Even so, he couldn’t help gasping when Torchie came running into his room. “Where’d you come from? Why are you carrying an accordion? I’ve never seen one that big.”
Torchie spilled out an avalanche of words about a hotel, ice cubes, and bad guys with a laundry cart. After he’d finished, and paused to gulp down some air, he added, “How are we gonna find them?”
“I know where they are,” Cheater said. “We have to get them out of there. The guy who locked them up is freakin’ crazy. I’ve never been inside a mind that was that dark and twisted. But we’ll do it.” Together, he knew they could rescue the guys. Synergy was a powerful force. Together, the guys from Edgeview were more than the sum of their parts.
“When are they letting you out?” Torchie asked.
“Right now,” Cheater said. “Though they don’t know that, yet.” Wincing, he sat up at the edge of the bed.
captive audience
THE LAST TIME I’d seen him, blood was gushing from his mouth. “I thought I’d killed you.”
“I’m a tough old coot,” he said. “Plenty of nastier people have taken a shot or stab at me, and I survived. But you came closer than any of the professionals.” He nodded his head toward me, as if to acknowledge my deadly skills. “I’m Don Thurston.”
“You’re not dead …” It still hadn’t completely sunk in. From the moment the memory came back to me, I’d thought of myself as a murderer. The guilt had colored everything I did. It was with me when I woke, and when I went to sleep. I’d taken a life. The weight of that burden had slowed my reactions when I’d had a chance to stop Bowdler.
“No, I’m not dead. Not yet.”
“Why are you locked up? I though you were one of them.”
“I was. But I never would have handled things the way Bowdler did. He and I are opposites in far too many ways. The whole scenario was wrong—faking your death, keeping you prisoner. I was out of action while that was happening. After I got patched up and saw the way they were treating you, I told Bowdler how I felt. That was a mistake. From then on, he made sure I didn’t have direct access to you. I had to think of some way to help you escape.”
“Help me escape?” What was he talking about? Nobody had done anything for me. Unless … “The medication?”
“I replaced it with water. I figured when you got out of that stupor it would be easy for you to escape. I just hadn’t counted on Bowdler realizing I played a role in your awakening.”
So he’d helped me get free, and I’d blown it. Now we were both locked up. “What’s going to happen to us?”
“Me? I’ll probably just disappear once he decides I’m not of any value. I’d have vanished already if he was sure he could get away with it. I still have some friends out there who’d be upset if they thought I’d been canceled.”
“What about me?”
“Bowdler plans to turn you into the perfect weapon.”
“No way. I’m not doing anything for him.”
“You’ll do everything for him,” Thurston said. “His whole background is in psychological warfare and brainwashing. Believe me, if he wanted to, he could convince you to jump off the Statue of Liberty, or shoot your best friend.”
I refused to believe I’d ever do what Bowdler wanted. “He’s had me locked up for months, and I still won’t obey him.” My parents had certainly sent me to enough psychologists without changing anything.
“That was before he had the disrupter. You can’t break a will that isn’t there. Bowdler needed to keep you safely drugged until he had a way to neutralize your power. Now that you have a clear head and no way to hurt him, he can start working on your mind. You’re a tough kid, but he’ll break you into a thousand pieces, and then build you back into whatever he wants.”
“What about my parents? Are they okay?” I asked.
“As far as I know. They left the country. It’s rough that they think you’re dead. That’s another part of the plan I didn’t agree with. I didn’t see you as a dangerous weapon that could turn on us. I saw you as raw talent that would probably be eager to help your country. Most boys your age are patriots.”
He was right. I was a patriot. But that raised another question. “How could the government treat us this way? I might be a kid, but I have rights.”
Thurston stared at me for a moment across the dark corridor that separated our cells. “What makes you think Bowdler is with the government?”