by L. J. Smith
Joyce was asleep, with the French doors to her room wide open. Kaitlyn glanced at Rob, and what otherwise would have been just a meaningful look took on words.
Too bad, she told him. I was hoping we might get a chance to go back into that hidden room-but it's too risky. She'd hear us.
He nodded. It would have been too risky anyway. Those doors are mostly glass-and if she woke up, she'd be looking straight out at that panel.
Lewis was screwing his face into an unaccustomed frown. I thought we were supposed to be talking out loud.
Not when we're standing outside Joyce's door, Kaitlyn said. This thing is useful when we need to be quiet. She moved stealthily away.
They found Gabriel already in the front lab, kneeling by a bookcase, scanning the journals inside. Kaitlyn went to help him.
"There are more bookcases in the back," Anna said, and she and Lewis went through the door. Rob joined Kaitlyn. He didn't need to say anything-she could feel his watchful protectiveness. He meant to keep an eye on her when Gabriel was around.
There's no need, Kaitlyn thought, and then wondered if anyone had heard her. Oh, she didn't like this-this exposure. Not being sure if your own thoughts were private. She reached crossly for a book.
We've got to get rid of this thing.
On either side of her, Rob and Gabriel were radiating agreement.
They looked for what seemed like hours. Kaitlyn scanned journals with names like Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research and Research in Parapsychology. Some were translations of foreign journals with tongue-twisting names like Sdelovaci Technika.
There were articles about telepathy, thought projection, suggestibility. But nothing that looked remotely helpful to their situation.
At last, when Kaitlyn was beginning to worry that Joyce had to wake up soon, Anna called excitedly from the other room.
People, I've found something!
They all hurried to the back lab and gathered around her.
" 'On stability in telepathic linkage as a function of equilibrium in self-sustaining geometric constructs,'" she said, holding a journal with a red cover. "It's about groups in telepathic links-groups like its."
"What on earth is a self-sustaining geometric construct?" Kaitlyn asked, very calmly.
Anna flashed a smile. "It's a web. You said it yourself, Kaitlyn-we're like five points that are joined to form a geometrical shape. And the point is that it's stable-that's what this article is saying. Two minds connected aren't stable. Three or four minds connected aren't stable. But five minds connected are. They form a-a sort of stable shape, and the whole thing stays in balance after that. That's why we're still linked."
Rob glanced at Gabriel. "So it's your fault. You shouldn't have connected all five of us."
Gabriel ignored him, reaching for the journal. "What I want to know is how to get unconnected."
"I'm getting there," Anna said, holding it away from him. "I haven't read that part yet, but it's got a section here about how to disrupt the stability and break the connection." Her eyes scanned down the page as she continued to hold the journal away from Gabriel.
The others waited impatiently.
"This says that it's all theoretical, that nobody's ever really gotten five minds linked together.... Wait ...
then it says that some larger groups may be stable, too.... Okay, here. Got it." Anna began to read aloud. '"Breaking the link would be harder than initiating it, would require a far greater amount of power....' But wait, it says there is one certain way of breaking it-" Anna stopped abruptly, eyes fixed on the page. Kaitlyn could feel her shock and dismay.
"What?" Gabriel demanded. "What does it say?"
Anna looked up at him. "It says the only certain way of breaking the connection is for one of the group to die."
Everyone stared at her, stunned. There was no sound, either mental or vocal.
"You mean," Lewis said shakily, at last, "that the web won't kill us-but that the only way to get rid of it is for one of us to be killed?"
Anna shook her head-not a negative, merely a helpless gesture. "That's what the article says. But- it's only a theory. Nobody can really know-"
Gabriel snatched the journal from her. He read rapidly, then stood for a moment very still. Then, with a furious gesture, he threw the journal at a wall.
"It's permanent," he said flatly, turning to stare at the wall himself.
Kaitlyn shivered. His anger frightened her, and it mixed with her own feelings of shock and fear.
