Ultimate Sacrifice

by Damien Benoit-Ledoux

  “Good point,” Blake said, thinking about the island’s layout. He took another few bites of pasta and listened.

  “I followed the tree line around and crossed the island under the cover of darkness on foot—which is not easy to do, let me tell you. When I got to the other side, I followed those trees and realized I couldn’t just walk across the bridge because they’d arrest me once they swiped my badge. The one thing they didn’t do was patrol the waterway under the bridge, so I sucked it up and swam across the cold, calmer, low-tide waters under the Stoddard Street Bridge, holding my bag over my head with one hand.”

  “That explains why you were soaking wet.”

  “Yeah, let me tell you, it took ten minutes in your shower for my balls to come out from hiding.”

  They chuckled.

  “Anyway, when I got across, I had already looked you up and since you were the closest person to me, I ran to your condo. I got a few strange looks from people out walking their dogs.”

  “And my address is simply…in a database somewhere?”

  “Of course. Like I said, I have access to that kind of restricted data because I’m the facility’s Librarian. Um, you do realize they’re going to find your address if you don’t cut those hard-lines, right?”

  Blake sighed and shoved the last of his dinner in his mouth. Then, he said, “Fine, you do the dishes and I’ll go change. Stay here for the night and we’ll figure out what to do when I get back. If you touch anything besides the television, you know what I’m capable of.”

  “Got it.”

  He needs his car if he’s going to get out of here…

  “Um, what kind of car do you drive?”

  “A blue Subaru Forester with the license plate Yoda.”

  Blake raise an eyebrow with amusement. “Like Star Wars much?”

  Alex sheepishly grinned. “Yeah.”

  ❖

  Blake ran upstairs to change into a pair of purple tights and his purple sneakers. He pulled on a white muscle shirt, then pulled it off and tossed it on his bed.

  I don’t need them ruining another expensive shirt with their nasty stun guns.

  Blake went downstairs to the living room. Alex had finished cleaning the dishes and was cuddled up on the couch under a blanket, aiming the remote at the television.

  “Don’t you get cold wearing…almost nothing? Not that I’m complaining, I mean, your muscles are on point. You’re ripped.”

  Blake smirked. “Not usually.”

  Then, he stepped out onto his balcony and into several inches of freshly fallen snow. That night’s snowstorm would bring another six to eight inches of fresh snow to the seacoast and even more inland. He became invisible, jumped off his balcony, and flew downriver to the western end of the naval prison. A few soldiers posted guard on that side of the facility, but the majority of the troops patrolled the front, back, and eastern sides of the prison. Putting his hand out in front of him, he shattered one of the darkened solar windows and flew into the prison, softly landing on the upper level of the battery storage area.

  Alex had explained that each building was connected to the onsite server room, but they also had a redundant connection to The Order’s private network in case of a server disconnect. To succeed, Blake would have to eliminate each building’s connections to protect their secrets, including his.

  It’s only a matter of time before they detect my entry, so I might as well take out a few soldiers along the way.

  Still invisible, he made his way through the battery room and into operations where he crept past several soldiers and technicians who were working at the server terminals, trying to gain access to the system. As he walked past a technician, he realized they already had access.

  He frowned, but no one saw it.

  On the other side of operations, he pressed the button for the elevator and when the doors slid open, he stepped inside and pressed the button for the middle floor. The soldiers glanced over and wrinkled their brows with confusion but didn’t move to investigate. The door slid shut and the elevator descended to the lower level. When the doors opened, he followed the gangway around the reactor chamber, enjoying the momentary flow of pure orgone energy through his body.

  When he reached the door on the other side of the chamber, he became visible long enough to place his hand on the door control and gained access to the server room. When the door opened, he smiled.

  Good, they haven’t figured out how to lock The Order out yet—not that they’re expecting this little incursion anyway. Oh wait…all the doors are already unlocked.

  Shifting to invisibility once more, he stepped inside and looked between the server racks for the conduit that contained the external connections to the private network. He spotted it on the opposite side of the room in a corner, behind one of four guards who were lazily standing near some server racks.

  No stun guns, just regular machine guns. Interesting.

  Three military technicians were working at the racks, but he didn’t care about them. He became visible and stormed across the room. The soldiers flinched when they saw him appear out of thin air and then aimed their machine guns at him, but Dark Flame was faster.

  Reaching out with his mind, he grabbed the four guards and threw them across the room, smashing them into the metal server racks and the stone walls of the old prison building. They all fell to the floor and didn’t move. With a swift mental push, he knocked the three technicians off their chairs and held them to the floor while he walked to the conduit pipes in the corner.

  He placed his hands on the metal pipes and ripped the pipes from the anchoring brackets that held it to the stone wall with his super strength. Then, he crushed the pipes with his hands and pulled, but the numerous wires inside the conduits were stubborn and refused to tear away. Momentarily frustrated, he heated his hands and melted everything in his grasp. Then, he tore the conduit in two and severed the connections. The active terminals behind him started beeping and flashed a red warning message on their monitors that read: Disconnected; Auto-purge in fifteen minutes. Cancel with command authorization code at any time.

  That will get someone’s attention.

