Race to the Target

 

Dyna sped through the subdivisions at frankly unsafe speeds. Normally, she thought she was a safe driver. She might not exactly follow the speed limit, but she didn’t go so fast that she thought she was in danger of being pulled over. Without fail, she used her blinker, didn’t swerve through multiple lanes of traffic, and kept a respectful yet not aggravating distance from other vehicles.

Today, however, she didn’t know that she had time to play it safe. Matt was almost certainly out here in one of the abandoned homes. The Hatman was after him. Tartarus, if that was what they actually called themselves, had an interest in the Hatman and, therefore, likely had an interest in Matt too. With all these people after him, Dyna wanted to get to Matt first. Before the Hatman. And definitely before Id’s crew.

Although they had left without a fuss, Dyna wasn’t going to trust them further than she could throw their truck. She didn’t know what they wanted or why they were here beyond their claims of pursuing the Hatman, but she had a feeling she knew how they knew about this place. Id had been in her mind. Her quip during their last meeting about hot chocolate proved that. It wasn’t a far stretch to assume that she had spotted the same ‘book’ in the back of Dyna’s mind that Dyna had.

From there, Id could have done the same thing the institute had. She tracked them down, discovered that one of them was missing contact information, and got curious enough to investigate.

Was it a coincidence that someone showed up now, at the same time that Dyna was investigating the matter?

Possibly. But probably not. As far as Dyna knew—unless Harold had been lying about his involvement—the Carroll Institute had still yet to find out who leaked Dyna’s personal information in the first place. That person, or anyone else who knew about this little vacation to Wyoming, could have fed Id a bit of information. That didn’t quite explain why Maple, if that was his real name, had been so surprised to see her, but maybe he just hadn’t been expecting her to be there.

Regardless of the hows or even whys, Dyna didn’t have much doubt that Matthew would be far safer with her than he would be with Id or the Hatman. Ruby hadn’t even talked about hurting him since they got back from their second trip to the trapped house.

“Another circled property upcoming on our left,” Ruby said, looking down at both her own phone and Dyna’s phone. One had a GPS map pulled up, the other had the picture Dyna had taken from that closet.

Slowing the car down to proper neighborhood speeds, Dyna held up her mirror. It had changed the first time they had found Matt. She was hoping that it would do so again. Although she had hammered out some of the finicky behavior by focusing more on the perceived target—generally herself—rather than the perceiver, she still wasn’t quite sure what made the lenses turn dark when she wasn’t looking for an observer. If Matt wasn’t near a window, peeking out, her artifact might not register.

She really needed something else. It still irked that Matt managed to get away in their first encounter. That wasn’t wholly the artifact’s fault, but something would have been nice.

“Nothing?” Ruby asked.

“No,” Dyna said, lowering the mirror. “Next house?”

“Just around the corner. We’ve only got five left, so hopefully he is at one of these places and not somewhere unmapped.”

“Walter might still come through.”

He had called her back, finally. After agreeing with Ruby’s suggestion that they get Matt out of the area, he said that he would be assigning several additional personnel to trying to track him down. Tartarus was a concern, but unless they proved immediately dangerous, they were to be ignored.

The Hatman was to be avoided if at all possible. He was too dangerous. His ability to modify memories alone wasn’t something Walter wanted them to mess with, not to mention his apparent imperceptibility and obviously unpleasant tendencies toward kidnapping people.

If the Carroll Institute could get Matt to relative safety, and if the Hatman really was obsessed with specific individuals, they should be able to use Matt to safely lure the Hatman into some kind of trap.

The details were for other people to think about. Dyna just had to focus on what was in front of her right now.

Turning the corner that Ruby indicated and dropping the speed of the car, Dyna held up her mirror once again.

It changed almost immediately.

“Found him?”

“No.” Dyna grit her teeth as she looked up to the regular rear-view mirror. “Not Matt…”

A man walked down the sidewalk, wearing a dark coat and a wide hat. He seemed in no rush, casually moving along at a steady pace.

From the angle, now that she wasn’t looking down at him from above, Dyna could clearly see under the Hatman’s hat. But she still couldn’t see his face.

“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Dyna slowly nodded her head.

His face, just like in Dyna’s memories, was obscured. Thick black marks in the air covered his eyes and mouth. They weren’t static either. It wasn’t part of a mask. Every step he took, the markings changed. Like somebody was actively taking a permanent pen and scribbling out parts of his face. The angle of his head shifted, the scribbles changed.

Dyna hit the accelerator, speeding off down the street away from him. A part of her wanted to spin the car around to try to run him down, but another part of her was convinced that wouldn’t work.

Something was very wrong with that man. In fact, she wasn’t sure he was a man at all.

