The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (32 page)

Kathryn pulled back abruptly, wiping away the remaining tears. “There's something else.” She took a deep breath and tried to refocus. She knew that now was not the time to lose it. “The woman.” Kathryn took another deep breath, finally succeeding at keeping her emotions at bay. “I think she saw me.”

“What? What do you mean, 'saw' you?”

“I don't know.” Kathryn tried hard to articulate it. “I know it sounds impossible, but I felt like she saw me, like she knew I was there, even though I just passed through the room in an instant.”

Susan was silent for a moment. She stood contemplating the fortress. Finally, she spoke, “Okay. So what do you suggest we do?”

“The only thing we can do. Go in there and get Charge out.” She grabbed Susan's hand. “Ready?”

Susan nodded solemnly. “Ready.”

“Remember,” she warned, “there are three of them.”

“Okay.”

Kathryn teleported them back into the basement of the fortress. Right before she materialized in the interrogation room, she saw the man pull the trigger. As soon as she touched down, she froze the room. The bullet stopped inches from Charge's head.

“Holy shit,” Susan whispered.

Kathryn said nothing, dropped Susan's hand, ran over to the suspended projectile, and knocked it to the floor. It was still scorching hot and burned her hand when she touched it.

“Fuck!” she yelled. The bullet pinged and rolled across the metal floor, eventually resting up against the wall. Her rage began as a white hot coal in the middle of her stomach and quickly set her ablaze, enflaming her limbs and turning everything red in front of her eyes. As though she were under the control of someone else, she quickly spun around, kicking the gun out of the still frozen man's hands. It, too, skittered across the floor before coming to a halt in the corner.

Kathryn unfroze him. He blinked for a second and looked down, shocked at his now empty hand. He then noticed Kathryn in front of him, right before she kicked him powerfully in the chest. The force knocked him off of his feet and slammed him against the wall. Kathryn ran over to him, grabbed his shirt, and lifted him up.

“What is this place?” She spat out her question, the adrenaline rushing through her veins. He said nothing and just stared at her with his cold eyes. He grabbed her wrists and with a quick twist of his hands, forcefully loosened Kathryn's grasp. He attempted to wrench one of Kathryn's arms around to her back, but she teleported out of his grasp. The surprise on his face was evident as he stood there frozen for a second holding on to empty air.

“I'm only going to ask you one more time,” Kathryn hissed. “What is this place?” He glanced over to his friend, who was still frozen. “If you don't answer my question,” she said slowly, “he will.”

The man said coldly, “It's facility for freaks like you.”

For some reason, Kathryn found that statement to be funny. She smirked. “Really now?” The desire to hurt him—really hurt him—rose inside of her. “Well, let me show you just how much of a freak I am.” With that, she teleported close to him, grabbed him by the arms, and teleported him across the room. She let him go, and he crumbled to the floor. Kathryn then kicked him as hard as she could in the face. A sharp crack echoed through the room as something gave way, perhaps his nose, perhaps his jaw. He then vomited all over the floor and lay still.

She heard nothing except the pounding of her heart. It took a moment before she realized that Susan was speaking to her. “Kathryn. Kathryn. Kathryn!” She looked up to see Susan kneeling down beside Charge. “Is he alive?”

“He’d better be.” Kathryn unfroze him, and he groaned softly. “Charge, baby,” she whispered while stroking his swollen face. “It's okay. We're going to get you out of here.” She looked at the chair he was strapped to and realized why it looked different from the others she saw. It was made out of rubber. Rubber tubing had also been used to bind his hands and feet to the chair. The knots were drawn too tightly to untie, and she had nothing to cut them with. “How do we get him out?”

Susan's eyes glanced around the room before settling on Kathryn's. “Teleport him.”

“What?”

“Teleport him out of the chair and free of these.” She pulled at the tubing around his ankles.

“I don't think I can.” Kathryn looked at the bindings. They were firmly wrapped around him.

Susan grasped Kathryn's arm. “Yes, you can, Kathryn. You can do it.”

