by S Mays
***
In the elevator, Jessica paused before selecting the floor containing the barracks. Instead, she chose the bottom floor, where her father worked. After a short elevator ride, the door opened onto a large workshop full of dozens of machines. This floor was segmented based on the research being worked on. The main area was manufacturing, but other paths led to areas that dealt in medical research, weapons, and armor testing. Most satellite branches didn’t have their own research center, but her father was one of the top scientists for the Order, and an exception had been made for him.
The higher-ups had tried to confine him to a lab because of his promising weapons and artificial intelligence research, but he was also one of the top field operatives, and some of the older members refused to remand him to desk duty merely because he was as good a scientist as he was a combatant. It didn’t hurt that her grandfather had been around when the Order was formed and could pull some strings of his own. The fact that her father excelled in so many areas was a source of constant pride for her. If only I were allowed to prove myself.
She found her father at a high-powered microscope, maneuvering two robotic arms that manipulated a tiny speck on a slide. Standing silently, she waited for him to notice her presence.
“Jessica, I’m glad you’re here. Look at the progress I’ve made on the joint articulation.”
He moved aside, allowing her access to the microscope. Peering through the eyepiece lenses, she moved the arms slightly. Looking up, she smiled at her father. “What is the improvement? Fifty-five percent?”
He returned her smile, shaking his head. “Impressive estimate. Sixty-two percent, actually. Their speed has almost doubled in the past nine months. As soon as we work out the power converter, we’ll start preliminary A.I. testing. I think these particles are going to revolutionize so many fields. Weapons development, medicine, manufacturing — the applications are infinite.”
“Yes, and if you’d stop leading missions every few days, you might be able to speed up development, don’t you think?” she suggested.
“Or if you would stop training so much and help me instead,” he countered.
She knew better than to get into that argument again. “Sam says there’s a group heading out in a few days to investigate a haunting. I’d like to go with them.”
“No, there is that meeting of Overseers that I will be attending at the same time, so I won’t be able to go on the Pickens mission,” he said.
“Sam said he would go.”
“Sam? On a haunting mission? What did you do to convince him to attend such a mundane event?”
“He said he wants to get out to ‘stretch his feet,’” she said.
Her father laughed. “Hah! He’s let that one slip around me a few times in the past, too. I suppose if Sam is with you, it will be fine. I want one extra soldier on the mission, though. You, Sam, Vera, Lyle, and Theresa.”
“Lyle?” she cried. Lyle was insufferable. He was assistant squad leader and a Stalker-In-Training. Their facility was down to one Stalker, Faith Cleary, and she was preparing to transfer to a West Coast branch, which would leave the facility with no Stalkers. Lyle had trained under Faith, proving himself to be one of the best combatants in the building in the process. He would take Faith’s position when she left. Faith spent more time in the field than she did at the facility. She had been gone the past few weeks, and no one knew when she would return. Once she was on a mission, she rarely reported in.
At nineteen, Lyle was also one of the youngest to ever be selected to become a Stalker. Stalkers were special agents trained for solo missions to locate and eliminate threats. Each facility usually had two Stalkers, although a facility might get by on one if needed. If Jessica had been a few years older, she might have been in contention for that position, although her father was against it. As Overseer of the facility, all promotions had to go through him. If he had his way, she’d be stuck in a lab coat, buried five floors beneath the earth until she was old and gray. She wasn’t going to let that happen.
“Yes, Lyle. He needs more field hours dealing with spiritual encounters. I would hope he could get those hours dealing with something more dangerous, like a poltergeist, but every encounter survived results in some new knowledge. We have to speed up his training, so we have another Stalker on the roster. Otherwise, we risk getting our funding cut and our facility downgraded. That would be disastrous for our research.”
