Test Subjects

by R S Penney

  “Excellent,” Cassi said, sliding her chair closer to the table with a scraping sound. “Have they had any luck identifying him?”

  “I'm afraid not,” Keli answered. “It seems Adren has been laying low since our last encounter.”

  “Well, maybe we've seen the last of him.”

  Rajel stabbed a piece of chicken with his fork, popped it in his mouth and chewed thoroughly. “I don't think so,” he said after a moment. “Telepaths never back off when they have an opportunity to 'demonstrate their superiority.' Isn't that right, Keli?”

  Instead of the sneer he had expected, she offered only a pleasant smile and a nod. “I do believe you are correct, Operative Aydrius,” she said. “Adren would see backing off as an admission of failure.”

  “But you don't think that way,” Cassi said with a glance in Keli's direction. Was she trying to smooth things over?

  “No,” Keli said, never taking her eyes off Rajel. “My captors very quickly beat any concern for my reputation out of me. For me, victory comes only when my opponent is so broken he cannot even think about challenging me again.”

  Rajel felt heat in his face, then shook his head as he let out a breath. “Telepaths,” he said. “Everything is about dominance with you, isn't it?”

  “Only when my enemies leave me with no other option.”

  A scathing response died on Rajel's tongue when the door opened once again. This time, it was Anna who strode into the room. The tiny woman looked much better than she had the last time Rajel spoke with her.

  Anna stood over their table with fists on her hips, glancing at each of them in turn. “Everybody getting along?” she asked. “Sorry if I'm a bit late. Jack was sent on a mission this morning.”

  Cassi twisted in her chair to face the other woman with a concerned expression. “A mission?” she asked in a tone that bordered on accusation. “What kind of mission? Why wasn't I sent with him?”

  “I'll explain later,” Anna said. “Right now, we need to close the net around this bastard before he does any more damage. Finish your meals. I want a complete briefing in one hour.”

  “Yes…I will listen,” Adren whispered.

  He stared at her with sweat on his pale face, his mouth working soundlessly. “I will listen,” he said again after a moment. “What is it that you…believe that I can do for your masters.”

  Isara smiled and laughed. “We have need of people with special talents,” she said. “Telepaths are especially useful. But first, why don't I tell you what we can do for you?”

  Adren pressed his back to the tree trunk, shivering as he gulped air to his lungs. It was a warm, sunny day, but from the way he trembled, you might have thought that he was stuck in the middle of a blizzard. Isara didn't blame him. Seeing an Inzari for the first time could have that effect. “What can you do for me?” he asked.

  “You want recognition.”

  “Recognition?”

  She sucked on her lip and let her head bob from side to side, wrinkles forming in her brow. “Of your superior talents,” she said. “Be honest. That is why you've put on this little display, isn't it?”

  Adren stood before her with his eyes downcast, licking his lips as he tried to work up the courage to answer. Did the man have it within him to be honest with her? “Yes,” he whispered. “I want them to know.”

  “To know what?”

  “That I am…”

  Isara stepped forward to hold his gaze, then narrowed her eyes. “That you are what, Adren?” she spat. “If you can't bring yourself to say it, then you shouldn't even think it.”

  “Superior.”

  The smile she felt almost made her jaw hurt. Once again, she laughed, reaching out to lay a hand on his cheek. “Ah…There's a good boy,” Isara cooed. “You are superior, my dear. Because the Inzari made you so.”

  “But there are other telepaths,” he mumbled. “Why me?”

  When she turned, the ripple in the air was still there, but Isara, having been blessed with the Inzari's favour, could see something of its shape. It looked somewhat like a large praying mantis with bulbous eyes that focused on their would-be recruit.

  She strained to focus upon it. The creature fuzzed again despite her best efforts, its form melting into a shimmer that made the trees around it look blurry. Isara could touch it if she had dared; the Inzari was really here, in the flesh. But the body it had chosen was designed to avoid detection by the human eye.

  It made a rumbling noise.

