Ultraviolet Gene book 1: The Lost Children

  The men, preoccupied with the office door, did not notice him immediately. Casey cupped his hands around his mouth. "Oi!"

  That took them by surprise. Casey ran towards the stairs. A bullet flew over his head and he yelped.

  "Don't shoot him!" yelled one of the men. "Jester will kill us if he dies!"

  The men began to come after him. They'd outstrip him quickly, but Casey didn't want to teleport into the stairwell until he could see it – the odds of him landing in midair instead of on the stairs was too great. He tore open the door when he got there and looked up. So many... how tall was this building? He hadn't ever come from the outside.

  Up he went, a few floors, but not too far – he wanted the men to be able to see him still. Perhaps going down would have been safer than going up, but he had no choice now. The men burst into the stairwell. Casey counted them – there were three, and three had been at the door, which should mean that they had all chased him. He knelt briefly to catch his breath – teleporting so many times in a short period of time exhausted him more than expected. Hey, Ellie, Jet, he managed. They're all chasing me through the stairwell.

  Hey, Case, said Jet. Yeah, I think you're right. It looks like the coast is clear.

  Go get Matty, said Casey. I’ll keep them distracted.

  Casey, wait! Jet cried, but Casey ignored him. It was time to teleport upwards again.

  * * *

  Jet pushed the office door open. The hall was empty. "We’re good."

  "But Casey’s leading those guys up to... where’s he going to go, the roof?" Ellie looked disturbed.

  Behind them, Jet’s dad opened one of the bottom desk drawers. He emerged with a handgun.

  "You keep one at work, too?" asked Jet.

  "The one at work is a job requirement at my level," said his father. "The one at home is mine." He came forward, towards the door, and pulled a keycard from his pocket. "Take the elevator. If you run into anyone, don’t pick a fight, but I don’t think there are very many people here." He placed the card in Jet’s hands. "Matty’s probably on the ninth floor. My personal code is 032983090785."

  "Whoa, that is really long!" Jet called out the door as his father ran to the stairwell. "Dad! Wait!"

  He ran into the hall, and Ellie followed him.

  "Think about it!" called his father. "You’re a smart kid!" The door to the stairwell slammed ahead of them.

  "Well, um," Jet said, panting as he ran. "Dammit." He hit the up button on the elevator.

  Ellie caught up to him and put one hand to the wall to support herself and she leaned over to catch her breath. "Maybe it’s… a significant number?" she asked breathlessly.

  "Like what?" Jet asked, as the elevator went ding to indicate it had reached their floor. It opened, thankfully, to an empty car. They shuffled in. Jet pushed the button for floor six.

  "Don’t a lot of people use important dates for passwords and stuff?" Ellie asked. "My mom’s PIN is her birthday."

  "It’s smarter to use something random," said Jet.

  "Yeah, I know," said Ellie. "And your dad’s really smart, but he’s only human."

  Jet thought for a moment, trying to put the random pile of numbers back in order in his head – and suddenly, it was that simple. Ellie was right. "Of course. March 29, 1983 and September 7, 1985. It’s our birthdays – mine and my sister's." He smacked his forehead. Ellie grinned.

  They leaned against opposite sides of the elevator as it opened, just in case anyone was out there – but the hallway out here was empty, too, which was a relief. Jet did not relish the idea of barricading himself inside an elevator.

  "Great, now where do we go?" Ellie muttered. Hey, Matty! she called. Matty!

  Jet added his voice to hers. Matty! they received no response.

  If they gave him what they gave me that first time, Ellie said, he’s probably out cold.

  Okay, well, Jet said, I guess it’s time to try all the doors.

  * * *

  Casey was beginning to regret his diversion. He was running out of stairs, for one, and each time he teleported was more difficult than the last. Slowly but surely, the men were gaining on him.

  The logical part of his brain told him that this meant none of the men were after Jet or Ellie, but the reactionary part of his brain was wholly in control right now, and mostly it was screaming – he'd be screaming, if only he could catch his breath.

  "You've gotta stop sometime, kid!" yelled one of the men.

  "Make me!" Casey wheezed. How tall was this stupid building, anyway? He dragged himself up a few more stairs and looked upwards. Could that be the top up there? Maybe if he could just make it up one or two more floors...

