|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
Blind Rage
Chapter 1
Adam walked up behind Jesse as he sat; focused on the computer screen in front of him. “How’s it…” Adam started to ask and then quickly apologized as Jesse practically jumped out of the reclining computer chair. “Sorry about that, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. How’s it coming?”
“We’re starting to get bits and pieces,” Jesse replied as his fingers continued dancing across the keyboard, as if independent from the person that they were attached to. “It’s an extremely complex code, so far I’ve found five different codes for the word “the”!”
“Well, that actually makes sense. The easiest way to crack a code is to look for common words that are repeated and build out from there. By having several forms for each of those key words, it makes it that much harder for the computer to isolate them.” Adam said, nodding his head in appreciation for the code’s author, if not for that author’s intent. “But its important that we crack it as quickly as possible. From the format, it looks like a serious plan and I’d like to know what we might be up against before we’re staring it in the face.” Adam gave Jesse a supportive pat on the shoulder and walked over to where Emma was sitting.
In front of her was a chess board and he noticed that she was not so much studying it as she was glaring at it. “Trying to develop telekinesis?” He asked lightheartedly. The glare that he received in response told him that this was not the time to point out that she was 2 moves from being checkmated. Instead, he sat on the couch and pretended to read, watching her discretely.
“I’ve got it!” announced Jesse victoriously. Looking over to confirm that he had everyone’s attention, he continued. “They’re after a new mutant named Dave, a molecular with super speed. Most of the message is about how to block off all of the exits so that he can’t get away from the capture team. There’s a reference to the pier and the train station, sounds like the old refinery.” Looking at his watch he exclaimed, “damn, they’re planning to meet him in less than 30 minutes.”
As the team instinctively got up and headed down the stairs to the Double Helix, Adam voiced the thought on each of their minds, “They’re probably already in place, so we won’t be able to beat them to the punch, but there’s still a chance of keeping “Dave” out of their hands. Let’s go!”
After 25 minutes that seemed more like hours, the VTOL landed on the roof of the abandoned refinery and they found the door to the stairway unlocked. Brennan was just about to open the door when Shalimar caught his attention, shaking her head ‘no’. She held up a single finger and mouthed ‘five feet from the door’. Brennan nodded, knowing that he should have expected them to have the exit to the roof guarded.
As he pulled the energy that naturally flowed throughout his body and concentrated into his hands, he took a step back from the door. When he nodded, Shalimar opened the door and the man standing inside turned around just in time to be hit with an electrical blast that sent him flying down the flight of stairs to the landing 10 feet below, where he lay in an unconscious heap.
Shalimar looked up at him and put her finger to her lips with a teasing “Shhh!” To which Brennan replied with his best ‘what-was-I-supposed-to-do?’ shrug.
As the team worked their way down the stairs toward a large room with several rusted turbine engines, they heard a conversation between two men. “Right on time, Dave, I like that!” exclaimed one of the men. Adam signaled for Emma to join him sneaking down the stairs on one side of the room while he motioned for Brennan to head down the other side. He left Shalimar and Jesse on the catwalk, knowing that both preferred the ‘drop-from-out-of-nowhere’ dramatic entrance.
Dave responded with a suspicious, “Where’s my sister?”
“She’s safe, back at Genomex, we’re going to take you to her now,” replied the first man.
Panic washed over his face. “That’s not what we agreed to, you said that you would bring her here, that I could make sure that she was safely out of here before I went with you!”
As an unusually tall Asian man stepped up behind Dave with a sub-dermal governor implant gun, the other man continued in a calm, soothing voice, “Sorry, sometimes plans change. Now just relax and we’ll make sure that you get a chance to see your sister before we drop her back at college, safe and sound.”
Brennan jumped down the last few steps while commenting, “Now there’s a blatant lie if I ever heard one.”
