A new trick

“Will this never end?” Kard asked of those who could not hear him and slammed on the brakes. Someone nearby was searching for him. He could feel them. Their anticipation. Their loathing. He wanted to stop for a rest, a nice nap. But, no. They were never going to let up. Why would they not leave him alone? He had a job to do. He had a mission. Granted it was his own mission, but it was what he had to do. People should butt out of his business. The children are waiting for him. His children.

She was over to the right, behind some trees. He could almost smell her scent. There were others, but they were further up the road. He sent out his probes and allowed them to wildly seek their target. He let the tendrils take over. He was tired and wanted sleep. If the tendrils needed his help, they would have to wake him.

His eyes closed for a second, maybe two, and the tendrils did find a target. They found a woman by the name of Breyn, pronounced “brain.” Kard was amused by this. His tendrils fed him tidbits of information about the woman wrapped in the deadly embrace. She was not completely human, he discovered. She was made, no wait, she was born of a modified human genome. Some doctors doings. Her mothers had to fight for their freedom. They escaped with the others. The doctor hunted them for a while, but they were able to loose the man in the jungles of South America. Others of their kind came looking for them, but they turned against the doctor as well.

“This is all very interesting, Breyn, but what do you really have to show me?” Kard forced the tendrils deeper into her psyche and found a gem of knowledge. A snapping in his mind sent a sliver of hot molten pain down his spine, but instead of disabling him, he drew strength from it. His tendrils found two other targets, and the one that had Breyn weakened. She was of little concern, now.

The other tendril's fed on the man and woman. They resisted him, and Kard found he had to struggle to gain any information from them. However, their life giving essence was potent. He drew from them every ounce of strength he could, but they were still coming. He decided to try his hand at using them against one another. He released the woman and focused his efforts on the man.

“Ah,” Kard said in relief. This was a strong man. “This one is called Raymond. He is from the Yogan, and he is well built to take on any attack.” Kard sunk his telepathic teeth into Raymond's mental jugular and seized control.

It was exhilarating to be in such a strong body, Kard thought. Here he found more gems of knowledge that would be of immense aid to him. He would have to sort it out in a moment, but for now, Kard sent Raymond the instructions to attack his partner, Nita. He enjoyed the power of suggestion. It made for such satisfying work knowing a job was going to be done well.

Kard released the Yogan once Raymond had grabbed Nita in a choke hold. He felt others were coming. Many others. He had no time to fight them all, and he doubted he could handle more than three of this caliber. “Keeping one of these Yogans under control is hard enough.”

From Breyn, he had learned the vanishing trick of teleportation. He attempted it, and none too soon, he suspected.