Chapter 12, Part 2

“What do you think we should do?” Cassie stared at the radio sitting on the table between her and Sam.

“I don’t know.” Sam rested his elbows on the table. “This is really weird.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Cassie grumbled, putting forehead in her hands.

“Should we see if the others can hear it?”

“And then tell Doc?”

“Maybe. I’m just trying to figure out how I made it happen.”

“One thing at a time.” Cassie pulled out her phone and sent a message to Luke and Josh. The younger kids were still with them. Cassie and Sam waited in silence until the others trooped into the common area on the second floor.

“What’s going on?” Caleb asked. “Is that a radio? Did you break it?”

“Sam and I kind of accidentally discovered something. We wanted to see if it affects y’all the same way,” Cassie explained.

“Cool. Should I be worried?” Luke asked.

Josh crossed his arms as one eyebrow quirked. He looked curious but ready to run. Cassie sensed an undercurrent of sudden tension in the room.

“It’s nothing bad.” I hope. “Just tell us if you can hear this.” She gestured to Sam who connected the wires in the same pattern as before.

Hands clapped over ears as the high pitched static filled the room.

“Yes, we can hear it!” Caleb shouted. Sam stopped the signal and everyone relaxed.

“What was that?” Luke demanded. Cassie shrugged

“We don’t know. I think only we can hear it. The guys in the shop couldn’t hear anything.”

“O-okay…”

“I take it you haven’t told anyone else?” Josh asked.

“Not yet,” Sam said.

“I didn’t know radios could make that noise,” Caleb said.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing to cause it,” Sam admitted.

“Should we tell Doc?” Luke asked. “Maybe he’d have an idea.”

“I uh…” Cassie paused. “Do you guys trust him?” she asked Josh and Luke. They appeared to understand what she was asking. She didn’t know if this new discovery was a weapon for or against them. She needed to know who she was handing it over to.

“I haven’t know him for that long, but yes,” Josh said.

“I’ve been with Braxton for a year. Maybe that’s not long enough to really know someone. But neither he nor anyone else here has tried to exploit us for who we are. I think they already would have. So, yeah, I trust him,” Luke said.

Cassie nodded and turned to her family. Almost as one, they looked at Abby.

“My readings haven’t changed,” she said. “I still get the same outcomes whenever I watch him, no matter what he’s doing. He wants to help us.”

Caleb nodded his assent and Sam eventually did too.

“Okay, let’s go tell him,” Cassie decided.

~

“Fascinating!” Dr. Braxton exclaimed after Cassie, unofficially made spokesperson, explained it to him.

In short order, Braxton had a radio tech in the lab and they were running analyses. Most of the other elected to move into another room where the signal wasn’t as strong, but Sam, Cassie, and Josh stayed to watch.

“Somehow you’ve kicked it up to an incredibly high frequency,” the radio tech said.

“Could you turn it off?” Cassie was aware that her voice was overly loud.

“Yeah, sorry!” The signal stopped and the tech went on to explain. “It’s way above normal radio waves and obviously above normal human hearing.”

“Normal?” Josh asked.

“We can hear up to 20,000 Hz. Most speech is between 1000 and 5000 Hz. This blows 20,000 out of the water. I haven’t heard anything about the dogs going crazy, so I’m assuming they can’t hear it either. I’ll have to run some more analysis to see exactly what frequency it’s running.”

“I’m going to need a look at your ears,” Braxton said. “This is amazing. Something that affects all of you the same way. In the time Josh and Luke have spent here, we haven’t found one consistent similarity between them. And I thought our studies couldn’t get more interesting!”

Cassie couldn’t help a smile at the doctor’s enthusiasm. At least someone thought it was interesting.

“If any of you guys would be willing, I’d like to have one of you around as I try and figure it out. It’s basically static right now. I’d like to see if there’s a way we can essentially tune it to where you can broadcast over it,” the tech said.

“What about a two way comm?” Josh asked.

“If you’re thinking military, we can work that too.”

“Just let us know what you need,” Cassie said. The possibility of communicating over a frequency no one else could hear was a useful one. Maybe there would be a way to reach out to Mariah. Even if it was just to tell her that they were looking for her.