“Beat it, electro-freak!” the man spat, turning to face the intruder. As he turned away from Dave, the young man grabbed the chance to make a run for it, easily dodging around the Asian man before anyone could move to stop him. Suddenly, a woman stepped out from behind one of the turbines and, as a strange light played across her eyes, Dave appeared to run into an invisible wall, falling back to the floor.
“Nice work, Daari!” the first man hollered over to the woman. She nodded as she leaned back against the turbine. Emma stepped out into the open and five other agents on the capture team appeared from their hiding places to face them. As one of the agents activated a stun stick, Shalimar tackled him from above and Jesse landed in his massed form, much to the surprise of the man who threw a roundhouse kick into his ribs.
As the man stumbled back, gingerly putting weight on the injured leg, Shalimar shot out a quick, “that’s gotta hurt!” and smiled at Jesse while ducking a punch aimed at her face. She went to move to the left, out of the way of a kick, but her feet felt nailed to the floor and the kick landed, knocking the wind out of her.
As Brennan went to block an attack with a stun stick, he felt his arm strike something solid, before he was able to get to the attacker. While he was trying to figure out what he had hit, he felt the searing pain from the weapon. He only managed to stay conscious by focusing all of his energy on absorbing the shock, “okay, now I’m pissed!” he said with a grimace.
Standing near the stairs, Adam watched in disbelief as his highly trained team appeared to be making stupid, careless mistakes and misjudgments. Knowing that this wasn’t normal, he glanced around the room, looking for the cause. As he spotted Daari, standing next to one of the engines, he saw her eyes flash an electrical green and then saw Jesse trip over his own feet. In a split second, he reviewed all of the possible options and then announced his conclusion to himself, “a telekinetic!”
Adam realized that his team was losing what should be an easy fight. He just needed to distract Daari long enough for them to get the upper hand on the other agents.
“Daari!” he shouted, stepping toward her. “Let’s talk about this, there’s no need for this fighting. What do you want with Dave anyway?” As Daari obviously tried to remain focused on her task, Adam stepped closer and continued, “Why are you working for the GSA? Do you like being controlled by a sub-dermal governor? Living in fear that you’ll make a mistake and end up in a stasis pod?” He could see her face starting to turn red as she clenched her jaw.
Finally she spun to face him as her body shook with the rage building up inside her, “Maybe all of the freaks like us should be locked up in little cages like the lab rats that we are! Or don’t you give a shit about the survival of your damn species?” Adam swallowed hard and forced himself to remain calm and composed as she continued without waiting for an answer. “Do you think that mere ‘humans’ are ever going to accept someone who can do this?” She screamed as she mentally picked up a large chunk of concrete pipe and threw it toward him.
Adam remained silent, his mind analyzing the flood of information: this was a very dangerous woman, her anger could be used against her, but her reactions would be unpredictable because she wasn’t thinking rationally; she’d demonstrated precision in her earlier attacks, so why did the pipe miss him by 5 feet? As Daari turned back toward the fighting Adam re-engaged her with a question, “Daari, why do you think that new mutants are a threat to the human race?” and then immediately had to force himself not to cringe at the raw furry that he saw in her eyes.
“You idiot!” she shouted, “look at what the cats in Hawaii did to the native bird population! Look at the rabbits that have taken over regions of Australia! Look at all of the other times that an alien species has been introduced to a closed environment! New mutants are stronger and faster than the ‘native species’ and you’ll be lucky if your species avoids extinction. The damn statistics are already coming in, Adam, new mutants have a higher average fertility rate than mere humans and, so far, every child with a new mutant parent and a human parent has inherited full, if not increased, new mutant abilities! You can’t deny the effect that a new predator like that will have on native populations!”
Adam listened intently, preparing all of the counter argument that he would save until she was in the frame of mind to listen. He noticed with some relief that the distraction was successful and his team was finishing off the final few agents and quietly surrounding the woman as she raged on. “The GSA is the only hope that humans have! Its only a matter of time before new mutants start banding together, only a fool would believe that superior beings would continue to hide in the shadows, pretending that we’re ‘normal’!”
