Helena breathed a heavy sigh and sat back against the vent. I need to wait a while before taking a Treader out. Crawling back to her bag, she slumped against the vent wall and examined the HCID passively, twisting it around her fingers for a minute. Hissing, she pressed her palms against her forehead, she felt the cool metallic device against her skin.

Sighing, she brought up WITCH’s data on her, she scanned over the results. They had a lot of categories to fill, but her eyes caught on specific information. I’m in the Northern Training Facility, which implies there are more and Kara did say I’m surpassing a majority of previous candidates.

A tingle ran up her legs as Kara’s name popped into her mind. Brushing it away, she continued down the information. How did they get information on Drake and my relationship? It stated they had a very healthy relationship and were close. Our relationship’s less healthy than one might imagine. I don’t hate Drake, but I don’t exactly love him. He said it himself. He’s just a tool to be used to further along my progression and everyone else should be viewed the same.

It described her grandparents, which was the first time she’d even heard about them. They apparently helped guide the family’s future from Augnecia. Of course, I haven’t even met my parents since I was four ... so, that isn’t surprising.

They described her as being more detached and unemotional, which she didn’t like. It’s not like I’m emotionless. I just keep a handle on it. Drake spent most their time together reminding her to keep a level head while doing random things to try and draw out her emotion.

There was a small section that depicted her speech patterns and how remarkable it was at her age. Where had they received enough information to determine that? Certainly not from the room incident, I barely spoke a word.

She rubbed her eyes as she started to read their assessment on her ability and her capability within her ability, starting to feel a little like her normal self again. Helena’s an Electro Master and has the remarkable ability to sense all three aspects of that attribute; electricity, electromagnetic force, and magnetic force. Helena shook her head. There’s a big difference between sensing three aspects and manipulating them. I can generate, control, and sense the three aspects, not just sense. It was rare for an electric type esper to naturally sense all three aspects and those with the ability were labeled Masters because of it.

Helena was shocked to find fatality statistics on Electro Masters extremely high. In fact, living past the age of six was a great feat. Since I’m eight, apparently, it greatly heightens my chances of survival. Is my ability really that dangerous? I was very sick when I was four. Maybe that was the problem.

They rated her ability based on a set of formulas called, CAFÉ or Capacity in Ability Focused on Espers. The ratings started at one based lowest and a hundred and one the highest. The rankings were specifically designed around four categories; Force, Capacity, Regeneration, and Control.

They rank eighty percent of average Espers being below eight and place me at an eight? I’ve never heard of these four categories, but WITCH has come up with a leveling chart, so they need some way to determine ability level. Although, they go on to say they don’t have a full assessment of my ability and it will be revised upon further analysis.

Skipping through minor details about height, age, and weight; she moved to the section where it explained the abilities she had and the possibility of possessing with interest. It listed the only ability they knew she could produce was an electrical shock, but it was undetermined if she could kill with it. Under that it had a category of speculated abilities; the only ability listed was electro-location.

She smirked as she read the explanation. My perception ability is much more complex than this. I’d classify my sense as electroreception, not electro-location. I can pick up disturbances in the three aspects of my ability and make a mental map of the surroundings, based on refractions in that data, similar to Echolocation, but far more complex.

Being able to map a three-dimensional image of her surroundings being active electroreception, while she more frequently used passive electroreception. Passive electroreception was electric founded phenomena within her environment, such as electrical equipment and muscle movement. She needed to concentrate on specifics such as brain activity and heart rhythms, but it was much easier on her Focus in contrast to active electroreception.

The largest difference between the two was their Focus drain. Passive was continually draining and slowly made her tired but took at least a day to mentally exhaust her, while active could only be in process for an hour at most.

Her attention shifted when she read the last two subjects. The researcher had written that he’d talked with Kara about a theory and that she had been very cryptic regarding his inference. He stated that with her position; she was easily able to brush him off. She licked her dry lips, reading further down the page, her eyes locked on the title, Known Electro Masters. Kara Corsey was at the top of the list, she was ranked as a level one hundred and one.

