The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

Once he’d seen to his wife, Randy Brager buried himself in his work. He had three kids to protect, and that protection was suspect, which made his focus all the more desperate and intent. He received regular updates, which he paid close attention to before returning to his work.

Over the few weeks since they arrived at the weird building, Aliyah noticed that Ben was becoming somewhat withdrawn. She knew it was because his father spent less and less time with him, and wasn’t really attentive when he was there. Although she was a child herself, she couldn’t help but see it.

The ordeal with her adoptive Mom, Ben’s actual Momma, had taken a toll on all of them, but they still needed each other. The ordeal had been going on for a couple weeks, taking all of their time, even to the exclusion of trying to figure out how to get Melanie back. That was over.

Even though that was no longer the worry it had been, things had not gotten better. Randy seemed to be trying to make up for the lost time. There was no doubt of his devotion to his little girl. Oddly, his visits to the kids were always when her parents weren’t there.

On one of his rare visits to the kids, he was sitting at a table with Ben. The young boy was trying to engage his father in the task of building some random structure with Legos. It was obvious that Randy wasn’t into it, though.

“Sir,” a young man in all black, military style clothing saluted, as he approached.

Randy looked up at the man, but didn’t say a word. The young man seemed to know he was clear to proceed, or else he simply decided to anyway.

“We’ve received intelligence that there was some sort of disaster at the Oakmont facility in Montana. There are currently very few details, but the information we have is that there was a partial collapse two days ago,” he reported.

“Thank you, Adler,” Randy replied, receiving another salute from the man, who then turned on his heels and left.

“Brandy, see what we can do about getting a better status report from the Oakmont facility,” he said into his phone, once his target had answered, only a moment later. He listened for a moment, and then hung up, without another word.

“Ben, I’m sorry, but I need to go see to this,” he said to his son. Aliyah could see the disappointment on the boy’s face, but Ben had become resigned to it in a very short time. Aliyah followed her uncle out of the room, and barely managed to get his attention before he walked off down the corridor.

“Aliyah, please look after them,” he instructed her, as he had many times during the past couple of weeks.

“Mr. Brager…” she began.

“Uncle Randy,” he corrected. He didn’t offer the ironic smile that’d normally come with that kind of correction. He knew her address was deliberate.

“I’d prefer to call you Mr. Brager, right now. You’ve abandoned Ben and it’s hurting him,” she said, her words slow and deliberate.

“He’s fine, and I’ll make it up to him once we’re all safe,” he told her.

“Mr. Brager,” she began, and this time her address was almost like a slap, even though she’d already used it during the conversation. “I’m a kid and I don’t know much, but he’s not going to just get over it. He feels like he’s alone. He doesn’t have his Momma, or his sister, and now his Daddy has abandoned him,” she tried to explain to him.

“I haven’t abandoned him,” he argued.

“That’s not the way it feels to him. He feels all alone,” she countered.

He stood there, staring at her for quite a while. Finally, his eyes focused on her again and his mouth opened for a moment, then closed again. It happened a second time, before he finally turned back toward his destination and walked away.

Turning away, she walked to where the kids were, hoping to give Ben some semblance of companionship, although she was basically an older sister to him. By the time she arrived, she had an idea how to take his mind off of the situation.

She immediately sat in front of him, her legs crossed, and staring at him. Neither of them spoke a word that anyone could hear.

“Ben, we need to keep practicing, and as soon as Eliana shows any signs of waking up, we’ll have to start training her too,” Aliyah told him.

“Okay,” he replied, not saying anything else.

They began working and didn’t even notice the time until Randy returned a few hours later. During that time, she worked with him to push his probes as far as he could for as long as he could. He didn’t seem to get the headaches that Melanie did, but he also seemed to have hard limits that when reached were like a wall.

Randy tried to get their attention several times, but only managed to when he raised his voice. Even then, they tried to tune him out, but he wouldn’t let them.

“Aliyah, Ben, listen to me,” he insisted.

“Hey, Daddy,” Ben finally said, as he came out of the semi-trance they’d been in. For a moment, there was a beaming smile, but it disappeared as fast as it had come.

