Nightrise

JAMIE'S STORY

They saw her come out of the office building, the woman dressed in black with the closely cut grey hair. There was a limousine waiting for her and they watched her as she was driven away, up West 4th Street towards the Harbor Freeway. But they didn’t know who she was or where she was going. They would find that out later.

Jamie and Alicia were sitting in a car in the business district of Los Angeles. It was the same car that Alicia had rented in Reno – the two of them had driven out the day before.

Jamie had slept for much of the journey although he had been awake at the start. An hour after they had left Reno, the highway had sloped upwards and suddenly he had found himself passing through forests of fir trees that rose steeply on both sides. If he looked up far enough he could see clumps of snow still refusing to melt and he had realized that he was finally going over the mountains. Beyond the snow. He had once dreamt that he would make the crossing and this was where he would find a new life. Now he wasn’t so sure. All he knew was that his old life had been shattered and he was leaving the pieces far behind.

Alicia would have preferred to take a plane. But Jamie had no picture ID. He couldn’t fly. And with the police still actively searching for him, it wouldn’t have been safe to go near an airport. So she had driven, stopping overnight in another motel in Fresno before arriving in Los Angeles the following afternoon, grimy and bleary-eyed from so much driving.

As they came down over the valley, Jamie had caught sight of the famous Hollywood sign, the white letters reflecting the rays of the sun. He’d seen it often enough on TV. This was the city of angels, the dream factory, home to the stars and the beautiful people. All sorts of cliches tumbled through his mind. But he felt nothing. He had come here because he had to. Los Angeles meant nothing to him. And as for the sign – what was it? Just some big letters on a hillside.

He was exhausted, hollowed out. Don and Marcie had been killed and the police thought he’d done it! The story had been reported all over America. After all, he was only fourteen. A juvenile, on the run, guilty of two homicides. The newspapers had lapped it up. But worse than all this, worse than anything he had ever experienced, was the knowledge that Scott had been taken. Driving into this new city, he once again reached out for Scott’s thoughts, wondering if – against all odds – he might get some tiny sense of his brother’s presence. But there was nothing. In fact, Scott felt further away than ever.

Jamie had wanted to stay in Reno but Alicia had persuaded him that it would be too dangerous. They had one clue: a name on a small white card. Nightrise Corporation. Alicia had checked on the Internet. Nightrise was based in Hong Kong but had offices all over the world. Two addresses were listed in the USA: one in New York, one in Los Angeles. Driving all the way to the East Coast was out of the question. Coming here was their only option.

And so here they were, parked opposite a skyscraper that was nothing more than a rectangular block, fifty storeys high, its identically sized windows punched in with mathematical precision. The top six floors belonged to Nightrise, with banks, insurance companies, law firms and dozens of other businesses below. Jamie and Alicia had been here for an hour, watching people come and go. Right now it was five o’clock and the rotating doors were never still as workers hurried out, eager to get home.

But there had been no sign of Colton Banes or the dark-haired man with the ponytail who had been sitting next to him at the theatre. Perhaps they weren’t here at all.

They waited another hour, then Alicia sighed and started the engine. “This is a waste of time,” she said. “Are you hungry?”

Jamie nodded. He had no real appetite, but he hadn’t eaten anything since the morning and he could feel his energy levels falling. Alicia pulled out and they drove back towards where they were staying in West Hollywood. Alicia had mentioned she had a sister. It now turned out that she was a flight attendant and lived in Los Angeles. She would be away for a week and had gladly lent them her house. Alicia had telephoned her from Fresno. She hadn’t mentioned Jamie.

They stopped at a restaurant on Melrose Avenue, a shabby, colourful street full of shops mainly selling antiques or clothes. They sat in the open air under a giant pink umbrella. A waitress came with the menu. Alicia chose a salad. Jamie hesitated. He looked awkward.

“What is it?” Alicia asked.

“I’ve never eaten in a smart restaurant like this,” Jamie said. Alicia smiled. “It’s not all that smart,” she said. “It’s just a cafe really.”

“I can’t afford to pay for this.”

“I’ve already explained. You don’t have to pay for anything.”

Alicia had bought Jamie a set of fresh clothes in Fresno. He was wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt. It wasn’t his style, but the more striking the shirt, the less likely people would be to look at his face. At least, that was what Alicia had said. She had also bought him sunglasses and a baseball cap, the uniform of teenagers all over America. Even if the police were looking for him in California, they would never spot him now.

Jamie ordered a hamburger and the two of them sat in silence sipping freshly squeezed orange juice until their meal arrived. It was only when Jamie began to eat that he realized how hungry he was and wolfed the food down. Alicia ate more delicately. Jamie had already noticed that she did everything very carefully. Even making the coffee in the morning, she handled the cups as if they were made of expensive porcelain.

