The Initiative (A Sleeping Beauty Remix)

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Two

"From the fire the Circle will rise. And We will not be Silent."

-Graffiti found off Main Street in Medloy Village

When Wes said "suit up," he really meant, "dress down." We were teenagers. Others would assume as such, and we wanted to play up on that as much as possible. It all worked back into the underestimation factor. We wanted the enemy to think we were nothing but teenagers.

I found myself in the back of a black SUV adjusting a pair of dark leather pants paired with combat boots and a long sleeved t-shirt that said, "Wild and Free."

I felt very eighteen.

Our cover today wasn't much different than the one last time we went into the field. Playing teenagers was the easiest for this team and worked well in field assignments. While we wouldn't use the same cover all of the time, it worked well for the area we headed to.

Pellora was Sarias' biggest coastal city at the southern tip of the kingdom. Not only a highly visited vacation spot, it was also a big trade and transportation area.

Having grown up in Pellora, Wes and I knew the area well, which was why he'd split us up in two teams—girls and boys. Wes and I had grown up in this city, had even gotten drafted for the Initiative here. We knew its hidden routes, its popular hangouts...its drug exchange spots. Only thing was, Pellora was a good hours drive from our area near Medloy village. During that time, Wes briefed us.

Leonger had given us a driver this time, a rather bulky looking woman with hard eyes and short blonde hair named Jane. I liked her immediately. She was quiet, yet dependable; moving through the streets with a relaxed efficiency that spoke of experience.

Wes passed a file folder over his seat to Brayden who opened it, scanned through the contents, then passed it off to Eva. "Our target is Zekiel Ambros. You may recognize his photo," Wes said as Marlee passed the file to me. I immediately recognized his dark hair and pinched features. He was our friend from Medloy Village. "Zekiel is twenty-four and a recent graduate of Southern Pellora University. He holds a degree in Technological Science. While he had not been directly spotted in Pellora, our sources report similar sightings to Medloy Village: automatic doors opening and closing, street cameras acting out--the works."

"Do we know how his ability works?" Eva asked.

"Our resident ability specialist identified this as a severe case of technopathy."

Technopathy—something I'd read about but never actually seen before. Well, before Zekiel. It was the ability to communicate and control technology with the mind. Before I'd gone under, I'd read about a minor case where a little girl was able to turn lights off. But this was cameras, ATMs, doors, and who knew what else. Completely unprecedented.

"Have we seen anything like this in recent years?" I asked from the back.

It was Brayden who shook his head, "Nothing to this level."

Were abilities different these days too? We'd had a few crazy powerful Aces in the past, though nothing like this. Nowadays abilities were popping up faster than the government could document them. Based on the conversation Marlee and I had the other week, it sounded like they were also a lot stronger than they used to be.

Maybe there was something in the water.

I snorted softly at my own joke before asking, "What about the police? Have they found anything?"