Hunting Will (2 page)

Athos cursed himself silently. True, Stark was now moving through a thick crowd of people with a twenty yard head start to the exit. He’d clearly realized that if Athos and Porthos weren’t racing to stop him from moving toward the exit he approached, then he was walking into a trap named Aramis. Stark used the smaller crowd of humans to maneuver Athos out of the way so he could reverse course. The fugitive was now making his way to the exit he’d always preferred to use, the exit leading directly to the outside world.

Athos scrambled after Stark, struggling to work his way through the thick masses of humans in his way, and was aware that Porthos was doing the same, with much better luck. It was a low-speed race through the crowds, a race now just between Porthos and Stark. Porthos’ path was less obstructed, but Stark’s was much shorter. Athos’ path was through the most heavily crowded part of the plaza; it was up to Porthos to intercept Stark before the man got away again. Athos tried to dart between visitors, his gaze alternating between his fellow Hunter and the man being Hunted. His despair grew.

The gap was too large to overcome. Will Stark had beaten them again.

“Boss, I can get there before him, if—”

“No,” Athos said, his tone sharp. “You know the rules. We cannot do anything that would risk exposure.”

“He’s going to get away
again
, Athos,” Porthos snapped, his tone bitter. “Why are we following rules that only benefit
him
?”

Athos had no answer for that.

Stark seemed aware he was going to get away as well, and his face curled into a grin as he saw a sign indicating entry to an underground parking garage. Athos hissed. If he’d walked out through the tunnel, a path filled with people, they’d have a final chance to chase him down and subdue him, as there were certainly people on the outside who might see Stark do something unnatural. The tunnel itself was likely crowded and would slow Stark’s exit as well. An underground parking garage, however, offered innumerable crevices and shadows Stark could operate in, and as such his escape would be near-certain once he entered.

Porthos had narrowed the gap considerably, but Stark would enter the garage before either of the Hunters could block his path. Where was Aramis? A third Hunter would have proved valuable in this Hunt; each Hunter could wait by their respective exits until Stark was forced to leave. Instead, Athos had left his post out of necessity and Porthos had joined him as they’d tried to corner Stark with only two men, and they’d failed in an all-too-predictable manner. Athos seethed with anger at Aramis’ dereliction of duty.

Stark reached the large tunnel corridor, just as the crowds thinned in front of the Hunters. Both men sprinted to the exit, but were there only in time to see Stark step through the door to the parking garage.

●●●●●

After watching the door close behind him with a resounding clang, Will Stark turned to make certain he was alone before engaging the advanced abilities that identified him as a former member of the Aliomenti, abilities which would both amaze and frighten any humans who might observe them. Will Stark would not risk such exposure. As he began to scan the walls for security cameras, a hand emerged from the shadows and seized him by the shoulder, and Stark sagged toward the ground as if he
’
d been shot. Athos and Porthos crashed through the door, in time to see their quarry on the ground, held there by a man with blond hair and wire-rimmed glasses.

“Aramis!” snapped Athos. “Where were you?

The man smiled behind the glasses. “I knew he’d end up here, so I entered the garage at my exit and came out here. He walked right into my trap.” Will Stark lay on the metal landing of the stairwell leading down to the underground parking area, gasping, eyes wide. Aramis’ very touch drained the man of the mysterious Energy used to perform his special Aliomenti skills; Aramis’ Damper was the mental equivalent of having the air knocked from his lungs.

Athos’ green eyes blazed, and he pushed his black hair back from his face. “
Your
trap? We set our plans as a
team
before starting a Hunt. No deviation without discussion, remember? Why weren’t you responding to either of us?”

“Couldn’t hear you in the garage. Not sure why.”

“Radios don’t work in the garages because of the metal beams and concrete barriers,” Stark said, his voice strained and muffled. “The metal shields the radio signals. You’d be better off sticking to telepathy; it’s not like I didn’t know you were there the whole time.”

Porthos walked over to Stark and crouched down, lifted the man’s head, and looked into his eyes. “Shut up, Stark,” he hissed. Letting Stark’s face fall into the metal steps, he stood up to face Aramis, ignoring the cry of pain from Stark as the man’s head hit the metal landing.

