Chapter 72
The camera zoomed out after Alja stepped back from the microphone to be led into the building behind her. Over the entrance she vanished through hung the words every Psy knew to fear even beyond Silence: Center for Reconditioning and Rehabilitation. They were going to start the process instantly.
A dozen cats and wolves stared unbelieving at the big screen in the DarkRiver headquarters even after the camera shot changed and some more propaganda bullshit was displayed. Among them were their two alphas and their mates. SnowDancer and DarkRiver had been in another strategic meeting with most of their lieutenants and sentinels to come to terms with the events of the previous days when they had been alerted to the game-changing broadcast of the Council's official TV channel.
It was Lucas, who spoke first: "What the hell are they up to now?"
"I have absolutely no idea." The words dropped from Judd's mouth in an uncharacteristically open display of perplexity. "Maybe they want to overthrow the Centers… but she was supposed to end this thing peacefully… And it's not an Arrow strategy either. It doesn't make sense."
"Can you get in touch with any of your contacts?" Hawke asked immediately.
"Only telepathically. And I'm still out of any psychic power for at least four hours."
Hawke looked at his Psy-lieutenant for a moment. The man had been many things since he'd adapted to the emotional ways of the changelings: Angry, aggressive, even tender with love and care for his mate. But one thing he had never been: Upset. But he was right now. It was not a good sign.
"That means we're blind and deaf but for what they want us to see and hear." Mercy, DarkRiver sentinel and mate to SnowDancer's first lieutenant Riley, uttered equally perplexed.
Riley who was holding her against his chest unable to let her move far from his protecting body ever since she was pregnant, looked as if he wanted to kill someone. But his hands were stroking her belly that had already visibly rounded, with utter tenderness. "Can Ashaya or Faith contact anyone else from the rebellion?" He addressed Dorian, because neither his mate, Ashaya, nor Vaughn and Faith were present at the moment. They were all at Faith and Vaughn's home because visions of death kept tormenting Faith into a state of severe illness and while Ashaya tried her best to stabilize the F-Psy, Vaughn simply refused to leave his mate's side for a second.
"I'll call them," Dorian answered quietly. A strange, silent tension had gripped the whole room. Everyone's attention was still divided between the discussion and the ongoing stream of mostly useless information blaring from the TV.
"That she could manipulate a member of the Council to this extent can only be attributed to the fact, that Councilor Krychek has weak mental stability himself, as one of our reporters recently discovered." The news-anchor solemnly declared. "But we will be interested to hear the Councilor's own interpretation of the situation, as he is present at the Center, where Ms. Milhaud's case is currently processed." The picture switched once more to the entrance area of the rehabilitation Center Alja had vanished into, to reveal a reporter shoving a microphone at Kaleb Krychek, who was apparently waiting calmly in the wide lobby of the building. "Councilor what is your statement to the course of events?" The reporter was probably only so confident because he thought a live camera would protect him from any immediate attack. Maybe he was right. Kaleb didn't look as frighteningly icy as usual. Instead he answered almost smugly. "I have absolute confidence that my former employee acts to the best interests of all Psy. And I can assure you I have not been influenced in any way. All my decisions and actions were my own..."
Lucas didn't get the rest of the statement, because at that moment two things happened at once. First: Hawke snorted an angry "Why does the fucking bastard act as if he isn't endangering the very woman he was ready to kill for yesterday?" Second: he felt a shudder along the mating bond and saw Sascha go white as snow. "Darling what is it?" was his immediate response.
"He might not have had a choice. We need to stop this. Right now!" Sascha exclaimed.
"What?" It sounded from various mouths at once.
"She's doing this on her own. She thinks she will protect him and maybe us along with it. I should have seen it. There was something so desperate about her but I thought it was just…" Her voice broke, trembled with panic, when she found it again. "Oh my God! He's going to lose it!"
Everyone was staring at Sascha with a total loss of comprehension for a moment, then the truth hit home. Everyone had underestimated the true potential of the projecting empath.
Into the shocked silence the dial tone of Dorian's phone sounded as he tried to call his mate. When Ashaya finally answered, even the non-changelings could hear her urgent demand: "You're calling just at the right moment. Luc and Sascha need to get here. I can't handle this alone. Faith's visions are getting worse by the hour. She needs Sascha." After a short pause she added. "And I think Vaughn might need his alpha."
