Age of Power 1: Legacy (25 page)

I
said, “Why would that be important to me? I'm just a victim of the bombings.
What are you getting at, Eisenhawk?"

Eisenhawk
took a deep breath and said, "We know you've had contact with her. We've
managed to track her online movements, to an extent, and we know she
’s talked
directly with you at least once. What did she say
to you?"

Stunned
by this revelation, I muttered, "You bastards you tracked me on the
Internet! You know where I was! She just wished me a happy birthday in a public
chat room! That was it!
Enough of this!"

Eisenhawk
blinked at the anger in my voice and started to say something when I stood. The
chair skidded across the carpet hard, nearly falling over. Grabbing my jacket,
I pulled back from the table.

I
pointed a finger at him and snapped, "You will leave me alone—now! If she
were after me for something, she'd have said more and not just left an email!
And if you know she talked to me, you know what she said. Damn, man, first, all
the crap with the goddamn psychos in town, then Andrews sends them at me, and
now you bastards go way over the line where my life is concerned! You people
ever hear of the word ‘privacy?’ I'm out of here!
Enough of
this bullshit!
If you've got something on me, then arrest me!"

He
snapped at me. "Vaughn, I'm trying to warn you. You have to contact me if
you come across anyone claiming to be one of the Empowered. They could be
extremely dangerous!"

I
shook my head. "Please. If Alex was the only one who had superpowers, then
these guys are just a bunch of nuts, like the ones taking over my town! Don't
drag me into your paranoia-filled fantasies! If there’s a terrorist, then find
her! And do it before she does something beyond just firing rockets into
cars!"

I
yanked the door open, and Agent Dobrowski stood there, barring my way. I said,
"You gonna arrest me for witnessing a bombing? Please! Be my guest! Then
watch your names pop up on tomorrow's news! Hell, I have my own fan base! Since
you hacked my laptop, you should know that! Now, do you want to see what they
do when I tell them what I got arrested for?"

I
glanced at Eisenhawk and said, "I wonder how people would react if they
found out there was another cult running around with explosives in hand?"

I
went back to glaring at the FBI agent. Dobrowski glanced behind me, and out of
the corner of my eye, I saw Eisenhawk nod. I left the room and brushed past
Dobrowski, not saying anything further. I headed to the reception area, where
Dana was waiting for me while talking with Miras. Snappishly, I said,
"I'll be outside, cooling down."

Without
another word, I stormed out and practically stomped my way to Dana's SUV.
Leaning against the front of it, I waited for her while I did my best to calm
myself. I realized that I was losing control of my hearing. I heard voices, the
wind,
sounds
of vehicles. I took a deep breath, focusing
on anything I could to bring it under control. 

Bit
by bit, I managed to set aside each sound. Until finally, Dana’s voice was the
only thing I heard. “Vaughn? What happened back there? What did the agents
say?”

Straightening,
I just said, "Can we drive around for a little while before picking up
BJ?"

Dana
nodded. She said, "He called me while I was in getting interviewed. He's
on a later flight due to weather in the Rockies."

A
tremor was in my voice when I said, "Good, because there's a lot I have to
tell you."

Not
saying anything beyond raised eyebrows, Dana and I got in the SUV. Instead of
going out the same way we’d come in, we left the complex out the back way. To
the south of the administration building were several bungalows of various
colors. I knew they were homes for the staff working at Ryan Tech.

After
we passed the last house, I said, “They have bodies back there.”

Dana
yelled, “What?”

Dana
almost ran us off the road as she stared at me. I grabbed the dash out of
reflex while she got control. Skidding to a stop in the muddy slush, Dana
shoved the SUV into park at the side of the road.

She
turned to stare at me and said, “How did you hear about—? Oh, never mind, what
did you hear? Tell me everything! You were pissed when you left. What happened
back there?”

I
took a deep breath and told her everything. As I recounted Ryan’s
argument
she smirked. “I’m stunned they let you get out of
there without demanding some blood.”

