Renegade

Chapter fourteen

She was referring to a fourteen year-old boy with hydrokinetic abilities, whose powers had gone out of control at a public swimming pool, causing massive structural damage and injuring two people.

What the media hadn't relayed and Marcy had discovered on her own had been the circumstances of the incident: the injured had been the boy's childhood bullies and the loss of control occurred when the two had taken the tormenting one step too far.

The boy had been taken into custody by the CS and had yet to be released, while the bullies had gotten away without any form of punishment. Marcy had been in a terrible mood for days after the news. Apparently, she still was.

"You mark them like criminals that need to be constantly supervised, effectively alienating them from the rest of the population," she was on a roll. "And if that's not bad enough, every time they slip up, you cart them off who knows where, never to be seen again. How exactly are you protecting them?"

"Then what would you have us do?" the sergeant's voice boomed, commanding everyone's attention.

Marcy's eyes narrowed, unwilling to bend, even in front of so intimidating a man.

"Certainly not gag and bound them like rabid animals! Scratch that, I've seen rabid animals treated better than some of those people!"

"I repeat: what would you have us do? Faced with an out of control teenager who can set you on fire with a look, what would you do? How would you immobilize a ten-year-old that turns everything she touches into dust, including her own mother?" the sergeant continued, his eyes piercing through her. "You criticize but you offer no alternative. What would you do?"

Marcy broke eye contact, cheeks flushed in anger but unable to come up with a suitable retort. Though the man raised an interesting point and Theo mostly agreed with him, he definitely didn't like the patronizing tone he used with her.

"It's your job to figure that out, not hers," he said in an even voice. "You're sitting here telling me how you want to protect everyone including me, but it's all bullshit. Just a couple of days ago, some of your people were rallying against us in the streets. You don't care about us, so don't get all high and mighty when she calls you out on your hypocrisy."

Marcy turned to him in surprise, but he was too busy glaring at the sergeant to acknowledge her. He wasn't the type of person to blow up at others so he could understand she was taken aback.

Then again, she was his best friend and he would never allow some beefed-up moron to talk down to her. Not even a high-ranking, heavily armed combat specialist who just so happened to be his natural predator.

Sgt Welsch held his glare, his steely black eyes betraying no emotion. Dr. Kiggins was the one to break the tension in the room by loudly clearing her throat.

"Well, that went well," she said with a feeble attempt at humor. "Listen. You're both right and wrong. It's true that we might have handled some of the pick-ups better, but at the time, we weren't well enough equipped. That's why we decided to rely on abilities such as yours."

"Too little, too late," Marcy grumbled.

The doctor's eyes zeroed in on her, her stare intense enough to force Marcy to avert her own.

"It's never too late," she sighed, tiredly rubbing at her temples. "I believe we've gone about this the wrong way. A lot has happened today and you clearly need time to digest today's events. I propose we stop here for now. I would like to see you both again in... let's say three days. You will have had time to gather your bearings and I will have better arguments as well. How does that sound?"