Maria parked her car outside the pier café. She marveled at the irony of
her good parking space. Every other time she and Alex had brought Hope to
the beach, they'd had to park several blocks away and walk. But at such an
early hour, the only people roaming about were a few hotel staff and the
occasional tourist hoping to find shells while the tide was out.
Maria sat in the car staring at the ocean before her. She wondered if she would ever again see the seagulls flying over the water in search of fish or hear the waves crash against the shore. In the long run, though, she would happily give up her own freedom for Hope's. She knew that by turning herself in to the kidnappers, Hope would be able to visit the ocean again and she could swim until she was wrinkled like a raisin, and she would get to experience the rush of a first date, and she would know the pride in tossing her graduation cap, and maybe one day she would walk down the isle. And when that happened, Maria knew that Michael would be there to walk with her.
She sighed one last free breath before accepting her fate. Maria tossed her keys into the passenger's seat and stepped out of her car. Slowly, she pushed the car door until it latched so as not to disturb the early morning calm. Out of habit, she brushed at her pants to flatten the wrinkles from sitting. Maria shook her head when she realized she was tidying herself for presentation.
With her face forward and her head high, Maria began a slow march towards the wooden steps that lead from the parking lot in front of the pier café to the silver sand below the pier. She drug her hand along the wooden railing of the steps. Just as she reached final step, she felt a sudden sting in her finger. Maria gasped and lifted her hand from the railing. She stared at the tiny splinter of wood that was protruding from the soft skin of her pointer finger.
While examining her finger, a large cold hand touched Maria's shoulder. She spun around quickly and came face-to-face with a familiar man.
"Hello, Marianna," the man spoke cruelly.
Maria lowered her brows and squint her eyes as she realized why the man looked so familiar. "Jackson," she whispered with shock.
With a rush of actions, Jackson grabbed the back of Maria's neck and, with his other hand, covered her mouth with a wash cloth. Maria gasped for air and suddenly felt weak. Her eyelids became weighted and she fought to keep her vision in focus. Immediately, Maria knew what had happened. Her body became heavy, and she sunk to her knees.
"Whoa," Jackson said taking Maria beneath her arms to keep her from falling. "You won't do us any good with a head injury."
Just before everything went dark, Maria managed to whisper, "Where's Hope?"
..............
"Why do they think she's an alien?" Michael asked confused.
"I don't know, Michael," Isabel answered. "I'm telling you exactly what I know. and that is the kidnappers think Maria is an alien."
"Michael," Max spoke from the couch across the living room. "Catch," he said as he tossed the remote control into the air towards Michael.
Michael easily caught the remote control and looked angrily at Max. "What? Are you incapable of turning on the television yourself?"
"Think about it, Michael," Max said with composure.
Michael looked back at the remote in his hand. After a second, his scowl began to change. Insight spread across his face and his eyes grew wide with fearful realization. Still staring at the remote, he whispered, "If they saw anything like what we saw." Michael looked at Max and they both shared a moment of understanding.
Isabel looked at Liz. Liz looked Alex. Alex looked at Lupe.
Finally, Lupe blurted, "Well! You wanna clue the rest of us in?"
..............
"You ready?" Isabel asked.
"As I'll ever be," Michael said nervously. He needed desperately to talk to Maria and he was grateful for Isabel's help, but he'd never participated in a dreamwalk. Truth be known, he was a bit concerned about how the entire process worked. He was afraid of not being able to distinguish the dream from reality. He was worried about how it would feel to make the connection. Still, the importance of the opportunity greatly surpassed the petty fears he harbored.
"Will she be able to see us?" Michael asked.
"If you reveal yourself to her. You have to let her know you're there," Isabel explained.
"Will she remember when she wakes?" Michael asked taking Isabel's hand as the pair stretched out onto the bed.
"Let's hope so," Isabel sighed lifting her eyebrows.
............
"Isabel?" Michael whispered.
"Right beside you," Isabel answered.
Michael turned his head to his left and tried desperately to focus his eyes. "It's so dark," he exclaimed.
"She's in a very deep sleep," Isabel explained.
"Where is she?" Michael asked squinting his eyes in hopes of seeing better.
"I don't know," Isabel answered. "Call to her, Michael."
Michael took a deep breath and shouted loudly, "Maria!"
"Whoa!" Isabel exclaimed bringing her hands to her ears. She laughed at Michael's urgency. "You don't have to yell!"
"Oh," Michael said. "I thought."
