Annihilation: Love Conquers All (22 page)

“Yes sir,” Danielle said meekly.

“By the way, Miss Ash, could he have done what Colonel Ortiz said he did during the first attack?”

Danielle looked at the body lying on the ground and said, “Inspector Connor, I could not follow him he was moving so fast. I wish I could describe what he did, but he moved faster than my eyes could follow and it was over in less than three seconds. To answer your question, yes, he could do what Colonel Ortiz described, and quite frankly, it would be incredibly risky for anyone to try and attack him even with a hand weapon. However, I know that he would not attack anyone unless he or others around him were threatened.”

Inspector Connor thought for a moment and then said, “So you don’t think he represents a danger.”

“Only to someone foolish enough to trap him where he could not escape. His first effort would be to try and avoid harming anyone.”

“I hope you’re right, Miss Ash. We are going to have to apprehend him someday. Do you think he would attack us?”

Danielle thought for a moment and then said, “I know he won’t attack us; however, he will do all he can to avoid capture. Quite honestly, I don’t think you’ll find him unless he makes a mistake or drops his guard. He’ll know when you’re coming and I think as he learns more and more about his abilities, he’ll be extremely difficult to find.”

“Well, let’s hope we do find him,” Esa said and smiled, “otherwise, how do you intend to see him again? He might allow us to capture him just so he can see you again.”

Danielle wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but she knew she was already missing him terribly.

“G
ood evening, Maggie,” Tag said. “Where’s Richard?”

“Oh, hello Daniel, he’s out with the kids at the park. They should be home shortly. Dinner is ready and I’m keeping it warm in the kitchen.”

“How do you feel?” Tag asked.

“I’m having a good day today. I’ve been able to get up out of my mobile chair and actually stand at the stove.”

“Great, you’ll be able to throw that thing away before too much longer.”

“I hope so, Daniel. The doctors are helping a lot.”

It had been three years since Tag had moved in with Richard and Maggie, and all of their lives had changed dramatically, particularly the Wiseman family. Richard was able to live on his retirement and stay at home to take care of the children. This removed a tremendous load from Maggie, who was suffering from a muscular disorder. Tag would go out once a week and take credits from the local casinos. He only took enough to support Richard’s family and pay for his meals. He made sure he didn’t concentrate on any one casino, but spread it out among them all. With his powers of concealment, he had little difficulty getting what he needed. He had decided from the beginning that he would take only enough for the family’s comfort. He had, however, taken enough to insist that Richard take Maggie for treatment of her condition. She was showing remarkable progress.

Tag thought back to the day that he and Richard had decided to work together. Richard had disguised Tag so well that even his mother wouldn’t recognize him. He had added twenty-five pounds around his midsection with a plastic belt and put implants into his cheeks to make his face look fatter. He also cut Tag’s hair short and then dyed it black with a few strokes from the color brush. Tag had put on a blue jersey and left the cinema to go check on his parents.

He boarded a public floater and started the trip north toward his home. Before he got there, he found that security floaters had the area around his house blocked off. He was stuck in traffic and could see his home two blocks over. While he was watching, he saw his mother and father taken out of the house in hand restraints by six security officers, placed in a security floater, and then taken away. With that event, taking Leila’s test assumed a cost that was too high. Now he was anguished over what he had caused to happen to his parents. He watched the floater disappear into the city with a heart that was broken. He considered turning himself in, but that would only cause three to disappear instead of two. He thought about contacting Danielle to see if she could help them, but he knew that by the time he reached her, it would be too late. He did not see his parents again. He would occasionally go by their old house, but a new family had moved in, and he knew they would never be back. After a year he quit looking. After a while, he eventually quit blaming himself, reasoning that the two attacks were not the real reason his parents were taken. It was just a matter of time until he was placed in a situation where he would have used his skills, and the same thing would have happened. If he had known that his parents would disappear as a result of his actions, he probably would have never taken Leila’s test. The price would have been too high. It was too late to change what had happened, but he could try to make up for it by helping a family that was doomed without his help. He had made a huge impact on Richard’s family. By providing the credits they needed to survive, Richard no longer had to take risks that could cause his family to lose him. With Tag tutoring the children, they began to exhibit much higher performance in school and their test grades were the best in their classes. And by getting treatment for Maggie, he gave the family heart to endure. It had been a good three years.

There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think about Danielle. He felt his loss of her was his punishment for what had happened to his parents. He still missed her. He thought he could feel her, even though he felt like he was just fooling himself.

“Maggie, I’m going out for a while. Call me when Richard gets home.”

“Sure, Daniel. Don’t go too far.”