I
shuddered at the image of crazy scientists coming at me with needles while
yelling, 
“This will only sting a little!”

But
I laughed at the thought and said, “I lucked out. They were both too busy
yelling to even notice that I was right outside the office.”

She
grinned and said, “Wait until they see the sign-in sheet with your name on it.”

Dana
pulled onto the access road and quickly drove away. Once we were away from the
main complex, I told
her about Eisenhawk, and what we argued
about
. Looking troubled, she said, “Okay, now I am disturbed. Why in the
hell would Eisenhawk bring you into their problems? Don’t take this wrong,
Vaughn, but you’re not exactly high security.”

As
we turned onto a snow covered dirt road. I gave a shrug and said, “I haven’t a
clue. And…”

Dana
glanced at me. “Vaughn? What’s wrong?”

I
found myself looking around the area. I noticed that, while we were well away
from Ryan Tech, there was a lot of noise coming from somewhere behind us for a
quiet country road. It reminded me of a train clacking on the tracks, and it
was getting faster. I looked behind us and saw snow on the road arcing high up
in the air, moving closer.
“Oh, hell!”

“Dana
stop
the SUV!
Now!”
I yelled.
Grabbing the keys, I turned off the SUV while it was still moving.

“Vaughn!
What’s wrong with you?” Dana yelled as she looked back the way I pointed. Her
eyes widened with a mixture of shock and understanding.

She
said, “Damn! Go! Go! Go!”

We
barely jumped to safety in time. Just as we rolled into the ditches, an
explosion thrust the back of the SUV into the air. I ducked down into the snow
just as it slammed back to the ground with a thundering crash.

Looking
up out of the snow, I saw that the gas tank
was blasted
apart from underneath the chassis. The back axle was in two pieces, melted from
the u-joint out to both tires. And the heat burst had scorched and pitted the
paint and metal across the entire back. Looking across the road, I saw Dana
staring at the SUV and then at me. Whatever had done this was gone.
No, not whatever—whoever.

I
stood up and shook off the snow. Then I realized how stupid doing that was.
Whoever our attacker was, he could come back at any moment. I began to duck
back down when the world blasted around me. Out of control, I went flying
toward Dana. Her eyes widened just before I knocked her to the side. Then I hit
a tree, wrapping around the trunk and sliding to the ground. Snow from the
branches nearly buried me with a heavy whumping sound.

I
know I grayed out for a moment. All I could do was lay there, half buried as
someone walked up to me. Suddenly, the world spun around as I
was lifted up
in the air. My head cleared enough that I
could see a guy in a black suit with thick gray stripes running down to a point
at the belt. He was the same person I’d seen just prior to Main Street was
attacked. That included the full head mask he had on with tinted
eye pieces
hiding his eyes.

In
a muffled voice, he said, “You! What did the government tell you? What do
they know about the Empowered?”

I
took a breath and whistled hard.

He
shook me and said, “You dumbass! That last blast screwed your brain so bad that
nothing works! So forget it! You can’t use your powers! Now tell me! What does
Ryan Tech know about us?
About Yasmine?
 Do they
know anything about the Empowered at all? Tell me!”

The
world spun again as he twisted me around to slam me into the same tree I had
hit before. That was stupid of him. The pain I
was in made
it impossible to tell him anything. Now I could barely focus my thoughts, much
less talk.

The
buzzing in my head was there, but that’s all there was. I was out of it. I
couldn’t have attacked him if my life depended on it.
Which,
of course, it did.

Shaking
me again, he said, “Come on, Hagen! What do they know about the
Empowered? Do they know about Yasmine? Do they know about me? 
Damn it!
 What do the remnants know?”

I
shook my head. A stupid move, but the pain cut through my fuzz-filled brain
enough to let me answer. I said, “Nothing…and who the hell are you?”