Suddenly, Daari realized what Adam had done, that she had played right into his hands. She saw Emma leading Dave up the stairs toward the roof and the team that she was supposed to protect laying scattered on the floor. She heard the voice in her head, “thou shalt not kill” but it was drowned out by her anger. She focused that anger on a large transformer attached to the wall and, ripping it from the wall, threw it directly at the man that she blamed for everything. As Adam stepped back, Jesse stepped between the transformer and its intended target and massed up, blocking the attack.
As Brennan and Shalimar watched to see that Adam was okay, Daari slipped back behind the giant turbine engine. “You’re the ones who will be responsible for the destruction caused when the freaks you’ve let loose into your ‘underground’ wage war with the humans!” she continued yelling from behind her shield. Adam sighed and shook his head, he had hoped that she would expend her rage and calm down, but the rage seemed to be feeding on itself and growing.
As Shalimar and Brennan joined Adam and Jesse, Adam shook his head saying, “We need to bring that loose cannon under control before she starts the very war that she’s warning against!”
They noticed that Daari peeked out from behind the engine a couple times and Shalimar focused in on where she was looking. “She’s going to make a break for the side door,” Shalimar informed Adam and Brennan.
“And I’ll be ready when she does,” finished Brennan as he started to build the crackling ball of energy between his hands. From her hideout, Daari could hear the crackling of the electricity and realized that he would strike as soon as she made her move. Forcing herself to think strategically, she reasoned that Brennan would throw the bolt at her upper chest, so she decided to use a sprinter’s low start which would put her below the strike. Then she would just try to get out of his line of fire before he powered up for a second strike.
As Daari started to move, Brennan threw the energy at her hip level where it would knock her unconscious without doing any serious damage. She saw it heading straight for her and tried to stop and get back behind the turbine when the bolt of electricity grazed right across her face. Letting out a scream of agony, she fell back against the engine, clawing at her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop the searing pain.
Adam ran over to the woman as she sat, curled in a ball, crying out in anguish and pulled her hands away from her eyes to prevent her from causing further injury. Jesse arrived on the other side of her and held her hands away from her face while Adam forced one eye and then the other open. “I can’t tell anything through the tearing,” he announced.
“Daari, I know it hurts, but I want you to try to calm down. We’re going to help you, we’re not going to hurt you, it was an accident.” Adam tried to use as calming of tone as possible while speaking loud enough to be heard over the screams of panic and agony, but it was obvious that his words were having no effect. A look of sad resolve crossed his face as he placed the heal of his hand at the base of her throat and used his fingers to cut off the blood supply to her brain without cutting off her air. Slowly the screams quieted as her body became limp.
Looking up, Adam noticed Shalimar standing with a supportive hand on Brennan’s arm. As he noticed the pale look of despair on the elemental’s face, he realized that Brennan needed to be doing something to help, “Brennan, I need you to get her up to the Double Helix before she comes too.” Relieved to have something to do, he scooped the woman into his arms and used the anxiety flowing through him to practically run up the stairs.
Once in the aircraft, Brennan pressed a button on the wall with his foot, causing a table to slide out and he laid the woman down gently. Adam ran in and grabbed a syringe from a cabinet and pressed it against Daari’s arm, just as the woman started to stir. “Okay,” Adam said as he finally started to feel like things were under control, “Jesse, get us over to Safehouse 7, I want Emma and Shalimar to get Dave settled in,” Adam forced himself to take the time to make eye contact with the young man and give him a reassuring smile, “then we’ll take Daari to Sanctuary and I’ll have someone come pick you girls up in a couple hours, okay?” Nodding, everyone took their seats.
Chapter 2
After placing the sedated woman in the chair in Sanctuary’s lab, Brennan turned and left before Adam could say a word. Standing beside the chair, Jesse asked, “Do you want to use the restraints?”
