He thought back to the letter, why had it suggested he come to such a dangerous place. He was in one of the most secure facilities in North America, shy of a military barracks. And even worse, he was a powered individual in a place where powered people were housed, studied, and killed.
“What brings you here, Conthan?”
The Warden spoke as if he knew Conthan’s secret but wanted him to confess. “I came to see a childhood friend.”
“I see.”
“Your smug tone is kind of irritating,” Conthan replied flatly.
“My smug tone comes from years of studying people. What I find odd right now…” He paused. “You are an anomaly. Nobody returns to the Danger Zone, especially none that aren’t invited.”
“I’m special,” Conthan said, “so sue me.”
“I suspect that,” the Warden said, settling into the chair behind his desk. “The question is, what is special about you?”
“I’ve been told I have a mouth that won’t quit,” he said.
The Warden avoided the bait and stared at the young man. He was studying him and Conthan had no idea what he was looking for. “What is it you want from me?” asked Conthan.
“I want answers.”
The Warden leaned in, resting his elbows on the desk. Conthan felt the man’s eyes boring a hole into him, and for a moment a stinging sensation began behind his eyes. He grit his teeth and let out a slight hiss. “If you’re just going to stare at me like a piece of meat, I think I can be on my way.”
The Warden’s eyes went wide as he leaned back in his chair. “There is indeed something special about you, Conthan Cowan.”
Conthan knew something had just happened to alert the Warden and he wasn’t sure what it was. Since last night there had been far too many weird situations for him to figure out on the go. He needed somebody to explain the secret world of superpowers to him. He thought of the woman in the robes and he wished she was there to help him. So far, she had been the only one appearing to support the stupid decision to come here.
“Why did Sarah say not to trust you?”
The Warden’s face showed genuine surprise. Conthan had lost time and time again to his mother’s mental battles. He found the fastest way to unsettle your prey was to be honest.
“She spoke to you?”
“Yes,” Conthan said honestly. “She said that I shouldn’t trust you. And I am beginning to believe she has good reason. What could that be?”
The Warden regained his composure and eyed one of the monitors to the side of his desk. He stood up and walked over to the screen. “Play back conference room A, visitation of Sarah Mathis.”
The monitor sped through the encounter and the Warden looked to Conthan. “It appears she never said anything and yet you speak with conviction. How did she relay her lack of trust to you? I think you may have overplayed your hand, Mr. Cowan.”
“I think you think I’m playing a game.”
“We are all pawns in a much larger game,” he said, walking over to Conthan.
The Warden reached out, faster than his large frame should allow, grabbing at Conthan’s leather jacket. “What secrets are you hiding, boy?” He placed his palm on Conthan’s forehead. His hand was large enough to encompass Conthan’s head, squeezing it, holding him in place.
The room faded away into nothingness. Focused on the Warden’s sneering face in front of him, Conthan backed away, stumbling over his own shoe and falling. The large man began to turn fuzzy, blurring before his eyes. “What the fuck?”
The Warden took a step forward and his image faded away until a shadow replaced him. Whips of black tendrils rose off the shadow as if he was a man made of smoke. Conthan’s heart raced as he saw the frightening transformation. “You’re not human.”
“No more than you are, Mr. Cowan,” said the shadow.
“Sarah could see you,” Conthan said. “She knew what you are.”
“The question is, how did she tell you without speaking those words?”
A wisp of smoke shot out and pushed against Conthan’s head. The Warden’s avatar began to growl. Conthan swatted at the smoke, trying to keep it from touching his face. “Even the Children of Nostradamus have a breaking point. How do you continue to evade me?”
For a moment, the shadowy figure didn’t move. Conthan was reminded of the soldiers at the art gallery and the way they paused as they received instructions from afar. He had to assume something was going on in the room they were standing in. He wrestled against the Warden’s grip, pulling his jacket free just as the woman emerged from the shadows.
She had been docile, even delicate. Now she was enraged. With each step her robes transformed into armor surrounding her small form. Behind her, emerging from folds, large angelic wings spanned twice her height. She reached by her side and pulled out a long sword.
Her eyes were filled with fire. “Run!”
The last image he had of the two was the shadow turning toward the angel, reaching out to block the impending blow of the sword. Conthan gasped for air as the light rushed in on him. The Warden stood in front of him, his body appearing lifeless, taking breaths but not reacting to the world around him. Conthan imagined himself reaching around the man’s neck and squeezing the life from his body. He could end it right then. He shook the image from his mind. Only yesterday he was the wise-ass artist and now he was contemplating killing his second person.
“What the fuck is going on?” mumbled Conthan.
He looked to the monitors to see guards outside the facility running with weapons held high. There were a dozen ragged vehicles riding outside the perimeter. People inside the cars fired weapons at the guards. He stared at the monitors when one flickered to the image of a black man wearing sunglasses. The man tapped the glass. “Conthan,” he said, “we’re springing you out. I’ll open the doors.”
“Who are you?”
The man’s face showed no emotion. “We’re the cavalry.”
