Human Superior

by C. S. Won

  “How are we going to get a layout?”

  “We’ll need to interrogate one of the guards. They should know. It’s just a matter of isolating one so we can coerce them.”

  Tobin thought it over. “Perhaps.” He took the binoculars and looked through them. “Then I’ll stay here and wait until one of the guards goes home. I’ll follow him, take him once he’s alone, then we can interrogate him.”

  “I imagine that once we get the information, we’ll have to act fast. They’ll quickly notice one of their guards not showing up for work.”

  “Then let’s hope whoever I take has a few days off.” Tobin placed his hand on Jae’s shoulder. “I’ll take you back. I’ll return once I secure the target.”

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Don’t worry. This won’t be my first time doing this.”

  Chapter Five

  “Won’t this guy know where we are once we bring him here?”

  Clay paced around the small living quarters of the cabin, walking back and forth with an anxious motion in his step. He had been going at it for a good twenty minutes now.

  “We’re in the middle of nowhere. There’s no way for him to know. And it’s not like we’re going to release him once we’re done with him. He’ll be our prisoner,” Jae said.

  “I just . . .” A patch of wet grey stained the pits of Clay’s shirt. “I just don’t want to do anything that might endanger my son.”

  “We endanger him by doing nothing. This guard will help us rescue him.”

  “Tobin seems a capable man. He won’t do anything to compromise us,” Andrea said.

  Clay didn’t seem convinced, and he continued his march unabated. He looked at a clock on the wall. “Where the hell is he? It’s getting late.”

  On that, Clay was right. The sun had retired many hours ago. A cloak of darkness had descended on the world, bringing with it the familiar sounds of nightfall. Fat and exposed was the moon, with the sky awash in glowing stars. Their modest dinner of rice and beans had already been finished and put away, and since then all they had been doing was sitting and waiting. A few more hours of this, and dawn was going to crack.

  “You don’t think he was caught, do you?” Clay asked.

  “I imagine it’d be pretty difficult to catch a teleporter, so I don’t see how that would be possible,” Jae said.

  “Rena caught him off guard.”

  “Rena is a speedster. She’s probably the only person in the world who can do that.”

  “And she’s at the compound. Maybe she caught him.”

  “Have a seat, Clay. Relax.” Andrea gestured to a chair. “You’re going to whittle your feet down to stubs at the rate you’re going.”

  Clay sat on the chair and started compressing his hands together. His legs began to shake nervously.

  “It’s likely these guards work late. Remember, we don’t know what their schedules are like. Protecting a compound like this could entail long, grueling hours, and it’s entirely possible that they may stay and sleep on campus during off-hours as well,” Jae said.

  “If that’s the case, then our plan is finished,” Clay said.

  “We’ll just have to think of something else, then. But we’ll cross that bridge when we reach it.” Although what that something else was, Jae wasn’t sure. He hadn’t even entertained the prospect of a plan B. He wasn’t even sure if a plan B was possible. He had been so enamored with the current plan that it seemed to be the only viable solution, even though he knew it was fraught with risk.

  “I’m going outside.” Jae stood.

  “For what?” Andrea asked.

  “To work out. I don’t know. I’m just going stir-crazy sitting here. I need something to do.”

  Just then, a whispering breeze entered their room. A foot appeared, stepping through an unseen slip in the space before them, then a leg, then an entire man. Tobin emerged before them, and accompanying him was a bound and gagged man, his hands and feet tied with rope, his eyes blindfolded, and his mouth sealed shut by tape. He wore the guard’s uniform of all black, and up close he was of impressive size, corded muscle squirming to break free of his restraints. His hair was trimmed down to a fine buzz, and shadowy stubble darkened the lower half of his face. Tobin dumped him on the ground.

  “I come bearing gifts.” Tobin dusted his hands off.

  “Jesus, I thought you’d never come,” Clay said. The relief on his face, and his entire demeanor, was apparent.

  “Was it difficult?” Jae asked.

