Citadel (Book 1): Training in Necessity (37 page)

The Senior Operative visibly hesitated before answering.  "Sorry, that one I can't tell you."

He nodded.  That was actually better than being told that the country was in the mess it was because of sheer hesitation, but not by much.  "Looks like she's had just about enough.  Can I ask one more before we're interrupted?" Hector asked.

"Sure."

"You said something about Ms. Nguyen's light not being bright?"

"Smart."  Will snorted.  "No wonder my brother liked you so much.  That's a power I generally keep under my shirt but, like I said, you've more than earned it.  I've got a perception ability, seeing power levels.  I can't tell exactly what someone's Empowerment is without seeing it in action, but I can tell how... intense it is.  It's useful to predict whether or not they'll be able to get through my Null ability.  In a few cases, I can get a little bit about the... nature- I guess?"  He shrugged.  "I can spot a weird power, basically."

"She's coming out." Hector interrupted, just as Suzanne Nguyen staggered through the training room's double doors.  Her eyes were wet with unshed tears, nausea written all over her face.  She gagged but didn't throw up.

"What the fuck are you doing to them?" she demanded.

Training Area

Suzy walked into the room, expecting to see an example of 'basic skills training.'  Obviously, she would've rather stayed to hear the far more interesting story of William Power and his not-a-clone.  The young reporter considered herself well informed, even by the standards of her profession, but she'd never heard so much as a hint about something like this.

Sadly, she knew her producer's priorities and, more importantly, she suspected that the 'all necessary measures' line in that waiver she'd signed would probably stretch to include the mysterious disappearance of a nosy reporter who knew one too many of the Citadel's secrets.  It was disturbingly easy to imagine. 
So sorry, but the poor girl stepped into one of our magical glowing gate-thingies and was never seen again.

She considered using her ability.  Power was immune but that kid probably wouldn't be.  It wouldn't be as good as listening in but it was better than nothing.  Probably sa- That thought was cut off as she remembered the last time she'd used her power.  She shuddered.  No.  Maybe not ever again.

Determined to derail that particular train of thought, Suzy examined her surroundings.  The training room was similar to an ordinary, if oversized, high school gymnasium.  It had a high ceiling, off-white walls, hardwood floors and an oval shaped rubber track running along the perimeter.  In the nearest third, there were five rows, each with about eight men and women wearing trainee's black.  Walking up and down the rows was a woman in the grey uniform and traditional mask of a Healer.  She seemed to be supervising CPR classes.

The trainees were all bent over dummies, each dressed in the same all black uniform, pressing on their chests or breathing into their mouths.  One of the trainees was glowing bright orange, another was silver-white.  More than a few were physically inhuman, a human-snake hybrid with wings, a skeletally thin, chalk white monstrosity.  Distracted by the obvious signs of Empowerment, Suzy didn't recognize the true nature of the dummies.

Looking past that remarkable assemblage, Suzy saw something still more incredible.  In the middle of the gym, there was a dragon.  It was immense, with red scales, a yellow underbelly and bat-like wings.  Suzy was struck by its resemblance to that one in that movie.  Best of all, she was pretty sure it was trying to perform CPR as well.  The great beast was hunched over a dummy, resting one clawed finger on its chest.  Suzy watched it lean forward, lowering its head and opening its mouth.  Her own mouth opened slightly in wonder as it pursed its lips, completely covering the dummy's lifelike face.  She couldn't believe, there was just no way that that could work...

It didn't.

There came a brief, bright flash of red-orange light and the dragon raised its head.  When it looked down at the dummy and the scorched ruin that used to be its head, the expression of disappointment on its reptilian face was surprisingly clear.

She fought down a fit of giggles.  One does not laugh at a dragon.  If that wasn't already a rule, it should be.

