Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence Chapter Twelve

[alexfoster451]

Title: Heaven with a Barbed Wire Fence

Author: Alex Foster

Category: General

Word Count: 50,000+

Rating: PG-13

Summary: A trip home for the holidays turns into a race to protect a young special from The Church of the Nephilim. Claire/Gretchen/Elle triad relationship.

Contains: Polyamory, established relationships, original characters, cursing, misogynist language, threats of violence to a child, sexual situations, descriptions of violence.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by NBC. No money is being made and no infringement is intended.

....


Chapter Twelve

"Admit it, you are going to enjoy this."

Micah didn’t lower the binoculars. "I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t enjoy destroying things."

Beside him, Molly’s shrug was all but lost in several layers of clothes and a heavy coat. "Maybe not, but it bugs you this place uses paper instead of digital."

"Does not."

"Just saying that if it was something else, you might not be so extreme."

"I’m not being extreme. I’m tying up loose ends." He put the binoculars down and fished in the bag at his feet for his tablet computer. One touch had it scanning for nearby wireless networks-his own modifications extending its built in range somewhat-and another had it unlocking one of the connections belonging to one of AAT’s neighbors.

Micah was smart enough not to try AAT’s. He could get in but didn’t trust that they hadn’t left a few traps for him. The church had specials stationed on guard duty in the building before his breach and would certainly have added a layer of digital security since.

He didn’t doubt he could outgun even another technopath if that is what they used, but he hadn’t come for a fight tonight. Molly was with so that meant no unnecessary chances.

A little green exclamation point flashed in the corner of the screen and informed him that it was in. Seconds later his ability was flooding through the computer network. Information passed to his brain from the tablet, automatically filtered and sorted by importance by his subconscious. He did kind of like this part.

Aware Molly was watching him for the faintest traces of a smile, he kept his face neutral. They did have a job to do after all.

Micah glanced at the clock on the screen. "It’s time," he said.

After the break in it was only a matter of time before the church pulled their files out of AAT in favor of something with better security. Probably something completely in house and away from the city. He couldn’t risk Company files with dangerous information staying in their hands-especially if they moved it even further from his reach. Short of being able to steal it all himself, he had to destroy it.

One of the clear disadvantages of hard copy information storage. In the digital world there was always a ghost copy somewhere. In the real world a well placed fire could delete everything.

Micah began hacking into the building’s PA system. He stayed away from the areas he would have trapped if rigging the network for someone like him. Security shifts hadn’t changed since the break in-the high levels still kept under manual lock down at the end of business each night. There were more people in the building now, but they were still in the lower areas. Easier for them to evacuate, he thought.

Spliced in to the PA system, he touched a button on the screen and began playing a prerecorded warning. Since he used the fire alarm trick last time, Micah didn’t want to risk one of the guards thinking it was another break in and rushing up to AAT even though the alarm was sounding.

So he hacked the building’s speakers and broadcasted a bomb threat. Well, he thought, more of a bomb promise.

The tablet went back in the bag and he raised the binoculars again. It only took a few minutes for the people to come filing out of the building. He had figured a window between how long it would take for the guards to empty out and the police to arrive.

The rush of people came to a stop and the building stood quiet. There were a dozen, maybe more, crowded on the street looking up. Micah glanced over at Molly and offered the binoculars. She wasn’t part of the plan; he could have done this on his own, but she had wanted to come with. It was good to have her out in the field again-it reminded him of less pleasant but uncomplicated days when he was Rebel fighting against Building 26.

Molly shook her head at the binoculars and focused on the AAT building with unaided eyes. They were several blocks away, up on the rooftop of an adjacent building, but she wasn’t using just her sense of sight.

Her eyes flicked back and forth as her gaze took in each dark window. Distantly, he heard sirens.

"Mol?"

"It’s empty," she confirmed.

"Okay. Let’s light it up."

They turned away from the rooftop edge and started walking back. Micah pulled out his phone and sent a text message to the cannibalized cell phone detonator that he’d rigged.

Fire alone wasn’t going to do the trick. AAT actually did offer very good protection for its hard copy clients. All of their locked file cabinets had reinforcements to survive a fire. Likewise with water and fire suppressant damage.

