Annihilation: Love Conquers All by Saxon Andrew, Derek Chiodo Page B

boy never raised his head when he spoke. As a matter of fact, while all this happened he did not get a good look at the boy’s face; he was moving too fast for him to see. The big man had a lot of experience. He was a former naval marine who had seen more than his share of hand-to-hand training. But he had never seen anything close to this. He may not have seen the boy’s face, but he was certain the boy had seen his. He stood there and struggled with what to do. “What do you suggest?” he asked in a shaky voice.
     
    “Just turn your back, count to three, then go your way,” Tag said. “Just four more seconds,” Tag thought.
     
    Tag knew that the big man was scared about being identified and was not going to go away easily. The big man thought for a moment and then said, “Okay, we’ll do it your way,” and slowly turned around. “Perfect,” Tag thought; he was in the blind spot once more and was immediately moving behind the big man as he turned. It was then a simple task to move through the psychic shadows so he wouldn’t be seen.
     
    The big man slowly turned, started to leave, and then turned to see if the young boy would assure him that he would not identify him. The boy was gone. “Where did he go? Where is he?” he wondered. He turned and looked everywhere, but the boy was nowhere to be seen. He felt a chill in the deepest part of his soul and then he felt fear. He turned and ran. He knew that now his family might be at risk if he was identified.
     
    Only twenty seconds had passed from the moment the first attacker moved to when the big man ran away. That was too short a time for the security team to arrive, but they did land there only two minutes after the big man had started to run away. One of the Directorate surveillance monitors had received a warning from the cameras’ sensors that gunshots were fired and a crime was being committed. The Directorate camera monitor took over manual control of the area cameras just as the big man left the scene. The monitor followed the big man until he lost sight of him when he went through a doorway that was recessed in a wall of a tall habitation building where thousands of families worked and lived. He switched to the cameras inside the building, but there was a shift change taking place and there were hundreds of people moving through the corridors. Even setting the cameras to find only the people who were his approximate size proved fruitless. There were just too many people, and he could have moved out of the corridor without being seen. “They must have planned this so that they could use the shift change to escape,” the monitor thought. The monitor then started looking for the other person that was sitting against the wall, but he was nowhere to be found. “How can that happen?” he wondered.
     
    When the security team arrived at the scene of the attack, they looked at the carnage and wondered what had just happened. The bodies had fallen in haphazard fashion and blood was everywhere. John Sinclair, an enforcement committee senior inspector, looked at the bodies and then made a decision. Esa Connor, who was the department head of the North American enforcement committee, received a call on his com and said, “What is it, John?”
     
    “Sir, I’m at a crime scene where four people have just been killed. The killer has escaped without being apprehended and I’m having difficulty determining exactly what happened here.”
     
    “Four people killed,” Esa thought. Then he punched a button on his com and said, “Julie, send me John’s coordinates. I’m going to the scene,”
     
    John looked at the dead bodies and told his team to expect Department Head Connor to arrive shortly. “I don’t remember the last time we’ve had more than two killings,” John thought. “I can use some help.”
     

Chapter 5
    A dmiral Dorg, supreme commander of the Cainth military forces, entered his office, and everyone immediately came to attention. He