[Some more violence towards the end of this chapter. Mostly offhand mention.]

Junior flipped through the surveillance channels, surely looking for the best strategy.

“Aron,” the precog said, “front entrance, engage at will. Minhyun, keep us in contact. Baekho, on standby. Mister Matsumoto, what building is this?”

“We’re in block B,” the head of department answered.

“Evacuate A and C through the underground carpark. Get everyone away from the lower floors of B until Aron has cleared a path. Collect the civilians of block B in the cafeteria. Who is chief of operations?”

A gray haired man with three stripes on his uniform-like jacket raised his hand. “Officer Sato, at your service, Sir.”

“Get every piece of firepower in the arsenal and arm the agents. No guns. Everything that explodes. Who has the activation code for the self-destruct?”

“That,” Officer Sato said, “would also be me.”

“Ren, come with me. We’ll get the chief to the basement.”

Ren followed his boyfriend-turned-battle-commander outside and they flanked Sato between them. Two more operatives accompanied them with grenade launchers. The troop rushed along the corridor of the fourth floor while speakers everywhere in the building echoed the escape plan and mobilization orders.

Already Ren did his best to focus on the civilians gathering in the biggest room of the building one floor below them. They would be difficult to reach once they were a few more floors down but if Ren kept his focus they might be enough for a few Apprehensions to aid in the fight.

Aron sent “I’m almost up there. Do I just kick it down? That won’t hurt a Conmote, will it? I don’t want it to join the ones below.”

“If you can,” Junior sent back, “occupy it. It can still be trapped. Only as long as it takes to claw itself free but we just need to buy time.”

He looked over to Ren as they reached the staircase. “That’s all we’re doing anyway. The destruction of the building will stop them for a while but not forever. We still need to work this out.”

“I think,” Ren said, “the only way to fight the rogues is to use controlled Conmotes, but that requires that the people aren’t evacuated. Can we hold off on that until we got a chance to try?”

“Hard to say,” Junior said, as they reached the first floor. “Depending on how difficult the path to the basement will be, we might have to engage. There’s a twenty percent chance tha- Get down!”

The boy threw himself into Ren and pressed them both against the staircase wall. The agents froze, then dropped to the ground. The other wall collapsed to huge slabs of rubble as a bent metal bar the length of a room broke through it. The lobby became visible on the other side of the hole before dust filled the space. Then the staircase fell apart.

Ren was grabbed by the officer and swung up the stairs just as they crumbled away under his feet. Junior held onto the handrail as he lost the ground under him and climbed up to Ren and the troop struggling to get higher through the dust.

The civilians above them had fully assembled. Their level of apprehension was exactly the stable, unceasing source Ren needed. Gray-ish Conmotes shimmered into existence through the clouds of cement dust – five of them – and awaited orders.

“Junior, do we need to fight?”

He got his answer delivered by furniture. The front desk came flying towards the hole that the bar had created. One Apprehension threw itself in its way and redirected the path of the glass and wood piece with its weight, getting flung back for its effort.

Junior coughed from the dust and gave orders through the link instead. First Ren’s constructions helped them all down to the ground level where the two attacking rogues were slicing through pillars. The minimalistic hall of glass and steel had turned into a ruin, but the rogues showed no sign of slowing down.

Aron sent “It’s gone. The rogue from the roof buried through my titanium prison. I think it’s on the sixth floor, still, but I’m not fast enough.”

“Alright,” Junior sent as the ten of them – five humans, five Conmotes – ducked behind turned over sofas. “Collapse the northern wall. See if you can build a ramp or something. Baekho, start flying people out.”

The precog hesitated for a moment, then mumbled “Yeah, should work. Ninety-five percent.”

Resentment and Greed were taking apart what was left of the hall, uncaringly moving towards the hole where they had demolished the staircase.

“Ren?”

“Yes?”

“Hit them with everything you’ve got before you run out of juice. We’re trying a run-by. Stay close to me.”

