Birth of the Alliance

by Alex Albrinck

  Adam hopped aboard the next submarine heading back to the Cavern. His face remained tight, his mind focused. Will’s loss—for whatever duration—was bad enough. The possibility that it had been instigated by a traitor who was still living among them made that loss even more devastating.

  When he arrived back in the Cavern, Adam strode down the main street, made a brief stop at his personal residence with all of the timelines and notes plastered on the walls, and then made his way toward Clint's house. He saw the man heading toward him, and forced himself to show a cheerful face.

  “Hey, Adam!” Clint said, spotting him. He moved toward Adam. “How did the trap go?”

  Double meaning there? Adam thought. “It went as planned up front. Will drew their attention, let himself be captured. They took him to a clearing to wait for a transport craft, but Will broke free.”

  Clint’s eyes widened. “But… did they… take him?”

  Adam shook his head. “No, the Hunters decided that they were tired of seeing Will escape, and decided to end it right there. They pulled out their swords and attacked. But Will won. He killed all three Hunters. He’s resting at Sahara right now until he fully recovers.”

  The reaction was genuine, if brief, and if he’d not been watching for it, Adam was sure he’d have missed it. But the look of disappointment at the news Will had killed the three Hunters, that Will himself had survived the attack, was unmistakable.

  Adam moved at an impossible speed, propelled by his fury at the man before him. The Energy burst smashed Clint to the ground before he knew what had happened. Clint’s head filled with a shrieking noise that rendered him incapable of action—and he was pinned to the ground by Adam’s overwhelmingly more powerful Energy. Adam turned his own Energy loose on Clint’s Energy stores, squashing them and draining them, leaving Clint powerless to teleport away even if he’d not been mentally incapable of doing so at that moment.

  Adam grabbed the device he’d picked up in his home on the way to meet Clint: a net formed of materials that produced the same effect as Aramis’ Damper. Adam withdrew has own Dampering Energy, trusting the net to do its job, and floated the man down the street, navigating until he'd reached a little-used room off to the side of the beach. It was a facsimile of the prison cells found at Aliomenti Headquarters, built with clear walls so others could see if it was occupied. Most members of the Alliance subjected themselves to a few moments in the box before heading Outside as a way to remind themselves what excessive Energy use could mean. Adam wasn’t testing the box. He was turning it into an actual prison cell. He hurled Clint inside so that the man crashed against the far wall and slammed the door, just as Hope and Eva rushed up.

  “Adam, what are you doing?" Eva’s voice was full of shock at the violent outburst. She put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off. The dark look on his face was etched there like stone.

  “Adam? What’s wrong?” Hope asked. She tentatively reached a hand out to the man, but held back, uncertain of what he’d do.

  Adam whirled around to face them. His eyes were feral, a look reminiscent of the elder Adam as the man had executed everyone from the first Aliomenti village nine centuries earlier. It was an anger driven by an act of evil he’d been unable to prevent. But it was an act he intended to avenge.

  “Clint,” he hissed. “Clint provoked him. Clint as good as killed him.”

  “Stop, Adam,” Eva commanded. “Who are you talking about? Who did Clint kill?”

  "Will," Adam snapped without thinking.

  Hope sagged to the ground, her emotions savaged by the news, and she quivered on the floor, her body heaving with silent cries of sadness and agony. She’d put on a brave face when he’d left, said words to the effect that she knew he might not return, but those words were for appearance. Hope knew, more than any of them that Will would back one day.

  Except now, he wouldn’t.

  “Adam!” Eva snapped. “Did Clint actually kill Will?”

  “No,” Adam snarled. “But he triggered it. He’s a spy and a traitor, Eva.”

  Hope stopped crying, briefly, as she took in this news. She’d have to come to grips with the reality that it would be her private burden to bring her children into the world, accompanied by the man she loved, once he was born and matured, though he’d remain ignorant about their past together. The news that there was a traitor in their midst, today… that put everything in jeopardy. Will would not want her in mourning over him if her own safety, their children's very lives, or the lives of all those part of the Alliance, were at stake.

