As the men in green suits approached them, Haley quietly told the other two to let her handle it. Then she put on a broad smile while stepping over to meet the man partway. “Well, you guys sure don't look like you're from around here. Did you hear about the fishing too? Because to be honest I'm starting to think it was all a bunch of hogwash. We were out on the lake all day yesterday and barely got a nibble. We’re thinking of trying some other location. You know any?”
The three men exchanged glances before the one in front, a tall muscular figure who looked like he should have been wrestling on pay-per-view instead of being stuffed into that suit, spoke flatly. “What's your name? What are their names? How long have you been up here? Do you know anyone else here? You the only ones here or are there more of you in the store?” The way he spoke, it was quite clear that he was accustomed to being answered promptly. This was a man whom people learned very quickly to listen to and obey. If not, they paid for it, one way or another.
With a simple, naïve-sounding laugh, Haley held up both hands in surrender. “Hey, hey, that's a lot of questions to come all at once without even any introductions. Isn't it customary to be a bit more friendly when you're out in the backwoods like this? Let's try again. Hi!” Her voice was chipper, sounding every bit like the clueless tourist she was portraying herself to be. “The name's Bella. Those two are my nieces, Kadie and Molly. Their parents are on a cruise, and I thought I'd get some bonding time with them while we have the chance. You should have seen how much they complained when they found out the cabin doesn't have any Wi-Fi. Kids these days, right?”
The tall man grunted noncommittally before his eyes shifted to look at the other two girls behind Haley. He seemed to consider them very briefly. Then his head tilted as though he was listening to something before speaking again, just as firmly as before. “Okay, then let's see some real identification, Ms. Bella Whatever. And answer the other questions. What made you come up here in the first place? How did you hear about this lake, who told you about it?” He made no move to actually accept her offered handshake, or even acknowledge it in any way. The two men behind him, meanwhile, took a few steps to either side as though making sure to cut off any retreat in any direction other than back toward the shop itself, where they would be contained.
With another easy chuckle, the woman replied, “What are you, a bunch of cops? Wait, is this about some sort of presidential visit? You guys are sort of dressed like secret service or something, but I'm pretty sure they wear black. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the green at all. It looks pretty spiffy. And since you're out in the wilderness, it totally fits. That's it, isn't it? You're with the secret service and those are your wilderness suits. That's so cool. I’m-”
She didn't get any further before the big man abruptly snapped his hand out very quickly to catch her wrist. He was obviously tired of being what small amount of patient he could have claimed to be. People were supposed to do what he said as soon as he said it, and answer his questions as soon as he asked them. This was not a man who was at all accustomed to repeating himself. After catching her wrist, he pulled it up to make her look at him. He wasn't squeezing painfully, not yet, but his grip made it clear that that could and would change if she didn't start following his instructions without any more commentary. “Use your other hand and take out your wallet, or tell my men there where to get your purse. We're not here to answer your questions. You're here to answer ours. Start now.”
Sierra started to take a step toward the nearest man as soon as their leader grabbed Haley, but before she could get anywhere, Paige caught her shirt carefully, without letting them notice anything untoward happening. She held her sister tightly while keeping a confused, clueless and somewhat fearful look on her face. Sure, none of this was a good sign, but the man wasn't actually hurting Haley yet. If this all went well, there was a chance they still might be able to get through this without starting a fight right there in front of the town store in broad daylight.
Of course, that was the moment that Haley, continuing to give the man that naïve smile, suddenly moved her free hand. But she wasn't going for her wallet like he demanded. Instead, her small fist punched the man in the throat before he even realized she was moving. The blow took him completely by surprise, and he reflexively let go of her other wrist while stumbling backward a step. A wheezing, choking sound escaped the big guy, while his eyes were suddenly blurred by wetness at the sharp pain as his throat seemed to collapse in on itself.
Before he could recover, and certainly before his two lackeys or any of the other men who were still over by the vans could react, Haley brought up her free hand and made a motion as though spraying something in his eyes. It was too quick for them to notice that she wasn't actually holding anything. Yet the man cried out and stumbled weakly as a burning sensation made his eyes water even more. He was still choking, and now he had been basically blinded.
In one smooth motion, Haley stepped around him, and kicked the back of his knee out. He went down hard, and her hand immediately slipped right inside his perfectly tailored suit jacket. The nearest of his two friends had started to reach into his own jacket. But before he could get that far, Haley found the gun that this guy had. She didn't bother to pull it out. Instead, she simply yanked the gun up a bit to aim it through the jacket and the holster. Her finger undid the safety before pulling the trigger. A loud shot rang out, and the man who had been reaching into his jacket gave a sharp cry as the bullet grazed his arm, drawing a line of blood. It wasn't a direct hit, but still rather painful. And it did the job of making him stop reaching for his weapon.
That still left the other man, of course. To say nothing of the rest by the vans. But one thing at a time. The last of the three who had approached them did manage to get his pistol out. That, however, was as far as he got. No sooner had he finished drawing it from the shoulder holster, than Haley turned as well with her ‘borrowed’ pistol fully drawn from under the first man’s jacket. He was still starting to bring his up, when she pulled the trigger again. Instantly, there was a shriek of metal and a cry as the gun was literally shot right out of his hand. The other weapon was sent careening off into the dirt, where it bounced and slid as a useless hunk of metal.
