The Fire In My Eyes (37 page)

“Me too,” I said. “But it's not too late. Twenty to eight.”

“They'd expect us to come late at night,” Nikki said. “But they won't expect us now, plus we might find the researcher in the lab. Let's walk around. They said the lab he’s working in is on the seventh floor. Remember what he looks like?”

Before he left, Shade had telepathically shown us an image of the student. He was baby-faced, looking surprised as if the camera had appeared out of nowhere. I could visualize him easily. “Yeah. Should we look for him now?”

She nodded and we took the elevator up. The building was far quieter than I had anticipated. The overhead lights were on, but the corridors still seemed dark. We peered into several rooms, but our suspect was nowhere to be found. “I don't like this,” Nikki said after the tenth room. “We might have to find him by other means, but that'll attract attention.”

“I feel like this is a trap,” I said.

“So do I,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. “At least there are people in the building. Even so, it's too quiet. It's creepy.”

I nodded. We had passed a couple of students in the hallway, and some of the rooms had people at work in them. Even if we did use our power, if it was quick enough, no one would be able to focus on us. Even if they remembered us from earlier, we were just students here, so it wouldn't be too shocking to find the same people again. “I'm going to see if I can track him down.”

“All right. I'm going ahead a bit,” Nikki said. I waited until she had turned the corner, then tapped into my power, drawing a tiny trickle out, just enough for my Sight. I matched the picture in my head to a presence in the building. The line ran to the opposite corner of the floor and I immediately twisted my power off before it could be traced. I hadn't sensed any other psionic presence, but almost as soon as I dropped my power, I could sense someone looking for me. Again, it felt as if there was wind rattling leaves on trees, an impossible sound to hear when we were indoors. I ignored it and followed Nikki around the corner. The touch on my mind lifted. If they knew it was me, the attack would be on the way.

As I rounded the corner, I saw Nikki shudder, then look back at me. She held a finger to her lips, then shuddered again. After a moment, she smiled. “They passed over us again.”

“I found him. Other side of the floor,” I said.

“Great!” Nikki stepped toward me and surprised me with a quick kiss. “Let's go get him and then get out of here.”

We followed the twisting hallway around to the other side of the floor. It was a corner room, a secluded area of the building. As we reached the door, someone nearly walked into us from the other direction. He looked like an exchange student, short and dark-haired, dark-eyed, sizing us both up. He immediately took a step back and gave me a deep nod. “Excuse me, I didn't mean to run into you,” he said.

“No problem,” I said. I reached for the doorknob at the same time he did. “Sorry. Were you looking for this room too?”

He dropped his arm and turned to face me. “I am.”

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

His dark eyes searched mine. “Quite possibly the same thing you are.”

“Who are you?” Nikki asked.

His gaze slid over to her and nodded again. Something started to crawl up and down my spine. “My name is Shigeru Yamamoto. You?”

“Nicole Wainwright,” she said. “And this is Kevin Parker.”

“A pleasure to meet you. Are you involved with this research?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Not exactly. Are you?”

“Not exactly. Are you students here?”

“Are you?”

His eyes narrowed. “Are you the source of the disturbance this afternoon?”

Nikki stepped toward me and whispered in my ear. “He's not answering your questions and he's asking too many of his own. He knows something.”

“Maybe he's the trap we're worried about,” I whispered back.

“Find out more.”

I looked back at Yamamoto. “What sort of disturbance?”

His eyes narrowed even more. “Surely you know of what I refer to, if you are interested in what is within this room.”

Nikki grabbed my arm as I started to step back. “Let's stop dancing around this,” I said. This was a trap, I was sure of it, but we needed to get some information before running like hell. “You're here for the same reason we are, the paranormal research being worked on in there. And you're a psion. Who do you work for? What are you planning on doing with it?”

Yamamoto sized me up, then looked at Nikki, who was squeezing my arm hard enough to cut off circulation. After a long moment, he nodded again. “Forgive me for not introducing myself properly. I am Shigeru Yamamoto, in the service of the Kyoto branch of the Kaze. My orders are to end the research being done here.”

“Kaze,” Nikki whispered.