Athos nodded at Porthos. “Give me a hand.” The two men grasped Stark under his arms and hauled him to his feet, while Aramis maintained a grip on Stark’s shoulder. After working with Porthos to force Stark face-first into the wall, Athos produced a pair of molded gloves. After Aramis leaned into Stark to ensure he didn’t move, Athos pinned Stark’s left arm against the wall and forced Stark’s left hand into one half of the pair of gloves. He then slammed his full weight into Stark’s left arm, smashing the limb against the wall, rendering it numb and immobile.

Aramis, careful to maintain hand contact with Stark, inched to his left, stretched around Athos, and secured Stark’s hand. Stark, seemingly aware of what was coming, tried to wrench himself free of his captors. Porthos and Athos slammed him against the wall again, knocking the wind out of Stark. Aramis took advantage of Stark’s temporary disorientation and thrust his right hand into the other half of the pair of molded gloves. The structure constricted and bound the two men’s hands together, acting much like a pair of handcuffs that forced maximum skin contact between them. The device had been specially designed for this encounter, enabling Aramis to remain in contact with Stark for as long as necessary. Aramis’ Dampering skill would then remain in effect without the risk of Stark breaking contact or Aramis’ grip slipping. Without that contact, Stark would escape in mere seconds the instant the Hunters left the sight of humans.

Athos pulled a syringe from his pocket, slipped off the cap, and jabbed the needle into Stark’s left arm. When he depressed the plunger, Stark became further deflated. The serum acted to destabilize mental focus and induce a sleep-like state, keeping Stark from working at his full mental capacity until the Hunters could restrain him in a more permanent manner.

Athos and Porthos exhaled, relieved that Stark was restrained, if only temporarily. The entire encounter had taken only thirty seconds, and to their great relief no humans had ascended the steps or moved through the doorway. A quick glance showed a mangled security camera pointing at the entry; Aramis’ smirk communicated the fact the he’d disabled the device just as Stark entered the garage area. No one would see them on camera.

The Hunters could now transport Stark away with little attention, and Stark seemed physically dazed by the rough treatment, drained of his usual enthusiasm and spark due to his contact with Aramis and the administered serum. Everything was going very well. Stark was subdued and locked down with Aramis, dazed by a drug that would prevent him from focusing well enough to fight back.

Athos led the way down the stairs, followed by Aramis pulling a staggered Stark. Porthos trailed behind, making sure that Aramis and Stark didn’t fall. Though Stark seemed properly captured and subdued and they were greatly relieved, none of the Hunters fooled themselves into believing Stark would go quietly. The man was far too powerful, clever, and resourceful to simply accept his fate. They’d need to work quickly to ensure that the man was unable to devise any workable strategy to sever his link with Aramis and escape their clutches.

Athos led the way to a two-door sedan with heavily tinted windows and scanned the area around them. When he spotted two security cameras pointing at their route, he focused his attention on them. The cameras sparked, fizzled, and blinked out of operation. The four men would be gone before anyone came to investigate the malfunction, and there would be no visual record of their appearance in the garage.

Athos glanced at Aramis. “Clear.”

Aramis nodded, concentrated, and he and Stark vanished, instantly reappearing in the back seat of the sedan. Athos and Porthos opened the passenger and driver-side doors and entered the vehicle in a more conventional manner. Porthos backed the car from its parking spot, emerging from the parking garage moments later, heading away from the crowds of the casino, with its multiple tourist attractions. The Hunters had no interest in the facility; they knew only that Stark had gone there for some unknown reason, and thus he’d be vulnerable to capture.

So far, mission accomplished.

“Where’s the transport craft?” Porthos glanced at Athos as he piloted the vehicle through the city streets, heading for the outskirts of the town.

“South of here. We’ll need to use this vehicle to meet up with the main craft, which means we’ll have to go invisible as we get airborne. I don’t think we have sufficient fuel to get all the way to headquarters.”

“Not even close.”

