The Sovereign Era (Book 1): Brave Men Run Read online

  “Yes sir. Retractable blades, sir. Reinforced bone with horn.” Agent Turban allowed a broad smile to slip across his face. He was proud of what they'd done to him.

  “Speed and strength?”

  Turban nodded. “Yes sir – to support the armament.”

  “All right.” Brenhurst shook their hands. “Welcome to California, agents. I'm sure you know you're not to leave this level of the facility. However, you'll find adequate accommodations here, and the staff is at your disposal.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “It may be a few days until I need you. Be ready.”

  From The Journal Of Nate Charters – Thirty Two

  I jumped on the phone as soon as we got home. Lina answered right away.

  “Guess what happened to me today,” I said with a touch of sarcasm.

  Her voice was light and full of fun. “Um… wait... nope! I don’t know.”

  “Hold on.” I put the phone down and did a quick reconnaissance. My mother was in her bedroom and the door was closed. I picked up the receiver and started pacing the kitchen. “Okay. I’m back. I met the guy from Tyndale Labs.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah, shit. His name’s Les Brenhurst, and he called himself a doctor. Said he was, like, head of research, or something.”

  “Oh my God. Are you all right?”

  “Yeah. My mother was called in. I thought she was gonna tear off his head. She was way, mega-pissed.”

  “So I guess you won’t be joining Byron,” she said wryly.

  “Byron..! We’ve gotta do something about Byron.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. Sorry, baby… this is getting kinda weird.”

  I sighed. “I liked it better when I just thought my mother was crazy. But that’s not all. She’s taking me out of school, putting me on home study.”

  “Wow! We’ll get to hang out a lot more, at least.”

  “Yeah.” I wished I could be happier about that, but everything else eclipsed the one little thing that was good about the situation. “Lina, what are we going to do about this? What are we going to do about Byron?”

  “Your mom could talk to his folks.”

  “Yeah… except Byron seemed really freaked about his parents finding out about him. Shit!”

  I heard my mother’s bedroom door open. “Nathan, I need to use the phone.”

  “I gotta go,” I told Lina. “My mom wants the phone.”

  “You’re kinda freaking out,” Lina said. “You want me to come over?”

  “Yes. Please.”

  From The Journal Of Nate Charters – Thirty Three

  I thought my mother was going to jump out of her shoes when the doorbell rang.

  “It’s just Lina, mom.”

  “You invited her over here? Tonight?”

  She looked confused, not upset. So I acted like it was no big deal. “Yeah.”

  I opened the door. Lina gave me a hug and had a little wave for my mother. “Hi, Mrs. Charters.”

  “Hello, Lina.” They shook hands. “You might as well call me Lucy.”

  Lina beamed, eyes wide. “Really? I can?”

  “Why not?”

  “Wow. Okay.”

  I still didn’t know how to act when the two of them were in the same room. I mean, Lina and I made out and stuff – it was just too weird to have my mother there, and not be on our way somewhere else.

  “So… did you want a drink of something?”

  “Sure. Whatcha got?”

  She followed me into the kitchen. It was a much shorter walk from the living room than at her house.

  I opened the fridge. “Um… take a look.”

  My mother said, “You two can relax – I’m going to use the phone in my bedroom.”

  That was a relief. “Okay, mom.”

  We grabbed a couple of sodas, went back into the living room, and sat on the couch. I tilted my head to focus on what was being said in my mother’s room.

  Lina made goo-goo eyes. “You’re adorable when you do that.”

  “You’re adorable when you do everything,” I said. “Hold on. Okay. She’s on the phone. We can talk.”

  “You’re a handy guy to have around.”

  I shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Seems that way to me, anyway.” She squeezed my knee. “So tell me about today.”

  I related the whole encounter with Brenhurst. “And the thing that gets me is just how badly this guy affected my mom. I mean, she’s usually, like, all hippie and whatever, but this went beyond that. She wasn’t just angry that this guy was, I don’t know, violating my civil rights, or whatever. She was mega freaked. I thought she was gonna claw his eyes out.”

