The Facility

Cass followed the old man’s directions, trying to keep to the unlit sections of the street when she could. A young girl and a dog at that time of night would stand out even if the police were not actively looked for her.

As she approached, she knew the directions were right on because she spotted the building from over a block away. It seemed to be spread over a large block, part of it two stories and made mostly of glass.

Although it was night, not all of the lights were off, and Cass had no idea where to start looking for her friends.

She concentrated like Rudi had taught her and called to him. Staying in the shadows, she continued to call to him for several minutes before she faintly heard him reply.

“Cassidy? Where are you?” Rudi asked telepathically.

“Close. Can you give me and more on where exactly you are? Or how many men are there?” she asked back.

“I am still in the same place. They have not moved me. I am tied up and cannot see anyone else. I am not sure how many of them there are, but I know I have seen at least three of them along with Hugo.”

“Okay, just hang in there. I am doing what I can.”

Cass knelt next to Harley and stroked his fur. “This is going to be dangerous,” she said quietly. “I do not want you to get hurt. What I need is for you to stay close and keep an eye out for threats I do not see.”

Harley stood looking at her and panting. She knew he probably had no idea what she was babbling on about. His commands were one or two words at most, not matter how smart he was.

Thinking it over, she told him, “Observe. Protect.” He just stood looking at her. She groaned as she realized his commands needed to be in German, putting her head on his.

“Damnit,” she mumbled and Harley let out a low bark, then licked her face.

Resigned to her fate, whatever that should be, she decided to try to find a way into the building. The front was not the place to start. It was too open and she knew that logically her friends would not just be sitting out front for anyone who happened to walk up, to see.

The back was just as bad. She opted to walk around the building, looking for some place to enter that was out of the way. This had the added bonus of being able to see if she could see her friends or any of Hugo’s men.

Starting near the front, she worked her way down one side of the building and across the back before she spotted the first guard. He was inside, watching the back entrance and trying not to be seen, but he made the mistake of taking a glance at the wrong time.

The building was not square, so Cass had walked the perimeter, going in and out as she made her way around it. The back was mostly straight across, except for the corners, and she had just made her way into a cutout section at the corner and she had seen the man’s head before he could look her way.

Squatting down so she could not be seen, she duck-walked around the corner and out of the man’s sight.

Cass went a ways before chancing a peek into the window in case she could be seen from this side as well. She could see the inside structure through the plants and trees, but not the man, so she was safe for now.

Twenty feet further, she saw one of the few sections that had a second floor and what looked like a balcony. She walked Harley under the balcony and quietly said, “Harley, up.” The dog looked up, and then around and whined softly, not being able to see any way up.

She put a hand on his head and gave him a scratch before she said, “Up you go,” and he began to rise into the air. Cass concentrated on lifting him up and over the rail, then slowly letting him down on the other side. Because she could not see him, she had to guess, hoping she did not drop him. If she was off, it would only be a foot or two, which would not hurt him.

Cass had plenty of practice lifting other objects, but not herself. She was not sure she could concentrate on lifting her own body and while she might not die from a one story fall, it would certainly hurt.

Concentrating as best she could, she began to rise and found her movements made her wobbly, so she set herself back down. She moved closer to the wall, putting one had on it and pointed the other down.

Cass used the hand against the wall to steady herself as she rose again, concentrating on the ground that shrank below her outstretched hand.

Looking mostly down, she felt a change in the wall and then empty air as her hand left the wall, she looked up to see she had made it to the railing.

She kept rising and wobbled at the top, causing her concentration to break. Cass grabbed for the railing, which was cold, rounded metal.

Her hand made contact and then began to slide off the slick metal as her weight and gravity took her backwards. She was going to fall. Her fingers scrabbled for purchase, finding none.

All of a sudden a tug on her hoodie pulled her back into the railing, where her hands went all the way over the rail.

Not wasting any time, she began to climb up and Harley let go of her shirt so she could climb over the railing. Once over, she knelt down and hugged Harley.