An explosion from inside one of the file cabinets however would destroy all the Company files and might even preserve the some of other data belonging with clients Micah had no issues with. If it didn’t, well, then too bad.

Claire had unknowingly given him a gift when she took that folder and created space inside the protected cabinet. His time as Rebel had provided the knowledge of building a big bomb in a small package. Bennie really was skilled-he hit the mark perfectly by dropping the bomb where that file folder used to sit.

Encoded in the timer was a delay of ten seconds-another trick he learned as Rebel. It was enough time for them to return to the folding chairs they’d setup on the rooftop. Molly reached for a thermos she’d packed filled with hot chocolate.

Back at the AAT building several of the windows suddenly blew outward with the concussion of the blast. There was very little fire but that didn’t matter. The explosion had destroyed the data long before the fire suppressant and sprinklers could kick in.

Together, Micah and Molly watched with balcony seats as Company ghosts died.

~

Elle looked forward to the day when a vacation didn’t involve driving to meet up points in stolen cars. That day, however, was not yet upon her.

The meet up point was a small park not far from the hotel geek boy had put Stephen and the air steward up in. They were already waiting at a picnic bench when she pulled the GT-R into a parking spot.

Letting Claire take Gretchen to the table directly, Elle walked a wide path around the edge of the park, looking for anyone suspicious. It didn’t look like anyone followed Flyboy so if the church dropped by it was because one of them had a tag.

The little antichrist sat at the table working on a coloring book, dragging his crayons through and around the lines. Elle appreciated that. She was never one for working inside the lines either. Gretchen hesitated when she caught sight of Stephen and then tried talking to him.

Looping around the park, Elle couldn’t hear what she said but it didn’t provoke a reaction from the kid. Gretchen seemed a little let down because of that.

West stood when he saw them and hugged Claire once they were close enough. Elle didn’t think very much of that. But she had staked plenty of claim to Claire the night before so she let it pass. Let him have his little wet dreams. She got to actually have it in vivid Technicolor.

He greeted Gretchen too and everyone sat. Elle walked up and nodded at him. "Flyboy."

"Bitch."

It kind of bugged her that he didn’t make that sound nasty.

Elle put one foot up on the bench and swung up until she was sitting on the table with both feet planted on the seat. High ground and all that. "Gangs all here. Any problems with Rain Boy?"

"Hail, hail." West shook his head. "He’s been fine. No outbursts or changes to thermodynamics that I can see."

Claire stared at Stephen. "I expected someone more…imposing."

"Considering our situation, Cheerleader, let’s be thankful for the Hanukkah miracle that he isn’t."

West leaned forward. "What is our situation? I mean, what do we do now?"

"Now we get you guys out of town." Elle dug around in her pocket and pulled out her disposable cell phone. "Then the girls and I have a little come to Jesus meeting with the Church of the Nephilim."

"How long have you been sitting on that quip?" West asked.

"Shut up and don’t mess with me today. I’ve stolen two cars in one day; I’m a woman on the edge." Elle touched the speed dial and then speakerphone button. "Micah had better pick up. We’re out here putting our butts on the line like we’re Charlie’s Angels or something."

The phone rang twice. "Hello, Agent Bishop."

"You’re on speaker, Charlie. Everyone is here."

"The line is now encrypted. I’m glad you are all safe. I’m sorry I couldn’t help last night. I had a small assignment to take care of."

Claire spoke up, "Anything wrong?"

"No. AAT just had a small accident that cost them all their stolen Company files."

"Awesome. How did you pull that off and why couldn’t you do it without my girlfriend days ago?"

Amazingly Micah didn’t sound exasperated at that. "I had an old friend pop a bomb into the file cabinet-something that wouldn’t have worked without Claire’s help."

"A teleporter?" Elle mouthed. "Son of a bitch."

Gretchen waved her back. "Please tell me you were able to find something to help us out in the meantime."

"Well, I found some information but I don’t know how helpful it is going to be," Micah said. "If those names Claire found are correct the man that attacked you last night isn’t just a missionary for the church. He is one of the founding members of the Church of the Nephilim. Desmond Wells, electrical manipulator that appeared on the Company’s European radar back in the 90s before falling off all together. He and three others founded the church two years ago."

"So?" Elle asked. "We already knew he was a religious nut."

