“Yet we weren’t even all in the same place when this happened,” Damon reminded Terk. “We were spread out all over town, like always when we’re busy.”
“I know,” Terk agreed. “That’s why I’ve always kept you guys on my radar, on a mental map of sorts.”
Damon nodded. “I get it. I know all about that system. We’ve used a similar one to keep track of people, while they are out on jobs.”
“Exactly, and it’s a mental system, so, therefore, when I sense something happening,” he explained, “I shut down my own senses.”
At that, Damon’s gaze widened.
Terk nodded. “I know. Don’t think I didn’t feel like I was betraying you. Believe me when I say, it wasn’t an easy decision, but I knew I had no choice.”
Damon immediately shook his head. “Hell no,” he argued. “Self-preservation is always at the top of all our priority lists. What I was reacting to was the fact that you could sense it happening. That was huge.”
“Only if I could have sensed it enough ahead of time to do something useful. And I really think it was due to the disconnection that I noticed.”
Damon got up and paced the small room, empty except for the table and the electronics. It was a warehouse storage compound. In their warehouse, they had one fully concrete room to themselves. Nobody else in this area knew who they were or what they were doing. But the concrete had been important for their own abilities, a place where they might actually relax. It should be steel, six inches of thick steel and concrete. But they didn’t have that resource available to them anymore.
They used to be part of a special black ops team, working for the US government. The program was being disbanded, and, on the last day, a lovely coincidence was that everyone, not Terk, but the seven other men on the team started to experience agonizing pain and a complete wipe of their senses. Or at least Damon assumed it was complete. From what Terk had said, it sounded like it was, as Damon knew two of the men were in comas, two of the men were coming back out of a similar state, and two were … presumed lost on the ethers. Terk, as the boss himself, was in the best shape of all. Wade was, in a way, fighting hard to heal and to regain some consciousness, like Damon had been not too long ago. “I’m not sure why I didn’t get hit as hard as the others,” Damon murmured. “My instinctive thought was because I wasn’t as much of a danger.”
Terk snorted. “You guys are all dangerous to anybody who knows what we can do.”
“And yet we aren’t terribly powerful.”
“We’re more powerful as a team,” Terk acknowledged quietly. “But still individually, you each have specific talents.”
“But individually, we all have the ability to connect or see or feel or sense various things at a very long distance. And most of our work has been done on government jobs.” Damon shook his head. “I still can’t believe our government disbanded our group.”
Terk stiffened, turned, looked at his friend. “I have to suspect that, due to the timing, they’re the ones behind this.”
Damon slowly nodded. “I wondered if you would come to the same conclusion as I did.”
“Absolutely,” Terk snapped. “But it’s only guesswork at the moment. A gut feeling. We need to investigate. Plus, the department wouldn’t have done this themselves. They’d have contracted the job out. But who and how?”
“Whatever they did, it’s continuing to affect the team.” Damon studied his friend, then decided to ask the question in the back of his mind. “So you have an ability to filter into each and every one of the team’s psyches?”
“Sometimes to transmit messages, sometimes just to check up on their health,” Terk admitted. “I can do a bit more, but it’s limited.”
“I’ve always known that to some degree,” Damon admitted. “We’ve discussed it slightly but never in detail.”
“And that was partly on purpose,” Terk stated, “because it seemed like I was pushing the line by getting into their heads at all.”
“I don’t know about that. I don’t think anybody hated you for it, and I did speak with a couple of them because they could sense when you put in the messages that you were also taking a look around. And your telepathic abilities have always been phenomenal.”
“That was a two-second mental check, like, ‘Hey, on a scale of one to ten, how is this guy doing?’ And then getting a response and getting out.” Terk smiled.
“Even in mine?” Damon asked, a sharp look at his friend.
“Even yours,” Terk agreed with a nod. “We are part of a team, and keeping the team safe, healthy, and functioning is always my goal.”
“And, because we understood that, it was fine,” he agreed. “Can you communicate with any of them now?”
“Wade, yes, but he is not capable of responding, yet I sense brain activity. As for the others, I know they’re there, but I’m not getting even that.”
“Are you getting any response?”
“Like a life-support system,” Terk noted. “Other than that, not a whole lot.”
“Well, that’s a start. We have to make sure that we keep them safe.” Damon frowned. “But that kind of security may need to be physical,” Damon said. “Keeping them safe on the energy level is a different matter, not to mention we don’t know what happened in the first place. We have to stop a second attack.”
“And that’s what I’ve been trying to do,” Terk confirmed quietly. “I know it’s like closing the barn door after the fox got in,” he admitted, “but I’ve got a psychic guard around each of the team members. Less around you because you are recovering.”
“And Wade?”
“On a scale of one to ten, I’d say his health is at a five, so 50 percent. If I can even get that inched up to 52 to 53 percent, he’s heading in the right direction. The problem is, I can’t maintain this level of energy around everybody alone.”
“And I can’t help you and be on the hunt,” Damon replied.
“I know, so somehow we have to sort our priorities.”
“No.” Damon shook his head. “Somehow we have to get help.”
At that, Terk raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know who you’re expecting to come help us. We don’t have any government-sanctioned assistance anymore, and very few can help at this level.”
“I know, and that just sucks too because we need resources.”
“Money is not an issue,” he reminded him. “We have plenty of that.”
“And that’s a damn good thing,” Damon noted, “because we need it all. Particularly with this kind of a security issue.”
“No, I hear you,” he agreed. “I’m just not exactly sure where to turn.”
Damon hesitated for a moment. “What about your brother?”
Terk looked at Damon sharply, then frowned. “If I asked, he would come,” but his reluctance was very telling.
“You don’t want to put him in danger, do you?”
“Of course not,” he admitted. “My brother and I have always been close, but, more than that, not many people out there understand or even accept me for who and what I am, like my brother does.”