Jody looked up from the rollup screen on the table, “That name does not ring a fucking bell.”
Shaking his head, Dayton said, “I don’t know who that is either.”
Sean felt sure he’d heard the name before, but he couldn’t say where or when.
Sydney spoke up while he was still thinking, “Nick’s mentioned him. We were talking one time about the Cabal and he mentioned that Martin Magnus was someone he still hadn’t figured out.” Continue reading The Power: Part 12
With a brief hesitation, Sydney nodded, adding, “I sent it to the League’s server. You should be able to just pull it up.”
Before Sean could think, he found himself already talking, “Wait, you recorded us and put the video on the League’s server. That’s private! It’s none of their business—”
Interrupting him, she said, “It’s on my private folder on their server. I’m not sharing it with everybody—just Mindstryke. And I let the AI watch too because he was going to whether or not I said he could anyway. Besides, he said he’d help.” Continue reading The Power: Part 11
For a little while, no one said anything. Then a door opened at the end of the hall and Sydney walked into the room, blond hair bouncing on her shoulders.
She looked over at Sean, “I can’t believe that guy was real, and then how the lawyers were like ‘yeah, I know he’s crazy, but what can you do’?”
Sean blinked, “You heard all of that from your room?”
Shaking her head, she pulled out her phone, “I bugged the room.” Continue reading The Power: Part 10
Sean couldn’t place the man’s accent, but he knew the man’s first language couldn’t have been English.
Ignoring that for the moment, Sean said, “Thanks, I’d like to think we have great potential. Come on in,” and waved them forward, continuing to hold the door for them.
Dayton walked past, saying, “Thanks, man.”
Martin Greatson walked past without saying anything, ignoring everyone—including the lawyers, and walked with quick, efficient steps toward the wide windows, staring out at the city. Continue reading The Power: Part 9
“Are you kidding? It’s like,” he looked at the time on his comm device, “11:23 am? They’re almost three hours early. What’s going on?”
Sydney scowled, “I don’t know. Do you want me to ask them?”
He shook his head, “No, but this is a complete pain in the ass. What the hell is wrong with these guys? They didn’t do this last time.”
Looking up from the screen and down the hall in what he guessed was the direction of the living room, Sydney said, “You’re repeating yourself. Just get back here, okay?” Continue reading The Power: Part 8
He hoped he could trust them.
Walking over to the window, he looked out on Grand Lake. It wasn’t a bad view, The top floor of the building hadn’t ever been part of the factory. It was a collection of metal and mirrored glass built on top of what had been the roof. This section was close to the edge.
Over the fence around the edge, he could see all of Grand Lake’s downtown, Grand Lake itself, Lake Michigan, and where the city turned into suburbs. Continue reading The Power: Part 7
Dayton laughed, “Yeah, but he’s good at fighting, better than anyone else we’ve trained with. I do feel like he’d kill just about anybody if he felt like it—including us, but, he hasn’t. That’s a point in his favor.”
Thinking back to his father’s death, Sean forced a chuckle, “Yeah, you remember that we’re officially signing the contract tomorrow, right? Make sure that Jody remembers. He’s got to be there or he’ll have to sign later. They’re in and out in a day and if we’re not all there, it’s going to look bad. Maybe they’ll cancel everything. I don’t know.”
Not laughing, Dayton spoke in a calm, deep voice, “I get it. This is a big deal to you. It’s a big deal to all of us. Me too, believe me. We’ll be getting professional football player salaries. I know Jody’s interested in that.” Continue reading The Power: Part 6
Sydney frowned, “You’ve checked them out, right? I mean, we spent our whole childhood with Dad telling us about people who wanted us for our powers. You checked and made sure it’s not connected to the Cabal.”
Camille pursed her lips, glancing over at Sydney, and then back to Sean, not saying anything.
She never seemed to stop talking normally, but Sean knew why. Even if she hadn’t grown up with them, her mother had been part of the same group as his dad. She’d known that she could be snatched away and murdered or brainwashed from childhood. Continue reading The Power: Part 5
Sydney had been looking back at Camille, but in response to Camille’s question, she turned to look past the closet next to the door and into the main room.
Tall and thin with long blond hair and pale skin, anyone who saw Sydney with Sean assumed that they were brother and sister. Sean knew this. Seeing Camille with Sydney made him wonder how he’d ever missed that Camille was also his sister.
Even though Camille had long, dark brown hair and tan skin, courtesy of her mother, her face had the same oblong shape and lips as Sean and Sydney. Her height was only a little shorter than Sydney’s.
He could see an echo of his father’s face in both of theirs. It wasn’t the only way his father had disappointed him, but that wasn’t Camille’s fault. Continue reading The Power: Part 4
“No problem, I’ll watch for it,” Vaughn said. “The thing is about business is that it’s all about people in the end. Get in bed with the wrong people and you get crabs or something. I mean, seriously, Uncle Russ made a deal with the Nine and he’s going to be paying for it for a long time even if he doesn’t go to jail.”
Ignoring the cascade of memories of Russell Hardwick and his father, Sean said, “Yeah. I’ll keep it in mind. I don’t want crabs.”
Vaughn laughed and after a little while they hung up. Continue reading The Power: Part 3