Chapter 16: Meetings

Alise sat in the back of the unmarked squad car as they drove down the interstate. Veronica and Dan sat in the front of the vehicle and Dan was driving. All of this was going to be difficult, she needed to meet someone in a position of authority, but everyone had insisted that she not openly display the source until then. However, getting the adult world to take an eleven-year old seriously was turning into a very tedious task. She wanted to fly over to the White house, break the doors down and sit down with the President, but that is not how an emissary behaves. She really didn't want to misplace the trust the others put in her. She would follow the plan, meet with the investigators Dalvin had spotted snooping around the mountain and have them introduce her to their superior, the rinse and repeat until she got to the top. Most likely a state governor is all the higher this strategy would get her. From there she could use the source to climb higher. There were a lot of risks to this, but Alise was confident now that nothing short of an army could stand against her. Although she would have failed her mission if it came to that. Her goal was to peacefully establish communications with a national leader. This was the first step in project 'Utopia', she could not afford to fail, no she would not fail. Alise steeled herself mentally as the car pulled up into the parking lot of a governmental office. Veronica and Dan got out of the car and opened the door for her,"This is a department of internal affairs office, the director said he would meet you here. So if you would please follow us." Veronica said. As they entered the lobby Alise addressed Veronica,"If you don't mind I would like to use the restroom to freshen up a bit before my meeting." Veronica looked at her a little puzzled but replied,"Sure, this way." She followed her down a hall and entered the restroom. Inside one of the ladies stalls she activated the source and just let it flow, filling the surrounding room. This was source sense, a new skill she had learned. There were many uses for it, but right now she was searching for the electric wave pattern that cameras gave off. She found several but none of them were pointed at the stalls, good now she could change. Activating another thread of the source she bent the light in front of her making a full mirror in midair, then she slowly began lacing the light around her. She decided to mimic the busines suit that Veronica wore, she didn't care much for black, so she altered the color to a light blue. Surveying herself in the mirror she was satisfied, the illusion wouldn't hold up if someone touched it, but it looked a lot nicer than her training garb. As she exited the restroom she noticed the shocked look on the two agents faces, that's right try to guess how I did it. Veronica recovered first,"Nice outfit, it looks good on you. Now if you would follow me ill take you to a waiting room." They continued down the hall, and she was led into one of the rooms on the right. Veronica motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs in the room,"If you will wait here we will go see if the Director has arrived." The two of them exited the room and closed the door. Alise had kept up her source sense since leaving the bathroom, and immediately spread it through the room and into the hall outside the room. There were several cameras in the room, and they were pointed at her, outside in the hall the two agents had not left but instead were joined by several other people. This troubled her, they were up to something. She could feel sound waves, so she knew they were talking, but her skill had not reached a level to tell her what they were saying. She began to prepare herself for the worst, they probably still had no intentions to help her. So was this a move to capture her? As if to answer the door was opened and something was tossed in and immediately closed again. This time she heard the metallic 'click' of a lock. The small canister that had been tossed in began rapidly emitting a gas into the room. Alise warped the light in front of all the cameras blacking them out. Then she used air to push the canister to the far side of the room and built a wall of hardened air to separate her half of the room from the canisters. Alise was starting to get frustrated, how was she going to get these people to take her seriously. She had little choice she was going to have to pull out a big spell, but she was going to have to use one that would leave them guessing as to what actually happened. Alise pressed her hands against her stomach were the source stone was sewn to the inside of her garb, she pressed in firmly against her skin and began to focus with everything she had. He senses flooded the building and began locating her targets, one hundred cameras and forty-six people. The eight people outside the door began moving towards it, now was the time to strike. A smile spread across her lips,"Oblivion!", she unleashed all the source she could muster to the point she nearly collapsed. In a single instant all light within the building was sealed plunging it into true darkness at the same time she sharpened her senses and struck every person in the back of the head with a blow of air. She walked up to the door, with her source sense active the whole building lay before her eyes like a3-d hologram, it was a little disorienting at first, but she had become used to it. Alise had done a lot of blindness training in the cave, at first it was just a countermeasure to spells she had come up with, but as she practiced more she realized source sense was far more valuable than eyesight, especially when combined with total darkness. Even though it removed all textures from everything the wire frame world it created gave her an unprecedented sense of awareness, plus in the wire world she could see source, like her shimmering coat of light refraction painted on the ceiling and walls of the building. So with a practiced grace she dismantled the wire frame of the lock in the door, and it vanished. She went into the hall and scanned the bodies laying in the hallway, good there was only one female, that should be Veronica. Picking up the woman and slinging her over her shoulder she made her way to the exit. Some people stirred but nobody had regained consciousness yet. She hoped she had not accidentally hurt anyone. As she exited the building she released her spell over it. The brightness of the sun after being in total darkness hurt her eyes, but they grew accustomed to it after a few moments. She walked over to the car she had arrived in and set Veronica down leaning her against the car. She patted her gently on the cheeks coaxing her back to reality. Veronicas' eyes slowly fluttered open, then they darted wildly looking at her surroundings, she hastily scrambled to her feet." What....what happened?", Alise chuckled,"Everyone decided to take a nap, so I brought you out here to see if you could take me to a real meeting this time." A complex look spread across Veronica's face, part confusion, fear, and defeat,"How is this even possible!?" Alise looked strain into her eyes hardening her glare the best she could,"I'll make this as clear as I can. How I did this is top-secret, but believe me I can do it again and again. Stop looking at me as a child, I am an emissary and my mission is very important, it will change this world to its core. But you keep delaying me, and I am running out of patience for your little games. So are you willing to cooperate with me or not?"