Project: MI

“…and that is where it ends.” Turning away from the screen as it went black, Beck looked at Richard, a worried expression on his face. “I’ve got some people going over the patch notes. It could just be a system glitch, but I’m thinking whoever it was that ‘visited’ with Grey had some kind of jamming device on them.”

Richard ran a thumb across his mouth, contemplating this latest development.

“Oh, how it almost hurts to be right,” he said. “It seems our esteemed colleagues will have confirmation now.”

“They didn’t believe you?” Beck asked, raising an eyebrow.

“They were open to the idea,” Richard replied. “But that doesn’t matter now. Is the patch working? We’re still intercepting his Companion’s reports before they reach the CHC?”

“Yeah,” Beck nodded. “We had to take a bit of a personal touch about this one though—editing out the bio-readings and footage for example. Making up an excuse is going to be easy, but I think they’ll find something no matter how deep we bury this. Especially now if someone is going to be putting a freakin’ gap in the record…”

“We only have to buy time. Just bear that in mind.” He leaned forward to the screen and hit the skip button on the video. The image switched from darkness to that of Jamie looking down with a worried expression on his face and a gold mask in one hand. “Interesting,” he said, tapping the spot where the mask was located. “Whoever it was, they know about the Pax. They came prepared.”

Beck snorted. “A faraday cage?” he asked with genuine surprise. “That’s an old one. I don’t think they got that from your computer.”

“I don’t believe that was a related incident. Probably something completely separate.”

“And your reasoning for that is…what exactly?” Beck asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Call it a hunch,” Richard said, pulling away from the computer screen. “Anyway, I’d like to discuss our girl.”

“Seriously? We have an x-factor throwing a monkey wrench into the spanner and you want to talk about…”

“…our girl,” Steiner insisted.

“What about her?” Beck asked, annoyed.

“Our colleagues want us to continue putting her in the field.”

“Oh for the love of…” Beck shoved himself away from the desk so that he was facing Richard more fully. “Are they serious?”

“Yes they are. We’re on a time table after all.”

Richard pressed a hand against his temples, massaging it.

“And you’re fine with it? After what you saw?”

“Yes.”

Beck glowered at Richard before sighing and shrugging his shoulders. “All right,” he said. “It’s out of my hands. What the bosses want, the bosses get. Just keep in mind that when my ass is thrown in jail I can’t just say ‘I was only following orders’ and get off Scott free. History already shows that excuse almost never works.”

“You will have the best defense attorney my money can buy,” Richard assured him with a soft smile. He checked his watch. “He should be done with school in a couple hours. I suggest that we proceed with the operation around that time.”

Beck folded his arms over his chest and glanced at the screen. “That complicates things.”

Steiner threaded his hands together and smiled warmly at Beck.

“Yes,” he agreed. “Frightening, isn’t it?”

Beck entered the laboratory once again with a sense of trepidation, finding the subject girl being strapped in her chair once again by the lab technicians.

“Dr. Jones,” he greeted as the woman turned away from the girl to see him entering.

“Mr. Beck,” she returned with a nod of her head. “We were just about ready to fire up the systems.”

“How was her last round of treatment?” he asked.

“She’s calmer and more sedate. We need to run some tests just to be sure but…” She furrowed her brow quizzically at him. “We’re not being ordered to turn her loose again, are we?”

“The big man’s orders,” Beck replied in resignation. “Steiner gave me a time table, and we’re to let her out to do her job.”

“I…see.” Jones glanced at the girl as the dome was lowered to her head. “I’d like it to be noted that I feel it is a little too soon to be engaging in this.”

“It is so noted. Feel free to take your time though. I’d like this to be as…clean as we can possibly have it.”

Jones looked at Beck with a bemused expression.

“Controlled,” he amended, noticing the look. “So sue me for purposefully equating the two.”

“All right,” said one of the technicians as the machines powered up and lights came to life around them. “We’re ready to go.”

“Run through the usual checks,” Jones ordered. “Monitor her brain patterns and log any unusual activity.” She turned to Beck. “I don’t care what Mr. Steiner orders, if there is so much as a single deviation, I’m not letting her go out there. With her mind and the power of these machines…”

“…anything can happen, yes, I know.” Beck placed his hands in his coat pockets uncertainly. He couldn’t blame her for her caution. Still, that didn’t change the universal fact of their employment. After all… he thought before continuing aloud, “Orders are orders.”