He wasn’t nodding, he was bowing. Shade had warned us in no uncertain terms about the Kaze. I slammed a defensive shield in place around the two of us, my power surging to the very edge of stability. Yamamoto took a long step back and raised his hands, palms forward toward us. Was he preparing an attack or signaling peaceful intentions? I reinforced the shield and prepared to mindflare. “We're from the Establishment,” I told him. “We're here to stop the research as well.”

Yamamoto seemed to be thinking out loud. “Establishment,” he said. “I see. The heart of your own territory. It makes sense that you would be here. But you are not an agent, are you? Your shield is strong, yet brittle in places. Trainees? Ah. Your primary agents are otherwise engaged, yes?”

I tele'd Nikki. “I'm going to throw a mindflare. We have to get out of here. This guy's way beyond our ability to handle.”

She tele'd me back. “We can't! Ripley will find us, he'll kill the researcher, and we'll be in deep shit! There has
to be another way. If
he has the same sort of mission, we might be able to team up with him against the Bureau, right?”

“He's probably got orders to recover the device too,” I replied.

“So ask him!”

“Ask him?”

“Kevin, if he was going to attack us, he would have already!”

She was right. I took a chance and lowered the strength of my shield. “Yes, we're trainees,” I told him. “We're probably not very well trained by your standards, but underestimating us would be dangerous.”

Yamamoto gave us a slight smile. “There is a story we are told during our training. There is a swordsman, the best swordsman in the world. He does not fear the third best swordsman, nor the second best. He fears those who are only beginning to learn the art, because he cannot anticipate their actions.”

“I'll have to remember that,” I said.

“However, I do question your intelligence. You have advertised to your federal government agents that there is a psionic disturbance here. Why?”

“We were warned about you,” I said. “The Kaze kill.”

“Of course,” he agreed. “Within our territory. Here, your common practice is to disable your opponents, is it not?” He spoke a short phrase in what I assumed was Japanese, then shook his head. “I do not know the English term for it.”

“Mindtwist,” Nikki said.

“Mindtwist,” Yamamoto repeated. “Thank you. In your territory, you mindtwist, and as you do, so shall I. It would be unforgivably rude to act otherwise when you are a guest in another's house, so to speak.”

“Hold on a minute here,” I said. “You're saying that you're not going to kill anyone here because that's not the way we do things here?”

“Of course.”

“Do you trust him?” I tele'd Nikki.

“He seems sincere. Do we really have a choice?” she tele'd back.

“Try and make a deal?”

Nikki nodded, then pointed at the door. “We both want to stop the research, right? And we both want to acquire the prototype, if at all possible?” she asked. Yamamoto's eyes narrowed and she let out a short giggle. “It's not like I couldn't guess.”

“It is as you say,” he said.

“I thought so. So, are we both agreed that each party here could make it difficult for the other to acquire the device?”

“I would defeat you,” he said. His tone was flat.

“You would defeat us,” I broke in. “But I guarantee you, we'd destroy the device first. We both win in that we stop the research, but both lose in not getting the device.”

“So let's try and come to a compromise.” Nikki jumped back in. “Obviously we can't both get the device, but there's got to be something else.”

“Do you have a suggestion?” Yamamoto asked.

“Could we copy the research data?” Nikki asked me.

I nodded and reached into my pocket. I kept a USB flash drive with my keys. “Either of you have one?” They both shook their heads. “Well, I'm sure the geek in there will have some. Would you be satisfied with that, Yamamoto? We all get a copy of the research data and destroy the device. It's not quite as good as the real thing, but it's better than not getting anything at all.”

Yamamoto glanced between us, first looking at me, and then looking at Nikki. He could overpower us and take the device. Of that, I was sure. We could give him a hard time over it, and we would probably be able to break the device, but he'd win and we all knew it. He really didn't have much reason to agree to this.

As if she had read my doubts, Nikki spoke up again. “Yamamoto, also, remember that there are Bureau agents on campus, and they're probably on their way here right now. While you can probably take us down, do you think you can take us down, and then deal with them? They'll have you outnumbered more than two to one.”

He snorted. “Your federal agents are not that threatening.”

One agent had been very threatening down in Washington. I grinned. He could be bluffing. “Even if we soften you up a bit?”

