Launch, p.12
Launch, page 12
Not much, but Harry had nothing.
“Hey, guys. How’s the party?” Sarah Jane twirled slowly, taking it in with a beaming smile. She was usually the quiet one.
Lily glanced around, her hands fidgeting with curls in her hair.
Harry gulped. “Better now that you’re here.”
Smooth recovery, bro.
“Otherwise it’s a party. Pretty cool set-up though, right?” Demarcus pointed out all the tricks on the scaffolding. Sarah Jane clapped her hands and hopped, a squeal escaping her lips. Lily only scanned the perimeter quickly and kept her head down.
If something was bothering Lily, could he help her in some way? They barely knew each other, so he didn’t know how to reach out. Still, the four shared a bond in the short time together. Something drew him to his three new friends, a cord pulling him into their orbit that he couldn’t explain.
The crowd of teenagers and the college-aged staffers from Alturas wandered the pavilion in a slow, circular pattern. The refreshment table acted as a watering hole, a gathering place for different small groups to join up and break off in new configurations.
Demarcus and his three friends managed to stay together as a pack, even though different guys made attempts at pulling the girls away. Flirty banter and showing off occurred regularly, yet Lily and Sarah Jane kept their distance and seemed content with their company. Demarcus wasn’t sure why they shared this connection. Still, he wasn’t going to complain.
The sun set in the west, elongating strings of light stretching in the sky, retreating from the coming night. Now the light set-up really dazzled. Demarcus hadn’t noticed a curtain hanging from one of the scaffolds. The music scratched to a stop and the party hushed. Everyone looked around to see what was going on.
The black material parted, revealing a table of electronic gizmos. A DJ with a ball cap askew and black wrap-around shades with a neon border scampered out on the stage area.
“What’s up, gang?” the DJ yelled into the mic. “This party needs some ramping up, and here to get us started is the man to do it.” He stepped back to allow Simon to approach the mic.
“Hey gang. The night is young, and you guys need to relax and enjoy the party. I’ve invited a friend to stop by and say hi.” He swept his arms to the side as a lithe woman in a sequined top and shorts scampered out. “Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Tia Torrenté.”
The four of them shared an astonished look. He didn’t! Demarcus shouted over the din, “I can’t believe he knows Tia!”
The pop star wrapped Simon in a tight hug and waved to the crowd. “Hey, guys! I’m excited to be here. Simon says you’re the brightest around. That’s so cool.” She flipped her long dark tresses away from her face. “I’m pumped to celebrate with you.”
The crowd cheered, and she blew kisses around the pavilion.
“Thanks. Simon asked a favor from me. Who wants a sneak peek at my upcoming single? It’s going to be a Flare exclusive release next week!”
Demarcus leaned over to Harry. “Pinch me, dude.”
Harry did.
“Ow! Hey.”
Harry raised an eyebrow. “You asked.”
How cool to have his favorite new singer here. As the teens chanted Tia’s name, a Latin beat thumped out of the speakers. Tia whipped her hair around, did a few salsa moves, then grabbed the mic stand. Her lilting voice belted out the lyrics while she swayed with the beat.
This conference rocked.
Everyone pulled their phones out and began snapping pictures. Flare’s servers must’ve been burning up with all the posts. Demarcus thought of his friends following him online.
Sure enough, his phone started blowing up with comments and likes.
The music ended with two thumping beats, punctuated by hip shakes from Tia. The cheers threatened to break Demarcus’s eardrums, but he joined right in anyway.
Tia’s porcelain smile shone as she caught her breath. “Thank you, Launch! This was so much fun. Listen to Simon. He’s been instrumental in my career taking off.”
With that, Simon stepped beside her. She planted a kiss on his cheek and bounded off the stage, waving as she disappeared.
Simon took the mic. “Did you like that?”
Another cacophony of cheers erupted.
“There’s a lot to do this weekend and we’ve only started. So, let your hair down and pretend you’ve known each other forever. Get the energy going. It’s only going to take off from here! Be a light!”
