April 7th, 2011 – Day 1639 and counting

Something changed a week ago. Something I'm not sure if I it like or not, and while I try to decide it—to understand the risks of it—I'm trapped. I can't go to her until I make a choice, I can't search for a way out, I can't trust that I'm making the right choice. I can't—God! It's as if I'm unable to concentrate for more than thirty seconds before thoughts of that cup, the flickering light bulb, and the smell of disinfectant start playing in my memory again and again.

I can't stop hearing Parker's warning about being careful. It's the way she said it, without her really knowing what I'm up against, that haunts me. I was expecting the rejection, and of course, the hunger in her eyes to take me apart in as many pieces as she could.

I expected the fear, I prepared for it, but I never expected it to dissolve so fast. The way her eyes went from sheer terror to utter understanding is unnerving, almost as if she could see through my soul. I've never heard anyone besides Frank and Maggs say be careful and mean it. And I can't let myself think she means it.

The crazy thing is, all she saw was me changing the color of a cup. What would she think if she knew about all my powers?

Or what I do with them?

Chapter Eleven
Snapshot

"The primary target will be at point D at 1100 hours," Captain Meyers explained to Max. "The team will cover your entry through point C, from here, here, and here. Our window of opportunity will be limited to three and a half minutes, tops."

Max's eyes followed the blueprints, the team leader's voice confident. He'd already scanned them with all the exits and evacuation routes, but reviewing the plan with the whole team was always necessary. His life depended on these men and women doing their job with deadly precision. In an operation like this, timing was everything.

"The secondary target will be at point E, but we're not hopeful about getting that far. The security system codes would require more time than we've got."

Says you, Max thought, visualizing what he had to do. Dozens upon dozens of surveillance photos were neatly stacked by his side. He'd been studying them from the moment he got on the plane until the moment he entered the makeshift headquarters. It was a good plan, far better than half the missions Max had done.

Stationed three blocks away from their objective, the adrenaline of the upcoming mission started to run in his veins. All in all, he'd be less than four hours in this foreign country. He wondered absently what it would be like to be a tourist. To actually get to know a little about where he was.

The review went on for fifteen more minutes. Once it ended, they had half an hour before showtime.

Going to the corner, Max changed his clothes into a guard's uniform, taking his time in the task of undressing and dressing again. It helped calm his nerves and keep his mind clear.

"What exactly do you do?" the guy in front of him asked. It was not an unusual question, but it often came with the envy and arrogance of older Black Ops. This time the question was curious. It came from their team's hacker.

"I bypass security in a way no one else can," Max answered truthfully. "You'll see."

"We've been planning this thing for months," the hacker said, passing his hands over his blond hair. "And then they told us we've gotten ourselves a 'specialist', whatever that means. I'm even contemplating hacking your file just to see why suddenly everyone in the high command was so happy."

"You can do that?" Max asked, a ray of hope forming and then fading. He couldn't risk asking anyone getting to his files. He couldn't let anyone know how badly he wanted them.

"I... I think I'm not going to answer that," the guy said slowly, looking rather afraid.

"But it could be done, right?" Max pressed. With everything that had happened with Summers and Parker, he hadn't had much time to go back to his hacking studies. Needless to say, progress was slow.

"Damn straight it can be done! There's no perfect system, no impenetrable fortress, just people who give up too soon. Everything can be hacked, my friend, if you have the... dedication and mental skills, of course."

"Of course."

"And so you know, with or without you, we would've solved that security system issue sooner or later."

"Right."

Max started tying his boots. He could fuse the laces together and stopped worrying about them, but this was the part he liked the best. His fingers moved methodically, passing the laces through every hoop and every twist.

"Tell you what, let's make this interesting," the hacker said, maybe getting frustrated with Max's lack of sharing about his work secrets, maybe because this was his way of keeping calm. "If you can get to the target without me figuring out how, I'll hack whatever you want. Your girlfriend's e-mail? Someone's bank account? Oh! Criminal records!"

"If you can get my file, I'll be impressed enough," Max answered without thinking, tying the laces tight with one last yank.

The guy smiled, clearly interested in the bargain.

By the time Max reached point B forty minutes later, he could feel the hacker's eyes on his back as if he were really behind him.

What will happen if he does get my file? Max wondered nervously, waiting for the diversion which would take the real guards away. The cameras would go on a loop next, and he'd be free to move to his target's location then.

If I tell him not to do it now, I'll only make him more curious.

The red light on top of the camera blinked three times, the sign that he was good to go. From this moment on, he had three minutes and twenty seconds to go in and get out. That was two minutes ten seconds more than his target had to live.