Rise of the Elgen Read online

  Jack turned to me. “So, did it work?”

  “Ian, what do you see?”

  Ian looked at Jack’s arm. “The thing looks . . . smaller than it was, kind of wrinkled, like it’s melted.”

  “Perfect,” Ostin said.

  Wade stepped forward. “Guess it’s my turn.” He pulled the foil back from his arm.

  Ian had to look a little longer for his. “What’s up with this? You’ve got a bunch of metal in there.”

  Wade looked stumped for a moment, then said, “Oh. It’s probably buckshot. I got in the way of a shotgun when I was little.”

  “His dad was drunk and took him duck hunting,” Jack said.

  “There it is.” Ian marked the place with the pen.

  Abigail put her hand on Wade’s shoulder.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Jack said to her.

  “I know.”

  This time I didn’t hesitate. I put my finger on the spot and immediately pulsed. The shock wasn’t as strong as the first one, but it was strong enough. Abigail cried out as she pulled away, shaking her hand in pain. Tears were rolling down her face. McKenna and Taylor both put their arms around her to comfort her.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said.

  “It’s not your fault,” she replied.

  Ian examined Wade’s arm. “It looks shriveled too.”

  Jack wadded up a piece of foil from Wade’s arm and threw it at Mitchell. Then he grabbed Wade by the hand and pulled him up. “You’re the man.”

  “That wasn’t so bad,” he said.

  “Yeah, because Abi took it,” Taylor said. “How about a thank-you.”

  “Sorry,” Wade said. “Thanks.”

  “That’s okay,” Abigail said.

  “Now that that’s done,” Ostin said, “how about some pizza?”

  “I could go for that action myself,” Zeus said.

  “Looks like there’s a little of everything,” Grace said, opening the boxes.

  “Pineapple and Canadian bacon,” Ostin said. “Score.”

  I took a couple of pieces of sausage and pepperoni pizza for Taylor and me, then we sat on the floor in the corner of the room. After we’d taken a few bites she asked, “Now what do we do?”

  “We get the information out of Grace.” I looked over at Mitchell. “Hey, Mitchell. Do you have a computer?”

  “Like six of them,” he said, his mouth full.

  “We need your most powerful one. We’ve got to upload Grace.”

  “What’s grace?”

  Grace was sitting on the arm of the couch next to him. “I’m Grace,” she said.

  Mitchell looked at her. “I don’t get it.”

  “They’re uploading me,” she said.

  “I’m so confused,” Mitchell said. “Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you,” I said. “Remember when I shocked you?”

  “Yeah, like I’d forget that.”

  “There are other kids like me with electric powers. Thirteen of them. The people who made us this way, the Elgen, are trying to get us back. That’s why they kidnapped my mother and Taylor.”

  “You?” Mitchell said, looking at Taylor.

  Taylor nodded.

  “She’s electric too,” I said.

  “You can shock too?” Mitchell asked.

  “Kind of,” she said. “Just your brain.”

  “Might be hard with Mitch,” Jack said. “Small target.”

  Mitchell made a face.

  I continued. “Jack and Wade drove Ostin and me to California to rescue my mother and Taylor.”

  “Where we were captured and put in cells and tortured,” Wade said. “Still wish you had come?”

  Mitchell looked at Jack. “The Elgen dudes captured you?”

  Jack nodded. “They put these electric collars on us that would shock you if you even talked. But Michael escaped and freed us.”

  “And the Elgen dudes are the ones looking for you now,” Mitchell said.

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  Jack said, “We came back to Idaho to regroup. But the Elgen were waiting for us. They burned down my house.”

  “Then they recaptured us,” Wade said. “But we got away.”

  “That’s where you come in,” I said. “The truck you saw us climb out of, that was what they were holding us in.”

  “You’re really not making this up?”

  Jack scowled. “Don’t be an idiot. You saw the truck, dude. You saw the bullet holes.”

  “So what are you going to do now?”

