Pathline (4 page)

Looks of confusion circled the room. 
Rune found that she'd been digging her nails into her arms as he'd
spoken;
she softened her grip to avoid being noticed. 

He glanced over to
A
gent Donovan and cleared his throat before continuing, "
There have been details and information that the agency has come across in the past few years that have been kept on a strict need-to-know basi
s.  The very existence of the A
P
I
division has been kept classified. 
That is why none of you here has ever come ac
ross it before now. 
The only ones outside of the division who have know
n
ab
out its existence
are the
agency
D
irector and
Government and M
ilitary
H
eads. 
It bears
restating
that what is about to be disclosed here must not be repeated elsewhere. 
As the
D
irector
mentioned
before, we believe that if this information were to be leaked it would cause worldwide panic and chaos am
ongst the civilian populatio
n."  He paused, taking a breath.
"
T
he fact is that the
how
of the attack belongs to API
division.  The unidentified super that attacked the power plant does not fall i
nto any of your ability classes…
he possesses
another
ability." 

A stunned silence followed these words.  Rune sat unmoving, teeth clenched, as an old fear crept back into her heart. 
The Head of Military stepped back and took a seat as Agent Donovan moved forward
.  Rune glanced up as Donovan took her place, their eyes meeting for a moment before Donovan broke contact to address the others. 
Several of the supers gathered started to speak as she stepped up, but she raised her hand to stop them. 

"
I can assure you that what the Head of Military
has
just
told you
is indeed fact. 
As most people are well aware of, approximately ten percent of the human population possesses super abilities.  This percentage falls into the four class types
represented amongst yourselves
;
D
efenders,
R
unners,
S
ky
W
alkers, and
W
anderers."  She glanced back towards Rune and Blythe for a moment. 
"But there is
another
percentage.  In the past few years this agency has discovered that roughly 0.1 percent of the human population possess a
different
set of abilities. 
We've come to refer to this group as the
Anomalous Percentile
. 
My division, API, stands for Anomalous Percentile Investigations. 
We are responsible for looking in
to any case that may involve an Anoma
lo
us Percentile Super, or APS. 
You may be skeptical, but I can assure you that we have verified this with
various
research. 

From what we've found out, it seems as though the Anomalous Percentile also breaks down into four ability types. 
Where the mainstream supers have abilities that can be classified as physical, it appears as though the Anomalous Percentile abilities are mentally based. 
What you see here", she gestured to the images on the screen,
"is the work of an APS
in
the class
designated
'Charger
s
'. 
A C
harger possesses the ability to manipulate and control electroma
gnetic fields.  Needless to say
this ability in the wrong hands is deemed highly dangerous
, a
s we can well see with what happened at the power plant." 
Agent Donovan paused and looked around at the faces of the su
pers gathered in front of her, then glanced back at the Heads behind her.  "We've discussed the issue and believe that you should be briefed in all the APS classes, not just
C
hargers, in case you come across a hostile APS while on the assignment." 

There was a slight mumbling from those gathered, an uncomfortable shifting. 

Agent Donovan put her hand up again, requesting silence.  "
Along with
C
hargers, there are three other APS classes we've been able to distinguish.  There
are
what
have been
dubbed the 'Charmers' who have the ability to sway
people’s
actions with a physical touch. 
There are t
he 'Erasers' who can literally erase parts
of
people’s
memories, although they also require physical touch.
  And the last class
whose powers we've been unable to fully verify
, due to their rarity,
have
been
tentatively named 'Shielders'.  We believe they possess the ability to create barriers in thin air, but have been unable to recruit or observe a
S
hielder directly to verify the extent of their powers. 
For
S
hielders we've had to build our information on mostly second hand reports of supposed eye-witnesses. 
We've come across enough similar reports to believe that the class
does indeed exist."  She took a breath and look
ed out at the supers before her.
"
Q
uestions?" 
Voices erupted from the room, drowning each other out.
  She put her hand up once more.
"
O
n
e at a time
,
pleas
e
.
" 

Serk wa
s the first up this time around.
"Clarify
Charmers
for me will you?  What do you mean they possess the ability to influence
people’s
actions?" 

