Persist (Discipline Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  Then his lips clamped shut, as everyone looked at him, Mags glaring a bit, thinking it was due to her being punished for being a bit adventurous.

  “Oh? That seems like a bad plan. We kind of need you here. Maybe you noticed that?”

  He knew it was the case, but there were things that had to be more important than what they wanted at the moment. Ben just didn’t know what the hell they were. What he did get was why. If he didn’t know what he was going to do, then it would be much harder to predict.

  Chapter twelve

  Knowing that something strange was going on, and having a single clue what that thing, or things, was, Ben discovered, two very different things. He’d been thinking that he was going to need a backpack, for a secret and low key cross-country journey. Probably into the secret underground bunker of his enemies.

  Instead he followed a green line that was a bit darker than the ones he was used to seeing, which looked just as painted on the ground as always. There were arrows in the center of the thing, and it was wide, compared to normal. They were normally about a foot across. This one was at least three, as if trying to let him know how very important the whole thing was.

  As if he might have missed that part somehow. Then, it was kind of becoming clear that his subconscious self wasn’t all that pleased with how slow conscious Ben was about some things.

  The thing he was projecting onto the ground still just lead him to the lower office space, which he couldn’t get into, without some hearty door pounding. That took nearly ten, possibly fifteen minutes, before anyone noticed all the racket he was making.

  Ben could have contacted people mentally, but that felt a bit pushy, considering everything going on at the moment. As it was Sean, the young looking white office man who worked for the government, came to the door and snapped at him, without seeing who was even there first.

  “What? We’re all busy here right… Oh. Sorry, Ben. I was just being chewed out by both my bosses, at the same time. Since I’m supposed to be here in secret, you can imagine how well that played in my head. You were in on the thing earlier. We have footage of it, so didn’t expect reports yet. Good though, I can use you as a shield. If they start throwing things again, I can hide behind you, right?” He looked hopeful, as if doing that would save him.

  “Sure? I actually came to do something else and kind of need to harass Glenda for a bit. It’s… Secret? Not that you won’t figure it out, but let’s get inside, and… If you could not report this one to anyone, until after I’m done? I’m almost certain that someone here has been making reports that are going directly to the enemy. They probably don’t want to be either.” Ben shook his head, and then didn’t speak for a while.

  Sean rolled his eyes.

  “Crap, the paranoia bug has bitten you, too? Well, I can’t blame you. Any of you. Come in. Remember our deal, oh, shield of mine…”

  They had to secure the door before going in, which wasn’t that hard to do for once. At first Ben figured that it had been oiled, since it was as thick and made out of steel as always, but then realized it might just be him finally getting a little stronger. His full strength, or most of it, should come in by six months after the first set of shots, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t get something going on before that. In fact, he was nearly certain that there was supposed to be at least a bit coming that way. He still had about two months to go before then, but it was a good sign, along with his pretty bright green eyes.

  Ben wasn’t that sure the idea of green hair thrilled him that much, but it was a good color for it, if what he’d seen on the screen earlier had been right.

  It wasn’t that hard to find everyone, since they were in the large conference room. Most of them were either speaking heatedly to one another, or, for about a quarter of them, doing the same thing into computers. His goal was to reach Glenda, but Kyle waved him over first.

  “Mr. Epson! The President was just asking after his children? I trust that they’re both well?”

  “Um, yes? No worse than some bruising and a minor gunshot wound for Mags. It only grazed her side, and she went to medical, but Felicia didn’t even bother with stitches. Just some ointment to seal it while she heals up, which will take about six days or so. Lenore is fine as well. Nothing happened to her.” Except her bruised tailbone, but Ben wasn’t going to bother mentioning that out loud. He hadn’t been told about it, and even the fairly soft girl hadn’t so much as whined a bit in that direction.

  The voice on the computer, which was a portable unit, sitting on the large conference table in the otherwise empty room, barked at him a little.

