CHAPTER 241: FORK LIFT

Orin scrunched his face up for a second in concentration, then said, "I think they’ll go for it. Please call them here, or make copies, or whatever. Even at ten to one, we’re burning seconds."

Jack had found that when he templatized someone, their clothes, and anything they were holding tended to get included in the template.

The men he was about to copy were armed and in a combat situation. He wouldn’t die if they shot him in his soul space, but figured it would be a lot easier to talk to them if they were unarmed.

He showed Orin the view of the warehouse inside the snapshot and asked him to point out which man was the team leader.

Jack examined the man identified by Orin and tried to mentally select the man and his clothes, while also mentally excluding the rifle the man was holding and all his other equipment.

Once the template was created, he checked and was pleased to see that only the man’s clothes were included in the template.

He went through all the other men present in the warehouse and repeated the same process. When he was done, he had twelve new templates.

He summoned the captain, placing him facing himself and Orin, and made the usual modifications.

As soon as the captain appeared, he blinked, made a quick scan of the room and himself, then looked at Orin and said, "Sir?"

Seeing the captain go from a combat situation to a tiny island in the middle of a large room, and remain calm, impressed Jack.

"You’re a copy. Your original self..." Jack gave the captain a quick rundown of the situation, including the soul bond requirement. He finished with, "Do you want me to summon the remainder of your team member copies one at a time or all at once?"

"Smith first, then after getting him up to speed, the rest," was the man’s immediate reply.

Jack showed him the snapshot and asked him to point out Smith.

After he did, he summoned the man and gave him the same rundown.

When he finished, the man turned to his captain and said, "I recommend we make sure we have a workable plan before we bring the rest of the team onboard."

The captain nodded. "My thoughts as well. I also want to make sure I understand the full implications before presenting anything to the rest of the team."

"I concur," said Smith.

The captain turned to Jack and asked, "Two primary concerns we want to address. One, how will you rescue us, and two, what will you do with us afterwards?"

"I’ll answer the second question first. The short answer is nothing. The soul bond is just so I can guarantee you don’t reveal my secrets, even accidentally, and make sure you don’t act against me, now that you know what I can do."

Recently, he’d given more thought to what he’d done to Isabella and whether or not it was necessary to dominate her so thoroughly. He’d also spent some time talking to Isabella, asking more in-depth questions.

His conclusion was that he had overreacted with her and that only a touch of domination would have been sufficient.

The soul bond automatically prevented the bonded person from knowingly acting against him, and at the time, he’d been worried Isabella’s selfish nature would cause him problems in the future.

His concern stemmed from the idea that her selfishness would cause her to not recognize or even think about the possible impact her actions would have on him. That, and he just didn’t like the idea of her taking advantage of him in any way.

But he’d since come to understand that just a touch of domination would shift the person’s thinking such that they would instinctively consider the potential impact of their actions on him, regardless of circumstance.

So, he planned to do just that with Orin and all the members of his team. He was finally coming to terms with the idea that his own safety and the safety of his girls far outweighed any moral or ethical concerns he might have.

"As for the first question. I have a way to teleport you to the other side of that tunnel block. It requires two containers, one that fits inside the other, where the smaller container is large enough to fit one person, and weighs more than that person. And the larger container needs to be anchored to the ground, or must weigh more than both the smaller container and the person inside."

Smith looked at the captain. "The tunnel leads to another warehouse, and there are shipping containers in both."

The captain nodded. "Yes. But what would we use for the smaller container?"

Jack scanned through the warehouse the team was in and didn’t see anything, but when he checked the warehouse at the other end of the tunnel, he found a truck parked inside.

"There’s a truck in the other warehouse. I think it will fit inside a shipping container. But we’ll have to shuffle contents around to make room for it in the shipping containers on both sides."

"My men can empty a shipping container on our side, but what about the other side?" asked the captain.

"We can move content from one container to another. I can link templatize and link the containers here into my soul space, you move contents from one container to another, then I export the changes and, hey presto, the contents move in the physical world."

"That will take time, and we don’t have much," said Smith. "Most of the contents are on pallets, but there isn’t even a pallet mover anywhere in the damned warehouse, let alone a forklift."

"Make enough room in one container, and I can teleport in a forklift for you to use."

"And you’re sure this will work?" asked the captain.

"Yes. I’ve tested all this before on a smaller scale."

He and Smith looked at each other, then looked at Orin.

"I think it’s the only option you have," said Orin. "But it’s your team, your call."

The captain turned to Jack and said, "Please bring in the rest of my team."