Altered Ch. 07

I was directed to the head of security and I flashed a badge at him, really it was my license but psychically it appeared to be FBI. I invaded his mind and reassured him that I was not only legitimate but I forced him to believe my story of needing to protect a witness and needing to see his security setup. He took me to his control room where two bored operators quickly jumped and pretended to be busy and paying attention to all of the camera feeds.

I learned a cool trick that only worked on weak minds but I had a feeling these security personnel weren't the sharpest tools in the shed so I tried it on them. Essentially it gave them an overwhelming sense of peace and tranquility. I asked the head of security to take a seat and within a couple of minutes all three of them were fast asleep.

They had three computers in the room and a small server rack setup. From the looks of the setup, the server rack was more of a security archive than an actual server, it looked like they used it mainly to store security footage for liability purposes. Their actual hotel services software was most likely being served offsite, maybe even cloud based, but I was only interested in the cameras anyway. By reading their minds, I was able to find out that my suspicions were correct and I also found out that they had an app that allowed them to login remotely to troubleshoot faulty cameras as well as a Local Area Network Page (offline web page) that displayed all of the camera feeds remotely. I read the head of security's login and password from his mind, then proceeded to wake all of them up. I gave them some bullshit story about how they should check their carbon monoxide alarms because I couldn't understand how all three of them could fall asleep on me. I bid them farewell. I got Jenny and we went up to our room.

Having access to the security cameras was important but the guy hunting Jenny had a couple of advantages. First, he could sap people to do his dirty work for him and I didn't want to hurt them if I didn't have to. I wouldn't know who he was sending, and he knew I was a telekinetic but if he was anything like Jenny I wondered how much he knew about Ataruian hybrids. For example, if he "knew" I was Ataruian then he would believe that was my only ability, after all no Ataru had more than one ability these days. If he didn't know anything about the Ataru then he wouldn't have access to other Ataru to help him such as trackers.

One advantage I had that I found out recently while researching Vampirics was that the amount of people a Vampiric could sap was limited and based on their strength. Even a master Vampiric couldn't sap more than 50 people, it has something to do with their minds ability to process the links they create. Once they hit their maximum limit they have to break a link and free a thrall in order to enthrall someone else. Also, a typical Vampiric could only enthrall five at a time, so assuming this hunter is above average I wouldn't expect more than ten thralls. Finally, a Vampiric couldn't sap someone already sapped with a stronger link than they could create.

That being said, a thrall in charge of others could still order his underlings so most likely the vampiric would target a police officer of some sort.

As I was getting Jenny prepped for the night, I equipped her with a special graphene-based suit that was similar to my skin. It was hundreds of times stronger than Kevlar but only minimally protected against blunt force the bullets would cause. It would keep her from dying but if she were to be shot enough times she could still die. The suit was one of the left-over suits from my new compound and didn't seem to fit anyone. I too it with me just in case even though it was way too small for me; good thing too because it seemed to fit her just perfectly.

"I learned a lot about Vampirics from the Ataru web and you read some of this yourself on the way here. Is there anything you can tell me that would be helpful?"

"You mean how it works? Sure, I owe you that much at least. Vampirics don't control people directly," she said.

"It's not like a psychic puppet master..." I added.

"Um yeah, I guess. They can only influence what you do. Like I said before it's like falling in love, the weaker your mind is the more willing to do stupid things for the person you are. Because of this we have to be very selective about whom we try to control. If you have a strict set of morals and beliefs and a strong mind it would be impossible for a normal vampiric to make you break those 'codes'. Only the Master Vampiric is strong enough to do that.

"If I told you to jump off a cliff for me and you were already contemplating committing suicide, you might just do it, but normally that wouldn't work. The thrall does want to please you though, and if you explain to them what you need to be happy... They will find their own way to make you happy."

"So, you don't tell them what to do, you tell them what you need to have happen and they figure out how to make it happen?" I asked.

"Yes, exactly. I couldn't for example tell you to suck another guys cock if you weren't already predisposed to it... However, if I said it would make me happy to see you suck another cock, you might come up with the idea to suck on a dildo strapped to a girl to please me, even though my intention was..."

