Sleeping in a cot isn't as fun as it sounds. Sure, it keeps you off of the cold floor and away from the occasional mouse, but it's not comfortable. They had invested in warm comforters but not memory foam. I'm going to add that to the list of recommended items we should definitely get.
I was just glad their showers had warm water. Sure, they didn't know where it was coming from, but they had already tested the water to make sure it was safe. Luckily, there was no one else to watch me shower when I did. I grabbed a towel, warm from sitting on the same hot water pipe, and quickly dried myself. I put on a new set of clothes I had packed and started a new brew of coffee.
"Oh," I heard. "Uh, good morning."
I turned around. It was Diana. She was in yellow pajamas with rabbits eating carrots.
"Hey. Morning. Coffee?"
"Please."
I poured a second cup.
"Cream or sugar?"
"Both. Don't go shy on the ingredients."
I poured as much as I thought a person could consume without having a heart attack.
"Thanks," she said and took a big sip. "Sleep well?"
"It was... less than pleasurable. But, I've been in worse."
"Glad to know your bed is up to standards," she said sarcastically.
We sat in silence in the kitchen. I swished my coffee in my cup for a short minute before speaking.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"For what?"
"Everything."
She looked at her coffee.
"We're all sorry. Pity won't change our circumstances."
"Right."
I emptied my cup.
"Why do you think we have these powers?" I asked.
"I... don't know."
I got up to put my cup in the sink.
"You know what they call us?" She asked.
"What?"
"Glitches," she said a little shamefully. "I had to look it up. I don't know whether to feel special or to feel like an accident."
I laughed. "My mom used to say there are no accidents, just undesired circumstances."
She didn't laugh. Or smile.
"Of course, that's what she said about my father leaving us."
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be. We were better off for it."
I put my hands in my pocket and wandered to the living space. I turned on the TV to the news. It wasn't anything special, just some current events and politics. Eventually, I was drowning in my own thoughts. I was rehearsing in my head over and over what to say to my mother. How she would react. None were realistic. I couldn't seem to find the right way to tell her.
"Adam!"
Victor came running from the tunnel.
"What is it?" I asked, concerned.
"I've got a plan to infiltrate Shiva's data servers."
"Oh," I said, putting my and to my heart. "You scared me. I thought something happened, you dumb bloke."
"Sorry. I couldn't sleep well last night. I've been wracking my brain for weeks trying to come up with a plan to figure out what Shiva is up to. When you told me about your ability yesterday, it got me thinking. Come on, Dwight is in a call. He thinks it might work."
I followed Victor to his setup. I waved at Dwight. He had stubble growing on his face.
"You need to shave," I said.
He rolled his eyes. "Explain to Adam what we discussed."
"Okay, so, we were able to cross-confirm that Shiva has some kind of device that let's them detect people with abilities. It's like a sensor that can find large-scale anomalies. For example, someone who can teleport, like Diana, would cause temporal shifts wherever she teleports. It's like the fabric of existence gets folded when she activates her ability, traveling through a dimension we can't see. We hypothesize that these bursts of energy gives of an electromagnetic signature, and that's how they are able to track someone with an ability in a non-too-specific area."
"So, you're saying they have a radar that tells them when someone activates their powers, just not specifically where."
"Exactly," Dwight said.
"Okay, then what does that have to do with me?"
"You power is special," Dwight said through the speakers. "Your rewind ability probably sets off their radar, but moving backward in time is like erasing your temporal signature. In actuality, it's like you never used it to begin with. That could explain why it's so hard for Shiva to track you."
"And why they want me dead," I said.
"Dwight was able to determine the location of their servers," Victor said. He typed in the computer, and a map of the U.S. came up. "We were able to ping their server without setting off an alarm. They bounced off of a satellite connected to a company called Digital Realty. We don't know if Shiva owns Digital Realty. There isn't anything about it on the Wiki."
"What is it about this company that makes it an asset to Shiva?"
"Digital Realty currently owns almost thirty-five million square feet of rentable property, and it's not just property in North America. They own property in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia, giving them ample space to grow their empire across the world.
"Like a spider web," I said.
"In a way, yeah. Just with lots of baby spiders living on the same web. It gets a bit cramped living in a tiny corner."
"So there could be a lot more people working for Shiva than we initially thought," I said. "This news isn't much better."
"One thing at a time," Dwight said. "We were able to find the source of their online information. The next step is to exploit it to our advantage. We're going to Trojan horse a Trojan horse."
"How are we supposed to do that?"
"You," Victor said. "The only way to infiltrate without setting off any of their sensors is to start the process manually. You will have to go in and plug in a USB drive to the right server. It will give me access through a private network that I can mimic as normal data traffic. We can't try to do it from the outside or they'll be onto us. We have to do this quietly."
"Why can't you send Diana or someone else who is more equipped to infiltrate than me?"
"Because," I heard Diana say from behind us, "I can't teleport quietly. If they see a big disturbance at their secure servers, they'll be on high alert. They could disappear, and we'll be back to square one."
She walked up to me.
"As much as I don't want to admit it, you're more useful on this mission than I am."
"Isn't this going to be dangerous?"
"Yeah, but it's nothing you can't handle," Victor said. "Your ability basically makes you invincible."
"Not... really."
"Either way, you're our best bet at getting on their level," Diana said. "Knowing is half the battle. We could learn a lot if you're successful."
"Yeah. If."
"Do you want to be able to go home and see your mother again?" She asked. "Because that's not going to happen if we just stay down here forever."
I bit my lip. I knew staying underground for the rest of our lives wasn't an option.
"Alright. I'll do it."
"Great!" Victor said. "Finally, I'll have something to do other than listen to radio chatter."
"There's just one problem," I said. "Stealth isn't really my thing. I'll be blind. I don't know where to go or how to get around. My ability is a last resort, and it doesn't really warn me of bad guys coming around the corner. I'll have used it before I can get near the son of a bitch."
"You won't be going alone," Diana said. "I want you to take Mariyah."
"Mariyah? Are you sure we should risk more than one of us to do this?"
"You got a better plan?"
I couldn't answer.
"It's in Charlotte, North Carolina," Victor said. "That's not too far."
I groaned. "Not another car ride."