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Specter
Iplaytherecordedconversations about Liv’s vision for Raven. He listens, then asks me to replay it.
“Have you confirmed that Luke was in the gym at the same time as her vision?”
“Yes. He’s as she described; at the exact time she was at the lake. He looked pretty stunned at his reflection in the mirror. But I doubt he was looking at himself.”
He sighs and runs a hand over his beard.
“She’s got a psychic connection with Luke. How else do you explain it?” I ask.
“We need more evidence before we jump to conclusions.”
I nod, not surprised by his response. He’s always been meticulous.
My text notification goes off and I stand. “Sylvie needs help.” I head for the door.
“Specter.”
I stop and face him.
“If Liv has a psychic connection to Luke, we’ll have to bring them both in.”
“Understood.”
I head down the concrete hallway of the bunker to Sylvie’s lab. Liv could prove to be more of an asset than we ever thought possible. That girl is full of surprises. Psychic abilities aren’t new to us, but I bet we’ve only just scratched the surface of her capabilities. My mom was clear in her notes that the genes only passed to males, but science is never perfect. We’re venturing into territory we didn’t even know existed with Liv. She could be the key to our success.
I steel myself before I turn the corner into Sylvie’s lab. It’s a sprawling open space with work benches lining the walls and three tables covered with glass and metal scientific equipment organized in neat rows.
A room divider separates a section with two padded gurneys. John sits on one, his elbows on his knees. His eyes move in my direction when I make my presence known, and his fists flex. He’s not taking his new reality well. Then again, finding out you have superpowers isn’t a picnic, especially when those powers are trying to kill you.
“Show me my sister,” he says in a rasp. He’s grown more fatigued as Sylvie experiments on him to save his life. She glances up at me from the table, her shoulders tight. It’s been hard on her too, though John refuses to see it. It will be a long time before he forgives her for lying to him.
I ignore him and put my hand on her shoulder. She relaxes and wipes her hair off her forehead, then straightens her spine and turns to face John. She nods at me, and I bring the feed at the Sutton Farm up on my phone. I flip through until I find Liv taking pictures of the barn and hand him the phone. “She’s safe?” he asks, his eyes never leaving the screen.
“Yes, she has protection.”He relaxes a fraction and hands me the phone.
As angry as he is at Sylvie, it’s nothing compared to how he feels about his dad. Henry was here when we brought him in, and it didn’t go well. John refuses to acknowledge his father’s existence unless it’s in relation to Liv. I get it. It’s difficult to come to terms with the fact that the person you trusted most in the world has been lying to you your entire life. It took me a while to forgive my mom.
He lays down on the gurney as Sylvie approaches. “This strain might overexcite your nervous system, so Specter is here in case we need to subdue you,” Sylvie says.
John nods without looking at her and puts his arms out to the side. She secures him in the reinforced steel restraints that are bolted deep into the concrete floor. She takes extra care to make sure the pads are in place before she straps him in. He stares at the ceiling the entire time, his arm flexing when she touches his wrist.
“Are you ready?” she asks.
“Like I have a choice,” he says under his breath before he nods.
She sighs and grabs the syringe. He doesn’t react to the needle as she injects him. She watches the large monitor on the wall tracking his vitals. Nothing happens for a few minutes, and she turns to him.
“How do you feel?” she asks.
“Hungry.”
The man eats like a horse when he’s not going through an unknown illness, but he’s been eating double since Sylvie started her experiments. She looks him over, then stops on his face and reaches over to rest the back of her hand on his forehead.
His eyes clamp shut, and he moves his head away. I glare at him, but she ignores him as she watches the screen. “Your temperature isn’t rising but you’re sweating.”
She twists her lips to the side and adjusts her glasses. Then the number showing his body temperature rises a few degrees. Sylvie curses as he seizes. She runs for the table and comes back with a yellow-colored serum in a syringe. She jabs it into his thigh, and his body relaxes as he passes out, the chains clanking against the gurney.
