The Ashes of My Soul, page 11
She nodded and reached into her pocket for a pair of sunglasses. A faint glow came from behind them and I felt a slight pressure on my mind. I closed my eyes and focused on pulling my mental defenses back. Once the pressure relented, I opened my eyes to see her putting her sunglasses away. “There are traces of influence,” she said. “Once I isolated them, they vanished.”
“So there’s no way to prove it unless you testified, and you don’t have any motivation to do so.” I leaned back and considered. “So you believe this was set up so you’d remove the Resistance problem while bad things happened to me. And if I managed to survive those bad things, I’d find out you let them happen, so then we’d fight. That’s impressive. Any result is a win.”
“That is our conclusion as well.” The woman stared at me. “So. Where does this lead?”
“First of all, I owe you. I formally acknowledge a debt to the Bureau.” She nodded. “Second, I think if I was in your position, I’d simply ignore everything aside from the standard request for passage. It’d let everyone walk away happy except Shade. Fuck that guy.”
The man smirked for a moment. “Your thoughts are intriguing,” the woman said.
“However, based on the information you’ve provided, I’d like a pass to handle any attacks on my group without interference.” I smiled. “In exchange, any survivors are yours. I’m sure you’ll get something from picking their minds.”
The woman nodded. “Acceptable, but it doesn’t completely cover the debt you’ve acknowledged, in my eyes.”
“Sure. I’ll still owe the Bureau one. Unless there’s something specific you have in mind right now?”
“Not at the moment.” She looked to the man, who nodded, then back to me. “Mr. Parker, I believe we have a deal.”
I stretched my hand across the table and we shook. The two agents left the table and Max swooped in seconds later. “So, we’re not throwing down, which means things went well?” he asked. I gave him the synopsis and he gave me a grin. “Sounds more and more like Ripley’s telling Shade everything.”
“Nothing provable,” I reminded him. “Going to contact Absynthe. Give me a moment.”
“Mind if I listen in?”
I shrugged and closed my eyes. My mental connection to her was faster than before. “What now?” she demanded as the realm resolved around us. Max faded in next to me and she gave me a puzzled look.
“We got set up,” I told her. “Someone tweaked us to overlook some blindingly obvious reasons not to do this the safe way and let the plans slip to Shade. Where are you?”
“I don’t think I’m too far behind you. At a rest stop outside of Wilmington.”
“We’re just north of Baltimore. Do you want us to wait here for you?”
She shook her head. “If they think you’ve figured it out, they’ll either go after you now or call the whole thing off. Take a longer break than normal, drive the speed limit, and I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can.”
“How long do you think that’ll be?” I asked.
“Couple hours? I’m almost done here.”
Max cleared his throat. “Did we catch you on the can or something?”
Absynthe looked at him, then pointedly back to me. “Did you have to?”
“He needs the practice.”
She shook her head and waved a hand, dismissing the connection and I snapped back to my own head. I looked up to see Max’s smirk. “She was totally on the can.”
I rolled my eyes and we tracked down Andreas and Drew. Max created a bathroom emergency just before we left, running back to the rest stop while we sat in the van. I explained the situation to them and got a groan from Drew. “Dude, this never stops, does it?”
“Afraid not,” I said.
“Andreas, any crazy gadgets in this thing? Some sort of turbo thrusters or shock cannon or something we can use to defend ourselves?”
“No,” Andreas said. “Though I have continued to work on the device that scrambled your powers. I believe it can now disrupt power usage in a wider radius. If I had known it might be useful, I would have brought it.”
“Probably not too useful in this case,” I said. I’d have to follow up with him on the topic later. Something preventing psionic power usage in an area could be extremely useful.
“I’ll drive,” Drew said as we saw Max strolling back toward us. “No offense, Andreas, but you’re too impatient to drive the limit.”
We struck out from the rest stop and I kept a constant scan out for hostile minds. Skirting around Baltimore kept the number down, but still depressingly high. Andreas cleared his throat. “We have two routes we can take. One is more direct with more traffic, one is longer but with less traffic. What should we do?”
