Mage Dissolution

by Christopher George

  “Where did you get those?”

  “They were in the break room.”

  “How did you get out of this room?”

  “I didn’t,” I grinned. I’d teleported the donuts carefully so that the three people in the observation room hadn’t seen them teleport in. Given the size of the pack it hadn’t made more than a dull thump as the donuts arrived.

  He scowled at me and looked around the room looking for some explanation.

  “Did you want one?” I smirked as I pushed the box over to him.

  “Do you think this is a game?” he snarled, smacking the donuts from the table.

  “More or less,” I replied simply as I leaned back in the chair. “By the way – that’s how you get ants.” I gestured towards the fallen donuts on the floor.

  “No, by God you’re going to take this seriously.” he blustered. His hand had reached down to his side where his side arm was holstered and for second I thought he was going to draw it on me. I didn’t tell him how much of a spectacularly bad idea that would be.

  I waited until he managed to get himself under control. I did feel some sympathy for the poor man. This situation was far from the norm, once they had someone in this chair the ball was well and truly in their court. They weren’t used to someone for whom the rules just didn’t matter. Even the most hardened criminals had some base fear of the law or at least the consequences of their actions, or at least fear of retribution.

  I had none. These people couldn’t harm me. I was completely beyond their power. It wasn’t just that I didn’t consider myself under their jurisdiction. It was that I didn’t consider myself under anyone’s jurisdiction and what was more no one had the strength to assert their power over me. I respected no law, no king, no government.

  “Is now the right time to ask for a lawyer?” I asked lightly. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

  “Listen here,” he hissed. “You’re responsible for the deaths of several fine policemen. If you think I’m going to stand here and be mocked by you, you’ve got another thought coming.”

  The sound of a door opening interrupted his rant. The cop grimaced at me as he leaned over the table.

  “I think that will be all,” a stern voice intoned as a new comer entered the room. “You’re dismissed.”

  The cop took one last look at me before crisply turning and leaving. The new comer was an older gentleman. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, but he still looked like a cop.

  “My apologies about that”, he said as he gestured towards the departing cop.

  “Unfortunately they decided to interrogate you before I arrived, “He cast a glance at the photos on the table. “My name is Agent Levenson and I’m here to have a little chat with you.”

  He briefly organised some of the photos on the table back into the manila folder, muttering under his breath as he flicked through them. He located a shot that had obviously been taken yesterday. It was of me and Allie. This shot, unlike the others, was clear. There was no mistaking my face. There was no way I was going to wiggle out of this one.

  “Tell me, why is it that you’re still here? You could obviously leave anytime you like. I was surprised when I received the call that they had detained you.”

  “I’m not sure of that myself.” I said sourly. I had a bad feeling about this. There was something odd about this man. He radiated a calm self-assurance that I’d only come to associate in people with true power. I was sure he wasn’t a Mage, my Mana would have warned me of that. So who the hell was he?

  “Would you like me to tell you why you’re here Mr Wills?” the man continued, “You’re here because you’ve reached the end.

  “You’re sitting here, right now because you feel sorry for yourself,” he continued, “you’re running away from a problem that you yourself created. And it’s a doozy of a problem too. Few would judge you for running.”

  “What do you know?” I snarled, “you have no idea who I am.”

  “You’re right. I don’t. I’m simply following a script.” The man continued showing surprising honesty. “I’ve been told how to talk to you. What to say and which topics to avoid.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “I’m here because you’re here.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “You’re right, as I said. The question you need to be asking yourself is why are YOU here?”

  “I need help,” I said softly.

  “Indeed,” Agent Levenson continued, “and you’re seeking it in an odd place. You know very well that the police cannot help you.”

  He got to his feet and walked casually around the room. He walked behind me and I was sure he was staring into the two-way mirror. I’d taken the liberty of looking into that room when I had sent out my Scry thread in search of food. I wasn’t sure if Levenson was lying about my being interrogated before he had arrived, but he hadn’t been in the observation room before, so it was possible. I had to contain my nervous twitch as he approached me from behind. He leaned over and brought his lips to my ear.

  “I was fourteen when I burned myself out.”

  Eight simple words, yet they explained everything. This man had been a Mage and now had the ability to order policemen out of an interrogation room. Who was this man?

  “I know who and what you are, and I know what I’m looking at when I see photos like this,” he said as he flicked at the photo of Allie and myself from yesterday.

  “I’m also aware of who the other person in this photo is and we were under strict orders to leave her alone. I for one was very surprised when she started appearing on the nightly news.”

  A chill passed through my spine. I hadn’t been the only person searching for Allie. In fact I hadn’t been the one who had actually found her in the end. Marcus had told me where she could be found. How had he known? It seemed obvious in hindsight. He had had people looking for her.

  But Marcus wasn’t the only one who had known where she had been kept. This meant that it was possible that I was being questioned by someone who worked for either Marcus or Victor. Neither alternative was that appealing.

  “Give me one good reason why I don’t strike you down right now.” I whispered darkly.