Kathryn nodded slightly. “Okay.” She then put her hands on Charge's powerful shoulders and teleported them across the room. Everything came with him, including the chair. “Damn.” Kathryn took another look at the bindings. “They're too tight. Let's just take him like this.”

“We can't,” Susan argued. “We can't fit this whole thing into the car.”

Kathryn knew that she was right. She took a deep breath. “Okay. Let me try again.” She put her hands back on Charge's shoulders. She closed her eyes, concentrated, and teleported again. This time, the chair was left in its place, but without its support, Charge fell to the floor when they reappeared. “Charge! Are you okay?” Kathryn's hands were still on his shoulders, and she shook him. He groaned louder. The eye that was not swollen shut slowly opened.

“Kathryn?” he whispered hoarsely.

Her heart leaped at hearing his voice. “Yeah, baby. We're here to get you out. Can you stand up?”

Charge's eye scanned her face. He seemed confused and disoriented. “Kathryn?” he said again.

“Yeah, baby, stand up.” Kathryn grabbed him under one arm, and Susan grabbed him under the other. They slowly brought Charge to his feet.

“What about that guy?” Susan asked, nodding toward the frozen man standing in the corner.

Kathryn’s rage rose again. “Leave him. I've always been curious to see how long stuff stays frozen.”

Kathryn and Susan did most of the work getting Charge to stand up. He almost lost his balance a few times, but they were able to keep him upright. Finally, he stood up, but he had to place one hand on the wall to keep himself steady. “Okay, okay,” he mumbled. “I'm okay.”

“Let's get out of here.” Kathryn propped herself under Charge's arm and reached over behind his back to grab Susan's hand. She wanted to make sure she didn't leave Susan behind. Just before she could entwine Susan's fingers in hers, a voice projected into the room.

“Well, Kathryn, that was truly amazing.” The woman's voice was smooth and tranquil. Susan and Kathryn looked at each other in shock. The woman continued. “Charge thinks so very highly of you and your abilities, Kathryn, but I thought perhaps his affection for you caused him to exaggerate.” She paused. “Like parents bragging that little Johnny is a genius.” The voice chuckled without humor. It sent chills down Kathryn's spine. “But now I see that his estimation of your gifts was correct.” The voice was mesmerizing to Kathryn.

“Kathryn, let's go,” Susan hissed from underneath Charge's other arm.

“Oh, Susan, I would be remiss not to mention that Charge is appreciative of your gifts as well,” the voice continued with exceedingly sweet politeness. “In particular, the little tricks you do for him to satisfy his desires.” Pain pierced Kathryn's heart like a sword, releasing her momentarily from the voice's trance. With great effort, she froze the room again in an attempt to cut off the voice, but it continued. “Ladies, Charge has proven to be so very helpful, and I do apologize for my associate's actions, but he has outlived his usefulness and therefore must be terminated.” Kathryn was vaguely aware that Charge was slipping out of her hands and sliding toward the floor. She lost control of her body. She tried to teleport herself somewhere, anywhere to get aware from the smooth, cold voice, but she couldn't.

“The two of you, however, may provide us with some additional information that could prove most beneficial,” the voice purred. Kathryn's vision grew hazy, and the voice came from far away. “In just a few moments some more of my colleagues will enter the room, so just relax and be sure to . . .”

Suddenly, the entire room crackled and sizzled as electricity scampered up and down the walls. The light bulb hanging from the ceiling exploded, and the shards rained down on them. As they were pitched into darkness, the voice abruptly stopped, and with it the mysterious hold on Kathryn. She snapped awake, fully in control of her body again.

“Let's go!” Charge croaked from his position on the floor. Without hesitation, Kathryn grabbed his shoulder.

“Susan! Hand!” Kathryn groped for her hand in the darkness. They linked fingers, and she teleported the three of them out of the facility, down the state road, and back up to the rest stop on I-50. She touched down a few feet in front of the car.

For a few seconds, the three of them were motionless. Kathryn was crouched down next to Charge with one hand on his shoulder. He was on his hands and knees. Kathryn and Susan were holding hands across Charge's back, and Susan was leaning down awkwardly. Kathryn looked around for a moment and let go of Susan's hand.

