Meta 2: The Second Wave Read online

  "Illegally? Since when did legality extend to metaband ownership?"

  "Since the number of metas started passing into quadruple digits, kid."

  "How do you know he has these powers since you don’t even know if they exist?"

  "Besides the circumstantial evidence like his main competitor just up and handing over the majority stake in his company for a hundredth of what it's worth on the open market? We have our methods."

  "Which are?"

  "Which are classified."

  "Great. Of course they are. Does he have any other abilities, or is that classified too?"

  "To the best of our intelligence, no. Telepathy seems to be the only meta power he possesses. However, we can almost never be sure of that, but you have experience with that from your buddy Iris's little shape shifting routine, don't you?"

  "How do you know about that?"

  "It's easy to get The Controller talking when you've got potato chips to trade after a month of eating nothing but slop."

  "So what? You want me there just in case he's got powers you don't know about yet?"

  "Partially, but there's another scenario we're more concerned about. Desmond Keane seems to have the ability to control the minds of his victims to some extent, even when his metabands are powered down. Or at least, we assume that, since there's no way he's been able to keep them powered on for an entire month without needing to recharge them. While we believe he cannot telepathically issue new orders to his victims while his bands are powered down, the orders he has issued seem to remain in the victim's mind as long as the metabands are attached to his body, even if they are dormant."

  "So you need someone to remove his metabands before he has a chance to reactivate them."

  "Exactly. If he's able to reactivate the bands before our tactical team takes him into custody, then we run the risk of him gaining telepathic control over the team."

  "Why don’t you just assassinate him?"

  Halpern gives me a look of concern meant to convey the idea that they would never do such a thing.

  "Don't give me that look. I know The Agency isn't above executions if the situation calls for it. Trust me, I'm glad that option's not on the table, but since I haven't heard a good reason why it's not, that makes me suspicious it secretly is, and you’re just not telling me."

  Halpern sighs and drops the mask of false concern. "The truth? Because we're not one hundred percent sure about any of this. We're close. Ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine percent. But, if we're wrong, we'll have assassinated one of the most powerful men in the world without any indisputable proof of wrongdoing on his part. The Agency can't afford that type of mistake."

  "So, what do you need from me?"

  "First," Halpern says, "we need to get you a uniform."

  Chapter 11

  A few short minutes later, I'm inside a small locker room where I've been given a military tactical uniform to wear. The suit I wear as Omni is controlled by my mind and powered by my metabands, but unfortunately, I have limited control over it. I'm fairly certain I can't shape shift beyond creating my somewhat simple suit and exaggerated physique, unlike some other metas, including Iris.

  As a result, I need to wear the tactical uniform over my Omni suit since removing that would also remove the additional height and body mass the metabands afford me. I'm already extremely paranoid about The Agency finding out my actual identity, a desire they've made no attempt to hide. So, the last thing I want is for them to figure out what my real body looks like. It might be paranoia, but even something as simple as my height, weight, and approximate build could help them narrow down whatever potential list they undoubtedly have for identifying potential metas.

  The tactical outfit isn't quite as form fitting as my Omni suit, but it also covers me head to toe. In fact, this uniform completely obscures my face thanks to a full-face shield. The shield isn't there to protect me, though; it's there to protect my identity. My fake identity as Omni, and I'm not the only one whose identity is concealed.

  As I leave the locker room to meet up with Halpern in the hallway, he explains the working logistics of the team. Their identities are top secret, even to many members within The Agency. This is done for the same reason so many metas keep their identities a secret too: fear of retaliation. The team's job is to take down suspected metahuman criminals, many of whom were connected to crime even before acquiring their powers. A crime boss or terrorist can be just as dangerous in jail as he is out of it if he knows the names and faces of those who put him behind bars and wants to hurt their families.

  The identities of the team members are unknown, even to each other. It's this level of caution and paranoia that allows me to join the group on this mission without raising any red flags, Halpern tells me. They’re somewhat used to members joining and leaving based on the needs and priorities of the current mission. This time around, they've been told that I'm simply “in training.” No other qualifier is needed regarding my background since it’s assumed that if I’m a part of this team, it’s because I'm a former Navy SEAL, Special Forces, etc. Halpern tells me to not even bother coming up with a background story since none of them will ask. In fact, he says the less talking I can do in general, the better.

  "There's one other thing, kid," Halpern begins. "These guys, they aren't the biggest fans of metas. You have to understand, they see the worst of the absolute worst. They’ve had to go up against metas who have completely eviscerated innocent people, including children. You're going to have to keep who you are and what you can do under wraps unless we hit a worst case scenario situation."

  "And what's considered a worst case scenario situation?"

  "That Keane is, in fact, a meta and has abilities beyond mind control."

  "So the worst case scenario is also the most likely scenario?”

  “Pretty much.”

  Great.

  “You aren't afraid that if he does have mind control abilities, that he could use them on the team to turn them against one another?" I ask.

  "No. Keane hasn't shown any violent tendencies. He's a businessman. Corrupt, but not a killer,” Halpern says.

