Power Play (Book 2)

Chapter 29: Taking Control

Recap: After meeting some of the people organizing the riots and protests around Chicago at a coffee shop, Brandon convinced them to instead try and help him locate the Samsara agents he had been searching for. Brandon didn't tell the group about Samsara's nanovirus, only that it was important to find them.

Brandon's team began checking hospitals and medical research facilities in Chicago to see if they could discover where Samsara was crafting the virus. They were interrupted by Agent Corrales and his team deploying on Michigan Avenue to contain another riot that broke out. Brandon was horrified at how brutally Corrales was handling the situation and was worried people would get killed. He had to choose whether to try and stop Corrales, or keep searching for Samsara.

Winning Choice: ...as brutal as this is, a lot more people could die if we don't find Samsara. Corrales may be a brutal control freak, but this is his job and I need to let him do it while we find the people with the nanovirus.

I step back from Corrales, my stomach rolling at the sight of the battle cascading up and down the street. There's a flurry of gunfire, then a boom. It's a fairly big one as far as booms go, but I've seen bigger. I've made bigger.

Corrales turns back to the battle, yelling more instructions into his headset. I hate leaving this maniac and his crew loose, but I have a job to do and he has his. He'll enforce the peace, but I just wish his version of peace wasn't so brutal.

"Corrales," I say, and he glances back. "Stop this mess, but remember that these people are the ones you're supposed to be fighting for." He turns away from me, clearly unimpressed.

I move at super-speed to Corrales' side, and snap the strap holding his sidearm in into the holster. I've taken his gun and returned to where I started just as he starts to register that something happened. He bares his teeth in rage as I dangle the gun towards him from my finger.

"Guns can be taken away, don't forget that," I tell him. I crush the gun with one hand, turning it into a jagged paperweight. I drop Corrales' former firearm, and and it clatters on the asphalt between us. He glares at me, ignoring it.

"Are you done here?" he asks.

I take to the sky.

###

"You should've pounded that fool," Cassie tells me over the radio as I fly back towards the medical center.

"That's your answer for everything," I point out. Rolling onto my back as I fly, the clouds and sky are all I can see. Chicago and it's problems are behind me, below me, invisible for a moment.

"Well... it tends to work for me pretty good so far," she says.

"We'll get our shot with Corrales, don't you worry. I just hope he doesn't reduce Chicago to rubble before we get there." I savor the peace of the sky, then sneak a quick peek ahead of me. Flying into a building while upside down would not really add to the day in any positive way.

Tyler speaks up. "Brandon, I got a message from Carlos and... I dunno..."

There's an unusual uncertainty in his voice. "Carlos, the scruffy guy from the coffee shop?"

"Yeah. They've been setting up watches looking for Samsara, and they think they've found them," he says.

"What?" Cassie yells in response.

That brings me to a stop. I roll back over, bringing Chicago back into view. I hover over the concrete maze. How could this be right?

"Okay," I say. "My first reaction is we've had squads of every genetically enhanced person in the country driving themselves into the ground looking for Samsara..."