Then she barked, “Cuffs, three pair on the desk.”

  Suppression cuffs appeared on the desk in front of us, courtesy of Hoover. She moved to start cuffing the compromised agents and our witness.

  That’s when my shields were hit with what felt like a locomotive, and the sensation of an ice pick going through my brain made me scream. My mental shield held against the attack, but only barely, and I knew it had to be our quarry. The mind controller had waited until the battle was done, and then had struck while I’d still been focused on keeping the compromised agents down.

  My mind pulled back instinctively to shore up those defenses.

  “Harold, cuff them now!”

  It would take a few seconds for them to shake off the sleep paralysis, and a few seconds was an eternity to a speedster. Thank fate he actually followed the intern’s order.

  The second time he hit my shields still hurt, but far less than the first time. With all my power on my shields he was a lot easier to hold off. I also knew it was a him, no doubt. He was also about a quarter mile away.

  I focused my thoughts into a point, and then returned the favor with the intent to overload his mind and knock him out. That hurt too, when my focused attack splintered and shattered into pieces as I hit his shield as hard as I could. I wondered if his brain was smarting already, when his attacks had broken up against my shield.

  A moment later, his presence was gone.

  I wasn’t sure who was stronger from that, but I knew it would be a close fight. But the man had decided to flee. In hindsight, he was probably thinking I was smart enough to send the speedster in his direction. Obviously not, since I hadn’t thought of it until that moment, but next time I would, if there was a next time.

  “Well, that wasn’t fun. How is Ma… Agent Loudin?”

  I felt the lie of that in hindsight, even if I’d meant it at the time. I mean, it was fun. I was looking forward to taking the bastard down next time. Clearly, I was insane.

  Leanne was leaning over him, “He’ll be conscious any moment, and fully healed in a few hours. Agent Grant rang his bell good, but there’s not a lot of physical damage. Minor concussion will heal fast for one of us, even without the super-fast healing like you have.

  “Hoover, send two agents to collect these three. The memory experts will have three mind control victims to fix for this location.”

  “We need to take a walk when they’re cleared out. The architect of this attacked me, and when he failed to break my shields, he teleported out. That’s why I had to release the agents from my hold by the way. I suspect all of this was about killing me. Anyway, I know where he struck from. I’m hoping if we go there the city A.I. can work with Hoover to identify who was standing in that spot during the attack. Oh, our suspect is definitely a man, his telepathic energy gave it away.”

  Leanne tilted her head, “That’s a good idea, if we had his name and appearance that would make this a whole new ballgame. There might not have been coverage there, but we do have an army of cloaked drones around all the courthouses in the operation. We could’ve gotten lucky.”

  No to mention the city’s vast array of security cameras, and the local super team’s drones that monitor the streets. Not a guarantee, but I thought the odds were good. If he’d killed me in that attack, then no one would’ve known where he was standing, or even that it was a male suspect. I don’t imagine he’s met many minds that could match his, I knew I hadn’t.

  “Oh, and if we could not tell my mom I was almost assassinated thirty minutes into the mission, that’d be great.”

  Leanne snickered, “Sorry, no can do on that one.”

  I sighed in a faux put-upon way. It was a little silly, but I blame the adrenaline crash. I was also trying to disguise the fact my hands were shaking.

  Another team teleported in, the room was getting a bit crowded. It emptied rather fast a few moments later, as they teleported out with the other three almost immediately.

  I brought up my GPS, we were in Manhattan. I also brought up some maps and figured out from direction and distance the location.

  “Maybe we don’t have to take that walk. He’d have been standing on the corner of twenty-first street and Main.”

  Leanne said, “Hoover, see what you can find out, work with the local A.I. for their surveillance data as well. It should be obvious, since our quarry teleported out without use of the public system. Assume any male that did so in that area during the attack is our quarry. He must’ve been there for a while too, at least a few minutes, since he managed to subvert two of our agents, and program the court officer to attack as well.”

  That was true, no one but government agents or private superhero groups, local or federal, had legal access to independent teleport systems. So anyone else had to be working with a mad scientist, or at least have bought a system from one of them illegally. Point being, it wasn’t a common thing at all.

  Mark groaned.

  Leanne said, “Welcome back.” She sighed, “From now on I want your shields up when we teleport to a new courthouse location.”

  Mark croaked, “Yes, maam.”

  Hoover appeared in my enhanced reality contacts, and she seemed to really be there. I suspected she was doing that for the whole team.

  “That intersection is covered from multiple angles, there have been no results.”

  Leanne nodded, “Have the locals canvas the businesses on those corners, and in half a block of it in every direction. He must’ve been inside one of the buildings, maybe someone saw him disappear. If the locals resist, have them contact me directly. If we find a witness, we can take a picture of the guy from their mind. Also, query any security systems the building owners or tenants have for surveillance.”

  Hoover said, “Understood,” then disappeared.

  I hoped it would turn up something. I was a little disappointed we didn’t already have it, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Our mind controller suspect wasn’t stupid and had been around a very long time.

