Touch the World

Part Two: Jailbreak

Cover: Marilyn Dobbs running down a hallway. Several unconscious cops are on the floor behind her. On the wall is the shadow of Jason Brooks, gun drawn, aiming at...?

"'m sorry, Dobbs-"

"If you or anyone else tells me they're sorry," Marilyn Dobbs sneered back at Captain Gavin through the bars. "I'm gonna hang myself in this cell and leave a note for my lawyer to sue the department for negligence and harassment."

"Ouch," said Gavin. "Ordinarily I'd take ya seriously... but you don't have a lawyer. No lawyer in this city wants to touch your case, and you refused the state-appointed-"

"You and I both know those state-appointed yahoos can barely get themselves out of BED, let alone get me out of here. But you're not here to talk about my legal problems."

"Royce," Gavin sighed. "I'm s-... well..."

"I should have been there."

"Someone else WAS there, and it didn't do a whole hell of a lot of good. What you really mean is Royce SHOULDN'T have been there. There was nothing in his files about any investigation out at that place. Hell, that whole area is a hot-zone, nobody goes out there without backup and a damn good reason."

"Royce is a wild card. Like me. He doesn't follow rules-"

"Didn't," Gavin corrected. "And maybe that's why we're having to talk about him in the past tense now."

There was an uncomfortable pause. Uncomfortable for Gavin. Dobbs just stared at him.

"I know what you're thinking," said Gavin.

"Enlighten me."

"You want out and you want on that case. But that's just not possible. You're in here on MURDER chargers, for God's sake-"

"I know the charges. I also know every other detective on this force... I know that right now they're trouncing all over that crime scene, hoping to get lucky... waiting for a magic clue to jump up and kick 'em in the nuts. And that hasn't happened yet, has it, Captain?"

"Nuthin," said Gavin. "Royce's blood in the basement. Nothing else. Not one damn ounce of physical evidence. They can't even find the BODY for God's sake! But that doesn't add up to a free ticket out of here for you."

"Never said it did, captain. But I wanna find out who did it just as much as-"

"We know who did it. Jason Brooks-"

"No, you THINK Jason Brooks did it."

"We've got an eye witness."

"An eye witness with a head injury who saw Brooks on the scene... but who DIDN'T see Brooks kill Royce. This isn't something he would do, captain."

"You and Royce were both on his case. Maybe you were getting close-"

"So, to cover his tracks he ROBS a frickin BANK in broad daylight in front of cameras, then kills a cop AND leaves a possible witness alive? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Brooks might be a terrorist, a lunatic, or both... but he isn't stupid."

"Cameras don't lie, Dobbs."

"Like hell they don't. Some of the guys told me what they saw on that tape, captain. Have YOU seen it? Can YOU stand there and tell me that what you saw was even physically possible? It was doctored."

"And the last time you met him, it was pretty clear that Brooks doesn't mind taking shots at cops. THAT wasn't tape... that was reality. Reality can't be doctored."

"He shot, but he didn't kill any," said Dobbs.

"Luck."

"If you actually believe what was on that tape, then you know it wasn't luck. If he had wanted us dead, we'd be dead."

"And if I go your way... believe the tape was doctored?"

"Then we might not be looking for Brooks at all."

"Oh, we're looking for him all right. His file is still open-"

"With one detective on it dead, and the other one locked up for murder? Yeah... I can see a lot of progress being made that way."

"We'll catch him," said Gavin.

"Yeah... you'll catch him when he walks into this building and surrenders. MAYBE not even then."

BOOM!
BOOM!

"Wha-"

"Huh-"

The sound came from upstairs, in the general direction of the lobby. It was so loud that it remained perfectly distinguishable despite the walls and floor separating the sound from Dobbs' ears. It was a sound she'd heard before... a sound she recognized immediately:

The loud booming report of Jason Brooks' .454 revolvers.

he black Corvette streaked down the interstate in complete defiance of every posted speed limit. The man in the driver's seat kept the car in the center of the road as much as possible, veering over into a proper lane only when he saw an oncoming car. That hadn't been very often, but it was becoming more frequent as they got closer to town.

"...I dunno," said Brooks. "I still think it pulls to the left a little. I think that dragon must have bent something-"

"The car always pulled to the left, Jason," replied the occupant of the passenger's seat. Donovan Wilde's 'body' shimmered slightly, oscillating between almost solid and nearly transparent. "You're only noticing it now."

"So you say." Jason frowned. He veered over into his lane as a line of cars approached. He didn't slow down... not even worried that one of the cars could have been a cop. His radar-detector hadn't gone off, and even if there was a cop coming, they couldn't catch him anyway. Not in THIS car.

"If you're worried about it, you could always just slow down and let Donovan catch up to you-"

"Yeah, how about I just slow down and- HELL NO! He's probably three states behind me now... how long would THAT take, a year!?"

"About ten minutes," Donovan said assuredly. Jason remembered that Donovan had been going back and forth between the vehicles, regularly checking up both.

"So how do you like your freedom?" said Jason. "Not being tied to me, that is."

"A pleasant change. To tell the truth, I didn't relish the idea of spending the next few decades never being more than three feet from you. No offense."

"Hey, you ain't the only one. So, there's no other side effects from... you know... what happened?"

"None so far. Hold on a moment..."

Donovan made a motion as if he were getting up... then he was gone.

"Huh-"

Jason glanced at the empty passenger's seat.

"I hate it when he does that. Another item on my long list of things I hate about this gig..."

Jason listened to the radio, blasting "You're Gonna Get Yours" by Public Enemy for several minutes before Donovan reappeared.

"That was quick. The lovebirds still back there?"

"They made a stop. Someone had to relieve herself."

"So what's the deal with her, anyway?" Jason said as he slowed down... a little.

"Women have small bladders-"

"Not THAT deal... the OTHER deal."

"Jason, if you're going to start speaking in code, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know beforehand."

"You know what I'm taking about," said Jason. "Reading thoughts is one thing.... but throwing things around with your mind? Knockin' people through walls? There's a lot more to her than she's sayin."

"That much is obvious."

"So what is it? You've been doing this since forever... so what's her deal?"

"I don't know," said Donovan.

"Bullshit. You know somethin.' C'mon... clue me in..."

"There are some possibilities," the ghost said reluctantly. "Nothing I can verify now. I wish I still had my books."

"Books?"

"I used to have a substantial library. Demonic histories, encyclopedia of various phenomena."

"What happened to it."

"Brite destroyed the majority it."

"Ahhh," Jason felt the slight trace of a chill down his back at the mention of the vampire. "I remember him. What a way to get broken in, eh?"

"You survived."

"And you didn't."

Donovan was strangely silent.

"Sorry," said Jason.

"No, its nothing."

"Being dead is nothing?"

"It takes a fair amount of adjustment."

"I'll bet. So is she dangerous, or what?"

"Of course she's dangerous. That's why its good to have her along... for now."

"Yeah, so she can be dangerous to the BAD guys, and not us."

"And so we can contain her if something goes wrong."

"Contain?" Jason gave Donovan a suspicious look. "You mean the SEBASTIAN kinda 'contain'... the kinda 'contain' that involves sponging entrails off of walls?"

"If necessary."

"You know," said Jason. "Sebastian's got that 'half-soul' thing going, so I gotta let him slide on a lot of stuff he does. But YOU... what's YOUR excuse?"

"Experience," Donovan replied. "And unfortunately, I have a lot of it."

"Well, nobody's touching her unless I say so... got it?"

"Why? Do you have feelings for her?"

"Of course I do," said Jason. "She's stuck with the same kinda supernatural powers 'never live a normal life again' CRAP that you cursed me with. She's like a partner, ya know."

"Fellow traveler? Kindred spirit?"

"Yeah, whatever. She's a friend. But that's all it is."

