Persistence of Vision

by Liesel K. Hill

  Maggie nodded. “I’m kind of stiff, but the more I walk, the better I’ll feel.”

  “We should take you to Doc and then get you something to eat.”

  Maggie let him pull her to her feet.

  ***

  Two days later, no decision had been made about Clay. He wasn’t dead, so no one wanted to bury him. And his wife, Kara, wouldn’t have it. No one blamed her for not wanting the finality of burial.

  Maggie sat with Joan in medical while Marcus and Karl paced nearby. The team hovered continually near Clay’s bedside but tried to give Kara space. As a result, they’d spent the better part of two days huddled in the room adjacent to Clay’s, staring at each other and listening to Kara’s intermittent weeping.

  Two people—sometimes the two who’d been there when she woke up, sometimes others—were always around Maggie. They followed her around like armed guards, staying a short distance behind her as she moved through the corridors, standing outside the rooms she was in. They didn’t seem to disconcert anyone else. The team acted like they couldn’t see them. A few times Maggie caught Marcus’s eye and nodded toward the guards, raising an eyebrow. He always looked away, though, not offering any explanation. Sadness over Clay hung thick in the air, and Maggie didn’t press the issue.

  Doc was with them first thing that day, but he’d ducked out midmorning without explanation. Now he re-entered the room.

  “Will all of you please follow me? It’s time we talked.” He kept his voice quiet enough not to disturb Kara, who had fallen asleep holding Clay’s hand.

  Doc led Maggie, Marcus, Joan, and Karl through the quiet corridors of Interchron. He turned into the conference room they’d used before just after David arrived.

  The five of them filed in. David and Nat were already inside. David stood leaning against the wall, arms folded across his chest. Nat sat at one end of the table, staring at his steepled fingers. He looked strangely reminiscent of Doc in that pose.

  Marcus threw a glare in David’s direction, and Maggie knew her premonition was correct—this would not be a pleasant meeting.

  Marcus pulled out Maggie’s chair then sat beside her. The others took seats around the table. David took one on the other end away from the rest of them, just as he had when he first arrived. It was a strange, lonely sort of déjà vu, especially in light of the vacant seat Clay had occupied before.

  “I know this is going to be difficult,” Doc began, his eyes on the table in front of him, “but it’s been days, and we need to talk about what happened, what we know, and what we’re going to do next.”

  “What about Clay?” Joan asked quietly.

  Doc sighed. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”

  “Doc.” Maggie felt their eyes turn to her but couldn’t bring herself to meet them. “I’m sure you’ve already thought of this, so maybe it’s a dumb question, but can’t we search for some way to Heal him?”

  She glanced up to see Doc frowning at her. “I know we don’t know how, that Marcus can’t regenerate tissue, but what if the answer’s out there and we just haven’t found it yet? Karl’s a Traveler. Can’t you look in the future for the answer?”

  “I have, Maggie.”

  Maggie turned to find Karl’s face grave. He’d taken the seat on the other side of her.

  “As soon as the ability of Traveling became known, we Travelers began walking through almost all periods of human history. I’ve taken Seekers to the future in search of certain abilities and technologies, but I’ve never found anything that would help us heal Clay. I’ve never seen a time or place in which human beings can regenerate what’s been lost. I think that’s God’s work.”

  “We need to talk about what happened on the island,” Doc said, then ran his hands through his thick, white hair. “But where to begin?”

  “How about with the fact that Colin is alive and always has been?”

  Bitterness seeped into Karl’s voice, and Maggie was surprised he already knew. He must have spoken to Marcus or Nat before this. Her surprise must have shown, because when Doc spoke, he directed his comments at her.

  “Marcus, Nat, and David have told us what happened in the cargo bay. We all know everything Colin said and did, unless you have anything to add?”

  Maggie shook her head. “I don’t see that I would. We were all in the same room the entire time.”

