by P. S. Power
"Let me run it past the command team. No one has anything better yet. For now... Well, we need to get things ready. Mags, can you go and get Clark? Without being noticed. I don't know toss stones at his door until he answers or whatever it takes. We so need to put phones in all the cabins. Intercoms if nothing else." She spoke like that would all mean something to them.
"Intercoms?" Ben looked at her, but only got a slow shrug in return.
"Hard wired phones, that can only speak to one another. We used to use them when I was a kid. We can work on that later. Right now... Ben, you need to stay here. If things go south here, I don't want you in the middle of it." There was no mention of why, but he rubbed the still darkening bruise on his upper stomach.
"Got it. What's the plan with her then?" He shook his head, the blue letters coming back again. What they said was annoying however and clearly not helpful.
It was that they couldn't actually take her prisoner, and killing her would be nearly as bad. Unless it looked like a real accident. Even at that they really couldn't risk it. Letting her go would be a problem too.
"Unless we get her to break her legs? Then she won't be able to leave, and will have to stay in medical... For that to work I'll have to pretend not to be free though. I was given orders to show up for the thing at four with everyone else and to act normal." Ben didn't explain what he was going on about, but Glenda looked at him sharply, and tilted her head. It was cute, he decided.
Sure, she was built like a weight lifter... Who'd had genetic work done to make them bigger, and was a little rough through the face, but Ben was willing to bet that she wouldn't sternum slam him after she was finished using him. That was kind of a big deal in his world suddenly.
"How do we get that done? I mean, I could do it, or Carlos, but short of just attacking her, that won't work too well. If we tried it, she'd get a precognitive hit too. That's one of her stronger areas. It's near time. I mean, she can only see ahead about an hour at most, and normally it's closer to a few minutes, but I don't think we can stop her from getting that kind of thing. Not if it involves personal damage. Then all she'd have to do was avoid our plan." There was a lot going on inside Glenda's head just then, which Ben could feel happening from the outside.
Her mind raced, but it was mainly going around in circles. Micha was too good a telepath for anyone to sneak up on if they went slow, and even moving fast she'd pick up on things being wrong if they planned anything. Possibly even if they didn't know what they were going to do until it was too late.
There had to be a way to do it, even if he couldn't come up with at the moment.
Then Ben blinked.
"I can shut her powers off. Not the chemical one, but I kind of think that if everyone resists having sex with her, they should be fine for now. That won't stop anyone that is already controlled by her however. For that... Well, no one plan anything at all right now, and I'll find a way to meet up with her before four. Then... Well, I can't do much to her. I mean, get beaten to death, sure, but other than that I have nothing." He did have a way around her rules though. One that he wasn't certain he couldn't have managed even if he'd been enslaved to Micha for real.
Change his clock.
At two-thirty it could read three-thirty, and Ben would be able to move out. The real question would be all about that being enough to really distract her. It was a horrible plan. Even he could tell that.
Glenda patted him on the back.
"I've got nothing better. You do realize you could die, right?"
"Yeah. I didn't come here to be safe though. I came to get revenge. That might as well start here." He sounded braver than he felt, but headed back to his cabin. No one saw him do it.
Then he reset his clock, and tried to doze for a bit. It wasn't going to be a better day if he was doing it all without sleep.
Chapter nineteen
It took work to get himself up when the clock said it was three-thirty. It would have been if he hadn't set the thing back for his little scam. Not that it was going to matter that much. He really didn't know what to do about Micha at all. As he dozed ten different ideas came to him, but not one of them was practical. He could, potentially, get the drop on her. Maybe blank her powers out and then hit her in the head from behind. If he missed, or it didn't work, he was screwed, but there was a chance it could work.
All he had to do was learn to beat up girls, and do it without mercy. Then of course he'd come to the understanding that simply stopping her was only part of the equation. They could have possibly just jumped her. Glenda had basically pointed that out. Several of them could take the small woman in a fight. Not Ben, but the others would be able to. Then she'd either be killed, and go missing, which would have the federal government all over them, or she'd be beaten and locked away against her will. Which would be imprisoning a government agent.
Ending with the Feds being all over them.
No, anything he did would have to be more clever than that. Not violent. Something more intelligent than he'd ever managed before.
Nothing came to mind as he got ready, trying to pretend that he was simply following his instructions. Ben noticed that Micha was coming his way at about ten till four, on his clock. He met her at the door, his face holding a small grin.
"Micha! I set my clock to get me up early. I always do that. We actually have an hour until we leave. Do you think the dining hall is open at this hour? I've never tried that before." Ben was being too chatty, trying to seem normal, since that had been part of his instructions for the day.
She didn't hit him again, just nodding, like talking about food made any kind of sense at all.
"I'm not really hungry. Not yet. A bit tense. We could go for a quick jog?" She looked at him a bit funny. Like she was almost sad. Her hand reached out to take his, in a move that was nearly gentle. "On the good side you're ugly enough that you probably won't be raped much in prison. You have to stop being nice though. Not that you'll get a choice. I imagine that even in solitary you wouldn't last a day in that kind of place now. I'm..." She was about to say she was sorry, but it was only half meant.
