by John O'Riley
Amy didn’t remark on their math struggles as she was excellent in arithmetic. She was currently taking Trigonometry and acing it. In fact, she found most of her classes extremely easy.
“I heard Zack is complaining about me,” Brian said. “He’s telling everyone he wants a different partner that doesn’t faint. I heard he argued with Mr. Hagen about needing someone else to work with but Mr. Hagen said he had to wait until he changed seating assignments again.”
“That sounds like Mr. Hagen,” Amy said.
“Zack is such an ass,” Derek said emphatically. “I wish someone would teach him a lesson.”
“Maybe you should teach him a lesson,” Brian suggested.
“Maybe if he ever ends up being my exercise partner, I will,” Derek said.
Amy smiled with amusement and took another bite of her salad. The end of lunchtime came all too soon and they hastily separated when the warning bell rang out. For psychic control and development, Mr. Hagen lectured the class on some new abilities, focusing on the telepathic skill of invisibility. He’d touched on it a week ago but it was a difficult concept to grasp. Basically, telepathic invisibility was an illusion that tricked the minds of those in the immediate vicinity. Any surveillance equipment would detect the individual. Mr. Hagen usually spent a lot more time focusing on skills for telepaths as half the room were level ten telepaths.
“Today is going to be our first day of trying out this new skill,” Mr. Hagen said. “Reach out with your minds and link with me so you can sense the process as it happens.”
He stood very still and his eyes stared off into space as he waited for the level ten telepaths to link. Brian found this part of the class to be extremely boring as there was no way he would ever be able to achieve these skills. Without warning, Mr. Hagen abruptly vanished. Brian flinched with surprise because he’d allowed his mind to wander. His gaze searched the empty spot where his instructor had been standing. He reached out with his empathy and could barely detect Mr. Hagen’s emotional state. Mr. Hagen had achieved the Quiet which was a state of mind where one’s thoughts and emotions were muffled and virtually undetectable. Dropping into the Quiet was an exercise commonly utilized by the military for stealth as everyone could detect the presence of someone sneaking up behind them with their psionic senses. When one embraced the Quiet, only level ten empaths could detect them as it was possible to suppress one’s thoughts but there was still a small amount of emotional leakage that could be detected.
Brian pretended he couldn’t sense his instructor as Mr. Hagen crept to the back of the class. He didn’t turn until right before Mr. Hagen spoke out loud again. Derek was the only other empath in the room but he didn’t feign interest in the current exercise. He was looking through his notes on his current empathic exercise.
“Was everyone able to sense the process as it was completed?” he said sharply.
Everyone flinched with surprise except for Brian and Derek as even the telepaths had lost their link during the process of invisibility. Mr. Hagen strode to the front of the room and instructed them to link with him again. He repeated the process but this time picked up a random student’s textbook just before dropping his invisibility field.
“I could feel most of you maintain your link for a longer duration during the process,” Mr. Hagen said. “It is important to monitor the entire exercise in order to experience how to perform the act of invisibility and then to duplicate it.”
“It feels like you’re slipping away on purpose,” Zack said.
“You need to keep practicing,” Mr. Hagen said coolly. “And of course it feels like that. The way the process works is by fooling your senses into being unable to detect me.” He fixed a cold hard look at Zack before sweeping his gaze over the room again. “We’ve run out of time for this particular exercise. I want everyone to focus on shoring up your mental defenses. I’m going to assess their strength and grade them.”
Mr. Hagen slipped behind his massive desk at the front of the room and gently probed everyone’s psionic shields. It only took him about fifteen minutes to scan the entire room and he was so adept that usually Brian couldn’t even tell when his own shields were being tested.
“Only one of you failed. You will receive your scores tomorrow,” Mr. Hagen said as the bell rang to dismiss class.
Brian couldn’t stand the suspense of waiting. He made his way over to his instructor who was still seated behind his desk.
“Yes, Mr. Winters?” Mr. Hagen regarded him coolly.
“I was wondering if you could tell me my score?” Brian asked.
“I told everyone they would receive their scores tomorrow.”
“Could you at least tell me if I failed?” Brian asked.
“You were not the one who failed,” Mr. Hagen said.
Relief swamped through Brian and he thanked his instructor before stepping outside into the sprinkling rain. It was typical Lynnwood, Washington weather. He drove straight home and began studying. He was looking forward to catching up so he could start hanging out with his friends again. Only a little more than two years and he’d be finished with high school altogether. He was deeply engrossed in his algebra when a prick of unease stirred within his empathic senses. He looked up from his work and turned to face the door. He couldn’t discern anyone in his room but could sense the emotional leakage from someone. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as he realized that a level ten telepath had slipped into his room under the cloak of invisibility while entrenched in the Quiet. To reach both states simultaneously required advanced military training.
