Crystal Choice: The Second Novel in the Projector War Saga Read online

  Bullets buzzed past our heads as the line of policemen fired at the Superior—not that their shots did much good. Blood trickled down the side of its torn blue t-shirt in six places I could see. The bullet lodged in its calf should have reduced it to a sobbing mess on the ground, but it moved effortlessly through the bushes—trailing broken sticks. A moment later, it was inside the stand of trees the cops were using for cover. I blocked out their screams as best I could and started toward them. They couldn’t deal with this monster. My blue lines started a side comparison, but it was shoved into the background as I triggered the BYE-BYE module. I needed all my lines working on task if I was going to avoid getting shot by the terrified men with guns on the other side of the park.

  “Farina, get those Turnips out of here! Smith, we’ve got civilians in the line of fire. Get them moving!” Tolden shouted. My blue lines marked places where civilians that couldn’t make it into the clogged train access were cowering behind trees and bushes at the edge of the park. Near the street, shops doors were being barricaded—stranding everyone else outside.

  I danced out of the Superior’s way as Tolden caught its attention with a double tap to its center of mass. It tried to charge through me, claws swinging to try and get me out of the way—like I was an obstacle, more than a threat. I started to plot a course to try and intercept it. If that thing reached Tolden, he would be in big trouble. Then my blue lines froze. An alert flashed on my vision, and my blood ran cold.

  “Briggs?”

  My blue lines overlaid Briggs’s face on the Superior’s and I gasped. Eighty-nine-point-six percent match. I pulled on the WATCH module to drive my lines faster. Time slowed as the Superior wheeled around. I ran another analysis, this time taking the oddities in the Superior’s physical form into account. Ninety-nine-point-six percent match.

  The Institute hadn’t just taken Briggs. They’d turned him into a Superior.

  “Briggs!” I screamed at it, but there was no recognition in those eyes as it bounded toward Black. I grit my teeth and focused my attention on the creature that had once been my friend. There had to be something of him left. If I could bring that remnant to the forefront, he would stop long enough for us to sedate him. There were projectors back at the Agency that could recover his mind, if only I could find some inkling of the Briggs I knew. I needed to save him!

  I planted my feet into the ground and dove into its mind. There! I gasped as I found the memory center. It was empty. The only thing powering this beast was a single, pitiful video. A black haired Instructor with cutting emerald eyes and teeth like razors stood in front of him and detailed this mission. He was to find a public place and feed on the pathetic masses until special agents showed up. Then he was to kill them and return to the place where he’d been made. An image of my face flitted through his mind, and the Instructor growled. “This one is to be brought back alive. Kill the others.”

  I could feel his hunger to please the Instructor, and his thirst for blood. I searched through the rest of his mind for anything that remotely resembled the friend I’d known—some recognition that I was one of the people he’d been sent to subdue—but the only things I could find were memories of his satisfaction as his claws ripped into human flesh. He didn’t know I was his friend. He didn’t even know what a friend was. I clenched my fists and kept looking. There had to be a way to fix this. I had to turn him back! I’d already failed him once. I had to save him now!

  I grabbed at his mind, sifting through every crevice that could possibly be hiding my friend. There was nothing. The Briggs I knew had died the moment the Institute had kidnapped him. They had re-made his body into this thing that relished blood, destruction, and pain—even the pain of bullets grinding between his bones as he moved. This thing wasn’t Briggs. It only wore his face.

  I clawed my way back into my own mind and scrambled for cover.

  “What’s going on, Farina? Where are you on the police?”

  Police? I took one breath, then another to regain my focus. I tried desperately not to think of Tabitha’s reaction when she found out.

  A thought, like a scream, split the air. I wheeled around to look at Tolden.

  ::Smith needs help.:: From someone who understood what it was to lose a friend.

  He nodded. “I’ll go. You get those police out of the way.”