In a lot of ways she'd enjoyed the connection. It was interesting, excising. Different. But to never be able to break it... to know you'd be stuck in a web until one of them died . ..
My whole life has changed, she thought. Forever. Something . . . irrevocable . .. has happened, and there's no way to undo it.
I will never be alone, unconnected, again.
"At least we know it's not going to kill any of us," Anna said in a quiet voice.
Kaitlyn said slowly, "Like you said, that article might be wrong. There might be some other way to break it-we can read other books, other journals, and see."
"There is a way. There has to be," Gabriel said, in a cracked, almost unrecognizable voice.
He's the most desperate of all of us, Kait realized with something like dispassion. He can't stand being this close-having us all this close to him.
Until we find it, you all stay away from me, Gabriel's mental voice said, as if in answer to Kaitlyn's thought. Had he heard her?
"Meanwhile," Rob said in a quiet, level voice, "we might work on learning how to control it-"
Just stay away! Gabriel shouted, and he strode out of the room.
Lewis, Anna, Rob, and Kaitlyn were left staring after him.
"Why's he so mad at us?" Lewis asked. "If it's anyone's fault, it's his."
Rob smiled faintly. "That's why he's mad," he said in a dry voice. "He doesn't like being wrong."
"It's more than that," Kaitlyn said. "He helped us-and look where it got him. So it just confirms what he thought in the first place, that you should never help."
There was another silence, while everyone just stood. We still haven't taken it all in, Kaitlyn thought.
We're in shock.
Then she gave herself a mental shake. "Those bookcases look pretty bad. We'd better clean things up quick. We can look for other articles about breaking the web later, when we know Joyce won't be around."
They straightened the books and the rows of plastic journal holders in both labs. It was as she was putting on the final touches that Kaitlyn found another article that intrigued her.
Someone had marked the page with a red plastic Post-it flag. The title was simply "Chi and Crystals."
You guys? What's chi? she asked, scarcely aware that she wasn't asking it out loud.
"It's a Chinese word for your life energy," Lewis said, coming to her. "It flows all through your body in different channels, sort of like blood-or electricity. Everybody has it, and psychics have more of it."
"So chi is what Rob channels?" Kaitlyn said.
"That's one name for it," Rob said. "At the other center they told me lots of others-like in India they call it prana, and the ancient Egyptians used to call it sekhem. It's all the same thing. All living things have it."
"Well, according to this article, crystals store it," Kaitlyn said.
Rob frowned. "Crystals aren't alive. . .."
"I know, but this says that theoretically a crystalline structure could store it up, kind of like a charged battery," Kaitlyn said. She was still looking at the article thoughtfully. Something was tugging at her, whispering significance, demanding that she pay attention to it. But she didn't know what.
The article looked as if it had been read a lot....
"She's up," Rob said. Kaitlyn could hear it, too-
water running in the single downstairs bathroom. Joyce was awake and washing.
Anna checked her watch. It's three-thirty. We can just tell her th
at we walked home from school.
Kaitlyn nodded and she felt agreement from the others. She straightened her back, kept her head high, and went to face Joyce.
The week that followed was hectic. There was school to go to during the days, and testing with Joyce in the afternoons. Any leisure time was filled with two things: trying to find a way to break the web, and trying to find out more about Mr. Zetes's plans. The problem was that they didn't make much progress with either.
They didn't get into the hidden room again. Although Kait and Rob waited for a chance, Joyce never left the Institute again and she slept with her doors open.
Kaitlyn lived in a perpetual state of astonishment and nervousness. It was hard to be constantly on her guard with Joyce, to keep from talking about the only two things that were now important in her life. But somehow she managed it-they all managed it.
Marisol remained in a coma. No one outside her family was allowed to visit her, but Joyce called every day. Every day the news was the same: no change.
Mr. Zetes visited the Institute several times, always unexpectedly. They kept their secrets from him, too-or at least, Kaitlyn was pretty sure they did. Occasionally, when she saw Mr. Z's penetrating dark eyes lingering on Gabriel, she wondered.