"I see."

The car passed a sign that read: "Rock Springs - 15mi."

"Home stretch," said Jason. He slowed down to something close to the speed limit, drawing less attention to himself and letting Sebastian's slower vehicle catch up with him.

"You know we're walking into a trap, don't you?"

"Yeah, so what else is new? There's somebody pretending to be running around killing people. What... I'm supposed to just let that go?"

"No," said Donovan. "It's worth checking out. We just need to exercise caution... We've been caught by surprise too many times recently."

"Well I know one way to keep that from happening."

Donovan looked at him.

"Go check it out," said Jason.

"Excuse me?"

"You're not bound to me any more... and you've been bouncing back and forth between cars so we know you've at least got a range of a few miles. Pop on over to Rock Springs and see what's waiting for us. You could be our spy... advanced warning and all that."

Donovan nodded.

"Interesting..." he said. "I don't think I would have thought of that. There's hope for you yet, Brooks."

"Just go."

"I shall return..."

Donovan squirmed in his seat... started to stand up... and vanished.

rooks' loud, resounding gunfire was followed by sporadic, almost random shots from the smaller-caliber police weapons.... and then a long period of silence that was finally broken shouting and more gunfire. Gavin heard all this as he made his way down the long hallway toward the lobby. He was in a low, almost crouching position that made his knees and back hurt after only a few seconds. He had his gun drawn.

He turned a corner, and saw five officers huddling in the hallway just outside the lobby door. They had their guns drawn as well, but they were making no move to advance. Several of them glanced back at Gavin when they heard him. One motioned him to the side. Gavin pressed his back against the wall and, still crouching, slid toward them. He could see the lobby through the open doorway, but there was no one there. The security-mirror that hung in the corner opposite the door had been shot out.

"Status?" he whispered as he reached the cops.

"He's in there... far wall. Can't see him from here."

"Who's down?"

"Everybody," said another cop. "We're it, inside."

"Outside."

"Got five moving into position now. Every cop in town is on the way."

"Every cop still alive," another man added. Gavin knew what he meant... his men hadn't been faring too well lately. Officers had been dropping like flies. It was almost as if God himself had a personal grudge against the police department.
'Every cop in town' didn't amount to a lot these days.

"We're not gonna lose any more," said Gavin. "We know who this guy is?"

"Guess..."

"Don't bother," said another cop. "He'll let ya know in a minute..."

"HHEEEEYYY!" someone shouted in the library. "WHERE IS EVERYBODY! WHY'D YOU RUN!? YOU AREN'T AFRAID OF ME, ARE YOU!? AFRAID OF JASON BROOKS!? DON'T BOTHER BEING SCARED... JUST GIVE ME WHAT I WANT AND I'LL LET SOME OF YOU LIVE!"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Gavin shouted past the other cops.

"Ahhh, THAT sounds like the voice of somebody in charge!" Brooks shouted back.

"This is CAPTAIN GAVIN! I'm in charge here!"

Gavin motioned to one of the other cops to hand him his radio. He whispered into it... talking to the officers waiting outside. They were in position... waiting on an order to move.

Meanwhile, Brooks kept talking.

"Well, Mr. Man-In-Charge... what I WANT is for you to let my partner out! You've got DOBBS locked up, and I want her OUT HERE! NOW!"

"Partner?" said Gavin. The other cops shrugged.

"YOU HEARD ME!" Brooks said. "GET HER UP HERE!"

"No deal!" Gavin replied. "You're in a building surrounded by cops! You're in no position to make demands!"

"OH!? I'VE GOT A ROOM FULL OF COPS IN HERE THAT SAYS OTHERWISE! YA SEE... I WASN'T SHOOTIN TA KILL, BUT IF ME AND DOBBS AIN'T WALKIN OUT OF HERE IN FIVE MINUTES, THAT'S GONNA CHANGE. HERE... HERE'S A SAMPLE-"

BOOM!!

A gun fired in the lobby. A man screamed... a long, agonizing wail of pain...

"LET'S SEE..." Brooks shouted over the screaming. "THAT GUY'S NAMETAG SAYS JOHNSON. AND JOHNSON JUST LOST A KNEECAP. ARE WE UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER NOW?"

"He's got hostages," Gavin said into the radio.

"I ASKED IF WE UNDERSTOOD EACH OTHER!!!! OR DO I NEED TO EXPLAIN IT AGAIN!?"

"Calm down, Brooks!" Gavin shouted. "We'll get you what you want!"

"THAT'S RIGHT! THIS IS JASON BROOKS YOU'RE DEALING WITH, HERE! YOU'D BETTER REMEMBER THAT!"

"...he's against the wall, near the dispatcher's window," he said into the radio. "Far corner... closer to the front door than to us. Anyone coming in will have to turn and fire quick. He's got the whole room covered from where he is."

"...affirmative..." came the hushed reply.

"Shouldn't we wait for-" one of the cops with Gavin began.

"TIME IS WASTING! AND SO IS JOHNSON! YOU GOT A LOT OF COPS BLEEDING TO DEATH OUT HERE!"

"No time," said Gavin. He keyed the radio again. "On three... one... two... NOW!"

Six armed police officers rushed out of the hallway. Five more burst through the front door.... all entering the besieged lobby at the exact same instant.

Brooks was exactly where Gavin had judged him to be from the sound of his voice: standing near the corner, beside the vacant dispatchers window. There was a man in uniform laying unconscious at Brook's feet. Several more injured cops lay strewn around the lobby like broken dolls. Most were unconscious. All were in danger of bleeding to death in the next few minutes.

It had been the right decision. Rushing in now... not waiting for reinforcements... THAT was the right decision. They couldn't have waited. They could NOT have waited any longer.

Gavin told himself that over and over as everything went to hell around him.

It began... and ended... with a sound reminiscent of a jet engine roaring overhead. It wasn't an engine, however... it was the boom of Brooks' revolvers firing so rapidly that the sound of each shot blended in with the shots before and after, creating one long, impossible death-knell.

Gavin fired as soon as he cleared the hallway.... but by the time the nerve impulse traveled from his brain to his finger, his gun was gone. One large-caliber bullet went completely through his hand, shattering his knuckles and sending shards of bone shredding through the surrounding flesh.

The cop next to Gavin was carrying a shotgun. In the instant before the pain of Gavin's hand reached his brain, he THOUGHT that the cop had fired the gun... but no. The shotgun exploded in the cop's hand, blown apart from the inside. One of Brook's shots had gone straight down the shotgun's barrel and ignited the shell in the chamber. Shrapnel from the gun blew back into the cops's face, erasing his features in a spray of blood.

And at that exact same instant, the exact SAME thing was happening to another shotgun-wieding cop who had come through the front door. By the time the first of them could even scream, all of the other cops were either disarmed or dead.

It had happened just that fast. In one instant, Gavin heard his own voice calling the charge... then he blinked his eyes and heard his men screaming and the thump of their bodies hitting the ground.

But Gavin wasn't among them. Still standing, he reached for his backup weapon... the .357 revolver he kept in the small of his back. He reached for it, but never got close.

BOOM!

Two shots... one sound... two bullets.

Both of Gavin's shoulders exploded in blood and pain. He flew backward and collapsed. He didn't hit the floor, but instead landed on top of someone else, causing both of them to scream. Unable to move, Gavin watched as Brooks approached... calmly reloading his revolvers. He paused to look down at Gavin.

"Shoulda waited for backup," he said. "Dumbass."

obbs listened to the screaming and gunfire, simultaneously wondering what was happening.. and who was happening to. She recognized some of the shouts. Then the shouts turned to screams. It sounded like they had someone pinned down in the lobby, but everything beyond that was lost in confusion. Dobbs couldn't piece it together from the sound alone. But whatever it was, it sure as hell sounded like Jason Brooks was involved. She thought she heard his voice in the pauses between the gunfire... but then more shooting erupted, completely obscuring anything but the boom and echo of the weapons.

