Masked (29 page)

Once the burden was appropriately
laid across my shoulders, I once again forced myself away from the pain,
fatigue and hopelessness of the situation. There had to be something I could do.

I still didn’t see any other
Titan agents aside from Emily and the six James had finished off, still lying
on the ground. The helicopter was getting louder and would be back in position
in only a matter of seconds. I needed a distraction.

I looked around and saw there were
no weapons or anything I could use as a weapon I could get to before Emily would
stop me. There was no cover close enough for me to flee to. No matter how much
I pushed it back, the fact was after the tangle with the six agents, I was too
weak and injured to take on Emily.

An idea came and I quickly tried to
refocus on Emily’s mind. Since I’d just been there, it took only a second to
reconnect. Instantly, I saw she sensed my presence but it distracted her for a
split second, which was what I wanted. I severed the connection and moved to
her before she realized what I was doing.

I barreled into her legs and
knocked her to the ground. The electrode and gun flew from her hands. I dove for
the gun, got it in hand and turned back to meet the blue light of the electrode
coming at me. I was too slow. It hit my weapon arm and I lost my grip on it
before I could get a shot off. She followed with a left hook to my head and I
landed back on the ground. I’d failed.

I looked up and saw the
helicopter moving back into place, hovering above the property. Something large
soared towards it impacting with its side. I saw the dim protective shield
again upon impact, but it wasn’t enough to protect the helicopter from the force
of the hit. As the helicopter tried to compensate, another something hit,
followed by another. Debris rained down.

Shifting my eyes up towards the
house, I saw another large chunk of what used to be house fly from the cavity where
the rocket had hit towards the helicopter. Then, I saw her, pale in the light
from the moon and the struggling helicopter. Sara was throwing the wreckage of
the house, using the sheer power of her mind and like me, doing it in only her
underwear.

Sara hurled another large piece
of wrecked house at the helicopter and her aim was true. With a loud grinding
sound and a painful crunch, the blades stopped spinning and the large machine dropped
to the earth.

I looked up at Emily, who was understandably
distracted by the destruction of their largest advantage. She was glaring at
Sara still standing up in the house, cold hate in her eyes and no longer paying
any attention to me. As her weapon hand rose I pushed all exhaustion and
weakness back one more time and launched myself from the ground. I barreled into
Emily before she was able to get a shot off at Sara.

The power and surprise of the
impact threw her off of her feet. She didn’t have a chance to recover before I
was on top of her, and having picked up the electrode from the ground, I shoved
the crackling blue end right at the base of her neck. Her body convulsed under
me as I held it there for several seconds. I moved it away and after a few
remaining shutters, she was still.

I stood up next to the motionless
Emily to find Sara at my side. We embraced for a several long seconds.

“Are you okay?” I asked finally
pulling away.

“I’m fine.”

“I was worried about you. When I
couldn’t get back up there, I tried reaching out with my mind. I couldn’t find
you,” I said.

“I think I was unconscious. I
woke up covered in rubble. When I got free, I heard Emily shouting for me. I
saw you on the ground with her and the helicopter was coming. I decided to take
it out of the equation,” Sara said.

“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 twisted 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.