Tag went out, walked across the street, and sat down on a bench. It was a nice neighborhood and he enjoyed watching the children play. Some of them were very good at tag. He wondered if any of them had his gift, then dismissed the thought. The chances were remote. Tag liked sitting on that bench across from the building Richard’s family lived in. It was backed up to a stone wall and had a small hedge of blooming flowers in front of it that had a wonderful fragrance. It reminded him of Danielle and her perfume. He sat and thought about her and how much he missed her. He looked up the street and suddenly saw all the psychic shadows disappearing in a line moving toward him from north of the building. It was like a cloud moving overhead blocking the sun. All the psychic shadows were disappearing as that line moved toward where he was sitting. “Someone’s watching,” Tag’s thought as his inner alarm went off. “They’re not alone.” Tag was sitting in psychic shadows so he knew he had not been seen yet, but that line was moving closer. He got up and moved over behind the bench where there was some shrubbery along the stone wall. He sat down between the shrubbery and the bench against the wall. “Whoever it is, they can’t see me here,” he decided. He then closed his eyes and tried to feel where they were. He determined that two were overhead in a floater and one was moving down the street toward a bench next to the building. “Who are they looking for?” he wondered. Then he saw Richard and his four kids coming home from the park, and they were on the edge of the line where the psychic shadows were disappearing. Suddenly the man on the bench stood up and moved forward as the floater overhead dropped in front of the small group. The man from the bench pulled out a stunner and shot Richard in the chest, and he fell immediately to the ground. The two men from the floater gathered up the four screaming children and took them inside. The man that remained outside placed restraints on Richard and loaded him in the floater. The man totally ignored his surroundings, placing all of his attention on Richard, and Tag thought that he was being careless. Then it dawned on him that the man was probably inviting him to come and try to help his friend. Tag considered going to try to release Richard before the other two came out, but his body would not move. Suddenly, without knowing why, he rolled quickly under the stone bench, and all of the psychic shadows disappeared around him. Tag closed his eyes and then he sensed that there were others overhead scanning the street. After a few minutes the two men came out and talked with the man that shot Richard and then bordered the floater, lifted, and flew away towards downtown with Richard aboard. The man that had stunned Richard stood across the street and was talking into his com as he looked in both directions. Tag could see that there were no shadows around the Wiseman home; the house was being watched electronically.

“Why did I roll under this bench?” Tag thought. He closed his eyes again and then he knew: ten armed military floaters roared in from overhead and landed on the street in front of the building, and a company of naval marines in full battle armor jumped off and formed up. Tag sensed that both north and south of the building other companies were landing and their floaters were lifting and scanning the ground for body heat that humans give off. One floater passed directly over his bench, but the stone prevented them from seeing him. He was surrounded, and if he moved away from the bench the scanners would see him. He focused his mind and thought, “I cannot be seen.” He repeated the phrase over and over, and when he opened his eyes he saw a dark shadow surrounding him. He immediately knew that it was the psychic field he would often see around himself during moments of stress. The entire area under the bench was black, and Tag thought that anyone looking at the bench would have to see it, but he dared not move because the company of marines was spreading out and using portable scanners to look for anyone hiding. One of them came over to the bench and pointed a scanner directly at him and then turned back toward the street.

The man that had shot Richard came over sat down on the bench and started speaking on his com. “No, Inspector, we have not found him. We may have just missed him or he is not staying here anymore.” There was a pause and then he said, “We are going to move north and south to meet the other two companies and make sure he’s not hiding in the area.” After another pause he said, “I’m going to stay here in front of the Wiseman building and see if anything turns up.”

For the next two hours Tag listened to the reports from the various units reporting in to the man sitting above him about the various people they had stopped and questioned. Tag could tell that the man was starting to get frustrated. Finally the company of marines arrived back in front of the building, and the man told their commander that they had missed the one they were looking for and ordered them to board their floaters and report back to base. One of them came up and said, “Do you want to go back with us, sir?”

“No, I’m going to stay here a little longer. Leave one of the floaters and dismiss the company when you get back to base.”

After all the floaters had lifted, Tag reached into his back pocket, took the red-covered test book, which he always kept with him, and slowly and silently tore a sheet out of the back that was blank on one side; he then took a felt tip, wrote on the sheet, and then reached up and slipped it into the man’s belt as he was leaning forward. Tag then moved back under the bench. Finally, the man got up, looked around, boarded his floater, and flew north toward the central part of the city.

Tag could see that there were still no psychic shadows so the area was being watched electronically, but he was still enclosed by the dark psychic field, so he took a chance and stood up and walked away from the park bench. No one came to arrest him, and now he knew he could hide from electronic scanning.

Colonel Ortiz entered Inspector Connor’s office and found Esa and Danielle sitting waiting for his arrival. “He wasn’t there, Colonel?” Esa asked.

“No, Inspector, and I just had a feeling that he would have to be there. I guess I was wrong.”

Danielle looked at him and said, “Were all those armored marines necessary?”

“I wasn’t going to take a chance, but it really didn’t matter; he wasn’t there.”

Danielle looked at Ortiz with a frown and said, “Tag is basically a peaceful person and would do all he could to avoid hurting anyone. That many marines might have forced him to do something he just wouldn’t ordinarily do, although I suspect that if he was right under your nose he would still be able to hide where you wouldn’t be able to find him.”

Ortiz shrugged and said, “You know I value your opinion, and it’s for that reason that I took so many to find him. It was all a waste of time; he wasn’t there.”

Esa looked at Danielle and then said to Colonel Ortiz, “Well, you gave it your best effort; at least we got the one who hid him. Thanks for trying.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t successful,” Colonel Ortiz said and then turned to go.

Inspector Connor noticed something and said, “Just a moment, Colonel. What is that paper on your back?” Colonel Ortiz frowned and then reached behind him and felt the paper in his beltline. He took it out and read it and his eyebrows went up. Then he started laughing.

“What’s so funny, Colonel?” Esa asked.

Colonel Ortiz handed the paper to Esa, and Esa noticed it was a page from a placement test. “Turn it over, Inspector,” Ortiz said through his laughter.

Esa turned it over to read it and looked shocked; then he too started laughing. Danielle watched the two of them as they laughed harder. Then Esa handed Danielle the paper and she read, “Tag, you’re it.”

She shook her head and began smiling, and then she joined their laughter. Colonel Ortiz said, “I told you he was there.” That put all three of them into hysterics, and they had to hold their ribs as tears ran from their eyes while they roared with laughter.