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Sandoval reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch, checking the time.
A Volunteer approached, "Should we remove him yet?"
Sandoval glanced at the tank holding the stubborn Detective. "No. Let him experience the world without his senses a little longer. I'll be back shortly and then we'll see if his experience has made him more cooperative."
The Detective was one of a kind - the only human that they had found so far with all five senses enhanced. Zo'or believed that these abilities to be a gift from Ma'el, much as psychic powers were. Yet this ability was infinitely more rare, and potentially more dangerous and if able to be harnessed, an extremely lethal weapon.
As it was genetically passed down, if they were able to isolate the gene or genes responsible they could create yet another weapon to fight the Jaridians.
The Taelon's latest failed attempt at sensory enhancement was the NSI. They had made coventures with several organizations in order to correct the problems of some of the earliest devices. Though the project had utterly failed, Sandoval had found the device to be useful in extracting information.
Several of the Taelons' test subjects had died, others had begun experiencing severe headaches, and were now, no longer able to do much of anything. Doors had been given the latest prototype version, the one they had been sure had corrected every problem. Unfortunately, it also appeared to have eliminated the enhanced senses aspect.
Sandoval had not expected Doors to escape. In fact, he had actually planned on killing him and unfortunately, he HAD escaped, leaving Sandoval with a virtually untouchable loose end. Doors claimed to remember absolutely nothing. A lucky circumstance, if Sandoval had ever heard of one. Of course, he periodically checked just to be sure. Not that Doors could harm him, but he could raise more questions than Sandoval was comfortable dealing with. And IF Joshua did start talking, Sandoval couldn't just get rid of him like he had done so many others.
Sandoval's luck was holding - so far.
***********************
Joshua and Renee entered the hideout with the list of names, hoping they could get Augur to run some kind of background check on them.
Blair and Augur were hunched over the computer, engaged in an animated discussion over something.
Augur noticed them first, "Good, you're back. Blair and I have found a lot of information that the Taelons have collected on Sentinels and enhanced senses. In fact, Zo'or seems extremely interested in it - personally."
"Of course." Renee said, "If he can find a way to enhance human senses, then he might be able to build super weapons to fight the Jaridians."
"Exactly! They've been trying to figure out a technological way to do it." Augur exclaimed.
"The NSI?" Joshua asked.
Augur nodded, "Apparently, they're under the impression that the NSI doesn't work - based on what I was able to decrypt so far. They've made prototypes, tested them, revised them and so on."
Joshua spoke, "So since the NSI doesn't work, they've kidnapped Ellison to . . ."
Blair finished, "look for a genetic component to use." He paused, "But who said the NSI doesn't work?"
"What do you mean?" demanded Renee.
"He sensed the bomb at the conference - it does work."
Joshua shook his head, "Only to a certain extent."
"No!" Blair said excitedly, "I think it really does work, but the device is currently deactivated, causing sensory bursts!"
Augur translated, "What he's saying is that to access the senses fully, the NSI has to be turned back on."
Joshua paled, "No! I won't do that."
Blair added, "You are the key to this. Accessing the senses could help us find Jim."
"I don't want enhanced senses - I want to just turn them off."
"You can't do that entirely - look you've already had several sensory bursts you said. And the headaches - it might relieve them as well."
"Or it might kill him." said Renee.
"I don't think so." Blair said thoughtfully, "But I'd speculate that he's in danger either way - these sensory bursts will get worse I think. Haven't they gotten worse already."
Joshua nodded slowly.
"They knock you out for more and more time - eventually you may not be able to function. Plus you can't remove the device. I think that turning it back on will end your problems and help us find Jim." Blair looked at Joshua and could see the terror and conflict written in his eyes.
Augur intervened, "We can discuss this later - you said you had something to show us?"
Joshua nodded, and silently pulled out the list. "These are the names of the people that kidnapped me. Sandoval had me go through a bunch of pictures at the police station. I told him I didn't remember but I was able to jot down the names."
Augur pulled up the three files. Keith Harkins and Sam Norris were both pretty much small-time crooks. When Augur pulled up the third file, Blair gasped.
"That's Garrett Kincaid! Jim and I have had a couple of run-ins with him."
Augur read off the file, "Commander of the Sun Rise Patrons, a militia group that just had two members, tried to free them by taking over the Cascade Police Headquarters and holding the people hostage. Captured by Detective James Ellison. Escaped from prison, takes control over a basketball stadium of 18,000 people. Again captured by Detective Ellison." A look of shock crossed Augur's face, "Guess what guys? He's got an older brother - one Liam Neville Kincaid."
Blair looked confused, "You mean the companion protector?"
"Not exactly." It was at that moment that Liam Kincaid, companion protector, decided to make his entrance.
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Liam entered Augur's home, an air of worry surrounding him. He knew Augur didn't take things too lightly. The meeting Sandoval had called had been practically worthless - a bunch of information that they already knew damn well, had heard hundreds of times before. Sandoval had also informed them that evaluations were going to be held soon, to determine the performance and efficiency of each protector. That was going to be a painful process - Liam already had Sandoval watching his every move.
As he entered, he caught the tail end of a conversation.
". . . one Liam Neville Kincaid."
"You mean the companion protector?"
"Not exactly."
"What's going on?" Liam asked, he eyed the strange long-haired man who he'd never seen before, "And who are you?"
Augur spoke, "Liam Kincaid, Blair Sandburg."
"Ellison's partner?" The young man nodded.
"What are you doing here? Everyone is looking for you."
"That's why I needed you to come here." Augur said, then speedily told Liam what had happened. After that, he proceded to tell him about Garrett Kincaid, "He's Liam NEVILLE Kincaid's younger brother."
"Whoa. Hold on one second. You are Liam Kincaid, right?" Blair asked confused.
Joshua added, "Yeah, I'm a little confused here myself. You're talking as if they are two entirely different people." He crossed his arms, waiting for an answer.
Liam, Augur and Renee exchanged a look.
"Look, I'm not going to just give up on this. You might as well tell me." Blair said.
Joshua listened attentively at first, curious as to what the answer was but he was still a bit occupied with his own problems.
Liam nodded, "Okay, I'll give you an explanation but you have to promise that it'll go no further than this room."
Blair said, "Okay."
"My name is Liam but I adopted the identity of a man named Liam Neville Kincaid. The real Kincaid, actually Colonel Kincaid is serving in a covert ops unit."
"Yeah, Jim was involved in that stuff." For all Blair knew, this was regular covert crap. "So I gather I shouldn't ask who you really are?"
"It would help if you didn't." Liam said. He was a little surprised that Sandburg has so easily accepted the half-truth. Curiousity still burned in his eyes but evidently he knew enough to know that Liam couldn't tell him the whole truth. //Thank God!!// Liam thought, //He was NOT going to launch into his heritage with a stranger.//
"So Garrett Kincaid is Colonel Kincaid's brother?"
"Apparently."
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