'May I sit down?' he asked.
Seeing as how he didn't mind turning up out of the blue, it seemed nice that he asked for a chair. I pointed him to one as everyone stared at him in amazement. Brodie had her mouth wide open. Dan froze with a forkful of food in hand. Ebony had eyes like saucers and Chad—
Well, it didn't seem like anything ever impressed him. He simply raised an eyebrow and shot me a look before glaring at Jones.
'This is a nice pad you've got here,' Jones said, peering about as he sat. 'Who picked the apartment?'
Dan held up the fork. A piece of pancake slid onto the floor.
'You've got class, kid,' he said.
'Thanks.'
'Enough of this bull!' Chad snapped. 'Who are you? And what are you doing here?'
Chad looked so angry even I felt worried. I remembered the burst of fire that had engulfed Ravana back at the building. Jones, however, regarded him with little more than mild curiosity. He looked him up and down before clasping his hands together.
'Chad,' he said, sighing. 'It's been a while.'
I stared.
He knows Chad's name.
'Okay,' Brodie said. 'What's going on? Who are you, and how did you find us?'
Jones nodded. 'You deserve answers,' he said. 'Especially after everything you've been through. Some I can provide and others might forever remain a mystery. First of all—'
'Our names,' I interrupted. 'What are our names? Our full names.'
He smiled sadly. 'Unfortunately, I don't have that information,' he said. 'I'm not sure anyone does.'
'And what happened to our memories?' Dan asked. 'Why can't we remember our identities?'
Mister Jones held up a hand. 'Let me explain how you came to be here. That should answer most of your questions.'
'Go ahead,' I said.
He took a deep breath. 'You're part of something known as The Alpha Project,' he said. 'The name has several meanings. Alpha is the first of its kind. Alpha is also short for alphabet. Your names—your chosen names—are derived from the alphabet.'
Okay. He'd already lost me. 'What do you mean?'
He counted on his fingers. 'Axel, Brodie, Chad, Dan, and Ebony.' He paused. 'Do you notice anything? Your names are—'
'The first five letters of the alphabet,' I said. 'A, B, C, D and E.'
We digested this.
'The Alpha Project,' Jones continued, 'is one of the many scientific endeavors carried out by The Agency. The scientists who created it assembled a group of orphaned children to create a new form of modified human.'
Dan spoke. 'And The Agency is…'
Jones sighed. 'Okay,' he said. 'Brace yourselves. I'm about to tell you some things that will completely change your whole view of the world.'
Well, I thought. It's already been a weird couple of days. Why not have our entire worldview shifted as well?
'Sure,' Brodie said.
He studied our faces one by one. 'Okay. Here it is.' He paused. 'Aliens are here on Earth. They're called the Bakari, and they've been on Earth for thousands of years. The Agency was started by the Bakari to monitor and guide our activities.'
No one said anything.
Mister Jones continued. 'One day we're joining the galactic club,' he said, motioning upwards. 'We'll be a fully-fledged member of everything that's out there. Spaceships. Intergalactic travel. Until then, they're helping us develop technologies to get ready for that day.'
Still, everyone was silent.
'Mostly, The Bakari leave us to our own affairs. They don't want to interfere with our internal politics, but nor do they want us to destroy ourselves.' Mister Jones rubbed his chin. 'That would be a waste. They want us to help ourselves, which is why you were modified. Your job is to help make the world a better place.' Mister Jones stopped. 'Does anyone have any questions?'
'I do,' Chad said. 'Is there any leftover pizza from last night?'
I ignored him. 'How come no one's ever heard of The Agency?' I asked. 'How could something like this be kept a secret?'
'We have our methods,' Mister Jones said, mysteriously. 'The Bakari help us along the way, but mostly they like to observe. They don't want to interfere.'
'But the Bakari—The Agency—are happy to use teenagers for experiments,' Chad said.
'Orphaned teenagers,' Brodie said.
I could understand her dismay. The same thought had already been going through my mind. I'd eventually expected to find my parents. Maybe even brothers and sisters. Now it looked like none existed.
'You were all chosen because your parents had died or abandoned you,' Jones said. 'Some of you were in orphanages. Some were in juvenile prisons. You all signed paperwork consenting to the procedure. We used teenagers because your bodies are still growing. Adult tissue, as the scientists have found, does not work. Adult test subjects do not survive.'
