The Talented (19 page)

“Hmm. That is interesting,” I thought aloud, “Because Harrison seems to believe that the Alliance is his own personal army against any metahuman who crosses some invisible line that only he can see.”

Dr. Grauer seemed to choose her words carefully, “Director Kirkwood, or Harrison as you call him, has a vision for the Alliance that is reminiscent of the days when it was the United Nations based-Alliance pitted against the U.S. government sponsored Program. Sort of a metahuman cold war. However, the terrible fire at the Program headquarters ended all that. Since then we have transitioned into a more scientific role, but Mr. Kirkwood seems to believe that we need to take a more active approach.”

I leaned in and lowered my voice, “I take it that you do not fully agree with that approach.”

The doctor spoke even softer, “Perhaps, but I’m not concerned so long as my research stays funded and protected. I suppose if he finds enemies out there to fight, it makes the case for additional research more compelling. A silver lining, perhaps.”

With a loud pop and a few sparks, all of the lights turned out, leaving us in the kind of total darkness only possible underground. Panic started to ripple through the cafeteria, and I flooded out my consciousness sending calming waves of reassurance. No matter what was happening, it would not help to have people trampling each other. Still conscious of the whole room, I felt the security personnel feeling their way to the exits. Tiny bobbing beacons of light began popping up all over the room. Mobile phones, no doubt. Then the room lit up again in red emergency lights. I spread my thoughts out further, until I touched upon the mind of a security guard who had just learned that the prisoners were escaping. Kate!

“It has been a hoot, doc, but I have to go, “ I said.

“Go, go,” Grauer agreed, “but be careful. We haven’t had a chance to study you yet!” Even with my abilities I could not discern if she was joking or not. It was apparent that she liked me. That might come in handy.

I extended my mind very thin, in sweeps throughout the entire complex. It appears that whatever technology they used to dampen psionic talents in the prison wing was no longer operational. Kate and Stuart were easy to pick out, their minds pulsing with energy. They were headed toward the Way Station, which would be a dead end unless they had discovered how to teleport. Kate and Stuart might have the power and skill to pull it off, but the rest of them couldn’t. Then I saw the mass of helmeted security forces bearing down on them and realized that they were fleeing in the only direction available to them.

Not willing to risk exhausting myself by teleporting, I ran as fast as I dared through the dimly lit halls toward the stairway. The guard posted at the stairs stiffened at my approach. I extended my hand out to him with my open palm facing up. “Your security pass,” I commanded, “Now!”

With a slack expression on his face the poor man did as I asked, then collapsed. Crap. Too rough with that one. I hoped he would fully recover as I swiped his badge across the sensor and entered the stairwell.

I rushed down to level B4, not sure what I would do once I had arrived. Do I help them escape as I had originally planned and betray Harrison, someone who might be my father? Or do I betray Kate and recapture them, earning Harrison’s trust? No matter what I chose, I would be making an enemy tonight.

As I rounded the final turn, bursts of automatic gunfire tore through the air, so I kept my head down and ran towards the firefight. Narrowing my awareness to the hallway ahead of me, it became apparent that the front lines of the security forces had turned on their comrades, no doubt under the control of Stuart.

This can’t happen like this. People are dying. I touched upon all their minds with Mandellian threads and took over, shaking off Stuart’s control of those affected. Then I pushed a command deep into their minds.

Sleep now.

They all dropped like flies, though files really don’t drop, they fly, but you get my point.

Stepping through the haze of gun smoke I emerged in the entrance to the huge domed room called the Way Station. Stuart and Kate both raised rifles at the sight of me, but recognition flashed on their faces and they hesitated. Travis, Ashley and Tracy were also there, scared and trying to stay out of danger. Then Kate saw my uniform, and the Alliance insignia, and tears of disbelief and betrayal shined in her eyes, then fell as she looked up into mine.

In a low voice, Stuart growled, “Traitor,” and opened fire. At my command the bullets swept around me like wind flowing around a tree.

“Stop it,” I demanded, “I’m not your enemy.”

“Oh, really,” Stuart mocked, “because I recall that back when my home was burning to the ground, you saved the lives of the two soldiers who ended up capturing us just before Harrison showed up. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for you. Now, weeks later, here you are, working for the enemy. Why am I not surprised?”

