The Psionic Thief

by Dave Renol

  After fumbling with it for a few minutes, I realized the stupid hole was in the wrong place. Murphy never told me his computer might be different, and I was wasting precious time. I managed to find the proper hole after some finely tuned probing, but the stupid thing still wouldn’t fit.

  I was about to give up and tell Murphy that his drive was the wrong size for this computer when I remembered what the plug end looked like; it would only fit one way. I turned it over and it slid in perfectly. I let out a long, slow sigh of relief and began to relax a touch while it did whatever it was that it did.

  I gave it about fifteen minutes or so before pulling it out and bringing it back to the laundry room. Stepping up to the drier vent, I opened the flaps and peered inside. It was just like Billy had said; a small tube with a flexible hose attached outside of it and held in place by some sort of clamp or zip tie.

  Being able to both see and ‘feel’ the hose made it super easy to slide it off, bring the drive outside, and then replace the hose like nothing ever happened. I slid the drive into my pocket and made for the woods, suddenly worried about being caught.

  It was a silly fear since there was nobody around and I didn’t actually steal anything from his house, but it still felt like I needed to make a getaway. I bolted for the edge of town and plowed straight into the forest. Once safely out of sight I rested for a few minutes to catch my breath and then flew back to our flop.

  For better or worse I had done my job, and now I needed to figure out how to make sure Murphy kept his word about Sue. I reckoned he was about as trustworthy as a fox guarding a henhouse, so we needed to come up with a way to make sure he kept it.

  I had no idea how to do it myself, but I knew one person who was good at coming up with ideas.

  Chapter 22

  Mark: Forward Progress

  The power levels looked right for ignition but I still hesitated. This would be my first time standing at ground zero when it went up around the node and now I knew how Carl felt. Still, I knew I couldn’t chicken out or I would never hear the end of it.

  With a firm mental twist (along with a quick prayer) I activated the shield. I was glad the nodal shield was practically self-sustaining, since the circle of flames scared the crap out of me once they went up and I had probably lost enough concentration to let it collapse otherwise.

  “There, that wasn’t so bad now, was it?” Carl said, slapping me on the back.

  “Actually it was,” I admitted with a nervous little chuckle. “The flames look rather imposing from this point of view.”

  “They sure do. The analytical part of my brain tells me that the flames are fully contained in the middle of the shield, but the primal part wants nothing to do with logical explanations.”

  “Well put,” I agreed, knowing exactly what he meant. “But enough of that, we’ve got work to do and I don’t want to stay inside here any longer than we have to.”

  “Ok, I’ll go first and you watch.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes so I could watch the node power without the distraction of the flames around us. It didn’t take long for the familiar purple swirls to come into view, but they didn’t seem to be any brighter than normal; I guess I hadn’t gotten in sync with the power yet.

  After another minute or two I began to see changes in the power concentrations as Carl began touching it with what looked like Tai Chi type movements of his hands. Curious, I moved my hands back and forth a few times, but to no effect.

  “That’s totally bizarre,” I said. “It’s not as simple as just waving your hands, so what’s the mental component you’re adding?”

  “I’m not quite sure. I did it by accident the first time, and this time it just seemed to come naturally, but I’m not sure I can explain it.”

  Disgruntled, I tried again a few times but had no luck. I tried adding kinesis to the mix but that didn’t work either and I knew I was missing something simple. It felt like I was playing ‘name that tune’ with a song I knew well, but just couldn’t get the title to pop into the forebrain.

  I decided to let Carl play with it for a while and hope he could discover how to explain it. This was the perfect application of one of his favorite sayings; if in doubt, let someone else do the work.

  I turned my attention to the shield itself to see if there was anything worth noting from this point of view. I probed the edges to check for integrity; first tenuous and then with more force, but they seemed to be completely solid. There was no doubt this was the best shield I’d ever made.

  I wondered if I could alter the size of the shield without having it fall apart on me. It didn’t seem like a skill with any practical application, but it would be a good test of control. I decided making it a couple of inches bigger shouldn’t hurt anything and would be enough to satisfy my curiosity.

  Like almost everything else with psionics it was easier said than done, though, and I almost caused it to break down several times. I poked and prodded it for close to an hour before my fumbling efforts bore any kind of fruit.

  I found if I added power to only one part of the shield and kept it concentrated at the one point, I could then stretch that portion and force the rest of the shield outward from there. It made the shield a little oblong, but I learned how to adjust the shape and get it back to the regular circle we wanted.

  “I can’t believe you just did that,” Carl said, notes of awe and excitement coloring his voice.

  “Huh?”

  “You just moved the node. Did you not know what you were doing?”

  I gave him a quizzical look and then checked back on the node. By switching back and forth between regular and psionic sight, I saw he was right and the node was now offset by about six inches from our painted circle.

  “Of course I meant to do that,” I said, trying to keep a straight face.

