the chair,' said Teman.
'If it's all right, Mr. Chairman, I will accompany the prisoner to our detention facility and see that he is secured properly.'
'I know you and Tiet have been good friends, Estall. I hope you realize that he must stand trial; I want to know you won't attempt to help him escape the law. It would cause a civil war.'
'Sir, I assure you, I couldn't have any thought further from my mind.'
Teman looked pleased by the response and Lucin, in his guise as the man Estall, turned to go into the lift. A sly smile crossed his lips at the thought of trying to let Tiet go after all the effort to frame him. After years and years of covertly assimilating a large portion of the population in the twelve cities, the time had finally come. The populous was his to command; an angel severed from the gates of heaven, but still commanding his own destiny.
There wouldn't be enough time to have any sort of legal proceedings. Everyone would soon be under his control and come to be joined within the symbyte collective as the Baruk once had been. With the king out of the way, and the boy within his grasp, the time to act was now. The lift doors closed in behind him as Licoure's body was being removed from his residence; all according to plan.
EMIL steadied himself as he awaited the attack. Kale stood across the large training room that doubled for his bedroom. From a rack of weapons, he picked up a vest with spicors stuffed in it and put it on as he looked at Emil, who stood with only a wooden bow to fight with. The spicors were not armed of course, as that would certainly bring his parents screaming into his bedroom if any were to go off.
Kale started toward Emil with his array of weaponry located all over his uniform.
'Now concentrate, Emil. Remember to let go of your physical senses to some extent and allow them to be heightened and helped by the kinesis.'
'Sometimes if I concentrate too hard I lose it altogether.'
'Just try to let it flow naturally. You'll get that feeling of being inside and part of an energy field, as though it were an extension of your own body and mind; transmitting information to you and obeying your commands. Don't fight it. Embrace it. After all, you have the ability; you just need to hone it.'
'My father will be so excited when we surprise everybody; I can't wait until we get back from the outing!'
'Well let's get to work so you can really show him something.'
Kale brought up a handful of spicors and began to hurl them at Emil. He dodged the first which was meant to bring him into the path of the second. He brought his bow to bear as the disc embedded into the wood in front of his face. The remaining discs came quickly as he dodged about, allowing some to pass into the wall behind him and deflecting others away as he brought the bow spinning elegantly around himself.
'Very good.'
Kale pulled his sticks from their magnetic clips and extended the emitter posts. He flew into an attack against the youth, who brought the bow staff into play to counter the strikes. Emil quickly moved to the offensive and spun down low with his body underneath Kale's strikes, swinging the whirling bow at his friend's lower legs. He very nearly caught him with the effort, but Kale flipped forward over him instead and returned an extended kemstick back at Emil as he landed.
The boy was already there with his staff to block the strike and moved again to try and push back at Kale. In mid-swing Kale ignited the kemsticks and one of them cut right through the middle of Emil's wooden bow staff. He quickly threw the pieces at Kale as he searched with his senses for another weapon.
He found them on his attacker's legs. As Kale deflected the bow staff pieces thrown at him he felt his other pair of kemsticks leaping to Emil's waiting hands. They ignited and he traded blows with Kale.
They had made the discovery of his power two years before while Kale was training under Wynn. While practicing various exercises in his bedroom training room with Emil, the young Horva had followed him through one of the mental exercises and actually produced some result. With more experimentation, they had discovered his power and Kale had taken it upon himself to pass on everything Wynn was teaching him; but secretly.
They had no idea how he could have come to have the kinesis in the first place, until the two had heard from Tiet, whilst he was in a reminiscing mood, about how Grod had once been his enemy and captured him for the purpose of using his DNA for an experiment to rejuvenate his own chromosomes with the Barudii power. But the experiment had failed to produce any such power in Grod, and was never dwelt on further by either of them. The boys assumed that what had not manifested in Grod was now showing up in his son.
The boys traded further blows playfully as Emil used the kinesis to carry his body elegantly through dodges and flips as the two fought. The power was a wonderful feeling. So much freedom and his mind and senses had never felt so alive. He thought of how proud his father would be when he learned what he had unknowingly passed on to his son.
Suddenly Kale felt something else; something besides their sparring. He stopped his attack and dodged away leaving Emil looking puzzled by his friend's sudden withdrawal.
'What is it?'
'Something's wrong. Something is approaching.'
LUCIN'S intercom link beeped to life. 'Yes?'
'Sir, the squads are positioned outside the king's residence and Commander Gareth's.'
'Very good, Lieutenant. I will contact you momentarily with an order to secure the premises and capture everyone on the grounds at the king's residence. Wynn Gareth, I want killed on sight; understood?'
'Understood, Sir. We're standing by.'
Lucin watched as the containment field charged up around Tiet inside the special chamber that was prepared to hold him. The last of the guards left the chamber as Lucin entered in the form of Estall and faced Tiet.
'Estall, you know I couldn't have done this, don't you?'
'I am very confident you did not.'
'But can you help me to prove it?'
At that, Lucin began to pace around the bubble of the containment field.
'I don't think that would be possible.'
'I don't want you to break the law, just see that I receive a fair trial,' said Tiet
Lucin stopped his pacing and chuckled at the comment. 'I don't think a trial is in your future.'
'What do you mean?' asked Tiet with a puzzled look on his face.
Lucin faced him and stared into his eyes. 'It is no longer necessary to prolong this charade. You have walked into a trap and you will die here in this room before long.'
'Estall, what are you talking about!? What's going on?' Tiet asked as he noticed a look on Estall's face he had never seen on him before. 'Who are you?'
'Did you really think you could destroy me by wiping out the Baruk?'
Realization washed over Tiet like a wave of doom. Estall was dead; the same creature that had held control of the Baruk was inside him now. 'Why imprison me, if you're so powerful why not face me openly?!'
'Do you think revenge on you is my plan? You are vain. It is complete control I will soon have; and a new young body to rule with.' He laughed, 'God may have cursed me to these physical forms and favored man, but I'm not through fighting yet.'
Tiet was trying to take in what he was hearing, but it wasn't all registering.
Lucin spoke into his intercom link. 'Lieutenant…'
'Yes, Sir.'
'Sweep the residence and be sure the boy is kept alive. Kill Commander Gareth.'
'Yes, Sir. It will be done.'
'Kale?!'
'Oh, yes, old friend. Your son will make a fitting body for me to rule this planet and those that will follow.'
'I'll kill you!'
'That would be a neat trick. This bubble was engineered by your own scientists to hold even a Barudii.'
