Chapter 25: Jack Harris, the Woman-Hunter

Tonight’s the night, Jack thought with delight as the warm water hit his back. Grabbing the shampoo behind him, he squeezed a glob into his hand and lathered it into his messy black hair. It was like he was being given a second chance. Tonight, Melissa was not only here for dinner, but she was … it was almost too much for Jack to even think it.

She was sleeping over!

Jack tried to remind himself that this was all for the sake of catching the two remaining murderers and also for his own safety. Melissa had told Alana that her parents were out of town and that she didn’t want to be alone. Without even a moment’s hesitation, Jack’s mom had set out to prepare the guest room.

Speaking of my mom, Jack thought. I really need to put a stop to whatever it is that’s going on with them.

Melissa and his mom were becoming way too much like friends. He suspected it was because neither of them had many their own age. The two acted like they were long-time friends whenever they saw each other, and Jack was going to need to put a cork in that right away.

When they’d gotten off the helicopter—the ride was just as awesome as the first one—Alana picked them up at some empty-field they’d landed in. Paro explained to Alana that Jack needed to use certain equipment in H.Q to aid in his learning, which was actually true. Before they left H.Q, Michael had made him wear some kind of helmet-thing he said was meant for newer Psychs, telling Jack that it helped diminish some of that sickening, uncomfortable feeling of drawing power. Jack had been surprised when it actually worked, but even then, it was still the worst sensation in the world.

Alana made it clear to Paro that as long as Jack didn’t get home too late, he could take Jack wherever he wanted, and so once again Jack was forced to play along with yet another in a series of lies to his mom. It really grated him. Jack hated lying. Not only wasn’t he any good at lying, but even when he was able to get away with one it made him feel dirty.

Jack ran his hands through his hair, scrubbing out the day’s grime, shaking his head as he delighted in the warm water. He went to reach for the soap—and stopped. For a brief moment a thought came to his mind, a memory, only to leave in the same quick flash in which it arrived.

Andy, Jack thought. Did I do something terrible to you? Why do I feel like I did?

Jack forced the thought from his mind, stepping out of the shower and drying himself off. He dressed in a hurry—he needed to be fast. At that very moment, Melissa was downstairs chatting away with his mom, and he didn’t want them saying anything embarrassing about him behind his back.

Even with his need to make haste, Jack knew that he couldn’t just go charging downstairs. He needed tactical support. He needed the one person in the entire world who could finally help him get the girl of his dreams.

Despite the fact that he was in a windowless bathroom, Jack still looked around the small room, making sure he wasn’t being watched. He crouched down and opened a drawer under his sink and retrieved a small device, placing it inside his ear.

“Sexy, this is Stud, do you copy?”

“Stud, this is Sexy, loud and clear, over.”

Jack grinned. He shouldn’t have stolen the device, he knew it was wrong, but this was the only way he was going to win Melissa over. He needed Intel and tactical support. He didn’t like the ridiculous names, but he was forced to agree to them or risk not receiving any aid.

”Sexy, are you sure I should start by asking how her day was? Because I was there for most of it, and I don’t think it was all that good, over.”

“I reckon you might be right about that, Stud. But ya gotta understand how the ladies think. They want a guy that’s gonna show some interest in them, ya know? Okay, I know, tell her how nice her nails look. She had them done a few days ago, over.”

Jack’s eyes lit up. “Whoa! I never would have thought of that! I never even noticed, over.”

“We guys never do, over.”

The device was so tiny that neither of them would see it in his ear. Technology really was amazing these days, and Jack was glad for it. Operation Women-Hunt would succeed, Jack would see to it. This was his chance. This was the moment he’d been waiting for.

Jack crept at a careful and slow pace towards the top of the stairs. He peered over it, out of sight of the two women below him. His mother and Melissa were engaged in some fiery debate about the best shop in the mall.

“Sexy, they’re engaged in some form of debate, do I interrupt? Over.”

“Don’t speak the first word, Stud. You need to walk in and ignore both of them. Pretend you don’t even see them. Then, when they address you first, make contact, over.”

Jack nodded, knowing that “Sexy” could actually see the situation too. Somehow, the device gave him a visual as well. Some stuff was just so amazing. Jack didn’t bother wondering how it all worked, but he was still grateful that it did.

He crept down the stairs at a casual walk, entering the kitchen and taking care not to give the two ladies so much as a single glance. He opened the fridge and leaned in to grab the carton of milk. He stopped.

“Not today, Stud,” Sexy began, “you’re a bad-boy now. We need something a bit more dangerous if we want to impress Melissa.”

Jack reached for the bottle of Patron Café his mom kept in the lowest fridge-shelf and took it out. He closed the refrigerator and spun around, walking over to the table and taking a seat across from where Melissa and Alana were sitting. They stopped speaking and gave him an odd look, but said nothing.

Jack took a plastic cup off the stack in the middle of the table and looked down on it in confusion. After a few seconds of remaining motionless, Sexy came to the rescue.

