YEARS GONE
By Unlikely Hiro
Chapter XI: The Capture
Ashby, Nebraska
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Jeff Winters casually flipped through the items on display in front of the "Finest"
convenience store, pausing only to pick up a copy of the Grant County Gazette.
Molly glared at him through her binoculars. She and Joey were situated in their car
across the street in an alley.
"What's taking so long?" Joey asked from the driver's seat. He was taking notes in a
tablet PC.
"He's reading the paper," Molly said, not taking her eyes off Winters.
A few more minutes passed. A young woman walked up to Winters and began talking to
him.
"Well, hello," Molly whispered, pushing the slider on the right side of the binoculars.
When she had zoomed in on the woman, she snapped a picture.
The woman's head snapped towards them.
"Mother of God, don't tell me she has Hana's power," Molly whispered, reaching for
her gun.
But the woman shrugged it off and went back to talking to Winters.
"What? What's happening?" Joey asked.
Molly told him what happened, "Can you send her picture to HQ?"
"Just a sec," he muttered, typing a few things.
Molly turned back to Winters and the woman, who had moved close together and were
talking in what looked like conspiratorial tones..
"They're moving," Molly said after a moment. She set her binoculars down, turned
around, and slumped back in her seat. She closed her eyes, breathed out, and focused
on them, "There walking down Gage Street now. There's a car in an alley. Good lord, it
must be from the nineties."
"Mm," Joey muttered, "Moll, no one on shift in HQ right now recognizes her."
"That's nice, Joe. They're in the car and it's going south down Main Street towards
Railroad Drive."
Joey started the engine, silencing it with his power, "Tell me when we should go."
Molly was silent for a moment, "They're going west along Railroad Drive. They're
passing Third Street and heading through the residential neighborhood."
"I'm on it," Joey said, backing them out of the alley and onto Ashby Street.
Molly psychically followed them to an abandoned motel on the edge of town. Joey
parked them a few blocks away--close enough to intercept, but far away enough to not
be seen.
The woman slammed a large suitcase on the hood and opened it. Winters reached in and
pulled out a stack of fresh 100 euro bills.
"I'm glad you're not trying to pass off American currency on me."
"Maslarak may be moronically blind in his patriotism, but I'm not. I know the dollar is
worthless."
Winters nodded and reached for a CD in his jacket pocket.
"Gotcha!" Molly whispered.
Joey gunned the engine and sped the car towards them. Molly pulled her gun and took
off her seatbelt, preparing to leap out of the car.
They skidded to a halt in the abandoned parking lot.
The woman was gone. Winters was standing there in shock, holding the CD. Molly
jumped out of the car and aimed her gun.
"GET DOWN!! GET DOWN!!"
Winters dropped the CD. Molly shoved him to the ground.
"WHERE'S THE GIRL?!" she shouted right into his ear.
Suddenly, she was awash with the worst feeling of despair she had ever felt. The death
of her parents was dwarfed by it. Everything began to seem so utterly, utterly
pointless. She wanted to give up everything. She felt herself begin to slip away into
oblivion, and she welcomed it. It would be so much better.
There was a high-pitched squeal and she felt the world and sanity return.
She looked up. Joey's lips were pursed in a whistle.
"It didn't hurt you, did it?" he asked. Molly shook her head. He pointed at Winters,
"He'll be out a while, though. Days, perhaps."
"What did you DO?"
"Focused sound waves that made tsunamis in his inner ear. World's worst case of
dizziness. And you?"
"I don't really know," she said after a short moment, "It was like I was being killed by
depression."
"That's odd. Didn't suspect he could do that."
"Me neither."
"So where's the girl?"
Molly's brow furrowed, "I don't know."
"What? Is she dead?"
Molly shook her head, "I'd still be able to find her. I can find corpses. Jimmy Hoffa, for
instance."
"Really?"
"West Falls, Wisconsin, underneath the north bridge of--"
Joey waved his arms, "Never mind. So she's just…gone?" Molly nodded. Joey
shrugged, "I'll call a bag team for Winters. We'll have to figure this out later."
Joey made a call. Seconds later, two people teleported into the scene. The first was a
tall brunette woman with short hair, had her hand on the other's shoulder. The man,
also a brunette, held a white suitcase.
"What's the deal, Joe?" he asked.
"Rogue agent, Harry. Knocked him down with the sonic whistle."
"Joy," he muttered. He opened his suitcase, removing a first aid kit, "Think he's safe to
teleport, Tracy?"
"Yeah," the woman said. To Molly, "Do you guys need to be taken back to the office?"
"That'd be a good idea," Molly said.