He didn’t chase after them unless she counted him continuing his walk in the same direction that he had already been headed. Dyna took the first turn possible, only to wind up in a cul-de-sac. She used the circular part of the street to spin the car around, but stopped before driving back out onto the road that the Hatman had been walking down.

“What is a phase-walking entity—or whatever they called it?”

“I don’t know,” Ruby said with a shudder. “Am I scared? That’s… stupid. He was doing something again. In my mind. I felt it. That must be what it is. I’m not scared.”

Again, Dyna hadn’t felt anything. She wasn’t sure if it was immunity, as Ruby had suggested last time, or just insufficient training. Either way, it didn’t make her feel any better. In fact, she rather wished that she had felt something. At least it would be consistent. They might be more able to figure out what was going on.

Dyna snatched her phone back from Ruby. Two taps started a call. The other end picked up before the first ring ended.

“White—”

“What is a phase-wandering entity?”

Walter hesitated just a moment before answering. “Not sure. Nothing in our database matches the terms used. We put in an information request with our European Union counterpart, but they haven’t gotten back to us yet. Unfortunately, there are few ISO standards for terminology—or anything else related to psionics—at this time. You may have overheard the other organization discussing something we call something else.”

Dyna clicked her tongue in annoyance. “We found the Hatman again.”

“Status?” Walter said, concern in his voice.

“We’re fine. He was just walking along the road. I sped off. I don’t think he messed with my mind—maybe it doesn’t work if he can’t see people directly?”

“Ruby is with you?”

Dyna glanced to her side, just to double check the yes, Ruby hadn’t been kidnapped without her noticing. “She is.”

“Good. We’re trying—”

“Hold on.”

Sitting at the end of the cul-de-sac, Dyna saw him walking down the sidewalk. Just as he had been when she drove off. Had he broke into a run to get this far already? Or was he just a faster walker than he appeared?

Ruby quickly pulled up her phone and started recording a video.

Dyna just watched, foot hovering over the accelerator. Running him down didn’t feel like it would kill him, but it might stop him from moving long enough for them to drive far away. He didn’t turn into the small neighborhood, however. After a brief pause at the corner, where he looked both directions as if there was actual traffic around, he crossed the street and continued on his way.

“The Hatman just walked by. Ruby is still with me. We’re fine.”

“I don’t like the unknowns in this situation,” Walter said. Dyna could hear his frown. “I want you two to—”

“Wait… Ruby. Where was the next circled house?”

Ruby quickly pulled up her copy of the map and immediately put on a grimace. “End of the street. Same direction our friend was headed.”

Dyna took a breath. “That’s where Matt is. I don’t know how, but the Hatman knows.”

“Dyna!” Walter said. “You are not to engage with the Hatman. We don’t know how he works or the extent of his abilities. He may have an artifact as well.”

“Don’t need to engage with him,” Dyna said, dropping her phone into the cup holder as she put both hands to the steering wheel. “Just need to engage with Matt.”

Dyna tore out of the cul-de-sac at speeds that she was pretty sure put her up on two wheels when she turned. After that drop in her stomach, she leveled out. The end of the road was a T-intersection. Two houses were both roughly at the end of the street.

“Which one?”

“Left.”

Blowing past the Hatman as he continued his steady walk, Dyna pulled right alongside the house’s driveway. “We go in, grab Matt, and get out of here.”

“If he isn’t cooperative?”

Dyna pressed her lips together. “Break his arms. But let me try shouting at him first.”

Just before opening the door, Dyna looked down the street. The Hatman was still coming. Assuming he didn’t suddenly increase his pace, they could have anywhere from three to five minutes before he reached the house.

Pushing open the door and getting out, Dyna let out a hiss.

She was worried. She was panicked. Her heart pounded in her chest.

But she couldn’t quite remember why.

They were here to get Matt. To get him out of here before something bad happened to him. Dyna wasn’t absolutely sure why something bad was going to happen to him, but with everything else and knowing why they had come here in the first place, Dyna could only come to one conclusion.

“He’s gone,” Ruby said, probably thinking the same thing.

“No.” The Hatman had to be around. And if he was, he was still there. Just invisible. Or imperceptible. Or unrememberable. The same thing, really. “He needs direct line of sight to activate his powers? Or…” Dyna shook her head.

She could think about him later. For now…

“Let’s move,” she said, rushing around the car and to the house. “Matt!”

“Careful. He’s probably still armed.”

“Yeah. Matt! It’s Dyna, remember me?” Dyna slammed her fist against the door in two hard knocks before ducking off to the side, not wanting to get her fingers shot off like Ruby.

No shot actually came, however.