  “It was more difficult securing him than knocking him out,” Tobin said.

  The man grunted through his gag, moving like a worm struggling on a fishhook. Tobin put his boot on his back, an action that calmed his captive. “Apologies about the tardiness. All of the guards either stayed inside the compound, or they left the campus in pairs, making it difficult to isolate one. This guy was the only one to leave alone, and he was the last one to be rotated out.”

  “We’re just glad you’re okay,” Andrea said.

  Tobin nodded at her. He took out a long length of rope that was attached to his belt. “Let’s make our guest feel at home.”

  Jae reached over and picked up their prisoner by the seat of his pants, carrying him like a suitcase, and pushed him into an unoccupied chair. The man immediately tried to jump out of the chair, but Jae placed his hand on his shoulder and held him down with ease. The man struggled, but he could little against Jae’s iron grip.

  Tobin swirled the rope around the guard and the chair and cinched it tight. Jae ripped the tape away from the prisoner’s lips but left the blindfold on. The man gave a pained gasp, choking for air.

  “Breathe,” Jae said.

  “Who are you?” the man asked, coughing, looking in the direction of the voice.

  “We just want some answers.”

  “Answers? What are you talking about? Answers for what?”

  Tobin took out a knife and rested the point of it against the man’s left knee. He immediately went rigid.

  “We ask the questions, not you,” Tobin said.

  Jae gestured to put the knife away. “Just stay calm and answer our questions, and this’ll all be over before you know it.”

  The man began to cry. “I’m just twenty-two years old, fresh out of college. I have a girlfriend that I plan to propose to, and I work full-time for my dad’s shipping company. If it’s money you’re after, he’ll pay you. He doesn’t have much, but he’ll cooperate, I swear. Please, just don’t hurt me.” His sobs grew louder. “I don’t understand why this is happening.”

  Jae didn’t expect that. Did Tobin grab the wrong person by mistake? The story and his acting—if he was acting—was convincing. “Tobin, is—”

  Tobin scowled down at their captive. “Stop lying. We all know you work for Morgan Duffy.”

  “Who?”

  Tobin moved the knife, placing the tip of it against the man’s abdomen. “One more lie, and I’ll disembowel you.”

  If Jae had any doubts about who this man was, it went away the moment the tears dried up. The look on the man’s face went hard, his mouth tightening into a stiff, straight line. The transition was almost instant. It seemed he knew his gig was up the moment his employer’s name was uttered. He stayed silent for some time, letting it simmer, before finally speaking again. “Prove it.”

  Tobin gripped the man’s forearm and turned it, revealing a fresh incision that had been made near the inner elbow. “You probably didn’t notice it since you were unconscious, but I ripped out your tracker and left it in your home. They won’t suspect that you’re gone, not until a couple days pass.”

  The man clenched his jaw and spoke no further. Jae couldn’t help but notice the smirk on Tobin’s face. There was an eagerness to him, a hunger glimmering in his eyes. Was he enjoying this?

  Jae knelt before their guest. “Tell us what we need to know, and we’ll promptly take you back home, as if nothing ever happened. You have my word.”

&n
bsp; “Your word means shit.” The man snarled. “I already know where this is going, so do your worst. Make me bleed.”

  “This doesn’t have to be difficult. Just cooperate with us.”

  “I’m dead either way, so you might as well kill me now.”

  Tobin gestured for the group to follow him to a corner of the room.

  “He’s being unhelpful,” Clay said, stating the obvious.

  “I can give him a little buzz. I’m sure that’ll get him to talk,” Andrea said.

  “No torture,” Jae said.

  “Only a joke!”

  “Give me thirty minutes, and I’ll have him singing,” Tobin said.

  “I said no torture,” Jae said.

  “With all due respect, Mr. Yeon, but we don’t have the time to debate the moral dilemma of torture. I don’t know this man’s schedule. If he’s supposed to work tomorrow and he doesn’t show up, then that’s going to set off all sorts of red flags. They’ll lock the place down, and they’ll most likely transport Marlowe and Han to a different facility. If that happens, then our window of opportunity closes and we’re back to square one, and who knows how much longer we’ll have to wait before we get another opportunity like this.”