  “No, that’s you, hon.” I gave her a dirty look and she stuck out her tongue. “So did you ask her about it?”

  “She said he was, like, a slimy government man. Talked about how she was going to sue the school and stuff.”

  Lina frowned. “Government? I thought Tyndale Labs was some corporation.”

  “I think she just relates all guys in suits with the government. Oh – were you able to find anything out about the place from your dad?”

  She rolled her eyes. “I asked him about it, and of course he’s like, ‘why,’ and I’m like, ‘I always see them off the freeway, and I just, like wondered.’”

  “Off the freeway?”

  “Yeah – they’ve got this big long building off the Bendis Parkway exit on the Five. I see it all the time.”

  “Oh.” Knowing they were right there in plain sight, I didn’t know what to think. Which wasn’t really all that different than a minute ago. I shrugged.

  “Anyway, he said he’d see what he could find out.”

  My mother came down the hall. “Lina, would you like to stay for dinner?”

  Lina grabbed both my hands. I thought she was going to squeal. It made me laugh.

  “I’d love to… Lucy!”

  My mother tapped her on the shoulder as she went to the kitchen. “Come on, then. You can help me throw something together.”

  I tried to assist, but the two of them quickly fell into a kind of bee-dance choreography that I only disrupted by cutting in. I sat at the table and mostly watched.

  My mother used the time, and dinner, to get to know Lina. At first, it was obvious she was forcing us to keep the conversation away from the day’s events, and it was a little strained. But we all went along. I know I just wanted to have a couple hours of normal time.

  I found things out, too. Lina’s dad was a Republican, but, as my mother put it, Lina seemed to be holding her own. Lina was in a school play in eighth grade – she played Portia in an abridged version of Julius Caesar. If she had to get a real job, she’d be a veterinarian. She liked to hike in the foothills of the Saddleback mountains. When my mother heard that, she extended an open invitation to join us at Kirby Lake in the summer.

  That sounded great to me.

  After dinner, my mother whipped together some instant pudding for dessert. We ended up in the living room to watch the last half hour of the evening news.

  They showed William Donner’s compound in Montana, which had allowed the media in for the first time. The plan was for it to be the closest thing to an embassy the Sovereign people would have. It would have a hospital, research center, apartments, and even a cable television station. Right now, it was a few pre-fab buildings and Donner’s own house, which he’d actually had moved from somewhere else.

  I watched my mother carefully. She sat silently for a few minutes and then excused herself.

  “Back to the phone, I’m afraid.”

  Alone with Lina, I nodded at the television. “Are you still cool with all of this?”

  “I’m still super-cool with you,” she said. “But I don’t know about this Institute for Sovereign Studies. Wasn’t this place the whole reason Donner felt like he had to go public? Weren’t the Feds after him, or something?”

  “I think so. They were afraid he was, like building an army, or so
mething.”

  “Hm. I wonder if he is?”

  That made me wonder if Reagan was, too. “Hey.”

  “Yes, dear?” She darted her face centimeters away from mine.

  I stole a split-second kiss. “I’ve been wondering why Brenhurst was so obvious with me.”

  “How so.”

  “Well, with Byron, he was all, ‘you’re so good with sports,’ and all that. With me, he practically laid it all out, telling me how interesting I am, and how I should be interested in myself because of all this stuff.” I frowned. “He didn’t do anything to hide the idea he was curious about me as a Sovereign.”

  “Makes sense,” she said. “I mean, you’re always pointing out how you look different, right? Byron just looks like a jock. There’s no reason to be all tactful with you.”

  I nodded slowly. “Right. And there was no way for Brenhurst to have known Byron already figured out he might be a Sovereign.”

  “Yeah.”

  I tuned in to the sounds in the back of the house again. My mother was still on the phone, and being very careful to keep her voice down.