  “There's a pretty big difference between killing for money versus killing in order to avoid capture. You might be surprised what people are capable of when they’re cornered."

  Halpern stops in the hallway and looks directly into my eyes despite the fact that I’m wearing a tactical visor attached to a helmet that is completely obscuring them.

  "Midnight's teaching you quite a bit, isn't he?" Halpern asks with a smile.

  I’ve never discussed Midnight with him, but that doesn’t mean Halpern’s forgotten that we're connected to one another. I don't answer Halpern's question, and instead, ask one of my own. "What if Keane has a change of morals and decides he’d rather take over your team’s brains than spend the rest of his life buried under a cement block?"

  "They're mentally prepared against that," Halpern says.

  "How? No one's ever seen a meta capable of telepathic powers before."

  "That you know of. We've got to keep a few things to ourselves, kid. This is us," Halpern says as he stops at another unmarked, stainless steel door and submits his palm, retina, and voice for biometric scanning.

  The door slides into the adjacent wall and reveals six soldiers dressed in identical uniforms to mine.

  "Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, meet Golf," Halpern says as a way of introducing me to the team I’m now a part of.

  Why do I have to be “Golf?” Man, I always get stuck with the lamest names, but right now, I've got to keep that to myself, considering I'm sixteen and covertly infiltrating a highly trained tactical team.

  "Welcome to Alpha Team," Beta says, extending his hand to shake mine.

  I say “he,” but I honestly, have no idea if Beta is male or female. Beta could be a damn robot for all I know since his voice is modulated through his mask to the point where it’s barely recognizable as even human. But that's the point, I
assume, since everything about the group and mission is more covert than I ever could have imagined.

  "Thanks. Happy to be here," I say, not recognizing the sound of my voice as it goes through the modulation process to hide my true identity.

  "All right, Golf. This is where I leave you. Remember the briefing I gave you. Beta is your commanding officer now. Good luck," Halpern says to me.

  He walks out the same door we entered through. It slides behind him with a hiss, leaving me completely alone with the six soldiers.

  "All right, Golf. Let's see what you've got," Charlie says with a slap to my right shoulder.

  There’s no turning back now.

  Chapter 12

  "All right, surveillance indicates that the building is clear. Keane is en-route to his office to work late, as usual. Security is at its lowest since all non-maintenance staff are gone for the night. Keane might be one of the richest men in the world right now, but that doesn't mean he's not trying to save a few bucks by keeping a light security detail on at night. Not much to steal inside an office building where the most valuable asset is encrypted data that's worthless without the keys," Beta says.

  He is giving us a detailed briefing as we ride inside a plain white van on the way to Keane Tower, where we hope to be only minutes behind Keane. The road is bumpy, and there are no windows inside the van, but I can tell we’re driving fast to make sure we don’t miss the opportunity the team has been waiting on for weeks. No one outside of Beta is talking, which makes me feel slightly more at ease since I'm terrified of blowing my cover. I keep trying to tell myself that all I need to do is keep my head down, stay behind everyone else, and this will all be over before I know it, but the rock in my stomach won't stop reminding me that I already regret this decision. The AK-47 in my hands isn't helping either.

  It would seem that Midnight's aversion to guns has rubbed off on me, but I’ve never liked guns anyway. The fact that this one is full of blanks and has the safety on helps, but not much. Probably because I know that everyone else in the van has the same gun, but theirs is filled with live rounds.

  There's a dip in the road, and I’m jostled out of my seat for a moment. Although I can't see it, I can feel that we've just driven down a ramp and have likely reached our target: the underground garage at Keane Tower.

  There's a ton of maintenance happening in the building, most of which revolves around upgrading the existing automated security systems to a much more robust solution. Keane has just become very, very wealthy, and if he isn't already the target of both rival businesses and metas, he will be soon. That's one of the reasons this mission has to happen tonight. Next week, the new surveillance systems will be fully online, and any attempt to break into the building with any level of stealth will be exponentially harder, if not impossible.

  The van we’re in is disguised to look like it belongs to one of the many security contractors working on the security upgrades. The fake credentials the driver presents to security allows us to gain entry without much more than a glance, and why not? The building is empty. There's not much to protect. They have no idea that Desmond Keane is on his way to the office at this very moment.

  "Placing garage security cameras on loop now," a voice from a technician at Silver Island says through our earpieces.

  Apparently, it was very easy to hack the current security system and simply replace the live feeds with pre-taped feeds from earlier today. The guards watching the security monitors will never even see us if all goes according to plan, but that feels like a very big “if” to me. I still haven’t been fully briefed on the exact plan, other than we're supposed to neutralize Keane and bring him back to Silver Island for further questioning without raising any alarms at the Keane Tower.

  The van pulls to a stop, and the doors are opened by Beta as he utters a single word: "Move." I follow the others as they pile out of the van. The driver has joined us now and is once again masked. No one has seen his face since he only removed the mask after we were all safely locked inside the back of the darkened van.