  “Slow down,” Eva ordered. “Start at the beginning. You are not making sense.”

  “Everything went exactly as planned. Will knew I was there, watching. He told me not to interfere unless he refused to let the Hunters capture him; said the mission was more important than anything else, made me promise not to help him. Fool that I am, I agreed. They found him, flew him a short distance to a clearing in a forest, meant to put him on a long-range transport with a prison cell. Will broke free of Aramis, found a knife and cut Athos, and was arguing with Porthos when Athos hit him from behind. Will was stunned, and he fell directly into Porthos’ sword. He teleported away before I could get to him. Based upon the Energy released by his teleport, he traveled a very long way.”

  “So… you didn’t actually see him die?” Hope asked.

  “He was stabbed directly in the abdomen, up to the hilt,” Adam replied. His face softened. “I’m sorry about my directness, Hope. I wish I could tell you something else. But I just can’t see how he could have survived that injury.”

  “The vests,” Eva whispered. She looked at Hope, then at Adam. “He took one of those new vests with him. Remember? He took with him one of the latest prototypes. Those were the models which split swords and reform the out the other side. He was wearing one of those vests, so… he should be fine.”

  Adam shook his head sadly. “He took it off after I promised him I wouldn’t interfere. Even if they tried to kill him, I was to stay away; only his failure to transfer the pods to Athos was to bring me out of hiding.” He slammed his fist against the glass wall of the cell holding Clint. “I shouldn’t have made that promise.” Adam bowed his head, as his anger morphed to grief.

  Eva maintained her steady calm. “Adam, you said that it was Clint’s fault, that he is a traitor. What makes you say that?”

  “I don’t know. Because it’s true?” Adam snapped. He shook his head. “A few years ago, Clint badgered Will, suggesting Will thought he was better than the rest of us, that he’d send others to do the risky, dangerous work while he remained safely here. Will stated then that he’d go on this mission. Even when our technology advanced to the point that he didn’t need to engage the Hunters at all, much less risk his life or imprisonment, he still felt the need to prove himself. Why? Because Clint baited him into promising to do it.”

  “But, Will could have chosen to ignore the jibes,” Eva reasoned. “Clint’s opinion was in the vast minority; he might well have been the only member of the Alliance who believed that to be true.”

  “When I returned,” Adam said, speaking as if he’d not heard Eva, “I sought Clint out. I told him that the Hunters had attacked Will to kill him, and Clint looked happy. I told him that Will had overpowered and killed all three of them, and he looked distraught. How can any true member of the Alliance look happy at the idea of Will being attacked, to think that the Hunters might try to kill him? And then look miserable at the idea that Will had won? The answer? A traitor, somebody working for Arthur. Clint goaded Will into proving what he didn’t need to prove, and now he’s gotten his wish. The Hunters stabbed him.”

  “You did not see him die, though, correct?” Eva asked. “There is a chance Will still lives?”

  “I don’t know," Adam admitted. “I didn’t see him die. But he looked… bad. And then he left. The travel, the loss of Energy… I just don’t know how anyone, even Will, could have sustained those injuries and survived. Even
if he could have healed himself with Energy, that teleport must have drained him completely.” His face was marred by agony, and his eyes were moist. He glanced at Hope, and his eyes were full of sorrow. “I’m so sorry. I failed you. All of you.”

  Hope took a long, deep, steadying breath. “We have no time for sorrows right now, Adam. If Will is alive, we won’t find him until he wants to be found. If not… he would not want to see this group disappear after his loss. We need to understand what happened with Clint. And we need to make sure that there are no others similarly afflicted.”

  She looked at the prison, looked at the man inside. Clint had slumped to the ground, his body upright only because his right shoulder leaned against the clear inside of the cell. His eyes were closed, but his face bore an unmistakable expression of triumph. He’d heard the truth of Will’s situation as Adam had related the story.

