Harold heard the grunt of pain from Reese and the female voice yelling in the background. "Mister Reese, what's happening?" he asked quickly. He got no reply, and shortly after asking, the line went completely dead. A spike of fear pierced him and he made an attempt to locate Reese's cell. There was no signal, so the phone must have been destroyed. What if they had already killed Reese? Had he found the operative and rescued him only to lose him to a true death so soon afterwards?
Quickly he pushed away the approaching dread and calmed himself. There was no reason to panic until he knew for certain what had happened to Reese. Shutting his eyes and placing his hands palm-down on the table, he attempted to relax his body as best he could. It didn't used to be so hard, but he had learned to compensate. Slowly, he reached out a psychic tendril to touch the web of soul sensors that stretched over the entire city. He had long ago used his Talent to create a bridge with it in case he ever needed to use it. The government had created the sensor web several years ago, though they rarely used it. There was far too much controversy on the subject.
In the web, he could move from place to place instantaneously, surrounded by the lights of the Souls of the people living in New York. He zeroed in on Reese's Soul and found that the feel of it was more familiar to him than he would have expected. The web lead him towards Reese's Soul energy for just a fraction of a moment before halting suddenly. Perplexed, Finch backed up a little. He followed the trail forward once more and again was stopped by some force. When he attempted to circle around the phenomena, he found that it covered a large section of the city.
As soon as he returned to himself, he pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Theresa's Talent was extensive indeed if she could disable the city's surveillance for a mile around where she was. If Reese was in as much danger as Finch suspected, he wouldn't have time to work his way into her sphere of influence to locate him.
There was only one being that had a chance of piercing Theresa's cloak, and there was a chance she wouldn't choose to help him. After all, he'd been attempting to cut himself off from her for quite some time now. He wouldn't blame her if she felt abandoned. Gently, he reached out to the part of his mind that was still connected to the Machine. The response was almost instantaneous. She seemed to light up at his contact, and sensing his request, began to flow through the systems that even he could not pierce.
Within what felt like seconds, but in the real world was probably only microseconds, she passed over the information he needed. Had he been speaking to another corporeal being, he would have thanked her, but as it was, he merely sent his gratitude to her through their link as he retreated. She lit up one last time before he returned fully to his own mind.
He had the address he needed; now he just had to get there before Reese was killed. As Finch climbed into his car, he cursed his crippled wing. Usually, flying would be faster than a car, especially in the city. He was still able to fly, but, like his walking, he was seriously hampered by his injury.
He parked a little ways away from the place the Machine had showed him and prepared an elaborate cloak to place over himself. He had learned how to make cloaks—and other things—that worked with a minimum of Power but often functioned better than more conventional means.
He didn't have to look for them for very long, seeing as they were right in the place that the Machine had told them they would be. It was a small, dank alley that barely seemed big enough for the group milling about there as though waiting for someone. Finch spotted Reese almost immediately. His hands were cuffed behind his back and a burly man had a gun trained on his head. Reese looked almost sleepy, but Finch was perfectly aware that the ex-op was plotting. When he moved a little closer to the group, Reese looked up as though he heard something, though no one else seemed to notice it and Finch was certain that he had made no detectable noises. Slowly, Reese once again lowered his head.
Joey was there—looking exceedingly uncomfortable—but there was no sign of Theresa. Finch wondered what they were all doing here of all places, and for the first time in his haste, what in the name of the Light he was going to do to help Reese. Just then, an Unknown showed up with a struggling Theresa in his grip. With a snarl, he shoved the girl towards the gang and disappeared again. Obviously, no one wanted the whine of a revealed Unknown giving them away to anyone. Joey quickly moved forward to embrace Theresa and speak to her quietly.
"We're ready for the jump, now," said one of the women in the group. The man that had a gun trained on Reese now grasped him roughly by the upper arm. If Finch was going to do anything, it had to be now. He should be able to link his Talent to Reese so that the ex-op to could use it to escape… Finch attempted to reach out and weave his Talent to his employee's. Just as he reached out, though, he seemed to hit a barrier that pushed him back. He tried again and the same thing occurred. Theresa's Talent was blocking his own. He was surprised that his cloak was still holding.
Before Finch could think of a single solution, the group spread their wings and just before they made the jump, Reese turned to him and shook his head. And then they were gone.
Author's Note: So, I had someone ask me to explains some of the stuff in this story in more detail.
The difference between Power and Talents: Talents are sort of like the refined skill to create or do something while Power is the raw energy needed to create or do whatever it is. For example, Finch does the planning and Nathan puts it into action because Finch has the Talent and Nathan has the Power.
The Unknown are demonic creatures spawned in the Lower Realms. They cause corruption, disaster and all manner of unpleasantness. they are undetectable until they are Revealed.
The Fallen-Seraphim or Wingless can "Fall" into the Lower Realms. This is caused by violent emotions like anger, hatred, fear, pain and violent grief. It happens quickly and all at once, whereas Fading (caused by sadness, depression, hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, etc) happens gradually and fairly slowly.
Hope that helps! ~II
