Chapter 7: Assaulting the Fortress

Jake spent the next three days readying his defenses and inventing psionic attacks that he thought would be effective against another psionic. He had sent his mother to work, the girls were all in school, and Jake had visited the high school himself to ensure that his presence was not missed. Around sunset on the fourth day, he decided that he was as ready as he could be. He drove back out to the mansion and parked about a mile away.

Jake had come to the conclusion that trying to sneak in using his psionic powers to mask his presence would not work. That was what most of the defenses were designed to prevent, after all. So that left hoofing it, from a distance where, to a telepathic alarm system, it might look like he was simply a wild animal foraging for food. He also designed a "cap" for himself-- a false layer of simple animal thoughts, similar in concept to the fake personality he made his mother, that would make a casual mind probe in his direction pass over him. He hoped. But if someone did break through this rudimentary mind shield, they were in for a nasty surprise: he had designed the shield to follow the puncturer's trail of thought back and do some serious damage to the invading mind before the shield reset itself. If the attacker was of the same caliber his parents were, he or she would live the rest of their lives as vegetables.

Trying to follow a pattern a wild animal would use, Jake meandered slowly towards the large house. It was closing on midnight before he actually made it to the grounds.

Standing right outside the magical defense perimeter, it was easy for his enhanced senses to see the way the detection web was set up. It literally looked like a spider web, radiating out from the nexus at the center of the house, and each little section could pinpoint an intruder within a ten foot square. It would then be a simple matter to send a concentrated burst of death wailing down on that one point, obliterating anything living within that specific space. But Jake had already discovered a weakness on his prior visit here.

Sending a smooth, passive tendril of thought along the actual strand of the web itself, he slowly began working his way towards the nexus. The web did not detect something that did not fall within a space between the lines; the line itself was only a hairsbreadth wide, and anything larger than a microbe would have fallen at least slightly inside-- except for something like a thought, which had no mass, no substance...

After a few moments of concentration, his probe had made its stealthy way to the center of the detection web. Jake then split it, sending it out again on all of the web's radii. There were nearly three hundred of them, and the focus required was incredible, but in a few more moments all the spokes of the web shimmered in his mind with the subdued glow of his will. The web was his. After one last moment of checking, Jake sent the preset command through his original probe.

Abruptly every line he had superimposed his awareness upon swelled-- and burst into shards of crystallized nothingness. The web collapsed completely. To Jake, it was simply the most awesome sight he had ever seen, but he didn't have time to admire his handiwork, as he had already started hearing shouts of alarm coming from the Chapterhouse. He took off at a dead run, he took advantage of his new physical prowess and sprinted in before those in charge of security could recover.

Even though things had gone precisely as he had planned, he was still surprised when he made it to a side door unmolested and, apparently, undetected. He quickly discovered that the door was locked; not wanting to draw attention to himself, he dared not force it. Slowly, quietly, he began to edge himself around the house to find another entrance-- only to walk right into a young man rushing the other direction.

They both stumbled to a halt and stared at each other. Jake immediately began preparation to blast his mind into nothingness when he realized the boy was even younger than he was. The other just looked at him, stupefied, and started stammering.

"Hey, do you know what's going on? All I know is the elders started cursing at us to come out here and stand watch. Do you know what we're watching for?" Jake almost sighed in relief; this boy thought that he was one of them-- some acolyte in training. He couldn't believe his luck.

"Yeah, something went wrong with the intruder system, I think. Maybe a power surge or something. I think they want us to make sure it's not an attack or something. I was just going around checking doors. If any are open, we should check them out." The young man nodded and fell in beside Jake as they went around the house, boldly looking for unlocked doors.

Jake grinned to himself. This was a perfect cover-- walking around with a "fellow" acolyte, looking for an entrance. If they were stopped by someone less ignorant than his newfound friend, he would make sure the trainee did all the talking.

Fortunately, nothing like that happened. They ran into a few other acolytes, most of whom were as confused as his partner. One tried to sound authoritative, suggesting that perhaps he was a slightly higher ranked trainee and placed in charge of this chaos. Once he heard what Jake and his unwitting accomplice were doing, he nodded like he had thought of it himself and told them in a self-important voice to carry on. Smirking in the cover of darkness, Jake "carried on."

In little time Jake had managed to discover an open door on the other side of the house, leading into what looked like a kitchen. He looked to the other boy. "I'll check this one out, you keep going, okay?" Once again, the boy nodded, and Jake was alone inside the house.

The kitchen was large, dark, and quiet. Given the cloak- and- dagger nature of this exercise tonight, it was almost spooky. Jake didn't know where or when to expect a booby trap, and that made him a little nervous. Silently, carefully, he made his way through the kitchen into an empty hall. Quietly he checked all the rooms as he went down the hall. He had to find an office that would hold some of the information he was looking for.

