"If I have to stay in this hotel room for one more second,” said Eli, “I’m going to eat all the pillows and hope I get fluff poisoning.”
Joshua couldn’t blame the kid, even though his moodiness was starting to grate on all of their nerves. Weeks had passed since they arrived in Seattle. Weeks. And all that time, it felt as if the FBI had sat around on their asses, twiddling their thumbs and waiting for more children to go missing.
“Just relax Eli,” said Jenny in that perfect, calm-amidst-the-storm voice that made Joshua’s heart flutter. But he had to admit; even she was beginning to look a little drained of her usual spark.
“Yeah right,” Eli sighed and flopped back on the stiff, hotel bed. “How can anyone relax when we’re barricaded in by FBI agents and no one has rescued Hunter yet?”
Joshua couldn’t agree more: relaxing was the very last thing on his to-do list. First and foremost, he needed to get to the cabin. It had been too long, and every day was another day Hunter was either still stuck in ICE, or out there running the risk of being captured again.
But the FBI were watching their every move. He was still under suspicion for kidnapping and attempted murder. They were right about him, but it was circumstantial. And once he told them the truth about his powers… their trained eyes never left him.
“Joshua… have they told you anything?” asked Jenny as she sat by the open window with her feet propped up on the ledge. The agents took them shopping only last week and Jenny abused their generosity to the maximum, but as soon as the excitement died down, she went back to her habitual ripped jeans and hoodies. Joshua loved that about her. “Because for law enforcement, they’re very slow to react to the news that there are people with superpowers.”
Joshua ran his hand over his jaw – conscious of how badly he needed to shave – and shook his head. He’d been wondering that too. Barry took the news somewhat lightly that Joshua had the ability to control ice. Once Barry had interrogated every inch of Joshua – during which Joshua told him only the vital bits of information and not his entire life story – there had been nothing but routine questions, interviews with other FBI agents and then silence.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Every time I meet with Barry and his superior officer, Special Agent Fitzpatrick… they tell me nothing. It’s like they’re trying to make logical sense of it before they take it seriously.”
“But this is big,” said Eli. “I mean world changing big. The existence of people with powers is something people read about in comics. If it leaks into the media, everyone’s gonna explode. I think the FBI aren’t telling anyone until they know for sure that not only do you have these abilities you claim to have, but that ICE exists too.”
Joshua raised a hand and produced a beautiful swirl of light ice that danced above his palm. “I thought this was going to be proof enough.”
“I mean scientific proof. These things only happen in movies. If I saw someone do what you do Joshua, I wouldn’t believe it. I’d try to figure out how. Isn’t that what you did anyway?”
Joshua looked at Eli, and for the first time since this entire mess with him began, Joshua appreciated the kid for who he was: a very smart young man. He suddenly saw what Hunter had fallen in love with.
Love he had taken away.
“The FBI have strict protocol to follow,” said Jenny as she moved over to the bed, distracting him. “They’re not doing ‘nothing’; they’re just doing everything very thoroughly, by the books. Eli’s right. If they make one mistake and the world finds out, it’ll be chaos. People with powers like yours will be popping up all over the globe. And if the world finds out, Dr. Wolfe will know and he’ll recede into an even deeper hole than he’s already in. Then it will be impossible to find Hunter.”
“I just need to know that she’s out,” said Joshua. He sat down on the bed beside Jenny and she softly rubbed his back. It was uncomfortably soothing. “I’m going to ask if we can be released from our security detail so we can check out the cabin.”
Eli snorted. “Yeah, right, and they’re totally just going to release you after everything you’ve told them.”
As if in answer to his request, there was a knock at the door. The three of them exchanged glances with eyebrows raised. Normally if the FBI needed them, they would call for Joshua to be taken to the field office located just across the street from their boutique motel.
Eli ran to the door and peered through the peep hole. “It’s Barry and… some other woman. Should I open it?”
“Yes,” said Joshua, praying it was good news and not the food that fed the fear inside him.
Barry nodded to them somberly as he strolled in, followed by the only woman Joshua had ever come in contact with who made his skin prickle – and not in a good way. Her dark skin and bright, white eyes squinted at him in suspicion and brought more unsettling feeling into his rigid body.
“Everyone, this is Special Agent Fitzpatrick. Special Agent Fitzpatrick, this is-”
“I know who they are, Agent Sanders,” Fitzpatrick snapped and Barry fell silent. She directed her attention to Joshua. “We have news.”