Demarcus joined in the chants of “Simon.” Staffers handed out long, thin glow sticks, and everyone started wearing them as bracelets or linking them together to make necklaces. The DJ hit the turntable and kicked the tempo up with the music. The crowd started to let loose again.
Kids hit the middle of the pavilion and broke out their best dance moves. Amateurs. Demarcus didn’t see anyone killing it out there. Time to step up and show what he could do.
He handed his cup to Harry and gave his friends a wink. A lanky kid was doing a passable robot-type dance. Demarcus hopped into the center of the floor and started slowly. His hands and feet moved in unison as he popped and locked to find his rhythm. A few people started cheering in the background.
Time to show off his flexibility. He dropped to the ground and bent back at an extreme angle, doing the Matrix move, his shoulders now touching the ground. A voice called out. “Yeah, whatcha gonna to do now?”
Demarcus pulled himself up to face the robot kid. Robot’s eyes narrowed and he stepped right up to Demarcus’s face. He jerked away and dropped to the ground, doing a few breaking moves, hands and feet alternating on the ground and flashing into the air. He ended with a backspin, sliding to a stop with his chin on his fist. Robot nodded his head once, and Demarcus got the message.
“You top that?”
A chant broke out: “Dance, dance.” Demarcus winked at the robot dude and started with a simple groove, swaying and swinging his arms, letting the music flow through him. The driving beat fed the beast within. He slipped into some glide moves, sliding around the floor, making it look like he floated over the ground.
Robot stood up and waved dismissively at Demarcus’s moves.
Demarcus took a quick couple of steps towards Robot, who ducked back. Then Demarcus flipped backwards. The people around roared at that. He spun into a high kick directly on landing.
Robot’s eyes grew large and his puffed-out chest deflated in defeat. He bowed his head and spread his arms out in front of him, ceding the floor to the rightful winner.
Man, I should totally bust out my speed and wow the crowd. That would blow them away. A grin broke out as he spun on his heels, prepared to crank it up a notch.
Something caught in the corner of his eye. A set of blue work coveralls.
He paused and saw John standing just off the perimeter of all the celebration. John didn’t do anything, but something in his eyes and his furrowed brows counseled caution.
Demarcus wrapped up his showboating with a spin on his heels, followed by a split. Applause broke out from the circle that had formed around him. Kids nearby slapped him on the shoulders and congratulated him. He allowed himself a slight bow, then stepped back to allow others to keep the flow going.
Okay, what just came over him? Something had shifted in his brain and overran his inhibition. And almost his common sense, too.
Still, the dancing broke the ice for everyone, and teens swayed and bobbed to the music. Harry, Sarah Jane, and Lily surrounded him, and he led them to the side to catch his breath. He took his drink in a hand-off and guzzled punch.
“Dude, I had no idea you had it in you.” Harry slugged his arm. “The only move I can do looks like a drunken giraffe.”
Lily wrapped her arms around his shoulder and Harry’s. A hint of vanilla and spice filled his nostrils from her perfume. “That was brilliant!”
Sarah Jane completed the circle by joining the other side.
They looked around at each other with knowing looks in their eyes. Then they raised their arms, breaking the loop with a shout. Each of them joined in with the motion of the crowd. Interns and staff members watched from the sides as the teens in the pavilion seethed and writhed like an animal in motion.
At one point Demarcus saw Rosa, her arm wrapped around a different guy from the one she was talking to earlier. The dude spun her around and pulled her back toward him. She had some decent moves as well. When she clung to her partner, she finally made eye contact with Demarcus. Her eyes widened with recognition at first, then she winked and mouthed the words, “Nice moves.”
Rosa seemed awfully flirty. Maybe he’d keep his distance.
Demarcus knew better than to let his speed go, but that feeling of release fell over him again when he started dancing with his friends. Harry cut loose with his arms in the air and his head shaking. A drunken giraffe, indeed. Sarah Jane bounced from each leg and tried to match the beat.
