by Lan Chan
“Yes. A big, big problem. Actually, it’s your problem because it doesn’t have anything to do with me or anyone else.”
Now she really had my attention. “After Ballarat, I set a sleeper code into the Psi-Ops server telling it to alert me if the file on the Hoffman robotics projects was updated. I received a ping early this morning.”
She tapped on the keyboard and brought up the file. “Rich told you not to go looking in there,” I noted.
“I forgot.” She actually smiled to herself. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought she’d made a joke.
“You don’t forget, Lil.”
She grunted. “I can’t do everything legally! It’s impossible to get anything done. Everywhere we turn there are enemies. It’s us versus them.”
“Okay, okay. I was just making a point. Some of them are us as well.”
She turned to me very seriously then. Her attention rested on my chin because looking me in the eye was still difficult for her. “We do what needs to be done. What others can’t.”
It was a line out of one of the Spectra comic books. I knew because she’d shown it to me a fortnight ago and asked if I’d really said that. Her grasp on reality and fiction was razor-thin. Or maybe she wanted so badly for the world to be something she could control. I knew I wanted that. If Rich thought I was a handful, he was going to really shit a brick if Lily ever decided that she was done playing by the rules.
The screen showed a mark-up of the specs for the anti-psi robots. Even in two-dimensional form, the picture of the robots made me shudder. Lily hit a button and the monitor in the desktop computer next to hers came on. The Psi-Ops logo blinked into life on a page that read: inventory.
From what I could tell, it was a list of parts for the robots. “Are these the parts that they’ve been able to recover from the wreckage?” I asked.
“Very good,” she said. Patronised by someone two years younger. What was this world coming to? “Here’s a visual of what the Psi-Ops have managed to find. She clicked the mouse and, section by section, parts of the robot on her screen turned red. After a minute or so, almost every part of the robot had been recovered, bar one of the arms and a section of the chest plate.
“What’s this supposed to mean?”
“The cylinders in the arm contained the syringes. You were injected with rubber. The needles would have been encased in your blood. When we pulled you from the wreckage, the breastplate had blown off the robot. A section of it pierced your rib cage. Also covered in blood.”
It was a good thing I was sitting down. I tried to speak but my throat was scratchy. Swallowing didn’t seem to alleviate the problem. Thankfully, Lily didn’t require a response.
“I did an analysis of the blood I took from you the other night. Here’s the recording I took of the nanobot activity.” The screen panned in until the microscopic bots—or more accurately, molecules—swam around in my blood. The video turned into a time-lapse. Within half an hour, the bots started to break down.
“I tried an experiment this time. I added a sample of my own blood to the mix. And some of Bianca’s to a second sample.”
I held my breath. “This is mine.” On the screen, the nanobots converged on the new blood like a food source. They started to react with the blood so that it almost seemed to glow. The regrowth was so rapid that for a second, the bots looked like they would overwhelm the blood cells. In the video, Lily dipped an electrical rod into the solution. A moment later, I watched with disbelieving eyes as a minuscule bolt of electricity sprang from the Petri dish and singed the table. The camera turned to capture the tiny puff of smoke from the charge. When the camera turned back to the dish, the blood was lifeless. Everything inside had been spent.
“The nanobots ingested the new blood,” Lily said. “Then it manifested the electrical charge. Just like it would have if it was inside your body. But unlike with you, the blood couldn’t sustain the energy conversion. This second video is where it gets interesting.”
The second video showed the same sequence up until when Bianca’s blood was mixed in with mine. Instead of working with the blood cells, the nanobots attacked them like they were an invading force. The cells broke down at such a rapid rate that if I blinked, I might have missed it. “What?... How?” I was reduced to monosyllables.
“The nanobots view unknown telepathic abilities with suspicion. Faced with that situation they elected to destroy it.”