“I don’t know what you two were doing, but it’s time to eat lunch, and you need to eat. In addition, we’re going to get out of here for a bit,” he announced. Even Eliana perked up at that. There was an unmistakable smile of delight on Ben’s face, as he ran to and wrapped his arms around his Daddy. This time, the smile didn’t disappear.

Randy looked at Aliyah and winked, as he lifted Ben up and held the boy tightly to him. Aliyah was happy that he’d actually listened to what she’d had to say.

“Security has already been arranged, but you won’t see it, at least not with your eyes,” he said, acknowledging their ability to sense it. There was something to his smile though, that caught Aliyah’s attention. He had something up his sleeve, and he wasn’t going to come out and say it.

“Do you want me to find them?” she asked, taking the bait.

“See if you can,” he challenged her.

With sudden insight, she knew what he was hiding. “You’ve made some of those blocking things,” she said, to which he actually laughed, nodding his head at the same time.

“I would say you read my mind, but you can’t, so you’re simply that smart,” he said.

Curious, she sent a probe to him and entered his mind easily, although she could feel a good deal of resistance at first. She delved into his surface thoughts, wanting to see what she could find. Although he was thrilled with the development, and felt pretty sure that it was solid, but there was doubt. He didn’t completely trust the device, which was good.

“You shouldn’t trust it completely,” she told him, stopping his laughter as if she had flipped a switch.

“It doesn’t work!” he exclaimed.

“It probably does, but we’re not like other telepaths, so we’re probably not good test subjects. If it did work on us though, it’d definitely work on others. I felt resistance with it, so I think it’ll work on them,” she said.

“Actually, you’re probably great test subjects then. Because, if it does work on you, then as you said, it will definitely work on them,” he replied, smiling.

“I wish Mel was here. She’d be able to give a better answer than me. She’d probably say something super smart, like it won’t work because our brain waves are different, or something,” Aliyah said, sarcastically. Randy looked shocked at her reply though, as if she’d said something incredibly important.

“I’ll be right back,” he announced, and all but ran out of the room.

He was back in only a few minutes, but he was smiling broadly. “You, my girl, have said something much smarter than you give yourself credit for. In your seemingly simplistic manner, you gave us the answer to handling the differences between you and them,” he informed her.

Seeing she was confused, her face crinkled up in that cute way she had, he explained, “You see, we were designing a single device to cover all telepaths, but you, Melanie, and probably the kids, function differently. We don’t know how or why you do, but you do. The telepathic signals from you are different than what that device was made to filter out, which is why it never worked for her, and you. However, if we add in a completely separate device to filter your type of signal, and the other, then it will effectively block all telepaths. What is really amazing, is how simple the device is,” he explained.

“I don’t think I like that, even though I think I understand,” Aliyah said, her brow furrowing again, as she thought about it.

“You think about it, but in the meantime, let’s go,” he said, urging her toward the door. Eliana and Ben joined them before they got there, impatient to get out of the building for the first time in what seemed like forever.

He took them to lunch first, then to an enclosed mini-golf place, followed by a movie. In all three places, they were the only ones there, although there were people in the lobby of the theater. It was kind of nice, but weird at the same time, for all of the kids.

“Why aren’t there other people in here with us?” Eliana asked, voicing the thoughts of all of the kids.

“Because, we want to make sure you’re safe, and this is the best way to do that,” he replied.

“But wouldn’t it be safer to have a lot of people around us? Then, there’d be plenty of people to see if someone tried something,” Aliyah suggested.

“Generally, it’s better to isolate, rather than try and contend with a group of kids in a crowded environment,” he told them.

“I guess I’m not a spy, so I don’t think that way,” Aliyah said.

“Sir, the children are with an adult male in theater four. There are likely other guards around, but we haven’t identified all of them and the telepaths that they attached to us can’t seem to either. We sent the telepaths out, to keep them safe, since they aren’t any good to us,” agent Escobar told his boss.

He was a very fit and well kempt man, and a fourth generation Washingtonian. This was his home and he didn’t like people to threaten the stability of his country, and to show such arrogance as this. They even rented the entire theater, as a sign of their elite position over everyone else. They were duping these children, trying to make them think they were the good guys, which was why his men had to shoot the kids with tranquilizers. That still galled him, but he knew it was necessary. He would make these people pay for what they were doing to these innocent children.

