Overture
A crash of thunder and flash of lightning split the monotonous drone of rain and wind pattering against the window. The man looked up from his dollar bin sci-fi novel silently counting seconds between the flash and the roar in an attempt to split the tedium of his job like the lightning had split the frosty sea air. One…two…three…flash. Three miles. Not bad but still a little close. Lightning always struck a little close for his comfort.
The man sighed and turned back to the worn, grey pages of the book before glancing up at the clock. Half past one, he thought with a groan. Five hours to go. A sip from coffee long gone cold further soured his mood. The man swept the foul beverage into a dust bit with a resounding clang that echoed across the empty halls.
He glanced up at the monitor. Thirty four screens from thirty four cameras showed that all was still well as it had been every night for the last fifteen years of his miserable career. Still, it was better than the day shift. Those guys usually didn't last more than a few months before getting themselves on the first ferry back to the mainland. He would have too if he had to deal with the kind of things they had to deal with.
One of the benefits of working the night shift was that he was rarely bothered by other guards. The roaming guards would stop in every once and a while to check in before heading out to resume patrol. So for the most part it was just him, his book and nearly four-hundred violently insane inmates.
Eagle Rock Detention Center. 45W, 55N smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (Don't look for it; you won't find it on any map). To earn a cell there, you had to be one bad son of a bitch. Rape murder, arson, torture. Crimes like that are scoffed at at Eagle Rock. Maybe mass murder or mass arson but usually the prison was reserved for a very special kind of crazy. Those whose insanity was coupled with strange and destructive powers.
Eagle Rock: One of four Psychonaut secret prisons scattered throughout the world. The Psychic Alcatraz. The Glass Prison.
Once there were hundreds of Atlantic island prisons now there were only two: Eagle Rock and another in the North Sea under another government's control. The guard had only heard about the other one: real freaks were stored there, mostly from England but the Psychonauts didn't control that one. That was another entity entirely; a place that was guarded its prisoners without any modern security system at all; as if fear itself held the prisoners captive
But his concern was directed towards the psychic inmates who had to be constantly injected with a cocktail of vitamins and neurotoxins that kept them mostly harmless. Mostly.
There was a stray case last year: a prisoner had been hiding the drugs under his tongue and slowly regaining his power. One poor bastard tried to restrain him: took weeks to scrape him off the walls. To be sure, this job was dangerous but it had its upsides. Six figures a year and a healthy pension for those who managed to make it twenty years.
The man is a guard, one of hundreds that guarded the facility. His name is of little importance in view of the fact that by 3:15 on October 12 2014 he will be dead.
Sasha Nein wiped his brow nervously. To say he lacked people skills was a major understatement but to have to explain the current situation to almost one hundred Psychonauts representing nearly fifty countries was enough to make any veteran agent sweat. Especially with Mr. Zanotto himself sitting just behind him.
Nevertheless he had a job to do.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice." His crisp German accent cutting through the almost palpable tension stewing between the agents. They had all received calls to be in Washington no later than ten. There hadn't been a conference this large since the incident involving the Grandmaster's kidnapping. Something big was going down so of course everyone was making speculations. Their secret had finally been revealed. Another psychological plague had surfaced and people were going mad. Tensions between the psychics and the "Others" as they were known to those who knew them had led to full scale war that threatened to tear their worlds apart. (The fellow in the corner said he came from the London "Ministry". The agents had given him a wide berth, carefully probing his thoughts only to find a powerful mental barrier that wasn't psychic at all.)
"You have all been summoned here because this morning, around 3:15 ESA we lost all contact with Eagle Rock Psychic Detention Facility."
A general rabble nearly drowned out the last few words. What did this mean? And why did Truman Zanotto, the usually stalwart defender of Psychic values, look so pale.
"There are many speculations flying about but the facts are as follows:" Sasha said, raising his voice to quiet the crowd.
"Around 3:45, power was cut to the prison and the mainland monitors lost contact; Electronic or Psychic."
"4:00 Dispatch teams from surrounding barracks deployed to the main prison block"
"4:05 All units converge on S Wing"
"4:09 Contact lost with all squads, never to be reestablished. Questions, Agent LaBrie?" Sasha nodded at the Canadian agent who had raised her hand.
