Expansion (The Accidental Heroes Chronicles Book 2)

by S. E. Cyborski

  “This is part of the trial,” Adam explained, gesturing for Elyse to sit down. “Since some of you are reacting to the drug, I think it’s time to explain a little bit more to you. But first, I would like you all to wait here. I want Billy and George to be here too.”

  Without another word, Adam stood up and walked down the hallway to Billy’s room. Nick’s door was closed, unlike the unoccupied rooms, and he left Nick alone. The poor guy knew everything he needed to for now. He knocked on Billy’s door and wasn’t surprised at all when Billy opened it and sighed. Telepathy was incredibly useful at times.

  “George is in his room,” Billy explained, closing his door carefully behind him. “Maybe instead of having him there too, like you’re thinking, he can distract Wendy and Tabitha. Unless, of course, you don’t mind them finding out.”

  “No, you’re right, that works better,” Adam replied, shaking his head. “Can you explain? I think the students out in the lounge are just a breath away from panicking and I need to keep them calm.”

  Billy nodded and went to George’s room while Adam walked back into the lounge. He had a feeling it was going to be a long few hours, especially if the others decided to try and find out if they had any abilities. Or if anyone started truly panicking.

  Chapter 10

  Katrina wore a serious and somber expression as she walked into the Corporation today. The building had had an air of grief and remorse about it ever since the day before when it was announced that Aaron had passed away in his home. Most people were silent and pale, shocked at the death that had occurred in their midst.

  “Isn’t it just horrible?” a nameless intern said to her in the elevator, sniffling lightly as she dabbed her eyes with a tissue. Honestly, the only reason Katrina even knew she was an intern was by the blue border around her nametag. “He was so young too.”

  “Tragic,” Katrina murmured, nodding here and there distractedly as the intern continued to speak. She fought against the urge to roll her eyes, counting the floors as the elevator rose. The intern finally got out on floor six while Katrina continued on to floor twelve. She expressed the same sentiments about Aaron’s death a few more times in the hallway leading to her office and finally closed out the rest of the employees by firmly shutting her door. Leaning back against her door, Katrina let out an explosive sigh and couldn’t help giggling quietly. If any of those people crying and lamenting over Aaron’s death knew she had killed him, it would have shocked them to their cores.

  “What are you finding so funny?” Lucian’s voice cut into her laughter. Katrina glanced up quickly to see Lucian resting at his ease on her couch. He had a magazine draped across his lap and one leg crossed negligently over the other. His entire pose spoke of comfort and a touch of laziness but Katrina was far too wary of him to let that put her at ease.

  “Just the poor people mourning Aaron,” Katrina replied with an ironic twist to her words. “I bet half those people crying over him never knew what he looked like much less met him. Ah, but death is a great opportunity to show how sad and grief-stricken you can be, isn’t it?”

  “Yes it is,” Lucian replied, closing the magazine carefully and setting it next to him on the couch. “I hope you are pretending to a suitable level of grief yourself, Katrina.”

  “Of course I am, Lucian, I’m not an idiot,” Katrina snapped, turning her back on him and walking behind her desk. She sat down and turned on her laptop, pretending as if she was the only one in the office. “What are you doing here, by the way? Come to congratulate me on a job well done?”

  “Congratulations,” Lucian said perfunctorily, shrugging. “I’m here to make sure nothing could be traced back to you. So far, his death is being ruled as natural causes. But are you certain you left nothing behind to change that finding?”

  “I’m completely certain,” Katrina said confidently, not bothering to look at Lucian. She opened her work email and started sorting the various messages. She’d left quite a few things hanging and it was time to get back to them. While her position on the Council was important and her main reason for staying with the Corporation now, she still had a role within the company to play. “Is that all?”

  “I’m curious how you did it,” Lucian said after a long pause filled with the random clicking of keyboard keys. He shifted uncomfortably on the couch, uncrossing his legs and picking up the magazine to fiddle with it. It wasn’t often Lucian professed ignorance about anything, much less asked for explanations. “From what I understand, you performed your job flawlessly.”