”Oh! I see what’s going on, Stud. You don’t know how much to pour. I forgot you’ve never had alcohol before. Okay, fill it up about one-third the way, and that should be good enough. The stuff is powerful though, so watch out.”

Jack continued to remain motionless. The voice on the other end sighed. “One-third is the same as saying, ‘imagine if you could divide the cup into three pieces’, each piece is one-third. Come on, Stud, even I know that much.”

Jack ignored the slight feeling of bitterness he felt as he poured a small amount of the liquid into the plastic cup.

He thinks he’s so smart and perfect just because he knows fractions, Jack thought, annoyed.

Jack refocused himself on the task at hand, making himself forget the annoyance at the demeaning tone that Sexy had used with him.

“Umm, sweetie?” Alana said. She and Melissa raised an eyebrow at each other. “Why are you pouring yourself alcohol?”

“Yeah,” Melissa added. “What gives?”

Jack took a deep breath and prepared himself. The voice in his ear chimed in as well.

“It’s now or never, Stud. Just do it exactly like we rehearsed. You’ll be fine, bud.”

Jack reached into the pocket of his black jeans with a shaking, nervous hand, and took out a pair of black sunglasses. Placing it over his face, he forced himself to wear his most confident and cocky grin, as he met Melissa’s gaze.

“Because, honey, I need to get my freak on,” Jack said, draining the black liquid in one massive gulp.

Wow, this doesn’t taste that bad, it’s actually not bad at …

Jack had to use every drop of willpower not to spit out the burning black liquid. It was awful, it was painful, and it was among the worst things he’d ever tasted!

Oh dear god, he thought. This is awful! Keep it together, Jack. Keep it together!

Jack didn’t think his internal struggle showed on his face, so he was probably still in the green. He got up and put the bottle away and returned to sit down at the table.

“So, Melissa, did you get your nails done? They look lovely, I mean, they’re just so incredible.”

Melissa gave Jack a suspicious, inquiring look. She turned to Alana, who seemed to be doing the same. For a brief moment, a look of amusement entered Melissa’s expression, but it was replaced soon after by a grin.

“So, Jack, what’s with the glasses? What’s with the drinking?” Melissa asked.

Jack repeated out loud what the voice was telling him. “Babe, sometimes I like to play on the dangerous side of things. I’d show you, but I don’t think you could handle it. Some people are just too hot to handle, sweetheart, and you just stumbled on one.”

“Oh yea, is that right?” Melissa gave Alana a wink and stood up from the table. She walked over to where Jack was sitting and came to stand in front of him. Jack’s heart beat faster as he wondered what she was up to.

She put her hands on his shoulders and pushed both him and his chair out a bit, so that it was no longer under the table. Jack croaked out loud as she sat on his lap, facing him.

IS THIS HAPPENING? Jack was screaming on the inside.

She ran her hands along his face. She lifted up his sunglasses and made him meet her beautiful, blue eyes. She ruffled his hair and moved her hands to hold the side of his face. Melissa tilted his head to the side, and before Jack could stop her, in one quick swipe she plucked the Comm-unit out of his ear.

“I can explain!” Jack cried, his voice high-pitched and broken.

Melissa got off Jack, and Alana burst out laughing. Melissa joined in soon after. “Did you know, Mrs. Harris?” she said in between laughing fits.

“Oh yeah, that was painfully obvious.”

Jack sat paralyzed with shame. Melissa raised her palm to her mouth with the small device resting inside her hand. “Nice try, Michael. I wonder what Paro’s going to think when he finds out you and Jack stole expensive technology for such a stupid reason.”

Even from where Jack was sitting, he could hear the voice shouting out of the other end, in a fake Russian accent. “Is no Michael, girl, my name is a Vlad.”

Melissa put the device in her pocket and silenced the voice, causing Alana to burst out into another fit of laughter. They looked at Jack, a look of both disappointment and amusement in each of their eyes.

“Really, Jack? How dumb do you think I am, trying to seduce me with such stupid lines?”

Jack stood up and blushed. “That’s not what happened, Melissa, I was only—”

For some reason Jack lost his balance and almost tripped over his char. “I was-was only, umm, what was I saying?”

“Haha! Look, Melissa, our little Jack is drunk.”

Jack yelled at the two. “You-you don’t know what it is … what it is you’re trying to know!” Jack wondered if his words made any sense. After a moment in thought, he realized they did. Melissa pulled him in and gave him a playful kiss on the cheek. “Try something a little more creative next time, Jack.” She returned to her seat next to Alana.

Jack went to sit down and instead fell to the floor, landing with a thud on his bottom.

Oh yeah, he remembered. The chair was over there.

******

“So, this is where the Harris-kid lives, is it? Not bad, not bad at all.” Cemmera scanned the house with hungry eyes. It was almost time for her to have some fun.

Her team took turns looking through the binoculars outside the only window in the back of the truck. The home looked like a cute place to live, in a decent and quiet neighborhood. Neil and Santos discussed the entry plan while the two Telekinetics remained silent.

