A Question of Will (30 page)

Will nodded. “I agree. I’m giving myself up.”

Porthos’ eyes widened and he stared at Will. “Stark, you can’t possibly expect me to believe you.”

Will walked toward him. “Here I am. Take me to your Leader. Bring Aramis to subdue me if you want. I’m not going anywhere and I won’t resist.”

Porthos felt an incredible sense of elation, and a smile formed on his face.

After all of the years, all of the Hunts, all of the failures...he would finally see Will Stark brought to justice.

XXI

Headquarters

Adam stretched as he woke after a restful night’s sleep. The argument between Will and Fil yesterday was still on his mind, and he sensed that it had broken Will’s spirit a bit, more than anything had since his arrival in camp following his rescue from the Hunters. The two men had argued before, but Will had been more assertive, more combative in the previous encounters. The man was now so concerned that he was a threat to the safety of the others in the Alliance camp that he had no desire to further develop his Energy abilities. That was a problem. As a member of the Alliance, he needed to have those abilities well-developed should he ever encounter the Hunters or other Aliomenti who might find him and try to subdue him. Will had escaped yesterday, probably because the Hunters were so surprised to see him. There was no guarantee he’d be so lucky again.

On the positive side, Will had been eager the day before to practice teleportation, and Adam had been impressed that he’d had so quickly developed the Energy stores needed for that skill. He knew many long-term Aliomenti who could barely teleport a few hundred yards, and Will had managed a greater distance in just over a month.

He needed to figure out how, exactly, Will was building his Energy so quickly. It was simply unnatural.

To be sure, the Aliomenti all knew that there was some type of genetic component that could predict how quickly someone would develop. In the early days, before they had the ability to supplement their development with nanos — most notably through the Purge — their group had politely expelled slower-developing members, but that was before the Oaths had been written and penalties defined and enforced. Today, the Alliance could focus on recruiting people of high character and motivation first, and supplement their genetic potential.

In this case, perhaps they had supplemented somebody who already had a powerful genetic potential and capability; after all, they didn’t scan for that anymore. Was that the explanation for Will’s rapid growth? Adam rather doubted it. Still, whatever it was, it had caught them all completely off guard. They shouldn’t have needed to worry about Shielding or accidental teleportation or anything of the sort for years. He knew Will blamed himself, but the rest of the Alliance, men and women with far more experience in such matters, had been blind to the implications of his growth as well. They needed to be more cautious and patient with his training, and make him more aware of the implications of his progress. Lesson learned.

Speaking of lessons, he needed to find Will.

He mulled over how best to handle the teleportation lesson. The odd thing with teleportation was that once you’d done it, doing it when intended wasn’t a huge issue, outside learning techniques for going somewhere you hadn’t been previously or how to plan for the Energy drain from an exceptionally long trip. The challenge was preventing the kind of unintended “hop” Will Stark had experienced the day before, brought on by lack of focus and control over the Energy required to move. Keeping Energy tightly bound, as would happen when Shielding, tended to prevent the issue, but emotional situations would crack that focus, release the Energy, and put the person at risk. So they’d need to review those concepts.

Adam approached Will’s building. He should probably gift Will the nanos comprising what had become Will’s home, and request a new batch from the Mechanic as a replacement. Will had a small number of nanos already, but was probably ready for a more standard allocation. That would be another lesson for another day, however, so he elected not to make the gift until they’d done more work with the machines.

Adam frowned as he neared the building. Will should be inside, but he detected no Energy there. Even if Will was Shielding, he should be able to sense the presence of at least
some
Energy in the room. Adam smiled. Perhaps their prodigy had taken Shielding to a new level. He should raise the idea to the Alliance of letting the Aliomenti know about their Shielding skills. The thought of those tyrants thinking they could walk right past someone from the Alliance without knowing it was priceless.

Adam walked into the building. There was no sign of Will.

Perhaps he’d gone for a walk in the woods. Will seemed to enjoy the tranquility to be found among the dense forests surrounding their clearings. Adam remembered that Will had lived in a wooded community, and that his home had been surrounded by large, old trees. It made sense that he’d experience a sense of home in the forest.

Adam walked into the woods, circling farther and farther from camp. He detected some Energy readings, fairly strong, and while he found a clearing with a few smaller trees, he found no sign of Will Stark.

Very curious.

Adam walked back to the camp and approached the building Fil and Angel shared. He walked in; the interior of their building was a bit more elaborate than most, and featured two private rooms along with a public area anyone could enter. He found Fil there, deep in thought.

“Have you seen Will?” Adam asked without preamble.

Fil laughed. “I truly doubt Will Stark would willingly associate with me at this point. On that note, no, I haven’t seen him since last night, when he nearly put everyone in camp at risk once again. I haven’t forgiven him yet for so nearly killing my sister the last time he failed to focus.”

“Duly noted. We’ll make sure in the future that we handle Shielding a month into training, though few need such skills until they’ve been at it for five years...if they’re lucky.”

“Save the sarcasm, Adam. Your sister wasn’t the one who nearly bled to death.”

“Speaking of Angel, has
she
seen Will?”

“I haven’t,” she answered, emerging from her room. “I thought he’d be having a lesson with you.”

“That was the plan. I checked his building, and looked for him in the forest. There’s a spot with a bit of an Energy buildup — not enough to attract any attention.” Adam added the last bit quickly when Fil looked ready to explode again. “But that’s the closest thing to a sign of him. Do either of you have any sense of where he might be?”