“Uh, yeah!” replied Adam, trying not to sound too sarcastic, “she wasn’t displaying too much control before pain and suffering were added to the equation.” Jesse leaned over and engaged the straps over her arms, legs and torso. Adam came back from a side storage area with a different headrest which would immobilize the woman’s head and allow him to focus on her eyes. Jesse gently supported Daari’s head as Adam changed the headrests and then fastened a strap across her forehead.
As Daari started to stir into consciousness, Adam walked over with another syringe. In answer to Jesse’s questioning gaze he said, “This should keep her calmer, as well as helping with the pain, but I’m going to need her to be conscious.” Then, as he used a small tool to activate her sub-dermal governor he added, “but she doesn’t need to be able to destroy the entire lab!” As the woman slowly came too, Jesse stayed by her side, rubbing her arm and speaking to her reassuringly.
After working for a while, analyzing the extent of the damage to Daari’s eyes, Adam noticed Brennan, looking sullenly down from the window above the lab. He touched his ring, activating the comlink, “Brennan, it wasn’t your fault, it was an accident…”
“Yeah, whatever,” Brennan interrupted, “I’m gonna go pick up Emma and Shal.” The click from his ring told Adam that the comlink had been disabled.
*****
A short time later, Emma, Shalimar and Brennan entered the lab to see how things were going. Adam looked up and asked, “Is Dave all settled in?”
Shalimar responded, “Yeah, he’s fine. We did a little checking on the computer and found out that the GSA didn’t have his sister after all, she was already back at her college dorm, it was all a ruse.”
Emma walked up to Jesse, standing next to the woman laying stiffly in the exam chair. The anger and the anguish seemed to have subsided, but the look of terror was evident, even through the sedatives. Emma focused on scanning Daari for several moments before reporting to the team, “She’s starting to shake off the sedatives, the anger is still there – just below the surface, but she’s mostly just feeling fear at this time. From the image that I’m getting, she can’t actually ‘feel’ telekinetically, she relies on being able to see what she wants to move.” Emma immediately regretted the words as she saw Brennan turn and leave the lab.
Shalimar followed him out as he went and sat on the stairs to the dojo. “Great,” he said as she approached, “not only have I possibly blinded her for life, but I effectively destroyed her new mutant abilities as the same time!” As Brennan put his head down on the arms that he had wrapped around his knees, Shalimar was surprised at how small and childlike he appeared. Normally, he was the picture of strength and protection, but now she was feeling all of her maternal instincts rising to the surface.
“Brennan,” she said gently as she sat beside him and placed her arm on his shoulder, “we all know how careful you are not to do any serious damage with your charges – even when the person you’re fighting deserves some permanent damage. It was an accident, you were obviously aiming low to avoid hitting her in the face, none of us expected her to come out like that! Adam’s going to do everything he can to make sure that she can look him in the eye when he gives her ‘the lecture of her life’.”
Shalimar’s attempt to lighten the mood a bit was successful as she heard a snort of laughter from somewhere inside the tightly wrapped ball beside her. “Actually,” came the muffled voice, “I think that she’ll be hearing several different lectures, there’s the “yes, you are too human” lecture; the “New Mutants and non-New Mutants can peacefully co-exist” lecture; and of course all of the “why the GSA isn’t the best way to deal with things” lectures.”
Shalimar smiled and added, “Oh, and let’s not forget the entire series on “why New Mutants aren’t a ‘superior’ species”!” Finally, Brennan raised his head and Shalimar pretended not to notice the puffy red eyes.
“I just don’t like sitting here, waiting while someone else tries to clean up the mess that I made,” he said with a sigh.
*****
Adam nodded approval at the information on the computer screen in front of him and then turned toward the woman restrained in the center of his lab, reminding himself for the dozenth time that the restraints were necessary and temporary. “Daari, it doesn’t look like there’s any damage to the optic nerves and I think that I’ll be able to repair the damage to the retinas with a minimum of scar tissue. I’m going to need you lay still and relax. You still seem a bit jumpy, so I’m going to ask Emma to distract you a bit while I do this.” Adam frowned as Daari’s body tensed, pulling against the restraints.