And Lily. She swung her arms in the air with a beaming smile on her face. She turned in a slow circle swiveling her hips and keeping her hands up high.
As the night wore on, the light show intensified. The colors almost made Demarcus dizzy with the spinning, flashing, blinking that coursed around the dance floor. And if he wasn’t mistaken, the lights always seemed to find Lily.
Not that he minded.
Lily wanted to throw her arms around everyone in the pavilion. The joy overflowed from her like the water erupting from the fountain at the front of the campus.
For the first time in over a year she wasn’t weighed down by the burden of her loss. Her mother and brother faded out like wisps of smoke in the recesses of her mind. All she had was right now, this moment, as the youth danced and thronged together.
Her new friends Demarcus, Harry, and, of course, Sarah Jane orbited around each other yet remained anchored as they whirled around the floor. Even the overwhelming confusion and the fear of what had happened earlier in her dorm room melted away like a candle left to burn all night.
Delight pumped through her veins. She should share what she had with everyone, to express her joy and the gift inside. She noticed the spotlights on the scaffolds, smaller versions of the one that almost crushed Clara. They pulsed in a static pattern, and the metal canisters didn’t move. It seemed a shame that the lights couldn’t dance too.
As Lily twirled, she imagined the lights spinning with her. Soon the various colors swirled around the floor. It was as if she were a human disco ball. The other kids cheered at the special effects.
The DJ waved one arm to the beat as the other worked the turntable. Tia Torrenté swayed in time, her eyes closed. Lily directed some light toward Tia, and the sequins on her outfit reflected a thousand beams across the crowd. Simon just stood next to the star, clapping and watching the proceedings, searching the crowds.
She’d give him something to see. An image dropped into her mind. A large, graceful butterfly, floating on unseen breezes, its wings flapping in time with the sound thumping around her. She slowed her jive to concentrate on the picture in her mind.
It would be simple to do in her photo editing software, but how to do it in real life? A finger. She had used a finger in the Focuser to help draw out the light.
She acted like she was doing a slow dance move and twirled her finger in the air, conceiving a butterfly in flight. A pink outline formed in the air above the dancers, looking like a squiggly cloud of electrified noodles at first.
No, that wasn’t what she wanted.
Her eyes narrowed as she focused on the mental pattern. The fuzzy blur sharpened in definition until a bright butterfly flitted about, just above the reach of outstretched hands.
Ooohs and aahhs accompanied the ethereal insect. Harry looked in his drink. “Did they spike this with something?”
Lily laughed. “No, they must be doing a special effect.”
While the crowd watched her creation dance, Lily scanned the party. No one seemed to be pointing her out. Good. If they liked the butterfly, what else could she do?
Now that she’d figured the process out, a cascade of holographic forms sprung from her imagination. Lily stopped on the side of the undulating crowd and crafted each one internally. Then she waited for the music to swell, and she skipped back into the throng and flung her arms in the air.
A myriad of swirls, flowers, and sparkles exploded in the air. Fairies and hummingbirds flitted around the light show. The partygoers gave another hurrah, cheering Alturas and the extravagance of the party.
Lily couldn’t resist a huge smile as she considered the truth. This was so amazing! She loved sharing her gift with everyone.
And as she pranced around the perimeter, she passed the DJ table where Simon and Tia danced and watched. Simon caught her gaze and smiled widely at her. He raised his hands and clapped.
Lily knew that was for her. Her heart jumped and the tingling from her power magnified even more. The temperature spiked 100 degrees hotter and sweat started trickling down her forehead.
Simon had noticed her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The oak doors swung open wide and boomed when they hit the walls behind. A grand night truly deserved a grand entrance.
Simon shuffle-stepped into the room, pumping his fist in victory with each step. His exuberance had no bounds with the night’s success.
The conference’s progress at this stage was greater than he could have hoped. The teens fawned over him and ate up every morsel he planted along the trail. Which meant the proof of concept held. His gift covered a greater amount of people than just the immediate staff he had contact with. Thanks to the Source, he could broadcast his influence across the campus.