  He focused on the landing, but when he tried to teleport, for the first time it didn't work. His body flashed blue for a second, but he remained where he stood. "flippin'..." he said. Come on, he thought. Just a bit further. This time he teleported successfully. He didn't land on his feet, but he found himself on a landing, with no more stairs going upward. Casey managed to open the door though his hands quaked violently and stumbled out onto the roof.

  It was still dark, but the moon had set. It would have to be morning soon, wouldn't it? They'd been here forever.

  He looked around. From the roof there was nowhere to go but down, but they were gaining quickly and Casey wasn't convinced he had the energy to teleport again.

  There wasn't much up here but some air conditioning equipment and another doorway across the roof to another stairwell. Next to his door there were two large plastic rubbish bins.

  It might be his only chance. Hoping it wasn't full of anything rotten, Casey lifted the lid of the nearest and hoisted himself in.

  * * *

  After trying what felt like a hundred rooms they finally found Matty's. He was passed out on the floor with his arms splayed at awkward angles; they hadn't even put him on the bed. Ellie rushed to his side and shook him. "Matty!" No response.

  She looked up at Jet. "Do you think we can carry him?"

  "Carry him where?" Jet asked, and he had a point. "Is he even okay?"

  "He should be," said Ellie, but it wasn't like she was positive they'd given him the same drugs they'd given her – was it yesterday, still, or the day before? She gripped his shoulder. "Come on, Matty... we need you."

  "You need him?" said a voice from behind. Ellie yelped and Jet jumped; they both turned to face the source. The speaker was a girl with medium-dark skin and long black hair. She was definitely not English and she was definitely not dressed as a business professional, so the chances were good that she was not working for Jester.

  "Seems like he's the one that needs you," said the girl.

  "Who are you?" asked Jet.

  The girl smiled wanly. "I'm a friend. Sort of." She moved nearer to Matty. "I told him to be more careful."

  "More careful?"

  "He and Casey should have stayed at the church, they would have been safe there," said the girl. "But," she said, glancing meaningfully at Ellie, "they had to go find you."

  "I don't think Casey even meant to teleport to me that first time," said Ellie. She stood as the girl knelt by Matty.

  "You know, I never had friends – teammates, you might say," said the girl. She took Matty's limp right arm in her hands and squeezed it gently. A soft white glow covered Matty from head to toe. "Maybe it's different. Maybe it's better."

  "Are you…" Ellie began.

  "Yes," said the girl, with enough conviction that Ellie fully believed she knew what the end of the question was going to be.

  Matty's eyes flickered open.

  "All I know," said the girl, "is that I'm on my own."

  Matty groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of his head.

  Ellie opened her mouth to thank the girl, but the girl teleported away before she could speak.

  "So, who was that again?" asked Jet.

  Matty squeezed his eyes. "Search me," he said. "I mean, I met her before, but..."

 
"Yeah," said Ellie. "Okay. Can you stand?"

  Jet reached down and offered Matty his hand. Matty took it and stood, grunting. He rubbed the back of his head. "Okay, so what'd I miss?"

  "Well," said Ellie, "Jet's one of us now."

  "My dad says I'm a technopath," he said, grinning.

  Matty laughed. "Cool, man," he said. He clapped Jet on the shoulder. "Welcome to the team."

  "Thanks," said Jet.

  "Okay," said Ellie. "So, now we should find Casey and your dad, right?" She looked at Jet, who nodded.

  "Cool," she said. "Are you good to teleport?"

  * * *

  Casey heard the muffled sound of the door to the roof slamming.

  "Sir," someone said. "He's not here."

  A voice Casey thought was Ashby's crackled through a walkie-talkie, but Casey couldn't make out what he was saying.

  The rubbish bin swayed and Casey gasped – one of the men must have leaned against it.

  The men continued to speak in hushed voices. Casey's back started to itch and he squirmed. I must hold still, he told himself, in his strictest mental voice.

  And then one of the men grunted, and another yelled – Casey heard a gun go off once and let out a squeak despite his attempts to keep silent. The gun went off again. Something went thud against the side of the bin and it tipped over, lid open; Casey hit his head against the cold concrete of the roof. Dust spilled around him and he coughed after inhaling a mouthful.

