Again, this is my first attempt at writing, and i'm only thirteen, so i'm begging for reviews:
Juliana POV
Once Matt left, we sat in silence for a little. Then Caitlin reached, and the piece of paper on the table flew into her hand. It was just a scrap of paper, wrinkled all over. On it was an address typed in standard lettering. Marc looked up when I moved to see it and asked, “The address is in New York. Do you recognize it?” I shook my head. “The powers of internet, my friend.”
Jordan spoke. “My wife and I have a laptop you can use in the study.” He led us to it, and I sat down in front of the small screen. I typed in the address on Google, and got a Google Earth image of where it was. Clicking on the link, I looked at the map that appeared before me.
“Zoom in.” Marc ordered, leaning forward over the spiral chair I was sitting in. I did, and a blurry but discernible image came up.
Apparently, Alex lived in a small yellow house, with a nice lawn and a small brick path that split in the middle, one branch to the white picket fence bordering his small property, and the other leading to the driveway. Marc nudged me, and I moved to let him sit in the chair. Spinning the screen to face him, he typed quickly, and five minutes later, he had three printed plane tickets.
I sighed, oh joy. I love planes. Not! I didn’t bother to ask where he had gotten the money to pay for the tickets, and instead thought wistfully of a nice comfy bed. However, Marc and Caitlin were already shaking hands with Jordan and nodding to his wife. I did the same, and we left the house as quickly as possible. Now that Crest knew about us, we were a danger to Jordan and his wife. And I shuddered to think of Andreas, possibly trying to find us.
And so, here we were again. The airport routine was getting old. We walked in, but this time we actually had tickets. The crowd was full of people weary after traveling or getting to the airport, and I was one of them.
I absently listened to thoughts, and most of them were thinking of normal things, like how their feet hurt, or that the person behind the counter was a nuisance. I detected no thoughts that were evil, or about killing or tracking. I almost smiled at the sheer craziness of the situation as we got in line to head into our little plane.
People still lived normal lives, despite the fact that nanotechnology was changing the world. In fact, most people hadn’t really changed anything they did, because most people didn’t know that they might be recruited as weapons. They were all just happy to get back to what they had been doing before the outbreaks, and maybe their power made life easier.
I wished I could do the same. Sit back in my office, and look over cases again, this time with the advantage of knowing all the details of the case, thanks to my power.
Then I sighed. Now we were all sitting on the plane, and people were trying to get luggage up onto the racks. Marc and Caitlin were looking at me like they were worried about my health, and I realized I must have been totally spacing out.
“Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly. “I was just thinking.” Marc cocked his head, much like a dog waiting for a bone.
I elaborated, but this time in my head, sending thoughts to both of them. Imagine what it would have been like if I never got involved. I would be back at work, calm, and more in control.
Marc looked at me, and then sent back; so you would rather be completely ignorant, with no idea of what was going on in the world? Be completely defenseless? I glared at him.
Logic was so annoying sometimes. I told him so, out loud.
“Yep.” He said cheerfully, popping his ‘p’. Then he turned away, and I spaced out again, listening to thoughts and emotions. If someone on this plane was Andreas in disguise, I wanted to know. But there were no out of bound thoughts, and I ended up falling asleep.
On the road to Alex’s house, I was silent, feeling apprehensive. Two days ago I had no idea what our plan was, and neither did Marc. Then all of a sudden, I had leads, places to go, and possible answers. And I had a feeling that something was wrong, that this was all too easy.
It was like all the answers were combined into a big hunk of cheese. Set right in the middle of a Juliana sized mousetrap. But there was no time for hesitation, because we were almost there.
The first thing Marc did was park a block down and slowly move toward the house. He avoided the windows, because we had seen a car in the driveway. When we got around to the back door, Marc cursed under his breath. I didn’t see why, because nothing seemed wrong.
“What?” I asked in a whisper, panicking inside. Marc didn’t glance up, quietly opened the door.
“The lock is already busted. My guess is Andreas. He knew or guessed where we were heading.” I felt fear for several reasons.
How did Andreas know? Was it Matt, or did he hurt Jordan and make him tell? “Juliana, Caitlin, take out the weapons I gave you, and follow me.”
I nodded, suddenly calm despite everything. I probably couldn’t take any more stress. Moving into the kitchen, I took out my gun, staying in front of Caitlin. Then I heard the sound of the radio.
Marc had opened the door to the living room. I hurried forward, ready to help him subdue Alex. So imagine my surprise when Marc turned around and blocked the door. I looked at Marc’s expression, which was one of disgust.
“He’s dead. You don’t need to see it.” I shook my head in disdain, pushing back the nausea.
I didn’t have to look inside Marc’s head to see that he felt danger. But I needed to see. “Marc, I need to see it. To remember.”
Caitlin came up behind me. “I need to as well.” I started to shake my head at her, but when I saw her set expression, I gave it up.
