“That’s one hell of a story. It’s crazy to think that Rakiten has had years and years to live with his exo and perfect his abilities.”
“Indeed, and, to get back on track, he would be lucky to have you working for him one day—someone so loyal to the cause. Now, you should go get something to eat, or else the rest of the team will wipe the pantry of everything we have. It won’t be long before the next mission starts.”
The other Searchers were sitting around the kitchen island, midway through their meals, when Marcel entered. A brief, awkward silence fell over the room at his arrival, causing him to involuntarily start speaking with the hope of reigniting the conversation.
“Has the kitchen been completely raided, or did you save a bite or two for me?” he said.
“Maybe just a nibble,” said Butch, the words having to find their way around the food in his mouth.
As they all continued to eat before visiting the next site, Ferra walked through the kitchen’s back entrance with Garnet holding on to her for support.
“Holy crap, it’s good to see you moving around!” said Bridgett, first to notice them entering the room.
Several members of the group walked over to give her a light hug and say how much they worried about her after the blast.
“Ah, you guys didn’t have to worry about me none,” said Garnet. “Besides, Ferra’s been by my side to help me get back on my feet. Oh, by the way, she kinda helped me escape from the upstairs ward. I’m technically not supposed to be here, so mum’s the word. But there’s no way I was going to keep eating whatever it was the medics were serving me. I need some unhealthy, greasy food in my life.”
Everyone laughed and understood to keep quiet about seeing her away from the area she was supposed to be in. As Bridgett and Butch teamed up to make Garnet and Ferra the most savory and appetizing plates possible, Alexie formed a cognitive link with Jack.
What did you make of Mark’s note we found on this last mission? Do you think the rogues are really that far ahead of us?
I’m not sure, said Jack. But it would have been nice if they put the note somewhere that didn’t lead to me getting my hand pierced by spikes for a third time.
No, I’m serious. Is everything we’re doing from this point forward futile? said Alexie.
Honestly, the outlook doesn’t seem good to me. We have no idea how many sites they’ve cleaned out already.
Huh, I was thinking along those same lines, said Alexie.
“All right everyone!” John called out from the main room. “Make your way back in here and prepare to start the next mission.”
The Searchers made quick work of gathering their gear and other items necessary for the operation. Jack and Alexie, worried about what the rogues may have left behind for them at the forthcoming site, added more morphacite to the supply they were already taking with them. Before disembarking, John gave a brief rundown of the mission’s specifics.
“Your next site will be an old monastery. There will be a point of contact there that will guide you to the antiquities room we’re interested in. The person to look for is an old man some of our AEB agents already vetted named Gregor, a monk who’s lived there for a majority of his life. The drones have scanned the area for any signs of trouble and all seems okay. You may proceed with the mission.”
It was Alexie who possessed the warp crystal anchored to the monastery. She raised her right hand high and, with a searing sound, the next portal opened for the Searchers to enter.
I feel more on edge than usual about this, Jack said to Alexie.
Me too. Let’s just make sure that we stick together and watch each other’s back. Go ahead and walk through the portal with the others. I’ll be right behind you.
Cold, piercing rain stung the Searchers’ skin as they came through the rift. The monastery was a decent walk away, along a steep cobblestone road. Soaking wet, they made it to the entrance and Butch rapped on the heavy, cast iron door ring three times. They waited for a moment, but no one answered. As Butch pulled back on the ring to knock again, the door opened at a snail’s pace, revealing the weathered face of an old man in robes. The Searchers entered the building as he ushered them inside and promptly closed the door behind them.
“Hi, sir. We’re looking for Gregor,” said Alexie.
“Yes, Gregor. Come, come,” the old man said through a thick accent, leading the way into a larger room that featured a vaulted, Gothic ceiling.
There were three other monks pacing about the room. As the group approached one in the far corner, the man leading them announced their arrival.
“Bruder Gregor, Diese Leute wollen dich sehen.”
“Danke, Bruder Lukas,” said Gregor.
“So, you are the ones I’m told to help,” said Gregor, addressing the Searchers, his accent less thick than the first monk they encountered.
“That’s right,” said Alexie. “We’re with the AEB and have requested a search of the room in the monastery where you keep your antiquities and old texts.”
“Of course, of course,” he said, picking up a nearby candle lantern. “If the AEB wants, the AEB gets. Follow me.”
He led the group down stairs and through hallways until they stopped in front of an old oak door. Its hinges emitted a high-pitched squeak as Gregor opened the door and guided them into the twilit room. The lights on their suits were triggered to turn back on to compensate for the darkness. As they surveyed the room, Gregor walked around to the multiple wall sconces and lit the candles, filling the room with a warm light.
“Is there anything else you need from me?” said Gregor.
“No. Thank you, sir,” said Butch. “We’ll just be searching all around here to see if we find what we’re looking for.”
“Very well,” said Gregor. “There’s just one last thing I must say before I leave you . . .” In an instant, his accent shifted from Austrian to British. “For those of you who will see John again, tell him I’m sorry.”
“Sebastian? It can’t be!” said Marcel, shocked and unsettled.