Ben looked at her, and kept a straight face.
"I'm a bit sore right now. How about we visit Wall? I can stand on the ground and not give you tips about climbing, since I know nothing about it?"
That got a smile.
"Yeah. I should say goodbye. Wall is the only decent person here. Come on." Ben heard the words, but knew that she was just trying to distance herself from the people she'd come to know over the years. Maybe even from him.
Neither of them had their telepathic or precognitive abilities working at the moment, and if anything was going to happen, Micha hadn't gotten a flash on it before that had happened. Or she had and was setting him up for some reason. They walked at her pace over to the climbing structure.
"Hello Micha. Hello Ben. Glad to see you both again. What can I do for you today?"
"Hey Wall. Can you set me up for a level seven climb? Nothing too hard." She got a harness out, and started to hook herself in. It wasn't hard, the line just needing to be clipped in at one spot, so that it could be controlled by the climbing computer.
That got him to nod. He had a plan then. One that wouldn't work, he was willing to bet. For a half dozen reasons. It was worth trying however. A bit rough on Micha, if it did work, and probably Wall, but he just stood by the small silver box that was the computers interface. It worked off voice commands, rather than holo prompts, at least from what Ben could see.
As Micha started up the Wall, he waited, until the small gray form was at least fifty feet up. Near the very top, but still climbing.
"Wall? Are you an A.I.?"
"That's right Ben. Why do you ask?"
This would be the hard part then. If Wall had been a regular computer, then they wouldn't have been able to do anything. Nothing said would be able to make him change what was going on.
He was alive though. After a manner of speaking. The thing there was t
hat Micha was the polite girl to him, Ben was willing to bet. He was just the new guy who wasn't interesting at all, for his kind of person.
"I found out earlier that Micha is a government agent, and that she's planning to destroy the entire organization. Possibly in the next day or two. We might be able to stop her, if she could fall from up there, and say, break both her legs. We need for her to live however. Temporarily hurt enough that we can honestly keep her in medical. It needs to seem real, like it was an accident. I... Don't have time to prove any of this to you however. I also don't have clearance for this and know that she's your friend. At least she's been pretending to be. That... It's probably real, to be honest. We still have to do something, or a lot of people are going to die." Ben waited, since if he were being asked to push someone off a building, based on only the word of some dickhead that had only been around once or twice, Ben would have said no, and called the cops.
Wall made a small noise, then spoke, his voice sounding sad.
"I understand. I'll handle it. This is... Going to hurt. Beginning end game protocols now. Stand back, Ben."
Then the wall clicked. Going smooth as Micha tried to climb up it. The line held for a bit, lowering the woman slowly, but at a little over thirty feet, that seemed to stop working, and she plummeted to the ground, her legs under her, but making nifty, and rather gross, snapping sounds as she hit the dirt.
"Ahhhhgh!"
Ben pretended to care about her pain, which at the moment he only did a little bit. It would have been easier, if she'd just been doing her job, and not insulting him. The abuse was a bit much, too.
She stayed down however, panting in the dark. The lights that had been on were totally dead. He tried calling out, working to make it seem real.
"Wall? What happened? Wall?" Nothing came back, which was nearly perfect. "Fuck. I... We need to get you to medical. I'll..." He made a face and took a deep breath. "I'll have to carry you. I wish I was in better shape. Can you hold on? This might hurt. I can't see anything out here. Are you bleeding?" That was a real possibility, but she touched her own legs, hissing when she did.
"No... I don't think so. I can stay here while you get help."
He ignored that, and picked her up.
"This will be faster. It's what I'd normally do." Which was only half true. If she'd really fallen at night like that, he might have tried to carry her, but he also wouldn't have asked Wall to drop her like that.
That the AI had trusted him that much, and gotten the job done like that amazed him. It shouldn't have worked, by all rights.
Thankfully she was both short and light. It was still hard to carry her, but he did it, walking along at a brisk pace, even if his legs did hurt. Going as smoothly as he could, so that her broken legs wouldn't wave too much as he did it. There was the occasional hiss however. He winced in sympathy, actually feeling it for the girl. It was the whole brain hormone thing kicking in.
Gasping he got to the central path, and found himself met by Gene near the main medical building. It was so clear that he'd been waiting outside that Ben was ready for him to attack. Instead the muscular man took the tiny woman, and nearly ran to the door.
"What happened?"
For a second he froze, and Micha was just whimpering, so he shook his head a bit, trying to snap himself back into reality.
His chest was burning again. Probably in response to chemicals that Micha was pumping out. The girl was looking at him and mouthed something. He didn't get it, until words, all in glowing blue, popped up alongside her head.
"Act normal."
He got it then. She was trying to control him into not acting like he was a mind controlled freak.
"We were at the climbing wall. It was well lit and everything, and Micha went up, since she's good at it. I was on the ground. Everything when dark, and the rope didn't hold her. I don't know why she fell. It's like it all shut off suddenly. A late night sleep mode or something?" He didn't really know if that was a thing, but Gene, not seeming enslaved yet, moved while Ben spoke, getting the patient inside.
