Chapter 29 #2
“Right after we became dads.” Noah ribbed.
“Aren’t you two too old to have a baby?” Victoria blurted out before her eyes widened and she slapped a hand over her mouth.
It was enough to make us all laugh. Jaxson and Noah laughed so hard that tears began to course down their faces. Andy let out a squawk of indignation as his bottle was dislodged from his mouth. Noah sobered up slightly and murmured an apology before correcting the bottle.
“I didn’t—” Victoria’s face was red with embarrassment.
Jemmy cut her off with a giggle. “Well Pops is getting up there in age and even though Megan isn’t quite a spring chicken anymore, she’s still young enough to have a baby.”
Pops tried to look peeved, but he was unable to hide the pride in his eyes.
I’m positive that even though he had grandchildren and older children he still was excited at the prospect of having another child.
I just prayed that Megan’s test was correct and that she was pregnant.
I knew how much she always wanted babies and hadn’t failed to see the longing in her eyes when she held ours.
Pops cleared his throat with a look of mock indignation. “I may be older, but I’m still spry and fit for my age. Onto other news what did Jace have to say?”
“I was also sent to retrieve you Pops. Greg, Paul, and Kurt think they may have a solid plan.” Jemmy bit back another giggle.
Before Alex launched into his news, I heard Jaxson and Noah chuckling and feeding onto each other’s mirth before Jaxson let out a dramatic size. “I guess we’re going to have to tell Shady Maples nursing home, Pops isn’t quite ready to join them yet.”
Even though I was figuratively on the edge of my seat with anticipation, even I couldn’t help but laugh at their antics.
η
All the operatives assembled in the new war room.
They had all the lights down low so we could see the projection screen better.
They had taken still shots of each intruder present in the cafeteria, as well as the different groups still roaming the base in hopes of finding any stragglers.
Luckily, we had secured all the people that hadn’t been captured.
Greg hit the clicker on the remote, projecting a picture of a man in his mid to late twenties.
He was reasonably good looking with bright blue hair, septum, eyebrow, and lip piercing.
Even in the image his bright blue eyes were compelling.
He wore a basic black tee with skinny jeans and plethora of jewelry.
Every visible piece of his skin was covered in tattoos, giving him a bad boy edge.
“This is the heat seeker. Think of him like an infrared camera. He’s a level ten. He will see us within fifty yards of approaching the cafeteria. Lincoln, can you jump him then he will be unable to sound the alarm?”
Lincoln nodded his agreement. “I can do that.”
I leaned back into the comfortable office chair that surrounded a large oval table.
There were twenty of us occupying seats, while the remainder of our operators leaned on the walls or stood behind us.
I gently readjusted Andy’s blanket as he stretched in his sleep.
He made a puckered face before settling back down.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lincoln gently sway and pat Addison’s bottom.
None of us seemed eager to let them go before we had to.
Greg clicked to the next picture. He looked over at Micah, Victoria, and our anesthesiologist, Tara.
He also handed them what looked like a couple of round stickers on a sticker sheet no bigger than a matchbook.
Tara had the ability to “numb” a person.
With one simple touch she could render a person unable to feel the nerve endings in or on a body part.
On the screen was a mousy looking female probably in her early to mid-twenties.
She was on the slimmer side with barely any curves to note and wore a pair of jeans with a band tee.
Her dishwasher blond hair was cut in a severe bob, and thick glasses made her hazel eyes look larger than they were.
From the photo I could clearly see hearing aids in both ears.
Which was an oddity to me. I had never seen a gifted person that hadn’t been healed of any “disabilities.”
“She has supersonic healing. She can hear anyone or thing coming for miles. She already has implants installed in her ears, due to her sensitivity of sound. Victoria, you will have to make all three of you invisible while Micah transports you within feet of our mark. Tara will numb the spot right behind her ears before placing these mufflers on them. These dampers will interfere with the frequency of her hearing aids.”
Now I understood why she had the hearing aids. She needed them not to hear better but to not hear as well. I wondered if it wasn’t something she learned to regulate it or if it could be controlled. The closest person I had met that had enhanced senses had the ability to turn their gift on and off.
Tara held out a fist to Micah and Victoria before excitedly saying. “We got this!”
Every person we had to activate for this mission was thoroughly vetted by Rachel and Alex.
Plus, they had been vouched for by the leads that weren’t currently imprisoned by the enemy that had invaded us.
Tara was in her late thirties but had the energy of a teenager.
Fun fact, her physical appearance and clothing choices made her look no older than mid-twenties.
Kurt took over the clicker while Greg took physical photos to the war board. The next picture that popped up on the screen was of a young man and woman no older than eighteen in front of us. They also bore a striking resemblance to each other.
The looked so remarkedly out of place among the others that surrounded them.
They appeared as if they were dressed for a day of shopping on Rodeo Drive or something along those lines.
Their looks screamed money. The man wore brown loafer-like shoes, off white pants, white button up shirt with blue flowers all over it, and a blue blazer.
His light brown hair was expertly cut and styled.
The female was just as striking as her brother.