After that, everything was quiet. The other prisoners had kept their musings down to a low mumble... out of fear, mostly. They didn't know what was going on, either, and they didn't really care to find out. The man in the cell next to hers was praying. Perhaps he thought this was all because of him. Dobbs found that amusing. No one down here was worth shooting up a police station, not even her-

The door at the end of the hallway opened... just as it had a hundred times before. Four sets of footsteps started making their way down the single row of cells.

"Who's there!" she called.

"We're here to move you," someone replied. The voice was.... Truett? Royce's new partner?

"Truett, is that you?"

Truett appeared before Dobbs' cell, along with Watt and Kline... two other detectives... and Davidson, the young cop that has visited her earlier. Truett had the keys to the cell in his hand. Watt was beside and slightly behind him, holding a pair of handcuffs. Davidson and Kline stood on either side of the door while Truett inserted the key.

"What's going on up there?" said Dobbs.

"A jailbreak," Truett replied. "Back away from the door. Center of the room. You know the drill."

Dobbs did as she was instructed.

"Jailbreak?! Who-"

"You," said Watt.

Instinct.

Dobbs owed much of her survival as a cop to instinct. She had a lot of it. And she trusted it. It steered her wrong sometimes, but more often than not it was right on the money. Right now, her instincts were telling her that something was off-center about this whole thing. There was... or HAD been... a gunfight going on upstairs. It was perfectly logical to relocate the prisoners for their own safety. But why HER and not everyone else.

"Me? What are you talking about?"

"You've got friends in high places," said Truett. He pulled the cell door open. "Somebody's come to get you out of here."

Truett. There was something about him that made Dobbs''s stomach twitch. Ditto for the others.

"Turn your back to the door and don't move," Truett continued.

"HEY WHAT'S HAPPENING!" one of the other prisoner shouted.

"SHUT YOUR F$@^*!ING HOLE, PUNK!" Davidson snapped.

Davidson didn't talk like that.

"I got your HOLE right here, cop!"

"F@#! YOU, YOU F#*!ING SCUM!"

Davidson definitely didn't talk like THAT. It was Davidson's voice, coming from Davidson's lips... but it wasn't Davidson.

"HEY! HEY! C'MERE, COP!" the prisoner rushed the bars and reached out for Davidson...

...who calmly drew his gun and fired a single shot. Lost in the echo of the blast was a gurgling, chocking sound from the next cell. It was short-lived, ending when something heavy hit the hard tile floor.

The other prisoners erupted into shouts of outrage, and fear.

"SHUT UP!" Davidson screamed at them. He aimed his gun at the other prisoners one at a time. "This is an emergency situation, and I am authorized to shoot anybody I damn well please!"

Everybody shut up.

Dobbs didn't need any more instinct to tell her this was wrong. Davidson had never even drawn his weapon in the line of duty before, and now he'd shot a man in cold blood. The other cops ignored him, as if none of it had even happened. They had their attention fixed on Dobbs, who hadn't moved a muscle.

"You heard me," said Truett. "Turn your back to the door."

Dobbs obliged, slowly turning around.

"Where are you taking me?" said Dobbs.

"To see the doctor," said Truett. She heard him and Watt enter the cell. Davidson and Kline were still outside.

"What Doctor?"

"You'll see," said Kline.

"Hey... wait!" Dobbs said suddenly. She heard Truett and Watt pause. "Before you put those cuffs on me, I have something to say. I don't know if I need to, but I'm saying it anyway."

"What's that?" said Truett.

"I'm sorry."

There was a pause.

"Yeah, Dobbs," said Truett. "We know."

Truett grabbed her left arm with both hands while Watt slipped the cuffs onto her right wrist. He grabbed her left wrist and prepared to snap the cuff into place-

Dobbs' foot came down hard on arch of Watt's boot. Her head snapped back into his face, breaking Watt's nose with a satisfying crunch. Dobbs spun, snatching her arm out of the surprised Truett's grasp. By the time he took a step back, Dobbs' right arm had already come around... trailing the loose handcuff behind it like a flail.

-CRACK!-

The handcuff bounced off of Truett's left temple. Dobbs didn't wait to see him fall; she charged the open cell door. Watt grabbed at her, but was too slow. She plowed shoulder-first into Kline, knocking him back into the hall. She turned and swung her arm again, crisscrossing it before Davidson's stunned face.

The flailing handcuff made a WHOOSh-wHOOSH as Davidson barely backed away from it in time. He was out of range of her fists, but it was a setup-

WHACK!

Dobbs''s front-snap kick sent the kid's weapon sailing down the hall. Dobbs caught a lucky break: when the gun hit the floor, the magazine popped out and skidded into one of the cells. Dobbs''s second kick tagged Davidson squarely on the chin. As he stumbled away, Dobbs snapped her arm back quickly... driving her elbow into Kline's solar plexus as he came up behind her.

By this time Watt was charging out of the cell, blood pouring from his nose... mouth wide open, shouting like a maniac. Behind him, Truett lay dazed on the floor... out of action for the moment.

Dobbs side-stepped his charge. Watt veered and tried to get one arm around her waist in a tackle. She grabbed the arm and twisted it around behind his back, lifting up on it with a jerk-

-pop-

"AAAAAAAAGGGH!"

-and dislocated his shoulder. She immediately shoved him back into the cell once more and kicked the door closed. The door locked automatically.

Dobbs twisted to the right, slinging her right arm once more.

KLANG!

The flailing handcuff knocked the gun out of Detective Kline's hand, cracking one of his fingers in the process. He should have gotten further away before drawing his weapon... his mistake, and Dobbs was glad he made it.

Realizing that this was now the domain of close-quarters combat, Kline put up his hands and turned one shoulder toward Dobbs. He shifted his weight back and forth from one foot to the other...

He was trying to BOX with her!

She lunged toward him. Kline went into a series of punches and jabs that would have looked quite impressive in a boxing ring.

But Dobbs slapped his hands out of the air with ease. HERS got through with no problem, though.

Wha-Ka-KAK!

Dobbs touched him three times.... left temple... nose... right temple... and Kline was down.

Just then, the cell door opened and Watt came stumbling out. He'd used Truett's key to free himself. One arm hung curled at his side like a bird's broken wing, the other held his gun. He spun toward Dobbs-

Dobbs' shoe collided with Watt's face.

Her foot wasn't IN the shoe... she had thrown it. Distracted by a face-full of imitation leather, Watt didn't fire for a split-second, which was all it took for Dobbs to close the distance between them. She hit him at full speed, driving the heel of her hand up into his chin. The impact drove his mouth closed so hard that it crack several teeth and caused Watt to bite off the end of his own tongue. He dropped his gun, and Dobbs kicked it away while head-butting him... AGAIN. Her head hit his... his head hit the bars of the cell. Watt was out.

...just then, something cold brushed past her. She looked, and she could have SWORN she saw a middle-aged man standing by the wall. Only he wasn't entirely there. He was transparent... almost. She could see part of the wall behind him. He was looking at her, then his eyes shifted to something behind her. He vanished, moving through the wall like a... ghost...

Dobbs heard someone behind her, she spun.... Davidson. He wasn't trying to attack. He was either trying to get away, or was going for one of the guns the other cops had dropped. But he had his can of mace ready just in case she spotted him. She spotted him. And he used it.

Her ridge-hand strike shattered his jaw at the exact same time the spray hit her eyes. Dobbs' eyes, nose, throat, and nasal passages erupted in searing pain. She tried to scream, but her throat was clenching shut so rapidly that she could hardly BREATHE, let alone scream. Strength drained out of her... but not entirely. She'd been hit with this stuff more than once. The shock-value just wasn't there... and there wasn't anybody left standing to take advantage of her temporary blindness.