  “We’re hoping Grace has information about my mother,” I said. “That’s why we need a computer.”

  Mitchell just stared at me for a moment. “But what if these Elgen guys find us?”

  “That’s why we had to get rid of the RFIDs,” Jack said. “So they won’t.”

  “There’s no way they’ll find us now,” Ostin said.

  Just then my phone rang. Everyone turned to look at me as I answered. “Hello.”

  “Get ready, Michael,” the voice said. “The Elgen are here.”

  “Where are they?” I asked.

  Taylor grabbed my arm. At first I thought she was frightened, then I realized she was just listening in.

  “They’re one street east of you. There are about a dozen guards in three vehicles. Did you get rid of the GPs?”

  “No, but we destroyed the RFIDs,” I said. “At least we think we did.”

  “You must have succeeded or else they would have already surrounded the house. They were probably closing in on you, then lost the signal. They’ve got a helicopter and listening devices, so stay inside and no loud talking. Turn up the radio or TV. They’re also going door to door with remote el-readers. They’re sensitive up to thirty feet, so stay away from the front door and outer walls.”

  “What are el-readers?” I asked.

  “They pick up erratic electrical signals like yours.”

  Taylor looked up at the ceiling. “I hear a helicopter.”

  “What should we do?” I asked.

  “Prepare yourself for battle. Is there someone they won’t recognize who can answer the door when they arrive?”

  “Mitchell can,” I said. “It’s his house.”

  “What are you volunteering me for?” Mitchell asked.

  Taylor shushed him.

  “We’re positioned on both ends of the street, but we’re outnumbered. We won’t move in unless we have to. It’s best that we don’t engage them, unless you want to turn the whole area into a war zone. I’m guessing they have enough ammunition that they could level the block if they had to. Or at least the house.” The voice paused. “Did you hear that?”

  “No.”

  “I need to go before they intercept this signal. I’ll call back when it’s clear. Be strong. Good luck.” The phone went dead.

  Taylor looked at me, her eyes dark with fear. Everyone else was staring at me as well.

  “What?” Ostin and Zeus asked simultaneously.

  I lowered my voice to a whisper. “The Elgen are in the neighborhood.”

  “They’re in my neighborhood?” Mitchell said.

  “Quiet,” Taylor whispered. “They have listening devices.”

  “Someone turn the TV on,” I said.

  “What channel?” Wade asked.

  “A noisy one,” I said. “They don’t know where we are. They lost our signal. So they’re going door to door.” I looked at Mitchell. “If they come here, you’re going to have to answer the door.”

  He turned white. “Why me?”

  “Because they have machines that can detect us and you’re not one of us.”

  “How about we just don’t answer the door?” he said.

  “Then they’ll search your place, and if they pick up our el-waves . . .”

  “But what’s going to stop them from forcing their way in?”

  “Look,” I said. “They have a lot of houses to check. They won’t attack if they don’t think we’
re here. So just act normal and nothing will happen.”

  Mitchell just stared at me blankly. “Act normal? They’re going to kill us!”

  Jack put his arm around him. “Listen, Mitch. It’s cage time in the Octagon. Wipe that fear off your face. You’re a warrior. No fear.”

  Mitchell took a deep breath. “Right. No fear.”

  “Jack, you’re going to have to be his backup.”

  “Wade, Mitch, and I got it,” he said. “And you.” He pointed to Ostin.

  Ostin looked around. “Me?”

  “Yes, you. We might need your smarts.”

  “We’ll need to know what’s going on,” I said.

  “I’ll be watching,” Ian said.

  “I know. But it would be better if we could hear what they’re saying.” I turned to Mitchell. “Does your house have an intercom system?”

  “Yeah, but I’m not sure how to work it.”

  “I’ll figure it out,” Ostin said. “Just show me where it is.”

  “Set it so we can listen from the loft in the pool house.”

  “Done,” Ostin said.

  “All right,” I said. “Good luck, everyone.”

