Victoria Coach Station, in Yohji’s humble opinion, was about as exciting as a wet weekend in Wolverhampton. Michel, of course, was full of enthusiasm and chattering away happily to both Free and him as they searched for the correct bay. Yohji tuned out the chatter so he could use his empathy to find a group of nineteen excited children. An extremely irritating buzz convinced him they were heading in the right direction.
Sure enough, there were the children ready to board a chartered coach. Michel darted forward to join them after giving both Free and himself a perfunctory hug. Having timed it so he would be one of the last to arrive, Yohji wasn’t surprised to see the adult in charge herd them all onto the coach before climbing in himself and nodding to the driver. Yohji tapped Yuushi’s number into his mobile. "They’re on their way. Maroon coloured coach, registration JMK472Y."
"We’ve picked it up. Thanks Yohji."
Yohji disconnected and turned to Free. "That’s our bit done."
Free looked at him and Yohji picked up a wave of worry and distress from him. "I know it will be all right but I am worried about Michel."
"Don’t worry, Free, they won’t get out of the country."
* * * * * * *
Yuushi pulled into the service area on the M2 that the coach had turned into. He was in the process of contacting Aya, Ken and Chloe who were due to follow the coach out of the service area when something really odd caught his eye. The coach, having unloaded the children and their luggage was driving out of the services empty.
"Damn!"
"What is it?" Aya’s voice in his ear asked.
"Ran, don’t follow the coach. It’s empty. The driver just unloaded all the luggage and drove off. Keeping tabs on twenty hyperactive talents here is not going to be easy."
"Watch what happens to the luggage, Yuushi. We’ll watch the kids."
"Okay, I’ll let you know…Hold it! A couple of heavies are collecting it now." He watched with mounting suspicion as the luggage was loaded into a closed truck. "Naru, can you get a closer look at the inside of that truck?"
Naru nodded. "I can try." He climbed out of the car and wandered around until he was just a harmless customer gazing at the big, bad trucks with wide eyes. Yuushi bit back a laugh at sight of him. "For all his faults, he’s good."
Schuldig, in the passenger seat, nodded and smiled. "You all were. We never did get a real fix on you guys."
"Just as well. Ah, he’s coming back."
Naru was hurrying across the car park towards them, deliberately looking as if he had stopped at the shop and had an irate family waiting for him. The heavies, in the process of collecting the last of the bags, ignored him completely.
"Did you do that?" Yuushi asked Schuldig.
"Partly. Mostly I’m monitoring the talents."
"You’re good."
Schuldig was given no opportunity to answer as Naru climbed into the back of the car. "Oh shit, Yuushi. There are seats in there, enough for those kids."
"Ran, they’re making a transfer. Those kids won’t be needing their passports. White, unmarked high-sider. Registered in Germany I think."
"We’ve spotted it. What story have they fed the kids?"
Yuushi turned to Schuldig for an answer. "They’ve kept it simple," the telepath said. "A ‘game’ to see who can guess through their talent where they are at any given time."
"Did you get that?"
"I got it." Ran’s voice was grim. "Okay, you drive on to the rendezvous point and arrange the block. We’ll follow the truck."
"Got it. Good luck." Yuushi switched off his mobile and started the car. "Show-time."
* * * * * * *
Aya pulled the low-loader up behind the truck effectively stopping it from backing up and detouring round the ‘accident’ in front of it. He picked up his katana from the floor and hid it in the sheath built into his long coat, hoping he wouldn’t have to use it in front of the children. He climbed out of the cab and swiftly made his way to the back of the truck. The doors were chained and padlocked and he immediately pulled a lock-picking probe out of his pocket. Reichi had pulled up in a hired mini-van by this time, ready to take the children back to London. He had the padlock open and the chain off in seconds and Ken climbed up to open the back doors. Twenty nervous faces stared out at them, some of the talented children finally having realised that more was going on than met the eye.
Chloe stepped forward at that point and smiled at them. "It’s okay, you’re going home. Leave your bags, we’ll get them for you"
Michel was the first to jump up and make his way to the back of the truck. "I’m very pleased to see you, Chloe."