“I think Lyle isn’t qualified to be a Stalker or a squad leader,” she blurted out. She’d wanted to say, “Lyle should be beaten and thrown out of the Order,” but she knew her father didn’t know him like she did. She’d had to refrain from attacking him half a dozen times in the past year. He was a bully. He enjoyed hazing and mocking the accomplishments of others in his squad. She’d witnessed him using his position to coerce a female squad member into sexual favors. He had claimed to the other squad members that it was consensual, but Jessica could read people extremely well. Despite the woman’s claim that nothing had happened, she had been humiliated. In the past year, he’d started to harass Jessica, perhaps in retaliation for her defiance. She had let him know that would be very unwise.
“Yes, you’ve made your concerns known. I’m keeping an eye on him, but there have been no other complaints aside from yours. You shouldn’t let jealousy lead you, Jessica. Lyle’s Stalker test is coming up soon, and we have to be prepared.”
“Jealousy? Let me…” she started, but calmed herself. “Yes, Father.” She didn’t want to upset him and cause him to revoke her mission clearance. “Thank you for allowing me to go on the mission. I won’t disappoint you,” she said, moving to leave.
“Where are you rushing off to? I was hoping we could work on the nanites together,” her father said, disappointment in his voice.
“I don’t think you really require my help, Father. I’m going to train in the barracks.”
“I still think you are too young for weight training. Give it another year or two.”
“I’ll be thirteen in another month. The World Weightlifting Regulatory Commission has an age bracket for thirteen to sixteen years old. Studies have shown that —”
“Okay! Enough. I can hardly be the one who tells someone else they can’t do strength training,” he admitted, flexing slightly. The threads in his lab coat groaned under the strain, threatening to rip.
“Careful. You know what those coats cost, and you are the first one to complain about expenses,” she warned.
He stopped flexing and smiled, then returned to his work.
CHAPTER THREE
The Farm’s strength-training equipment was far more advanced than the equipment one would find in a local gym. Each piece had the ability to analyze a person’s frame, bone, and muscle structure and adapt the machine’s movement to be most effective. As a person’s strength waned, computers and scanners analyzed the blood levels of lactic acid and ATP, and adjusted the weight and range of motion. It also tracked repetitions and weight used during each exercise for individuals based on their DNA. The computers then calculated the optimal routines, increasing the resistance for maximum results with minimal effort. The result was that each soldier in the facility was almost equal to professional athletes as far as speed, endurance, and strength. The supernatural threats they faced regularly demanded that each person be in top physical form.
Spots of sweat dotted the floor under Jessica. Groaning, she squatted low, then thrust the weight back up with force. Two hundred and twenty pounds registered on the display in bright blue numbers. After completing her final repetition, she fell to her knees, her legs quivering.
“Now, that’s what I like to see,” Lyle said, smirking as he walked into the room with two other Order soldiers. They were dressed in gym clothing. “Jess, you don’t come down here to see us as much as you used to. What gives?”
The tall teen sauntered over to Jessica. The fluorescent light made his blond hair appear almost white. If not for his arrogance and cruelty,
Jessica would say his chiseled face was handsome, but she found him repulsive.
She rose to her feet, pushing against her knees with her hands to steady herself. “To be honest, I can’t stand listening to you brag about being the next Stalker. Not to mention how you treat the other squad members.”
“I don’t hear them complaining,” he answered, turning to the two young men with him. They feigned ignorance, shrugging. He moved to the squat machine she had just exited, peering at the readout.
“Hey, not too shabby for a little girl. But let me show you something.” He dipped under the machine, then grunted as he pressed the weight over his head with one hand. It didn’t quite reach the top, but it came close. He let it drop callously, with a loud crash. The machine’s screen read “error.”
“You need to treat this equipment with more respect. My father worked hard to attain the budget for all of this.”
“Whoa, guys, little Jessica is lecturing me about ‘respect,’” Lyle mocked. He held up his hands and backed away.
“Lyle, I don’t have to like you, but we need to work together. In fact, I’m going to Pickens with you. A little professionalism would be nice.”