Still, she had to get out of here. Kline would probably be the first one to wake up, and she couldn't even SEE where he was any more. Her eyes were sealed almost shut with tears and mucous. Dobbs staggered until she reached the wall, then felt her way down the hallway.

The prisoners were shouting at her... as they had been during the entire fight. She ignored them. She reached the door to the stairs. There was a key-pad to open it. She felt her way around the keys, identifying them by their placement on the pad. Then she quickly punched in the code. The door unlocked. She pulled it open and stumbled up the stairs beyond.

She had no idea where she was going. She knew where the hallway went, but she didn't know who or what was waiting for her there. She'd just beaten the hell out of her own coworkers... coworkers that had somehow transformed into murderous thugs during the time she'd been locked up.

...hell, for all she knew now, TRUETT could have killed Royce!

The idea made her shudder.

And now, here she was walking almost-blind through a building full of cops-

Full?

No... the shoot-out. Dobbs had almost forgot. Was... was everybody DEAD!?!

Dobbs heard someone in the hallway. All she could see in front of her was a blur. If she squinted hard enough, she could see part of the blur moving toward her.

"...who...who's there," she coughed. She squinted harder, trying to see who it was. "Gavin... Captain, something happened in lockup.... Captain, is that you?"

It wasn't Captain Gavin. The footsteps were different. She didn't recognize the walk.

The blur took on a brownish color as whoever it was got closer. Dobbs rubbed her eyes, which, of course, only made them hurt worse.

"Who's there, I said!" she demanded.

"It's me."

That voice!

"Brooks! My, God..." Dobbs didn't know whether to turn and run, or ask him for help. All the shooting... had that been HIM!?

"Shhhh," said Brooks. "What the hell happened? I just got here and it looks like somebody shot the place all to hell! And what happened to your eyes!?"

"M-mace," Dobbs managed to say.

"We've gotta get you out of here," said Jason. "C'mon... take my hand..."

Part of the brown blur extended itself toward her. Dobbs looked at it.

She heard a helicopter fly over the building.

"C'mon, Dobbs... we gotta go. We can't stay."

"What happened to, Gavin," said Dobbs. "Where's the captain?"

An ambulance... several of them... howled in the distance.

"I don't KNOW! Come on!"

"I can't leave," she said. "I'm... I'm a prisoner. I can't-"

"People are trying to KILL you, Dobbs! They already got Royce, and they're trying to kill me, too! You can either help me get to the bottom of it, or you can stay here where you can't even defend yourself! Which is it!"

Dobbs thought for a moment.

She took Brooks' hand.

"Let's go," she said.

"Good."

When Dobbs took his left hand, Jason's RIGHT hand appeared from behind his back. He cracked Dobbs hard across the forehead with the butt of his .454 revolver.

He smiled at her as she lay limp and unconscious at his feet.

"Cops are so stupid..."

here were barricades set up all at a four-block radius all around police headquarters. Every street was blocked; not even the media could get through.

Actually, anyone with sufficient motivation could have gotten through quite easily, since each check-point was manned by only a single uniformed officer. But no had tried anything. Not yet.

"Are you sure?" Jason whispered.

"Positive," Donovan replied.

Since Jason's car was wanted in Rock Springs, they had left it concealed at the edge of town and ridden the rest of the way in Sebastian's vehicle. The black Lincoln Navigator had a lot more room than the Corvette, even with all of Sebastian's equipment stashed in it. And, more importantly, they could ride through town without being chased.

Not that there were any cops LEFT to chase them.

"They're calling it a jailbreak," said Donovan. He had just returned from his fourth reconnaissance mission beyond the police barricades. "Apparently you... Jason... broke in and freed Marilyn Dobbs, shooting quite a few cops in the process. Three dead. Twenty wounded... some seriously."

"But I-"

"We KNOW you didn't do it, Jason," said Ashley. She was sitting up front with Sebastian. Naturally.

"Why would somebody want to make it look like I broke Dobbs outta jail?"

"Someone who is trying to connect the two of you... possibly to discredit you."

"I'm already a wanted criminal," said Jason. "Can't get much more discredited than that."

"But now you're a cop-killer," Ashley replied. "If the cops weren't going to shoot you on sight before, they damn sure will now."

"And Dobbs is ruined," said Jason. "She's finished. Done."

"IF she's still alive," said Donovan.

"You didn't see her anywhere?"

"Only the first time. After that, I saw no sign of her."

"How about the fake me?"

Donovan shook his head.

"I don't think there's any more we can learn here," said the ghost. "We should go to the bank... the police are all here; no one is watching it. Perhaps there is some physical evidence-"

"Someone's coming," Sebastian broke in.

Jason looked out the window and saw a police car pull up to the barricade. It stopped, and one uniformed officer got out. He exchanged places... and greetings... with the officer behind the barricade.

"Changing of the guard."

"Jason, do you see what I see?" said Ashley.

"Mmmmhmmm." Jason nodded slowly, peering at the new cop as the old one drove off in the patrol car. The one that had replaced him stood behind the barricade with arms folded across his chest.

His aura was coal-black.

"What?" said Sebastian.

"Either that's Marilyn Manson in a police uniform-" Ashley began.

"-or we may have just found a clue. We already know there was ONE demon on the police force. That's not a demonic aura, but it sure as hell ain't normal. Ashley, can you reach out and touch that guy?"

"Yes sir!" Ashley gave a cheerful salute, smiled at Jason, then focused her attention out the window. She squinted slightly... her eyes lost focus for an instant. Then she stiffened and inhaled sharply. "WHOA!"

"What?" Jason and Sebastian said simultaneously.

"Somebody did some serious work in that guy's head," she said. "I can't see ANYTHING in there. It's all... sharp and yucky."

"You can't read his mind?"

"No. And I'm not gonna try again... It's like sticking my hand in a box of used hypodermic needles."

"If he knows something, I'll get it out of him," Sebastian undid his seat belt and started to open the door-

"Uhhhh," Jason grabbed his shoulder. "I know you haven't killed anything in a while, but we still got a few options left before we start slinging blood and body parts, okay? Calm down."

"What do you have in mind?" said Donovan.

"Ashley isn't the only one around here with super-powers, ya know. All I gotta do is get close..."

"He'll recognize you as soon as you step out of this vehicle," said Sebastian. "Especially if you're dressed like that."

Jason took off his hat and shrugged his coat back off of his shoulders. He took one revolver and stuffed it down into his pants, covering it with his shirt.

"How about now?"

Sebastian shook his head.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.' Keep the motor running... I'll be back."

Jason slipped out of the SUV and headed for the barricade. The street was by no means crowded, but between the press and the curious onlookers, there were more than enough people to hide his approach. Once he got close, he had to elbow his way past a few reporters to get next to the barricade. Amazingly, the cop wasn't at all nervous about the people milling around. He just stood there... arms folded... not answering a single one of the questions that the reporters and civilians fired at him. He DID stand just out of arms reach, however. Even when he got next to the barricade, Jason couldn't reach over it and grab him. Fortunately, he didn't need to.

Jason stood there and waited, watching as the man's aura began to deform. It looked like a giant black amoeba that had wrapped itself around the cop, and was now extending a thin tendril toward Jason. Jason leaned over a little, getting a few inches closer without drawing attention to himself.

The aura ooooozed forward.

He waited.

It touched him. The tip of the murky aura brushed across Jason's face, almost like a caress...

Everything went black.

Usually when he read an aura, Jason got glimpses of evil things from the aura's past. This time he got something slightly different. There was no sound... just flashes of images. People. Places. There was nothing particularly dark or evil about any of it.

But...

THERE!

