“What about Camilla?” Blue Spekter asked.
“Huh?”
“I don’t want her getting hurt,” Blue Spekter said. “She’s been good to me.”
“Oh, she’ll be impersonated by trained soldiers. So, will the fake news crew.”
“Once you storm the facility, then what?” Ron asked.
“We arrest everyone in there. If we’re lucky, Victor and this Dr. Madison you mentioned will be among those swept up in the raid. Then, we occupy the building until such time as we can determine if anything inside is a threat.
“What will I do?” Blue Spekter asked. “You can’t expect me to give a fake interview during the entire operation.”
Agent Potter smiled. “Of course not, but you’re going to know if your super-powered friend is in there, right?”
“I should,” Blue Spekter answered.
“If he’s inside, we may cancel the operation and come up with something else, unless you can get him out and away from the facility. We won’t survive in a head-to-head battle with Dark Flame. But, if he’s not there, you lead the charge. Get in ahead of the military and clear the way for our people. Take down the opposition and disarm as many of their people as you can. The fewer casualties we have, the better this goes for all of us. Especially me.”
“How can my team help, Agent Potter?” David asked. “You might recall we already have equipment on the inside transmitting data back to us.”
Potter nodded. “I need your team to take control of the security system and unlock every door for me when it’s go-time. From what we can tell with binoculars, it’s pretty sophisticated biometric lockdown system and if my guys have to bash through every door, they will lose precious seconds that will expose them to unnecessary risk. I need the marines to breach the building and sweep through it with little to no resistance.”
“We can do that, so long as you’re not storming the castle tomorrow.”
“No, but we’re planning to do this in three days.”
Trinity whistled.
“We got this,” Goodbutt responded, smacking his peer’s thigh with the back of his hand.
“Good. Any questions?”
Ron raised his hand. “I take it I’m sitting this one out?”
Agent Potter nodded. “Sorry, yes. I didn’t really know you existed until this meeting.”
“That’s okay, storming a castle in a video game sounds cool, but in real life…I’ll leave that to you.”
“What about her?” Trinity asked, pointing at Ana Maria.
She shook her head. “I already told you, I cannot risk exposing myself to The Order. If they find out about me, it will only fuel their resolve to create more superhumans.”
“But the two of you could take out the castle without risking the lives of the marines,” Trinity protested.
“I’m sorry, but the risk is too great.” Ana Maria answered with finality in her voice.
I agree with her on this…she doesn’t need to participate in this battle, but when it comes to saving Blake…she’s going to be right there with me rescuing one of our own.
❖
Victor
Victor tried to breathe, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. Someone on his left—or so he thought—shouted loudly. Suddenly, his back spasmed and arched upward as his body reacted to a blast of hot pain tearing across his chest. This time, his eyes popped open and he saw white lights in front…no, above him. At the same time, his lungs filled with air and his heart pounded in his chest.
“He’s back,” someone said.
He followed the voice and gazed into Dr. Madison’s angry eyes.
“You stupid idiot,” she whispered.
“Did I make it? Am I alive?”
“Yes, and you’re damn lucky to be alive, Victor.”
I did it. I’m one of you now. You’ll never have power over me again, Blake.
He relaxed and grinned. Then, he started laughing. Arek, Miguel, and Dr. Madison looked at each other with concern and confusion, which only made him laugh harder.
“You’re not the only one, of course,” Dr. Madison said.
“What do you mean?” Victor asked, sitting up and pulling off the electrodes attached to his skin.
“Good news. The last set of subjects at Androscoggin survived. They’ve been recovering, as you have been. So, Project Genesis II is now a success. There are now three more super-powered people in the world.
“And their microchips?” Victor asked, standing.
Arek spoke up. “Functioning as expected. They’ve been responsive to verbal command.”
“Excellent, Victor said studying his fingers. “With everything we know today, we will gain control of our powers much faster than Blake and Quinn did.”
“Victor,” Dr. Madison said. “Before you try this again, or risk the lives of other loyal agents, I need time to study what worked with you and the last set of test subjects.”
He smiled at her. “Your wish is my command, Doctor. Study and document what you need to, but bring the two assets here. We have a lot of training to do.”
“Understood, and thank you. Oh, Martin from R&D was here when I walked in. I dismissed him when I realized you needed medical attention. Martin said he would bring you what you wanted.”
Victor wickedly grinned. “I can’t wait”
“Did you order a special suit like Blake’s?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him,
He smirked, “Of course, why wouldn’t I? Once I’ve taken out those two nitwits, I’ll be the one people will pay attention to.”
Dr. Madison rolled her eyes. “Those two nitwits are still scientific wonders. We could learn a lot from them.”
“Soon, we won’t need them, Doctor. You’ll have enough super humans to study and document.”
10 | Six Degrees of Separation
Blake
Blake awoke and sat up when someone knocked on the hotel room door.
“Housekeeping,” a woman’s voice said.
“Uh, I need more time,” Blake called out.
“Okay, no problem, sir. Sorry to bother you,” the woman said through the closed door.
