Masked (17 page)

I stayed silent.

“So you don’t want to talk to me?
Are you still a little frightened? I could bring the spiders back.” There was a
pause. “No, something different, let’s see. Oh, I know.”

Suddenly bright orange flames erupted
around me. They seemed to just sprout from the floor and formed a ring around me.

The flames weren’t very tall and I
thought I could just leap over them before they grew more intense. When I
approached the flames, they suddenly exploded up towards the ceiling. They were
probably six feet high. The intense heat emitted was heating the air getting too
hot to bear. It was hard to look at them.

I started to panic again. What
the hell was going on? I scrambled to figure out how to get free from the fire
ring.

Feeling like an idiot, I realized
I was wearing the PTD and could just jump out of the fire ring. I activated the
wrist control to jump twenty feet from the fire and nothing happened. I tried
again and again, but there was nothing. After muttering several four letter
profanities, I saw the wall of fire move. Unfortunately for me, it was moving
in.

The intense panic was back. It
seemed the only option was to jump through the flame. It was going to hurt, a
lot, but I’d recover. The flames kept getting closer, closer. I jumped.

The heat was intense when I
passed through the wall of fire and everything seemed to move in slow motion,
as to prolong the effect. I was surprised to not feel any pain from the burns.
There was just intense heat and then intense cold.

The flames disappeared and I was
surrounded by dark icy cold water. The shock of moving from the heat of the
fire to the icy water sent my body into intense spasms. I couldn’t control my
body and when I tried to gasp for air, my lungs filled. Frightened and helpless,
I drowned in the basement underneath the Cross.

At least I thought I had. With a
start, I woke lying on the cold floor. It was still dark and I had no idea how
long I was there. In a confused state I assessed my surroundings. I was still
in the basement, my clothes were completely dry and I saw no signs of fire,
water or large spiders. I also saw no sign of officer Raymond.

Maybe I should have stayed to
look for her or the blonde girl and Wally, but I didn’t. Whatever had happened to
me was too much to handle just then, too much to comprehend or overcome. I didn’t
know what had happened. I had no clue where they all went or how to move
forward.  My fear got the better of me and I needed to get out of there. So I
did.

“What the hell is going on?” I
shouted as the doors closed behind the small vehicle transporting Sara’s
motionless body away from the training area. I knew once the doors closed the
locks had engaged. There was no way to follow without the access code. Even if
I had made it through before closing, the two armed men would have tried to
stop me.

I jetted towards the center of
the large training hall where Rachael, Emily, Caldwell and Dr. Roberts all
stood. Alex, James and Brian followed.

“What happened? Where are you
taking her?” I demanded as I stopped at the group, before anyone else could get
in any words.

“Calm down son,” Caldwell said as
he reached out to rest his hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. “I’ll calm down
once someone explains what’s going on.”

I looked from Caldwell to Emily
and Rachael to Dr. Roberts. At my gaze, Dr. Roberts made eye contact with
Caldwell and then cleared her throat to speak.

“Sir, why don’t you explain what
happened. I really should catch up with the patient. I want to be there to run
the tests myself.” She looked really eager to leave.

Patient? Tests? What was
happening? What had happened to Sara? I had just seen her a few hours ago. She
was fine then.

“I’m going with you,” I said
firmly.

I had to see if she was okay. I had
to help her. No one there understood her the way I did. No one else loved her
the way I did.

She didn’t say anything, but looked
to Caldwell.

“Sorry Michael, we can’t allow
that. You’re not authorized to leave this section of the HUB yet. I understand you’re
worried about your friend, but we need to stick with protocol here. That hasn’t
changed. She’s in good hands. Once we know what happened, we’ll inform all of
you of her status,” Caldwell said in his calm tone.

“Piss on protocol. I’m going.”

“Please Michael, be reasonable.
This is a highly classified military operation. That hasn’t changed. We don’t
want to force you to stay here, but we will.” Caldwell glanced towards the two
armed men.

They raised their weapons to show
his threat was real.

“Come on man, back down. You
can’t help her this way,” Alex said calmly as he grabbed my shoulder. “Let’s just
hear what happened first. They’re not going to let you out.”  He then leaned in
and more quietly. “Let’s just hear what they have to say. We’ll help her. I’ve
got your back.”

Alex’s words brought me back to a
state of somewhat rational thought and I turned to Rachael and Emily. “What
happened?” I asked, my tone now at less of a shout.