Her designer duds comprised of a knee lengths blood red pencil skirt with a zipper that traveled the center and entire length of her skirt, a white high neck, sleeveless silk white shirt, and an opened collarless long blazer that had vertical stripes of various colors including the blood red tying in the skirt.
To complete her look, she wore four inch red-bottomed stilettos.
She clearly didn’t plan to do any running or hiding dressed as she was.
Either she was highly confident, na?ve, or dense. My money was on all of the above.
“Did they arrive in their private jet?” One operative joked.
“Do you think they took a wrong turn somewhere?” Dawn asked.
“Is she wearing Louboutin’s?” A female gushed.
“Yes, and her outfit is one of a kind designer outfit from Felix Chardeoux. I’m pretty sure he just released this look a couple of weeks ago.
” Anna ironically blew a bubble with her gum.
“Inside info, he’s a thieving, pompous jerk and his real name is Freddy Chambers.
He thought his name was too pedestrian and legally had it changed before he stole his designs from his employees on the way to the top. ”
Kurt gave her a look and she smiled and shrugged. “Sorry for the rabbit trail. There’s an important mission we need to focus on. Unless you want to hear about the time he attempted to bribe one of my girls to steal some of my designs before fashion week.”
Most of us were unable not to laugh at her.
It really wasn’t the time or the place, but it seemed to be much needed comic relief most of us needed.
Anna was one of the most likable and the quirkiest people I have ever met.
Most of her personality was the exact opposite of serious and staid Herman, yet somehow, they worked.
Even Kurt was unable to contain his surprised laughter before he shook his head. “Maybe another time.”
“I’ll put you in my calendar.” Anna saucily winked.
Kurt tried to be serious as he said. “This brother/ sister pair are just as unique as Mercedes and Bentley—” he paused and smirked at Bentley’s disbelieve snort, then smiled knowing he ‘hurt’ Bentley’s ego.
“—their gifts work hand in hand. Think of them like…scramblers. Alone they can take a person or twos’ gifts and bestow them on others.
When they work together, they can selectively scramble an entire building.
Once they activate their gift they can in essence give me—” his eyes searched around the table before landing on Kade.
“Kades gift and Jaxson gift to Kade, Dawn’s gift to Terrance and Marcel’s gift to Miranda, so on and so forth.
We wouldn’t even know what gift we had or how we would wield it until we attempted to use it.
If we could. In essence that doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but we all know the way we tap into our gifts is different.
Again, it doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, but even if we can think quickly on our feet, it won’t give us enough time to prevent one of their offensive gifted attacking us.
“Unlike Mercedes and Bentley, they have to stay connected in order to be most effective. The moment Lincoln, Tara, Micah, and Victoria neutralize the people we need to then we can enter the cafeteria. We will need to immediately separate them. Ideally, we’ll need to get them completely out of the room. ”
“I’ll mimic Vicki to get into the room and then grab them and take them to Merci and Bent. Merci can drop her in one of the void cells, while Bent drops him into another. We’ll just have to have the guards to release them from the cells.” Gavin stated.
Gavin had discovered that not only did he have two gifts since taking over Max’s body, but he could use them simultaneously.
It wasn’t until recently that he discovered he could mimic more than one gift as well.
It was like he had two slots open at all times.
If he chose to imitate two people’s gifts he could.
He had fun learning about that discovery.
Jaxson didn’t appreciate it nearly as much when he was able to have an illusion “battle” with him with ease.
Kurt nodded, satisfied with that solution. “I’ll let them know when to expect you.”
Greg and Kurt continued pointing out each person and their gifts.
We tried to match up each of their gifted people with our own people.
We knew we had the advantage they didn’t.
They could only guess what abilities some of our people carried, especially with some of the recruits we transferred in from obscure communities.
Greg laid down another photo. On it was a middle-aged male that appeared like he belonged in a scholarly setting.
He even wore a sweater vest and bow tie.
He looked so harmless and had a kind looking face.
It was just another example of how depravity had many faces.
“This is their time rewinder. It’s the only aspect of time he can control, and he can’t go back in time nearly as far as Kade, but he’s still great at what he does.
He’s a level nine and his gift works great in battles.
If the battle isn’t going their way he can rewind sequences in their favor. ”
“So, I pause him and make his gift null and void.” Kade confidently stated.
“Or I command him to leave.” I added.
Pops looked over at me hesitantly. “You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to. I know it’s been a traumatic day for you.”
I gnawed on my lower lip. I knew he was giving me another opportunity to back out.
I don’t think anyone would begrudge me if I chose to sit this one out.
Truthfully, it was a hard decision. I didn’t want to leave my children, but the men were going and the babies were being transferred with the women I trusted most. My troubled thoughts were interrupted by the clattering of Darren’s coffee cup.
“Son of a—biscuit!” Darren yelped, catching himself when he remembered the presence of the children.
His fingers rapidly tapped on the keys of his keyboard before the large screen affixed to the wall changed to an obscure area in the facility.
We didn’t need to wait long until we discovered why Darren was so agitated suddenly.
As we watched at least forty people exit another door Tiff had drawn and in the lead was Horatio.
My decision was made. Time to end this once and for all.