  “I want to speak to them. Now!”

  It was a bit pushy, but instead of bristling and growling back at the man, or placating him, Ben just shrugged. Then he had to speak, since Kyle was staring his direction, rather firmly. Wanting him to fix the issue.

  “Lenore has her official cell. You can call her on that? Or we can get them to come here, which will mean someone has to go and get them. From the dining hall, right now. Everyone was starving. Me too, but I need to set something up. It’s too secret for mere world leaders.” He wasn’t serious at all, but instead of reading him the laws that told the man he was allowed to be in on all the best information, there was just a silence from the floating screen icon. Ben didn’t even bother going to where the man was, or reading his mind. The truth was, he didn’t care at the moment.

  That meant he was surprised when the man made a rather understanding sound.

  “About the people behind the attacks? I was informed that they might be within my own system… That is less than great news.”

  “Exactly that. The problem isn’t you knowing, just the data being sent to the wrong AI.”

  Ben blinked, and then closed his eyes. For some reason he’d figured that the man would be in a suit, sitting at his desk in the oval office, but he was in a small room, sitting on a sofa, with a nice computer system sitting on a low table that was probably originally meant to hold a tea service, or coffee. It was made of wood, and seemed rather refined. Reaching out, Ben touched the man’s mind lightly. It wasn’t that hard, given his innate psychic potential. That he had any was different, but made some sense. That kind of thing ran in families and both girls had been pretty strong, which probably meant they’d gotten genes for it from both of their parents.

  ~Mr. President? This is Ben Epson. It’s the Predictive Crime Computer. The one behind it all? I don’t know if anyone has mentioned that yet. We need to get people to not report to it. To kill its data stream. Carefully however. I don’t think it has any way to pick this up, as long as you aren’t scanned directly. If that’s going to happen… Get in touch with me? I think I can help you block that kind of thing, if we know ahead of time.~

  Then he moved back as the man sat there for a moment, the silence stretching out. Finally, he smiled a bit.

  “Well, I understand the need then, Mr. Epsonstein. May I call you Ben?”

  The man had just heard him use his name, which was probably the only reason he knew what Ben’s first name was like that. The use of the incorrect last name was really different, but when he reached out to the man, it wasn’t a mistake at all. It was part of a plan to throw the press off, by making Ben’s data harder to find in the system. It wouldn’t last that long, but the Press Secretary had decided to give it a try, since Ben was one of the very few truly private figures that they’d ever dealt with so openly. It was meant to be a kindness, even if it didn’t really work. A thing that they hoped Ben would understand meant they were on the same side.

  “That sounds good. Since I’m kind of dating your daughter, we should probably be on a first name basis. So I’m Ben, and you’re Mister?”

  “Lenore?” He actually sounded hopeful on that one, but didn’t push for it.

  “Nope. Mags. Of the sudden sex tape fame? I don’t know if you caught that one yet? Don’t be too shocked. She’s a rebel, and we all know it. It was going to be your younger daughter, but she
was better behaved. I’m… Not totally thrilled on this one, before you get mad at me about it. In fairness we hadn’t totally clarified that dating thing when she’d done it, so it’s only about half as creeptastic as it might sound.”

  “Ah. I was told.” His tone was a bit dark, but then he sighed. “Kids. They will sow their oats, won’t they? I hope it won’t interfere in your relationship? If so, please try to stay friends? Life is far too short to have enemies.”

  That was probably true, but seemed a bit too off for him to accept. The man should have been angry and upset, but the truth was that the tapes were being well overshadowed by the attack. The one that the same daughter helped to thwart. That made their family look rather good at the moment.

  Ben picked up that the advisors really weren’t all that worried either, since a sex tape wasn’t that big of an issue anymore. About half of all people really did have them on the web, and the other half knew people that did, so no one cared nearly as much as they might have thirty years before. There was even one of Mary, the First Lady, from when she was younger…

  That was kind of a thing to ignore. Ben nodded a few times, then changed the topic.