  * * *

  Ostin turned the front door’s intercom on so we could listen to what was happening. It was about twenty minutes before the doorbell rang. We heard the door open.

  “Whassup, guys?” Mitchell said.

  “We’re sorry to disturb you at this hour, but we’re from Homeland Security. There’s no need to panic, but we’ve received a report that there is a radiation leak in the area. For your safety, we need to check the radiation levels of your house.”

  “Liars,” Taylor whispered.

  Mitchell said, “Radiation? Someone got a bomb around here?”

  “No, sir. It’s not a bomb. It may be nothing at all. May we please come in?”

  “Uh, my parents are out, and they’d freak if I let strangers in. You got a warrant or something?”

  “No, sir, Homeland Security doesn’t need warrants. This is for your safety. We don’t need your permission to enter your home.”

  There was a long pause. “Come on, Mitchell,” I said. “Think of something.”

  “Look, I just got my little sister to bed. Why don’t you come back tomorrow?”

  “It will only take a few minutes, sir.”

  “Come on, guys. It took me an hour to get her down.”

  We heard a high voice say, “Mitchie, who is it?”

  “Mitchie?” Zeus whispered.

  “Was that Ostin?” I asked.

  Taylor shrugged. “He kind of pulled it off.”

  “Just some government guys!” Mitchell shouted. “Go back to sleep!” Pause. “Really, guys. I’m sure there’s no radiation around here, or I’d be glowing or something, right? Just come back in the morning.”

  “Do you mind if we check around back?”

  Taylor and I looked at each other.

  There was a long pause. “No problem,” Mitchell said. “Help yourself.”

  A different voice said, “I’m not pulling a reading.”

  “Nothing?”

  “No.”

  “All right. Looks like you’re good. Thank you, sir.”

  “Yeah. No problem. Come back when my parents are here.”

  We heard the door shut and lock.

  “He handled that surprisingly well,” I said.

  “You think that girl’s voice was Ostin?” Taylor asked.

  “Probably Jack,” Zeus said.

  “You’re so mean,” Abigail said.

  I looked at Abigail. She was smiling at Zeus.

  “I don’t like where that is headed,” Taylor whispered to me. “I see a collision coming.”

  Ian watched the guards until they left Mitchell’s street and started on the next. A few minutes later Jack and the rest walked back into the pool house. Jack had his arm around Mitchell, who was beaming like a conquering hero.

  “How’d I do?” Mitchell asked.

  “You should win an Academy Award for that performance,” Taylor said. “So who was the girl calling for ‘Mitchie’?”

  “That was me,” Jack said.

  “Told you,” Zeus said to Abigail.

  Jack scowled at him.

  “Okay,” Abigail said. “Can we go to bed now? I’m exhausted.”

  “Me too,” McKenna said.

  I looked at Taylor. She grinned. “Me three.”

  “Someone’s got to stand watch.” I looked around the group. “Anyone not tired?”

  No one said anything. Finally, Jack looked at Zeus. “If no one else is going to man up, I’ll do it.”

  “I’ll do it,” Ostin said.

  I looked at him in surprise. Ostin was one of those guys who always went to bed at the same time and always before ten.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “If we can upload Grace, I’ll stay up and go through the files.”

  Grace had been so quiet I’d almost forgotten she was there. She took a deep breath. “Let’s get it over with.”

  * * *

  While everyone else got ready for bed, Ostin, Grace, Taylor, Jack, and I followed Mitchell to his room on the second floor of the main house. Not surprisingly, his room was huge—larger than my room and my mother’s combined. It was also a mess, strewn with clothing, cracker boxes, and candy wrappers. The walls were covered with magazine pictures of cage fighters and Sports Illustrated swimsuit models.

  There was a large, beige computer next to his desk with a huge monitor on the desktop. Ostin was drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

  “That’s a custom Alienware Aurora,” Ostin said. “Maybe the best gaming computer ever built. It looks brand-new. Have you even used it?”

  Mitchell shook his head. “Nah. My dad bought it for my birthday. I’m not really into computers that much.”

