Fire Heart 2

Chapter 2

Miss Desjardin's hand flew to her mouth.

"Carrie White!" she gasped, "You're the un-named partner in the newspaper story?!" Carrie nodded.

"We weren't expecting to get caught up in the publicity," said Jace

"And I wanted to be kept out of the spot light for obvious reasons!" said Carrie.

"How do you know this lady, Carrie?" he asked

"Her name is Rita Desjardin," replied Carrie, "She was the gym teacher back in chamberlain and she was only other person besides Sue Snell who ever tried to be help me back then."

Miss Desjardin nodded, "I was about the only person at the black prom that Carrie deliberately spared, even in her rage!"

Miss Desjardin looked at the floor for several seconds,

"I'm so sorry, Carrie," she said, "If only I had listened to Sue when she tried to warn me that Chris was up to something!"

Carrie walked around the desk to Miss Desjardin and to the older woman's surprise hugged her.

"It's okay," she said quietly, "It wasn't your fault. You didn't know."

"Carrie," said Jace handing her the phone Miss Desjardin had given him, "Take at look at this, it's why Miss Desjardin is here."

As Carrie watched the video her eyes widened.

"How did you get this?!" she asked

"My sister took this video," replied Miss Desjardin, "she was, hired by a man, calling himself General Pike. She was hired to tutor the girl in the video. When she saw the military haircuts and the overly clean house, she got suspicious. She smuggled her go pro camera in and hid it one day while she was waiting for the girl to be brought in!"

"And the video is what she got!" said Jace. Miss Desjardin nodded

"My sister and I want you to find this girl and save her from these guys, who ever they are!" she said. "This power the girl has could do all kinds of damage to all kinds of people, if she's not taught to use it the right way!" she said, "she hasn't been called back to tutor the girl since that fire incident."

Jace nodded in understanding then turned to Carrie.

"Are you willing?" he asked Carrie nodded,

"Of course!" she said, "With this kind of power, if she snaps she could cause another Black Prom type disaster! If there is even a chance to prevent something like that then we have to try!"

"I agree," said Jace nodding, "We'll do it."

"How can I help?" Asked Miss Desjardin

"Well first," said Jace, "where did your sister have to go to tutor this girl, where is the house in the video?"

"It's a condo in San Francisco," said Ms. Desjardin, she handed them a piece of paper, "That's the address."

"Alright," said Jace copying the video off the phone, then handing it back to her, "judging from their haircuts, these guys are probably ex-\military and\or mercenaries! I don't think your sister is in any immediate danger, but it would probably be best to tell her to keep a low profile for now!"

Miss Desjardin nodded.

"We'll get to work and keep you posted Miss Desjardin!" said Carrie taking down her phone number. Miss Desjardin nodded and stood up to leave.

"I'm Glad to see you doing so well, Carrie." She said Before she left.

After she closed the door behind her Carrie turned to Jace.

"Do you want me to call the airport and get us two plane tickets to San Francisco?" Jace Nodded, "the earliest flight that you can get! I'll go upstairs and start packing."

A few hours later they were sitting at Gate 24 in the terminal at the Orlando International Airport. They were leaning together with their heads almost touching as they looked at the screen of a tablet. Jace had been passing the time by researching other reports of apparent pyro-kinesis! So far, every case that he had read about turned out to be a fraud, but he was still looking.

After another thirty minutes they were finally allowed to board their flight. After another wait the plane taxied down the runway and lifted off into the sky. They made it as far as Atlanta. Just their luck a storm blew in across the flight path, so their flight was delayed for several hours.

Carrie and Jace decided to take a walk. They ended up wandering into an auction house. Jace smiled as he watched Carrie looking around. Before the Black Prom she didn't shop that much and afterwards there was the year in the psychiatric hospital. But ever since she had come to live with Jace she had been making up for her lack of shopping time with a vengeance.

They walked along the rows of interesting antiques and artifacts. Jace smiled when he felt Carrie's hand slip into his and her fingers intertwine with his. He heard an older lady behind sigh,

"Ah young love."

Carrie mush have heard it too because she blushed, but surprisingly she didn't let go of his hand.

