Timebomb Central

Chapter 10: Cloaked

Thank you to Roon and the others at TER for the support.

Something wasn't quite right. Her mind was playing tricks on her again. She shook her head in a bid to try to clear it, to fight off the fog that seemed to be developing. Instead it kept getting thicker till thoughts were becoming difficult to separate. Someone was coming. The frightening part was that she hadn't felt them...her ears had picked up the approaching footsteps first. She tried focusing but that seemed to only bring the darkness on faster. Standing with difficulty she felt her way on wobbly legs towards a refuge. The last time she had felt so helpless had been in the confines of Manticore, the drugs that they had used to keep her in check had clouded her mind in this way. Fear began to rise in her throat. They hadn't found her, they couldn't have. She'd been careful, stayed under the radar. The only contact with transgens she had encountered had been those two weeks ago in that rusted out wasteland. She was miles from there now.

Carrying Mia across town hadn't been fun. She wasn't heavy, not really. Yet the endless tramping had got to be real tiresome awfully quickly. She wasn't completely out, she was enough to let them know whether she could sense the girl. It had taken them the best part of a day to finally track her down. That had required more than just Mia's skills. They'd roped in Joshua too. His nose was keen enough to scent the girl. He was eager to help and Alec thought it was probably a good idea to make him feel useful and get him away from the depressing rut of bedside vigil. He'd been there for a hell of a long time considering he'd done it for Alec himself.

The sound of the body falling gave away her exact position. The fact that this had worked at all was amazing. Alec moved swiftly to her side. His smile wasn't one of victory but more of relief.

Mission Complete.

Alec looked down at the supine figure cautiously prodding her to check she was out cold. "How long do you think this will last?" He didn't want to be caught out with the girl getting wild before they managed to transport her back. Angel shrugged her shoulders in response. The whole plan had been a long shot. She was flying by the seat of her pants with this psychological thing. The girl in her arms, Mia, could probably have told them more but she was needed in her current capacity to keep the other girl sedated and somewhat less dangerous. She was pretty much under herself so having an in-depth conversation wasn't gonna happen. Angel decided a good dose of sedative given directly to the girl would keep her out long enough for them to be safely back and clear of her influence by the time she woke again.

The face that seemed even younger when seen in real life had startled him. Really, Alec wasn't too sure what they'd do with her once they got her back to T.C. How do you convince someone so entrenched in the lies and deceit meted out by Manticore that they were unsure what was the truth anymore? Added to that the mental instability that this girl was already shown to have and it all sounded like a recipe for disaster. Looking down at the tiny bundle now limp in his arms, he found it hard to believe just how far Manticore had gotten in their bid to make the perfect assassin. What he found more than a little disturbing was the power she possessed when she was still this young.

He was relieved when the fences surrounding T.C. came into sight. It meant home, safety and maybe soon, some answers. His pace quickened and his load seemed to lighten at the thought. They weren't ready to free Max just quite yet. He held the solution to her mind lock in his arms. Reasoning with her would come later, first they just needed to make her feel at home.

Mole had been keeping watch. He hadn't been included in the hunting party. Too many people out looking and noone staying home was never a good idea. Stunk too much like desperation, not something that he or any of those in the know, wanted most of the inhabitants of T.C. to cotton on to. He saw them breach the perimeter fence and restrained himself to a purposeful walk as he moved to intercept them.

"See you found your target." He waved his cigar butt at the bundle in Alec's arms. "Got it set up for you. Some where real quiet so the little lady won't cause no havoc."

He let them sweep past him.

The hospital doors swung open as both Alec and Angel carried their unconscious parcels through the halls. The whispered hum coming from the many onlookers showed a level of fear that they hadn't been expecting. Nervous faces peeked out of doorways watching them as they paraded silently through.

Mia was placed in the ward where Max lay. Angel directed Alec to keep on moving to the more isolated section of the hospital. After making sure that Mia was ok, Alec proceeded towards the far end of the corridor and the quarantine area, making a mental note to get Mole to post some sort of security detail creating a buffer zone. Even if it was only an illusion, it would make everyone feel a little safer. Right at the moment, anything that made the T.C. occupants less edgy was a wise move.

As the world became less fuzzy in her mind, she allowed her eyes to open. It took her several goes before she managed to force them into focus. She was alone. This didn't surprise her. She had spent a lot of her life in one form of isolation or another. Lifting her limbs experimentally she checked out her body. All seemed to still be in working order, except for her head which was still fighting off the fog that had overwhelmed her earlier. A rage bubbled under the surface, she didn't like to be caged. The taste of freedom she had gained since her previous cell had been burned to the ground meant incarceration was something she hated even more violently. She knew what it usually meant, pain, experiments and lots and lots of screaming...both her trial victims' and her own.

Bringing herself into check, she knew that losing her control to blind rage would be unwise, she studied her surrounds. First rule was to assess your position. The glass cubicle didn't hold any magical powers to stop her from mentally savaging anyone in range. She could actually read a number of people but none of them seemed to be even remotely interested in her at the minute. It was a hospital, that much she could get. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. They hadn't hurt her physically, as far as she could tell. In fact, apart from a little mental subterfuge- a psychic knock out drop in the ether- she hadn't been harmed at all.

Max's drawn features were as tormented as ever. Touching her face gently he told himself that it would all be over soon. He knew her torment, but he had escaped. This girl was most probably their last chance. The harsh reality was that if she couldn't help Max, then the kindest thing would be to dope her into a peaceful afterlife. Alec hadn't told Joshua this, didn't think the big guy needed to know the whole ugly truth, that this was one hell of a long shot in the dark.

He lent down and placed a kiss on her brow. She would have no idea of his presence, he wished he knew she was here for her. Sometimes he envied people like Mia who could get inside people's minds. To talk to them beyond the realm of voice. He wished he could get into Max's mind and fight her demons with her. Nobody should be alone with the sort of torture she had been put through.

They all needed sleep. He felt like he hadn't caught up with a sound sleep in months. He really didn't have time for it now. His brain was telling him that he needed to rest, to be ready to confront the telepath. There was no question that he would need to have his wits about him when he talked to her. Honesty was going to be the best policy. Trying to make her empathize with their plight was gonna be hard. The patented Alec-charm would only get him so far. This girl could read him like a book, literally.

Faces were starting to appear in her mind to accompany the voices she had in her head. There was an air of desperation here. One she herself felt. They wanted something from her, that was why they had stalked her. She still hadn't been able to define exactly what. There were so many voices that held that familiar ring to it. That air of differences that made them stand out in a crowd from the ordinaries. Those smart arses in the NSA would love to know that the transgenic minds gave away their identity even more accurately than their body temperatures.

So where the hell was she? If this wasn't Manticore, why were there so many transgens? She wondered if they suspected the fact that they each had a mental barcode which was just as visible to her as those etched into their skin. They were all so individual in her mind. Reaching she sought out the ones that brought her down.

494. His mind a depressing quagmire she slipped tentatively into.

Alec could feel something. A tingling sensation that woke him from his stupor. He surveyed the room. Mia was long gone, Angel having given her an antidote. Max was still, lying exactly how she had been when he had started to doze off.

In his head words began to form. "Who are you?" The tingling sensation buzzed annoyingly through his head. "Why am I here?" She kept peppering him. Till he let out a scream of frustration.

Their guest was finally awake and impatiently wanting answers. Time to go into battle for Max.