“Thanks for helping me there. It would have been messy if I had fallen,” she told him, getting a lick on the cheek in return.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Cass stood and went to the door, which was of course, locked.

Cass wasn’t about to let that stop her. She reached out with her power, into the lock, and pushed on the tumblers twisting the lock until it clicked and the door opened for her.

Pulling it open, she quietly said, “After you,” to Harley who entered the building. The only noise they made was the noise of the dog’s nails, softly clicking on the tile floor.

Once inside, Cass gently shut the door and looked around. Walkways and observation spots went around the part of the building that was two stories, and also led to a group of offices in the middle. Stairs led down from both sides, meeting near the back entrance.

That meant that she would have to take out the first guard she saw in order to get down and into the gardens themselves.

She thought about trying to lower herself, but after being unstable going up, she did not want to chance it.

Creeping down the walkway to the offices, Cass peered into the windows looking to see if guards or her friends were inside. All were empty of people.

Cass kept an eye out over the railing, but most of the view was only the canopies of the trees that were inside. Because it was dark, spaces without branches did not show much of the ground below as she looked down.

She spotted patches of color – dots brighter than the surroundings – which had to be flowers.

Pausing at the top of the stairs in a crouch, she did not like being so exposed, but going down would mean that cover would be had by all, which was no better.

It was not like she had much choice, however.

Just as she moved forward to start down the stairs, she caught a spot of dark – darker than the surrounding areas near the top of the other stairway.

Cass froze after putting a hand on Harley to stop him. He looked at her and she figured he had been trained in hand signals, and while she had not, she figured some basic ones might work.

Slowly, she pointed at her eyes, and them over to the stairway where she had seen what she believed was a guard. Harley looked over to where she pointed and then sat down.

This confused Cassidy. “What? What’s that mean?” she whispered. Harley turned around and took off at a sprint, back the way they had come.

Cass sighed, wondering what had just happened. Had Harley just abandoned her? She stayed where she was, trying to figure out what to do next. Everything that went through her mind would give away that she was here.

She could fling him against the wall, or over the railing, but he was bound to make noise and draw the attention of the others.

While she was trying to figure out what to do, she caught a lighter blur, streak across the walkway and fly through the air, landing on the darker spot, who was flung into the wall.

The crack of bone was audible to Cass, sounding loud in the quiet of the building.

Harley paused, sniffing the man, then turned and tore off back the way he came. Cass watched down the stairs, waiting for the others to come, but no one came.

Harley returned, panting from his exertions and quietly laid next to her, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

She stroked this soft furl not sure if she should be upset or not. Which one of them were actually responsible for what had just happened? Did she give him a command to do that or did he do it on his own?

Now wasn’t the time to worry. She would ask Lyle later – if she could.

Scratching behind his ears one last time, she started down the stairs in a crouch. It was not much cover, since the railing was nothing more than a tube at the top and bottom, with two strands of braided steel wire spread evenly in-between but it was better than going down standing up.

Cass almost giggled at that. Standing, she was not much taller than the rail top. Would they even notice her? Maybe her lighter hair would give her away.

No matter now that she was near the bottom.

Harley was next to her as she went down. At the bottom, she looked left into the gardens and did not see anyone, but she could not see far, as the plants and trees blocked a good portion of her view.

She would worry about that later, knowing that one guard should be close, off to the right somewhere.

Cass peeked around the corridor and did not see anything down the short hall. Where had the man gone to? As she was looking down the hall, a figure slowly came into view, peeking out of an alcove that Cass had not noticed in the dark.

She froze, worried that the man would look her way, but he slid back into this alcove without looking back. He must not have heard Harley take down his companion.

Cass knew she would have to do something about all of Hugo’s men, along with Hugo himself, in order to save her friends.

She slowly crept around the corner and started down the short hall towards the alcove, Harley right by her side.

It was eerily quiet and Cass was acutely aware of the sound of Harley’s nails clicking on the tile flooring.

