Subject Seventeen: Wraith Among Shadows
Chapter 3

I watch as Three enters the common room. Her lip is bleeding and there is a slight graze on the side of her forehead. I want to get up and ask her what happened, but I already know. She had probably tested the new recruit. All of us had gone through the exact same process.

“How was he?” I ask as she flops down on the sofa. I expected to get a reply straight away but Three doesn’t even seem to have heard me. She just stares up at the ceiling as if she has heat vision or something. This gets me worried.

“How was he?” I say a little louder this time.

“Huh?” She replies, a little startled.

“The new guy, Seventeen?”

“Oh…” Her voice trails off. I narrow my eyes at her, a little annoyed. This is unlike her. Three is usually always calm and collected, never unfocused. Something pretty bad must have happened to give her such a shock.

“So?” She turns her head to look at me before finally speaking.

“Ridiculous.”

“That makes no sense.” I say, now agitated. She sighs and closes her eyes.

“He was nothing like I’d ever seen. It was like he didn’t feel pain, or fear or whatever.”

“I don’t get it.”

“When the rest of us were initiated we were all confused, but mostly we were afraid weren’t we? Our memories hadn’t returned yet at that point. I mean, none of us knew where we were and we suddenly got thrown into a life and death fight. But him? It was like he was a natural at using his powers already.”

I stare at Three whilst leaning forward with my elbows resting against my lap. I’m already beginning to wonder who exactly Seventeen was to scare Three to such an extent.

“What powers does he have?”

“That’s just the thing,” Three begins, her voice shaking uncontrollably. “I don’t know. One minute I’m ghosting behind him, and suddenly he’s doing the exact same thing! It was the same with Nine’s telekinesis. He used our powers against us! And that’s not even the worst of –”

“What do you mean he copied your powers?” a voice interrupts Three.

We look up to meet the eyes of the voice’s owner, only to see Ten. His dark red hair is messy and left un-brushed. I stare into his blood red eyes and hold my breath. He’s juggling a ball of fire in his hand while keeping a nonchalant look on his face; although as much as he tries to hide it I know he’s itching to fight. He always gets so competitive, even though he tries to show a cool and collected front.

“He didn’t only copy mine and Nine’s powers… It was as if he put a stop to the force of gravity and cut off all the air in the room…”

Silence follows. None of us know what to think about this. Ten puts his fire out, leans back against the door frame and crosses his arms.

“It doesn’t matter,” Ten says. “Either way he’s on our side right? In that case we’ll just use him to our advantage. He is joining this squad after all. He's just a newbie."

“You only ever think about how to get ahead, don’t you?!” I spit at him. He really gets on my nerves, never caring about anyone else.

“Well, one, that’s the point. And two, using him to our advantage is the whole reason he’s here. So again, that’s the point.”

I’m tempted to summon all the wind I can and send him flying through the wall but Three covers my hands with hers. “Don’t,” she whispers.

Ten shrugs and then walks off. Then he walks back in. Behind him we see why. The Doctor is behind him. His long white coat trails on the floor as he wipes his horn-rimmed glasses.

He rarely ever comes down to our quarters himself, so this sudden arrival of his can only mean one thing. It’s time for another mission. It must be a big one this time. His gaze swivels around the room, simply analysing everything. Everyone is silent for goodness knows how long before he leaves. His exit means that we all have to report to the control room for a briefing. We may very well be flown out to Moscow tomorrow. It would mean being near the front lines for once.

Three leads the way; Ten and I lag behind. None of us want to exchange any words as we pass through the dimly lit corridor and head to Block H. One of the lights above us flickers a few times before going dim. Those in front of us slowly do the same until Three shoots me a look. I know it well. It’s her you better behave look.

I turn my face away as if I don’t know what she’s talking about as the lights slowly return to their former state. Ten smirks, his hands are on the back of his head and he leans backwards whilst walking.

“Bored, Two?”

Mocking is indeed his strong suit. I really want to just send him flying. I wish I could send a few thousand volts through his body. It would be an interesting experiment to see if he can still keep that smug face on whilst experiencing so much pain. Oh how I wish.

We stop at a dark red door marked H. It automatically slides open – vertically. Inside are a few rows of computers and various bits and bobs which I obviously know nothing about. I’m not one to pay too much attention to the detail of anything really.

Everyone else is already in line. The girls are all on the left; One and Seven who are already here, whilst the boys are on the right; Five, Nine and Ten who joins them now. I see that Nine has a fair sized cut on his forehead and his face has faint traces of blood left from a poor attempt to wipe it off. Damn, was it that bad? Me and Three quickly fall in line and stand at attention.