“You? Going with us? Hah! I don’t think so. It’s nothing but a cake séance escort, but I’m mission commander on this trip, and I get to say who goes. Who said you can go with us?”
“My father…and Sam. Sam’s going with us, too.”
“Well, well. I guess I don’t get to pick my own crew anymore. We’re now performing babysitting services. At least Sam can keep you off my back, but that is sure annoying — the fact you got your dad to override the crew like that. Being the Overseer’s daughter has a lot of benefits, I guess. We’re out there busting our butts, knee-deep in all kinds of shit, and you’re prancing around the Farm playing warrior princess. That’s fine, though. With me on the trip, you won’t have to worry your pretty little head about anything getting you.” Reaching forward, he attempted to brush a strand of hair away from her face.
“Don’t you touch me, you…filth,” she warned.
The other two soldiers snickered at the comment. The smile faded from Lyle’s face.
“Well, you’re quite feisty today, little Miss Luvkrafft. What’s got you all hot and bothered? Oh, wait, don’t tell me: you’ve finally started? Congratulations. Our little Jessica is finally becoming a woman, guys.”
Jessica blushed. This idiot was actually getting to her! “I – no, that isn’t…”
“Look, it’s okay. It’s just all part of growing up. Of course, you won’t be a real woman until you…you know.”
“Lyle…” one of the other young men warned.
“It’s cool, it’s cool. I’m not going to say anything else about it. Maybe in another three or four years, you’ll see what you’re missing,” Lyle taunted.
“No, I already know what I’m missing out on. It’s akin to missing out on having the plague. And you’d better watch what you say to me. Maybe Laura covered for you, despite what you did, but I won’t. You’re lucky I don’t —”
“What? Run and tell your daddy on me? Your daddy don’t see shit that goes on around here. He’s either off on missions or stuck in his lab. I’m the only hope you guys have for a new Stalker, and if you cut me out, you’re going to lose all that money. You think I don’t know about that? No one else here is even close to being Stalker material.”
“I am,” she said, surprised at the words coming out of her own mouth.
Lyle was also caught off-guard but recovered more quickly. “You? YOU? Oh, that’s a good one. You aren’t even fit to be a cadet! You? Oh my God! You do have delusions of grandeur! I knew you were full of yourself, but this is just too much.”
Jessica felt her cheeks grow hot as the three young men guffawed at her statement.
“Look! She’s blushing!” Lyle shouted, tears streaming down the sides of his face as he laughed.
Jessica’s strike caught him square in the jaw and sent him tumbling back into the squat machine. The room instantly turned silent. Lyle looked around to his compatriots, then to Jessica. A thin drop of blood oozed from the side of his lip. He wiped it away, looked at his hand, then back at Jessica. His eyes narrowed as he slowly rose to his feet. Jessica assumed a defensive stance.
“Yo, Lyle, that’s the Overseer’s daughter. You can’t do nothin’ to her,” one of the other young men warned.
Lyle grinned maliciously. “I’m not going to do anything to her. We’re just going to have a little sparring match. I’ve heard you like to spar, right, Jessica?”
She said nothing, continuing to analyze his body language. He was going to attack full force.
He assumed a stance she was not familiar with. Cautiously, she backed away as he closed in.
“You like this one? Faith taught it to me,” he bragged.
He feigned a punch toward her head. She didn’t flinch. He frowned, annoyed at her courage. He feigned another punch, then brought his leg around in a roundhouse kick. She ducked only to find him continuing the motion into a leg sweep. Jumping backward, she avoided it.
“You’re off-balance,” he remarked. She struck at his head several times as he advanced. He wove around her lightning-quick punches.
“You’re a little better than I expected, but not by much,” he taunted, moving closer.