The men were too distracted, obviously, to notice that while Haley was very obviously waving the real gun around with one hand, her other hand had formed itself into a pantomime of a pistol. She was good with a weapon, no doubt. But she was better with her power. The truth was that her shots with the borrowed gun weren’t hitting anything, they were just a cover to avoid exposing what and who she really was. It was her Echo power that drew that line across the second man’s arm, and knocked the gun out of the third one’s hand. Just as it had been that power that mimicked the effects of a can of mace being sprayed right into the first man’s eyes.
And it was that power that she secretly used while pointing the real gun in the direction of those vans, while the men there were just barely starting to react. She fired with the real gun, sending several quick shots into the tires of that lead van. But her mimicked gun also ‘fired’ from her subtly raised fingers, doing much more damage than this regular pistol should have, and hitting far more accurately. In quick succession, every single van had at least two tires shot out. The men there had already started to throw themselves behind the vehicles, seeking cover. It was clear that they really hadn’t been expecting any sort of resistance, let alone to this extent. They thought they could roll right in, push the townspeople around while making their demands, and simply find the hidden complex they had been spending so much time and effort tracking down.
Well that wasn’t going to happen. Haley gave the first man, who was still crying out from the ‘mace’ in his eyes and choking from that blow to his throat, a quick smack in the face from the butt of his own pistol. That knocked him onto his side. In the exact same motion (or so it would appear from the outside) while she was smacking the man with his pistol, Haley pulled the trigger once more. That shot… well, again went nowhere near its target. But her other hand, still pantomiming a pistol, secretly shot the second man in the leg. He had only just finished reeling from the first shot that cut across his arm. The direct hit into his shin put him on the ground with a loud scream that seemed almost animalistic. He certainly wouldn’t be getting back up soon. And the doctors he eventually saw could have fun trying to figure out where the ‘bullet’ went.
The third man had thrown himself out of the way, cradling his injured hand. Haley let him go for the moment. He had already been disarmed, after all. She raised her voice, snapping at the other two girls. “Get to the jeep and go! Follow my lead and don’t fucking fall behind!” With that, she jumped on the ATV and started it before peeling out. Her borrowed pistol sent a rapid flurry of shots in the direction of the other vans, just enough to make sure the men there kept their heads down for another few seconds. She really didn’t need those fucks to start shooting back just yet.
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In all honesty, she really didn't need to tell the other two how to get out of there. Paige and Sierra were already sprinting to the jeep. Paige, whose legs were longer, made it to the vehicle first. There was no roof on the jeep, which was convenient right then. She jumped right over the door and landed inside. A quick press of the button with the key in her pocket started the engine up with a roar. She’d already shifted into reverse and started sending the vehicle backwards onto the street even as Sierra leapt into the back. They hit pavement, and Paige shifted into drive before punching the gas to send the jeep rocketing right after Haley’s rapidly departing ATV.
Finally, the people back by the vans had recovered enough to get their weapons out and start shooting. Not just with pistols either, there were submachine guns involved. But it was too late. The jeep and ATV were out of range, and the bullets simply chewed the ground behind them.
Clambering up into the front passenger seat, Sierra glanced over her shoulder. “She knows that won’t keep them for long, right? If they’re worth a damn, they’ll sure as hell have quick-repairing tires. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re not the only group out here. They’re probably already calling in reinforcements to cut us off. Maybe even before we can get back to Irelyn at the cabin.”
“Believe me, I know that.” The voice came from the speaker in the dashboard, as Paige had already connected to Haley's phone through the Bluetooth. “I've been trying to call her on the other line so we can get some backup out here, but she's not answering. Can one of you do some sort of cyborg trick to get her out of bed? And yes, yes, I know, not really a cyborg. More complicated than that, yada yada. Let's focus on what's important, and it's not semantics.”
While Paige drove, Sierra tapped into the connection to the security system back at the cabin to check on the woman back there and get her moving. Unfortunately, what she found made the girl grimace visibly. “There's only one camera left up and it's the one down by the gate. I've got what looks like at least three more sets of tire tracks going over top of ours on their way in. Unless Irelyn had a party planned and didn't tell us, she's got a few very uninvited guests.”
The news made Paige grip the wheel even more tightly as a rush of various emotions ran through her. If anything happened to Irelyn after they had just so recently managed to work things out and communicate properly… but no, Irelyn wasn't some helpless damsel. She had been a very active Star-Touched for over a decade in a very dangerous city. She was one of the first and youngest members of the Minority, and had grown up through that to join the Conservators. And there wasn't a chance in hell that a few thugs with guns who were probably going around trying to shake down everyone in the local cabins, just like they had tried with them outside the store, were going to get the drop on her. They were going to regret going anywhere near that cabin. The ones who were conscious were probably already regretting it.
