In the middle sara chron.., p.6
In the Middle (Sara Chronicles Book 2), page 6
“Not particularly? I just live on the base, since my adopted family lives here. I’m Sara Chambers… You know, the class ten everyone keeps talking about?”
That got them to freeze, at least.
“Fuck.” The man seemed to have a limited vocabulary.
She simply smiled at them, each in turn.
“So, no, securing me won’t work. What we can do though, is what I suggested? You men put down your weapons and lie down. I’ll make sure nothing too bad happens to you, if you do that?”
She didn’t really think it would work, but they did it. Even if it was clear none of them actually knew who she was at all. They just took her at her word. A thing that had her smiling. After all, an ordinary girl, with no powers at all, could have lied and claimed to be her.
Taking a moment, not wanting to be messy, Sara collected the guns up, just as half a dozen super powered people ran into the room. Most of them were on Team Two. All except Prime, who had been the first through the door.
“Sara? Are you all right?” He looked at the pile of guns and people on the floor then and gave her a confident and manly smile. “Of course you are! I should have known that you’d already have handled this. I was worried for a second, anyway. Silly of me!”
She simply nodded, ignoring the pit stains under her arms.
Chapter four
The laundry hadn’t been the only place on the base that was under attack. They also found a cluster of men, some with minor powers, outside the fence line, about half a mile away. Christian Poures had located those for them, and Marcia went herself, along with Team Two, in order to collect them up. Surprisingly, they managed to teleport away, seemingly using a machine for that, before they could be taken in.
Then, slowly, one by one, all of the captives, including those in the hospital, did the same thing. Simply vanishing. It was a good enough trick. One that Sara could have pulled off, most days.
Instead of debriefing her after her success taking five prisoners, Sara was sent off to get food. Not just for her, but running errands, doing that for everyone else. A lot of people had missed lunch, after all. She had too, but for some reason, she wasn’t hungry that day. Not so far, at least.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with her taking orders and then walking back and forth with boxes of various edibles, out of the kitchen, until it was nearly time for dinner. Then she was instructed to go eat, herself. By Turner, who didn’t even act like she was planning to go with her. The woman didn't look tired, since she probably couldn’t manage that, even if she hadn’t slept in days. There would be no dark circles under her eyes, or hanging head.
Her powers didn't allow for that. What they did do though, was eat up thousands of calories per day. Sara didn’t sigh, feeling as if she were nearly useless, even with having taken five armed men with nothing but words, but she knew that work wasn’t always interesting. That didn’t get you out of it. Really, when things got hard or boring, it meant you needed to do even better at it. Boredom was a trap, for most people. A thing to be battled, not given in to.
“Food. I’ll get some for you here? The Agents and people in the conference room probably need something, too. I don’t…”
Turner blinked at her, then nodded.
“Eat first. See if you can have the kitchen deliver that? Bring an assortment and everyone will make it work. Thanks, kid. I know that… Well, things haven’t been fair for you, lately. This attack might be linked to that.”
An idea not lost on her at all.
“I should call the President on that?”
There was a considering look, then, slowly, a headshake.
“Not yet. You managed today with minimal use of powers?”
“None. I was good.”
The woman seemed surprised, but not doubting. After a moment she let her head tilt to the right.
“Sweet. I would have broken, at the sound of the first explosion, if it were me. Trying to take you out of play could be related. Then, that works for about as long as you don’t really feel threatened, or your friends aren’t in real danger. If they drop nukes on us…” There was a hint of a question at the end of the words, without it actually being there.
“Then I’d activate the program I have set up, to instantly allow me to transform so I have about fifteen different power sets. Nukes won’t work. Even if I’m away from the base, that would trigger the system I have set up. Using those anywhere in the world is pretty much off limits, right now.” She shook her head on the last words, to show it wasn’t true. Marcia gave her a single, slow nod.
They were all used to performing for the cameras.
“I figured it would be like that. My guess is whoever was behind this did, too. If they know about that… Whatever we’re calling it, that the President’s Cabinet has you doing? You researched that before you started?”
It was an odd topic, given the events of the day, but she nodded. It was true, after all.
“They’re scared, but not really? They don’t trust me, because most of them would do a lot of bad things, if they had my abilities, and they know that about themselves. At the same time, most of them kind of want to show they aren’t cowards, so they came up with this. A test for me, to prove that I’m not evil, but at the same time, it’s them, making me do it.” She shrugged. “Honestly, it’s a substitute for rape, for about half of them. They would have settled for doing me up the behind, against my will, but they can’t survive that, or think they can’t, so instead we get this weird grounding idea.” She was, she knew, being a little mean in the way she’d put it.
The idea that they would have been trying for sexual domination wasn’t exactly true, even if she wasn’t powerful. Of the men left after the purge, none were actual rapists. If they had been, they would have died. Everyone had figured that out already, of course. To that end, she made a face.
“Okay, that one wasn’t totally fair of me. Some of them have that going on subconsciously. They wouldn’t have acted on it, not for real. Even if I was really under their power. So, jerks, but not that kind of monster.”