Jesse nodded in understanding – kind words and a gentle touch could only do so much – and backed away to allow the telempath room. “Daari?” Emma said gently as the woman saw her face to face in her mind, “I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to show you some relaxing images.”
“I know some cool images,” responded Daari to the woman’s image in front of her, “would you like to see them?” Emma could tell that it was the woman’s way of trying to stay in control, but sensed no hostility, so she nodded her approval. Suddenly, Emma found herself standing on a cliff, overlooking an ocean beach. She was amazed at the detail of the image when she noticed that she was spreading her arms and leaning over the edge.
She felt a wave of panic until she heard Daari’s voice, “its okay, you’re a bird, look at your arms.” Emma looked out at her right arm and, instead, noticed a long graceful wing. As she started to fall from the cliff, she felt herself stretch out her wings, spreading out her feathers as the first updraft started to lift her into the air. “Relax,” came Daari’s voice again, your just along for the ride, enjoy it! Oh, and don’t forget to breathe.” Emma let out the breath that she had been holding and allowed herself to relax into the new feelings.
As she soared along the cliff, she could feel all of the tiny adjustments that she was making to her wings, reacting instantly to the subtle bumps in the air, riding the wind. Slowly and gracefully, she turned and descended, floating toward the beach. As she approached a large tangle of driftwood, she felt sharp talons reach out in front of her and felt her feathers curving down to stop the forward motion, finally grabbing firmly on to a branch…
And then she was back, standing next to Daari. Daari laughed knowingly at the look of amazement and childish delight on Emma’s face. “Oh, wow” Emma stammered, searching for the words to express her feelings, “that was incredible.”
“Yeah,” replied Daari, “that’s one of my favorites, although its too short. I tried to convince the hawk to continue down the coast a ways, but he was too focused. Right after he landed, he jumped down on the sand and started tearing into a rotting fish that had washed ashore.”
“Eww,” replied Emma, “I see why you cut it off where you did!”
“So,” continued Daari, “is the mad scientist finished, or do we have time for another one?” Emma pulled her mind back for a moment and noticed Adam carefully directing a laser into one of Daari’s eyes.
“We’ve got time, where are we going now?” Emma asked as she re-entered the woman’s mind. She could tell that this was mostly a desperate attempt by Daari to keep her mind off the terrifying thought of being blinded, but she was willing to settle for any shred of rapport that she could establish with the woman.
“Down under,” Daari replied in an Australian accent. “Just remember to keep breathing normally, you can’t hold your breath as long as a dolphin can.” She added with a sly smile. Moments later, Emma found herself riding the wake at the bow of a motor boat with the clear blue water rushing over her sleek body. Occasionally, she would dip beneath the water and, with an effortless flick of her tail and a slight angle of a fin she would be shooting through giant coral heads as thousands of little fish scattered out of her path.
“Emma,” she heard Adam’s voice calling her from a distance.
Suddenly she was back in Daari’s mind as the woman stood pouting, “Your master is calling you.” Emma shuddered as she felt the woman’s bitterness rising to the surface. As she pulled herself away, she saw shadowed images around the dark edges of the woman’s mind: crushed corpses laying in a wooded area.
Emma shook her head and looked up into Adam’s concerned gaze. “I’m okay, Daari was just showing me what it was like to soar like a hawk and swim like a dolphin.” Turning to the woman who was squinting her eyes against the bright laboratory lights she exclaimed, “Wow, that was awesome. I can still remember every detail!”
“They’re recordings that I took, feel free to share them with your fellow freaks! There’s also one of a wild horse running along a ridge; strong pounding muscles, wind through your mane; maybe another time.” Daari said as she concentrated on the shapes that were starting to come into focus.
Chapter 3
“I’ve repaired as much of the damage as I can, your eyesight should improve steadily over the next several days. What are you able to see so far?” Adam asked in a guarded tone.
