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.“So,” Olivia said, “if I understand this correctly, there are now four, potentially five, known Paragons walking the world.Five.” She said the last word as though she were a judge passing sentence.“I think five is the safest bet,” Michelle said.“The Screed brothers called their boss ‘The Seer’.I don’t think that the title would apply unless there was some sort of precognitive or extrasensory power at play.Couple that with the fact that the only two abductees we’ve managed to rescue turned out to be Paragons and it starts to put a frightening spin on things.”“How so?” Olivia asked.“Well, we know that there are people with the potential to Awaken all around us.Among those- a very small percentage, we think - some have the potential to Awaken as Paragons.When you consider a current U.S.population of over three hundred and twenty million, though, that’s still a hell of a lot of people who could wake up with superpowers one day.”“Please don’t use that word,” Israel said.“This isn’t a comic book.”“No, it’s not, Israel, but what would you suggest I call it? I don’t think ‘abilities’ quite covers the scope of what Erin can do, do you?”“We can argue the correct vernacular some other time,” Warburton said.“Continue, Michelle.”Michelle turned to her.“According to the Council of the Veil data that Pythia has, there has not been a single recorded Paragon Awakening globally since the Revolutionary War, yet we just stumbled across two in a dark basement.”“Why aren’t there more?” Israel asked.“If so many people have the potential, why aren’t they everywhere? What’s keeping them so rare?”“Exposure,” Allison said.“Do you remember us talking about the Inner Dark and all the different kinds of energies and things that exist there? These are the energies that the average person has to be exposed to in order to Awaken, and they aren’t things you just stumble across.They aren’t like mist or fog or something, you can’t just stroll into them.”“But there’s enough that you guys need a secret society, a government agency, and Mrs.Warburton’s private army to keep it a secret? That doesn’t track for me.”“That’s because you are assuming all the current Awakened are newly so,” Warburton said.“They aren’t.The vast majority of the people who live behind the Veil are second, third, fourth generation.Most of the ones I know were born that way.”Israel nodded.“Okay, so an Awakened mom and dad can make an Awakened baby?”“Genetics at its most basic,” Allison said.“Which is not what we are faced with,” Michelle said.There was an urgent edge to her voice that Israel had never heard before.“What we are facing is potentially catastrophic.”The room fell silent as they returned their attention to her.She stood up and pointed at the screen.“Five of the people on that list were among the dead we pulled from the Oceanside facility.One of the five was the person you guys were lucky enough to see with those things coming out of her chest.We managed to collect some post-mortem tissue samples before the site was incinerated and each one of them shows the same unknown protein markers that we got from Erin’s and Israel’s blood samples.Pythia posits, and I agree, that each one of those people was a Paragon potential.Assuming that, it begs the question of whether or not the other two hundred or so people we found in this phone share that distinction.”“Not possible,” Stone said.“How could the Progeny possibly know whether or not someone was a potential?”“Because they have a Seer,” Israel said.He looked at Michelle.“Right? You think this guy somehow picks out people like me and Erin, then he sends his evil minions to collect them?”“Exactly,” Michelle said.“To what end, though? What could any of this possibly accomplish?”Michelle smiled and nodded toward Erin.“I think she’s answered that for us.”Erin said, “Me? What did I do?”“Remember back at my lab when you showed me your power for the first time? Remember how I said the energy requirements were ridiculously high for such a thing?”“Yeah, so?”“It’s been a long-held theory that any kind of Awakened who manifests an unusual ability, even a small one, is a biological conduit to the Inner Dark.The theory is that they can tap into energies from that realm and utilize them in whatever ways dictated by their specific genetics.In your case, teleportation at will.”“I don’t get it.”“If someone with a small power is a conduit for that small amount of energy then, in theory, a Paragon would be a much, much larger conduit since the power requirements for your kind of abilities would be much higher.The theory also states that under the proper circumstances that conduit could be maintained ”Warburton’s eyes widened in realization.“Oh my god,” she whispered.Michelle looked at her.“Exactly.That’s why they need so many.”“Exactly, what?” Israel asked.“Energy isn’t the only thing in the Inner Dark,” Warburton said.“It’s inhabited by things we call Dwellers.They are alien and hostile and wholly destructive to any living thing that they come in contact with.To the Progeny, though, they’re gods.The Progeny exists to open the way for them to enter this world.They believe that by doing so they will be rewarded with whatever they desire- kings in the new world order or something of the like.”“Wait,” Erin said.“The squidheads? That’s what those were?”“Got it in one,” Stone said.“The Dweller was actually the black things that had taken up residence on the host’s head.We call them squidlings, but the science types have a different name for them.”“Trans-dimensional Parasitic Salp,” Allison said.“Yes, that,” Stone said.“They come through a breach and attach themselves to the first human they encounter and- Bob’s your uncle -you’ve got yourself a squidhead [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]