  Hope felt a jolt of anger at that look. “How do we increase the power on this? Significantly?”

  Clint’s eyes snapped open. His face no longer bore a look of triumph.

  Adam walked over to the side of the prison. “When we built this, we typically kept it at a fairly low setting. Most used it to get a taste of the Energy draining capability of the prisons or Aramis. But a few wanted to test themselves further, to see how long they could last and how quickly they could recover.” He pointed to a dial. “It’s at about fifteen percent power. It can—”

  Hope stepped forward and spun the knob all the way to the right. The digital readout showed the prison operating at full power capacity.

  They couldn't hear Clint’s screams through the one-way soundproofed walls. The prison drained him of every drop of Energy, turning a powerful Energy-wielding traitor into an unconscious human in mere moments.

  Hope watched the man transform into a helpless heap, her face stern and glacial, her hand still on the power knob. When she was certain Clint wouldn’t move for a very long time, she turned the power reading back to the normal fifteen percent.

  “Let’s get him to the research labs,” Hope said. “We need to understand if he’s been acting of his free will… or if his actions were forced on him by someone else.”

  XXVIII

  Remorse

  1994 A.D.

  Adam floated Clint’s unconscious form through the air as they moved to the labs at the far southern end of the Cavern. As they moved, the random weather computer triggered several rounds of thunder, the bass speakers shaking the ground as each clap sounded. The rain started, slowly at first. The wind machine picked up, and the gentle breeze so familiar to them was replaced with cold, driving winds as the rain picked up.

  None of them wanted to try to teleport the distance and avoid the rain. The best way to teleport into the middle of rock or the bowels of an active volcano was to try to teleport while angry; at current levels, any of them might make that critical mistake.

  And there was something cathartic about moving Clint to the labs in such a manner.

  The streets were empty; most people had moved indoors during the rainstorm. It prevented them from answering questions from shocked passers-by, wondering why they were transporting Clint in such a fashion. Adam had thrown the Dampering net around Clint, just in case the man regained consciousness during the transport. He also wanted to ensure they kept the traitor under control while they analyzed him in the lab.

  They stepped into the lab building as the sliding doors opened before them. All of them shivered as the air conditioning blasted them. They paused a moment to use small bursts of Energy to dry their hair and clothing. Hope cried quietly; it reminded her of the trip she and Will had made to Philadelphia nearly three centuries earlier. Eva offered her a comforting hand, and Hope squeezed it in gratitude. With her emotions back under control, they moved to Aaron’s lab.

  Aaron was in an open lab this time; the clone lab had been shut down for the time being. He looked up as the trio walked in, frowning at the site of Clint. “Wouldn’t the hospital be a better choice for him?”

  “We have reason to suspect Clint has some type of controlling device or additional brainwashing,” Adam told him. “We’ve essentially confirmed that his actions at the open meeting a few years ago about the insertion plan were intended to get Will to engage with the Hunters. It worked. Will was stabbed earlier today and teleported far away. No, we don’t know his condition,” he added, anticipating the question the wide-eyed Aaron looked to be ready to ask. “But we need to figure out what we missed when we brought Clint aboard.”

  Aaron nodded. “Put him on the table.” He glanced at Clint as Adam lowered the man—none too gently—to the research table in the center of the room. “Is that a Dampering net?”

  “We’re not taking any chances. I threw him in the cell and Hope jacked the power all the way up until he passed out.”

  Aaron gazed levelly at Hope. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

  Hope kept her gaze on the man lying on the table.

  Aaron located an X-ray machine. “This may trigger anything in him to release a poison or an explosion or—”

  Eva put a hand on his shoulder to gain his attention. “Speed is of the essence here, Aaron. We need to understand what motivated Clint—and how to check if anyone else Inside is similarly afflicted. It may be that others are staged to engage in some type of attack from within.”

  Aaron stared at her. “Okay then.”