“Second Sight,” I whispered. I thought of Moore and his comatose state. If he’d taken a dose of the drug with my nanobots in it, they would have seen his telepathy as foreign and tried to eliminate it. No wonder he was unresponsive.
“Exactly. If I’m correct, someone got hold of your blood immediately after the wreckage in Ballarat. They tested it and saw the potential, even if they didn’t know where it came from. It wouldn’t be difficult to synthesise a solution in which the nanobots could survive, if not thrive. Then they could mass market it as a miracle drug that produces the same effect as the nanobots do for you.
“The only problem with everyone else is that their bodies aren’t equipped to deal with the increased metabolism the nanobots require. Eventually, they will burn out. Unfortunately, to a Basic or a Whisper, the increase in telepathic energy and then the low of being tapped out, would feel just like the effects of a drug. And some of them would accept the consequences to be espers.”
She sat there after her explanation and stared at me. When I didn’t respond immediately, she waved a hand in front of my face.
“Why would someone even want to make a drug like this?” I asked. My heart beat a shocking rhythm against my chest.
“Demand. Why would anyone want to create nanobots that can give a person increased telepathy? Historically, this kind of experimentation is about power. Maybe they thought that person would be useful to them? Pre-Reset, the Nazis and in fact all of the superpowers were obsessed with creating super soldiers to give them an advantage in the war.”
“I’m not a super soldier and there’s no war to fight!”
“You’re faster and stronger than the average person. You heal more quickly. You’ve got abilities that other espers don’t. What label would you like to give it?”
I couldn’t respond.
“And on the issue of war, there might not be one fought overtly but there are always tensions between the Kings and between the Academy and the Psi-Ops. Add to that the advantage New China would have over us should they be able to weaken the population with a drug.”
“Now you’re speculating.”
“I’m formulating a theory. Some of it might be far-fetched, but it’s always better to be prepared.”
I kicked the desk and threw one of the stress balls Lily kept in a wire basket at the wall. “Why me?”
She cleared her throat. “In this case? I imagine they stumbled on an opportunity at the right time. In the bigger scheme of things? It’s doubtful that you were the first or the last experiment that was conducted. You just happen to be the one that was successful.”
“So you’re saying that somewhere out there, there could be another person like me running around.”
“I’ve scoured the archives as extensively as I can. Both here and the ones we’ve got access to as part of Hyper. I can’t find a single thing about experiments being done on individuals.”
“I don’t think it’s the kind of thing people want to become public knowledge.” I sounded a lot calmer than I was. The information kept turning over in my head, spinning like it was on a wash cycle. I still hadn’t had time to get used to the idea that I wasn’t actually an esper. That somewhere in my past I’d been the subject of experiments. I hadn’t even broached the subject with Aunt Jenny or Gabe. Now Lily was telling me that someone else was using my abilities to create a drug that was literally sucking the life out of the city.
“We have to tell the others,” I said.
“Agreed. It’s the only way Rich will allow you to go back outside.”
<
br /> Her answer startled me. “Why would I need to do that?”
“Someone out there has taken hold of your telepathy. If they have that capability, it means they might be able to harness it. You’re the only one out of all of us that can survive full-frontal electrocution.”
“What about the Psi-Ops?”
“Impossible. They’ll only detain you for experimentation. Nobody can find out.”
I shuddered at the idea of the nanobots being used to hurt other espers. It was unthinkable. But what was worse was the thought of being locked up in a cell, my movements restricted, my body poked and prodded. It was selfish but true. I had no illusions about heroism. Only that I would fight tooth and nail to keep it from happening. Before that, though, I had to face the inevitable scrutiny of the rest of the team.
18
Zeke and Adam didn’t get in until half-past eleven. Theirs was the latest shift we had on rotation. Lily and I asked everyone if they could be available late at night. Though it meant some of us would lose sleep, it was the only way for us to do this.
