(Disclaimers in the prologue)
Silver had remembered.
The meeting with Mercury, on the outskirts; he remembered that. He remembered being held, helpless, as his mind was manipulated.
And he remembered taking the device which was to be given to Sapphire and Steel, and rendering it useless.
He had collapsed on to the floor of Jet's retreat, after the empath had teased the hidden memories back into their proper places. Part of him had reacted violently, wanting to throw things around in a fit of rage. Part of him wanted to weep.
Part of him wanted to be sick.
Jet had held him as he trembled with the effort to regain composure. Her presence prevented him from submitting to the madness, and he was grateful. Finally he sat up, wiping tears from his face and meeting his companion's worried eyes.
"We have to report this," Silver said. "Maybe there's enough time for me to go back to the café, this time with a working device. Will you come with me?"
Jet nodded and stood up, grabbing Silver's hand and pulling him up beside her. She waited calmly whilst Silver straightened his tie and smoothed his hair, then they stepped over to the bounds of the retreat.
When no arch manifested, Silver turned to Jet questioningly.
"We have to get to the central chamber," he insisted. "They have to know!"
"He's out there," Jet stated.
Silver paused, before frowning. "Mercury?"
"Yes. He's waiting for us." Jet turned to Silver and explained. "Inside your head, there was a residue, a taint from the power Mercury accessed to manipulate your mind. You must understand that he has no empathic ability. He was gifted the artificial means to do what he did. And that residue is distinctive. I can look for it and recognise it, now. There's a trace of it right outside and that can only mean Mercury is waiting for us. He must have followed you after you returned to the Hub."
Silver took a wary step back from the boundary.
"Oh, it's all right," Jet reassured, stretching a comforting hand to grip Silver's arm. "He has no jurisdiction in here. He can't touch you."
"What the hell are we supposed to do!" Silver demanded. "We can't stay here! We'll have to teleport -"
"Mercury specialises in inter-dimensional travel, you know that," said Jet. "The minute we try, he'll sense us and catch us. Together, we might be too strong for him, but until I know more about his new power, I can't be sure."
Silver cast about himself, looking for a solution. This was infuriating! There was a traitor in their midst, in a position to jeopardise all their hard work, and he could do nothing about it ...
"We can try something else," suggested Jet. She walked smoothly past Silver and sat down once again. "I can report this to the authority without leaving here." Silver watched as her eyes went black, suddenly recalling that he shared this retreat with one of the strongest empaths in the organisation. His anger and grief had distracted him, and he resolved to shelve the negative feelings until there was more time for him to deal with them.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, unable to hear the low-level communication Jet had initiated but wanting to be a part of the attempt nonetheless.
~~~
Topaz stood over the pallet which supported Sapphire's unconscious form. She was quite profoundly irritated. Even captured and violated and hurt in the way the agent had been, Sapphire was still beautiful. No wonder she was the subject of so many frivolous fantasies, within the network. Not for the first time, Topaz considered that she was well out of that particular circle.
The two agents had been brought to the Cumbrian base after losing consciousness in the café. Their leader had coalesced into view once more, hanging on to them as though they were nothing more than rag dolls; Steel grasped by the scruff of the collar and Sapphire tucked under his other arm. Their lifeless bodies had been deposited at separate ends of the complex.
The other true Transient had let the café go. It had served its purpose.
The man had described his negotiations with Sapphire and Steel. Topaz had immediately been worried. She had genuinely thought that there was no question that the two agents would join them willingly. When the man had described their escape attempt and all that he had read in their minds, she really thought that the plan was finished.
But he had told them that it was all as he had expected. Granted, things might have been easier if Sapphire and Steel had allowed their stay in the café to turn their allegiance, but their leader had apparently anticipated that their loyalty would not be swayed so easily and was already in the process of manipulating them further.
Topaz had been infuriated by this. Their leader had deliberately kept part of the plan from herself, and from Nitro, and possibly even the other true Transient. The implication was that she had not needed to know the full plot. That meant that she was not considered important. She had certainly been given no opportunity to debate any of the decisions made.
When she had left the organisation all those years ago, she had wanted to be more than a small cog in a big machine. What was she now?
Still, she could take some satisfaction from the knowledge that this agent, this beautiful Operator would soon be suffering in the worst possible way.
The leader had spelled it out. They needed Sapphire and Steel. Escaping from the past had been exhilarating, but it had also been necessary. Their numbers were already severely depleted, and losing the two at the service station had aggravated this problem.
Their long term aim was to decimate the organisation, thus assuring their own future. If there was no organisation, there would be no attempt to recapture or destroy the Transients.
In order to damage the organisation, they needed numbers. And if they recruited those numbers from the organisation itself, their gain was its loss.
Most importantly, however, Sapphire and Steel were not only powerful, competent Operators who would be worthy recruits. They were also a symbol, a portent of the organisation's doom. Because when the other agents saw how even Sapphire and Steel had switched their allegiance, their defection would act as a catalyst for others to follow suit.
