Chapter 7

SEVEN

All of a sudden, she was awake.

Even though the tunnel was filled with noxious sedating gas, she was perfectly alert, but she wasn't in control.

It was strange. She could see, but she couldn't move. Everything felt different: the way she stood, the rhythm of her breathing.

"H-how…" she whispered frantically. Or at least she tried, but nothing came out.

Don't talk. You don't want to give away your position.

I… I can't talk anyway, she replied, turning her words into thoughts. My mouth won't move. Is this your doing?

Intense panic overtook her. He was inside her body, and she was completely helpless. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't move.

I told you not to resist. Don't fight it. This is difficult enough as it is. If you mess it up now, I won't be able to fight your enemies.

Fight?

She forced herself to relax. It was the hardest thing she'd ever done.

This was madness.

I don't know how to fight.

Fortunately for you, I do . He raised her left hand, flexing her fingers experimentally. Even though this body is pathetically weak and slow, and one hand appears to be dominant over the other, I can still kill your enemies for you.

Kill? She recoiled in horror. I don't want you to kill anybody. Just… immobilize them or something. Shit, I don't want to kill anyone.

It would be her hands with blood on them, after all.

The lines between reality and insanity blurred and shifted yet again, and Jade felt like the ground had been yanked out from underneath her feet.

Do you want to be captured? Detained against your will? Given this so-called treatment ?

N-no…

Then be silent and let me work.

Fine.

She might be terrified, but at least she had enough sense to know when to shut the fuck up.

She wasn't going back to the MWA. She didn't want to be holed up in some sterile facility for lord knows how long.

She didn't want Cameron to have Complete Power of Attorney over her.

Anything was better than that.

So she threw caution to the wind and surrendered to the alien's will. She didn't fight it when he made her walk, and for some reason, the way he moved her body… it wasn't walking; it was more like stalking.

Jade thought she was reasonably athletic, but she'd never been able to move her body like this.

Her limbs became supple and fluid.

Her feet didn't even make a sound as she walked across the coarse gravel. She—no, he —reached up and switched off the headlamp, dousing them in darkness.

What are you doing?

This thing will give away your position.

But surely, not being able to see is much more dangerous.

Still, in spite of the darkness, he moved her body with astounding self-assuredness. If she were alone in the dark, she'd be stumbling and fumbling around the place.

How did he do that?

Surely you can't… somehow actually see through my eyes?

He chuckled softly in her head, a deep, dark sound that made her feel a certain kind of way—she couldn't put her finger on it. No. In the darkness, your eyes are as sightless as mine. I can use your ka'qui , however.

At first, she had no idea what he was talking about. But then she felt it… a subtle extension of her will, probing into the darkness, making sense of shape and form. And all of a sudden, she could feel the way in front of her.

A mental image of the tunnel formed in her mind, but it was more than just an image. It was a perfect 3D map, complete with an understanding of texture, temperature, and movement.

The amount of detail she noticed through his eyes blew her mind. She imagined it would be similar to having terrible vision for all of one's life… and then suddenly undergoing corrective eye surgery.

She saw the individual stones on the ground, both large and small; there were even flecks of opal amidst the rubble. She noticed moisture gleaming on the walls, a tiny trickle coming from somewhere above. She sensed differences in the air around her; some of it was stale, mixing with fresh oxygen from above.

He kept her close to the wall, sticking to the shadows: walking carefully, deliberately, extending that strange vision-sense, which was like seeing but not quite.

Then, she saw them.

The two men that had come looking for her.

They were around the corner. She knew this because when Dragek was in control, she could somehow see around corners with her —their —newfound psychic vision.

The men both wore the stark uniform of Public Order Agents. Using Dragek's exceptionally acute vision, she was able to make out the shape and form of what they were wearing. Somehow, she was even able to get a sense of the colors, even though Dragek didn't see in color at all.

Something about the way the light bounced off the material told her their uniforms were grey, but then, she knew that already.

They were the ones the Federation sent when there was a non-criminal matter to deal with.

They were trained to be discreet. To resolve issues without violence. Jade knew it well enough; in her old job, she'd dealt with them many times.

Apparently, using knockout gas wasn't violence in their books.

Come to think of it…

How am I even conscious right now… when I'm breathing in a sedative?

You should not be, but I am keeping you animated by the force of my will alone. That's why I need absolute compliance from you. This is taxing enough as it is.

For the first time, a hint of strain entered his mental voice.

She decided it was a good time to shut the fuck up.

"Let's split up. " Human voices filtered through the tunnels. "You search that tunnel. I'll go this way. She can't be too far away."

"What the hell is she doing in a place like this, anyway?"

"Who knows? She's the one with voices in her head. Do you think any of these people are rational?"