  “He means he doesn’t know how to turn it on,” Jack said.

  “Neither do you,” Mitchell said.

  “I would kill for one of these,” Ostin said, sitting down at the keyboard. He fired it up and the screen’s glow lit his face. “Let’s go, Grace.”

  “You’re not going to break it, are you?” Mitchell asked.

  “Would you even know if we did?” Ostin said.

  Mitchell just looked at him.

  Ostin rolled his eyes. “No, we’re not going to break it.”

  Grace sat down in a chair next to the computer. She took a deep breath, put her hands on top of the CPU, then closed her eyes and began to concentrate. Files began filling the computer as sweat beaded on her forehead. Just a minute into the upload she began to shake and her eyes rolled back into her head like before.

  “That’s creepy,” Mitchell said.

  “No it’s not,” Taylor said indignantly.

  “Shh,” Ostin said. “You’re slowing her down.”

  It took nearly five minutes for Grace to upload everything. When she was done she fell forward onto her knees, panting heavily like an athlete just completing a sprint.

  Taylor put her hand on Grace’s shoulder and knelt down next to her. “Good job.”

  Ostin just stared at the screen. “Mitchell, do you have a pen and paper?”

  “We’ve got some downstairs.”

  “I’m going to need a whole pad. Actually a couple. Is there paper in your printer?”

  “What printer?”

  “Just get the pen and paper, Einstein,” Jack said.

  I checked the printer drawer. “Looks full.”

  Ostin continued examining the file names, shaking his head in wonderment. “That’s a lot of data. It’s going to take me all night. At least.”

  Mitchell returned. “Here’s your pen and paper,” he said, setting two yellow writing pads on the desk next to Ostin.

  “You’re sure about this?” I asked. “I can stay up if you want.”

  “I’m good,” Ostin said. “Everyone can go to bed.”

  “This is my bed,” Mitchell said.

&nb
sp; “Not tonight it’s not,” Jack said. “Ostin’s got work to do.”

  “A few terabytes’ worth.” Ostin said this more to himself than us, and I could tell that he’d already started to slip off into his own world. I don’t think he even noticed when we left.

  “Michael.”

  I opened my eyes to see Ostin standing over me. I had fallen asleep on the couch on the main floor of the pool house, and sunlight was streaming in through the blinds above me.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “Morning,” Ostin said, looking very tired.

  I rubbed my eyes. “Did you stay up all night?”

  “I found your mother.”

  Suddenly I was wide awake. “You found her?”

  “She’s in Peru. I found her file on the computer.”

  “Peru? Show me.” I pulled on my T-shirt and grabbed the cell phone.

  We were walking to the front door when Taylor called to me. “Michael.”

  I looked up. She was leaning over the loft railing. “What’s going on?”

  “Ostin found my mother,” I said.

  “I’ll be right there.” Taylor hurried down the stairs and joined us at the door. “Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure she was there when Grace downloaded the information,” Ostin said. “They could have moved her.”

  “How did you find her?” I asked.

  “I tracked her through their internal travel logs. I started with the date she disappeared, then went from there.”

  Taylor and I followed Ostin back to Mitchell’s room.

  “Is anyone else awake yet?” I asked Taylor.

  “No. Everyone was exhausted.”

  “They should be,” I said.

  We walked into Mitchell’s room.

  “I’ve got a feeling things are going to get even crazier,” Ostin said, pointing to a picture of my mother on the screen.

  My heart froze at the sight of her. She looked tired and frightened and was wearing an Elgen jumpsuit.

  “She’s being held at the Elgen Starxource plant in Puerto Maldonado, Peru.”

  “Isn’t that where the fire rats escaped?” Taylor asked.

  “Exactly,” Ostin said. “It’s a jungle town in the Amazon rain forest.”

  “How long has she been there?” I asked. I noticed I was ticking but didn’t bother to try to control it.

  “The travel records show that she was transported to Peru directly from Idaho.”