Chapter 7

We sat around for hours, I spoke to no one. Apparently no one was allowed to leave or enter until the scanners were fixed. Perhaps it was a ploy to keep everyone inside. The tower seemed a lot smaller with so many people crammed inside. We were free of DUP in here but they circled directly outside.

And finally, unfortunately, somebody noticed me"Hey," I lifted my head to see a familiar face standing over me.

"David?" I replied surprised to see him.

"I'm glad you made it!" he gripped my shoulder and smiled.

"Yeah, starting to wish I hadn't," I replied, referring to the earlier incident.

"Listen," he paused and crouched beside me "I overheard a few of the DUP talking earlier," his eyes shot around as if trying to be inconspicuous "apparently they say someone hacked into the DUP database, they're trying to keep it quiet saying the whole system has been compromised … apparently the hackers managed to tamper with the response on the scanners."

"You mean…" I mulled it over for a moment "so a conduit could pass for… a none conduit and none conduits look like conduits." Of course it made sense now, that's how I got in.

David eyed me – long enough for me to question my response "bio-terrorist, you mean?" he eventually replied with a raised brow.

"Yeah, of course that's what I meant," phew – but was that the only suspicious thing I'd said?

"Hmm, well now I hadn't thought of that," David murmured, what hadn't he thought of?! - Shit! He'd only said 'tampered with the response' that didn't necessarily mean switched the responses, had I given myself away?

David's demeanor had seemed to change toward me, although I could tell he was trying to hide that fact, he continued whispering "they said they think it happened a little after midnight but there's no way of knowing for certain."

I nodded – what was he getting at, what did he know?

"Good thing you made it in when you did!" he said with a relaxed grin "any later and that thing would've singled you out as one of them!"

Paranoia alleviated I took a subtle sigh of relief, "yeah," I nodded.

"Anyway Aiden - soups arrived, you hungry?" he asked.

Aiden?

I felt my eyes widen - I didn't tell him my name was Aiden, I couldn't have done I didn't remember it back then – but he seemed unaware of his error "want some soup or not?" he asked with a frown.

"Sure," I nodded.

I waited until he was out of view, the only place he could have seen my name was the board the nurse woman had mentioned. Come to think of it I'd spotted something like that near the entrance, I got up and hurried over.

I scanned down the list of names and noticed something. Name, bed number, date and time of entry and there I was, the very last one.

NAME : AIDEN MILES / BED-NO: LL70 / ENTRY DATE-TIME: 11 AUG 00:09

Shit, a little after midnight. David had overheard that the scanners were hacked just after midnight. I looked at the board again – I was the last person to have entered and the only one to have entered after midnight – I guess anyone trying to enter after me were confirmed as conduits and didn't make it in however in my case the scanner allowed me entry. David was on to me, he had to be.

I turned and looked through the rows of beds at the far end of the room to see if David had returned to my bed with a bowl of soup, he hadn't but there were a couple of officers standing around it. One was looking at the bed number and the other was looking about the room- looking for me. Had they reached the same conclusion as David?! Did they suspect that I was a conduit?

It suddenly felt like the walls were closing in, I quickly paced toward the exit. I couldn't use my powers in here, not only for the sake of the innocent people cooped up inside but there was no way I was getting through the thick layers of concrete. I could see a group of people congregated just outside, guarded by several DUP and I was hoping to blend in with them – once outside I could just burst out before anyone could even react. I quickened my pace until I was at the door, I was about to take a step to freedom when I felt something hard pressed up against my back – a gun?

"Stay calm," whispered a familiar voice down my ear – David.

I slowly tilted my head back, just able to see him out of the corner of my eye. He was standing pretty close no one would have even realised he had a gun pressed into my back. I raised my hands to my shoulders to show him that I surrendered and I heard him gasp. What?! Oh shit! My hand – my healed hand … with not a scratch on it. If he had his doubts before - I'd definitely confirmed to him that I was a conduit now. I closed my eyes in a regretful grimace, what would happen now?

I used his moment of distraction to my advantage and with my power I ripped the gun from his hand and sent it flying across the room. The gun was accidentally set off as it landed and several people screamed and ducked for cover – the DUP immediately raised the weapons unsure of where to aim and they all screamed in un-synched unison "Get down! Get down!"

"Bio-terrorist!" David yelled out as he pointed at me "he's Aiden Miles, he's the one you're looking for!"

Fuck!

I threw him backward with my power, in a flurry of panic I sent a wave of energy in a 360 degree pulse around me and everyone and everything close to me was thrown away, I wasn't thinking – purely running on adrenalin – I catapulted myself out of the concrete tower and landed into another concrete towers outer wall, opposite. Bullets pelted the wall all around me, on raw survival instinct I ran – I ran up the wall.

