I took the symbol-covered paper from her and held it up for myself. The letters ‘WB’ were watermarked on the page. Setting that paper aside I grabbed a dozen more and held them each up. All the papers had the two letters on them. “Why didn’t I ever notice these before?”
“You were too busy looking at the symbols.” She pointed at the pile of papers next to me. “Those are from Wyatt Bishop’s private collection of documents. They were stolen about five years ago.”
“What do the symbols mean?”
She smiled innocently. “What symbols?”
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“Afraid not.”
“So only I can see the symbols,” I said. Frustration boiled in me. How could I hope to do anything if I’m the only one who can see what I see? “Awesome. This is great. I mean, this is totally helping me find my dad. Help? Bah! Who needs it? I don’t need help because I can see crap that no one else can. It’s a good thing it’s all so easy to understand.”
I was on the verge of shouting. My dad once told me frustration and a sense of helplessness often go hand-in-hand, and right now that was exactly how I felt.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “My attitude was poorly timed. I don’t know much about the symbols on the pages, just what I was told in some notes left by Wyatt. From what I remember, the symbols don’t actually mean anything. They are only there to act as a catalyst to the development of ESP. People who don’t have the mind capable of dealing with the ability can’t even see it. But those that do? It makes the mind focus in a certain way so you can ‘see’ better. Like those optical illusions that only work if you look at them a certain way.”
I rested my elbows on my knees and buried my face in my hands. “I thought I saw a face one time. Completely freaked me out.”
“It was probably just the strain on your eyes messing with you,” she said dismissively. “The notes I read were pretty clear that there is no actual meaning behind the symbols. They were just random doodles he drew psychically.”
I wasn’t convinced. The face had been real.
“Was my dream just a hallucination?” I asked after a few minutes. “Or was it part of this whole ESP thing?”
“How vivid a dream was it?”
“Too real. I can remember all of it like it was a Hollywood production just for me.”
Alex shrugged. “It’s hard to say. I know a lot about ESP compared to a newcomer like you, but I’m not even close to being an expert in the field. Everything I know about ESP is from the videos Wyatt made, and from second-hand reports.” Her eyes took on a far-away appearance as she tried to remember what she had read. “There were a few mentions of dreams in some of the stuff I read. Something about them being a side-effect of the ‘sixth sense’. Like I said, though, I’m no expert. I usually stick with monsters I can see and shoot in the head.”
My grandfather had been just like me. Did he go through the same stuff I was experiencing right now? Now, more than ever, I wished he had lived to be a part of my life. “Is there any way I can see those videos of my grandfather?”
“Not a chance in Hell.”
“Really?” I asked. “Aren’t you the, like, security for Helix? Why the heck not?”
“First, I’m not allowed in that room. No one is without permission from the CEO of Helix. He doesn’t give permission. To anyone. Ever.” She counted off a second finger. “Second, because if I did even ask for permission, I’d have to explain why. Those are questions I don’t want to answer, and you don’t want to get pulled into this.”
“If they ask, just lie. Tell them you were curious.”
“Do you honestly think I’m the only person Helix employs that can read minds?” she asked. “The last thing I want is to be interrogated.”
“Well how am I supposed to learn about this ESP stuff if I don’t have any resources?” I asked. “My best shot at understanding is probably with those old videos. Look, no offense, but you don’t really know enough to help me beyond the super basic stuff…and you’ve already admitted you don’t know a ton about even that.”
“I agree with you, Jack,” she said. “But it isn’t like I can go in and grab them. Even if I decided to give Helix a big middle-finger and run in there to grab them, I’d get caught within minutes. And even if I get to the room, it’s locked and environmentally sealed. As far as I know, without permission, only the CEO of Helix and your dad had access to it. It’s all classified by the government.”
“That all seems a bit much. Kinda Mission Impossible,” I said. “But whatever. I’ll just spend my nights looking up ESP on the internet. I mean, Wikipedia has everything right? The Internet is totally reliable.”