  The Superior had finally figured out that we were the agents he was supposed to kill. He left the corpse of the police officer he’d torn apart, and turned, licking the blood from his lips. His eyes froze on me, and I wondered if he’d yet recognized me from the image the Instructor had shown him.

  I took a step back, and it fixed its gaze on my abdomen. Desire, far more potent than Houston’s had ever had been, wafted from his mind at the thoughts of all the delicious intestines I had crammed inside my belly. We’d officially been upgraded from annoying obstacles, to food. The Instructor’s directions were secondary to bloodlust. A moment later, it was almost on top of me—moving faster than anything I’d ever seen! My odds of survival flashed at two-point-six percent.

  Black bowled into the Superior from the side, snagging its attention. “Come here, doggie.”

  Superior occupied for a moment, I focused on the policemen. They were out of their minds with fear, discharging their weapons as rapidly as they could under the misguided assumption that rate of fire could make up for the difference in biology. I gathered my strength and pushed. It didn’t take much added hysteria to make them drop their weapons and run. Soon the bullets had stopped flying.

  I turned to evaluate the situation, only to find the Superior bearing down on me again, galloping across the mud churned grass on all fours. Black’s distraction hadn’t lasted long—the Superior obviously knew there was something different about me. I pulled the plasma gun and fired. The discharge only skimmed the Superior, which was just enough to make it mad. I fired again, but it rolled under the shot without missing a stride. I dropped to the ground and slid under its claws, firing up the underside of its belly as I went. It snarled and leaped away as the shirt melted into its bubbling skin. Underneath it all, I could see my blue lines straining to keep my emotions in check. I had to remember that, as much as this creature looked like Briggs, it was the thing that had killed him. It was beyond human emotion. The Instructors had modified it so far that it was only a monster. I could kill a monster, if it meant that fewer civilians suffered the same fate Briggs had.

  “Farina, you alright?” Tolden asked. I nodded and reached out to his surface thoughts. His words had drawn the Superior’s attention. He started sprinting away—but no one could outrun a Superior. “Black!”

  “Got it.” Black came in from the side again. Of all of us, Black had the best chance of emerging alive from a hand-to-hand encounter with the Superior—and he’d proven his ability to redirect the creature for a few moments.

  Smith is back in the chopper, Tolden thought. She said something about this Superior being a friend from school? Do we need to turn this into a strictly recovery mission?

  ::It might be his body, but they ripped his mind out and replaced it with that.:: I motioned at the Superior as it got down on all fours again so it could make use of its long, hairy forearms as it charged. It wheeled around as sirens and lights caught its attention. It was going after the fleeing police vehicles.

  I pushed the info to Black and Tolden.

  “I’ve got it.” Black snarled and went off in pursuit.

  Tolden triggered his com unit. “Steele, keep eyes on Black. He’s going to try and turn that thing around.”

  I turned back to Tolden. ::We’re going to need a head shot to take this thing down. I can try to disrupt its neural function with my electropulser.::

  Tolden nodded, and ran a practiced finger over his weaponry. “Then here’s the plan.” He triggered the com unit again. “Black, drive it toward us.”

  There was a grunt on the othe
r side of the line. “I hope you’ve got a step two. It’s coming in hot.”

  Tolden frowned. “Farina, you get in there the moment this thing gets back. Let Black take the heat if you can, but get past his mental walls and slow him down. I’ll cover you. If you can get it to stop moving long enough, I can take it out.”

  That meant I would have to be close—close enough to watch the light leave those eyes that still looked remarkably like the Briggs I knew. I clenched my jaw, and thought instead of the bodies that littered the trees. This wasn’t a Company operative following orders. This was a monster that deserved to die. I grunted acknowledgement of the plan.

