HSH: Hero Heist Chap 7-8
Chapter 7
Preparations
“No way! The psycho broke into my house and attacked my brother! I’m not going with him!”
Abby and Smith sat in my kitchen now. Smith looked as upset as he had earlier that afternoon, but Abby was, as usual, unreadable.
“We put surveillance devices all over this house, including your brother’s bedroom,” Smith said, glaring at me with those angry eyes of his. “We have no indication of anyone entering this house other than your friends.” The way he said friends made it sound like a curse.
Does this guy hate everyone?
“Well, I don’t care what your equipment says! Someone was in this house, and they took blood from my brother’s arm. He has the bruise to prove it, not to mention the stains on his sheets. I’m not going, and that’s final.”
“Christine,” Abby said, sounding more counselor than Agent, “I think you need to calm down. There’s more going on here than you realize.”
“Then fill me in. Isn’t that what you superior officers do?”
Smith’s face turned a darker shade, and he looked like he was going to flip his top. But Abby held up a hand. “It’s okay Agent Smith. I know how to handle her.” Then she spoke to me as if he weren’t there. “I believe you. Despite evidence to the contrary.”
“Really?” It wasn’t the statement I’d been expecting from her. “How come?”
“Because I lost track of him right around the time of the break in.”
So that’s why she hadn’t been here earlier. She’d been tailing Quinn to see what he was up to. But the man was obviously as crafty as they said. Somehow, the science teacher had not only been able to lose Abby, but also managed to enter my house without any security detecting him. If it hadn’t been for my abilities, we probably wouldn’t have known he was here either.
Smith eyed Abby with such intensity he must have been hoping for her head to explode. “Do the words ‘need to know’ mean anything to you?”
“I don’t know,” said Abby, turning in his direction, “do the words ‘police work’ mean anything to you?”
“I’m putting you on report, Agent Davidson.”
She sighed. “What else is new?”
It was the first time I’d ever seen Abby act like—well, me. She rolled her eyes and made a face like I made whenever she gave me an order I didn’t agree with. Even her tone matched mine.
“The point is,” Agent Smith’s voice sounded cold, like he was going to spit up ice cubes at any moment, “Agent Carpenter really has no choice in the matter. She is going on this mission and she is going to help us capture Quintus.”
“Don’t you care about sending me off with a dangerous maniac?”
He didn’t answer, but I could see it in his eyes. I couldn’t read his thoughts because he was wearing an inhibitor, but a word formed in my head as he looked at me. Expendable.
“You know what?” I rose from the kitchen table and began backing out of the room. I thought seriously about flipping the furniture over onto him, but controlled the urge. I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid. My grandfather had been right about these people all along. They were going to use me and then get rid of me when I wasn’t useful anymore. “Get out of my house! I had enough reasons before not to do this, but this lack of sympathy takes the cake. Get out!”
Of course, Smith and Abby didn’t move. My little temper tantrum had no effect on him.
“If that’s your decision.” Smith’s voice was too calm and even for him. He wasn’t going to let this go. He turned his head toward Abby and said, “Agent Davidson, arrest her.”
“What?” I asked. This was also not a remark I’d been expecting. “What did I do?”
He rose, opening his jacket and putting his hand on his gun. “You are a highly dangerous meta-human who has not only broken into a top secret government facility but is now impeding a federal investigation. You will be incarcerated to the fullest extent of the law.”
A breeze blew by me and suddenly Smith was unarmed. Ethan stood beside me as if he’d been there the whole time, holding Smith’s gun by the barrel.
The footsteps of both Peter and Savanah filled the air behind me as the pair took up ranks in the entryway. We had Smith and Abby outnumbered. Neither of them would be arresting any of us today.
“What law?” Ethan asked. “Chris saw what you did to those kids that were too dangerous. None of them were ever given a chance.” Ethan was referring to the underground bunker we’d all been held in. The metas they considered “too dangerous” were frozen and put into stasis—no trial, no rights, just captured, sedated and locked away.
