The congressional offices were different in the dark, full of amorphous shapes and hidden, shadowy threats. Hikari hid in the coat closet again with her good buddy the mink, (This was getting to be a ridiculous technique, but hell, if it worked go with it.) waiting for the cleaning lady to finish sampling her father’s liquor cabinet while she pretended to dust.

Hikari willed her to go. If they screwed this up even by a minute they would be caught, and she had no idea what kind of story she would make up to explain why she and her friends were hanging out in the congressional ceiling panels, and Oh hey… we just accidentally disabled your security system, Papa. You know, just a bunch of kids having some fun on the weekend.

The cleaning lady finally gave the cabinet a good wipe down and toddled off on unsteady legs. Hikari pulled out her phone and gave a thumbs-up. Kym had jail broke their phones and written an app with a secure encrypted IM and webcam just for them. She even had her own server system to handle it. The girl was a miracle worker.

“Cool.” Dimitri’s voice was low and serious. “I’ll wait until security locks her out and then go for it.”

They figured Kym had about ten minutes to record the empty hallways and then start a playback on the security system while the guard was checking the locks.

Hikari switched her cam to Kym and watched as she waited for the signal from Dimitri and then gave her own curt nod that they were a go.

“Awesome, baby girl,” Dimitri whispered.

“No big deal,” Kym mouthed.

They had originally planned for Dave to cut off the electricity while they were in the building, but had decided that would bring everyone running. The whole city was connected on a grid, and when something like that happened, particularly in a government building, everyone went on red alert.

Hikari escaped the closet and waited for Kym to meet up with her. Dimitri continued to monitor the guards while Metti, Dave, Shake, and Yerik were posted outside at various locations ready to alert them if anything looked suspicious.

Kym sauntered in and looked around. “Not what I expected,” she said.

“Uh, can we get going? I’ll give you the tour some other time.” Hikari thought she was probably nervous because it was her dad’s office.

“Relax. We have ten minutes before it repeats. And unless Brutus out there is really alert he probably won’t even notice when it does.”

“At least not the first time,” Hikari grumbled. “Okay then, we’ve got ten minutes.”

Kym sat down at the computer. “You’ve got his password?”

“Yeah, and his cryptocard. It was in his dresser drawer, if you can believe it. Guess he isn’t too worried. “

“Nice work.”

Hikari didn’t mention that getting the password and the card were her brother’s handiwork. He was twelve, he was too young to get credit.

Kym took the cryptocard, (it looked like nothing more than a car alarm key chain) and entered the congressman’s four digit pin, and pressed a button. “This’ll send a signal to the server to generate a login.” In a few seconds she grinned. “Easy as pie.”

“What does that mean anyway?” Hikari asked. “What’s easy about pie?”

“The way it goes down, I guess.” Kym was setting up a restore point that they could go back to when they were done, so no one would know they had been in the computer at all. Kym’s fingers were flying like small winged insects. “There. Now let’s see what we got.”

She was digging through files, opening and discarding them, looking at files within files. Hikari indicated one of the files that she recognized. “Those are the ones I pulled.”

Kym pushed her hair out of her eyes. “I figured. The rest must be embedded in other files, hidden, you know.” She tapped in a few more times. “Holy cat balls batman, I think these are it. He really buried these, must be some scary shit. That or nudie pics of his girlfriends.”

“Eck,” Hikari said. “That was uncalled for.”

“Just saying. Huh... ”

“What?” Hikari leaned over Kym’s shoulder.

“Look at this one. D-day.” She took a moment to open the file and it popped up a bunch of schematics with the date August 20th. “It looks like some kind of map of L.A. Take a look at this.” Kym pointed to a symbol, a tic-tac-toe of bold black lines. They were scattered all over the city. The key at bottom for the symbol was labeled ‘internment’. “That doesn’t sound good,” Kym said.

