Dreams of the Golden Age

TWENTY-FOUR

ANNA awoke to someone shaking her. Her nose tickled, her head ached, and her brain was full of panic.

Gasping, she tried to sit up, but the headache rocked her sideways and bile climbed into her throat.

“Easy,” her father murmured, propping her up. “Slow breaths. Good girl. I’m sorry I couldn’t let you rest, but I need help. Will you be all right?”

She looked around. They were still in the empty office space in Horizon Tower. A few minutes of fighting had torn the place to pieces. She closed her eyes when nausea hit again, but her breathing steadied.

Her father was a mess, soaked with water, smudged with soot, face cut, eyes sunk with exhaustion. She clung to him.

“Dad, what’s that about Mom having leukemia? Was that some kind of joke?”

He smiled. “Should have known that wouldn’t get past you. I’m afraid it isn’t, love. Can we talk about that later?”

Only a few moments had passed since Dr. Mentis knocked them all out. Having now experienced his mind control power, Anna could confidently say he’d never used it on her before. It was a strange comfort in the midst of the chaos. He’d already found a landline that wasn’t shut down by whatever Majors had done to cut off transmissions and called the police and EMTs. They’d checked the elevators, deemed them safe, and should arrive any minute. Apparently, Mindwall had turned himself in once he reached the ground floor and told them how to disable the rest of the booby traps. Mentis collected weapons from the bad guys and ensured that the detonator was put somewhere safe until the bomb squad could disable it.

“Dad—Sam. Were you able to find out anything about Sam?”

“He’s alive.” And that was all he’d say about it. Anna had a bad feeling. She was certain he was alive—now that she was out of Mindwall’s range, she could feel him. He was at the same hospital as Grandma, which was good. It should have been good. But Arthur wouldn’t tell her how badly he was hurt, and Anna’s powers couldn’t give her any details.

But she was massively, hugely, vastly relieved that she knew where everyone was now. She could feel them all: Mom, Dad, Teddy, Eliot, Bethy, and Suzanne, everyone. All the holes in her awareness filled in. The world had righted itself.

The police and EMTs arrived, and Anna directed them to the aftermath. They went to Captain Paulson first. Anna was afraid he hadn’t survived the wound on top of Mentis’s mind control. But she could feel him, so he was still here.

When he could hand over authority of the situation to the police, Arthur went straight to Celia. Anna hung back.

The wig had been the biggest shock of the day. She’d imagined superhero battles. Not that the real thing was anything like she’d imagined, but none of what happened had been entirely unexpected. Until Celia took the wig off. Seeing her mother bald was just wrong. The expanse of skin made her look scrawny, bony. She had pale freckles on her scalp, mottled spots like an accidental splatter of ink. The shadows under Celia’s eyes seemed so much larger, darker, without hair to offset them.

Suddenly, all her mother’s behavior over the last few weeks made perfect sense, and Anna wondered why she hadn’t figured it out on her own. She hadn’t been able to conceive of the idea of Celia being ill, weak.

As Arthur shook Celia awake, Anna moved to join them, crouching at her mother’s other side and taking her hand. Celia took a long time to wake up, and Arthur didn’t rush her.

An EMT tapped his shoulder at one point. “Do you want us to look at her?”

“Not just yet,” he answered.

Finally, she opened her eyes. Looked at them both for a long time before asking, “Did we win?”

“We did,” Arthur said, stroking her forehead in a movement that would have brushed back her hair, if she had any. “Though you cut it very close there.”

“I had a feeling.”

“Mom,” Anna burst, unable to keep quiet. “Are you going to be okay?”

Somehow, Celia knew that the question didn’t mean right now, right here. She was asking about the long term. The illness. Would her hair ever grow back. Everything.

“I don’t know,” Celia said, squeezing Anna’s hand. “But I hope so.”

Everyone else started waking up on their own. Anna still had a million questions, but they’d have to wait.

By the time Analise walked over, Celia was on her feet, and the two women fell into a deep, rib-crushing hug. Anna eavesdropped.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Celia said.

“And I’m so mad at you I could scream. When were you going to tell me about this?”

“I don’t know. Never mind.” Celia pulled away, held Analise’s shoulders. “What happened? Typhoon?”

Analise just sighed. “I’m still working that out.”

Led by a uniformed officer, Sonic passed by, in handcuffs. She pulled up short, glaring at Celia.

“Why didn’t you just tell him yes? He would have stopped. He would have let everyone go.”

“Are you sure about that?” Celia replied. “He’d taken it too far. Even if I’d said yes, he might still have pushed the button. Just to prove he was right.”

“What are you going to do to him?”

On Arthur’s advice, the EMTs had sedated Danton Majors when he started to wake up. They were strapping him to a gurney now.

Sighing, Celia looked around, taking in the shattered windows, the injured bodies, the exhausted, shadowed expressions. “Take him to Elroy Asylum. Let them decide what to do with him.”

Teia, Lew, and Teddy were standing a little ways off. All here, all safe, if a little ragged looking and beat up.

“What are they saying about Sam?” Lew asked. “Is he okay?” The glint in his eyes had turned shadowed, and his shoulders slumped.

“He’s in the hospital,” Anna said. “Nobody will tell me how he is.”

They were all so quiet. None of that strutting confidence they’d had during their practices in the park. Everything they’d done before this was just a game.

“I hope he’s okay,” Teia said softly.

They watched for a few more minutes, the comings and goings, bad guys arrested, the bomb squad taking charge of the detonator. Anna thought the four of them might be arrested for their vigilantism, but no one said anything.

“Thanks,” Anna said. “Thanks for coming to help get my mom. We couldn’t have saved her without you.”

“Hey, teamwork,” Teia said, her smile lopsided. Anna wiped away a stray tear. Exhaustion, that was all. But Teia caught her up in a hug, and she felt Lew’s and Teddy’s hands on her shoulders, and she started to think that everything really would be all right.

Night had fallen by the time they finally made it back to street level in front of the cordoned-off building. Analise, Teia, and Lew went home after giving statements to the police. The West clan was about to do likewise. Eliot had vanished. Anna focused and found him hanging around outside Elroy Asylum, where they’d taken his father. Not doing anything but watching, the way his presence remained stationary.

“You need a ride home?” Anna asked Teddy. They walked a little ways out by themselves while they waited for Tom to bring the car. Mom and Dad were still talking to the police. Mom had just spent ten minutes on the phone with Bethy, reassuring her that everything was fine. Except that she was sick. She told Bethy about that part. Celia’d left her wig back in the office. Bethy was going to be shocked at how she looked.

“My folks are going to kill me,” Teddy said, sighing. “I didn’t tell them where I was going.”

“Maybe my folks can talk to them.”

“Maybe I’ll just put up with being grounded for a while.”

She giggled. Walked a few more steps. The streetlights and twilight shadows made the skyscrapers look like towering monoliths. Who knew what secrets they all held?

Teddy said, “Hey, Anna?”

“Yeah?”

“Is this a bad time to ask you if you still want to go to prom with me?”

Maybe that warm flush in her gut was postbattle adrenaline. But she didn’t think so. She didn’t have to think about how to answer this time.

“No. I mean, no it’s not a bad time. Yes, I’ll go to prom with you.”

“Okay. Yeah. Cool.” He had such a goofy, great smile.

She grabbed his hand, touched his face to steady herself, and kissed him. His arms wrapping around her told her that yes, that had been the right call, too.