  Isara knew exactly what it wanted. Not because she had any ability to comprehend its language – she wasn't even sure that the Inzari had a spoken language – but because it projected its thoughts into her mind.

  “First,” Isara said, “answer me this. Why come here? Why torment the denizens of this little town? Your people practically worship telepaths. If you want to be recognized as superior, why not just return home?”

  Pressing his back to the tree, Adren turned his head so that she saw his profile. Almost as if he were ashamed to look at her. “Ah…” Isara said. “You can't go home, can you? Because you're a criminal.”

  He stiffened at that.

  “It must have been a severe offense,” Isara went on. “Your people don't generally punish telepaths. Who did you kill, Adren?”

  His lips peeled back, showing gritted teeth, and for a brief second, Isara worried that he might lash out with his talent. “I didn't kill anyone,” he insisted. And he meant it; that much was obvious.

  “I see,” Isara replied. If it wasn't murder that had driven him to take refuge on the homeworld of his people's greatest enemy, then there was really only one other option. “Who was she, Adren? One of the maids they assigned to attend to your every need? Or was it a man that you violated?”

  “She was mine!” Adren snapped.

  With her hand on her belly, Isara threw her head back and roared with laughter. “It's so simple!” she said. “You stowed away on board a ship and came here. Because Leyria will take in any refugee.”

  Grinning maliciously, Isara shook her head as she approached him. “But you were accustomed to a certain level of reverence,” she went on. “There you were: hiding on this benighted little world, concealing your abilities because you knew they would look into your history if they found out.”

  She paced a tight circle around Adren and the tree he leaned against, giggling all the while. “Among your own people, you were two steps away from godliness,” she said, coming up behind him. “But here…Here, you're just an object of pity. You couldn't stand it anymore; so one day, you snapped and decided to prove that you were…”

  Isara leaned in close, brought her lips to his ear and whispered, “Superior.”

  Adren flinched away from her, his face reddening. “You don't know anything about me.” He turned that murderous gaze upon her. “And I don't need your help. I will not be a pawn for aliens.”

  He took a step back.

  “Unwise,” Isara warned him. “The alternative to serving is…unpleasant.”

  “I'm not afraid of you,” Adren said. “You think you're the first person to threaten me? Your master looming over us, all grim and mysterious. Let's see what it is that you really serve, shall we?”

  Adren studied the Inzari with a fierce-eyed squint. Then he went pale and stumbled backward, falling on his ass. “No!” He scrambled away through the muck. “No! No! Stay away from me!”

  The man got to his feet, turned his back and ran frantically through the trees. How very typical. Telepaths often reacted this way when they caught a glimpse of an Inzari's thoughts. Sometimes, Isara wondered what it was they saw.

  She sighed, rolled up her sleeve and tapped commands into her multi-tool, calling for backup. “I'll go get him,” she said in an exasperated voice.

  Chapter 13

  As he sat in a police cruiser that rolled smoothly through the suburban streets of Telsaran, Rajel found himself feeling a little self-conscious. There were times when he wished that a Nassai's sense o
f spatial awareness could penetrate solid objects. Any other Keeper would be able to look out a window and see what was going on outside the car, but Rajel sensed only a flat pane of glass. The telepath could be walking up the sidewalk, and he would never know.

  Rajel sat with hands on his knees, at the dashboard in front of him. “We're never going to find him this way,” he said, shaking his head. “You know we're out of ideas when we start randomly patrolling the streets.”

  Next to him, Cassiara had her hands folded over her stomach. She almost seemed nervous, which was very unlike her. “Well, at the very least, we're providing the community with a sense of security,” she replied. “They see we're out here; they know we're working on this case.”

  “Leyrians…” Rajel muttered.

  “I beg your pardon.”

  He threw himself back against the seat cushion, a lazy smile spreading despite his efforts to suppress it. “I often forget how much faith you put in your institutions,” he said. “You expect people to look out a window and feel reassured when they see a police car.”