Just as she was silently wishing that she were the only one who could hear the noise, the man ducked his head out of the alcove, looking away from her and Harley.

She froze, as did Harley, but the man had not seen anything towards the doors so he turned and looked back towards them.

Pausing only a second due to the fact that the person he was waiting for had gotten past him somehow, he came out of the alcove pointing something at Cassidy.

Knowing that a single dart would put her out of the fight, she instinctively threw up her arm, pushing with her power.

The man’s arm wrenched up, causing his finger to pull the trigger.

Cass expected to hear the hiss of compressed gas, but instead she heard what sounded like a muffled sneeze and the man’s head seemed to explode in a mist.

A wave of nausea went through Cassidy as she looked away. Through the quiet she could hear what she assumed was blood dripping onto the floor from the ceiling above.

Fighting down the bile that was rising in her, she realized that Hugo had upped the stakes and was no longer trying to capture her. A bullet was meant for her now.

That meant that her friends were in mortal danger if they were not already dead.

She hoped that no one had heard the silenced gunshot. It was not much louder than Harley taking down the first man, but it was distinct enough that if it were heard, it would not be long before there would be someone investigating.

As far as Cass was from the body, the coppery smell of the blood overpowered the rich earthy aroma of the building.

Cass knew this was no time to freeze up or worry about those trying to hurt her or her friends. She walked back to the stairs and knowing Hugo’s men meant to kill her, she did not want Harley hurt.

“Go upstairs and hide,” she whispered to him. The dog just looked at her, not moving or seeming to understand.

She took ahold of his vest and tugged it towards the stairs, pointing up them. “GO. UP,” she tried again. He still did not move.

She sighed and then said, “Stay.” Taking a step ahead, Harley did not move, so she began to move away but didn’t get another step before she heard the click of Harley’s nails and the dog was beside her.

She wanted to stomp her foot and tell him that either he understood her or not, and that he could not selectively pretend to understand something or not, but now was not the time.

Instead, she quietly said, “If we get out of this live, you and I are going to come to an understanding about who is the boss around here.” Harley just looked at her like he already knew who was.

Cass followed a random path inside the large building, trying to keep to the areas where there was more cover.

While it was not pitch black in the building thanks to the occasional light, the clothes she had on did not help hide her, nor did her hair. There was some lighting around the outer walls, and most of the roof was made of glass as well, letting in the moonlight. She wished tonight had no moon.

They quietly made their way around the winding path that took them all around the building, looking for the people they cared about, as well as their enemies.

Cass though she heard a noise and paused, looking at Harley. The dog had also stopped on her own and was half crouched like he was getting ready to pounce on something – or someone.

Even in the dark she could see his teeth bared, glowing white, but he had not made a sound to give them away.

Lowering herself, she whispered, “Careful.” She pointed to the right, into a patch of flowers and grasses. “Hide. Watch. Protect.”

Once again she found herself wondering if the dog understood. She knew she was being naïve, but somewhere deep down she knew Harley understood. He simply chose which commands to follow.

As if to prove her right, without making any sound, Harley moved quietly into the foliage and was quickly out of sight.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself before continuing down the path. Ten feet farther, the path split, going around a large circle of grass. On the grass in the middle was Hugo Forrester, dressed as usual in a dark suit, looking like he had just come from some kind of red carpet event.

To his left, Cassidy could see Rudi and Gemma lying face down in the grass, and to his right lay Lyle and Maggie.

Hugo spread his arms wide. “Welcome Ms. Gray. Don’t you think this is getting kind of droll? You run; I capture you.”

Putting her fisted hands on her slim hips, she replied, “It does not look like you captured me. And so far, it has only happened once in all the times you tried. I would say that I am better at this than you are.”

She had to smile at the stern look of disapproval on his face.

“Four out of five is not bad,” he said. “And I have been generous. Two of the four are expendable and worthless to me. I could have simply killed them but I did not. And you know why?”