"Then we should get him in the car," Tracy said, nodding her head towards it, "I can
take the whole thing."
Harry and Joey lifted up Winters and put him in the back seat. Harry sat in the back with
him, while Molly and Joey took the front. Tracy put her hand on the hood, closed her
eyes, and an instant later they were in the garage of the Utah Office.
--------------------------
Molly sat on the floor in front of her fireplace, gazing at the flickering flames. She
exhaled slowly, touching the tips of her fingers to the floor.
She repeated the breathing exercise several times before her eyes fluttered and she
entered the strange dreamspace where her clairvoyance existed.
She focused on the woman. A picture of her appeared clearly in her mind. She was
suddenly hit with a torrent of information:
Isabelle Julienne Green, born Monday, June 22, 1998, 3:41 AM, Samaritan-Paul General
Hospital, Green Lake, Nevada to Marsha Elle Hoxworth Green and --
It just kept coming. She had never experienced anything like it. The information was
oddly flat and lifeless, like a database.
Molly tried to push it aside and focus on the location of the woman.
Isabelle Julienne Green, born Monday, June 22, 1998, 3:41 AM, Samaritan-Paul General
Hospital, Green Lake, Nevada to Marsha Elle Hoxworth Green and --
Molly pushed it aside again and focused on Joey. She now saw actual, real-time
images, like she normally did. He was clearly in his quarters, playing an old computer
game. Something like Halo 3.
When she turned back to the woman--Isabelle, presumably--she got the same psychic
data stream.
With disgust, she let it all go. She felt herself return to the world. Exhaling slowly, she
stretched, keeping her fingers on the floor.
"Shit," she whispered.
A few minutes later, she had fully reestablished herself on the corporeal plane. She
got up and walked over to Joey's.
Joey answered the door a few moments after she knocked, "Yes?"
"Something weird just happened."
"Something weird."
"Mm."
They stood there for a moment.
Joey brushed back his hair, "Well, come in." Joey closed the door behind her, then
went to his room to shut off his computer, "I was playing Halo 3."
"I didn't think that was ever released."
"It wasn't." Joey sat on the couch next to her, "So. What's the weird something?"
Molly told him what had happened, explaining how the meditation helped "widen" her
abilities and what she had expected to see. When she finished, Joey glanced over at
the fireplace, "I always thought there was a reason why we had fireplaces
underground."
"Joe…"
"Right, right. Well, what am I supposed to do? I'm the rookie, remember?"
Molly frowned, "I thought you'd have an idea."
"Nothing beyond calling Peter."
Molly rolled her eyes, "He's in India. With Claude. How are we supposed to get him
here?"
"Click our heels together three times and chant, 'There's no place like home'?"
She laughed, "You become more of a smart-ass every day, Joe. We should call Peter,
but I'm thinking about Rudolph Kane."
"Kane? He's a power expert? I was thinking Hal Sharp."
Molly shook her head, "Sharp's got super intelligence, but he works with machines.
Kane's something like 400 years old, right? I doubt there's ANYTHING he doesn't know."
"Well, where is he?"
Molly closed her eyes. She received an image of an apparently middle-aged man
jogging on a mountain trail, "China."
"China. Well, I suppose we could get Tracy, but she and Harry are out on assignment
right now. Are you sure we can't figure this out without Kane or Sharp or Peter?"
Molly rested her head on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, "I can't believe I snapped
my sight when I saw him handing it over."
"'Snapped my sight?'"
"There was no place to hide except for maybe that motel," she continued, "But it was
just Winters. I've never NOT been able to find someone."
Molly sighed. Joey didn't say anything.
"I keep getting this information set," she said after a while, "It's like a psychic
database. It's like that's where she is." She sat back up suddenly, as if she had been hit
in the back.
"Holy shit!" she shouted.
"What? What is it?"
"Joe, what happened to that CD Winters was holding?"
Joey scratched his head, "I think it's still in Evidence. Why?"
"Joe, it's incredibly important that that CD isn't exposed to ANY computer! Joe, we
need to get it from Evidence and to Sharp."
"What do you--hey!" Molly grabbed his arm and began leading him out into the hallway,
"What the hell is going on, Moll?"
"Joe, I think I know why we never found that girl. She's the CD, Joe. She put herself
onto the CD and if we use it, we'll be putting her in our entire network. Okay?
Everything we've ever worked for, every agent's identity, all our finances,
EVERYTHING!"
Joey considered it. It made a sort of sense, "So now what do we do?"
"We HAVE to get that CD before Evidence decides to examine it's contents! If I'm right,
everything depends on it! Let's go!"
