We started to advance to where Ethan was being held, I was in the fog, just a minute in the future, in a place where the possibilities ahead of me were so few I could still keep track of them, and still gave me enough time to act in case it was needed. As we moved Kimball didn’t have any trouble neutralizing the cameras outside the building and the few traps that we found. The first problem we faced was when we reached the building. I could see that as soon as they opened the door something invisible attacked them and caused them to drop like flies before anyone could do something to counter the attack.
I got out of the fog and using my powers I formed a barrier in front of the door to stop them from using it. At first they didn’t know what was going on and were prepared to fight their way inside. “We can go through there,” I warned them, “there’s a trap on the other side, something that will affect us and warn out enemies about our arrival.”
“What do you suggest?” Kimball asked. “Do we need to find another entrance?” I thought about it, and then I moved to the wall. I connected to it, expecting to find concrete, reinforced steel, but all I felt was concrete blocks that I knew I couldn’t break, for it would have been too noisy, but that I could get around.
“I think I can find an alternative entrance,” I said, as I put both my hands against the wall. After I established a deeper connection I started to work on loosening a few blocks, big enough to at least see the other side. Once I managed to open a hole big enough to put my head through it, I signaled Ivan to move closer. “Could you teleport to the other side?”
“I think so, all I need is to see where I’m moving to,” he said, putting his head through the hole, like I had done before, and then disappearing.
“What can you see?” I asked him.
“There is a tank with some sort of liquid here,” he said. “It seems there is a simple mechanism that breaks the opening valve when the door opens.”
“Can you deactivate it?” Kimball asked.
“I think so, it seems pretty simple,” he said.
I leaned against the wall and went into the fog again, making sure we didn’t face any other surprises. When I went back, Uktam was by my side, ready to carry me again if I needed him.
“I think I will walk for a while,” I said. “I think we will need a moment to study the place, and I want to take advantage of that time to reach Ethan. I can move while I do that.”
“As you wish.”
I extended my senses, being very careful, trying to avoid other telepaths from feeling me. I knew Ethan’s mind very well, and I knew that I would have no trouble finding him, but when I reached his mind I realized he was occupied. Still, I knew he had noticed my presence, so I waited for him to reach back to me, and I didn’t have to wait long for him to look for me.
‘What took you so long?‘ he asked.
‘How are you? Did they hurt you?‘
‘I could be better, but there’s nothing to sorry about,‘ he said, but I could feel he was downplaying his injuries. ‘I didn’t see you arrive, I have been keeping tabs on the woman in charge of watching the security feeds, I wanted to be able to stop her from sounding the alarm when you arrived, but it seems I didn’t need to worry about it.‘
‘Your father is with us,‘ I offered as an explanation, ‘what she must be watching is just a repeat of old feeds. But you know how it is, if she is good at her job she will notice something odd and will try to check the recordings, then we will be in trouble. What else can you tell me?‘
‘All of them, but two guards and the woman in the control room are hiding in a bunker under us. They have me sitting on a bunch of explosives. The idea is to stop you before you reach the room I’m in, but if that fails, they are ready to blow us up.‘
‘I suppose the bunker is protected against explosions.‘
‘I suppose the same, they seem pretty confident they won’t be harmed even if the explosives blow up. I also found out that they are keeping an eye on this room using a different camera circuit, one that they are sure can’t be hacked, so they can see if you go through the traps and reach this point, they will notice as soon as you reach me.‘
‘Don’t worry, your father will be able to deal with that.‘
‘When I found the second system I tried to hack it, but it was a very strong encryption that makes it hard to understand, even my father will have trouble understanding the system.‘
‘We will deal with that once we reach that point, don’t worry.‘
‘There are some other things you may want to know before moving forward.‘ Ethan shared with me the things he had learned during his captivity, and some of that information proved to be very useful.
I started to explain to Kimball what was going on, and I could see he wasn’t happy with the situation. The explosives and the second set of cameras made things more difficult for us. But it was nothing we couldn’t deal with. For the moment what worried me more is how sure our enemies were that we wouldn’t be able to reach the room where Ethan was being held, and the fact that despite Ethan’s assurance that there were two guards patrolling the place, we hadn’t seen anyone yet.
“I think I will have to go back into the fog,” I said, and Uktam moved to where I was. Despite how weird it felt to depend on someone else to transport me, I knew that it was necessary, besides Kimball was near.
We started moving again, it wasn’t fast, but at least we hadn’t encountered any other threats. But our good luck didn’t last forever, and eventually we found one of our enemies. My vision allowed me to know that they would be able to stop him without trouble, but still, I got out of the fog so I could look into his mind.
I didn’t like what I found in his mind, even if we had only seen him, a psychic connection with his partner allowed him to know that we were there, as soon as we had attacked, the other guy had moved back to his body, and he was on his way to warn the other we were there.
“We have problems,” I said. “They just found out we are here. I will try to stop the guy who found us out, but we need to move fast.”