  “Oh my, a compliment!” Katrina exclaimed, looking up at Lucian for a moment before going back to her computer screen. “It must be eating you up inside, not knowing. Especially if you’re giving out compliments.”

  “Yes, yes, fine,” Lucian replied irritably, glaring at Katrina. “I did note several commonalities between Aaron’s death and your predecessor’s, by the way. Potassium chloride?”

  “It’s such a simple compound,” Katrina replied airily, smiling darkly as she remembered Aaron slumping over on his couch. “And the best part about it is the body already contains potassium and chlorine. It breaks down and no one ever knows what actually happened.”

  “You injected him?” Lucian pushed when Katrina fell silent. She was staring off to the side of her screen, a contemplative look on her face. Lucian knew that face quite well, it was one he wore quite often when thinking over his own victories. “That would be the easiest way, I assume.”

  “Yes, a little injection in the webbing of his toes,” Katrina explained, blinking as she snapped back to the present. “Did you know Aaron had been prescribed a sedative for insomnia? I brought a little extra along and dosed him with it. After he fell asleep, I injected him. I left and no one even noticed anything was wrong. Your problem is solved and we can move forward from this, yes?”

  Lucian laced his fingers together over his chest as he studied Katrina. A thread of uncertainty had entered her voice, a little worry that he was here for more sinister reasons. Which, of course, he was. Just not quite the reasons Katrina was thinking. Lucian was here to enforce his power over Katrina and the Council. He would not let anyone stand in his way. Not after working so hard to become the senior member of the Council. Besides, it would give Katrina pause before considering murdering him as well. Protecting himself was Lucian’s first priority.

  “For now, yes,” Lucian finally replied, nodding solemnly. “Until and unless something changes about Aaron’s death. Don’t even think about trying the same thing with me.”

  Pulling out a microcassette recorder, Lucian turned it off and showed it to Katrina. She paled and shrank back in her chair, worry evident on her face. Everything they’d discussed was enough to put her in jail for a very long time, if she wasn’t given a death sentence. The fact that Lucian had asked her about everything could be explained away. And, knowing the coldly ruthless man, would be. Seeing that his message had been delivered, Lucian put the recorder away and stood up, taking the magazine with him.

  “Always a pleasure working with you, Katrina,” Lucian said pleasantly before letting himself out of her office.

  Lucian carefully kept the self-satisfied grin from his face as he walked down the hallway away from Katrina’s office. It wouldn’t do to appear happy and joyful on such a sad day for the rest of the company. He nodded at a few colleagues he recognized and exchanged condolences with a couple others who had worked with Aaron before. The elevator was blissfully empty and Lucian relaxed back against the wall. Finally letting the grin break out across his face, Lucian congratulated himself silently. Once again, he had the reins of power firmly in his hands and there was no way Katrina could pull them away.

  His own office was two floors up so Lucian didn’t have long to gloat. The doors opened to show more sad faces as people stepped back to let him out. There was another pause as Lucian spoke to a few more people, this time some of those who were higher up in the Corporation than he was. It would be very bad form to snub any
of these people. But finally, Lucian made his escape and closed the door to the haven that his office was.

  The large room was opulent and warm, completely at odds with Lucian’s own outward personality. But it was perfect for him and exactly what he needed. No one came here so he felt no need to keep up the cold, austere look in his own personal spaces. A mahogany desk took up one wall with bookcases behind, much like Katrina’s office. There, the similarities ended, though. The desk was large and carved with vines on the legs. There was a computer on it but also traditional paper files. Lucian liked being able to hold things, being able to read important information on paper.

  The bookshelves were filled with volumes on everything from apiology to zebras and Lucian had read every one. Knowledge was one source of power and Lucian believed in harnessing as much power as it was possible for him to hold. A few trinkets sat on the ends of bookshelves, mostly made of glass. A little sculpture of the Eiffel Tower, a running horse, a wolf’s head, and a globe made of metal and enamel sat in isolated splendor on the end of a shelf. There was even a matching wolf’s head on Lucian’s desk, functioning as a paperweight on his day planner.