“We need to work out what we’re going to do,” Alicia said.

“Nightrise.” Jamie muttered the single word with a sense of dread.

“Think back to Reno, Jamie. You said there were four men at the theatre. How many of them do you think you’d recognize?”

Jamie thought for a moment. “The bald man. I’d know him anywhere. He looked creepy. And his friend – the one who got bitten. I’d know him too.” He tried to remember the sequence of events. Everything had happened so quickly. “One of the men, the driver of the car, got hurt. He cut his head. He’d have a wound.”

“The men in the car may have been local. Was there anyone else?”

“I didn’t see anyone.” Jamie had finished eating. Everything had gone, right down to the last salad leaf. He pushed his plate away. “What difference does it make, Alicia? Even if we catch sight of one of them, we can’t go to the police. They’ll just arrest me and that will be the end of it.”

“That wasn’t what I had in mind.”

“Then what are we going to do?”

“I’ve got an idea – but I’m afraid I’m not going to do anything, Jamie. This is down to you.”

“What do you mean?”

Alicia put down her knife and fork. She thought for a moment, searching for the right words. “Look, I know you don’t want to talk about this,” she said, “but we can’t avoid it any more. You’re very special. You have a power. I know you don’t like it. But you can use it to find Scott.”

“How?” Jamie asked. But he could already see where she was going.

“We find one of these men – Banes or the other one – and you go up to him and you ask him where your brother is. Just like that. Of course he won’t tell you. But that doesn’t matter, does it? Because you can read his mind. You can find out the answer without him saying a word.”

“No!” Jamie clenched his fists. He had shouted his refusal and two people at the next table turned briefly to look at him.

But Alicia wasn’t giving up. “Why not?” she insisted. “What’s the matter with you? Have you got any better ideas? Why don’t you want to help?”

“I’m not going to do it,” Jamie said. All the colour had drained out of his face and his shoulders were rising and falling as he caught his breath. “I’ve already told you. I don’t even want to talk about it.”

“But what about Scott?”

“You don’t care about Scott. You don’t care about either of us. You’re just using me because you want me to help you find Daniel.”

As soon as he had said the words, he regretted them. But it was too late. Alicia looked at him as if he had just slapped her across the face. “That’s not fair,” she said in a quiet voice. “Daniel is my son, it’s true. Of course I want to find him. I want it more than anything in the world. But do you really think I’m just using you? Do you think I’ll just forget you if I find my boy?” She paused, then continued more slowly. “I can’t even be sure that the same people have taken them both. We know people from Nightrise were there in Reno. But there’s nothing to say they were in Washington eight months ago. Maybe I’m just clutching at straws and Danny was murdered the day he disappeared. But that won’t stop me searching for Scott. We’re in this together now.”

“I still can’t do what you’re asking,” Jamie said.

“Fine.” Alicia sat there, rigid. “Then let’s go home.”

They drove back in virtual silence. In fact, Alicia only spoke once. As they reached the main intersection at Santa Monica Boulevard, she noticed a huge billboard. It showed a man in an open-necked shirt, leaning against what might have been a gate or a fence. The photograph looked casual, almost like a family snap. There was a headline: AN HONEST CHANGE. And, at the bottom, a straightforward announcement in black letters:

SENATOR JOHN TRELAWNY TALKS AT THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER. 8.00 P.M. JUNE 22

“That’s the day after tomorrow,” Alicia said. “I didn’t know he was coming to Los Angeles.”

Jamie wondered why she cared.

“I used to work for him,” she reminded him. “In fact, I still do.”

“I thought you said you resigned.”

“I tried to, but he put me on indefinite sick leave… until I found Danny. I still get a pay cheque every month. That’s how I can afford to go on.”

Alicia’s sister owned a pretty studio house – one of five that stood in a row, all of them designed in the Spanish style. At the front there was a courtyard with flowers spilling out of terracotta urns and twisted vines climbing the walls. A pair of cats stretched out in the sun and the air smelled of perfume. The house itself was very simple. A living room and a kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom, all of them furnished simply. Fans circulated and cooled the air. Two framed travel posters and, on the coffee table, a model of an old biplane, were the only clues that the place might belong to a flight attendant.

“Can I get you a drink?” Alicia asked.

“No, thank you.”

“Do you want to lie down? You can watch TV if you like…”

Jamie looked around. “What’s your sister called?”

“Caroline.”

“Are you close?”

“We see each other when we can.”