That was the plan.
But it was obvious now that Sapphire and Steel would only ever join them if they saw no other choice. That meant convincing them that the organisation had deserted them; easy enough to achieve by doctoring memories and thoughts. Beyond this came a final means of persuasion. The Transients needed to paint their own group in heroic, attractive, salvationist colours.
And nothing brings diverse groups together like a common enemy.
Topaz smiled down at the blonde agent's crumpled body. Soon, Sapphire would rely on their group for support.
Because soon, she would have nothing else.
~~~
"Silver."
Jet's voice called Silver out of his trance. He opened his eyes, remembered the enormity of their situation and immediately crossed to where the empath sat.
"Tell me."
"I've shared your assault with the authority. I've told them Mercury is waiting for us, here. They are readying a cell."
Silver winced. The cells were the places of nightmares. They severed an agent from all their power and befuddled the mind so that individual skills were impossible to utilise. He could only recall them being used on one occasion, previously. Jade had returned from an assignment, cloaked in madness after contact with their enemy. She had spent years recovering within the cell, a danger to herself and her fellow agents.
Silver could remember how Bronze had spent all his time Hub-side sitting outside her prison, talking to her, begging her to return to sanity.
Silver shuddered. The cell was the right place for Mercury to be, but the idea was still chilling.
"How will they get him there?" he asked Jet. "Mercury can port out in a flash."
"Ah. That's the bit you aren't going to like."
"Go on."
"We're the bait."
~~~
Mercury was getting edgy. He had waited, ensconced in dimensions, for more than an hour. What were Silver and Jet doing in there? He supposed it was possible that Silver had seduced the empath. Silver had a weakness for beautiful women, and now that Sapphire was out of the picture, perhaps he had turned his attention to another one.
But there was always the nagging possibility that Silver had remembered. Mercury knew he was no expert in using the cube-shaped device given to him by his new leader. An emergency situation had demanded emergency measures. The organisation should never have been able to pinpoint the prison which held Sapphire and Steel.
Mercury's resolve was fading. When he had contacted the Transients after the death of his late, lamented partner, Gold, and offered his services, he had been convinced that it was the right thing to do. He had always admired the Transients' discipline and intelligence, and knew that he was finished on the Hub. Unfair as it was, he'd been held accountable for the loss of his fellow specialist; it had been a split-second decision, on that fateful assignment, to grab Gold from the entity's path and hurl them both into a safer dimension. Unfortunately, the dimension Mercury had chosen was not one used for travelling, and had consumed Gold's form irretrievably.
It hadn't seemed to make any difference to his peers that, had Mercury not at least tried something, Gold would have been destroyed anyway.
The Transients had welcomed him, had treated him with respect. And the plan they had put together had seemed foolproof. Now, as it took one knock after another, he had begun to wonder whether his new tribe really were one step ahead of the network. It was starting to look unlikely.
The boundary of Jet's retreat shimmered, snapping him out of these gloomy misgivings. The empath walked out, followed by Silver. They paused for a moment before starting toward the central chambers. Going to get an update, Mercury supposed. He shifted in his dimensional cloak and, as they disappeared from view, blurred into sight.
It was necessary to keep an eye on Silver. Until he could make contact with the others, he had to assume that the plan was on course. Noiselessly, he resumed his pursuit.
~~~
"What's that?" Nitro asked his leader, as the man crouched beside Steel's pallet and placed a small cube against the unconscious agent's temple.
The Transient was obviously feeling amiable, pleased with the way things were progressing. He deigned to answer his associate's query.
"It's a little something I invented. An interface, if you like. I gave one to Mercury. Lets you read and change memories as though they were ... records in a database."
"Fascinating," replied Nitro. "But you don't need a tool to do all that, do you?"
"No, I don't. But it makes life easier. And it leaves my own energies free to undertake other tasks."
"Like what?"
"Oh, a bit of creative extrapolation!" the man smiled, offering a look to Nitro which informed him in no uncertain terms that the conversation was over. Nitro backed down, watching as his leader closed his eyes in concentration and began to delve.
~~~
Silver was fighting hard to resist the impulse to run. He and Jet had arrived at the centre of the Hub and marched through the compound, drawing ever nearer to the cells. Mercury's presence, though not seen, was like a knife blade hovering a fraction of an inch away from the centre of his back. It itched and it burned and it threatened.
Jet's presence was calming. She was very like Sapphire, he had noticed. Peaceful to be with. Sedate. He distracted himself from the perils of the moment by wondering, when all this was over, whether he would see any sign that Jet could also match Sapphire's playfulness.
He was returned to the present by the doors of the central chamber. When he and Jet walked past them, Mercury would begin to wonder where they were going. These last few steps would be the most dangerous. Silver gritted his teeth against the trepidation and kept pace with his companion, glad that Jet showed no apparent need to speed up her own steps and give their intent away.