It had been difficult for him to accept that there were telepaths within the government, but they had effectively demonstrated their abilities to all of them. However, they had been ordered from way higher up to accept the inclusion of the telepaths.

“How many have you identified?” Walker, his supervisor, asked.

“We suspect eight, all wearing standard civilian clothing. There is nothing that makes them stand out, in any way, other than the way they keep looking around,” he said.

“I would imagine they all look like soldiers, or at least have that look to them,” Walker suggested.

“That they do, sir,” he said.

“Although there could be non-combatants in the crowd with that look, we’ll use that. Use non-lethal take down and do it quietly and quickly,” Walker instructed him.

“Yes, sir,” Escobar replied, smartly. He was thrilled to be able to show these people that they couldn’t do this in the United States.

“Be quick and quiet. Non lethal. If anything unexpected happens, do what you must. Top priority is recovery of the children, unharmed,” he instructed his men.

Escobar walked away from Walker, going to supervise his men. Just as he walked out of the small closet that they had commandeered as a command center, his men began their task. He watched as, one after another, the suspected guards were taken out.

Unexpectedly, he saw another man pull out a weapon and open fire. Three of his men were down and bleeding in the space of a second. He knew they were likely dead. The attacker was very precise with his shots.

Not waiting for help, he copied the man’s actions and pulled out his weapon, quickly pulling the trigger four times. The one man that had fought back was down, but he strongly suspected there were others he and his team hadn’t been able to identify.

He then went into the theater, like he owned the place. His men already had the exits covered, so he had no need to worry about escape.

“Sir, we advise you to surrender peacefully. You need to come out slowly, with your hands raised, and empty. We’ll take possession of the children in your care,” he announced, standing in the corridor just before the opening into the theater.

“Daddy, what’s happening?” Escobar heard one of the children ask. That simple question shocked him. These were supposed to be captured children, basically kidnapped by a foreign government, even if they were being brainwashed.

“Uncle Randy, there are nine men between the two exits, and a tenth is in a closet not far away. I think there are probably twelve outside the building, but I’m not sure, and they have two telepaths in a car in the parking lot,” another, clearly older child said. This older child was a girl, whereas the first child sounded like a boy. He’d been told there were two children around seven years old, one girl and one boy, and also a girl likely around 13 years old. Of course, there was also the adult male handler, likely around 40 years old, and seemed to be very fit, as well as likely armed and dangerous.

In the span of ten seconds, Escobar was having to do a reassessment of the situation. Things were clearly not what they seemed.

“I don’t know who you are or who you work with, but I am with the NSA. You are in danger of committing a federal crime, if you continue,” the adult male said. Considering there was only one adult with the children, he knew who it was, if not the identity.

“I’m with the FBI, and was sent to recover these children. Let them free and we won’t harm you,” Escobar said, trying to keep things going along what was safe...for him.

“One of these children is my son and the other two are my nieces. There has been no kidnapping. However, if you contact Agent Samson, with the Seattle field office of the FBI, he can confirm my story,” the male said.

“Uncle Randy, he isn’t sure what to do. You weren’t supposed to be related to us, and that’s messed him up a little, but he’s trying to stick to what he was sent here for, anyway,” the girl said.

Escobar was really confused at that point. How was that girl voicing his inner thoughts, and as if he had spoken them to her? In addition, she had pointed out every one of his men.

Then it occurred to him, these children were telepaths. However, even if they were, they shouldn’t have been able to read his mind. The people with the rescuing agency had given them little devices to block their minds from telepaths, unless that was a lie, as the nature of the situation with these children seemed to be. Escobar fought for only a moment, but finally went with his soldier’s nature. Follow orders, and clean up afterwards.

“He’s not going to let us go,” the girl said, confirming his belief that she was a telepath. That meant that these kids were wanted for national security reasons, and not because they had been kidnapped. However, to Escobar, that actually made it more imperative that he capture them and turn them in, as he was ordered.

“Uncle Randy, what can we do?” the older girl asked.

“You and Mel can sometimes do things...to people. Is there anything you can do?” Escobar heard. That was all the urging he needed to go into action.