“Going closer to Washington sounds safer to me,” Drew said. “What do you think, Kev?”
“Sure.” I didn’t think it would make much difference.
My decision came back to bite me no more than five minutes later. We had barely settled into the new route before a surge of psionic energy flared up behind us. They were so blatant, I felt like I could see the glow of their eyes from my seat. “Kev?” Max asked.
“Incoming,” I said, just as their first assault reached toward us. I couldn’t tell what they were attempting to do. My Sight showed a swirling storm of psionic energy crawling toward the van, different aspects targeting the driver, the passengers, me specifically, the van, the van’s tires, and more. I’d practiced this sort of situation with Star before and I knew I could shield against the onslaught, but I didn’t have the stamina to do so for long. “Max, focus on protecting one thing, I’ll take care of the rest.”
The next minute was a flurry of shields and counters. Max’s shields held back a couple of their threads and I sliced apart the rest. By the time I felt safe enough to relax, another attack was already brewing. There had to be at least three of them acting in sync. My heart fell. They could outlast me easily. I had the option of tapping into the second tier, but that would bring all hell down on me. Absynthe was still too far out.
I came up with a solution as their second wave of assaults homed in. “Drew, pull over on the shoulder!”
The van swerved as I split my concentration between defending against some of their attacks and appearing to defend against others. When the van rolled to a stop, I directed a thread of my thought toward the hood and created a giant puff of steam. “Shit! Did they get us?” Drew’s fear was obvious in the rising pitch of his voice.
“No, that was me,” I said. Their vehicle drew closer. No attack followed up and I let out a sigh of relief. They were being cautious and every second they delayed let me recover a little more. “When I tell you, floor it.”
“Kevin, please be aware, this van does not have noteworthy acceleration,” Andreas said.
“Noted.” I looked out the rear window and saw a minivan pulling out of traffic onto the shoulder. “There’s our friends.”
Max grunted. “I count five of them.”
“Also noted.” I kept building up my strength. Once they rolled to a stop, I released the most gentle surge of energy I could, while keeping their attention focused on my growing shield. The asphalt below their van started to melt. Once it grew hot enough, it would either trap or melt their tires. Either way, they wouldn’t be able to follow us until they got a new ride.
“Kev?” The side doors to their van rolled open. I focused another thread. The first one out was going to get a kinetic sledgehammer to their ribcage. “Kev?” Drew repeated. I ignored him. There were too many variables at play. “Kev, we need to go now!”
“On my count,” I said. No one was getting out of their van yet. “Three.”
“Kev, you’re not listening to me!”
I turned my head to yell at Drew and saw someone standing directly in front of our van. Their eyes were glowing a deep purple. They’d gotten out of their van without me noticing. How? “Drew, listen carefully. I still need you to floor it when I tell you.”
“What if he doesn’t get out of the way?”
“I don’t care.”
“What?”
“Drew. Run him over.”
“I can’t do that!” Drew’s words came out in a gasp, like I had punched him in the chest. “You can’t ask me to do that!”
I clenched my jaw as I felt another presence come out of the van behind us. They were going to surround us. “Drew, he’s going to kill us. Worry less about him and more about us.”
“I can’t do it.” Drew’s voice sounded strangled. “I can’t move. Kev, I can’t move.”
“Neither can I,” Andreas said.
“I can’t break it,” Max grunted. I turned my Sight in their direction and saw the grasp the purple-eyed man had on their throats. It was strong, tight, and inexorably closing. The message was clear. If I tried to break the hold, I’d have to weaken my own defenses. Did Shade train his people to keep forcing me to choose between saving my friends and saving myself?
“Do something,” Drew hissed. “He’s squeezing.”
“I’m trying to come up with something.” I focused my mind again and searched for a solution. Their van wasn’t going anywhere at this point. I devoted a thread of my mind to lifting our van. If I could lower the effective weight, we could accelerate like a sports car.
