Empowered: Traitor (The Empowered Series Book 2)

  Empowered: Traitor

  Empowered series #2

  Dale Ivan Smith

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2017 by Dale Ivan Smith

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover design by Yocla Designs

  Published by Dale Ivan Smith

  Portland, Oregon

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  www.daleivansmith.com

  Created with Vellum

  To LeAnn, always and forever.

  Chapter 1

  The damn Colombian rain forest wouldn’t shut up. It was like crowd surfing an ear-shattering rock concert at the world’s biggest stadium. The vines with flowers dangling from nearby trees were especially noisy. My connection with plants had been a total pain in the ass ever since this morning, when we landed in Colombia to help pull off the big-time tech job for the Scourge.

  Someone, a pissed off someone, was calling my name. “Hey, Mat. Mat!” It was Keisha. The dark skin of her face shone with sweat. Her eyes narrowed and she waved a hand at me, but the screeching chorus inside my skull was making it hard to focus. “Mathilda!”

  Focus, I told myself. I pulled my sense back inside me so I could think. “Don’t call me Mathilda.”

  Keisha shrugged. “Only way to get your attention.”

  I wiped sweat from my face. My jungle suit was all pitted out. Keisha’s didn’t look any better.

  It wasn’t enough that I led a Scourge cell of fellow Empowereds. I had to lead it into the sticky hot, noisy, emerald green Colombian rain forest. All part of being a secret agent for the good guys, working my way deeper into the world’s number one super-villain group. And the world’s number one super-villain group wanted some brand new tech that some company was cranking out down here in the back of beyond, so they sent me and my cell to help the South Americans steal that brand new tech.

  The two other members of my cell, Simon and Coldie, crouched nearby, at the edge of a clearing, looking at a line of metal poles in front of us. There was an electric-sounding hum coming from the barrier.

  Simon caught my look. “Some sort of electro-barrier,” he said, in that English accent of his. Northern, he called it, whatever that meant.

  The field past the electro-barrier was empty except for a clump of trees in the middle, maybe thirty feet away. The barrier ran for a long ways in either direction.

  “We could skirt this,” Simon said.

  I looked at my watch. We were already behind schedule. I looked closer at the clump of trees. They had cylindrical trunks, and tall, cone-shaped crowns. But they were bright emerald green, and almost rippled with movement.

  Something about the way their skins shone, like crystalline scales, made me hesitate. Shit, I was becoming an old woman, and I wasn’t even twenty-two yet. I reached out with my sense. Behind me the rain forest kept sending a shouting, hooting, hissing chaotic jumble of noise into my head.

  Sweat trickled into my eyes. Nothing from the weird trees. I stepped closer, raising my hand and concentrated.

  The rain forest’s noise grew fainter behind me. The cluster of strange tree-like things weren’t trees. I couldn’t hear anything from them. But I felt something, like the trembling of a muscle, coiled, ready to spring into action, or water moving in a stream. No emotion, just potential ready to be unleashed.

  I shook myself. “Those aren’t trees. I‘m not sure what the hell they are.”

  “Are you scared?” That was Coldie. Stuck up and sure of herself as usual, including insisting on using an Empowered nickname.

  She stood there, hands on hips. Sweat plastered her red hair against her face, her pale skin already burning in the hot sun. Good.

  Nineteen years old and she thought she knew everything. Like how her being Empowered would keep her from getting sunburned. Idiot.

  Keisha glared at her but Ophelia ignored her.

  “Nope. I just want to know what those tree things are.”

  “Tree things?” Keisha asked. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “What do you think?” I asked Simon.

  “Going around is feasible, but will take time. The other cell has to be getting close to its target.”

  The factory. The Scourge had sent us down here to work the dual heist with the South American cell. They were to go to the factory; we were to go to the warehouse two miles away. There was security, but it was normals, not Empowered. This place belonged to some private company that had worked out a deal with the Colombian government.

  “Okay, we take the direct route and cross this ‘electro-barrier’.” Besides, I wanted a closer look at those tree things. Once we were out in the field, I could reach out with my power, and not be drowned by this freaking forest chorus.

  I walked over to a big leafy tree, the normal kind, unlike whatever those things were out there in that field. I put my hand on its bark. This was going to suck but it was the fastest, safest way into the field. Who knew how strong that electro-barrier was.

  The bark was warm. I leaned close. I wouldn’t have to extend my power far.

  The tree groaned in my mind. Unhappy. I pushed my power deeper. Afraid. The tree’s fear moaned in my mind. The fear made it lean as much as it could away from the field. It was afraid of the things out there, the not-trees. I shuddered, pulled my hand away. I couldn’t fight its fear.

  I went to the next tree. It was also afraid. Its fear howled through me. Again I ripped my hand away.

  “We don’t have all day,” Keisha groused when I pulled back from the third tree.