  Five seconds, kid, Black warned. My blue lines flashed as it calculated the Superior’s speed. It was coming in too fast! There was no way for me to engage unless I could slow it down. I dodged out of its way as it tried to lock its fangs around my arm. A civilian shrieked, and the Superior barreled toward the noise, spurred on by sounds of helpless prey. I discharged the gun and missed. I pulled the trigger again, but nothing happened. The charge was gone. I dropped the useless energy weapon and focused on the thing’s mind—only to slide off invisible walls. The poking around I had done earlier must have triggered the crystal shield. I spotted the device controlling his shield strapped to its neck like a collar on an attack dog.

  ::It’s shielded—I can’t get through.:: If these were the same mechanical walls the other Zeta-Superiors were using, this was going to be more difficult that I’d thought.

  Tolden grunted. So the Institute can learn.

  The Superior sank its claws into the civilian’s arm, just below the shoulder and lifted her up so her feet scrabbled for purchase. It tilted its head, drinking in her helpless terror.

  “No, please!” she screamed. Tears dripped down her cheeks. “I have a son. You don’t want to—” Her begs turned to gurgles as the Superior closed its empty hand around her throat and ripped it out. He tossed her to the side like a used rag and stuffed the handful of meat and bone into his mouth.

  Tolden swore. “This area was supposed to be clear!”

  I scanned the area again as Tolden moved to engage the Superior. Fury burned the edges of his mind.

  ::It’s clear now,:: I reported, and shoved the guilt away. There was no time for that. If we didn’t take this thing out now, more defenseless civilians would die.

  Tolden grunted as the Superior slashed at him. Go find cover. We’ll drive it close to you. Let’s see if that electro pulser is as good as your plasma pulser was.

  ::Keep it as slow as you can,:: I said. ::I need direct contact with its head.::

  The Superior got its claws around Tolden’s arm, and I could feel the flash of pain scrape across his thoughts a moment before he got it under control. Slow, fast. I don’t care. Just take it out! He freed himself with a tug that sent blood running down his arm, but he barely noticed it as he drove his fist into the Superior’s jaw.

  I found a bench a little ways down and signalled that I was in position. Even through its shields, I could feel the bloodthirsty creature coming toward me. A moment later, the blue lines in my vision turned purple and I boosted over the bench. I pushed off the smooth wooden surface one more time and tucked to complete the rotation. The fingers of my free hand dug into its hair to stabilize me as I used my legs pin its deadly claws against its own body. My blue lines flashed a prompt. This was the moment I’d been waiting for!

  I slapped my palm against the back of the thing’s head. My pulser was turned all the way up. It jerked once and spun, trying to throw me off. I held on for a moment, but it twisted savagely. My grip on its scalp shattered. We were face to face, and I no longer had the upper hand. It drove its claws into my shoulder and flung me to the ground. My blue lines erupted into warnings. The Superior was above me. It’s teeth brushed my throat—

  It shuddered, then collapsed on top of me. Hot blood ran over my forehead, and into my eyes and mouth. I spat it free and shoved it off me. When my eyes were clear of the blood, I examined the corpse. There was a hole the size of my thumb straight through its skull. An analysis on the bullet—lodged in a tree trunk beside me—flashed in my vision. Who on the team was armed with FMJ rounds?

  I pulled the visuals, then blinked as I saw Smith with a sniper rifle.

  I expanded myself to try and find Smith’s mind. Tolden had said she was in the chopper with Steele, and sure enough, she was. My eyebrows rose in surprise. She’d made that shot from a helicopter in flight? Even with my analysis tools, that would have been impossible. The vibrations from the chopper, mixed with the differing air waves—the girl was a wonder.

  I could feel the satisfaction mixing with grief and guilt inside her mind as she collapsed into tears. Briggs was really gone.

  I wasn’t fast enough to save him.

  But why? Evidently, there were people in the Agency tracking Superior movements. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ms. Green knew exactly where Briggs had come from. But the lies Ms. King had been feeding her meant that the Agency hadn’t acted until it was too late. Now my friend was dead.

  Ms. King had to pay.

  I grit my teeth and reached out to Tolden’s mind. He was inside the stand of trees the Police officers had been using for cover. I could feel the constant lap of pain from his scored arm as he checked something in a bush.

