فصل بیست و پنجم

Chapter Twenty-Five

Tara

Taylor was sitting on her bed eating supper when she heard her door unlock. A voice from a speaker said, “Enter.” The door opened and Tara walked into the room. She was smiling.

“You finally got some food, huh?”

Taylor looked up. In spite of her mistrust of the place, she felt a natural kinship to Tara. “Yeah. What’s with all the bananas?” “High in potassium. It’s good for us.” She shook her head and her smile grew. “Crazy, huh? You must feel like you fell down the rabbit hole.” “The rabbit hole?”

“You know, Alice in Wonderland. But really, it’s not as bad as you think.” “I’ve been kidnapped, tied up, tortured by some deranged Goth chick, and locked in a cell and you say it’s not so bad?” “You’re right, Nichelle’s pretty awful, isn’t she?” She swayed a little. “As far as the cell, it’s just temporary. It’s just until you see that they mean you no harm. They have a lot of experience with this.” “Kidnapping?” Taylor asked.

Tara shook her head. “Look, sis, I understand why you’re so upset.

I really do.” She walked over and sat on the bed next to her. “And I’m sorry if I don’t seem more sympathetic, but I’m just so happy you’re here. My own sister. I’ve waited for this day for so long.” “How long have you known you’re a twin?” Taylor asked.

“Nine years—since Dr. Hatch found me. He promised me that someday he’d find you. And he did.” “I didn’t even know I had a sister.” “It’s kind of cool, isn’t it?”

Taylor pushed away her tray. “I’m sorry, I’m just scared and I don’t know what I’m doing here.” “I really do understand,” she said. “But it will be okay. Trust me.

They just want to know why we’re so different. The research they do here will save millions of lives someday. And they take really good care of us. Really good care. We even have our own concierge service.” “What’s that?”

“You know, like at fancy hotels. You can ask for pretty much anything and they’ll get it for you. Clothes, front-row concert tickets and backstage passes, gadgets: almost anything, within reason. I mean, if you asked for a jet they’d probably say no. But I asked for a diamond bracelet once and they got me one.” “Why would they do all that?”

“Because we’re the special ones. Out of billions of people in this world there’s only seventeen of us. Well, actually, thirteen of us now.” Taylor wondered what she had meant by that.

“We’re like royalty. Try it. Just ask for anything.” “Okay. I want to go home.”

Tara sighed. “Except that. Taylor, give it a couple weeks. If you are still so unhappy then I’m sure they’ll let you go.” Taylor looked at her with surprise. “Really?” “Of course. I don’t have a lock on my door. I come and go as I wish. The thing is, they have to protect themselves too. They have a lot of money invested in all this and they’re working with kids. It’s a big risk. Does that make sense?” Taylor looked down for a moment. “Yeah, I guess it does. But then why did they kidnap me?” “They didn’t want to. They invited you to come to the Elgen Academy, didn’t they? And everything they promised was true, the best schooling, and the college of your choice. In fact, when you turn sixteen you can have any car you want. A Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce, Maserati, anything. But your adopted parents wouldn’t let you go, would they?” “No.”

“They don’t even know about your powers, do they?” “No.”

“Exactly. They have no idea how special you are.” “How do you know all this?”

“Because you’re my sister.” Her eyes moistened with emotion.

“I’ve waited a long, long time for you.” Taylor felt a little better. “So, are you . . . electric?” She nodded. “Of course.”

“What can you do?”

“Well, we’re twins, so my powers are like yours, but a little more refined. I’ve had years to practice them here.” She sat back on the bed. “Okay, want to see something?” “Sure.”

“Okay. Here goes.” Tara closed her eyes.

Suddenly, Taylor felt a warm rush of happiness flow through her.

Taylor laughed. “How did you do that?” “Cool, isn’t it? I’ve learned to stimulate the part of the brain that produces serotonin—kind of a happy drug. I can also do the opposite, but you don’t want to feel that.” “What do you mean the opposite?”

“I can make you feel the negative emotions. Like rage or incredible fear.” “How much fear?”

“Black-widows-crawling-all-over-your-body fear.” Taylor bristled.

“Like I said, you don’t want to feel that.” Taylor shook her head. “No, I’ll pass on that.” “You’ll learn too. Part of our education at the academy is working with scientists to develop our powers. They have also found that eating certain things enhances our abilities.” “Like bananas?” Taylor asked.

“Yeah. You can have all the banana shakes you want. Banana cream pie, banana smoothies, the list goes on. Also minerals help. We take special supplements three times a day. Supplements made especially for us. They also avoid refined sugar. It gets in the way of things.

Once I gave up soda pop for a month and I doubled my stretch.” “Stretch?”

“That’s some of the jargon they use here. You’ll learn it. Stretch is how far you can push your powers. One boy here has such a powerful stretch he can reach airplanes.” ”What does he do to airplanes?” Taylor asked.

Tara shook her head. “Nothing,” she said.

“So can you read minds?” Taylor asked.

Tara’s expression fell. “No. Can you read minds?” Her reaction worried Taylor. “Uh, no. I mean, I just thought with what you can do, you might be able to.” “No. None of us can read minds. I think they’d freak out if someone could. I mean, if they could, just imagine what they could do.” Taylor nodded. “What about Nichelle?” She grimaced. “No one here likes Nichelle. She’s a beast. Just stay close to Dr. Hatch and she’ll keep her distance. She used her power on me once and Dr. Hatch disciplined her.” “Why didn’t you just do something to her?” “Our powers don’t work on her. She’s like a vampire. She sucks our power.” “That’s what she told me.”

“Yeah, she thinks it’s cool. She’s such a loser. The thing is, around us she’s powerful but in the outer world she’s nothing. Like Kryp-tonite can kill Superman, but you and I could wear it for jewelry.

In the outer world she’s just another Goth. Anyway, it’s against the rules to use our powers without Dr. Hatch’s permission. And we’re never allowed to use our powers on each other. Just the GPs.” “What’s a GP?”

“You’ll find out.”

“What time is it anyway?”

“It’s around ten. Bedtime. So you better get some good rest. We have a busy day tomorrow.” “Doing what?”

She stood. “I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but trust me, you’re gonna love it.” She leaned forward and kissed Taylor on the forehead.

“Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite.” She walked out and the door clicked locked behind her.

Taylor lay back on her bed and looked up at the camera’s blinking red light. Wasn’t worried about the bedbugs, she thought.