Jamie and Alicia were standing in the living room. They both looked awkward. This wasn’t their house. And they still hadn’t quite absorbed the chain of events that had brought them together. “Look, I’m sorry. All right?” Jamie muttered the words. “What I said, back at the restaurant, that was wrong. You’re trying to help me. I know that. But what you want me to do – you don’t understand…”

“I’ll make some coffee,” Alicia said. “Why don’t we go outside?”

Ten minutes later, they were sitting together on the patio at the back of the house. Night had fallen but a full moon had come out, illuminating a stretch of decking, a tangle of plants. They were surrounded by other houses but there was nobody else in sight. It felt very private. Even the noise of the Los Angeles traffic couldn’t reach them here.

“I don’t like talking about myself,” Jamie said.

Alicia said nothing. She wanted him to relax, to begin in his own time.

“Me and Scott. We’ve always been…” Jamie held up a finger and thumb, almost touching, to show what he meant. “He’s the smart one. He’s the one who gets us out of trouble. He always knows what to do. I think of him as my big brother although I guess we’re twins.”

“You don’t know?”

Jamie shook his head. “We were found dumped near a place called Glenbrook, near Lake Tahoe. We were, like, babies in a basket, left by the side of the road. Except it wasn’t a basket, it was a cardboard box. We had no names. Nothing. Oh yes – this was really funny. Someone had given us a tattoo. Both of us, the same tattoo.”

“Where is it?” Alicia hadn’t meant to ask but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Here.” Jamie flicked a thumb over his shoulder. “On my shoulder. It’s a sort of circle with a line through it. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“So how did you get your names?”

“They called him Scott because the box we were found in was for Scott’s grass seed. I got called Jamie after the local doctor who examined us. They thought we had Native American blood. They asked about us on the reservations.”

“You do have that look,” Alicia agreed.

“I won’t tell you too much about our life – what happened to us. I don’t suppose you care a whole lot. Because what you want to know about is The Accident. That’s what we called it. But we never talked about it. I never said anything to anyone about it except Scott and I don’t want to talk about it now.”

Alicia sighed. “Maybe if you start at the beginning, it’ll make it all easier.”

“Whatever. There’s not much to tell you anyway.”

Jamie had a cup of coffee in front of him, but he hadn’t drunk any of it. For a few moments he stared into the black surface of the liquid as if it were a mirror, showing him the past.

“OK. We were just left by the roadside. We never had a mum or a dad or anything like that. There was a newspaper story about when we were found. We were called the Seed Box Babies. And after that we were taken into protective custody. I guess they kept us in hospital for a while but then we were fostered. They put us in this foster home somewhere in Carson City. There were another half dozen kids there, all with Indian blood. I can’t even remember where it was any more. The people who ran it were called Tyler and we took their name while the police and the social services tried to find out where we’d come from.

“Except they couldn’t. Everyone was interested in the tattoos. They thought the tattoos had to mean something. After all, who’d go to the trouble of putting a tattoo on a baby? They went onto the reservations and asked questions and they offered a reward. But it didn’t work. And in the end they closed the file and just let us get on with it.

“But things never stopped going wrong for us. We were always blowing out of different foster homes. We used to get into fights with other kids. We didn’t pick these fights – they just sort of happened. By the time we were about six years old we knew that it was always going to be the same… Scott looked out for me and I looked out for him. And as for the rest of them… we didn’t give a damn.

“I lost count of the number of homes we were in and out of. The one thing was, they never separated us. We had this case worker. Her name was Derry and she said that it was important they keep us together. Like it was the law. When we were nine, they tried fostering us out-of-state in Salt Lake City and that worked for a time. I think we were happy. We were with a couple who couldn’t have kids of their own. They had a nice place and they were kind to us, but about twelve months after we’d been there, they decided they’d had enough. Derry flew out to see us, and by now she knew what was going on and that was when she tried to tell us. We were different. We were special. But we made people uneasy. That’s what she tried to tell us, but she didn’t exactly put it into words. Maybe she thought we’d laugh at her.

“It didn’t matter, though. We’d already worked it out for ourselves. We knew we had this… ability. Maybe you’d call it a power, only that would make it sound as if we could put on costumes and turn into Spider-Man or something and it was never like that. Even while Derry was talking to us, trying to explain it, we knew we could have looked into her mind and seen what she was thinking. Telepathy. That’s the word for it. But we weren’t superheroes. We were freaks. We weren’t like anyone else. And that was why we’d never been able to fit in.”

“Did you ever use your ability?” Alicia asked. She felt she hadn’t breathed the whole time Jamie had been speaking. He was so skinny and vulnerable, sitting out here on the patio with his black hair falling to his neck. Only now was she beginning to understand all he had been through.

