“The after searching the waters near the abandoned towns and villages, it’s been confirmed that the citizens all suffered similar fates,” Samaira said. She stood at one end of a long table inside the USAIF offices in DC. A projector displayed a map of the world on the wall, and towns that had fallen victim were all marked, with a body count by each. It totaled to roughly 15,000 people.

Far worse than Honolulu, but not as bad as New Delhi or Belarus.

Still too damn many, Anya thought. She sat a few seats away Samaira, next to Pan on one side and Chell on the other. Gary was also present, though he wore a plastic badge on his flannel shirt that said “GUEST.” Director MacDougal, General Johnson, and Agent Ramierez sat at the other end of the table, all of them frowning at the map.

“It’s Omega?” Johnson asked.

“We’ve had our AIs go through the map data and cross-checked it with the movements of hosts on our contact lists,” Samaira replied. “None of the hosts that we have information on went anywhere near the sites.”

“How many hosts have we still not made contact with?” Johnson asked and Ramierez flipped through some papers.

“There are 122 hosts total on Earth as of Big Al’s death. Eighty-seven hosts have joined with world governments like us,” Felix said, “but that leaves thirty-five hosts who we have no information on. Not counting the ones that have fled the planet, which totals about forty-one since the aliens first landed.”

“Uh, yeah. Thirty-five. Checks out,” Ramierez said as he pulled out a post-in note and several papers tumbled out of a folder.

“So it could’ve been another host,” MacDougal said.

“Why would a human kill other humans like that?” Pan asked.

“People are messed up sometimes,” Gary replied.

“Any updates from that alien in your lab?” Johnson asked Gary.

“Just that it seems to be getting weaker. The doc checks on it a few times a day, but it’s always the same story: any connection it may have had with the other aliens has been cut. Or blocked. Or something.”

“And the attacks on the towns themselves? Any evidence linking this to Omega?” MacDougal asked.

“The attacks were psychic,” Chell said, almost whispered.

“What’s that?” Johnson asked and leaned forward.

“T-the attacks were psychic!” Chell almost shouted and then realized she had overdone the volume and put her face in her hands.

“I see,” Johnson said. “And you’re psychic?”

“I didn’t do it! I swear! I could never——”

“Take it easy, Ms. Park,” MacDougal said. “We know you’re not the violent sort. But that’s how you know, correct?”

“Oh. Y-yeah. There was like, a psychic footprint. Something had happened there, a psychic event, and I could still sense it. A little.”

“Explain,” MacDougal said.

“Okay, so, uh, normally in a village or city or whatever, you have a bunch of small psychic impressions: all the different people. They’d all separate and unique. But at the place I went to, there was just one big one. Like it had sort of overridden all the smaller imprints, smashed them down. So maybe a powerful psychic force wiped everybody’s minds or took control of them and told them to march into the water.”

“All the villages were in coastal areas,” Ramierez confirmed.

“Just like what the aliens were doing before we killed Big Al. Omega was doing the same thing: sticking to the coast,” Samaira said.

“Is it possible to take control of that many people at once?” MacDougal asked. Chell shook her head.

“Not for me. Even a normal person can resist some level of psychic control. It’s incredibly difficult to make somebody do something that’s against their nature. I might be able to convince somebody on a diet to eat a piece of cake they really want, but I couldn’t convince them to just…kill themselves like that. Uh, unless they were already really suicidal or something, I guess,” Chell said.

“Could you put the thought in their head?” Johnson asked. Chell squirmed at the question and reached out for Pan. The pangolin scooted to the side of his chair and placed a claw gently on her forearm.

“I could, but it wouldn’t do much. Maybe make them uncomfortable. Again, unless they were already seriously thinking about, y’know, doing it,” Chell replied.

“Renn might,” Anya said.

“The French psychic,” Ramierez added. “Level 73 after the fight with Big Al.”

“I’m only level 58,” Chell said.

“We’ve already established the other hosts on our contacts list weren’t anywhere near the sites of the attacks,” Samaira said.

“But he can duplicate himself, right? Can we track those on the menu?” Anya asked. The room went silent. “Felix? Can you check the map data for the fight on Oahu and in Beijing? See if Renn’s signal duplicated at all?”

“Sure I can! Here we go!” Felix said and projected the menu map into the air above the table. “It does not reproduce! Renn’s signal remained the only one of its kind, even when he duplicated himself. However…”

“However?” Anya asked.

“Here, during the fight in Honolulu, it looks like Renn was killed by an alien. But then then his signal jumps five blocks to the west and continues as normal up until now,” Felix said.

“So he only has the one signal, but if he dies, it just hops to one of his duplicates and that becomes the new…Renn Prime, or whatever?” Anya asked.

“Damn. Was hoping that wouldn’t be the case,” Gary said.

“Why?” Samaira asked.

“That Renn kid and his crew, I’m not the only one that gets a funny feeling from them. I was hoping if he went bad on us, it’d just be a matter on honing in on his signal and then check-mate, but if it just hops to another clone…ugh, like whack-a-mole.”

“Can we not talk about killing other hosts?” Chell asked. “They’ve been okay so far.”

“We won’t borrow trouble but it never hurts to have a plan to kill somebody,” MacDougal said and Johnson chuckled and nodded.

“So Renn could have, potentially done this with a clone,” Anya said.

“Unlikely,” Samaira replied. “Everything we’ve seen of his powers seems to indicate he has a range on his clones, maybe a mile or two at most, and that gets shorter the more clones he has. He was nowhere near any of these attacks at any time.”