He fell back to the comfortable mattress and closed his eyes, allowing himself a few moments to relax. Then, he rolled over and checked his phone; it was ten thirty in the morning.
They’ve got to be at their meeting by now.
He pushed himself out bed and after eating snacks from the minibar and showering again, he dressed in his dried clothes and stared across the empty space between his hotel and their hotel.
With his super vision, he searched each window for signs of men and women in business suits and spotted conference rooms on the third and fifth floors. Smiling, he grabbed his stuff from the nightstand, pocketed it, and made his way down to the hotel lobby. After checking out, he exited onto Michigan Avenue and turned left, making his way up the block on East Walton Street to the Waldof Astoria. Along the way, he noticed lingering pedestrians in black overcoats and parked cars with teams of men wearing dark sunglasses in them. That must be the extra security. Looks like everyone got in despite the storm.
Once inside the hotel lobby, he studied the welcome screens as they rotated through the day’s agenda for the meeting rooms. Several of the meeting spaces had functions while the rest did not. Blake’s phone vibrated in his pocket, but he ignored it.
Duh, what was I expecting, Welcome Archimandrion? Of course not…they’ll be subtle…or invisible.
Studying his surroundings as Ira had taught him, he noticed several guests pretending to read newspapers, but his super vision watched their eyes shifting around the room, occasionally glancing at him until their eyes focused on a group of business women walking into the hotel lobby.
Typical, but it’s the perfect distraction.
He made his way through the lobby to the elevator and pressed the up button. Arriving at the third floor, he walked around, searching for signs of security and eavesdropping on the conversations as he paused
by the closed doors of the meeting rooms.
Nothing peaked his interest, so he decided to try the fifth floor. Unfortunately, he discovered nothing that suggested the Archimandrion was meeting there.
The security is tight, just like Madame Presider said it would be…so where is the meeting? They must have another set of rooms, or they’re using someone’s room…but where?
He walked back to the elevator and pressed the down button. When the doors slid open a minute later, two beefy, well-seasoned military-type men in business suits stepped aside so he could enter.
More security.
He stepped in and saw they were headed to the lobby. He studied the elevator buttons as they descended and noticed the topmost floors of the tower required keycard access. His phone vibrated again.
I bet these guys came from up there.
The elevator dinged and slowed, then the doors opened. Blake didn’t move.
“Um, are you gonna go?” one of the men asked.
“I don’t think so,” Blake asked, grinning wickedly as he pulled the doors shut with his mind. He turned around and let his eyes glow orange.
“Which one of you has the keycard that goes to the top floor?”
“Oh shit,” one of them said, reaching for something in his coat.
Blake reached out with both hands, grabbed the men by their necks, and drained their life force. When their skin mottled and their veins blackened, he quietly repeated himself, “Which one of you has the keycard that goes to the top floor?”
“You can go to hell,” the man in his left hand wheezed.
Anger flashed through him and Blake pulled whatever life they had left into his body, relishing the rush he felt. A moment later, he released them but held their bodies upright as he fished through their pockets for the hotel keycard. He found one in the breast pocket of the man on the left and when he tapped the Wi-Fi point near the button for the twenty-sixth floor, the control panel spoke. “Penthouse access granted.” Then, the elevator ascended.
Of course…these people are too good for a standard meeting room. Makes sense they’re meeting in the penthouse suite.
Blake stretched his jaw when the ear pressure changed, and the elevator car slowed its ascent to the penthouse suite. A moment later, it stopped and the doors slid open.
Two burly men with assault rifles stared at him with surprise. “Can I help you?” one of them asked.
“Is this where the Archimandrion Council meets?” Blake asked, an evil smile on his face. He powered on his orange eyes.
Kill them all.
“Oh shit!” The guards raised their weapons, but Blake slammed them through the wall behind them. Sheetrock dust and marble exploded into the air and the people inside the penthouse cried out with surprise at the loud sound.
Blake stepped into the foyer and two more guards jumped at him. He grabbed them with his mind and threw them through the penthouse door. Then, he stepped through the broken door and looked around.
Two guards jumped up from the seating area in front of him, but he pushed them through the window. It shattered when they crashed through it and they fell to their death. The air pressure in the room changed and the pages of the magazines on the coffee tables flipped in the breeze.
“What in the world?” someone to Blake’s right exclaimed. Turning, he saw six older people in expensive-looking business attire seated around a dining room table. He approached the table cautiously, his body simmering with orange light. One of the men looked familiar, but he couldn’t place why. He didn’t remember this man from his Internet searching.
One of the female council members shook her head and pushed her chair away from the table, trying to get away from him. “This isn’t possible,” she muttered. Blake assumed she was Madame Presider.
“I told you he would come for us!” a familiar voice cried out as two more guards ran out from a back room.
That’s Mathias. Kill him.
Blake dispatched the guards without turning around, crushing whatever his telekinesis connected to. They cried out briefly and then fell to the floor, dead.
“Good lord!” a Lebanese-looking council member exclaimed, grabbing a radio from the table. “Security, we need back up!”
