Through A Darkened Mirror

by Dorath

11.5 … Back At CMS Seattle …

Horatio Coalson, Director of Celestia Medical Systems’ Seattle branch and all local subsidiaries was having a wonderful day; he’d manipulated the payroll system so that his two teams of ‘troubleshooters” were receiving triple pay, but only a third was actually going to them, he’d had an excellent lunch at the Eye of the Needle, and any time now his mercenaries, the very same people the Security budget was currently housing, feeding, outfitting and paying, were going to call in with a captured aberrant esper “volunteer” or two for R&D to process, all of which results would never be seen by the Home Office, but should net him a very tidy sum.

A slight “ping”, as much felt as heard, alerted Coalson that he had an incoming call on his cranial cellphone, “How many subjects did we acquire, Burke?”

*None, the targets are … gone.*

“What?! What happened?”

*We located the targets in a dead-end alley near the Puyallup Wall, and thermal scans showed five people behind one of those old metal dumpsters. We demanded their surrender when we pulled up, claimed that we’d let the rest of them go in exchange for the espers, didn’t really expect them to take the offer, but if they did, so much the easier for us. But then they put up these two barrier … things.*

“‘Barrier things’?” scowled Coalson, “What are you talking about?”

*I don’t know what they were, telekinetic walls don’t glow, and you can’t stack them on top of each other, but that is what these espers did! They stopped all of our shots except for the first, and kept out the gas grenades as well, once the barriers went down and the gas thinned out we rushed their position, but they weren’t there anymore,* Burke’s voice hardened, *You sent us against espers with freaky-assed abilities who are strong enough to teleport multiple people and didn’t even bother to warn us? I don’t like being played, Coalson.*

“No one is playing you, Burke,” Coalson hastened to assure the mercenary, “It seems that Lulamoon’s machines don’t live up to their hype, is all.” ‘And you would have charged me vastly more if you knew that I was hunting a potentially world-class esper.’ “We’ll talk when you get back, I’m sure we can come to an understanding.” ‘I can offer to double their retainer, I’ll just use the funds I’m diverting from payroll to cover it.’

Disconnecting the call, Coalson stared at the wall for a moment, “God damned fragging espers, slotting up my plans! Who do they think they are?! Worthl—,” his door being kicked in interrupted the growing tirade, leaving Coalson to stare stupidly at the two men in grey fatigues and clamshell cuirasses who were pointing assault rifles at him.

“Hands above your head! Do it now!”

“Celestia Medical Services does not negotiate with terrorists,” Coalson informed the pair stiffly as he complied, “And security will be here any minute.”

“Actually, security won’t be coming,” a cheerful voice said, as the two gunmen parted to let a woman in a skirt suit, her long, pale cyan hair marked by a white streak, through, “You’ve been a very bad boy,” she smirked at him.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Lyra Heartstrings, with CMS Internal Affairs, Ms. Celestia has a number of questions for you, Horatio, and she isn’t happy.”