I tried to infuse my mental voice with more authority and confidence than I actually possessed. "We need to get your powers back. So I'm thinking I need to find a way to switch the medicine they have you on, so we can get the drugs out of your system. When your strength returns and you can manipulate people with your mind again, we can work together to get out of here."
'That was my thought, too. Next time the nurse comes to replace the fluid, I'll look at the bag more closely and tell you what it's called. You can poke around in her mind to see where they keep it.'
"Sounds good. I'll just have to figure out how to get out of here to make the switch. I'm hoping they won't keep a pregnant girl locked up all the time. I need to walk around and stuff, to keep the baby healthy. Don't I?"
'I guess so. One of my foster moms had some complications while pregnant. She was forced into bed rest for months. That's when I had to go to another home. It was too much for them. So I don't know.'
No way did I want bed rest for months! "Great, thanks for the pep talk."
'Hey, just trying to be helpful. We might want to have a Plan B in place.'
"We're going to have to be careful. Dr. Pana can use my powers against me. He was also able to use Kyle's fire powers. I'm guessing Dr. Pana can tap into any paranormal's powers and use them. How can we possibly fight against that?"
'He's got to have some weaknesses, some way to gain the upper hand.'
"He's unskilled. It's like he's a kid playing with toys he doesn't understand. I don't know if that makes him easier to beat or more dangerous, like a kid with a loaded gun. If only I had your ability to control minds!"
'That would be awesome. Wait, I wonder... have you ever tried to use another person's power?'
"No, why would I?" The idea intrigued me, but I had no reason to believe it was even possible.
'Maybe you couldn't do it with most powers, but what about other mental powers? Your mind-reading is similar to what I can do. You gather information from their minds, and I manipulate information. Either way, we're accessing a person's thoughts. I bet you could do it if you tried. Maybe that's why we have this mental connection, because our powers are so much alike. And maybe... maybe that's why they paired us up, because they want kids with our combined power.'
That made sense, although the thought of them genetically planning our babies, with some nefarious, long-term plot, made me ill. No time to think of that now. Could I learn to control minds like Drake? I'd never tried it, but... how to start?
'Next time the nurse comes in make sure you're linked to me, and see if you can get her to do one small thing mentally.'
"Okay, but how?"
'Well, how do you read minds?'
I'd never really thought about it before. I'd always known how to do it. The hard part had been learning to control it. "I form a link with them, like a colored chord that goes from my mind to theirs—kind of like plugging in a telephone. Once it's connected, the information flows through it. If I have to, I can go into their mind and extract more thoughts, not just the ones they're having in the moment, but previous thoughts. That's a lot harder, because it's not a neat filing system where I can just look up what I want. It's a mix of images, sounds and smells, all layered on itself. That's where the good doctor fails. From what I could tell, he can glean immediate and pressing thoughts from someone when tapped into my power, but he can't dig deeper."
'It's not that different then.' He sounded more excited than he had before. Maybe we did indeed have a chance at succeeding. 'When you're in their mind to read it, instead of just receiving the flow, send information back. Implant it there like it's their own thought. We did something very similar when Luke and Lucy were under the influence of those drugs. Only, instead of pushing against a fog, you'll be pushing a specific thought or command, but the energy and focus are the same.'
I remembered that feeling while in Luke and Lucy's mind, but the thought of my best friends filled me with a profound loneliness. I would probably never see them again, which seemed—unfathomable. Inconceivable.
'Sam, stay focused. We'll get out of here and then we'll help them. I promise.'
I had to believe him. So I would bide my time and wait for a chance to practice mind control.
***
My opportunity came that night when the nurse brought me dinner.
The sound of the door opening woke me from a nap I didn't realize I had taken. She placed a tray of food on the table next to my bed. I eyed the funky looking meatloaf and Jell-O mold suspiciously, but knew I'd have to eat it if I wanted to keep up my strength. Besides, if they wanted to feed me drugs, they had a straight line to my veins. They wouldn't have to rely on my food.
Before the nurse could leave, I decided to practice the mind control thing. Who knew when I would get another chance?
"Drake, are you ready?"
'Yes.'
First I reached into her mind.
'She thinks she's so much better than everyone because she has powers... just a freak... can't believe I felt sorry for her... can't believe they want to breed more like her... disgusting....'
I focused my will and planted a thought.
"You need to wash your hands... you should do that right now...."
For a moment, I thought I'd succeeded, that her will would bend to mine, and a heady rush of power filled me. But then her will rose up and pushed me out with a violent force. My head exploded in pain and I cried out.
"What's the matter now?" She sounded bored, not angry or suspicious. How could she not notice? She must not have sensitivity to anything.
"Just a headache. Migraine."
