Absolute Power (Book 1): Origins (19 page)

“Always a pleasure, Robert,” Jess said extending her hand.  Robert shook it gently a little nervous about the way she was acting.  As she left she whispered something to Alison and that worried him more.

Eve bowed and said, “I appreciate your hospitality.”  The stoic facade over her eyes flickered off.  She stood their firm and confident, but her eyes told him she was genuinely grateful.  Without waiting for a response, she left with the others.

Robert turned and found himself face to face with Alison.  She was looking at him and smiled.

“Feels good doesn't it?” She asked.

“What?” Robert asked confused.

“Finding Lost Ones,” Alison said.  “We go out there, risk our lives fighting or lifting buildings off of people.  But it’s the kids that make it worthwhile.”

Robert tried to shrug off his feelings, but found himself saying, “Something about her reminds me of my sister.”

Alison’s heart broke for him and at the same time she was smiling.  For this brief moment, Robert had let her in.  Suddenly she remembered Jess’s advice: the more you thought about doing something, the harder it was to act.  So she acted.  Taking Robert’s hands in hers, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him.  It was soft and fast, something that could be almost mistaken for friendly, if it weren’t for the look in Alison’s eyes.  “Thank you for a pleasant evening,” she said and walked out.

Robert was left in the banquet room dumbs struck.

“Nothing good can come of that,” Angie said.  She was still sitting at the table holding her coffee and shaking her head.

“What?”  Robert asked defensively. “What?”

“Forget I said anything,” Angie replied.  “Forget I was even here.”

Robert's heart hammered in his chest as he followed Alison through the training simulation.

“Left,” she shouted and the two of them took a quick left down a hallway.

The building was designed like a maze, with traps and dead ends.  Setting off a trap could cause anything from a concussion explosion to a ball of fire.  Usually, they were safe from injury, but Colonel Porter was running the maze today.  On his bad days, he would add something more deadly to keep them on their toes.

Standard procedure for this exercise was that Robert would take the lead while Alison gave directions.  Today, Porter thought it would be interesting to have them switch roles.  The reason was obvious seconds after they entered the course.

Alison was classified as a precog, but she could only see two or three seconds into the future.  If she had time to focus, she could reach out further; equivalently if she couldn't focus, her premonitions were mere fractions of a second into the future.  Porter believed that she could be trained to see further, regardless of the circumstance.  He hoped that one day, with enough training, she could even see beyond her current location.  At this point, however, she had plateaued at three seconds.  Some of the scientists speculated that as the number of probable events escalated, the harder it became for the human brain to process them.  Of course, all their theories became moot when running full speed with darts shooting at you.

Alison’s inability to concentrate had caused her to choose the wrong paths.  She and Robert had to react faster and faster as she ran into one trap after another.  The exhaustion and panic invaded her mind and soon she was moving blind.  Alison charged into a small room and stopped to think.  She didn't notice that the ceiling was dropping on her.  Robert came in after her, rolling under a jet of fire.  He had a second to act before she was crushed.  Using his momentum, he barreled forward tackling Alison.  The impact sent them flying out of the room and toward a spiked wall.  Going on instinct alone, Robert shot the wall with a blast of plasma.

When the sound of the explosion died down, he could hear a siren shrieking.  A series of floodlights came on.  The air was filled with smoke and Robert held his position till it cleared.

“Alison,” he called out.  “Are you okay?”

“What the hell happened?”  She sounded angry.

“The ceiling was coming down,” Robert explained.  “I had no choice.”

“So you blow the crap out of the building?”  Her voice sounded close.  “We were in a no win situation.  The sim was over.”  The smoke cleared, and Alison was standing over Robert.  Her face was red as she continued to yell at him.  “And what were you thinking using that much energy in an enclosed space,” she pointed to the hole in the wall.  It stretched nearly twenty feet out and into the sky.

Robert was more aware than anyone how devastating his power could be.