“No one’s being arrested today.” Abby rose to stand beside Smith. She never took her eyes off me though, even though Ethan was technically the one with a weapon—not that he’d actually use it. “Everyone, calm down.”
“Tiff’s with the baby?” I asked Ethan in a low voice.
Ethan nodded.
There was going to be a fight and everyone in the room knew it. Everyone also knew it would be us four teenagers who would be claiming victory. The only problem was, even if we won against Abby and Smith, there’s be about a hundred Agents descending on my house within minutes. And then we would lose.
“Everyone relax!” This sounded like an order being given to soldiers in basic training. It was said with such force and gusto we had no choice but to listen. Abby stepped forward, coming in between Smith and the four of us. “You’re all acting like children. Yes, even you, Agent Smith.”
Smith looked like he was going to protest, but a sneer from me made him think otherwise.
“We’re all on the same side here. We all want the same thing. To see Quintus ended. We may not know what he’s doing, but we do know if he succeeds it’s going to be bad.” She paused and looked at all five of us in turn, making sure she had our attention. “For all of us.”
I eased up my shoulders, relaxing my posture from attack to neutral. As much as I hated to admit it, it was the second time she’d been right today.
“Christine, as I told you before. You are going on this mission, and your team will be there to back you up. We’ve implanted you with four tracking devices. We’ll never be more than a minute or two from your position. Yes, it’s dangerous, but you will be in the safest danger possible.”
“Safe danger?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “You just make that one up?”
She ignored the comment, but I could see her tense up, which told me the remark had agitated her. “We leave in under two weeks. We have plenty to do. Christine, you must act as if you have no idea it was Quinn who was in your house this afternoon. Confide in him you think it was one of us, and make him believe you’re returning to his control.”
“But—”
“No. Agent Smith is right about one thing. You need to follow orders without argument. If you want to continue being an Agent, then that’s what you need to do. Do you understand?”
I shook my head, but reluctantly answered, “Yes.”
“Agent Smith, you may be my superior, but you will never talk to me that way in front of any members of my team again. Understand?”
“Yes.” He answered, but in such a tone that told me he actually didn’t understand.
“And you need to have more patience with them. They are only teenagers. I wasn’t so different when I was first recruited, was I?”
He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. From the way he huffed, it was clear he thought she hadn’t changed much since her first day on the job. Could it be she really did have the same attitude as me when she first started? Might I turn out to be a good soldier like her one day? I cringed at the thought. Once I used the M.H.D.A. for my own means, I intended to be rid of them forever.
“I think we should leave,” Smith said. He stepped around the table and walked past us into the living room.
“Agent Smith,” Ethan called after he’d made it a couple of steps.
The Agent turned, looking impatient. “Yes?”
“You forgot this.” Ethan tossed Smith his gun.
Smith caught it, then nodded and put the gun back in its holster. He then turned and walked out.
“How did you get mixed up with this guy anyway?” Ethan asked as soon as he heard the front door close.
“He trained me.” Her voice was far away as if remembering times long past.
“Nice guy,” Savanah commented. She turned and walked into the living room.
Peter followed.
“He’s probably one of the best Agents we have,” Abby said quietly to me and Ethan. “He’s been so obsessed lately with finding Quintus that… well, you see how he is.”
“Yeah, like Savanah said, he seems like a really nice guy.”
“Well, you better get used to him. Especially you Christine. Because he’s going to be your contact in Italy.”
“What about you?” She couldn’t abandon me now. Not when I needed her the most.
She began walking past me, but stopped just as she stood between me and Ethan. “I’m too recognizable. Quintus doesn’t know Smith. He’s the better choice.” Everything from her posture to her tone of voice said she didn’t actually believe what she was telling me. But as quickly as I noticed it, she returned to her normal self. “There’ll be around the clock guard of this house until you depart, just to be safe. So, don’t do anything stupid.”
Then she walked out of the house after Smith.
