by JC Bybee
“Any news on Einstein?” she asked.
“Not yet, but we both know they didn’t take him for ransom. We can’t let the HSO get the secrets in his head. They already came up with that damned hybrid. With Einstein I don’t even want to picture what they’ll do. They might even be able to get to you. That can’t happen,” the Captain said. He sounded exhausted. Ace understood that feeling all too well. The HSO getting a hold of Einstein was probably the worst thing she could think of happening.
He needs to get some sleep.
“I might be able to locate him, sir, but I can’t guarantee anything,” Ace said.
“How?” Hope and suspicion warred across his features. Ace wanted to tell him, but until she confirmed some things it was too much of a risk.
Are you sure about this Ace?
“It’s… classified,” she replied.
Captain Angel raised an eyebrow. “Classified?” He stared at her, but Ace didn’t budge. “How much can you tell me?” He sounded skeptical. That was understandable. Ace had done some pretty world changing things in her time in the military and not a one of them were classified. A good portion of them had been broadcast on international TV. This was different. She would have to talk to the old man.
The old man is not going to like this. I’m not disagreeing with you though.
“Nothing at all, sir. I can’t even stress to you how important it is that you tell no one we even had this conversation,” she replied.
“And what should I say when people ask what you’re up to?”
“Tell them I’m working an angle that might help us locate Einstein.” She didn’t like keeping secrets, hated to in fact, but there was very little she could do. The old man was going to be hard enough to deal with already. If she told people before checking with him there would be hell to pay.
“I could order you to tell me,” Captain Angel said.
“You could, but then you would have every last member of the E.E.D Advisory Council in your office and you would likely lose your job. There’s a good possibility they would even revoke your Registration. That’s how sensitive this information is,” Ace replied.
Yeah the last guy that found out “died by natural causes”.
Finally he let out a sigh and said, “Do what you’ve got to do.”
“Thank you sir. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” Ace said and left the room.
She avoided her own office so she wouldn’t have to run into Emily. She wasn’t certain if her friend would be able to see the information that Ace had brought out of her memories, but she didn’t dare risk it happening even by accident. She left the precinct via the flight hatch and went up as high as she felt necessary. The air was thin and it was damned cold, not that any of that fazed her. This was where she went to think.
Was she really going to make this call? She thought over what could happen if they let Einstein remain in the hands of the HSO for long. They wouldn’t break him, he was too valuable, but they would tear information from him. Information that would give them access to the same technology that allowed the E.E.D to do its job.
Einstein was the reason the E.E.D maintained their edge against Antis. With that information in the hands of an extremist group like the HSO things would get bad fast. It would probably mean another war. That thought chilled Ace to her core. Above all else that could not be allowed to happen.
You aren’t strong enough to find him, you know that. Make the call.
Having made her decision Ace descended back to an altitude where it was safe to use her device. She punched in what to most would have seemed a random series of numbers then turned it off. After a short wait her device switched on and the screen read, “Warehouse 2.”
She sighed in relief and flew to her destination. She’d been worried the old man wouldn’t get her call. Now she just had to convince him.
Chapter 21
Warehouse 2 was actually an abandoned club in downtown. The owners had met with financial difficulties and the bank had foreclosed on them. Now it sat vacant, its doors and windows boarded and city security installed. Ace landed silently on the building’s roof. The old man was there. He didn’t look happy.
“The HSO has Einstein,” she said.
“Inside,” he said. He sounded genuinely angry. That was a surprise.
He’s conflicted. That’s a first.
They went in through a supposedly locked roof access door. Once the door closed behind them lights came on. Warehouse 2 was one of a handful of locations that the E.E.D maintained behind the scenes in order to uphold the law. Ace had never liked the idea of hiding anything from the public, but she wasn’t stupid. She knew there were things that people were better off not knowing.
They walked in silence to the old man’s office. It was only the second time Ace had been there. The door closed and Ace waited. The old man sat with a sigh and said, “I am aware of the Einstein situation. We are currently doing everything we can to track him down, but like I’ve told you the HSO is damned difficult to track.”
“You’re not doing everything, sir,” Ace said.
He frowned and shook his head. “Are you sure you want to?” She was letting him see what she was thinking.
She nodded. “Let me see my sister.”
The old man sighed and stood up. “There is no guarantee that this is going to work. One person suppressed is not enough evidence.”
“Just do it, let me see her,” Ace said. It was a demand and those usually didn’t go over well with the old man. At that very moment Ace didn’t really care. She’d waited too long to test her theory already.
With another sigh he led her out of the room and down three floors. There were no other people on this floor. It was cold and stark. The walls were lined with suppression shielding unlike anything Ace had ever seen. It made the equipment on the interrogation rooms look like paper.
And it’s still not enough. Good thing too.
In the very center of the floor they came to a single door. “I can’t go in there, Ace,” the old man said. “She’s too much for me, too much for anyone.”