  I stood up. “I wanna call Byron. He should know about today.”

  “Maybe you guys can compare notes.”

  “Yeah.” I paced for a second. “My mother’s still on the phone.”

  “And you don’t want to wait, all of a sudden.”

  I smiled at her. “You’re a good girlfriend.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” she blushed.

  I took a few steps down the hall. “Mom! Lina and I are going for a walk!”

  I grabbed her hand and headed for the door. “C’mon. Let’s go before she can put the phone down and try to stop us.”

  “My man of action,” Lina purred.

  From The Journal Of Nate Charters – Thirty Four

  It was faster to let Lina drive. We were at Mel’s door in three minutes. His dad let us in and we went upstairs to his room, where Mel surveyed us with a critical eye.

  “So.” He cracked his knuckles. “What’s going on with you two?”

  Lina smiled and gave me a squeeze. “Mad scientists are after my man.”

  Mel saw my own flat smile. “Oh,” he said. “Sure. Nate?”

  “I need to use your phone,” I said.

  He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Here I thought you missed me. What’s wrong with yours?”

  “My mother’s on it, and it’s really important, Mel.” I sat down on his bed and reached for the phone.

  “You know how to use it,” he said. “Be my guest.”

  I dug into my wallet and pulled out the tattered, folded sheet that held my phone numbers. I still had Byron Teslowski’s number from the brief time we had been friends, back in elementary school. It was the first time in years I had dialed it.

  It rang four times. An answering machine clicked. I hung up.

  “No one home?” Lina asked.

  “I didn’t want to leave a message.”

  Mel adopted a bad Peter Lorre hiss. “All right, Nick and Nora – fill me in, or hit the road!”

  We did. Mel listened carefully, pestering his whiskers, before he shook his head.

  “I think I’ve said it before, Nate: you’re over-reacting. Why should they care about you?” He grinned and looked at me with his head down. “No offense, of course.”

  “This guy came to Teslowski, and then he came to me,” I insisted. “Something is going on.”

  “Maybe something,” he said. “But I doubt it’s this conspiracy crap your mother’s been crowding into your head.” He took my shoulders and gently shook me. “Let me be clear, Nate… you’re not important.”

  I brushed him off. “I hope you get to say ‘I told you so.’ Believe me. But what are we supposed to do in the mean time? Just let Byron go off to this place? His parents have totally bought into it – they won’t protect him like my mother would.”

  “Protect him from what?” Mel laughed. “Running on a treadmill and having blood drawn?”

  “And what do they find from that blood?” I looked at Lina for support, and she nodded. “They figure out he’s a Sovereign, and they tell his folks... at least.”

  “So what?”

  I sighed. “I don’t know. But he’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t want his folks to find out.”

  Lina said quietly, “I think he’s maybe an abused child.”

  We both looked at her.

  She shrugged. “Well, look – he’s, like, totally freaked out that his parents would find out he’s not just, like, a really good jock. He’s been this total bully for, like, the majority of his life, or at least since Nate has known him. He’s taking it out on people.”

  It came right out. “Great. So now I have to feel sorry for him for making my life hell.”

  “Nate!”

  I frowned. “Sorry. I know.” I picked up Mel’s phone and sighed. “Lemme try him again.”

  Three rings. I started to hang up on the fourth, but my enhanced hearing picked up a tinny, “Hello?”

  I brought the receiver back up to my face. “Is Byron there?”

  “Speaking.”

  “Dude! It’s Nate Charters.”

  “Oh. Hey, man…”

  “Teslowski, listen. That Brenhurst guy came to see me today.”

  There was a beat of silence. Then, “Oh.”

  “Oh?” Something wasn’t right. “Dude, this is not good, you know that, right? Something is definitely going on.”

  I heard voices in the background. A woman asked who was on the phone.

  “You can’t talk, right?”

  “I’ll see you at school,” he said.

  “No – no, you won’t.” I started to pace. “My mother took me out. We have to talk about this, Byron.”