**********
The whole next week was a blur. With school out, and this impending mission, Abby felt it necessary to have training sessions twice a day rather than only once in the evenings. Luckily, with my mother taking extra shifts at the store, I didn’t have to make any lame excuses for why I was sneaking out with Conner in the morning.
I met with Quinn twice, and did as Abby told me to do. But when I explained how I thought it was the M.H.D.A. who’d broken in and hurt Conner, Quinn didn’t look like he believed a word of it. I made no mention of finding out about the shroud and what I thought we were doing. But even with my fabulous acting ability, he didn’t trust me. Needless to say, I didn’t get any new information out of him.
It was hard making preparations for a mission when all you had to go on were a few hunches.
It was three days before we were set to leave. Quinn met me in the morning at Starbucks to finally give me my airline ticket. We were departing at 7:20am on July 1st from Pittsburgh International Airport and flying first class into Torino with only two brief layovers in Philadelphia and Rome. If I needed anything else to confirm my suspicions about what we were after, this was it.
I headed over to my training session. Abby had found a nice secluded place near Lobb’s Park, since we couldn’t use the wrestling room for the summer. It was a nice clearing in the middle of the woods where no one would see us. After I showed her the ticket, Abby made the preparations for the rest of them to take the following flight out. I would be completely alone with Quinn in Torino with no support for exactly five hours. It didn’t sit well with me, because anything could happen in those five hours, but I supposed it was better than nothing.
Tiffany wasn’t too pleased, especially after Abby told her she wouldn’t be joining us on this mission. She wasn’t officially an Agent, and Abby wasn’t going to take responsibility for her.
“If you want to pay for your own ticket, however, we’ll be glad to have you shack up with us,” Abby told the girl. “Besides, what would Ryan think?”
I’m kind of surprised Tiffany didn’t slap her, especially after the jibe about her new boyfriend.
“Line up,” Abby ordered. We obeyed. “Today, you are going to do something a little different. But it is something that’s going to hone all of your abilities. Quintus is a very dangerous individual, as I’m sure you know. He can take control of your mind in an instant. While you all will be wearing thought inhibitors to prevent this, you still need to learn how to fight back.”
She paced the ground in front of us like a drill instructor, making me feel like we were in the military. “Christine, you will be Quintus today. You are going to repel the others in any way possible. Ethan, Peter and Savanah, you three will try and grab hold of Christine. Once someone has a firm grip on her, the round will end.”
“How does this help me keep Quinn out of my head?” I asked.
“You already can repel Quintus’ influencing thoughts. You are going to work on taking control of the others, because when the crap hits the fan—and believe me, it will—you are going to be the first target. And if you think Quintus isn’t going to have allies, you are dead wrong. You are going to have to take control of those attacking you and turn them on the man. That’s what you’re going to practice today.”
“Everyone okay with this?” I asked my friends. I made a promise to them I wouldn’t even control their thoughts again, after almost losing them all for just that reason.
They all nodded.
“Yeah, Chris. We trust you,” Peter said. That hurt. Of all my friends, he had the least reason to have faith in me.
“How touching.” Abby motioned for me to take a place at the edge of the clearing and then for the others to take the opposite side. “When I say go, you may begin. Remember, the round stops once someone has a firm grip on Christine.”
She waited for us to get into position and then yelled, “Go!”
I didn’t even have a chance to latch onto any of their minds before I was whisked off my feet and Ethan had me in a bear hug.
“Stop!” Abby shouted. “Christine, you need to be faster. I assure you, Quintus will have control of them long before anything serious happens.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what she meant. While Ethan and the others got back into position, I readied myself for the second round. This time I latched onto their minds before the battle began, ensuring Ethan couldn’t pull the same trick again.
This time, when the command to start came, I made Ethan think he was running in the wrong direction. The boy completely turned around and ran off into the woods the wrong way. Savanah and Peter then advanced cautiously. I reached out to them and grabbed their thoughts. Savanah was going to try and distract me while Pete came around to flank me.