My sarcasm got a short laugh out of her. She looked at her watch. “Geez, it’s already 1:30. I need to go.”
“Back to school?”
“Seriously? Why would I do that?”
“I thought you liked school,” I said. “You always participate in class, and everyone knows you’ll probably be the Valedictorian when we graduate.”
She laughed again, shaking her head as if the thought was absurd. “Jack, I cheat. Every single day. I don’t study Math or English or anything. Well, History I do actually study. It’s actually useful. But everything else? No way.”
“Wait a minute,” suddenly a few things clicked into place. “When you say you cheat, you don’t mean…” I tapped the side of my head.
“Of course that’s what I mean.” She gave me a look like I was the one saying something crazy here. “I was brought up being told my ability was an advantage I should exploit. I use it in class to make sure I pass everything with flying colors. You’d be amazed how easy it is to get a perfect score on everything by poking around in people’s heads during a test. I should probably thank you. You’ve single-handedly got me through the last couple years of English.”
“You’re cheating!”
“And?” she deadpanned. “Let’s see, I can waste time studying for Calculus and some computer science class, or I can pass the tests anyway with zero effort and spend my time at the shooting range, and learning how to kill monsters.” She held her hands out making a scale. “Hmm. Studying or guns. Hmm. Yeah, guns always win.”
“But it’s…it’s…”
“Dishonest? That’s a matter of opinion. It’s about priorities, Jack. Honestly, even if I wanted to sit down and study—which I don’t—I couldn’t. You have no idea the pressure that’s put on me to succeed.” She stood up. “I’m going to head over to Helix and see if I can’t find out some more information on the murders at the Smith house.”
I stood up too, and tried not to sound too eager. “What can I do?”
She stepped in real close. I could smell the light scent of soap on her. She put her hand on my chest, and my mouth was suddenly very dry. “You’re going to stay here and get some rest,” she said, then pushed me down on the bed. She laughed and walked out the door. “And don’t you even think about going back to school this week,” she called. “I don’t want you to do anything stupid on accident. I’ll call you later.”
I heard Alex walk down stairs and out the door.
She was awesome.
Chapter Thirteen
My brain was fried.
After Alex left I jumped right on my computer and started researching ESP. Putting aside my sarcasm from earlier, I started with Wikipedia. I was glad Alex wasn’t here to here to witness my hypocrisy.
After Wiki, I did a general search on Google. It brought back over half-a-million results. I clicked on hundreds of them.
In the end, it was a complete waste of time. Half the sites were bogus ‘scientists’ offering ways to develop ESP. All I had to do was enter in a valid credit card number to confirm a charge of $300, and I was guaranteed to develop ESP within a week to two years. A majority of the remaining sites all talked about ESP as a ‘sixth sense,’ which wasn’t anything new. A few compared it to devil worship.
What none of the sites actually did was g
ive any specifics matching what I was going through. That either meant Alex, my dad, my grandfather, and my own experiences were bogus, or everyone else was just throwing stuff out there without actually knowing anything.
Since I was becoming convinced I wasn’t crazy—meeting a girl who is a veritable mind-reader will change a guy’s way of thinking pretty quick—I determined doing searches on the internet wasn’t the most effective use of my time.
I considered following Alex’s advice and going to bed early when my phone buzzed.
The caller ID was blank.
The Insider.
I hit the green answer button. “Hello?”
“Mr. Bishop,” the Insider’s voice responded. “So good to hear from you again. I was a little worried you weren’t going to recover from that sleep-inducing headache yesterday. Tell me, how are you feeling?”
“Tired of splitting headaches. That’s how I’m feeling.”
“Ah yes,” he laughed on the phone as if I were a professional comedian. “Well, at the very least I’m glad to know you and Alex are being completely truthful with each other. Honesty is the foundation of every solid relationship. She is right, you know. You really should stay away from school for a few days. What were you thinking going back there?”