Something stung Brian’s left shoulder. He looked down to see a tranquilizer dart embedded in it. As he reached to pull it out, blackness crept along the edges of his vision and fatigue rapidly settled over him. In a matter of seconds, he’d lost consciousness. When he came to, he was lying flat on his back with restraints securing his wrists and ankles. Brian’s body burned with fever and his mind swirled in chaos. He blearily gazed at his surroundings. There was an IV tube stuck in his right arm and a monitor beside him gauged his current medical condition. His mind was foggy and the room seemed to spin like a top. Brian pulled ineffectively at the restraints that bound his wrists. He rested his head back against the cot he was lying on as the fever, pain, and fatigue overwhelmed his senses. He passed out again and woke up sporadically for brief periods of time. Finally, the fever was gone and only a dull ache in his forehead remained.
Brian tugged at his restraints then stretched his neck so that his gaze could roam throughout the small, cramped room. Stark, white concrete walls surrounded him. Beside his cot rested another one a short distance away with an unconscious teenaged male who was also restrained. He had tousled red hair, pale skin, and a spattering of freckles on his face that ran down both arms. A large mirror hung on the wall across from both of the cots. Brian could sense the presence of two people stationed behind the mirror in another room. His mind felt foggy and constrained. He realized he had been drugged and that his mind was slowly clearing.
Brian pulled at his restraints again but they only gave an inch and there was no way he could escape from them. His mouth was extremely dry and he immediately wished he had some water. The boy on the other cot stirred and abruptly awakened, pulling sharply at his restraints. The door across the room opened and a tall, medium set woman stepped into the room. Her blond hair reached her shoulders and her blue eyes swept over both teenagers as she approached the redhead first. She wore a white blouse and black slacks and clutched a clipboard in her right hand. She jotted down some notes as she stood over the cot.
“Where am I?” the teenager asked. “What did you do to me?”
The woman smiled at him and positioned herself between both cots to address them.
“You are very special people and have been selected by the government to make you even more special,” the woman said.
Brian realized she engulfed his mind in a strong telepathic shield that he was incapable of penetrating. It prevente
d anyone from tracking him down and isolated him telepathically from his family and friends.
“You have to let me go!” The redhead glared heatedly at her.
In spite of his anger, he radiated a sharp and pungent fear that caused Brian’s empathic senses to stir with alarm even though the woman’s telepathic shield muffled his ability.
“Calm down, Russell,” the woman said. “You and Brian will only be here for a short while. Your participation in this project is a great service to your country.”
“I don’t care! Let me go!” Russell said.
The woman pinned him with a cold, hard look. “You will calm down or I will knock you out again. Your cooperation is mandatory. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” His expression turned sullen.
“I will only require your participation for a maximum of seven days. After that time, we will know for sure whether or not your psychic abilities were successfully enhanced by the procedure. You have been unconscious for several days while your genes were enhanced by a specially designed retrovirus. If all goes well, you will both become multipaths,” the woman said.
“Retrovirus?” Russell echoed. “What if we don’t become multipaths?”
“Once I’ve determined if you’ve become multipaths or your abilities remain the same, I will release you. You will need to keep everything you see here a secret or you will be charged with treason and terminated,” she said.
Even though she kept a powerful psionic block up and operated in Quiet, Brian could sense the lie tingeing her words. She had absolutely no intention of allowing either of them to live.
“What’s your name?” Brian asked.
“You can call me Samantha,” she said.
Her emotional energy indicated she spoke the truth about her first name.
“I’m going to release you both. Don’t make any trouble or your will be severely punished. There are guards monitoring you at all times. In the next room is a testing area and living quarters combination. There is a bathroom with clean clothes. You will find lunch and water in the living area. I will give you both a couple of hours to eat and get refreshed before we begin testing your abilities,” she said.
Samantha released Brian first then Russell. She led them both to the next room which was the size of a large living room. It had stark, white concrete walls, beige carpeting, and a brown couch shoved up against the back wall. A large mirror hung at the front of the room with a door beside it. The bathroom door was situated on the far side of the room. A small card table rested beside the couch with a plate containing sliced sandwiches, a couple of drinking glasses, and a pitcher of water. A trio of cheap, plastic chairs were grouped in one corner of the room with a small, circular wood table in between them. Samantha left the room via the door beside the mirror. Brian detected her and one other individual behind the mirror watching him and Russell. Russell stared at the food and a mixture of trepidation, hunger, and anger swirled chaotically from him.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Brian said and swiftly left the room before he could protest.
He stood under a stream of hot water and tested the shield that encased his mind. A wave of helplessness and terror tore through him and he squeezed his eyes shut as he struggled to calm himself. The only way he’d live through this was by finding a way to escape. Samantha planned on killing them once she’d determined the results of her experiment. He leaned back against the shower wall and forced himself to calm down as the hot water streamed over him. He felt marginally better after he’d finished up and dressed in fresh clothing comprising of jeans and an oversized blue tee shirt. When he returned to the testing area, Russell had consumed half the pitcher of water and half the sandwiches. As Brian poured himself a drink, Russell made a beeline for the bathroom.