"We're in her dream," Isabel interrupted. "She's nearby. She just needs to hear your voice so she will come to us," Isabel explained.
The darkness began to lift and revealed a white expanse of nothingness.
"What's going on?" a voice asked from behind Isabel and Michael.
Isabel and Michael spun around and saw Maria looking very confused.
"Maria!" Michael called and hurried to her side. "Are you okay?" Michael threw his arms around Maria and hugged her tightly.
"Um," Maria said not understanding. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" When Michael didn't let her go, Maria began to suspect Michael's actions. "The question is. are you okay? What's with all this affection?"
"Maria," Isabel said. "Can we. hey, we need." Isabel moved to where Michael stood crushing Maria. She touched Michael on the shoulder willing him to let Maria go so they could talk to her before their time in the dreamwalk came to an end. When Michael didn't budge, Isabel pushed her arm between Michael and Maria.
Maria looked over Michael's shoulder at Isabel and shrugged her shoulders. She patted Michael's back and said, "Okay, Michael. What's going on?"
"Hey!" Isabel shouted into Michael's ear.
Michael turned lose of Maria and rubbed his ear. "What was that for?" he asked still rubbing his ringing ear.
Isabel put her hands on her hips. "Give the girl some breathing room, will ya?" She looked at Maria and asked, "Do you know where you are?"
Maria looked around at the white expanse and finally became aware of her unusual surroundings. She turned around and looked in all directions. "Well," she said slowly still examining the nothingness that the three were standing in. "Now that you mention it."
"You're asleep, Maria," Isabel interrupted. You left your apartment this morning and went down to the pier at the beach.
"I did?" Maria asked. "Why?" Maria smiled finding amusement in watching Michael continue to hold his aching ear.
Isabel continued. "You came down to the pier to. for. well, Hope was taken from you a couple of days ago."
Maria's smile faded. Hearing Hope's name brought her back into the undesirable reality she'd experienced the past few days. She dropped her face and began to breath hard as memories came flooding back. She remembered frantically searching her apartment for Hope. She remembered finding the empty bed and the open window in Hope's room. She remembered thrashing through Michael's apartment and she remembered how he'd become her brick wall as she realized Hope was gone. She remembered the anticipation she'd felt when they thought they'd found where Hope was being held by her kidnappers and she remembered the utter despair she felt when they found Hope was not there. She remembered the threatening phone call and the fight with Michael over who whose life would be traded for Hope's life.
Then Maria remembered being at the pier. She remembered seeing Jackson and she remembered struggling as he held a rag over her mouth.
"It's Jackson," Maria said looking up at Michael and Isabel with wide, terrified eyes.
"We know," Michael said. "I saw him when I touched Hope's locket."
"Why?" Maria asked confused.
Isabel moved closer to Maria and spoke softly in an effort soften the blow. "He thinks you're. he thinks you're one of us."
Maria smiled. She laughed and rolled her eyes thinking Isabel was surely joking. "He thinks I'm an alien? Come on. Where would he get an idea like that?"
"From Hope," Michael whispered.
Immediately, Maria became angry. She could not believe that Michael was trying to blame Hope for anything that had happened. "Why would you say something like that? Hope would never."
Michael interrupted Maria. "It's because of me."
"What?" Maria asked quietly. Her anger turned to pain. She wondered why he would do anything to hurt her. or to hurt Hope.
"Hope inherited some of my least favorable qualities. besides my chin," Michael only half joked trying to smile. "I saw her, Maria. I saw her using abilities that aren't. human."
Isabel spoke. "They must have seen her, too." She touched Maria's shoulder. As she did, she felt the dreamwalk slipping. "We're close, Maria. We're bringing you and Hope both home very soon."
Michael looked at Isabel and realized what was happened. He embraced Maria and spoke softly but urgently into her ear. "Let them believe it, Maria. Tell them you won't show them any E.T. moves until Hope is home." Keeping his hands on her shoulders, he pulled away and looked into her eyes. "We're coming to get you. Just hang on. I swear. we'll be home soon."
"We?" Maria asked.
Michael smiled when he heard her repeat the word he'd used. "Yeah. we. Me, you and Hope. we'll be home soon."
.............
"So nice of you to finally join us in the world of the living," a woman said.
Maria opened her eyes slowly and looked in the direction of the voice.
A woman in a long, white lab coat sat at a small table holding a clipboard. She removed the pencil she had tucked behind her ear and glanced at her watch.
"You've been out for a long time. Everyone's anxious to get started," the woman said writing on the clipboard.