“I will call our people and tell them to prepare the transmission in case we need a distraction, hopefully it will help us buy some time.”
I didn’t wait any longer, I threw my mind after the guy that had been alerted to our presence, at the same time, I moved my mind to the one we had captured. I found the other guy and invaded his mind completely, to render him immobile, but when I got into his mind, I realized he had already reached the control room, where apparently they could communicate to the bunker. The woman in front of the screen seemed to be in a trance, and I realized that Ethan had moved into her mind to stop her from calling the bunker, but I saw her hand over a button, one that she had managed to push before we could stop her, and that could be either an alarm or something to warn the people we wanted to avoid that we were there.
After dealing with the soldier whose mind I had invaded, I moved to the mind of the woman. I knew that having two minds inside of hers could cause a lot of damage, but it was the best way to establish communication with Ethan, because he couldn’t get out of her mind and risk letting her take control of her body again. Besides that, with the way Ethan’s powers worked, I couldn’t go to his other mind, because the one behind was his mutant mind, and that meant that it was toxic for me, so I chose to destroy the woman’s mind instead of hurting mine.
I felt Ethan’s presence immediately, and I could see that he could barely hold the woman back, her mental strength was impressive for a non-telepath, and I knew that staying out of her notice, and then invading her mind when needed, had required a lot of strength.
‘I’ll take care of this, go back to your body,‘ I told Ethan.
‘You have to get out of here!‘ Ethan warned, he was worried. ‘She managed to activate one of the defense mechanisms of the place, right now the hallways, the whole place is being filled with the same gas they used to neutralize my bodyguards and to knock me out and transport me here. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know it’s bad news.‘
“They activated a gas,” I told my group. “Ethan says is the same one they used against them.”
“The suits have anti-gas masks, we just need to put them on,” Lukas said.
“Ethan’s bodyguards also had the same kind of masks, and its protocol to activate them in case of attack,” Mihaela reminded him, “still they were murdered. We can’t rule out that the gas can work with skin contact or some other way.”
“What can we do then?”
“We need to get out of here,” Ivan suggested.
“We can’t leave now, we can’t leave Ethan,” I protested.
“We can’t stay here, either, we risk being captured,” Ivan said, looking around nervously.
In a way I knew he was right, but I couldn’t turn around and leave my son behind. ‘Ethan, we will try to reach the room where you are, do your best to stay calm, and don’t worry about us.‘
‘Mom, I can wait, but you need to protect yourselves…‘ I cut our connection. After having two other minds inside hers, the soldier was out, I knew we wouldn’t have to worry about her, she wasn’t a risk, even if Ethan got out of her mind.
I could feel that my own mind was getting tired, suffering from all the effort I had made, I knew I needed to be careful, because even with the energy I had already used, it would be very easy to go overboard and get a headache. Using my powers I formed an air bubble around us, two air currents running in opposite directions were forming a barrier around us that should be able to keep the gas away from us.
“The other option is that if they have a method to pump this place full of gas, they must have a system to clear it out,” Kimball said, “otherwise they would be at the same risk of being affected, or they would have to be locked up in their bunker for longer than comfortable.”
“Either alternative, I think our best option is to go to the control room,” I said, doing my best to keep my concentration.
We started to walk, as fast as we could and still be inside my protection bubble. The trip only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. We finally arrived to our destination and found the bodies of the two guards whose minds we had taken over. I knew that it was likely that the damage we had caused in them would be permanent, but I didn’t feel guilty about it.
“It will take a while to identify what all this controls are for,” Kimball said, as he pushed the woman off her seat and took her place in front of the computers. As he worked on that, the rest of us didn’t have much to do.
“Will it take long? Every minute we’re here, is a minute more than we are at risk of being discovered, or the gas reaching us,” I complained.
“We are worrying too much about the gas, and there is a chance it won’t even affect us if we wear the masks,” Lukas said.
“That’s a risk we can’t take,” Ivan said.
“Not all of us, but maybe one of us,” Mihaela said. “What if one of us, Lukas since he suggested it, walks outside the bubble with only his mask to protect him? That way we can be sure if it will affect us or not.”
“It’s too risky,” I said.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Lukas said at the same time. “I don’t have a problem trying.”
“You decide,” Kimball said from his place in front of the computers, “this system has many security layers, and even if I am making progress, it will take a while. The good new is that there is a system to extract the gas, but it won’t be easy to activate it.”
“If you are willing to take the risk,” I agreed, “then we can try. The only problem is that I can’t take the bubble down or we would be at risk, you will need to get out yourself, and it won’t be easy.”
“Understood,” Lukas said. Without further ado, he ran hitting the bubble walls. I watched as the air currents pushed and pulled him from side to side, until he finally broke to the other side, at least he looked good, if a little disoriented. “It seems everything is fine,” he said, but as soon as he finished talking, he started to sway, and then, he fell, as if his body suddenly lost the ability to hold itself up.