Ace nodded and opened the door just wide enough to slip through. She closed it quickly behind her and she turned to face a room that looked pulled from a mansion. Each wall was lined with shelves filled with books. There was a large, neatly made bed in the middle. The only gap in the shelves was to make room for a large desk. Everything on it was neatly organized and the monitor was dark. The chair at the desk turned and Ace could feel the tears starting. It was like looking into a mirror. Every feature, quirk, and movement was echoed by her sister.
“Is it working?” she asked.
Angela nodded, the tears already forming. “Finally. I can finally control it.”
Ace wrapped her sister in a gentle embrace. She hadn’t seen her sister since their birth. It had been immediately apparent that Angela was a Used. As an infant the flood of information would have been too much so they took her and hid her away. Layer after layer of the most advanced shielding the E.E.D could come up with was used to separate her from the world, for everyone’s protection.
Angela was Ace’s opposite, her complement. What no one else knew was that between the two of them they had every power ever found among the Exceptionals. Some were stronger than others, but they were all there, with a few shared between them. The main difference was where Ace had precise control over her powers, Angela had none. It had always been a source of deep frustration for Ace, but ever since meeting and helping Emily, Ace had hoped she might finally have found a solution to her sister’s imprisonment.
“Truly, you have complete control?” Ace asked.
Her sister nodded, unable to put to words what she was feeling at that very moment. Ace knew. Now that there was no shielding between them their minds reached out and reconnected. What Ace knew, Angela knew, and vice versa. Just as they were meant to be.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Ace said. She went and knocked on the door. There was no
handle on the inside.
The old man opened it a small crack. “She’s fine,” Ace said gently.
“It works? Your power really brought hers under control?” he asked.
“See for yourself,” Ace replied and pushed the door open.
For a moment the old man and Angela stood facing each other in silence. Through her tears Angela finally spoke, “I’m free.”
The old man stared to tear up and turned away. “Good. Ace, take your sister out of here. I’ll see to it that everything is moved to your place. You two go find Einstein and stop the HSO.”
“Our pleasure,” they both said.
Back at the precinct everyone that saw them stopped and stared. It was truly impossible to tell them apart as they walked into the building. They passed through the bio-scanners separately and they didn’t even flicker when Angela walked through.
On the E.E.D floor they were met at the elevator doors by Emily. Ace’s friend stood and stared for almost a minute before Angela said, “You must be Emily. I’m Ace’s twin sister. Thank you for everything you’ve done for her. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it.”
Emily nodded with a dumbstruck look on her face. “Any news on Einstein?” Ace asked as she and Angela started walking towards Angel’s office.
Emily recovered from her surprise quickly and followed saying, “Not yet. The Captain is about ready to go crazy. The entire E.E.D is in on this one.”
“Damn,” Ace said. She knocked on the Captain’s door and waited for his permission before entering. Unsurprisingly Torment was there, but so was Bones. All three of them stared with the same dumbfounded expression that Emily had upon seeing the twins.
“This is my twin sister Angela,” Ace said. Her sister didn’t need a Hero identity. She officially didn’t exist outside of the E.E.D’s most secure database. “She’s a registered officer of the E.E.D and she’s here to help us.”
There was silence in the room for at least a minute. “My powers are the opposites of my sister’s. I’ll be able to locate Einstein, but first I need access to his personnel file,” Angela said. She held up her badge for all present.
“How do we know what you’re saying is true?” Torment asked. She looked incredibly skeptical.
“Check the E.E.D database,” Ace suggested. Both the Captain and Torment turned to their devices, but Bones stood and without hesitation gave Angela a hug. “I always wondered…I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you,” he said.
“Me too,” Angela said, returning the hug.
“So there are her records and her E.E.D profile. I don’t suppose we are ever going to get an explanation as to why she has been hidden from us for the past twenty-five years,” Captain Angel said. Ace shrugged in apology.
“Right, so you say you can find Einstein, well here’s his profile.”
He turned his monitor for all to see. Angela took a chair and started looking over the information. “She’s your opposite, right?” Emily asked quietly.
“She is,” Ace replied. She wasn’t going to go into much more detail than that. Let everyone think that Angela was just a Mental Class, like they thought Ace was just a Fortress Class. Emily got a faraway look in her eye for a moment and then shook her head like she was trying to clear her thoughts.
“You okay?” Ace asked.
“Your sister is just very persuasive, and persistent. Just like you,” Emily replied. There was a small smile on her face.
“I think I have what I need,” Angela announced and stood up. “This might take a little while, so be patient.”
Power filled the room as Ace’s twin opened her power and started looking. “What is she doing?” Emily asked quietly.
“She can trace down Exceptionals by following their power signature. Reading Einstein’s profile gave her a starting point, now all she has to do is follow the trail left by his power. At least that’s how she explained it to me. I get the feeling it is much more complex,” Ace replied.
“There aren’t many Exceptionals who can do that; it’s a pretty rare power,” Bones added.
