When Jazmay awoke in darkness with the ground trembling beneath her, she wondered if she might be dreaming. If she was not imagining things, then the darkness meant that the laser bars of her containment cell were switched off — along with all the lighting and power in the detention level. Something else felt amiss. She reached down to find that the psychic shackle, which had kept her prisoner for years, had fallen from her ankle and lay defunct on the floor. ‘A miracle,’ she uttered, as exhilaration welled within her.
She reached out to feel for the boy, who was still unconscious on the floor beside her.
Fari Doon was not her son; she had lied to prevent them being separated following their capture by the Maladaan Secret Service four years ago. He’d only been six years old at the time and Jazmay shuddered to think what might have become of him had she not taken him under her wing.
Rather than waste time waking him, she scooped Fari up and made for the void in the cell wall.
She had walked this corridor many times and had no problem finding her way in the dark. Just short of the end of the cell block area, Jazmay tripped over a body and she fell onto the steel grate floor, elbows first, the weight of the lad she carried compounding her injury. ‘Ouch!’ she whispered, to get past the pain.
‘What’s happened?’ Fari woke upon impact.
‘Shhh!’ Jazmay warned, as the guard she shuffled away from began to stir.
‘What’s going on?’ The guard roused himself.
As the man slowly got to his feet, Jazmay gripped Fari’s unshackled ankle to draw his attention to the missing restraint and then moved close to his ear to whisper, ‘We are free.’
The boy needed no more prompting than this. Fari sprang to his feet and ran at the guard. He jumped up and snatched the night vision mask from the man’s head so that he might see his target better, and then served him an almighty punch in the jaw. The impact sent the guard hurtling into the wall at the opposite end of the corridor, where he fell to the floor and all was quiet for a second.
‘Fari Doon the thrice strong, I presume,’ said a voice in the darkness.
‘Who’s there?’ Jazmay demanded in a whisper, as Fari tossed her the night vision headset, which she pulled on.
‘They call me the hurricane,’ replied the big brawny blond fellow who had joined them in the corridor.
‘Wow, you’re Vadik Corentin!’ exclaimed Fari, knowing this man was the most feared and defiant of all the psychics, for it was said that he could summon the very elements of nature to do his bidding.
‘And you are Jazmay Cardea, the Phemorian shape-shifter.’ Vadik folded his arms and maintained a safe distance from her. ‘I’d offer to help you up, but I’m not prepared to lose my identity in the process.’
‘I don’t need your help.’ She got to her feet on her own.
‘I do believe that between the three of us we might stand some chance of escaping this joy-forsaken place,’ Vadik suggested.
‘Why should we trust you?’ Jazmay scoffed at the suggestion; as a Phemorian, she naturally didn’t like men, and she was wary of this man in particular.
‘Because I hate these MSS bastards as much as you do, and the enemy of my enemy is …’
‘… an ally,’ Fari concluded, excited to have the legend with them.
As it would cause more trouble to object, Jazmay looked at the sealed metal door that blocked their escape route from the detention area. ‘First things first, how are we going to get this —’
Fari suddenly went speeding past her to plough the full weight of his tiny form into the metal barrier, and although he made a mighty fine dent in the door, it did not cave in completely. ‘Aw …’ Fari slid to the floor defeated, ‘… strong door.’
‘Give me a go,’ Vadik suggested, motioning them to stand back against the wall.
Jazmay watched closely as Vadik bowed his head to focus himself inward and, as he did, a wind began to whip about his head, stirring his blond hair — it appeared that the disturbance was arising from within the man’s clothes and escaping through his collar. The turbulence grew and yet remained swirling around Vadik’s body. He then drew himself up tall, eyed his target and hurled the raging mass of air at the doorway, whereby the metal gave way and the door went crashing across the room and into an office.
‘Cool!’ Fari exclaimed.
‘Shh.’ Jazmay reminded the lad they were trying to escape without attracting too much attention.
‘Are you kidding me?’ Fari defended his small outburst. ‘Did you hear that collision?’
‘Yes, I’m sure we just awoke the entire MSS,’ she hissed, ‘all the more reason to be quiet and not give our presence and position away.’
Fari put a lid on his excitement, and nodded seriously.
‘I’ll lead.’ Jazmay gripped his hand and Fari took hold of Vadik’s hand in his free one. Jazmay drew a deep breath for courage and stepped into the corridor to make a beeline for the emergency staircase — the lifts would prove a useless route to the surface.
Even after their explosive exit they appeared to be the only souls awake and their passage to the stairs was swift and uneventful. Thankfully the locks on the doors had automatically switched off during the blackout to prevent MSS staff from being trapped underground. The detention block containing all the psychic captives had remained locked, however — if those with ‘the Powers’ had all perished it would be very convenient. Well the cage is open now. Jazmay smiled to herself as she began to scale the stairs two at a time — it was twenty flights to the surface from here.
‘Do we have a plan?’ Vadik whispered his query as the stairwell was like a sound amplifier.
‘We’re going to borrow a transport from the MSS, and fly ourselves off this shit-hole planet.’ Jazmay picked up her pace.
‘You know how to fly MSS spacecraft?’ Vadik was astounded.
‘No,’ Jazmay replied, ‘but I will by the time we get to the launch pad … I just need to find me a pilot.’
Jazmay could read an individual’s DNA upon making skin contact with them, and could then transform her own DNA to match, giving her access to her subject’s genetic memory, traits, skills and so forth. She also had a photographic memory and never forgot a genetic code once it had been memorised — hence Vadik’s hesitation to make skin contact with her.
They had climbed eighteen floors, by Jazmay’s count, when the lights came on, and near blinded her.
‘Shit!’ Jazmay whipped the night vision goggles from her head to scale the last two flights with anxious haste. She grabbed for the exit door handle but found it locked. If the lights were on, then there were MSS agents conscious on this floor — all the major offices and the primary security and communications rooms were located here. ‘Things just got more complicated.’
‘I don’t see why.’ Vadik passed a hand over the electronic keypad for the door, whereupon a small bolt of electricity shot from his palm, shorting out the keypad. ‘Now try,’ Vadik suggested to Jazmay, who pressed down on the handle to find the door swung open.
‘Neat trick.’ Jazmay was inwardly pleased they’d let him tag along.
Fortunately the exterior launch bay was at the opposite end of the complex to the offices, and although movement could be heard down the corridor to the right, they quickly made off in the opposite direction, where people were still in the land of Nod. Vadik took care of all the security doors en route and when they passed out of the building and onto the landing strip, the three long-time captives revelled in the rays of the rising sun.
‘The sun is bigger than I remember.’ Fari couldn’t drag his squinting eyes from it.
‘He’s right, it is bigger!’ Vadik found this most curious.
‘We don’t have time to star-gaze right now.’ Jazmay turned back to grab hold of Fari’s hand to speed up his pace.
The vehicle Jazmay had her eye on was an MSS Interceptor Drop Ship, which was not as fast or as light as she would have liked, but it was the only craft that had ground crew passed out all around it — hopefully a pilot was among them.
In the back of the drop ship, Jazmay found what she was looking for. ‘Yes!’ She knelt down beside the female pilot and took hold of her hand — moments later, the transformation was complete.
Vadik removed the MSS pilot from the vessel and closed up the hatch door as Jazmay took the pilot seat. ‘Strap up, boys,’ she advised as she fired up the engine and launched them into the heavens.