Marc stood in front of me for a second, then relented. I walked past him, and it took all of my will not to throw up my airplane food at the sight that awaited me. Caitlin did throw up.
Bound with coiled rope and gagged with duct tape, a man with spiky blond hair and pale skin was seated in a chair. His face was a bloody mess, and his eyes were gouged out. He had obviously been tortured, in a sickeningly methodical fashion. Wet blood stained his shirt where dozens of fresh cuts had ripped through the fabric. It looked like someone had had to finish hastily, because his throat was cut, leaving his whole shirt and some of his pants soaked in blood.
Then I gasped, realizing what that meant. Fresh blood. The killer might still be here. I went over to Caitlin, who was green. “We need to leave. Come on.” I turned to Marc, only to find he wasn’t there.
I spun, and then called out quietly, “Marc?” He appeared from the door across the hall, giving me a minor heart attack.
“Papers. I found them next to a vault with a retina scanner.” He said. I thought of the eyes, and shuddered. What kind of heartless person could take someone’s eye and hold it up to a scanner?
“The vault was open, but the papers were still there. Someone left in a hurry. I have all his work, and diagrams.”
I nodded. “Put them away. Right now, we need to get out.”
I fingered my gun, and looked nervously over my shoulder. I started to follow Marc, who was already leaving, but then I felt something prick me, right under my ear. I turned to Caitlin, and gasped out; “Get Marc.”
I tried to say something else, but I fell to my knees as a sharp pain exploded around all my neck and skull.
I heard Marc come back, his voice worried and tense. “Juliana.” Then he turned the corner and saw me. “Damn. Damn, damn, damn. ” I wanted to tell him to go, then tried to scream in warning.
Caitlin did my job for me, and Marc whirled in time to stop the knife that a fridge of a man was holding from going into his back. I was so absorbed in watching the struggle and trying to keep my skull from imploding in pain that I didn’t see the bag until it was too late, and I couldn’t do anything.
I heard someone laugh right next to my head, and a rough hand pull the hood so I could see. “You’re so lucky,” said Andreas in a conversational voice, “You get the honor of being the first person who wronged me to die. And you all thought I was insane. Me!”
He laughed that crazed laugh again, and then gasped. Caitlin had a knife in her hands, and Andreas had dodged it at the last minute.
“Let her GO!” she yelled. But Andreas was running towards the car. Caitlin brought out her gun and pulled the trigger. It hit Andreas in the shoulder, and he cursed but didn’t stop. Then she couldn’t shoot anymore, because she might hit me.
Now, my eyes were blurred with tears, as I tried to keep the pain at bay. I remembered reading an adventure story, where a phrase had stuck in my mind. Pain is only a message.
So I tried to ignore it, kicking out at Andreas. He ignored me, and then I felt an iron fist hit me in the ribs. All the wind was knocked out of me, and I opened my mouth wide to take in more air.
During this time, I heard sounds of a struggle continuing, but they were rapidly fading, and I was being carried away. I was thrown into a car, at the same time as I heard a bellow. A man ran toward us, and then got into the car. I shook my head free of the bag again, the pain in my skull receding. It was Fridge Man, and he had a deep gash from chest to navel.
Andreas looked at him scornfully. “You let him get away?” The man glared, then got out a first aid kit, saying nothing. Andreas turned around, and injected something in my neck again, despite my struggling. Then the world faded away.
When I woke up, my head felt like someone had stuck it between two cymbals and started banging. I was in a plane, and Andreas was next to me. He leaned over, and put his face close to mine.
“Look whose up! Guess what, you lucky little ducky! You get a free ride to Fiji, where you will become a mindless robot who will help us kill millions.” His breath smelt of Altoids, and I cringed.
Then I sat up straighter. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of scaring me. Instead, I tried to probe his mind to see what I would learn. I couldn’t get to his mind though. It was as though there was a bubble protecting him. I frowned and pushed harder. Still nothing. It was as though he didn’t have a mind.
I gave up and tried to access his emotions. I got the same result. Andreas seemed to realize what I was doing, and he smirked. “All members of Crest have developed a shield. You can’t access my thoughts or emotions. And if you had the power to throw fire at me, the fire would meet the same bubble. So don’t even bother trying.”
I gritted my teeth and ignored him. Instead I took in my surroundings. We were in a small private jet, and we were flying over water. The only other person in the main room other then Andreas was Fridge man.
It he looked like he was in pain, and his shirt was on the seat next to him. He was wrapping hospital tape around his torso, and I could see gauze covering his wound. I sincerely hoped that it hurt.
That led me to wonder what happened to the Caitlin and Marc. I tried to think back. I knew that Caitlin hadn’t been attacked, and she had seemed alright when I was driven away. Marc had been fighting Fridge man, but Andreas had mentioned that Marc had gotten away. That meant that the others were probably okay.
I breathed a sigh of relief and Andreas glared at me. I pointedly ignored him, and by the end of the flight, I could tell that he was angry with me for not seeming to be scared of him.