“Now!” he ordered, and he and his men poured into the theater, but there was no one there. He knew he heard their voices, but he saw no one. He motioned men to carefully check each and every row. Men guardedly went up and down the theater, and finally all of them stood up normally, indicating that the place was empty.

“Sir, they got away, but we have no idea how. The children are telepaths, and the things we were given to block us didn’t work,” he said into his microphone to agent Walker.

“Eight perps subdued, three of our men down, plus one perp,” he said.

“Clean up and clear out,” he ordered his men.

Randy had already fingered the code for an agent in distress into his phone, which automatically transmitted back to his people. That only let them know there was a problem, which they’d confirm as soon as they reached out to the other agents that came along for the outing. What they wouldn’t know was, the nature of the distress. At least, Randy was fairly certain that was how things would go.

Once all of the men were gone, Aliyah stopped the image she’d been showing the men. Although they weren’t really invisible, the men never saw them. She had been projecting the image of an empty theater to them, something she wasn’t very good at.

“Charlie, I need an extraction ASAP,” Randy said into a radio he’d been carrying around.

“A team is already en route, sir. ETA, two minutes. A team will enter as escort and another to secure the site,” Charlie said.

“These are FBI, so please be careful with them, but the children’s safety is first priority. If you didn’t already, bring overwhelming force,” Randy said.

“Based on your code, and the one already sent, along with known circumstances, that was already arranged, sir,” Charlie replied.

Exactly two minutes, as Aliyah could figure, there was a very large number of men, all dressed in military looking outfits, escorting them out of the theater. Amazingly, there were a few of the men that had come to capture them being held by the new men.

“Children, I need to speak with these men, while we have them. I suspect that won’t be long, though. My men will ensure you make it back safely, and I’ll come see you as soon as I get back,” he said, to which all three children nodded agreement. They’d seen enough action for one day.

He watched them as they left, praying that they stayed safe and free. This had been a little too close for comfort and he knew it. If not for Aliyah, they’d have been caught.

“You say you’re with the FBI, yet when the information changed, you stayed with your obviously faulty orders. Why is that?” he asked.

“We had orders and I follow orders, as a good soldier should,” the man replied.

“Actually, a good soldier follows orders so long as those orders are right. As soon as it becomes clear that those orders are dirty, it is a ‘good’ soldier’s job to question those orders and do what is right. Those children are mine and in my custody legally, one being my son. You heard that, I’m certain, when he called me Daddy, and when my niece called me uncle, yet you stuck to your orders which were then put in doubt. That could constitute a felony. Then there’s the matter of me identifying myself as an agent of the U.S. government, and you still disregarded protocol. That could constitute a felony, as well,” Randy told him.

“Regardless of the relationship, those children are telepaths, and are critical to national security…” he began, but was cut off.

“That does not disregard my Constitutional rights as his father and the girl’s uncle, in addition to me declaring a connection to the National Security Agency. And besides, the experiment that was done, which bestowed those powers on them, was done illegally. I assume you are aware that human experimentation, without the permission of the one being experimented on, is illegal. As I and my brother-in-law were the ones experimented on, and without our knowledge or consent, that constitutes a felony, as well. And let’s not forget international laws and treaties on the matter. The FBI should know that better than me,” Randy informed the agent.

“Your name, agent,” Randy demanded, once he’d given the man a little time to process what he’d said.

“Johnathan Escobar, Seattle field office of the FBI,” he replied.

“How is it that when I mentioned agent Samson’s involvement, you ignored that, considering you are from the same field office?” Randy asked, at his reply.

“Samson has been listed as compromised. In addition, he is with a different group, so he has no bearing on this case,” Escobar said.

“As much as it pains me, I think this incident will have to go in your record, agent Escobar. It will be up to others to determine if charges will be filed,” Randy told him.

“You have no authority over me or the FBI,” Escobar stated.

“As I previously mentioned, twice, I am connected with the NSA. The reality is that I report to the Director of National Intelligence, so I may have more authority than you think,” Randy replied, indicating that his men needed to take the man away.

“Sir, the DNI is on the phone for you. Apparently, the President wants an update,” one of his men told him, as Escobar was taken away. Escobar’s face registered the first real shock as that was announced.

