Samuel

Chapter 16

"How am I surrounded by incompetence?!" The Director bellowed into the room lit with screens while soft tapping of keyboards and random clicking of a mouse, here and there, littered the workspace. "It is one signal. How did you lose it so quickly?"

Her voice, terse and demanding, slowly passed over the hard consonants as she worked to refrain from unleashing at them with her native Farsi. Splotches of red blossomed in her cheeks and neck as her anger fumed. Her free arm tensed as her fist clenched holding the tablet displaying the triangulated position of the last beacon of power emitted.

Slight cracks creeped into the display as they bled into the middle of the screen. Tighter and tighter, she held her tablet with her free hand as her kaftan obscured her arm encased in the silken fabric. Pressure internally blossomed as her eyes radiated crimson nearly imperceptibly as she teemed.

Director Namirah's assistant traced the rigidity of her boss's body language. Her stern face betrayed her fury over the apparent inability to acquire a pinpoint on the target. A soft fuzziness emanated over her own body as goosebumps radiated over the entirety of her flesh. Perplexed she glanced back at the Director as she caught a glimpse of red flashes in her irises. Unnerved, her body moved on its own accord as she stepped back widely. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to flee from Director Namirah, yet she remained rooted in place, powerless, trapped.

Turning towards her assistant, the Director's hard gaze met her assistant's eyes with fiery, knowing determination. Her irises returned to their solid black coloring as her olive skin glistened slightly with the ambient lighting of the monitors flickering throughout the intelligence hub. Closing the distance between her assistant and herself, the Director leaned close to her ear as her assistant began to tremble slightly.

Whispering, softly, coolly against her ear, Director Namirah said, "Hush, you know nothing of what we are. Forget what you just saw. I place you in charge of the search for the boy. Hurry and dispatch agents 234 and 438 to the target location."

As she listened to her direct supervisor, Director Namirah, the tension and fear radiating throughout her body vanished as a calm settled within her. The memory of the monstrous anomaly within her Director's eyes abated as an overwhelming desire to help her, in any way, flooded into her focus. As piety overwhelmed her, she furiously tapped into her own tablet as the commands of her Director washed every fear and hesitation away from her.

"Of course, madam Director. Right away. The agents will comb the twenty square miles searching for the energy signal." The assistant stated as she continued to manipulate her tablet, unaware of Namirah leaving the room as the mechanical door's whoosh remained deafened to her.

Walking back to her office as her kaftan hugged her curvaceous body, Director Namirah thought hard as her free hand continued to tense over her tablet.

"The Vice President and the Twelve will not take this lack of progress lightly." Stopping in place, her mind considered her options as she worried about others who may be on the trail of the target. Her grip tightened even further as a crack resounded in the hallway. Echoing softly in the distance, her mind continued to trail, "I need a win here or else their attention will turn towards Liddah."

Thick drops of blood streamed onto the floor from her free hand. A soft stinging pulsed in her palm as Namirah sharply turned her attention to the bits of tablet jutting out of her palm. Coalesced with blood, she firmly pulled each chunk of glass and hard plastic out of her hand before pooling her life energy towards the wounds as they closed with the softest plume of white smoke billowing gently from her newly healed wound.

Returning to her thoughts, the Director's eyes saddened, "I can't let them have her."

----

The jingle on his phone resounded in his pocket of his jeans draped over the chair in his hotel room. The soft breeze of the air conditioner pulsating cold circulated air flapped the legs of the jeans as the ringing continued to bleed into the room. Shaking his razor blade full of shaving cream and remnants of hair from his scalp in the warm stream, the water poured forth, fogging up the borders of the full-sized mirror slightly. Alm's face tensed irritably from the summons of the cellphone.

Carrying the shaver with him, his large muscular frame lumbered towards his jean pocket as his massive hand dug to retrieve the melodious phone. Turning it over to see the caller ID of the screen, Alm's eyebrows furrowed as he noticed the thick bold letters of "Don't Trust" littered on the screen.

Pressing the accept option and placing the call on speakerphone, Alm, spat into the receiver, "What do you want Chandral?"

"Testy tone there." Chandral's voice emitted from the speaker with his characteristic Germanic accent. "So, what are ya doin'?"

"What do you WANT?" Alm pressed as he returned to shaving his scalp.

A long silence stretched over the phone before Chandral continued, sighing, "You have felt it, yes? I'd imagine someone of your limited capabilities could still sense a beacon of energy this pure, ya?"

"Yes, I'm prepping myself now. I'd imagine Johnathan wants me to investigate, YES?" Alm retorted mimicking Chandral.

"Oh wow, you do have brain cells. I didn't think someone of your...caliber had the ability to demonstrate complex thought patterns. Hurry up, it may be the child he is seeking," Chandral urged.

"Hey Chandral?" Alm broke in.

"Yes?" Chandral said.

"Chandral? You there?" Alm continued.

"Yes, do you hear me?!" Chandral responded frustrated. "Wait," Chandral said, realizing what was happening. "Listen, he hasn't told ya...."

Smiling, Alm disconnected the phone call, "Piece of shit," he said continuing to smirk.

Returning to shaving, a series of tones beeped from his phone as a flurry of text messages poured in as Alm's smile widened. Each glimpse of Chandral's texts in all caps invigorated Alm as he finished his preparations.

His smile faded as Alm ignored the random messages coming in from Chandral as he considered the beacon of power emitted east of him. Its intensity encaptivated him, raw and powerful as an uncut diamond. Containing all three elements of bioessence, Alm marveled as he, previously never felt such focused power before his training with Jonathan.

Learning much from his years under Jonathan's tutelage, power flooded into Alm as his ability to enhance his physical abilities blossomed. Along with his connection with his mind domain, Alm attained skills, he never considered before. Growing to understand what he was capable of, the binds that tied him to Jonathan continued to grow. Despite his newfound proficiency of power, Alm immediately knew this beacon contained capacity he could never acquire. Profoundly radiating throughout the area, he marveled as the force enveloped him earlier.

Now, in complete control over his facilities, Alm acknowledge his trepidation as his newest target threatened him silently. Daring him to come follow, the power, entrancing as it was, contained a darkness to it, an agony replete with a promise of destruction.

One clear distinction secreted from the power beacon, they contained traces of all three domains. Within this triad, Alm sensed a skill he could never know, yet needed to see firsthand. Keenly aware of others, potential to sense this power emitted, Alm's thoughts raced.

Staring at himself in the mirror for a few moments, Alm caught a glimpse of the figure imposed upon his own visage. The man's eyes hardened over his own face. Taking time to consider the reintroduction of the figure after so many years, Alm packed his things quickly, deliberately. Leaving his room key on the nightstand, Alm expeditiously moved towards the stolen vehicle containing license plates he replaced with a clean history. Speeding down the highway, planning his approach meticulously, Alm closed the distance between him and the previously brilliant power beacon's location. 

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