Carnarvon’s wards were too strong for Darcy and she'd learned her lesson and never attempted it again. For now she had to just put up with what seemed to be an unfeeling agent watching over the cruelty she was about to perform.
Without looking up she said, "You might want to grab a seat. This is going to take a while." She grabbed a rubber band from her hip pocket, caught her white blond hair and tied it neatly at the base of her neck Then she adjusted the height of the seat until she was level with the bed, making it easy for her to reach him. Then she slipped her hands beneath his tiny body and tugged him closer so his shoulder was snug against her knee. Ready to begin she glanced up, and was satisfied to see that Carnarvon had pulled up a chair and sat near the foot of the bed opposite Darcy. She was there to observe.
Gunther had dropped that bombshell when Darcy had arrived. Usually she was allowed to work without supervision but something must have gotten Omega's panties in a knot. She'd shrugged at the news. It didn't bother her really. Besides, she had nothing to hide.
Well, not today at least.
Darcy swallowed a smile and shook out her fingers. When she placed them at each of the boy's temples she felt the usual zap as the energy from his brain found the conduit that was her fingers, and sped through into her mind. Her own mind was well protected. Sealed off from the brain activity of her subject. She concentrated and corralled the energy, walking it back into the mind of the boy.
She felt a tug in her gut. Erasing memories was never an easy task, and seldom did she allow a subject's situation to affect her job, but this one was different. Logan Westin was just a little boy, an innocent trapped in the machinations of two organizations fighting for supremacy in a world that didn't even know they existed.
And Darcy's task today was part of the web of deceit that Omega had created around the child. His power was fire. She could feel it ebb and flow behind the white energy of his brain impulses. She could feel something else too. Something that made her stomach tighten. So that's what Omega had failed to tell her. Her jaw tightened as she filed the little revelation away. If Omega ever found out she knew the boy's true identity she'd be toast for sure.
Yes, this one was powerful, but he would never know how powerful. Omega's aim was to contain him. And Darcy's job was to travel through his mind and remove every memory he had of his sister. Omega had briefed her on the details. It was pointless for them to keep key information from her, considering once she immersed herself within the child's mind she would be privy to all his thoughts.
The boy wasn't all that much younger than her, thirteen to her sixteen. Darcy felt her shoulders tighten, lost hold of the boy's energy for the briefest second. She chided herself for losing control, then grabbed firmly onto the mind trail. Logan's situation wasn't all that different from hers. She'd been picked up at age eight, trained for two years and then gainfully employed by Omega for the last six years. As young as she was, she still attended school. Omega maintained a strict educational edge with schoolrooms around the world, taking advantage of modern technology to ensure their charges completed their schooling. Darcy had never complained, considering she would never have found her flair with programming had it not been for school.
Logan was a Fire mage, his sister just as powerful. Omega's words, not Darcy's. He'd just come into his power and unable to control it had wiped out half a diner, not to mention a couple dozen people. The problem for Omega is that the boy's entire family had been burned alive, including the sister. Something they wanted to ensure would not affect the development of Logan's power.
Although Darcy was of the firm opinion that good counseling and support could get the boy through his personal trauma, Omega wanted to ensure he wouldn't be a danger
Mandie, the Ghost Bandits (v1.0) [html]