After ripping off the prosthetic mask he wore as a disguise, Sebastian lifted his arms and raised up a pillar of earth and stone behind the Searchers to block the room’s exit. From inside his robes he revealed a warp crystal and opened a portal below where he stood, causing him to fall through and disappear. Immediately, from the other end of the room, another portal opened and three masked rogues appeared. They each had a large excess of morphacite at their side in different animal forms. Jack recognized them as the same statues he saw a short distance from the rogues at the beach site the night before. The rogues’ familiars took the forms of a baboon, a bear, and a fox. The frightening figures lunged toward the Searchers, catching them off guard. They landed at the feet of Jack, Alexie, and Marcel, liquefying on impact and encapsulating their entire bodies, causing their own morphacite to be inaccessible and unable to be used in combat. While the only three Searchers able to control morphacite struggled to escape their crystalline tombs, suffocating within, Butch and Bridgett had their minds overtaken by two of the rogues who forced them to drop to their knees and remain motionless. Jack, Alexie, and Marcel gasped for air as their heads, from the chin up, were freed from being enclosed in morphacite. Sharp spikes were swiftly formed and held against each of their foreheads, in addition to rectangular plates used for covering their mouths to prevent talking. While two of the rogues focused on keeping Bridgett and Butch devoid of all movement and mental function, the other rogue stepped forward and unmasked, revealing himself to be Mark.
“I warned you this would happen. And I’m afraid you won’t be finding any precious artifacts in this room. But don’t feel discouraged; you may soon be finding absolution for your transgressions.”
Mark grabbed the telecom out of Alexie’s ear and moved some of the morphacite from around her neck to unclip the device from her collar, causing her to utter a muffled whimper. He then placed the telecom in his own ear.
“Are you reading me loud a
nd clear, John? And can you see me?” he said, waving at the body cams still sending a video feed from the suits of Bridgett and Butch.
“Mark, if you even think about hurting them—” began John.
“Ha! Hurt them? I don’t want to inflict pain on the Archon’s peons. I want them to join me in fighting him and everything he represents. And now . . . you get the honor of listening as they make their choice and watching as they receive judgement for their decision. Do you have any final remarks you’d like to . . .”
Alexie, I have an idea, said Jack, forming a telepathic link with her while Mark continued talking to John.
Oh yeah? And what’s that? We’re about to be in some profound trouble if we don’t figure something out!
I know, I know. Look, our minds aren’t being controlled right now, so I think we should team up and try to control just one of the other masked rogues at the same time.
Are you out of your mind! said Alexie. They’re way more advanced than us. We only just learned how to do a tiny bit of mind control, and now you’re wanting us to use that to aid in an escape? That’s insane.
It’s better than whatever’s about to happen to us! And you were kicking ass at infiltrating my mind the other night. So if we team up at the same time, we may have enough power to control one of them, said Jack. John and Mark are still talking, but our time to act is running out.
Okay, then! Hurry up and tell me the plan!
Right now, all three rogues are focusing on keeping the morphacite under their control from being overtaken by us. And while the two masked rogues are also controlling the minds of Butch and Bridgett, Mark is holding a conversation with John. And to top it all off, each of them is also having to focus on pointing a morphacite spike at our forehead and press a flat piece to our mouths. Mark’s likely the strongest, but I think we can break the focus of one of the others and take control of their mind.
I guess it’s worth a shot, said Alexie. So which one’s the target?
Let’s concentrate our efforts on the rogue farthest away from us. The moment we take over, we need to quickly spin the morphacite spike they control around and propel it toward Mark as fast as possible.
I’m ready when you are.
Jack and Alexie both began to infiltrate the rogue’s mind as Mark started to execute his judgement on the Searchers.
“Shall we start with you, Marcel?”
“My allegiance is with the Archon and the Searchers!”
“Are you sure that’s your final decision?” said Mark, holding up the palm of his hand in Marcel’s direction.
“Yes. I would never pledge obedience to you or your cause,” said Marcel, his breathing becoming more erratic as fear began to build.
“You’re a greater fool than I remember,” said Mark.
At that exact moment, the spike in front of Marcel’s face spun around and launched itself toward Mark. It traveled clean through his hand and impaled itself above his collar bone.
“AAAGH!” Mark screamed, frustration and pain evident in his outcry.
The rogues’ focus broke in an instant. Alexie, Jack, and Marcel were able to free themselves from the morphacite that snared them, which made a shattering sound as hundreds of shards crashed to the floor. Butch and Bridgett were no longer in a vegetative trance, but were finding it difficult to shake off their dizziness and remained down on their hands and knees. The morphacite pieces on the floor began to once more combine into the animal shapes of the familiars as one of the rogues opened a portal on the far side of the room for their escape. Dust began to fill the air as the conflict became more heated. When Jack, Alexie, and Marcel began to attack, the familiars acted as shields while their crystalline bodies were still forming. One of Jack’s morphacite daggers, which he was continuously forming and launching at the enemy, gashed a deep cut into a masked rogue’s arm. Before making an exit with his followers, Mark transferred a majority of the mass comprising the fox and bear familiars to his baboon, causing it to become much larger. The other crystalline animals, now inches tall, scurried over to the rogue controlling them. The giant baboon, beyond twice the size of anyone or anything else in the room, swept its arm to the side and knocked the Searchers down hard onto the stone floor. Jack had moved his body in front of Alexie to protect her from the brunt of the impact. Butch and Bridgett began to scream in agony as their minds were infiltrated again by one of the rogues, causing them to collapse as the enemy escaped through their portal.