Cass just stood, looking at him. He would of course tell her, and he did not disappoint. “Because, believe it or not, we need toy. We need to understand how you, and the others are able to do what you do. If we can understand it, we could learn how to use it to keep people safe.

“Imagine a nuclear reactor has a meltdown. No one would be able to survive inside, yet someone with your powers could manipulate things inside without ever going inside. Think of how someone with Rudi’s ability could read the minds of terrorists to learn about attacks before they happen and we can stop them.

“Just think of all the good we could do!”

“So to do this, you kidnap children and shoot their parents. Keep them locked up and perform experiments on them? And of course you never through that someone like me could be an assassin or a thief, stealing whatever your company or the government wanted, right? Just think of what Gemma and I could do together. Burn or freeze anything or anyone and a bodyguard to stop anyone who goes against us. Or Rudi could be used as a spy, getting any kind of secrets that were wanted. Governments, companies, you name it. Mind reader for hire even.”

Hugo slowly shook his head as Cass finished. “Although our methods do not seem to be the best way to achieve results, they do get the job done. You could help us fix things, so problems like these do not happen in the future.”

Cassidy laughed at him. “You are serious. You think you are really doing things with good intentions. Well… I assume you do know that old adage, ’The road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ I would rather not be in hell, even if you mean well, and I think that goes for my friends as well. So do us all a favor and leave. Leave us alone. I will not be asking nicely again.”

Hugo cocked his head and sighed. “I really wish there was another way,” he said to her and gave a nearly imperceptible nod.

Cass saw it and immediately sent a powerful wave of force out from around her body in all directions, pushing out and up. A dart or bullet should be deflected by it she hoped.

As she suspected, the sound of a loud cough came from a short distance away. The ambusher must have been aiming to only maim her down low, and she guessed wrong.

Instead, a searing pain shot through her right hip, spinning her around off balance. Although it felt like someone had put liquid fire on her hip, she kept herself upright.

The half spin had turned her farther from the shooter and she was about to turn back to deal with him first when she head first the growl, then the bark, right before a man screamed.

It was shot lived and Cass knew the problem had been taken care of, so she turned back to Hugo who had started towards her.

Adrenaline coursed through her and she screamed a battle cry and flung her left hand out, stopping Hugo in his tracks. She raised her hand slightly and Hugo’s large body rose into the air, feet dangling six inches off the ground.

A light blur flew out of the buses and leapt at Hugo. Harley’s jaw locked around Hugo’s calf, just above his ankle and the dog thrashed his head side-to-side, but Hugo did not move at all even with the added weight of the dog, thanks to Cass’s power.

Hugo let out a scream of his own as more damage was inflicted on his leg because there was no give in Cass’s hold, yet gravity was pulling the seventy pound dog down.

“That will be enough of that,” she said extending her right had from where it was on her wounded hip, focusing her power to squeeze his throat closed.

His hands went to his throat like he could pull off the force holding it closed.

Cass admonished herself on not giving thought to stop Hugo from using his hands. He could have gone for a gun or something else with his hands free.

She almost laughed at the scene playing out. It was like something straight out of Star Wars. She was Darth Vader choking out the Imperial Admiral.

In an imitation of Yoda, she said, “The Force is strong in me,” and let out a giggle.

Hugo’s hands finally fell limply from his throat and his chin slumped to his chest. Harley was still trying to remove Hugo’s leg, so Cass said, “Harley, heel.”

Harley immediately let go and came to her side, licking his muzzle. His muzzle was darkened by what she could only assume was blood. She was not sure if it was Hugo’s or the other man’s, or both and she really did not care.

Hugo had stopped struggling and while Cass was tempted to squeeze the life out of him, she was not as cold as these people. She could not kill in cold blood, even though they had given her enough reason to.

Cassidy dropped Hugo, who did not move after he landed with a thud. If he was dead, so be it. She took a step towards Maggie who was the closest, and winced at the pain in her hip, nearly collapsing.