By Unlikely Hiro
Chapter XI: The Capture
Ashby, Nebraska
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Jeff Winters casually flipped through the items on display in front of the "Finest"
convenience store, pausing only to pick up a copy of the Grant County Gazette.
Molly glared at him through her binoculars. She and Joey were situated in their car
across the street in an alley.
"What's taking so long?" Joey asked from the driver's seat. He was taking notes in a
tablet PC.
"He's reading the paper," Molly said, not taking her eyes off Winters.
A few more minutes passed. A young woman walked up to Winters and began talking to
him.
"Well, hello," Molly whispered, pushing the slider on the right side of the binoculars.
When she had zoomed in on the woman, she snapped a picture.
The woman's head snapped towards them.
"Mother of God, don't tell me she has Hana's power," Molly whispered, reaching for
her gun.
But the woman shrugged it off and went back to talking to Winters.
"What? What's happening?" Joey asked.
Molly told him what happened, "Can you send her picture to HQ?"
"Just a sec," he muttered, typing a few things.
Molly turned back to Winters and the woman, who had moved close together and were
talking in what looked like conspiratorial tones..
"They're moving," Molly said after a moment. She set her binoculars down, turned
around, and slumped back in her seat. She closed her eyes, breathed out, and focused
on them, "There walking down Gage Street now. There's a car in an alley. Good lord, it
must be from the nineties."
"Mm," Joey muttered, "Moll, no one on shift in HQ right now recognizes her."
"That's nice, Joe. They're in the car and it's going south down Main Street towards
Railroad Drive."
Joey started the engine, silencing it with his power, "Tell me when we should go."
Molly was silent for a moment, "They're going west along Railroad Drive. They're
passing Third Street and heading through the residential neighborhood."
"I'm on it," Joey said, backing them out of the alley and onto Ashby Street.
Molly psychically followed them to an abandoned motel on the edge of town. Joey
parked them a few blocks away--close enough to intercept, but far away enough to not
be seen.
The woman slammed a large suitcase on the hood and opened it. Winters reached in and
pulled out a stack of fresh 100 euro bills.
"I'm glad you're not trying to pass off American currency on me."
"Maslarak may be moronically blind in his patriotism, but I'm not. I know the dollar is
worthless."
Winters nodded and reached for a CD in his jacket pocket.
"Gotcha!" Molly whispered.
Joey gunned the engine and sped the car towards them. Molly pulled her gun and took
off her seatbelt, preparing to leap out of the car.
They skidded to a halt in the abandoned parking lot.
The woman was gone. Winters was standing there in shock, holding the CD. Molly
jumped out of the car and aimed her gun.
"GET DOWN!! GET DOWN!!"
Winters dropped the CD. Molly shoved him to the ground.
"WHERE'S THE GIRL?!" she shouted right into his ear.
Suddenly, she was awash with the worst feeling of despair she had ever felt. The death
of her parents was dwarfed by it. Everything began to seem so utterly, utterly
pointless. She wanted to give up everything. She felt herself begin to slip away into
oblivion, and she welcomed it. It would be so much better.
There was a high-pitched squeal and she felt the world and sanity return.
She looked up. Joey's lips were pursed in a whistle.
"It didn't hurt you, did it?" he asked. Molly shook her head. He pointed at Winters,
"He'll be out a while, though. Days, perhaps."
"What did you DO?"
"Focused sound waves that made tsunamis in his inner ear. World's worst case of
dizziness. And you?"
"I don't really know," she said after a short moment, "It was like I was being killed by
depression."
"That's odd. Didn't suspect he could do that."
"Me neither."
"So where's the girl?"
Molly's brow furrowed, "I don't know."
"What? Is she dead?"
Molly shook her head, "I'd still be able to find her. I can find corpses. Jimmy Hoffa, for
instance."
"Really?"
"West Falls, Wisconsin, underneath the north bridge of--"
Joey waved his arms, "Never mind. So she's just…gone?" Molly nodded. Joey
shrugged, "I'll call a bag team for Winters. We'll have to figure this out later."
Joey made a call. Seconds later, two people teleported into the scene. The first was a
tall brunette woman with short hair, had her hand on the other's shoulder. The man,
also a brunette, held a white suitcase.
"What's the deal, Joe?" he asked.
"Rogue agent, Harry. Knocked him down with the sonic whistle."
"Joy," he muttered. He opened his suitcase, removing a first aid kit, "Think he's safe to
teleport, Tracy?"
"Yeah," the woman said. To Molly, "Do you guys need to be taken back to the office?"
"That'd be a good idea," Molly said.
