Forty Nine

A faint glow from the much smaller personal Traverser which Michael held cast an imperceptible shadow on the wall of the mezzanine level of the control room on which they had materialised.

Michael held Sylvan’s hand, he had used his abilities to shield both her and Justen from the effects of inter-dimensional travel.

As soon as they had materialised however, he sensed danger and was alarmed when he realised that there were only two of them standing on the mezzanine.

Somehow Justen had materialised on the ground floor level and was being held by Susan Smythe.

“Let me go, I want to see Mr Baxter, he’s hurt,” Justen said as his arms flailed uselessly against the woman who seemed very confused and angry.

“Where the hell did you come from?”

“Get your hands off my son,” Michael heard Sylvan scream. She had shaken her hand loose from Michael’s and was now running towards the stairs which led down to the ground floor. Unfortunately as soon as she had made it to the bottom of the stairs she was seized by two of Oppenheimer’s men.

At the same time he heard the shouts of four more people, two had come out of the elevator and another two had entered through the lower level stairway entrance. He could tell that they were government agents.

They started shouting demands as soon as they arrived, but it was the distinctive voice of Professor Oppenheimer which Michael recognised over the shouts. He knew what Oppenheimer’s plan was as soon as he heard his words.

“All of you drop your weapons or she will kill the little boy!”

His voice received an instant response as all of the agents instantly froze in position and looked at each other and then reluctantly threw their weapons onto the floor.

He saw Oppenheimer nod to his men who picked up the weapons and herded the four agents over towards Smythe.

Michael knew that Oppenheimer was not bluffing; he saw that Ms Smythe was holding a gun to Justen’s head and that Oppenheimer was moving back towards the Traverser.

He realised that if Oppenheimer activated the Traverser, anyone without a TDI implant would be instantly killed by the intense radiation and from this distance he did not know if his abilities could save Sylvan and his son. He had to act fast. He had to distract him and get closer.

“Don’t move Oppenheimer,” he yelled as he walked towards the stairs. He slipped his personal Traverser into his pocket as he walked.

“Ah yes, the mutant, you must be very hard to kill and very resourceful, I tossed you into that wormhole. How did you get here?” Oppenheimer said as he continued inching further back towards the Traverser console.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you Oppenheimer and I said not to move.”

“I’m afraid you must be confused mutant. I know that little boy is your son Justen, and if you take one more step or even twitch a muscle, my daughter Susan will kill him, and my men will kill your girlfriend as well. So you see mutant, you are in no position to make demands.”

Michael was about to respond when he noticed that the lighting in the room was beginning to flicker wildly. He sensed massive amounts of energy emanating from his son. He knew that if Justen were to react in any way to Oppenheimer’s threats he would be killed.

“Justen, it’s okay, Doctor Oppenheimer won’t hurt you or your Mother, I won’t let him,” Michael said and at the same time he sent a telepathic message to Justen.

He could tell his message went through as the lights ceased flickering and Justen had stopped struggling.

“Okay, Oppenheimer, it looks like you hold all of the cards, what do you want?”

He heard Oppenheimer let out a snort of derision, he saw his face contort for a second but then it relaxed again as he let out a long breath as if he had changed his mind about his response and decided to take a different tact.

“I think you are mistaken Michael. I don’t want anything. Mundus Nova however, needs fresh organs, lots of fresh organs. Our world is dying, your world is dying. This is not your world.

Join us; use your abilities to help us gather as many organs as we need. You’ve seen how pathetic and primitive these lesser humans are, they don’t deserve to keep their organs, and they are just wasting them.

This is just the beginning Michael, I am ready to launch an all out offensive on the entire planet; we will take control and harvest everyone.

“The continuation of our World is paramount, and besides, we will be doing these people a favour.” Oppenheimer said as he sneered at the Federal Agents.

Michael smiled to himself, he knew his tactic was working, he knew that it would not be long before the outcome would be realised, the outcome that he had seen in the vision that Oolax had shown him.

He was prepared.