“For now, I think it best to go with the simplest solution: Omega is killing people. Maybe in retaliation, maybe by accident while aiming for a host. Maybe hosts were in these villages and the people were just collateral damage,” MacDougal said. “But we need to stop it. America hasn’t been hit, but our allies that have been are leaning on us.”

“I’ll need to clear it with the President and the other Joint Chiefs, but I’d like Chell to cooperate with Renn and the EU. Maybe two psychics will be better than one at finding out what’s going on.”

“You mean the guy we’re still not 100% sure is on the level?” Anya asked.

“The same. And having one of ours next to a possible suspect will allow us to keep an eye on him,” MacDougal said. “In the meantime, I’d like to have somebody keep an eye on Immonen while he’s conducting his scans on that thing. I know your security is impeccable, Mr. Hendricks, but I’d still like a USAIF host on-site. Unless you’d like to stop being stubborn an——”

“Nope,” Gary said. “I only showed up here as a favor to the others since they asked nice, and because I wanted to drop off some updated armor for your field agents after what happened to Riley.”

“And we’re thankful for it,” Johnson said before MacDougal could answer.

“Yeah, thanks, Mr. Hendricks,” Ramierez said. Gary nodded.

“I’ll go,” Anya said. “To be with——to check on Dr. Immonen.”

“Very well,” Samaira said. “I think it’d be good if Chell had an escort to the EU, if the President thinks it’s a good idea to put our psychic together with theirs.”

“Mm. You and Pan,” MacDougal said. Chell smiled and gave Pan a side-huge, which the pangolin returned. “And I want both of you to be more proactive. Stop being so timid.”

“A-all right,” Chell said.

“I’ll try,” Pan said.

“Dismissed,” MacDougal said and left the room with Johnson.

“Say hi to Dr. Immonen for us!” Chell said as she and Pan waved at Anya and Gary.

“Will do,” Anya said and Gary smiled at the younger woman. Samaira followed after Anya and Gary for a few steps until the two of them stopped.

“Sorry to bother you,” she said. “Gary, could I have a word with Anya, please?”

“Sure thing. I’m gonna head back, kid. See you at the holding facility,” Gary said over his shoulder and waved. Anya turned to Samaira and waited.

“Something wrong?” she asked.

“Yes,” Samaira said. “I think I handled our last conversation poorly.”

“Maybe a little,” Anya said. Samaira’s mouth tightened a little.

“I don’t think you handled it very well, either.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look Anya: nobody doubts what you’ve done. I don’t think you’ve made any truly bad decisions. If it weren’t for you, I don’t think Gary and I would’ve survived the fight with the fridge in Chicago.”

“Okay,” Anya said. “So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that you’re still acting like you’re the only one out there, and it scares people. Chell says she’s ‘only’ level 58, but that’s still more power than anything else that existed on this planet prior to the aliens. And you’re almost at level 75 and using a much more destructive power-set than she is.”

Anya started to snap something back, but then thought about her talk with Amahle, how easy it was to just…forget that kind of scale she was working on now. Instead she lowered her eyes and bit her lip.

“I didn’t ask to be given some rank, whatever it’s worth. But I’m not going to be flippant with what it represents. Especially if…if Renn and maybe some of the other hosts are as bad as we think they might be. Just because we have all this power doesn’t mean we should be looking for excuses to use it.”

“I hear you, and agree, but I haven’t been…I’ve tried to be careful with all of this,” Anya said.

“And you have been,” Samaira agreed. “Saved a lot of lives. But I saw you when you went by the beach and slammed into Big Al. You were euphoric. Surrounded by all that fire and destruction, you were bea——you were being swept up by it. I know there’s only Omega left, but I feel like this is far from over. I just want to make sure I can count on you. I’ve enjoyed…working with you, so far. I don’t want that to change.”

Anya took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m sorry I was an asshole. You’re right: you didn’t ask to get turned into the USAIF host wrangler, and I shouldn’t be making anybody’s job tougher than it already is. I’ll work on this…not being scary and out-of-control thing.”

Samaira shook her head and a soft smile spread across her lips. “It’s okay. This is new to all of us. And like I said, I need somebody else to help keep an eye on Renn.”

“You think this was him?”

“No, not this. I don’t think he’d do something this obvious. But the people around him are as big a giveaway as anything. Mona, talk about being out-of-control: every fight for her is a carnival. Haven’t seen much of that Kan guy, but he’s some kind of blood-mage assassin or something. Harrison is…well, sounds like a power-mad jerk who’s getting way to into LARPing as a demon lord, and then Francis…ugh,” Samaira stuck her tongue out and shuddered.

“Did he do something new?” Anya asked.

“On top of robbing freshly murdered people? Not really. He tried to apologize and ask me out.”

“What?” Anya said, her voice rose an octave as her eyebrows shot up.

“He was acting…weird. Like him being not a terrible person during the fight with the train was gonna make me forget about earlier. I turned him down. Not really uh, my type. Anyway, I should catch up with Chell and Pan.”

The last came out in a rush of words and Samaira was already turning away.

“Uh, all right,” Anya replied. “We’re okay?”

“Yes,” Samaira said and Anya was pleased to see the other woman’s shoulders relax as she smiled. “Thank you. What you said, it means a lot. Say hi to the doctor for me.”

“Will do,” Anya said, then added, “Captain.”

Samaira’s smile widened and she turned away with a swish of her dark hair.

“Was that sarcasm that time?” Felix whispered in Anya’s ear.

“No. Not that time,” Anya said, then left to go see Immonen.