"I can authorize a pain medication if you'd like."
As tempting as that was, I wanted to stay alert.
"No, I'll be okay. Thanks."
She shrugged and left the room, and I slumped back into my bed, sad and defeated.
"Drake, why didn't it work? It should have worked. I could feel it. I was so close."
'Don't give up, Sam. You just need more practice. It took me time to master this, and you're pushing it pretty fast. Try again once you recover. Next time, instead of talking to the person, reframe the thought as something they would think to themselves, like 'I need to wash my hands.'
That made sense. The compulsion needed to feel like it generated from within the person being controlled. I considered future commands and practiced them in my head while waiting for the next opportunity.
***
Instant success did seem unlikely, but that didn't make the failures sting less. Still, I didn't give up.
I used the same command over and over, and each time the headache lessened—marginally, but enough to offer hope.
By dinner the next night, everything clicked into place. As per usual, I compelled her to wash her hands, and then waited for the onslaught of the headache.
Only it never came.
Her will bent to mine, and it stayed bent.
"Excuse me, I need to use your bathroom to wash my hands." She walked to the bathroom, washed her hands, and then left my room with a slightly baffled look on her face. The lock clicked shut as she went back to wherever she spent her time when she wasn't sitting in judgment of me.
I'd done it! She couldn't have had that impulse to wash her hands in my bathroom at the exact moment I implanted the thought.
Drake's voice filled my mind. 'I knew you could do it. Now you just need to practice more, in small ways. They'll remember what they did, unless you also tell them to forget after they do it. You need to get good at that, because the things you'll want her to do later will raise huge red flags if she remembers.'
"No kidding. I doubt she'll think it was normal to let me out of my room so I can swap your drugs. But, if I can control her mind, why not just have her swap the drugs, wouldn't that be easier?"
'Logistically it would be, but you would need to micromanage her mind and control each step of the process. If you slipped even once, you would fail. Getting someone to go against their own will, especially if it also violates their ethics, requires a tremendous amount of sustained power. It would be easier to lock her in a bathroom and compel her to forget, though there are obviously more risks to you if you have to leave the room and make the switch yourself. Speaking of that, I have the drug information you need.'
I grabbed a pen and paper and took notes, all the while wondering what would happen if she didn't forget as commanded, or if I got caught in the halls. We'd have to avoid Dr. Pana, or I'd be screwed.
***
It had been two and a half days, and I hadn't seen anyone but the nurse and Dr. Pana. That changed during my afternoon exercise hour.
My assigned guard, an average man in every conceivable way—nothing like Gar at all—was leading me back to my room. During the short walk, a doctor escorted a pregnant girl out to the lawn. The girl looked to be close to her delivery date. My guard grabbed my arm harshly, steering me down the hall, but in that brief moment I locked eyes with the girl. Tears formed in her eyes as we recognized each other.
Rebeka had been in a few of my classes, and I liked her. She was supposed to be in Paris, but of course she wasn't. Paris and New York were dreams spun from naive innocence, something we'd both lost.
Rebeka's doctor, a petite woman with long dark hair and brown eyes—eyes that struck a familiar chord in me, though I couldn't place her—nearly knocked me to the ground when she spoke directly to my mind.
'Please do not make a scene. Go back to the room quietly and pretend you do not see us. I'm your friend. I'm here to help, but they won't let me near you. Lock onto my mental signature and find me later. My name is Ana.'
"Who are you?"
'We'll talk more later. I must go.'
When I got back to my room, I told Drake about Rebeka and Ana.
'Be careful. I don't trust anyone who works here,' he said.
"I don't either. I'm just surprised to find another mind reader. Wonder why I couldn't sense her during my scans?"
'I don't know, maybe she has a way of blocking someone else. That would be cool if you could learn that.'
"Yeah, well, one thing at a time."
We hadn't made much progress with our get-out-of-jail plan, but my mind-controlling abilities had improved. It seemed I was a natural—a big plus for us. It was like a game, to see what I could do, how far I could push it.
Over the next several days, I kept to little things that no one would notice or suspect, except for erasing memories. It worked. This gave me hope, though I was still too nervous to do anything major, and I never tried it while Dr. Pana was around. I had no idea if it would work on him, and I had no desire to alert him to my new abilities. Whenever he came to my room, I kept my mind clear of anything incriminating.
I'd adapted too easily to controlling other people's minds. Sure, it was for the right reasons, but it felt wrong. Should I, or anyone, have the right to alter people's thoughts and control them in that way? Yet I'd spent my life spying on people's minds for Rent-A-Kid, and I still used my powers as if mind reading was less invasive than mind control. In a way, it was, but I began to understand why Nurse Susie considered me an abomination. Whether reading minds or controlling minds, we still violated people's privacy and took something from them in the process. Still, we were born this way. We were used and locked up because of these gifts, so it seemed reasonably moral to use our para-powers to escape.
