We entered the medical bay, and Wade stared at me through the glass. I could see the concern in the lines that appeared around his eyes. He was scared.
Wade.
I sent him the same feelings I’d sent the other guys, only he was awake to receive what I’d done.
He jolted, but only I noticed. Xavier remained in the room where he’d helped imprison my guys and had not followed us here. Maybe I wasn’t deemed a threat. That was good. Let them think I was nothing at all. I preferred it that way. It wasn’t the fact that I could zap them that would make me dangerous. It was the skills I used to help people that I’d turn on all of them tomorrow morning. Regardless of what my numbers said, that was what I’d do.
“Tell me, why does Evander want me?” I smiled at the doctor who had done this to me and who I would make sure couldn’t hurt anyone I loved. “And how did you bring down my guys?”
The doctor poured himself some water but didn’t offer me any. That was fine. I wasn’t thirsty, and starting tomorrow, I’d have all the water I wanted.
“We developed a weapon that they couldn’t resist. It disrupts the neurological functions of anyone we aim it at. They are physically unable to move for hours. Your guys held up pretty well, even for Super Soldiers. I’ve never seen people who resisted so long.” He winked at me. “And as for you, pretty lady, we want you to teach us how you do what you do. Disrupt the neurological impulses of people like a living weapon. You do that, and I’ll see to it that you’re not sick anymore.”
Liar. He didn’t have that capability. They’d have to bring me through the black hole to do that. “Sounds good, Doctor. But I’m starving, and I’m going to need some food before I can do that. Is that okay, please?”
He nodded fast. “Of course.”
This man was so easy. Even a beginner manipulator like me could handle him. Easily.
3 Who Turned Out The Lights?
Wade and I hadn’t uttered a word to each other in almost twelve hours. My plan to rest and recoup hadn’t worked. I was too tense. I wasn’t going to sleep when there was so much danger to the people I cared about. Plus, there were beeping machines everywhere. I couldn’t even tell what they were hooked up to. The doctor had gone into his office and shut the door, but I had no idea if I was being watched. Or listened to. Someone was probably monitoring my heart rate from across the ship.
I rolled over on the table I was using as a bed and stared at the man I wanted to touch more than anything but couldn’t reach. Wade wasn’t sleeping either. He met my gaze in the well-lit room, another factor in my not sleeping, and smiled at me. There was no mirth in his expression. It was the kind of smile he might give someone if he were about to offer up the kind of news that would cause them pain. Maybe that their loved one wasn’t going to make it.
I wasn’t going to let that happen to us. Only good news from here on in.
Wade. It was all I could do, the closest thing I could muster to touching him.
He placed his hand over his heart, and it was as though he’d stroked my hand. I loved that we could connect that way, but it wasn’t enough. I rolled over again. This really, really sucked. I’d take the shed in the rain over this. And thinking that just made me worry even more about Trenton. Was he still in the med machine? I had no way of knowing. Even trying to find out would place him in danger.
A boom sounded in the room right before the lights went out and then came back up a second later with the sound of a zap.
I looked around. What the heck had happened? Was that normal for this ship? I was on my feet at the same time Wade was. A quick glance told me that he had no more idea what had surged—I was pretty sure that was the word—the lights than anyone else. He was locked in the glass enclosure where I was pretty sure I’d end up in if I became contagious. But I wasn’t. I strode toward the doctor’s office just as he came out of it.
I had to be stupid, and I had to remember to behave that way. Somehow. “The lights flashed.” I made the sound of my voice rise at the end so it wasn’t clear if I was stating that as fact or asking it as question. Maybe that would make me seem confused, which I was, but not as much as I played at being.
“Yes, and I don’t know why. Wait here. If you move, we will know,” he threatened me as he strode out the door.
I waited until he’d exited before I ran over to Wade. I couldn’t get in the glass room or talk to him since there was no way to get privacy with the Super Soldiers. There was too much to say to try to do it silently in our own heads. Small sentences and words, yes. Long phrases and tons of conversation, no. Still, it was nice to be close. There was such a thing as comfort just by proximity. He placed his hand opposite mine against the glass. I couldn’t feel him, but I’d pretend I could. I was good at deluding myself, always had been.
The lights dimmed again, this time with a popping noise that followed. Wade dropped his hand and chewed on his lower lip for a second before he spoke. “Okay. The first time, it could have been some kind of surge, but no way this ship that almost caught us so many times over and over isn’t well maintained. They’d have it fixed by now if it were something small. That means something has gone wrong. I’m not a ship engineer. I don’t know what makes them tick, I just know how to point and go. But this much I know…” He let out a long breath. “That shouldn’t be happening.”
I digested what he told me. This was safe to talk about. Neither of us talked about the things that we couldn’t say. Frustration had never been more palpable. To be so close and yet so far away from anything real.
“Are we in danger? I mean, not the obvious danger. I mean from the ship.”
He shook his head. “No idea, really. Would be sort of ironic to survive all the things we’ve made it through and to die because of some kind of mechanical failure on an Evander ship, wouldn’t it?”
The idea must have amused him, because he grinned. My tolerance for gallows’ humor must have been low, because it was everything I could do to not holler at him to stop smiling in that moment. There was nothing funny right now, not even on the dark spectrum of things.
Several loud pops sounded in the room, and the ship tilted before it righted itself. “It’s like it’s dancing or drunk.”
I spoke the words and then heard how ridiculous they sounded. The doctor wouldn’t have to question if I were dumb. If he heard me right now, he’d know for sure. How was I supposed to live up to my strange confidence that I could save us all if I couldn’t even articulate things in some kind of verbose way?
“Dancing?” Wade caught my attention, and I waited for him to laugh again, but he didn’t. Instead, it was like he thought about what I’d said in some way that made sense to him. I was glad for that since it didn’t to me, not in the least. And I’d been the one to say it.
I sighed. “I guess it’s just the way it’s moving, it reminded me of a dance. It shakes a little bit, it turns a little bit. That’s not a great description, but…”
“It is, actually.” This time he laughed. “In the best possible way. Yes, the ship is dancing. That’s exactly what it’s doing.”