“No, it doesn’t.” This shocked Hikari on a deep level, that her father would have such a document. Her grandparents had been in internment camps in World War II, and her grandmother carried that bitterness down the family line. Her father’s entire campaign had been built on a platform of personal freedom. Was everything he had done a lie?

Yerik appeared in the doorway startling both the girls. “We’ve got company.”

“I need thirty seconds,” Kym said inserting her flash drive.

“They’re coming fast, looks like trucks. I think they know someone’s here.”

“Trucks?” Hikari went and stood to the side of the window, trying to look out without being seen. A phalanx of headlights was coming down the street directly toward the office building. It was long after midnight, there was no reason they should be here. “We’ve gotta book.” She called to Kym to hurry.

“You go ahead. Get everybody out. I’m coming right behind you.”

Yerik and Hikari hesitated.

“I said go.” Kym was pulling out the flash drive. “I have to restore the system.”

“Forget about it,” Yerik snapped, “They already know we’re here.”

“Okay, okay let’s go.”

Hikari alerted everyone else through the phone cam.

Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point. She had dragged her friends into this mess and now it was screwed up.

She started after Kym at a run with Yerik right behind them. As they bolted down the corridor the guard saw them and fumbled for his gun. “Stop right there!”

Everyone froze. Outside they could hear the unmistakable approach of a helicopter. Hikari knew without a doubt that Angine was coming for them, she could feel it, a black thrum in the marrow of her bones.

Relying on some instinct she never knew, she blocked thoughts of him out and focused on the guard. “Congressman Suzuki is my father, you will let us pass,” she said calmly. As she spoke, she felt a heat rise in her, a white, sunny hotness that floated just under her skin. The guard looked surprised and dropped his gun, shaking his hand as though he had been burned. He stood still, transfixed, as though he did not see them.

“What the--?” Yerik began, but Hikari motioned for him to follow her. They walked out under his nose to where the others huddled, unsure where to go.

Shake was vibrating at the highest frequency she had ever attained. “We’ve got to get out of here now! I can’t shoot down a helicopter!” She had brought the gun under their protests. Breaking and entering was one thing, but shooting someone or threatening them was another matter entirely. “You said my job was to protect you,” she’d argued. “This is how I plan to do it.”

Now the gun looked more like a joke than a threat.

Hikari looked up at the approaching helicopter. In just a second, its search lights would flush them out. “Stay together,” she said. Her voice had an authority that made them listen. In moments she had passed from uncertain leader, to commander. “Where’s Dave?”

A van came roaring out of the parking garage scattering them. The driver’s door opened and Dave leaned out. “I knew you needed me here for more than a look out, get in.”

They scrambled to get in the van. He took the corners with a sharp twist of the wheel sending them sliding into each other. They thought they might just make it out before they were cornered. They screeched out of the parking garage and came face to face with a blockade of cars. The headlights lit their faces, scared and young in the bright light. Hikari didn’t know how to tell them that it was over, that they’d tried, but now they were caught.

They sat in stalemate facing the blockade. “There’s nothing we can do,” she said.

“Kari,” Yerik started, “Back there, with the guard...you did something.”

“I just used my authority.”

“Uh, you made that guy’s gun hot. And... you were glowing.”

“The stress is getting to you, Yerik, my boy.”

“I saw it too,” Kym said, her voice uncharacteristically quiet. They were all looking at Hikari with a strange expression.

“I.Was. Not. Glowing,” Hikari insisted.

“Were too.” Yerik said with a six-year-old’s conviction.

“Was not.”

“Can you do it again?” Kym asked.

“I never did it in the first place.” Outside the doors were opening and the occupants of the cars were getting out, and they were armed.

“Now would be a good time,” Yerik prompted.

Hikari looked at all of them, trying to wither them with the only super power she really had, defiance. “For the last time, I didn’t do anything.”

Dimitri looked out at the approaching men. “Then we’re all screwed,” he said.