"So you won’t be able to just walk right into a welcome center and kill him," Micah said. "It would be like taking out a monsignor in the Vatican."

"I seriously doubt he is rocking the Swiss Guard over there."

"No, but he is rocking dozens if not hundreds of superpowered devotees plus an equal amount of people that think he is practically a heavenly being, all willing to fight to defend him."

Elle didn’t have anything to say to that. She looked off to the side.

"What about the other one?" Claire asked. "The partner that was hurt when they tried to take Stephen. Salt?"

Stephen glanced at her when he heard his name but then went back to coloring without any change of expression.

"I couldn’t trace any treated gunshot wounds or reported car accidents back to them," Micah said. "Either they covered their tracks well or had a special heal him on the spot."

The latter, Elle figured. That was how they did things in the Company. "That means he’s probably up and around right now."

"My thoughts exactly," Micah said. "Another reason I wouldn’t recommend the direct approach."

"Not to mention you guys haven’t seen what he can do-I have," Gretchen said. "Graphically. Salt would kill you all before you were even within sight of him."

"That’s what they make scopes for," Elle said. "I say we mount up and start getting biblical on their asses."

"No running off half cocked," Micah said.

"I promise you I’m fully cocked." Elle noticed Gretchen looking at Stephen; she followed her gaze but the kid didn’t look any different.

"Plus, we can’t do anything until we get Stephen far away from here and under the care of another minder," West said. "I want to help you guys."

"I agree," Claire said. "We can’t watch him and go after the church at the same time. Have you found a place yet, Micah?"

Elle leaned down. "You okay, Chestnut?"

Gretchen frowned and didn’t answer right away; she kept looking at Stephen.

"I have," Micah said. "It’s in state but a good drive away."

"I can fly him."

"Can you?" Claire asked. "What if he gets scared? Do we really want to test his ability that way?"

Elle kept her voice low. "Gretchen, say something."

"I think he is doing something," she said.

"We could sedate him."

"Too risky," Micah said. "There is a reason the Company kept him in a home instead of a medically induced coma down in Level Five. His ability could see that as an attack on him and fight back."

Elle straightened. "Doing what?"

Claire and West both looked over.

"I don’t know," Gretchen said. "It’s just a feeling around him like he is doing something."

"Any one else getting that?" Micah’s voice was tiny coming from the speakerphone.

West stood and walked to Stephen. "I’m not."

"Neither am I."

"Me three," Elle said. "Doe Eye’s are still…doey so she isn’t channeling anything."

"Maybe they don’t turn if she’s this close?"

West shook his head. "Or maybe we’re all just a little freaked? I certainly am."

Elle swung her legs around and sat cross-legged in front of Stephen. She put her hand over his coloring book and he looked up sharply at her. Power raced through the air. Different than her ability and not anywhere near as pleasant. Her skin twitched with it and she inched backward without even being aware of moving. "No, she’s right. What the hell are you doing, kid?"

"Guys." Claire stood. "My phone is on and connected. Not the disposable-my regular one." She held up the offending device.

"What?!" Micah said. "Who did you call?"

Elle dug her phone out too; they all reached for phones that moments ago were off.

"Mine is on too."

"So is mine."

"Jesus."

"There isn’t a number," Claire said. "It just says connected to remote source. I’ve never seen anything like it before."

Elle flipped her phone over and thumbed the back cover off. "Everyone take your batteries out."

"Could an EM manipulator have done that?" Gretchen asked, fumbling with her cover.

"No," Micah said. "Not if the phone was off to begin with."

"It was. Not my first rodeo." Elle pulled the battery out and dumped it on the picnic table. Turning the phone over she saw the screen was still lit up and connected to a remote source. "Well that’s new."

West held up his phone, battery in the other hand, and it was still alive too."

"Damn."

"Ideas?" Claire asked.

"Take the sim card out," Micah said.

"Screw that." Elle tossed her phone down on the ground and gestured for everyone else to do the same with theirs. Lightning flared along her hand and hit the pile of phones. They sparked and the cases popped like logs in a fire. In seconds they were reduced to a fused mound of blackened circuit boards and broken screens. All dark and dead.

She turned on Stephen. "Not cool, kid. I had some pretty nifty pictures on that phone. If you are stupid enough to throw up a sign advertising where you are maybe we should just let the bible thumpers have you."