Jones pressed her lips together into one thin line, clearly not liking his warning. With nothing more to be said between them, Jones stepped over to one of the nearby monitors and began analyzing the incoming data being fed through it. Beck took out his cell phone and checked the time. 1:30 in the afternoon. The next hour was going to be a long one.

There it is, she thought, feeling a gentle warmth suffuse throughout her entire body. Her vision, once dark, became full of light—full of possibilities. The whole world was her stage and her clay to mold. She felt that she could do anything.

“Am I getting orders today?” she asked, a smile forming upon her lips.

“Yes,” said a female voice from the light. “But first we have to perform some tests. I’d like for you to create something for me.”

An image began to form within the girl’s mind, and she nodded beneath the dome.

“She’s still speaking?” asked Beck.

“She is,” Jones replied from her computer. “I’ve decided to include discussion into our treatments more regularly. The human mind is a social creature after all, and isolation can be just as bad for it as good.”

“So you’re of the opinion that trust is better than whatever she’s been getting pumped full of in getting her to cooperate?”

“Once her mind was broken down, yes,” Jones nodded. Turning around she pointed at the floor. “Could you form it here, please?” she asked.

A ball of light materialized before them, causing Beck to look at Jones in apprehension. Jones did not appear the least bit disturbed, and instead continued to look back and forth between the computer screen and the sphere. The light expanded, taking shape and becoming humanoid. After several moments, the shape took on definition and shadows, changing color until, finally, a small, gruesome creature with green skin and a large, wart-covered nose and bat-like ears materialized.

“What…?” began Beck before Jones responded.

“We’ve seen this image appear a great deal in her mind since yesterday’s incident. It is often closely associated with any disturbances in her brain patterns.” She tapped her finger against her lips, contemplating the incoming data. “All right… Nothing out of the ordinary so far.”

“Is that good or bad?” Beck asked, approaching.

“This is good. It means that the treatments appear to be working. We’re still not out of the woods yet. All right, Ran.” Jones turned toward the girl. “Animate it please.”

As Beck watched, the goblin-creature flipped into the air and landed on its hands, balancing itself like a circus performer. It grinned at him and Jones, and saliva leaked out from between its bared fangs.

“Unsettling realism,” he noted, folding his arms over his chest uncomfortably. “It looks so real… There’s absolutely no uncanny valley in there at all.”

“She’s very talented,” Jones said. “Still nothing so far. We may be in the clear for now.”

“We still have a whole hour,” Beck said. “Make sure all the cobwebs in her brain are all worked out before letting her loose, okay?”

“Of course. Alex?” she turned toward the man at the other end of the room. “Let’s turn up the power. I’d like to increase the Q-density of her projections to 95-percent solidity.”

“Understood,” Alex replied.

As they continued, Beck looked up away from the goblin and at the girl. His eyes dropped down to the grin splayed across her face. He shivered, wondering if this was a good idea.

Kira stood outside the main entrance to the school, arms folded across her chest as she watched her fellow students heading toward the buses. She furrowed her brow slightly, and tapped a finger on her forearm, feeling a touch of impatience coursing through her.

Where is he? she wondered irritably as the flow slowed to a trickle. The possibility that Jamie had already left the building had occurred to her, as did the chance that he used one of the more further off exits, so the uncertainty left her feeling annoyed and agitated.

If she were even more honest, everything about having to ingratiate herself into a stranger’s social life—and not just any stranger, a wet-behind-the-ears middle-schooler—left her feeling annoyed.

If only Monique could see me now, trying to hook up with some dumb kid. She grimaced at the thought. Great. That came out sounding completely wrong…

The doors to her side flew open again and a dark-haired teen staggered out, a bewildered look on his face. At once Kira shifted her arms, getting ready for trouble.

“Wha…?! Brad!” the teen exclaimed, surprised. “I’m sorry! I thought…”

A red-haired, muscular teen stepped into view, one that Kira recognized, causing the muscles in her arms to tense up, already expecting trouble.

“You thought? I thought I made myself clear,” Bradley said, his voice full of scorn. Kira noted that he had a bandage around his forearm. “I told you to leave James alone. What part of that didn’t you understand?”

James? Kira’s ears perked up. As in James Grey? This guy picks on him? She wasn’t completely surprised by that—the list of his victims was so long it was impossible to name them. She was a bit curious as to why he went after a heroi. That’s…kind of like playing with a live grenade.

Then again, if half the things she heard about him were true, she supposed that she shouldn’t be all that surprised.