  He ran the X-ray machine over Clint’s body. The machine displayed images real-time, and Aaron watched carefully for any indication of an anomaly. He grunted once, and then cursed. “There are two more chips still in him. This is not good. We’re going to need to run everyone through the machine, especially the most recent defectors.” Aaron shook his head. “We should have been checking everyone for extra chips before now.”

  He pointed to the digital images on the screen showing Clint’s still-unconscious form. “You can see the markers here… and here. Those are the two additional implanted chips. We need to extract those immediately. I’m glad that every step of the journey here to the Cavern is made in fully shielded transports. If they’ve got any type of GPS or tracking signals in these chips they’ll be wondering where Clint went.”

  “Then let us begin extracting the chips immediately,” Eva replied. “When we finish the extraction we will need to start checking his mental programming right away. My greatest concern at this point is to ensure that the Aliomenti cannot find him using those chips. We will also need to check on any outbound non-Energy communications Clint sent. We need to know if he has compromised our location.”

  Aaron nodded. “Before we start… I’m going to go inside the X-ray imaging machine. Make sure there’s nothing in me. I don’t want anyone thinking I’ve been compromised while I run this machine and check everyone else. And… we may need to prevent anyone here from leaving until they’ve been checked.”

  They wheeled the table bearing Clint’s unconscious form to the side of the room. Aaron showed Eva how to operate the controls, and she used it to perform the scan. The image showed no indication of any chips. “That is to be expected,” Eva said. “The Aliomenti are likely to have perfected this technique only recently. You have been here for quite some time. But it is a relief to confirm nonetheless.”

  Hope stepped from her chair. “Check me next,” she said. “Once I’m done, I’ll start the mental probe of Clint.”

  “Hope, I don’t think we need to go through the formality of checking you,” Aaron began, as he stepped from the machine. Hope shot him a withering gaze, and he turned back to the controls. “Of course, if that's what you want…”

  “It is,” she replied. “As with you, it’s best that there’s no suspicion about any of us. We’ll need to offer to have others check us again when we tell everyone what’s happening.”

  Hope was cleared moments later, and she began the mental probe of Clint as Aaron checked and cleared both Eva and Adam. Hope didn’t notice. She was tracing the most deeply held and domina
nt beliefs and values programmed into Clint's mind, the inviolable rules guiding his behavior. The standard location for the programmed beliefs was clear, but she moved around in Clint’s mind, finding and understanding some of his beliefs, and overriding others. Clearing the overrides was both time-consuming and draining. And it gave her a deeper insight into the man she was examining.

  Hope pulled her Energy and her senses back into her own mind, aware that the others were watching her carefully. “He’s clean now. Go ahead and take out the chips.” She stood.

  Eva reached out and took hold of her arm. "What did you find?”

  Hope looked at her, a tear trickling down her face. "I found a man who’s going to kill himself when he finally realizes what he’s done. We need to tread very carefully.” She took a deep breath. “I’m going to announce that we need everyone to meet near the beach in about half an hour. Can you get the machine there and have it operational?”

  Aaron looked thoughtful. “Yes. I should be able to find a power source nearby.” He glanced at Clint. “What should we do with him?”

  “I think Adam’s going to keep an eye on him no matter what.”

  And she walked off, leaving the others puzzled.

  Word spread quickly after Hope’s call for a general meeting at the beach, as speculation raged. Enough people had witnessed the earlier events from afar to inject both fact and rumor into that speculation. Will Stark had been killed by the Hunters. Clint’s words from years earlier had triggered Will’s belief that he needed to be willing to sacrifice his own life to prove he didn’t think himself above the rest of them. Will had faked his death to throw the Hunters off track. Clint led a team of spies in their midst, set to reveal their hidden base to the Leader of the Aliomenti.

  All of the speculation fueled a level of suspicion within the Cavern that hadn’t existed until that day. And it was that deeply held emotion of suspicion that Hope addressed first.