by A. K. DuBoff
Nia consulted her wrist display. “This picture in his file is terrible, but we could probably identify him in the rec room, if he’s there.” She pointed to a directory on the wall with navigational arrows.
Kira nodded. “Let’s check it out. If he’s not there, he’s probably in his room.”
The rec room, as it turned out, was empty. During her brief glance inside, Kira also decided that it looked far from recreational.
Having struck out in the first place they looked, the group continued on to the location of Edgar’s assigned quarters, further into the facility from the elevator. To Kira’s surprise, they didn’t pass any nurses or orderlies.
“Shouldn’t there be more people working here?” she commented to her team.
“Maybe they were sent home with the martial law state,” Kyle speculated. “Just kept critical personnel.”
“Clearly it was the B Team,” Kira replied. “The security is a joke.”
“In all fairness, they’re not used to telepaths and Guard soldiers,” Nia pointed out.
Ari nodded. “I’d be intimidated by me, just sayin’.”
Kira rolled her eyes. When she checked the door numbers ahead of them, she saw they were close to Edgar’s number. “Ah, there it is.”
Bars covered the small window mounted in the door at Kira’s eye level. Inside a narrow bunk was along the left wall and a man sat in a solitary chair facing a gated back window.
“Can you get the door open?” Kira asked Kyle.
He glanced at the electronic lock. “No problem.”
Within ten seconds, the red light had turned blue.
“Wait here,” Kira told her team.
She slowly opened the door to the room. “Hi, Edgar. May I come in?”
He made no indication that he’d heard her, so she stepped inside.
“My name is Kira. I want to talk with you about the pit beneath the facility in the valley.”
Edgar went rigid in his chair. “The voices. The voices are evil!”
“I know.” She crouched in front of the man and stared into his eyes. “I’m here to help you,” she told him in his mind.
He looked back at her, his eyes filled with longing. “Make them go away,” he thought in response.
“I’ll try,” Kira replied, not willing to promise an optimum outcome after what had happened with Cynthia Hale. “But to do that, I need you to be open with me.”
Edgar nodded. “Please. I’ll do anything to make it stop.” The words in his mind were accompanied by a profound feeling of being trapped.
Kira thought back to Cynthia and how she had been defeated by that sense of confinement. Though it had been too late for Cynthia, Kira had a chance to save this man.
She set her jaw. “Edgar, show me what you saw at the facility,” she instructed telepathically.
“They don’t want me to.”
“Then we’ll make them.”
Kira dove into his mind. A tiny beacon flashed in her mind’s eye, marking the information that Edgar wanted to share but was presently incapable of accessing. She clawed her way toward it, grasping the end of a thread. Holding onto the delicate strand that snaked through his mind, she traced the memory.
Flashes and bursts of emotion washed over her. Darkness. Fear. Whispers. Pain.
It filled her mind, burning behind her eyes.
Perspiration formed on Edgar’s brow. “They’re too strong,” he said in Kira’s mind.
“No. We’re stronger.”
She redoubled her efforts, fighting deeper into his mind as the programming tried to yank the memory from her grasp. But Kira refused to let go. She forced back the mental blocks, skirting around them and pressing inward until the edges cracked.
As she got deeper, the sense of being trapped swelled within her.
They won’t control me, and I won’t let them have this man any longer.
With a final surge, Kira broke through the barriers guarding Edgar’s hidden thoughts.
The desired memory hit her in a wave, threatening to overwhelm her in a torrent of negative thoughts.
“Stay with me, Edgar!” she shouted in the mind of the tortured man. Experiencing the storm that had been raging inside him, she was astonished he had been responsive at all.
Edgar cried out, piercing the silence in the small room.
Kira stayed focused on him as she sorted through the flood of memories. Somewhere, there was a clear path to show her what she needed to know.
At last, a series of images came to the surface. She recognized an exterior security door similar to the facility entrance she’d encountered on the Gaelon dwarf planet and then a control room—but this time, the doorway to the underground was already open.
A half-lit hallway stretched before her as she relived Edgar’s memory. She walked in his footsteps, down the path, to a stairwell carved directly into the stone, as though the very rock had reformed in the desired shape.
The staircase descended on a wide spiral around a central column. There were no landings, so there was no sense of how deep it went, only that it was far.
After what seemed like an eternity in Edgar’s mind, the end came into sight. An open door ahead led to a hallway hewn of the same stone as the stairwell. A persistent hum filled the air, which had made Edgar feel on edge, but he pressed forward.
Through the doorway was a lobby with four corridors leading in different directions.
A middle-aged man with dark features stood in the middle of the lobby, sporting a pleased smirk. “This is a very important assignment,” he said.