Claire turned in a full circle, scanning the streets around them. "That’s exactly what he did," she said. "He used himself as bait to bring Light to us."

"No, he used us as bait. And bait only works if there is a trap to spring."

"Your abilities are all you need." Gretchen’s eyes had gone white again. "They are coming." She blinked and was back to normal. "Ugh."

"Whoa," West said, looking at her. "Cool."

"Well that’s perfect." Elle grabbed the open disposable phone and jumped off the table. "We need to get out of here. Check back with you later, Micah."

"Be careful."

She snapped the phone closed and started leading the way out of the park. "We’ll meet up at-"

"Elle." Claire pointed at an older battered sedan pulling into the parking lot. "Can you see the passenger in that car?"

Elle peered-her eyes not as good as Claire’s-and then saw him. Light. "Oh shit. Everyone run!"

West grabbed Stephen and carried him. The child reached for his coloring book and crayons but couldn’t reach them before being swept away. He still gripped a single red crayon in his hand. The little yelp he made at that was the only sound Elle could remember hearing him make.

The four of them raced across the park, Stephen bouncing along clinging to West.

"Split up," Elle called. "Light’s mine. I’ll run interference while you guys get the kid away. Stay with Flyboy, Gretchen. Cheerleader, you’re with me."

They jumped over the small wooden fence separating them from parking spaces. Elle looked over her shoulder and saw the sedan racing along the road looping around the park, getting closer to them. "Going to need you to drive, Cheerleader."

Gretchen opened the station wagon’s rear door and West practically shoved Stephen inside. She followed behind and closed the door. He sailed smoothly over the top of the car and came down next to the driver side door.

"I don’t know how to drive stick," Claire said.

Grumbling and cursing to herself, Elle slid across the hood of the GT-R and dove for the driver seat. Claire climbed in next to her.

West already had the station wagon moving when Elle reached under the dash and sparked her car to life. Not bothering to watch him leave, she put one arm behind the seat and looked over her shoulder. "Buckle up," she said and dropped her foot.

The sports car raced backward across the lot. Elle caught a glimpse of the sedan coming around the bend out her side window and cut the wheel to angle right for it.

The impact caught the rear bumper of her car against the passenger side front of Light’s car. The GT-R had enough momentum to keep moving backward while the sedan spun to the side, its wheel catching part of the wooden fence.

Elle turned the steering wheel and hit the brakes. Their tires screeched and a cloud of burned rubber enveloped the backend. The car swung around almost a full hundred and eighty degrees. Elle worked the gear paddles and gas pedal.

The Nissan’s front end hit their side with a crunch of bending metal. They didn’t have enough momentum to disable the car, but it knocked the church people around a bit. Elle took more than a little joy in seeing Light fly into his door. Apparently Brits didn’t know America had seatbelt laws.

Elle dropped the car into reverse and shot backward. "Come on, you sons of bitches," she said. "Follow me."

The sedan showed no signs of moving when she went back two lanes all the way to the end of the lot. She revved the engine, waiting for a reaction.

"Elle…"

"Hold on." She dropped the car into gear and they launched forward.

At the last second the sedan shot out of the way.

Laughing, Elle cut the wheel and pulled the handbrake. The back tires locked and they slid sideways. The fence hit the side of the car and shattered. They fishtailed across the park grounds and sod shot up around them.

Claire gripped the seat with one hand and the dashboard with the other.

Elle recovered from the slide, release the brake, and started forward again. The rev counter clocked up as all four wheels touched pavement again. She came up hard on the sedan’s bumper, tapping it to let him know she was back there.

The lot wrapped around the park before emptying out back on the main road. Together the two cars raced the length of the lot. Up ahead, Elle could see the station wagon with its head start already exiting back out into traffic.

She downshifted and fell back a little. There wasn’t enough room to pit the sedan or force it in a different direction.

The sedan shot up the small incline and began making up ground.

Elle was right behind merging into traffic and keeping them in sight. She checked all the mirrors. No cops in sight and not much in other cars yet. If West made a run for the highway that would change and unless Costa Verde traffic school covered losing a tail and avoiding a box maneuver they were screwed. She didn’t trust that Flyboy wouldn’t drive straight into morning congestion.