“Faster,” Andreas said. “Breathing. Difficult.”
“I’ve got it,” I said. “Hang on!” I spun out one more thread of my mind and pushed on the accelerator as hard as I could. The van growled angrily and rolled forward. Everyone gasped for breath, then gasped again as the purple-eyed man stepped forward, toward the van, and pushed back. The engine started to make unpleasant sounds. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Not helping!” Drew gasped. “Pissed now!” He grabbed at his throat.
I swallowed hard as I felt the rising mental pressure. This guy was a pro, and I had to deal with him like a pro. I gathered what few threads of power I had left and focused them into one surge of power. I knew I had to take him out in one strike. “Slam the gas as soon as you can. Trust me.”
“Kev. Faster.”
“Another couple of seconds.”
“Hurry!”
I finished my preparations and triggered my attack. For a moment, nothing happened. I saw the purple-eyed man frown, then look up into the sky, just as the bolt of lightning I had formed dropped from the sky. It was over in seconds. I focused the power until he was carbonized meat and smoke. The shock wave from the sudden energy burst shook the entire van and the blackened body of the man in front of us toppled over. “Drive!” I shouted.
Drew hesitated, but I slammed down on the accelerator again with a burst of telekinesis. We moved faster than any van our size had the right to do. The remains of the man in front of us puffed into the air as we hit it. Behind us, the minivan driver stepped on the gas too, and their tires immediately ripped as the bottoms stayed embedded in the asphalt. Before too long, we were merging back into traffic, none of which had seemed to notice our little fight, probably thanks to watching Bureau agents.
I collapsed back into my seat and lazily batted away their desperate attempts to stop us. We drove a couple of miles in silence before Drew spoke up. “He vanished,” he said. “Holy shit. He just turned to ash. I don’t know what to say. I saw a man get vaporized in front of me. I don’t know how to feel. Should I be feeling something?”
“Maybe, thank fuck we’re safe?” Max suggested.
Chapter Nine
“Hey, Kev, you awake?” Max’s voice came out of nowhere and I sat bolt upright. Whatever dream I had been having vanished into the depths of memory. “Holy shit, don’t do that. You scared me.”
I rubbed my eyes. Max looked as exhausted as I felt. I focused on the unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. “What the hell are you doing?”
He flinched and flicked it away. “Nerves. Didn’t light it. You ok?”
“How long have I been asleep?”
“Four hours or so. We’re at a rest stop a little past the North Carolina border. I’ve been on the lookout just in case.”
I suppressed a grimace. I had lit off a mindflare a few minutes after our escape and promptly passed out. Max had taken it upon himself to watch for dangers while they let me sleep it off. “Did Absynthe contact you?”
“For a moment. I couldn’t maintain the connection for long. Told her you’d give her the whole story when you woke up.” He rubbed his face and groaned. “I’ve never used it for so long. I’m going to crash once you tell me you’re ok.”
“I’m ok. Get some rest. Thanks.”
We changed places and I pulled the side door of the van open. The sun was setting and the rest stop didn’t seem too busy. I closed the van and walked across the parking lot. Drew and Andreas flagged me down as soon as I looked around.
I joined their table and both watched me in silence. Their food sat on the table in front of them. I stole a fry and waited for either of them to say something, anything. The silence stretched on while I chewed. Once I swallowed, I’d had enough. “So you’re both too scared to say anything?”
Drew looked at Andreas, but Andreas simply watched me. “Should we be scared?” he finally asked.
“Neither of you realized how real all this shit is until today, right?” I asked. Drew’s eyes narrowed and he started to speak, but I kept talking. “I know you’ve heard everything about this shit, but this is the first time you’ve actually seen a fight. Seen someone die.”
“It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone die,” Drew snapped. Heads turned. He looked down and shook his head. “Not the first time,” he repeated quietly.
I nodded. Lisa. “But not like that.”
“He turned into ash. Poof. I didn’t know that could happen to a person. I didn’t know you could do that to a person.”
