Masked

by RB Stutz

  “That you did. It was incredible. I have to say seeing you up there taking on a freaking helicopter and doing it...” I cut off and took in the sight of her “well like that. I have to say it made me really, ah, proud.”

  Sara smiled. “Speaking of which, with as much fun as it is to run around in our underwear, I’d prefer not to run into anyone else before putting on some clothing.”

  A sudden realization seemed to hit Sara. “Where are the others?”

  Since it seemed to work on Emily, I took the electrode and hit each of the other agents at the base of the neck, ensuring they’d be down for a while. I was finally able to take a second to pee. We borrowed a few articles of clothing from Titan and as we dressed, I gave her a rundown of what I knew.

  I’d seen in Emily, they wanted Sara alive and would kill the rest of us. There were no details of the attack. I didn’t know whether Emily was leading this little shindig or if there was someone else as well. Based on the gunfire I’d heard earlier and the lack of appearance from Alex and Laura, there were at least more controlled agents on the property.

  Once dressed, Sara suggested I try to see if I could connect with Alex or James’ minds, to see if we could get any information on what was going on down there. I first focused on Alex, trying to connect with him directing my thoughts to the boathouse, but found nothing. I tried for James and got the same result.

  I was about to suggest I head down to see what I could find while Sara pulled back, but stopped myself. I had another idea. It was a long shot, but might work. I closed my eyes and tried to focus again, not towards the lake house, but in our immediate area. Knowing where Sara stood, I was able to exclude her, just focusing on the space around her.

  I’m not sure how long I looked but finally I had him. I’d been right. I could hear Alex impatiently waiting. He couldn’t sense my connection.

  “Alex, I have you,” I said still holding focus to the empty space that held Alex’s consciousness.

  “I was about to give up on you. The boathouse is shielded from any mental intrusion so I’ve been trying to project myself up here for almost ten minutes now. By the way, tell Sara the way she took out the helicopter was awesome,” Alex’s voice said in my mind.

  I also sensed his unsaid thoughts of the fact she hadn’t been wearing much at the time, but ignored it. If we lived, I’d kick his ass later.

  “What’s going on down there?” I asked.

  “Laura’s unconscious, they hit her hard with tranquilizers when they first arrived. I’m playing like I’m out so I can contact you. Batton is down here along with twenty more agents. You have no chance against them, there are too many. They know the helicopter is out and they’re getting ready to send more agents up. Be ready. They still want Sara and Laura alive, the rest of us are expendable. I think the only reason I’m still alive is to be used as leverage,” Alex explained.

  “What about Rachael and the other guy? Have you seen James?” I asked.

  “Neither are awake yet, but they’re still alive. As for James, I haven’t seen him. I’ve got to go, good luck.”

  Once gone released my focus. Sara was looking at me with an inquisitive expression.

  “It was Alex. He was able to project up here.” I explained everything I’d just learned to Sara.

  “So what do we do?” I think she hoped I’d come up with some brilliant strategy to overcome such impossible odds. Unfortunately, I had nothing. “I don’t know.”

  I scrambled to think. “Alex said he hasn’t seen James. If he’s still free, we may have his help and maybe if we can get enough of a distraction going, Alex will have the opening he needs to make a move,” I suggested rather hopefully.

  “I understand why they still want me, but why Laura? Sure, she defected and helped us escape but why not just kill her? She must have something of value to them,” Sara suggested.

  “From what I’ve gathered, you really don’t know much about her. There’s no telling why they want her alive. The fact that they do forces me to think whatever it is, it can’t be something we want them to have.”

  “How are you feeling?” Sara asked.

  I took an assessment before answering. It wasn’t good. I’d really taken a beating and the recovery wasn’t fast enough. I lied. “I’m feeling better.”

  “I think our best bet is to hunker up here. We have the high ground. I’m not sure how strong you’re feeling but we have plenty of house and helicopter wreckage for you to hurl at them as they try to get to us,” I said.

  Sara nodded. “I’m strong enough. I agree. I think it’s our best shot.”

  I ran back over to the downed agents to better arm myself. Everyone, including Emily was still unconscious. Before heading back over to Sara, I gave Emily a couple more jolts in the neck with her torture toy. It was partly out of disdain and partly insurance that she didn’t wake anytime soon. We’d have our hands full enough without her waking up to shoot us in the back.

  There was shouting coming from near the lake. I ran back to Sara at the edge of the upper part of the property, before it descended down towards the lake. “What is it

  Sara didn’t have to answer. Down, twenty yards from the boat house James was just standing there, shouting a challenge. “Batton! You stupid bull faced son of a bitch, come on out here and face me

  Sara gasped. “What is he doing?”

  “I don’t know. He can’t take on Batton and twenty agents.”

  Suddenly, three agents appeared, one in front and two directly behind James. As if expecting them, he kicked straight into the one in front and spun into the two behind, giving no time for them to react. With a right jab to one followed by a left into the other, all three were down in a matter of a couple seconds. He followed with a bullet in each.

  “Come on Batton!” James continued to goad as he fired the last shot, never losing stride. “I know how your drones react. I was one. If I have to take out every one before you’ll show yourself, I will.”

