Jackson Humes is Not a Superhero

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Everyone remained silent after Diego finished. Mr. Saltzman appeared greatly diminished, his shoulders were hunched forward and he had tears in his eyes. Officer Richards and Shannon were in utter disbelief. I was somewhere between wanting to cry and wanting to throw up. Marv's hands were balled up into fists; his knuckles had gone completely white. The realization that Doctor Norman was behind our parents' deaths was more than I could process. I always believed that they had died in a car accident. They had died in a car accident, only now I knew it hadn't been an accident.

"It's okay to feel angry," Diego said quietly. "Even after all these years, I still struggle with it. You just have to make sure that it doesn't consume you."

A crying Officer Velasquez walked over to Diego and collapsed into his arms. "Why didn't you ever tell me any of this?"

Diego rubbed her shoulder. He looked infinitely sad. "It happened a long time ago. I never wanted you to carry my burden. You've already suffered in so many different ways than I ever had to."

I couldn't even begin to imagine what she must have been feeling at the moment. I thought of Tanner and how angry I'd been at him earlier in the day. Now I just wanted to reach out to him and let him know I was okay.

"Can I borrow your phone?" I asked Marv.

"I'm going to kill him," Marv said softly. "When we find him, I'm going to tear his limbs off with my teeth. I'm going to make him suffer."

His words startled me. I wasn't the only one. Mr. Saltzman was looking at him with great concern. I was just as angry as Marv, but I didn't think I would ever be able to kill someone. I didn't think it would be something you could ever come back from. I needed to pull Marv out of the dark place he had slipped into, but the words weren't there.

"I think we should all just take a moment and settle down," Officer Richards said. "I know emotions are high right now, but we are going to find this lunatic and bring him to justice using the full weight of the law."

I knew Marv well enough to know the officer's words had no impact on him. He handed me his phone. The look in his eyes scared me.

I punched Tanner's number into the phone and barely noticed when the line stopped ringing. "Hey Tanner, it's Jackson—"

"Hello, Jackson," said the voice on the other end that was definitely not my brother's.

"Who is this?"

"That was quite the little rescue you and your cop friends staged." There was sinister amusement in his voice. The hair on my arms stood on end. "Was that a velociraptor I saw with you?"

Suddenly I felt like I was at the bottom of the ocean; my stomach turned to ice, my ears buzzed with fear, and everything became fuzzy. My instincts had been right, Doctor Norman had been watching us the entire time. I stood up and felt all the blood rush out of my head. "Who is this?" I demanded. "What have you done with Tanner?"

The cops jumped into action. Officer Velasquez took the phone out of my hand and put it on speaker. She took out a pen and a small pad and mouthed, "What's his number?" As soon as I had finished writing it down, she hurried over to one of the computers. Officer Richards whipped out his phone and began recording the conversation. 

"It's not what I have done with him, but what I'm going to do if you don't follow my instructions exactly as I say." He paused to make sure the threat had ample time to form imageries in my head. "I want you, Diego, and your prehistoric friend to meet me behind the school bleachers at your high school in half an hour, and you better come alone. If I so much as smell any cops in the area, you will never hear from your brother again. Understood?"

A hard lump formed in my throat, making speech all but impossible. I finally got the word yes out.

"Good. I'll call you with further instructions once I see that you have followed directions." The line went silent.

"We have another problem." Shannon held up his phone. "The meeting tonight is taking place in the football field at Stanley High School in thirty minutes. The place is going to be swarming with parents, teachers, and students."  

"I got something," Officer Velasquez called out. I ran over to where she was sitting and stared at the map on the screen. I tried to make sense of it but didn't recognize the geography. "This can't be right she mumbled."

"What can't be right?" I couldn't keep the rising panic out of my voice.

"It says here that the call came from somewhere up in Canada on the other side of the country. There's no possible way your brother could have been taken there that fast. I saw him just a few hours ago. A trip like this would take at least eight hours."

Officer Richards came over and frowned at the screen. "Maybe he's using some sort of technology that scrambles his location and bounces it to somewhere else."

"Or maybe," Diego said, "he can cover large distances in a short amount of time. Wasn't that one of the experiments he was working on?"

Mr. Saltzman nodded once.

"I'm calling it in," Officer Richards said, pulling out his phone.

Marv spoke up before I could. "You heard him, he'll hurt Tanner if the cops are there."

"A lot more people might get hurt if they aren't," Officer Richards said somberly. "After hearing Diego's story, I don't think any of us should be willing to take that chance."

Diego slowly backed away. Both officers' guns, and portable radios, along with the cell phone Officer Richards was about to use, darted across the room and landed on the table. Before they'd had a chance to protest, the officers flew into the air as well. Officer Velasquez's handcuffs flew out of her belt and snapped itself around her left hand and Officer Richards' right hand. The other set of handcuffs wrapped itself around his left hand and onto a pipe that was running along the wall. Finally, both sets of handcuff keys coasted through the air and onto Diego's outstretched palm.

"Diego, have you lost your mind?" Mr. Saltzman protested, turning from the shocked officers and facing off against the much younger man.

"Sadly I haven't, but it has to be this way. Doctor Norman has hidden himself for thirteen years. I'm not going to let this opportunity slip by."

"I will not stand by and let you put these kids in danger," Mr. Saltzman said. "I can't, not again."

"Do you remember how Josh told us years ago that the CIA had come up with a technology that could help keep track of their agents?" he asked. Mr. Saltzman nodded. "Well I let them inject me. Josh will be able to track me down."

"That's fine for you, but I still can't let you take Marv and Jackson. They're innocent in all of this. Haven't they suffered enough?"

"I want to go," Marv said defiantly. "And you can't stop me."

The situation was devolving quickly.

"A guard once asked a fifteen-year-old boy to let him do the right thing, do you remember?"

All the fight left Mr. Saltzman. "I remember."

"This is how you can make things right. This is how you can make amends for not helping all those frightened children who were locked up and got gunned down. This is how you can honor the memories of those slain that the world has forgotten."

"If something happens to them," Mr. Saltzman's voice broke, "I will never forgive myself and I will never forgive you."

"I will not let any harm come to them. I promise." He motioned to the cops who were fruitlessly struggling to escape. "Keep an eye on them. Whatever you do, don't let them blow this for us. The kid here can help you." He pointed to Shannon.

"Diego, don't do this," his sister pleaded.

Diego turned his back on her. "Let's go, he said to Marv and me, "it's time for payback."

I took one glance behind me. Shannon and Mr. Saltzman seemed at a loss for what to do. Officer Velasquez had an expression of grief and betrayal on her face. But nothing compared to Officer Richards face. The man was pissed. I hurried out of the warehouse, wondering if it would be the last time I would ever see them again.