  Leanne must’ve picked up something from my body language, because she smiled at me, “Don’t let it get you down, it was a good idea, and this guy is a ghost. Has been a ghost for over a decade at least, and without you we wouldn’t even know he existed.”

  I smiled back, “Thanks. I just…”

  I was also trying not to react at all to Harold’s thoughts. Given I’d successfully defended my mind from a powerful mind controller, well he was fairly sure I was one too. In his mind this incident just backed up their suspicions, that the ability to taste flavored emotion on thoughts and memories was just something a tier-three telepath could do. He planned to bring it up with Leanne in private, when I wasn’t around. Probably later that night, after they sent me to bed.

  I wondered how that would pan out. It was probably naïve of me to think it’d stay a secret anyway, especially with me being central to this case which would likely dominate the news for months. It was too big, for no one to connect the dots.

  Still, I wasn’t about to admit it, even if it wasn’t a crime merely to hold that power.

  Hoover reappeared with a triumphant smile.

  “Got him. He was in room six thirty-eight of the Radisson. The hotel’s sensors noted they were no longer detecting a life sign in the room, and they called emergency services in the assumption the guest’s heart had stopped. The man who checked into that room under a false name is a known supervillain, and I was able to obtain a picture from the check-in desk surveillance camera.

  “He’s been at large for forty years and is a confirmed tier-three telepath. Robert Branson.”

  I turned away from the others, as the blood drained from my face. I felt like I was going to pass out for a moment, and I took a deep steadying breath. Robert Branson, my mind-controlling rapist piece of garbage father. In a way it even made sense, tier-three telepaths were extremely rare after all. That the one that had given me those powers was also central to this case… not so farfetched.

  But in the moment, I was beyond shocked. I hadn’t even entertained the possibility before that moment.

  Deep breaths.

  I also couldn’t tell them he was my father. Critical to the case or not, they’d take me off of it in a split second if they thought I was personally affected and connected to the suspect. I was fairly sure that was standard procedure, if the cop shows I watched were accurate, I mean.

  No one seemed to notice my shock, they were all deep in their own thoughts.

  Leanne said, “That explains why none of our stuff picked him up. There’s been a BOLO out for him for decades, so he’ll avoid city surveillance for just that reason. The question is how he’s doing it, since the city’s mini-drones are all cloaked they wouldn’t be easy to consistently avoid. We need to update that BOLO to an active manhunt. The problem is he has access to a teleport system, he could be anywhere right now, and not even necessarily in the country.”

  The answer to Leanne’s question was obvious to me. The first one I mean, I had no idea where he was, not even a guess.

  I said softly, “He could easily read the minds of those in charge of the drones at the superhero command center and police command center for each city he works in.”

  In fact, that was likely what he was doing in my city, almost seventeen years ago, when he did show up on surveillance and my mother was dispatched to catch him. He was bringing Excelsior into his network of compromised court houses and getting the drone surveillance pattern for subsequent visits. He’d never shown up on Excelsior’s cameras again after all, after that day. And Jason had only been a court officer a couple of years. I imagined it took a lot of repeat work to maintain the system, as court officers were promoted or moved on to other roles.

  I continued in a more normal voice, shaking off the shock of the discovery, “That’s all it would take to learn their standard routes and schedules. If he has a teleport system and juggles eighty-nine overseas accounts, as well as runs an organization with contacts to the rich and affluent criminals across the country, then I suspect he also has an A.I. to keep track of everything. It would be impossible for one mind to keep track of it all, even if he could remember it all.

  “However, it would be child’s play for an A.I. to schedule his routes and arrivals so he doesn’t make a mistake that way. I suggest all city A.I.s should be told to randomize such surveillance patrols immediately. I’d be surprised if that doesn’t pick him up within a day or two.”

  Leanne smiled, “Brilliant. Hoover, please request that, with respect, and pass along our thinking on it.”

  Mark mock whispered, “You’re making us look bad, intern.”

  Harold laughed.

  Hoover interjected, “A crosscheck shows all sightings of Robert Branson in the past have been in cities earmarked in the current operation for investigation. It’s also notable that he’s only been spotted once in each of those cities, making Anna’s theory almost a certainty. I’ll get right on it, already on it, in fact.”

  Leanne tilted her head, “How would you capture him, if we spot him.”

  I got the feeling she already knew, and this was just an intern mental exercise.

  “Hero teams aren’t equipped to take down a telepath of that strength, they’re focused on taking down energy and physical based supervillains. An FBI team with a telepath would have a greater chance, but I suspect he’d escape with his greater power, and that’s only if he didn’t straight out win the fight. No, the best way to take him down is for a drone to sneak up on him and grab on.

  “At that point Hoover could immediately teleport the suspect into a cell equipped with a power suppression field. Then activate a quantum level jammer field so he can’t just teleport right out. At that point, agents could enter the cell and take away all his tech toys.”

  Leanne smiled, “You don’t want to take him on?”

  I sighed, “I really do. Actually.” More than she knew, “But it wouldn’t be the smart play. Even if my mind was strong enough to defeat his, which is far from sure, his A.I. could extract him. We need to surprise him, and that means a drone, no mind for him to read with his powers or sense coming. He’ll never see it coming.”