We met in the rec room because it contained the biggest television. I sat on one of the couches, in between Bianca on my left and Zeke on my right. Zeke elected to eat his burger on the couch, balancing the plate on his lap. Adam sat on his piano stool, picking at his food and occasionally playing a short melody.
“What’s this all about?” Rich asked. He sat on the shoulder of the couch in front of the TV. Lily had hooked up her tablet to the screen and was sitting there on an ottoman, ready to start the presentation. Oz stood beside her, his expression grim.
“The results of Willow’s blood test came back,” Lily said. “We have some theories. They’re unpleasant.”
Beside me, Zeke set down his plate. “Explain.”
Lily tapped on the tablet and the big screen came to life. Even though I’d seen the evidence before, it was almost as shocking the second time around. When the lightning shot from the Petri dish, Bianca’s hand clawed at my knee. It was painful but also soothing. As the presentation continued, Zeke wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I leaned into him and felt the spark of the link between us, feeding me with calm. Inside the green of his soothing mind, mine was awash with barbed electricity. I wished it would stop. That I was just a Whisper and didn’t have to deal with this.
When the presentation was over, nobody spoke for a long stretch as they digested what they’d just seen.
“How sure are you of the validity of the results?” Oz asked. It wasn’t really a question. He’d only spoken for the sake of uttering some words to break the tension. Everybody made mistakes, but Lily did so less often than most, and not usually about scientific research. She’d have checked the facts more than once to ensure it wasn’t an aberration.
“I’m a hundred percent certain.”
“Holy shit,” Bianca breathed.
“I thought Willow’s blood deteriorated more rapidly than most,” Oz said.
“It does,” Lily answered. “But it still needs a bit of time. Which means whoever took her blood probably had the skills to maintain its viability.”
Bianca bit her bottom lip. “So we’re thinking a trained medical professional?”
“Or a medical scientist, even a pharmacologist. Someone with the skills to recognise that the blood is unique and useful.”
“It can’t have been a fluke.”
“Which means someone was watching you,” Adam said. He picked up a chip and chewed on it carefully. I couldn’t help thinking of the note that has been left for me. Someone was watching me alright. I just couldn’t figure out why they decided on a note and nothing more.
“Not necessarily,” Lily said. “Someone could have been watching others. In the chamber, Jasmine took vials of your blood after she discovered there was something wrong with your telepathy. They were going to examine it after they’d taken me to a safe house. The blood was never recovered after that explosion and the rest of Omega were arrested.”
“What blood?” Rich wanted to know. His usual frown was laced with something else I couldn’t recognise. Something that caused his body to stiffen with tension. I had half expected him to fly into one of his lectures, but to my surprise, he had contained himself. Not an easy feat.
“It wasn’t on the official reports,” Lily said.
Rich’s jaw tightened in line with the rest of his body. “How were we supposed to know there was blood to recover if we didn’t know it had been taken?”
“Don’t get angry at her,” I said. “We weren’t exactly in any state to be coherent.”
After I forced the anti-psi robot to self-destruct, the pieces falling to earth and the fact that I was almost drained of energy caused me to pass out. Prior to that, I had knocked Lily unconscious while pushing her out of harm’s way. Her memory might be faultless but she wasn’t omniscient. There was only so much a girl could do.
To my surprise, Rich covered his eyes with his hand for a second and then massaged them. “You’re right.” I almost choked on my own shock. “I’m sorry, Lily. There was no way for you to keep track. But you should have said something to us afterwards.”
“I assumed it had been lost,” she said.
“In a way, it was,” Oz mentioned. That haunted expression was back on his face again, and for some reason I found myself becoming impatient with it.
“Don’t,” I said to him. “I’m the one whose blood is turning this city upside down. I don’t really want to have you feeling guilty that it was your company that made it happen. I can’t sit here and keep thinking about what I could have done to prevent this. It’s too much just to imagine being cut and sewn back together.”
It was no wonder that the nanobots had blocked the memory from my mind. And that I didn’t want to ask what my parents had been doing while this happened. That was a crisis for another day.