Mixed in with the random images was something else. A single image was repeated... over and over... slipped in between every fifth or sixth image. It was as if all the other images were being intentionally shuffled past him in order to hide the one in the background. But it wasn't working. Jason saw it. A building. An apartment building. Old and run-down, but still inhabited. Jason focused on it, trying to make it clearer. He recognized it. He knew where it was. Right here in Rock Springs.

It was the place where James Royce was supposed to have been killed.

Jason tried to get more, but there was nothing else. Just random images.

He pulled away. The aura-tendril snapped, and the sudden return to reality made him jerk.

The cop saw him.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Hey you! FREEZE!"

"Uh-oh!" Jason backed away as the cop drew his gun.

Suddenly, a pale, ghostly-white form appeared out of nowhere between him and the cop.

"BOOO!" Donovan shouted at the top of his ephemeral lungs.

"AAAA!"

"EEEEEEE!"

"AAIEEEEE!"

Between the cop's shout, and the sudden appearance of what could only have been a ghost in the middle of downtown Rock Springs, the crowd quickly surge backward away from the barricade. Jason slipped in between the fleeing civilians, weaving in and out of the crowd until he broke free and ran for the Navigator.

"GO! GO! GO!" he shouted. Sebastian pulled away from the sidewalk and spun the SUV around while Ashley threw the door open. Jason dove in. Sebastian took off.

Seconds later, Donovan appeared in the seat beside Jason.

"What did you get?"

"I don't know WHAT," Jason replied. "But I know WHERE. Head east, Sebastian."

arilyn Dobbs awoke to the gentle, floating sensation of flight...

Actually, he WAS flying... having awakened just after Brooks shrugged her off of his shoulders and just BEFORE she landed in the ancient but sturdy chair. The jostling impact jolted her back to consciousness.

She opened her eyes and sprang out of her chair. She was still dizzy, but she would have remained standing if Brooks hadn't suddenly back-handed her across the forehead. His knuckles grazed across the bruise that his gun had left before. Pain shot down the left side of Marilyn's body, and she collapsed back into the chair.

She tried to get up again, but gave it when the simple act of flexing her leg muscles made the room spin like a top. The only way to make it stop was to close her eyes so she couldn't see it.

"Stay down before I shoot your kneecaps out," said Brooks.

"Now, now, that's quite enough of that," said another voice. Even dizzy with a moderate concussion, Dobbs still recognized it.

"Braxis," he hissed. She opened her eyes just enough to see him enter the room. Dr. Braxis had given up his motorcycle gear for dress slacks and an immaculately pressed shirt. He smiled warmly at her. Two figures followed behind him... One was a child. He looked Hispanic, about seven years old... and vaguely familiar. The other made Dobbs force her way to her feet despite the dizziness and Brooks' warning-

"YOU!" she spat, pointing at Brandon Phillips... The private detective she was supposed to have murdered. She had been in jail because she shot him dead in a crowded office building... Defending herself against a gun that subsequently vanished into thin air. But murder or self-defense, gun or no gun, the ONE fact that everyone agreed on was that Brandon Philip was dead.

But here he was, standing behind Braxis smiling at her over the doctor's thin shoulder.

"Hello, Detective," said Phillips. "Welcome aboard."

"I said SIT!" Brooks swung his fist at Dobbs''s gut. She pivoted away at the last instant, but her own counterattack was lost in a wave of dizziness that quickly deposited her right back in the chair where she'd started.

".... unngh," she groaned. The old recliner's padding was so worn that its springs jabbed into her thighs when she landed.

"Oh my, Mr. Brooks," Braxis said with seemingly genuine concern. He approached the chair, but didn't get withing kicking distance. Smart man. "You seem to have injured her."

"You wanted her here, right?"

"Yes, but you were just the distraction."

"I distracted. But the others got their asses handed to 'em... So I improvised. Besides, you can fix whatever I did."

It was true. Dobbs wasn't sure how, but from what she'd seen of the doctor before, he had the ability to do... Things... To people's bodies.

"Don't touch me," she hissed.

"Oh, I would so very much enjoy letting you suffer, detective," said Braxis. "Especially after our last encounter. But you aren't here just for my amusement. You have a part to play, and you simply cannot play it properly with a concussion and internal bleeding. Mr. Brooks, would you mind holding her still?"

"Done." Brooks' hands appeared on Dobbs' shoulders, pressing her down onto the medieval torture device they called a chair. She squirmed in his grasp, but his fingers dug painfully into her joints... And the chair's springs prodded her flesh with every motion.

Braxis approached the chair from he side and caressed Marilyn's forehead. Dobbs tried to pull away, but Brooks held her fast. He seemed a lot stronger than he looked.

"Hold still, Ms. Dobbs," said Braxis. Marilyn felt something shift under her skin. There was a pulling, grinding sensation... and a wave of non-pain spread out from her wound. Her dizziness and nausea began to subside.

"There," said Braxis. "The damage wasn't as bad as I thought. Feeling better now, Detective?"

"What did you do to me?"

"Repaired a hairline fracture of your skull, and relieved quite a bit of pressure in the fluids of you brain.

Dobbs didn't believe him. He had done SOMETHING, since her head had stopped hurting. But how did he do it? And what ELSE did he do?

But now that she didn't have the pain to contend with, Dobbs could take better stock of the situation. She quickly looked around. She was in a run-down apartment... A tenement of some kind. It looked like a rat-hole that had been hastily straightened up for unexpected company. Braxis, Phillips, Brooks, and the kid were the only ones in the room other than herself.

And the kid... Was that the Velazquez kid? The last Dobbs heard, Tomas Velazquez was brain-dead. He certainly wasn't comatose now... Just as Phillips wasn't DEAD now... But there was clearly something wrong with him. After entering the room, the boy had started wandering around, silently staring at the walls with unfocused eyes... Almost as if he were looking THROUGH the walls at something in he adjoining rooms. And his movements weren't normal... Or like any of the other developmentally challenged children she had seen. His limbs flowed back and forth in a smooth, almost serpentine manner. A long line of thick, yellowish drool had descended from the corner of his mouth an was slowly making its way down his chest.

The room's only window was behind Dobbs; she couldn't use the scene beyond to place the building, although she was sure that Braxis hadn't taken her out of the city. She did notice something strange, however. There were no sounds. None sounds at all from outside... No kids playing, no cars blaring loud rap music, no teens engaging themselves in a boisterous game of basketball. The only thing coming through the window was sunlight.

"What do you want with me?" said Dobbs. She slowly lifted up, applying more resistance to Brooks' hands on her shoulders. He shoved her down hard.

"Sit. Stay."

"Want?" Braxis replied. "Why... the same thing I've ALWAYS wanted, detective. To make the world a better place-"

"By destroying my life? By setting me up for murder?"

"Well, Ms. Dobbs... After our last encounter- while I was painfully regenerating the hand that Mr. Brooks shot off - it occurred to me that people like you and him would always be there to resist any real positive change in the world."

"If it involves murder, you're damn right!"

"Every significant change requires sacrifice Think how much better life will be when-"

"When what? When YOU'RE in charge? And who elected YOU the one to decide who gets sacrificed?"

"Elected? No, nothing so democratic, Ms. Dobbs. I assumed that right... that responsibility... when I took it upon myself to heal mankind of its ills."

"You're crazy," said Dobbs. "You know that, right? I mean it... You are lunatic. Delusional. Psychotic."

"All great men are called crazy at some point in their lives," Braxis reached down and stroked the side of Marilyn's face. "And even if that were the case, I am a 'lunatic' with the power to mold flesh. I can cure any illness... correct any infirmity... heal any wound."

"I'm happy for you," said Dobbs. She shifted in the chair, and Brooks's grip tightened further. He he had already been on the verge of cutting off her circulation. He wasn't going to let her move an inch.

