Age of Power 1: Legacy (36 page)

I grinned and looked at the picture. I looked down to see Dana
laughing with a guy right next to her. He was smiling freely, happy as a clam.
I could see such deep love in her eyes. Then I concentrated on the guy. I
stopped breathing for a moment. Damn.

He had longish brown hair and a half goatee over his pointed
chin. He was smiling happily, his deep brown eyes looking right into the camera
as Dana held him. High cheekbones…close-in ears. And the answer fell into my
lap.

Then I heard something that made me pause. I said, “Whatever you
do, don’t panic or make any threatening gestures.”

Dana blinked. “What?”

The sky fell. Suddenly, we
were surrounded
by blinding light. Before we could react, soldiers in full combat fatigues
rushed into the backyard to surround us.

Dana jumped up, looking wildly around. “Gaia, what is going on?”

I touched her arm. “Don’t let BJ or Angel attempt to pull
off some idiotic rescue. Trust me!”

Someone spoke through a loudspeaker, and I had to dampen my
hearing as fast as I could. 
“This is the FBI! Vaughn Hagen! You
’re surrounded
! Make no moves or we will shoot! Surrender
yourself and no one will be hurt!”

Dana looked at me, confused and scared. Two men came up to
surround the two of us, one pulling her away from me while the other yanked my
wrists together to wrap in zip tie cuffs. I yelled, “Dana, don’t panic. I’ll
sort this out, and then we can go dancing!”

When they pulled me away, Dana started to reach for me. A burly
agent held her back. But they weren’t arresting her. Of course they weren’t.
This wasn’t about her. This was about me, an Empowered. As frightening as the
situation was, though, I needed to let myself
get
arrested. At this point, it was the only way to get could get some help. Thanks
to Dana, I knew there was a chance to get 
specific
 help.

I let them lead me out of the backyard and toward a waiting
armored vehicle. At least I figured it
was armored
. It
looked like one of those big vans television crime shows use all the time. On
the way to the van, I saw that everyone had
their
guns
up and ready to fire.
Yay.

Two agents pushed me into the dark interior where four agents
were waiting for me. As the door closed, I said, “Gentlemen, you have me right
where I want you. Now, take me to your leader.”

They were not amused.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Did I know I was about to be arrested? I did. Since the attack
at the hospital, I had kept listening for anything that might sound suspicious.
Though, to be honest, I thought the worst I might hear would be Yasmine
yelling, ‘Kill them my pretties!’ or some such thing before the front of the
house exploded inward. But my imagination aside, what did happen was far more
mundane.

Helicopters.

Or rather, I heard helicopters in some kind of whisper mode.
That made them the property of the United States government. In my viewpoint,
local or state owned helicopters wouldn’t have that sort of tech. Or have
reason to use it. What disturbed me was that the Federal government 
did
 choose
to use it, especially where I was concerned. That meant that they somehow knew
about me, or at least suspected something about my abilities. But at least they
only got me.

When BJ decided he wanted soda, the timing couldn’t have been
more perfect
. I didn’t even have to con Angela into going
with him. I’d listened and heard snatches of conversation about targeting
someone below. Then I heard my name mentioned. That’s when I went outside. I
did need to think. And without Dana’s inadvertent revelation, I’d still be here
in this cell, but I would be hoping to find the first person who might listen
to my warning about Yasmine.

Unfortunately, while I knew
who
I
needed to talk to, I just didn’t know when we would talk. I had no way of
knowing how much time had passed since I
was put
in
here, but it had to have been hours. And since I’d slept at least once after they
put me in here, I wasn’t even sure if I’d been here all night or not. I decided
not to worry.
Until Yasmine attacked, there wasn’t much I
could do about it.

Once I woke up, I worked out to stretch my still sore shoulder and
washed up. Finally, they came for me. This was good. Hopefully I could get
something ready before Yasmine came by for a quick brunch—and a total slaughter
of everyone here.

I heard footsteps in the narrow hall outside the room. I stood
up as I heard the clinking of keys and a card reader’s 
beep
. The
door opened, and soldiers marched in with automatic rifles pointed right at my
chest and head. One hard-eyed soldier said, “Follow us now, and don’t pull any
stunts with that voice of yours! Is that clear, Hagen?”

Yay, the soldiers knew about my powers. What’s more, they were
dressed in full combat gear, with helmets and facemasks. These guys
were not kidding. I let them bind my hands, and they put me between
the four of them. From the cell, we turned left down a hallway leading to a
stairwell. We walked two flights of stairs to the second floor.