Major Sanders is standing above us on the flight of spiral stairs in the middle of the room leading to the control room. As usual, his grey eyes are unnerving and ridiculously cold. His thick muscular build struggles to break free from his tight green army uniform and numerous badges and medals dangle from his left breast, pinned onto his uniform. All the makings of a hero. Or so they would have us believe…

Next to him is a boy I haven’t seen before. He has dark cropped hair which falls down to his eyes. His skin is pale but has an appealing complexity to it. His lean figure makes no attempt to hide his toned muscles and his eyes are black. Completely black; like nothing I’ve ever seen before. He has a tiny mole just under his eye, making me blush.

I realise I’ve never blushed before. I avert my eyes before Major notices. Oh God he’s hot.

“This,” the Doctor says, “Is Seventeen. He will be your new team member as of today.”

Oh… I can feel the regret surfacing from my stomach. This is the asshole who shook up Three.

“Seventeen here has a unique power, as Three and Nine should know. To explain it simply, he is connected to the very world around us.”

“Permission to speak sir?” Ten shouts. I can already see the fight in his eyes. I sigh and turn my attention towards the Doctor.

“Permission granted.”

“What exactly do you mean by ‘connected’?”

“For years scientists have investigated something – a presence if you will. A connection between everything which exists, such as atoms or gravity. We call this Xerxes. Seventeen has the ability to see this connection, understand how it works. With this he can control these connections, so he can control the very forces of nature. A sort of absolute control over the inner workings of the world. It's almost as if he's a god," the Doctor laughs. "Of course this means if he sees you use your abilities, he may well understand the process and reverse them. After all, they are not an exception to this connection.”

Ah, that explains it. How he used both Nine’s and Three’s powers against them.

“So,” the Doctor continues, “Because he’s such a danger, we’ve taken the liberty of making him useful. We’ve programmed his mind with various amounts of information, such as weaponry and military tactics, basic assault formations, all the works. I’m sure it’ll come in handy seeing as he'll be joining this team regardless of training. Effective immediately.” He’s looking at Three now. “You have command of the mission, Three. We’ve pumped him full of borrachero since we need him on such short notice. Make sure that he only acts as you see fit.”

One glances at Ten, her blonde hair swirling around as her head shifts. She gives him a small wink before quickly turning back. She must know just as well as I do how annoyed he must be now. A newbie to the Elite Shadow Squad that's more talented than him? I don’t know whether to be pleased at Ten’s annoyance or enraged at what Seventeen did to Three.

Even now as I look at Seventeen he makes me blush. I can feel the lightning building up in my hands and I force it back down. The last thing I needed now was to give Sanders the pleasure of assuming my powers had hit a glitch and be put down.

Three raises her chin as she prepares to speak. “I understand, sir. I assume that since all of the current team is here we have an important mission this time?”

I wince. 'This time'. If any of us had spoken to the Doctor or Sanders that way we’d probably be dead. In her case, I highly doubt there would ever be a time when Sanders would kill his own daughter.

“Glad you asked,” Sanders spits back. We can all see the subtle flash of his gold tooth as he turns to face the monitor pinned to the wall. It flashes white for a second before it shows us a map of Europe. Small parts are coloured in red, others in white and green. I look towards Russia where I see something unusual. A small area near the border named Kursk was coloured in yellow. There was a trail leading from there all the way into the centre of Moscow.

“No…” Five says.

“Yes,” Sanders replies. “Tomorrow you’re going to conduct a covert infiltration operation to neutralise a chemical and bio-weapons research center. Well as much as we want this to be a covert operation, their security and information network is extremely advanced. Eleven isn't here currently so if all hell breaks out, just do what you do best.”

Five’s eyes widen in shock but he doesn’t say anything. Seven glances at him.

“You alright?” she mouths over at him. Five drops his head, hiding his face from us. He – like me – is one of the few of us who still have memories of before we came here. Apparently his mother was Russian and that's why he sometimes struggles with his role as a soldier. But to be honest, I think there must be a deeper story to it than that.

“And our objective?” Three says, completely disregarding the mood in the room.

“First, you will bypass the exterior security and patrols using Three’s teleportation. However you’ll need to do this from twelve miles out so you don’t trip their sensors. Since it’s quite a large distance you won’t be able to ghost for a while considering the energy it will take to get you there. Seven will take over from here. She will use her illusions to provide you all with some cover so you can pass as scientists and soldiers and essentially anyone who is supposed to be there; you do need to look the part after all.

“We expect you to have memorised the layout of the building by tomorrow morning. You’ll split into two teams, one of which will head to the server room. Five and Nine will do this.”

Five raises his head to look at Sanders. Whatever momentary lapse in emotion he was having doesn’t seem to be present now.

“Five, you will be on lookout; your power to feel the vibrations in the air, electro-magnetic waves and also electrical signals will be useful for detecting any unlucky fellows who happen to pass. If need be you may use your powers to take control a few of their men to use at your disposal. Make sure not to leave any bodies in sight.