I reached the top and it was no longer bullets I was avoiding but huge lumps of concrete. I turned, gravity locking me onto the wall and I gazed down to see several large DUP in hot pursuit – using concrete powers. How could they do that? Were they conduits too? What the fuck?!

I turned again and climbed onto the roof, correcting gravity to allow me to stand on the roof. I hadn't realised one of them had crept up behind me and he grabbed me forcibly restraining me. He was heavy and I couldn't shake him, I picked us up with my power and threw us down using his back to break the fall and I pulled us through several floors of the concrete tower - it took all my strength.

The concrete was too thick to penetrate anymore and we were surrounded in dust clouds that kicked up all around but my assailant had loosened his grip and I was able to scramble away and stand – he was looking a little worse for ware – embedded half way through the floor, helmet smashed I could see his bloodied face. I think he may have been knocked unconscious. I tentatively moved toward him. Before I could evade he clutched my arm and I grabbed at his hand to peel it off.

The moment I touched him, a familiar feeling surged through my finger tips, I felt myself leeching from him, lapping up his concrete abilities. A huge boulder tossed my way forced me to break contact. I threw my hand forward and the concrete all around us was at my command. My adrenalin made me stronger and my body shook with power.

I could feel my new found ability to manipulate concrete melding in with my power of gravity and I lifted the entire tower a good way from the ground and held it in the air. I couldn't begin to guess at how many tonnes I was holding up entirely by will but it felt like an amazing feat of power. I shook the tower, I was locked to it by my gravity but the DUP weren't so lucky and they were flung from it until I was the only one who remained standing. I carefully allowed the tower to land and pulled it into the ground with my power to secure it and wasted no time making my escape – I bolted into the sky.

I slowed my speed and drifted through the sky for several moments longer before landing on a rooftop. I inspected my palms and allowed them to coat over in concrete - so now I could use concrete too – was I like Delsin then? A power sponge?

Wait – a flicker of what I think was a memory intruded into my awareness. Curdan Cay - my cell - a chair - I was locked into it. The agony, in the memory I looked at my bound legs. I wasn't strapped into the chair – I was impaled into it with concrete. But I could pull it out through sheer will, I could break it down, just by thinking about it. I felt it disintegrate and fall from my body – before I could completely free myself a DUP agent quickly entered – no good, the memory was blurring out.

I shook myself back into reality, sat alone on a rooftop in the middle of the city and tried to make sense of my flashback. I realised - The concrete DUP agent didn't give me concrete powers just now, I already had them, my memory was foggy but I was certain of that, I was using my concrete power in that memory - concrete was the first power I'd absorbed, back in Curdan Cay - how and from whom I couldn't remember. Was I like Delsin? What else had I forgotten- what else could I do?

I had no more time to think, without warning I was pulled from the roof and accelerated into the sky, it was a shock but I knew this feeling. I looked up to see I was in the arms of one of Eugene's angels. He didn't speak like earlier – he remained silent. I allowed him to carry me, he'd take me to Eugene – with any luck I might get some answers.

The ride was not gentle, I was flung about in all directions and hurdled between the skyscrapers. The angel set me down after several minutes in the sky, on another desolate rooftop. This was not what I was expecting.

"What now?" I called up to the angel.

The angel simply pointed and as I shifted my gaze to where it drew me I saw a red blinking light an audio log. I knew what to do.

[Aiden, Aiden Miles, this message is for you and I hope it reaches you. Heh, you probably won't remember me … but we've already met, we met back at Curdan Cay – it's a meeting I'll certainly never forget (sigh) listen, I can't say much on here but I need to see you. I need answers – perhaps you do too, I can help you. Listen the military are coming and they'll be here very soon – trust me, they make the DUP look tame. I'm going to find us a safe place to rendezvous until then don't get yourself killed and … this might seem like an odd request but you gotta stay away from other conduits and you gotta stay away from Delsin Row and destroy this recording.]

Who the hell was this guy? I remembered Eugene telling me he was one of the DUPs and judging by the recordings so far he really did seem to have all of the answers but was he really looking to me for answers – good luck with that. I looked toward the angel only to realise it was gone and I was left alone once more. I'd worry about my next move in a moment, first I better do as the audio instructed and destroy the recording. I rested my palm on the device and encased it in thick layers of concrete with the intention of compressing it into nothing.

But - without warning a bright neon light, from nowhere, launched toward me and snatched the concrete block from my hand. I staggered but remained on my feet, hands still outstretched holding nothing as I watched the light fading away into the distance. I came to my senses and lifted my hand attempting to catch the conduit responsible but whoever it was they were too far away from my attempted grasps.

I'd definitely seen that power before though, the bright neon light - it was exactly the same power Delsin had used to incinerate the conduits trying to escape Curdan Cay. Was it Delsin? Someone else? I had no idea.