JJ Psychic

Chapter 10

A Different Life

JJ had expected freedom to feel different.

For most of his childhood, freedom had been something he imagined.

He imagined walking wherever he wanted.

Choosing what to eat.

Sleeping without worrying about someone entering his room.

Talking without needing Ricky beside him.

After escaping Orion Division, he had finally experienced some of it.

But now he was discovering that freedom had another side.

Responsibility.

The organization had given him an apartment, clothes, food, identification, and access to medical care. They had repaired his voice box and given him something he had wanted for most of his life.

In return, they expected him to work.

JJ understood that.

What he hadn't expected was how quickly his new life would become routine.

Every morning, he woke up alone.

Every afternoon, he trained.

Every evening, he returned to his apartment.

There were no locked laboratory doors.

No guards standing outside his bedroom.

No researchers watching him through glass.

Technically, he was free.

Yet sometimes JJ couldn't shake the feeling that he was still being watched.

---

His voice had become stronger.

He still spoke carefully because he wasn't used to hearing himself.

Sometimes he would accidentally say something and stop simply because hearing his own voice still surprised him.

One morning, he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

"Good morning."

He paused.

"That still sounds weird."

JJ smiled at himself.

Then he laughed.

The laugh surprised him even more.

For years, he had communicated almost entirely through gestures and writing.

Now he could complain.

He could joke.

He could argue.

He could say exactly what he wanted.

But there was one person he wanted to talk to more than anyone else.

Ricky.

JJ wondered whether Ricky had heard about the operation.

He wondered whether Ricky knew he could speak again.

He wondered whether Ricky would even care.

The thought made him uncomfortable.

JJ walked away from the mirror.

He didn't want to think about it.

---

His new colleagues slowly became familiar with him.

Some were friendly.

Others were cautious.

A few were clearly uncomfortable around him.

JJ understood why.

His abilities were unusual.

People had heard stories about him.

A teenager who could move objects without touching them.

Someone who could teleport objects.

Someone who possessed incredible physical strength.

But JJ didn't want people to fear him.

He wanted them to see him as a person.

One afternoon, he entered the organization's cafeteria.

A group of agents were sitting at a table.

One of them looked at him.

"That's him."

Another whispered something.

JJ ignored them.

He collected his food and sat alone.

A few minutes later, someone sat across from him.

"Mind if I join you?"

JJ looked up.

It was Marcus.

JJ shrugged.

Marcus smiled.

"You'll get used to them."

JJ looked toward the other agents.

"Do they always stare?"

"Usually."

"Why?"

Marcus shrugged.

"You're different."

JJ looked down at his food.

"I've heard that before."

Marcus didn't ask what he meant.

That was one of the things JJ appreciated about him.

---

As the weeks passed, JJ began receiving assignments.

Nothing major.

Mostly observation.

Surveillance.

Retrieving information.

Stopping small criminal operations.

He rarely needed to fight.

His abilities made most tasks easier.

But there was something unusual about the assignments.

JJ started noticing patterns.

Several missions involved people connected to Orion Division.

At first, he assumed it was a coincidence.

Then it happened again.

And again.

One evening, JJ returned from an assignment and placed the mission report on his desk.

He opened it.

The target had been a former Orion employee.

JJ stared at the name.

He knew it.

The man had worked in one of the laboratories when JJ was younger.

JJ remembered seeing him.

The memory made his stomach tighten.

Why was the organization interested in him?

JJ searched through the information provided.

There wasn't much.

The man had apparently stolen confidential information from Orion.

That was all.

JJ closed the file.

He decided not to question it.

At least for now.

---

A few days later, another assignment arrived.

Another former Orion employee.

This time, JJ recognized the name immediately.

She had been one of the researchers who studied his abilities when he was a child.

JJ stared at her photograph.

He remembered her voice.

He remembered the white coat.

He remembered sitting in a chair while she wrote notes about him.

His hands tightened.

The organization wanted him to locate her.

JJ stared at the mission instructions.

He couldn't explain why, but something felt wrong.

He approached Marcus.

"Why are we looking for her?"

Marcus looked at the file.

"She's suspected of selling classified information."

"To whom?"

"We don't know."

JJ frowned.

"So we're supposed to find her?"

"That's the assignment."

JJ remained silent.

Marcus looked at him.

"You know her?"

JJ nodded.

"She worked at Orion."

Marcus's expression changed slightly.

"I didn't know that."

"Now you do."

Marcus took the file.

"I'll speak to the director."

JJ nodded.