Conthan wasn’t assured by that. His options were to walk into a firefight or to stay here and deal with the Warden when he returned to his body. He felt it was only a matter of moments before guards busted through the doors and began firing on him.
He turned to see the two figures in leather coats. They were lifeless, unmoving, and appearing vacant. It was the same look that Sarah had earlier. He wondered if somehow the Warden gave them commands. Telepaths were known to take control of people and force them to do things they didn’t want; perhaps this was the same ordeal.
Conthan jumped as the door to the office opened. To his surprise, there were no guards on the other side. He hesitated, looking about to see if somebody was approaching the Warden’s office.
“Run, Conthan,” he said to himself.
He began to run.
Chapter Ten
May 17th, 2032 3:30PM
Conthan skidded down the hallway, running into the wall as he rounded the corner. He reached an intersection that led to all locked doors. He stared up at the camera with panic etched on his face. It was bad enough he was powered and at the facility, but he was pretty sure he had assaulted the Warden, evaded capture, and was now part of a conspiracy.
“This day is just sucking.”
The light above one of the doors turned green. As it opened, he could see one of the small metal balls flying down the hallway, attempting to catch up to him. The lens on the sphere glowed an angry red as it closed the distance. Conthan jumped inside the door and slammed it shut, cutting off the drone. The space beyond was like the others, a long corridor passing around the outer perimeter of the building.
He looked up to the security camera. “You have me running in circles. Find me a door that goes outside.”
Somebody yelled on the other side. The light above the door turned green but before it could be opened, it turned red again. He hoped the guy helping him was smarter than the guards. He waited and saw none of the other doors were lighting up. He began to panic. “Get me out of here.”
&nb
sp; He started walking down the hallway until a loud hissing sound erupted from one of the walls. He paused and listened as the sound grew louder. It sounded like something was cutting through the metal. “What the fuck?”
He looked up to the camera and ran to the next door. He punched at the keypad and realized there was no way he could get through. He put his back to the wall as the hissing got louder.
“Going down swinging,” he said as he balled his fists.
He walked closer to the sound and prepared to fight back. “Superpowers I don’t know how to use,” he said, “don’t fail me now.”
He watched as the metal wall turned red. “What the hell?” The red started to expand as the tip of a torch breached the wall. He backed up as flame continued to melt through the exterior. He realized it wasn’t a torch cutting through the metal. On the other side was a young girl, her outstretched hands pulsing a light that turned from red to white, vaporizing the walls around her. “Almost got you.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“The rest of the cavalry.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Not enough,” she said with a devious smile. The computer guy lacked facial expression, but this girl, she seemed to have a wild gleam in her eyes.
“We’re going to die.”
“Sooner or later,” the girl retorted.
She pushed her hands down and the last of the wall melted away. She shook her arms and the pulsing blue light vanished. Nothing was left but lines of heat radiating off her petite hands. “Neat trick, huh?”
“Where are we going?”
She reached up to her ear and pushed a button. “Do we have a ticket out of here?”
She frowned for a moment when nobody replied. “Apparently our headsets are being hacked. So we’re going to do a lot of running, maybe some dodging, and if we live, we’ll call it a good day.”
“You’re fucking crazy,” he said.
“I was once,” she said, reaching out to him.
He instinctively reached out and grabbed her hand. He was surprised that it wasn’t any hotter than his own. She pulled him quickly, scalding metal searing through his pants as his leg brushed the side of the melted wall. She dropped down to a knee and looked at his leg. “You’ll be fine until we get out of here.”
Conthan didn’t dare look at the singed fabric and the burn that most certainly occurred. Instead he tried to take in his surroundings. They were in the massive courtyard he entered an hour earlier. The bus was still idling, waiting to take home the off-duty guards. The walls surrounded the giant cube housing the facility were bustling with activity as guards scattered around them, their rifles ready to fire.
He estimated it was two hundred feet between where they were squatting and the wall cutting them off from their freedom. The yelling grew more furious and the guards were less interested in what was going on in the courtyard than what was happening outside the gates.
“Who are you?”
“Skits.”
“Skits who?”
She shrugged. “I was told to rescue you. Here we are.”
“Who’s we?”
“My brother,” she said as if it explained everything. “Alyssa, too. Vanessa and Dav5d, I take it you’ve already met.”
“The angel and guy on the computer?”
“Sure,” she said. “We’re trying to keep your ass alive.”
“How do we get out of here?”
She pointed to the radio in her ear. “Until somebody tells me the plan, the goal is to stay alive.”
“I saw cars outside?”
She nodded. “Outlanders. They have a grudge against the people in this facility. Unfortunately they’re not as gifted as we are. We’ll be lucky if they survive,” she said. “We’re a loose collaboration, you can say.”
“So you came here without a plan?”
She smiled. “I’m not the superior strategist I look like.”
Conthan ducked as a bullet grazed by him. “We’re sitting ducks out here.” In the facility courtyard there was nothing other than the small building they were hiding behind. He assumed it was strategic not to have obstacles in the area between the building and the wall. The bus, he thought, it’s the closest defense we have.