That must be Farez Printaris.
Blake ignored him and focused on Mathias. “You should have listened to Antony, Mathias. I was standing right there when you told him he was being paranoid. Now, the man is dead, and so are you.”
Blake extended his hand and pulled Mathias across the room until the man’s whimpering face was close to his. The man’s chair spun violently and tipped over.
“Freeze asset one!” Mathias commanded.
“Why do you people keep saying that to me?” Blake asked.
Mathias paused, then regarded him with a confused expression. “Victor told us that would stop you, that the control chip would…”
Control chip? Victor put a control chip in me? He lied!
Blake crushed Mathias.
Blood sprayed out of the orifices of the man’s face as Mathias’ rib cage and skull collapsed with a disgusting and wet mashing sound.
Madame Presider screamed and one of the council members dry-heaved. Blake recognized the heaving one from the pictures as Wang Shu Mao.
He tossed Mathias to the floor and pointed at Wang. “How many children did I see in that factory?”
“What factory?” Wang asked, terrified.
Blake snapped the man’s legs and he crashed to the floor, yelling and writhing with pain.
“How many?”
“You destroyed Mystic River!” an Italian woman said, pointing at him. Maybe that’s Madame Presider.
“You enslaved those people!” Blake spat.
“You will stand down,” the woman cowering in the corner said, finding her courage to stand tall.
“Madame Presider, I presume?” Blake asked.
She nodded.
Blake noticed the black pearls and earrings she wore matched the ones Mother Superior had worn.
Now I know who Mother Superior’s idol was.
“There are many things you have yet to learn about The Order, but this is certainly not the way to go about it. Whatever it is you’ve come here to do, I expect you to stop.”
“Don’t tell me what to do!” Blake snarled, grabbing Wang and tossing him through the broken window.
The now unflinching woman walked around the table and approached him. “If you think throwing a temper tantrum will assuage your anger, you are gravely mistaken. Even if you were to eliminate us, we would be replaced and you would cease to become our most highly prized asset. You would become enemy number one and we would pull every resource in to stop you.”
Blake hesitated, and the violent voice in his head hesitated as well.
Is she for real? Can they be replaced that easily? I thought eliminating the heads would cripple The Order…but are they like…a hydra?
His phone vibrated in his pocket again, but he paid no attention to it. With his super hearing, he heard the elevator ding and the sound of hurried footsteps on a mission filled the foyer.
“The Order is a well-oiled machine that…”
Blake reached out and grabbed the Italian woman and the Lebanese-looking man.
“Stand down!” Madame Presider shouted, but it was too late. Blake hurled the two council members at the incoming guards and they were killed on impact. The guards fell back and toppled over one another in a calamity of arms and legs, but they recovered, climbed to their feet, and aimed their weapons at him.
Madame Presider raised her hand to stop them and they halted their approach.
“What is your name?” Blake asked, pointing to the only remaining council member at the table.
“My name…is…Absalom Miller,” the man replied, his voice trembling with fear.
Wait…I think…holy crap, now I know why he looks so familiar. He’s the spitting image of his grandson…Keegan Miller!
Blake relaxed and laugh
ed, then grinned wickedly.
“Have you finally settled down?” Madame Presider asked. “Have you shed enough blood yet?”
Her voice grated on him like Mother Superior’s voice did when she barked orders at him or laughed about his false-freedom.
“Not yet,” Blake replied. Then, he reached out with his mind and grabbed her. As he pulled her closer, he blasted her with fire from his left hand, instantly killing her. When the guards to his right opened fire, he blasted them with hot flame and in seconds, they fell to the floor. Blake dropped Madame Presider to the floor as the sprinkler systems activated and the fire alarm sounded in the penthouse.
Blake approached the table where Absalom sat. “Today, you live, because I have plans for you.”
Blake’s phone vibrated yet again in his pocket. Without taking his eyes off Absalom, he pulled it to his ear and answered it.
“What?”
“Where the hell are you?” Victor shouted.
“Careful, Victor,” Blake replied. I should be asking where you are.
“No, I’m done playing your little childish games, so you listen to me, you unreliable piece of shit.” Blake winced, but he couldn’t do anything to punish Victor over the phone. “You were supposed to be in Portsmouth, which clearly you’re not because if you were, you would have known that Blue Spekter and the fucking government seized the naval prison.”
“What?” Blake asked incredulously, stepping over Madame Presider’s dead body.
“They captured Seavey Island, Blake. The facility is lost,” Victor yelled back. “If you were there, you could have stopped them. This is on you, Blake, I hold you responsible for the loss of Seavey Island. If you were there, they would’ve never succeeded. Now tell me, where the hell are you?”
“Chicago.”
Victor sighed. “I don’t believe this.” Then, he hung up.
Blake pulled his phone away from his ear and visually confirmed the call had ended. He pocketed the phone, unaffected by Victor’s frustration. He turned back to the last man standing—sitting—and grinned as a new plan formed in his mind. “I’ll see you soon, Absalom.”
Ultimate Sacrifice Page 11