Gabriel himself was . . . disturbing. Disturbed. Not taking things well.
For Kaitlyn, even though this new intimacy was strange and terrifying, it was exciting, too. She'd never been so close to other people in her life. The sparkling enthusiasm of Lewis's thoughts-the cool serenity of Anna's-that was good. And the closeness to Rob was almost painful delight.
But for Gabriel, it was all torture. He spent every minute of his free time reading journals and books, trying to find a way to break the web. He convinced Joyce he was simply interested in researching his talent, and she was delighted. She let him go to the library and get more books, more journals.
He didn't find anything helpful. And every day he didn't, he withdrew further from the others. He learned how to wall himself off telepathically so that Kaitlyn could barely sense his presence.
We're trying to leave you alone, she told him. And it was true, they were, because they were all worried.
Gabriel seemed to be getting wound tighter and tighter, like something waiting to explode.
On Tuesday, one week after the web was established, Joyce tested Kaitlyn with the EEG machine again.
Kaitlyn had been waiting for this. I think she's going to do it, she told Rob. They had gotten pretty good at sending messages to specific people.
I can come in any time you want, he said. But what do you want me to do-just try to watch her?
Kaitlyn debated as she followed Joyce's instructions to sit down and close her eyes. No-if there's anything she doesn't want you to see, she won't let you
watch. Could you make a distraction when I tell you to? It only needs to last a minute.
Yes, Rob said simply.
Now that Marisol wasn't there to help, Joyce had stopped testing Gabriel at all, and usually sent Rob and a volunteer to the back lab while the other three did their testing in the front. Rob was there now with Fawn, the girl who had MS. Kaitlyn could feel him waiting, alert and vigilant.
"Right; you know how to do this," Joyce said, sticking a final electrode in place-in the center of Kaitlyn's forehead. Over her third eye. "I'll concentrate on the picture. You relax."
Kait murmured something, concentrating on the feel of that single electrode. Cold. It was definitely colder than all the others, and her forehead had a prickling feeling.
When she relaxed, letting her mind fall into darkness, she knew what to expect.
It came. First the feeling of incredible pressure behind her forehead. It turned into a feeling of inflation, like a balloon being blown up. Then came the pictures.
They flashed through her mind with bewildering speed, and she could only recognize a few. She saw roses and a horse. She saw Mr. Zetes in front of the hidden doorway again. She saw a white house with a caramel-colored face in the window.
And-unexpectedly-she heard voices.
Anna's voice: Kait-I can't think-what's happening?
Lewis's: Jeeeeeeeez.
Rob's: Just hang on, everybody.
At the same time, to Kait's astonishment, she could clearly hear Gabriel. What the hell is this? What are you trying to do?
She forced herself to ignore the distracting pictures. Gabriel, where are you?
Just coming up on Exmoor Street.
Kaitlyn was amazed. Exmoor Street was blocks away from the Institute. They'd found that their telepathy fell off sharply with distance, and anything more than a block was too far for clear communication.
But Gabriel was clear now-painfully clear.
I'll explain later, Kait told him. Just try to deal with it for a few minutes. Then she told Rob, Now.
Immediately she heard a thud, and then Fawn's voice shouting. "Joyce! Oh, please-Rob's hurt!"
Kaitlyn remained perfectly still, eyes shut. She heard a rustle on the other side of the screen, then Anna's voice saying, She's going. She's in the back lab now.
Kaitlyn opened her eyes, reaching up to her forehead. The little electrode came away easily, but something remained behind. She could feel it with her fingertips, something stuck to her skin by the electrode cream.
Carefully, her heart beating violently, she peeled it off.
When she looked at it, pinched between thumb and forefinger, she got a shock of disappointment. It wasn't anything after all-just a lump of white electrode cream. Then her fingernails scraped at it and she saw that beneath the coating of paste was something hard. It was white, too, or translucent, which made it
difficult to see. It was about the size and shape of her little fingernail, and quite smooth and flat.
It looked like crystal.