His senses spiked and the tips of his fingers turned to ice as he slowly stood. Don’t let her be dead, please God, don’t let her be dead…
“The information you gave us was useless, Mr. Harrison,” she sighed. “I’ve had every available operative scouring mountainsides. As for this ICE institution… such a place does not exist.”
Joshua’s heart dropped. “That’s impossible. Unless they moved an entire underground operation, it’ll still be there in the mountains.”
“Well it’s not,” she snapped and crossed her arms, a condescending look in her eyes. “You said you escaped nearly seventeen years ago, correct?”
“Yes.”
“And you were in such a panic state that you only managed to remember parts of the location?”
“Correct. I remember the road was called ‘Snakes Pass’ and it was a two hour drive from a town called ‘Crowheart’. The directions I gave you specifically-”
Fitzpatrick snorted a humorless laugh. “You have to be the dumbest human being I have ever known.” With that, she clicked her hands at Barry and he withdrew a large map from behind him, which he laid out on Jenny’s bed. The map was of the United States, and it was covered in geographical numbers and lines measuring the height of the mountains that surrounded it. There was a circle around a pass to the left of a mountain range called Gannett Peak in the state of Wyoming. “The directions you gave us led to the highest mountain in Wyoming. Because you told us to that it was a two hour drive from this town–”
“I gave you the best I could,” he snarled and stood to his feet. “I was lost, weak and carrying a two-year-old child in the middle of a snowstorm. I’m sorry if I didn’t have the brain power or the technology to get you the exact coordinates. But for Christ’s sake, if I could escape in a 4WD, surely you can find it in a freaking helicopter with satellite navigation and the entire force out searching for it!”
Fitzpatrick glared at him with such ferocity, Joshua felt as if he were being burned by her gaze. And only Hunter had the power to do that. Perhaps her own inadequacy fueled the anger inside of her and caused her to take it out on the three of them. All Joshua had heard from her since his first meeting with her weeks ago was negativity and snappy comments. She looked exhausted, fed up and ready to throw in the towel with him.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to let him get the better of her.
Fitzpatrick raised a finger like a patronizing parent and walked slowly towards him. “Now you listen to me you, Snowflake. The reason we have taken so long to track down your made-up institution is because it does not exist. We’ve sent in squadrons of trucks to scout the mountain range, questioned the local Indian reserve – who do not let anyone near the pass without strict permission – and we’ve done satellite scans of the area for any sign of technological activity. We found nothing. So by the sounds of it, your ICE institution has either gone out of business or else completely vanished.” She was only a foot away from him, backed up against the wall, her finger against his chest and making him very anxious. “You sent us on a wild goose chase, Harrison, and I’d like to personally thank you for wasting my time and money, money that could be used to save lives and not for a fairytale rescue mission.” With that, she snatched the map from the bed, causing Eli and Jenny to flinch.
Joshua’s hopes were running thin. He recalled the drive through the whirling wind and snow to the nearest town – his first sign of the outside world in months – as being one of the most wonderful and terrifying moments of his life. It was night, it was cold and he knew nothing about where he was going, only that they were completely free. But there began the years of always looking over his shoulder, and when he remembered the institution, he saw only a dark and painful time when he had lost everything he cared about and suddenly had powers that were trying to control him. It was almost exactly what Hunter would have gone through, and it was all because of him.
ICE existed. He knew that for certain. So how was Dr. Wolfe hiding it so well? How did he manage to sneak people in and out? Did the guards and the scientists ever leave, or was it just Dr. Rosenthal? What about the Agents, how did they deliver the children?
Maybe they moved. Joshua had never considered it. It had been, after all, nearly sixteen years since he escaped. Was it was possible Dr. Wolfe packed up when Joshua ran away, just in case he went to the authority and the secrets of ICE were revealed?
If that were so, then finding ICE was now next to impossible without the help of someone on the inside, or someone who had just recently escaped.
“Look, I’m sorry your search came up with nothing,” he said. “But I’m not lying to you. And I know a way to prove it if you’ll just let me leave the hotel for-”
“Not a chance,” Fitzpatrick shook her head. “Not only have you wasted my time, but you’ve also managed to piss me off, Harrison. And not just me, but my superiors as well. While this vain attempt to hunt a madman was going on in Wyoming, I was sent to Washington to meet with the Secretary of Defense. He wants real proof of your so-called abduction.”
Joshua raised a hand and shot a jet of ice at a vase of flowers that sat on the table beside the television. The vase cracked open and shattered everywhere, shards of ice spilling onto the prickly carpet. Fitzpatrick didn’t gasp like most people would, but she did lose her composure, and for that, Joshua felt proud.