"That why it's taking him so long... He's trying to find the right person."

"Yes, and he also has to be careful of not picking the wrong person..."

"What do you mean?"

"If he picks a sociopath or a psychopath for example. Neither one knows how to love and the effects on them are unpredictable."

I set up my laptop and my phone to flip through the security feeds looking for anything unusual. We stayed in the middle room of the three rooms set next to each other. I disabled the locks on the neighboring doors so that no one would be able to get into the rooms and hung do not disturb signs on them so the maid service would not try to enter that way. I also latched the doors from the inside, someone would have to break the doors down to get in. Both rooms could be entered via the middle room only. I then pulled out some hardware I got from a hardware store and I installed a steel bar that would go across the inner side doors. This wouldn't keep anyone out for long, but it would slow them down. If Jenny needed time to escape, she could simply go to the left or right room and drop the bar in place.

Phase two of her escape would be a little trickier, first I needed to hack the server and feed the roof surveillance a loop of the previous night's backup as it's input rather than from the roof's camera feed. I then climbed to the top of the roof and found a wince that lowered the window washing platform up and down and disconnected it from the platform so that only the cabling and the device that controlled the winch were lowered down the side of the building. I then repelled down to middle rooms patio. I then tied some rope to the cabling and flung the other ends to both side rooms' patios in case Jenny would need to pull it toward her. I then had a harness that I bought from the Army surplus store and hooked it to the end of the cabling. The plan being that if all else failed, Jenny would have two fallback positions and a way to get to the roof quickly if I couldn't get to her in time. We went over the plan for over an hour until I was satisfied she knew what to do if she needed to escape.

"Why can't you just hunt him?" Jenny asked.

"If I hunt him, his thralls might get you."

"Why don't you just stay with me to protect me?"

"If I stay with you, I won't be able to get to your hunter... It's a catch 22 situation of sorts. It's a constant stalemate unless you can somehow get away from the thralls yourself."

"So you are going to wait for the hunter out in the lobby while his thralls come after me?"

"Yeah, as I explained before, there is only one way to the elevators and he will need to stay in proximity to his thralls to control them. With my tracking abilities I can find him and stop him. I can see the link between him and his thralls the same way I can see the link between you and two others... I'm assuming your son and Yurgi."

"I get it, but I'm scared. I just wished you could just tell me where my son was so I could go to him. But I get it, the links go in a straight line and since the planet curves the lines just go straight into the ground."

"Yes, but I also cannot distinguish between the two links. To me they just look like glowing fishing lines. I used to be able to guess but apparently your son flew closer to where Yurgi is, he is now no longer on the other side of the world!"

"So you'd have to come with me in order for us to find him..."

"You cannot see your own links but you can sense them... it might help you find him but it might also lead Yurgi to you."

"So, I'll have to wait..." she cried.

"Listen, we've taken every precaution. With the surveillance cameras I installed outside your door, the flash bang traps, the psychic communications, the two 'safe room' suites and your harness, you have everything you'll need to slow them down. Besides, you have a high-tech stronger and lighter than Kevlar body suit on, you're practically bullet proof. Plus, you'll be strong and fast after you sap some of my strength..."

"I know, you have contingencies upon contingencies... I'm still scared."

"I get it, but the only way to stop this guy from hunting you is to trap him. You already know they can just keep tracking you..."

"OK, let's just hope this works and nothing goes wrong."

That was the thing with me and my preparations, I seemed to prepare for everything yet still run into something unexpected. This plan and all of its fallback positions, its mazes to wind through and safeguards in place was still extremely dangerous, but it was the best option I could come up with. I had to take this hunter out before I got to San Francisco, what I did there couldn't draw any attention to me. This is where we had to make our stand.

I sat in the plush coffee room right off of the lobby working on my laptop as any businessman would. I felt so cloak and dagger, isn't this what they did in the movies? I watched and waited for anything that might change. I had a camera set up in our hotel room so that I could keep an eye on Jenny, and I was constantly flipping through security feeds. It almost became a like a video game. After hours of sitting, and nothing but tourists and regular patrons coming and going I finally got a bite of something out of place.