They sat waiting for what would happen, feeling like just what they were, young people that had done a very bad thing that had sounded good at the time.

The armed men were wearing flak jackets and helmets, their weapons were automatic and leveled right at them. It seemed like overkill for a car full of teenagers and it drove home to Hikari just how dangerous the information they had stolen was. She wondered if her father knew that she was here.

“Open the doors and step out of the car,” one of the men ordered. His voice was muffled by his faceplate, but deep and strong, not the kind of voice you messed with.

“What do we do?” Shake asked.

“Whatever they say,” Hikari answered, “I’m going.”

Yerik held out his arm and stopped her from opening the door. “No, I’ll go first.” He opened the doors and stepped out, blinking in the glare of the halogen headlights. The men moved to push Yerik onto the ground, and when he protested he was given a sharp crack on the back of the head dropping him with a sick, floppy sound onto the concrete, where he struggled to get back up on his feet.

“Hey!” Kym shot out of the car, “You didn’t have to do that!” She ran toward the men and they shot at the ground in front of her feet, freezing her. She too lay down on the ground.

“Oh my God.” Shake was trembling beside Hikari. “This is so, so bad.”

Hikari moved toward the door. “You guys stay in the van,” she ordered and climbed out.

The men took a step back when they saw her. “Are you Hikari Suzuki?”

“Yes, and I demand to see my father.”

Helmet Number One motioned to his buddy. “Take her into custody.”

The man approached her cautiously. Overhead the helicopter hovered, casting them all in the ghoulish blue of its searchlight. The man started to lead her away. “Wait, what about my friends? Where are you taking them? Wait!”

Her guard hesitated and turned back to Helmet One. “Sir, what about the others?”

Helmet One glanced at the kids on the ground and back over to the van. “He told us to kill them.”

“NO!” Hikari whipped her head around frantically meeting the eyes of her terrified friends. “No, no! They’re here because of me, you have to talk to my father! Let me go!”

“Shoot them,” Helmet repeated and the other men raised their weapons. Inside the van Shake screamed and they all glanced up at the sound, except Yerik. He locked his gaze with Hikari.

It happened quickly. One minute they were all caught on the edge of Shake’s scream, waiting to die, and then the guards were stepping away from Hikari, holding their hands to their heads dropping their weapons, and then suddenly, the guns, the cars, were just gone.

The men retreated a few steps back, their eyes trained on Hikari’s friends, just as the guns had been before.

“Get back in the van,” Yerik ordered, his voice shaking. He staggered to his feet and hurried over to

Hikari who stood unmoving, filmed by a silvery white glow. He reached out carefully to touch the film of light and when he felt nothing but a pleasant warmth, he reached his arms around her and picked her up, carrying her in a full run back to the van. “Hurry,” she whispered against his neck, “I can’t hold it much longer.”

“Drive!” Yerik shouted, slamming the door behind him “Now!”

“Where did the cars go? And the guns?” Kym was looking out the windows at the back. “Holy shit.” Everyone crowded around the window trying to see. Yerik stayed on the floor of the van with Hikari who looked like she had fallen asleep.

From somewhere just below consciousness, Hikari could see through their eyes, see what she had done, though she wouldn’t remember it later. Particles were raining down from the sky, shiny fragments that had been the guns and cars. The men stood rooted to the spot staring up into the night sky, shielding their eyes.

“Holy crap,” Dave said turning back to Yerik and Hikari. “I saw that, but I don’t believe it. Did she do that? Did she just-- holy crap.”

They all threw their hands up over their eyes as outside the night filled with the harsh red and white glare of flak as the helicopter took aim and strafed the men, cutting them down in seconds.

“Drive faster,” Kym shouted to Dave, but the helicopter was already banking, turning back the way it had come, leaving them untouched. They sank down with their backs against the side of the van, stunned and silent. Yerik looked down at Hikari who appeared completely oblivious. For once, he had no idea what to say.