“Yes, sir,” Randy said, as he put the phone to his ear.

“Brager, what is the current status of the children? The President wants an update, ASAP,” the voice said, repeating what the agent had said.

“They are unharmed and remain in our custody, other than Melanie,” Randy replied, without giving any details.

“Between you and me, he’s not certain who should have control of this program,” the voice stated.

“Sir, his indecision is putting people in danger, as well as furthering the damage being done to the children currently in the program,” Randy argued.

“I know that, but it’s much bigger than this single incident. Congressional oversight committees are involved, in both the Senate and the House, and there is some kind of political fight brewing over this program. In addition there’s another of these schools that just came to light,” the director said.

“There’s another one, and we only just learned about this one a couple of years ago?” Randy exclaimed.

“Yes,” the director responded, only using that single word, but with an unmistakable edge to it.

“I won’t ask how this information was kept from us, but do we at least know anything about this newly discovered school?” Randy asked, after letting the pause linger for a minute.

“The Oakmont program is directly funded by the DOD. This new school is part of an NSA program, and although it is also DOD, it appears there is no collaboration between the two. There are indications that the two programs didn’t even know about the other, until recently,” the director stated, and Randy actually smiled at the tone of the man’s voice.

“Before you ask, the Secretary is not talking to me about this, as it is a classified program that he is unwilling to give any information about...the snivelling idiot. He was never even a real soldier,” he snarled. “Who does he think he is? I have the same security clearance he does, and this is a matter of national security, which means I need to know about it,” the director almost shouted.

“What I’m hearing is that we’re on our own in this fight with DOD, which means that different organizations within the United States government will be actively fighting with each other, potentially with lethal force,” Randy stated.

“I think that’s a fair assessment of the situation,” the director conceded. “Keep those kids safe, and see what you can do to get Melanie back. I strongly suspect that wherever things land when the political fighting comes to a head, will impact where the final outcome will be,” he said.

“And we have no idea how this other school and program could affect the outcome,” Randy assumed.

“Although it also belongs to DOD, that is correct,” the director agreed.

“We’ll do what we can to improve our situation, but right now, it’s not looking good, sir. We’re not even sure who we’re fighting, and they have a lot more telepaths at their disposal than we do,” Randy said.

“I know,” he agreed, again. “Do your best, Randy. By the way, I was just informed of that little device you cooked up. Great work on that,” the director encouraged him.

“I will sir, and thank you,” he replied, and hung up.

Aliyah and the kids were suffering long periods of incredible boredom, however. Although the facility they were at was very nice, it had never been designed with children in mind. Since the attack at the theater, they had been brought back and it had been made clear there wasn’t going to be another outing.

During all of the time they’d been with Randy and the FBI, she hadn’t had any more contact with Gabe or Raphe, and she was worried about them. She’d never really tried sending probes out, like Melanie had done so often, but she knew she needed to try. She also knew she had one advantage that Melanie didn’t. She was able to sense people, and find specific people, when she wanted.

Settling back on the dorm style bed, she closed her eyes and sent her probe out, searching. Although she had a gift to find people, she didn’t have any idea where they were, and there were a lot of people in the area. Still, she continued searching.

After what seemed like hours, she began feeling something drawing her, and giving in to her intuition, she followed that pull. Only moments later, she knew she’d found her target, but not just one of them, both of them. Raphe and Gabe were still together.

She wasn’t sure why, but she was mildly surprised at that revelation. However, she was also very pleased.

Inserting her probe gently into Gabe’s mind, she began speaking, Gabe, don’t freak out, but this is Aliyah. To speak to me, think what you want to say and I’ll hear it. We’re in some kind of safe house facility, but I don’t know where it is, other than near Seattle. We were attacked at a theater and I’m pretty sure they won’t let us out anymore.

We’re still in Everett, but we’re alright. Should we go find Melanie, he asked, and she could feel the worry from him. This is freakin cool, by the way!

Even if you found it, they’d shoot you if you got close, she said, not commenting on his excitement.

I guess we’ll stay here, then.

Okay. I’ll let you know if I find out anything, now that I know where you are, Aliyah said, and removed the connection. She knew she could easily find him again, if she needed to.