But an inch was more than she needed. Her arms lay at her sides, and her fingers had been probing the rat-eaten holes in the chair's fabric. She found one of the rusty springs that had been stabbing her since she'd sat down. Her last squirm lifted her thigh just enough for her to sneak her fingers deeper and get a grip on it. She was in luck. The spring was loose...

"...so what now?" she continued. "You gonna screw with my mind like you did Brooks? Turn me into one of your thugs?"

Braxis looked confused for a second. Then he smiled.

"Ohhh, you're under the impression that this is the REAL Jason Brooks?"

"I AM the real Jason Brooks," Brooks snapped.

"Of course you are," said Braxis. "But not the one she means."

"This isn't Brooks?" Now it was Marilyn's turn to look confused.

"I told you, Ms. Dobbs... I have the power to mold flesh. How hard do you think it is to take an ordinary man and turn him into something extraordinary.... alter his reflexes... heighten his coordination... eyesight... give him a new face.... How hard do you think that is for someone like me, hmmm?"

"I'm the New Improved Jason Brooks. Advanced prototype. The old one is obsolete."

Dobbs didn't believe a word either of them said, even though the evidence was right there before her. Could the old man REALLY do what he said? If she believed it, then who was crazy... him, or her?

"And perhaps I'll do the same for you," said Braxis. "I think you and Brooks will be good together. But you'll have to be able to keep up with him-"

"You think I'm gonna WORK for you?"

"Of course I do. And you'll think so, too in a few moments..."

Braxis reached for her head. Dobbs leaned away again, but Brooks yanked her back upright. She felt the doctor's fingers on her... but DAMMIT, she didn't have that spring free yet.

She felt a tugging sensation in her skull-

"INTRUDER!" The young boy screeched. His voice was... like razors on a blackboard. It made Dobbs flinch when she heard it, and she wasn't the only one. Braxis yanked his hand from her head and spun to face the boy.

"Oh, for God's sake-" he began. "What is it NOW?"

"THERE!" The Velazquez boy pointed at the wall to Marilyn's right... where, to Dobbs' surprise, she actually SAW what he was talking about. Or at least she thought she did. A pale, transparent shape emerged from the wall and stepped into the room. It was a man... the same middle-aged white man that Dobbs had seen in the police station. He looked at her, then at Braxis-

"RREEEEEE!!" Tomas screamed... a high-pitched noise that nearly popped Marilyn's eardrums. The ghostly shape shuddered like an image projected onto a billowing curtain... and then it was gone.

"What the hell was THAT!?" said Brandon Phillips.

"Ssssspirit!" Tomas hissed. Literally hissed. "Brooks is here! And SHE is with him!"

"Where?" said the false Jason Brooks.

"Outssside." Tomas pointed to the window behind Marilyn. "Down."

"Heh, heh, heh," Brooks loosened his grip and was about to step away-

"Don't move, Mr. Brooks," Braxis said. "Keep her still... at least until I can lock her motor-control center."

"But you said-"

"I know what I said. Our local friends will keep the guests busy. Tomas, Mr. Phillips, run outside and fetch our young psychic. Escort her up here. I want her alive."

Tomas scurried/slithered out of the room... human arms and legs moving in a way that was, at the very least, disturbing.

"And Brooks?" said Phillips.

"We already have one Mr. Brooks. I see no need for another."

"Gotcha." Phillips left the room as well. At least HE moved like a human being. Even though he was dead.

"I've seen Brooks in action," said Dobbs. "You people don't stand a chance."

Braxis chuckled, then shook his head.

"I wouldn't worry about our chances, Ms. Dobbs."

Braxis reached for her head again. Brooks held her in his fierce grip.

"You said I could kill Brooks," the fake Brooks growled.

"This will only take a moment, then you can go and play with the others."

"Make it quick...."

"Oh, it will be," said Braxis.

As soon as she felt the doctor's fingers brush her skin, Dobbs snatched the loose spring out of the chair and slashed at the doctor's wrist.

"AHH!" Braxis backed away, blood spraying from the gash just below his palm. But in the same motion, Dobbs rammed the sharp spring into Brooks hand... impaling it and almost jamming it into her OWN flesh.

Brooks didn't release her, but his grip did loosen...

Dobbs bolted. Her muscles had been tensed for several minutes... just waiting for the opportunity to move. When it came, she grabbed it. She shot to her feet, yanking the spring out of Brook's hand and taking it with her... along with a bloody plug of flesh.

"MY HAND!!" Brooks said in a very un-manly scream. His other hand reached for his gun with superhuman reflexes, but even that wasn't quick enough.

Dobbs was out the door and gone.

hey abandoned the Navigator at the edge of the slums... just beyond the area where it was most likely to get stolen while they were gone. They made their way south through the neighborhood. At first everything seemed normal, but after two blocks they passed some kind of invisible line... a demarcation point between 'normal' and 'surreal.'

When they crossed it, they knew immediately that something was wrong. Everything got far too quiet, far too fast. No one was outside. No one was moving around, or driving, or trying to kill them, or anything that usually happened in this part of town.

The place looked abandoned, but Ashley confirmed that there were people all around. They just weren't outside. MOST of them weren't outside.

"Sentries on the rooftops," Sebastian had said. He pulled them into the shadows between two buildings and told them to wait. He went away and returned about five minutes later, saying that it was clear to proceed.

Jason didn't ask him what he went to do. He was sure that he really didn't want to know.

They kept to the shadows, darting between alleyways whenever Ashley, or Donovan, or Sebastian determined that the way was clear. Twice in the next two blocks they came to sticking points where there was not obscure way to move forward. At these points, Sebastian vanished again... returned again... and declared it safe to move briefly out into the open, darting across a street or in front of a building.

After four blocks, they came to the tenement that Jason had seen in the cop's head. The street dead-ended at it, passing between two other apartment buildings before emptying out into the huge slum's parking lot.

If Jason hadn't guessed something was wrong before, he knew it when he saw that parking lot.

It was packed with cars.

Row after row of cars, all lined up in front of the building like toys, some with barely enough room to walk between them. All the cars that SHOULD have been driving up and down the deserted street, or parked (illegally) by the side of the road were right here. Jason wondered how they got there. There weren't any drive-lanes or spaces between them... no way to get one car in or out without moving all of the vehicles between it and the road. It was like each car had just dropped into place from above... like a child meticulously arranging his collection.

The three... or four... of them crouched down behind the very first car in the bizarre arrangement, still in the shadow of an adjacent building.

"I don't know about you two," said Jason. "But I'm sensing a big-ass disturbance in the force right about now."

"I don't like it," said Sebastian. "We're in the clear between here and the building. Nowhere to hide. The instant we step out, we're exposed. We could try going around back. That way might be clearer."

"Or, we could send Donovan to fetch us some reconnaissance. Eh, Donovan?"

"I'm beginning to see a pattern in all your recent suggestions, Jason. They all involve sending ME somewhere-"

"Yeah, 'cause FINALLY we can get something useful out of you. Now carry your ass on in there!"

Donovan sighed. He stood up and stepped out into the sunlight, where he vanished.

"This is creepy," said Ashley. "I'm sensing minds all around us... but they've all been altered like that cop"

"All around us where?" said Jason. "In the cars?"

"No, in the buildings. They're just... sitting there. Like they're waiting for something."

"For us," said Sebastian. "It's a trap."

"Yeah, we established that a long time ago, Sebastian," said Jason. "Try to keep up with us here."

"So what are we going to do?" said Ashley.

"All depends on what Donovan says when he gets back."

They waited for a few minutes. Then Donovan re-appeared. The ghost looked... wrong, somehow. His image faded in and out for several seconds before stabilizing.

"It's Braxis," Donovan said, his voice rising and falling, distorting along with his form.

"Braxis!?" Ashley exclaimed. "THAT weirdo!?"