Brian couldn’t stop drinking until he’d finished all of the water. He was so thirsty. He wished there was more. He grabbed a sandwich and took a bite. His stomach lurched when he swallowed it. He decided not to risk another bite and sank onto the couch. Brian tried to read the emotional energy of Samantha and her companion who observed him from behind the mirror but couldn’t get a fix on them due to the psionic shield imprisoning his mind. As long as that barrier remained in place, his empathic senses would remain muffled and it would be possible to only sense those individuals who stood very close to him. The more he thought about his current predicament, the more sickened and frantic he became. His DNA had been fundamentally altered and there was probably no way to reverse the process. He knew that Samantha intended on killing both him and Russell once she completely evaluated their condition. Escape was extremely unlikely.
Chapter 4
When Russell emerged from the bathroom, he grabbed another sandwich and took up a position on the opposite end of the couch from Brian. Even though there wasn’t a clock anywhere in the room, he knew that their allotted time was almost up and Samantha would be returning. She hadn’t said much but he was analyzing her dialogue to try to glean any useful information that may help in eventually escaping from this place. Brian suspected Russell was a level ten talent but he didn’t recognize him from school so he must have been abducted from another area.
“I’m a level ten empath, do you have a secondary ability?” Brian asked.
Russell regarded him guardedly as he silently debated whether or not he should respond. Brian was tempted to use his ability to encourage him to talk but he might notice as he was suspicious and may detect the subtle energy exchange.
“I’m a level ten psychometrist,” Russell finally said and then added with a note of suspicion, “I haven’t seen you in any psychic control and development classes.”
“We only have one in my school. I live in Lynnwood.”
“Oh.” Russell’s guard relaxed noticeably. “I’m from Everett. We have two of those classes at our high school.”
“I don’t know about you but it’s my least favorite class,” Brian said.
“Me, too. There really aren’t too many ways to develop psychometry. Too bad I’m not a level ten telepath.”
“Maybe you’ll become one,” Samantha said unexpectedly from several feet away.
She had slipped into the room engaged in Quiet or she’d made herself invisible. Either way, it was very disturbing as she’d approached them unnoticed. Brian had been too focused on Russell to pick up on her slight emotional radiation.
“When will we know?” Russell asked, pretending that she hadn’t startled him.
Samantha’s lips twitched fractionally with amusement as she regarded him.
“Very soon, I hope,” she said. “I need you both to close your eyes and relax. We’re going to attempt to see if you can sense any new abilities.”
Brian obediently closed his eyes and leaned back against the couch but Russell didn’t immediately follow suit.
“Close your eyes,” Samantha said coolly.
Russell reluctantly acquiesced and she guided them through a relaxation exercise involving calm and scenic imagery. She described a tranquil, grassy meadow with lavender bushes and lush fruit trees. It was difficult to completely immerse himself in the exercise as Brian’s throat was still dry and scratchy but he did his best. Next, she had them visualize themselves floating high in the sky among soft, wispy clouds.
“Now, I’m going to count backwards from ten to one. As I count down, you will become more and more relaxed until you are no longer aware of the feeling of your own body,” Samantha said smoothly.
Even though Brian had intended to only pretend to go along with the session, he had reached an altered state of mind and realized she’d used her telepathic ability to help push him into that receptive state. He didn’t fight it even as he became aware because he needed to fool her into thinking he was cooperating fully. Only then would she ever drop her guard at some point and hopefully provide an opportunity to escape. She finished counting down and allowed a short silence to ensue.
“Now, I want you to feel your natural ability and sense any
new ones waiting to be utilized,” she said. “Be patient and just gently check for anything new.”
Neither Brian nor Russell detected any new abilities. When they both informed her of their findings, Brian sensed a twinge of impatience and frustration from Samantha that she quickly squelched. Whoever was working with Samantha was watching intently from behind the mirror on the wall. Brian could sense their interest. It must take a lot of concentration and effort to maintain the Quiet and keep both Russell’s and Brian’s minds blocked. The individual in the other room must not be a level ten telepath otherwise that person would be helping out with the psionic shielding. Brian was careful to keep his own thoughts subdued in order to prevent Samantha from detecting them.
“All right,” she said brusquely. “We’ll proceed with the tests. One of the most common secondary abilities is remote-viewing so we’ll start with that.”
She pulled out a deck of cards from her pants pocket and gestured across the room to the three chairs in the corner. They all gathered in that spot and she held one card up at a time to test whether they could see what was on the side facing her. It turned out that the cards were all basic shapes with a white background. She kept track of their incorrect and correct responses. Unfortunately, it was boring as hell since she insisted on testing them with this particular exercise for what must have been hours.
“We’ve done enough of that for now,” she finally said.
Brian would have been relieved except that he suspected they would move onto something even more tedious.
“Neither of you has shown an aptitude for remote-viewing at this time. We’re going to move onto an exercise to test your telekinetic ability which is a rare talent but fairly common in multipaths,” Samantha said as she put away the cards and placed a single die on the table top. “You will each take three turns in a row and try to roll a one. First, I want Brian to get a glass of water.”
Brian blinked at her in surprise. “But there isn’t any more.”
“Fill up one of the cups with the water from the bathroom sink,” Samantha said crisply.