by P. S. Power
“Right. Den, make us not be noticed again? Or better, just do Brian. He’s collecting unneeded attention.” That took a few seconds to set up, but while he didn’t forget the man was there, he really couldn’t find him at all. It wouldn’t stop cameras, but no one seemed to be hunting them down with that kind of thing at the moment.
When they got inside, Brian carefully moved off to his bedroom. Seeming a bit nervous. Which kind of made sense. After all, he didn’t really have extra clothing with him.
To that end, Howard called out.
“Kerry! You in here?”
“In the kitchen!”
She sounded happy, which was good to hear. He’d been half afraid that all the modern women would be unhappy if they did anything at all that seemed even a little traditional. Which was probably him being old again. Kerry hadn’t been like that at all, so far. Then, as messed up as it had been, her upbringing had also been very religious. That meant she was probably used to doing things in a certain way, or had been at her cult headquarters.
Until she’d escaped. Like a prisoner of war.
He headed that way, followed by Denis. When they got to the nice, rather large, food space, he waved a bit.
“Brian had to go and help some people correct their behavior a bit. He needs some new clothing? Do you know where his room is, back at your base?” He didn't know if that was a thing at all. They might live off base, or in barracks.
The blonde wrinkled her forehead a bit, turning from the counter to look at him.
“Yes? I’ve been inside. Just helping Karen move some furniture in. His girlfriend… Why?”
He nodded then.
“Glad you asked. He needs clothing, so I was thinking that you could get that for him. A little bird assured me that you can teleport things around. Up to fifty pounds or a bit more, at these kinds of distances. So, I’ll get the data on that, and you can do the pick-up for us. In… how long do you need for that?” He didn't know what she was making at all. A cake or rolls. It smelled sweet, and of cinnamon, but was in the oven at the moment.
“Half an hour? I can’t really teleport things...”
Her brother laughed at her. It wasn’t nice sounding.
“Oh? What about those rocks you always drop on people, you don’t think you’re making them, do you? Or when you bring water into a room? That’s a lot more than fifty pounds, I bet. You can do this. How do we find the right space though? Cindy?”
That would work, he figured, but Howard shook his head.
“Nope. You’ve been in the room before. Let’s sit at the table here. Both of you…” Just in case they did need Cindy for it. Den could get in touch with her if it was needed.
As soon as they were settled, Howard winked at the girl. The woman, who seemed a bit nervous. As if failing was a big deal or something.
He waved at her.
“Close your eyes and imagine walking into Brian Yi’s room. You’re at the door… Now, step through that, going inside. Where is the clothing kept?”
She whispered, clearly trying to do a good job of using her imagination.
“To the right. He has a dresser and keeps some things in his closet. I saw that, when Karen moved some boxes into it. There are… Three drawers on the dresser. It’s the same kind I have in my room.”
He nodded then, taking a deep, slow breath.
“Good. Now, think about the top drawer. It’s filled with soft things. Feel the shape of that, all of it. Then, when you’re ready, move it here to us. Just drop it on the table. Only the soft things.”
She started to breathe hard, and actually surged forward, twice, with nothing happening. On the third time, the contents of a drawer were suddenly on the table. It was mainly socks and underwear.
Denis actually laughed.
“Sweet! You did it! That’s amazing. Do the next one down? Faster?”
That didn’t take a lot less time, but did get more useful clothing options. Jeans and some shirts. It took getting into the closet to get a nice suit of clothing. There wasn’t a lot of it, but it was enough to start with.
Then they walked through getting Kerry’s things, which was easier for her, and Denis’ stuff, which was harder. They didn’t hang out in his room, it seemed, so his sister had never been there. They still got it done, eventually. Before the rolls came out of the oven. Really, before Brian even called out for help, trying to get something to wear. He packed things over, along with Denis. They were the boys, so needed to handle the naked Brian portion of the day’s events.
At least if Kerry wasn’t going to date him.
Neither of them actually knew which room the man had, to be truthful. Howard was being kept on the other side of the house. Still, there weren’t that many spaces there, so Tabby was able to hear movement and guide them toward the right direction. Knocking gently, got a door to open. With a robe wearing Brian sticking his head out.
“There you are. We got some clothing in for you. It was a heist. Kerry, Den and I pulled it off. Your things, from the base? Not all of them. If you need more or something else, get with Kerry on it? I need to get some things as well. I bet we could collect that from a store…”
Which was still a bad plan. Not that the theft bothered him. Then again, no one in the world would be catching them do it, so it could work out. Really though, they could get clothing from a second-hand store cheap and have Kerry refurbish them.
“You know, not to put the rest of you down, since you have some nice tricks… But so far Kerry is winning this one. Well, I get to do some stuff later, doing my super power thing. I need to work on it a little more. Testing and all that.”
Brian raised his left hand, since the right was filled with clothing.
“Ten minutes? I need to change. Then we can go and work on that. We don’t have any word on the meeting with Burks yet?” Both of them got looked at, as if he hadn’t been with them for hours that day already.
Then, when you could be contacted inside minutes, it might make sense to keep on top of things like that. In this case, Denis nodded.
