Chapter 12 – Making Plans
“But don’t you think it would be better to let him follow the mole by himself? I mean, apparently Mr. Franklin was formerly a trained government agent. If we tip off the other guy that he’s being followed, we could lose our chance to find your mom and dad,” Chandler said.
“My mom and dad are trained agents, too, and they got caught by these guys. I’m not going to risk it. Look, with my superpowers and your high-tech gadgets, we can follow Mr. Franklin to the meeting without anyone knowing we’re there.”
“Yeah, I’m with Faedra on this one,” I agreed. “These bad guys managed to defeat Faedra and two trained DHS agents without so much as disturbing the neighbors, then take Fae’s parents with them when they left. Mr. Franklin is going to need all of the help we can give him.”
Chandler’s head started bobbing up and down as he stared out of the front windshield, and I knew he was already thinking of how to use his tech to follow Mr. Franklin.
“Okay,” he said at last, “let’s do it.”
* * * * *
We drove to my house first and squared everything away with my mom about Faedra spending a few nights in the guest bedroom. We told Mom that Faedra’s parents had had to take an unexpected last-minute trip out of town and that they’d left Faedra behind so she could go to school – which was partially true. I felt bad about being deceptive with my mom, but I knew if I told her the whole truth, she would freak.
Once we had the okay from Mom, we headed back to Faedra’s house so she could pick up some of her things. While we were driving, we formed a plan.
“I think I’ve got an idea that might help us keep from getting detected while we follow Mr. Franklin,” Chandler said.
“Let’s have it, Mr. Gizmo,” I replied.
“We could put a tracking device on his car that would allow us to follow him from a distance without being seen.”
“That’s a great idea,” said Faedra. “Do you have one we can use?”
“Well, no. But there’s free software on the internet that can turn any cell phone into a tracking device. I can set up one of our cell phones with the software, and then all we have to do is put it in Mr. Franklin’s car. Once we do that, we can track him from another phone.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t use our phones for this,” I suggested. “These guys may already be tracking our phone numbers, like Mr. Franklin said.”
“Good point. But that would mean we would need to buy some new phones and set up accounts. That’s a pricey option,” Chandler added.
Faedra reached into her purse and extracted an envelope. She opened it up to reveal a thick stack of cash.
“Not a problem. Dad also gave me this to use in emergencies.”
“Sweet,” Chandler said.
“Okay, that’s one problem solved, but if Chandler and I ditch school on Thursday, our parents will get notified via text that we’re not at school. That could be a problem.”
“I could go alone,” Faedra suggested.
“Are you forgetting that these guys just captured your family, tied you up, and left you for dead? No way am I letting you go by yourself,” I said.
Faedra looked over at me, smiling. “That’s sweet, Dylan. You did save me once already, after all.”
My face was heating up again, and I knew I was probably turning red as a beet. “We may be getting ahead of ourselves here. We should probably just look at the USB drive to see if it tells us when the next meeting is supposed to be. If it’s after school, we’re good.”
“Why didn’t I think of that?” Chandler asked.
“Hey, you’re not the only person in the car with a brain, you know,” I replied.
* * * * *
Before we went back to my house, we stopped at a store and picked up a couple of pay-as-you-go cell phones, which Chandler took with him after he dropped us off. Once we were home, Faedra and I looked at the contents of the USB drive on my laptop. We waded through several files that were mostly full of technical data, one file that contained the code names of the other moles, and finally we found the file where Faedra’s parents had documented their surveillance of the mole they had been tracking. His name was Jared Spitznik.
“It looks like this Jared guy usually leaves for the meeting with his co-conspirators at around 8:00 p.m. each Thursday night,” I observed.
“Co-conspirators? You sound all James Bond,” Faedra said. She laughed, and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. When this was all over with, we were going to have to deal with whatever this was that was going on between us. But the thought that it might only be a one-way feeling crossed my mind and immediately put a bit of a damper on my emotions.
“Well, whatever we want to call them – ‘bad guys’, ‘co-conspirators’, or whatever.”
“Co-conspirators is fine; I’m just messing with you.”
“Okay, well, since the meeting with the ‘co-conspirators’,” I said, making air-quotations with my fingers, “will be after we are out of school, then we’re all set. We just have to make sure we get the tracking device into Mr. Franklin’s car before then.”
Just then, Mom poked her head around the corner. I froze, hoping she hadn’t just heard our conversation, but she acted like everything was normal.
“You guys hungry? I didn’t know if you’d already eaten, so I made some pizza for you just in case.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’m starving.”
“You’re welcome. Faedra, I put a towel and washcloth on the bed in the spare bedroom for you.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Jones. I really appreciate you letting me stay for a few days while my parents are out of town.”