  “Yeah, I get that.” We had to get past the barrier. We were close. I needed a big score here. Things had stalled. We’d spent the last few months doing various jobs for the Scourge, but I hadn’t met with the Inner Circle yet, just Ashula Singh, and that had been only three times since Seattle.

  My eyes narrowed and I looked at Keisha. “Screw this.”

  “I don’t think that’s wise,” Simon said behind me. He must have guessed what I was planning.

  Keisha grinned. “Now you are talking.” She waved us back. “Don’t know what that electro thingy is gonna do when I break it.”

  Simon stroked his chin. “Mat, having her dismantle one of the energy pylons is going to set off alarms and bring a reaction. Our element of surprise will be shot.”

  Coldie finished braiding her red hair, flipped the braid over one shoulder, and lifted her chin. “You’re wasting time, Mathilda. Maybe we sho
uld start walking now, especially since you are afraid of those trees in the field.”

  The last thing I needed was lip from her. We were a team, for fuck’s sake. Time to get them to act like one, or I’d never get finished with this assignment.

  “We’re going to build a bridge,” I told them. “Ophelia,” I said to Coldie, using her real name. “You are going to make an ice bridge.” I drew an arch in the air.

  She put her hands on her hips. “In this heat? Over the fence? No way.”

  “Just get ready.” I didn’t have time for her bullshit.

  “Keisha, we need metal rods, one on each side of the barrier.” I pointed at the ground a yard from the barrier, at a place between the metal pylons and then at the far side. Listen to me, I sounded like an engineer. I just had this idea in my head and ran with it.

  Keisha shot me a “you-have-got-to-be-kidding” look but for once didn’t grouse. She gestured at the patch of ground on this side of the barrier. The ground steamed and bits of metal rose up from the earth.

  “This is gonna hurt like a bitch,” she said. But she didn’t stop.

  Keisha used to call herself the Steel Witch. She could control metal, and even conjure it. Steam rose from iron puddled on the ground. Keisha closed her eyes, frowned. “Fuck.” Her arms trembled.

  The rain forest must be a bitch to conjure metal from. She could create metal— iron, copper, even steel from soil, even from air, but this had to be tough, because she grimaced and swore as she gestured. More steam billowed up and hid what she was making.

  “Damn it!” She opened her eyes, lowered her arms. The steam vanished and an iron rod six-feet tall jabbed skyward out of the ground, wobbling.

  “She did it,” Simon said. “Brilliant.”

  “That’s just the one on this side. Keisha’s got another to make.”

  “Hell no,” Keisha said. “I did both at once.”

  Another six foot tall iron rod stood on the far side. No wonder she swore.

  Keisha shook out her arms. “I wanted to get it over with.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “Hurt like a bitch.”

  I clapped her shoulder. “And you did. That was awesome.”

  She laughed, looked at me sideways. “Now I know something’s not right if you’re heaping praise.”

  But I meant it. She had conjured metal in two places at once. That had to be tough.

  Something caught my eye out in the field. The weird tree things were closer. They were still in a circle. Spiky fronds fluttered in the breeze. Hadn’t seen the fronds before, but I hadn’t paid enough attention. I needed to pay attention. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about strange plants doing weird stuff.

  I pointed at Coldie. “Time to make your ice bridge. Don’t let it touch the electro-barrier.” The pylons were seven feet tall, so her ice bridge would have to be an arch.

  “Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Coldie gestured at the iron rod on this side of the barrier. Frost spread over the metal, and then ice covered it, got larger until it was a column that became an arch. She twisted her wrist and frost covered the far rod, grew up to join the arch at the midpoint, a few feet above the invisible electro-barrier.

  I turned to Simon but he already scrambled up the arch, driving spikes into the ice, tying lines off. He moved like an acrobat on amphetamines, only no drugs were involved. He wasn’t a speedster, but his power gave him incredible reflexes and flexibility. He scrambled up the arch, laying out the nylon rope, and in seconds he was across the arch, and down the other side.

  My turn. The ice was cold, but it wouldn’t last for long once Coldie stopped feeding it, which is why she’d have to be last. My fingers were blue by the time I’d reached the top of the arch. I swung around and slid down the far side, landing beside Simon.

  The ice was already melting in the heat. Coldie gestured like a dancer. The melting ice froze over.

  “Alright, Keisha, you’re next,” I said.

  She hesitated.

  We had to move. “Come on.”

  Keisha swore, and then climbed the column. She got to the top of the arch. Her eyes went wide.

  “Come on, Keisha, you’re almost there.”

  “Yeah, this is not the time to freeze,” Coldie laughed.

  Keisha pointed past me and Simon. “Mat, those tree things are moving!”

  Simon and I looked over our shoulders. Keisha was right. The bizarre tree things were actually moving, toward us.