"Likewise, Michel." Chloe reached up and lifted Michel down onto the road. The other children swiftly followed his example and Aya found himself helping Chloe lift frighteningly small bodies down to the ground.
"Ken, get their bags, We don’t have much time."
"I’m on it."
Five minutes later the children and their bags were in the mini-van and on their way back to London. The timing was almost perfect as the heavies, abandoning the argument with the driver of the car in front, came to the back to check everything was okay. Seeing the open doors and three men and one boy gazing after a departing mini-van, their hands moved to the guns hidden under their jackets. One got a dart embedded in his palm, while the other had his hand tangled in a whip.
Aya stepped forward and relieved them of their guns. "Ken, shut the doors for the nice gentlemen, please."
"My pleasure."
Aya kept his attention on the heavies as Ken locked the truck’s doors. "Please be kind enough to tell your superiors at Rosenkreuz that British talents are not going to be joining their school."
"And if we don’t?"
"Then we will kill you. It’s a simple choice really."
Muttering darkly, the heavies rejoined their driver. Aya almost smiled as the ‘accident’ melted away before his eyes. Yuushi, Naru and Schuldig made a formidable team. He deliberately left the low-loader where it was until the truck headed on towards Folkestone, then he turned to the others. "I’ll take this lumbering monster back and retrieve my car," he said, gesturing towards the low-loader. "We’re done here."
"Can I ride with you, please, Aya?" Michel asked excitedly. "I’ve never ridden in a truck before!"
"I…"
"Please."
He sighed in defeat. "Get in the cab, then." As Michel scrambled to obey he turned to Chloe. "Looks like you and Ken are stuck with his luggage."
Chloe grinned. "No problem. And, Aya, thank you for including us."
"With one of your team as bait, what choice did we have? He’s good with that whip though,"
"Very good. Please, don’t underestimate either him or Yuki. They will do all in their power to help."
"I’m beginning to realise that. I’ll see you back at the office." With that he turned away and climbed into the cab of the low-loader. "Okay, Michel, let’s go home."
* * * * * * *
Omi was determined that no more children in Britain were going to be taken in by either the game or the website. The latter was easy to deal with, a nasty little virus would take it off the face of the web very quickly. The game was a little more difficult to deal with as possibly thousands had already been sold. He wasn’t sure exactly how much the game could do on its own or whether Rosenkreuz could trace the purchasers and get at them that way.
Public awareness of the dangers would be relatively easy to arrange, but how much damage had already been done?
"Nagi, what exactly does the game do to talents?" he asked.
"I think the effects may be stronger for empaths and telepaths. For myself, simply the desire to play it a lot. I’m now looking into the idea that talents can be traced through some sort of tracking programme in the game. Interestingly enough, the premise is rather boring and all of our non-talents have got tired of playing it after about five minutes. So there has to be some way that they’re picking up the amount of time specific people are playing. It may be on a ratio, the stronger the talent, the more desire to play."
"That makes sense. But it is affecting you?"
"Very strongly. Even just knowing it’s in the room makes me want to load and play it."
"And you’re a very strong talent as are Brad, Schu, Yohji, Free and Chloe."
"I’m also a rare talent. Telekinetics and pyrokinetics are the rarest of all the talents. The most common are minor precognition and psychometry. Empathy is next most common. Telepaths aren’t very thick on the ground. Most of the kids in that lorry were psychometrics or pre-cognitives." He chuckled slightly. "Of the sort of level that seaside palmists and tarot readers are made of, the real ones, that is. There were two stronger empaths and one possible telepath. We are monitoring them more carefully than the others." He fidgeted in his seat for a while before turning to look at Omi.
"Had you ever considered opening a school for talented children? Most would benefit from the right training and would be less likely to fall victim to organisations like Rosenkreuz."
Omi stared at his lover. Such an obvious suggestion and he hadn’t even thought of it. "I hadn’t, but now you mention it, perhaps I should. Nagi, I know you had a dreadful childhood, but is it the same for all talents?"
