I could feel sweat drip down my back as we stood there waiting for Jemmy’s cue to begin taking out the perimeter guards. The guards were ungifted, so they didn’t have any clue what went on in the brick building. We were told to neutralize them without killing them. I was fine with that. When my family wasn’t in danger, my blood lust wasn’t as high.
Finally, we saw Jemmy’s flashlight turn off and on. We all moved with caution but quickly to the fence surrounding the perimeter. I reached out to the closest guards to me and told them to go take a nap, that they were very tired. “Two napping in their shack,” I whispered in my headset depressing the button on my hip.
“One secured,” another voice chimed in.
“Two more secured,” Jaxson could barely keep the laughter out of his voice, so I could only imagine how he secured them.
“Last one, down,” Terrance informed us.
I hadn’t tried all my gifts since my last connection was made, so I was interested to see how this mission was going to be. I imagined the bonfire I once sat around, singing, feeling like a teenager for the first time ever. I remembered the heat and held my hands up against the fence. I almost gasped as the large beach ball size orbs, burst from my hands, melting the fence on contact. I looked over at Troy and saw the cocky little grin he shot me. All the teams squeezed through the two openings.
We split up into our teams once we got through the fence. I fell into step with Remy and Jace and understood now why keeping in shape might be of importance. It was important that we were fast, quiet and stealthy. The whole team could suffer if someone was trailing behind. I noticed Michael was behind us quite a bit. We had to wait for him to reach us when we got near our point of entry.
“I’m taking the door off. Jace, Blake, and Michael, be ready for any hostiles,” Remy whispered to us, taking point, and we all nodded in agreement.
Remy held three fingers up and slowly dropped them. He made a fist and dropped it at the same time he ripped the double doors clear off the hinges, throwing them across the way we had just came as if they were frisbees. My eyes widened, never seeing his gift in action. Jace looked at him with amazement as well; I guess he hadn’t been that strong before. Now I understood what they were saying when they said their gifts had gotten stronger.
Jemmy joined us right before we entered the building. She was a bundle of unfettered energy. She bounced up and down on the tips of her toes like she was chomping at the bit. I could tell the idea of finding the cameras and control room was one huge scavenger hunt to her, so we let her go do her thing.
Upon entering the building, I nearly doubled in pain feeling the pain, despair, and hopelessness.
Jace put a hand on my back. “You have to shut it out,” he said quietly. “Push it away. We’ll get them soon enough.”
As I began to clear my mind and try to push the feelings out, I saw two guards laughing as they rounded the corner. The anger within me rose. These men were laughing and having a good old time while people were suffering nearby. They saw us as we tried to melt into the shadows. They pulled out tasers as they brought walkie talkies up to their mouth. The anger within me wanted to set them on fire, but I didn’t want to make any unnecessary sounds.
“Shoot him,” I commanded them. When they opened their mouths, I knew they were going to scream as the bright bolts of current flickered off the ends of the weapons. “Silence!” I commanded them.
“What did you do?” Michael asked in awe as he looked at me. “You have more than one gift,” he said almost accusingly.
I laughed dryly. “Oh, they didn’t tell you.”
The men were convulsing on the ground at this point, so Remy and Jace rushed over to them and restrained them, stripped them of their socks to stuff their mouths, then dragged them to the nearest utility closet.
We proceeded down the hall where I heard the distinct sound of a woman sobbing. I held up my hand and pointed at the door. Remy put a well-placed shoulder to the door and his other hand on the door knob; he barely flexed as the door came clean off the hinges. He gently placed this one down as Jace ran into the room.
I watched in incredulity as Michael walked through the door across from the other one like he was a ghost, like the door wasn’t even there. He popped back out and looked grim. “We have one in here,” he whispered to me. “We need a key to open the door, it doesn’t have a lock.”
I held my hand out to the door knob and imagined it melting. The metal became a gelatinous mess as I heard the distinct click of the lock unengaging. Michael gingerly kicked it open, so he didn’t get burned and give away our location.
I proceeded into the room, and the woman lying there looked like she was approximately four or five months pregnant. She also looked like she was high on something. She barely acknowledged us as we came into the room.
I moved to her bed and placed a hand on her arm. She was unrestrained. I looked everywhere, mystified. I shrugged and allowed Michael to lift her up. It wasn’t until we neared the exit that she started screaming like a wild banshee.
“No, no. Can’t go!” she screamed.
I held my hands on her back and thought calm thoughts. I could feel her fighting me, but finally she calmed down.
Jace came running out of the room and sighed in relief when he saw us standing inside the door. “They have implants in them. It has a dual purpose that can work independently of each other or simultaneously. It works like a shock collar with an electric fence and releases a drug into their system. They become nearly catatonic with it, and facilities like this also have boxes that activate if they move too far from them. If they get too far, it releases a poison and kills them instantaneously.”
I looked at him in shock. “What do we do?”
“The girl in the other room is too strong for the implants to last long, she knows where the units that trigger the poison are located. At least they can’t be poisoned. We just need Jemmy to fry them.” Jace explained. “Jemmy, come in,” Jace talked into his mic.
She was silent for a few moments before she said, “The eyes are off!” I can hear the giddiness in her voice.
“Great,” Jace said with amused dryness. “Now, please return, and if your team is available, we need your assistance.”
Jemmy, Gavin, and John made quick work of frying the units. Remy had secured some of the metal balls that they implanted in the girls so we could have someone dissect it and figure out how they worked. He also grabbed the syringe-looking instruments they used to implant them.