  “Right… just like I meant to spill my last beer during yesterday’s test.”

  “I wonder how it works. I mean, it doesn’t follow what the elder told you or what Linda related from either the codex or the vision.”

  “I guess it’s like most things and there’s more than one way to do it. If I asked you to bring me a dozen beers from the fridge, you could get all of them at once, one at a time, or any number of combinations. They’ll all give you the same end result.”

  “I hope that wasn’t a hint, hoser.”

  “No,” he laughed. “I just meant that there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and you simply found a way that works for you.”

  “So let’s say we can move the nodes now. Do we just bring them together and let them meld?”

  “I think there’s more to it than that, but they will need to be moved and placed together. We should probably pick a safe spot outside, though, rather than in your attic like we originally talked about.”

  “Good idea,” I said and took down the shields. “We should also plan on moving the other two fragments ASAP so we don’t have to risk building a pyro shield inside the house. That one out back is going to be a pain in the ass to move.”

  “The one at the patio door is high enough off the ground that we can work from the roof. The one by the office isn’t touching yet, but it will be soon.”

  “So we’ll move those two first. We can put all of them in the back yard somewhere until we can figure out what needs to be done in order to link them safely.”

  “Let’s go pick some spots for them,” he said and started off around the house.

  “Do you think we’ll need a big stone heat sink or something going down to bedrock?” I said, falling into step beside him.

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Well, the Mayans used big-ass stone temples for each node, and your mystery prospector used a whole friggen mountain. I was wondering if it would be a requirement.”

  “It’s an interesting theory, but I can’t say if it’s right or wrong. I suppose it couldn’t hurt if we built a fifty ton stone statue of me to use as an anchor.”

  “Oh God, I t
hink I would rather let the house blow up.”

  “It’s just a suggestion… keep it in mind.”

  I just grunted, knowing that he would keep trying to bait me as long as I kept talking about it. We stopped in the middle of the yard and took stock of what we had to work with. We had a few acres of land to play with, so moving all three back here should let us place them with plenty of distance separating them.

  “Ok, how about one at the fire pit, one straight up the yard near those rocks by the fence, and the last one over by the other fence to make a rough triangle.”

  “I can’t see any problems with that. Which one do you want to move first?”

  “Let’s do the one by the office first so we can stay on the ground. If that works then we can try the one at the back deck.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me.”

  We went back to the office node and started getting ready. Linda poked her head out and asked what we were doing. I gave her the short version of what we discovered and told her we could use her help keeping watch while we attempted the move.

  She agreed, so I was able to turn my full concentration to the task at hand. I was getting better and faster at this type of shielding, but this, as they say, was show time. I waggled my hand in the air to give them a brief warning before ignition. I double checked to made sure everything was stable with the containment layers, and prepared myself to try moving it.

  “If anyone has any last minute comments or objections, now’s the time to speak up.”

  Nobody had anything to say, so I went to work. Since I still wasn’t exactly sure what part of what I did caused it to move, I thought it would make sense to try warping the shape first. This was the logical candidate in my mind since the uneven shape around the node put pressure on one side and left a ‘hole’ for it to flow into on the other. It was also the closest thing we had to matching our Mayan info on the subject.

  I started off with about two feet worth of warping to see if anything happened. I watched closely for a few minutes and saw a slight movement, but it stopped after only a few inches. I guess that was enough to relieve the pressure side, but didn’t bode well for our success. At that rate it would take me months to move it all the way across the yard.

  I brought the shield back into the regular circle shape to try again. I still had the node in my sight as I reformed it, and saw it start to move again. My heart started racing with excitement; I might be on to something here.

  I had re-centered the shield based on the front side and when it started to reform, it put the pressure back on the rear. If I could pulse the shape back and forth, I might be able to get slow but steady movement. It would look somewhat like a slug extending and contracting to move along, but it should work.

  I tried a few stretches and contractions to see if it was viable, and while it was awkward and starting to give me a headache, it was definitely working. I stopped for a breather after ten cycles to see what kind of progress I had made.

  It looked to be about six feet.

  “Well,” I began. “That wasn’t quite the success I had envisioned.”

  “Don’t knock it,” Carl encouraged. “It might be slow, but it’s working.”

  “I guess… it’s pretty damn hard, though.”

  “We’re not in a pressing hurry, so speed isn’t a primary issue. We could also try working in shifts so the weight isn’t all on your shoulders.”

  “That would help. Just moving it these few feet has given me the beginnings of a headache.”

  “Take a break then,” Linda said. “You said the shield practically sustains itself at this stage, so why rush?”

  “If it’s like everything else we’ve learned to do, it’ll probably get easier as you go along and get more experience with it,” Carl added.

  “True and true,” I agreed. “I’ll take five and then try another round. Keep an eye on what I do so you guys can take a turn.”