“Wait,” Kate pleaded through tears, “maybe he just snuck in…stole the uniform…Adam, isn’t that what happened?”

Color rose to my cheeks and my ears grew hot. “Well…not exactly, um, I did actually enlist here…but Kate, please believe me that I was just trying to get close so that I could save you, I…”

“Save it, boy,” Stuart interrupted, “No one wants to hear your excuses. Time to go.”

“NOT YET!!!” Boomed a powerful voice from the darkness inside the room. Kate and Stuart stood still as statues as silvery Mandellian threads enveloped them both. Harrison met their attack with a glowing red web of his own, and the battle for control began. The giant man clearly outclassed them in raw power, but Stuart and Kate made up for it with skill and finesse. Their threads deftly avoided being ensnared by his larger ones, and soon began to entrap them. All three of them looked to be covered in battling red and silver threads, the red ones becoming wrapped up in the smaller silver ones. It appeared that the two sixth generation escapees were gaining the upper hand. Then Harrison cried out and channeled fresh power into his attack.

Still holding the rifle, Stuart managed to fire off a burst of three rounds at Harrison, who then was forced to divert some threads to stop the bullets. Then Stuart bore down with all his strength, driving Harrison to one knee.

“Please…Adam!” He cried out, “Help me!”

I stood immobile and shook with frustration, not wanting to hurt anyone, not wanting to take sides, wanting to be anywhere but here.

The shining silver threads that Stuart commanded began to envelop Harrison’s body, actually penetrating it in many places. Harrison closed his eyes and grimaced in pain. This can’t be happening. I can’t just stand here and watch this. I had to do something.

As Harrison balled up into a crouch, Stuart leveled the barrel of the rifle again, this time inches away from Harrison’s head.

“Checkmate,” he whispered, then began to pull the trigger. Running with enhanced speed, all 210 pounds of me slammed into Stuart just before the weapon fired, intending to drive him to the ground with a hard tackle, but Stuart side-stepped with the grace of a matador while psionically tugging my body forward and down, using my momentum against me. The rifle skidded across the floor into the shadows. I hit the cement floor hard, but climbed to my feet in a hurry. Stuart assumed some kind of karate stance, balanced and alert.  I raised my big fists doing my best George Foreman impression and warily drew forward.

“Have you lost your mind?” Stuart shouted, “Did you all of a sudden forget who put you in the hospital? It was him! Do you recall who has been pursuing you all this time, and who burned my home to the ground?  Him, again! I’m not the enemy, he is!”

I inched forward, saying, “I can’t let you kill him.  You want to go, then go, but let Harrison live.” Stuart bounced lighly on the balls of his feet, forward and back.

An incredulous Stuart mocked, “Stupid boy, do you think Harrison is going to suddenly forgive and forget? Step aside and let the grown-ups handle this.” As he spoke a concerned-looking Kate split her focus between watching us and fighting Harrison.  Even though the giant was crouched in an almost fetal position, the tough old guy was still putting up a fight.

I replied, “Grown-ups? You so-called grown-ups are the ones who created this mess in the first place.  How could I do any worse?” I led with a left jab, which I observed in slow motion in my heightened state of awareness.  The problem was that Stuart did as well, and he deftly grabbed my wrist and pulled, then flipped me over his shoulder and slammed me to the ground. I could see that Stuart’s silver threads were still attacking Harrison, as if fighting me only took the slighest amount of concentration.  That really ticked me off.

I reached out and the rifle flew toward my outstretched hand, only to be intercepted by Stuart at the last moment.  The weapon quivered in the air between us.  Ah, I thought, tug-O-war, this is more like it.  I pulled with all my psionic might, causing Stuart to cry out with the strain.  The assault rifle then flew into my hand—but wrong—with the barrel facing me, and erupted in a deafening burst of gunfire.  Kate screamed. The bullets sprayed the empty air that I occupied a split-second before, and I re-appeared right in front of  Stuart’s patrician nose.

