“Math jokes. Funny.” She pulled her arm out of his grasp and walked next to him. “I threatened him, but I wasn’t going to hurt him, you know that. Besides, we got what we wanted, and more, since I learned a lot from him, too. I was careful not to give him anything that could lead him back to us, so I’m not too worried. By the way, what are you doing?”
“What?”
“Are you going with me?”
Sigh. “Just for a little while.” He motioned her to go ahead of him on the bus, pulling out the ticket he had reluctantly purchased a short time ago and giving it to the bus attendant.
“Why?”
“You know, you really bug the shit out of me. How about we have some quality away time?” He pushed her into the front row aisle seat and passed her, finding a seat for himself halfway down the bus.
After looking around a bit in an attempt to regain some of the self respect she had lost by walking blindly into the power hungry brothers the night before, Mercy pulled out her tablet and opened up the first of the files that interested her. Before the bus left the city, she was already deep into the article that discussed the interaction of energy fields. Alan had mentioned something about it earlier that caught her attention.
He had said, “At first, we were starved for test cases. After we started advertising and offering incentives, we got a few more. This semester was the first time we were able to offer scholarships to powered bordertown residents, so we were able to double our pool with that. But, having a small number at the outset turned out to be a blessing in disguise because having too many subjects skewed the data.”
“Why is that?”
“Well, as soon as we got a larger pool, the subjects we’d been studying and had reliable data on started testing erratically. It took us a while at first to figure out why their results suddenly became inconsistent, and why we couldn’t get any good data from the new set. Doctor Everett finally solved the problem by isolating them for each test. Then everything leveled out. Turns out, the fields sometimes, but not always, interact with each other, affecting everything from sensitivity, to control, to intensity of power generated...well, just about every aspect of field manipulation. If we had started with a large group, the data would have been all over the place from the beginning.”
“Really? That’s interesting.” Interesting was a gigantic understatement. Her heart had decided to start its own jazz band.
“Really? Why?” he probed.
She smiled, “It just is. Is that in the information you gave me?”
“Yes, in one of the more recent entries of the EFM journal…Now that I think about it, someone like you, whose levels are far higher than anyone we have enrolled in the project, could seriously affect the outcomes just by passing through the hall outside during a test. I wonder, do you know when you might have been in the building, other than for Dr. Everett’s classes?”
She couldn’t remember, so they had gone on to another topic of discussion, but she had kept it in mind and knew exactly where she wanted to start reading as soon as she got the chance.
After fifteen minutes, Mercy sat back suddenly, jarring her seat and startling the sleeping man next to her, who frowned and turned his body to lean against the window, punching his jacket-pillow into a better shape for his head.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
After getting no response from the back of his head, she reread the last passage. If Dr. Everett’s theories about the Human body being traced with energy fields that some people were genetically predisposed to being able to control were true, then the information in front of her looked like it explained her sudden surge in visions. According to their recent findings, people who were minimally exposed to others with powers during their lives had experienced a variety of reactions when they were suddenly exposed to subjects who were field manipulators. Sometimes the reactions were limiting, other times the energy levels recorded rose higher than any previously recorded score. Additionally, the higher the level of energy manipulation, the more radical the effects on both parties.
Even more informative was the case of two patients, siblings from a bordertown, who had been together all their lives. Their fields reacted with the fields of strangers, but not with each other’s fields. The doctor hypothesized that, either because of their family relationship, or because they had been together for so long, their fields had become accustomed to each other. When the brothers were separated from each other for a week, and then reunited, their fields had reacted slightly, but then, within an hour, resettled into their normal patterns.
Mercy felt the agitation, confusion and uncertainty that had built up over the last few months ease down inside of her. Her recent bouts of visions were not a preview of the beginning of a new phase of her life in which she would experience increasingly frequent, unwelcome, and inescapable visions. They were the result of exposure to unfamiliar fields from the influx of powered people into the university over the last semester.
She hadn’t really noticed them, because for the most part she wasn’t and had never been very sensitive to the energy fields of others. She thought it was a little strange that she wasn’t even aware that they were affecting her, because she could always tell when someone was purposely attacking her with their power. But then, her shield was so strong that...wait, maybe that was it. She had developed her shield to such a level that it was a formidable defense even when she was sleeping. Perhaps her shield was what kept her from noticing the tiny, unintentional emanations of the fields of others.
Although she spent her life surrounded by people with control as strong or stronger than hers, they hadn’t been affecting her because she had already acclimated to them. She usually had visions during her short trips home, but couldn’t remember offhand if they were particularly atypical in some way or if they occurred more often than at school; it was true, however, that she had been having less before she left for college.
She closed her eyes and sighed. There were few things that would make her happier than a life free of the debilitating, often inaccurate or useless, glimpses of the possible future. They were not a gift she wouldn’t return, if she had the chance. While some were harmless, and a very few precious to her, many of them were like vivid nightmares and lately had all been accompanied by the painful side effects of her attempts to reduce them.