Aden knew at once that this set-up could only have two possible origins: Either Alja and Kaleb had some secret design they hadn't involved the Squad in or it was one of Ming's plans. Somehow their former leader might finally have gotten to Alja. So he was surprised to find none of either of the Councilor's personal soldiers at the scene, when he and Vasic arrived at the Center. He had expected the premises to be bristling with them, protecting whatever operation was carried out here. But the area in front of the building was completely empty. The TV crews from NewsNet and even those of human and changeling media, he had seen arrive on the broadcast, were packing up.
After a quick glance at the length of the shadows around the building Vasic confirmed Aden's apprehension: "They prerecorded the broadcast. It has to have been shot about twenty minutes ago."
"Not enough time to complete a comprehensive rehab."
They both started running towards the building.
No one even attempted to stop them. That was more than strange… He tried to telepath to Vasic. Found he couldn't. "Can you port in?" he asked his comrade aloud instead. "No. She has her shields around the whole complex." Again Vasic confirmed Aden's logical conclusion.
The first armed guards they saw through the glass doors of the entrance stood before the inner doors in the foyer of the rehabilitation center. And they at least looked like the usual security personnel. Of course with all psychic activity blocked they hardly needed more. Could Ming really have gotten to Alja in a way that made her comply with this? The two Arrows had done what they could to prevent this outcome, but both of them knew it had always been a possibility that they couldn't protect Alja. In their Silence both of them stayed calm, took a moment to gather more information, consider their options.
When they entered the foyer, it was to find Kaleb sitting on one of the waiting benches, absolutely relaxed and alone. Could he have double-crossed them? A few weeks ago Aden would have thought it entirely possible. But after he had seen the way Kaleb had reacted when he first regained consciousness after the attack on Alja and him... Aden understood enough of emotion to know it was highly unlikely Kaleb would expose Alja to this kind of danger.
"Kaleb what is this? Are you not going to interfere?" Aden asked, urgency in his tone despite his Silence.
"No. Alja has a plan," the man answered absolutely unruffled.
"Rehabilitation will effectively erase who she is. Is that part of the plan?" Aden was still beyond understanding what this new development of the situation meant. But the picture that formed in his mind after ruling out all alternatives was a grave one.
"She'll come back. She can hide inside her shields," Kaleb repeated what Alja had told him over and over, when he had doubted the soundness of her plan.
"Kaleb, you know how the process works. There's barely anything psychic about it. Not for cardinals. They'll just drug her up with Jax and a cocktail of other drugs until it short-circuits her brain." Aden knew something was wrong, but when he shot his partner a questioning glance, Vasic shook his head. He didn't have a clue either.
"But Jax doesn't have the same effect on her due to her human genes." Kaleb went on. His confidence didn't waver for even a second. "They won't notice she's still there. Her shields will fool them." Alja had been so confident about it, it had to be true.
Was this what she'd told him? Of course Aden knew better. The effect of the Jax regimen in the Squad had been deemed unpredictable for Alja, but the doses used in the Centers – they would scramble up any mind, Psy or human, beyond recovery. "Her shields will be the first thing to go under the drugs. There's no way she'll come out of this."
"Yes, I know. But I trust her," Kaleb replied in that unnaturally sedate way that seemed almost… emotional.
Slowly a new picture of the events unfurled before Aden: There was no plan, no secret game behind this. Alja had told the truth when she spoke to the cameras. And it dawned on him that for the first time he might have overlooked one crucial detail in Alja's earlier medical check-up: her sanity. "I don't understand much about emotion and even less about Alja's abilities. But it is obvious that she is doing this to you." None of them had known her abilities could influence someone to this degree. Her skill was emotion-based. It wasn't supposed to have mental effects. But it seemed they had made the same mistake the rest of their race had: They had gravely underestimated the effect of emotion.
"I know," Kaleb suddenly blurted out. For a moment his face tensed and he shook his head very slightly, then the same restful expression filled his features again. "But she will be safe. We're all going to be. It's all going to be alright."
"Will you stop us from trying to help her?" Aden had to know if the dual cardinal would make it harder for them, to pull Alja out.
"No, of course not. I trust you too. But Aden, I really don't think she needs your help."
Aden was already running from the building, shouting at Vasic. "Get as many men and women here as you can, as close as possible to her shields." The moment he left Alja's shield radius he started telepathing to everyone in the Squad Vasic was able to bring in. We're going in full force. Incapacitate the personnel. Kill only if absolutely necessary. Use earpieces or communicate via the Net to coordinate the search since telepathy might be blocked, too. From my knowledge of the facility she should be somewhere at the center of the premises. Approach from various directions! Whoever gets to her first intervenes in the rehabilitation at all costs.
Seconds later black-clad assassins appeared all around and even on top of the building complex, invading all entrances, even crawling along the walls and into the windows.