  “The park,” Teslowski said neutrally. “Four o’clock tomorrow.”

  “All right.”

  “I gotta go, dude.”

  He hung up.

  I looked at Lina. “Tomorrow at four. Romita Park.”

  “Okay.”

  Mel snorted. “Is this the same kind of talking thing as last time, or are you two going to refrain from kicking the shit out of each other?”

  “Mel...”

  "I’m just saying.”

  From The Journal Of Nate Charters – Thirty Five

  Tuesday dragged.

  My mother was out of the house by seven in the morning. As for me, my body didn’t seem to understand I wasn’t going to school that day. I woke at five and couldn’t get back to sleep.

  I ate breakfast. I took a shower. I read. I straightened up my room, a little.

  It was still a long way to four o’clock.

  I listened to the radio. I watched television, bored out of my mind until The Phil Donahue Show came on. The theme of the episode was “My Boyfriend Is A Sovereign.”

  What do you know about that?

  There he was, an actual, real life Sovereign, on television. He looked like he was in his late twenties, maybe. Normal looking guy.

  Except his skin came off in long, translucent sheets.

  Everybody peels when they get a sunburn. It wasn’t like that. It was more like he was shedding. Or molting.

  He said it didn’t hurt. It just happened, any time he was under a lot of stress. Apparently, the new skin was also usually a different complexion, so that he almost looked like a new person when it was all over.

  Donahue wanted to know if his guest simply had a medical condition. The guy had a written statement from some doctor that he was actually changing on a genetic level every time this happened. In a real way, he practically did become a different person.

  His girlfriend came on. She wasn’t happy – not that he might be a Sovereign; she’d known about his skin thing the whole two years they’d been together. What made her miserable is they were supposed to get married in a couple of months, and she thought he was shedding all the time because of that. She thought he was trying to get out of marrying her by literally turning
into someone else.

  The guy was a wreck. Every time his girlfriend came down on him, he looked like he was going to sink into his chair. He kept wringing his hands until finally he pulled a whole glove of skin right off. The new skin was olive, smooth, and shiny.

  The audience gasped. He smiled sheepishly and his girlfriend huffed. Donahue dropped his microphone with faux drama.

  The whole thing was crazy, but I don’t think I moved a muscle while it was on. It fascinated me that this guy was basically... normal. His Sovereign powers were hardly threatening or even useful. He was… just a guy.

  I’d been thinking being a Sovereign didn’t really change things all that much for me, if all the other Sovereign people could do miracles and fly and whatever. Even Byron had better Sovereign abilities than I did, if he really was able to physically adapt to whatever situation he was in.

  Seeing this poor schmuck on television showed me there were misfits among Sovereign, just like there were among normal people.

  And if this guy was any example, there were worse misfits than me.

  I figured I should feel sorry for the him. And I tried. But he was so pitiful. He just sat there and took it when his fiancé dug into him. He didn’t defend himself at all, even when Donahue tried to draw him out.

  I used to think I was supposed to be that kind of victim.

  Screw that. I wasn’t going to just sit there any more.

  I bounced on the balls of my feet, impatient to do something, and began to get an idea of what that would be.

  From The Journal Of Nate Charters – Thirty Six

  Lina finally arrived and drove us the short distance to Romita Park. We found Byron slouched at the same table as last time.

  “Hey, you got our favorite spot.” I smiled weakly.

  Teslowski glowered under the brim of his baseball cap. “Hey.” He nodded to Lina. “Hey.”

  I said, “Lina found out some stuff about Tyndale Labs.”

  Byron sat up. “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” said Lina. “I asked my dad what he knew. Turns out they build, like, medical prosthetics and stuff.”

  I frowned. “Wooden legs?”

  She shrugged and smiled. “Well, I guess. But I guess it’s a lot of mechanical stuff.” She flexed her arm and made hydraulic noises. “Like The Six Million Dollar Man. You know.”