Illusionary

by LeAnn Mason

  Large hands grasped my shoulders, turning me. My father’s eyes bore into me, he was slightly stooped so he could look at me squarely. It made me squirm. I looked at the cracked concrete to avoid his stare. I was one hundred percent sure that my dad would read my fear and march me back home, away from the danger this situation presented. My apprehension slipped away with the thought of failure to move forward. This was what I wanted. I needed to move out of my comfort zone, though let's face it, that zone was miniscule.

  "Nat, you can do this. You can do things no one else can."

  My eyes snapped up to meet my father's vibrant gaze. I was shocked to my very core at his words, his tone. His expression was open and easily read. He believed in me, believed I was strong enough to handle this path and knew I would succeed.

  You are stronger than you know.

  Wait. Those were his thoughts! I was so shocked, I stood rooted to my current spot, my eyes wide and my jaw unhinged. He had dropped his shields. Never had he done this in the open. This new development had me rooted in place, but for a wholly different reason. I had been convinced that every time I heard my father's thoughts, they would be filled with worry and how to avoid outing my uniqueness. This dialogue was so far out of the realm of that. I opened and closed my mouth like a fish, waiting for something coherent to make its way out. Nothing yet.

  "Nat, honey. I know I hover and worry. That will never change. You are my little girl, no matter how big you get," He smiled self-deprecatingly. "I know you can handle yourself, and this." He leaned back, standing at full height. "Use your gifts. Maybe you will find people who are trustworthy enough to reveal yourself to. Either way, trust yourself and stay alert. This team is most likely overseen by powerful NEs who will monitor the outcomes."

  That was true. I was sure that was who had given the commander "permission" to add Sage to his teams. Here I was, walking into the lion's den, putting myself in a path that could lead to further confinement and scrutiny, and yet I couldn't turn back. Courage clicked into place at his declaration. I would hear what this team entailed, and hopefully after they allayed any doubts I or my father had, I could put all my efforts into rocking this gig.

  My father saw my resolve firm and ducked his chin once in acknowledgement, a twinkle in his eye. I took a deep breath and started toward the building. Steps sure, chin high, and father in step beside me.

  You can do this, Nat.

  A bell chimed as I pulled open the steel entrance door and took a step into a massive space, largely occupied by weights and fighting rings lined with thick ropes, three high. The lighting was sparse and the sounds loud. Metal clanged, hits thudding against both dense bags and flesh. Hard rock screamed from speakers hidden throughout the space, men shouted and grunted in various areas. Even more watched the number of activities currently happening. Along with these intense sights, was the smell.

  The stench of stale sweat and tangy blood permeated the air in thick waves, nearly gagging me. That would take some getting used to, but at least the incessant drum beat and scream yelling of the music dulled the mental voices surrounding us.

  As the door slammed closed behind me, the men closest to us looked up…and promptly froze. Internal confusion ruled their thoughts. Once their attention had been tuned to me however, the voices came in strong and loud, the music no longer enough.

  No one had any idea as to why a young woman would be walking into their space, at least one who wasn’t Primal. They figured I was lost, or a pet to the man with me. Ewww… not sure I even want to know what they meant by that. I noticed the Primal I spotted outside and decided to put on my big girl panties right there. Start with him. I made sure to project confidence and squared up to him. "Hi, there, I’m looking for Commander James. Do you know where I might find him?" Big smile, batted eyes.

  She's cute, but I've no idea why the commander would want to meet her.

  I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know. I'm Sage so I can't possibly be of use. Yada, yada, yada…" I used hand gestures to imitate yapping mouths and turned on my heel, heading further into the heart of the building. It took me a moment to notice that all activity had now ceased in the gym. There were no sounds, other than the still raging music, though there were plenty of thoughts and the smell did not dissipate.