“How do you mean?” Jamie asked.

“I don’t know. To cheat in exams. Or to find out about stuff you weren’t supposed to know.”

“No!” Jamie shook his head. “You don’t understand how it feels to be able to read people’s minds, Alicia. It isn’t fun. It was like there was this whispering all the time. All the time! We’d be walking down the streets and it would be everywhere, all around us, never stopping. Can you imagine what it would be like going to a movie if the audience never stopped talking? Well, that’s how it was for us. Sometimes it could drive us mad.

“What most people are thinking, most of the time, isn’t very nice. They’re thinking about their husbands or their wives and the arguments they’ve had. They’re thinking about the people they want to hurt and how angry they are and how miserable they are and why it’s never their fault. Or maybe they’re worrying about money or about losing their jobs or it can be even worse. They can be thinking horrible, foul thoughts. So, no, we didn’t use our ability. We did the exact opposite. It was like putting our hands permanently over our ears. We managed to close all the doors.

“We kept just one of them open. I could hear what Scott was thinking and he could hear me. It worked even when we were a mile apart, although it got fainter… you know… like a whisper. But we were never scared to go into each other’s heads because we always knew there would be no bad surprises. We knew it would be safe. And that’s how we became the telepathic twins. That’s what Don White made us.”

“Were you sent to him next?” Alicia asked.

Jamie shook his head. “Can I have another drink?”

“Coffee?”

“Coke.”

“Wait there…”

Alicia went into the kitchen. Fortunately, her sister kept the place well stocked. She came back with a can of Coke and a glass filled with ice. She waited while Jamie drank. Then he put the glass down.

“Reading minds wasn’t the only thing we could do,” he said.

The Accident. Alicia remembered he had mentioned it when he began talking. She guessed that he was coming to it now.

“After Salt Lake, we were moved back to Nevada, to Carson City. We were fostered by a couple called Ed and Leanne. Ed worked in a local hospital. He did maintenance. Leanne didn’t do anything.

“We were still going to school at that time. We were ten years old. And we still didn’t fit in. We were flunking most of our classes. Anyway, there was a big kid at the school. His name was Ray Cavalli and he used to pick on us all the time. Everyone was scared of him because he threw his weight around and nobody would go to the teachers because they didn’t want to rat. Anyway, I got into a fight with Cavalli and he was really beating me; of course Scott knew what was happening as soon as it started and suddenly he was there. And he came between us and I’ll never forget the look in his eyes. He just looked straight at Cavalli and told him to get lost.

“And you know what happened? Cavalli stepped back like he was dazed and didn’t understand what was going on. Then he just sort of walked… stumbled… out of the school and kept going.

“It took the police two days to find him and he nearly died. He’d walked into the desert and he’d got lost. This was the summer and it can easily get into the hundreds out there and he had no water. When they found him, he had no idea where he was or how he’d got there. Anyway, that was about it. I heard he got better in the end and the family moved to another state. I never saw him again.”

“You think the two of you were responsible?”

“I know we were. You want to hear the rest of it?”

Alicia nodded. Jamie took another sip of Coke.

“Ed and Leanne weren’t too bad. We liked Carson City. We used to see bald eagles and hawks in the summer. It was OK. But trouble always followed us around. And this time it was my fault. There was this teacher, Mr Dempster, and he used to pick on us. Maybe Scott and me knew a bit too much about him. Maybe he guessed that somehow. Anyway, he was always putting us in detention and stuff like that and one day I decided to get my own back on him and I slashed the tyres on his car. He had this Beetle and he was so proud of it. It was a dumb thing to do but I took a knife to his tyres and the worst thing was… I got caught.

“I never thought the whole thing would get so out of hand, but the next thing I knew, I was under arrest and I had a probation officer. Suddenly I was in front of a judge – and the upshot of it was, what Ed had always been saying came true.”

“You were sent to jail?”

“I was sent to a juvenile hall – just for a couple of weeks. The judge said it would be a wake-up call. I ended up in a place just outside Reno. I was also told I’d have to work after school hours to pay back the cost of the tyres.”

He drank again. A cloud slid across the moon. It was like a knife, cutting it in half. Somewhere in the distance, an ambulance screamed its way along the boulevards.

“Juvie wasn’t too bad,” Jamie went on. “It was clean and the food was OK and I actually got on with the other kids. It was just boring, mainly. The worst thing was when I got home again. Scott was waiting for me; I thought he’d be pleased to see me – but he wasn’t. He was furious. He said what I’d done was stupid. He said things were bad for us already and I’d just made them worse.