"It's a bit sad, don't you think? A girl like her, with all that money and education… to end up like this…"

"Just goes to show it can happen to anyone. Shame about the accident."

"Yeah, well, a TBI can do that to a person. Sad, but that's how it goes. She'll get the NERM again once she's admitted. It's not perfect, but it's a damn sight better than the state she's in now. Anyway, enough talk. Let's go find her. This fucking farce has dragged on long enough. We'll never live this down if we don't get her back."

Jade quietly seethed at how easily they dismissed her. She wasn't erratic. She wasn't a mess. The voices were more like interference… like hearing your neighbor playing loud music, only they were people's thoughts. She could always put a face to the thoughts, and in all other respects, she'd been completely rational.

Nobody would dare tell her she'd developed the ability to listen in on people's actual thoughts.

I can understand why you resent them, but it's pointless to waste your energy on being angry at ignorant beings. They're obviously beholden to a higher power. Just carrying out orders.

Since when was the ghost in her head a fount of philosophical wisdom?

I am not a ghost.

She was still moving, edging forward, clinging to the walls, tensing her body…

Wait… why was she tensing?

Before she could comprehend a thing, she moved.

Pain shot through her limbs. She hurtled forward faster than humanly possible; there was no way her body should be able to move like this.

It was inhuman.

But it was happening, and it hurt, and all of a sudden, a large figure appeared in front of her, and she didn't know how, but his back was to her, and now she was lunging forward, and one of her arms clamped around his neck, and even though he cried out in surprise and bucked and twisted and did everything in his power to get her off him, her arm was completely immovable.

She— no, Dragek— wrapped both her legs around the man's body and started to squeeze. At the same time, the grip of her arm grew tighter and tighter, and she could tell she was cutting off his air supply because his movements became weaker and slower, and then he offered no resistance at all; he just kind of flailed about like a fish that had been hauled out of the water.

Surely, this was enough.

Surely…

Dragek didn't stop. Pain ripped through her arm as he pushed her far beyond human limits. She swore she felt something snap: a ligament or joint or lord knows what.

That's enough, she protested, her voice sounding weak in her own head against the onslaught of Dragek's ruthlessness.

And now she was truly terrified, for she'd allowed a fucking alien psychopath to take over her body, and he was going to kill this guy.

What had she expected?

She dropped to her feet as the man slumped and fell to the ground.

Is he dead?

He lay there, facing the ceiling with his eyes closed, a lifeless expression blunting his features. A respirator partially concealed his lower face, but Jade could tell he was young—probably only in his twenties.

She— he— reached down and unclipped the respirator. Then she put it on, deftly fastening the straps.

She took a deep breath and inhaled clean, filtered air.

What difference does it even make now?

In time, your body will recover. This helps immensely. It takes great effort for me to sustain you this way.

Her gaze dropped to the man's waist, where a gun was holstered.

Before she could even think, Dragek was forcing her to bend down.

Jade could only watch in horror as her own slender fingers quickly examined the gun and found the safety.

She flicked it off, causing a small green indicator to glow.

Her hands didn't tremble. She didn't fumble, even though she'd never held a gun in her life.

Don't…

Horror and revulsion grew inside her, even as she looked on in morbid fascination. She wasn't in control anymore.

She was just a passenger along for the ride.

He made her raise the gun, testing its sights through her eyes, feeling the trajectory of its aim with his damn sixth sense or whatever it was.

She got the sense he could hit whatever target he wanted with perfect aim.

The thought made her blood run cold.

How does he even know how to use a human-made gun?

They're all the same.

What?

Projectile weapons the Universe over are built upon the same principle. And there's always some sort of infernal safety mechanism.

Jade didn't want to know how he knew that.

She glanced at the limp agent on the ground. Her arms ached like hell. She couldn't believe she'd just done that—that her body was even capable of that.

She thought she saw his chest rise and fall, but she couldn't be certain because she was already turning and following the faint sound of footfalls. She balanced lightly on the balls of her feet inside her thick work boots, barely making a sound.

If he was alive… it wouldn't matter anyway because he'd be sedated for some time. If that was Dragek's plan all along, then his level of insight and planning was chilling.

Respirator or not, it made no difference to the way she moved or the level of physical effort she exerted, but perhaps the dark presence in her mind was a little less forceful.

They merged better.

She held the gun in front of her, finger on the trigger, anticipating the other human. She was aware of everything: the layout of the mine, the distance to the exit, the shuffling footsteps of the other Public Order Agent.

She turned and started to walk in his direction.

Suddenly, the hunter became the hunted.

And the feeling that she'd suddenly become someone she wasn't— someone capable of being completely, utterly ruthless and lethal—it was both horrifying and strangely exhilarating.