Chapter Twenty One: All Fun and Games Until...
Will and Henry sauntered into one of the smaller labs, finding who they were looking for working at one of the stations. He and Henry shared an exasperated look. They both walked over to each side of Jenna, who was trying to ignore them. "Here you are! What do you say to coming with us into town tonight?" He asked with little preamble.
"Yeah, we're having a Karaoke night!" Henry added cheerfully, doing a tiny dance.
Jenna shook her head, not taking her eyes from the screen. "Sorry boys, I have got a bunch of stuff I need to do." She paused from typing with one finger while her other hand was holding up her head. "Besides, I don't want to be a fifth wheel."
Henry grabbed her suddenly and playfully shook her, disrupting her work. "But you have to come! Or else Abby, Erika and I have to do all the singing! You know how tiring that is?" he whined.
Laughing, she had to grip a hand onto the HAP to keep from falling off the stool.
"And you sing so well!" Henry reverted to clinging onto Jenna while he gave the compliment.
"Besides," Will started, leaning on the table by his elbows, "a night out will do you good. Keep you from moping."
"I am not moping!" Jenna protested, glaring at Will while still trying to keep Henry from shaking her again. Though she was still squished sideways against Henry's chest, so she wasn't sure how well the glare worked.
Will smirked and rolled his eyes. "Oh, you so are!" He declared. "Come on, Tesla has been gone for a month. It's acceptable to miss him." Though clearly Will did not in the least. "But you've cooped yourself in either your room or one of the many labs long enough." He nodded to Henry and they both grabbed an arm and dragged Jenna away from the computer.
"Hey! I'm not done!" Jenna half-heartedly protested. She had to admit, a night out sounded great.
"Oh, yes you are." Henry replied, quickly punching a few keys and finishing the section of code and saving it. He looked back at her with triumph.
Jenna sighed; giving them a hard time of it. They had no chance at pulling her farther than what she'd already allowed. After a few moments of "intent thinking", Jenna turned to them and smiled. "Fine, I'm in."
The boys let her go and gave each other a high five. "Yes!" Henry was like a little boy with a much wanted toy. It was always a treat to listen to the angeelanoid sing.
Later that night they were walking from the club after a full night of singing, alcohol and chicken wings. The five of them were fairly inebriated except Jenna; who couldn't get drunk and was the self volunteered DD for the night. Still, the intoxicated thoughts, emotions and disorientations of the other four people were getting distractingly hard to ignore. Sometime after midnight, she called it a night. But it was a wonderful and warm night, so they decided to walk to a small secluded coffee shop Will and Abby knew about.
They were walking down a narrow and eerily empty street when the shadows seemed to move. There was a series of clicking and suddenly they were surrounded by about a dozen men in all black military gear with high tech guns pointed at them.
"What the deuce?" Jenna whispered, clearly as surprised as the others. She must have been more distracted than she first thought.
One of the men stepped forward, pointing an odd looking gun right at Jenna. It looked like a large barrelled tranquilizer gun. "Don't move or we will shot."
Jenna smiled beguilingly at him and held up a finger. "Be right with you." She quipped and looked over at the others. "Wait for me." She told them and they disappeared in a flash of energy when Jenna concentrated.
Cursing, the man pulled the trigger of his strange launcher, but before it hit the equally strange woman spun around and caught the device. The next moment she was also gone in a flash.
Meeting the others at one of the secret entryways to the Sanctuary, Jenna was now clear minded and angry. "Okay!" She said as they filed down the tunnel to the cavern; towards where the EM shield began. "From what I caught from their minds, SKUI is up to some tricks." She told them with annoyance and held up the hand sized dart like object that was surrounded by sharp blade like prongs that had small gaffs. Looked like a multi-tool trank. "And a new toy."
"What the hell is that?" Henry asked, reaching for it.
"Whoa, wonder kin." Jenna moved the dart out of his reach. "You can tinker with it and find out what it is tomorrow-when you're sober." She told them, surfing them to the residential lobby the moment they were under the shield. "Off to bed, everyone, while I see if Helen is awake to report the incident." She ordered the two still tipsy couples. While both Abby and Erika ushered their men to their rooms, Jenna focused on Helen's location. She was in luck, Helen was awake and in her office. "Helen." She greeted upon entering the other woman's office.