“He was right. After I got back, things were never the same with Ed and Leanne. They were having problems anyway. They were always fighting… shouting at each other. But now they decided that Scott and me were just in the way and that they should never have taken us in to begin with. Ed had started drinking. Vodka, mainly. He’d get through half a bottle a night, easily. About a month after I got back, he had an argument with Scott and he hit him. That was the first time he ever did that. And the power was still working – the link between us – because I was the one who got the bruise even though I wasn’t even in the room at the time.

“At the same time, Derry – my case worker – got sick. She’d been looking out for us right from the start, but now she couldn’t work any more and all her files were farmed out. She wrote to us, but I never saw her again and I never saw anyone else either. They had overload. They couldn’t handle the number of cases they were already dealing with and they figured Scott and me were OK, so they just let us go. They probably think we’re still with Ed and Leanne even now. I don’t know.

“We weren’t OK. Ed’s temper was getting worse and worse. He lost his job and that was when he told us we were going to be moving on again. I remember it so well. Leanne was out, and we were alone with Ed. He’d been drinking again and, maybe just for the fun of it, he started taunting Scott. He said that he’d already spoken to Child and Family Services and the two of us were finally going to be separated. Scott was staying in Carson City. But I’d be in another state.

“I don’t know if he was lying or not. But he made it sound so real, like it was going to happen any time. He and Scott were yelling at each other and he was drinking, straight out of the bottle, and laughing at us. That was when it happened. Scott looked him in the eyes and I’ll never forget what he said. I can tell you the exact words. ‘Nobody’s going to separate us. You can go hang yourself.’”

Jamie fell silent.

“Oh my God!” Alicia whispered.

Jamie nodded. “That’s right. Ed got up and there was this weird look on his face. As if he’d been shocked… told something worse than anything he’d heard in his life. He just got up and walked out of the room and into the kitchen and then into the garage. We heard the door open and close. I thought about running after him but I was so fazed by what had happened, and you have to remember I was only eleven years old.

“Leanne was the one who found him when she came back. He’d gone into the garage. He’d climbed a stepladder. And he’d hanged himself with a cord tied to a metal bracket. Of course, nobody was surprised – what with the drinking and the arguments and losing his job and everything. He’d just had enough. That’s what they all said.

“Only Scott and me knew the truth. We spoke about it only once: Scott said it was an accident and that’s how we always thought about it afterwards. The Accident. Because Scott hadn’t known what he was saying. He hadn’t meant for anything to happen. It was just words.”

“It wasn’t Scott’s fault,” Alicia said. “Neither of you should blame yourselves.”

Jamie shrugged. “The next few weeks were a mess. There was the funeral, of course, and that was where we met Don and Marcie. She was Leanne’s sister. It turned out that Ed had been talking to Don and the two of them must have known more about us than we thought, because they were already planning to put us into some sort of show…”

“We moved in with Don and Marcie. They were living in a trailer park just outside Reno then. They took us out of school… Marcie said she’d home-school us from now on and after the business with the tyres the school wasn’t going to complain. But she never taught us anything. Don persuaded us to perform for him. He hurt me because he knew that was the only way to get at Scott and in the end we agreed. We worked out a half dozen tricks – but that was all we did. You remember the policeman at Marcie’s house?”

“Yes. Of course.”

“What I did to him… that was the first time I ever did it. Scott made me swear that I would never try it with anyone. He was scared for me. Because if I started doing that, who knows what would happen? What if I got angry with you and said something and the next thing I knew you were injured or dead? Don’t you see? I can kill you just by thinking! That’s my wonderful power. I can hurt you just with the blink of an eye.”

“But you won’t,” Alicia said. “I trust you, Jamie.”

“I won’t because I won’t let myself. And now you know why I reacted the way I did. Why I didn’t want to do what you asked and read that man’s mind. You think being a telepath means being able to reach into someone’s head like picking an ace out of a deck of cards. But it’s not like that. Even with Scott it isn’t, and he’s my brother. These men… if I go into one of their heads, I’ll see everything bad they’ve ever done. I’ll be part of it. The people they’ve killed. The kids they’ve hurt. Everything! It’ll be like diving into a sewer and I still might not find out what he’s done with Scott.”

“We’ll just have to find another way,” Alicia said.

“No.” Jamie shook his head miserably. “There is no other way. What else can we do?”

“Find Colton Banes. Follow him wherever he goes.”

“That could take weeks. We don’t have the time.” Jamie looked exhausted. He had never talked as much as this. “I’ll go in there first thing tomorrow. I’ll find Banes and I’ll ask him what he’s done with Scott.” Jamie smiled grimly. “And even if he doesn’t open his mouth, I think he’ll tell me what I want to know.”