Free Forgotten by Kailin Gow Page A

want her raising the alarm, but I guess I’ll never get used to the clinical, efficient way Jack can be when he’s on a mission. I guess that’s because I haven’t been brought up to be a Fader.
                Then again, if everything in the last few weeks is anything to go by, my life is a lot more complicated than I ever thought it could be.
                Jack and I look around some more. Now that I know we’re looking for a penthouse, the layout of the place makes a lot more sense. It’s a skyscraper. It’s obvious once I get the chance to see it all. It’s just that I’ve been blindfolded for so much of my time here.
                “Did you see this place from the outside?” I ask.
                Jack nods. “It’s right at the edge of a town, with ‘Hammond Industries’ down the side in big letters. I guess the senator doesn’t believe in secret bases.”
                “He probably thinks that he doesn’t need to hide that much,” I point out. “If you’re keeping industrial secrets anyway, then adding in a few cells to keep troublesome kids in isn’t going to be too difficult.”
                “No,” Jack says. “I guess not.”
                “Was it hard getting your dad’s help for this mission?” I ask.
                “He wasn’t there,” Jack says, “and I couldn’t take the risk of him saying no. It was easier just to find a few Faders from the old Locations and put the mission together myself. Quicker too, and I knew that we couldn’t afford to waste any time. With a man like the senator, I didn’t know what he’d do.”
                I can’t help thinking back to the images on that video file. “Well, I guess we both know now. Let’s get Johnny and get out of here.”
                Jack nods. “You realize he might not want to go?”
                I hadn’t thought of that. To me, it seemed obvious that anyone would want to get away from a guy like the senator. That anyone would want to get out of a place where they’re trying to wipe your memory, but Jack’s right. Senator Hammond is Johnny’s father, and he obviously cares about him even if he has a seriously weird way of showing it. So even if I know Johnny doesn’t want to be faded, there’s still a chance that he won’t want to come with us.
                “What do we do then?” I ask.
                Jack pauses for a moment, and then he says what I think we’re both thinking. “If he won’t come willingly, then we might have to take him anyway. He’s not old enough to understand the implications, and I’m not letting the kid be faded.”
                “So we kidnap him?” I ask. I want to be clear about it.
                “We can’t leave him here, Celes.” Jack moves along the hallway, trying more doors. “Not when they’re going to do that to him. And if you’re right about what he can see…”
                I want to ask if this is about Johnny or about how useful he could be to the Faders, but I don’t. I don’t need to, with Jack. After what his dad did to him after his mother’s death, this is always going to be about Johnny.
                We find a stairwell and head up. It’s a long climb, but we’re both running by then, at the kind of speed only we can. We cover the stairs faster than an elevator would have, quickly reaching the top floor. There’s a hall there, with two doors for suites. We stop at the first of them, mostly because Jack puts his hand out to make sure I don’t go in. It’s then that I hear the people talking in the room beyond. One of them is Senator Hammond, while the other… I know that voice, because it has threatened to kill me more than once. What is Richard, Grayson’s father, doing there?
                “Scott, take Johnny through to the lounge so that I can finish talking