Brodie laughed without humor. 'We signed paperwork?' she said. 'But we have no memory of doing that. How convenient.'
'I assure you we explained the process in full,' he said. 'I'm told you were all most enthusiastic. And why not? You were promised powers far beyond those that any human has ever possessed.'
'You made us…superheroes,' Dan said slowly as if trying to assimilate this one piece at a time. 'And there are aliens on Earth. Do they have two heads? Are they grays like in the movies?'
'They look just like you and me,' Mister Jones assured him. 'Identical.'
'And you operated on us…' Ebony said.
'The scientists in charge of The Alpha Project made you superheroes,' he said. 'The combination of drugs and implants react naturally with your own latent genetic abilities.' He looked at Brodie. 'You were naturally fast and lithe, so you became even more so. Axel rated highly in terms of psychic abilities. So did Dan and Chad.'
'But I can make fire and ice,' Chad protested. 'And Ebony can transmute substances. What sort of latent genetic abilities are those?'
'Those are abilities that have been long lost and forgotten,' Jones said. 'Some of our ancestors had these abilities millennia ago, but these genes were dispersed throughout the gene pool. The Alpha Project reactivated those genetic markers.'
I shook my head. This was too much. Too crazy. It meant I had no family. My name was stolen from me. I'd agreed to become some kind of…superhero. It means every human being also had latent abilities.
There were aliens on Earth.
Aliens.
'I ended up in a seedy hotel room?' I said. 'What went wrong?'
'Our security went wrong,' Jones said grimly. 'An organization known as Typhoid infiltrated The Agency intending to kill you all. You would have died, but a group of scientists, led by a man named Doctor Richards, removed you from the facility to save your lives.
'They were uncertain as to whom they could trust, so they planned to reassemble once the crisis had passed at The Agency. Unfortunately, Typhoid was ahead of us and ambushed the scientists at a meeting. Most of them were killed.'
'Was that Doctor Richards in the hotel room?' I asked. 'He died shortly after I awoke.'
'We believe he survived the attack and returned to the hotel.'
Chad frowned. 'We were abandoned in places all over the city with no memories and no one to turn to,' he said. 'That's not much of a save.'
'It was better than certain death,' Jones pointed out. 'I'm sure you prefer their poor solution to no solution at all.'
I thought back to the man in the hotel room. It seemed so long ago. Like it had happened to a different person. I almost asked Mister Jones about the meaning of the book and the strange device we found inside it, except I remembered Richards' words.
Trust no one.
Some…at The Agency…will help you.
That might not necessarily include Mister Jones. Or maybe it did. Regardless, the best way to handle this was quietly. Dan had some psychic abilities. Perhaps they'd help us later to work out who we could trust.
'So, what happens now?' I asked.
'That's a good question. It's taken us some time to track you down. Now you have to complete your training.'
'Really?' Chad said, giving him a mocking grin. 'I like things exactly how they are.'
Jones did a pretty good job of maintaining his cool. It was apparent that Chad's superpowers also included annoying people to the point where they wanted to punch him in the face. I agreed with Chad—and I still wanted to punch him in the face.
'You all signed waivers,' Mister Jones said. 'You belong to us whether you like it or not.'
'I belong to me,' Chad said.
'We don't want to force you back,' Jones said. 'Twelve, in particular, wants you back to assist with a mission.'
'Twelve—what?' Brodie said.
'He's known as Twelve,' Mister Jones explained. 'He's—'
'Don't tell me,' Chad said. 'He's an alien.'
'Correct. Anyway, we don't want to force you back—'
'I'd like to see you try.'
'I hope it won't come to that.' The agented looked ready to try a different tact when a knock came at the door. Dan went to answer it.
'Must be the ice cream I ordered,' he said.
'You ordered ice cream for breakfast?' I said.
'Absolutely,' he said. 'You know the old saying: eat, drink and eat ice-cream for tomorrow we die?'
Brodie shook her head. 'I don't think it quite goes like that.'
Dan opened the door. One of the serving carts was waiting outside. The attendant had already gone. As Dan wheeled it in, I thought it weird that room service had abandoned the cartload of food. It seemed so unlike—
Daniel lifted the serving cover, and I saw a maze of wiring.
No!
The cart exploded.