From the prompt: "Train of thought..."
"Blossom"
(Communications, you ready to go?)
(I am.) Gabriel yanked on the gloves and flexed his hands. Then he tugged the beanie hat low over his curls and stepped out of the doorway. The cool night air washed over him as he slid through the darkness.
All around him voices floated on the air, the voices from the minds of everyone near. Gabriel started towards the sprawling cinderblock building, purpose in his movements. He paused just beyond the barbed-wire fence, watching the spotlights roam the open courtyard. Already the voices assuaged him but he kept them at bay, smooth obsidian walls rising in his mind.
(...No one�s getting out tonight. No one ever gets out...)
(I don�t see why we have to watch. I�m missing the game...)
Gabriel stepped forwards and grabbed the fence, hoisting himself up and over, landing noiselessly on the cement.
(New inmate was creepy. The things he knew...)
Gabriel glanced up at the guardhouse.
(I wish I wasn�t here -- )
Four quick strikes, and Gabriel retreated behind his wall, the voices fading to humming blanks. The spotlights kept spinning as he darted across the courtyard to the door. More humming blanks greeted him in the din of sleeping minds.
(Operations, would you...?)
The thought was halfway across the web when the doorknob turned and the door swung open. Gabriel stepped into the hallway and glanced around warily. Beneath the stillness of sleep he could sense the colours of dreams. He stretched out, smoky tendrils stealing through the air and brushing minds, testing and moving on before he could cause pain.
He located the mind he wanted and broke out of his stillness, loping down the hallway. He passed the guard station and released a burst of power. The two guards cried out softly and slumped over. He paused and felt Operations swirl around him on the web. Peeking through the glass and past the two guards, he watched the security screens flicker out.
Smiling, not nicely, he ran down the hallway, listening to the rustling on either side as the inmates tossed and turned, bodies sensing the disturbance in the air. As he passed, Gabriel snuffed each man out like a candle, sending him from sleep to unconsciousness, until he came to the cell at the end of the hallway.
He drew himself to a stop at that last door and shut his eyes. He drifted up into his mind, and he could taste it, smell it�the fear. His lips parted slightly as he inhaled, and he reached out to the other mind tentatively, caressing, teasing until it opened up and yielded what he wanted. He sank into his mind, flickering on the astral plane, watching the flower bloom.
(�...Hereby sentenced to thirty years imprisonment for the robbery and murder of...�)
(�Did you get the information?�)
(�Tell us what your secret it...�)
(NOOOO! I�ll tell you anything, anything if you stop...)
The voices and thoughts danced up off the petals, smelling heady and sweet.
Ah, the flavour of death.
Still faintly anchored in the astral plane, Gabriel muttered something to Operations and slid forward into the doorway when the door opened. He stared at the man sitting up on the cot who gazed back at him fearfully. Dark colours swirled in his mind.
�Who are you?� The man�s voice quavered.
�The Council has passed its judgment,� Gabriel said softly.
The man began shaking his head. �No, no! I didn�t say anything!�
�The Council has found you guilty of revelation without executive permission.� Gabriel ignored the man�s terrified sobbing as he slipped away from his body fully in his mind, and savoured death, reaching out to snap the blossom off its stem.
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© Agent Duo 2004