  “Well, I’ll try to get with Mags and Lenore and suggest a call. That will be… In about an hour? I have some things to cover here. You know… Secret things that will make me feel like a spy, even though I’m just being a clown?”

  “Understood. Please do have them call. Ben.”

  “Mr. President.”

  Then the call ended, and Kyle looked at him, his face drawn.

  “I’m not certain I understood all of that. I had heard about the video. Which is unfortunate. I wasn’t aware that you and Miss Richards were dating, however. Will that be a problem?”

  He had to smile at that, since everyone in the head office thought he was really oversensitive about emotional things. It might even be true, but he just shrugged as Glenda finally got away from the person she was talking to, a new face as far as Ben went, and came over. Looking fairly pleased.

  “So, sex, lies and Presidents, as well as terror attacks all in one day? Are you ready to quit and run away yet?” She wasn’t exactly kidding, but also was. She was faking the external stuff, hoping that he’d not be the problem that she expected him to.

  “Like I’m ever the problem? I’m hardworking, honest and polite, all the time. Mainly. Well, part of the time. I nail that hardworking one…”

  She nodded, but clearly didn’t know what to expect next. Which was good really, since he wasn’t certain what he was planning himself, until the words showed up in front of him.

  “Is the isolation room free?”

  She nearly stepped back, and did jump a bit, as if asking about that was strange.

  “Yes? We don’t have anyone new scheduled for ten days. Then we have four new recruits coming in fairly short order. Why?”

  “I need to use it. For five days. First, I need to eat. If I vanish from in there… Keep the doors locked until I get back, and don’t let anyone know about it? I’m going to try and go after the… I don’t know what to call the AI that’s behind this, but that. Possibly. I’m being cagey on purpose, you understand that, right? I don’t know if it will work, but I also need to find a way to stop that bomb from coming through. This… Seems like what I have to do?”

  Everyone else just stared at him. The message from most of them was far more muddled than he would have thought, being that it ranged from misery for him, but support, coming from Sean and Janine, to surprise from Kyle, to actual fear for his mind from Glenda. Which made sense to him, but as he waved her into movement, intending to go right then, Ben didn’t feel any fear of it. If he were going to sit in the dark and silence alone again, it might have been too much, certainly.

  Maybe even enough to break him for all time.

  As they got outside, walking at good speed, he grinned however.

  “I’m…” Even to himself he sounded dark, and not his fun loving real self at that moment. Like what he was doing may very well be the last thing he could do for them. “You know, this probably won’t be like it was before. I saw things in there, back then. Mainly my hands and legs, when I moved. My brain filling things in so I could orient myself. But now? I doubt I’ll be in the dark that often. There might be distractions for me, but I think this will work. What I need, I think, is to not go down psychically every eight hours. So, this. I could be wrong though. I don’t know what will happen inside, but it feels big. Maybe kind of final?”

  Glenda nodded, and refused to ask what he meant by that. Part of her hoping that Ben just didn’t really know the answer himself. That, when he got in there, he’d do whatever it was and be all right. Not so insane that he couldn’t leave the work of visions and other things that he was seeing all the time now. Most of it. So far the kid had actually managed not to be that huge of a freak, to her mind. A bit of a pain, perhaps.

  Like all the psychics were, eventually.

  “Damn. I can’t even tell you to be careful, can I? Or give you tips on staying inside longer, like I did before. What…” There was a massive shrug, as they kept walking, to the right hand side of the front gate, where the isolation building was.

  A place of massive insulation at least. So hopefully he wouldn’t be too cold inside. Not that he’d notice it if that were the case. Really, even being outside, in his regular gray outfit, Ben was fine. The temperature said that it was about fifteen degrees, according to the numbers that came up when he thought about it. It wasn’t in Celsius, of course. That part had never made sense to him. Ben understood feet, miles and inches, sort of, but it wasn’t how he thought most of the time.