Turner made a face in return, but shrugged as well.
“Nothing about an attack?”
“Nope. Not on me, at least, which also means that I checked plans for hitting the base, key personnel here, my school and all that. I was hurried, but I’ve gotten decent at finding things like that, working for King Alphonse. In fact, I can pretty much assure you that, barring some very high-level psychic interference, or use of machines, the President, VP, and all of their people are in the clear on this. Director Gareg is, too. I didn’t check everyone in the government, of course.” She could have, after a fashion, but hadn’t bothered, since it had been about her being punished for no reason, so she’d focused on herself.
Selfishly.
Director Turner looked at her then, rather frankly, and raised an eyebrow.
“So, you have no powers and need to look into something like this. How are you getting that done?”
Sara shrugged back.
“With no powers? Um…” She had to actually scramble to come up with a plan. “We can start with Trivia? There has to be some plan to block telepaths and people with similar powers, of course. I have a copy of a woman from Chicago, who can tell what machines are doing at a distance. She’s out, as an Infected person, but doesn’t trust the government. I could call her and ask if she can find anything? She’ll probably say no, but not asking won’t help. Then, well, getting everyone back to the base could work, only… What if that’s the goal?”
Instead of asking what she meant, the Director closed her eyes.
“See now, that’s my entire life. What if. In general, people aren’t that clever. It makes for good stories, but real people have simple plans, most of the time. Get with Drake and contact who you need? I want a report on my desk as soon as possible. Cover everything you can manage. Start with the Fifth Armored.”
That only made sense, but what didn’t was sending the kid to do it in the first place. Then, Turner knew something that most people there didn’t understand at all. Sara had been schooled in a different reality. One where training kids to be spies, when they were young, only made sense to them. She’d had several years of training in such things. It wasn’t the whole of the field, of course, since it had been primary school, but she had a better understanding of such matters than most average adults did.
Part of her schooling had involved investigation, for instance. Also combat. Just in case any of the kids wanted to go into the military, later in life. There had even been command and control information involved. She didn’t know how that related to a modern military in her own world, but it had to have elements that were similar.
So, where everyone else saw a girl who was a danger, it seemed like Marcia might be seeing her as a potential asset. A person who could actually do something other than just get lunch.
Not that it wasn’t dinner time.
“I’ll do that. All of it. Food first, like you said. Not that I need to eat much, right now. I have no clue how long this will take.”
That had her stared at. It was a bit hostile seeming, but came with a nod. Then she was waved away, as the phone started to ring.
Sara took the hint and got out of the room. It took her a while to walk to the dining hall, and once there she moved over to Sondra, the hostess on the nice side of the space. She was dressed in casual clothing, which had the woman smiling at her and seeming a bit hesitant. You were supposed to dress up, to eat on that side of the room. She didn't have makeup on, but no one would have called her on that, not being able to tell, really.
“One, tonight?”
“I need to set up take away meals and delivery, for the head office and Agent’s section? They won’t be able to get out to eat. Director Turner suggested we just take in a bunch of stuff and let people serve themselves?”
The woman, well made up, thin and wearing a sparkling dress in a subdued aqua-marine color, bobbed in place a few times. Thinking. It was a strange thing to see. Also very familiar.
She hissed at the woman, in Ysidril, which, surprisingly, got a reply.
Sondra grinned.
“This one, for purposes of work, used the stones of teaching provided.”
It was good to know, so she nodded.
“Neat. We should get some Ysidril in for a meal, soon? Some other people as well. Not that I can do that right now.”
The woman walked away, leaving her there, coming back with one of the cooks. A woman named Terry, who Sara didn’t know, but had seen before, a few times.
“We have an order for the front office? What are the numbers?”
That, getting food for everyone who needed it, required calling in for the exact digits. Sondra did that for them, but it didn’t take long. No one asked for anything special, either. Terry just nodded, after writing some things down.
“I’ll get that put together. Do I get a team to help me deliver that?” She looked hopeful, but not at her, directly. Sondra seemed game enough, but wasn’t dressed for that kind of thing.
She looked at the two ladies and shrugged.
“I might be working? I have an assignment.” She paused though. “I’ll see if I can get some people for that though, if I can’t do it myself.”
That seemed the polite thing to do, if nothing else. There were absent nods, as if both women assumed she’d just forget, now that the adults had taken over. It might have been something other than that, like planning to get staff around for things, instead. She couldn’t tell, which was hard on her, in the moment. She needed data, and getting it was artificially being made hard.
Moving off to get food, she took a fairly modest tray, selecting a lot of fruits and vegetables that night. Also some veal and a medium scoop of mashed potatoes. It was probably more than she needed, that day. It looked like almost nothing on her plate. Normally she needed to eat at least ten times that much, just to feel normal. At each meal, if it was available.
She settled across the room, near the far wall, where she normally sat. Most days that would have had Bridget or some of the others near her, but that evening, for obvious reasons, a lot of her friends there, her people, were busy. There was a handy Richard though, so she waved in his direction.