Kind of a live grenade himself actually…

Finally noticing that she was there, the red-haired boy looked at her, scowling. “What are you looking at?”

Kira regarded him with a dispassionate expression. “I’m just waiting for a friend. I’m not looking for trouble.”

Although if you knew who I was waiting for, you might take it as some, she added mentally.

“Brad, just take it easy,” said the dark-haired boy, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. He turned at Krista and gave her a nervous smile. “Don’t worry about it. We’re taking off, okay? Right Brad?”

The red-headed teen snorted and stormed past his ‘friend’, and was quickly followed by two more teens who Kira hadn’t noticed hanging in the background anxiously. They both shot Kira sharp looks as they fell into line.

“Sorry about that,” the dark-haired boy said, a bit of a shaky tone to his voice. Kira shrugged, not particularly caring about the incident.

“Whatever,” she said. The boy’s smile slipped a little and he quickly turned and followed after his group of friends.

I really didn’t need that, she thought, relaxing her muscles ever-so-slightly. Tossing her head, she blew at her bangs. Back to waiting…

Across from her, at the middle-entrance to the school, she saw a trio of students exit the building. Narrowing her eyes, she leaned forward. She recognized one of them as Jamie Grey.

“Finally,” she muttered to herself, shrugging her bag onto her shoulder into a more comfortable position. “Time to get this show on the road.”

She strode quickly across the school’s front lawn, shrinking the distance between them. Before she even reached halfway, she was struck with doubt about what to say. Her story was straight—she had taken a look at the SPCA website during her computer studies class—but what to say?

She never had been very good at talking to random strangers. She reflected that this was why she was friends with Monique; she did all the talking for her in social situations.

Just get over yourself, she told herself fiercely, steeling herself. You faced killer robots and broke into corporate buildings. You can deal with one stupid kid.

“Hey,” she began upon nearing them, but no sooner did she start speaking, Jamie suddenly grabbed the sides of his head and doubled over with a cry of pain, narrowly avoiding a beam of energy that sailed over him, striking the ground behind him.

“So are you going Monster-hunting today?” Justin asked, causing Jamie to jump in surprise and slam his locker closed harder than he intended. Observing this, Justin raised an eyebrow. “Jeez… Don’t have a heart attack on me, it was just a question.”

“S-Sorry,” Jamie apologized. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“I’ll bet,” Justin said, spying Kyle approaching and flagging him down. Jamie could only sigh mentally and try to keep a handle on his already half-wild emotions.

You don’t know the half of it, he thought, shrugging his bag onto his shoulder. “A-Anyway, I’ve got some things to do first…”

“Huh?” Justin looked at him, a bit baffled. “Like what? Your Cerberus was kidnapped and…”

“I need to check in with the SPCA website,” Jamie cut in a little heatedly. “Someone might have seen something and reported it.”

“Dude, your Cerberus was stolen by a lady who jumped, like, a hundred feet into the air. I don’t think anyone is going to suddenly report finding Monster.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Jamie asked, turning away and heading off.

“Hey, hey, hey!” Justin clamped a hand on his shoulder, halting him. Jamie turned back at him, a dark look on his face. “Take it easy, will you?” Justin continued, undaunted. “We’re on your side, remember?”

Jamie’s expression softened and he glanced away, a bit ashamed. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Justin replied, giving his shoulder a friendly pat as Kyle drew up and looked between the pair, a bit concerned. “Just take it easy with the snapping until we actually deserve it. Right Kyle?” He turned toward their mutual friend, who raised his eyebrows.

“Uh…right?” he replied tentatively. Justin flashed a grin back at Jamie.

“See?”

Jamie nodded reluctantly. “I’ve…still got to check anyway,” he said as they began to lose themselves in the crowd of students. “There’s always a chance.”

“I still think you should check in with the cops or the CHC,” said Kyle, catching on to what the topic was about. “I mean, that guy was obviously a heroi. This is the sort of thing they take care of you know.”

Jamie gripped the hem of his shirt tightly, a part of him wondering if he should just tell them about the incident in the bathroom. There just seemed to be so much going on, threatening to overwhelm him.

“I did send a message,” spoke up Beth, swinging from Jamie’s belt-loop. “All I know is that they’re looking into it.”

“Nothing else?” Kyle asked. “Wouldn’t they be making a bigger deal about this if they were? I haven’t seen anything on the net.”

“They’re a super-secretive government organization,” Justin said, rolling his eyes. “Not making a big deal about things to the public is what they do?”

