Wallace, page 17
“No doubt.” Wallace groaned. “When isn’t there with people like this?”
She nodded. “Jonas is okay, but I don’t know that they’ll keep him that way.”
“They don’t plan to, but two guards are down, courtesy of Wallace, so we can count on at least two guards up ahead. So Dom and the boss man are around somewhere nearby.”
She thought about it and agreed. “That’s all I’m getting for numbers too.”
Terk nodded. “So, that makes three of us against potentially all three of them.”
“Good,” she murmured. “Glad to know we’re at least in agreement on that much.”
As they headed down the hallway, Wallace watched as she hesitated. He grabbed her hand. “When you have a conviction, you stick to it,” he stated. “We can always change direction but only if you feel it.”
“What if we’re heading into a trap?” she asked, with a wry look in his direction.
“Then we’re heading into a trap, but we have to try this anyway, so remember that. Most importantly, we already know it.”
She didn’t say anything.
Wallace asked, “That accident you had, what did it do to you?”
“You mean, what didn’t it do?” she muttered. “Seems as if it ripped off a huge Band-Aid, exposing a fresh wound.”
Terk looked over at her and grinned. “That’s a really good analogy because that’s how we often felt when we were healing after being attacked. Everything felt wide open, raw even.”
“Exactly,” she agreed, with a shudder. “There’s … this sense of not being able to shut anything down, not being able to control everything that’s flying at you.” With a sigh, she continued on.
They walked a good twenty yards, and she stopped again. Terk raised an eyebrow.
She frowned. “He’s being moved.”
“Ah, that would explain it.”
“Explain what?”
“I feel energy shifting. Two bodies, but I don’t know how many we were dealing with right now.”
“I’m not even sure I’m getting two bodies out of this,” she admitted. “But definitely a feeling of … somebody being moved somewhere.”
“They’re trying to keep Jonas on the move to see if we can track him,” Terk suggested.
“That’s a shitty thing to do,” she murmured, and then she laughed. “But that’s all they really want to know, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, and that’s also what we don’t want to reveal,” Wallace pitched in.
Terk nodded at that. “So, if we continue in this direction, we’ll have to find a way to save Jonas, then afterward not reveal anything.”
“You mean, from them having a good idea of what we can do?” she muttered. “So, how will you do that? You don’t have a mind-wipe handy, do you?”
He grinned. “No, and it’s not exactly ethical either.”
“No, maybe not,” she muttered. “Still, I sure wouldn’t mind getting rid of some of these people who seem to think playing games with lives is okay.”
As they came up to two doors, she motioned to the left, only to realize Terk’s hand was already reaching for it. Wallace watched in amusement as the two balanced each other out in this dance. Wallace was also getting the same vibes as the two of them but didn’t feel the need to get in the middle of it. Yet it was nice to have his skills validated by these two.
Wallace wondered if Terk was testing her too. That would make sense, and, considering everything she had been through, there had to be some question as to where her state of mind was at, as well as her energy-worker skills. Like Terk, Wallace had a lot of questions about Amy’s accident, about her more recent illness, and what she ended up with as gifts afterward.
Almost as if she knew his thoughts, she looked over at Wallace and smiled brightly. “I know. We need to have a talk.”
He gave a soft laugh. “I would love to talk,” he replied, then sobered. “I definitely want to ask you about a lot of things.”
“It’s not really an issue we need to deal with right now though,” she murmured, as she looked at the door slowly opening in front of them. “Are you ready for company?”
“Always.”
And rather than just going in, they waited. Terk looked over at Wallace, with a note of amusement.
“Right, I’m the muscle,” Wallace muttered with an eyeroll, as he stepped forward into the room. There he found Jonas and one of the two other guards.
The guard looked at him in triumph and smiled. “Well, well, what a lovely surprise.”
“And yet it’s not a surprise to see you,” Wallace stated. “After all, how many others can be left behind? You’re the one who walked away with the boss. You’re the one who didn’t stick around to see if the other two guards would end up in a fight with us.”
“Of course not. Why would I do that?” He laughed. “It’s obvious that you knew what you were doing, and even the best street fighter, unless he’s professional, won’t do well up against a lot of military training,” he pointed out. “I certainly don’t have that training. What I do have, however, is this.” With that, he brandished a weapon.
She looked at it as she came up behind Wallace and stared. “Oh, so somebody finally brought a gun to this fight, huh?” She shook her head. “You guys really suck, don’t you?”
He stared at her. “That’s enough out of you,” he snapped, getting angry.
She shrugged. “I don’t think so. I just think you guys are a piece of shit for all the chaos you’ve been causing. All you are really doing is trying to figure out whether you can catch any us doing anything.”
“Dominic said you couldn’t,” he shared, with a sneer.
“Oh good.” She gave him a big grin. “That’s nice to know.”
“What do you mean, it’s nice to know?” he asked, eyeing her warily.
“This,” she declared. Then she stepped forward and placed a hand on Wallace, who then placed a hand on Terk.
The guard frowned at them and asked, “What is this? What are you three doing?”