“We have a job, after the meal? Not taking food to everyone else, though we need to get some bodies for that, if we can, too.”
The man, who was really old, like a hundred, looked like he could have walked into her school without anyone thinking about it at all. He seemed to be about sixteen or so, to her eye. Lean, with a large nose and prominent ears, on a slightly round shaped head. It worked for him.
He glanced up, seeming wise, and canny.
“What kind of a job?”
She understood what he meant. He was asking if it was an official thing, or if she was, for the first time ever, going to suggest they do something illegal. Which, if she had the story right, he would be all in for. At least if it was a good enough idea to make it worth their while. It was handy to know, actually.
“I’m grounded, power wise. For no reason, but I’m treating it as an exercise, so I don’t go crazy and start screaming at the President. We need to get with some of our crew and get data on the attacks and who’s behind them. Cindy is in Noram, with Lydia, until Monday. Trivia is in California, and I have a person in Chicago I need to approach. She does great work with machines, but hates the Feds. All law enforcement, actually. This is official. Turner wants both of us for it, by name.”
The man took a bite, seemed to consider the idea, then looked at her, frankly.
“Oh? We can do that, I bet. What do you have on this person in Chicago?”
“Not as much as I normally would. I have a name, Carol Norris. In Chicago. She’s about fifty-two? I’ve copied her power before, from a distance. Um…” She rolled her eyes. “I guess it doesn’t matter, now that everyone knows I’m a class ten. I can get information for that from anywhere on the planet. Possibly off of it. So, I don’t just have the abilities of anyone I meet, you know? Not just Infected powers, either, any abilities. I could copy a surgeon, for instance. That or a violinist. I can even mix and match and make up my own powers, if I want. I could copy your power and make it ten times stronger, for instance, no problem.”
She waved that away and ate for a bit, in near silence. Others, a few of them, came to sit nearby. Tobin Peterson was one of them. He looked different now, not seeming like a goblin any longer, just like a Hispanic man, instead. A decently handsome one, without that being anything out of the ordinary. About a seven on a one to ten scale. Also, taller than she’d last seen him. Thin, but probably close to six feet. That was big, for the man, who used to be about five feet or even shorter than that when she’d first met him.
“Hey. So, this was a thing, today, wasn’t it?”
Sara nodded, then lied to the man.
“Yep. Oh, Turner wanted you to make sure the team here from the dining hall has enough bodies to deliver food? It’s set up, on this side, but you’ll want to get four or five people to help carry things around.”
Drake, a bit absently, backed her up.
“Right. We’d help with that, except that we’re on information gathering, after the meal. This could last a few days, so you’ll need to keep on it and treat it like a real job, not just a work crew for the night.”
Instead of yelling at them about how important he was, which was honestly true, or how his fame should insulate him from boring work, the man smiled.
“I can do that. Let me… We should get Team One doing something for this. Most of us are just sitting around, with everything we were supposed to do being canceled, since, you know, this thing. The Army coming after us.” He looked at the table, and up at the room, his shoulders hunched and tensed. Then he whispered. “I thought, hoped, we were past this kind of thing. Things are better…”
Drake looked at the man coldly.
“Things are going well enough, with normal people. That won’t mean everyone. The rules in place to control the military aren’t working with this bunch. Fifth Armored?”
He was asking, so Sara spoke.
“That’s what I’ve heard. We need to check all the other branches, but them first. If we can, we should get with Dave Wilson, as well. He has contacts in most of the branches of the government, I bet.” She didn't know that, but the all-blue man was in charge of the outreach program, so even if he had to deal with bigots, they would know who he was.
Richard ate more, then nodded.
“Not a bad idea. He might be too busy. He works with Karen Young, right? She’s nearly as well connected.”
Also busy, of course. They could do without them, if they had to, of course. They weren’t planning office visits, after all. Sara bobbed a bit, then blinked, as Tobin got up, walked to the fancy restaurant side of things, which really did look a lot nicer than the plain white cafeteria tables she was at, and spoke to several different tables. They didn't all seem happy to see him, from what Sara could see, from across the room.
No one yelled though, they just looked annoyed. Possibly. She couldn’t actually tell from where she was.
She finished eating, since she didn't have a lot of food. Richard didn’t either, so was standing up at the same time she was, as Tobin came back to finish his own meal. He had a bit more, but not much.
“We have a group for those food deliveries. Everyone is annoyed with me, but Team One has to pull their own weight on the real things, too. Let Director Turner know that I’m on this?”
She nodded.
“Will do. She’s sort of bad about making sure she eats, so for the next few days, make sure she at least has something to turn down? I’ll try to do that, too, but I don’t know the schedule.”
The famous singer ate a large bite of salad and spoke when he swallowed.
“I know how that is. I’ll see what I can do. Um, bye.” It was clear they were leaving, since Richard was simply walking away. He did wave over his shoulder, as he did it.
