Mission 'Don't get killed'

Chapter 1

Chapter One

5 YEARS LATER

'Zoë.' Somewhere far away someone is saying my name. 'Zoë, wake up.' I try to ignore the voice, which has gotten louder, and try to stay in the oblivion of sleep. 'Matt needs you, someone has been brought in.' Any chance of finding my way back into my dreams has faded away and I open my eyes.

'Good, you're awake, now come on.' Rachel is standing over me, so close that her dark, soft curls touch my face and I notice she's fully dressed, which is weird. Then I remember she had the nightshift.

'What's going on? Is there news about Sara and Zac?' I'm wide awake now, hoping Rachel came to deliver some good news.

'No, but you might be able to deliver some. Come on, what are you waiting for? Matt doesn't like it when you keep him waiting.' She throws me a sweater which I pull over my head.

'Then why doesn't he do it himself?' I ask, annoyed about being robbed from some precious hours of sleep. 'Instead of waking me up in the middle of the night to do it for him.'

'You know why.' Rachel sighs, impatiently tapping her foot on the old carpet that partly covers the concrete floor.

I follow her through the dark hallways towards the infirmary. Infirmary is actually a really optimistic way to put it. There are some beds for people who need to be monitored and the medication is kept here, under lock and key, but that's about it. I think the fanciest piece of equipment there, are two old heartrate monitors.

A man is bound to one of the beds, Matt Furlow and Ellen are standing next to him and they both look up when I enter with Rachel.

'That took you long enough.' Matt grumbles.

'What's going on?' I ask, even though this is just a usual situation, deliberately ignoring Matt's annoyance.

'We found him about half an hour ago, sneaking around. He's probably a spy. Of course, he's keeping his bloody mouth shut. His defenses are damn strong as well. According to Andy, he's a destroyer.' Destroyers are the best at building defenses in their minds and they're good at fighting back when you try to enter their mindscapes.

'I'll see what I can do.' I say while I sit down on the chair Ellen pulls out for me. As I look the man in the eye I feel a little bit nervous. Over the years I have broken into many mindscapes, but most of the time they were the mindscapes of non-mindscapers or people who live in the community, as part of our training.

I look at the man before closing my eyes and focussing on finding his mindscape. I imagine building a bridge between his mind and mine and walking over it to get to his walls. Matt was right, he has very good defense around his mindscape, thick white walls that are hard to break through. I look for a weak spot or a hole first, but as I had already thought, there are none of these. I start using force, trying to hit a hole in the wall myself, tearing out the imaginary bricks that hold it together. The man fights back, replacing the bricks and throwing up extra walls. I already anticipated this would happen, we're trained to do this as well, and I know he isn't prepared for my strength.

I throw in some sneaky tricks I've learned over the years and as usual, I win the fight. I'm finally inside his mindscape and take a look around. The mindscape looks like any other mindscape. It's a dome where current thoughts are rolling along the sides, like news updates on the walls of the headquarters of the National News Broadcasting Company. There are the different levels that house the memories of this person, all locked away, even though it wouldn't be hard to get them out. I'm standing at the centre of it all, looking around to see where I need to be. I'm supposed to find out who he is, why he was snooping around the premises, where he came from and if he's under orders from someone.

I start by looking at his current thoughts, which are full of swear words and I notice he's trying to find a way to kick me back out, although once you're in, it's already too late. He seems to realise that there's no way of fighting me back out so instead he tries to throw me off by thinking of all kinds of unrelevant stuff, making it harder for me to reveal his true intentions. I start to look through is memories, starting with the most recent ones, hoping to find something that will tell me more about where he lives and if he works for someone.

It doesn't take me too long to find something, it's an event from yesterday. He was eavesdropping at some kind of meeting. It's too dark to really make out the surroundings but I gather that he is inside an abandoned building.

'We need to take him down before he gets too powerful.' A man says.

'O really? Did you think I didn't realise that?' Another man with a familiar voice says, sounding annoyed. 'I'm close to a big win and I don't want him to ruin that.'

'So what do you want me to do?'

'I don't care, just get rid of him. We've got some of his people, make them talk or something. Find a weak spot, I don't give a shit, just make sure he's not going to steal the deal.'

'I won't let you down, sir.' The other man says quickly. 'Matt Furlow will bleed. I'll kill everyone in his organisation if I have to.' This doesn't sound good.

The memory continues and I hear the two men scrape back their chairs. The eavesdropper quickly moves away from the door so he can get away unseen but I can still catch a glimpse of the men who exit the room and walk the other way. And I immediately recognise one of them.

'Are you sure it was him?' Matt asks fifteen minutes later when we're alone and I tell him what I found out.

'Yes, of course. I would recognise him anywhere.' I say, annoyed by the fact that he doesn't quite believe me.

Matt hears the annoyance I couldn't quite keep out of my voice. 'I'm sorry sweetheart, I just want to be sure when someone is trying to bring me down. Especially if that someone is Kendrick Arlana.'

'I'm sure, Matt. That guy works for... him.' I sigh and the lost sleep is finally catching with me, causing me to yawn.

'Well, then we'll have to find a way to get there.' Matt says with a grim expression on his face.

'I'm afraid he has Sara and Zac too.' I add. 'He was talking about 'some of his people'.'

'Yes, that's very likely.' Matt is silent for a second. 'Now, go back to bed or get some coffee into your system. I'll need to discuss some plans later today.'