Terk reached out his hand, and a beam of something hit the gunman.
The armed guard tried to react, taking a step forward, then slowly fell to his knees and went down. “But …” His eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed.
She smiled at the man down on the floor. “Glad you got the message.”
“Haven’t done that trick in a long time,” Terk shared, with amusement. “And,” he added, gazing at her sharply, “that was a pretty strong energy bolt you sent.”
“I didn’t know whether it lost force when transferred from me to you to you—or slowed down with each transfer to each person—so I amped it up to begin with.” She shrugged, frowning at Terk. “But you got the energy right away.”
“I tend to,” he said, “so just keep that in mind.”
“Good, it makes life easier.”
“It does, indeed.” Terk walked over, kicked away the gunman’s weapon, then bent down to check on him.
While Terk was squatted next to the guard, Amy looked up to the open doorway behind them, now filled with the boss and Dominic.
“See? I told you,” Dominic exclaimed. “They both have abilities.”
Dom had such a smug look on his face that she wanted to plow one into him.
“She doesn’t, of course,” Dom stated, with a dismissive wave of his hand. “But these two? Now that’s interesting.”
The boss looked at his captives and then at his man on the ground. “Did you really just do that?”
“Do what?” Terk asked, as he checked over the guy on the ground. “What are you feeding these guys? It looks as if he had a heart attack or something. Did you see the way his eyes rolled up?” Terk pointed out, with a casual shrug. “That definitely doesn’t seem normal.” He frowned. “You better get some medical help for him, you know, if you need him.”
“Medical help?” Dominic asked, with a searing look. “Like hell. You did that.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Terk replied, staring at him in astonishment. “What the hell do you think we are?”
Dominic shook his head. “No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get to do that.”
“Don’t get to do what?” Terk asked, standing up and giving Dominic an innocent expression, with some astonishment added in for good measure.
Wallace wanted to laugh. It was obvious that their kidnappers were hoping to get answers and thought to get somebody to admit something. It was just as obvious that nobody here would have anything to say.
Terk looked around the room. “If you don’t get help for him, … he may not survive.”
“That’s fine,” the boss replied. “You guys killed him so—”
“Actually we didn’t,” Terk corrected, frowning at him. “We didn’t have anything to do with this.” He looked over to Jonas, sitting on the floor, staring at everything in silence. “Jonas, did you see anything?”
Jonas shook his head and shrugged. “The guy just keeled over. Terk reached out a hand to stop him, but he hit the ground hard, before they even reached him.”
Dominic started swearing. “Oh, no, no, no you don’t,” he yelled. “No way in hell.”
“Don’t you have it recorded somehow?” Terk asked.
The boss man faced Dom, who then nodded. “I do.” He pulled out his phone and brought up the security camera app. He walked closer to the boss and pointed at the screen. “See? Look. It’ll be right here.”
The four captives watched the two boss men, as the video was replayed. From his position, Wallace could barely see the movement of the figures on the screen. The gunman took half a step, an odd gait to it, and completely collapsed, just as Terk reached out a hand, as if to help.
At that, the boss looked over at Dominic and snorted. “Yeah? See what I see? The guy had a heart attack or something,” he snapped, staring down at the guard. “I told him that he should lay off all that bloody fried food, but he didn’t give a shit.”
“No way, he was fine earlier. They did it,” Dominic roared.
The boss shook his head and declared, “No, they didn’t, and I’m done with this obsession of yours.” The boss man sounded truly pissed. “If and when I find real psychics,” he noted with emphasis, “I’ll handle this in a whole different manner.” Dominic glared at him, and the boss shook his head. “Enough. This nonsense is over with here and now. One more misstep, and you’ll be dealing with cleaning up the rest of this mess on your own.”
“Oh, yeah, and what will you do now?” Dom asked, with a sneer. “It’s not as if you have any options. You’ve got MI6 kidnapped and all kinds of people here who will be testifying against you, if you leave them alive,” he muttered.
The boss laughed. “Hey, I’m the one leaving the country, and chances of anyone finding me in my world are slim.” He pointed at Dom. “You’re the local. Why do you think I made sure that we played these games over here? As far as I’m concerned, you’re the one who kidnapped everybody, and I’m just here at your mercy.” The boss man took a step back. “I just escaped from an iffy deal gone bad here,” he shared, “so I’m pretty sure I can also escape from any lies that you profess.” He shook his head and laughed at Dom. And then he turned and disappeared so fast that they could barely react.
Dominic raced after him, calling out, but returned seconds later to find Wallace helping Jonas to the doorway. “Stop,” Dominic cried out.
“Stop what?” Wallace asked in anger. “Haven’t you figured out that the boss man’s done with you? If you keep pursuing this, you’ll end up getting a bullet, or maybe you just need that reality reinforced for you.” He gave him an intense stare. “Go ahead. Go on after him. See how far you get.”
Dominic stared at him and shook his head, glancing at the prone man on the floor. “What did you guys do?”
“What do you mean, what did we do?” Terk asked, staring at him. “I thought you were a psychic.”
“But I don’t know what you did,” he cried out. “Or how you even did it.”