She opened up her eyes, powering off the tablet and stowing it safely in her bag. She tucked it between her knees after removing her jacket and laying it over her like a blanket. She took a moment to locate Cord behind her. He looked like he was asleep, so she decided to stay awake for a while. It was going to be easy with her mind running back and forth across the field of information she had just discovered. Her lips stretched contentedly, and she sat back and enjoyed the game.
-----------
The good thing about working with a professional Kin interrogator was that they knew when you were lying. So, as long as you told the truth, and you kept talking, you could avoid the really nasty part. As he had guessed, Tiburon didn’t want anything Scythe wasn’t already willing to just tell him, except for where he had found the passage about the third seal. Scythe had quickly decided it wasn’t that big of a deal anyway and just told him where in the Scere archives it was. He was pretty sure it had been overlooked because it wasn’t even in a restricted section of the database. Anyone with a low level clearance could find it. The other things he wanted to know were things that wouldn’t change how things were going anyway.
To be fair, Tiburon was willing to give a little too, once he saw how helpful Scythe had become. For example, when he had asked for a list of who was on the team that Scythe had worked on, and Scythe refused to give it, he had only had him beaten up a little, and then let it go. And, when he saw Scythe’s incredulous face when he asked where his home and the Youngs were, he had laughed and waved it away. In the end, it looked to Scythe like he was just trying to come up with questions off the top of his head.
It was possible that he was paying the inter
rogator by the hour and wanted to get his money’s worth. Scythe suspected, however, that he had something else in mind.
His other motives became clear when a knock on the door announced the arrival of two guards escorting a man with a bag over his head. They brought in a chair, set it in front of Scythe and forced the man to sit down on it. Then they bound him to the chair with thick tape.
“What’s going on?” The scared voice that scampered its way out from under the bag gave Scythe the willies.
After they hit the man a few times, they told him to shut up and he did.
In the doorway, a confused Summer stood by and watched until Tiburon waved her all the way into the cell. She had been dismissed after the punishment session and Scythe hadn’t expected to see her again. It looked like she hadn't expected to be back either. She was directed to wait to the side, which she did, keeping her attention on Scythe. Her anger had abated and she had calmed down a lot, but he could see that animosity still simmered underneath her tired demeanor.
“Now, Scythe, you get to decide whether you want to live or die here today,” Tiburon said as if he were explaining what was for dinner.
Oh shit.
“This man knows something that I want to know. We could get it from him eventually, but you are very good at that, aren’t you? You could probably do it in, what, three minutes?”
Scythe was suddenly very tired.
“We are going to give you the opportunity to do it on your own, and then we are going to give you incentive and if none of that works, we’re going to kill you.”
Ah, damn. Scythe could tell that Tiburon’s last words were a lie. That really sucked. No chance of dying.
“Let’s skip to the blackmail,” Scythe said, since he wasn’t just going to cooperate with them. He already knew how Tiburon wanted it to go. He wanted to keep Scythe as their pet mind reader indefinitely. They would just bring in their victims and make him do whatever they wanted.
Scythe was pretty sure he wasn’t going to do that.
Sigh. But, not one hundred percent sure.
Tiburon smiled. “Summer, come here.”
“What? I thought we were done,” she said.
“Just one more thing.”
“I’ve kind of lost my desire today.” That was reassuring. “Could I come back for more tomorrow?” That was not.
“If you don’t do what I want, I’ll tell her.” Tiburon said, watching Scythe closely.
The man was a genius when it came to reading other people. How he knew that Scythe was the type of person who wouldn’t want that, he didn’t know, but he was dead on.
He clenched his teeth together, and Tiburon chuckled. “It’s your choice.”
Summer was already a disaster. Her spirit had been broken years ago by brutal treatment and the belief that she had been betrayed by a friend. She had slowly degraded over time, until she had trouble thinking rationally any more, at least when it came to him. Today had only made it worse. No person with a conscience that functioned could possibly do the things she had done to him, even with all she had been through. If she found out the truth, it would definitely destroy her.
“Don’t,” Scythe said, suspecting that it was futile, but feeling compelled to try regardless. “Send her out.”
“Summer. Wait outside.”
“Tell me what?”
“Outside.”
She opened the door and went out. When the door had shut, Tiburon asked, “So, you’ve decided to cooperate?”
“My powers aren’t working right now.”
“We’ll power down the suit and they should return within minutes. It will be just you, him, and the camera we have set up in here, since the rest of us have already learned about your impressive abilities. I’ll watch while you ask him and tape his answers.”
“It doesn’t work like that. I can see the answers; he doesn’t say them aloud.”
“I’m betting you can make him, if you are sufficiently motivated.”
Scythe thought probably he could, too. He grit his teeth and stared at Tiburon. They both already knew his answer.
Tiburon shrugged, “I didn’t expect you’d go easily and, like the window, I’m prepared for whatever comes. Get her back in here.”
“Don’t. It will break her,” Scythe said, but she was already on her way in.
