Ellis cleared his throat. “Well, it was a very old car. Given what I’ve found, I’m sure I can simply get a new one and head back home. If you like, I can draw you a map. Didn’t see anything else there, but you and your boys can certainly have a look-see.”
The man turned to his friends out in the hall and spoke in rapid-fire… something. Ellis was never one for languages, but they were slipping in some conversational German and Russian in his training at Area 51. And it sure didn’t sound like they were speaking German.
“It really doesn’t work that way,” the man said, turning back to Ellis and drawing a revolver from his suit jacket. “Get your clothes on. You’ll show us where you found it, and then we’ll see if we leave you out there dead or alive.”
His mind racing, Ellis reached for his pants. He tried to think like Frank or Captain Anderson — like a military man. One armed target in the room. Two targets in the hall, also probably armed. He was certain now that no amount of talking would help him — and had to admit that his alibi was poor indeed. His only asset was… his Enhancement.
That could work.
“Have you seen my shoes?” Ellis said. “Where did I put them?” Before the man could answer, Ellis fell to all fours and began looking under the bed.
He heard the large man snap his fingers, and from his new vantage point, saw two other sets of feet enter the room. Then a third. Four, then. God damn it all to hell.
“Help Mr. Longstreet here to the car. He can get his shoes later,” the man said.
Now or never.
Ellis cleared his mind and focused on the floor, placing his hands upon it. A moment later, the carpet turned to sand.
“What the hell?” the large man muttered. “What bullshit is this?”
That’s when Ellis realized the floor itself, his real target, was under the carpet. “Aw, hell,” he muttered.
The sound of multiple guns cocking echoed in the room, and Ellis heard one of them say something short and brutish. Quickly, Ellis brushed away a spot of sand in front of him, revealing the wooden floor of the room. Another touch, followed by a silent prayer to the Almighty or whoever was listening.
The men shouted. A shot went off, the bullet exploding into the sand just inches from Ellis’s right hand. Then they fell.
They all fell, in fact — including Ellis.
Too much! Too much! He tried to stop the Enhancement, but it was too late. He started sliding downward quickly, at the last moment catching his hand on a piece of plumbing once hidden by the wooden floor, now hanging in the empty space between floors.
The four other men landed with loud crashes in the room below, except for the one who had fallen softly on the bed. However, a moment later, Ellis’s own bed crashed down on top of the goon, abruptly turning his good luck bad. Ellis’s dresser followed, along with a chair and a rickety desk.
Ellis dropped down onto the floor below and immediately made for the door, but one of the men was laid out in front of him, gun raised. “What the fuck was that?” he said through gritted teeth, his leg at a very odd angle from his fall.
“Strangest thing, wasn’t it?” Ellis drawled as he used his bare feet to move the edge of the carpet away from the wooden floor. “Never seen that before.”
“How you do that?!” the man shouted; his accent was far less Brooklyn, far more Slavic. “You some kind of wizard? Fuck!”
Before Ellis could reply, a wave of concern came over him. Sure, they were trying to kidnap him, maybe even kill him, but he wasn’t like them, was he? He wasn’t a criminal. He was a citizen just trying to get home. So, maybe he should at least call someone.
But then that would alert the police, and they’d see the sand on the floor… Ellis’s heart started racing. He looked around and realized just what he’d done, what a massive security breach this was. They’d know to look for him now, the MAJESTIC people. They’d track him down, capture him, throw him in a cell. And what about his wife? His family? What would they do then?
Tears formed in Ellis’s eyes as he sank to the floor and sobbed, knowing with complete certainty that life as he knew it, all that he loved and cherished, his wife and family — it was all completely gone. Completely. All due to his selfish, stupid actions.
The other men still conscious and alive were also sobbing when Maggie Dubinsky walked in the room.
“Ellis, you’re a genuine idiot, you know that?”
Through his tears, Ellis saw Frank, Danny, and Cal behind her, all looking down at him. “I know… I know…” Ellis sobbed. “You… you’re doing this to me, Maggie? Please. Please make it stop. I can’t take it.”
Danny turned and nodded, prompting Frank to enter the room around Maggie and pull the shattered bed frame off the man on the bed. “He’s bleeding out,” Frank said. “I can already feel him slipping. No saving him.” Grimacing, Cal walked over and held out his hand, then hesitated. Frank put a hand on Cal’s shoulder. “I’m starting to access his memories. Believe me, he’s not worth saving,” Frank said. “Might as well go the other way.”
Cal sighed and nodded. “I’ll want to know later,” he said. “I want to know that this did some good.”
“I’ll tell you. Go ahead, Cal.”
Cal placed his hand on the dying man’s head. A moment later, Cal’s salt-and-pepper hair grew darker, his arms more sinewy and strong, his eyes brighter. And the shattered man… withered. Aged. His hair grew white, his skin sallow.
He stopped breathing less than ten seconds later.
Danny joined them at the dead man’s side. “Frank?”
“Got him,” Frank said simply. “Doesn’t seem like Cal’s Enhancement did anything to affect mine.” He turned to look at the dead man. “God, he was awful. I don’t want him in my head.”
Danny nodded. “Try sorting him out. Pushing him away, just like we planned.”
Frank closed his eyes, his brow wrinkling. A few moments later, he opened them. “Huh. Might have something there. I didn’t get much, just one or two tidbits that stuck. Some thoughts about his wife, and his girlfriend of course, and some stash in the basement of an abandoned building a few blocks down. And… something about Russian. A Russian, or the language. Something.”
Danny went wide-eyed at this. “Someone in here?”
Frank shrugged. “Don’t know. I was pushing him away, not sifting through. Sorry.”
“All right, then,” Danny said finally. “Maggie, how we doing?”
She’d been busy collecting weaponry from the rest of the crying men on the floor. “All clear. We keeping these guys?”
Ellis saw Danny fixing him with a hard stare, which caused him to sob once more — and he wasn’t sure if Maggie was still on him with her damn powers or not. “We have to,” Danny frowned. “They might know something. And it’s all because Mr. Longstreet here decided to get clever. We’ll have to torch the hotel. Maggie, pull the fire alarm and make sure the floors are clear as you head down. Frank and I will start the fire up here and get these guys out. Cal, get Ellis down into the car. No need to be gentle.”
Cal reached down and yanked Ellis’s arm with surprising strength, easily pulling him to his feet. “Trying to get yourself killed,” Cal muttered. “Lord, give me patience with fools and children.”
“Well? What the hell, Ellis?” Frank growled, his voice hushed.
They were back at Area 51 at breakfast the following morning. Ellis had spent the night under strict guard, which meant this was the first opportunity the other Variants had had to speak with him face to face. Maggie and Cal were joking it up with some of the MPs a couple tables down, distracting them.