"If we lost all contact then how were we notified?"
"I was just getting there." Sasha said, glancing at the man in the corner nervously. "As I'm sure you all are aware, the Others have a prison in the North Sea where they keep their most dangerous criminals." Sasha loosened his tie nervously. "Around…8:07 the… guards at this location found, washed up on their shore, roughly three-hundred bodies that were once guards and prisoners at Eagle Rock-" A cry of outrage, dismay and confusion cut Sasha off.
Truman held up his hand and almost instantly, there was silence. Their leader was looking grave and this was no time for idle speculation.
"As I was saying, Mr. Thomas," Sasha gestured to the stranger in the corner. "Flew in form London and alerted Grandmaster Zanotto to the situation at hand, which, I'm afraid is more serious than it originally appeared." Sasha took a deep, slow breath. Everyone hung on Agent Nein's next word.
"We believe that this breakout was orchestrated by deranged mass murderer Leopold LaChance."
Sasha flinched as a general cry of dismay rent the air. LaChance? Escape? How could it be possible? How could they have let the single most infamous madman in psychic history slip through their clutches?
"I need not remind you, my friends, of how LaChance once threatened the security and well being of every man, woman and child on this planet. With his release, he threatens us again. You have been summoned to answer that threat."
First there was silence as the enormity of the situation sunk in. Finally there was a lone cry of. "Blow it up!" followed by a resounding "Yeah!" from all those present.
Sasha shot a glance back at Truman who was now blinking very fast, wiping his face with an already sodden handkerchief.
"It's not that simple…"
The rabble rousing died down as the last words Sasha spoke came in a deadly whisper.
"Around 9:58 ESA, Lillian Annemarie Zanotto failed to report to her first period class at Maslow Memorial High School." Dead silence.
Sasha took a long drag off the freshly lit cigarette with a deeply relieved sigh. Yet for all his outward appearances his mind was in a state of turmoil.
The council had voted 51-49 in favor of destroying Eagle Rock Island and every living being on it which included, if his suspicions were correct, Ms. Zanotto. It made sense; for LaChance to kidnap the only child of the Psychonaut Grandmaster and his bitter enemy as an act of leverage against the free world seemed something LaChance was apt to do. What he didn't count on was the fact that Truman Zanotto still had to answer to the council. No matter how he pleaded, they stood firm. Lili's life wasn't worth risking LaChance's escape from Eagle Rock.
He paused to take a drag off his cigarette only to find it had vanished from his fingertips to hover in mid air.
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, darling; those things are going to kill you someday."
Sasha turned around to face the voice he knew so well. Milla Vodello plucked the cigarette out of the air and dramatically ground it beneath her brightly colored heel.
"Sorry." Sasha mumbled. "I'm a little edgy right now."
Milla nodded, moving to stand beside her partner. "Our Clairvoyants have confirmed my suspicions: Lili is alive but she is LaChance's prisoner." Sasha groaned. "In ten days, a squad of B-26's will destroy Eagle Rock all together."
"So…what can we do?"
"Do?"
" About the girl."
"We…can't do anything."
"Surely we're not going to let that poor girl die on a rock in the middle of the ocean?" Milla gasped.
Sasha chuckled, in spite of himself. "You didn't hear me, "darling": We can't do anything."
Realization dawned on the Mental Minx. "Black-Ops."
"Truman has leant me a jet to "take care of" Sasha quoted with his fingers. "All we need is an agent to go in and extract Ms. Zanotto before Eagle Rock becomes Eagle Dust."
"But I thought you said we couldn't go ourselves." Milla asked.
"We can't. We'd lose our jobs and possibly serve prison time. We need another agent."
"Where are we going to find an agent who's willing to risk their life, job and freedom all for a smart mouthed sixteen year old girl?"
Sasha lit another cigarette, took a long, thoughtful drag before turning to Milla. "I think it's time we paid Agent Aquato a visit, don't you?"
AN: First fic! Please review! I own nothing! If you want me to continue then let me know.
