Salient Secret 2

10

Kai

"What do you mean she's alive?" Enzo asks. The only way I can think of explaining is by shifting into her again.

"How come this didn't work earlier?" Savannah asks.

"I guess I wasn't trying hard enough." I know lying to ones girlfriend is not ideal but the thought of telling her I faked it earlier just seemed embarrassing. I actually did not plan on telling them at first but when I came up with a plan to check if it's her, I realized I needed their help.

"Palmer. What do you think?" I ask realizing she has not said a word since I dragged her out of bed.

"I don't know. If she is alive, why hasn't she reached out to us once?" The pain in her voice is very evident.

"Maybe she's being held captive," I suggest hoping that's not the truth. "I can bet anything that the arsonist gang knows exactly where she is, we have to get into one of their heads."

"How do we do that?" Savannah questions.

"I think I have a plan."

Vada

"This is the last minor base. Next is London. Let's make it count," I say attempting to be motivational even though 'blowing up stuff' is the only  motivation this team needs. 

This time round the plan is slightly different, we want London to pull out all their defenses, we need them to be scared enough to try protect that place with everything they've got. We're about to hit the France base, but instead of taking the cameras offline first, we're sending them a little message. 

"We're ready when you are," Imelda says on behalf of the team. I nod and we head off to France.  Cassian kills all the cameras except for one, knowing they can retrieve this footage. I cut my arm open and pour my blood into a bowl, everyone dips their fingers in it and starts writing on the wall for the camera to see, 'SURRENDER OR DIE.' After that Cassian takes the last camera offline. 

"Die really?" I say baffled by their  word choice because we don't kill. 

"They don't know that we're friendly arsonists," Rik responds sarcastically. 

"Whatever let's just blow it up," I say wanting to go home and devour the lemon meringue I bought earlier.  

"On it," Tanith says teleporting to the parking lot with Cassian.

"Don't worry, if it comes to it, we'll do the killing," Imelda says trying to comfort me. 

"Vada. We have a problem," Cassian says through the comms so I teleport down immediately. 

Oh shit.

"Where's Avery?!" Kai shouts holding Tanith by gun point. 

"Do you want me to take care of this?" Cassian asks and I shake my head knowing he will put Kai in the wall. Literally. 

"I'll meet you guys back at the house. Blow this place and go," I command and he nods. 

"Enough with the chit chat! I asked a question! I will blow this girls head to pieces!" I'd  expect this ignorant behaviour from someone who is drunk. I teleport behind him, touch his shoulder and teleport out of here and into to the gym, this time intentionally. While touching him I use my powers to sober him up in case he is drunk. I turn around and get ready to teleport away but then I hear him crying. I look back and see him on his knees on the floor.

"Please. Just let me see her. I know she's alive," he says still sobbing, this time I have no regrets, I need to make sure he can move  on, so I bend down and say, "She's safe and happy." 

He stops crying and looks directly into my eyes, when it gets too intense I break the eye contact, stand up and hold out my hand to help him up. As he is reaching out I feel two hands on my head...Palmer. I press the intangibility button on my suit and her hands go right through my head.  I teleport back to the house where four people are staring me down expecting answers, I mentally scold myself for falling for Kai's little trick. 

"It was a set up," I say. 

"What happened Vay?" Tanith asks. 

"I got there, Kai played 'broken hearted boy wanting to see Avery one last time' and then Palmer snuck up behind me and tried to get into my head but she only touched me for a second." 

"Even if it was longer the mind inhibitors wouldn't have let her in," Cassian explains. 

"Trust me, I won't be caught off guard again by them. Everyone get rest, tomorrow we take down London." 

Kai

"Did you do it?" Savanah says emerging from the gym backroom with Enzo. 

"Yes I did," Palmer says with a smile. 

"Won't she notice?" Enzo asks. 

"Not right away. I clipped the tracker to her hood, it's black so it will blend in. She'll only notice if she puts that hood in the washing machine because it will fall off," Palmer explains with a light chuckle. 

"Nice work," I say high fiving her. 

"Remind me again why we aren't reporting this to Salutis," Savannah says. 

"We will, but not yet. We first locate them, sneak in, get Avery out and then we report them to Salutis.  We can't risk them using Avery as a hostage, we need to use the element of surprise to the best of our ability," I explain. 

"And, we're Salutis' best soldiers, if anyone has a chance of taking down these psychos it's us," Palmer adds. 

"Are we forgetting about the fact that they can become untouchable and they can teleport?" Enzo asks trying to ruin our perfect plan. 

"They can't do any of that if they're unconscious," Palmer replies holding up a tranquilizer gun. 

"Unconscious?" Enzo questions definitely confused. 

"Tonight, while they're sleeping, we will tranquilize them then take them into custody and keep them sedated," I clarify.

"Tonight?" Savannah asks surprised and Palmer responds, "Yes tonight, well morning, it will take us 15 hours to get there with even with Salutis' advanced jet. We've zeroed in on their location. I will manipulate the pilot to fly us." 

"So gather your things, we're going to South Africa."