“We need to hurry. I don’t know why, but we need to hurry…”

“Matt, I’m coming in,” Dyna called. She reached for the door handle using the sleeve of her jacket—just in case it was hot for some reason—and found it to be loose and broken. A hard jerk twisted the latch. After that, it only took a gentle push to throw open the door.

Dyna immediately ducked aside again. Ruby, far less fearful of getting buckshot to the face, charged right in through the open door.

When she didn’t hear any immediate gunshots, Dyna followed.

This was a smaller house than the previous. No second floor. The door opened up straight into a living room. There was a kitchen and dining room in the back, all part of the same open space. The garage was on the right. There was at least one bedroom on the left, through a small hallway.

“I’ll check left, you check right?”

“Watch for traps,” Ruby said, walking off. “And hurry. We need to get out of here.”

Based on the other house, Matt favored taut wires attached to spring-loaded swinging arms or sabotaged floorboards to make someone fall through. Dyna didn’t see either on her way through the living room.

There was a bathroom right at the hall opening and then a bedroom on either side.

Dyna barely had to peek into the first bedroom.

“Ruby!”

It looked like Matt had taken apart a lawn mower, intending to use its blade and maybe even some of its motor as a trap.

There was blood all over the floor. The ragged jeans he wore were torn up all along one leg. Fat, muscle, and even bone were exposed beneath the torn skin of his right leg. He was still breathing hard, heavy breaths that Dyna didn’t even need to try to look for. He was still alive. But he wasn’t awake.

Ruby came skidding into the room just behind Dyna.

“Idiot.”

“No time. You get his legs. I’ll grab his shoulders.”

Ruby moved up right next to his hips and looped one arm around each thigh. She didn’t flinch or balk at the blood getting all over her. Dyna, being the larger of the two, managed to get his upper body off the ground without too much difficulty. He really wasn’t that heavy. In fact, she was willing to bet that he was underweight by quite a lot. Living out in a bunch of abandoned homes without anyone else around and likely scavenging or stealing for food wouldn’t leave him in the healthiest position.

Actually moving him was a bit more awkward than Dyna hoped. Ruby was strong, but that didn’t make up for her height deficiency. While he didn’t weigh much, Matt was lanky. His feet practically dragged along the ground as they carried him out of the house.

Outside, Dyna still didn’t see the Hatman anywhere. She didn’t think they had been inside for any real length of time, but he could be on top of them for all she knew. Dyna didn’t know what would happen if he actually made it to them. Maybe he would just touch Matt and they would both disappear, leaving Dyna without memories of why she was even here in the first place or why Ruby was covered in blood.

Matt didn’t disappear, however. Not before they got him to the car. They couldn’t exactly be gentle with him and ended up just shoving him in the back.

“I’ll tie off his leg,” Ruby said, climbing in the back with him.

Dyna didn’t argue. She circled the car as fast as she could. Having left it running while they were inside, she didn’t have to do anything but throw it into drive and slam her foot down on the accelerator.

She didn’t breathe easy until they turned down two other streets. Well on their way out of the abandoned neighborhood.

“You’re still with me, right Ruby?” Dyna asked, glancing back. Ruby was there, pulling a belt tight around Matt’s leg.

“Yeah. Your friend might not be for too long. I think he’s lost a lot of blood. He needs medical attention.”

“The institute—”

“Is half a day away even if we drive non-stop above the speed limit. Maybe he’ll live, but if he doesn’t… mission failure. We did all this for nothing.”

Dyna chewed on her lip, gnawing a bit of dry skin. “There will be a hospital somewhere around. But if the Hatman is still after him…”

“Maybe it is time to set our own traps. I’m far more adept than your friend here.”

“In a hospital?”

Ruby, visible in the mirror, shrugged. “Unless you want him kidnapped out from under our noses.”

“No. We’ll guard him.” Dyna looked down to the car’s on-board navigation. It didn’t exactly have a button for hospital handy. “Are your hands free?”

“Grimy, but yes.”

“Find me a hospital. Then we’ll have to check in with Walter.” As soon as she spoke, Dyna’s phone started vibrating in the cup holder. “Actually, I bet that’s him.”

“You should probably pick up before he does something drastic. And the hospital… back to the main road we used to get here and take a left.”

“Got it.” Dyna promptly grimaced as the phone buzzed again.

She wasn’t exactly looking forward to getting yelled at.

But it worked. Matt was here and not abducted. Or dead from blood loss.

It worked.

Now they just had to get him stabilized. As soon as he wasn’t in any danger of dying, they could rush back to the Carroll Institute, get him down in Psychodynamics, and let the doctors there take care of him in relative safety.

Simple. Easy.

Hopefully Walter would agree.