Kira watched through Edgar’s eyes as he nodded. “I’m here to serve. What will I be doing, exactly?”
“Come with me.” The other man led Edgar through a labyrinth of hallways.
Kira tracked the movements at first, but after seven turns, she found herself second-guessing her memory of the opening moves.
“Take notes,” she said aloud to her team.
In Edgar’s mind, she rewound the memory and began replaying it from the moment they left the lobby. “Second corridor from the left, third right…” She continued relaying the instructions until her host halted.
Kira held up her hand to indicate a pause to her team. Telepathically, she prodded Edgar to proceed.
Tears formed in his eyes. “They want to hurt you,” he told her.
“I won’t let them.”
“You aren’t prepared for what’s coming.”
The memory advanced, but there were no more twisting hallways. Ahead, the path led to a cavern eerily similar to the one Kira had been to on Gaelon. At the center of a chamber, a black pit plummeted toward the core of the planet.
“This is it!” Kira told her team. “The pit is seven meters straight ahead of the doorway.”
“Got it,” Nia acknowledged.
Kira was about to disengage from the memory, having retrieved the information they needed, but whispers rose from the darkness. They beckoned to Edgar, and he cast his gaze around the room as he approached.
Once at the edge, Edgar looked downward to find the source of the whispers, but he couldn’t see anything more than half a dozen meters into the hole.
“What is this?” he asked his guide.
“This is their home. We offer them an escape.”
The whispers intensified. Fear welled inside Edgar, but he was frozen in place. Within the pit, jewels of light illuminated along the walls in strange patterns that he had never seen.
But Kira had. It was the same form as she’d seen replicated on Gaelon.
She wanted a better look, but Edgar tore his gaze from it, trying to back away from the pit. Something was holding him in place, and his limbs went rigid. Kira’s own breath was forced from her chest as she relived the memory with him.
As the voices contin
ued to swirl in her mind, one rose above the rest.
This one wasn’t a memory.
“Kira, you’ve come back.”
Kira’s blood ran icy through her veins. She’d know that presence anywhere.
“Reya.”
CHAPTER 19
Kira composed herself. She couldn’t allow Reya to sense any fear or doubt. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“Your weak mortal bodies can’t contain us. Hale’s death was a setback, not an end.”
Kira had already figured as much, given what they’d discovered over the past several days. “Where are you hiding?” she asked.
“Whatever you’re trying to do, it won’t work,” the alien replied.
“That wasn’t an answer.”
“You already know where I am. We know you’re coming.”
Kira was careful to guard her thoughts. She wasn’t sure how she was communicating with the being, exactly, but she couldn’t risk playing into the alien’s figurative hands. The likely explanation was that Edgar was functioning as some sort of conduit.
“You should know by now that we won’t stop until you’re no longer a threat. Submit, and you don’t have to die,” Kira continued.
“We will never submit to beings lesser than ourselves.”
At least Kira could say she tried. Killing was never her first choice of action, but when an enemy wouldn’t hear reason, it was the only path to take. Reya’s stance made the decision to use deadly force a little easier.
“In that case,” Kira continued, “we have nothing more to discuss.”
“We haven’t given up on you, Kira. You can be so much more with us,” Reya beckoned her with a musical lilt to its tone.
Kira mentally scoffed at the alien. “You’re still using that same line? I’m doing just fine on my own, thanks.” She tried to sever the connection, but something was stopping her.
“It wasn’t a request,” Reya bellowed, swelling in her mind. “You will join us and fulfill your purpose.”
“No!” Kira struggled against the mental vise closing in around her.
“Obey! Kill your friends and come to us. You will become what you were meant to be.”
Against her will, Kira’s hand twitched toward her handgun, her gaze shifting to her team.
“Yes, it will be so easy,” Reya prodded. “Slaughter them and relish their deaths.”
“Never!” Kira struggled against her, forced inward by the being’s immense power.
She was alone in the darkness.
A burst of energy surged through her. She shredded the mental bonds that had shackled her and lashed out against Reya.
“You will not control me!” Kira snarled in her mind.
Reya recoiled from the sudden outburst, then gathered itself for another assault. “Obey!”
“It’s too late, Reya. You’ve lost.” Kira sent a telepathic spear toward her would-be captor, and Reya screamed in Kira’s mind as the attack found its mark. “We’re coming for you, and you can’t stop us.”
Before the alien could react, Kira sealed off the connection inside Edgar’s mind. The aliens wouldn’t be able to get to him again.
In front of her, Edgar was staring at Kira with a mixture of shock, confusion, and awe. His full attention was on her, but he looked like he wanted to get as far away as possible.
Kira looked down at her hand and noticed the claws poking through her gloves.
Then the pain hit.