 Passing a hallway as we came out of the stairwell, I could
see several people in white coats heading into an elevator. They were the first
actual scientific types I’d seen here. I overheard one grumbling about them
having to leave the complex. After that, I saw no one. We reached the
end of the hall and went into a reception area. The phone was ringing.
And kept on ringing as we walked down the hallway.

Wryly, I asked, “So is anyone going to pick up the phone? Or did
you guys send the receptionists home for the duration, too?”

“No talking!” snapped the soldier right behind me. He pushed me
with the barrel of his rifle. My shoulder hurt worse. But I shut up. It
was not the time to be sarcastic to four men with nasty tempers and
weapons pointing at me. Turning down a short hallway, we came to the end. I
glanced out the window as they unlocked the door and opened it.

They brought a tank.
Seriously?
A tank?

As the handcuffs were unlocked, I
was ordered
to go into the room and sit down. Heading in, I sat as two soldiers took
position just inside the door while the other two stood outside. The room
was painted
white with tan carpeting. A camera was in each
of the corners of the ceiling across from me. Over all, the room was empty
except for a stainless steel rectangular table and two office chairs.

And I waited. Without a clock to know for sure how much time was
passing, I sat, tapping my fingers on the table, waiting. I had to control my
imagination as the time passed. At one point, I even imagined screaming at the
soldiers to knock them out. I didn’t do that. Instead, I drummed my fingers on
the table even harder. At least I had the small satisfaction of seeing the
soldiers look uncomfortable as I continued rapping the table.

Eventually, I heard a familiar voice ordering the door to
be opened
. I looked up as Dane Eisenhawk walked in, smiling.
He said, “Hello, Vaughn. I’m glad to see you. Being out there alone, despite
what your followers may think, can be a terrible thing. Now, perhaps you’re
ready to answer a few questions?”

I said, “Ah, sarcasm, such a scarcely used verbal resource these
days. Why, that’s right up there with the rare cynic you never see in the
world! So, Dr. ‘Eisenhawk,’ what can I do for you?”

Ignoring my own sarcastic comments, Eisenhawk placed a phad on
the table. Opening it up, he brought up a video and started it running. I
leaned forward to watch what I knew was coming. Scenes from the hospital
appeared. Naturally, it was the only place anyone could have gotten information
about my powers.

I hadn’t even noticed the cameras as they recorded my fight with
Yasmine and Kular. As I watched, I noticed that the editing was superb. Every
scene made me look as if I had attacked a bunch of innocent bystanders after I
blew up Rao Kular’s office.

The 
coup de grace
, of course, was me tackling Brand.
The cameras caught my tackle, and the physical damage that I had caused with my
yell of outrage. From there, the view cut to Kular and Brand disappearing in
more sparkles of light. The image was clear, but there was no sound; the
cameras had no audio recording.
Too bad.
Whoever saw
this would’ve heard what was going on. Because just looking at Yasmine wouldn’t
give away the fact
that
she was a telepathic
terrorist.

Watching this, I noticed that there were no images of Dana or
BJ. Angela
was recorded
at times, but she looked like
a victim. From the way the video
had been edited
, it
looked as if I had been the one to take her down. After it faded to black,
Eisenhawk turned the phad off and leaned forward.

Putting his hands together, he gave me a smug look and said,
“Vaughn, this hasn’t gone public. Frankly, I doubt people would understand what
appeared on this recording. Perhaps you can explain.”

I looked at him. Then I glanced at the soldiers. Both of them
were scared. I could see it in their eyes. Although there hadn’t been any sound
to the recordings, I had no doubt that the ‘scientific expert’ sitting across
from me had explained what I’d done. Now, after seeing it again, they both were
looking at me as though I was a living weapon of mass destruction. So I had to
do this next thing very, very carefully.

Nah.

Looking at Eisenhawk, I said, “Yes. You need to talk to a guy
named Ian Devonshire. I think he’s the mastermind behind the whole thing. Could
you search for him? I don’t think he’s very far away.”

Silence filled the room. Watching Ian Devonshire—a.k.a. Dane
Eisenhawk—staring at me with pure shock was…okay, it was fun. His eyes glinted
as they flicked between me to the soldiers. His heart began beating a mile a
minute.

Then, without turning his head, he said, “Everyone clear the
room. I need to talk to the prisoner alone.”

The soldier on my side of the table snapped to attention. I
finally noticed the
name tag
on his outfit, Perez. He
said, “Sir! We have orders to guard this prisoner. We can’t leave. You
know how dangerous he is.”

Devonshire looked at the two soldiers and seemed to concentrate
on them for a moment. His voice was hard as steel when he said, “Clear the
room, Lieutenant. 
Now!”