Phase one complete, with phase two well on its way.
The impact worked best on people younger than him. That was one glitch he’d like to work out. But harnessing the power of youth had worked for the Beatles and countless other cults of personality. Simon and his Master would just use his gift to amplify the effect deeper than anyone before them.
He’d started out with nothing. Parents that controlled him and never gave him an opportunity to try anything for himself. Then he found that if he concentrated, people listened to him. He could bring the best out in people, and it seemed to subtly draw them to his perspective. In high school, teachers labeled it a gift.
Funny how things work. At a summer conference before his junior year, the Master had come to him and introduced him to the plans of the Archai. He learned about his gift and began to control his ability, to do something with it.
He sighed in near contentment and sank into a leather chair in the meeting area. His muscles melted into the smooth cushions. What a day.
Of course, he couldn’t really relax until he proved that he wouldn’t be controlled anymore. He had the ability to influence people to bigger and better things. The possibility of a new world order rising up was within sight. If he was optimistic yesterday, the occurrence at the party only confirmed it.
He pulled his Ziploc bag out of his trousers and decided to splurge on two gummy bears. Orange and white. That was a weird combination. Things could go either way tomorrow based off of that color grouping. Almost like a double-or-nothing bet.
His senior staff members filtered in. Of course, senior was relative. They were all under the age of 25, yet they had worked with him the longest. He trusted them with the day-to-day operations of Alturas and the vision for Flare. It didn’t hurt that they shared the longest exposure to his gift. They were wired in at this point.
Their chatter matched his excitement. Good sign. Time to recap the day, pull together all the findings, and filter out the markers that didn’t fit the objectives. Simon couldn’t wait to hear confirmation for some of his own observations.
The crew, as he liked to call them, sat in a circle. He noticed energy drinks and coffee cups in their hands—drinks of choice after a long day. The smell of roasted coffee beans saturated the air. Good. They’d have focus and drive. He bounced on his cushion in anticipation.
“Okay, everyone. You’ve all worked hard today to bring out the best in our guests. We’ll cut to the chase and go over the readings. To start, Kelsey, do you have the security footage from this morning?”
Kelsey tapped on her tablet, and a video streamed onto the screen above the fireplace. The footage from the cafeteria hallway sped through kids coming and going out of the lunch room. Then a small gap until two boys hurried in. She slowed the video.
Simon, Kelsey, and two others walked down the hall. In a blink, Simon sprawled on the ground, entangled with a dreadlock-headed kid.
Kelsey punched in some new commands. “We need to slow this down more to fully see what happened.”
The clip slowed to half-speed. Simon’s entourage tracked slowly across the field of vision. Then a figure darted out of the cafeteria and collided with him, and the two ended up in a heap.
Otto stopped stroking his goatee and leaned his tall frame closer. “Wow, that was fast. Have we been able to calculate the speed?”
Kelsey checked her notes. “I consulted with engineering. They estimated about 30 mph when the teen crashed into Simon.”
No wonder his back had ached all day.
“We have other footage on him, but this is the best viewpoint to figure out his speed.”
Another eager intern, Kate, jumped into the fray. “Do you want us to call him in for discipline for running you down?”
Simon shook his head. “No, I’m not mad at him. I wanted this substantiated. Our screening process picked up some other surprises beyond our prime target. We’ve got facial ID on him from this, right?”
Jillian Prowse filed through some papers. She always had a preference for dealing with hard copies, despite working for a technology company. “I have it right here. Demarcus Bartlett. Sixteen-year-old who will be a sophomore in the fall. From San Jose.”
“Good. Steer him into our high echelon group tomorrow. Any other surprises?”
Simon’s best friend on the crew, Jackson Adams, flicked the side of his prototype glasses display. “Here are the results on an intriguing candidate. Harry Wales from Milpitas. Initial findings suggest he’s got a latent ability that hasn’t manifested yet. The readings on the scans clearly show increased levels on his potentials.”