This wasn't the first time that had happened, judging by the practiced ease with which the dragon scooped up the ruined CPR training tool.  Even better indicators were the many scorched sections of floor that surrounded the dragon's area, as well as the sheer size of the pile of discarded, damaged mannequins the dragon was moving towards.  The pile, almost as tall as her, was at the furthest end of the room.  Suzy could make out a few more burnt dummies, but the most common defect seemed to be crushed chests.

It made sense.  Suzy knew that something like half of the Citadel's operatives were Strong types of one flavor or another.  They were just too common for it to be any other way.  Assuming those dummies were about as resilient as a typical human, this was probably necessary training, maybe even vital.

Something drew Suzy's attention back to the trainees nearest to her.  What had it been?  After a moment, it happened again.  One of the dummies moved.

A large black man, the one with the silvery glow, pushed down too hard.  She saw the- the dummy's chest collapse, heard a groan of pain.  Suzy looked back at the pile, just as the dragon tossed the- the- tossed it onto the top.  Almost against her will- for once she didn't want to know- she examined the… the mound, more closely.  They were moving.  Some of the... some of them were still alive.

Horrified, sick to her stomach, Suzy Nguyen staggered back, turned, and practically ran through the doors.

In the room she left the behind, the Healer addressed her class.

"Good job people, but keep it up.  Strong types, this is your best opportunity to practice precision without killing a teammate.  Remember, even a normal person is likely to snap a rib or two when they're doing chest compressions, especially if they make a mistake.  For those of you without super strength, the goal is to do this for an hour.  After that, no one short of Retcon herself can help them and she has to use her power before the injury takes place to do any good."

Suzanne Nguyen staggered through the training room’s double doors.  Her eyes were wet with unshed tears.  She could feel the nausea, written all over her face.  She gagged but managed not to throw up.

“What the fuck are you doing to them?” she demanded.

The Hispanic trainee turned away from William Power to answer her.

"Basic First Aid ma'am."  His voice and face were pleasantly polite, as if... as if
that
weren't happening on the other side of the doors.  "Oh, excuse me, Kerry needs another replacement."  He stepped around her and... Wait.

He was still there, next to William Power.  What...?

It clicked.

"Duplicator?" she asked.

Still polite, he nodded.  "Yes ma'am.  Hector Hive."

She looked back, through doors that were still open from his passage.  "The... dummies, they're all you?"

He nodded again.  His manner was starting to edge out of polite, more like the way you'd treat someone who was- Suzy made the conscious decision not to be hysterical, to calm down.  She took a few deep breaths, then resumed speaking.

"Duplicates or no, we can't show that on the air.  Would it be alright if I asked you a few questions instead?"

This time, her voice was that of a professional, calm, cool, collected and free from that little edge of hysteria that was still shrieking, deep down inside of her.  She was certain of that because she was being very careful to make sure it stayed that way.

She'd directed the question to Hector, but William Power answered first.  "Not a problem Miss Nguyen.  Please consider the trainee at your disposal."

"Of course," Hector added, "But there's a few things I can't talk about and a few things, well, a few thing I just won't."

Suzy gave him a reassuring smile.  Considering the circumstances, it probably wasn't one of her best.  Although, considering the circumstances further, she was a little proud she'd manage to do it at all.

"Naturally.  That won't be a problem Hector.  This'll be what we call a friendly interview.  It just means that if there's anything you don't want to discuss, if you aren't comfortable, for whatever reason, just speak up and I'll avoid the subject."

Instead of agreeing right away, he stopped to think it over.  If she was any kind of judge of character, and even without using her power she was a very good one, he was deciding in advance what he would or would not discuss.

"Okay, let's do it." he told her, eventually.

She gave him another smile, then "Oh!  Um, sorry if this steps on your toes or anything, but.... for my own peace of mind, can you feel what your duplicates are going through?"

He grinned.  "Technically, I'm a duplicate too."

"Wow, really?" she asked.  "I had no idea."

Hector shrugged.   "At this point, I'm not even sure if the original me is still around.  But yeah, to answer your question, I feel what all my bodies do, sort of."