  Eight more appeared surrounding James and he launched into his defense.

  “I’m going to the boat house, you go help James,” I said to Sara.

  She grabbed my arm. “You think you can take Batton alone?”

  “I hope I don’t have to. I’m counting on Alex lending a hand. I think you should stay as far away from Batton as possible though.”

  “Okay.” Sara sped off towards the fight below.

  James seemed to be holding his own though. It was uncanny how he could anticipate and then counter every move against him. Sure he was probably better trained then the agents he was fighting, but he was faring much better than I had with the six I faced.

  I turned my attention to the boat house, set the PTD I’d taken from Emily and jumped into a position directly behind it. If there were twenty agents with Batton before that left nine still inside. I looked back over towards the fight. Sara jumped up and connected her boot to the head of one agent with a forward kick, turned and came down on another, using her momentum to drive her fist into the head of a third. James moved his head just as a fist was about to connect and turned on the assailant, dropping her. Six more agents appeared around them.

  “I guess that leaves three.”

  I adjusted the setting on the PTD and jumped down onto the dock. A black ski boat that hadn’t been there earlier was secured to the dock. There was no one I could see standing sentry outside. I did a quick mental search and couldn’t find anyone nearby either, not that I could rely much on that since I couldn’t detect any of the controlled agents.

  At that thought, I froze. I realized I’d sensed a controlled agent before; I had read his mind. Back in Montana, at the Café, James. I’d seen he was going to take me out, I’d heard the thought.

  What did that mean? I didn’t know. I did know he was currently kicking the crap out of every agent who got in his way. I’d try to make sense of it later.

  The lakeside dock entrance to the building was only a few feet away. I moved to it and twiste
d hard on the locked door knob, breaking the mechanism. Slowly, I opened the door to blackness, just the faintest amount of moonlight coming in from the opening to the lake.

  I moved against the wall towards the back section, to where the lab was located. Whatever Laura used to shield the building from abilities prevented me searching for anyone nearby

  With a crash, the door to the lab fell towards me along with another agent, a brunette woman. She got quickly back on her feet but didn’t notice me. Using the rod I’d borrowed from Emily, I shoved the crackling blue end into the back of her neck. She shuttered and crumpled to the ground. I was glad I’d found an effective way to neutralize without killing them.

  There was yelling and more crashes from inside. I rushed to the now open entry to see Alex struggling with two agents at the far end of the room. Batton was on the other end standing next to Laura, who was lying motionless on the ground. Nearby, the two unconscious patients still lay in their beds. Batton turned his head towards me. The rage in his eyes didn’t match the smile on his face.

  Before I had a chance to ponder that, I was pushed forward into the room. The force of the shove along with the surprise didn’t give me a chance to catch myself so I crashed forward onto the floor. There were two loud shots followed by searing pain in my chest. I looked up to see Emily standing above me with her weapon raised; cold hate in her eyes.

  CHAPTER 32

  I was so damn sick of being shot. Even though I could heal from most wounds, it still hurt like hell. How many times had it been now?

  I tried to take in a breath but struggled. One bullet had hit my lung and the other was in my lower abdomen. I could tell the lung shot went all the way through, so it would heal, eventually.

  There were two more loud bursts from Emily’s weapon and I heard Alex shout out some pained obscenities.

  “What the hell happened up there?” Batton asked in his deep voice, dead of all emotion.

  “That little telekinetic bitch decided it would be cute to show off. The helicopter is down, we’ll be leaving in the boat.”

  “Fine. Do you have her then?” Batton asked.

  “Yes. They’re loading her now.”

  “So James wasn’t as invincible as he thought he was,” Batton said.

  “Yes. He’s dead. A bullet to the forehead.”

  “Good, though it’s a shame we lost him. He was a good drone.”

  “Is Lairia ready to be moved?” Emily asked.

  “It seems the sedative is working. We should be able to move her without incident,” Batton said.

  I’d never had a reason to ponder the fact before, but it was hard to do much with a hole in your lung, when you can’t really get any breath in. All I could do was struggle to breath and lay there while they took Sara and Laura away and killed Alex and myself.

  The pain was incredible, but even with such a blinding distraction, I was able to pick up on something they’d just said. Besides the strange pronunciation of her name, they were really concerned about Laura waking, so much it sounded like they’d used a specific type of sedative on her. I wondered what it was she could do that they were so afraid of.

  I knew Laura had the building shielded from people with mental abilities from breaking through to those inside, but maybe it didn’t work the other way. Alex had been able to project himself past the barrier earlier; maybe my ability would work from inside here too.

  While struggling to breathe, I focused, not on the lack of air, not on the searing pain, but on Laura. At first there was nothing as I reached in, searching for her consciousness, but then I sensed more than heard something. It was faint, but definitely there. There was hopelessness, despair and sense of regret, but no clear thoughts. Whatever it was they had her on hadn’t completely shut down her mind. She was still trying to fight.

  I’d been thinking a lot about the weird reaction I received from Billy when I read him at the truck stop. He reacted as if he had heard me somehow. I’d been wondering if there was more to my ability than I realized. Not knowing if it would work or if I could even do it at all, I tried something I’d never tried before.