  Everything he was getting inside always played out in the wrong measurements. The ones that his dad had taught him as a child, since it was what he’d used himself.

  A hold over to an older, very different, time.

  The building was like he’d left it, when they got inside, and though she wanted to, Glenda didn’t let herself hesitate or ask Ben if this, being locked up again, was what he really wanted. No one else that had done it before ever volunteered to go back. Not of the ones that lasted over a day. A few of the others had tried it, of course. The ones that didn’t do very well. They still didn’t when they went inside the second, or even third times.

  That was due to how the sound was shielded away from the space. The picture in her head was from a simulation that she’d watched, which Ben had the pleasure of seeing with her, looking at it from inside her eyes. The display showed how people were hit by millions of subtle sounds all the time. Even deaf people picked them up on some level. When that was taken away, say in the room that he was headed, with its two meters of sound insulation, that went away totally.

  Most people panicked over it.

  A similar thing happened in space when people went outside. Nothing hit them that way, so it impacted the mind. They were always allowed to see however, which helped a bit. Instead of perceiving it as terror, and discomfort, people doing that were often filled with awe.

  Shaking himself, realizing that the whole thing had to look to Glenda like he was having about the right reaction this time, Ben shook his head.

  “You’d think that, right? I was just living the briefing you got on this place and why it works the way it does. Anyway, wish me luck? Like… I don’t know what will happen, but don’t open the door for five days. If… Well, you should have the monitoring stuff going? I’ll try to tell you all what I’m seeing, if I can.” If not, they could pick it up from his brain, possibly.

  The large woman, who was to her own way of thinking both the best and worst mentor possible, hugged him then.

  “I’ll do that. Uh… Good luck?” She felt sad, as if it were the last time that they were going to see each other. That got Ben to smile. It wouldn’t work that way.

  He was going in, but even if he died, if he held the idea finally, that the voice had given him all those times, some version of him would exist, and to his mind, his pe
rception, it would always be him. That was probably what Kyle had going on.

  Over the centuries, two in his case, other versions had died, of various causes, and Ben was simply seeing the version that hadn’t dropped. This being, if not the Kyle-verse, then at least one in which the man wasn’t going to die that easily.

  Ben could see him die in person, and the same would eventually happen with his friends. With everyone in existence. Possibly even other races of man, or even beings from further away. Every time he got close to death though, his mind would always become the one that lived. The same taking place for everyone else.

  Ben didn’t know how, or why, he knew all that, but stepped into the darkness in front of him, and heard the padded door close behind him.

  Then, he smiled.

  Someone had cleaned the place up a bit. At least it didn’t smell of stale sweat any longer. Reaching out, unable to see anything, first his hand started to glow, stretching away from him in green, and then the room around him appeared. At first it was in translucent leaf color, but then, almost instantly the place looked like a light had been turned on. The exercise bike was still there, and looked newer than he would have figured it being. It had felt old before, if in great repair, but now it seemed almost shiny.

  The bare mattress and single pillow, his old friends, unless they’d been replaced already, beckoned him, so he turned and sat, cross legged, like they did for morning meditation. He was even able to use the twisted sitting style that the others did now. The lotus position.

  Not that he wouldn’t be moving around, possibly within the hour.

  “Right. I need to go to the last time I saw a person going through a rift, or portal, into another dimension.” Ben expected to have to fight for that, but almost instantly he was watching the escape of Winston Mills again. Not all of it either, just the point in the lobby of a federal building, when he was moving toward the outer door. Walking, as if he weren’t being hunted. Ben tried to move closer to him, which happened easily, but getting inside of his head was different. The man was very old, being over a thousand, and thought in languages that had nothing to do with English at all. It sounded a tiny bit like French to him, but not, at the same time. Probably middle French, if that was a thing. The original language that had changed a lot over the years. Or just some other worldly version of it. The one thing that Ben got very clearly was that the man was not from there.