A thousand sarcastic responses came to mind, but Daari put them all aside and answered, “Some colors and shapes; fuzzy.” Her mind was clear of the drugs that Adam had given her earlier and she wanted it to stay clear. She didn’t want to risk angering him when she didn’t know where she was or how to escape. She was trapped and, before she could push the thought from her mind, she felt the panic welling up as the mangled corpses started laughing at her from the shadows of her mind.
“Would you like to get up and move around a bit?” Adam’s question broke through the vision just in time for her to escape its grasp.
“Yes,” she said, surprised that she would be allowed any measure of freedom.
“Jesse will show you around,” Adam stated as he released the restraints, “as to the amount of freedom that you are allowed, that will depend exclusively on your behavior.”
Jesse offered Daari his hand which she hesitantly accepted. She could see light and dark and some fuzzy shapes, but grudgingly acknowledged that she couldn’t navigate in an unfamiliar building yet. As they left the lab, Adam turned to Emma, “Emma, I need you to be careful. I was calling you for several minutes before you responded. Daari’s sub-dermal governor won’t prevent her from taking control of you once you’ve established the contact. Now have a seat, I want to run a quick scan to make sure that you’re okay.”
Emma started to protest, but saw the look on Adam’s face and decided against it, plopping into the chair with a sigh. As the scan finished, Adam leaned against the chair, facing her and asked, “So, did you see anything that could help us know what is going on inside that head of hers?”
“Nothing helpful,” she responded, shaking her head, “just as I was pulling out I saw three mangled bodies, just barely visible, like something out of a horror movie. But not enough other information to understand what the corpses symbolize.”
*****
As Jesse lead Daari out of the lab, he noticed her squinting, trying to focus on the large orange structure in the main room. “That’s our dojo where we train,” he offered, “Adam has it programmed with tactile, holographic GSA agents for us to practice sparing against.”
“Well, from the pile that you left at the refinery, your training seems to have been effective.” Daari noted with a slight tone of disgust.
As they sat down beside the waterfall, Jesse tried to strike up a friendlier conversation. “That was a pretty fair Aussie accent back in the lab, did you spend some time there?”
Daari smiled, “Yeah, after High School I spent several years down there doing a walk-about, trying to get my head straight. Things finally mellowed out and I got a job working for a dive boat operation on the Great Barrier Reef. There was a public college at the port, so I used some of my tip money to buy used text books to read while we traveled to and from the reef. After a few years, I audited a bunch of courses and got a degree in General Studies.”
Daari was surprised as she found herself starting to trust this gentle man. He represented everything that she hated about herself, and yet she found herself talking to him about her personal life, as if they had been friends for years. After dropping her off at the guest room and setting the alarm that would alert the team if she left the room, Jesse went upstairs to where Adam was waiting.
“Any idea about what was behind the rage we saw this morning?” Adam asked as Jesse joined him on the couch and Emma pulled up a chair to listen.
“Not a clue,” responded Jesse as he shrugged his shoulders, “she talked a lot about the time that she spent in Australia, coming up here and getting a job on a dive boat in Florida. But nothing about why she went from using her new mutant abilities to provide her Scuba clients with thrilling encounters to working for the GSA hunting down other dangerous ‘freaks’. What are we going to do with her, Adam?”
Adam sighed, “I don’t know. We don’t want her back at Genomex, her telekinetic abilities were trouble enough, but her ability to communicate and influence animals – that’s telepathy and if she develops that skill to the point of being able to influence people…” Adam shuddered. “On the other hand, putting her into the underground without knowing what set her off is NOT and option. I’m open to suggestions…”
“Well, I can tell you that she and Jesse have built a pretty solid rapport,” offered Emma. “Maybe if he takes her to an out of the way stretch of beach, she might drop her guard enough to tell him what’s going on. I noticed when she shared the animal visions that the ocean is where she goes to ‘ground’ herself. Brennan and I were going to use the computer to see if we could trace her life, see if we can spot anything that will give us a clue.”