“That doesn’t look well,” Ivan said.
I was still trying to decide what to do, since keeping the bubble required a lot of me, when I saw Kimball throw a hook and used it to pull Lukas back to us. Once inside I could see he looked unconscious, but also in pain, his whole body seized.
“At least now we know,” Mihale said, “that was not a good idea after all.”
“It seems as if we can isolate different rooms in the building and clear the air by sections. I will start with this room and then I will look how to open a path to Ethan,” Kimball said after a while.
“How can we be sure it’s working?” Ivan asked. “We can’t risk ending like Lukas.”
“There is a monitor that will let us know once the air is safe again,” Kimball explained.
We all waited for Kimball to give us the green light, we could hear the fans working on extracting the gas, so at least we knew it was working. Finally, a few minutes later, Kimball told us it was safe to breathe in there, but after witnessing what happened to Lukas, none of us was eager to try our luck.
“We don’t need to risk all of us,” Ivan said, “let’s do another test.” Before I could say anything, Ivan teleported outside the bubble. Unlike Lukas, he really seemed to be fine. “I think it’s safe,” he said a moment later.
Little by little I let the bubble down, still a little worried, but trusting Kimball and Ivan, who still looked ok.
“I’m opening a path to the room where Ethan is, we need to get there fast, because right now the recorded message is being transmitted from the Palace. They will be distracted for a few minutes while they watch the video, but once they realize Kaiserin is not going to do as they asked, and that she is going after them, their most likely target will be Ethan.”
“Then we cannot waste more time. Do you know the way?” Kimball nodded. “Then we will follow you.”
“I’ll stay here with Lukas, and keep an eye on these monitors,” Mihaela offered.
“Perfect. Let’s go.”
We started to move forward, the path we were following was very close to the one I was going to use, but Kimball knew exactly what way to go to avoid places with gas or traps. He had cleaned the most direct route to Ethan, and we were moving fast. Still, I was keeping a psychic wall around me, just in case something happened.
We arrived at the end of a hallway, and Kimball opened a door, on the other side I could see Ethan. From the way he was leaning on the chair, I could tell he had been another victim of the gas. My first instinct had been to run to where he was, but I knew what a bad idea that was. I used all my self control to keep from moving forward, while I used my mind to explore the room. Kimball was doing the same in his own way, he was moving around the room, starting at the edge and moving slightly closer to Ethan as he circled it around. It wasn’t an easy task, since we didn’t know for sure what we were dealing with, and we needed to be careful not to set the bomb off, since it would mean all of our deaths.
“This is much more complicate that it looks like,” Kimball finally said. “I’m afraid that any movement can activate the bomb, and that would not only obliterate Ethan, it would blow the whole place off.”
“What about the rest of the terrorists?” Ivan asked.
“The bunker where they are hiding must be strong enough to resist the explosion, or they wouldn’t be using it,” I told Ivan, as I watched Kimball and got in contact with his emotions, trying to read by them his real thoughts. “Do you think you will be able to disarm it?”
“I know I can do it, the first step is to block the wireless receptor, so they can’t activate it from a distance, then I will deal with everything else, but it’s a very difficult task, it will take a lot of precision.”
“Would it help if I go into the fog and keep an eye on the possible futures? Maybe that way I can warn you if something goes wrong.”
“It may help. Ivan, stay with us and keep watch over us, the rest of us, keep watch on the doors, even if Kaiserin is taking a look at our futures, we can’t let our guards down, we need to be careful.”
I went into the fog, looking for the right spot to see the different paths clearly, and still give me enough time to be able to warn them in case something went wrong. As usual, it was hard to keep track of time in the fog, but I trusted Kimball to be moving as fast as it was safely possible. After what felt like hours, but should have been just a few minutes, I saw in the futures the moment Kimball disarmed the bomb and freed Ethan.
I got out of the fog in time to see Ethan being freed in real time, and I saw how focused Kimball was, and how his body relaxed once the danger was over. He looked at me, a smile in his lips, before finishing opening the locks holding Ethan to the chair.
“Thanks, you did a great job,” I told Kimball, not knowing how to express how relieved I felt knowing Ethan was safe.
“It was teamwork,” he said. After getting Ethan out of the chair, he laid him down on the floor, going over him to make sure he didn’t have any injuries.
“You should go with Ethan back to the vehicle, we can deal with the rest of the people responsible for this.”
“I would feel better if we face them together,” Kimball said.
“And I would feel better knowing you are with Ethan, but it’s your choice.” Kimball thought about it for a moment, and then took Ethan in his arms and signaled Uktam to go with him.
I knew where our enemies were, and with the control room under our command, and the explosives disarmed, I knew that they would be forced to get out to investigate, but if they didn’t, then I would go after them, but one way or another, I would make them pay for what they had done.
Kaiserin Novel 