  "Casey?"

  He recognized Dr. Cooper's voice. "I'm over here," Casey said weakly, and coughed some more. He pushed himself to his knees and Dr. Cooper gave him a hand to get up.

  Casey's stomach doubled up. One of the agents lay face down, unconscious, and of the other two, one had a bullet wound in the knee and the other in the foot. Dr. Cooper seemed to notice his concern, for he said "I wouldn't have done that if I didn't think I had to."

  Dr. Cooper had disarmed the three men; he now had his gun tucked into the waistband of his trousers, two guns in his left hand and one in his right. He beckoned for Casey to follow him towards the edge of the roof. Casey looked up at the sky – it wasn't black anymore, now it was a dark blue. It was almost morning. He'd told his parents he would be home by ten on Sunday morning so he could finish his homework. How many hours did he have left?

  He looked down. Between Casey and falling there lay only a low brick barrier. It didn't come up to his knees, but it was about two and a half feet wide. Perhaps five floors below them was an outcropping of the building and a smaller square of roof much like the one on which they currently stood. Casey watched, fascinated, as Dr. Cooper checked the safety on each gun, attempted to fire – to make sure there was no bullet ready in the chamber, he explained – then emptied them of ammunition and dropped them below, where they clattered faintly upon landing.

  Across the roof, the door burst open. Casey cringed. It was Ashby, and he had a gun raised.

  Dr. Cooper reached for his weapon, but Ashby said "Touch that gun and I'll fire."

  "Casey," Dr. Cooper muttered. "Can you teleport?"

  Casey shut his eyes to focus, but when he tried he didn't see the usual blue light, only a mess of static like a television with no reception. "I don't think so," he said. "I did it too many times in a row."

  "All right," said Dr. Cooper. "Then we'll be careful."

  "I guess you're still as good as you used to be, Adam," said Ashby, looking at the incapacitated men. "But unless the boy is about to do a vanishing trick, you're out of options. Put your hands where I can see them – both of you. Boy – if you try anything, he dies."

  Dr. Cooper placed his hands on his head and Casey imitated him. His heart thumped a painful beat against his ribs. For a while tonight he'd felt like his chances of dying did not outweigh his chances of survival, but he was beginning to doubt that again.

  "Why aren't you running?" asked Ashby, on the approach.

  "You said if I do, you'll kill him," said Casey. What was it with grown-ups? Even the evil ones never seemed to know what they wanted.

  "Good boy," said Ashby. He came closer. "Adam, step away from the child."

  "If I don't?"

  Ashby grimaced. "I would prefer not to shoot you in the face, but I will if I have to."

  "You don't have to do anything," said Dr. Cooper. "You can still walk away."

  Ashby cocked his gun, causing Casey to wince once more. "I'm afraid that's not an option that's on the table for me."

  "Go," said Dr. Cooper. "Don't show up for work tomorrow. Go far away from here... but I won't report you if you run. Don, we used to be best friends."

  Ashby and Dr. Cooper were like me and Jet once, Casey realized. Dr. Cooper's thoughts carried none of their earlier authority, now they were just sad.

  "We were best friends," said Ashby, "until that girl of yours became more important."

  "If you're referring to my wife," Dr. Cooper said evenly, "she is also my best friend. Judging by your actions, she's been a better friend to me than you."

  Ashby sighed. "Perhaps that's true. I'd hate to leave her with the prospect of grieving a murdered husband."

  Dr. Cooper's shoulders relaxed, and that was when Ashby ran at him. Yelping, Dr. Cooper jumped out of the way – but that left Ashby's path open to seize Casey. Casey cried out, both from being grabbed and the sudden rush of angry, fearful emotions in Ashby's head. Casey pushed against the man, wanting nothing more than to get away from those feelings, as they were the most frightening he'd ever gleaned from anyone. Casey's struggling caused Ashby to lose his footing. He tripped forward and landed on the low barrier, still rolling. Ashby panicked and let go of Casey, but not quickly enough to stop either of them going over the edge.

  Casey screamed and scrambled; by some miracle he grabbed hold of the concrete rim atop the brick barrier. Ashby fell a bit further and caught a thick decorative brick outcropping, kicking his legs against the building in an attempt to brace himself.

