Strangers in Danger

Chapter 24: Cara

"Talk to me, Luke," I said as I watched him gaze down the hall. His face stony and expressionless. I pulled up the preloaded draft in my texts.

"We shouldn't take the elevator. We'll take the stairs. Send the text now." He took my hand and guided me down the hallway in the opposite direction as I pressed send. A second later a confirmation prompt replied. I responded with a quick code just as Lucas opened the door to the stairwell. It was done.

I picked up the pace as I jogged behind him down the stairs and through an exit door that opened to the parking lot. We broke into a run toward my car that sat peacefully in the shadow of a few street lights. I almost didn't see the SUV pull up. My heart sank and then began to race.

Diane stepped out and moved between us and our escape ride.

"When will you two just stop running?" She asked, pulling a cigarette out of a pack before returning it to the inside of her jacket.

"I noticed you were smoking again," Lucas said, coming to a stop. "Human trafficking more stressful than you expected?"

She took a deep drag of her cigarette. "We're onto such huge things, Luke. This is how we'll keep the world safe. You and your new girlfriend can help bring peace to everyone."

With Diane's eyes focused on Lucas, I fiddled with my phone and opened up a live stream. Luke, keep her talking. If you can hear me, keep her talking.

I released the phone and made it hover a few inches from the ground. Its energy buzzed in my fingertips and I gently forced it to float toward Diane, placing it gently behind her at her feet.

"Did you know?" Lucas asked. "When we were together?"

"That you weren't born a mind reader?" She chuckled and took another drag. "No. It was only after we broke up that I started digging around the file room on my days off. My job gave me a decent amount of access. There was no way that a child exhibiting telepathy in the 80s would have gone unnoticed by the military. And there I found it. The whole project. We were in the middle of the Cold War! Of course we'll volunteer our babies for some mystery drug if it would stop the Commies! I didn't do anything with the files until I left the public sector and went to EM Nine. I moved up the ladder real quick."

"Luke, did she not watch Marvel movies with you?" I said, hoping to coax Diane into the second part of her plan. "Anytime you try to make a super soldier, it goes incredibly wrong."

"Because those are movies, Cara. We have an opportunity here to enhance our military in ways that would make them more effective at preventing large casualties and isn't that what we want? Less death in war?"

"So what do you want with us?" Lucas asked. "Why the bounties to hunt us down?

I heard several more vehicles pull up behind us. Doors opening, feet hitting the ground, guns cocking.

"Human trials are expensive," she ashed her cigarette before taking another drag. "Why pay to do human trials when we have living test subjects? So many of you living lonely lives, too. It makes the research so much easier when you have a starting point.

Anyway, I think we're done chatting. You two can come with me willingly, or unwillingly," She said, slightly distracted by her phone buzzing in her pocket.

"Yes. I agree," I said, summoning the phone back to me and quickly slipping it into my jacket pocket. "We're done here."

I spun around and used everything I had to summon every weapon pointed at us and dropped them at our feet. In the chaos that ensured, I lifted every person on Diane's team up into the air. She screamed in horror as she levitated 50 feet above the parking lot.

Then I let them go. A dozen people rained to the ground around us, including Diane who lay motionless. I picked up two handguns, flicked the safety and slipped them in my pocket. Following my lead, Lucas grabbed two rifles and we ran for my car.

"She put a tracker on your car," Lucas said, opening the doors and grabbing all that we could carry.

"I figured. We'll take hers."

We threw our stuff into the back seat of the dark SUV and Lucas climbed into the driver's seat. As he tore out of the parking lot, I plugged in my computer and immediately began accessing the car's computer system.

"Where are we going?" I asked.