Prologue

“Should we wait for Doctor…”

“K480 required his attention,” came the curt reply.

It seemed like a typical board meeting.  Several people sat around the oval table and a presentation spilled out of the projector.  Four of the people were either doctors or scientists, evident by their lab coats and note filled ledgers.  Two of the men were in suits: men of business, men in charge.  The only thing truly atypical about the meeting was the final person in the room.

He was a man of action, not words, and he was only there out of orders.  His feet were kicked up on the table as he played with one of his weapons, a handgun, while a sword was balanced across his legs.  It seemed like an odd combination, but everyone in the room knew what he was.  He was the head of the Obtainers, the government’s small branch of secret psychic warriors.

“We’ll be accelerating our experiments on M396,” one of the suit men said.  “I’ve been informed that our window of opportunity will be shorter as well.  He’ll need to be discretely watched, especially since T733 is in contact with him.”

“T?” the newest doctor questioned.  She quickly flipped through her notebook.  “What’s Target 733?”

“Unknown,” a scientist explained as he accessed the file on his laptop.

“Still don’t know why you won’t let me have a team pick him up?” the Obtainer yawned.

“We need to see if he manifests first,” the scientist sighed.  “If he is a psychic then we need to let his powers develop.  If we experiment and plug him in now, the barriers of the city might fail even faster.”

“And then the outside will destroy us,” the new doctor whispered.

The Obtainer grinned, and it was not friendly.  “The outside won’t destroy you.  It’s what lives there that will.”