  Casey's arms were too short to grip the cement as tightly as he wanted, and when he moved his legs in search of a foothold he found nothing but air.

  Dr. Cooper appeared above Casey a moment later and reached down to take him under the arms. Ashby let go with one arm to Casey by the leg. Casey yelped again. "Stop it, stop it, no!"

  "Don, what are you doing?" demanded Dr. Cooper. "If you pull him down you're both going to fall to your deaths!"

  "If any of you get away I'm as good as dead!" Ashby replied. Casey made the mistake of looking down into his eyes; all that was there was a frightened, desperate shell of a person – Ashby had scraped his face against the bricks as he fell and between the blood gushing from his nose and forehead and the slowly graying sky Ashby looked nothing like a human and more like a demon from a movie with his skin withered and rippled and stretched too tightly over his skull.

  "Don!" cried Dr. Cooper again.

  "I'll never make you understand, Adam!" cried Ashby. "You've changed too much! It's better I die than let him escape!"

  Several things happened at once: a flash of red light pulsed across the roof, and Casey glimpsed the faces of Ellie, Matty, and Jet – just before Ashby yanked on his ankle. Dr. Cooper, distracted by the sudden entrance of the others, lost his grip on Casey.

  No, no, no, no, no, no, NO! cried Casey, in his head. He knew he was screaming out loud, too, but his ears didn't register the noise as he fell through the air, perhaps a foot or two above Ashby.

  And then something invisible caught his waist and all the rest of the wind went out of him as his head and feet buckled downwards. At the same time, there was a terrible, sickening crunch. Casey shut his eyes. I'm dead too, he told himself, I must be dead too. But now he was aware of the chilly air blowing around him and several voices far above him yelling – calling for him and Matty. He fell again, but only for a split second, and it was not concrete met him at the end, but a sturdy pair of arms.

  "It's okay," Matty said. "I gotcha."

  Casey slowl
y opened his eyes. On the ground he caught a glimpse of a leg in a suit and a slowly spreading pool of blood, but he forced himself to tear his gaze from there. Slowly, Matty lowered him to the ground. Casey's legs were shaking hard, but if he braced himself against Matty's arms he could stand. Scattered about were the guns and bullets that Dr. Cooper had dropped to this smaller portion of roof before Ashby had cornered them.

  Matty grinned down at him. His smile was tinged with fear, but the fear was receding. "We're all okay," Matty said.

  "Yeah," Casey agreed. We made it.

  * * *

  Ellie put a hand on her heart and sat down – more like fell down, onto her butt – and waited for the pounding to stop. Matty reappeared on the roof a minute later with Casey. Jet ran to Casey and hugged him so tightly Ellie thought he might crush the kid. Next it was Dr. Cooper, who rushed to his son's side and engulfed both boys in his arms.

  What Ellie got was a clap on the shoulder from Matty. His face was covered in smudges and his hair was kinked – she must look the same. "Good catch," he said.

  Ellie smiled. "Thanks. Thanks for moving fast." She could hear police sirens now; Dr. Cooper had gone back over to the edge of the roof to wave.

  "Hey," he called. "Do we need a doctor?"

  "I think we're all okay," Ellie said. By some miracle, none of them had anything worse than a scratch or bruise.

  "I'm good," said Matty.

  "Same here," Jet said.

  "Me too." That was Casey.

  "Aren't you a doctor anyway, Dad?" Jet asked, smirking.

  Dr. Cooper turned away from the edge. "Maybe I should have gone for that third Ph.D."

  The next few hours were a blur. Dr. Cooper, thanks to his position in the BSU, was able to handle most of the questioning, though other agents from the BSU and the police wanted to question all the kids individually, too.

  No mentioning powers, everyone agreed, over the telepathic channels. For Matty it meant that he had to lie about how he'd gotten to England – but he just said he didn't remember. Ellie detailed her kidnapping the best she could; now that they were out of danger her body felt ready to shut down and she found herself repeating the same detail multiple times. Thankfully, the police were patient with her.

  Once that was all done, they let her go back to Dr. Cooper's office, where he made the phone call she'd been dreading – to her parents. This part she remembered.