She immediately tried contacting Irelyn on each of the three phones that they knew the other woman used, as well as the cabin's house phone and through the private chat they had set up. None of them went through. On a hunch, she tried contacting the store they had just left, and then even called the shop back in Detroit. She tried half a dozen other numbers in rapid succession before grunting. “Well, that figures.”
Sierra gave her a quick look. “You tried too, huh? Yeah, they've got the whole area locked down. Who knows how wide of a net they've got up. It’s definitely too big for us to slip out easily.”
“Hey girls,” Haley cut in, “how about you tell the rest of the class what you're talking about?”
It was Paige who explained. “They have communication blockers up, probably over the whole area. Kills our ability to get any message out. Pretty sure the only reason we can talk to each other is because we're so close. So try not to get more than a couple hundred yards away. We’ll work on getting around the jamming enough to expand our range, but it’ll take time.” She already had part of her system devoted to that very thing.
By the time she finished saying those words, Sierra was already pointing ahead to something coming toward them from the opposite direction. It was a little more than a dot by that point, but it was coming very quickly. “I'm gonna guess that's not a local fisherman rushing home to his wife.”
Haley had obviously seen the incoming vehicle as well, because she muttered a soft curse through the line before speaking up. “Okay, I've got this. I'll handle these guys, then catch up. Get to the cabin and check on Irelyn. Just do it.” Her voice left no room for any arguments. It was obvious that she was just as worried about her old friend as the other girls were, no matter how much they all told themselves that the woman could handle anything these assholes threw at her.
Even then, part of Paige wanted to argue that they shouldn't leave her alone, especially after what they had just said about not being able to call her again for awhile if they got too far apart. If anything happened to Haley because they left her alone with these guys, Irelyn would… no, she wasn't going to think about that. It was going to be fine. This was the best way to handle it. They knew people were at the cabin, and there was no way to tell exactly how many. But just through a simple numbers game, Sierra had said there were multiple vehicles that drove up that way, while there was only one vehicle coming toward them. Haley would be less outnumbered than Irelyn was. Maybe that was a bad way to look at it, but she really didn't have much else. They would get to the cabin, find the other woman, and go back for Haley. Unless, of course, she hadn't already caught up with them by then, which was a real possibility.
It was the best plan they had at the moment. Everything had started happening so quickly. One minute they were just talking to Haley outside that shop, and now there was some kind of massive criminal organization surrounding this entire area and cutting off all communication while they went from building to building, cabin to cabin, trying to find a bunch of Tech-Touched who were trying to build a rocket into space or something. It was very clear that these people weren't going to play nice. From what the other woman had said, they had apparently been looking for their quarry for a long time by that point. Now it seemed they were in the right area, and if they knew that, they were definitely going to be even more violent, even more obsessive.
In short, they were going to be even more dangerous. No matter how much extensive experience and skill Irelyn had, she shouldn't be on her own, especially when she didn't have any warning about these people. They had to get back there and make sure she was safe.
All of that ran through Paige’s mind in the couple seconds remaining as they drove straight toward the oncoming vehicle. It was another van like the ones back by the shop, the ones that were probably already rapidly catching up with them from behind. Which was another reason to be reluctant to leave Haley alone, given she wouldn't be dealing with only one van for long. But she had to push that out of her thoughts and focus. Find Irelyn, then come back for Haley.
The van had already swerved around to use its full length to block the narrow road, even as its side door slid open and three men with automatic weapons appeared before aiming those weapons straight at Haley on the ATV. She was completely helpless, a sitting duck. Or so it would seem to those people. Just as they started to open fire, she was suddenly catapulted off the seat, hands raised as though she was holding onto a parachute or something. A parachute that wasn't actually there. The pantomimed chute hauled her up and backwards away from the ATV just as it was riddled with bullets. But it didn't stop. The smaller vehicle careened forward, leaving two of the three men to hurl themselves out of the van while the third threw himself backwards into it. In the next second, the ATV slammed into the side of the van at full speed, knocking it sideways a bit. Which also created an opening, slight as it was, around the vehicle's hood for Paige to send the jeep through. They barely made it, clipping some of the thick trees on their left and scraping paint off both their vehicle and the van on the other side. The sound of gunfire had been replaced by screeching metal for just a moment. Then they were through and had open road ahead of them once more. In the rearview, they could see Haley land on top of the van, give them a quick hand motion that was part salute and part shooing motion, then reach down to grab the wrist of the driver just as he tried to point his own gun at them. For the moment at least, she had things under control. The best way to make sure it stayed that way was to go get Irelyn and meet up with Haley together to figure out what they were going to do.
With that in mind, Paige shoved all other doubts, uncertainties, and guilt away. It was time to focus on what they were actually doing, not on what they maybe should have done or might be able to do. She gripped the wheel and kept the accelerator floored. As the scene behind them rapidly disappeared, she set her mind toward what lay ahead. Obviously, more of these people were at the cabin, and they were dangerous enough that Irelyn hadn’t been able to get away yet.
Fortunately, she wasn’t alone. None of them were, not anymore. And these people were about to find out just how much of a mistake they had made by starting this fight right now.
It was the wrong goddamn week for those bastards to come here.