Helena gulped, feeling the saliva slowly flow down her throat. Kara does have my ability and is listed as the most powerful Electro Master in recorded Esper history. No wonder Kara knew where I was hiding and those strange sensations I received. I must have come into contact with her personal static field.

For the first time in Helena’s short life, she could discern the true meaning of fear in her mind. I have no proof that Kara wants to harm me, but my body won’t stop shaking. At her level, she can likely sense me with passive electroreception through the vents disruptive affix. In fact, she pushed against my static field through the vent. My active and passive reception only stretches five meters with Focus, how far is Kara’s?

Kara already saw a portion of my intellect with the fake Treader decoys. Is she expecting something more from my ability, something I don’t know how to do? She must know hundreds of more manipulations than me. Klen said she isn’t easily interested in new recruits and she didn’t deny it. Likely, I’m the topic of her meeting with the President. What does she have planned?

Scrolling down to the final sections of the report, she found more notes. They considered her intellectual level. It shows my intellectual level as a seven out of ten, but still up for speculation. I wonder if it’ll change after this incident or are there many espers with my intellectual forte?

She shook her head, feeling the weight against her skull as her bound hair bobbed back and forth. She regained her filter to emotion. It stated she was more logical than emotional and a few statements about possibly not being religious in the Deity Faith, which was true. I’m not involved with that supercilious, superstitious, and misguided religion. I couldn’t believe and put my trust in fabricated beings, there are powers the Deities possess, but no evidence of the Deities themselves.

Her eyes caught on something in the medical history that drew her thoughts away. Her mother had, in the past, been diagnosed with positive schizophrenia. She knew the general description of a schizophrenic but had never heard of different categories in it. She also knew that it had never been proven, but was theorized to be genetic.

How did WITCH obtain this information? It would require a medical record and that was kept by the Branch Family doctors. Did WITCH have contacts in the branch families? Drake might have given them the information, but for what purpose, to let me know? Helena frowned thoughtfully. This might be a problem in the future. She put her mother and brother to the back of her mind. It’s only been a few minutes since Ventre left.

Closing the tab, she brought the terrain map up and studied it to pass the time. She noticed the battery was running at about seventy percent. Activating the icon, she moved the information to the left of the terrain. It would last another few days. Ventre should have given me less battery life. If he didn’t even think I would last long enough to get out of the base, why give me a charged device? The time showed seven fifteen. I’ve been out of their sights for over an hour.

Switching her concentration back to the map, she studied the surrounding areas. If all goes well, I’ll head to the relief settlement for the old Reaper Religion. It should be abandoned, but I could rest in the buildings, at least long enough to sleep. After that, there’s a village a hundred and forty-two kilometers south.

She had heard a few interesting things about the Reaper religion and how peaceful they were, despite what their name implied. Four hundred years earlier, the Deities began to form into a religion and through a proclaimed holy crusade almost completely annihilated the Reaper Faith with the Great Houses’ support. The ones that escaped had formed small hidden camps in the frozen northern tundra.

What was left of the religion was scattered around the world, where before they were centralized in Elestveeve. She would have to either befriend whoever was left or forcibly take supplies. When she reached an active settlement, she could decide how to get into Tech’s banks for the extra credits.

She followed the path the decoys would take with her eyes. She’d activated a stealth protocol on the machines beforehand. She didn’t know what they did to keep undetected, but it could buy her time.

Helena brought up the floor plans again and found that there was a terminal just outside of the bay. With everyone focused on the Treaders outside, there shouldn’t be many people in the hallways. Helena waited a few more minutes before taking the backpack down to ground level and replacing the clothes WITCH had given her with the thermal suit. It was made of some kind of elastic material, so the smallest size stretched to fit snuggly.

It should take them a few more minutes before cracking my encryption lock on the cameras. She put her removed clothing in the backpack; she may need it later down the road. Taking the vent cover off, she moved stealthily toward the hallway door. Reaching it, she sent a receptive pulse into the hallway; no one was within sensing distance. Opening the door, she peered out. Empty and the terminal was right in front of her.