Maria looked around the room. Three walls were solid white with no pictures or windows. A fourth wall was glass. apparently a 2-way mirror. Near her feet, an attractive lady sat taking notes. She had small, wire-framed glasses and blonde hair that was pulled neatly into a bun high on her head. Maria looked down at her own body and found she was laying on a thin, horribly uncomfortable hospital gurney. Her arms and ankles were strapped tightly. She was fully clothed, wearing everything she'd left her apartment wearing. except the slip-on mules.
"Where are my shoes?" Maria asked groggily.
The lady looked up from her clipboard and snickered. "Just like a celebrity. You could be drowning in an alligator-filled tank and your biggest worry would be rather or not you were wearing water-proof mascara."
Maria quickly gathered the woman's personality was not nearly as attractive as her pretty face. She had awoken recalling everything Michael and Isabel had shared with her in her dream. She prayed it was truth and not simply a fantasy her troubled mind had created in her unconscious state.
Relying on her memories being real, she raised her eyebrows and said sternly, "My shoes?"
Maria meant for her voice to sound threatening, but the woman apparently found no risk of harm from her words. The woman laughed loudly and then stopped. She looked Maria squarely in the eyes for a moment and then pointed toward her own feet.
Maria took the woman's direction and looked towards the floor.
"I thought they went nicely with my lab coat," the woman said in her best on-camera voice. She stood and used her arms and hands in a gliding motion to emphasize each piece of clothing as she spoke mocking stars on Emmy night. "Shoes by Aginer, coat from Versace's summer line, and watch on loan from a very good friend of mine - Grammy-winning performer, Marianna." The woman proceeded to act as though she were walking a catwalk before finally stopping next to Maria's gurney. "Do you like it?" she asked extended her arm for Maria to see the watch she'd taken from her.
Maria refused to justify the woman's attempt to rile her. She kept her cool and focused on the reason she had freely submitted to being there. "Where's Hope?" Maria said calmly but firmly as she glared into the woman's eyes.
"Right to the point, aren't we?" the woman said and moved back to sit at the small table across the room. She lifted her clipboard and began to write.
Maria concluded the woman enjoyed mentally torturing her. She knew Michael's suggestions would be right on the money. Maria figured the woman wanted to see a reaction out of her as badly as she wanted to see Hope. She decided to play the woman's game. "I said - Where is Hope?" Maria said even more firmly.
"Well," the woman said pushing her glasses higher on her thin nose. "If you can indeed do what we suspect, then you'll have no problem figuring that out."
"I was told that Hope would be released if I turned myself in," Maria growled through her clinched teeth.
The woman lowered her face and glared at Maria over the rim of her glasses. "A bargain, huh?"
Maria returned her glare and squinted her eyes. "I held up my end."
"You're terribly gullible, aren't you?" the woman smirked and smiled slightly. "Did they teach you nothing about human nature?" The woman shook her head and smacked her lips as she shook her head. "Pitiful. They can make you look as human as the average Jane, but they can't teach you the really important things in life. Never use an ATM after sunset, never bet on the Mets, and never bargain with the enemy."
"I'll keep that in mind. Now let me see her," Maria snarled.
"Patience is not your virtue," the woman laughed and returned her attention to her clipboard. She wrote a few lines and stood. She took an apple from the center of the table and placed it near Maria's feet. "Let's see you move the apple. Then we'll discuss Hope."
Maria knew immediately that the woman wanted her to move the apple with her mind. She recalled what Isabel and Michael told her in the dreamwalk. She knew that if she gave them what they wanted right away or admitted to being powerless, then the kidnappers would sure destroy both she and Hope. Maria refused to let the woman know she was unable to telepathically move the apple. So, she managed to knock the apple from the gurney using her toes.
The woman smiled broadly and nodded her head. She placed the clipboard beneath her arm and clapped her hands. "Bravo. Very clever. Very clever indeed." She stopped clapping and continued to smile. She walked towards Maria and stopped next to the gurney. The woman lowered her face until she was mere inches from Maria's face. Her smile disappeared and she spoke firmly. "You will cooperate."
Maria kept her eyes sternly locked with the woman's. She responded in the same tone of voice. "Not until you do."
The woman stood back up and stared at Maria. She thought for a long while before moving back to the table across the room. After a few minutes of writing on her clipboard, the woman stood and walked towards the door. She placed her palm into a reader and waited for the metal door to slide open. Without saying anything, the woman left the room and the door slid closed behind her.