"Hell, I thought we were dealing with a real threat here," Brooks smirked.

"We ARE," said Donovan. "He's got something in there with him... I didn't get a good look at it, but it knew I was there. It hit me with something... some kind of energy. It hurt."

"Demon," said Sebastian.

"You don't think he got a hold of another Djinn, do you?"

"I don't know. But he DID get a hold of Detective Dobbs. She was with him, being held prisoner."

"We gotta get her out of there," said Jason. "Braxis can screw with people's brains... turn 'em into slaves."

"That must be what happened to all these people!"

"We need to get to Dobbs before he can touch her. That means we need to get in there quick!"

"There are sentries at almost every window," said Donovan.

"How are we gonna sneak past all of them?"

"Sneak?" said Jason. "Who said anything about sneaking?"

Jason stood up and straightened his coat with a characteristic shrug. He twitched... and a .454 Casul revolver appeared in each hand. He cocked the hammers back:

click-click!

"Get behind me," he said over his left shoulder. "Stay close."

"Jason, what are you-" Ashley began. Before she could finish, Jason has hopped on top of the car they were hiding behind... an aging Oldsmobile Delta-88. He jumped up onto the hood and shouted at the building in front of him.

"YO!"

His voice echoed in the silent courtyard.

And then, the first shot came.

Jason saw a movement in an upstairs window. Before the shape could fire, Jason's revolver erupted

BOOOM!

Glass shattered; the shape ducked back into the shadows. But now there was movement all over. Spurred by the single shot, gunmen popped up from their hiding places and started raining bullets down into the courtyard below.

"HERE WE GO!" Jason shouted as he leapt from the Oldsmobile's hood onto the trunk of the car in front of it... firing at the windows as he did. His arms were blurs... aiming, firing, and re-aiming in two separate directions at the same time, all with the supernatural speed and accuracy that was The Affinity.

BOOM!

One gunman yelped as a speeding projectile shot the pistol out of his grasp.

BOOM!

Another screamed as a bullet ricocheted off of his .357 and carved a shallow grove across the scalp of the second gunman standing next to him.

BOOM!

A gun exploded in another shooter's hand. Jason's bullet had struck the high-capacity magazine, causing several of the bullets in it to ignite and spray shrapnel all over the room.

BOOM-
K-TINK
K-TANK!

Two bullets collided in mid-air... a near-impossibility that was followed and even greater one: each bullet ricocheted and struck ANOTHER bullet, sending all four projectiles veering wildly away from any living target.

"DAMN, I'm good!" Jason shouted as he hopped to the next car. Sebastian and Ashley were right behind him.

"I can't believe I'm DOING THIS!" Ashley screamed as she leapt to another vehicle.

BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!

"RELOAD ME!" Jason tossed his revolvers back over his head and drew his backup weapons... to more .454 revolvers. He kept on firing without a break in rhythm as, behind him, Sebastian reloaded the first two guns. Jason used the five shots in one revolver to take out five more gunmen, and simultaneously used the other gun to ricochet bullets out of the air. And when both were empty, he tossed them over his shoulder. Sebastian caught them while Ashley handed the first two weapons back to him... and he kept right on firing, all while moving systematically from one car to the next, getting closer and closer to the old building. His eyes sought out targets that no normal gunman could even see... a trigger... a firing mechanism... a moving bullet. His mind calculated trajectories and ranges with a speed that dwarfed the fastest computer known. All of this happened instantly... effortlessly.

He changed guns two more times, and had exactly one bullet left in one gun when there was nothing left to shoot. The air was filled with smoke from the gunfire... and nothing moved in any of the buildings.

"IS THAT IT!?!" Jason shouted. No one shouted back. "Damn, I was just getting started."

Sweat dripped down Jason's face. His hands were numb and his ears rang from the constant pounding of the weapons. He felt good. This was the furthest he'd ever let the Affinity take him. He wasn't sure he could do it... but now it seemed that he could, and maybe more if he trusted it.

"There are still people alive in the building," said Ashley.

"Yeah, but they aren't shooting. The way is clear... let's go."

"Hmph," said Sebastian. "Men with guns.... somehow, I expected more."

"So did I," said Donovan.

"Yeah, but this is BRAXIS we're talking about," said Jason. "How much damage can HE do-"

Suddenly, the set of double doors at the building's entrance flew open with such force that one of them snapped a hinge. A single, tiny shape emerged:

Tomas Velazquez.

His bare feet slapped on the concrete as he walked, and his eyes glared with an intensity that Jason had never seen before on ANYTHING, let alone on the face of a child.

And Tomas' aura was like a hurricane of the blackest soot imaginable.

"...Ashley?" said Jason. "I thought you mind-wiped that kid?"

"I DIDN'T wipe his mind! It was an accident!"

"Accident or not... should he or should he not be in a hospital drooling all over himself right now?"

"Yeah."

"Well he's drooling... but he ain't in no hospital. His aura looks like-"

"It's bad," said Ashley. "It's REALLY bad."

Tomas walked calmly out in front of the building and paused halfway to the first car. Then he just stood there... watching them.

"Shoot him," said Sebastian.

"What!?"

"Shoot him now, Jason," said Donovan. "If his aura is as bad as you say, then that's not Tomas Velazquez any more."

"But I'm not gonna shoot a kid! Ashley-"

"I'm not touching that. I'm looking at some serious demonic energy here, and I'm not going anywhere near it."

"I'll shoot him." Sebastian pulled a semiautomatic .45 from under his shirt-

"NO!!!" Jason snatched the gun from Sebastian's grasp and tossed it away. "NOBODY is shooting little kids!"

"Jason, your hesitation is what allowed the situation to escalate the LAST time," Donovan warned. "Now SHOOT THE DAMNED KID and lets get on with this!"

"NO-"

"LOOK OUT!"

Ashley's warning was misleading... because there was nothing to see. Jason had been looking directly at the boy the whole time, and just before Ashley shouted, all he saw as a slight shudder in the kid's massive black aura.

But then he felt something brush across him. Not something physical... something else. Ashley shuddered... and Sebastian screamed.

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGH!" Donovan's son fell backward, toppling from the car where they all stood and landing on the ground beside it. He was grabbing his head, holding it tightly as if trying to keep it from exploding.

"SEBASTIAN!"

"What the-"

"He hit us with something! Some kind of psychic scream... Sebastian is the only one of us not protected!"

"AAAAAAAGGGH!" Sebastian was up now... crawling on hands and knees, trying to squeeze between the cars... headed away from Tomas. "SHOOOOOT HIMMM!"

"Donovan, what-... DONOVAN?" Donovan was gone... which surprised absolutely no one.

Jason looked down at his guns. Then at Tomas.

"Retreat!" he shouted. "Get back out of range!"

He turned his back to the boy and hopped down beside Sebastian. He grabbed Sebastian by the waist and pulled him up. Ashley jumped beside him and they started to weave their way back through the maze of cars. Sebastian was shaking... trembling from whatever was assaulting him. But the further they got, the less he shook.

But they didn't get very far.

Jason was trying to squeeze between two cars when he heard a long, low, creaking sound...

crrrrnnnnnnk....

He turned and looked past Ashley. Tomas was still standing in the same spot, looking at them with an expression that was both blank and predatory at the same time. Then he scanned the cars...

crrrrrnnnnnnnnnk...

"UP!" Jason shouted. "UP ON TOP OF THE CARS!"

They all jumped. Even Sebastian. Their feet left the ground and landed on the hood of the car next to them... just as the entire row of cars slammed together.

KRRRAMM!

The almost nonexistent space between the vehicles was violently reduced to nothing. The entire row had been pushed together from both ends like...

Toys.

Now Jason realized how the car got that way. They were toys. The toys of a little demonic child.