“Proof enough for you? Or how about the fact that you still have children going missing all over the world? And what about the unexplained money transfers?”
“Nothing has been proven yet. It’s all coincidental.”
Joshua couldn’t believe her. He was about to burst with frustration. “Then tell me you at least checked on the cabin? Was there anyone living there, any proof at all of what I told you?”
Fitzpatrick looked at Barry to answer the question. Joshua’s heart seemed to clench in anticipation.
Then Barry shrugged. “We found nothing. Your cabin had no records, no proof of life for years, registered under a name that doesn’t even exist in our system. The records date way back – it’s going to take us a long time to find the owner.”
“Like we haven’t heard that before,” Eli muttered quietly.
A black cloud descended upon Joshua’s vision. It couldn’t be. Hunter was still in ICE? Did Dr. Rosenthal receive his message? Was he even alive?
Suddenly all hope of finding Hunter vanished from Joshua’s mind, leaving him feeling hollow and colder than ice itself. The temptation to grab Fitzpatrick’s gun from her holster and shoot a bullet through his head bloomed like the prospect of warmth and the end to all his suffering. It was absurd to know that suicide was his last resort, but with Hunter still in Dr. Wolfe’s clutches and no chance of locating the institution, what hope did he have left?
Fitzpatrick crossed her arms. “If we have no further leads, we’ll have to close the missing children investigation. But I’m afraid that won’t be it for you and your two friends here. You’ve been booked for an early flight tomorrow morning to DC. They want your DNA analyzed and further proof that your ‘abilities’ aren’t just some hoax.”
“You’re serious?” Joshua looked at Barry, who was still inspecting the vase. He avoided all eyes.
“We all have to go?” asked Eli incredulously. “But we-”
“It’s not a request,” said Fitzpatrick in a tone as poisonous as sin. “You’ll be escorted directly to the airport where the three of you and my team will take a direct flight to DC. That is my final word. You should be thankful we’re not sending you to a prison, Harrison, or an asylum.”
Jaw clenched, Fitzpatrick twisted rigidly and stalked to the door. Barry shot him an apologetic glance and hurried after his senior, locking them in behind him.
A thick silence descended upon the room. Jenny placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. The touch was electric, but it did nothing to soothe his mood. He shrugged away, feeling the anger of the Iceman surge inside him. In a sudden burst of fury, he raised both his hands and threw a shard of thick ice straight at the door, but it was too thick to penetrate. The ice shattered.
“That’s it,” said Eli and he leapt to his feet. “We’re going. I don’t care if we add another felony to our charges, we have to get out of here.”
“And go where?” asked Jenny.
“To the cabin. We have to investigate it ourselves.”
Joshua shook his head. “No. I can’t go through the disappointment again. They said it was empty.”
“What if they’re lying? Or what if they missed something? Come on Joshua, you know more about this house than they do – you can find things!”
“He could be right,” said Jenny reassuringly. “What’s the harm in checking?”
The harm is that my heart can’t take losing her again, he thought.
“Joshua,” said Jenny. “Listen to me. I know you feel like giving up right now. But if ICE is as real as you say it is, then we have to find it. We have to for the sake of whoever is trapped there. Even if we have to scour the mountain ourselves, we’ll find it.”
“That sounds fun,” Eli snorted sarcastically.
“We’ve come too far to give up now.”
Just her voice had the ability to melt the ice inside him. Even if he felt like hope had dissipated, Jenny could still bring sunshine back into his cold world. Joshua raised his head and gazed at her, giving her the smallest of smiles.
She turned to Eli. “How do you propose we get out of here?”
“I dunno. I was hoping Joshua would have some input, since he’s the one with the superpower.”
Joshua ran a hand through his slightly damp, slicked-back hair. Again, he felt a spark of gratification for the two of them. He realized then that he could not have done any of this alone.
Maybe it was time he started making up for his mistakes, embodying someone who could be trusted and looked up to. Maybe this was his opportunity not only to set things right with Hunter and save her from Dr. Wolfe, but to become the man he was always destined to be.
A father.
“You’re right,” he said. Both Eli and Jenny brightened. “No more relying on the government. We’re finding them ourselves. Starting with the cabin.” Smiles beamed across their faces as he grabbed his coat from the stand by the door. When he realized they weren’t behind him, he shot a glance over his shoulder. “What are we waiting for?”
They snapped into action, grabbing everything they deemed necessary for an escape mission as Joshua steeled himself for a fight.