Just a few minutes more.
~~~
When his quarry walked past the central chamber, Mercury grew uncomfortable. Where were they going? He was torn, part of him wanting to keep tabs on Silver and remain in place to protect the plan from the meddling of the organisation. Part of him wanted to jump into the travelling dimensions and home in on his associates, leaving this nest of vipers.
Incredibly, part of him wanted to forget the whole deal and beg the authority for forgiveness and another chance.
Not that he would be given one. All right, so he couldn't be replaced until he was dead, and he was a useful specialist to have around. But they would lock him in a cell and let him rot before granting him active assignments again, once they became aware of his treachery.
He turned the corner, noting that Jet and Silver were nearly out of sight. Hurrying, he started to catch up.
Mercury was almost on top of them when he realised they had stopped. When he recognised the part of the compound to which he had been brought, he panicked. Silver and Jet turned around to face him, and even the apprehension on the specialist's face was no consolation.
He spun around, looking back down the corridor. Diamond stood a few feet away, flanked by Lead. They had crept up behind him.
The door to the nearest cell lifted, revealing the colourless shroud of its interior. It was obviously an invitation. He had been discovered.
But he was not going to allow himself to suffer a living death. He might be finished Hub-side, but he had always hated this place, and there were others waiting for him. Lead was no obstacle, when the unseen dimensions could be called upon to carry him away.
He reached out with his talent, smiling in satisfaction.
And the smile faded, when the glassy, reflective surface of a diamond ricocheted his power straight back at him.
Mercury tried again, and Diamond once more prevented him access.
The agents surrounding him all took one step closer, and Mercury found himself backed into the doorway of the cell. He could already sense its deadening aura. He hadn't been frightened for a long time. He was supposed to do the frightening. This was wrong ...
He was a Transient now!
Mercury turned his attention away from his own skills, rendered useless by Diamond. In a final effort to evade the cell, he called upon all the corrupt power of his new associates and cast himself headlong into the corridor of time.
~~~
Silver watched Mercury ripple out of existence. Jet was already walking up to Diamond and demanding to know what had gone wrong.
"I don't understand, I made a barrier between him and his power." The empath shook his head, confused.
"But couldn't you smell the taint?" Jet demanded. "He used the power given to him by the Transient Beings. He's one of them now!"
"How could I prevent him using that?" Diamond sighed and, with a wave of his hand, closed the now redundant cell door. "I have no knowledge of it. No understanding."
Jet relented and placed a consoling hand on his shoulder. "I know. Let's get to the central chamber and make a report."
Silver walked with the group, and he thought that he should offer some positive thinking. "Well," he said brightly, "we're in a better position now than we were an hour ago!" He looked around at the dubious faces of his colleagues. "I mean, Mercury was only dangerous here whilst his defection was undiscovered. Wolf in sheep's clothing." At Diamond's frown, he added, "An old Earth expression. Means that -"
"Thank you, Silver, I can guess what it means."
"Oh. Good. But you must see that Mercury has lost a lot of his usefulness to the Transients. We know he's on their side, now. And if he comes back, which I think is very unlikely, we'll be ready for him."
There was a pause, during which the four agents arrived at the central chamber and awaited their authority. Finally, Jet turned to Silver.
"You're right. We're much better off. And we're all sorry that you had to go through such a terrible assault. We're glad that such an assault is unlikely to be repeated, now Mercury has left." Silver nodded at her words, but paused when confronted with the concern in her expression. "But it isn't over. Mercury's a skilful specialist and a useful tool for the Transients. Just because we've made the Hub safe again, doesn't mean that the rest of the universe is similarly saved." She dropped her forehead on to his shoulder for a moment. "And we've still got two agents missing, in the clutches of the Transients, and without any means of returning home."
Silver bit at his lip as he recognised the truth of Jet's assessment. Then the central alcove pulsed and their leader arrived.
~~~
"Well?"
The man met the gaze of his fellow true Transient. For the first time since the service station, he felt the loss of his two brothers. Only the pair of them left, now. It wasn't right.
"Soon, now. When they wake, they'll be ours," he offered.
"Are they being watched?"
"Of course. Topaz is even now trying to work out why, with any shape or form to choose, she still can't make herself as attractive as Sapphire."
The Transients shared a moment of amusement. Then the man settled down to recuperate his energy with a sigh. "As soon as they wake, we're back to acting out roles. Just long enough to ensure their short-term cooperation."
"Short-term only?"
"Well, it's the best we can do. It should be long enough to trigger the events we want. But the deception I've initiated will work only for so long before they discover it. And unfortunately, the two recruits we wanted most from the organisation also happened to be the two most competent and powerful."
"Their strength is in their partnership, though. Not the individual."
"Quite right," the man nodded, with a mischievous smile at his fellow.
~~~~~~~
Continued in Chapter 6
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