Before he could react I drove a massive uppercut into his delicate chin, and though he rolled with it at the last moment it was enough to snap his head back, breaking his concentation entirely. He collapsed in a fog, dazed and only semi-conscious.

With Stuart out of the fight, Harrison rallied. As he recovered a red halo enveloped his body, followed by waves of pure rage. He rose to his feet, and Kate shrank back, unable to fight Harrison by herself. As Harrison’s threads overpowered her, she fell unconscious.

Then the enraged giant turned his full attention and power to Stuart. The smaller man tried to regain his focus and summon his defenses, but it was too little, too late, and in this state he could not fight off Harrison for long.

Harrison pushed even harder and said, “You always thought you were so smart, Stu, always showing off at school making the rest of us feel stupid. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before you became the star of the entire Program. Well, I had more foresight than the rest of them. Had the Program continued you would have taken it over completely, and would have used it for your own gain. I saw it in a vision. Behind the scenes you would have taken over the world as well. The Program was too powerful to fall into your hands. It had to be stopped before that could happen!”

At that moment my stomach sank and I tasted bile. Oh my God. This is not just a victory speech. It was a confession.

“What are you saying Harrison?” I shouted, “What did you do, exactly? Tell me!” I didn’t want to ask the question, fearing the answer. “Did you start the fire? Did you?????”

“IT HAD TO BE DONE,” Harrison roared, “Don’t you see!!!! I saw the future! It would have been like Hitler all over again, only WORSE!! But that future would only have happened if Stuart were allowed to have the Program at his command. It was the Program that had to be destroyed!”

“That makes no sense!” I cried, “If Stuart was the threat, why not just deal with him? You didn’t have to kill all those people! Are you insane?!
!?!”

“No,” he shot back, “don’t you think I thought about that? The Program was becoming too powerful and would have resulted in world domination eventually, even without Stuart. Besides, I saw it in a vision that I will die before Stuart. Killing him would be like killing myself.” Tears fell from his eyes. “Do you think I wanted to do it? Those were my friends in there, my family. It was the hardest thing that I’d ever done.”

In a calm, tired voice, I replied, “You killed hundreds of innocent people. You did. Not Stuart, or future Stuart. You did it. And now you’re finishing the job, right? Isn’t that what this is all about? This big charade about the Alliance and doing the right thing was just a cover up for your true objective: defeating and humiliating Stuart. Even the justification you just revealed is just an excuse that you told yourself because the real reason—the true purpose you have for lashing out at Stuart is all about the girl. My mother.” I stepped closer and spoke softer, but bitterly, “Did she cheat on you, Harry? Maybe with Stuart? Maybe others?”

Harrison shot back, “It doesn’t matter now, Adam, don’t you see? You’re talking about ancient history! The world is a better place because of what I did, and I don’t need your approval or anyone else’s to know that I did the right thing. Now stay out of my way or go down with the rest of them.”

He then redoubled his assault on Stuart, his threads finally penetrating the smaller man’s mind. Stuart gasped at the pain. Harrison became totally focused on the destruction of Stuart. He didn’t notice when I began summoning all of my focus. He didn’t see me circle my way behind him. He didn’t feel it when I concentrated all my Mandellian threads into two pipes as thick as my arms, extending only two inches from the palms of my hands. But he did feel it when I clapped my hands together with all of my strength onto his vulnerable ears, the pain and surprise causing a critical lapse in his concentration. For a second, he became aware of the massive Mandellian threads crushing their way into his mind, attacking the very core of his power. Then he lost consciousness entirely and was unaware of what followed.

Being inside Harrison’s incredibly complex mind consumed all of my focus, but when I finished and began to withdraw I felt another presence among us, eavesdropping. Stuart! My senses returned slowly as I fought to snap out of it and heard Kate scream, “No! Stuart, what are you doing! Stop it! Please! Stop hurting him!!!”

Still confused, I felt sickening jolts to my stomach, and looked down to see Stuart thrust a wickedly long combat knife into me just above my navel. Then again. Then again. It’s funny what a person thinks about when something this terrible happens to them. My last thought was that although I felt nauseated and light headed, it really didn’t hurt much. That was my last memory before a great peaceful shadow overtook me, and I succumbed to it. Gladly.