  Cassi looked over her shoulder, frowning at him with brows drawn together. “What else would they feel?” she asked. “We're here to protect them, aren't we?”

  “Back home, the police were more about enforcing the status quo,” he explained. “If you happened to have a problem with the status quo – or if you happened to belong to a group that society deemed 'unruly' – the police were not your friend.”

  “Then what made you pursue a career in law enforcement?”

  He shrugged.

  Turning away from him and peering through her window, Cassiara murmured her displeasure. Well, let her judge him if she wanted. Rajel had joined the Keepers because he had believed in them.

  His people often spoke of Leyrian society as an unrealistic and unsustainable pipe dream. A world where everyone was equal? That could never work. To Rajel, however, those stories had always been appealing. Fabled Leyria, the land of his enemies, was a place where he would be judged by his achievements, not the circumstances of his birth. The Justice Keepers, as guardians of that society, had been everything he ever dreamed of being as a young boy.

  For years, Rajel had the Keepers on a pedestal; that all changed when he began to suspect Slade's treachery. For many long months, he told himself that he was imagining things, jumping at shadows, but something broke inside of him when his suspicions were confirmed. And it had been Anna who confirmed them.

  Strange that he didn't resent her for that.

  “See anything?” he asked.

  Cassi glanced in his direction, then shook her head. “No,” she said. “You're right; this is pointless.”

  “Well, when you've exhausted all other options, you may as well go with something pointless.”

  Hiding a smile behind the tips of her fingers, Cassi shut her eyes. “That's true,” she said. “And at least it gives me a chance to get to know you.”

  He blushed.

  Cassiara must have noticed because she immediately put her hand on his arm and leaned in close to say, “I'm sorry. I just mean that you seem to have lived an interesting life, and maybe you could tell me about it sometime.”

  He felt his lips curl into a small smile, and the heat in his cheeks intensified. “Sure. I'd like that,” he said. “Maybe when all this craziness is over.”

  “Yeah. That'd be good.”

  Adren emerged from the forest onto the sidewalk of a quiet street where cute little houses with domed roofs stood silent under a sunny sky. Each yard was different; some were just grass, but others had trees or small gardens.

  Filthy and frightened, he bent double on the sidewalk and rubbed his eyes with the back of a grimy hand. “Still there…” he whispered, glancing back in the direction he had come from. “Still there.”

  He could feel the alien lurking in the woods, its mind focused on him like a laser. Somehow, he just knew that the damn thing knew exactly where he was. It was watching him, and soon that strange woman would overtake him.

  He hobbled up the sidewalk, nearly stumbling several times, his body protesting exercise after nearly forty-eight hours of hunger. Each breath was ragged. He needed a place of refuge, and he needed it soon.

  Adren forced his eyes shut, shivering like someone had just dropped an icicle down the back of his shirt. “Keep moving…” He stumbled a few more steps, then dropped to a crouch. It was too hard.

  He needed food.

  With telepathy, he felt the minds of the people who lived in this neighbourhood. A dozen or so in the immediate area. It was just past midday, and most people would be out and about. Still, there were a few, and one…

  One was familiar.

  Touch any mind enough times, and you eventually gained the ability to pick out its unique flavour among many others. Yes, one of the pathetic wretches that he had toyed with over the last few weeks was nearby.

  Now that he gave himself a moment to take a closer look, Adren realized that he recognized this neighbourhood. Marini Soval lived nearby, and that was quite fortuitous. Manipulating a mind that you had touched several times was always easier than trying to force your will upon a stranger.

  Adren didn't know this street – two nights ago, he had entered the woods from the other side – but he could feel Marini's presence. Not far away. Maybe half a kilometer. If he focused, he would eventually find her.

  Adren hobbled along.

  His path took him up a short street that connected two of the main roads and then through a small commercial area where supply depots and fabrication stations lined each side of the street.