“Jack, Marcel, are you all right?” said Alexie, coughing.
“Yeah, fine,” said Marcel, rubbing the dust out of his eyes.
“I’ll be okay, just got the wind knocked out of me,” said Jack, catching his breath. “Glad to see you’re also okay. Bridgett, Butch, how are you holding up over there?”
Through the airborne particulates stirred up from the fight, Jack and Alexie saw the motionless bodies of Butch and Bridgett a few meters away.
“OH NO!” said Alexie.
She and Jack ran over to help them, checking their vitals and trying to wake them back to consciousness. Marcel heard the faint sound of John’s voice and noticed his in-ear piece had fallen down during the skirmish and was left dangling from where it was clipped on his collar. He promptly reinserted it to give John an update on their status.
“John, John, John, calm down!” said Marcel. “Alexie, what’s the status of Butch and Bridgett?”
“They’re knocked out cold.”
“But they’re still breathing,” said Jack, noticing his telecom had also been knocked out of his ear.
“Sir, we don’t know the extent of their injuries. Have medics rushed downstairs; we’re about to rift out of here.”
Marcel held up a warp crystal to form a portal back to headquarters and directed Jack and Alexie to pull Butch and Bridgett to the other side. He did a quick survey of the room as his fellow Searchers walked through the rift and noticed Alexie’s in-ear on the ground, which he assumed was dropped by Mark during the skirmish. As he picked it up, he also noticed a small notebook close by that appeared to have also been left behind. He collected it as well before exiting the room, closing the portal behind him.
Medical personnel were already rushing onto the first floor as Marcel entered. Butch’s and Bridgett’s vitals were checked by the staff before being taken to the medical ward. Jack and Alexie were still catching their breath and trying to calm down from all the adrenaline running through them when John asked, “What the hell went wrong at the monastery! That site was thoroughly vetted! Were there any signs pointing to an ambush?”
“They came out of nowhere,” said Marcel. “And I’m still trying to figure out which one of these two hurled the morphacite spike at Mark that helped catalyze our escape,” he said, pointing at Alexie and Jack.
“It was both of us,” said Alexie.
“Both of you? Explain to me how the two of you were able to pull that off,” said John.
“Well, it was Jack’s clever idea.”
“But it took us both to pull it off,” said Jack. “You see, we had to team up and form a cognitive link at the same time on a single rogue.”
“Hang on a sec,” said John. “Alexie, is telepathy something your exo allows you to do now? You didn’t think it was important to share that information with me?”
“Oh, it happened very recently!” said Alexie, not wanting to get in trouble.
“That’s right,” said Jack. “And both of us, while practicing our abilities, also tried our hand at mind control. It turns out that it didn’t take long to get a small handle on how to make it happen. Alexie is a little better than me at it, to be honest. But when I thought about using the ability on the rogues, overtaking one of their minds together seemed like the best option.”
“And that’s what we did,” said Alexie. “We focused on the rogue farthest from us, who just so happened to be controlling the spike being held in front of Marcel’s face. After taking control of their mind, we hurled the spike toward Mark a
s fast as we could.”
“How did you know the rogue who’s mind you overtook would be controlling the morphacite spike in front of Marcel?” said John.
“We didn’t,” said Jack. “We assumed each rogue was controlling a different familiar, and the morphacite composing each familiar’s body was formed around us to prevent us from moving, so that meant it was random chance as to which spike was going to be controlled by the rogue who’s mind we overtook.”
John paused for a moment, contorting his face with a quizzical look.
“How do you know what a ‘familiar’ is, Jack?”
“It was s-something I read about, I think—something in a random book I found in the research lab upstairs,” he said, feeling worried there would be further questions about what other secrets he may be keeping.
“I want you to bring me the book you read that in,” said John.
“Yes, sir. Sure, you got it,” said Jack, knowing the tome he spoke of didn’t exist.
“And there’s one more thing, sir,” said Marcel, holding up the small notebook he found on the monastery’s floor. “I believe this could have been dropped by one of the rogues. I found it close to Alexie’s in-ear that Mark took from her.”
Jack couldn’t believe what he saw. The notebook matched the size and look of those he found in his father’s home office and brought with him to the Searcher facility. Alexie also had the same idea, giving Jack a look of shock when she saw what Marcel was holding.
That looks like one of your dad’s notebooks! she said.
I know, I know. We have to get our hands on it and see what’s written inside.
Yeah, agreed.
“Good work, Marcel,” said John, taking the notebook from him and doing a quick riffle through the pages. “I’ll get this to the research lab pronto so they can get a good look at it. I hope it’s something that can be of use to us.”
The Relics- The Keystone Trilogy - Part 1 Page 21