Yamamoto locked gazes with me. I stared at him, eye to eye. The hair on the back of my neck started to stand on end. Maybe he wasn't bluffing. Even if we slowed him down, he could still have the strength to beat multiple Bureau agents.

He broke eye contact. “Copies of the research data will be acceptable. We will recover as many flash drives as possible and divide them evenly between our two factions, so that we may have backup in case a single drive is damaged. If your federal agents arrive, we will work together to defeat them.”

“Agreed,” Nikki said. I nodded.

“Additionally, once the data is distributed equitably, we will both extend safe passage to the other. You have my word that I will not attempt to stop you from returning the data safely to your superiors,” he added.

“And you have our word as well,” she replied.

“Very well.” Yamamoto nodded at me. “You may have some combat training, but you are still a trainee. Concentrate on defense.”

“Got it,” I said. “Nikki, can you handle the data?”

“Just tell me how, and I'll get it done,” she promised, then frowned. “We've got a problem.”

“They found us,” I said. “Right?”

“They're coming up the elevator.”

“They aren't even trying to disguise their presence,” Yamamoto said. “I can sense them without even attempting to manifest.”

I growled, then turned to the door and knocked before pushing it open. Nikki and Yamamoto followed. The room was cluttered with circuit boards and tools, computers stuffed in the corners and several large monitors on display. The pudgy researcher looked up as we all walked in. “What's all that noise about?” he asked, then seemed to notice that my eyes were glowing. He made a sound that I could only imagine a fish out of water would make, then snatched something up from his desk and pointed it in my direction. I stood dead still.

Whatever it was, it had a small vial of clear liquid attached to it. Even as I looked, there were glimmers of light from within the vial. A cable stretched from the device to one of the computers, and the computer's display was flashing frantic messages. “I take it that's telling you there's a lot of something going on here,” I said.

“Are you here to kill me?” he asked. Sweat was beading up on his forehead. “I really don't want to die. If you want me to stop, I'll stop, I won't tell anyone, I promise!”

Nikki stepped toward him. He cringed away. “Don't worry,” she said. “We're here to protect you and make sure your research gets finished. Where are your backups? We need to get some copies made. Fast. Before they get here. Flash drive?” She looked to me. I pulled my flash drive off my key ring and sighed. I kept copies of all my papers on the drive. They were on the laptop as well, but it was a little unnerving to surrender my sole source of backup. I flipped the little device over to her. She snagged it out of the air without hands and placed it on the desk in front of the researcher. He trembled.

“They are almost here,” Yamamoto said. His eyes were still dark.

“Make a copy of all your data on there,” Nikki directed the researcher. “Hurry. I'll protect you. Do you have any other flash drives? We need several copies.”

“I understand,” the researcher said. I heard a desk drawer sliding open. “I've got a bunch of flash drives, I'll copy the data to each of them. This is just like the movies. I'll go as fast as I can!”

“Just like the movies,” I said, looking toward Yamamoto. His mouth quirked into a small smile. “I guess I'm bait, right?”

“Correct.”

I reinforced my shield and faced the door. “Well, just let me know when they're here.”

“They are here,” Yamamoto said, and the door burst open.

For the second time that year, I fought for my life.

Three men in dark suits rushed the door, breaking left, right, and center as they came through. They moved in perfect unison, only accomplished through excessive training and practice. On television, the choreography would have impressed me. Being on the receiving end, it terrified me. I reinforced my shield, spreading it wide. The surge of power caught their attention. All three pointed handguns at me.

I had been shot at plenty of times in games. This was no game. Bullets smeared against my shield inches away from me, hissing red hot before sliding to the floor. The agents fired their entire clips. Spent, crushed rounds littered the floor in front of me.

To my surprise, my shield held with power to spare. I reinforced again to keep them interested. Two of them tossed their guns away and the third dropped back to the door. Their eyes burned scarlet. Playtime was over. I divided my shield into layers of deflection and redirection. If they weren't careful, I could reflect their attack right back at them. They didn't fall for it. Telekinetic lances flashed from their hands and slammed into my shield, driving me back a step with each impact. My shield started to crack under the repeated blows and I folded it together to keep it strong.