“Maybe you don’t need to know either,” Amy added, staring at him. “You’re nothing but a troublemaker, a liar, and a cheat. Believe me that nobody wants to work with you.” She was calm and collected. “You’ve got three injured guards here, so you may want to take care of them. You wanted to get all this away from the boss man anyway, right? … So here’s your chance to pick up the pieces,” she said, with a nonchalant shrug. “But remember this. If we find out about any more kidnappings of psychics, we’ll know exactly who to look for.”
Leaving him standing there, looking at them in shock, they headed out the door. As they got down the hallway, she kept waiting for Dom to appear behind her. She asked Terk, “It can’t really be that easy, can it?”
“I don’t think so,” Terk replied. “So, keep up your energy, while we get Jonas out of here,” he murmured. “And let’s find out where the boss man went.”
“Ah, now that would make more sense.”
They headed cautiously back down into the tunnels and went around several corners, finding Riff headed toward them.
He shook his head in exasperation. “Why do I even bother?”
At that, Terk laughed. “Because there’s still an ambush coming our way,” he added, with a wave of his hand. “You want to give me a hand with Jonas here?”
Riff asked him, “Jonas, what the hell?”
Jonas gave him a hard look. “A little assistance would be good.”
But instead of just helping, Riff picked him up in his arms and turned around. “Come on. Let’s get out of here,” Riff stated. “I hate these creepy tunnels.”
They hadn’t gotten more than a few feet when somebody behind them called out.
Knowing it was the wrong thing to do but instinctively already in motion, Amy turned.
Chapter 10
Amy found the boss man looking at them in delight, a gun in his right hand, nonchalantly hanging at his side. Amy nodded. “I figured it was you. You’ve just been trying to get rid of Dominic.”
“Dominic is small fry.” He looked at her and the others. “Is this stuff for real?”
Terk replied cautiously, “It might be for real, but trying to wield it against somebody’s free will simply won’t work.”
The boss man frowned at that and turned to Wallace. “You tried to tell me that earlier, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, and you didn’t listen.”
He shrugged. “You told me to find a group who would work for me willingly.”
“It’s the only way it could ever work,” Terk confirmed. “The more you try to coerce somebody, the less effective it will be.”
He grouched at that. “I could still take you guys with me.” He raised his gun to make that point.
“How do you expect that to happen?” Terk asked, with a cool bemusement.
“Why not? I have power. I have money, and I have the sheer might to make it happen. I have a gun.”
“In your right hand too. I see it, but there’s more of us now,” Amy pointed out, walking toward him. “What is it you think you’ll do?”
“You just keep walking my way,” the boss man declared, “and I’ll show you.”
“Don’t do it,” Wallace said to her, an urgent note of concern in his tone.
Amy nodded, smiling, but not taking her gaze off the boss man. “It’s okay, Wallace.”
Even Terk sent out a warning to her.
She nodded again, walking closer to the boss man. “See? They don’t want me coming anywhere near you.”
“That’s because they know I’ll just grab you and keep you close. Then they’ll do anything I want,” the boss declared, with a smirk.
“That’s your faulty reasoning talking. You’ve discounted me completely, thinking I couldn’t do anything because, in your mind, I’m just prey,” she explained. “That’s the thing with discounting someone this way. That prey can turn to predator very quickly, and, before you know it, it’s too damn late.” With that, she placed a hand on the side of his neck. “I get it. You don’t know anything about this. You don’t know anything about us. From your perspective this is all fun and games, but you don’t see how serious it really is. You have no idea just how very serious this really is.”
He laughed at that. “Good, in that case you can come with me and show me just how serious it really is.”
“No, no, and hell no. I don’t want to go with you or with anybody like you. That isn’t what I want to do with my life, so my answer is a resolute no.”
He grabbed her by the arm. “I won’t give you a choice.”
She patted his cheek with her free hand and added, “I won’t give you a choice either. Look at me.”
He frowned down at her, gripping her arm even harder.
She snapped the fingers on her free hand, smiling all the while.
The resulting jolt made him jump.
She nodded. “See? You have these meridians that run up and down your system, and just a snap of my fingers sends the energy flowing in one direction or the other,” she shared. “I can just as easily make the energy go the other way.” With a snap of her fingers, he jolted again.
“What the hell?” he yelled, releasing his hold on her.
“This is what I warned you about. You thought you could hold me against my will, but really I’m holding you against yours.” She patted his cheek again. “So, when you start playing games with people who have abilities, you might want to remember that they probably have more power than you do and can make you act like a puppet on a string. You may have the urge to ask why, and I will say this one time only, so hear me well. Because they can,” she declared, as she snapped her fingers yet again. “And so can I.”
He jolted once more and took a step back from her.
She nodded. “Now I’ve got your energy pattern. I have a lock on it, so guess what? You can run, but you can’t hide. You can get to the end of this hallway, and I can snap my fingers and make you dance and do things you don’t want to do. So, if I ever see you again on this side of the ocean—or anywhere in the world, for that matter—just remember. All I need to do is snap my fingers.”