The wrench that was thrown in the works came and Murphy's law was fulfilled once more. A group of twenty FBI agents swarmed the building with nine unmarked cars with hidden emergency response lights flashing in their windshields. One armored van pulled up and it looked like some sort of paddy wagon more than anything else.

Some of the agents hung back near the cars waiting on orders as a group of five cocksure agents led by an arrogant looking blonde-hair blue-eyed Aryan looking bastard. I didn't like him right away. He started talking to the concierge and asked to speak with the manager. I looked over all of the agents and not one of them had a link established. This meant that whomever was pulling the strings must have sapped their boss. I was afraid of this tactic but I had a plan for this very eventuality. I would need to pull the leader out of hiding and have him defend his actions.

The manager approached the agents and the agents showed a warrant to search the premises for two fugitives. The details of the man were unclear but the woman he recognized from her description. I changed my face and approached the manager.

"Hello, I think your warrant is referring to my clients," I said, flashing them my credentials, once again taking a cue from Dr. Who and made them believe that I was an officer of the court and a lawyer for "the man" in the warrant and his companion so named. "I'd like to take a look at the warrant."

I looked it over and noticed that it was supposedly signed by a judge within the past hour. I could tell it was bullshit so I bullshitted right back. I cited some federal statutes and rights they were violating and then I showed agent Carlsen (the agent in charge) a picture of a warrant on my phone that supposedly had the same judge's signature on it. I psychically convinced him that the signature and warrant I was showing him was issued by the same judge and he could see that the signatures didn't match up. I demanded to see the person who issued the warrant. They called their boss and relayed what took place.

With reluctance, Agent Carlsen's boss agreed to come down and clear up the "misunderstanding" about the warrant but insisted that the "suspects" not be allowed to leave the premises. I reminded them that if they were not under arrest they had no authority to hold my "clients" there. I really didn't care, I just wanted them to believe I was really a lawyer so I acted accordingly.

A half hour later, a man identified as agent Stoudemire, whom was even more arrogant than agent Carlsen, strode into the lobby. Sure enough, there was a link pointing me right towards my target. Unfortunately, agent Stoudemire decided to take matters in his own hands.

"Arrest this man!" Stoudemire said, pointing to me.

"But sir, he's an officer of the court, you can't do that!"

"We can... we need to check out his credentials and until I'm satisfied he is who he says he is. He is impeding my investigation! That warrant is good and I'll stand by it, so enforce it or by God, Carlsen..."

"Yes, sir!" Carsen said, as two guys grabbed me by my arms and led me to the back of the paddy wagon. To be fair, they were pretty nice about it.

'They are on their way, get ready!' I sent. 'It looks like they are bringing in equipment that lets them x-ray the walls or something to that effect... We planned for this so be ready!'

They didn't cuff me, instead they just had someone guard me. I wasn't planning on running, I was hoping they'd take me to whomever was behind all of this. I expected him to be close by but although the line did give me a good sense of direction it did go into the ground so I needed them to bring me closer to him.

Jenny allowed me into her mind. I could see and hear everything she could. The room had its own living room and the bedroom was separate from the living room. She had the two adjoining room door separators already opened and she sat down on the couch watching tv. The plan was, that if she sat in the living room like she was watching tv and they saw her sitting there, they would rush in to capture her before she could act. It took them a half hour to get to the right room because they didn't know which room I was actually using. They had access to the key logs but I made sure to go from room to room throughout the day and randomly use the key cards for each room, so that didn't help.

Jenny wasn't actually watching tv, she was watching the camera feeds and could see them coming down the hallway. They came in groups of two. The first being the scouts, and the second was a team with a huge cumbersome cart they were using that must have had their x-ray tech. After each room was cleared, the assault team of six followed them down the hallway. Finally, they got to our room and they relayed that they found her. They had to move the cart off to the side since it was taking up half the hallway and someone with a battering ram like device approached the door.