These moral arguments tumbled through me and became my shadow companions, taunting me each time I practiced my powers.
Drake had a similar schedule to mine, but we never met. They didn't let us near anyone else, but I could tell through my mental scans that there were at least three others in the building.
I learned about the video surveillance and the doors with special scanners, which only worked with certain staff ID cards. Dr. Pana, Nurse Susie, and one other presence further away whose thoughts were unusually fuzzy, revealed little. Was that Rebeka or Ana? Why couldn't I lock onto Ana's signature like she said? Where might the others be? Perhaps they had Rebeka on a drug that kept her mind hidden?
I worried about her being here too. I wanted to save us all, but we had to get out and find help before we could assist anyone else. Sort of like the oxygen masks in the airplanes—you have to save yourself first, or everyone dies. Something like that.
Again, pragmatism reared its ugly head.
I worked to cultivate patience and keep my body strong. When in the yard, I walked, did lunges, pushups, sit ups, and running in circles. My muscles burned in new and painful ways, and the heat sent bile rising to my throat regularly. At least they unhooked the IV during this time. It was a relief to be free, in a manner of speaking.
I kept an eye out for Ana or Rebeka, but hadn't seen either of them again.
I didn't think continuing the workouts would hurt the baby, though I only knew about pregnancy what I'd learned from television and biology class. I wasn't a badass or anything, not like Lucy. My mental gifts had demanded that I focus on my studies. I knew some basic moves, but I pretty much sucked at martial arts and hand-to-hand combat. Drake would have to handle that if necessary.
Rent-A-Kid required us to stay in top shape for health and longevity, yet, despite my best efforts, my body grew weaker every day, even as my powers grew stronger. It was as though the baby drained my body to feed my mind.
While outside one afternoon, all my senses kicked into hyper-focus. The chain link fence imprisoning me screeched in a high-pitched whine as the wind blew against it. My body flooded with sweat as the sun beat down. My belly ached, and even the skin on my abdomen burned as if stretched and torn.
The changes were happening so quickly!
My once flat stomach pushed out before my eyes. I half expected a monster to burst through my skin, like that scene in Alien. I doubled over in pain, fighting tears and trying to slow my breath.
'Sam, what's wrong?' Drake could feel my distress.
I sensed his fear and worry. Staying conscious required all my focus, too much for me to talk, even mentally. Especially mentally. I summoned the guard, who ran to my side.
"I feel sick. Need to lie down."
He steadied me with his right hand and led me back to my room.
I dressed in a baggy shirt so no one would notice my new bump. Not because of looks—though the idea of being huge the first time I met Drake in person didn't thrill me—but because I didn't want them to declare me pregnant. I needed to keep my freedom as long as possible.
We clearly needed to step up the plans. I couldn't keep my condition secret much longer.
I ran my hand over our baby, and the hard bump moved slightly. My hunger, which had gone missing recently, returned in full force. I used the much hated bell to summon the nurse.
Susie arrived with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face. "What?" 'I'm so sick of this job and these whiny kids... need to find someplace else to work... this sucks... how can she be so stupid to not know she's pregnant?'
"It's nice to see you too. I got sick during my break outside and—"
"I told you not to exercise."
"Be that as it may, I think it was from hunger. I know dinner isn't for a few hours, but could I get an early snack?"
She glanced at my stomach and looked quickly away. I pretended to be looking somewhere else. My clothes hid the bump. I just needed to keep the staff away from my body.
"I'll bring you something."
"Thank you...."
She left before I finished talking.
Ten minutes later, I had my fill of green Jell-O—hardly real food—and almonds, with a little box of milk. I hated milk, but forced myself to drink it.
I rested after my mini-meal, my body at peace for the moment.
My eyes flew open. Our baby fluttered inside my belly like a butterfly, and a new consciousness swished through my mind. Our baby had linked to me.
"Can you feel this?" I asked Drake.
I tried to feel the sensation mentally, and our baby's mind connected with both of us. The link filled me with profound joy and love, such as I'd never known. I could sense her. I knew her.
Her. Our baby was a girl.
"Drake?"
'I sense her too. I feel it. She's beautiful. Amazing.'
We held this moment in a bubble of time, afraid of bursting it, of facing the realities of our situation.
"What should we name her?"
He laughed. 'I'm sure the name will come to us.'
"Drake, it's time. We can't wait any longer. Are you ready to move as soon as the drugs are out of your system?"
'Yes. But, Sam, be careful. I can't stand the thought of anything happening to you or our baby.'
"I will."
I hoped.