My body went numb like I’d just been dunked in a bathtub full of ice. How did he know? No, I knew how he was getting his information.
“You had me bugged,” I said. I didn’t bother keeping the accusation from voice. The man spoke of honesty, yet he was spying on my conversations and my actions?
“Don’t be a child, Mr. Bishop,” he chided. “Of course I have you bugged. You’re practically my most valuable asset—well, top five at least. I’d be a fool not to keep track of you. You have a lot to learn about ESP, and you aren’t going to learn it by clicking on 203 internet pages.”
My phone was bugged. Likely my room as well. Now he was telling me my computer was being tracked as well. So this is what all those nut-jobs talking about ‘Big Brother’ felt like? I guess it isn’t paranoia if they really are watching everything you are doing.
“Then where am I going to get better information?” I asked. “From you? Sorry, but so far all you’ve done is call me up and be all cryptic.”
“Mr. Bishop, that is a very good point. I want you to look out your bedroom window.”
I walked slowly to the window and lifted up one of the slats to see outside. There was a car parked on the street in front of my place. It was just a normal sedan, a Toyota Camry by the looks of it. Dark colored, nothing flashy added.
“You in that car?” I asked.
“Ha! Don’t be ridiculous. The only thing in that car is a set of car keys, an access card, and an earpiece for your phone. Go out your front door and get in the car. Now.”
“What about my Aunt Martha?”
The Insider sighed audibly. “She went to the store while you were focused on your research. You really need to learn to pay better attention. I need you to listen very carefully to me, Mr. Bishop. We have a very small window to accomplish something tonight. You can continue questioning me, and then you’ll never get anywhere. You decide. Preferably quickly.”
“Give me one reason to go along with what you have planned.”
“Very well. Your grandfather’s, Wyatt’s, research notes.”
My breath caught. For me, this was like being offered the Holy Grail, and The Insider knew it. I ran down the steps and out the door, pausing only to lock up behind me. The driver’s side door of the Toyota was unlocked, and on the passenger seat was a small envelope. I opened it and dumped its contents into my lap.
“Good,” the Insider said. “The earpiece will link to your phone just by turning it on. This will make it easier to do what needs to be done tonight. Plus you’ll drive safer with both hands on the wheel. Ten-and-two.”
I slipped on the earpiece and turned it on, then put my phone in my pocket. “Can you hear me?”
“Perfectly clear, Mr. Bishop. Now, that access card will get you into Helix without any issues, but it will only work tonight. They were stupid and didn’t bother revoking your father’s access codes yet. Though I may have encouraged that stupidity.” I could swear he was gloating.
Squinting at the card I could see my dad’s name. The Insider wanted me to break into Helix. “How did you get this? You shouldn’t have it.”
“No, I shouldn’t. But really, who cares? I walked right in and took it. I’m a hard man to recognize.”
“If this goes wrong I’ll be in huge trouble.”
“If this goes wrong, Mr. Bishop, you’ll likely be dead.”
Could I do this? Was this necessary?
“Don’t get cold feet now, Mr. Bishop,” he said. “This is the best shot to give you a way to retrieving your father, and more importantly, to understanding yourself and your new-found abilities. Take the car keys and start the engine. Head to Helix, but keep your speed at 35mph.”
There was no going back. Maybe he was manipulating me, but at this point I didn’t care. I wanted to find my dad. If this would help me accomplish that, then what choice did I really have? “Why do you want me to find my dad?”
“At the risk of sounding melodramatic, let’s just say that I’d rather not face an apocalypse any time soon.”
I had fifteen minutes to kill at this speed. I figured I may as well get some answers. “What’s with the papers of symbols you gave me?”