Harley moved to her side and she put a hand down on him to steady herself. With his help, she managed to hobble over to Maggie and Lyle.

She knelt and rolled to her left, but even though she was careful, the jolt sent a lance of blinding pain through her. Closing her eyes, she gritted her teeth until the pain subsided.

Harley had moved over to Lyle and was licking him. Lyle groaned and moved some.

Cass stretched some to reach Maggie and pushed the hair out of her face, tucking it behind the woman’s ear. She felt for a pulse in the woman’s neck and was relieved to find a strong one.

Cass patted Maggie’s cheek an called her name. Maggie moaned and opened her eyes, which were glassy. “Come on Maggie, we really need to go,” Cass said.

She scooched down carefully until she could reach Maggie’s bound hands and began picking at the knot. Cass managed to get it undone finally, then moved over to Lyle and undid his.

Lyle sat up first and begun untying his ankles. “Are you okay?”

“Oh. Yeah sure,” she replied. “I will help Maggie; you get the other kids.”

Maggie had sat up and her eyes were clearer. “Are you all right sweety?” she asked Cass. Cass had removed Myra’s glasses before she went into the dark building and while it was dark, Maggie could see that there was something wrong with the girl’s eyes.

“Tired,” Cass answered, suddenly feeling dizzy.

As Maggie untied her feet, Cass laid back in the grass, feeling woozy and a little nauseated, closing her eyes to rest. She heard Rudi and Gemma come around as they were untied and them heard Maggie tell her they needed to go, but she was too tired to move.

Cass felt Maggie’s hand on her face, brushing the stray hair and barely heard her when she said, “She is so pale,” to someone.

Maggie rubbed Cass’s cheek and Cass only smiled some. “Lyle, something is wrong with Cassidy,” she said.

Lyle moved over to Cass and looked at her. “She’s in shock. Raise her feet.”

Rudi knelt at her feet and put Cass’s feet on his knees. “What is that?” he said pointing at the girl’s waist.

Lyle looked to where Rudi was pointing, then leaned closer. “Looks like blood,” he said touching a finger to her sweats. He stuck his fingers together and pulled them apart, then brought them to his nose and sniffed. “It is blood, but is it hers or someone else's?”

In the dim light, he could not see and there was not much he could do here anyway. He could not see anything clearly, but he needed to know the basics at least. Was it life threatening? Was it even hers?

Doing the wrong thing cold cause more damage, which he did not want to do. He gently put his hand on the growing blood spot and pressed.

Cass whimpered and instinctively pulled away a little. Lyle felt what he through was a hole. The sweats were basically new, but he did not know what she had been through in the last few hours.

She might have been shot and right now, that was the worse case scenario, so that was what he was going with. He let his training take over, knowing that they had to leave; they had to remove Cassidy from the present danger before he could treat her. Time was of the essence, for both her health and all of their safety.

He pulled off his shirt and handed it to Maggie. “Fold that up and put it over the spot where the blood is. Press down and put pressure on it.”

As Maggie did that, he took off his belt and ran it under Cassidy. Maggie put pressure on the shirt and Cass moaned, but did not pull away. Lyle put the belt around the shirt and tightened it to apply pressure and hold the homemade field dressing in place.

Cass was small and Lyle’s belt was big enough that Lyle had to tie it in place. Cass moaned again when Lyle snugged it down.

“We have to go. I doubt our van is being watched with us being captive and everyone here, so we need to get another vehicle and our stuff, get some supplies and get as far away as we can as quickly as we can,” Lyle said.

“But Cass…” Rudi started. Lyle shook his head. “If they know she is hurt, they will be looking for us here. They will check hospitals, motels, places like that where we might go to lay low and fix her up. That is why we need to go.”

Lyle gently scooped Cass up and stood. “Which way?” Gemma asked.

“Front is too obvious,” Maggie replied. “Out the back.”

They made their way to the back, passing the body below the ceiling of dripping blood. No one commented on it as they passed. Outside, they paused, not knowing where they were or where to go.