'Go! Now!' I sent.

She ran to the room on her right and closed the door and dropped the bar across it. She then opened the app and press the button that would set off the traps. She ran to the balcony and pulled the rope attached to the cable and got in the harness just like we planned. She moved so fast that she was already in her harness before the broke the door down. They rushed the rooms and broke the hidden beam that set off the traps. "BAM! BAM! BAM!" it sounded like a warzone.

As the agents were groaning in agony, their ears probably bleeding and temporarily blinded. Jenny slowly walked up the side of the building. Once at the top, she dawned the invisibility suit I had waiting for on the roof and turned it on. Then hid on the other side of the roof. Hopefully they wouldn't bring in bloodhounds, but if they did I'd have to make my escape and intervene.

Jenny had my phone and was looking through the security feeds as I asked her to. That way I had an indirect eye on things if things got out of hand.

After doing a whole room by room search of the whole building and even searching the roof. They didn't find Jenny and they decided to take me in for questioning. As I was about to leave, Stoudemire got in the paddy wagon with me and two guards.

After we got going he asked, "Where is she?"

"First, you're going to violate my clients rights with a bogus search warrant, then mine be not reading me my rights, not allowing me a lawyer during questioning... and all in front of witnesses," I said, making a digging motion as if I were digging a grave.

"Why isn't he cuffed?"

"He's not under arrest sir, he's just being taken in for questioning, did you want to arrest him?" one of the guards asked, confused.

"There's a reason Mr. Stoudemire here is acting so 'out of character', he's under someone else's influence. Why do you think he's been breaking so many laws?"

"Shut up! What do you know?" Stoudemire fumed, backhanding me.

I could have easily avoided his strike but I wanted the guards to see firsthand what they were getting into.

"Assault too, will your crimes never cease..." I said with a happy glint, then I looked towards the guards who had worried looks on their faces. "You know if you let him do it, you are both accessories right?" I asked, but instead of doing anything they both just looked away as if to say they didn't see anything. "I thought as much. Someone this corrupt wouldn't hire anyone who could think for themselves."

"We didn't see anything," one guard assured their boss.

We were moving for quite a while and I noticed the link finally straightened up and was now angled in a direction I could follow.

"OK, thanks for the ride boys, it's been fun," I said getting up, and freezing both guards in fear. I leaned in close to one of the guard's ears and pretended to whisper, "By the way, stupid!" I said pointing to a small camera. "That camera is active and it is hooked to your network... Your boss doesn't have the authority to delete it... You're fucked."

"What the fuck are you doing?" Stoudemire asked, "Sit down!" he commanded trying to regain control of the situation.

I grabbed him by his Kevlar vest and lifted him up off the ground, his head slamming into the ceiling, knocking him out. I didn't actually intend to knock him out, but I shrugged and smiled at my good fortune. I then forced the door open by centering two huge vectors near the door lock, one opposing the other on either side of the doors. The torque it created twisted the locking mechanism and I kicked the door open.

The paddy wagon driver must have heard the commotions because he hit the brakes and I braced myself with one hand on the ceiling and the other still gripping Stoudemire tightly. Once the truck stopped I leapt out and threw Stoudemire over my shoulder and started running, following the line toward its target. The driver saw that I had a hostage so he held off firing his gun at me and I was moving too fast to chase by foot. He checked the back and saw the twisted wreck that was the back door and the cowering guards and didn't know what to make of it all so he called for backup.

The line led me to a dark dented Mustang similar to the one I saw in Jenny's vision. It had damage on its bumper and grill, and it looked like the windshield was recently replaced because I could still see damage on the trim. There was a big brutish looking guy smoking in his car. I didn't see his face but I imagined he was surprised when one of his thralls smashed into his windshield. He had a push button starting car and was ready to peel out of there when he realized he was not moving despite revving his engine. He poked his head out of his window and looked behind him and saw that his back tires were off the ground and spinning. With no ground to pull it one way or the other the revving noises just made him look impotent and useless.