Helena moved to the terminal and accessed the administrative system through the back door. Finding the computers that were tracking her decoys, she studied their data. They were about thirty minutes away from catching the first Treader and forty-five minutes from the second. It looks like disabling the tracers did little good. They may have internal independent tracers.

Helena began to feed the computer false information. This should buy my decoys some more time. The errors should be found when I leave, but the damage would already be done and it would confuse Ventre, making him more distressed. It might force him to use the Trackers he mentioned. It couldn’t be an internal tracer. I’d sense any foreign transmission in my body. The Trackers are probably high-level sensory type espers, maybe something like West. I’ll have to concentrate on that problem when it arises.

Helena heard footsteps coming down the side hall. Darting back into the bay, she hid behind some nearby creates. Three men came jogging into the room. They didn’t look like soldiers with their lab coats.

“Which cameras are looped?” one asked his hand to his ear.

“All of them, that’s ludicrous! Can you override the loop?” Another asked also with his hand to his ear.

“How can they be encrypted by an outside protocol? Wouldn’t that take administrative control of a different account?” the final man asked in confusion. “Alright, there’s nothing we can do down here, let's head to the Main Server room and try to sort this out.”

Helena watched them leave the bay in a flurry of argument. They don’t know I infiltrated their system. Soon they’ll catch on and then they’ll find the errors in their tracking equipment. They’ll probably waste time going over their entire server logs, which I’ve already zeroed out.

Helena moved toward the door, while actively scanning the hallway. Finding the technicians gone, she slipped out. I need to put the finishing touches on the reroute and erase my tracks. Finishing the false information feed and setting off power disturbances around the base she finalized her work by erasing the time this terminal had been active in the logs. It would look like the terminal hadn’t been active at all.

Quickly moving back into the room, she took the pack out of the air vent and moved toward the nearest Treader. Now that I’ve sent most Ventre’s teams after the first two fakes, I can completely bypass his trail of thought by sending out all the rest, thirteen more headaches for him. It should make it nearly impossible to track me down, for a few hours at least. By that time I’ll be ready for my next step.

Helena strapped the backpack to the Treader she intended to use. The pack was heavy, but she could lighten it along the way as needed. She then moved back to the equipment room and found they had boots, gloves, masks, and goggles in her size. I’m glad I don’t have to use my previous clothing as protection. Putting on the gear, she went back into the Bay and took the HCID out of her bag with the tether. She began to move from Treader to Treader, giving them coordinates. I’ll program two of the dead switch protocols to reactivate in several minutes but remove the return commands. It may confuse Ventre a bit more.

After finishing the last vehicle’s pathing, she hopped on her intended Treader and strapped herself down, waiting the thirty seconds she’d set. After the allotted time, all of the Treaders lurched forward and began their set course. They moved toward the door and it opened to a blast of snow that flurried around her as she entered the blizzard. The observation room will soon figure out more Treaders have left. Now, Ventre will have to make a decision, to keep following my old decoys or follow the new ones.

Helena felt the pressure of the frigid air pulling around her small body as the Treader flew through the ice storm toward its set location. She couldn’t see a meter in front of her, yet the vehicle knew where it was going. The heated glass windshield melted the snow quickly and supplied some relief from the hailing force, but she could feel the pressing demand the vehicle placed against her tiny frame. She was uncomfortable, but it was bearable for now.

It should take me three to four hours to reach the settlement. I hope my body can take this force; I couldn’t have gone out into this with my previous clothing. I’d freeze in minutes. The blizzard might be over by then. Hopefully, it will last longer than anticipated. Operational Meteorology isn’t an exact science as new variables constantly bring new factors … at least that’s what I’ve read.

Her body suddenly felt even heavier and her eyes drooped. What’s happening? I’m losing consciousness, but why? Is this a time-release drug, Ventre’s failsafe? I only remember a shot from the medical room, why’d it take this long to activate? She slumped against the vehicle as it made its way to her predetermined location.