“Santos, give me a read.” Cemmera looked over to him. He disengaged his chatter with Neil and turned his face to the ground, gathering data.

“As far as I can see there are three in the house and all of them are Psychs. Looks like we got a Reinforcer, a Kinetic, and a … that’s odd. I can’t tell what the Harris-kid is. This hasn’t happened before. I mean, it feels like he’s,” Santos paused. “It feels like he’s nothing. But that doesn’t make any sense either.”

Cemmera grunted. “We already know he’s a Telekinetic—don’t worry about it.”

Santos was unlike most other Telepaths, in fact, most of her team members were unlike any other. Cemmera demanded greatness and strength. She made sure that each member of her team could pull their weight in any situation.

Few Telepaths could tell a Psych’s affinity simply from sensing them. It was one of the reasons she allowed Santos on the team, despite only possessing a mediocre amount of power.

“As you say, Captain.” Santos resumed peering through the back-window of the van.

“Cemmera, I really think we’re about to make a very big mistake here,” Neil said. He had a look of worry on his face, which Santos mirrored. The two Kinetic twins had blank expressions, which was pretty typical of them. Daniel and Joseph Remos rarely had much to say, often following along and agreeing with whatever Cemmera wanted. It was always Neil and Santos that gave her trouble.

“I agree with Neil, Cemmera,” Santos said. “If the most updated report is to be believed—and I believe it is—Jack Harris is now an official member of our organization, and we already know that Melissa Sayre, age sixteen, Reinforcer, is a member as well. Cemmera, if we attack them, we might be signing our own kill-orders.”

Cemmera trembled with anger. Nothing bothered her more than when her team was being stupid or acting like cowards. And right now, they were doing both.

“Listen up, you idiots! It’s our responsibility to make sure that criminals like Jack Harris don’t get to roam this Earth. You’ve all seen the evidence, and I know you’ve all seen the probable links. Once we force the Harris-kid to confess, he’ll be within our jurisdiction to eliminate. And as far as the two with him go, well, we’ll offer them the chance to surrender. If they give us a hard time, then we are well within our rights to execute them as well on the grounds of aiding and abetting. You two are really starting to drive me nuts. I mean, come on already guys! Will you just wake up and look at the evidence for crying out loud? Our investigation clearly shows that—”

“Investigation?” Neil interrupted. “Cemmera, with all due respect, it is not our job to investigate. We are operations. We just get the kill-order and act on it. We’re taking things into our own hands, things which we don’t even have the right to. Furthermore, even if we did, we still don’t have nearly enough evidence to say for certain that Jack Harris is linked or involved in any way with the killings.”

Cemmera tossed Neil a petrifying glare. His eyes lit up in fear as he realized what he had just done. “Neil, did you just interrupt me?”

Neil held out his hands in a surrendering gesture. “I’m very sorry, Cemmera. Please, forgive me.”

“Your arm, now.”

“Please, I promise it will never happen again, I was only caught up in the heat of the—”

“Your arm, Neil. Now!”

With a whimper, Neil rolled up his sleeve, revealing numerous dark red scars leading from his wrist to his shoulder. He made his way over towards Cemmera and sat down in front of her, his eyes closed.

When Cemmera’s boys misbehaved, they were punished. That was the way it was, and that was the way it had to be.

“Open your eyes, Neil. I want you to see it. Don’t aggravate me further, or I’ll give you two punishments instead of one.”

Neil opened his eyes and watched in horror as Cemmera prepared to add a sixth scar to his growing collection. Cemmera had an idea of what it must feel like to be on the receiving end of one of her punishments. It only made them so much more fun to administer.

Grabbing Neil’s arm with her right hand, she raised her left pointer finger and gently stroked his arm up and down, from wrist to shoulder. She liked to tease them first, never letting them know when it was going to begin. Her finger glided along his wrist and back up again, causing Neil to wince each time in anticipation. Cemmera figured it was the worst part of the entire punishment, never knowing when the pain was going to start.

Finally, after thirty seconds—which probably felt more like an hour to Neil—she began. Starting from his wrist, she slowly ran her finger across his skin, leaving behind a bubbling, smoking, trail of red-scarred flesh. They never did bleed—the wound was cauterized in an instant.

Neil whined like a wounded animal, causing Cemmera to feel a sense of pride. There was no higher indication of a person’s strength than their ability to make a brute cry. Looking into his eyes, Cemmera could see that Neil was just on the verge of tears. She leaned over and bit his ear, while her finger slid the last of the distance, completing his sixth punishment. It was then that the middle-aged brute wept, sniffing and trying his best to hold back the tears.

Pathetic, Cemmera thought.

“Listen up, boys, because I’m only going to say this once. Be ready to move out on a moment’s notice. As soon as I give the signal, we move in. For now, we’re going to wait here and see how things play out. Does everyone understand?”

They all nodded, even the wounded Neil. Well, he wasn’t really wounded, at least not physically. Cemmera smiled. She needed to make a kill so bad that it hurt.

Long live the hunt!