The teacher and bus driver saw them, and Mrs.Ekhart ran toward them to check on them.
Vaken looked around.“Oh, it’s my grandparents.”
Ithal looked at the man with a thick neck and greying hair and the woman with black hair threaded with silver.
They rushed toward Vaken and checked him over front and back.His grandmother hugged him, and Shisha kept her hand on Ithal.
The grandfather was asking questions, but Vaken said, “Grandfather, I have to give my statement.You can listen in.”
Ithal watched as a huge red man with a glittery woman with pointed ears arrived with another gold man and a very serious man with dark hair.
Everyone rushed and hugged Vaken, asking questions, but he just said he had to give his statement.
Shisha hugged the glowing lady, and they continued toward the agents doing recordings of the events.
Ithal looked at Maiette, and she was looking nervous.
The serious man walked over and knelt beside her, smiling at her and her parents.
Ithal just held still.The agents eventually made their way over to record his name and statement.
Once they had his name, one of the men asked, “Ithal, why do you have a com?”
Ithal blinked.“Because I used to have a different implant there, and my mom told me that I shouldn’t waste the pain.I can only call five people and emergency services, and only one person can call me.”
“Your mother.Where is your mother?”
“The agents took her away for questioning.My mom gave temporary custody of me to Shisha, and she accepted.”
Ithal swallowed.“Mom said that one person in a class should always be able to call for help, so when we went off the road, I called for help.”
The agent said, “Who did you call?”
“My mom.I called twice and called the shop once.That is when Mom called me back and said she would be there in ten seconds.She was.She pulled us out of the water.”
“What is your mother’s activation?”
Ithal frowned and said, “I don’t understand.”
“You are an early heavy hitter.What is your mother?”
“She does what is necessary.That’s all she ever said.”
Ithal looked at their confusion.“She’s fast when she has to be fast; she can lift when she has to lift; she can go through fire when that is the only way out.Do you understand?”
One of the agents blinked and nodded.“I think so.She would register as inactive on any scans but become active when needed to.It is more of a theory than anything.”
Vaken had finished with his interview and had wandered over to listen.
“Okay, so what happened from your perspective?What did you see?”The agent smiled helpfully.
“Well, Vaken and I were guessing how many S'mores we were going to eat.The rain was coming down, and every now and then, the bus shivered.All of a sudden, we could hear water hitting the bottom of the bus, and the back end started to swing in the wrong direction, and then the nose of the bus dipped, and we were in the river.Then we were moving fast, and I called my mom.I kept trying until she called me and told me she would be there soon, and Vaken and I talked for a bit, and the bus was lifting out of the river and moving over the embankment.Mom must have spoken to Maiette, and she relayed that we needed to get the water out of the bus.Vaken made the holes while I kept our signal going, and then Maiette said to call the hospital to say we were coming, and Vaken used the buses emergency com link for that once we weren’t rocking.”
The agent said, “Your mother is a psychic?”
“When it is necessary.”
“Right.Agents took her?”