“What if someone had been on the other side?”  Alison railed at him.  “We're lucky we weren't caught in a blast back.”  She took a moment to catch her breath then said, “Well?”

Porter's voice came over the loudspeaker, interrupting them, “Observation room, now.”

To Porter all of the observation rooms looked alike, though the scientists would disagree.  The room was dark making it easier to see the dozens of monitors and read outs.  Porter stood over a display table watching the video from the training exercise.  Robert and Alison came in and stood at attention.

“Sir,” Robert stood behind Porter and waited.

“I'd like an explanation, Sergeant Cortez,” Porter said not bothering to turn around.

“I lost my concentration, sir,” Alison answered.

“You mean you panicked,” Porter corrected her.

“Yes, sir,” she agreed.

Porter spun around and towered over them.  “You've been in this platoon four years, and you panicked?”

“Sir, if I can speak?”  Robert tried.  Porter nodded for him to go ahead.  “The alteration to the exercise wasn't expected.  Sergeant Cortez has no command training.”

“She can't be a subordinate all her life,” Porter said.  “Up until this point we've been lucky you're platoon hasn't taken heavy casualties.  What do you think would happen if the Sergeant were left in command?”

“Sir, if this is about Alex...?”  Robert started.

“Don't be an idiot, son,” Porter growled at him.  “Terrible things happen; we're here to prepare for them.”  He turned to Alison.  “Today's exercise was to prove a point.  I knew exactly what would happen and now so do you.  Fix it.  You're dismissed, Sergeant.”

Alison saluted then spun on her heels and left.

Porter stared at Robert then asked, “Why did you blow a hole in my sim?”

“I was trying to protect my team member, sir,” Robert replied.

“From a simulation?  Tell me why you cost us a million dollars in repairs,” Porter demanded.

“I don't understand, sir,” Robert said.

“I watched the video,” Porter told him. “Every time she made a decision, you checked the other hallways.  Do you trust her?”

“Yes, sir,” Robert replied quickly.

“Then why double check?  The point of the exercise was to have her lead you while using her precog abilities.  It wasn't a breach and clear; there weren't any targets, so why were you acting like you were covering her?”  Porter folded his arms and waited for an answer.

Robert gritted his teeth and prepared to be torn in half.  “I'm sorry I don't have an explanation, sir.”

“I hope you don't think I'm stupid, Lieutenant,” Porter stepped forward glaring at him.  “I watch all my people very closely.  I make sure they aren't injured, sick, that their morale is up and that they aren't distracted.  Because their problems are my problems.”  Porter turned and went back to the table.  He sat on the glass display.  “This isn’t just about Alex.  This is also about you and Cortez, if you catch my meaning. There are only two ways to handle this.”

Eve woke to the sound of an explosion in the distance.  A second ago she had been dreaming about her mother.  In the dream, she had come searching for Eve to take her home.  Just as she reached out to her, Eve was startled awake.

The clock read: 4:45 am.  In fifteen minutes, the alarm would go off to wake her for class.  She didn't want to go back to sleep, so she climbed out of bed.  Quietly, she walked to the window and peeked past the curtain to see if she could spot the source of the noise.

Since Eve had left home she had seen the sunrise dozens of times, and it still scared her.  Where she came from there were stories that told about the end of existence.  In the stories, the world was engulfed in light and fire and all those who were caught in the carnage were destined to suffer for all time.

Eve let the curtain fall into place glad that it blocked out all the light.

“Mmmmh,” Danni groaned.  She flipped onto her side and pulled the covers over her head.

It was the summer session, and the real classes hadn't started yet.  But Robert had suggested that she try some of the programs that were still going on.  Danni had exercise scheduled in the morning, and Eve was supposed to ask if she could join her.

“Will you be attending the exercise class this morning?”  Eve asked the sleeping girl.

“Uhhhh,” Danni replied.