Trusting Junior’s ability to see attacks coming, Ren sent his Apprehensions into battle. The five grotesque figures swarmed the two rogues, grabbing rubble while running and pelted their enemies. It didn’t do much, but it was a functional distraction. Then the building trembled as the northern wall moved away from the rest of the masonry. Steel carriers tore and concrete split with loud complaints as Aron repulsed six levels worth of stonework.

Through the rising dust, the rogues retaliated. Pieces of pillars and loosened slabs of floor – bigger than any human could have lifted – came flying towards the troop. Junior directed Ren who sent his Apprehensions on intercept courses, flinging themselves into the projectiles. Meanwhile the three agents made a run for the basement gate.

Ren kept two Conmotes on intercept duty and had the other three slice tiles from the ground to use like shuriken. Together the boys followed the chief and his bodyguards.

Outside, through where the wall was missing, Aron appeared at some distance, transported there by Baekho who vanished again. The American boy traned the concrete into a twisting slide that reached out of view, likely to serve as escape for the civilian workers of the organization. Which left Ren with precious little time.

They had reached the door but it was too warped from the damage to the building and didn’t open after the chief slid his key card through. But the men were trained soldiers and felt more anger than fear at the rogues, allowing Ren to construct a short-lived but effective Conmote to slash through the steel gate without drafting the ones engaging the rogues.

“Junior,” Ren asked over the sound of screeching metal, “Why the basement anyway? Why don’t we just let Aron level the building?”

The precog kept pointing where the next attack was to follow, allowing Ren to keep the rogues occupied. He spoke through the link to let the others know. “Aron can’t do the destruction for us because the explosives in the building are set up in such a way that it will look like a gas explosion pared with shoddy materials. And we have a lot of sensitive data on servers and in files. Those need to be destroyed beyond repair. The chances for Aron to get it all right and still keep it a secret are minimal.”

Ren had to admire the prudence. Well, besides the usual Junior-sees-the-future type of foresight. The troop was ready to step through the hole in the door. The superpowered boys stayed behind to keep the rogues from following into the basement.

“Guys, something happened,” Minhyun sent, “The rogue from the roof made it into the cafeteria and then suddenly vanished. Just like when Ren dismissed these things.”

Envy was gone. Why?

The arc Aron had built reached from the complex to the border of the fenced area and Ren could feel his powers waning as people escaped his range. He was down to four of his creations and his resources were dwindling. But the assault by the rogues had calmed down. Which was also strange since they should not have been able to recognize a situation as futile and adjust tactics.

Resentment had changed. It was Neglect now. Together with Defensiveness the attackers had become less eager to engage. How could a rogue change? They weren’t bound to-

“Listen,” Ren shouted into the link, “they’re not free agents. The rogues are connected to the people whose dreams I visited. I think the one from the roof vanished when the person woke up.”

“Where are these sleepers?” Junior asked.

“I don’t know. Somewhere in the city.”

“Then the original plan stands. The complex isn’t salvageable anyway. And the explosion should wake half the city up. Yes! I see these two go away if we do that. Perfect. Let’s hope you haven’t visited anyone permanently comatose.”

Two more of Ren’s controlled Conmotes vanished. Baekho reported the evacuation almost complete. Minhyun gave everyone an update. Agents at the back entrance had demolished the corridors there enough to trap the rogues and were now also on the way out. Half the armed personnel had fallen in that fight. In a minute Baekho would grab Minhyun from the command center and the collapse could be done without further losses.

Junior shouted “Wait no. No! Tell them to go back. They can’t come through- argh.”

The fleeing agents came in, attempting to escape through the front entrance. Or at least the hole where the north wall had been. But Neglect stepped in their way and lazily hacked two at once into pieces. As the remaining five men turned around to run back, Defensiveness blocked their retreat and pelted them with its fists at inhuman speed.

The last Anticipations under the empaths control vanished. Junior pulled Ren away from the scene and down into the basement.

The encircled operative’s screams echoed through the dark staircase.