“They’re not that secretive,” Kyle remarked, scowling.

“Since when were you such an expert on them? Besides, I’m pretty sure that this whole thing is above Beth’s pay grade anyway.”

“I don’t get paid,” Beth replied, sounding strangely bitter about that. At another time, Jamie would have laughed about how human she sounded, but he couldn’t summon the humor necessary for that. Besides, a sight at the end of the hallway near the school’s first exit added yet another reason for him to not laugh.

“Oh crud,” Jamie said, crestfallen as he saw Bradley Norman getting into the face of one of his crewmates, Josh, not looking the least bit happy about something.

Then again, when is he ever happy? he wondered sardonically.

“I think that’s our cue to go in reverse,” Justin said, taking hold of his companions and steering them around in the opposite direction. Kyle looked at him a bit startled.

“I thought you would want to face them. I mean, after yesterday…”

“Yeah, well, sometimes the best way to win a fight is to not have one in the first place,” Justin replied. “Sun Tsu, the Art of War,” he quoted, causing both of his friends eyebrows to shoot up in utter shock. “What?” he asked, confused. “You guys know I like to read.”

“I don’t…even… Wait. There’s a book called that? Art of War?” Jamie asked, tilting his head to one side. Justin rolled his eyes again and pushed them along.

“You’re such a philistine…”

“I’m a what?”

“Someone to whom nothing is sacred,” Kyle supplied. “I read that in my mom’s Torah. I don’t think you’re using it right though,” he continued, looking up at Justin.

“This is really getting educational,” Justin cracked. “It’s the end of the school day. Let’s knock it off and get down to the real business of finding Jamie’s Cerberus, okay? Okay. Glad you both agree.”

“Um…” began Jamie uncertainly. “…did you say that you’re going to help me?”

“Duh!” Justin gave him a quizzical look as they approached the school’s second exit. “That’s what friends do, isn’t it? Why wouldn’t we help?”

“Er…” Jamie chewed over his lower lip, wondering how he could best deal with this development.

That guy…person…in the bathroom said to come alone, and if anyone else got involved there’d be trouble. I… Oh man… What am I going to do?

“Jamie?” asked Kyle, looking at him worriedly. “What’s up? You’re shaking.”

Behind the boy, Justin blinked. “Dude, he’s right. Are you feeling okay? Tell me the Brad sighting didn’t freak you out that bad…”

Jamie took a trembling breath as he pushed open the door, grateful that his friend accidently gave him a readymade excuse for him to use. His heart was banging in his chest so hard that it was becoming increasingly difficult for him to think. In fact, his anxiety seemed to be getting worse as he got closer to the outside.

“I…don’t want to talk about it,” he mumbled upon leaving the building. By his side, Beth’s electronic eye swiveled up toward him, blinking worriedly.

“Jamie…” she began, only to stop as he clasped her in his hand. Justin’s glanced down, noting the act.

“Come to think of it,” he began, “you’ve been pretty weird all day today. I’m starting to think that there’s more going on here than just Brad’s bad attitude.”

The thumping in Jamie’s chest increased in its tempo as Jamie continued down the sidewalk, only now a strange tingling in his head added itself to the mix. For some reason, it felt that it was lighting up the nerves in his body, making them as tense as a wire. He barely held back shooting a snappy, angry remark at Justin and telling him to shut up.

Can’t think, he thought, shaking his head. What’s going on with me? I feel like I’m about to jump right out of my ski-

All at once his brain suddenly seemed to scream inside his head, causing him to double over and clutch at the sides of his skull with a cry. So powerful was it that he didn’t notice his friends concern, or the beam of energy that sailed right over him and striking the sidewalk behind them until concrete exploded. The internal scream silenced just then and Jamie looked up, startled at the sudden quiet…and the trench coat-wearing woman that had stolen Monster from him yesterday floating in the air.

“Sonovabitch!” he heard Justin exclaim behind him. “It’s her! That’s the guy from yester-!”

Before Justin could finish what he was saying, three things happened. First, the woman floating above them changed her aim at Jamie and lighting crackled around her hand. Second, a strangely familiar girl with dark hair, blue-eyes deep, focused, and determined, appeared in front of him. Finally, she grabbed him by the shirt and threw him backward, bowling over his two friends in the process before finding himself crashing on his back within the school’s entrance.

“Inside!” the girl shouted to his two friends, suddenly dropping to one knee and grabbing them both by their shirts as well and hauling them up. “Get inside now!”

