Free Tales of the Citadel # 32 - Core Charge by Viola Grace Page A

tubes fed her and the suit cleaned her. She was alone in the chamber with the exception of the cameras that recorded her day and night. She was free to watch the screen and nothing else.

    She wondered if you could feel yourself going insane or if it just happened one day. She had the terrible feeling that she was going to find out.

    * * * *

    Hyde couldn’t believe what she had found out. This was the first blatant case of the recruiters sending a talent off world. Gwiette was beyond her touch, but not beyond the Citadel. The key was in finding out if the Citadel was willing to enter a Raider facility to steal their power supply.

    The records of the sedation units that had hauled the energy talent off world were in accessible data packs that her current form had access to. Infiltrating the records office had been easy enough, but this was going to be the last time. Her own departure from Resicor was necessary. There were too many blood samples from diverted talents that had turned into the unformed plasma that ran in her veins.

    Hyde had been able to find the records relating to her case and the measures that were being taken to find her. She was going to have to leave before things were completely ratified. The rest of the resistance was going to have to carry on without her.

    She closed the terminal and got to her feet, walking through the offices of the records department with the blank expression favoured by the woman whose form she was borrowing. Her person was out for a little afternoon’s entertainment with her boyfriend. She wouldn’t be back for two hours.

    Hyde walked through all the checkpoints and out onto the sidewalk. She kept her mind blank and pleasant, and when she noticed her body double coming toward her, she altered her features. Hyde kept her calm walk past her body double, and she ignored the look of surprise at the matching clothing.

    Hyde headed for the underground, stepping on the first train carriage without hesitation. Once on and moving through the train, she subtly shifted her hair colour and removed her jacket, turning it inside out with casual moves. She also lowered her height by two inches so that when she stepped out of the last carriage, she didn’t resemble the woman who had stepped on it at the first train carriage.

    She shifted three more times, found clothing stashes and changed twice more before returning to her workplace, a block from the records offices.

    She would get the location to the proper channels and hope for the best. There was nothing else to do, after all. The population of Resicor didn’t have access to spacecraft or she would try to rescue Gwiette.

    They would just have to wait and hope that the timing was right. Hyde was waiting for her own extraction on the night of the eclipse. It couldn’t come soon enough.

    * * * *

    Gwiette fought to keep herself entertained when she wasn’t trying to blank her mind. It was becoming more difficult to focus with every passing day, but she tried.

    She watched the newscasts again and looked for her family in the throngs depicted. To her shock, she went from watching the news to being in company. A dark figure eased out of the shadows and walked to stand in front of her. His eyes swirled with shadows and his skin had a distinct ruby tint. He was wearing a cloak that swung around him in a peculiarly slow motion.

    Gwiette had no sooner laid eyes on the man than everything went dark.

    Comfortable cushions surrounded her, and there was no set of implants jacked into her skin. Something was different.

    Gwiette sat up and looked around. She was in a medical facility of some kind, but it was lined with thick bands of metal. She was back in prison.

    As she moved, she felt pressure on her limbs, and it was most definitely the suit she was wearing. Looking down, she gasped at the peculiar animal print. The colour was feminine, but the print was one she had never seen before. Her hands were encased in gloves of a contrasting