Chapter Sixteen

As scared as he was the day Agent Pierce cut open his chest, Max sat in the interrogating room. He had just told Viceroy that if his and Liz’s parents were not released, he would go public. Viceroy just laughed. No matter the sources Brody or Langley had, no news company would ever take this story seriously expect the National Inquirer.

Seeing that Viceroy would not give in, and knowing in his heart that Viceroy was probably right, Max thought-spoke to Kyle. It wasn’t going to work. They would have to turn to Langley’s plan. As much as Max hated the idea of killing, it seemed Langley’s idea of using Kyle’s new power to “brain-blast” the agents was the only option left. Max wished there was another way.

As he was thinking, and feeling utterly defeated, Viceroy ordered the agents to take Max to the white room and prepare him for invasive procedures.

Up in the air ducts, Michael jumped down from the ceiling into one of the empty hallways. Kyle and Isabel sucked him into a mental dreamplane. Isabel, close to tears and full of extreme worry, told Michael that Max was about to be killed. She suggested that Michael go to save Max and worry about breaking the Evans and Parkers out after.

But Michael suddenly has a thought. He knows that Liz and Max are extremely close, and touch each other more than enough. If Liz could touch Isabel just lightly and receive a premonition of her autopsy, then she probably would have seen a premonition of Max’s death, too. But she hadn’t. And that must mean that they will succeed.

Isabel tells Michael that he is being stupid. He is counting on luck to save Max. As Michael hears the sound of an alarm going off, he ignores the mental connection he has to Kyle and Isabel and takes off towards the holding cells.

On the other side of the building, Liz, Valenti, Duff, and Langley storm into the Special Unit’s base. Langley’s uses his powers to knock approaching guards unconscious. The sound of an alarm breaks the silence.

Roughly being ushered into the medical examining room, Max is horrified to see Lonnie’s body--or what’s left of it--still lying on a table covered with blood. As the alarm sounds, the guards are momentarily caught off guard, and Max is able to use his powers to knock them unconscious. Channeling his raging emotions, and with his eyesight blinded with tears, he runs from the medical room and sees half a dozen agents with their guns trained on him. They all fire at once, and Max raises his hands in defense, hoping he isn’t too late.

Michael ran down the corridor until he came to the door that Agent Duff’s map told him was the correct one. Using his powers to unlock the door, he opened the white room to see the Evans and the Parkers. Without wasting anytime on conversation, he ushered them into the hallway, knowing that their time was running short.

As soon as he entered the hallway, however, he felt a sharp pain at the side of his neck. With his fingers, he felt the tranquilizer dart before falling to the ground in a state of semiconsciousness. As strong arms lifted him up and began carrying him away, he could just make out three figures attempting to stay out of sight. One looked like Tess Harding, with silvery blue hair. The other looked like himself. And the third: the third looked like Alex Whitman.

While the guards had their hands full restraining the Evans and Parkers, Ava and Rath watched as Michael was carried off. The two dupes briefly discussed whether they should try and save Michael or head straight for Lonnie. Deciding to at least follow Michael, they came up with a plan. Walking over to one of the unconscious guards, Ava removed the tinfoil from his head and began mindwarping him instructions.

Making the guard believe that he was escorting Ava and Rath to the medical examining room, Rath and Ava followed after the guard, each with high hopes of saving Lonnie.

Max had just barely been able to raise his force field in time to stop the bullets. As he stood there, protected by a thin energy field, he watched as Duff, Valenti, Liz and Langley began to attack from the other side. Langley was forced to use his powers to bring up an energy field as well. Then, from the opposite direction, Viceroy and a large number of agents appeared with an unconscious Michael and the two sets of parents.

Immediately, all gun fire ceased and the Special Unit was at a stand off with Max and his friends. Viceroy demanded that Max lower his shield or the parents would die. With no other options left, not even the option of Kyle’s brain-blasting since that would take too long to build up enough energy, Max lowered his hands and ordered Langley to do the same. It was over. They had won.

Max suddenly saw the world around him slip from view and was surprised to realize he was being sucked into one of Kyle’s telepathic chat rooms. Kyle and Isabel quickly told Max that this was not over. They had gone ahead with going public and were on their way to the Special Unit base. Max protested, saying they should stay at Langley’s like the original plan, but Isabel and Kyle shook their heads. This ended now.

Once back inside his own head, with his own thoughts, Max realized he and all his friends were being ushered together into one room. He gave a soft and scared smile to Viceroy and told him to look outside.

And when the FBI special agent looked outside, he saw that the entire base was completely surrounded by news vans and other media personnel. “Max grinned. Turnabout, he thought.”