  The walls were painted a rusty red, somehow bringing to mind the embers of a fire after it had burned down. The carpet was a darker shade of red that was nearly black, plush and full underfoot. It gave the effect of walking around inside a fire and helped pick out the glints of red in the mahogany desk and bookshelves. There was an entire wall of windows, again like in Katrina’s office as most of the upper level offices had been built to the same plan. Lucian left them completely uncovered most of the time, though he could draw the curtains that were the same red as the walls. It wasn’t often that he blocked out the fantastic view or the weather that hung over the city.

  Today, rain pattered against the window, tracing random tracks as the water flowed down. Those windows were his favorite part of the office and the best thing about moving up from his old one. That little office, barely bigger than a closet, had had one tiny window that looked out at the facade of another building. Lucian had counted himself lucky because many of the other offices were interior ones and had no windows at all.

  Against the final wall, two leather armchairs sat with a mahogany end table between them. A simple lamp cast enough light to illuminate the two chairs but not much further. Lucian sank gratefully into the deep brown leather, the chair fitting easily to his body after years of use. These chairs had been his first purchase when he’d been given a decorating allowance. The woman who’d owned this office before him had had an unreasoning love of pink and white, light filigree work, and cats. After the office had been repainted and recarpeted, Lucian had spent quite a bit of time in either chair working through what he wanted the rest of the office to look like and planning out his future and the future of the Council.

  Three prints hung above the chairs, placed evenly across the wall. The piece on the left was Vision of the Tomb by Ibrahim El-Salahi. Lucian had seen it while travelling and had fallen in love with the colors in it. It was bold and the colors were vibrant. It was a powerful piece and made him slightly uncomfortable, which was all the more reason Lucian had purchased the print.

  The one in the center was Les Fétiches by Loïs Mailou Jones. There was something about the lines and shading to the piece, something that combined soft colors with sharp lines. When he’d first seen the print, Lucian had spent half an hour staring at it, drawn to the style and to the mask in the center of the painting.

  And the final piece, the one on the right, was Leadwood Trees - Bushveld by Jakob Hendrik Pierneef. The trees were soft and soothing, a counterpoint to the Vision of the Tomb. When he allowed the small flights of fancy that Lucian only indulged here in his office, he imagined the horse figurine galloping through the landscape, free and powerful. He always associated horses with freedom and power, two things he’d worked for all his life and finally achieved. Well, mostly. He wasn’t as free as he might have liked but the sheer power at his command more than made up for that.

  “Everything is going as it should,” Lucian murmured to himself, smiling at nothing in particular. “Now if we could just deal with those three rogues.”

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  Sandra giggled quietly to herself as she put another bundle of money in her suitcase. This was the third theft they’d attempted since their first a week ago. No one suspected them, even though the three of them had been questioned in the beginning of the investigation. But she’d had a ready-made lie already in place and the power to make anyone questioning her believe it. After all, tourists got lost in hotels all the time. It wasn’t her fault that the door to that wing of the hotel had been left unlocked and she’d wandered in looking for the restaurant. After asking the security guards where the restaurant was, Sandra, Michael, and Amy had left immediately. The whole time she’d been telling the story, manipulating those around her, Sandra had been recalling the true events. Locks were nothing compared to Michael’s ability while Amy’s judicious use of the air around her had provided the perfect escape route.

  After being questioned that one time, the police had dismissed Sandra’s involvement and focused on the employees. The two guards, Ryan and Henry, had been fired. Unfortunately for Ryan, that had happened while he was in the hospital. He’d never quite recovered from the catatonic state he’d been in the last time Sandra had seen him. Sandra would have felt a moment of guilt had she been inclined to care. But the only thing she felt was a sense of relief. With the guards gone, that went the only link to her and the others’ presence during the robbery.