  About halfway through the room, someone cleared their throat, jerking my attention to find one of the men previously engaged in a fight, at the edge of the ring closest to me. His arms flung over the top rope. He was quite large, which seemed almost necessary for entry into this space. He had shaggy blonde hair and stubble lining his broad jaw. Blue eyes scrutinized me narrowly, and intricate tattoos glistened boldly on his sweat riddled torso under the bright lights.

  "Who you looking for, doll?" he asked, smirking. My father growled, and the man brought his hands up in a defensive gesture, his bulging muscles bunching, veins popping. He kept the smirk.

  "Commander James," I said plainly.

  He nodded and pointed in the direction of a door at the back of the space. His internal voice was playful and he chuckled a throaty "Good luck" as I continued toward the indicated door. This gym was quite large, especially if there was more behind this door. I heaved a sigh, looking furtively toward my father. He returned my look and dipped his chin. You've got this, he winked.

  I huffed out a laugh as my tension lifted slightly and brought my hand up to rap a knuckle on the door. It was almost immediately yanked inward to reveal another fight-ready-built male. He looked at me curiously, cataloging my appearance, but I found no malice in his thoughts.

  I managed not to step back at the abruptness of his emergence. I assumed he was Primal Enhanced, his physique was too perfect, his features too symmetrical to be Non-Enhanced, and no one would mistake him for Sage. He had a playful quality to his expression, plenty of laugh lines at the corners of his chocolate eyes and full mouth. That image was confirmed as he kicked up a megawatt smile and thrust his right hand at me. "You must be Nathalee Dae, the telepathic Sage," he boomed at me good naturedly.

  I was caught completely off guard with his greeting, and its genuine delivery. "Um, yeah, nice to meet you…" I clasped his hand, my eyebrows raised in question. He continued to smile at me, our hands still clasped. "This is my father, Connor Dae," I said, indicating my dad, hoping to spur a name from him.

  "Dane, let Miss Dae and her father into the room please," Commander James's voice floated from behind the enigmatic Dane.

  "Oh, of course. Sorry, Nathalee, Mr. Dae." He backed away from the entry and waved us forward, still smiling though it dimmed slightly from the chastisement Commander James had delivered. We walked into what appeared to be a conference room. White boards with writing as well as photographs were plastered along three walls, including the section we had entered from.

  Some had lines or Xs through them, some were circled. I didn't recognize any of them, but that was to be expected as Minefield was a large town. We were currently about ten thousand strong with room to grow. The long wall to my right was covered with TV and computer monitors with a table running its length, which held various computer paraphernalia. It wasn't clear if all the information was connected or many different things all occupying the same space. As I looked around the room trying to find my voice, my father stepped forward and introduced himself.

  "Commander James, good to see you again, sir." That piqued my attention back to my father. The movement catching my feet on the chair I was moving, giving me whiplash. He mentioned he knew who the commander was, that he treated his men often. It was never mentioned that he knew the man. I narrowed my gaze at my father's back. What else had he not told me?

  "Doctor Dae. Good to see you. These certainly are better circumstances than we normally meet." They shook hands and exchanged a sorrow filled turning of lips acknowledging the poor conditions under which they must normally see one another. My father dipped his chin once and retreated a step, bringing him back to my side, and rested his arms across his chest.

 
So exasperating. That seemed to be the universal male posture. "Nathalee, glad you accepted my invitation to see what I am trying to build here. This cheery gentleman is Dane. He is one of the enforcers on the team and will be one of the trainers for the inductees." He extended an arm toward Dane as he said this, briefly flicking his eyes away, then back toward my father and me.

  I glanced in Dane's direction and saw him puff with pride, but not arrogance. His mental thoughts showed he looked up to the commander and liked being acknowledged. He'd be a good pick for mingling with Sages. He was big, but open, and didn't appear to have a prejudice against us. He seemed like a "water off a duck's back" kinda guy—just rolling with the tide. Amiable, likeable. Yeah, definitely a good choice.

