Chapter 28

Steve had located the OSI's best driver and their fastest car and there was an entire fleet of cars behind him, lights flashing as they all sped out past the edge of Los Angeles and into the foothills about 20 miles away. Steve wasn't certain they'd find Anna there; it could have been merely a drop-off point...or an intended execution chamber. They could swarm the building from all four sides (which was their plan) and enter to find only bare walls...but Steve's finely-honed instinct told him this would be her headquarters, her base of operations - a place to keep her equipment. He'd spoken with Mark only briefly since taking over command (and at such a crucial time) so Steve didn't know that they'd both come around independently of each other to the same frightening conclusion. Mind control was not only possible, it was happening. One by one, the people around them were succumbing to its power. They were being picked off at will, like lambs to the slaughter! Another device was out there - and from what he'd read in Oscar's files, Steve was sure Anna Kingsley was behind at least some of the death and destruction that had surrounded all of them for more than a year. Geniuses can use their power for good or for evil, Steve thought silently as they neared the location. Maybe she's a mastermind and even her older brothers fell under her warped influence. But she's about to see and experience a different influence, up close and personal - the influence of the Federal court system when they lock her up for good.

''Go faster!'' Steve told the driver.

Mark sat next to Jaime's bed, trying to wrap his mind around everything that had just happened - Oscar with the baby, Steve going after him and then the piercing wail of the alarm. When Steve had returned with Becca, Oscar was nowhere in sight. Steve had motioned Mark into the hallway just as extra guards were arriving to beef security to its maximum level. Quickly, he'd briefed Mark on what had happened and that he was needed on Two - the locked ward. It was for Oscar and it was urgent. Steve had also told him that Corinth was on his way back to sit with Jaime so she wouldn't be surrounded by only the guards if she were to wake suddenly. He hadn't been able to find Michael. Then Steve had to go off to...wherever it was he was going; Mark hadn't had a chance to ask.

While he waited for Corinth, Mark watched his patient sleep. She looked angelically peaceful, with no signs of nightmares. She'd seen something that everyone else had missed...in Oscar's eyes. Eyes might be her strongest trigger, Mark noted, but now they could be her salvation too. She could see...something...in eyes that intended to do her harm. She could spot those who might be under the control of someone who Mark now strongly suspected was behind everything from the formation of Cobra to Jaime's shooting...and whatever might've almost happened with Becca. Everything fit, and Mark had the feeling one might get upon completing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle after finding the lost piece under a sofa cushion. The picture was complete...but it wasn't a pretty one.

The picture got even uglier when Mark was able to make his way to the locked ward. He punched in his key code and stepped inside when the door clicked for him to enter. He'd assumed Oscar was under sedation in one of the patient rooms and was about to ask a nurse when he noticed the Security guards standing just outside one of the 'quiet rooms'.

''A padded cell?'' he asked incredulously. ''He got that far out of control?''

''This was by Goldman's own request,'' a guard answered. ''He said to keep him inside by whatever means were necessary, until we hear from you that it's safe for him to come out. Said he didn't want to hurt anyone else.''

The fleet of cars spread out and approached the given address from both the road in front and the side road that ran behind the buildings. The area was residential; they were looking for a house. As instructed, all cars stopped several blocks away so they could move in quietly on foot and surround the entire house in a spiderweb pattern. Steve gave the signal for everyone to move in and the operation to begin. He would use the element of surprise to gain entry, kicking the door in to get her attention and then taking her into custody himself, bionically if necessary. At the very last moment, a red MG squealed up the driveway. Michael?!? Steve needed his teams focused on their assigned positions and it was too late to stand down, not even long enough to either warn Michael away...or question his motives for being there at all. Those questions could - and would - come later. Steve raised one foot...and kicked in the door.

''I've been waiting for you, Michael,'' a female voice purred from a room just down the hall. ''I'm in here - and it's time to reward you for a job well done.'' Steve made his way toward her voice with back-up teams directly behind him. If the room had a window (which it did) there'd be more back-up waiting there. He had covered all the bases - except for one. Just inside the room, partially hidden by a large, ominous-looking machine, Anja waited with a weapon aimed at the doorway as a 'reward' for the visitor she'd been expecting. When Steve stepped through the door jamb, his own gun at the ready...Anja pulled the trigger.

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