As Marcus walked away, JJ watched him.

For the first time, he wondered whether Marcus knew more than he was telling him.

---

The following morning, the assignment was cancelled.

JJ found that strange.

He had expected questions.

Instead, he was simply told that the target had disappeared.

JJ didn't believe it.

He began investigating quietly.

He didn't break into restricted systems.

He didn't steal information.

He simply paid attention.

He listened to conversations.

He watched people.

He noticed that whenever Orion was mentioned, certain agents became uncomfortable.

That couldn't be a coincidence.

JJ started keeping notes.

Not because he was planning anything.

He simply wanted to understand what was happening.

---

One night, JJ returned to his apartment later than usual.

He placed his keys on the table.

Something felt wrong.

He looked around.

Everything appeared normal.

The furniture was where he had left it.

The lights were off.

Nothing seemed disturbed.

Then JJ noticed his notebook.

It had been moved.

He had left it on the desk.

Now it was on the floor.

JJ picked it up.

He opened it.

The pages were blank.

He flipped through them.

Some of his notes were missing.

JJ froze.

Someone had entered his apartment.

He checked the door.

No damage.

No broken lock.

Whoever had entered had a key.

JJ stood silently in the middle of the room.

For the first time since joining the organization, he felt genuinely unsafe.

He looked toward the window.

Nothing.

Then he heard a sound behind him.

JJ spun around.

Nobody was there.

His hand lifted automatically.

A chair flew across the room.

It hit the wall.

Nothing.

JJ lowered his hand.

He took a breath.

"Calm down."

His own voice sounded strange in the empty room.

He looked at the notebook again.

Someone had been searching through his belongings.

But why?

---

The next morning, JJ reported what happened.

The organization took it seriously.

At least, that's what they told him.

Security officers inspected his apartment.

They found no evidence of forced entry.

His locks were replaced.

A camera was installed outside his door.

JJ was told everything was under control.

But he wasn't convinced.

Someone had entered.

Someone had looked through his notes.

And whoever it was hadn't taken anything valuable.

They had only searched.

That meant they were looking for information.

Information about him.

Information about Orion.

Or perhaps information about Ricky.

The thought immediately made JJ uneasy.

He hadn't written much about Ricky.

But there were a few old notes.

Names.

Memories.

Places.

JJ had kept them because Ricky was the most important person in his life.

If someone had found them...

JJ didn't want to imagine what they could do.

---

That evening, JJ sat at his desk.

He opened a fresh notebook.

He wrote one sentence:

I need to find Ricky.

He stared at it.

For months, he had avoided contacting his friend because he was afraid of what Ricky would say.

Now he realized something.

Waiting wouldn't solve anything.

JJ picked up the communication device the organization had given him.

He searched through the available contacts.

Ricky's name wasn't there.

Of course it wasn't.

JJ placed the device down.

He needed another way.

He began thinking about everything he knew.

The factory.

Their old escape route.

The places they had visited.

The people they had met.

Then he remembered something.

Ricky had always been better at disappearing than JJ.

If Ricky didn't want to be found, ordinary methods wouldn't work.

JJ sighed.

"Where are you?"

There was no answer.

---

Weeks passed.

JJ continued working.

But something had changed.

He was paying closer attention now.

He noticed that some missions were being kept from him.

He noticed that certain files disappeared shortly after he read them.

He noticed that some agents knew things about his childhood that he had never told them.

And slowly, an uncomfortable possibility began forming in his mind.

Maybe the organization hadn't recruited him simply because they wanted his help.

Maybe they had recruited him because they knew exactly who he was.

And exactly what he could do.

JJ didn't know the truth yet.

But he was beginning to ask questions.

And questions were dangerous.

Especially inside organizations that preferred their agents not to ask them.

One evening, JJ stood outside the headquarters.

The city stretched out before him.

He could hear cars passing.

People talking.

Music playing from a nearby building.

The world was enormous.

Somewhere in that world was Ricky.

JJ looked down at his hands.

For most of his life, other people had decided what he would become.

His mother had created the experiment.

His father had given him to Orion.

Orion had turned him into an asset.

Now this new organization wanted to turn him into an agent.

But JJ wasn't five anymore.

He wasn't helpless.

He wasn't silent.

And he wasn't going to spend the rest of his life letting other people decide who he was.

He turned away from the building.

For the first time since joining the organization, JJ made a decision that wasn't part of an assignment.

He was going to find Ricky.

And he was going to discover the truth about the organization he had joined.

Whatever that truth was.