  “Laura.” I pushed thought to her, trying for the first time to open up dialogue mind to mind. “Laura, its Michael. If you can hear me please acknowledge.”

  The whole sense of her suddenly changed. The emotions I’d sensed before disappeared and were replaced with hope.

  Her mind responded weakly. “Michael, where are you?”

  “I’m in the lab. Alex and I have been shot. They’ve killed James and have Sara. They plan on taking you with them as well.

  “We don’t have much time then.” Her presence was suddenly stronger. Without warning, a flood of thought, memory, pain and regret hit me like a tidal wave, flowing directly from Laura’s mind. In just an instant I knew her, everything about her. In that instant, all my questions about her, Titan and myself were answered.

  Though it was just seconds that passed, what I saw was a lifetime of memory, telling a story so incredible I never would have believed it if not for the absolute truth I felt coming from her.

  She showed a civilization, distant and alien from anything I’d ever known. I saw Caldwell, Batton, Emily and others with Titan board large space craft, that’s right freaking space ships, and leave their world for ours.

  Once on our planet, they spent years, slowly introducing their DNA into thousands of unborn fetuses. They left those babies to be born and raised by their parents. Once the altered humans reached maturity, several years were spent rounding them up. I watched myself as I was captured, by Laura, and felt her dismay and dissolution start to build at what they were doing.

  Laura’s people came to our planet to conquer and allow their race to grow. They were raising an army of enhanced humans to help the efforts of their limited numbers. Once taken, each of us was kept in a sort of stasis while they worked to perfect the process of controlling their captured force of altered humans.

  There were several unsuccessful attempts and with each, Laura grew more and more dismayed with what her people were doing. She, more than any others of her race, spent significant time out amongst the normal folk, gaining a love and appreciation for all our world had to offer. Finally, she got to the point where she knew she could no longer be a part of what they were doing and just left.

  It was several years later when she came back and helped Sara, Alex and myself get out. It all made sense now. I knew who Titan was, I knew who Laura was. She showed me who I was. They’d stolen me from a life and people I loved and Laura was the one who had taken me.

  The regret she felt at all of what she and Titan had done was genuine and unyielding. Everything she did now for us, for anyone affected by Titan’s touch, was her attempt at redemption. She felt no matter how much she did, it would never be enough.

  The flood passed as quickly as it came and I was stunned by information overload. The tale she’d just told in a moments time was so much more than I’d ever imagined.

  “If your wounds were healed, could you stop them?” she asked through our mentally connected state.

  I’d almost forgotten where we were, that we were all lying helpless. took another second to sort out my thoughts and answered. “Yes, I think so but how…”

  I didn’t get to finish as my consciousness flooded back into my own mind due to a strange overwhelming sensation, best described as a tingling where the wounds in my chest and abdomen had been. The pain was gone. Also, there were similar feelings, though not as strong, on other parts of my body, places where I’d been injured earlier. Suddenly, the sensations ended and my mind was clear. I no longer felt any pain and a renewed energy coursed through me.

  If I hadn’t just seen all Laura had shown me, I wouldn’t have understood what happened. Laura had the ability to heal others. Usually, she had to be physically connected with those she healed, but she’d been able to heal me through our mental connection. When she revealed herself to me, it magnified the intensity of the connection
to a level where such a feat was possible. I knew what I needed to do.

  “What about these two?” Emily asked.

  Batton’s voice was cold. “They’re damaged. Kill them as well.”

  At that, I opened my eyes. I felt whole, fully energized and ready to kick Titan alien butt.

  Batton and Emily both had their backs to me. I could see two other agents in the room, but neither had their attention on me. Slowly, I rolled to my chest. I positioned my legs under me and pushed off, soaring towards the closest agent. No one knew I was even moving until I hit them. With one fluid movement there was impact, my elbow crashing into the side of his head and I had his weapon. I followed with a butt stroke to the head and then turned it on the other agent.

  Two quick bursts downed agent number two and I brought the weapon on Batton and Emily. I didn’t give them time to take in the situation before I started firing, a cold sense of purpose taking over. I wasn’t trying to wound this time, which had been my mistake before. This time I was going to stop them. Laura showed me their true nature and purpose. I couldn’t let them take Sara and Laura.

  Two shots hit Emily and impact pushed her to the ground. Three hit Batton. He staggered back but didn’t fall.

  He looked up at me with cold bloodshot eyes. “You are weak. All that you are was given to you from us. I will destroy you.”

  He straightened himself despite his wounds and started to move forward, cold and determined.

  “Not today asshole.” With no emotion behind it, just cold purpose, I raised my weapon and pulled off two more shots, each hitting the same target.

  The red wound appeared just above his eyes. He fell back and was still.

  I turned the weapon back to where Emily had fallen. She was gone. I swept the room and found no sign of her. I saw the open door and remembered Sara was on the boat. I rushed out of the room, out the door and onto the dock. The boat was still there and Sara was lying inside. I scanned the area but couldn’t see any sign of Emily. I tried to reach out with my mind into the immediate area, but found no one but Sara.