  The man’s lips pressed into a thin grimace. He walked around the table again and sat down.

  “You could, but we have taken assurances that you won’t.”

  “What assurances.”

  “You have three friends I believe – A Miss Sarah Benning, Miss Tina Higgins and Mr Tony Ward. You were involved in an unfortunate motor accident with them several years ago. This first brought them to our attention.”

  “Go on,” I grunted. I didn’t like where this was going.

  “They were recovered this evening by a squad car. They are being held in a secure location right now.”

  I didn’t answer, my fists slowly clenched and unclenched as I pondered my options. My face fell into a tight grimace as I realised I had none.

  I had intentionally not visited my friends for fear of endangering them. My intention had been noble, I just hadn’t counted on someone else dragging them into this for me.

  “What location?” I snarled angrily. The Mana rose down my arms in response. I was seconds away from striking him down. It wouldn’t have helped my situation any, but it would certainly have made me feel better.

  “It’s amazing how many people simply disappear from police custody. Especially when there is no record of them ever being taken.” He commented lightly as his eyes glittered dangerously.

  “I get your point. You don’t need to drill it in.”

  I needed some time to think. If they’d truly taken my friends they wouldn’t have taken them to any old police station. I refused to believe that this guy was a normal cop. He knew too much for that. He’d be some kind of special division or something. They wouldn’t want to involve too many people in on this.

  I came to the conclusion that the only thing that really made any sense would be i
f they had taken them here. I hadn’t seen them when I was Scrying before, but I hadn’t really taken the effort to explore the station properly. It was possible that they were here. It was a large station.

  This was going to be delicate. I’d need to use my powers without this man knowing what was happening. He claimed he’d once been of our kind so he would recognise when my eyes dilated through Mana use. I’d need to do this really carefully.

  “Okay then. What do you want?” I sighed and I rested my head in my hands. Let him think he’d defeated me. I was only half listening to what he was saying. He was making some veiled threat about my friends’ safety should I try to run for it. He needn’t have worried – I had no intention of running until I had found them.

  My Scry spell quickly found what I was looking for. They were in a cell in the other side of the complex. The question was what to do now. They weren’t safe there, there were armed guards and security cameras in the room with them. There wasn’t really much choice in the matter. They had to be removed from the room. The only trick would be to move them without getting them killed in the process.

  I could attempt to fight my way to them, but that would probably result in them getting shot long before I got there, so that was out. Even if I teleported in it was possible that one of the guards would get a shot off before I was able to protect them. It would take me several seconds to get my bearings after I teleported – during which they would be vulnerable. Unacceptable.

  “Are you listening to me,” the agent interjected irritably.

  “I’m listening,” I grunted sourly not moving my hands, “Just don’t expect me to be fucking happy about it.”

  This seemed to mollify him as he went back to talking. If going to them was out of the question then the only viable solution that remained was to bring them to me. Three teleports at once would be difficult, but not impossible. It wouldn’t be a pleasant trip for them, but it was better than being shot on my behalf.

  All three of them would need to leave the room at the exact same time. Any straggler left behind would risk being shot and that was unacceptable. The only upside was that I would be able to take as long as I needed to prepare myself for this as no one in the room would be able to detect the Mana until I was ready to use it. If one of my kind were in that room my plans would fail fast. Fortunately it was obvious that there weren’t any of my kind involved in this. If there were, they would be here guarding me.

  My only concern was that I couldn’t take too long to activate the teleport spell. Once their molecules started disappearing I was sure that my friends would quite rightly get distressed and their noises would draw attention to what I was doing. I needed a finely tuned balance between power, speed and control.

  Three bodies – none of them mine, all moved instantly to one location – it was a tough ask, but I believed I was up to the task. The last time I had teleported someone other than myself we had both been falling from an aeroplane, at least this time all three subjects were stationary.

  I breathed out a sigh as my magic took hold. Sarah was the first one to notice something as she let out a shiver and her face went white. Tony was next and lastly Tina who had been sleeping on a couch. The guards in the room reacted with unanticipated speed, but fortunately due to Sarah’s scream they had assumed some kind of external threat and had turned their attention to the doorway. By the time they realised their mistake my friends were gone.

  My friends’ arrival created a loud explosion that echoed throughout the confines of the room. My hands were torn from my head as Levenson stared into my Mana enhanced eyes with a gun held firmly towards my forehead.

  “You should have shot first,” I whispered. It was too late now. A shield was protecting me. I kicked my chair back as I stood up and smiled at him. His gun followed my every movement, but I could tell from the resignation on his face that he knew it would be useless.

  “What the fuck!” Tony shouted as he finally regained the power of speech. Sarah collapsed into Tony’s arms with a look of complete and utter terror on her face. Tina appeared to have coped with the jump the best as she had been sleeping at the time. She must have awoken as the jump had taken hold, but probably wasn’t totally aware of what had just happened. I felt sorry for doing that to my friends, but better they were with me.

