The League

Chapter 11 - Lights Out Lite

Phoenix messed up.

He went into a room, naively assuming it was an empty utility closet like every other door they'd checked in this hall, but he was greeted by shocked curses from two armed men working on electrical wiring.

Their hands flew to their holsters, and he panicked and said, "Stop!"

They froze, faces going slack. Phoenix exhaled, and Tara, who had been checking the next door, came over and raised her eyebrows at the sight of the statues.

Put your hands up, Phoenix commanded. He was grateful that he didn't need to know Czech for his mind-control to work on them. The intention, in whatever language, was the same.

Their fingers slid off their guns, and they raised their hands into the air. Phoenix waited to see if the control would break. He wasn't asking much of them, but he'd never done it to two people at once before. Luckily, they remained unmoving as requested.

"Now what?" he asked.

Tara took their guns and hit them both on the side of the head. They fell against each other, slumping into a pile on the floor. Phoenix turned off the lights and closed the door on them.

"Ave wants us to meet them on the catwalks," Tara said, finger pressed to an earpiece. "Third floor."

Phoenix hadn't noticed any areas with ceilings high enough to warrant catwalks. They went up to the third floor, and Tara quietly pushed open a door. It led into an open space with a series of suspended walkways that hung over what he guessed was the heart of the dealership. Ave and Kate were to the direct left of the door, and Phoenix followed Tara to crouch down next to them.

The walkways were sprawled like a grid. Somewhere in the middle would have the best vantage point, but they stayed on the path that hugged the third floor's wall, a place less likely to be noticed. Phoenix peeked between the guardrails and looked down. On the ground level were dozens of Novak's men and several dozen containers, and it was loud. Very loud. The sight of so many weapons made him nauseous, and he forced himself to look up. Directly across from where they were hiding was a viewing room that overlooked the floor. The big glass windows were tinted, maybe dirty, but Phoenix could see that the room was empty.

"There's another Snake," Kate whispered.

"Which one?" Tara asked.

"I don't know, but they can turn invisible, so watch out."

Two Snakes. Phoenix knew they weren't planning on a fight, but the odds were getting worse.

"Have you found the stone?" he asked.

Ave pointed down. On the floor, a little forward from below where they were, was a glass box. It stood like a deity at the end of the room, not crowded by other containers. Encased inside was a dull, brown stone sitting on a pedestal. It looked like something you'd find on any patch of Earth if you looked hard enough. Phoenix squinted at it, hoping to see a glow or an aura or something, but it remained gloriously unchanged.

"And now," Kate said, "it's a matter of taking it."

Phoenix watched them think it through, and he suddenly realized he was the only one with long-distance powers. Theirs were all physical.

"I can fly it into my hand," he suggested, "but it would break through the glass on the way, and they might notice that."

It was bold, especially considering that he didn't even want to decide which way to turn when Tara had asked him, but he figured he should at least contribute an idea. He'd been useless so far.

"That would be the quickest way to get it," Kate agreed, "but then we'd get chased."

Ave gestured to the door they'd come through. "I can go back and take the uniform off a guy we hid, and then I'd blend in. If I can open the glass, I'll sneak the stone out. At the very least, I'll get to examine the case more closely."