chAPTER 9

I told Heller that the situation with the Conduit was under control, but didn't give him any more information than that. I knew I'd catch hell for it later, but I wasn't really in the mood for an interrogation.

I bribed a passerby to grab the Amp from the creek, which he did without a second thought. Even with all the people trying to kill me, it felt good to see someone who was more accepting. Placing the Amp back in its sling, I ran to the nearest building and began climbing, wanting to take a bird's eye view of the city while nothing was going on.

The sun was beginning to set over Washington, D.C., and the darkening sky cast a shadow over the city. A few clouds moved in, briefly making me wonder if it was going to rain, but since the electricity in my veins weren't reacting to anything, I was certain there would be no rain tonight.

Toward the east end of the city was the more militaristic area of D.C. Army, Navy, Air Force, etc., they were all there. It seemed convenient enough, though having everything clustered together might have been a bad idea. What drew my attention to the military's area, though, was the convoy of trucks leaving the compound. I frowned and phoned Heller. "Hey, Heller, is there supposed to be a military convoy moving right about now?"

"How the hell should I know?" he demanded.

"I thought you DARPA types had eyes everywhere."

"I think you're listening to your friend a little too much. Look, they're probably just moving some supplies."

"Lotta soldiers just for some supplies."

"What do you expect? They're the military. Just stay out of their way and don't cause any trouble."

He cut the line after that, so he probably didn't hear the guy on the megaphone shout out to the city. "Attention, citizens of Washington, D.C.!" he yelled. "Due to the threat of the bio-terrorists against the United States, a curfew has been put into effect beginning immediately! Anyone caught outside after sunset will be arrested and detained!"

He repeated the message a few times as the convoy rolled on, but he needn't have bothered. Everywhere his voice reached, people began running into their homes and locking their doors. Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out why the hell he was talking about. Bio-terrorists? Did he mean Conduits? We were bio-terrorists now? I frowned and reached to call Agent Mendoza when suddenly I could feel a spotlight being trained on me. "Up there!" someone shouted. "It's MacGrath! Shoot him!"

At once, the scene erupted into gunfire. It looked like every branch of he military had it's gun trained on me, and there were too many to take on myself. Turning on my heel, I began running. Not long after, Heller's voice shouted into my ear. "MacGrath, what the hell is going on?!"

"I don't know!" I replied, sprinting to get away from the military, who by now were calling in helicopters to get me. "They just opened fire!"

"Shit. Get back to the warehouse ASAP! And don't bring the heat!"

The call ended with a click, and I continued my run from the attack of the military. A helicopter flew overhead, a soldier sticking out of the side holding an assault rifle. Thinking quickly, I raised my hand and fired an energy bolt, hoping to scare them away. Partway to the chopper, it split into three bolts and went around, reconnecting at the tail end and causing the chopper to spin out of control. The soldier on the side lost his grip on the chopper and began falling. As he fell, time seemed to slow as I weighed my options.

On one hand, these guys were trying to kill me. They were using lethal force on me without so much as shouting surrender. Hell, just a few seconds ago, this guy was about to shoot me. And with all these other soldiers trying to kill me too, I had to get the hell outta there.

On the other hand, he was a human being, so far as I could tell. A life, just like any other, was my responsibility. It became my responsibility after I caused all of the trouble we were in, anyway.

Closing my eyes, I made my decision.

I ran forward and jumped off the building, praying to God that I'd catch the soldier and we'd land safely on the adjacent building. Luckily, my timing was exact, and I caught the soldier, sending us both tumbling onto the next building. He rolled off of me quickly, standing to his feet and pulling his sidearm. Before he got a chance to fire it, I threw a lightning tether to his left foot and yanked, making him lose his footing and drop the gun. I kicked it off the building and restrained the soldier to the roof. "Don't go anywhere," I said.

I turned to see what happened to the helicopter, but I could already see that it was fine, as the mounted guns on the front were taking aim at me. I turned tail and ran, jumping off the roof before the pilot could get a shot off. I landed in the street below and kept running, though something made me slow down. A low, steady rumbling that was getting closer. I looked to my right just as a tank came into view, its cannon turning to point straight at me. "Son of a-," I began before the cannon fired, leaving me with just enough time to roll out of the way of the shot.

I immediately began running, trying to find somewhere safe from the firepower they were sending against me. "Really?!" I shouted as I jumped over the road's middle divider. "A freakin' TANK?!"

The machine gunner on the tank took aim at me and fired, making me change my original plan of running forward and making me run directly to my left and into the nearby alley. A young woman was there, frightened by all the commotion. When she saw me, her eyes widened, both in recognition and in fear. "No," she said in a whisper.

I heard the tank moving again, probably trying to line up another shot. I reached for the woman to try to get her to move, but she backed away holding out her hand to warn me about getting too close. "No, get away from me!" she exclaimed.

"Lady-," I began, stepping forward urgently.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!"

There was a crash behind me as the tank ran through the barricade. It was now in full sight of me, that cannon ready to fire. I got the feeling these guys weren't the type to make sure a human life wasn't sacrificed to stop the big, bad bio-terrorist, either. Not that I was planning on taking the woman hostage or anything. But if they were about to fire, she'd be caught up in it. "Damn it," I muttered, trying to think of a way to get her out of the way. I heard a shout from inside the tank and, thinking quickly, threw a blast... at the woman.

She went flying backwards, the magnetism in the blast catching her and somewhat-gently carrying her further. Knowing I didn't have enough time to make sure he landed right, I turned around to the tank and put up the bigger frost shield I could make. Then the cannon fired.

The shell hit the shield directly, shattering it into a million pieces. Luckily, the shield was able to stop the shot from reaching me and sound serious damage, but the force of the impact against the shield sent me flying backwards and into a nearby wall. The pain was heavy. Fighting Kessler hadn't hurt this much. I saw a fuse box to my right and held out my hand, drawing in as much energy as I could. Even then, I was still sore.

I heard tires screeching an turned to see military trucks and humvees pulling up, soldiers dashing out and training their weapons on me. I slowly stood up, trying to find a way out. A few of the soldiers yelled at me to get on he ground, but I stood where I was. Looking down, I spotted a sewer grate. I frowned at the thought of going down there, but I didn't see any other options. This was as good of a plan as any.

I took a step forward, earning more frantic shouts of warning, before suddenly spinning in a circle, building energy in my hands before releasing it in an ionic vortex. While the soldiers were distracted by the vortex racing towards them, I lifted the grate and dropped into the sewers.

Once there, I reached for my phone. "Hey Mendoza, I'm down in the D.C. sewers near the capital building. You know how to get back to he warehouse from here?" Nothing. "Mendoza?" The message still didn't go through. "Damn. No reception."

I looked up, considering trying my luck on the surface, but there was still too many military personnel to deal with. Sighing, I began my run in the sewers, trying to get away from where the heat was still thickest. I'd have to find my way back on my own.

Author's Note: Hey, everyone. Thanks for reading. There's two apologies I have to make. One, I need to apologize that this took so long. I had some issues as far as taking this chapter to where I needed it to go. The second apology is that in order to get this chapter to you guys as quickly as possible, I have to break my promise of uploading three chapters at once. I understand this may disappoint some of you, but I'd rather that than lose readers because nothing's being uploaded. I appreciate all of your all's patience with this, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please don't forget to review!