Gifted Connections 2

In the end, we were able to locate a total of twelve females ranging from 16 to 28 years of age, from our estimation. None of the females had names or records that we could find.

The other two guards were dispatched with no problems. I was taking one of the last girls out to

the waiting bus when I heard the alarms from the building go off.

“He is running,” a voice full of frustration filled my ear.

“I just lost him on the stairs.” I heard someone else curse.

I didn’t think as I ran towards the building, not believing that not too long ago, I was laid up in a hospital bed, sick. Maybe it was the adrenaline of the night that kept me going. Jace and Remy fell into step beside me.

“They took those steps up,” Remy stated as he pointed to the stairwell to the far side of the building.

As Jace ripped open the door, bullets whizzed towards us. I knew none of our guys carried guns, so I immediately threw up a force field to protect us. I could see our guys taking out our threats from behind.

“Where did he go?” Terrance called down to us. “Did you see him?”

“He’s using his gift.” Jaxson sighed as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“He threw off my block,” Collin said as he entered the stairwell. I could see the self-doubt in his eyes—he had thought he was powerful. I was able to throw off his block, and now, so had Dr. Neil.

I dropped the force field and grabbed Jace’s hand. “He’s invisible, right, but could we still feel him?”

“If he bumped into us,” Remy said slowly as realization dawned in his eyes.

“Maybe we can feel him,” I whispered urgently to Jace. I imagined the picture of the man I had seen. I imagined feeling him. I imagined how he may be feeling.

With our hands connected, our gifts’ energy started wrapping around us. I could feel it. I could almost hear it as it buzzed with intangible vigor. Physically, I wasn’t aware of moving, but mentally, I felt myself moving, continuing my hold on Jace. Instinctively, I knew with our hands linked we were more powerful. We were both the positive and negative energy to jumpstart the gift within.

We moved as one unit up one set of stairs and opened the door. My senses picked up distant yelling, but the panicked beating of a heart drew me. I was oblivious to everything else. It reminded me of the rapid heartbeat of a cornered rabbit. It was him. I recognized it without a shadow of a doubt. We opened a door to the left and the sound got louder. I almost had to cover my ears at the intensity.

“Reveal yourself,” I commanded him.

I hadn’t realized Remy, Terrance, Collin, Jaxson, Michael, and Will had followed us into the room until I heard the audible gasp. I looked back at the man cowered under the table. I could see him vainly attempt to vanish once more, but he was powerless to under my compulsion.

We had his lap top, we had his research, and most importantly, we had him.

Clean up was no fun, now that the adrenaline of the chase was wearing off. Most of us was returning to the building to get our restrained prisoners. Others were up in the labs, grabbing what we needed and destroying what we didn’t. As I walked back into the building, I looked down at my watch and was surprised to see that it wasn’t even midnight yet. The mission so far was a success, only taking three hours or less.

I should have known to knock on wood. I should have known better than to tempt fate.

I felt the building shake and reached out to steady myself, nearly smacking my head on the door frame. I looked up to see the ceiling tiles shift above me.

“Dammit,” I heard Ned bark in my ear.

“The buildings collapsing! Get out now!” I heard Troy yell. “Someone was hiding down below. He planted bombs. The support beams have been compromised.”

Collin and Ned were running my way as the building shook once more. Collin fell to the ground and Ned ran right past him. “Grab him,” I yelled.

Ned looked panicked and shook his head and ran right passed me. “We need to get out,” He tried to grab my arm and drag me out.

“No,” I insisted. “We can’t just leave him.” I pulled my arm out of his grasp and he let me go. He never bothered looking back.

I cursed and ran towards Collin; he was trying to get back up as the building shook again. I watched in horror as I saw a metal rod dislodge itself and come straight at Collin. I dove to pick him up, hoping I got to him on time. I threw him over my shoulders in a fireman’s carry and grunted in surprise. He outweighed me by at least 80 lbs., but I felt nothing. I ran the rest of the way out of the building towards the waiting vans and vehicles.

I felt a warm stickiness begin to drip down my chest and back, and I looked down in horror to see that I was covered in blood, but I knew it wasn’t mine. I willed my legs to go faster, but the vans seemed too far away still.

“Noah!” I screamed as I came closer to the chaos awaiting me.