Athos nodded. “We need to find an abandoned stretch of road and use it to get airborne.” He turned around to face Aramis. “How’s the prisoner?”

“Quiet.” Aramis seemed pleased. “He’s juiced up even more since our last encounter. He keeps trying to surge his Energy and break through the Dampering. I think the injection is thwarting him. We’ll have to tell the lab to produce more; if it can slow Stark down, it will work on anyone.”

“Agreed,” Athos replied. He looked thoughtful, then turned back to Aramis. “You said his Energy levels are actually
higher
than last time? Even though he was off the charts back then?”

Aramis nodded. “Ask Porthos. His surges are quite strong, and I daresay that if he could concentrate to a normal degree he could make things
very
uncomfortable for me.”

Porthos twitched. “You’re kidding. You think he could break free of the Damper? I thought you wiped out all Energy stores? Snuffed them out?”

Aramis nodded. “Normally true. I’ve long suspected that there are limits to what I can do, though. As we’ve Hunted more experienced traitors, I’ve found it to be a greater and greater strain on me. I think that means it’s only a matter of time until someone can’t be fully shut down. Stark would be a likely candidate to be the first.” He looked nervous. “How fast can you move this rolling death trap?”

Porthos sighed. “Safely? The exact speed I happen to be driving right now. Unsafely? Quite a bit faster. But our traveling speed is hardly relevant right now, is it? Don’t you have some charges to read, or are you going to continue prattling on about Stark’s Energy levels? Your whining is more distracting than that lovely brunette near the fountain earlier.”

Aramis’ face reddened. “Porthos, you know that any type of fraternization with humans—”

Porthos laughed. “You’ll never learn, will you, Aramis? Focus on Stark, as the boss would say. What’s the damage?”

Aramis reached into a satchel located near his feet and withdrew a single sheet of paper, a piece of paper rolled as if it were an ancient papyrus scroll. The paper wasn’t made of papyrus or wood pulp, however, but rather was created of high end electronics and computing components. Aramis unrolled the scroll with one hand and snapped the paper with his wrist. The device stiffened, and in that state resembled a tablet-style computer more than a piece of paper. He tapped on the computer, and writing filled the page. “At last check, Will Stark is in violation of two of the four Oaths, thirty-two laws, and ninety-nine rules, which would require a sentence of two hundred sixty-eight years, four months, and eleven days.”

Porthos tsked. “Stark, you’re such a slacker. You couldn’t even manage to make it to an even hundred rules violations?”

Stark lunged forward, startling all of them, and smacked Porthos in the head with his free hand before Aramis could hurl him back against the seat and smash an elbow into the fugitive’s head, rendering Stark unconscious. The man’s inert form slumped against Aramis, who looked uncomfortable being in such close proximity to a wanton rule-breaker and criminal. The hand contact might be necessary, but the rest was tortuous. Aramis pushed Stark away several times, but the twists and turns of the road conspired against him and hurled the unconscious prisoner back into him. He looked up, helpless, and realized from Porthos’ red-faced grin that his fellow Hunter was intentionally swerving the vehicle to produce just such an outcome.

Aramis directed a very rude, very human gesture in the direction of Porthos, and the two men in the front seat finally lost control and laughed.

Athos, after recovering from his laughter, pointed to a dirt road shaded by tall trees on both sides. “That should work, Porthos.”

Porthos nodded, and turned the vehicle down the road. A panel on the dashboard displayed a map, showing the location of any human-sized living creatures. Once Athos and Porthos had scanned the screen to confirm they were truly isolated, Porthos stopped the car and Athos pushed a switch, on the front panel.

The exterior of the car adjusted, transforming as the outer panels reversed. The new external panels absorbed light rays and fed them through a system comprised of thousands of optical fibers. Additional panels of the same structure extended beneath the tires and undercarriage, ensuring that the entirety of the vehicle was “invisible.” The system distributed light waves out on the opposite side of the vehicle, providing the illusion of invisibility. The system wasn’t perfect; the processing capacity hadn’t yet advanced to account for the angle of entry, and an astute observer might think a spot in the sky was somehow twisting light. For their purposes, however, the system worked well.