“You could get your perception back, you know,” said Michael.
Jennifer shook her head. “No.”
“We know it can be reversed. It was done to me. Why not?”
“I’m getting used to it,” said Jennifer. “My mum’s so thrilled to have me back home, she’s making plans to redecorate my bedroom and wanting to know what subjects I’m going to study in college.”
“You can do all those things as a perceiver,” said Michael. “You heard the Prime Minister. We won, remember?”
“I don’t know … And anyway, I think Otis has moved on.”
“He hasn’t,” said Michael.
“Are you saying that to make me feel better or have you perceived it from him?”
Michael thought back to his perceptions of Otis that morning. He cared for Jennifer, but there wasn’t love there. Perhaps she was right, perhaps a norm – as Jennifer now was – wasn’t suited to be with a perceiver. Not when they knew how it used to be before Jennifer was cured.
Otis came back from the toilets wiping the palms of his hands on the back of his jeans and they made their way out to the busy streets of Westminster. Just over the road was Parliament Square, now full of tourists wandering around looking at the statues. They didn’t seem to know or care that, just three weeks ago, five people had been killed there.
Jennifer’s pocket bleeped. It bleeped again. She pulled her phone from her bag – still bleeping – and looked at it. “I’ve got ten messages!”
“Have you got a new boyfriend you’ve not told me about?” joked Otis.
Jennifer scrolled. “It’s from journalists.”
Just as she said that, there was some shouting from down the road. Michael looked where it was coming from and saw a host of people, cameras and microphones swarm in their direction. “Miss Price! Miss Price! Miss Price!” they called.
Suddenly, Jennifer was standing on the street in front of the Houses of Parliament, with TV lights and camera flashbulbs going off in her face. “What’s your reaction to the Prime Minister’s statement?” asked a pushy woman at the front.
Jennifer, caught unawares, pulled her composure from somewhere. “This is a great day for us, for all perceivers …” she told them.
Michael backed away. He had no desire to be in the middle of a media scrum.
He watched Jennifer from a distance with admiration, and a little regret that he would not be seeing so much of her anymore.
A man was suddenly at his shoulder. It was Hodges, a retired soldier in his fifties and Michael’s driver. “The car’s waiting,” he said.
Michael watched Jennifer for a moment longer. She would be giving interviews for a long time, he suspected, and he wouldn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her. Otis had also disappeared somewhere, either lost in the crowd or run away from all the attention.
“Mr Cooper wants you back at the complex as soon as possible,” said Hodges.
“I know,” said Michael.
“Shall we go then, sir?”
Michael smiled. It felt strange being called ‘sir’, but he supposed he would get used to it.
Goodbye Jennifer, Michael said in his head. Even if she had still been a perceiver, she probably wouldn’t have heard him. He thought it anyway.
He paused for a while, but there was nothing else to say and nothing else to do. So he turned, joined Hodges on the walk back to the car and went back to his new job.
~ END ~
Author’s Note
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Find out what happens next to Michael when a mission to look into the mind of a terrorist, leads him to uncover a conspiracy more terrifying than he could have imagined, in: Mind Control: Perceivers #2
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The Perceivers series:
Mind Secrets
Mind Control
Mind Evolution
Mind Power
Table of Contents
Title Page
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Author’s Note
The Perceivers Series
Mind Secrets: A Science Fiction Telepathy Thriller (Perceivers Book 1) Page 26