They waited in silence after that. After half an hour Angela finally sat down slowly in her chair and opened her eyes. “I’ve found him. They’ve got him pretty heavily guarded. Even my sister is going to have a hard time getting to him without any collateral damage. Here’s the address,” she wrote down the address on a piece of paper on Angel’s desk.
“Can you describe the building?” Bones asked.
“Give me a moment at your computer Captain and I’ll pull up its schematics,” Angela replied.
Angel moved out of the way and Angela made her way carefully around to his chair. Ace could feel how tired she was. This was the first time she was consciously using her powers, not just being used by them. The effort was bound to take its toll on her sooner rather than later.
“Here it is,” Angela said after only a few minutes at the computer.
“They’re keeping him at the Marriot?” Captain Angel said as he looked at the screen.
The look on Angela’s face dared him to challenge her. “Send Ghost in to confirm if you want.”
“I’d rather not risk her, if there is as much security as you say even Ghost might have problems. How are we going to do this people?” Captain Angel asked.
Chapter 22
“They are going to expect a frontal assault. I mean we have Ace, they are going to expect and probably want us to use her,” Torment said.
“We don’t dare, not in such a public area. There are always going to be people in that building. And even if we were to evacuate that would give them way too much warning. They could have Einstein moved out before a single member of the E.E.D could get to them,” Bones added.
“No matter what we can’t let them put normals in more danger. That’s been the whole point of this offensive. They want to damage the public perception of the E.E.D and cause a wider rift between normals and Exceptionals. They will be able to incite worse incidents if there is an air of distrust,” Torment said. Emily had told her all about the suspicions that she and Ace had about the HSO’s motives.
“Captain, can you bring your technomancers to my sister’s office? There are some security measures that were present in that building that I would like to discuss with them,” Angela asked.
“What? Why?” Captain Angel asked. The question clearly was unexpected. He fixed Angela with a look, expecting an answer. He was under a lot of stress at the moment so Ace let his belligerence slide.
“I have every type of power that my sister does not, but I’m…out of practice with some of my powers. I need people like Ace’s partner Maniac to help me,” Angela replied. She kept her tone even.
“Do it Angel. The technomancers might be able to find a hole that we can exploit,” Bones said.
“Right sorry, I’m just not thinking clearly,” Angel reached for his device and he collapsed. Ace caught him before he could hit the floor and she laid him down gently. Torment was already dialing Moses while Angela put her hand on Angel’s head. Her eyes were closed and then she shook her head. “He’s overworked his powers. He’s been in direct mental contact with all of his officers since Einstein was taken. He’s worn out, exhausted, and only rest will take care of that.”
Ace sighed in relief. Losing Captain Angel permanently would be nothing but bad for the E.E.D. “Torment, you’re in charge of this office while Angel is recovering then,” Bones said glancing in her direction.
“Yes sir,” she replied with a nod. She then made the call that Angel had been about to make.
With Blip’s murder there were only three technomancers in their office. Maniac was one, the other two Ace knew, but not well. The first was Glitch, a female officer with a bit of a hard-ass reputation. The other was Pong. He was quiet and sort of flew beneath the social radar of the office.
All three came to Captain Angel’s office where Torment briefed them on the situation. All three stared at Angela when they were told who she was. Maniac
looked at Ace and then back to Angela and then back to Ace. Ace smiled and nodded. Maniac’s eyes narrowed and Ace knew she was going to hear about it from her partner. They were partners she should have been one of the first to know about Angela, screw the situation.
I warned you about that.
Once Angela had led the technomancers to Ace’s office the rest of them tried to figure out the best option for rescuing Einstein. “Here’s another problem, and I know what the law says, but we can’t let Einstein get killed. The HSO would be able to use that against us just as easily as normal casualties,” Emily added.
Ace shook her head in frustration. She was getting to the point where she wanted to hit something, and that was bad. “I need to be excused,” she said and got up to leave.
“Are you alright?” Torment asked, half rising from her chair.
“Yeah, just need to blow off a little steam is all,” Ace replied. Torment nodded. Ace went to the elevator and punched in the floor for the gym.
Chapter 23
Ace wasn’t sure how long it was before her sister came and found her. “You know it scared the hell out of me when you left like that.”
“Sorry about that,” Ace replied. She’d already gone through one heavy bag and her current target wasn’t looking much better.
“Well now we know the limit of my control,” Angela continued. She sat and watched her sister as she worked. “That will change. Emily can handle being on the other side of town from me, for a little while at least.”
“You know I know everything that’s going on in your head, right?” Angela asked as Ace continued to pound the heavy bag. She didn’t bother with gloves or wraps. She just pounded it bare knuckled.
“Just like I know what’s going on in your head,” Ace replied.
“So this is kind of like talking to myself?” Angela said with a smile. Ace laughed. “Yeah I guess it is. Maniac still pissed at me?”
“Yup, but she’ll get over it. She’s good people. She’s just worried Emily or I is going to take her place as your partner,” Angela replied. “She likes you and wants to be kept in your circle of friends.”