“Cindy left a note for me. In my head? We’re due in at four this afternoon, in the pine grove. Well, you are. I think you’re supposed to take them away for a while? Over night. They’re claiming it’s a night op training deal. A camp out thing?”
Brian nodded, smiling.
“That sounds fun. Running all night. Gunfire. Roasting marshmallows...” The words got Denis to smile. Then Yi made a small sound in his throat. “Don’t worry, they never have marshmallows. It’s a shame really. Not that I’m that huge of a fan of those things, but it would break up the monotony. I guess we’ll have to do that part for them, with some clever use of powers.”
That got Howard to nod.
“That’s a few hours away. You change, and we’ll meet you in the back yard? I need to… Get some things put out.” Little mirrors, to be exact.
That part took some climbing and carrying things around, which didn’t take long at all. Then, waiting for Brian, who he didn’t really need that he knew of for the task at hand, they waited. The point there was that the guys needed to see that he had things to work on too. Which he did, but even if he didn’t something would have to be arranged. Otherwise it would feel unequal as far as the teamwork went.
In the end, that kind of thing tore people apart. They all had to go through the hard times, or things wouldn’t match up. That worked for three of them, and Brian was going to be carting them around later, so they could be up on what it felt like to teleport around.
What they were supposed to do with Katie, he didn't know. She’d kind of mastered her powers a long time before, after all. She was good at everything, and her part in the heist was data collection, which would be done at a distance. Safely tucked away from any possible danger or risk. Which wasn’t wrong. If you didn’t have to be in the thick of things, you shouldn’t be.
As soon as Brian walked out, dressed in different jeans and a black t-shirt, along with red and white
running shoes, Howard nodded.
“I set up different reflectors around the compound here. The first one is up on the roof of the shed. I have no clue how I’m supposed to get up there. Wish me luck?”
As he tapped the mirror, he thought that Brian actually did that part. Muttering about luck for him. Then the world went black, except for silver reflections of the space. There were a lot of reflections in the world, all around him, in the distance. It wasn’t hard to find the correct mirror on the roof of the shed. The hard part was getting up there. Except that he hadn’t been raised in a commune by a religious freak. That meant he had something of an imagination to work with. To that end, he just pretended that the space in the dark between the place he was standing and the roof was a straight line. Then he just walked over to it.
Yes, it was like doing that on damp clay, but covering the seventy feet didn’t take a lot longer than just walking would have. Even without climbing or walking up hill. It just felt normal, like being on the ground. If the whole thing was made of mud.
On the roof of the silver shed, which was kind of shiny all on its own, he tapped his little mirror, coming out in a flash of silver that only he could see. Then, promptly, started to slide off of the thing. He’d actually come in correctly, the thing was just slanted.
Laying out flat, he slid down to the edge, then dangled off, before dropping a few feet to the ground. He rolled at the end, standing up easily after that part was successful.
“Well, that worked. I just walked over to it. So, it isn’t teleportation, but… yeah. I can use this.”
Brian nodded at him then.
“I bet we can. Let’s do the next thing? We have a time schedule.” The pressure on that kept going up as well. Which, Howard knew, was his fault. As the man that had the specialist skills, it was down to him to keep things flowing smoothly.
A job that he was falling down on, over and over again, so far.
Chapter eleven
It was tempting to beg off, out of the meeting with the IPB Agents that they were supposed to have at four that day. Katie had come up with a very complete package of data, along with what seemed good ideas for how to get the mission done. A lot of that was going to change though, at the time.
She was the woman who knew everything, but that only had to do with the sum of humanity’s information at that very moment. What someone might do randomly in three or four days wasn’t a thing she could get on top of. Interestingly, when he asked about that part, she’d only nodded at him, then waved toward Brian, as if that was supposed to mean anything to him at all.
The deciding factor wasn’t anything he did though. No, it was that Brian apparently saw a need for all of them to make the meeting. It was a poor plan, since they didn't actually have to do that at all. Plus, the men they were getting with were the freaking feds. It made the whole thing seem like a poor idea, even if it was good practice, as far as the team traveling with Yi. That part wasn’t hard, though there did seem to be rules for it.
Waving a hand at them all, the fellow did his part as to explaining it to the new man.
“I can pull things with me, up to about twenty feet away. So, like the other day with the cars and trucks? It’s a bit slow. It takes me… I don’t know. Twenty seconds or so each time. It’s easier if people are touching me, or at least holding hands.” There was a look that spoke of being embarrassed by that part, as if Howard was afraid to link arms with people in order to get the job done.
That portion, it was clear, was all about Denis, even if Howard was the old man in the group. He’d worked with funny boys and lesbos before. It had never been a problem for him. It seemed their curly headed food show guy was handling things like that a bit differently. Not that he threw a fit over touching Howie on the arm. He just did it in a manly way. Actually puffing his chest up a little first, to show how big he was.
That or to make him seem like less of a target for advances, later. It didn’t seem like anyone there was really going for him that way, though. Still, it really did seem to take about twenty seconds to move from where they were standing, in the front room of Kate’s mansion, to a pine grove outside someplace else.