“Argh!” Kira dropped halfway to the floor before she caught herself with her hands.
she asked the AI.
Ari was at Kira’s side before the AI could say anything more. “Are you okay, Kira? Aside from the Robus thing, that is.”
“Yeah,” she told him, careful to avoid slicing him as he helped her to her feet. “Minus the part about all of my nerves feeling like they’re on fire.”
The claws receded, and Kira’s skin tingled as the nanites reabsorbed.
“Well, that was unpleasant.”
Edgar blinked slowly as he took her in, now appearing more fascinated than concerned that she’d just transformed into an alien creature before his eyes. Whatever meds they had him on must be good.
“What are you?” he finally asked.
“That’s a long story.” Kira crouched down to look into his eyes again. There was still fear in his gaze—not of her, but of the Trols’ returning.
Kira inclined her head to Ari to let him know she was okay, and he returned to the hall. She brought her attention back to Edgar.
“They’ll never leave me alone,” Edgar told her through their telepathic link. “They’ll be back.”
“Not if we don’t let them in,” she replied in his mind.
She began weaving a permanent shield around his mind—so tight a mesh that the Trols would never be able to break through. As powerful as they thought they were, they didn’t understand people’s minds in all their complexities. Kira did, and with her knowledge, she would beat them.
But first, she could change the life of this one person who’d been robbed of his autonomy. They’d cast him aside when he was no longer needed as a temporary host, and it had left him a shell of his former self. Kira could fix him—she could do what she had wanted to do for Cynthia Hale but had been too late to accomplish. She could give him a second chance.
She finished weaving the mental shield and then carefully withdrew from Edgar’s mind.
“They won’t be able to hurt you now,” she said as her telepathic parting words. Then aloud, “How do you feel?”
Edgar’s eyes lit up. “They’re gone! I can’t hear them anymore!” he exclaimed.
“And you don’t have to worry about them coming back,” Kira promised with a smile. She stood up. “No more nightmares, Edgar.”
He beamed at her. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“None is needed. I’m just happy I could return your autonomy.” She looked around the room. “I know this place isn’t ideal, but I suggest you wait here until the threat has passed.”
“You mean the threat from… them?” he asked.
Kira nodded. “We’ll take care of them for good, though, don’t worry.” She turned to leave the room.
Jasmine commented.
Kira’s team was waiting in the hallway.
“The directions. We need to compare them to the facility map,” she instructed them.
“Already on it,” Kyle confirmed. He activated a holographic projection from his wrist, which depicted a three-dimensional model of the underground facility. “Based on your description, I believe it’s here.” He pointed to an out-of-the-way branch of the labyrinth with his free hand.
“That sounds right,” Nia assessed. “The one on Gaelon was in a similar position relative to the entry and exit.”
“It’s the best guess and the only information we have without going inside,” Kira said. “Send the information to Sandren so he can coordinate with the drilling team.”
“Aye.” Kyle made entries on his wrist device. “Done.”
Kira nodded. “Thanks. We should get out of here. I have other information I need to share.”
Nia gave her a quizzical look. “That you learned from Edgar?”
Kira nodded. “I know what the Trols do.”
“Like, all their secrets?” Kyle asked.
“No. How they operate. How they were able to make that planet,” Kira clarified. “At least, I think I do.”
“Care to enlighten us?” Nia prompted.
She shook her head. “Not here. We need to get back to the Raven.”
“Who are you and what are you doing here?” a man said from down the hallway.
Kira spun around. She immediately recognized the middle-aged man with dark features as the guide from Edgar’s memory. She drew her multi-handgun on the stun setting.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
The man raised his hands. “Garett Steckler. I work for the Mysaran government.”
Ari pivoted to have his back to the man. “Is the gun really necessary?” he whispered in Kira’s ear.
Kira looked the soldier in his eyes. “I saw him in Edgar’s memories. He was working with the Trols.”
Understanding passed across Ari’s face, and he pivoted back to face Garett while drawing his sidearm.
“What are you doing here, Garett?” Kira asked.
“Just checking in on a friend,” he replied.
Kira’s pulse spiked.
“I’m gonna need more than that,” she said aloud to Garett.
She caught Nia’s gaze across the hallway, since she was standing closest to the man. “He may be subverted,” Kira relayed to her telepathically. “Subdue him.”
Nia spun around and had Garett in a tight hold with his hand pinned behind his back before he even knew what hit him. “Kira has some more questions for you,” the soldier said.
Garett strained against her, but he was powerless in her grasp.
“Whoever you think I am or whatever you think I’ve done—”
“Save it,” Kira said, stepping toward him. “I have other ways of getting the information I need.”
She stared into Garett’s eyes from an arm’s length away. “Tell me who you work for,” she demanded in his mind and aloud.