  “You’ll never get out of this room,” Levenson said as he lowered the gun.

  I raised an eyebrow and grinned at Levenson.

  “Wanna bet?”

  “They won’t, ” he continued, gesturing towards my friends.

  He might have had a point. I couldn’t risk teleporting them to a new location one by one and I didn’t have the strength to teleport all four of us in one trip. In the distraction of Scrying to a new location it was possible that I would be over powered.

  “Then it looks like we’ll do this the hard way, Tony grab the gun!”

  Tony looked at me like I was mad. I could tell the dilemma he was working through. As a society we are conditioned to respect and obey the police and our figures of authority. He hadn’t made any move to retrieve the gun yet. What I’d ask him to do must have seemed to be crazy.

  “Fine,” I grunted, telekinetically ripping the gun from Levenson’s fingers and breaking it in two. The gun crumbling into pieces seemed to finally jolt Tony into action.

  “What’s going on?” he asked angrily. “Why are we here?”

  “These idiots thought they could get to me, through you.” I said.

  Tony’s face hardened as he glanced between me and Levenson. I couldn’t tell who he was more angry at. I didn’t much blame him; I wouldn’t have wanted to be put in that position either.

  “Don’t worry though, I’ve got your back,” I tried.

  He didn’t look that impressed. In fact if anything that made him look angrier.

  “What’s your plan?”

  “Stay close. I’ll get us out of here.”

  “What about him?” Tony gestured towards Levenson.

  “He’s coming with us.”

  “You’re going to kidnap a cop?” Sarah said, her eyes wide. It was the first thing she had said since the teleportation.

  “He’s no cop,” I moved towards the door.

  “I think we’ll stay here,” Tony said. “This doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

  “Not going to happen, I’m not leaving you guys behind. I’ve got to keep you safe.”

  “It doesn’t have to be this way,” Levenson said.

  “Listen to him Devon,” Sarah urged.

  “You don’t want to take them out that door, Levenson continued, “my soldiers have orders to kill on sight.”

  “What? Why?” Sarah said. “That’s not legal! We didn’t do anything!”

  Levenson didn’t say anything, but his eyes flicked over to me. Tony and Sarah got the message.

  “Won’t they just pick us up again once we’ve escaped?” Tony asked.

  “No, there’s no record that you were ever here. Isn’t that right Levenson?”

  Levenson scowled but nodded.

  “…and besides, I’m not going to leave you unprotected.”

  I tried the door. It was locked. This wasn’t surprising. I looked at the two-way mirror and thought about going out that way. I assumed that the glass was bullet proof, which was why they hadn’t already taken shots at us. They would have known that something was wrong. They would know I was coming. No, simply unlocking the door wasn’t going to help.

  Tina hadn’t said a word the whole time, she was staring at me with a mixture of confusion and fear. She had visibly flinched at the words ‘kill on sight’. She didn’t know about the Mana, unless Sarah or Tony had told her. I suspected from her expression that they had not. This must have all been very confusing. I wish I had the time to explain it to her properly, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  “Devon,” she whispered, “don’t go out there.”

  I glanced at her and placed my hand on her shoulder. “It’s going to be
okay, stay close, I’ll protect you.”

  I hit the door with the full force of my powers. I wanted the door to fly open with stunning force but I hadn’t expected the door to fly from its hinges and hit several soldiers standing outside. I wasn’t sure what they had been doing, but they weren’t moving now.

  Tina’s eyes were as wide as saucers. This more than anything else confirmed the fact that she hadn’t known about the Mana. Blowing the door off its hinges had been a fairly brutal introduction.

  My shield was already in place as I stepped out into the hall. There were two teams of soldiers on each side. They were wearing police swat uniforms, but I was pretty sure that they weren’t police officers. A small arsenal of assault rifles were pointed in my direction.

  The sounds of bullets impacting with my shield reverberated throughout the narrow corridor. A casual thread took out the team of soldiers behind me and I turned to face the ones in front. The bullets were little more than an annoyance as they impacted against my shield, creating little more than little indents of sparks as the shield absorbed the shots. I reached into the interrogation room and grabbed Levenson and pulled him into the corridor. The bullets stopped immediately.

  “Come on guys, get behind me.” I called. I didn’t blame them that it took them some time. Tony was the first, he gently led Sarah and then Tina out into the corridor and I extended my shield to surround them. The shield would be weaker, but unless they hit me with something really heavy it would suffice. At least I hoped it would. I’d never had to test how much damage my shield extended like this could take.

  The soldiers backed down the corridor as I pushed Levenson towards them. I managed to get them to retreat all the way down before they showed any signs of slowing. Once they reached the office at the end they fanned out into a wide arc. There had been more soldiers waiting in the office. There were about twenty soldiers now. This would make it a little more difficult to take them out at once. These new soldiers were dressed differently. They didn’t even try to look like cops – they were obviously military.

  “Come on guys,” I said, “don’t make me take you all out. Weapons down.”