Anyone who had known her back in Chamberlain would be amazed and what a warm, affectionate and almost bubbly person the once shy and withdrawn Carrie was now becoming. Suddenly he was jarred out of his thoughts by the sound of a voice on the other side of a tall carved wood Bureau.

The voice was saying,

"Don't worry General Pike, I'll get it!"

Carrie heard it too, they looked at each other in shock! They couldn't believe their luck! they eased around the bureau and saw a muscular man with his back to them, and a cell phone to his ear. The other thing they noticed that he had the same haircut as the men in the video.

Carrie motioned Jace back out of earshot.

"Jace," she said, "We've got to find out what that guy was sent here to get, and then try to get our hands on it first!"

"You must be a mind reader," said Jace with a playful grin, "That's just exactly what I was going to say!"

Carrie grinned back, "I know," she said.

A few minutes later the auction started, there were various historical artifacts for sale, like an antique signal man's lantern, some old baseball cards, Pieces of antique furniture and other things.

Jace and Carrie kept a close eye on their target. He didn't really pay attention to most of the articles on the auction block. Finally, when the next to last article was brought on to the auction block. He sat up and got serious. The article was a box collection of mint condition issues of every of Rolling Stone Magazine thus far printed, from 1967 to now.

Carrie and Jace looked at each other puzzled. Carrie spoke to Jace telepathically.

"What would General Pike want with a bunch of magazines?!"

"I don't know, we're have to get them first to find out!"

"I read his mind, He has excess to 50,000 dollars."

"I can beat that no problem! But if I do he'll probably call his boss for more."

"I think I can disable his phone from here."

The bidding started at 100 dollars and climbed quickly, by the time that the bids got to 5000 dollars Jace and the General's flunky were the only ones left bidding. The auctioneer's assistants, the auctioneer, and everybody else in the room were scarcely able to believe it when the bidding soared.

A few minutes later when Jace bid 50,050 dollars the man went wild-eyed and grabbed his cell phone.

Carrie concentrated and caused the batter connections inside the phone to short out!

The man slammed the cellphone to the ground in frustration and watched helplessly as the bundle of magazines was sold to Jace and Carrie. Jace went back to the cashier's window and used his debit card to pay for the purchase then he and Carrie carried the crate of magazines out the door and back toward the airport. They were so thankful for their telekinesis which made carrying almost fifty years would of magazines much, much easier.

When they got inside the airport and to a place where they could sit down Carrie turned to Jace.

"We're never going to figure out why he wanted these before it's time to board the plane if we go through them the conventional way."

Jace nodded, "you're right." He said, "Let's telepathically scan them for anything to do with girls and pyro-kinesis or General Pike."

Jace had been teaching Carrie to expand her telepathy and this was one thing he had taught her to do. They closed their eyes and focused suddenly it was like their mind's eye was taking them through all the magazines with the speed of an internet search engine.

Suddenly Carrie's eyes shot open and so did Jace's

"did you see it?!" she asked

Jace nodded, "It's in a 1984 issue!" the pawed through the Magazines until they found what they were looking for. It was an article in an august issue. It told the story of a nine-year-old girl named Charlene McGee, who had proved to the writer, of the article, that she was capable of pyro-kinesis. It went on to tell of how her parents were part of secret government experiment in the late sixties. They were dosed with a chemical called Lot-6. By a government agency called The Shop. It had given her mother the ability to read minds, and her father the ability to control minds. They had gotten free of the program and gone on to get married and have her. Charlene or Charlie as they called her had the ability to start and control fires.

Earlier that year, The Shop's agents had come after her family again wanting to harness her power and use it as a weapon. They had murdered her parents, and she used her power to all but destroy the agency and their base.

What really caught their eye, was the picture of Charlie.

"Jace," said Carrie, "That's the girl in the video! But, wait, how can it be? This picture was taken over thirty years ago!"

Jace shook his head. He was as bewildered as Carrie. It was true though, the girl in the picture and the girl in the video that Ms. Desjardin brought them were Identical!

Then Jace stopped short and looked at Carrie. This time he didn't need his telepathy he could tell by the look on her face that she had just thought of the same thing.

"They cloned her!"

TBC…. Here is the second chapter. Let me know what you think.