Adam nodded and the three of them headed off to their rooms.
*****
Early the next morning, Jesse stopped by the guest room to pick up Daari. After grabbing a quick breakfast, he asked her if she would like to join him for a walk on the beach. She accepted eagerly, anxious to get out into a more neutral setting. Once they were a distance away from Sanctuary, Jesse removed the visual stealth devise that blocked her rapidly improving vision.
“Is it just my fuzzy vision,” asked Daari, “or does this thing not have any windows?”
Jesse smiled, “Everything is pretty much electronic with detailed scanners, so it doesn’t need windows!” Daari shook her head, obviously displeased at having to trust electronic gadgets that much. Suddenly, she felt the craft hovering and then landing on solid ground and she let out a sigh of relief.
The hatch opened to a beautiful stretch of sunny beach with a cool breeze gently blowing. Daari stepped out and took a deep breath, took off her shoes and rolled up her pant legs. Jesse copied her actions and followed her out angle deep into the cool salt water. He noted to himself that Emma had been right on target concerning Daari’s feelings toward the ocean.
After walking for an hour along the deserted beach, the two of them sat to rest on one of the many logs that littered the high tide line. As they sat looking at each other, they moved closer until they met in a deep kiss. Leaning back into the kiss, suddenly they lost their balance, falling back onto the soft dry sand behind the log. Laughing, neither moved to get up as Jesse rolled to a position where they could continue kissing.
“So,” asked Daari, “just how deserted is this beach?” She reached up and slid her hands under the tail of his shirt, running her hands up his chest under the shirt.
“Totally, I scanned it before we landed,” he replied as he raised his arms, allowing her to pull the shirt off over his head. As they removed the rest of their clothes, dumping them in a sandy heap on the log, Jesse considered his comlink for a moment and then decided that he didn’t want any eavesdroppers. He removed the ring and placed it in the pocket of his pants before rejoining Daari on the sand.
*****
Emma was sitting at the computer when Brennan came up and stood behind her. “Find anything yet?” he asked.
“Maybe,” replied Emma, “something definitely happened. I’ve found her school records and she was a straight A student until her senior year when, all of a sudden, her attendance dropped, she switched to an alternative school, dropped out of that and eventually graduated under a private tutor. Shortly after graduation, she booked a one way flight to Australia and dropped off the face of the earth. Three years later, she resurfaces as a dive master, working on a tour boat on the Great Barrier Reef and later moves up to an operation in Florida. Then, in the space of two weeks, she quit her job, had several drunk & disorderly run-ins with the police and ended up at Genomex.”
“Hmm, I wonder if the police records show anything unusual in the area at that time. That’s a pretty small town, I’ll show you how to get in!” Brennan said as he reached over Emma’s shoulder and started keying commands.
“Uh, is this legal?” she asked in response. Brennan just smiled and Emma nodded, “that’s what I thought.”
As they scanned through the police records, Emma keyed in for more information about one of the reports. “What is it?” Brennan asked. Emma didn’t answer, and he watched as all of the color drained from her face and she pushed up the armrest and ran toward the bathroom.
Adam ran over to the computer where Brennan was sitting down to read the police report, “What happened?” he asked with genuine concern.
“Apparently, those corpse images that Emma picked up weren’t symbolic after all,” replied Brennan, still reading the report. “According to this, they found three known gang members in a wooded area near the school with their skulls unexplainably crushed, as if in a vise. There was evidence that one of the men had engaged in sex and that another was in the process and there was a blindfold and some rope in the area. The police believed that it was a gang rape, but didn’t know whether the victim killed the attackers and escaped or if someone else intervened.”
“Brennan,” said Adam, “can you check the police reports in Florida around the date that Daari quit her job?”