"Then we should get him in the car," Tracy said, nodding her head towards it, "I can
take the whole thing."
Harry and Joey lifted up Winters and put him in the back seat. Harry sat in the back with
him, while Molly and Joey took the front. Tracy put her hand on the hood, closed her
eyes, and an instant later they were in the garage of the Utah Office.
--------------------------
Molly sat on the floor in front of her fireplace, gazing at the flickering flames. She
exhaled slowly, touching the tips of her fingers to the floor.
She repeated the breathing exercise several times before her eyes fluttered and she
entered the strange dreamspace where her clairvoyance existed.
She focused on the woman. A picture of her appeared clearly in her mind. She was
suddenly hit with a torrent of information:
Isabelle Julienne Green, born Monday, June 22, 1998, 3:41 AM, Samaritan-Paul General
Hospital, Green Lake, Nevada to Marsha Elle Hoxworth Green and --
It just kept coming. She had never experienced anything like it. The information was
oddly flat and lifeless, like a database.
Molly tried to push it aside and focus on the location of the woman.
Isabelle Julienne Green, born Monday, June 22, 1998, 3:41 AM, Samaritan-Paul General
Hospital, Green Lake, Nevada to Marsha Elle Hoxworth Green and --
Molly pushed it aside again and focused on Joey. She now saw actual, real-time
images, like she normally did. He was clearly in his quarters, playing an old computer
game. Something like Halo 3.
When she turned back to the woman--Isabelle, presumably--she got the same psychic
data stream.
With disgust, she let it all go. She felt herself return to the world. Exhaling slowly, she
stretched, keeping her fingers on the floor.
"Shit," she whispered.
A few minutes later, she had fully reestablished herself on the corporeal plane. She
got up and walked over to Joey's.
Joey answered the door a few moments after she knocked, "Yes?"
"Something weird just happened."
"Something weird."
"Mm."
They stood there for a moment.
Joey brushed back his hair, "Well, come in." Joey closed the door behind her, then
went to his room to shut off his computer, "I was playing Halo 3."
"I didn't think that was ever released."
"It wasn't." Joey sat on the couch next to her, "So. What's the weird something?"
Molly told him what had happened, explaining how the meditation helped "widen" her
abilities and what she had expected to see. When she finished, Joey glanced over at
the fireplace, "I always thought there was a reason why we had fireplaces
underground."
"Joe…"
"Right, right. Well, what am I supposed to do? I'm the rookie, remember?"
Molly frowned, "I thought you'd have an idea."
"Nothing beyond calling Peter."
Molly rolled her eyes, "He's in India. With Claude. How are we supposed to get him
here?"
"Click our heels together three times and chant, 'There's no place like home'?"
She laughed, "You become more of a smart-ass every day, Joe. We should call Peter,
but I'm thinking about Rudolph Kane."
"Kane? He's a power expert? I was thinking Hal Sharp."
Molly shook her head, "Sharp's got super intelligence, but he works with machines.
Kane's something like 400 years old, right? I doubt there's ANYTHING he doesn't know."
"Well, where is he?"
Molly closed her eyes. She received an image of an apparently middle-aged man
jogging on a mountain trail, "China."
"China. Well, I suppose we could get Tracy, but she and Harry are out on assignment
right now. Are you sure we can't figure this out without Kane or Sharp or Peter?"
Molly rested her head on the sofa and stared at the ceiling, "I can't believe I snapped
my sight when I saw him handing it over."
"'Snapped my sight?'"
"There was no place to hide except for maybe that motel," she continued, "But it was
just Winters. I've never NOT been able to find someone."
Molly sighed. Joey didn't say anything.
"I keep getting this information set," she said after a while, "It's like a psychic
database. It's like that's where she is." She sat back up suddenly, as if she had been hit
in the back.
"Holy shit!" she shouted.
"What? What is it?"
"Joe, what happened to that CD Winters was holding?"
Joey scratched his head, "I think it's still in Evidence. Why?"
"Joe, it's incredibly important that that CD isn't exposed to ANY computer! Joe, we
need to get it from Evidence and to Sharp."
"What do you--hey!" Molly grabbed his arm and began leading him out into the hallway,
"What the hell is going on, Moll?"
"Joe, I think I know why we never found that girl. She's the CD, Joe. She put herself
onto the CD and if we use it, we'll be putting her in our entire network. Okay?
Everything we've ever worked for, every agent's identity, all our finances,
EVERYTHING!"
Joey considered it. It made a sort of sense, "So now what do we do?"
"We HAVE to get that CD before Evidence decides to examine it's contents! If I'm right,
everything depends on it! Let's go!"
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