“I woke to use the latrine and
found Sara lying on the shower floor. I hadn’t even noticed she wasn’t in her
bed when I got up. I rushed to her and saw she was still breathing and tried to
wake her but didn’t get any response. I don’t know how long she had been lying
there,” Emily explained as tears filled her eyes.

They had already been red, a sign
of earlier tears.

“Once I realized there was
nothing I could do to get a response from her, I ran to the communications
terminal, called in for medical help and woke Rachael.”

“There was nothing we could do
Michael,” Rachael said in a soft voice looking at me. I’d never heard that tone
of voice from her before. Her eyes were also red, filling with more tears.

“Did anything happen tonight?”
Caldwell asked.

I looked up and was met with a
knowing accusatory stare.

Reading my reaction to what I
thought he must know, Caldwell said “I know you two were together earlier
tonight.”

I started to respond, but he
interrupted.

“Never mind that for now. Was she
acting strange at all? Anything out of the ordinary? What time did you two come
back to your barracks?”

I guess I should have known Emily
or Rachael would have said something. I was the last one to see her. Our time
together that night came rushing back through my head.

Of course there was something
very much out of the ordinary that happened. Was her new ability the cause? What
did the strain of her new ability do to her? Was what happened to her going to
happen to me as well? How was I going to help her if it did?

I’m not exactly sure why I didn’t
say anything about it then, for all I knew at the time, it could have helped
her. I didn’t really have the time to process all that was going on. It was a
feeling I had, that I shouldn’t say anything about the discoveries we made
about ourselves. I guess it was the distrust that was there from the beginning
finally breaking free of the bonds of rationalization I’d put on it. I guess I
realized in my heart of hearts, I didn’t trust them and what we had been told.

“No. Nothing. She was fine when we
came back to the barracks. We got back at around midnight.”

“Could this be a reaction to the
virus reactivated in her system,” James asked. I’d forgotten Brian and James
were even there. I could hear genuine concern in his voice.

“I don’t think so. The viral
infection that was in each of you is gone. It shouldn’t be able to come back to
cause any harm. Nothing like this has happened to any of the others, but we
will know for sure once we run the tests. We’ll do all we can to try and find
the cause of what ever happened just in case it’s not an isolated occurrence.
We want to make sure the rest of you are not susceptible. Of course, we’ll do
all we can for Sara. Again, I promise we’ll keep you informed of her status
once we know more,” Caldwell assured us.

The doors at the end of the room
opened again. Batton and Matthew walked briskly through. I thought seriously of
making a run for it, to try and get through before they closed again, but never
moved past the thought. I would have never made it with the two armed guards,
Batton and Matthew all in my path to the door. Until that moment, I hadn’t felt
like a prisoner. Sure, I hadn’t always been thrilled about the lack of freedom
to leave, but all of us felt that way. Now, it seemed pretty apparent what our
place was.

As the doors closed, Batton and
Matthew started towards our huddled group. Caldwell left us and met them
halfway. They huddled together in some discussion far enough away as to not be
overheard. They knew more than they were telling as about what had happened. I
made a decision right then to act, to take the opportunity to see what they
weren’t telling us.

Forcing myself to break past all
the despair, worry and concern I had for Sara, I redirected the focus of my
thoughts to Caldwell as he stood in discussion with Batton and Matthew. Caldwell
was the only one in the room who mattered, the only one who existed. I had to
not just see his mind, but be a part of it. I stood motionless, my gaze fixed directly
at him. I’m not sure what the others thought I was doing, but I couldn’t worry
about that, so I didn’t. I focused on Caldwell.

I’m not sure how much time passed
while I adjusted my focus, trying to hear something. Suddenly, there was his
voice and with it the sharp jabbing sensation in my temples. I stumbled in my
focus for a second but recovered, trying to push back the pain. The words were
broken at first but once I had it, I found I was able to adjust, like tuning a
radio receiver. I found the clear channel.

“Is there any indication he
knows?” I heard Batton’s voice ask as received by Caldwell’s brain. I could
tell it was Batton, but it sounded a little different from the way I knew his
voice.

“I cannot be sure. Their bond to
each other seems strong, stronger than we thought, more than pure physical
attraction it would seem. This is not something we anticipated. I think we have
to assume he does know,” Caldwell said.

“I said it was a bad idea to let
them carry on like that. We should have stopped it when Arisha reported the
first incident. It was too risky. We are running out of time,” Batton said.