The
masked man looked at me and laughed. After a second, he snarled and said, “God,
you are pathetic! I should just kill you. It would be a mercy killing. And
if you’re on Paradoxis’s side, you’re just the enemy, anyway, so why the hell
not?”

What
was that about Paradoxis? For that matter, who were these mystery women? Or did
he say, ‘paradox…?’ I tried to use my powers again, but my head was
hurting too much. I think I managed a slight warble. It sounded like a pretty
bird, and speaking of pretty birds, I realized that Dana was going to be late
picking up BJ if we didn’t get there soon enough…wow, where had Angela come
from?

Without
warning, my attacker threw me at Angela. Just as I was about to hit her, she
ducked. Arcing over her crouched body, I hit the ground and skidded into a
drift of snow. Great, buried in snow again—this was getting ridiculous! My
consciousness blurred even more. After a moment, cold snapped me back to some
semblance of reality. I realized that there was snow under my jacket and shirt.
It was very, very cold. Oh yeah, I was definitely not thinking clearly.

But
it brought me awake enough to push myself back to my feet. I started to go
after that costumed idiot. I froze when I realized that Angela really
was there. She was wearing the same black and purple striped outfit that
I’d seen her wearing on the roof of the bank. But I hadn’t seen the short sword
that was now in her hand. And for some reason, that sword looked very familiar.
Her outfit was almost the same as the speedster’s.

In
a burst of light, she disappeared. Before I could react, Angela reappeared and
slashed the sword down his back at an angle. He screamed in pain and rage. When
he turned to confront her, I saw that he hadn’t quite gotten out of the sword’s
way. A diagonal slash ran down his back, and blood showed in the wound.

Ignoring
the pain, our attacker tensed. He screamed. “You freaking bitch! I’m going to
have you dead!”

The
air began to waver around his hands.
Heat energy.
And
it looked…weirdly familiar. Building the energy into a tight ball of heat, he
turned to raise his hands to point at Angela. The air between them flashed with
tightly focused white fire. And the fight was on.

To
my surprise, Angela crouched and moved to the side with a twisting motion as
the heat burst passed her to explode against the stand of trees. I flinched
back as waves of high heat caused them to burst into kindling and ash. Then I
saw Dana was still unconscious and about to
be hit
by
flaming wood. Yelling, I scrambled to my feet and ran to her. I barely pulled
her out of the way, as the first large branches hit the snow.

I
heard a cry from Angela. I had to ignore it to pull Dana to safety. As I
dragged Dana out of the ditch, I passed near the back of the SUV. I covered her
when a large branch hit the back of the melted truck and almost exploded over
the two of us. I cried out in pain when I felt coal hot pieces of wood bounce
off my back. The trees were cracking apart from the super-heated fire.

A
burst of heat went into the SUV and blew out the front with a loud roar and
bright flames. I swore, and, grabbing up Dana, I flung us into the deep snow of
the ditch. After a moment, I pushed my head up out of the snow. I could see
that Angela was still fighting, but she was barely holding her own. I heard Angela
yell something about Yasmine and Paradoxis. Then the two of them rapidly
changed tactics. ‘Speed boy’ and Angela began a furious fight of 
high speed
 punches with Angela blocking him
with sword, hands, and feet. For a second or two, it seemed like an even
match.

Then
a fist made it past Angela’s guard. She went flying back into the undamaged
trees on our side of the road. But while she was in pain, she wasn’t out of the
fight. With another flash of light, she popped from one point to another right
behind the speedster. Again, she tried to slash him with the sword. Seeing it
reflect the light, I realized where I’d seen it before. She was using a 
Lord
of the Rings
 replica of the short sword, 
Sting
.

This
time, he dodged the sword and let loose a heat burst, clipping Angela in the
leg. Angela came down hard. I tried to yell again. But all I got for my effort
was a spiking headache behind my eyes. The speedster ignored me and stalked
toward her.