Chapter 41 - Careful what you wish for

The InT agent falls to his knees and clutches his ankle. His tortured howls keep filling the air.

“What did you do?” Sasha’s mother demands and looks at me. “Who did you have hiding there? Did you let an Unassigned out of your sight? Do you have any idea how dangerous their bite can be?”

“Oh shut up, your ignorance doesn’t impress anyone.” I walk over to the injured agent and carefully scan the area around him.

“I demand you tell me what you did with my daughter? Where is Sasha? If you think you can turn this into a hostage negotiation…” I ignore her. If Sasha is missing, it’s probably because she ran as soon as she saw her chance.

“There,” Brody says, and I see the small snake in the grass. It’s a brownish sort of copper with a brown zigzag down it’s back which mostly just reminds me of a zipper. On its nose is a small horn; given what little I know about snakes my first instinct is to stay far away from any with accessories. I wouldn’t mind having uncle Howard here now.

“Someone take care of that thing,” Mrs. InT orders.

“You stay away from them,” Brody orders. “We’ll handle this.” Only one reason he’d ever say that: the snake is an Unassigned.

“Marie,” I request.

“You will let the people with a conscience deal with this,” she tells Mrs. InT, and her voice clearly states how much she enjoys it.

“Marie,” I repeat, but with a warning in my tone.

“You will let Brody and Lizzy handle this,” she says, but she’s not pleased with me. Marie might have mind control, but she’s so sloppy with it, always giving out vague orders and commands as if daring people to find a loophole.

“Lizzy, shield,” Brody commands. I shield in the poor creature, and it can feel it. It sticks out its tongue and searches for a way out. It frantically slithers around, trying to find a way out. Brody reaches out a hand as well, but I can’t tell what exactly he’s doing. Something is wrong with my shield, it’s like it’s moving without permission.

“Strong,” I comment. The InTs have no choice but to let us do what we please, and it doesn’t seem to have occurred to them to mind. I find a better footing and focus what energy I have left after our escape. It doesn’t matter. The shield flutters and falls in on itself.

“Steady,” Brody orders me in annoyance.

“Was that you?” I demand and straighten up. “What exactly are you doing?”

“Just keep the shield steady,” he bits back. I set up the shield again, but this time I pay closer attention to Brody. I can feel the air move around him, like a breeze, almost indistinguishable, and coming from my shield bubble. No wonder I couldn’t keep it steady, he’s removing the air from within it. My ‘shield’ is basically just still air, and he’s creating a vacuum. I reset the shield and make it relate to the earth instead and keep the shape in my mind. It’s more difficult this way, more things I have to control, and I won’t be able to hold it for long. The more air he sucks out, the harder it gets to hold, and the harder I hold on the harder it will be to suck out the air. The snake becomes increasingly desperate, going straight for my walls and trying to physically break through. This is not all that humane, I have to admit. I keep one part of the shield steady, allowing Brody one access point that doesn’t change, and I move the walls of my shield around, so the poor snake can’t reach them. It chases me around for a while before eventually passing out from the lack of oxygen.

“Release,” Brody orders hurriedly, and I do. The snake disappears and in its place is a young woman with short brown hair and no clothes.

“Sasha!” Mrs. InT shouts out in horror. Brody takes my wrist and drags me away from her. Sasha wasn’t supposed to have any gifts, Howard said so, and besides, no one could sense her energy, only Criss could hear her.

“I knew you had it in you, you just had to access it. Do it again, it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it.”

“Mom?” she asks and looks around in confusion. Welcome to the Unassigneds program, Sasha.

“Give me your jacket,” I tell Brody quietly.

“Don’t go near her,” he orders me.

“Right, Mr. ‘Unassigneds are just misunderstood.’”

“She’s not Unassigned, she’s something different.” How can… But it doesn’t matter now, not how he knows or what he knows, what matters - as much as I dislike it - is making sure Sasha is okay.

“Jacket,” I demand again. “I don’t have one myself, or I would give her that.” He doesn’t move.

“Give her your jacket,” Marie tells him.

“Marie,” I plead. “Not like this, it’s not a very nice thing to do.” But Brody hands me his jacket without further arguments, so I can’t really argue with her results. As someone who’s frequently been on the other side of her gift, I can’t condone it either though. I take the jacket and push past the InTs.

“Here you go.” I hand it to her so she can cover herself up.

“And you, you almost killed her, how could you think suffocating her would be a good solution? I’ll have you arrested and tried for this, this is attempted murder of an Official’s child.”

“We just made her pass out so she’d return to human form, what would your guys have done to her if they hadn’t found out who she is? And shouldn’t you maybe be more concerned with your man?” The victim of Sasha’s bite is still lying on the ground, pale and in agony.

“There’s nothing we can do for him now, we’ll just have to wait and see if he makes it through.” Or we could try to find out what went wrong, and maybe save his life.