Elle switched to the inside lane and accelerated. The performance engine grumbled and they came up along side the sedan, close enough to see a lengthy unpleasant looking driver. Light looked past him and saw her.

Elle smiled and swung inward. The cars met with a love tap.

Light and his friend tried to pull ahead, but it couldn’t outpace the GT-R.

Elle switched her gaze between the sedan and the road ahead. She saw the sedan driver pull his wheel and get ready to return the sidelong kiss.

At the last possible moment she floored the accelerator and worked the shifters. Their sports car shot ahead and the sedan nearly over corrected and spun.

Elle watched them in the rearview mirror and positioned in front of them when they evened back out. She downshifted and tapped the brake.

The sedan wasn’t expecting that and their front end hit Elle’s rear bumper. She was ready for the hit and took it.

Ahead she saw the station wagon turn left at an intersection.

Her gaze went back to the mirror. She tried to decide if they had seen that too or if she could fake them out. Not enough of a lead, she thought and turned left as well. Both cars shot through on a yellow light.

"Can you get that thing to work?" Elle asked and jerked her chin toward the GPS.

Claire leaned forward and began touching screen buttons. "Where do you want to go?"

"I just need to see a map of the land," she said. "Streets and intersections. Maybe we can figure out a place to lose these guys."

Claire turned the thing on and called up a street level map. Good enough. Thankfully there was no annoying German voice instructing her where to go.

The sedan came up on their tail and tried to pass them.

Elle blocked them and looked over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t setting up a pit move of their own. Her foot twitched on the gas and widened the space between them just enough to keep tall pale and creepy from trying it.

"Take the wheel, Cheerleader." Elle popped her seatbelt.

"Are you going somewhere?"

Elle hit the power window switch, filling the car with wind. Setting the cruise, she hitched up on one leg and twisted her torso out the driver side window. The car drifted slightly before Claire could lean over the center column and grip the wheel.

"Keep it straight!" Elle extended her arm over the roof of the car, formed a finger pistol with her thumb and first two fingers, and took aim. The bolt left her hand and hit the pursuing car just above its grille. Sparks exploded from the impact; the sedan swerved slightly, but there wasn’t enough damage to disable the car.

Her next shot clipped the sedan’s roof just above the windshield, jarring it in the frame but not enough to collapse it inward.

Light reached out his passenger side window just enough to return fire without becoming a target himself. The awkward angle cost him accuracy however. His first shot went wide and clipped a lightpole. The next hit the GT-R’s back end and sent them fishtailing before Claire could correct.

Sparks and arcs of power peppered Elle’s arm. Inside the car she grabbed the back of the driver’s seat with her other hand to keep from flying out the window entirely. She fired blindly back hoping to at least keep him from getting off another good shot.

The GT-R straightened but before Elle could take aim Claire started yelling, "Intersection. Which way?"

Elle dropped back inside the car and took control just as they passed underneath the mercifully green stoplight. She worked the paddles and cut the wheel sharply to the left.

The car growled in protest but Elle swung around a slow moving car and glanced in her mirror. The sedan went right.

"Which way did Flyboy go?"

Claire shook her head. "I don’t know. I lost sight of them when we nearly jumped the curb."

Elle floored the gas and jammed the transmission in gear. The speedometer jumped over sixty miles an hour and she began weaving around the smattering of traffic. She didn’t see the station wagon anywhere and none of the buildings had secluded parking to hide from a tail.

Elle gestured toward the GPS. "Can you widen that view?"

Claire touched the screen and pulled the view from several blocks to over a mile. "What are you thinking?"

Elle scanned it while also keeping an eye on the road. She took the next right fast and hard. They were still outside the city proper; she recognized several of the exits from the drive back in from Muriel Junction. She reached over and moved the map a little further.

West might have been an idiot but he wasn’t stupid. He was a freedom fighter and not a Company agent but he’d know that if he couldn’t out drive Light he would have to find some place defendable and far away from civilians until he could fly everyone away.

Gretchen might know the area but he didn’t. He would go somewhere familiar.

Elle found what she was looking for on the map.

The GT-R took another right and the engine revved as they accelerated over eighty.