  "Nathalee? Is there anything in particular I can address for you or your father? Help give you a true representation of what we would expect?" Commander James stood and rounded the large table at the center of the room, only to lean against the side nearest us, crossing his feet at the ankles and arms across chest—the picture of nonchalance. He wasn't trying to guard his thoughts at the moment, so I gleaned that he thought the success of this team depended on my acceptance and ability to mesh the team together.

  "You expect a lot of me, Commander." He nodded slowly. "Why do you think I am this person? Why are you hinging this on me?" Thoughts reeled through my mind. How could he base the success of this…experiment on me? Could I do this?

  I was starting to freak out again.

  You got this, breathe. Think. Ask. Once again, my father's voice grounded me. Blowing out a deep breath and looking at the floor, I gathered myself. Prepared to find out what I was signing up for.

  "Because I know your father. I know you are a hybrid Enhanced.” He indicated my father at my side. “Though that can be figured out easily enough with your height and strength." Here he gave me a meaningful look. "You are telepathic. More so than any other I am aware of. Quite in tune. That alone could make or break cases. You also want to break from the Sage mold and seem to be able to handle new situations." He dared me to say otherwise.

  "And how did you learn this? How do you know about my strength?" I didn't think anyone would tell him about the Toby incident, but then, what did I really know?

  "You know about the cameras, I think, Nathalee."

  Damn ninnies. Always watching, judging. "Okay, how do you expect me to mesh this team? People don't exactly warm up to me. They always feel I'm rifling through their heads and want nothing to do with me." I was at a loss. How could they think a telepath would be the glue to this whole thing?

  My father had been conspicuously quiet so far. I really thought he would be demanding all sorts of answers to questions I obviously hadn't thought of. "Do you expect Sages to actively participate in cases? Be put in situations we can’t physically handle?"

  "We will have to evaluate all Sage we bring into the program, but we will do our best to keep you out of situations you are ill equipped for. One of the measures we will implement will be to partner each Sage with a Primal complement to aid in physical ways, though many Sage abilities can be projected and aimed.

  “We plan to hone the skills you do have in order to aid you in the field. We are also developing weapons which should be effective for Sage to handle if the situation escalates past the point of reason."

  Weapons? I’m not sure Sage and weapons were meant to go hand in hand. That seems like it’d be inviting injury…to the operator.

  "How do you expect to keep the Primals level? I've heard that tempers and aggression are high, and if that gets aimed at a Sage, it could get very bad, very quickly. Not always for the Sage." As Commander James noted earlier, many Sage abilities could be projected and aimed. If they were recruiting Sage with powerful enhancements, they were capable in their own right.

  Of course, my ability was not of that class. It couldn't help me out of a dangerous position. No, apparently for that I would be relying on a Primal partner. I wasn't sure how much faith I had in that plan.

  Commander James threw his arms wide and gestured around. "You see where we are? This gym will help to keep my men level. They will be able to get into the ring, lift weights, or hit a bag if their blood gets heated. Hopefully, we will be able to teach the Sage recruits some ways to improve their strength and stamina." At my burgeoning protest, he lifted his hand to stay my words and continued. "I know you won’t be able to compete with Primals, but you may be able to surprise them enough to get away or be able to use a weapon if needed."

  "So you've thought about the fact that your Sage recruits will be physically inferior to not only your Primal enforcement, but also a number of people, suspects, they will encounter?" My father's question brought everyone's attention to him. He raised his eyebrows, backing up his question.

  "Yes, Doctor Dae, we have. We will not be able to address this properly until we are able to evaluate each recruit. Ideally, however, we will be able to shield them from the majority of questionable encounters. It will help that no one is aware of this joint effort, and Sage involvement can be kept quiet and utilized behind closed doors, and in many cases can be done effectively from a distance, if not completely unknowingly to the target. Is that not correct?"

  My father got that far off stare again. Thinking about what the commander said about distance being utilized with Sage abilities, at least that's what I assumed as he was back to shielding his mind. While my father thought, Commander James brought his attention back to me. "You do not have to be physically close to, or touching, someone in order to hear their thoughts, correct?"