They left before I could take another breath. The door closed,
and I looked at Eisenhawk with admiration. “Dude, I want to be able to do
that!”

He smirked and said, “You’d be amazed what authority can do.”

Opening his phad, Devonshire tapped some buttons on the thin
screen. With a motion of his head toward the cameras, he said, “There, now we
can talk. With a little push of my mind, the soldiers will stay out for a
while.”

I laughed ruefully for a second and then let it die, as I glared
at him. “So, who does Dana see when she looks at you, Ian? For that matter, who
does the government see you as?”

He sat down across from me and sighed. Shaking his head, he pulled
out an identification badge—the kind with a magnetic strip on the back—and slid
it to me. On it was a picture of a man with deep lines on his face, thinning
blond hair, and blue eyes. The name under the picture was ‘Dane Eisenhawk.’

I glanced at him, trying to imagine him as that picture. Yeah,
no, I couldn’t see it. I decided to keep thinking of him as Ian and said aloud,
“So, Ian. You’re using an ectoplasmic projection?”

He looked surprised and muttered, “I see Dana’s been talking.”

I nodded. “Well, she can’t see through your illusion, but that’s
not the point, is it? Why are you doing it? I mean, what are you doing here?
Are you gathering intelligence about the Empowered?”

Ian sighed. “No, originally I was just dealing with the fallout
from the Day. I had to make certain Alex Shaw was…well, never mind. Once the
Empowered appeared, everything else I was doing has gone down on the list of
importance.”

I looked at him. “Was Alex one of the ‘New Men’ that made
Yasmine so edgy? Did you block her? Because if you blocked her psi-probe, then
you should know, she’s really kind of pissed off.”

As I spoke, he looked confused for a moment, mouthing the words
‘New Men.’ Then he chuckled and said, “Oh, wow. She managed to pick up
something from me after all.”

I cocked my head. “What did she get from you?”

Ian laughed for a moment and shook his head, saying,
“Noumenonii. She got the name of my people. I’m a member of the Noumenonii.”

I mouthed the word silently and then said, “I don’t know that
word. What does it mean?”

Ian sat back and looked at me speculatively. For a split-second,
I felt something brush across my forehead and then pull away as an image of
Angela crossed my mind’s eye. I said, “Just tell me. I don’t need you in my
brain, psi-boy.”

With a flash of annoyance on his face, Ian said, “It would’ve
been easier to just show you, but the 
name
 of what we are is
Noumenonii. The word stems from the term ‘
Noumenon
,’ which means,
roughly, ‘of the Mind.’ The term was coined by our people in ancient Greece.”

I nodded. He continued, “The word itself means ‘People of the
Mind.’ It’s what I am, Vaughn.”

I nodded. I had figured out that part a while back. But it was
nice to know for sure. I said, “And ‘Dane Eisenhawk’? Who, or what, is he?”

Ian chuckled and then said, “There is no Dane Eisenhawk. I
created that persona for this mission. The identity has a history that I
completely fabricated. It was deep cover enough to allow full access to the
resources necessary to fix the problems that Alex Shaw created.”

I stared at him. “Fix the problems? What problems?”

Ian looked away, saying nothing. I could tell he didn’t want to
tell me anything. But it didn’t take a genius to figure things
out
. “You set off the religious nuts, didn’t you? You did it
to confuse the effort to do any serious scientific study about him.”

The pseudo scientist snapped his head around to meet my eyes
with a hard, angry glare. “No! We didn’t! That wasn’t anything to do
with my people! I was assigned here to make sure that Alex didn’t…”

“Making sure he didn’t what? What did you do, man? Come on,
tell me!”

Ian sighed. “I had to make sure he wasn’t tracked back to the
Noumenonii. We had to be sure that we weren’t compromised by his going public.”

“‘Going public?’” I muttered. I stared at him, understanding. I
didn’t like what I just realized. “What the hell, you didn’t help him stop
Yama?”

Ian looked down at the table, unable—or unwilling—to meet my
eyes, as he said, “No.”

“No, what?”
 I
said through gritted teeth.

For a moment, Ian struggled with his words. There was a conflict
going on in his mind. Then his voice turned hard, as he looked up at me and
said, “No, I’m not here to answer your questions. This isn’t an interrogation
about my actions, Vaughn. This is about
you and what is going
on in Riverlite
! And, most of all, this is about any information you can
give me about that damn telepath, Yasmine!”

I stared at him for a moment; so much for the friendly banter,
we’d been having. I said, “No, it doesn’t work that way. Tell me why your
people didn’t help Alex. He gave his life to save everyone.
What?
Were all of you asleep at the time?”