He blocked her kick toward his midsection, swatting her leg away. The only person she’d fought with strength like this had been her father. Lyle was solidly infused with chi, magnifying his strength. Stalkers were trained to use the spiritual energy called chi to magnify their strength and resilience. She kicked the inside of his knee, but it didn’t buckle. In fact, it had no effect at all. She was now wide open.
Lyle smirked, swinging a huge backhanded blow toward her head. She brought up both hands to block, but he stopped short. Instead, he grabbed both of her wrists in one hand. With dizzying speed, he used his other hand to strike several points on her body. Smiling, he let go of her hands and stepped away. Her arms fell to her sides, numb and useless.
“I’ve struck the Tsubo points that control your arms. You won’t be able to use them again for several minutes.”
Jessica looked at her arms, then back to Lyle. Undeterred, she launched a jumping kick at his face. Grabbing her leg, he flipped her to the ground. Quickly, he struck several more pressure points. She found she could not move any of her limbs. Grunting, she attempted to stand, but it was futile.
“Jessica, I’m doing you a favor, here. Your dad and Bilford have been leading you on. You really think you can take down two grown men? Your dad won’t let them go all-out on you. You’re just a weak, soft little girl. Your dad’s right. You should stick to the lab. It’s safer for you. We wouldn’t want you to end up in little itty-bitty pieces like your mom, would we?”
Jessica’s face twisted into a snarl. “You…you don’t dare speak of my mother. You’re scum! You’re nothing but scum!”
He walked back over and squatted beside her. “Now, Jessica, you need to learn to respect me. These other guys know the deal. I’m going to be leading missions, and I’m going to be a Stalker, maybe even a Master Stalker or a Slayer. In a few years, you’ll probably be taking orders from me. That is, until I decide to leave this little crap facility and town and head out to a nice area like Faith’s going to do. I’ve got no clue how she’s managed to stay here as long as she has. A crap Order base in the middle of nowhere.”
“Your duty is to serve the Order wherever you are needed!” she argued.
“Maybe you’re right. Hell, maybe I’ll stick around and become Overseer once your old man retires or kicks the bucket,” he taunted, looking away as if imagining the future.
She spat on his face. Anger contorted his features before the smile crept back. Wiping the spittle away, he leaned closer.
“You know, there are hundreds of Tsubo points on the human body. See, this one here,” he threatened, moving his finger toward her abdomen, “controls the bowels. I
f I press it with just the right amount of pressure and speed, you’ll crap your pants.”
Jessica could not see them, but she could hear the other two young men trying not to laugh. Lyle’s finger slowly inched toward her side. Sweat trickled down her forehead. She still could not move her limbs, although she could feel some sensation returning. Very gently, he touched her side as her eyes grew more frantic. After a long moment, he laughed, then stood and walked away.
“Nah, not today. I’m feeling generous. You just remember what happened here today. When we are out on that mission in a few days, you do what I say and don’t cause any trouble. We haven’t lost anyone in a year, and I’ll be damned if the Overseer’s spoiled brat is going to cause problems on a mission I’m leading just because she thinks she’s ready for the big leagues. Nothing is going to prevent me from becoming squad leader and a Stalker.”
The trio walked out of the room, leaving Jessica’s prone form on the floor. After another minute, she managed to sit up. Her strength returned slowly as she rubbed her arms and legs. When her arms functioned well enough, she finally wiped away the tears.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Grandfather!” Jessica bellowed, storming into the old man’s study. Startled, he jumped, dropping the book he was reading onto the floor. A rubbery tentacle launched forth from the book and adhered to the ceiling. The book started to pull itself upward. Regaining his composure, Bilford zapped the tentacle with a miniature lightning bolt, causing it to retract back into the book. The book snapped shut, falling into his open hand.
“Jessica! How many times have I told you not to startle me when I’m studying my spell books?”
“Grandfather, is it true that Father tells my sparring partners to allow me to win? Is it?” she demanded.
“What? Er, who told you that?” he replied, appearing to think up excuses.
“So, it is true, then?” she asked, folding her arms.