Seeing an opportunity, I allowed Savanah to think they were continuing and made Peter back off to the side. I backed up, looking frightened as Savanah approached, but as she was going to lunge and attack me, I had Peter send a bolt of lightning, shocking her. She fell to the ground momentarily before picking herself up and coming at me again.
Before she took another step, a set of arms once again wrapped around my middle and lifted me off the ground.
“Stop!” Abby shouted.
As soon as I my feet touched the ground I spun on my attacker. Ethan had come up from behind and grabbed me again. He was too quick for me to react.
“Christine, you need to attack multiple targets at once,” Abby criticized. “You need to work harder.” She stopped Ethan as he was walking back to his starting position. “It was too easy for her to get into your head. You need to learn to block her out.”
Ethan’s agitation could be felt across the clearing, but when he responded, he was nothing but polite. “How can I do that?”
“Focus on your objective. Think of nothing but getting the job done. Even when thoughts keeping you from your objective push into your head, push back. The key is focus.” She looked him right in the eye and repeated the word. “Focus.”
“Got it,” Ethan said, though he definitely didn’t feel all that confident.
We tried again, and without much effort, I was able to get into Ethan’s head and deter him from coming for me. This time, I made him think Savanah was me. The girl fought him and quickly broke free of his grip, but Ethan was so quick he had her in another hold almost immediately.
Unfortunately, with my concentration set on the two of them, I didn’t notice Peter sneaking up on my right. By the time I saw him, it was too late. He shocked me with a lightning bolt, sending me tumbling to the ground.
When the tingling sensation of the electrical current coursing through my body stopped, I dusted myself off and rose. But the round was over, so I gave no more fight as Peter came and grabbed my wrist.
“Stop!” She came running over to me this time instead of shouting her ridicule out in front of everyone. “Multiple targets! You have to be aware of multiple targets at once. Do you think Quintus isn’t going to use every person around against you?”
“No.”
“Then make sure you keep your mind locked on all of your opponents at once!”
I looked away from her, but nodded anyway.
She stepped even closer to me and lowered her voice. “Christine, if there is a confrontation, Quintus is going to use your friends against you. You can’t be afraid to hurt them. If they aren’t disabled, they will hurt you.”
“I won’t hurt my friends.”
Sighing as she stomped off to berate Ethan again, Abby gave us a rare glimpse into her frustration. What did she expect? We’d run through the exercise three times. Did she want perfection already?
We ran through the scenario another five times. Each time I lasted a little longer, but someone always managed to grab hold of me. Abby yelled each time we finished a round. Her screams were mostly directed at me, since I was apparently the most important piece in this puzzle.
I’ll admit, there were a couple of times I could have stopped Ethan or Peter from “capturing” me, but it would have meant throwing them into a tree or hitting them with a rock. I wasn’t willing to risk injuring them.
No matter what my friends did, they couldn’t totally block me out. If they couldn’t keep me out, there wasn’t a chance they’d be able to keep out Quinn. I hoped the thought inhibitors Abby would give them would help.
While we were walking down the path back to the cars, Abby walked beside me, once again speaking in a voice only I’d be able to hear.
“You have to fight harder. Quintus will use them against you. I know they’re your friends, but under his control, they won’t hesitate to kill you. The only way to defend yourself is to disable them, and that might mean using potentially lethal force.”
“You can’t ask me to kill my friends.”
“I’m not asking. I’m ordering. If it comes to it, finishing Quintus is more important than any of them—any of us.”
“You can order me all you want.” I stopped, turning on her. My eyes bored into hers to show how serious I was. “I’m not going to hurt my friends.”
“Then we’ve already lost.” Abby continued down the path without another word, disappearing around a bend.
Chapter 8
Kings and Pawns
The evening after our less than successful training session in the woods, my grandparents showed up. Since the two of them were going to take over my babysitting responsibilities they wanted to be brought up to speed.
