyone was trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do. Alyx whapped the power unit for the holographic display with her hand and it suddenly sprang to life. Everyone stared at her.
"What? Sometimes the normal method does work, you know," she said, stepping aside as the image changed.
Manda focused the image on a satellite view of a building. "Okay, here's the target Dani was after. Rumors about this place have been rampant for months and we had supposedly gotten good intel that they were building next generation neutron weapons here." She adjusted the view, superimposing an interior diagram over the existing building. "Dani got in, and then we lost the tracking signal. We didn't get the death confirm, which cannot be prevented if the tracker is removed or if she dies. So either they knew about the tracker and disabled it correctly, or she's in a shielded building and the signal can't get out."
"So she's still in there?" Bobby asked. He'd worked with Dani for a few years and hated the thought that she might be hurt.
"We don't know. We have a six hour gap before we knew there was a problem. If they disabled the tracker, she could have been moved then," Manda answered. She fiddled with the control pad and made some changes to the image. "This is real-time. There has been no movement since we started watching it."
Alyx picked up another control pad and altered the image, zooming out until she could see the location of the building in relation to other features of the land. "The place is remote, perfect for a multi-use lab, but it also makes it difficult to get to." She zoomed out further, studying the area.
"What do you see?" Darien asked.
She shook her head. "Not sure yet."
Rose walked up to the image. "What's this?" She traced her finger along a feature in the landscape.
Manda tapped the pad. "Riverbed."
Rose turned to her. "Where's the river?"
Alyx zoomed the image out a bit more until they could see the start of the river, which began in the nearby mountains. As it flowed down, it vanished. She zoomed in on the area. "They diverted it, it seems."
"Underground," Ben suddenly said.
"Huh?" Just about every adult said at once.
He got up and walked to the image. He glanced at his mom and she zoomed in, anticipating his request. "Look, it doesn't stop flowing or anything, it just disappears into this...wall they put across the river. See, the actual river bed keeps going after about a half mile." He walked around the image as if trying to get a better angle on the view. "They built...something...and diverted the water into it."
"Crap. Manda, what sats are in range?" Alyx asked.
"Give me a sec...got one." The picture was replaced with an enhanced thermal image; it was quite clear now that the river had indeed been diverted and was flowing below ground.
"And gee, big surprise, it flows right past the installation. That explains the lake just a few miles away. That must be where they resurfaced the river." Alyx set the pad back down. "Shit."
"They're generating their own power. No wonder we haven't been able to tap in; they're off the grid. No phone lines, either," Manda said. "This is not good."
Almost as one, Darien, Bobby, and Alyx said, "Is it ever?"
That got a laugh out of everyone else. They had once again proved that they had worked together for far too long.
"How are you going to get in?" Mike asked. "It's not like the Chinese government is just going to let you in with travel visas. We don't even have an embassy there anymore."
Alyx walked back to the display. This time, without her holding the pad, the images began to change. "I can get us close." They looked at the screen. It was a long distance, but the general area where the installation was bordered one of the former Russian states that had been a country in its own right for over twenty years now.
"Piotr," Darien stated. "You think he'll help?"
Alyx looked over at him and nodded. "Oh yeah, I did a little favor for him a couple of years ago and he owes me big time."
"Mom, he'd do it if you just asked. You are god-mom to little..." Rose fumbled for the name.
"Serina. Serina Anatolia," Alyx finished. "I won't repeat the entire thing. Gods, the names they inflict upon their children."
"And he still hasn't caught up with you on number, although he's still working on it from what I understand." Manda added with a grin. "Last count they had five."
"I have something you might find useful," Jase broke in.
"And what technological miracle have you come up with this time?" Darien still couldn't get over how much Jase looked like Kevin. Hell, he looked identical except for the glasses. Jase had had his vision surgically corrected and didn't need them.
Jason Fawkes been working with Alyx's brother Patrick at his computer company for years. Patrick had already made one major leap forward by taking miniaturization of the microchips far beyond what had been available before. Then Jase had joined the company, and dumped the entire industry on its proverbial ass. With a little help from Alyx and Chris, he had created the now-standard holographic display system. With the miniaturization technology that Patrick had perfected, the system was more than feasible. It had been disgustingly simple to create.
Alyx had helped by showing him how she could interface with systems, literally overriding some rules that were considered standard by the industry. They were able to completely redesign how a computer 'thought,' making it much more flexible and adaptable. Chris helped by showing him some variants of quicksilver. That was the real secret to the display. An alternate version of quicksilver was used to refract the light, bending it to a specific area instead of around an object, creating the images of the display that hovered in the air over the projector. Until Jase and Chris met, no one had really considered that quicksilver could be used for anything else. Alyx pulled monumental strings to get Jase access to the formulas. You could say she sold her firstborn to the Agency for it, except that Dani had already been working there.
Jase pulled out a small box and set it on the table. "Say cheese, Cousin." He pressed a series of buttons on the box and across the yard the image of Ben sitting at a table appeared, looking completely solid.
"You did it," Alyx crowed as she walked over to the image and waved her hand through it. "Interesting wavelength. I can actually feel it." She did something and the image wavered for a moment, then returned to normal. "How much data can it store?"
"Only a couple dozen gigs at this point, but that's enough for a short recording, and the image can track to a small degree." He did something, and the image changed to one of the twins walking across the yard. She walked about seven steps and then the image repeated itself. But the image actually moved, walking those seven steps across the grass.
"Hmmm. It'll show on thermals. Using a low heat laser?" Alyx asked, still examining the image. Both twins had come over now and found it fascinating. They began to argue about who would get to try and break it first. Their version of beta testing.
"Yeah. It works best so far. Thought you might find a use for it on your little jaunt," Jase said as he shut it down. "I'll give you the full specs later."
"So, we really going to do this?" Rose asked the group. "Manda?"
"Johnson has no plans to make a rescue attempt, and near as I can tell he has not even informed his superiors that she's been taken." Manda actually sounded angry.
"He's trying to cover his own ass," Bobby commented, and Manda nodded in agreement.
"First, who would be going?" Darien asked.
Voices began to echo across the yard. The final breakdown was this: Michael, Jase, Claire, and Bobby would stay behind, to guard the twins and act as their stateside contacts, dig up info, stuff like that. Those going were Darien, Alyx, Manda, Rose, Chris, and Ben. If Chris going sounded odd, because he did more research than anything else, it really wasn't. Field assignments were mandatory for him, and he could and would act as the medic for the group.
That settled, Darien asked, "Now, how are you guys going to get out of work? This isn't something we can do over the weekend."
Manda coughed and looked a bit embarrassed. "Actually, we're all on medical leave because 'a family member is in a life-threatening situation and it may affect our performance if we stay on the job.'"
Bobby wagged a finger at her. "So not only did you get yourself indefinite leave, but the Agency is paying for it?" She nodded at him. "Where were you when I needed a vacation?"
"How did you get him to sign that?" Rose asked her sister.
"I didn't. You don't think he actually signs most of his paperwork do you? Too busy to be bothered most of the time." Manda sounded disgusted.
Darien got this wistful look in his eyes. "Never much got into forgery. Want a job?"
Everyone laughed.
"Okay guys," Alyx said, breaking up the fun. "Time for the real work. I'm going to make a call. You guys see if you can come up with at least a basic plan for this fiasco-to-be."
The real work had begun.
*