He felt the heat begin to radiate from his savior. Conthan fell backward; it wasn’t fire, it was almost as if there was molten liquid hanging in the air around her arms. She moved her hands quickly in small circles until the blue created a small shield covering them. “Plasma,” she said as if it explained everything. “I can keep this up for a while.”
“Until they start charging us?”
“Dwayne,” she screamed, “assistance!”
Conthan watched in disbelief as a stout man stepped from behind the bus, growling loud enough to be heard from a distance. A bolt of lightning shot upward and smashed into one of the towers, knocking a turret to the side. Another bolt slammed into the tower, causing parts of it to fall away to the ground below.
“Thanks,” she yelled.
“Your brother?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Don’t piss him off.”
“Cause the first thing I thought when I saw lightning shoot out of a small man…”
“You’ve got a mouth on you,” she said. “I like that.”
“Incoming,” he said, pointing across the yard at two incoming guards.
“Alyssa’s got this.”
“Who…?”
A door flew open from the facility. A small girl lunged at one of the guards, knocking him to the ground. She twisted her body, turned around mid-flip, and tumbled away from him before he could react. A small device was strapped to the guard’s wrist. It began to glow red as he pointed it at her. She knocked the man’s hand high and raised her knee to his stomach. The man went to punch, but she pivoted to the side of his body. Using his momentum against him, she kicked his legs out from under him. As he fell to the ground she grabbed his hand and pressed it to his temple. She pushed his wrist, flashing a red light through his head and illuminating his skull.
As the other guard crawled to his feet, she kicked with all her might against his face. He turned over onto his back and started to sit up. She crouched behind him, grabbing his head and spinning as hard as she could.
“Do we have a plan yet?” Alyssa yelled from the two corpses.
“Did she just kill them?”
“It’s not a game, kid.” He knew she wasn’t kidding.
“How are three of you going to get us out of here?”
“You make four,” she said, “and from what I’m told, you have your own gifts.”
“Used exactly once.”
“Oh.” Skits said surprised. “I was not told that.”
Alyssa ran over to the two of them. The girl couldn’t be much older than Skits. She wore a hijab wrapped around her head, hiding part of her face, shoulders and chest. Conthan didn’t need to see her skin, her eyes gave away Middle Eastern heritage. For a moment he pondered if it had been racist assuming she was another white girl.
“Suggestions?” she asked.
“Mechs,” Skits said, standing. She shook her hands and the blue fire vanished. “You watch the kid.”
“You’re like five years younger than me.”
“Ignore her, she’s a pain in the ass,” Alyssa stated.
Skits began to take strides toward the two-legged humanoid machine. The fire radiating from her hands started to spread up her arms. The blue light began to radiate outwards as the plasma started to consume the top of her body. She ducked under the arm reaching for her. She slammed herself into the man-sized mech. “Bring it, bastards,” she hissed.
Her hands pushed through the machine, leaving molten metal in their wake. She repeated the action through one of the legs and the mech tumbled to the ground. She turned to see another mech with two guns pointed directly at her. The guns began to rotate, spitting out bullets as she held up her hands in a defensive posture. The bullets reached the plasma and
rained down to the ground in a shower of liquid metal.
She stepped toward the mech, focusing on her palms, willing the fire to reach further. The blue reached out and touched the edges of the guns. “Thanks for playing,” she said as they melted to the mech’s shoulders.
She clapped her hands together and the blue sliced through the mech, leaving it incapacitated. She turned just in time to see a much larger version stomping toward her. She dug her heels in. “Dwayne,” she yelled, “watch this show!”
The heat in her hands was distant, like feeling the warmth from the sun on a sunny day. As she growled, it began to spread further up her arms, enveloping her chest and then her face. The heat licking against her skin started to sting.
Conthan gasped at the sight of the fiery teenager. Her body was engulfed in the blue light and he had to shield his eyes when looking directly at her. He glanced at the girl next to him. “She’s going to get herself killed.”
“Probably,” she said, “but not today.”
They both watched as Skits turned her attention to the guns firing at her. She dug in her heels and pushed the plasma in front of her body. A small projectile hissed through the air, hit the plasma, and exploded, launching her backward along the ground. “Okay, maybe today,” Alyssa said, running toward the fray.
Conthan stood up and started running after her, not knowing what he was supposed to do.
Alyssa began to wave her arms at the mech. “Shoot me,” she screamed. “Look at me being all sort of threatening!”
The mech paused and turned toward Alyssa. “Oh shit,” she said, sliding along the gravel.
Red dots appeared on the ground around Alyssa. Bullets started to rain down. She rolled backward and sprung up into a flip. Conthan held his breath as several laser sights focused on her body. Alyssa spun her body as bullets whooshed by. She landed on the ground, her muscles twitching from the effort.
“Down you go,” yelled Skits as she slammed her flaming upper body into the leg of the mech. She let her hand slide into the mech as the metal gave way to a wave of liquid steel. She began to scream, forcing her hand deeper into the leg of the machine.
Nighthawks (Children of Nostradamus Book 1) Page 11