“He will have to be dealt with. It
is too bad he could not complete his training. He had the potential to be very
useful,” Matthew said coldly.

“He will be useful enough. He
knows the basics to be able to function for us,” Batton added abruptly.

“Deal with it today. Same story,”
Caldwell ordered. “I think Arisha and Taalon can handle damage control with the
others. There does not appear to be any complications like this apparent with
the others.”

Caldwell ended the conversation
and continued to the doors to exit with the armed guards. I released my focus
and as I did I felt the dagger slide from my temples. It took all I had left,
which wasn’t much, to hold in the small cry of pain. The effort completely
drained me.

Batton and Matthew approached our
group. Most of the conversation I heard hadn’t made any sense. None of it told
me anything about what happened with Sara, only that they knew more than
Caldwell had let on. It seemed they were actually the cause of what happened.

A storm of venomous emotions ran
through me at this realization, intense anger trumping the worry. I had the
overwhelming urge to rip their heads off. I didn’t though. Again, I suppressed the
torrent and tried to gather my thoughts to steer them in a more constructive
direction. I went over again what I’d heard.

They mentioned two names, Arisha
and Taalon was it? I didn’t recognize either, but it sounded like they’d been
relaying information about us. The only people ever in the training area were Batton,
Matthew and Masters on a regular basis. Since they were the ones discussing the
two spies, I had to assume Arisha and Taalon were a part of our group. It made
me sick to think two of the people I’d grown close to over the last several
weeks, people I called friends, would betray us. Betray Sara.

I didn’t want to contemplate who
it could be. I didn’t have the time. One thing was clear from that little bit
of dialog, my day was numbered and it seemed it could be stated in a fraction.
Something was going to happen to me and I had maybe hours left to try and help
Sara before it did.

No one else had said a word in a
while. Probably, no one knew what to say. Batton and Matthew approached our
little huddle and told us we had until 7:30 to do what we needed before
training would resume. No more protest was heard from me. There was no point to
it. I decided I was going to play nice and look like I accepted their terms. I
had to play along if I was to get out of the prison I was apparently in. I was
going to find her and now I just needed a plan and I needed it by 7:30.

Luckily, by 6:30, I was already
developing a pretty good strategy; at least I kept convincing myself it was.
All I knew about the facility outside of the training section was what was explained
by Masters in her initial briefing on day one and that was assuming her
information was true. I knew the medical research center and hospital were in
an arm opposite the one we were in, across the central section of the HUB. When
we were initially brought from the hospital arm, we were put in the back of a
motorized transport so we could not see anything along the way. The ride was
short so I didn’t think the distance would be far on foot. However, once I was
able to get past the locked doors, there was no way to know what sort of obstacles
I’d meet between here and there. There was no way to know the amount of additional
locked doors, guards, weapons, etc. It was an unfortunate fact I just didn’t
have time to remedy.

The good news was I had a plan to
get past the locked doors, which was a good start on short notice. Even though
we were locked in our section of the HUB, I was pretty sure it wasn’t designed
to be an impenetrable prison. If I had the time, I was sure I could find some
way out other than the main door, but I didn’t have that time.

We were supposed to be training
with the PTD’s that morning to learn additional tactical maneuvers. Typically
on PTD days, the equipment was issued first thing and we didn’t turn it in
until the end of the day. I felt fairly confident there would be nothing to
stop me from jumping to the other side of the main door into the corridor to
the rest of the facility. The challenge was separating from the rest of the
group and doing it while no one was watching.

Once in the corridor, I’d make my
way to the medical arm, again assuming I overcame any unknown obstacles I ran
into. If I was quick enough, I could hopefully make it across the facility
before anyone noticed I was gone. With the power of surprise, I’d overpower any
resistance along the way. The first chance I had, I’d arm myself and use the
PTD to get through any barriers. I at least had a chance to make it to Sara,
but that’s where the plan ended. If I could just make it to her, I’d do whatever
I had to in order to get her out.

I went over the half-ass plan
while in the shower. I’d been in there for some time, alone and then Alex
stepped in.

“So what’s the plan?” he asked as
he turned on the water.

His comment caught me off guard.

“Plan?”

“Come on, don’t try and tell me
you’re going to stay here and wait for news of Sara. I know you didn’t buy into
any of that crap. There’s definitely a lot they’re not telling us. I don’t
trust them anymore,” he said.