Agent Dunsworth spoke up, “Not that we’ve seen. They all just happened to change on Saturday with the meteor shower.”
Rael said, “And they all happened to be at Iron Cross Hospital after their change?”
“Right.”
“So it makes perfect sense then. Someone hacked into the hospital computers and got a list of the people there.”
“If that’s the case then the attackers may have a list of everyone who stayed at the Hospital that night.”
Rael’s voice rose, and his fingers elongated into claws as he said, “Stayed?
Stayed?!
The government was practically kidnapping new supers, knocking them out, and detaining them for days! How many died in Shrinker’s attack because of what the government did?”
Agent Dunsworth took a step back. Rael’s anger was obvious, and to me it felt downright palpable through his mindview.
Agent Willman sighed. “We weren’t involved in that, Black Tiger. Talk to Captain McCain about it. I believe he set that up.”
“McCain? Why would a super do that?” He threw his arms in the air to emphasize his exasperation.
I noticed several mindviews staring through the glass office wall at Rael. As much as I felt the anger flowing off Rael, I felt an intense hatred from someone in the F.B.I. office. It didn’t feel close enough to identify, and Agent Willman distracted me from concentrating much on it.
“Again, talk to him. For now, we’ve got three missing supers to focus on.”
I stood up and leaned over Rael’s shoulder. I put my right hand on the far side of his face and turned his head toward me so he couldn’t help but smell my scent up close.
I whispered, “Take a deep breath, Tiger. Just relax.”
He mentally argued whether to do it or not, but caved and leaned over toward me. He quickly calmed down and I kissed him on the cheek before standing up straight.
I said, “So where do we go from here? Should we interrogate the people captured this morning? I could mind read them.”
Agent Willman nodded. “I think we have to. The descriptions of the men are similar between those we captured and those doing the kidnappings.”
“Why did the guy I first caught have a submachine gun instead of a one of the weapons you guys were talking about after I woke back up at the garage?”
Lance said, “They had submachine guns too. Each had a bola projector and a needle pistol, plus a few canisters or grenades of gas.”
Agent Willman said, “The first one we cornered late last night did have those weapons in the van. He may have not brought them in because it wasn’t a meta chasing him, it was F.B.I. agents.”
I nodded. “Okay, at least he fits in then. So where are they being kept – let’s do the mind read and get it done with.”
“They are in holding downstairs. Let’s go now. Do we need to clear out a certain amount of space for you? They said everyone ran away from you outside the office building, and then there’s the nosebleed issue….”
“Oh, well … I tried making him afraid. I won’t do that to these guys.”
“And the psychic scream that Agent Dimmer was so angry about?”
“That only happened because he pulled me away while I was in the guy’s mind trying to get information. It was his fault.”
Lance said, “No one will pull you away while I’m with you.”
Agent Dunsworth said, “While I hate to impede our investigation, there’s the rights of these guys to consider. I don’t want us breaking any laws during the investigation….”
Agent Willman said, “The Metavillain Law of 2004 covers that. This group kidnapped a meta, thus involving H.E.R.O. agents, which also opens up the use of powers on them during an investigation.”
“I thought that was only against meta villains.”
“It doesn’t specifically state that. And without it, we lose our next step.”
“You’re the boss.”
I listened to Agent Dunsworth’s mental arguments for and against going along with the plan. He ended up reluctantly agreeing with Agent Willman. The saving of lives would be more important than being picky about wording.
We followed the F.B.I. agents down to their holding area. Agent Willman dropped us off at an interrogation room, and then left to bring the first kidnapper to us.
I immediately caught the additional mindview of a person behind the mirror. She prepped the equipment in the room for recording.
Rael looked at me and said, “This isn’t a super, probably best not to make his eyes and ears bleed like you did the guy at the prison.”
I sighed, “Yeah. I’ll try to hit his memories right away. People can see when I enter their minds though, it seems like they put up a fight if they are awake.”
Lance said, “Interesting. I wonder if it’s something like the body fighting off a virus, except mentally.”
I shrugged. “No idea. I just know they do it – and the easiest way to get rid of them for a while is to throw them into their fear pool.”
“Fear pool?”
“I don’t know. It looks like a pool to me. I’ll try to just hold him down and scan the memories this time.”
The two F.B.I. agents returned with a man in handcuffs. He had short black hair, and was in good shape. His face was rugged. Agent Willman led the man to the chair on the far side of the table from the glass window to my back and pushed him down onto it.
Agent Dunsworth left the room, but his mindview showed that he went to the room behind the mirror. The woman agent started the recording when he entered the room.
I debated asking someone to leave; the six mindviews filled nearly all of my vision. I changed my mind after a moment. I needed practice doing this sort of thing with a group around.