“Charge?” She stroked his shoulder as he slowly sat back on his heels. “Are you okay?” He looked around. “We're at a rest stop a couple of miles away from the facility. We're safe.”

Susan rubbed her eyes. “What happened? I couldn't move. What the hell happened?”

Charge finally spoke. “Telepath. Powerful. Powerful telepath.”

“Where?” Susan asked. “Where was she?”

“Loudspeaker. Using the loudspeaker.” Charge slowly struggled to his feet.

It clicked for Kathryn. “That's why I couldn't freeze her. She was somewhere else, talking over a loudspeaker.” A few pieces of light bulb fell out of Kathryn's hair and scattered onto the pavement. She looked up at Charge, who was still swaying unsteadily. “You saved us. You short circuited the system.”

“Yeah,” he croaked again, raising a hand gingerly to his broken nose. “I had to silence that bitch.”

Both Kathryn and Susan chuckled. Kathryn put her hand tenderly behind Charge's back. “Come on, baby,” she slowly led him to the car. “Get in and let's get out of here.”

Charge took a few steps forward before stopping. “No, wait. We have to go back.”

Chapter Thirty Four

“Are you crazy?” Kathryn’s fury exploded. “We were almost killed back there! Oh, and just so you know, in case you missed it, you were about a half a second away from a bullet in your head.”

“I know, babe.” Charge put his hand on the side of her face. Kathryn melted at his touch. “You saved my life. And I will never ever forget that. I owe you everything now.” He paused, softly stroking her cheek. “But there are at least a hundred deviants being held in that facility, and we have to save them. Susan, where's your phone?”

“In the car,” she answered immediately. “Here are the keys.” She handed them to him.

“What are you doing?” Kathryn couldn't believe what was happening.

Charge walked toward the car. “Calling Jonathan.”

Kathryn put her hands angrily on her hips. “I don't believe it. Go ahead. Call him. Maybe he'll talk some sense into you.”

Charge opened the car door and grabbed Susan's phone. He dialed the numbers and walked away with the phone held up to his ear.

“Susan, this is crazy. You know this shit is crazy!”

Susan looked steadily at Charge before turning to her. “Charge may be right.”

“What? Have you lost your mind, too?”

“No, Kathryn, think about it.” Susan's eyes flashed with excitement. “This is the first time we've ever found a facility like this one. I mean, there have been rumors about it, but we actually found it. There’s a great opportunity here to—”

“Yeah, an opportunity to get killed,” Kathryn said.

“No, listen. Our brothers and sisters are in there, trapped. We have to get them out. Plus,” she looked west on I-50, back toward the facility, “if we could get our hands on some information—files, a computer, anything—then we could learn a lot more about what the government is doing.”

“Susan. We almost died. Let me say this again. We. Almost. Died. Or worse. I mean, look at Charge's face. Who knows what they would have done to us before we also got a bullet in the head.”

“Yeah, we almost died. But we didn't.”

Kathryn groaned. “I don't know what the hell is wrong with you people.” Charge came towards them, phone in hand. “I'm sure Jonathan will talk some sense into you.”

Charge handed the phone to her. “He wants to talk to you.”

She took the phone. “Yeah?”

“Kathryn!” Jonathan sounded pleased. “First, I want to extend a million thanks for a job exceedingly well done.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Kathryn dismissed his compliment with a wave of her hand. “So what time is our flight out of here?”

Jonathan paused. “You need to go back.”

“No!” Kathryn yelled into the phone.

“Kathryn,” Jonathan said slowly and patiently. “You have an obligation to go back.”

“What the hell, Jonathan? I don't know how much Charge told you, but we all almost died in there.”

Jonathan maintained his calm demeanor. “I know. But listen to me. Our people are trapped there, and you’re the only ones who can help them escape.”

Kathryn decided to try a logical approach, since losing her shit was not working. “Jonathan, there are hundreds of deviants in that building, and it’s surrounded by barbed wire. There’s no way that we can get all of them out.”