From the floor, white and padded like that entire huge and very tall room, a steel rod emerged with a disc at the end. A shooting target, with concentric and numbered circles, rose about fifteen feet in front of Adam until it reached the same height as him.
“While we were studying your heart rate readings, Adam, we recalibrated our equipment,” Gabor explained. “It takes a little time for the target’s sensors to be ready to receive an energy discharge like yours. Kappa radiation is not a simple thing to study.”
“Actually, Doc, I think the sensors and the circuits have been ready for a while. You were waiting for Mr. Hemdell to show up so he could see my demonstration with his own eyes. That’s it. Now that he’s here, we can proceed. Am I right?” No one answered, so a smile appeared on Adam’s face. “Oh, yes!”
“When you’re ready, Adam,” Gabor said. “Shoot at the target.”
Adam gulped. His heartbeat, which had slowed down, quickened again. The device under the chair beeped.
“You know I’m not fully in control of my abilities,” he announced. “You know that; don’t you? I would shoot my fireballs into the sea because the sea is a big and difficult target to miss. I’m not sure I can hit this target.”
“Do it!” Hemdell said.
Adam pursed his lips. Well, if they wanted a show, they’d have a show.
With a mental order, as natural as that with which he starts a walk or raises his arm, he let the mystery that lived within him emerge through his hands, taking the form of whitish threads of fire that weaved together to become spheres.
It still amazed him to be capable of such a feat. It was incredible. No matter how many times he did it, it was enough for his flames to appear for a mixture of excitement, amazement, and a pinch of fear to invade him.
He brought the fireballs close to his face and watched them closely as if it were the first time that he had seen them.
He felt their heat. They were bright, but for some reason, they didn’t blind him. He felt the tingle of electricity in the palms of his hands. It was exasperating. The balls beat like a heart, got a little bigger, and even gained weight.
It was like holding a handful of electric eels, very restless eels that were about to escape his control. So, pointing his arms at the shooting target, he released them.
It didn’t take long for the fireballs to separate from each other, passed by the target on the sides, and continued along, heading straight for the walls.
“Shit!”
Adam held his breath, imagining his powers exploding against the padded walls, spilling the foam rubber, or whatever material they were stuffed with, then setting the whole place on fire.
What a mess! He’d warned them, but they insisted! Hemdell had forced him to light a fire in a highly flammable room!
And, suddenly, in the exact spot where the power bombs were about to hit, other shooting targets emerged and received the blast, as if the plan had been for the balls to hit there all along.
Adam released the breath he was holding and erased the catastrophic image he’d pictured in his mind.
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“As you can see, Adam, this room is unpredicted-events-proof,” Gabor said. “That’s why we lovingly call it the White Box of Surprises. The entire padding is covered by a synthetic fabric sensitive to electric shocks, with motion sensors that allow this kind of unforeseen event to play in our favor. You see, the target in front of you, the one you missed, is one of the two hundred and thirty-nine in the whole room. The entire room is a big shooting target itself.”
You bastard, Adam growled, crossed his arms, and looked up at the black window. Behind the glass were two dark silhouettes that stood out from the rest; one was leaning on something that could be a control board, while the other stood a little further back as if monitoring everything. The first one had to be Gabor. The second one: Hemdell.
“Well, Doc?” he said. “Did you guys get what you wanted?”
“Let me tell you something, Adam. The intensity of a laser or Photia is measured by the speed at which their atoms move, and the speed depends on the temperature,” Gabor explained. “The higher the temperature, the faster the electrons will be released when they hit an object. You follow me?”
“If your researchers had done their homework, you would know that I passed physics by cheating on my exams.”
Gabor gave a short exclamation that pretended to be a laugh, and continued; “You may wonder, then: What use is the temperature or the speed of the atoms in an electric discharge, if the Kappa radiation emitted by the Ita-Hu rock, according to what the District Chief explained to you yesterday, decomposes the magnetic field in which these should move?”
“No.” Adam shook his head. “What I wonder is when I’ll be able to go home.”
“You may also wonder: if your power destroys the rock, will each fragment continue to emit Kappa radiation? And if so, will each fragment have an energetic shield around it?”
Again, Adam shook his head.
“No, I’m still thinking about going home,” he said. “But that’s a good point to consider; I’ll give you that.”
“Pay attention, Adam; I’ll explain something to you. Kappa radiation has a gravitational weight and an electric charge. Upon entering its perimeter, the Kappa gravitational weight decomposes the magnetic fields, causing the laser to scatter into light, the Powered Fluctuating Discharges to lose their destructive capacity, and any object that flies thanks to an electromagnetic fusion to plummet. On the other hand, if its electrical charge is high, it could cause power surges and short circuits in electronic equipment. Kappa Points, for example, have a gravitational weight of five points and an electric charge of two; five-point-two. Had they had a higher charge, artifacts like the Auriga would have been useless. Now, the radiation emitted by Ita-Hu has a gravitational weight of nine and an electrical charge of one. Nine-point-one. Are you following me?”
“Not really, Doc, but your desire to explain the inexplicable is more than obvious, so go ahead.”
“I’m glad we understand each other,” Gabor said. “Well, we had captured the radiation that you emit thanks to your gravitational weight, which is three points. Now, thanks to the White Box systems, we have determined that its electromagnetic charge also has three points. A perfect balance. Adam, I can officially tell you that the electromagnetic spectrum of your radiation is… Kappa-three-dot-three.”
“Phew,” Adam faked a sigh of relief. “I almost thought you were gonna compare the color of my electromagnetic spectrum with my silly last name, Doc.”
“Fate, right?”
“Yeah, whatever. So, does that nomenclature, three-dot-something, make me suitable?”
“Indeed. By having a higher electromagnetic charge, even by a point, your radiation has a seventy-eight percent chance of nullifying the Ita-Hu’s force field, which has only a level of one point,” Gabor explained.
“Yay for me,” Adam applauded. “Now, one more question: Will I ever go home?”
The door behind him opened again and the two female agents from earlier returned to the hall. While one of them removed the electrodes from his chest, the other one—that White girl—picked up the small equipment from under the wooden chair and put it inside a padded bag.
“You’re free to go, Adam,” Gabor told him and the hatch in the wall closed and covered the black window.
The curtain had fallen. The show was over. And Adam, like never in his life, hated that he’d been the center of attention.
A few minutes later, the elevator dropped him off in the entrance hall. Malin, who was waiting for him going in circles, went to receive him.
“Let’s go home,” he said earnestly and didn’t stop until they left the Orbit II tower.
She didn’t need to ask: And? How it went? The black cloud Adam had all over his face was the most appropriate answer.
“Let’s put on something comfortable and go to the desert,” he added as they got in the car. “I need to train. I need to vent tensions right now!”