  “Maybe you should tell us what you remember, anyway,” Karl said. “Everyone was under stress, and a conversation is difficult to remember word for word. Maybe you would remember something the other two forgot.”

  The thought of trying to repeat her entire conversation with Colin was daunting. She was afraid she’d get emotional, which would be embarrassing.

  Joan saved her from having to try.

  “One thing I don’t understand,” she said. “Colin wants to find and kill us all. So why doesn’t he? He knows where the compound is and how to get in. Why not just lead them here? Is there a chance that he was putting on an evil show for the Traveler’s benefit?”

  Nat shook his head, but it was Marcus who spoke.

  “No. I understand why you want to believe that. We all trusted him. But if you could’ve seen him—the things he said, the look in his eye—he’s one of them through and through. He was never as decent as he led us to believe.” Marcus heaved a sigh. “As to the first question, I can’t be sure, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”

  Maggie was glad someone had been. The conundrum hadn’t occurred to her.

  “When he realized Maggie had no memories of him, Colin was surprised. Happy, but surprised nonetheless. He said something about not being the only one who didn’t know what happened aboard that ship. He may have simply been referring to the fact that Maggie escaped, but I don’t think so.” Marcus turned to her. “I think some part of what you did, of what happened to your memories, affected him. Now I don’t think he can remember where Interchron is.”

  Maggie thought about that for a few seconds, but it didn’t compute for her. “But that doesn’t make sense. Colin was a member of the team before I ever arrived here, wasn’t he?”

  Marcus looked confused but nodded. “He was with us for about a year before we found you.”

  “So if his memory of the compound is gone, then he wouldn’t have remembered me at all. He wouldn’t have remembered anything about being on the ship.”

  All the men around the table looked confused by her argument, but Joan, as usual, understood.

  “You’re thinking too linearly again, Maggie. Remember when I explained to you how Marcus could send out a wave of Offensive energy and kill all the Trepids without hurting any of the individual minds that were out in front of him?”

  Maggie nodded. “You said he honed in on antagonistic energy. He could select who he wanted to target.”

  “Yes. And this is similar. With neurological abilities, choice is always a factor. If Colin’s memory loss is the result of a neurological ability, especially if it’s something you did, it might have been a matter of choosing specifically what someone didn’t want him to remember.”

  “But how would I…do that?”

  “I don’t know.” Marcus passed a hand across his eyes. “I’ve never heard of anyone doing it before. Has anyone else?”

  Around the table, heads shook slowly.

  “But either way,” Maggie said, “we’re talking about selective memory loss?”

  Marcus shrugged. “Like I said, there’s no way to be sure, but it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. Unless anyone else has any thoughts?”

  Silence greeted the question, and Maggie supposed it was the only explanation they had for the present. She didn’t like it, though. It placed even greater responsibility for what had happened on her shoulders. She had found something out, decided not to trust the team with it, dumped her memories, knowing full well she might never recover them, then she’d also blocked or stolen some of Colin’s memories?

  “The only reason to hide the location o
f the compound is to protect those that live here,” Joan said. “It stands to reason, then, that Maggie was afraid he’d come after them. So perhaps some of what she found out was Colin’s true nature.”

  Silence followed as that sunk in.

  “So,” Karl said after several minutes, “we don’t know anything for certain about his memory, but then there’s the question of what he did—this whole drinking-Maggie’s-blood thing.”

  Maggie shuddered at the memory, and Marcus reached over and took her hand under the table. She gave him what she hoped was a grateful smile. That he understood the fear, the exploitation she’d felt at what Colin had done, that he could see how much it still bothered her, was a great comfort.

  “I’m not sure I even believe it’s true,” Karl said. “I’ve never heard of drinking someone’s blood to find them. Maybe he was just screwing with us.”

  “I don’t think so.” It was David’s voice, and they all turned toward him.

  “You know something of this?” Marcus’s voice was iron when he addressed his brother.