She cocked an eyebrow at him.  It had taken her maybe six months to learn that, worth every minute.

"I used to think that my bodies shared thoughts, formed a group mind that was outside of all of them." he said.  "But, a little while back, I realized it was actually memories.  Every one of me remembers what all the rest of me is doing, more or less in real time."

"I'm not sure I see the difference." she admitted, cocking her head to the side in puzzlement.  She'd have to be careful to avoid things like that during the actual interview.  It might mess up the video from her borrowed headset.

"It's subtle, but I think it's why I can go through something like that and it's only... unpleasant, rather than horrific.  Pain is bad, right?"

She laughed, nodding.  "Uh huh."

"So is fear, embarrassment and so on.  But the memory of pain, or fear or whatever, that's not quite as big a deal." he grinned.

"How did you ever manage to figure out something so abstract?" she asked.

"Have you ever been so pissed at someone that you didn't stop to think about the consequences, you just attacked?"

"Sure.  I think everyone's been there once or twice." Suzy answered.

"Well, a while back, one of the other trainees said something pretty fuc- er, pretty messed up.  I lost it and went for him without thinking.  Thing was though, even though there were lots of mes there, it was only the me he said that to that got angry enough to attack.  The other mes were just really, really annoyed."

"Okay, I understand what you're describing, but I don't get how-"

"See, that me was angrier!" Hector went on, eagerly.  "I did some research and it turns out, a big part of emotion is chemical.  Hormones and all that."  He shrugged.

"I'm not far enough along in my degrees to follow all the details, but I got the gist.  The rest of me didn't get the chemicals, so didn't react as strongly.  If I was really a hive mind, like I always thought, it wouldn't work that way.  I'd either be angry or not, instead of it varying between mes."

The difference still seemed largely irrelevant to her.  She latched onto the part that had made sense, instead.  "So this other boy, the one you attacked, was he alright?"

Hector's face went from a cocky grin to eerily flat.  "He was fine, just some bruises."  His voice was just as lacking in expression.

"Did you get in trouble?  I know in Army Basic you'd have been set back a few weeks, maybe even expelled."

"Yeah, they made me help train the others." he said, nodding towards the double doors.

She... she didn't even know what to say to that.  It must've shown on her face, because Hector started to reassure her.

"It's not so bad."  He shrugged.  "I never would've agreed to it otherwise, but it was this or get kicked out.  To tell the truth, I'm actually kind of grateful.  I've ended up learning a lot that I just wouldn't have otherwise."

"Well," she said, a little numb, "I hope you learned your lesson.  Next time you don't like what somebody has to say, there's better ways to handle it than hitting them."

Hector didn't answer at first, his face blank but for a tiny little hint of amusement.  "I'll keep that in mind, ma'am."  That cocky grin slowly started creeping back.

Suzy really wished she dared to use her power.  Without it, she had no idea what was going on around here.

The Sparring Field

The next day's first interview was scheduled for more than an hour before dawn.  Suzy didn't like starting so early.  Who would?  But William had promised her that, if she met with this woman from Support early enough, she'd get to see something spectacular.

Suzy looked around, confused.  It was dark enough that she couldn't see very well but still...  This training ground, the 'Sparring Field,' seemed utterly featureless.  It was just a flat plain of dirt and sand, with a few tufts of grass and the occasional bush.  Not wanting to give up but unsure just what she should do, Suzy took to walking in slowly expanding circles.

After a time, something changed.  She saw a light in the distance, one she was sure hadn't been there before.  Hopeful, Suzy began making her way towards it as fast as she could without running.  Closer, the light proved to be several floodlights attached to a tower.  Not the great stone Tower that had caused this base to be called the Hub.  This one was about a hundred feet from its base to the covered platform at the top.  It was almost like a kid's tree house, a wide pillar of stone with steps spiraling up to the top.  There was someone on the platform, waving at her.  She shoved down a perfectly natural fear of heights and went up to meet them.