  “So, what are we up to?” Michael asked lazily from his spot on their bed. He was resting with one hand behind his head and using his other to pilot one of his origami cranes around the room.

  “Just under a million,” Sandra replied, closing her suitcase and sliding it back under the bed. She sat back on her heels and wrapped her arms around her waist. Honestly, it felt like if she didn’t hold it in, she’d scream for sheer joy. Her plan was working better than even she had expected. “That’s just in cash. In jewelry and other valuables, I think we have another million or so? I’m not sure since I don’t really know how much the gemstones are worth.”

  “Can you believe it was all within about a week?” Michael replied, letting the crane land on the desk in the corner and gesturing Sandra up on the bed. “I’d say we’re doing pretty damn good, wouldn’t you?”

  “Oh yes,” Sandra replied, crawling onto the bed and settling down next to Michael. She took a moment to sort through his emotions and saw that he was still firmly within her power. She’d been doing that more often lately as her manipulation kept inexplicably fading. “But we’re still not done yet, Michael. We have two more shows and three more places I would like to rob.”

  “I know that, Sandra. Believe me, I want the money just as much as you do,” Michael nodded, wrapping an arm over Sandra’s shoulders and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. He took a moment to marvel at his emotions regarding her. The fact that she might be manipulating him had never crossed his mind. The only thing Michael thought about was how the fire and flash had tempered, had turned into something far more lasting. Might have turned to love rather than lust. “I know I’m the last one urging caution but I think we need to be careful. We’ve gotten away with it so far but that’s partly luck. We’ve been getting paid handsomely from our shows. Maybe not quite as good as our thefts but nothing to sneeze at, either way. Wouldn’t it be safer in the long run to concentrate on our shows?”

  “What are you talking about?” Sandra asked, sitting up in surprise and staring at Michael. This was not in her plans at all. And the problem was, this wasn’t an emotion she could change. She had no control over logic. Though maybe decreasing Michael’s worry and fear of getting caught would work. Sandra didn’t want to change his desire for fame or love of being on stage. She still needed him for their shows. Michael had an extremely showy ability.
As she made the fear and worry disappear, Sandra continued, “We’re not in any danger. No one even suspects us and, if they did, I could make them forget.”

  “But how long is that going to last?” Michael asked, shaking his head slightly as Sandra went to work on his emotions. Slowly, ever so slowly, Michael’s worry faded away and it seemed so very silly. But that didn’t stop him from arguing. “Police look for a pattern and if you get questioned a little too often, someone’s going to put two and two together.”

  “It’s nothing to worry about,” Sandra insisted, twining invisible fingers through Michael’s emotions. She leaned down and kissed him lightly, nibbling at his bottom lip. “If that happens, by the time anyone realizes it might be us, we’ll be long gone.”

  “If you’re completely sure,” Michael said slowly, blinking as the last of his worries faded away. He pulled Sandra into his arms again and chuckled. “Fine, fine. What’s a few more thefts? Besides, the more money we have, the better that beach will be.”

  “There you go,” Sandra encouraged, caressing the side of his face. “Have you heard from Amy today? I was surprised that she wasn’t at the rehearsal earlier.”

  “Amy’s been holed up in her room,” Michael replied, a touch of annoyance coming into his voice. Amy was the last person he wanted to think about right now. “Said she hasn’t been feeling all that well. Probably just a cold, though. Besides, she knows the show just as well as we do. Let her go for now. We’ve got something more important to think about.”

  Sandra laughed and kissed Michael again. Though, she still stretched a tendril towards Amy just to make sure she was actually in her room. A sense of tiredness came through, almost like a numbing of her limbs. The cold ooze of sadness followed but the feeling wasn’t a danger to the greed and wish for fame Sandra had fanned into a fire in Amy. Deciding that there was no need to change anything about Amy’s emotional state, Sandra pulled her attention back to Michael. She was starting to enjoy the time she spent with the guy even with the annoyance of her manipulation fading. Amy became the last thing on her mind.