Shadows of a Flame

Chapter Three

In Victors mind rang out a plea and a cry unlike anything that could be described. Across a great distance the pain and the sorrow of another person was being shouted into his very soul and he knew without a doubt that the pain and sorrow were his wife's. He had felt her use her ability to manipulate and broadcast emotions before, but never in this way; it was like a beacon, a guiding light that drew him in a direction that he quickly realized, with a note of dread, led to his home.

Victor struggled to stave off a wave of panic as he exited the warehouse and in one incredible leap cleared over two city blocks. Hundreds of nightmares flashed threw his mind as he leapt from one building top to another. Doubts and confusion flooded his thoughts. So deep was he in his own fears that when the building he had just jumped clear of bloomed into a massive fiery explosion he almost leapt away without noticing.

Saundra raced out of the warehouse just in time to see Victor clear a building top two blocks away. Without missing a beat she ran over to a van about a dozen yards away that was sporting a soft drink advertisement on the side and tore open the back door. Inside the rather inconspicuous van a decidedly conspicuous young man sat surrounded by computers and communications equipment.

"Danny!" Saundra yelled as she gingerly climbed into the van. Her dramatic entrance nearly startled the young technician out of his chair. "Give me your head set I need to speak with Victor."

"I thought Victor was inside with you, what is going on?" Danny said in surprise. He quickly removed his hands free communications set and passed it to Saundra, fearing that if he let her get within grasping reach she would snatch it off his head anyway.

"I don't know," Saundra replied curtly as she held the set up to her ears and spoke quickly into the set. "Bid V, Big V, come in." Static was the only reply that she received.

"Wow, He still has his com piece and tracking node but he is already out of signal range and heading north east at an awesome rate of speed." Danny said pointing to a tracking screen that showed a flashing red dot moving across a topographical view of the city. "Saundra what's going on?"

Saundra glared at the tracking screen for almost a full minute before turning her attention back to Danny. "I want you to call Victor's home and see if you get an answer. If you can't get through send a squad by to…" Before Saundra could finish passing out her orders the van was rocked by a sudden and powerful shockwave followed a second later by the deafening boom of a massive explosion. Computer consoles toppled off their shelves all around Saundra and Danny and crashed at their feet.

"What the f…" Danny began to scream franticly.

"Danny shut up and get in touch with dispatch." Saundra snapped, instantly organizing her thoughts and directing her subordinate. "Get a report from them on where that explosion took place." She ordered the young and shaken technician as she turned to jump out of the van.

"Uhm... boss I can't get in touch with dispatch." Danny said picking up a console and pointing at the blank screen dejectedly.

"Why? It doesn't look broken." Saundra replied eyeing the equipment and the technician dubiously.

"It's not." Danny said with a confused shrug. "I just don't have a signal. The phone line must be down."

"But our coms don't run off of land lines. For us to lose the signal the satellite receivers at the phone center would have to be…" Saundra's voice trailed off as a rescent memory of something she had seen on the blueprints that they had found inside the warehouse returned to her. "Danny, get on the radio and direct all available personnel in the immediate area to the Paragon Pell phone center on Richards St. Police, Emergency Medical and Fire Department, everyone needs to move to that location immediately; that's where the explosion took place."

"Woe, did you guys hear that explosion?" A patrol officer said as he stuck his head in the back of the van. Saundra rolled her eyes.

"Yes! Now do me a favor and run inside and find detective Peterson. He has a bunch of blueprints that we found in the warehouse." Saundra directed the patrol officer. "I need the addresses for the buildings on all of those blueprints and hurry."

"Yes Mam," The patrol officer said as he ran off to accomplish his task.

"Danny, as soon as we get those addresses I want you to send a squad to each of those locations to check them out. Use our own people if you can't get in touch with dispatch."

"Saundra?" Danny pleaded.

"What." She responded coolly.

"What the heck is going on?"

"Someone just cut this neighborhood's communications off at the knees and I have the crazy suspicion that the phone company is not the only building they are going to hit."

"Oh boy this sucks." Danny muttered.

Victor leapt from what was left of the second story of the decimated phone company building and landed lightly on the pavement, holding an unconscious body in each of his arms. The explosion had taken place on one of the higher levels of the building where there was more equipment than people; still the destruction was devastating. The building had once towered ten stories high, now all that was left of the fifth through tenth floors were the metal and concrete skeletal remains of what was once the buildings infrastructure and there was not a single window left intact on the entire block.

Having taken a good look through what was left of the building Victor was confident that the remaining floors were stable enough to allow the people that were still on them to find there own way out. It was hardly in keeping with his character to leave people that were in need unaided but the anxiety that was coursing through his mind could not be ignored. Once he had laid the unconscious victims in a safe place on the street corner, where he was confidant that rescue workers would find them quickly, Victor took off toward his home once again.

A hollow pit of dread formed in Victor's stomach as his imagination began to run rampant. In the ten years he had known his wife he had never felt her use her powers to call him in such a way, to attack his very emotions. Dreadful scenarios began to run through his mind; everything from his wife being assaulted to their apartment being attacked, and still none of these ideas seemed to match the desperation that was resonating in his mind and heart.

Victor made it to his home in record time as he pushed his body to the limit, crossing four city blocks with each tremendous hurdle. He caught sight of his apartment building on the pinnacle of one of his leaps and guessing the distance perfectly bounded across another two city blocks to land on the balcony outside his home. He noticed instantly as he approached the front door had been busted in and rage mingled instantly with his dread.

"Sage!" Victor yelled as he barged through the entrance and into the living room, ready for anything, only to find his wife kneeling on the floor with her face buried in her hands, sobbing. Victor rushed over to her and caught her up in his arms, quickly checking from her neck length sandy brown hair to her slender feet for injury and breathing a sigh of relief when he saw none.

Sage grabbed her husband in vise like grip as he pulled her close to him and placed her mouth next to his ears. When she spoke through her tears her voice was a hoarse whisper and her tone was seething with rage and dread. "They're gone Nathan, our boys are gone." Victor felt his very soul fall out of him as she continued. "They took our boys!"