“Sure,” replied Brennan as he pulled up the reports. Emma walked back over toward the two men and sat on the couch, out of view of the computer’s monitor. “You going to be okay?” asked Brennan. Emma’s affirmative nod was less than convincing. A moment later, he announced, “got it! There was a body found on the beach, less than a mile from the dock that she worked from; same thing – his skull was unexplainably crushed. The report notes that there was tissue under his fingernails and signs of a struggle, but they had been unable to match the DNA which appeared to be contaminated with “foreign substances”.”
“Sounds like how a police forensics lab would explain new mutant DNA,” Adam said, shaking his head. A moment later and a look of concern crossed Adam’s face, “where’s Jesse?”
“Oh God, Adam, I suggested that Jesse take Daari out to the beach! They left three hours ago,” responded Emma with raising panic in her voice.
Adam reached down to manually activate the comlink system, “Jesse? Jesse?” he called urgently. Then, as he looked at the comlink controls, “Damn, his comlink is deactivated. Emma, did he say where they were going?”
“No,” replied Emma, “but they took the Double Helix.”
“Good,” said Adam, “we can use the Global Positioning System to locate it!”
*****
Just then, they heard Jesse and Daari laughing and talking as they came in from the hangar. As everyone ran down to make sure that Jesse was okay, Jesse asked, “Yeah, we’re fine, what’s the problem?”
Confused, Daari continued, “sorry we’re a bit late we, uh, got a little sandy, so we decided to take a swim and then we didn’t have any towels, so we, uh, had to dry off…”
“Daari,” Adam said, with an intensity that made the young woman want to curl up into a corner and become invisible, “come into the garden, I need to talk to you.” Brennan and Shalimar headed back upstairs, knowing that they would be briefed later, while Jesse held Daari’s quivering hand and Emma followed them into the garden where they sat down.
Adam told Daari about the police reports that they had found, summarizing them for Jesse and then gently asked her to explain what happened.
Fighting back tears, Daari explained, “I always knew that I had a little bit of Telepathy, but didn’t even know what a new mutant was or that I had telekinesis until I was attacked by a gang of guys from school. I tried to separate my mind from my body when the first guy attacked me, but the second guy…” Her voice trailed off as she started crying.
“What happened when the second guy ‘attacked’ you?” Adam encouraged gently, consciously not using the word ‘rape’ and instead, using Daari’s description.
Her voice still shaking, she continued, “There was so much anger and so much hatred that it felt like a part of my brain just exploded, and then they were all just laying there dead. It took me two days to get through the rope because I couldn’t call for help. I was surrounded by dead bodies and I knew that, somehow, I had done it and I couldn’t explain it.
I couldn’t deal with knowing what I was capable of doing, so I told my parents that I was going to kill myself. We talked about it and I said that I would be willing to try to put my life back together if I could find a way to be away from people. That’s why I was on walk about in Australia. I finally started to get everything back together again and moved back to Florida when one of our clients asked me out for a drink after our dive.
On the way back from the bar, he grabbed me and threw me down on the sand and…and everything fell apart. I felt like I was some kind of dangerous animal. Then someone came and talked to me while I was in jail for a drunk and disorderly and told me about Genomex. Adam, I felt totally out of control and, if there’s one thing that Genomex is good at, its controlling new mutants.”
Satisfied with her explanation, Adam asked if she would be willing to work with Emma to overcome the panic so that she could respond with less lethal force, and if she was willing to leave the GSA. Agreeing to both, Adam promised to get her into the underground.
“I do know somewhere that I might be able to go,” she mentioned. “A tour operator at a dive resort near Hobson Village in Belize offered me a job as a guide. He recognized my ability to have the right animals just happen to swim right in front of my clients and said that he could use someone like that.”
“Great,” replied Jesse, “do you have any contact information?”
“Yeah, the resort is called Hamanasi, they have a web site,” she answered.
A week later, Jesse offered to fly Daari down to Belize to begin her new life. “How long will it take us to get there?” she asked.
“Long enough,” replied Jesse as he switched the Double Helix onto autopilot and the two of them picked up where they left off on the beach.
Comment & discussion
|
|
|
|
|
The Sun Never Sets on PureMX.net
|
|