There was a crackling of lightning and the smell of something burning as Jamie scrambled to his feet, trying to figure out what was going on. Looking back up at the woman, he saw that she was already adjusting her aim once again…toward him.

“Oh crap,” Justin said under his breath, eyes widening as he dropped his bag and ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the stream of lightning that shot past him. The feeling of current igniting his nerves returned once more, this time at a reduced level. He felt…fast. Not that the world was moving quickly, but that he was.

“Move! Move!” the girl ordered, hauling Justin and Kyle in past the doors and shoving them forward. Jamie’s eyes darted toward her, utterly baffled by her unexpected rescue, but was distracted from taking note of the smoke curling off the back of her shirt by that strange sense of alarm screaming in his head. Drawn like a magnet, his eyes turned up toward the woman attacking them as she lowered himself to the ground and began to approach them, hand extended and taking aim.

There was suddenly a sharp, burning sensation in his eyes, and before he knew it, a blast of energy of his own shot forth from them and impacted the woman, causing her to fly backward and hit the ground hard, coat smoldering. Clambering back up to his feet, Jamie was still trying to process what was going on when his eyes began burning again, and shot forth another beam of light, once again striking the woman and causing the ground around her to explode, sending dust and debris flying through the air. Jamie clenched his eyes shut and clasped his hands on them, staggering backward and bumping into the doorframe, gasping as the realization of what just happened exploded in his mind.

I just killed a man! I just killed him!!! I…! My eyes! Holy…! My eyes! What the heck is going on with my eyes?!

“Oh man…” he heard Justin groan. “She’s getting back up…”

His horror evaporating into confusion, Jamie carefully lowered his hands and cracked an eye open as the smoke began to clear, revealing the woman he had just shot standing, looking none the worse for wear. Jamie blinked.

Wha… What is she made of?

The woman didn’t answer his unspoken question, and instead looked up as a warbling sound filled the air. She scowled before vanishing from sight.

“Guardian Spheres are coming,” Ran said from beneath her helmet.

“Disengage,” Jones replied. Ran nodded, acknowledging the order.

“Disengaging.” Her mouth then took on a pout to it. On the computer screen, Jones noted a brief spike in her brain patterns. “He nearly blew up my coat lady.”

“Don’t hold it against him,” said Beck from next to Jones. “He’s just doing what we want him to do.”

There was a brief pall of silence, during which Beck and Jones became engrossed in the incoming computer data before the girl broke it again, this time with a small giggle that caused the hairs on the back of Beck’s neck to stand on end.

“So I should hold it against you instead?”

Beck looked at Jones sharply, who was likewise looking at Ran in alarm. “Disconnect her!” she exclaimed, getting up from her chair. “Disconnect…!”

“Already done, Jones!” Alex said from the other side of the room. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Jones sank back into her seat.

“Get a doctor up here and take her back to her room.” She glanced at Beck, who indicated that she go with him with a flick of a finger. Pushing away from her computer, she did as he requested. Once outside the test room, they turned to face each other.

“That was…different,” Beck said simply. “I don’t remember reading anything like that before in either yours or Alex’s reports. Well, not since the early stages of treatment.”

“I don’t think this is going to work,” Jones said bluntly, running a hand through her hair and giving an exhausted sigh.

“What’s your suggestion?” Beck asked.

“Nothing that Mr. Steiner won’t reject…”

“I want to hear it anyway. After this, I’ll push him.”

Jones gave him a dejected look that told him what she already thought about that. “Humor me,” he insisted.

“We pull the plug and get her committed somewhere far and away from here. Create whatever documentation we need to keep from incriminating the company. I don’t think we can keep her under control forever, not with all the exposure she’s getting again. She’s…broken inside. I don’t know how much I can emphasize that, and Mr. Steiner doesn’t seem to see it.”

“Oh, he sees it all right,” Beck said. “Saw it in fact. You were there. He just thinks it’s worth it.” Rubbing the bridge of his nose he pushed back the cobwebs of fear that were growing in his mind. “If it weren’t for the Dark Age…”

“…we wouldn’t even be talking about this,” Jones finished for him. She pressed her lips into a sympathetic line and tilted her head to one side. “We should get some coffee. Settle our nerves. Maybe…convince ourselves again that we’re doing the right thing.”

“That…” Beck scratched the back of his head as he mulled the idea over. “…sounds like the best idea anyone here has had so far. I’ll take you up on that.”

Jones smiled as a medical team rounded the corner and entered the test room.