The truth was Grandpa Carpenter really came early to talk to me. He’d heard everything my parents knew and wanted to hear the whole story. I was the only one who could provide it to him. He took it much better than when I’d told him I was chasing one of my dreams to New York City.
“You can’t do this.”
Driving in the car, on the pretense of going to get some milk, I almost crashed into the car in front of us when my grandfather proclaimed this.
“Why not?”
“It’s too dangerous,” he said. “They are asking too much of you. You’re only fifteen.”
“Sixteen,” I corrected.
Despite being the only person in my family who not only knew about, but shared my powers as well, my grandfather was also the most overprotective of me. The problem was, with what I told him, he knew how much was at stake. He also knew I wasn’t being given a choice.
When I’d told him two months ago I’d joined with the M.H.D.A., he’d told me he thought I’d made a terrible mistake. Listening to this first official mission they were putting me on, only helped to confirm that fear. And yes, as hard as he tried to hide it from me, I could feel how afraid he was.
“It’ll be fine,” I assured him. “Ethan and the others will be there backing me up. They’re not going to let anything happen to me.”
He patiently explained how Quintus was a dangerous man.
I rolled my eyes. Like I didn’t know that.
“Grandpa, what did you do in Italy during the war?” This was the first question I’d asked that sounded more like a normal teenager talking to her grandfather.
The problem was, while he was willing to talk to me about our shared powers, and was perfectly open about his training, he didn’t like talking about the war. “Why do you want to know about that?”
He’d told me very little about his involvement in World War II, and the information I had gotten out of him, I had to squeeze out of him myself. This was no exception. “I’m wondering. You told me you were in Italy for a little while. I want to know what you did.”
“I was only in Italy for about a month, hun,” he said. “What I did wasn’t very exciting.”
Yeah, the “wasn’t very exciting” line was what he used on me a lot. I wasn’t giving up so easily, though. “C’mon, tell me. I’m a big girl now, I can handle it.”
He didn’t respond, but gazed through the windshield as I pulled the car into the supermarket parking lot.
Once I parked the car, I pressed for answers again. “Does it have anything to do with Quinn?”
He shook his head. His eyes were far off, staring nearly seventy years into the past. “No, it didn’t. We were hunting one of his brothers, Secondus.”
“Really?”
“He was protecting Benito Mussolini. It wasn’t long after the Allies had invaded Normandy, and we’d been asked to handle the growing problem in Italy. Mussolini had already been taken out of power, but Hitler was protecting him in a hotel high in the Abruzzi Mountains called Campo Imperatore. We were asked to take out Secondus and capture Mussolini.”
“So, what happened?” I asked. I had to wheedle as much information I could out of him. “What could Secondus do?”
He considered the question for a second, turning toward me finally. “He could literally shake the Earth. He nearly caused an avalanche that buried us all when we went in. We were able to stop him before he did too much damage. We managed to kill him, but unfortunately, Mussolini escaped. Russian forces caught up with him about a year later, and he was executed.
“Christine, understand, Secondus wasn’t half as dangerous as Quintus. You don’t have the ability to take him on. We were trained soldiers and we were barely able to survive against Quintus when we faced him. I don’t want to lose you.”
“You’re not,” I told him. “I’m more capable than you think.”
That ended the conversation, both of us too tired of trying to convince the other to see their point of view. We both knew I was going no matter what, so it made any further argument on the subject useless.
We went into the store and bought the milk we didn’t need and then drove home. I wanted to hear more about his battle with Secondus. Maybe I would be able to use some of the information when I eventually had to battle Quinn. But I didn’t want to push my luck getting any more out of him. The fact he’d divulged anything was a victory in itself.
We ended up picking up some Chinese food for dinner. Then we made our way back only speaking about the end of the school year and how I’d been able to pick up my grades.
I pulled up into the driveway, and we got out of the car.
“Christine, hun,” Grandpa started, then wiped a hand across his forehead. “You know I’m only trying to protect you, right?