When Maria heard the automatic lock engage, she smiled to herself. Isabel and Michael were right. She was confident the woman would return with Hope.
Maria sat in the car staring at the ocean before her. She wondered if she would ever again see the seagulls flying over the water in search of fish or hear the waves crash against the shore. In the long run, though, she would happily give up her own freedom for Hope's. She knew that by turning herself in to the kidnappers, Hope would be able to visit the ocean again and she could swim until she was wrinkled like a raisin, and she would get to experience the rush of a first date, and she would know the pride in tossing her graduation cap, and maybe one day she would walk down the isle. And when that happened, Maria knew that Michael would be there to walk with her.
She sighed one last free breath before accepting her fate. Maria tossed her keys into the passenger's seat and stepped out of her car. Slowly, she pushed the car door until it latched so as not to disturb the early morning calm. Out of habit, she brushed at her pants to flatten the wrinkles from sitting. Maria shook her head when she realized she was tidying herself for presentation.
With her face forward and her head high, Maria began a slow march towards the wooden steps that lead from the parking lot in front of the pier café to the silver sand below the pier. She drug her hand along the wooden railing of the steps. Just as she reached final step, she felt a sudden sting in her finger. Maria gasped and lifted her hand from the railing. She stared at the tiny splinter of wood that was protruding from the soft skin of her pointer finger.
While examining her finger, a large cold hand touched Maria's shoulder. She spun around quickly and came face-to-face with a familiar man.
"Hello, Marianna," the man spoke cruelly.
Maria lowered her brows and squint her eyes as she realized why the man looked so familiar. "Jackson," she whispered with shock.
With a rush of actions, Jackson grabbed the back of Maria's neck and, with his other hand, covered her mouth with a wash cloth. Maria gasped for air and suddenly felt weak. Her eyelids became weighted and she fought to keep her vision in focus. Immediately, Maria knew what had happened. Her body became heavy, and she sunk to her knees.
"Whoa," Jackson said taking Maria beneath her arms to keep her from falling. "You won't do us any good with a head injury."
Just before everything went dark, Maria managed to whisper, "Where's Hope?"
..............
"Why do they think she's an alien?" Michael asked confused.
"I don't know, Michael," Isabel answered. "I'm telling you exactly what I know. and that is the kidnappers think Maria is an alien."
"Michael," Max spoke from the couch across the living room. "Catch," he said as he tossed the remote control into the air towards Michael.
Michael easily caught the remote control and looked angrily at Max. "What? Are you incapable of turning on the television yourself?"
"Think about it, Michael," Max said with composure.
Michael looked back at the remote in his hand. After a second, his scowl began to change. Insight spread across his face and his eyes grew wide with fearful realization. Still staring at the remote, he whispered, "If they saw anything like what we saw." Michael looked at Max and they both shared a moment of understanding.
Isabel looked at Liz. Liz looked Alex. Alex looked at Lupe.
Finally, Lupe blurted, "Well! You wanna clue the rest of us in?"
..............
"You ready?" Isabel asked.
"As I'll ever be," Michael said nervously. He needed desperately to talk to Maria and he was grateful for Isabel's help, but he'd never participated in a dreamwalk. Truth be known, he was a bit concerned about how the entire process worked. He was afraid of not being able to distinguish the dream from reality. He was worried about how it would feel to make the connection. Still, the importance of the opportunity greatly surpassed the petty fears he harbored.
"Will she be able to see us?" Michael asked.
"If you reveal yourself to her. You have to let her know you're there," Isabel explained.
"Will she remember when she wakes?" Michael asked taking Isabel's hand as the pair stretched out onto the bed.
"Let's hope so," Isabel sighed lifting her eyebrows.
............
"Isabel?" Michael whispered.
"Right beside you," Isabel answered.
Michael turned his head to his left and tried desperately to focus his eyes. "It's so dark," he exclaimed.
"She's in a very deep sleep," Isabel explained.
"Where is she?" Michael asked squinting his eyes in hopes of seeing better.
"I don't know," Isabel answered. "Call to her, Michael."
Michael took a deep breath and shouted loudly, "Maria!"
"Whoa!" Isabel exclaimed bringing her hands to her ears. She laughed at Michael's urgency. "You don't have to yell!"
"Oh," Michael said. "I thought."
"We're in her dream," Isabel interrupted. "She's nearby. She just needs to hear your voice so she will come to us," Isabel explained.
The darkness began to lift and revealed a white expanse of nothingness.