  I actually rested for more like fifteen minutes, but who’s counting. I gave it another ten pulses in order to check my progress consistently against the first round. I rested a minute or two in between rounds, and found I improved to about eight feet this time. It wasn’t that great, but I was making forward progress so I was happy.

  “I think I saw what you were doing and it doesn’t look that hard,” Carl said, once I sat down to rest. “I think I can do it.”

  “Go ahead,” I said, gesturing with my hand. “Knock yourself out.”

  I leaned back onto my elbows and closed my eyes to help ward off the headache. I kept a mental eye on the proceedings so I would know when I needed to move, but otherwise reduced my psionic output to near zero.

  “Dammit,” Carl swore after about fifteen minutes with no success. “I can’t seem to get a handle on your shield. It feels like I have plenty of power, but no way to use it… it’s like your shield is keyed only to you.”

  “I never thought of it that way, but you might be right.”

  “I’m pretty sure I could break it, but it doesn’t seem like I can bend it to my will.”

  “Did you want to try building your own shield?”

  “This is a perfect catch-22 scenario; I have enough power to do it while I’m in the concentrating effect of your shield, but can’t do it with your shield in the way. Without your shield, I don’t have enough power to build a structure like this, so I’m screwed either way.”

  “What about you?” I asked Linda. “Care to give it a try?”

  “Sure, but you’ll have to drop your shield and walk me through building one of my own. You boys have progressed far past what I know of it.”

  “No problem,” I said, as I let it collapse. “I didn’t mean to exclude you from this, but to be honest, I kind of moved by accident the first time. I also didn’t want to interrupt your translating efforts.”

  “No worries,” she said with an odd smirk on her face. “We’ve all been working at it in different ways and to the best of our individual abilities. I couldn’t ask for more from you boys.”

  “Ok,” I said, a little confused. “Come on down… you’re the next contestant on the node is right!”

  “This’ll take a while, so stop being Neanderthals; grab some chairs, snacks and drinks. Tonight is a better night than most, so I’ll go grab some of the bubbly on my way out.”

  She was obviously up to something, but I knew better than to mess it up for her. I hadn’t been married long, but some survival instincts rise to the top quickly; I did as she commanded. It actually began to have the feel of a summer picnic by the time we got resettled, and was more than a little pleasant.

  As I began working through the specific process needed for the containment shields, it became apparent she wasn’t as far behind as she thought. About the only thing she didn’t know was the importance of the cryo portion of the shield, but she caught on quickly.

  After almost freezing herself to death the first time she tried to use pyrokinesis without a real heat sink, it was no wonder she picked it up so fast. She had her first fully contained node shield online in about twenty minutes… and she was damn good at it.

  While she had figured out the nodal shield portion in record time, her movement skills were still a little bit shaky. It took her about thirty cycles to get only twelve feet of distance, but she didn’t seem disappointed. I tried to pump her for info on what was going on, but she wasn’t biting.

  We had gotten the node close to the driveway by now and it seemed like she was just about as ready for a break as I was. She slowly collapsed her shield and slumped down into her chair.

  “That’s about it for me today,” she said, sounding tired but satisfied. “Let’s save our energy for later tonight.”

  “Later?” Carl and I asked simultaneously.

  “In case it escaped your attention, the sky is clear for once so there won’t be any rain tonight, and we should have a shot at viewing the secret codex again.”

  “You’re right, I hadn’t even thought about that. We’ve
been kinda distracted by our success with the node.”

  “I’ll start getting the trestle tables set up,” Carl volunteered.

  “I’ll go to town and get some Chinese,” Linda said. “I have a feeling this’ll be a long night and none of us will want to take the time to cook or clean later.”

  I helped Carl set the table up and it didn’t take long with both of us working together so we had plenty of time to discuss today’s events while waiting for Linda to return. We decided that the node we were working on earlier was in a safe enough position for now, and tomorrow we would tackle the tricky one.

  “What do you think Linda’s up to?” Carl asked.

  “I’m guessing she did well on the translation today and maybe discovered something significant.”

  “That’s what I thought and I was hoping you would try and squeeze it out of her before she left.”

  “I considered it, but she looked like the cat that ate the canary so I didn’t want to spoil her timing of the great revelation… whatever it is.”

  “Should we lay out the codex?”

  “Let’s wait for Linda.” I said, and started toward the house. “I think I’m going to clean up a bit before dinner.”

  I rushed things a little, but still felt tons better for the quick wash. They were just beginning to set out the food when I got back, and the smell made me realize how hungry I really was. To say I devoured my dinner would be a rather large understatement.

  Moonrise wasn’t far off by the time we were done, so we brought the codex out and carefully laid it out along the table. Carl won the coin toss and got first dibs on it; he was practically hovering over the stain that would unlock the vision. After an interminable wait, the moon finally shone on the paper and Carl pressed his thumb down.

  Nothing happened. He moved his fingers around in case he missed the spot, but no luck.