She tried to judge how far ahead they were. Another turn and the populated areas were behind them. Traffic thinned out to practically none as they entered an industrial section. They blew a stop sign as she merged onto the street Martin had taken just the day before.

Elle saw them less than a thousand yards from the abandoned shopping plaza where she and Martin had met up with West and Claire. The station wagon was going faster than was probably intended when it was built, but the sedan was still pacing them. Several new dents, dings, and scorch marks decorated the wagon. Light was leaning out his window getting ready to place another.

"Hang on." Elle floored the gas and they accelerated hard enough to throw them back in their seats.

The GT-R slammed into the sedan with the crunch of metal and plastic.

Light jerked forward and started to fall out. His large driver though managed to reach across the seat, get a hand around his arm, and pull him inside.

Elle swore and pulled back for another ram. The sedan was pinned between the Nissan and the station wagon. All three cars shook with the impact. The wagon’s bumper hung lopsided for a second and then fell completely off. It was hard to tell but it looked like the wheel well was damaged too.

They were already past the plaza’s entrance but West turned across the median and doubled back. The wagon’s front and backend bounced going across and for a second Elle thought it might snap in two. Light’s car followed him, not looking much better on the hump.

Knowing better than to chance it with her low ground clearance, Elle accelerated until she came to a break in the barrier and reached for the handbrake.

Claire gave a little yell as they whipped around and braced herself against the ceiling.

Not bothering to take her fingers from the paddle shifters on the wheel, Elle dropped the car in gear and raced back the way they had come. Downshifted and then swung into the abandoned parking lot.

Lightning greeted her.

It hit the car head on and for a moment all the dashboard lights flickered. Elle turned sharply to the side and out of the oncoming rush. The sedan passed dangerously close, near enough for Elle to see the freak behind the wheel.

The GT-R did not like that attack at all. Dashboard lights had come back but the displays weren’t reading correctly.

"I don’t think we can handle another like that."

"He’s coming around," Claire said, looking in her side mirror.

"I see him." Elle shifted again and turned out of his line of fire. Blue white flashed behind them as a bolt went wide.

They shot across the empty parking spaces.

Far ahead she saw the station wagon circling the lot. West had the right idea now she just had to figure out how to buy him enough time to get Gretchen and Stephen into the air.

There were several small abandoned stores along the large one, maybe if he could get behind-

The blast caught her unaware and knocked her hard against the steering wheel. Glass shattered as the back window blew inward. Blue white light filled the car and Elle could hear the power crackling. Air burned going up her nose. She wasn’t sure where the lightning hit on the car but they spun wildly before she could correct.

The engine made a sputtering sound but somehow remained going. They came to a rest with the passenger side against one of the concrete bases that once housed a lightpole.

Elle groaned.

"You okay?"

Of course Claire wasn’t fazed. Elle shook her head to clear it and glanced out the windshield. "No."

The sedan had caught up with West just as he was attempting to slip between strips of stores. Light leaned all the way out his window, held in place by his driver’s large hand, and let free two balls of lightning.

Knowing that was what had hit them, Elle watched as they slammed into the driver side of the wagon. For a second it was lost in the flash of discharge. Then the backend whipped around and they jumped the curb.

The front end all the way down the driver’s door was a crumbled mess. Even if the electronics managed to survive that the front tire was goo on the rim. They bounced uncontrolled over the walk and slammed into the large storefront. Plywood covering where the automatic doors once stood gave way as the wagon hit and didn’t slow. The station wagon disappeared into the dark store and Elle wondered if West even managed to live through that.

Light turned and began to pull up to the curb. They were just going to get out and finish them off without challenge.

Elle swallowed and reached for her seatbelt. The GT-R didn’t have much life left but she was going to make what it had count. "Hang on."

They scraped across the concrete base when she began moving again. The car lumbered at first, not wanting to obey, but then began gaining speed.

Elle had no idea how fast they were actually going because the dashboard was stuck at zero but it was enough that the parking lot was passing in a blur.

She had just enough time to yank the gun from her belt and shove it at Claire. "Inside get to Gretchen," she said. "I’ll take Light."

They hit the back of the back of the sedan and both cars crumpled together. The force was enough to send the sedan clear over the curb and into the gaping hole left by the wagon. Elle following right behind, her foot never leaving the gas.

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