“What do you remember Sasha?” She looks around as if uncertain who she should listen to, but her mother and everyone else is dressed in black suits and looking formal, and I am a familiar face that isn’t involved in all of that.

“Pain,” she whispers.

“As in transforming hurt, or as in someone hurt you?”

“I don’t know.” She’s almost apoplectic, and definitively about to start crying.

“It’s okay.” I sit down on the grass next to her feet, her mother taking up the space by her head. “Was it a long pain, something that wouldn’t stop, or did it feel like something you’d experienced before? A familiar pain?”

“Familiar.” She tastes the word slowly as if wondering if it’s the right answer.

“Okay, that’s good.” I turn to her mother. “I think he stepped on her.” I look up at the InTs, all standing still, not doing anything to help their colleague or Sasha. “Does anyone know anything about snakes?” I ask them. No one replies.

“Can you tell me her defining markings,” Marie asks. I look back and see her phone in her hands. Well, if the officials won’t be of use, I guess google is the next logical place to look for help.

“Copper colored with a brown zigzag down the back, and she had a nose horn.” She types and searches.

“Viper Ammodytes. Poisonous,” she says.

“Do you have any Natures on your team?” I request.

“I don’t know. What does it matter? Either he makes it, or he doesn’t, poison won’t change that.” Well, I refuse to believe that.

“They’re not going to do anything,” Brody tells me. “It’ll have to be you or no one.”

“Me? I’m not a Nature, I can’t help him.”

“You’re a Langdale,” he replies. I’m just about to tell him off for assuming that Langdales can do whatever they set their minds to, but then I remember that maybe admitting Langdale weakness in front of the biggest assemble of InT agents in known history might not be the best way to proceed. “You’re not bound by labels, you can suck the venom out.” Isolate the venom and lead it out through the puncture wound… Except I don’t know enough about biology and chemistry to isolate the venom from the blood. I could try regardless, after all, that is how normal people do it, isn’t it?

“Look at me,” Marie tells Mrs. InT. “Tell me, are there any Nature’s on your team?”

“I don’t know them,” she replies. “I don’t know which categories they’re in.”

“They’d be foolish to not have Natures here, they’re usually the ones with healing gifts, it’d be insane to go into something like this without knowing there were people on scene to help with any wounds,” I tell Marie.

“If you’re a Nature, raise your hand,” she orders the entire assembly. Three suits do, but only of those closest to us.

“Any of you with healing abilities?”

“Didn’t you just say Natures were the healers?”

“Those categories are useless. You’re a Minder, but so is mother and Howard. Brody is a Nature too, but he can’t heal anyone.”

“Then why have the categories?”

“Putting people in boxes makes them feel safe I suppose.”

“Okay then, long live stupidity and false sense of security. If anyone here is a healer, raise your hand,” she says instead. No one reacts.

“Your reach is not strong enough,” I tell her.

“If any of you know a healer present here now, raise your hand.” Pretty much all of them close enough to be influenced raise their hands.

“Point,” she orders them. They all point to Mrs. InT.

“You didn’t raise your hand,” Marie accuses in confusion.

“I did, you just didn’t say how high,” she replies.

“Ask her how her gift works,” I tell Marie.

“I’m a Transformer,” Mrs. InT replies on her own.

“Transforming what?”

“The harmful harmless. Bombs into balloons, that sort of thing.”

“Then you can heal him.”

“I can’t do anything about gifted bites.” Gifted, not Unassigned. “The residual energy interferes with my own.”

“But you can take care of the venom,” I tell her.

“That won’t make a difference.”

“Maybe not, maybe it will show your agent that he isn’t worthless to you, that you care enough to at least try to help. And who knows, taking the venom out of the equation could mean he’s less weak, that it won’t spread as fast. Maybe it could give him a better chance.”

“At what price? He’s bitten, there’s nothing we can do for him now.” I look down at her face, turned away and focused on Sasha.

“You’re afraid,” I say. And ashamed, if she even has any emotions as human as that. “You won’t go near him, it’s like you think he could infect you too.”

“There’s no evidence of that, no cases to suggest it. They’re just afraid of anything that has anything to do with Unassigneds.” Which means Sasha won’t get the happy reunion, after all, her mother won’t be satisfied with this. Once she admits her daughter is Unassigned… It’ll be more shameful for her than having a daughter without a gift.

“Help him,” Marie orders. I watch the fear flash over her face, the fight it induces. “Help him now.” She reaches out a hesitant, trembling hand. There’s no visible difference, no change in the man, but I know what it’s like to have Marie tell you what to do, I don’t doubt for a second that she transformed the venom in his blood.

“What is it now?” I ask.

“Anti-biotics,” she whispers quietly. I think back to the baby clapping her fat hands together at the sight of the table on fire. Marie has come a long way since then. She’s evolved from pranks and jokes to actually making people do things against their will. I don’t blame her in this case, but maybe when everything’s considered it’s a good thing she’ll be coming to the school with us.