"What's going on?" a voice asked from behind Isabel and Michael.
Isabel and Michael spun around and saw Maria looking very confused.
"Maria!" Michael called and hurried to her side. "Are you okay?" Michael threw his arms around Maria and hugged her tightly.
"Um," Maria said not understanding. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?" When Michael didn't let her go, Maria began to suspect Michael's actions. "The question is. are you okay? What's with all this affection?"
"Maria," Isabel said. "Can we. hey, we need." Isabel moved to where Michael stood crushing Maria. She touched Michael on the shoulder willing him to let Maria go so they could talk to her before their time in the dreamwalk came to an end. When Michael didn't budge, Isabel pushed her arm between Michael and Maria.
Maria looked over Michael's shoulder at Isabel and shrugged her shoulders. She patted Michael's back and said, "Okay, Michael. What's going on?"
"Hey!" Isabel shouted into Michael's ear.
Michael turned lose of Maria and rubbed his ear. "What was that for?" he asked still rubbing his ringing ear.
Isabel put her hands on her hips. "Give the girl some breathing room, will ya?" She looked at Maria and asked, "Do you know where you are?"
Maria looked around at the white expanse and finally became aware of her unusual surroundings. She turned around and looked in all directions. "Well," she said slowly still examining the nothingness that the three were standing in. "Now that you mention it."
"You're asleep, Maria," Isabel interrupted. You left your apartment this morning and went down to the pier at the beach.
"I did?" Maria asked. "Why?" Maria smiled finding amusement in watching Michael continue to hold his aching ear.
Isabel continued. "You came down to the pier to. for. well, Hope was taken from you a couple of days ago."
Maria's smile faded. Hearing Hope's name brought her back into the undesirable reality she'd experienced the past few days. She dropped her face and began to breath hard as memories came flooding back. She remembered frantically searching her apartment for Hope. She remembered finding the empty bed and the open window in Hope's room. She remembered thrashing through Michael's apartment and she remembered how he'd become her brick wall as she realized Hope was gone. She remembered the anticipation she'd felt when they thought they'd found where Hope was being held by her kidnappers and she remembered the utter despair she felt when they found Hope was not there. She remembered the threatening phone call and the fight with Michael over who whose life would be traded for Hope's life.
Then Maria remembered being at the pier. She remembered seeing Jackson and she remembered struggling as he held a rag over her mouth.
"It's Jackson," Maria said looking up at Michael and Isabel with wide, terrified eyes.
"We know," Michael said. "I saw him when I touched Hope's locket."
"Why?" Maria asked confused.
Isabel moved closer to Maria and spoke softly in an effort soften the blow. "He thinks you're. he thinks you're one of us."
Maria smiled. She laughed and rolled her eyes thinking Isabel was surely joking. "He thinks I'm an alien? Come on. Where would he get an idea like that?"
"From Hope," Michael whispered.
Immediately, Maria became angry. She could not believe that Michael was trying to blame Hope for anything that had happened. "Why would you say something like that? Hope would never."
Michael interrupted Maria. "It's because of me."
"What?" Maria asked quietly. Her anger turned to pain. She wondered why he would do anything to hurt her. or to hurt Hope.
"Hope inherited some of my least favorable qualities. besides my chin," Michael only half joked trying to smile. "I saw her, Maria. I saw her using abilities that aren't. human."
Isabel spoke. "They must have seen her, too." She touched Maria's shoulder. As she did, she felt the dreamwalk slipping. "We're close, Maria. We're bringing you and Hope both home very soon."
Michael looked at Isabel and realized what was happened. He embraced Maria and spoke softly but urgently into her ear. "Let them believe it, Maria. Tell them you won't show them any E.T. moves until Hope is home." Keeping his hands on her shoulders, he pulled away and looked into her eyes. "We're coming to get you. Just hang on. I swear. we'll be home soon."
"We?" Maria asked.
Michael smiled when he heard her repeat the word he'd used. "Yeah. we. Me, you and Hope. we'll be home soon."
.............
"So nice of you to finally join us in the world of the living," a woman said.
Maria opened her eyes slowly and looked in the direction of the voice.
A woman in a long, white lab coat sat at a small table holding a clipboard. She removed the pencil she had tucked behind her ear and glanced at her watch.
"You've been out for a long time. Everyone's anxious to get started," the woman said writing on the clipboard.