Agent Donovan frowned slightly at his sharp tone
on the word
'
C
harmers
'
but no one but Rune seemed to notice. 
She straightened up a bit as she answered, "What I mean is that a
C
harmer can influence another to act through their touch.  For example, let's say you're a civilian, a
C
harmer can come up to you, put their hand over your arm and tell you to jump off a bridge, an
d you'd turn around and do it." 

Rune thought her voice sounded a bit sharper than she probably intended, but again no one else seemed to take notice. 

"Of cou
rse that's an extreme example" Donovan added
,
regaining her composure
.
"
Only a
C
harmer of the highest level would be able to
manipulate
someone
in
to do
ing
some
thing as drastic as take a life.
M
ost
C
harmers
tend
to use their ability simply to shift the actions of those around them to better suit their circumstances, like charming a bartender into giving them free drinks all night." 

Serk remained standing, still looking concerned. 

Donovan looked at him, then around at the other concern
ed faces
in front of
her
, and sighed
.
"
B
ut we've also discovered that supers seem to have a certain level of immunity to the effects of either
C
harmers or
E
rasers.  The higher level the
super
, the less lightly they are to succumb to t
he
influence of either APS ability
.
" 

Serk seemed to relax a bit and finally sat down again. 

It was the runner who had been part of Malik's group earlier who spoke up next
.
"
I still don't understand, why are
we
just learning about this now?  How come none of us has ever crossed paths with an APS on a job
before
?" 

Agent Donovan momentary caught Rune's eye and smiled slightly as
she answered, "Because most AP supers don't
go
around advertising their
existence
.  These people value their
privacy
, their
autonomy
. 
They're not exactly eager to become the next national scapegoats.
"  She turned to fa
ce the power plant images again.
"This is the first time an APS has ever done something this public.  This wasn't just about attacking the
plant;
he's put all AP supers in danger now.  I honestly don't know what his point was, but this was definitely done to send some sort of message." 

Murmuring broke out again, as the supers tried to come to grips with what they'd just learned. 
It was obvious that many still had q
uestions, but quiet set in
as the NS
DA D
irector stood up again. 

"Our priority now is to figure out a way to
locate and stop this
C
harger, before he acts again. 
Whatever his plans or message may be this man seems to have no qualms about taking innocent life to get his point across.  Public safety is our number one concern here. 
And it is imperative that we accomplish this by drawing as little attention to the assignment as possible. 
For the actual assault we will be dividing you into two tactic
al teams lead by Malik and Serk, but until then operational control will fall to the API division as they have the best
intelligence
on how to go about locating an APS. 
We've prepared packets for you all to read through, which contain details on the attack, surveillance images of the perpetrator, and further details on the APS classes.  Because of the classified nature of this assignment we must ask that you not take the packets out of this room.  You can stay here as long as you wish, reviewing the information
.
W
e've prepared rooms for you all in the south wing, your time is yours once you leave here, but we ask that you report back to API division first thing tomorrow mo
rning for further instructions." 

As he
finished speaking
the Military and Governments Heads began pulling packets out of their briefcases a handing them out to the supers gathered. 
Murmuring broke out again as they all began opening their packets. 

Rune still sat motionless,
while
the others
took
their packets, and watched Age
nt Donovan with apprehension. 
Blythe reached
forward
beside her to take the packets the Head
of Government was handing him, and placed one in front of her as he sat back down. 
Rune didn't look at it. 
Her eyes were fixed on Special Agent Jessica Donovan who seemed to be preparing to leave the room. 
Her instincts and conscience were at war with each other, and she sat frozen trying to decide her course of action. 
As Donovan made a move towards the exit
,
Rune reacted. 

She stood up abruptly and murmured
,
"This is foolish". 

Everyone's eyes turned to her, and the
D
ir
ector questioned her.
"Do you have an issue with the assignment Rune?"  He looked surpris
ed and confused by her reaction.

S
he continued to look towards
A
gent Donovan as she answered, "Yes, I have an issue. 
If we're planning on going up against a high-level
C
harger, then we
need
a high-level
C
harger on our side." 

The
D
irector nodded slowly
.
"A good idea, undoubtedly, but unfortunately the agency does not
possess
any
C
hargers in
its empl
oy."