  “Can’t your source just find where they’re taking them?”

  “We got lucky the first time around. He put himself in great danger by trying to find out where Han and Marlowe were. I’m not so sure he’ll be willing to jeopardize himself a second time around.”

  Jae looked at the guard. “If you start breaking fingers or shattering kneecaps, then he’s liable to say anything just to stop the pain. The information will be no good.”

  “I’ve been doing this for years. I know how to coax the absolute truth from a man. I’ll get him to open up.”

  Jae looked at Clay. “How do you think we should proceed?”

  Clay gave him a stern, grim look. “I’ll do anything to get my boy back. Anything.”

  Grimacing, Jae looked at Andrea. “Andrea?”

  “As I said before, I was only joking when I said I wanted to shock him. I didn’t think anyone was actually going to take the idea of torture into serious consideration.” Andrea frowned. “If torture is on the table, then I can’t sign off on this. It’s a line I’m unwilling to cross.”

  Jae looked at the guard. Sweat gleamed on his face, and he squirmed in his seat like a restless child, making plainly obvious his discomfort. For a moment, Jae felt compelled to undo his constraints and release him. He did not want to spill blood in exchange for information. It was crude and barbaric, a method utilized by those who reveled in savagery. Torture was beneath him.

  But as Jae pondered the fate of Han and Marlowe and weighed the warnings Tobin had spoken of—of tightening time constraints, and the potential of lost opportunity—desperation started to creep in, nibbling away at his moral fiber. The justification for torture grew louder and more alluring, and his heart hardened as the need for results took hold, drowning out his misgivings, his doubts, and his hesitation. Hesitation. That was the pathway to failure, paved by the lives of those he couldn’t protect. Hard lessons were learned, and his hands curled into fists as he thought of what might have been if he only made the obvious choice.

  “Thirty minutes? That’s all you need?” Jae asked.

  Tobin’s expression was mute as he looked at Jae. “Yes.” He began making his way back to the guard, holding the knife at hip level.

  Jae turned to leave but stopped when Andrea grabbed his arm.

  “Wait, you can’t be serious. You’re going to allow this?” Andrea asked.

  Jae said nothing.

  “You can’t torture him, it’s not right,” she said.

  “Right or wrong, it doesn’t matter.” Jae gently removed her hand. “All that matters is what needs to be done. I have family that’s in grave danger, as does Clay. I have to rescue them, and this man is the only one who can show me how.”

  “It means nothing if you have to resort to such drastic measures. The information will be tainted and ill-gotten.”

  “Would you not do the same if you were in my shoes? If it was Adam that needed to be rescued, can you seriously look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn’t consider making that same choice? You’re looking at this from the outside in, so it’s easy for you to pontificate about the scars this could leave on my soul. You have nothing at stake. We do. This was not an easy decision for me to make, but we’re out of options and we’re running out of time. I can’t afford to hesitate when so much is on the line.”

  “This is not about scars on your soul. This is about that proverbial line in the sand. You cross that line, and you’re no better than Morgan Duffy. You’re no better than his son, blowing up thousands of innocent people just because he felt it needed to be done. You can’t stoop to their level. You have to show you’re better than that.” Andrea took Jae’s hand into hers. “There’s always another way, and I’m confident that if we think this through, then we can find what that way is.” A pleading look flashed across her face. “But if you go through with this, then I’ll have no choice but to step aside. I won’t help you if you lay one finger on that man.”

  “Andrea, my brother—”

  She gestured at the guard. “I know you’re pushed to the brink, and I know you feel like you have no options. You’re desperate, and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to save the people you love. But what you’re planning to do, it’s not worth the price of admission. The cost to you, to everyone, will be too great. You’ll never live this down, and all you’ll be left with will be nothing but regret and shame. It’ll haunt you.” She gripped his hand tighter. “You’re a good man, Jae. Don’t let desperation pull you away from that. Stay on the path you’ve always walked on. Don’t be seduced by the easy way out. You’re better than this. I know you are.”