  David hesitated a moment before answering. “I could not speak of it with any authority, but I’ve heard rumors of it.”

  “Rumors?” Karl asked. “There’s such thing as gossip in the collectives?”

  David shook his head. “Not in the way you’re thinking of it. Sometimes a new idea will be introduced into the collective mind. It comes through a single person who’s heard or observed it. Then it travels along the collective pathways. We are no different from individuals in the way we observe and process information. Ideas and experiences are introduced through a single person, but then they are shared and processed by the entire collective mind. If the ideas and experiences are good, the collective absorbs and makes use of them. If they are negative, they are put down.”

  Karl frowned at David. “Put down by who?”

  “By the collective. It is agreed and understood that something is negative, vile, or forbidden, and everyone simply stops thinking about it. So the rumor is no more.”

  It was not lost on Maggie that David said we like he was still part of the collective. Even after all these weeks, he was not far removed from the collective in his own mind.

  Karl turned his head to frown at Doc, and they shared a knowing look.

  “How do you know”—Karl turned back to David—“that it’s the drones in the collective making the decision to squelch the rumor?”

  “Who else would it be?”

  “What’s this got to do with Colin…tasting Maggie’s blood?” Marcus cut in.

  David heaved a deep breath. “I’ve heard of it before. I don’t know any details. It was just a rumor that once floated through the collective. This kind of thing was forbidden to know or think about because it was dark and evil, not to mention unsavory. But what you describe…it has the ring of truth to me.”

  “He’s right.”

  All heads swung toward Doc.

  “I too have heard of this before. Consuming blood is an evil thing because it exerts a pull over the drinker. I think it’s true of all blood—drinking the blood of a turkey it would have a certain amount of pull on you to drink more. I also believe the strength of the leveraging force increases with the intelligence of the creature whose blood you are drinking, which is why human blood has the greatest pull of all. Unfortunately, Colin was telling the truth. By tasting Maggie’s blood, he’ll be able to come straight to her.”

  Maggie’s eyes dropped to the table. She was hoping Doc would tell her that what Colin said was rubbish—that he’d just been trying to scare her. Hearing Doc speak of it now with such finality made it all too real. An unpleasant cold settled in her stomach, making her want to pull her knees into her chest and hide.

  Maggie wanted to ask what they were to do next, but she couldn’t force the words out. No one else seemed to want to either. After several moments of silence, David spoke, addressing Karl.

  “What did you mean about the collective not making its own decisions? Who else would make them?”

  “The Counsel of Six,” Karl said, as though it was obvious.

  David shook his head. “They only have final say.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I’ve been part of it.”

  “I don’t think you’re as informed as you think you are, David.”

  The rest of the team was following the conversation with confusion, but with Karl’s last comment, Marcus’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “What do mean, Karl?”

  Karl looked at Doc, who nodded at him.

  “The person that invaded Lila’s mind, who called himself B? Doc spoke with him while we were on the island.”

  Gasps and exclamations came from around the table. Nat didn’t look particularly alarmed. Joan, on the other hand, was suddenly very attentive.

  “What did he say?” she asked.

  Doc spoke. “We haven’t had a chance to talk about it since getting back. How much did you hear, Karl?”

  Karl’s brow furrowed. “Not much. I got hit on the head,” he explained to the others. “It seemed like the two of you knew each other. I know he said something about some brothers. Then Doc asked what B stood for. He said it was for Beholder, because he was watching us. And he implied”—his eyes shifted accusingly to David—“that he had sent you here to spy on us.”

  David’s eyes widened. “I don’t know what he means.”

  No one else spoke, but Marcus stood. He simply planted his feet and straightened his legs, his stance lithe and dangerous. He addressed Doc. “You’ve known this the entire time since we left the island and you haven’t…restrained him?”

  Doc put up a weary hand. “Marcus, listen—”

  “No. Don’t tell me to listen. Clay is dead!”