  Leanne grinned, “What if he has tech that can see cloaked drones?”

  I frowned, “I didn’t think that was possible.”

  Leanne said, “After the shenanigans pulled with cloaking missile launchers that led to World War three, there was a concerted effort to find a way by all the world’s governments. Almost all countries can do it now, on the federal and military level. You’re not to speak about it outside of us, it’s classified information. Mostly to keep it out of the hands of the criminals as long as possible. That said, I can’t imagine if he’s been running around decades, that he hasn’t read the mind of someone that had that knowledge, then pursued it for himself.

  “Maybe he hasn’t, but we can’t count on that I don’t think. Not in his case.”

  I shook my head, “Then he’ll know if he’s spotted, long before we can setup or launch an attack,” I smiled, “So I guess we just let this one go then,” I said in a faux resigned tone, then shrugged as if to say, easy come, easy go.

  Mark choked, and I couldn’t hold the giggle in any longer than that. I winked when he scowled at me.

  “So what do we do, since I’ve failed this exercise.”

  Leanne shook her head, “Not failed. It was insightful, and showed you care more about taking down the criminal than you do the excitement of a fight and takedown. You just lacked critical information.”

  Oh. She’d expected it to be a teaching moment, and when I didn’t fail where she’d expected she’d had to pull out the secret to show me I didn’t know everything. As if I didn’t know that already, even if I was sixteen.

  She continued, “Teleporting is only effective to escape when we don’t know where the base is. Since site-to-site transport is impossible, he always has to go back to base and then back out. If we take that base, we ground him, then run him to ground the next time he’s sighted.

  “We’ll be running scans for illicit quantum teleport signatures in all the known cities, when a drone sees him, and he sees the drone, we’ll learn what city his base is in and the approximate location when he teleports out. Assuming it’s in one of the sixty-eight cities he’s subverted a courthouse in.”

  I replied, “Okay, that makes sense. We could still use the drone approach, at that point. No matter how powerful, he’ll be powerless to stop it grabbing him, since telepathy won’t work on machines. Even if he does see it coming, he won’t be able to outrun it.”

  She nodded, “I’ll consider it. But I think we could take him. Even if he can beat you, he can’t beat you in a split second. Which means you’d just have to keep him busy a second or two, until Harold here knocks him out with a single punch.”

  That was true, but it was also a trick to see what I’d say. After all, she’d promised not to take me knowingly into a dangerous or violent situation. It was also against the law since I was a minor. The only way I’d get to take him down was if he attacked us again, after his teleporting ability was taken out.

  So I smiled, “I’m more than willing, but I wouldn’t want to be you when Intrepid caught up to you.”

  She laughed, “Caught me, again. You are sixteen, right?”

  “Also grew up in a superhero headquarters, where I dreamed of joining my mom in the fight one day. I’ve had those laws and rules memorized since I was eight years old.”

  Mark said, “She’s got you there, boss.”

  She looked his way, “How are you feeling, ready to stop loafing around?”

  Mark laughed, “Yes. Small headache, and my back is sore, but my mind is clear.”

  She nodded, “Then let’s get back to the mission. Don’t forget the shields, and if he attacks us again then we’ll have the opportunity to track his teleport.”

  Yeah, my dad was the devil himself, but he wasn’t stupid. I just hoped he wasn’t smart enough to keep his base out of any subverted cities, just in case. Maybe that would be the mistake that finally saw him where he belonged, in a jail cell, but I also knew we couldn’t count on it.

  Still, it was smart to and made sense to try. That was the theory anyway. The good guys never gave up, and the bad guys eventually made a mistake. No one could elude the law forever. I had to believe that, or what was I doing there? That he’d stayed a step ahead for forty years, didn’t matter. In the end he’d be taken down, I’d make sure of it. Hopefully, without doing anything too stupid in the process.

  The rest of the day there were no attacks at all. I suspected that was because he’d gone into damage control mode when he failed to take me out. Perhaps retrieving his private quantum network before our agents could seize the devices, I’d find out soon enough when the reports came in on that part of the mission. I believe he’d attack again, tomorrow. If not him personally, some mind-controlled puppets.

  For all we knew, he’d already set up a second ambush, but we just hadn’t gone to that city yet. He didn’t have our schedule and given the numbers it was right around an even chance to happen that way.

  As for our mission, we’d made it to forty-eight cities in total that first day, which meant we were on track to finish it up the next day, with only forty left. So tomorrow would conclude the first phase of the operation.

  Of the forty-eight, forty-six were victims and patsy cutouts for my father’s organization. The other two cities had been false positives, to the relief of the head judge and specific court officer in that city. The case transfers had been for valid reasons, and the fact the defendant had looked guilty by evidence despite his testimony, merely coincidence. Statistically speaking it was consistent that that kind of thing happened from time to time, which was why no one really noticed it before I came along and detected the problem.

  So it made sense. I suspected we’d find another one or two false positives the second day as well. Time would tell.