  I jogged up to him, trying to figure out how to break the news about Ms. King. His gift must have picked up some of my budding anxiety, because he stood and turned to look at me.

  I clenched my jaw. ::I have something to ask you, but it will be simpler if I share a memory with you first.::

  He gave me a strange look. “Sure.”

  I pulled the memory of my last conversation with D and projected it to him.

  He jerked as if struck. “Are you absolutely certain she was telling the truth?” he asked.

  I nodded, and my head felt like lead. “If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have come to you. I’m putting together a team—we don’t have much more time.” If this wasn’t set up by my next Social History class, Ms. King would read my mind and figure out that her cover was blown.

  Tolden stared at me with disbelief—and rightfully so. What I was asking him to do would mean his job, at the very least. But I needed help. I couldn’t take on Ms. King alone, and I couldn’t go back into her classroom without her figuring out what I knew. Then I would be really, really dead.

  “Even if you’re right, what you’re asking us to do would be nearly impossible, not to mention suicide!”

  “I’m not asking the team to do anything. I’m asking you because I trust you,” I responded. Then, after a quick scan to make sure there weren’t any unaffiliated telepaths in range, I slowly dismantled my shields. “You’re a telepath, read my mind. My shields are down; take any information you want.”

  Tolden frowned. “I believe you’re telling the truth, but it’s still a serious risk. Taking down a PS8 is nearly impossible without a massive amount of set up, and taking down someone who’s off the charts in telekinetic endurance is nearly as hard. Someone who happens to be both at the same time, and some sort of super Superior? Well, you saw how hard it was to take that thing down.” He motioned towards the helicopter. “You won’t be able to do it with just my help.”

  I nodded. “I know that. But I don’t have another choice.”

  He didn’t react—almost as if he’d anticipated my response. Maybe he had. My shields were still down, after all. I took a moment to rebuild them. While I had no illusions as to what would happen after the operation, I wanted to keep my job until I could take King down. Letting that information out unguarded wouldn’t help with that goal. “So?” I asked quietly.

  “I’m in—but only if you extend the offer to the entire team,” he said.

  I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. “It’s a deal.”

  I turned to look at Black, who
was jogging up to us.

  “Look, you can chitchat in the chopper, but Ms. Green says she wants an update STAT.” Black jerked a thumb back at where Steele were finishing securing the Superior’s dead body.

  “We’re coming,” Tolden said. “Start up the chopper.”

  Chapter eighteen

  Smith stared at the Superior’s body the whole way home with tears in her eyes. I could barely look at it, though. When I saw it, all I could think of was how I’d almost put the pieces together once, but Robbins—no, Medina—had stopped me. If I could have figured it out a few hours earlier, I could have saved him. Now he was dead.

  Finally, Smith closed her eyes. “How could this happen? How could Briggs have turned into one of these monsters?”

  I brushed her mind to find guilt turning into anger. I looked at Tolden, who nodded. If I was going to ask Tac 47 for help, now was the time.

  “There’s an organization called the Institute. They’re conducting experiments that turn Turnips into Superiors. They’re the ones the Company has been tracking, who blew up our base in D.C., and who planted the bomb in the hotel.”

  Black’s eyes darkened. “How do you know, newbie?”

  “Because I pay attention,” I snapped. “The Agency has been looking the other way. They’ve been suppressing our memories whenever we meet these Superiors while they run around blindly trying to figure out what to do.”

  “The Agency can’t do that,” Steele said. “I would have seen the data come across our systems in CIS.”

  “Did you see a data spike since I joined the team?”

  His voice on the com went quiet for a moment while he sorted through some information in his own mind. “Yeah, but we’ve been tracking more Company activities since around then.”

  I shook my head. “No. That’s the analysts in AnAd trying to break down the model I gave them of the Superiors from the very first time I saw one. You’ll find a similar spike from after our mission in D.C..”