Both Fil and Angel closed their eyes in concentration. Adam watched Fil. Though the man hid it well, his Energy levels were exceptionally high, and he was more likely to find something than anyone else. Angel’s Energy levels were extraordinary as well, though nowhere near the levels of Fil. She was more empathic than her older brother, and more likely to sense what Will was thinking even without actually invading his thoughts.

Angel opened her eyes. “I’m not getting anything besides a faint Energy marker in the woods outside the camp. That’s probably what you found, Adam.” Adam nodded. “My concern, though, is the mental state he was in. He seemed very depressed, and his conversations with me... I got the sense that he feared he was a danger to us and he didn’t like that.” She took a deep breath. “That, combined with the fact that we can’t find him...I’m concerned he’s essentially run off on his own. That he left the camp so he can’t risk any harm to any of us anymore.”

Adam’s eyes widened. “I hope you’re wrong.”

“So do I. But his pain and his fear were genuine. I heard him blaming himself for the situation at his house while he was sleeping in those first few days. Kept saying it was his fault, that he’d let them be killed...his greatest fear is doing that again. If I’m wrong, we need to impress upon him that we’ll work with him, but we don’t want him running off.” She looked straight at Fil, but her brother was still in deep concentration.

A few moments later, Fil opened his eyes and cursed.

“That
idiot!
” he seethed. He turned to Angel. “I think you’re too late on that idea. He’s run off, all right.” He looked at Adam. “He teleported from that spot in the woods near here. That was the Energy burst you detected. He showed up back in the woods by our previous camp, again, where he’d met the Hunters before. Unfortunately, one of them was there.”

“Porthos,” Adam said. It wasn’t a question.

“I get no Energy sense of either of them now. Porthos is powerful enough that I could pick him up in that location from here if I concentrate, and he’s never learned to Shield, or bothered if he knows how. But he’s gone. And so is Will.”

Angel’s eyes widened. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we can go check that spot, but all signs point to that stubborn idiot either being captured, or turning himself in to the Hunters.”

This time, nobody beat him up or tried to kill him. At least, not yet.

A craft arrived in the clearing, driven by Athos. He stared at Will Stark, his face a mix of emotions. It was one part triumphant, one part fear of sudden and tremendous disappointment.

Will had not put up any type of fight at all. He sat in the craft, which was clearly not as well-built as the Alliance nano-based vehicles, nor as gentle on takeoff and landing. Will looked out the window as the craft rose into the air. He saw massive forests behind him, and eventually a huge body of water appeared on the horizon in front. Will realized he still had no idea where on the planet he’d been living for the past two months. Right now, he didn’t much care.

The craft flew out over the body of water, and soon there was nothing to see but gentle rolling waves. Athos and Porthos both tried questioning him, but Will ignored them, focusing on nothing but the motion of the water below. Eventually, the Hunters gave up and left him alone.

After they’d traveled over water for several hours, Will finally saw land. It was an island, fairly large, with beautiful beaches around the perimeter. The buildings were glass and metal, and looked remarkably new and clean, as did the streets forming a patchwork as they moved inland from the beaches.

The craft flew over those beaches and buildings and roads, and Will noticed in an offhand manner that, despite it being midday with clear skies, there were very few people out on the beaches, or even out on the streets of the island. Odd.

The craft was heading for the middle of the island, and Will noticed a much taller building, one that appeared to be formed of a black marble exterior, polished and gleaming in the sunlight. But it was the name emblazoned across the top that got his attention more than all else.

ALIOMENTI.

This must be the Headquarters of the organization, though it certainly piqued Will’s interest. For an organization willing to kill to protect its anonymity, a large modern building on what seemed a private island with the group’s name on the front seemed remarkably out of character. The giant, golden Aliomenti symbols flanking the name on the building also seemed amiss.

Athos landed the craft on a landing strip near the building, and taxied the vehicle into an open hangar at the base. The structure was massive, easily thirty stories tall, and with a footprint that would cover several standard-sized city blocks.

The Aliomenti were definitely not keeping a low profile. So why did they want to abduct him for supposedly talking? Why were they so intent on killing his wife and son because they might know about it, if they were willing to broadcast the name and symbols in such an obvious fashion?

Will’s determination shifted again. He’d come here to eliminate the risk he posed to his new family. Now he was ready to fight again to avenge the deceased one. Apparently, they’d made up a different set of rules for him, for this other Will Stark, and now his family was dead, and his new family — Angel, Adam, and even Fil — were at risk as well. He couldn’t stand the hypocrisy.

He kept his face stony, however, and ensured his Energy Shield was up. No sense letting on what he was up to until the time was right. Especially since he hadn’t planned on trying to fight and, if he survived, escape. Right now, he had to improvise every step of the way.

He followed Athos through the hangar and into the main portion of the building, which was as opulent as the outside. White marble floors, columns, and gold trim were to be found almost everywhere. Will noticed three other strange details.

First, there were dozens of screens of information flush with all of those marble walls, all displaying financial information. Prices of commodities. Exchange rates for currencies. Active stock market data. The numbers looked wildly different than Will remembered, but then, the world was still in a delicate state economically, and he’d not seen such data for nearly two months. A lot could change in those circumstances.

Second, he felt his Energy being crushed within him as he walked, as if Aramis’ Damper was settling on him. Yet Aramis was nowhere to be seen. He still had some Energy left, but not enough to teleport.

The final strange detail: other than Will and the two Hunters, every other person he encountered in the building was clearly human. Will had enough of his Energy and enhanced senses to recognize that none of these people would know what Energy was if he asked them.