She wasn't sure if that was a yes or no so decided to ask again in fifteen minutes.  To pass the time, Eve went into the bathroom to sort through the things Jess had left last night.  She read the instructions on the containers and thought about looking up the ingredients.  The names and the words on the make-up gave her the hardest time.  There were too many things, and she couldn't remember what purposes they served.  She let it go, guessing that she probably didn’t need make-up to exercise.  Instead, she washed her face and brushed her teeth.  She watched herself in the mirror.  Eve had chosen this appearance thinking it was the best visual representation of who she was, the choice was permanent, but she had no regrets.  Except her hair, she ran her hand over her scalp.  None of the other girls had hair as short as her, and she considered letting it grow out.

The alarm clock went off in the other room making an annoying buzzing sound.  Before Eve could get out of the bathroom Danni had swung up and hit it.

“Danni,” Eve said softly, but she didn't respond.  “Danni, will you be attending morning exercise class?”

“Will you be letting me sleep?”  Danni growled from under her blanket.  “Maybe you need three hours to glitz up for exercise, but I slept in my gym clothes.”

“I apologize.”  This was new for Eve.  She had met people she had liked and some she didn't, but Danni was the first who didn't like her.  She tried to explain, “I don't know where the exercise area is located.”

“Jeez, fine.  I'm awake,” Danni snapped.  She kicked the blankets off of her in a fit.  As she said, she was already wearing sweat pants and a t-shirt.  Her boots were next to the bed, and she shoved her feet in as she sat up.  Danni rubbed her eyes then pulled on a sweatshirt.  “I don't want to hear a word from you,” Danni said.  “You can follow me and that's it.”

Eve did as she was told and followed Danni out of the Residence. They left out a back door and began jogging across the base.  For the longest time, Eve watched Danni, how she moved, her habits and how she interacted with people.  Danni had a large frame and the sweatshirt she wore added to her bulk.  From time to time, she would grumble something in Spanish.

They were headed east, towards the mountains.  Along the way, they passed a number of people, all of them moving about their tasks.  Some carried boxes, others papers and several looked to be headed to morning exercise themselves.  The first one they came across was a tall girl who was so thin Eve thought she might be sick.  She had long brown hair that was tied back in a ponytail.  Every couple of minutes she would have to pull her hair back again to wrangle in the loose strands.  At first the girl had said nothing, only raising a timid hand to greet them.  Danni snubbed her and Eve followed suit, but changed her mind after remembering something Jess had said.  So Eve smiled, and the girl smiled back, her eyes brightening.

She moved closer and introduced herself, “I’m Sara.  Are you new?”

Eve glanced at Danni to see if she was going to snap at her for talking, but she was ignoring them.  “Yes,” Eve answered.  “I arrived a few days ago with Lieutenant Day and his team.”

“Really?”  Sara’s voice squeaked.  “Alison is on that team.  She’s the one who found me.”

“Sergeant Cortez?”  Eve asked for clarification.

“Yeah,” Sara replied.

“You were lost?”  Eve asked.

“No,” Sara started, “well, yeah, kinda.  They call us The Lost Ones, ‘cause you know we haven’t been found by The One yet.”

“I was the one who found Lieutenant Day,” Eve explained.

But Sara didn’t get it, “What?”

At the same time, a boy joined them.  He kept pace with the girls but stayed a good distance away.  Eve tried to get a look at him without turning around to stare.

“That’s Scott,” Sara told her.  “He’s pretty cute.”

Eve furrowed her brow confused by the statement.

They arrived at the Field Testing area, which was essentially the foothills of a mountain.  They jogged to the tree line and followed a trail into the forest.  Then a few yards later the group stopped at a clearing.  In the center was a massive tower reaching into the sky.  It was tall enough to look over the tree tops.  There was an elevator and cameras built into the frame.  Two boys at the base of the tower were wrestling.  Near them was a man who clearly looked in charge; he was standing straight and holding a clipboard.  His skin was dark, and face chiseled.  The military fatigues he wore were crisp with perfect creases.  Next to him was a girl with rich blonde hair and crystal blue eyes.  She folded her arms as they approached, scowling at the late comers.