Ill Appearances

Chapter 20: Carmen

My mind was clouded with a million thoughts as we made our way out of the confinement rooms. Andy walked on one side of me, with Mason on the other. I was going over scenarios in my head of how I would tell Mason that Dad had killed Mom. What would he say? Would he be angry? It all frustrated me immensely.

"We're here," Mara said quietly. "There may be no one by the door, but I'm sure there will be guards inside."

"Get behind me," Andy and Mason said in unison.

They scowled at each other.

"I'm going to protect her," Andy snapped, pulling me to his side.

"She's my little sister," Mason snapped back, yanking on my arm.

"I can take care of myself," I mumbled. "And besides, you two should be focusing on yourselves."

Mason glared at Andy. "Yeah, whatever."

"Here's the plan," Mara began. "Mason and Andy, you two will take out any guards. I'll get us past any scans and passcodes. There are serval layers of security, so we need to be careful. We have only one shot at this." She turned to me, a meaningful look on her face. "Carmen, I need you to do something very important. I know that you're able to sense auras and emotions, so I need you to make sure that no one with an ability comes close. While Castar and Pablo work to disable the machine, the rest of us will be helping you."

I nodded.

Mason and Andy continued to glare at each other.

I ignored them, following Mara through the door.

We walked down a narrow hallway only to find another door.

Mara scanned her hand on the pad, then we proceeded.

"The next layer has guards," Pablo muttered.

At that moment, a deep voice bellowed, "What are you doing here?!"

A group of guards charged us.

Andy and Mason were easily able to counter.

This same pattern of scans and guard fights went on for several doors. Finally, we had reached the last layer.

Mara threw the door open, then immediately took out every guard in sight. "Go!" she told Pablo and Castar.

They hurried across the dimly lit room to a giant machine along the back wall. The room itself was nothing special; just a bunch of tables set up for collecting information.

"It's empty," Andy breathed.

"It's normally like this," Mason mumbled. "They've yet to collect any research. For as long as I've been here, I've done mostly eavesdropping. It seems to pay off quite well..."

Mara scowled. "If what you say is true, we should hurry up. With all of the security breaching we just did, there's bound to be reinforcements sent in."

After a few moments of silence, Castar's voice suddenly rang out, "Everyone, get down!"

Just as the words left his mouth, Pablo let out a struggled groan.

Mara's eyes widened, but she managed to duck down with the rest of us.

A chunk of metal flew across the room and over our heads.

"What exactly is Pablo's power?" Andy asked.

"He's a technopath," Mara replied quietly. "Not only is he trying to destroy the machine itself, but also the information stored in it. Putting that much strain on his body...I'm not sure what will happen to him."