Andreas let out a deep breath. “An arc flash from a sufficiently energized circuit breaker box can vaporize a body in less than a blink. It takes far less energy than most people think. Control over atmospheric electric potential could easily create a lightning strike of sufficient power.”
“And that’s the problem, right? Control. That wasn’t controlled, was it? You were panicking.”
I shook my head even as Drew’s words cut at me. I hadn’t expected near-vaporization, but I had intended to kill. “He was killing all of you. I stopped him. Hell, you told me to.”
“I didn’t expect you to almost fucking vaporize him!”
“He was trying to kill you,” I replied. “All of you to get to me, just because you’re with me. Yeah, it’s my fault. You want me to accept fault and responsibility? Done. I made sure he couldn’t hurt you and made sure he’d never be able to do it again. Shade’s group thinks I’m an uncontrolled weapon of mass destruction. They want to kill me before I go off.”
“You are a weapon,” Andreas said softly.
None of us said anything for a long moment. I nodded slowly. “You’re right. I am a weapon. The key point though, I’m not uncontrolled. I control myself.”
“Do you?” Drew asked. “Answer me honestly, Kev. Did you intend what happened?”
“I intended to kill him,” I said. “I intended to fry him. I didn’t know exactly how much it’d take to stop him, so maybe I went overboard, but not due to a lack of control. It was a lack of knowledge. I’ve never thrown so much power around before.”
“You haven’t?” Drew asked.
I clamped my mouth shut as his skepticism registered. Throwing Nikki into a wall. Smashing an agent with a street light. Throwing a metal desk into someone. Shredding people with a hail of glass. Sometimes I acted with control and restraint. The times I didn’t more than made up for the times I did. I could justify my actions. Others accepted my justifications. Most of the time. I looked away from Drew’s stare. “I’ve lost control before,” I said. “I was never taught how to control my strength, only to use it. I’ve tried to learn on my own. I keep trying. I don’t know what else I can do.”
“That’s why I’m scared, dude. I feel like I’m one mistake away from getting zapped.”
“Andrew,” Andreas said, a note of irritation in his voice. “That is unreasonable.”
“Sometimes I feel like I have to walk on eggshells to not piss you off.”
“Andrew!” I’d never heard Andreas raise his voice in anger before. “You are out of line. Kevin is would never strike you in anger and you know that. You are more in danger of being attacked by his enemies, or perhaps more likely, a car accident.”
I winced and Drew’s face lost a bit of color. “What the fuck, dude?”
“But I am correct, am I not?”
“You are.” Drew sighed and looked back to me. “Sorry, Kev. I’m freaked out.”
“I get it,” I said. Before I could say anything else, I sensed a presence and turned toward the entrance to see Max and Absynthe walking in. “Oh, perfect.”
She made a beeline for our table. Max made a beeline for the coffee. “Congratulations on waking up the entire East Coast,” she said.
I groaned. “Don’t tell me. My mindflare was stronger than I intended.”
“Not exactly.” She smiled, though I could sense some tension underneath. “The Bureau took advantage of the situation to denounce both Alistair and Shade for using them as a proxy for their little bitch fight. No mention of you, no problem there, just a nice diplomatic slap. Now, Max gave me the summary, give me the details.”
“Sorry, this is Absynthe, I assume?” Drew asked. I belatedly realized he and Andreas had never met her in person. “I’ve heard your name in passing.”
“Yeah, this is Absynthe,” I said. “She’s cool.”
“More like she’s hot.” Another flicker of the old Drew gave me hope for his recovery.
“Nice to meet you, Drew, Andreas,” she said, nodding to each of them. Of course she knew their names. “Details, Kevin?”
I told her about the brief fight and what I had done. She agreed that Bureau agents had probably hidden the fight from the thousands of cars who had sped past us in those few minutes. The lightning strike hadn’t been fully hidden, though. A local news agency had found what remained of the body and the abandoned van. Police were investigating. “Why didn’t the Bureau bury that?” I asked.