“Yeah.” The response came out more like a question, mostly because I knew the question was only a setup for what else my grandfather was going to say. Nervousness shook my very core as I waited for him to continue.
A shadow covered his face for a moment, giving him an evil look. Then, like that, it was gone, and the loving face of my grandfather returned. “You know how to play chess?”
The question took me off guard. I froze while my brain tried to formulate a response to the simple question. I must have looked pretty foolish standing in my driveway, staring blankly at my grandfather.
Finally my mind understood and I responded. “Yes. I mean, a little I guess.”
He responded warmly, throwing an arm around me and starting toward the house. “Why don’t we dig up your dad’s old set and play a game?”
“Okay,” I said, a little confused at the sudden change of tone and topic this conversation had suddenly taken. “I’ll go get it.”
**********
It took me nearly a half hour to find the chess set, hidden among the rubble of junk in our basement. The sheen of dust covering the box told of the years it had spent laying forgotten on the shelf.
Blowing the dust off the cover, I climbed the stairs back into the kitchen where I found my grandfather waiting patiently for me. He smiled and motioned to the seat opposite him at the kitchen table.
He took the box from me and opened it. The smell of old cardboard hit my nostrils as the long pent up air inside escaped. “Where did you learn to play?” he asked.
“Ummm, dad, I guess. He showed me how to play when I was like eight. I haven’t played in years though.”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything more as he set the pieces on their individual squares. As he was doing that, my grandmother walked in, cradling Conner in her arms.
“You two decided to play a game,” she remarked. “How nice.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. It was nice, or at least it would have been if I had any idea why Grandpa Carpenter had suddenly decided to play. But, I’ve learned in the last year or so everything he does is for a reason, so I generally try to go with the flow when it comes to his sudden whims.
My grandmother grabbed a bottle from the fridge and gently placed it in the microwave as if it were made of porcelain. It was like she was afraid to spill a drop of the formula and upset my baby brother. “Maybe we can play some rummy later, Christine.”
That would have been great, if I had a clue what rummy was. I’m sure my grandmother would show me, and besides, I could always leech the rules from her head. Ethan was supposed to come over to hang out—God, it felt like we hadn’t done that in so long—and he wouldn’t mind learning a new game, especially if he could beat me at it.
“Sounds good,” I said.
The microwave beeped and she pulled the bottle back out. She squirted a few drops on her arm to check the temperature—something I never did—and put the rubber nipple in Conner’s mouth. “Well, I’ll leave you two alone then. This little fella and I’ve got a date of our own, don’t we? Don’t we?”
When my grandmother started doing what I lovingly referred to as her cartoon character voice, I promptly went into ignore mode. It was sad how childish a grown adult could be to entertain an infant.
“Chess is more of an art than a game,” my grandfather said, recapturing my attention after my grandmother left. “You need to be creative with your strategy, or your opponent will read you and claim victory.”
“Creative,” I said, “got it.”
The board was completely set up. The white pieces were sitting in front of me, waiting for the “war” with my grandfather to begin. He simply waved a hand over the board and said, “Your move.”
I reached out to grab one of the pieces, but as my hand grazed one of the pawns, Grandpa Carpenter stopped me.
“No hands.”
I cocked my head to the side, scrutinizing him. He had never been an advocate for using my powers needlessly. So, why is he now?
Again, knowing there must have been some purpose to all of this, I went with it. I grabbed hold of the same pawn I was going to move before, this time with my mind, and slid it forward two spaces.
My grandfather did the same, mentally taking one of his pawns and sliding it forward two spaces so it was diagonal to mine. I cocked an eyebrow at him, it was like he was inviting me to take the piece. He must have realized what a bad move he’d just made.
I picked up my pawn and moved it into the space his pawn was occupying, then I removed the black piece from the board and put it on my side of the board.
“Chess is not for the timid,” he said. The statement was almost an under the breath remark, but it was loud enough so he was sure I would hear it. “You have to be willing to sacrifice for victory.”