  It was a word no one had voiced about Clay, as though using euphemisms might keep him with them longer. Marcus’s voice made the word crack like a whip, and the entire team shuddered as though slapped.

  A tear escaped over the rim of Maggie’s eye, but she wiped it away quickly. She thought David might have seen it—he was the only one looking at her—but she pretended he hadn’t.

  “For all intents and purposes, he is!” Marcus was still shouting. “They were ready for us. They knew we were coming. You have a testament that David is a spy and yet you let him roam freely around Interchron? You let him near Clay? ”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because the man I spoke to was lying.”

  Marcus’s anger withered a bit under Doc’s glare. Maggie knew Marcus couldn’t contradict Doc. He loved him like a father and trusted him implicitly. Still, Marcus didn’t sit. Rather, he turned slowly toward David, who wore a disturbed frown.

  “Marcus.” David gave him a pleading look. “What I did, I did on my own. It was my choice, just as I told you before. You must believe me.”

  “I don’t suppose you can prove that,” Marcus snapped.

  David shook his head. “Only to myself.”

  “Meaning what?” Karl asked.

  “It was painful. Terribly painful. If they had wanted me to go—to spy and infiltrate—they would have just let me go. I had to rip myself, physically and neurologically, out of the collective body. And when I did, they tried to pull me back to them. I could feel them—thousands of minds digging into mine, trying to reunite me with the collective. This B is lying. When I got away, they tried to claw me back. Does that sound like them letting me go to come and trap you?”

  Marcus stared at David for a few seconds, chest heaving. “Why did you give Maggie that ring?”

  Maggie lowered her head and hunched her shoulders, waiting for an explosion. So they had finally come to the crux of it.

  David looked surprised. “I…I was afraid…of exactly what happened. I thought you might be going into a trap.”

  “Then why didn’t you just say so?”

  David looked frustrated. “I couldn’t. I didn’t have the words. I have more words now than
when I got here, but they’re coming slowly. I tried to tell you how much danger she was in—that they were looking for her and would kill her without mercy. I could tell that I wasn’t being clear, that you didn’t understand me. So I gave Maggie the ring as a precaution.”

  “You could have killed her.” Marcus spat. “You could have killed all of us.”

  “You mean she could have?”

  Marcus looked like he was ready to strangle David, but Karl answered. “Yes, she could have. And it would have been your fault.”

  David shrugged. “She didn’t. She saved your lives and gave you the chance to escape. Not to mention, she killed the Traveler, which was our principle aim.”

  “You gave her a dangerous weapon,” Marcus said, “an obscene amount of power she had no hope of controlling. Everything else was just luck, and you’re defending your actions?”

  “It wasn’t luck.” David snapped, raising his voice. “I knew she’d be able to handle it. Both her brain chemistry and the prophecy say so. I was being practical, not irresponsible.”

  Marcus looked angrier by the minute. David’s arguments were not pacifying him.

  It occurred to Maggie that, despite still placing himself somewhat in the collective mind, David had come a long way since they’d first met him. He was not only saying I, but giving forceful opinions in opposition to everyone else at the table. He wouldn’t have been able to do that at first.

  Maggie reached up and touched Marcus’s arm. He looked down at her.

  “If you’re going to be mad at David for this, you’ll have to be mad at me too. I accepted the ring. I knew”—she spread her gaze around the room—“none of you would approve. I kept it from you.”

  “Why did you do that, Maggie?” Karl asked quietly.

  “Because, I…I was affected by what David said to me.”

  Marcus glared accusingly at David, as if David had tricked her somehow.

  “Why didn’t you say something, Maggie?” Joan asked, taking Maggie’s hands across the table.

  “I…I don’t know. Maybe it was more a feeling than a conscious thought. I felt that David was afraid for us, and that made me afraid. I was never planning on using the ring. I had it, but I figured if we got ourselves into a dire situation, I’d give it to one of you to use. I never thought…” Her voice cracked, and she trailed off.