  "No, my range is about twenty feet it seems." Hence the need for headphones. There was potential for a lot of people to be within twenty feet of me, and that was too hard to ignore on my own.

  "And you can be in another room?" I nodded. "Then we can often use your ability without you ever being physically near, or even for it to be known that you are there and aiding in the investigation at all, which would be ideal. Do you know if certain obstacles are a problem?" At my furrowed look, he clarified. "Cement walls for instance? Steel doors?"

  "Oh, ah, I'm not sure actually. I haven't knowingly been in those situations, so I have no way of telling you if I have or haven't had problems." I never thought about testing limits, just minimizing.

  "Can we do an experiment?" At my nod, he continued, "Can you hear anyone outside this room?"

  As I focused on extending my mental reach, I realized I heard more of a buzz than words or whispers. "I can't make out anything concrete, but I can still…" I did notice a voice. One I would now recognize anywhere, and it was getting louder, more agitated. As I focused on the sound, the door burst open.

  Holden stalked in, looking for all the world like an avenging angel. He was dressed head to toe in black, hair in wild disarray and blue eyes thundering. He headed straight for Commander James, gesturing wildly with his hands, making innumerable signs. It didn't throw the commander. Obviously he was well versed in signing and was able to keep up with Holden's tirade.

  I however, didn’t know sign language and was actually quite grateful for once that I could get a read on the thoughts being thrown around. Interestingly, Dane was blank, his eyes volleying between his boss and Holden.

  Apparently, Holden was more than upset that his uncle had recruited me into his enforcement team, deeming it too dangerous, while the commander was defending his selection. Seeing as both were thinking out their conversation, I was easily able to follow along. The gist was that Holden told the commander that I could communicate with him in confidence, not to be used to "put her in danger."

  When that thought crossed his mind, his eyes bled to mercury again. It seemed something about the thought of me in danger caused a physical reaction in him. I wonder why that is? I’d definitely have to push some buttons in the near future…see what happened.

  "Holden, I'm sorry but you know how valuable her talent is! She is valuable. She can bridge the gap. You know what we are dealing with…" Commander James
's voice pleaded the last.

  Holden seemed to deflate after that. Hands on his hips, he stared at his feet, lost. Though he was worried about me, his rampage had been more about his uncle using information he received in a confiding conversation as a basis to recruit me into a dangerous position.

  Holden had just been excited that I had seen him. He’d noticed me immediately upon my visits to the barn, and the fact that I wanted to be around him and able to communicate…a first for him.

  He signed again, All right. All right, but I'm with her. I know her. We understand each other. His eyes bore into mine as he said this. His irises glowing an ethereal blue, seeming almost to jump with electricity.

  Holden, in all his glory, was a sight to behold. Cut lines and stormy expression only drew attention to his other attributes. His stature, his breadth, his grace. Everything about Holden screamed Primal when he was riled. I couldn't look away, and his eyes were all I saw. Our staring was interrupted when my dad decided he had stayed out of it long enough.

  "I'm sorry, son, but who are you, and why are you staring at my daughter?"

  Holden's cheeks flamed and he cursed his affliction, giving my father a pained shrug and furrowed brows. I recognized this same body language as what he showed me at our first meeting; sadness and frustration at his inability to readily answer. But I’m here. I could be his voice.

  "Dad, this is Holden," I smiled. A big goofy smile that immediately perplexed the occupants of the room burst onto my face. I looked back at Holden. "I can be your voice when we're together." I hurried to amend at the widening of his eyes. "If you want."

  Now I was embarrassed. Would he think I wanted to speak for him, like using my words and thoughts, not his? I looked away, skimming my attention across the various information strewn about the room, hoping I hadn't overstepped. I looked back when he spoke. His eyes had lost their intensity and now shone with confounded curiosity.