  Jogging behind the others, I find it hard to keep quiet. There're too many things attached to my “stealth” uniform that jingle and jangle with each step I take. The group stops and turns toward me. Even though they’re all wearing lead-lined black tactical masks to prevent metas from learning their identities, I can tell that they're not happy with me.

  "Sorry," I whisper as I quickly search my uniform to find the flashlight on my belt that has come unfastened and is the source of the noise I'm making.

  "Just keep up, rookie," one of the others says to me with a sigh.

  We collectively slip into an elevator. Once inside, Charlie slips a keycard attached to a wrist-top computer into the card slot beneath the floor buttons. A few taps on the device's screen and access is granted to the top floor, which is almost entirely taken up by Keane's office.

  "There's a problem," a voice says into my ear as the elevator's doors close, and we begin to rise.

  "What do you mean, there's a problem?" Beta asks.

  Even with the voice modulation, I can practically hear him clenching his teeth. He strikes me as someone who doesn't like it when a plan doesn't go the way he expects, which reminds me how nervous I am about potentially exposing exactly what I am to this team.

  "Keane is already in the building. I repeat, Keane is already in the building," the voice says over the communications channel.

  "How can he already be in the building?" Delta asks.

  "Our intelligence was wrong about his route to the building, and he's arrived ahead of schedule. He's entered the building through a new entrance that is already equipped with the upgraded surveillance system, which we do not have access to."

  "Dammit," Echo says through his communicator. "Where is he now?"

  "We have a team on the rooftop across from the building that confirmed he is in his office."

  "We don't have much time," Beta says as I feel my heart begin to beat out of my chest. "So much for the element of surprise. This is about to get a little more complicated."

  The original plan was fairly simple: wait on the top floor for Keane, the only person who would have access this time of night, and disarm him. The team had planned to wait on either side of the elevator doors, prepared to grab his arms as he exited the elevator. The strategy would have prevented him from activating his metabands and potentially taking control of our minds, as well as using any other powers he might possess that we do not know about. Once immobilized, he would be shackled with titanium arm restraints attached to a waist collar, and he would be ordered to summon his metabands for removal by the team. If he refused, which was expected, he was to be transported back to Silver Island for further interrogation.

  The team has conducted many missions similar to this one, but never with such a high profile individual. If they’re wrong and there’s collateral damage, the consequences for the entire agency would be severe as Keane is a very powerful man, meta or not. There isn't room for mistakes, and we just lost the element of surprise.

  "What's the new plan?" Delta asks, but there isn't time for a Plan B.

  The elevator we're in opens directly into Keane's office. We'd be lucky if he doesn't already know we're on our way. Once those doors open, all bets are off. The elevator is already at floor twenty with sixty-eight floors to go.

  "Weapons ready. We take this one the hard way. Lethal force is authorized," Beta says.

  "But what about taking him alive? We don't know for sure that he's even a meta," I say, unable to help myself.

  Beta turns his masked face slowly toward me.

  "Excuse me?" he asks in a tone that does not convey politeness.

  "We don't even know that he's definitely a meta. If we kill him, we might never know," I say.

  "I can live with that," Beta shoots back.

  Great. A cowboy. I’m starting to get the feeling that coming here was a bad idea. There’s a long silence and the only sound in the elevator is the dingin
g as we pass each floor, an urgent reminder that we're running out of time for a solution.

  "The primary objective is taking the meta alive, but if there are any complications, or if the target attempts to activate his bands, take him out. That's an order," Beta says as he flicks the safety off his AK-47.

  Ding.

  Chapter 13

  The elevator doors open, and the team rushes out past me. Even with my heightened abilities, everything moves so quickly I can barely keep my focus. The floor is dark and expansive. Most of the office is open concept or divided by floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing you to see across the entire top floor into the darkened outside world.

  I follow who I think is Charlie as the rest of the team sprints across the floor toward the glass office where I can already see Keane at his desk. He hasn't noticed us thanks to the lights being off throughout the rest of the floor, but it's only a matter of seconds before he’s bound to look up from his computer, see a group on soldiers running toward him with assault rifles, and react.

  If he is a meta, he'll do what I would do in this situation and activate his bands at the first sight of us. After a while with them, activation becomes an instinct at signs of danger. We might be the good guys, but he doesn't know that. We could be any one of the numerous anti-meta terrorist groups that have sprung up in recent months. They don't negotiate.

  We make it most of the way to the glass wall of his office before he notices us. His reaction is to reach under the desk and hit a panic button. In an instant, alarms sound and a steel gate descends from the ceiling to encapsulate Keane's office.

  "Looks like our man's got something to hide," Delta yells without breaking his stride as he runs toward the now metal-encased office.

  Yeah, he's got something to hide, or he's just a terrified billionaire who just saw a group of armed militants running at him in an empty office building in the middle of the night. In either case, the fact that he didn't use meta powers to stop the attack leads me to believe that he is not, in fact, a meta. Either that, or he's determined not to expose himself as one unless it's absolutely necessary.