  Satisfied the first of three tasks was completed, he turned and walked back to the elevator, releasing the technicians and shifting back to invisibility. He rode the elevator to the underground tunnel and made the crossing into the workshop building.

  When the elevator doors of the workshop building opened at the top floor, several soldiers were waiting for him, their machine guns aimed at the back wall of the elevator car. They looked at each other with confusion until Dark Flame mentally shoved them back with his mind. Becoming visible, he walked across the large storage room, tossing soldiers against equipment or walls if they got in his way.

  Weird, the soldiers inside the building don’t have those nasty stun guns…I bet they never expected me to attack from the inside. Ah, there it is.

  Seeing the conduit piping in the northeast corner, Dark Flame walked over and grabbed it, then pulled with his super strength. The conduit piping ripped away from the wall, but the stubborn wiring needed his special touch. Heating the conduit with his hands, he melted the metal piping and pulled the conduit and wiring apart, fusing the ends in his hands so they couldn’t be easily reconnected.

  Satisfied the second task was done, he walked back through the workshop area to the elevator and made his way to the living spaces. His super hearing alerted him to soldiers running and shouting throughout the facility, but he didn’t know where they were.

  They probably don’t know where I am, either.

  Unfortunately, the reconstructed layout of the campus didn’t include an underground passage connecting the workshop building to the living quarters building, so he had to ascend to the mid-level then walk back through the server room. The three technicians quickly put their hands up in surrender when they saw him return, but the four soldiers on the ground didn’t move. Entering the other elevator, he descended to the tunnel
level.

  When the elevator doors opened, soldiers with stun guns opened fire at nothing. Surprised, the electrical blasts caught Dark Flame square in the chest and slammed him against the back doors of the elevator. He involuntarily returned to the visible spectrum and reactively put his right hand up and pushed the guards back, but in his surprised and electrically disrupted state, he only knocked them off their feet. It was enough of a distraction for him to regain his balance and lunge at the solders, forcibly pushing them away and running through the security room to the barrack-style living spaces beyond.

  The conduits in this room, Alex had explained, were trickier to get to because contractors had sheet-rocked over them by accident when the building was renovated for the troops and technicians who worked at the facility. He could hear more soldiers scurrying around and he knew the building was teeming with more stun gun carrying Marines. Footsteps around the corner alerted him to an attack, so he shifted into invisibility.

  Four marines jogged through the hallway, each one holding a stun gun while their free arms were extended, swinging through the empty hallway near them as they passed through.

  Dammit.

  Dark Flame realized he wouldn’t be able to hide. With only seconds to react, he flattened himself against the wall, but one of the soldier’s hands smacked into his shoulder. The surprised soldier spun around and fired his stun gun at point-blank range into Dark Flame’s invisible chest. Dark Flame involuntarily shifted to the visible spectrum again and screamed in agony at the searing, white-hot energy burning his chest and arcing over his shirtless torso. The three accompanying guards trained their weapons on him and fired. One of them radioed for backup.

  Pinned against the wall in excruciating agony, Dark Flame’s face twisted with anger and he did the only thing he could think of in the moment: play possum. He let himself collapse face-first to the floor, and the four guards stopped firing. His body and limbs twitched in the residual electrical current.

  “Did we get him?”

  “I think so.”

  “Keep your TaseBolts trained on him. If he moves, hit him again.”

  So that’s what they’re called.

  Footsteps reverberating through the floor alerted Dark Flame to the impending arrival of more soldiers.

  Strike now!

  Focusing on the soldiers in his proximity, he telekinetically swept their legs out from under them. The soldiers yelled in surprise and crashed to the floor. He grabbed the TaseBolts with his mind, snapped them in half, and tossed them to the other side of the hallway.

  Then, he jumped to his feet and raced through the building to the northwest corner of the building, crashing through closed doors like they were cardboard and telekinetically incapacitating soldiers before they could react.

  Dark Flame found the inside corner the contractors had built and started punching through it, ripping large pieces of sheetrock and metal bracing from the wall and tossing them aside. When he had made a sufficiently large hole, he looked inside and saw the familiar metal conduit piping.

  Too easy.

  He reached inside and pulled with considerable force. The conduit piping broke free from the metal wall mounts and the entire inside corner gave way and crumbled to the floor around him, spraying white plaster dust into the air. Dark Flame squeezed and ripped the conduit piping apart. This time the wiring tore under the force he exerted on it. Superheating his hands, he fused the two ends of the piping. Satisfied the job was done, he turned around and stared in the angry faces of soldiers pointing TaseBolts at him.

  “Fire!” one of them yelled.

  Shit.

  Six angry streams of white-hot energy lanced through the air and crashed into his bare chest, scalding his skin and spraying arcs of electricity into the air around him that reconnected and careened over his body. He grunted and tried to sidestep and evade the nasty beams, but the soldiers shifted their aim with him.

  Horrified at the unyielding and intense pain he felt, Dark Flame felt his body seizing up as he lost control of his muscles. His entire body quaked and trembled as incredible amounts of throbbing voltage coursed through him, scalding his chest, abs, and wherever the energy connected with his body. More soldiers appeared and fired their TaseBolts at him.