He moved his knight, and I moved a pawn ahead one space. He moved a pawn, and I moved my rook. He moved his knight again, placing it directly in front of my rook. I moved the rook forward and took the knight.
The game went on with my grandfather moving his pieces in a haphazard way, allowing me to take piece after piece. Is he letting me win?
As the thought escaped my head, he glanced at me and grinned. But he didn’t comment this time. He moved another of his pawns to a black square where it was sure to be taken by one of my knights on my next move.
What’s the point of playing if you’re going to let me take you down?
Again, no comment.
I shrugged, but moved my knight to take his pawn and on my next move, the same knight took one of his bishops.
“Logic and knowledge,” was all my grandfather said as he slid his queen diagonal across the board until it took one of my rooks.
I looked at the board then, I still had many of my pieces, and had any number of moves I could perform. His king was ready to be taken and I was sure I would have it in three moves. I moved my bishop to the right side of the board, so on the next turn it would be able to take the king.
“Check.” My voice sounded so proud as the word came through my lips.
My grandfather studied the board and nodded, smirking at the game as if he finally noticed the trouble he was in. He moved the king forward one space, as I hoped he would. I moved my knight so his king would be taken if he moved one space to the right. He couldn’t move his king forward, because if he did, one of my remaining pawns would take it. He couldn’t move it back, because my bishop would take it. My queen was in position to take the king if he moved to the left. Which pretty much only left him the option of moving diagonal to the right. Once he did that, I would move my last rook into position and it would be checkmate, because he’d have nowhere else to go.
But he didn’t move his king at all. Instead, he moved his queen again, so it was two spaces in front of my king. “Checkmate,” he said with grim satisfaction.
“What?” I practically jumped from my seat, to hover over the board. There was no way he could have beaten me. He only had five pieces left. He had to be looking at it wrong.
But he wasn’t. It didn’t matter what I did on my next move, if I left my piece there, his queen would kill the king, if I moved it to the left diagonal, his knight would take it, to the right, his rook was waiting. No matter what move I made, I lost the game. So, I gave a push to the top of my king, toppling him over. I couldn’t believe it.
Crossing my arms, I huffed and looked away from the board. I shouldn’t have lost that game.
“Look at all the pieces you have,” my grandfather said.
I sighed and turned my head back toward the game. I had almost all of his pieces, while he only had four of mine. My mind still insisted there was no way I should have lost.
“I moved you into position with every move I made—sacrificing my own pieces to give you a false sense of security. You thought you had me, you were ready to call out checkmate and claim victory. But at the last moment, I struck and delivered the deathblow. A blow, I might add, you never saw coming. Am I right?”
Heaving another sigh, I had no choice but to agree with him. “Yeah, I guess.”
“This is the way Quinn plays. I’ve done this with him. He is the coldest, most logical thinker I have ever come across.” Again, his eyes glazed over as some memory from his past danced through his vision. “Heck, we thought we’d beaten him before. I thought we had for seventy years. But now, he’s back.”
I sat, not speaking and not moving, taking the words in.
“You can’t trust where you stand with him. He is constantly evaluating the situation and moving you into the position he wants you in. It may look like you’re winning, but you never are. You are playing his game, by his rules. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why I don’t want you to go. Now, I know I can’t stop you.” He said, seeing the protest rising into my conscious thoughts. “And I’m not going to try. But I can show you some techniques that will let you survive this trip.”
“Okay,” I was ready to listen to whatever mental technique he had for me. All the things he said, had been what was nagging me at the innermost portions of my being for weeks. I knew all these things, which was why I didn’t want to go on this cursed trip. Whatever he wanted to show me, I was sure it would be something Quinn didn’t know about, or at least it would be something he wouldn’t expect when I unleashed it upon him. “What do I do?”
“First,” said Grandpa Carpenter, chuckling at my eagerness, “reset the chess board. I’m going to get us a couple of sodas.”
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