“Hoover was a place of torture. It was…” Dr. Fagan stalled as he tried to describe it.
“It wasn’t a place you wanted to be,” Dr. Aynesworth said.
Dr. Fagan turned to him. “I’m sorry, Clyde, I didn’t think. This must be difficult…”
Dr. Aynesworth put his hand up to stop Dr. Fagan from finishing. He looked at me and sighed. “My father and mother were both tortured there. My mom died before they were done interrogating her,” he said. The word interrogating came out as a slur. “My father died a few months later. That facility echoes with the cries of innocent people tortured because of unfounded fears and prejudices.” He looked at Dr. Fagan and shrugged. “It doesn’t surprise me that Grace would take Lysander there. Her point is clearly being made.”
“What point?” I asked, confused.
“When we aren’t all equal, when there are Nosupes and Supes, one will always want to destroy the other.”
It was all beginning to make sense now. “So, what do we do? I won’t let Lysander die.”
“I think the answer is simple,” Elana said and looked at the men. “Kaden needs to do what should’ve been done long ago. He needs to collapse the Hoover Facility and force Grace out into the open. Then, she won’t be able to control us all.”
“That’s not necessarily true,” Dr. Fagan said. “If she has her polarity with her, even if he’s an unwilling participant, she can and will manipulate us all.”
“So, we counteract that,” I said. “We can do it just like we did the island. You can be far enough away that she can’t attack you. I’ll begin by bringing Lysander out of the facility. Radiation isn’t a problem for me, it’s part of Earth’s elements. I’ve dealt with Uranium and Radium when we worked with the Earth Elementals.”
“Don’t be too sure. These are refined, Kaden. That’s very different from the stuff you experienced in its natural form.”
“I’m sure that’s true, but still, I don’t believe it’ll be a problem. You being mind-controlled by Dr. Bisbee and trying to kill me while I’m doing what I’m doing, that’s where the problems begin.”
The three of them sat down and chatted about the plan. But we were beyond planning at this stage. As far as I was concerned, I had a plan, one I was about to put into place... with or without their help.
Chapter thirty-seven
Lysander
Theearthquakehitthefacility, and dust drifted from the ceiling cracks. “What was that?” I asked.
“Earthquake, I imagine,” Alias said.
“Isn’t that strange?” I asked.
He shook his head. “It’s unusual to get an earthquake in this part of Colorado, but not unheard of.”
The next earthquake was stronger, and debris from the walls began to fall into the room. “Are we going to be crushed in here?” I asked, alarmed.
Alias was at the door trying to pry it open when it flew back off its hinges and away from the room.
“Damn,” Alias said, looking at his hands where just a second ago he had been gripping the door handle.
Alias’s face contorted like someone was trying to strangle him. I immediately knew it was Kaden. He’d come for us, well, me. He couldn’t know about Alias.
I rushed over to where Alias stood grabbing at his throat, and yelled, “Kaden, no! Friend, not foe!”
The strangling immediately stopped, and an unseen force wrapped itself around Alias and me and began pulling us out of the room.
“Not so fast!” I recognized Dr. Bisbee’s voice and shuddered. Here came the showdown that would probably lead to my death.
Within seconds I felt the telltale signs of Bisbee entering my mind. I immediately resisted and tried to absorb, siphon, anything to prevent her from controlling my mind again. Something was wrong, though. I couldn’t absorb anything. I was completely at her mercy.
“Help me!” I yelled at Alias.
“Stop, Grace. You’re not a monster, stop!”
She laughed. “Your days of telling me what to do are over, Alias. You could’ve helped, and we could’ve prevented these theatrics, but no, you were too busy holding your grudges.”
