Mission 'Don't get killed'

Prologue

Prologue

It's past midnight and the city is silent. The only people who are out on the street are the guards who are on patrol and the few people blending in the shadows who hide from them. A girl is making her way down Sixth Street, her hood pulled up, as if that will protect her from the keen eye of the guards. The only way to survive is to not be discovered by the police. The flickering of the street lights makes her jumpy and she's walking quickly, ignoring the flashing red lights at the intersections. She constantly looks over her shoulder, making sure no one is on her tail. Sometimes she slows down to listen for the muffled voices of the guards that are scavenging the city for people like her.

The only sounds she hears are her own feet on the pavement, which she finds disturbingly loud, but suddenly, she hears the rushed footsteps and hushed voices she's been fearing the most. She's found out. She's dead. Panic pulses through her veins. She needs to calm down and make a plan. Why didn't she think this through? The voices come closer and she hides behind a dumpster. Please don't let them be scouters, she thinks while cursing her heartbeat for being so loud, making it hard to hear what's going on around her.

'Someone is here.' One of the pursuers says, it's a man. 'I can feel them.' Scouters. She has to do something. Closing her eyes, she tries to focus but it's hard since she can't see them and her fear is taking over. Breathe in. Make a bridge. Try to find the mind.

Her concentration is broken by a loud crackling sound coming from a radio. Someone says something over the radio but she can't make out what.

'This is Delta Four Seven.' Another voice says, also a man. 'We're on Sixth. No sign of violators.' What? Why aren't they telling the truth? Did the scouter think he was wrong? Or is it trick?

The radio makes some more noise before it falls silent again.

The footsteps are closing in. 'We're not here to harm you.' The first voice, the scouter, says loudly. 'We're on your side, we only want to help.' Do they really think they can catch her just like that? Pretending to be on her side and then take her to prison? Didn't think so. She stays put, taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

'I don't think this is going to work.' The other man says. She tries again. Inhale, focus, imagine the bridge, exhale, try to see the mind. There it is, she sees the thick walls of another mindscape. The defense of this mindscape is exceptionally good, which makes it harder for her to enter. She tries to find a hole, a weak spot, but before she can even take a closer look at the mindscape, another problem arises. Alarming words manage to break her focus. 'The guy's right there, behind that dumpster.' Shit. She breaks contact with the mindscape of the guard and frantically looks around, trying to find a way to get away unseen. Since she's behind a dumpster, there are not really a lot of options. Zero, to be exact.

Determined footsteps are closing in. She presses her back harder against the container, pulls her legs closer to her chest, as if they might miss her if she makes herself smaller.

'It's a she.' The second man says when he pokes his head around the corner. She wants to scream but her vocal cords have stopped working. The man offers her a black gloved hand.

'Come on, we don't have all night.' He says when she doesn't take it. He steps closer, causing her to try and scramble backwards even more even though she is already as far away from him as she can. When she finds out she can't get away, she quickly gets to her feet.

'I'm sorry, but for your own safety I'll have to sedate you.' The man says when he seems to realise she's not going to come along willingly and he pulls a syringe from his pocket. She tries to keep calm and appear unafraid while readying herself to throw a punch, even though the success rates of this plan are extremely low.

Before she can do anything though, the man has already stepped towards her and jammed the needle into her arm, right through the cloth of her sweater.

'She's special.' The words slowly manage to find their way to her conciousness. 'I can't get a hold of her gift, I've never seen it before.' She tries to open her eyes but a blinding light causes her to shut them immediately.

'She's awake.' Another voice, female this time, interrupts the conversation.

'Good.' Yet another voice, though this man sounds older than the first one. Suddenly, something hits her. Where is she? What happened? Is this the federal prison? Her eyes fly open and after letting her eyes adjust to the light she looks around, finding three people standing next to the table she's lying on. One of them is a woman, dressed in a simple dark green long sleeved t-shirt and dark jeans, who seems to be in her mid-thirties. Her brown, almost black, hair is chopped of at chinlength and she's scribbling something down on a clipboard, a sour expression on her face.

On her left stands a man who looks like he came right out of the army. He's in his fifties and wears a black shirt and black cargopants. The last man is by far the youngest of the three, somewhere in his late twenties. He has a black eye, blonde hair and wears the same style of clothing as the other man. She's lying on a table and a chair is standing next to it. The table seems to be standing in the center of the room and light streams in from the window but only clouds can be seen from where and how she's positioned. Under the window are three homemade beds, they don't match and the blankets that lie on the thin matresses look old.

'Well, well.' The oldest man says while studying her. 'Our latest asset.' Asset?

'You appear to be very special.' He grins. 'We just have to figure out what exacly you're capable of.'

'I've got to go.' The other man says, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the door. 'I'll come by and see you later.' This is directed at the man who's standing next to her. He takes a few steps backwards before turning around, giving her one last look and leaving the room.

The man who's left behind pulls the chair out and sits down.

'Let me introduce myself first.' He starts. 'My name is Matt Furlow. You may have heard of me, but that's not important right now. That's Ellen,' he points at the woman who is now standing in a corner of the room, opening up several cabinets while looking for something, 'and Andrew just left.' He lets the information sink in for a moment before continuing. 'We found you yesterday, as you might remember, and my scouters have noticed something rather interesting about you. They have no idea how to identify your gift. It's not like anything we've seen before. Unlike them, I do have some ideas about your particular talent, but first I want to hear what you think about it. I know you know what you are, otherwise you wouldn't be out on the streets last night, so please don't tell me you have no idea.' Okay, so that plan wouldn't work. Too bad, because she doesn't have a plan B. She keeps her mouth shut while thinking about her options. She can't fake being another kind of mindscaper, because the scouters would immediately see through her lies. And if this guy or anyone else breaks into her mindscape, there's no way she can hide the truth and right now she's not strong enough to keep them out.

'If it helps, whatever you say will be tested, so spare yourself the effort of making up lousy excuses. I'll enter your mindscape no matter what you say or not say.' Matt Furlow says. 'I won't hurt you, I just want to take a look.'

'Then just do that.' She answers with a hoarse voice. It's not like it matters, he'll see it anyway, there's no use in trying to explain the situation or trying to resist. A voice in her head tells her it's dangerous to let this man into her mindscape but she knows that he's her only chance. She closes her eyes and lets her walls down, allowing him to enter her mindscape and see the truth.