"MOVE! GET OUT OF HERE!"

crrrrrnk....

Behind them, a single car near the front of the courtyard rose up from the ground.

"Uh-oh. Sebastian, can you walk?"

"I'm fine," Sebastian said, grimacing. "Go..."

WHHOOOOM!!

"DUCK!"

Everybody ducked as a Volkswagon Jetta flew over their heads with enough force that the wind of its passing shook the cars around them. It landed at the far end of the courtyard, demolishing the car that it hit.

crrrnnnnk...

Then the car they were ON started to move.

"GO!"

Ashley, Jason, and Sebastian threw themselves onto the next car. The car they vacated shot up into the sky... and then came straight back down. Almost straight. Actually,it was coming down on top of them.

"ROLL!"

The trio scattered,... each clearing the area just in time-

WHAM!

The flying car struck like a bomb. Speeding shards of glass and metal shrapnel radiated out of the impact, sailing past Jason as he ducked behind another car. Ashley was nowhere to be seen... but he did see Sebastian take a hit and go down.

"UNGH!"
WHUMP!

Sebastian collapsed on top of the car he was intending to hide behind. He lay there as the car started to rise up underneath him.

"Oh, NO you don't!"

Jason leapt from his place and threw himself over the car he was behind. He jumped from car to car, racing for Sebastian. He wasn't going to make it-

"GOT HIM!" Ashley popped up from nowhere and grabbed Sebastian's leg just before the car rose out of reach. She pulled him off... he landed on top of her, both of them fell back onto another car. Ashley turned toward him-

"JASON GET DOWN!"

Jason threw himself to the ground-

WHOOOSH!

A Honda Accord went past him like a bullet. He waited until he heard it hit, then he was up and running again. He was lucky he moved when he did, because the car Sebastian had been on came tumbling down right onto his hiding place not two seconds after he had vacated it.

"GO! GO! GET OUT!" Jason pointed frantically at the road leading out of the courtyard. There were a lot of cars between them and it. Ashley had Sebastian on his feet, but he was hurt, and she wasn't strong enough to drag him.

"He'S TOO HEAVY!" She yelled at Jason. He was still a few cars away.

crrrrrnnnnnnnnnkkkkkk...

Another car rose into the air and paused... slowly rotating as it decided on a target. It didn't have to decide; the car next to it rose as well, and they both streaked off... one toward Jason, the other headed for Ashley and Sebastian.

WHAM!
KRA-WHAMM!

BOOOOM!!!

The car that barely missed Jason exploded when it hit. A REAL explosion this time,.. with fire that spread quickly, threatening to ignite the adjacent cars as well. The shockwave propelled Jason through the air, and he almost went through the windshield of a Ford Explorer. He didn't have time to check if he'd broken anything, because he knew as soon as he landed....

crrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnkkk....

The Explorer started to move. Jason rolled off of it, hopped across another car, then re-joined Ashley and Sebastian as they tried to make for the exit.

"There's a car in the air! MOVE!"

"He can't!" said Ashley.

"Can you move, Sebastian?"

"Nothing's broken," said Sebastian. "And the screaming in my head has stopped-"

A shadow fell over them.

"THIS WAY!"

Jason grabbed Sebastian's arm and pulled them onto another row of cars.

There was an impact behind them.

crrrrnnnnnk-

"UP!"

Up they went... on top of an ancient Ford Pinto station wagon. The row of cars slammed together. If they hadn't moved, they would have been crushed on the ground.

"Shoot the boy!" Sebastian hissed. "He's playing with us! If we're between the cars, he shoves them together! If we're on top, he throws them at us! It's a GAME to him! SHOOT him or we'll never make it out of here!"

"INCOMING!" Ashley warned.

A white Mitsubishi Eclipse was hurtling toward them.

"JUMP-"

Out of the corner of his eyes, Jason saw the boy's aura flutter again-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGG!"

Sebastian screamed, caught in another demonic mental assault. He dropped where he was, with the Eclipse coming right for them all. Jason had already jumped... he had sailed over an adjacent car and was now on the ground. Ashley was with Sebastian, kneeling beside him on top of the Pacer. Neither of them was moving.... Sebastian, because he couldn't... Ashley because she WOULDN'T.

"GET CLEAR!" Jason shouted.

Jason wanted to jump up and snatch them both away, but there was no TIME! All he could do was watch. He saw Sebastian push Ashley away. And he saw Ashley stand up and turn toward the speeding car. Her arm shot out-

And the car halted in mid-air.

It hung motionless... creaking and dripping gasoline from its underside.

Stunned, Jason could do nothing but look from Ashley... standing there with her arm outstretched, pointing at the car... to the car itself... and then at Tomas, who was staring at the defiant vehicle with seething, unabated rage.

The boy's aura swelled... engulfing the few cars that remained near him. The car in the air shuddered. Ashley stood firm... unmoving. Jason saw that HER aura had changed, too. White... a glowing white that made his eyes burn to look at it.

They were fighting. Whatever was inside Tomas, and whatever Ashley was... were fighting for control of the car.

And they were evenly matched.

The boy's black aura swelled again. Tomas growled... then shrieked!

Ashley's aura unfolded... and suddenly, she screamed.

The hovering Mitsubishi Eclipse finally surrendered... not to Tomas OR Ashley.. but to the laws of physics. The chassis couldn't take the stress, and the car came apart in the air. The main body crumpled up like an accordion while pieces of it flew in all directions.

Shrapnel rained down upon the field of cars for several seconds.

Jason ducked, barely catching sight of Tomas as the boy ran back inside the building, still shrieking at the top of his lungs. The way the boy ran... it wasn't moving like a human. Not even close.

"BROOKS!" Jason heard Sebastian call his name. He wove his way toward the voice, and found that Sebastian and Ashley had switched places. SHE was laying unconscious on the ground, and HE was kneeling beside her.

"Did you SEE that!" Said Brooks. "Did you SEE what she did!?"

"She's hurt."

Ashley and Sebastian had changed places in more ways than one. Just as Sebastian had been hit by speeding metal before, now Ashley was bleeding from a deep wound on her shoulder. There was a jagged shard of metal protruding from her muscle.

"She's unconscious," said Sebastian. "She was before it hit, I think. I can't dress this kind of wound. It's bad."

"We need to get her to a hospital-"

"No," said Sebastian.

"Look, Don't get all badass on me now-"

"WE can't take her. But I will. You have to go in and end this."

"You... you're passing up a fight? YOU!?"

"You're the best suited," said Sebastian. "You've got the Gifts and you can hit from a distance, IF you have the nerve. I would have to get up close, and that thing would tear me apart if I tried. This is the best way."

"Right," Jason said, nodding. It DID make sense... IF he had the nerve. Which, of course, he didn't.

"I'll take her for help," said Sebastian. "You find that thing and put as many bullets as you can into it. Destroy the heart AND the brain. Then sever the head. If you don't have a knife, then SHOOT it off. The rest of the disposal can wait until I get back-"

"I'm not you, Sebastian," said Brooks. "I can't do that."

"The boy is possessed-"

"That means he can be UNpossessed!"

"Before or after he kills you?" said Sebastian. He glanced down at Ashley. "We don't have time for this. I'll be back... and when I get here, I expect to find you alive. And that thing dead."

Sebastian stood up, with Ashley in his arms. He winced and hissed at a pain somewhere in his back, and started walking... quickly, but painfully... toward the street beyond the field of wrecked cars.

Jason turned away from them, and stared at the old building. The boy was in there. So was Braxis. And Dobbs... who was likely fighting for the OTHER side, now. Donovan... his guide and mentor... was AWOL. Like THAT was a big surprise.

Jason checked his guns and counted his bullets. Then he said a prayer.

Then he and started in.

[To Be Continued]

copyright 2005 by Dark Icon Entertainment