Lance stood back in the left corner, arms crossing his chest in the pose he liked to affect. He stood that way a good chunk of the evening where he worked as a bouncer.
Rael debated what would be most intimidating to the criminal – standing in the other corner or breathing down his neck. He flashed a memory of his claws tearing through the shoulder of the man who died this morning and stepped back to the other corner behind me.
Agent Willman pulled out a seat for me, but I put my hand on his arm and said, “It works better when I’m really close.” He nodded and sat down across from the man.
The man’s eyes flicked back and forth between each of us. He was calm, though concerned about what we as supers would do to him.
Agent Willman dropped a file folder onto the table. He calmly stated, “Ike Robley. Age 32. Eight years of service in the United States Army. Honorably discharged. Who are you working for now?”
The man began mentally reciting, “Ike Robley, Sergeant, etc.” He repeated the mantra over and over in his head – apparently it was something he was used to doing to ignore his surroundings.
Seeing the man look past him with unfocused eyes, Agent Willman asked, “You were attempting to kidnap a young woman. Where did you intend to bring her?”
Ike mentally flashed the image of a warehouse before he returned to his mental mantra. He didn’t speak.
I patted Agent Willman’s shoulder a few times, then walked around the table and sat on the table next to Ike. He stared at me, raising an eyebrow when I sat.
He asked, “Problems buying enough fabric for a whole set of clothes?”
I grinned, “Yep, I got there right after a big sale, not much left.”
He frowned when I leaned in close to him, placed a hand on his right shoulder and stared deeply into his eyes. I smiled wickedly at him. His body tensed, unsure of what I planned to do.
Rael also shifted position so he’d be ready to pounce if the man tried anything. He kept getting distracted looking between the man and me though.
Ike’s mindview enlarged as I closed on him. I mentally pulled it to fill my vision, and then entered it. As usual, I appeared in some kind of room with doors around it. The emotion center and subconscious doors were closed, and appeared heavily fortified. The memory door was currently closed. I didn’t recall ever seeing a fortified emotion center.
I wondered if preparing oneself for interrogation, and not wanting to think about any past events caused that door to be closed. I had been finding it open on others whose mind I’d entered.
Sure enough, Ike was there in the center of the room. He didn’t even glance around, and simply stared at me. I slowly walked toward him, a golden glow slowly growing around me. I flicked my fingers open and my familiar pack of golden tentacles extended out from the glow.
Ike began to recite his name, rank and serial number again. He didn’t move. It felt like waves of force pushed against me, toward the mindview floating above and behind. His mantra apparently helped actively fight me from being there – though it wasn’t powerful enough to force me out.
I kept an eye on him as I walked over to his memory door. I tried pushing on it to no avail, and there wasn’t a handle to pull it open with.
Sheesh. Why can’t some of these just be easy? Ok, fine, time to break stuff again....
I waved my right hand, directing the golden tentacles to smash against the door. Irritation flashed on my face as the first set of bashes had no effect.
I glanced at Ike's mental image of himself. He still stood there focused on saying his name and such over and over. I grit my teeth and directed them all to go to town on the door. The tentacles began smashing with great force against the door, causing loud echoes through the chamber.
It had no effect on the door.
I yelled, "Seriously? Aaaahhhhh!!" I spun to look at Ike's mental image again, waved my left arm to make a grabbing motion, and a group of tentacles snaked over to him and picked him up. He didn't move away from them. I had the tentacles smash him against the door a few times until he went limp, dropped him, and went back to smashing the door.
I finally threw my hands in the air. I paced back and forth a few times with my hands on my hips, breathing hard from anger.
Screw it. There are more kidnappers, we can interrogate them.
I looked up in the air. The exit through the mindview floated in the air. It was dark at the moment.
I launched myself into the air and flew through the mindview.
I jerked back from Ike. I caught a glimpse of his head lying back over the chair before I fell onto my back on the table. My head swam, my vision was cloudy and I blacked out.
When I woke up it took some time for me to shake off the fugue. Everything slowly came back into the focus, and suddenly the six mindviews of those nearby appeared. One was dark.
Well, that's a flippin' waste of visual space to just have a dark area.
Rael looked down at me - he appeared to be upside down.
He grinned, "Well, what do you know. Welcome back."
I replied, "Sadly, I couldn't get any info. The jerk just sat there repeating his name and such. I couldn't break into his memory chamber."
I caught Agent Willman as he raised an eyebrow. He said, "So ... you try him again?"
I slowly sat up and shook my head. "No, let's try the next guy. One of the others ought to know something."
"We only have one more here. Another is in the hospital. The last died from the bola. We can't interview the one in the hospital, he had surgery from your two ... err ... claw wounds on his shoulders. They have him sedated."