All this time she could hear faint voices in the other room. Now Rob said, Watch out, Joyce is standing up.
Quickly Kaitlyn stuck the small crystal back onto her forehead. She jammed the electrode on over it, praying they both would stay.
She's coming back, Lewis reported.
Here she is, Anna said.
Kait rubbed the telltale paste from her fingers onto her jeans. She picked up the pencil and clipboard and began to draw. It didn't matter what. She sketched a rose.
The folding screen was moved. "Kaitlyn, I'm going to unhook you," Joyce said in a rapid, harassed voice.
"Rob's completely collapsed-I think he's overdone things with that girl. Anna, Lewis, can you help get him to the couch here? I want him to lie down for a while."
Kaitlyn held still, fingers curled because she was guiltily aware that there was still electrode cream under her fingernails. She was relieved that Joyce didn't seem to notice anything peculiar about the forehead electrode. What Kaitlyn noticed, though, was that after taking that one off, Joyce's hand went quickly to her shirt pocket. As if palming something and putting it away.
Rob, you okay? Kaitlyn asked, as Lewis and Anna helped him in, and Joyce turned to settle him on the couch.
She got the mental impression of a wink. Just fine. Did you see anything?
A crystal, Kait told him. We need to talk about this, try to figure it all out.
Rob said, Sure thing. Just as soon as she lets me get up.
"Before you go, what did you draw?" Joyce asked, looking up as Kait headed for the door.
Kaitlyn got the clipboard and showed her the rose picture.
"Oh, well-better luck next time. It was supposed to be a horse. I'm sorry we had to interrupt your testing."
"It doesn't matter," Kaitlyn said. "I'm going upstairs to get this electrode stuff out of my hair." Silently she added, We'd better meet before dinner.
She went upstairs. She wanted to think, but somehow her head seemed cloudy, her thoughts slow.
Rob's voice came to her. Kaitlyn-are you feeling okay?
Kaitlyn started to answer, and then realized just how she was feeling. Oh, Rob, I'm stupi
d. I forgot what happened to me last time she did this.
She could sense revelation and sympathy from Lewis and Anna, but Rob put it into words. A headache.
A bad one, Kaitlyn admitted. It's coming on fast and getting worse.
Rob's frustration was almost palpable. And I'm stuck down here with Joyce fussing over me.
It doesn't matter, Kait told him quickly. You're supposed to be in a collapse, so stay collapsed. Don't do anything to make her suspicious.
To distract herself, she looked out the window,
squinting against the mild light. And then she saw something that made her heart jump into her throat.
Instantly there was an answering wave of alarm from downstairs. What, what? Lewis said. What's wrong?
It's nothing, Kaitlyn said. Don't worry. I've just got to check something out. It was the first time she'd tried to deceive the others, but she wanted a moment to think alone. She pulled away from them mentally, knowing they'd respect that. It was like turning your back in a crowded room: the only kind of privacy any of them had now.
She hesitated by the window, looking out at the black limousine parked on the narrow dirt road-and the two figures beside it. One was tall, white-haired, wearing a greatcoat. The other lithe, dark-haired, wearing a red pullover.
Mr. Zetes and Gabriel. Talking in a place where no one could hear them.
CHAPTER 14
Kaitlyn hurried downstairs and slipped out the back door.
Quietly, she told herself as she made her way down the hill behind the Institute. Quietly and carefully. She kept to the blurred shadows of the redwood trees, creeping up on her prey.
She got close enough that she could hear Gabriel and Mr. Zetes talking. She knelt behind a bush, looking at them cautiously through the prickly winter-green foliage.
It gave her a grim satisfaction to realize that Gabriel's wall-building could have some drawbacks. He'd barricaded himself from the rest of them so efficiently that he didn't sense her a few yards away.
Fortunately, Mr. Zetes's dogs didn't seem to be around to spot her, either.
Shamelessly eavesdropping, Kaitlyn strained her ears.
One dread pounded inside her, sharper than her headache. She had a terrible fear that they were talking about the web.