Maria looked around the room. Three walls were solid white with no pictures or windows. A fourth wall was glass. apparently a 2-way mirror. Near her feet, an attractive lady sat taking notes. She had small, wire-framed glasses and blonde hair that was pulled neatly into a bun high on her head. Maria looked down at her own body and found she was laying on a thin, horribly uncomfortable hospital gurney. Her arms and ankles were strapped tightly. She was fully clothed, wearing everything she'd left her apartment wearing. except the slip-on mules.
"Where are my shoes?" Maria asked groggily.
The lady looked up from her clipboard and snickered. "Just like a celebrity. You could be drowning in an alligator-filled tank and your biggest worry would be rather or not you were wearing water-proof mascara."
Maria quickly gathered the woman's personality was not nearly as attractive as her pretty face. She had awoken recalling everything Michael and Isabel had shared with her in her dream. She prayed it was truth and not simply a fantasy her troubled mind had created in her unconscious state.
Relying on her memories being real, she raised her eyebrows and said sternly, "My shoes?"
Maria meant for her voice to sound threatening, but the woman apparently found no risk of harm from her words. The woman laughed loudly and then stopped. She looked Maria squarely in the eyes for a moment and then pointed toward her own feet.
Maria took the woman's direction and looked towards the floor.
"I thought they went nicely with my lab coat," the woman said in her best on-camera voice. She stood and used her arms and hands in a gliding motion to emphasize each piece of clothing as she spoke mocking stars on Emmy night. "Shoes by Aginer, coat from Versace's summer line, and watch on loan from a very good friend of mine - Grammy-winning performer, Marianna." The woman proceeded to act as though she were walking a catwalk before finally stopping next to Maria's gurney. "Do you like it?" she asked extended her arm for Maria to see the watch she'd taken from her.
Maria refused to justify the woman's attempt to rile her. She kept her cool and focused on the reason she had freely submitted to being there. "Where's Hope?" Maria said calmly but firmly as she glared into the woman's eyes.
"Right to the point, aren't we?" the woman said and moved back to sit at the small table across the room. She lifted her clipboard and began to write.
Maria concluded the woman enjoyed mentally torturing her. She knew Michael's suggestions would be right on the money. Maria figured the woman wanted to see a reaction out of her as badly as she wanted to see Hope. She decided to play the woman's game. "I said - Where is Hope?" Maria said even more firmly.
"Well," the woman said pushing her glasses higher on her thin nose. "If you can indeed do what we suspect, then you'll have no problem figuring that out."
"I was told that Hope would be released if I turned myself in," Maria growled through her clinched teeth.
The woman lowered her face and glared at Maria over the rim of her glasses. "A bargain, huh?"
Maria returned her glare and squinted her eyes. "I held up my end."
"You're terribly gullible, aren't you?" the woman smirked and smiled slightly. "Did they teach you nothing about human nature?" The woman shook her head and smacked her lips as she shook her head. "Pitiful. They can make you look as human as the average Jane, but they can't teach you the really important things in life. Never use an ATM after sunset, never bet on the Mets, and never bargain with the enemy."
"I'll keep that in mind. Now let me see her," Maria snarled.
"Patience is not your virtue," the woman laughed and returned her attention to her clipboard. She wrote a few lines and stood. She took an apple from the center of the table and placed it near Maria's feet. "Let's see you move the apple. Then we'll discuss Hope."
Maria knew immediately that the woman wanted her to move the apple with her mind. She recalled what Isabel and Michael told her in the dreamwalk. She knew that if she gave them what they wanted right away or admitted to being powerless, then the kidnappers would sure destroy both she and Hope. Maria refused to let the woman know she was unable to telepathically move the apple. So, she managed to knock the apple from the gurney using her toes.
The woman smiled broadly and nodded her head. She placed the clipboard beneath her arm and clapped her hands. "Bravo. Very clever. Very clever indeed." She stopped clapping and continued to smile. She walked towards Maria and stopped next to the gurney. The woman lowered her face until she was mere inches from Maria's face. Her smile disappeared and she spoke firmly. "You will cooperate."
Maria kept her eyes sternly locked with the woman's. She responded in the same tone of voice. "Not until you do."
The woman stood back up and stared at Maria. She thought for a long while before moving back to the table across the room. After a few minutes of writing on her clipboard, the woman stood and walked towards the door. She placed her palm into a reader and waited for the metal door to slide open. Without saying anything, the woman left the room and the door slid closed behind her.
When Maria heard the automatic lock engage, she smiled to herself. Isabel and Michael were right. She was confident the woman would return with Hope.