“Nine, you will be busy downloading all the data from their servers. Do it without tripping the alarms, but do it quickly.”

Sanders looks at One and me. I shiver. His gaze feels like a never ending barrage of knives digging into my spine.

“One, Two and Three. You will keep Seventeen with you. Whilst Nine is downloading the data, you four have an important task. You’ll need to go here,” he says, pointing to a blue-print layout of what seems like the building in question. He’s referring to what looks like a hidden basement dubbed sub-level-three.

“Five, wait for Nine’s confirmation before frying the entire building’s circuitry with an EMP pulse. The back-up generators that run on a different system entirely will kick in in a few minutes, but you shouldn’t need too long. One, you’re going to bring the building down with a small earth-quake. Not too strong or it’ll collapse on you before Three gets you out. Ten will be just outside the facility providing cover in case of discovery before then. Otherwise Ten will be as the situation demands as his own discretion.

“You’ll rendezvous a few miles west where you’ll replace an evacuation aircraft waiting for you.”

Wow. I don’t know what to say. Well it’s a shame I won’t get to fight much, but this is going to be fun. We haven’t had a proper mission on this scale since Four’s and Six’s supposed deaths up north in Finland two months ago.

“So…” I say, forgetting to ask permission first. “What do we need him for?” I’m pointing to the vegetable standing next to Sanders. His eyes seem to be duller than earlier. At this rate I doubt he even understands he exists.

“Firepower,” the Doctor says. “Fighting your way out may be a bit risky, so we’d like to utilise him. We haven’t yet seen the full extent of what he is able to do.”

Nine lets out a dep sigh. I haven’t yet spoken to him about what happened when he and Three tested Seventeen’s powers. Based on what Three had said, I doubt he was alright either. I slowly replace myself wishing for Seventeen’s death as dark as it sounds. If he dies then Three and Nine would go back to being the strongest in the squad in terms of abilities; I’m assuming Ten doesn’t exist at this point. Oh, there's also that other guy locked up right now. In any case, that's a story for another time.

I can’t say for sure whether I’ve ever hated someone, but I can say that I do not like Seventeen.

Suddenly – speak of the devil – Seventeen drops to his knees clutching his chest. We all jump back. His face is contorted in pain, as if someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed without a care in the world.

“Doctor? What’s the meaning of this?” Sanders questions.

“It’s perfectly normal,” he replies. “His body is still trying to get used to the Nano-mites. The stress is just taking its toll. He’ll be right as rain in about eight hours.”

“Good.”

Sanders is approached by another man; a junior officer it seems. The officer whispers something into Sanders ear and disappears. Sanders gives us a nod and then follows the officer. The Doctor has already sedated Seventeen and has told two men to carry him off.

“You’ll reconvene here at seven hundred hours tomorrow. Dismissed.”

We all leave Block H in silence, none of us even making eye contact. That was intense. We all trek back to Block B where our quarters are. I know it’s going to be impossible to maintain the silence; she was here. One swirls around to face us whilst walking backwards at the same pace. Her grin gives away exactly what she’s thinking.

“So? Our first mission in ages and it’s a big one! What do you guys think?”

“Don’t care.” Nine says. He pushes up his glasses and puts his hand on Three’s shoulder just before she teleports them away.

“Aww, the grown-ups are no fun,” One says mocking Nine.

“It’s no fun to give cover,” Ten says. “I want to be in on the action inside. Feels a little boring...”

“Deal with it, muppet,” I say sticking my tongue out at him. I run to catch up with Five and Seven a little way ahead. I’m about to call over when I see them holding hands. Yuck. ‘This isn’t the time for that stuff,’ I think. I decide to breeze past them.

I try to think what this means exactly. Ok, we all understand just how strong Seventeen is, but I don’t get why they have to keep him on the borrachero. That stuff not only wipes all his memory, but prolonged use of it would wipe away all his emotions all-together. I mean, I do get that it takes away his will so he can follow orders, but he’s been hooked up on that stuff since they brought him in hasn’t he?

Why am I even concerned about him? I change into my PJs and sit at my desk to write in my diary. I’m supposed to hate the guy. But now I’ve started feeling a little sorry for him.

Thinking back to when I was first brought in I can remember a few things. I remember being on the streets before getting picked up. I know how bad life is outside for us in these times of war. It’s not easy. That’s why I didn’t blink twice when I was initiated. At the time it was Four and Eight who tested me.

I hadn’t shown signs of my powers straight away. They had of course explained everything to me but it took me a full two weeks before I was able to slightly control any of the elements. I really miss Eight. She's the calm one of the group. I wonder how she’s holding up on the front lines. Depending on how long it takes to take back the border, she could be there for years.

I sigh, closing my diary and laying down on my bed. Perhaps I’m just overthinking things. I do have a tendency to do that. I should probably get some sleep in preparation for tomorrow.