Nagi nodded. "Pretty much, depending on their talent. Pyrokinetics and telekinetics tend to have the hardest time as their powers are very hard to control when they’re young. Empaths and telepaths have it nearly as badly. Usually they do what Yohji must have done and bury it." He shrugged. "All humans have a certain level of talent. In most it’s so deeply buried as to be unusable. The reason it’s buried? How many times are children told that the things they see, hear or feel are just their imagination? Eventually they start to believe it."
Omi was fascinated. He had assumed that talent was a rare phenomena. What Nagi was saying was the exact opposite. "So talent is not the next stage of human evolution?"
"Accepted, commonly-used talent was once humanity’s birthright. There are little bits and hints of such times left. Psychics, witchcraft, magic, these are all leftovers from the time before civilisation did away with the need to hone and use talent. It’s still there, but it’s only the strong talents that need the help of a specialised school. The one’s that couldn’t bury it as young children."
"The ones that are given a hard time," Omi guessed.
Nagi nodded, his eyes sad. "Yes."
Omi reached over the back of Nagi’s seat and hugged him close. "I think we could open a school for them," he said. "Richard Krypton has talents in his team, perhaps he would be prepared to help."
Nagi leaned back into the embrace, reaching up a hand to clasp one of Omi’s. "You are so different here," he said softly. "I think I like Omi much better than Mamoru."
Omi sighed. "Yes I was a bit of an idiot, wasn’t I? I can’t believe I almost became everything I hated. I’m much happier here, with all the others but especially with you."
"Don’t go getting sappy on me, Tsukiyono," Nagi warned gruffly. His eyes, however were shining with love.
* * * * * * *
"What did you just say?"
The terrified heavy repeated his report. He had every reason to be terrified as he had lost the Council the talents from Britain. Schicksal frowned. The agent had made no mention of any member of Schwarz nor of the empath that had joined with them. So if not Schwarz then who was behind this setback?
"You may go."
The agent didn’t need to be told twice and scurried out of the room like a startled rabbit. Schicksal turned his attention to Wasser. "Track down any feelings of hatred towards us currently in Britain." Wasser nodded and her eyes went blank. Luft also started a telepathic search without being told and the room went silent for several minutes as Schicksal followed his own visions, which were not terribly helpful.
When they all returned to their mundane surroundings they each shook their heads. "The usual suspects have no clue as to our involvement in the game or how we intended to bring the talents here," Luft said.
"I felt a minor something from that Krypton idiot," Wasser reported, "but when I tracked it I found it directed at some mediocre serial killer."
"Krypton…yes, of course, he retrieved that pre-cog operative of his in the aftermath of the Dietmeiller fiasco did he not?"
Luft nodded. "That’s correct. With a wiped memory so he’s of no use to anyone. Besides, his image wasn’t in Paxton’s mind when he gave his report."
"Describe who was."
"One of the talents, a boy of about fourteen, a tall blonde who seems vaguely familiar and two Japanese men. One was of average height and colouring for a Japanese male and was referred to as ‘Ken’, the other was taller and had red hair."
"Let us see them."
Luft obediently sent the images to Wasser and Schicksal. "Ring any bells?"
"No," Schicksal said and Wasser shook her head.
"Why were two Japanese heavies involved?" Schicksal mused aloud. "Have we pissed off anyone in Japan since the elders fell?"
"Nobody at all," Wasser said. "There was an organisation who wanted Essett destroyed, but they seemed to be ignorant of our involvement."
"I remember them," Luft spoke up, "and they were the organisation that destroyed Epitaph. They might well want to stop us recruiting."
"Yes, but they thought Epitaph was an Essett project," Wasser argued.
"They did till that bitch Tsuji sent to us for back-up. We lost three good agents to her stupidity."
"Wasn’t that down to Schwarz again?" Schicksal asked.
"Yes, though I still don’t know how Schuldig survived Geisel. He should have been fried to a crisp."
"Ah but most people forget Schuldig’s secondary skill," Schicksal commented. "I think perhaps we’d better keep a closer watch on this Japanese organisation, just in case."