Chapter 11

Nadia ended up at the nearest hotel. She quickly paid and headed straight to her room. She tried to keep herself preoccupied with transferring her toiletries from her small bag to the bathroom counter. Meanwhile Aidan planned; fantasized would probably be a more fitting word; she saw explosions and a Mission Impossible style entrance. Nadia laughed and rolled her eyes at that one.

Once there was no longer a thing to be taken care of or straightened, Nadia sat in the middle of the bed. "Okay, slow down there cowboy. We have to first plan out the best…and most realistic, entrance; and then, and only then can you start fantasizing about what you'll do once inside."

Aidan gave a figurative sigh, "You are such a party pooper."

"And you are such a child," Nadia shot back.

Aidan gave what would translate into sticking out her tongue in response. "Okay, well if we're gonna think boringly…I say we do what we thought of first."

"You mean what I thought of first? Or yours?" she asked.

"What's the difference?"

"Well, if I remember correctly; my idea was to knock out a guard and take his appearance and yours was to take out all the cameras and hop the fence."

"Yours..." she grudgingly responded; but quickly added, "I get a little over zealous sometimes."

"Sometimes," Nadia said under her breath. "Anyway…if we take out the first guard we see, where are we gonna put him?"

"That depends; does he need air or not?"

"What do you think?"

"Right, boring… Do you know how to hotwire a car?"

"Give me five minutes and the internet and yes, I do."

"You steal a van, shut him inside, keep him unconscious to the world and we're as good as in."

"Great, so not only am I gonna break into a prison to kill over 600 people; but I have to tack on a few more felonies while I'm at it. It's dang near irresistible."

"Quit whining about the details. Try and remember the big picture here. Once this is done, we only have 325 left to go…" she was growing less and less enthusiastic as she spoke.

"Don't even think about having second thoughts about this! You are so doing this. I know the numbers are shrinking much faster than you would like; but you'll just have to deal with it."

"Don't worry about me. I'm not the one who you have to worry about flaking… Just remember to keep yourself in check. Yes I would like a bit more time; but like you said, I'm gonna make a damn good name for myself after this little adventure. And for you…gloves."

Nadia had made her way through three different cars and one van by the time Aidan was confident in her internet-gotten talent. She pulled off the new black leather gloves she had purchased at a Harley Davidson dealership and dropped them on the bed. On her way back to the hotel, she passed a moving company with a parking lot full of a variety of sizes of vans and panel trucks. In a moment of inspiration, Nadia came up with a plan that even Aidan was vastly impressed by. Now it all came down to the details.

They spent the next three hours making calls and planning out every aspect of the settled on plan. Nadia practiced taking on different appearances in front of the bathroom mirror and doing the same to various items in the room. She changed the cheap, paper covered table to cow, motorcycle, and what ever else came to mind. Soon she could change the appearance of the entire room around her without more concentration than it took to dial a phone number. They were both growing more and more confident that everything would go smoothly. That is until they thought about the fact that once they made it inside the prison, all bets were off.

"Would you focus on the good here? You are such a pessimist," Aidan huffed.

"I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. Ever heard of my good friend Murphy? He came up with this unfortunate; but pretty much true law…"

"Like I said, pessimist. You are forgetting about something very important that Murphy didn't factor into his stupid law." Aidan waited while Nadia thought about that, "Us. Together we can make everyone in that prison think that they are…blind and deaf."

"A few maybe; but not all of them. I don't even know how much I can keep up in the air…let alone while I'm also trying to pull off a mass murder."

"Then, we'll have to find out…" Aidan responded.

Nadia took the 580 from San Quentin to University of California Berkeley's massive campus. She parked the bike in the first place she could find and took a second to look at all the commotion around her. "You have to try to fit in…" Aidan pointed out. Nadia took her riding jacket off and draped it over her arm, shoved the key in her pocket, and let her hair fall around her shoulders. This shouldn't be so hard, she thought to herself. I was one of these guys just a few months ago.

Aidan was scanning the area ahead of them, "Yeah, yeah poor you. Moving on…" She focused on an area in front of one of the buildings where people sat studying amongst all the crossing foot traffic. "There."

"Why there?" she asked.

Aidan sighed, "Because there are a lot of people. The more people, the more we can see just what you can do."

"I'm not a car," Nadia thought in reply.

She merged into the flow of traffic and fell into step behind a small group of obviously freshman girls. For awhile Nadia focused on their conversation. The blonde in the middle was definitely the queen bee; she made sure everyone's attention stayed on her. "I swear, if he breaks up with me before that party this weekend; I'm gonna die! I have so much to deal with right now. I have a test today and one the day after tomorrow," she sighed, "I can hardly cope." Nadia was suddenly over come with a powerful urge to push her down onto her pretty little over-worked face. Boyfriends and parties and tests, oh my! How dare a college schedule two tests in the same week as a party! OMG. Why don't you try selling your soul to the devil! Or committing mass murder? I'd like to hear you complain about your idgit of a boyfriend then, Nadia fumed in her head.