  Soon, he was on a familiar road where maple trees lined the curb on each side, their green leaves only starting to show spots of yellow. It was pleasantly warm out. Not so hot that you would find yourself sweating after just a few minutes in the sun, but warm. He was grateful for that; the nights had been chilly lately.

  Marini's house was a two-story building with a large, arch-shaped overhang above the front entrance. Round windows on either side, with white muntins in a grid pattern, looked in on the living room and the kitchen.

  Marini herself was kneeling by her front yard garden, her face shaded by the brim of a straw hat. She was tilling the soil with a trowel, humming to herself as she inspected the daisies she had planted.

  “Food,” Adren mumbled.

  Marini looked up.

  Her face went pale at the sight of him, and her eyes widened until it seemed like they might fall out. “Get away from me!” she shouted. Until now, she had never seen his face, but somehow she knew it was him. Perhaps Lenai had shown her his picture.

  Adren was bent over with a hand on his stomach, shaking his head and he shuffled through the grass. “Food!” he said again. “As much as you can carry. Get it for me now, and I'll leave you alone.”

  “I'm not getting you anything.”

  He stretched a hand toward her, fingers splayed, and wove an illusion that he forced into her mind. The world around them seemed to fall away, leaving Marini on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a forest of conifers.

  She looked over her shoulder, taking in the thousand-foot drop just behind her, and gasped. “No,” she insisted. “Leave!”

  A thought from him was all it took to make the ground around Marini crack. Rocks tumbled over the edge of the cliff, and she fell as well, grabbing onto a small outcropping at the very last second.

  “It's…not…real.”

  She let herself fall.

  Adren saw her reach for her multi-tool as she plummeted and slap a button on the metal disk. What had she done? His surprise at the woman's resilience was so intense, it shattered the illusion, and suddenly Marini was kneeling in the grass of her front yard once again.

  “What did you do?” he demanded.

  She looked up with a triumphant smile and laughed in his face. “You'd better run, asshole,” she said. “It's about to get fun!”

  “No!” Adren bellowed.

  How dare s
he? No one defied him! No one! Rage flared in his belly, and he lashed out once again, this time trapping Marini in a cavern where rivers of lava flowed around her body. The heat was oppressive. He could feel it, and he forced the sensation into her mind. And yet…She didn't seem phased.

  She just knelt there with her eyes closed, breathing slowly in and out. How was this possible? What had Lenai taught her? Or…No. Not Lenai. Lenai could not have given her an understanding of how his power worked. But that other one…Keli. The woman with more telepathic strength than any human had a right to.

  He redoubled his attack.

  He would make this woman submit.

  No one defied him.

  The beeping of his multi-tool startled Rajel, and he rolled up his sleeve to expose the metal disk that he wore on his gauntlet. He didn't bother with the small strip of SmartGlass that most people used as a touchscreen interface. That would be of no use to him. “Multi-tool active,” he said. “Answer call.”

  “Rajel,” Anna said.

  “I'm here.”

  “We've found him!” she exclaimed. “He's at Marini Sorval's house. You guys are closest; so, we're redirecting you to that address. Keli and I will join you as soon as we can get there.”

  Gritting his teeth, Rajel felt his face tighten as a fury boiled within him. Telepaths. They just weren't happy if they weren't tormenting someone. “We're on it,” he said with a nod. “See you when you get here.”

  He ended the call.

  Cassi was watching him with concern evident on her face, shaking her head slowly. “You gonna be able to take down this guy without going all excessive force on him?” she said. “I don't have to give you the 'I don't have time for vendettas speech,' do I?”

  Shutting his eyes tight, Rajel breathed in slowly. “I'll be fine,” he said with scorn in his voice. “Let's just get this done.”

  Their journey to Marini Sorval's house was a quick one: a right turn and then a left and then another right. Rajel felt a spike of anxiety when the car began to slow down. He had never gone up against a telepath before. He was aware that his Nassai provided some protection against telepathic intrusion, but Anna's report made it clear that this Adren was still a threat. “What do you see?” he asked Cassi.