  Tobin, holding the gleaming knife inches away from the guard’s face, and prepared to cut away at the surface until all secrets were revealed, stood waiting for one more vocal confirmation. One life exchanged for the mutilation of another. One would think this would be an easy choice to make. The guard was an enemy, and enemies deserved no compassion. Conventional wisdom stated that in times of conflict, hearts had to be hardened and uneasy choices had to be made. Compassion, empathy, understanding—such notions did nothing but impede headway. Too much was on the line to extend a sympathetic hand, especially to those who didn’t deserve it.

  “Mr. Yeon, am I good to go?” Tobin asked.

  If the roles were reversed, would the guard show leniency? No? So why show mercy when the enemy would never consider doing the same?

  “Mr. Yeon?”

  Because sometimes, the most obvious choice doesn’t always mean it’s the right one. Sometimes, the hardest sacrifices can be the ones you never make.

  “Put the knife away,” Jae said.

  Tobin gawked at him. Clay turned to look at Jae. “Are you sure about this?”

  “I am,” Jae said.

  “If you need my blessing, then you have it. I don’t care what happens to this man, I just want my son back.”

  “I know, but not like this.”

  “But—”

  “We’ll rescue them, without spilling any blood.”

  Clay looked at the ground, saying nothing further. Jae patted him on the shoulder, comforting him.

  “We oppose Morgan because of who he is and what he is capable of. The things he does—I can never do. I stand in direct opposition to that. I have to represent something more, something else, maybe even something better, and if I deviate from that, then I’m no better than Morgan or his son. Corrupt, Morgan would scream, his point finally proven correct, and I can’t let him have that victory,” Jae said.

  Andrea breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Jae. I know it wasn’t easy, but you made the right choice.”

  Tobin walked over to them, sheathing the knife back onto the leather grip on his hip. It was clear he was disappointed, but whatever misgivi
ngs brewed in his mind, he did not vocalize it. “What do we do now? The clock is ticking.”

  They stood in silence.

  “We can rush the facility. That’ll catch them by surprise, and we can quickly make our way in while they’re still disoriented. With the four of us, it’s doable,” Andrea said.

  “Too risky. Someone can get hurt, and I don’t want that. I want everyone to make it back here in one piece when we’re finished,” Jae said.

  “Maybe we can try to take Morgan hostage, and ransom him out in exchange for the release of your brother and Marlowe,” Tobin said.

  “We’re not kidnapping anybody.”

  “Mr. Yeon, sometimes you need to get your hands dirty if you want to get what you want. Time is not on our side, and if we—”

  “We’re not kidnapping anybody,” Jae repeated.

  Tobin nodded, saying no more.

  Clay looked up. “Let me scout the place. With my invisibility, I can sneak around undetected and get a layout of the premises.”

  “How are you going to get inside?” Andrea asked.

  “I’ll need Tobin for this. He can get us inside. With him, we’ll be able to zip around and get a lay of the land in no time.”

  Tobin cupped his chin, thinking. “It’s viable. You can keep us invisible, and I can move us point to point.”

  “Hell, forget scouting, we might even be able to rescue Han and Marlowe during all this, if we find them. Save ourselves some time.”

  “I need to get a visual of the interior first before we can port in. Without it, we have no way in.”

  “How will you get that visual?” Jae asked.

  “We’ll have to camp out near the front door. Someone is bound to go in or out, and once they do, the door should stay open long enough for me to compartmentalize the interior in my head so we can get access.”

  “Near the front door?”

  “Doesn’t have to be close. It can be far. We can use the same hill we used earlier. I just need some sort of line of sight to the front entrance.”

  The plan had potential. No one had to get hurt, and with Clay’s invisibility, the chances of failure seemed low.