“Alexandra already explained part of that to you,” he said in a bored tone. “Though she was wrong about the face you saw. It is legitimate. There are differing opinions on that amongst the experts. It could be that you saw your own face or that of the writer—in this case, Wyatt. Once you see the face, things as you teens put it, ‘get real’. But you don’t need to worry about those papers anymore. They’ve done their job—quicker than I had hoped, honestly—and I have someone retrieving them as we speak.”
Someone was going through my room. I wasn’t surprised, but I still felt a little violated. “That just isn’t right, going through my room like that. Haven’t you heard of that thing called privacy?”
“Privacy is a myth,” the Insider said dismissively. “The sooner you come to terms with that, the longer you’ll live. Think big picture, Jack. Once you know your privacy is constantly violated, you know how to twist it all to your advantage.”
Geez. This guy was more paranoid that I was.
“So,” I said, trying to restart the conversation, “does any of this have anything to do with all the secrets my dad knows? Alex was saying the people who took him might be trying to pump info from him.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” he responded. “It isn’t just what he knows, but who he knows.”
“Who?”
“Is there an owl in the car with you?” He laughed at his own joke. Did the guy have a screw loose upstairs? “Forgive me. Sometimes I let my humor get the better of me. You father knows the majority of Helix’s secrets, but more importantly he knows of one specific project. You’ll see it referred to in Wyatt’s notes as Project Sentinel. It’s who Project Sentinel potentially is that people want from him. Helix’s rival companies—though one in particular is at the head of the class at the moment—will do anything to get the information from him.”
“Why?”
I could almost hear him nodding on the other side of the connection. “Asking the right questions for once. Good. In the old days with the Romans and Greeks and all that, it was the army who invented the best weapons that usually won the war. It’s no different now. The smarter our technology, the more success we have. Only now it isn’t so much about a country versus another country or organization—though we still do deal with that. Nowadays corporations are actually far more important than a simple line on a map. Corporations determine everything, whether people realize it or not.”
“So the corporation with the best weapon wins the war,” I said. I had a sinking feeling in my gut, but I knew I had to ask the q
uestion anyway. “So who is Project Sentinel?”
“I can tell you already know that answer,” he replied. “Mr. Bishop, you are Project Sentinel. Well, at least that seems to be the way the cards are currently falling. You are what the corporations are fighting for, only they don’t all know it yet. You father doesn’t know everything, but he knew you had potential for the Project. It’s in your genes.”
I was well and truly frightened. My palms were sweaty, and my stomach churned. I couldn’t conjure up enough spit in my mouth to swallow. A week ago I was a normal kid with normal friends at a normal school. I had a normal and boring job. Now I had freaking ESP, was going on some cloak-and-dagger mission for a guy I had never met, and was apparently becoming a weapon that people were fighting for. I was the actual reason my dad had been abducted.
“Steady, Mr. Bishop,” he said calmly. “You are two minutes from the Helix parking lot. I know you are feeling overwhelmed, but I promise things will get easier to swallow when you read through Wyatt’s material. You’ll never think about him—or yourself for that matter—quite the same again. And I mean that in a good way. Just focus on one thing at a time, and doing exactly what I say, when I say it. I’ve had this plan set in motion for months.”
“Why are you helping me?” I managed. “Why should I trust you?”
“Ah, yes. I wondered when you would ask that.” He paused, then, “Are my motives completely altruistic? Heavens, no. I’m a businessman. A very successful businessman. I’m inherently selfish, and I hate not knowing everything. Could I walk in and take all of Wyatt’s materials myself? Of course. I took those pages of symbols five years ago.
“But, Jack,” he continued. “This isn’t about what I can do. This is about what you can do.”
“This is test? Are you kidding me?”
“No,” he said flatly. “And you’d do well to pass the test. If you can’t get through this, you may not survive what comes next. I’m helping you, Jack. Aside from Alex—who can’t help you with this—I’m the only help you’ve got.”
Nodding, I took a deep breath, then another. Suck it up Jack, I said to myself. This guy is the only one that can get you the answers you need. The sick feeling went away, and I calmed down.
Residue Page 8