Helen jerked in surprise. "Jenna... stop doing that. I thought you and the others were out tonight." She said with a smile; which wavered seeing Jenna's serious expression. "What happened?" It always felt like her team couldn't go anywhere without trouble showing up.
Jenna put the device on her table. "SKIU tried to shoot me with this."
Eyebrow raised, Helen carefully picked it up, careful of the central dart and thin bladed prongs. "Looks like a modified trank dart. But not like any dart I have ever seen." She gave it back to her. "Have Henry check it out in the morning. You think they were after something?"
"Either that, or they were trying out this thing." Jenna motioned to the dart.
"We'll get answers. But not now." Helen nodded then perked up. "Oh, a package came in for you while you were out. I had Biggie put it in your room."
The dart disappeared. "Really?" Jenna asked, suppressing a smile.
"You can go." Helen told her, grinning knowingly. When Jenna disappeared Helen shook her head and continued going over some research.
There was a small box and a parchment made envelope waiting for her on the bed. Sitting down, Jenna picked up the envelope, smiling at the now familiar script belonging to Nikola. Lying on her stomach on the bed with her bare feet propped on her pillows, she opened the letter and flattened it on the bed. It was dated two days before.
MojJenna,
I can't wait to get back to you. All I've done here is work, and not even Declan will acknowledge the magnificent strides I have managed to accomplish here in just a few weeks. Not just the teleporting network, which I happily share credit with you, but I've managed to improve the efficiency of their power usage systems and made their security programs rival that of any government system. AND given him the closed system he wanted with extras. Yet so far, no thanks have been expressed. Again, my superior intelligence goes unrecognized.
Speaking of another superior intelligence I know, I hope you are doing well moj belog goluba. The worst part of my time here is that you are all the way over there in the central Sanctuary. I miss your presence, your scent and your quick mind. Working with Henry's counterpart here has made the process of equipping them with our teleporter's almost twice the effort. I constantly have to explain the technology to him.
I've been trying to get Declan to speak to Helen about letting you come here to help me finish. And perhaps get me out of helping that twit with the external security sensors.
Pray for me moj andeo and hope I don't lose what sanity I have left working with such incompetence.
Until we see each other again,
~Tesla
P.S: I made a trinket for you out of the scrap from the teleporter components. There is even a Praxian gemstone that has no name. Apparently I am terrible at naming things, so I shall leave it to you to name it. When I get back, I'll tell you its special property.
Jenna put the letter down with a giggle. Nikola wrote how he talked; she could practically hear his voice, with the slight and subtle accentuations. She could even imagine his facial expressions and body language.
She put the letter to the side and unwrapped the small parcel. In it was a palm sized velvet box and when she opened it, inside was a shiny metal bauble the size of a pop bottle cap and about as wide around. It had a transparent blue gem imbedded within it with blue and green translucent engraved wire spiraling its length to its loop. The bauble was connected to a medium sized and elegantly linked silver chain.
It was a very beautiful necklace. And he had made it out of a Praxian gem and scrap tech? He really was a genius.
Taking it out, Jenna immediately undid the clasp and put it on; bounding to her mirror to see how it looked. The chain length had the top of the pendant an inch under her collar bone. She gasped; the gem and the wires were glowing. "Huh." After a moment, the glowing died away and only the wires pulsed; as if charging. "Powered by an external heat source." Jenna murmured with a smile; though she still couldn't figure out what the "special property" was. She went back to her bed, with one hand fiddling with the bauble, and snuggled in to read the letter again.
Henry rubbed his eyes again, turning the over sized dart in his hands. He checked out the bottom of the device. "It looks like this might hold some electronics inside." He said, getting a tiny screwdriver. "May be what's emitting that EM pulse we detected."
"Hold it." Jenna put a hand on his arm. "What if it has an anti tampering... thing?" she asked, fiddling with her necklace.
"Anti-tampering?" Henry looked from the device to Jenna, and then to Biggie. When tall and hairy shrugged neutrally, Henry put the screw driver down. "What do you suggest?"