The second door on his left abruptly opened as he reached for the knob. He jumped back as the door swung inward to reveal a stunningly beautiful woman. Her hair was jet black, running down the back of her well- endowed torso to her ample hips. Her features were slightly Oriental, but she had bright, large green eyes. She started to walk through before she noticed him; when she did, she started violently and with a strangled gasp leaped back into the room. Knowing that she could easily raise the alarm, he leaped after her before she could slam the door shut.

Running to follow her, he entered a classroom with two older-looking men and four young women, including the girl who had just ran from him. The men looked up in surprise and anger, then immediately flung their hands towards him, fingers spread wide. Jake felt the energy rise before he saw it, and had plenty of time to erect a mental barrier before the lightning arcing from the men's fingertips splashed across his shield in a bright coruscation of light. Immediately he struck back with a burst of his own psionic energy, and that was the end of that.

The two men, blank-faced, slowly toppled forward, dead long before they hit the ground. Belatedly, he realized that two of the girls in the room had been in contact with the dead men, and had also caught the force of Jake's counterattack. They crumpled in unison with the men. Jake stood silently for a moment, shaken. He had killed four people. Never before had he even killed one person, and now four bodies were laid out before him. Intellectually, he knew it was in self-defense, but that paled before the reality he now looked upon.

Motion and noise drew him back from his introspection. The two remaining women had scrambled into a corner as far from him as they could get, and the girl that had opened the door unsuccessfully tried to cut off a shriek of terror, in a panic to escape him. Sighing, Jake quelled their gibbering with a spear of thought, inserting concepts of tranquility and reason, soothing their distraught minds. It seemed all he did any more was pacify people. The other girl, he noticed, was also quite beautiful. She was a tall, curvaceous redhead with an elegant face and blue eyes. Only a few adjustments to her mind and he could... no. That was the path to corruption. Power implies responsibility. Jake focused on the girl he had met at the door. "What's your name, girl?"

She looked at him from across the room, then quickly got to her feet and scurried over to him. The redhead followed suit. "M-- My name is Melinda, sir. Please don't hurt me." Even with his mental comforting, she was still quaking in fear of him. Jake silently cursed himself. He had handled this situation badly from the beginning. This girl was student, too. The two men he had killed had probably been her teachers.

"I don't hurt people unless I'm defending myself, Melinda. But I do need some information. A message was sent to this Chapterhouse over a phone line, and after receiving it, somebody sent a demon after me. Have you heard anything about this?"

Melinda looked over at the pile of bodies. "My Master might have known, sir, but I'm just an apprentice. I'm sorry, sir."

Jake blinked. Master? Was she a slave? Or an apprentice? He asked her. She was obviously surprised at his ignorance. "My... Master... was my teacher, and he could do with me as he wished, or I lose my Candidacy. That is the way of things. How can you not know that?"

"As he wished? What kind of stuff did that entail?" She couldn't possibly mean what it sounded like... but then again, who was he to judge a system that had probably been working for centuries, at least?

"You know!" she flared. "Sex, any kinky or perverted thing he could think of, bearing children, chores, anything! It's why women aren't allowed apprenticeship until they start having their period!"

That blew Jake's mind. "Why would a woman agree to such a thing?" he asked incredulously.

Melinda and her redheaded companion looked at him as if he were daft. "For the power! What else is there?"

"Responsibility..." Jake answered dazedly. He couldn't believe how ignorant these young women were. They couldn't have been any older than 20. The two women gave him that baffled look again. Then the redhead knelt before him and spoke.

"Sir, your power and skill are obvious. My Master is dead. Will you consent to apprentice me?" Melinda shot a resentful glance at her, then knelt herself and repeated the redhead's words almost verbatim.

Jake chuckled. From potential murderer to potential mentor/ lover in five minutes. These poor women were so intent on power that they would give up anything to acquire it. It was sickening, but intriguing all the same. "I'm not exactly one of your organization." They just continued to stare up at him, expressionless. "The things I would teach you would probably be different from what you'd expect." Still no reaction. "Don't you have something to say about this?"

Melinda, her glorious green eyes not straying one bit from his, answered, "What you teach us will define your status among others. It is in your best interest to make us as powerful as possible."

Jake considered. They might be a valuable source of information regarding the organization he seemed to be infiltrating. But, Jake had to admit, the most attractive factor of this proposal was getting these two gorgeous women to do as he wanted.

He turned to the redhead. "What's your name, girl?"

In a soft voice, she replied, "Sarah."

"All right, Melinda, Sarah, I accept you both as my apprentices. Now show me the depth of your desire for the power I will teach you to use." He looked at both of them as arrogantly as possible.

With grins of triumph, the girls immediately started pulling down his pants, still on their knees. The competition between them was causing problems with his underwear, however. Each girl seemed desperate to make herself his personal favorite. Jake personally despised both women-- he hated selfish, shallow people-- but by the time he was done with them, they would either be leaders among their society, powerful and responsible, or mindless slaves with no power whatsoever. But for right now, he was caught in the middle of two beautiful girls struggling to be the first to suck his cock.