“No problem. Glad to help. Oh, Dylan, please put anything you two don’t eat in the fridge and clean the counters before you go to bed. I’m going to go ahead and hit the hay.”
“Yeah, sure, Mom. Thanks.”
“Goodnight, Mrs. Jones.”
“Goodnight.”
After Mom left, Faedra and I made our way to the kitchen and began to devour the pizza. It was mushrooms, ground beef, and green peppers – my favorite. I offered Faedra a bottled water – she didn’t drink soda – and I took a 7 Up for myself.
After Faedra had eaten her first slice, she looked a little sad. With her parents missing and all, I guessed I should have expected it.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Well, I’m worried sick about my parents, but I believe Mr. Franklin – that they’re probably okay. Otherwise, why would those people have left me behind, unharmed, like they did? But that’s not all I was thinking about.”
“What else are you thinking about?”
“Well... I told you and Chandler that I’d come clean about my powers and all.”
“Hey, listen, don’t worry about that. Let’s focus on getting your parents back right now. There’ll be plenty of time to talk about your superpowers later.”
“That’s just it. All I can think about is my parents. I need something else to focus on right now or I’ll go crazy. Telling you about my powers is what I need to do right now.”
“Okay,” I said, sitting back in my chair and grabbing another slice of pizza. “Go for it.”
“For starters, my mom and dad are both supers.”
Faedra’s face scrunched up like she was preparing to get hit or something. Before her parents had disappeared and we’d found out they were in danger, I would probably have flipped at what she’d just said, but considering the circumstances, it suddenly didn’t feel right getting upset about it.
“Whoa... what powers? Wait, let me guess. Your mom’s a brainiac, and your dad has super-vision and can throw things fast and hit small targets – so he must be an accurate.”
“How did you know those things?” she asked as her eyes got big in surprise.
Now it was my turn to cringe. “Weeeelll... I guess I have a confession of my own. I saw you levitating the day you saved Chandler from falling off the cliff, and Chandler and I spied on you with miniature drones when you were working on your dad’s car one day. Your dad trashed one of Chandler’s drones with a screw from a hundred feet away.”
“You sneak,” she said as she picked up a piece of pizza crust and threw it at me. She was smiling, so I took that as a good sign. “I’d be mad at you, but I guess I’m the one who should apologize for keeping things from you for so long. How’d you know about my mom?”
“That one’s easy. I mean, she’s a scientist, right? What else would her superpower be?”
“Good point. Well, anyway, the reason we kept our powers secret is for their cover for DHS. Everyone was supposed to think that none of us were supers.”
“So you’ve always had superpowers?”
“Me? No, actually, I didn’t manifest superpowers until about six months ago.”
“But I thought almost all supers manifested by the time they were out of kindergarten.”
“Well, that’s mostly true, except supers with multiple powers take longer to manifest.”
“So, since you’re a double, it took longer for them to manifest? But sixteen years is a long time even for a double, isn’t it?”
“Well... I’m actually a triple...”
“What? You’re kidding me.”
“Nope.”
“So you can fly, are super-strong, and what else?”
“I have super-sensitive hearing, too.”
“That could come in handy.”
“Well, sometimes. Sometimes it can be a bit of a curse. Imagine you could hear everything everybody whispers about you, no matter how rude or insensitive – things they would never say to your face.”
“I guess I never thought about a superpower being a negative before, but I can see your point.”
“Anyway,” she continued, “after my powers began to manifest, it felt weird coming to the support group and lying. I just couldn’t do it. It’s been bad enough not telling my closest friends about it without lying straight to their faces.”
What she said made sense to me. I still didn’t like the fact that she had lied to me... but I understood she was in a tough spot. I decided right then that I would forgive her. It wasn’t my place to judge her. I just wanted to help her get her parents back.
After we had talked for a while, Faedra helped me clean up the mess we had made at the table with the pizza before we went to bed. I was beat. It had been a long day. She already knew where the spare bedroom was, so I told her goodnight and started heading down the hall to my room. Then she called my name.
“Dylan?”
I turned around. “Yeah?”
“I don’t know what I would have done without you today. You came to rescue me from that meteor and everything... I’m just glad to have a friend like you. Thanks.”
Before I could respond, she stepped forward and gave me a big hug, then turned around and walked quickly to her room. I stood in the hallway for a few seconds, just staring at the bedroom door she had just shut. I felt that familiar flame spreading across my cheeks, the intoxicating smell of whatever shampoo she used casting some strange spell over me and making me unable to move or speak. I wanted to rewind and replay the last fifteen seconds again in slow motion. After a few seconds, I turned around and went to my bedroom.
We were definitely going to have to talk about this at some point.