Jenna shrugged. "Let's shoot it at a dummy to see what it does?" she suggested.
"That might damage it; and if I'm right, it may also drain the power source." Henry replied.
"Well... okay." She ceded. "Then go on and open it." Jenna took a step back; Biggie joined her.
When Henry opened it, nothing happened, and there were two small electrical devices surrounding a capsule of sedative. After a few more minutes of tinkering he was able to hook up the device to his computer.
Meanwhile, Jenna took a sample of the sedative to see what it was. As she ran the diagnostics, Helen entered the lab. "We're not done yet, Helen." She said cheerfully, making Henry wince at the volume of her voice. She'd been having fun with his hangover all morning.
"I know, but I'm going to have to steal you away." Helen told her.
"Really? What for?" Jenna asked, confused at the mental wall that was solidly around the other woman's mind.
Helen linked her fingers together in front of her. "I need you to take me to the London Sanctuary right away."
Jenna's eyes widened. "Why?"
"I will tell you when we get there. But we have to hurry."
Jenna turned to Biggie. "Take over for me." When Biggie nodded, she turned back to Helen. "Ready?" She took Helen by the hand and took them to London.
The video showed Nikola and the London abnormal tech working on a piece of equipment located outside at the outer perimeter. Jenna had to smile when the two of them started to have an argument. But a moment later, she jumped when the tech went down in a spasm as one of those strange darts hit the both of them. Nikola was able to vamp and start towards his attackers before two more darts, then three hit him and he went down. As the attackers came into view of the camera, the last thing they saw was two men grab Nikola while a third shot the camera. They were in the same gear that the men who tried to attack Jenna were wearing.
A creak sounded from the table Jenna was gripping and when she moved her hands, she was surprised to see indents. She felt Helen's comforting hands on her shoulders and tried to relax. "Please tell me you know where they took him." Jenna commented, willing her jaw to unclench.
Declan shifted uneasily, looking between the two women. "He had a locator beacon with him, and we were able to track him as far as a private jet lot." He explained as he keyed in a few commands switching the computer screen to another image. It showed a hanger at their international airport. "We tried to intercept them but Nikola's tracker suddenly went silent and they were able to get airborne." He told them.
"You suspect that they found his tracker?" Helen asked, seeming to be unsurprised that Nikola had such a device on his person; he'd been in trouble enough times lately that it would just make good sense.
"We don't think so." Declan shook his head. "We think the craft had their own version of an EM shield which blocked the transmission from reaching us."
Helen pursed her lips. "Did the signal ever reappear?" Helen asked, adjusting the image to show one of all of Europe, then even more general until a real time world map showed up.
Nodding, Declan took the keyboard from Helen to focus the image to the area within western North America. "It showed up for a short time at these coordinates before disappearing again."
Jenna and Helen exchanged a look. Helen gestured at the screen, "When Henry and I went to 'Area 51' and discovered Tesla working there-."
"Who had unwittingly unleashed a people eating inter dimensional monster." Jenna supplied.
Helen nodded. "Before we left, he gave Henry back his tablet, which we later found to contain information about SCIU's initiatives, facilities and general plans for the abnormal's they capture." She glanced at Declan before pointing at the location Nikola's tracker had been last recorded. "We know that one of their security and technology facilities was supposed to be located about here."
Declan's eyes widened. "Are you sure he'll be there? What if they took him someplace else?"
"It's also where our intel says they moved all of Nikola's research and tech." Helen added.
There was a short length of silence.
"We just need to get there and disable that EM shield and I'll do the rest." Jenna stated her voice barely above a whisper. She looked over at Helen. "You and Henry can disable or destroy their EM generator. Getting back out without it will make it much easier."
Helen put a hand on Jenna's arm. "Are you sure you can get him back on your own?"
Jenna smiled. "There are tricks up my sleeve that I've barely touched upon, Helen. I have a much better chance at getting to him if I was alone."
"Alright." Helen nodded. "Get us back to our Sanctuary and we'll get Henry debriefed and get the layout of the compound." She looked at Declan. "Thank you, if you get any other information, let my staff now, otherwise we'll contact you as soon as we can."
"Declan nodded. "Good luck." And they were gone again.