Luckily, he actually knew how to do that kind of thing.
"Ben, we need to get Clyde in here for this, can you find him?"
As soon as he was out of the room by a bit he really could, Ben knew. He could do it by way of Glenda, too, which would probably be as fast.
"I'll get back as soon as I can. Can you, get her something for the pain? I don't know if she can broadcast that kind of thing, but it will happen as soon as I get out of here, I bet." Which was all he could do toward letting the man know that her powers were about to come back.
"I'm doing that part now. Go. We'll be all right. Those are pretty bad breaks, but they didn't go through the skin, and didn't nick an artery as far as I can tell. I need to get some scans." From his face, the powerful man seemed to be saying it was all right. He did get her a shot, and a small slip that probably had medication on it that went on her forehead. That wouldn't block her powers. Not directly.
If they could do that, even with powerful and addictive drugs then they would have been for Lissa. She did breathe a bit easier by the time Ben was jogging out the door. Instead of focusing on finding Clyde, or even Glenda, all of his attention went behind him. Back to Gene, who honestly just thought an accident had happened, and then Micha, who was in enough pain she wasn't trying to read anyone. That got him to smile, since the man wasn't going to be in danger, or give them away.
Then he jogged, which hurt, and headed for Glenda. Clyde might not have been a bad guy, but there was something funny going on there. As far as he could determine the man really was a spy. Everything pointed to it. That didn't mean that Micha hadn't taken him over anyway. Possibly being from a different group or however that worked.
This time, instead of pounding on the door to a secret underground facility, he found his mentor by looking to the right, just as he got about two hundred feet from Micha.
"What happened?" Her voice was calm, but slightly concerned. That was fake.
Her mind was very clear at the moment, and she knew what was going on. She also wanted him to tell her about it, out loud, in case there was anyone watching them.
"Wall shut off while Micha was on the tower. The safety line didn't engage. Or, well, it did, for a bit, then dropped her, about twenty or thirty feet. She's in medical with Gene. He asked for Clyde. Am I headed the right way?" He didn't know that one, to be honest.
He wasn't getting sense of the man really. That probably meant that he'd been sent off already. Hitting the road before the world ended.
Clyde wasn't in a cabin, but rather shared one of the larger buildings with several others. They were all sleeping, but the door wasn't locked or anything. None of them were, even going into Clyde's bathroom. That had an actual tub in it, which Ben would have been jealous of, if Clyde hadn't been lying in it, his left wrist slashed three times. The water wasn't a pale red like he would have expected from virt. It was a bright and cheery color that made him feel queasy to look at.
Ben spoke in a low voice.
"Fuck. So that's what she was doing? Ordering him to kill himself? I... He nearly has to be working for someone. So why would she do that?" He really didn't have a clue, but his mentor nodded, her face ashen, even as she looked and refused to look away.
"To protect her cover. However she did her trick with the chemicals, I'm willing to bet it's so secret that no one that knows about it would be left alive. This way we can call this in, and no one will be able to say it wasn't suicide. Careful not to touch anything though. We don't want to give the police or feds any excuse to harass us over this. It's messed up."
"Yeah. He was supposed to get out of here in a few days. Go back to his real life. Now..." Cursing seemed too harsh for the room, so he left, just in case he started doing it anyway. "Fine... Fine... I can do this. I've never seen a body before. I can handle it." He felt like getting sick, but shook his head.
Ben had to figure out what to do. It wasn't hard, since wha
t they really needed to know was clear in Glenda's mind. They had to know what was coming for them. What had Micha told people so far. It was delicate, reading her mind, but he did it, and when she reached back, trying to read him, he slipped into the manic Gamma phase of things. His brain racing, which blocked her from getting anything except noise and color. At least if his own experience that way was any indication.
"Micha didn't get a chance to get anything out. She doesn't even know that Clyde is dead. Not for certain. I... Think that means that the original plan might still work."
Glenda nodded, and moved to walk away. They'd already been floating slowly toward the door, trying to get out of there as soon as possible. Even while he worked. Thinking about it for half a second had him back a few minutes before, in his mind, looking at the dead man in the red water. His blood on the wrong side of things. The white claw foot tub was old looking and huge, but ruined now, for all good people.
Probably haunted. At least for him. Not that there was a ghost around anywhere. Clyde the medical guy had looked so different there, in the water. It was him, without a doubt, but his face had been too pale, and his eyes were closed, like he'd been sleeping. There was nothing going on inside of him however.
That part of the world was done for him.
His arm was taken, firmly, and they were moving toward the front of the compound.
"This isn't ideal, but I need for you to say you weren't there with me when we found the body. In fact, we haven't yet. Understood? No matter who asks about it, lie. Always. It would be better if you and the others are gone first, before that happens. Not that anyone will miss any of you. All the psychics tend to keep to themselves. You're pretty much the only one that's tried to reach out like you have." Most of that didn't make any difference to him, but he nodded. He could lie, if that would work.