Aidan was quiet and listened while a smile grew bigger and bigger on her mental face, "Now this side of you I like."

Nadia gave a wicked little smirk, "Watch and learn."

Nadia focused hard on the back of the girl's head; while the girl dug in her purse for something. She pulled out a compact and looked at herself in the mirror. She screamed and dropped the compact. The other girls jumped and stared at her, "What happened?" one girl asked.

Nadia stepped around them and couldn't help herself, "Zit?" The girl stopped and glared at her before staring after Nadia as she walked away. Nadia heard her huff after her as she walked away.

"What happened?" another girl asked.

"I don't know. I looked in the mirror and I saw…I saw…a clown…" the blonde replied. Nadia listened to the conversation trail off as she continued toward the center of the square.

Aidan laughed and watched Nadia's thoughts closely. "You want me to like you…" she stated with an air of haughtiness.

Nadia's pace faltered for a second, "I do not. I don't care what you think about me."

Aidan laughed, "You do. You want me to like you. You are a people pleaser."

"I am not," she fought to keep her side of the conversation inside her head. "I've spent my entire life pushing people away, avoiding them."

"Yes, because people avoided you for so long. But once someone comes around that doesn't steer clear of you; you try anything you can to keep it that way. Therefore; people pleaser," Aidan declared.

As Nadia stepped inside the square, she ignored Aidan and her pompous attitude and focused on the commotion around her. "Now what?"

Aidan reluctantly shifted gears, "Now, you make them see something."

"Alright, I get it…but what do I make them see? Something that will get their attention…" she was coming up blank.

"Would you put that Bluetoe, or whatever you call it in your ear; so people don't think you're crazy?"

Nadia laughed, "Tooth, Bluetooth. Liked I'd want to put a Bluetoe in my ear…"

"But you don't mind a tooth?" Aidan pointed out.

Nadia conceded that one and slipped the device around her ear. What about a sign that says something…?

"Oh, now you talk in your head… Says something like what? 'If you can see this stand on your head?'"

Nadia bit her tongue, "You got an idea I'm all for hearing it." She watched an image pass through Aidan's mind. "No, I am not going to make them see a flying saucer!"

"Why not? It would totally work!" Aidan snapped back.

"Yeah, for those looking into the sky!" she paused and watched more images in Aidan's mind. "No tigers or people with guns or ships either!" she responded irritated.

"Fine, then what would you suggest?"

She thought for awhile, "Well, I could start with making people stop and then work up to the vision stuff…" She could feel Aidan looking for an argument; drop it, she warned.

She focused on people as they passed and pushed Aidan to the back of her mind. She zeroed in on the first person that caught her attention. The first victim was a young man whose hurried pace caught her attention. She almost felt bad doing it; but she focused on her goal. The man stopped a few paces away and anyone else would've thought he was trying to remember something he'd forgotten. He stood there looking dazed and confused and Nadia moved on to the next person.

"You don't want to have to wait until you can see every person who comes around at the prison. You have to stop them without looking at them; a mass stoppage would be preferable."

"Sounds like a health problem to me," Nadia muttered. She looked at the ground at her feet and focused on projecting the inaction to those around her. Slowly, the sounds around her grew quieter and quieter. She tried not to focus on the success she was having and on the continuation of it instead. She carefully raised her head and looked around her. Everyone in a 35 foot radius were standing still and staring at their feet. Those outside the circle hardly seemed to notice; they assumed it was some sort of protest. Like testing the door of a closet stuffed with toys, she little by little eased her strain on the hold she had on them. She found that she was able to keep them in place with much less effort, the longer she held them. After two minutes, holding them was as easy as juggling three balls; she wanted to test herself more.

She pushed the feeling out as hard as she could again and slowly more people stopped further out in the circle. She was holding at least 70 people within a 45 foot radius when she started to feel the strain on her body and her grasp started to slip. She looked around her and tried to let only certain people go about their business. One by one she picked people from all areas of the circle and they walked away. After 20 minutes she couldn't hold them any longer and in a split second the entire group jumped back to what they were doing. Only a few glanced around in confusion before walking away.

How about we say that the whole vision has about the same range? Nadia thought to herself.

Aidan had used all she could gather to help Nadia and strengthen her hold and she was feeling the affects of it as well. "Sounds good to me. Besides, if we do have a problem at the prison; we won't be taking on that many at a time."

"I should hope not," Nadia said. "Let's call it an even 40 feet and at most, 45 people; just to be safe."