  Shit, I’m trapped. When the hell am I going to learn?

  Succumbing to the pain and anguish that quickly overloaded his mind, Dark Flame dropped to his knees for a few second, then fell to the floor, his body convulsing under the strain of the strong electrical charges passing through him.

  Darkness encroached upon his mind until all but one of the stun beams stopped firing. He felt soldiers slap metal shackles on his wrists and ankles.

  They’ve learned, they know they’ve got me as long as one of those TaseBolts is holding me down.

  Too weak to fight back without a moment to recoup his strength, he surrendered his mind to the darkness.

  15 | Fallout

  Quinn

  Quinn, Ravone, and Loren walked through the emptying hallways looking for Keegan, but he was nowhere to be found. Many of the students left school once the principal announced an emergency early-dismissal due to Quinn and Blake’s epic fight, but Quinn hoped Keegan had stuck around so they could talk.

  Students regarded him with mixed reactions. Most were positive, some were terrified, and others found ways to be mean and ostracize him as a freak of nature.

  “Do you think he left already?” Quinn asked, his heart tormented by trepidation. I just want to know he’s all right with me being Blue Spekter.

  “I don’t know. The only places we haven’t checked are the library and the boy’s locker room, which you’re doing on your own,” Ravone said.

  They rounded the corner and saw Keegan walking toward them. Quinn smiled and waved, but Keegan’s face dropped with hurt and disappointment when he saw Quinn. Then, he spun on his heels and walked away from them.

  What the heck?

  Quinn jogged after him.

  “Quinn, wait,” Ravone said, but he ignored her.

  “Keegan, wait up,” Quinn said, but his boyfriend picked up the pace and then Quinn all but ran after him.

  “Get away from me,” Keegan shouted over his shoulder.

  Quinn froze in his tracks, his sneakers squeaking on the laminate tile floor. Students in the hallway stopped their conversations and gawked at the couple.

  “Keegan, please believe me, I wanted to tell you, but…”

  Keegan spun around, and Quinn spotted tears flowing down his cheeks. “You lied to me. You’re not the guy I thought I was dating… like at all.” His hand swiped the air in front of him. “You’re a completely different…person.”

  “I’m not!” Quinn said, his heart pounding and his stomach lurching when he realized Keegan was probably breaking up with him. “I’m still me, but just a little more than you knew. I was going to tell you, but…

  “A little more?” Keegan asked, his voice shaking with anger. He shook his head. “No, I can’t. Relationships are built on trust, not lies. I’m sorry.”

  “Keegan please!” Quinn shouted, reaching out with his right hand, but his words were choked with emotion and anguish. Keegan looked at Quinn’s hand and stepped back.

  “Please don’t go,” Quinn whispered as the lights above him flickered wildly.

  Keegan looked up and pointed at the lights. “I always wondered why the lights flashed when I was around you, and now I know it’s because you are a super-powered…freak. I’m sorry, but we’re done. Goodbye, Quinn.”

  “No, please…don’t go…” Quinn whimpered, dropping to his knees as his stomach churned and his heart filled with an intense ache he had never experienced before.

  Behind him, Ravone and Loren rushed up to support him. Quinn watched Keegan’s body bounce with his footsteps, his jovial stride being one of the many adorable things Quinn loved about Keegan. And then, his ex-boyfriend walked around a corner and out of his life.

  “No,” Quinn whispered,
the thunderous silence of the shocked students in the hallway overpowering his ears. Then, his emotions took over and he cried, unknowingly pulled into Ravone’s arms, where he sobbed through the pain and hurt of being dumped. When his tears eventually subsided, the ache in his heart remained as painful as ever.

  Shit, Keegan is gone.

  In the hallways, passing students regarded the trio with wonder.

  “Come on,” Ravone said. “Let’s get you home.”

  Quinn stood with Loren and Ravone, his mind barely able to function.

  “Give me your keys,” Ravone said, “and I’ll drive you home. Loren will follow us so she can bring me back to my car.”

  “Okay,” Quinn said, reaching into his pocket to hand her his keys.

  ❖

  Quinn was sobbing in Loren’s arms in the living room when Daddio came home, but Quinn wasn’t aware of his arrival. He didn’t hear Ravone explain to his father what happened at school, how Quinn saved them, or when she shared the sad news of the boys’ breakup.

  When Quinn came up for air, he realized the hand rubbing his back belonged to Daddio. He looked up at his father, who wiped the tears from his cheeks with his left hand.

  “Hey kiddo, heard you had a rough day,” Daddio said, feigning a smile.

  Quinn nodded and wiped his eyes. “It sucked, I don’t want this anymore. I don’t want to b-b-be Blue Spekter,” Quinn said, sputtering into another round of sobs. Loren and Ravone wiped their eyes, and Daddio pulled his son toward him.

  “I know it hurts a lot Quinn. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world.”

  “I hate it,” Quinn cried out. “I just want Keegan back.”

  “Maybe he’ll change his mind,” Ravone said. “You have to admit, you and Blake revealing yourselves to the high school is a really big deal.”

  “Not everyone thinks that, though.”