  The ground rippled around the weird plants. Spider-like roots, thousands of them, writhed like millipedes’ legs. Their branches uncoiled like whips, and snapped at us with loud cracks. Simon slammed into me, and we went down as a branch literally whipped past.

  Shit.

  Simon and I fell back as the weird trees fanned out into a crescent.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Damn it. I had to stop them.

  There was a low hum and then Simon fired his stunner at the nearest one. Its spindly branches waved frantically, the thousands of tiny legs folded underneath it. For an instant it was still, then the thing started moving again.

  Zap! Simon hit it again.

  Same thing happened.

  And the other trees were coming closer.

  Simon fired again and again, hitting one tree-thing and then another. Each stopped, thudded against the ground. A moment later they stood and began walking on thousands of tiny root-like legs toward us.

  I had to do something.

  I extended my power toward them, dropping the mental wall I’d thrown up back in the rain forest.

  The chaotic sounds of the rain forest were distant now, almost like the ocean. The rain forest was afraid, the nearer trees straining to grow away from the field. Now I knew why.

  I reached into the nearest whatever-the-hell those tree-things were. A ringing ripped through my mind, and I bent over, like someone had slugged me. Damn.

  “What is it?” Simon asked me.

  “Those aren’t alive like plants or trees,” I managed to gasp. Those things weren’t life. They were like unlife.

  Had to get it together. I straightened up. No tree thing was going to get the better of me. Too much riding on this job. I pushed my awareness deeper inside the thing. It wasn’t anything botanical. It was alien. It didn’t have the circulation of a tree, didn’t have the rings. It was like a living machine. I felt things like rods and cones rippling inside it.

  I didn’t know where to begin trying to control it. With a tree, a blackberry vine, or a flower, I could do it without thinking, control and reshape plants as I wanted.

  But this was like trying to find a handhold on a wall of glass. There was no place to grab. My power wanted to slip out of the thing. It hurt like hell to keep pushing inside it.

  The tree thing rippled closer, the others right behind it.

  An actual tree would have at least moaned its shock, but this thing didn’t give off any reaction, just stopped for an instant like the other one, then started moving forward again.

  A cloud of razor blade-shaped metal spun into the rippling green mass, slicing into whip-like branches, and thunking into the shimmering, scaly bark.

  Keisha sat on top of the arch, conjuring metal with her power, sweat pouring off her, her face contorted like a crazy woman’s.

  The branches writhed. She did it again, and again. Tips of ropey branches were sliced off. A dozen blades were stuck in the scaled bark. Black oily sap leaked out. The tree-thing gave a ringing hum. Sap boiled away, melting the blades, and the thing sprouted new branches.

  “How do you kill it?” Keisha shouted. She lowered her arm. “I can’t keep doing this.”

  “Then get down here and start shooting!” I aimed at the tree-thing closest to my end of the ice bridge, and fired.

  Again, the target sat down with a thunk, then the thousand root-like legs started up again and the plant-creature moved toward me. It homed in on a threat and attacked.

  I fired at the one next to it. “Keep hitting them,” I told Simon.


  Simon nodded. “They respond to attack by attack.”

  No duh.

  He pulled his battery pack from his stunner, slapped in another one. We each carried a spare. Stunners sucked because they didn’t hold a charge, but guns and Empowered don’t mix.

  Why? Because an Empowered using a firearm was the death sentence, and not just rogue Empowered like the Scourge, but sanctioned ones in the Hero Council. It makes sense—if normals, which make up almost all humanity, see Empowered using guns, on top of already possessing powers, they’d crucify us.

  So yeah, the law really was for Empowered good, for once. The Professor, who led the Renegades, the gang I was in before going to Special Corrections at sixteen, had stressed that point, and told us stories of a couple of idiot rogue Empowered who, years earlier, decided to use assault weapons. “They were executed and their bodies cremated,” he had told me.

  So, no firearms. Stunners we could get away with because they couldn’t kill, and they ate batteries for breakfast.

  Keisha hit the ground and ran over to join us, firing her stunner.

  That left Coldie on the arch. She stood up, balancing at the top.

  “Get down here!” I shouted at her, but she ignored me. She conjured an ice ball the size of a pumpkin and sent it cannonballing at a tree-thing. It slammed into the thing’s body and knocked it over. The thousands of tiny insect-like legs squirmed. Coldie grinned. “Get up from that!”

  The tree-thing twisted and pulled itself up like a kid’s toy.

  Coldie’s face fell.

  I jerked a hand at her. “Come down now.”

  She slid down the arch, hit the ground, but didn’t run to us. She faced the things.

  “I’ll teach them.”

  Fucking idiot.

  She gestured again and a spear of ice stabbed from her hand at the nearest tree-thing. Coldie twisted it, and frost spread over the thing’s scale-like bark.

  It stiffened.

  “Gotcha!”

  “Come on, fool,” Keisha yelled at Coldie.

  The thing’s scales brightened and the frost steamed away.