Blue dominated the world for a blink’s worth of time, and then the scene changed totally. It wasn’t that disorienting, though he did settle a little bit on the ground. That was pretty flat, though made of dirt. It wasn’t perfect that way, but just by bending his knees a bit going in, a lot of trouble might be saved later. He decided to file that part away, for practice.
The men they were supposed to meet looked to be there, though they were off in the distance by about fifty yards. Brian didn’t call out, just waving until one of the men, who was dressed in black, as in a suit, did it back. Then the other men moved toward them. There were enough of them that things felt off. Like a trap.
That was just him being paranoid. Which in his world was pretty much a survival trait.
When they got closer, under the trees with them, Yi whispered.
“We’re moving to a second location. Talk, then back here. Fifteen minutes?”
Howard decided that they all needed to get some watches for timing purposes. Denis had one on him, as did Kate. The men in black did as well. All of them. He felt halfway naked, missing a good chronometer like that. Especially since he was supposed to be on the job. It was like the years in bed and in front of the tube had made him mentally lazy. That or his first mode was pushing him to cut corners in order to get at the fun parts. Either way, he had to step up his game.
Gesturing at Den, he spoke, softly.
“Start timing as soon as we land in the next spot. Kate, get a time on how long it takes Yi to set this up. Brian… begin that… Now.” No one acted like he was being pushy, even though he was and knew it.
Not everyone was up on how to take a ride with Brian, but with a bit of waving and by getting Kerry to grab two of the short haired men, they and the five new people were ready in time. When they came out of the green light, they were all standing in a different forest.
Without hesitation, Katie spoke. Her voice was a bit bland and bored sounding.
“Twenty-two seconds. Almost perfectly.” Then the attractive brunette glanced around and shook her head.
“We’re in Noram? I’d kind of figured we’d end up in a desert someplace.”
Denis stood for a bit, blinking at the location. Before he could speak, Howard cleared his throat.
“Time?”
The man actually jumped a bit. Then he glanced at his wrist.
“Go. I have that part. Fifteen minutes. That will be… about two minutes, back home. Time runs differently here than it does there. Eight to one, I think?”
There was nodding, including from one of the men in black. The one that moved a bit, letting go of Kerry’s arm.
“What’s the situation?”
No one spoke for a few seconds, so Howard did. He knew the mission as well as anyone, after all. That he looked like a punk kid didn’t even get him stared at by the new men, who just turned to him and paid attention as soon as he started speaking.
“We have a job, a heist for information from a secured building in three days. In our prep for that take down, we found out that part of the security system is a young kid. An Infected boy. He’s twelve or so. Noah. Normally we’d use these people here to remove him from the location, as we went in, but his powers prevent that. He stops most kinds of spatial manipulation. Probably energy based powers as well. So if we tried for him, we’d be fighting our way out of a building with guns, and we’d lose. On the good side, after we escape with the data, they’ll have to try and move him out. That or kill him, but the truth is, he’s too useful for that second one. So there should be someone coming for him inside a few hours.” Putting a hand out, palm sideways, there was a gesture toward Kate, who handed the manila folder over to the man who’d asked the question in the first place.
Then Howard went on. Pretending he was in charge for a bit.
�
�We have information on the most likely scenarios, after that. We also have some powered back up for you. Denis should be able to work through the kid’s dampening field. That can help a bit. What he can’t do is a snatch and grab on a person all alone. We can’t tell you this will be easy, or even work. Odds are… Low, honestly. In that case… We need to deny the enemy of this resource.” That part sounded hard and cold.
The funny bit was that he’d kind of figured on an argument about the topic. If not from the men doing the actual operation, then from Kerry, or possibly Denis. Not Kate, since she was hard inside. Yi was kind of like that as well, though from the sound of it they all kept expecting him to wimp out when it came to the touchy-feely things in life. That he never did seemed to be missed by a lot of them.
Instead of whining about the obvious, Denis just rubbed his face.
“Yeah. If they don’t have Noah, then it will be a lot easier to get the info we need, next time. We should try to keep him alive, if at all possible. It… Even I can see that it might not be. In that case…” He looked sad, but the words were the right ones. The tall man in black to the left of the one in charge, who was a blond that had that pretty boy look actors had, made a low noise in his throat.
“We all get that. Good. So, your operation should smoke them out? Can we tell what vehicle they’re removing the target in?” That, interestingly enough was addressed to Brian, who waved at Katie.
She smiled at the interplay.
“I can do that part. The time pressure might be kind of intense, depending on how things go, once we’re inside. Things can and will probably fall apart. We have more information than most could get, but we can’t get lazy about it. Not that anyone here will. It’s why I picked you all for this job.”
That sounded a little off, since she hadn’t been there to do anything with the Agents, but none of them acted as if it were impossible, or even her saying something all that odd. To Howard that meant something. There was no significant eye contact with the agents, but it was kind of clear that Kate knew them all. Then, in a way, she knew everyone, so that wasn’t all that telling.