Oz blinked, a slow, shuttered blink that made me regret my words. But when he opened his eyes to peer at me, there was determination in his gaze. “What are we going to do about it?” he asked.
“I can’t do anything stuck in this house,” I said immediately. Rich’s head snapped up from where he had been resting it on his palm.
“You’re not violating the terms of your court order,” he said.
“Why not? Even prisoners can get passes if they need to do something important for a couple of hours! Why can’t I get a pass for this?”
“Because once again you’re assuming you’re the only one who can do anything about it.”
“She kind of is, though, isn’t she?” Bianca said. Rich glared at her as though she’d thrown a knife at his back. She persisted. “Think about it for a second. Nobody else has heard any of these whispers. Adam was two steps away from her in the Row and he didn’t hear a thing. The nanobots recognise her thought patterns. They’re calling out to her like a homing beacon. If her body is the only place they can survive, she’s the only one who has a chance of finding them.”
“I can convince the Psi-Ops to include you as part of the investigative team,” Oz suggested.
Zeke snorted. “No way. She’s not going anywhere near them again. Flynn doesn’t like her and he’s damned sure looked up all her records and seen that there’s something fishy.”
Adam’s fingers tapped the table. “Agreed. We can’t trust the stiffs.”
“We’re not going to systematically cut them out of the investigation,” Rich pressed. “If we want to lay charges, the permission needs to come from them. Oz signed a legal contract binding him to this investigation. We can’t hand them information and expect them not to ask questions about where it came from.”
“We can’t,” Lily said. “But Spectra can.” Even though she was on my side, the fervent gleam in her eyes made me shiver.
“Spectra isn’t a reliable witness,” Rich countered. “Half the criminal underworld thinks she’s an agent for the Shadowman.”
“What other choice do we have?” Adam sighed. “One of us could do it, but wh
at if we encounter someone who can throw electricity? We’d be fried Hyper on a stick.”
Scrubbing his palm over his jaw, Rich frowned. “Second Sight isn’t the only thing out there to worry about.”
“You’re acting like I haven’t been out on the streets on my own before,” I said.
He glared at me. “That’s half the problem, isn’t it? I’m worried you’re using this as an excuse to go joyriding with permission.”
“That’s your hang-up, not mine.”
A vein above his eye twitched. Sometimes, I really wanted to slip past his shields and see what was in there and what it was about me that pushed so many of his self-destruct buttons. I wasn’t a cakewalk by any means but his reactions sometimes bordered on the extreme.
“If we’re on the subject of other dangers, the Kings aren’t going to put up with this much longer,” Bianca said.
“What have you heard?” Ever the Academy officer, Rich was always on the lookout for information. I wanted to point out that using Bianca’s underworld contacts as a source of intel wasn’t all that far from using Spectra as a mantle for catching these criminals.
“They’ve had enough of the way the drug is interfering with their trade and also with the effectiveness of their espers. If the authorities aren’t going to be able to find a solution soon, they’re going to take matters into their own hands.”
“Which means what exactly?” Zeke leaned over with his elbows on his knees.
The Street Kings were a law unto themselves. More than once the Academy had tried to raid the Rendezvous Hotel looking for evidence to indict Blake. Every single time they’d found the place free of criminal activity. He was always one step ahead.
There was at least one beta-level illusionist working for Blake. Those guys could cover up anything. If he no longer had an advantage, you could guarantee that Blake would go for the jugular. Any one of the Kings would kill to keep their Courts secure.
“They’re talking about a round table,” Bianca said.
Adam swore. A round table was a ceasefire between the Kings. They’d be uniting against a common enemy and they would get mean. The murder rate would go up like crazy. They didn’t care who they hurt along the way. It was a miracle that the public still went to them rather than the Academy. I guess people preferred outright tyranny that produced results over systematic corruption over a slow period of time.