Dreiser shifted his stance, bringing his arms from behind his back and revealing a small object in one hand. He stepped over to a nearby table where a laptop computer sat open. I didn’t recognize it as one of ours, so presumably the colonel had brought it with him. Gramps and I approached and stood next to him as he plugged the object in his hand (which I now recognized as a flash drive) into one of the ports on the side of the computer, then pressed the Enter key. A moment later, the screen began to play some type of video.
It only took me a moment to recognize what I was seeing: security footage of some sort, showing two soldiers in the same type of uniform that Dreiser was wearing – except for the fact that the duo in the video also wore sidearms. They were sitting at a couple of side-by-side desks, with their backs to the camera that had filmed them. On each of the two desks was a standard computer monitor and keyboard. Mounted on a wall directly in front of the soldiers were several large security monitors, each of which had a screen that relayed images from multiple cameras.
Based on what Dreiser had told us – and scenes from a million movies and TV shows – we were looking at a prison control room. It was also safe to assume that this was where the break-in previously mentioned had occurred, and we didn’t have to wait long for that to be confirmed.
The two soldiers – guards, really – were doubtlessly going about their normal routine when a third person abruptly appeared in the room. He pretty much came out of nowhere; one second he wasn’t there, and the next he was standing directly in front of the two guards’ desks. (Actually, if the date/time stamp in the corner of the screen was correct, it didn’t even take a second for him to appear.)
The newcomer was facing the camera, and I suddenly found myself leaning in close, not quite believing what I was seeing.
The fellow who had just shown up had my face.
Chapter 29
I hit a button on the laptop, pausing the video.
“What is this?” I practically demanded.
“Let’s just let it play out first,” Dreiser replied, tapping a key that caused the video to resume.
I was going to protest, but a subtle shake of my grandfather’s head made me hold my tongue.
<Don’t say anything,> he instructed me telepathically, <no matter what you see.>
I gave a mental nod to acknowledge that I understood. Turning back to the footage, I saw the two guards suddenly take note of the newcomer’s presence. They reacted as anticipated, coming to their feet while simultaneously reaching for their sidearms. However, they had barely drawn their weapons before some unseen force unexpectedly snatched the guns from their hands and flung them out of view of the camera. The two guards exchanged worried looks – and then they themselves were gone. They vanished into thin air, like some sort of parlor trick, leaving the new arrival alone in the control room.
Next, the new guy himself disappeared, only to materialize almost immediately in front of one of the desks. Based on what I’d seen, it didn’t take a lot of effort to understand that the fellow on the screen was a teleporter.
Without hesitation, the newcomer leaned across the desk, but at an angle that gave the camera a profile view of his visage. He then began tapping on the keyboard, occasionally glancing at an image on one of the security monitors. After about ten seconds of this, he simply stood up straight and seemingly stared at the security monitor image he’d been watching earlier. He then crossed his arms, and I observed the corner of his mouth slowly turning up into a smile. I couldn’t pick up any emotions, of course, but I got the distinct impression that he was feeling a sense of smug satisfaction.
“What’s he doing?” Gramps finally asked.
“Admiring his handiwork,” Dreiser replied. My grandfather and I both gave him blank looks, prompting him to add, “Hang on. This will clear things up.”
Without waiting for questions or commentary, the colonel hit a few keys, and the image on the screen changed.
We were now looking at a small room – maybe seventy square feet in size – that was austerely furnished with a plastic chair, a sink, and a bed that was more accurately described as a cot bolted to the wall. The sole occupant was a young blonde about my age who was dressed in an orange coverall. Surprisingly, I knew who she was.
“That’s Incendia,” Dreiser announced, confirming my own assessment. “She’s a super whose power set revolves around fire.”
<You recognize her?> Gramps asked telepathically.
<Yeah,> I confirmed. <She’s the one who torched our house.>
My grandfather gave a barely-perceptible nod, and I picked up on a nostalgic vibe that suggested he was reminiscing. Around the time I joined the Alpha League, a group of supervillains had decided I was a threat to one of their schemes, so they had sent Incendia to deal with me. She had then used her power over fire to burn our house to the ground, destroying many of my grandfather’s keepsakes in the process.
<She’s supposed to be locked up in a nullifier somewhere off the grid,> I continued.
<Looking at this, I’d say she is,> Gramps replied.
I had to agree with my grandfather. Everything about the scene, from Incendia’s wardrobe to the Spartan furnishings, shouted “prison cell.”
All of a sudden, Incendia’s head jerked up towards the ceiling, then left-to-right once, but in rapid fashion, as if she had noticed something perplexing. I was curious as to what was happening, but the camera in her cell was not angled in a way to give a view of what she was seeing.
Without warning, something like a jet of water seemed to splash the front of
