Yesterday's Tomorrow People

Returns

The blacked-out Suburban smelled new and clean. It was warm with the heater blowing on his feet in the middle seat behind the driver. Walking outside from the building had gotten his shoes just wet enough to make it uncomfortable. Winter had begun a while ago, but it had just snowed for the first time this year. His "boss" sat in the passenger seat.  Dr. Jedikiah Price was almost a father to him. He was saved from an abusive situation at the age of ten and brought to Ultra by Jedikiah. He tried his best to block out those long years before Jedikiah came along. 

They left the senator's office and were on the car ride home. Jedikiah had to discuss with the senator about a new species of people that were "breaking out." They were the Tomorrow People. He explained how it seemed impossible, how he did not want funding. He wanted to show the senator how a Tomorrow Person could be weaponized to aid in protection and security of the human race. Dr. Price was not a Tomorrow Person, but his brother Roger was. He had researched years with Roger to better understand the Tomorrow People and their evolution. He reviewed the past hour in his head.

----

The senator stood in disbelief and started to call security. Jedikiah stopped him by snatching and throwing the phone across the desk onto the ground. "I'll show you. Just stand still and watch," Dr. Price stated. A quiet whoosh sounded as a young man appeared out of thin air. He had a gun aimed towards the senator. "This is John Young, my best and, currently, my only agent. He is a Tomorrow Person with the ability to kill, which until a few years ago was not even a dream for his kind. It was a genetic fault. Nature has its ways to balance, doesn't it?" He paused to rest and began again. "Ultra experimented and found the correct formula to give a Tomorrow Person the ability. John was the first success. Recently, his abilities improved with the aid of my brother. He is now fully weaponized."

As they left the senator's office, John received a profile from Jedikiah. It meant a mission was near in the future. As they walked down a maze of halls to the elevator, John thumbed the outside of the unmarked manila folder. When Dr. Price and John reached the elevator, they waited for it in silence as it slowly crawled up the seven floors to where they were. They both kept their faces down and only glanced up to see if the elevator had reached the floor yet. The light above the elevator lit and a ding sounded. The doors opened. John waited for Dr. Price to enter the elevator and proceeded to follow onto it. A sigh escaped Dr. Price when he turned to face the closing doors of the elevator as if he had put in a full day's work. John stood motionless waiting.

"John, you may open the file now. I don't understand why you haven't already. I thought you excited to get back into the swing of it all, yes?"

John looked at the profile and back to Dr. Price quickly. "Yes, sir," John started. "I just wanted to wait until we were out of the public eye. I--"

"You held a senator at gunpoint, and you are nervous about opening a file in public? John, come on. You really have lost the spark after all these years. And you know better than to call me 'sir'. I told you Jed is fine. We've been working together for years now." He took a quiet breath. "Even with a couple years of absence, you've worked with me. You are like my son." That word echoed in John's mind for a few seconds.

John opened the file in a swift motion trying to avoid the topic. Inside the profile was a series of photos and information regarding the attached list of persons. "They are like you, Tomorrow People," Jed explained. "Only they are not as evolved and skilled as you. I want to change that. I want to make a few more like you." John glanced at the three-page list of names.

"What do you mean 'make'?," John questioned.

"I'll explain it all once we are in the car and out of here, far from here. I'm fairly certain the senator would have called the police by now without the part about you appearing out of thin air." The elevator slowed and stalled on the "Garage" floor beneath the lobby. The familiar ding sounded again.