“She’s long broken, aren’t you Summer?” Tiburon asked with that disturbing smile.
She frowned at him, “Tell me what?”
“Did you enjoy your little session today?”
She blinked.
Scythe said, “Summer. You need to leave right now. Just turn around and go.”
She turned and slapped him hard across the face. “Don’t you ever, ever talk to me.”
Tiburon loved that. When she turned back to him, he continued, “Did it make you feel better, give you some closure, to get some sweet vengeance for what had been done to your body four years ago?”
“What, you’re going to blackmail me now? Did you video it, and now you’re threatening to turn me in to the police for assault if I don’t become one of your stooges?”
Tiburon laughed, “No, but that is an excellent plan, just the type of thing I’d think up.”
“Then what is it?”
“Cover her,” he said and both of the other guards stood back, pulled out their weapons and pointed them at her.
“What is this? You’re going to kill me?” She was furious, which was unsettling because she should have been at least a little fearful for her life.
Scythe, on the other hand, was growing very fearful for her. It was just dawning on him, just peeking over the horizon...
“Four years ago, we needed some leverage on a certain Scere agent, something that would bring him down, keep him out of our way. So two plans were put in motion. One was an assassination and the second, the backup, was to use the court system to eliminate him.”
She looked back and forth from Scythe to Tiburon, “So?”
“You were selected initially to be the assassin, but apparently the process was a bit too brutal. That’s what he told me anyway. You were too damaged to function effectively. So…”
“What are you talking about? I’m not an assassin.”
“So we got ourselves another assassin, which incidentally also failed to work out. You became the backup plan, and, with your excellent testimony, it looked like we had finally gotten him out of the way.”
“I testified because he tied me up and tortured me, not for your little plot.” Despite her sharp words, there was a tiny seed of doubt now sprouting in her voice…
Scythe realized that he hadn't taken the Kin man seriously enough.
“No. Everything you did was part of our plan. That was the beauty of it. You weren’t even coerced. You believed it all, which is what made you so convincing to the judge.”
“I believed it because it was true.” Her heart was beating faster and faster, and when she glanced at Scythe now, there was an edge of panic in her look.
“Stop.” Scythe said. He hadn't thought it was possible that a Family man would...He thought Tiburon was just going to threaten her, or torment her...
“No. You had your chance. Now you get to see what happens when you don’t follow directions.” He looked back at Summer. “Did you enjoy cutting him open today? Beating him? Shooting him with electricity? Doing the things that were done to you? Answer me. Did you enjoy it?”
He was the one enjoying himself. Scythe could smell it on him and hear it in his chest: the excitement that the unraveling of his scheme bred in him. He was going slow so that it would last longer. It was truly appalling.
“Y..Yes.”
“I’m glad, Summer, I really am, that you could get your revenge. But there’s one small problem. He wasn’t the one.”
Scythe couldn’t take his eyes off her. “Summer. It will be okay,” he said, one of the few times he had deliberately lied.
She frowned. “Why are you saying this? It definitel
y was him.”
“What is his gift? Mind reading, right? And do you remember the man who confessed to assaulting you?”
“Yeah, he was a lunatic. He said he hypnotized me, which was complete bullshit.”
“Yes, I read about how you never accepted that story. That’s why I contacted you yesterday, so you could have your revenge on the real villain, but Scythe wasn’t the one. It was Cord. I know, because I hired him to do it. Not to you specifically, you were just the one who was picked up. It could have been anyone from your group…”
“Lie. That’s a lie.”
“You can clearly hear that I am not lying, but to be safe listen now.” He spoke slowly, “It wasn’t Scythe that tortured you. He has always been your friend. It was Cord, who raped you and tortured you and stole your memories and fabricated new ones with Scythe in them. And I hired him to do that, because that’s his ability.”
She stared at Tiburon, searching for some sign of a lie in his face, because everything else told her it was the truth. “No.” Then, her head turned very slowly until she was looking at Scythe.
“Summer. It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Scythe said forcefully, but his words were wasted. It was too late for her.
Her eyes bulged and started to spasm a little in their sockets, flicking around a little as they started to wander over all the places she had hurt him.
“No.” Then faster. “No. No. No.”
“Summer look at me.”
“No. No.” She came forward and touched his face where she had just hit him. Then she traveled to his neck, where she had carved fresh scars over the old ones, and made some additional cuts for good measure. Her fingers dropped down over his shirt, underneath which were dozens of burn marks and bruises and a few broken ribs. “No. NO!”
She backed away from him as if he were a demon come to tempt her. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
“Summer. Listen to me…”
“It’s TRUE, ISN’T IT!” She screamed. She shuddered when her back bumped against the wall.
Scythe didn’t answer. He wanted to puke. He wanted to scream. He wanted to rip off the belts that held him and use his bare hands to separate Tiburon from his life. He hadn’t wanted to do something like that for a long while, but he was tired and hurt, and he hurt, and his control was slipping.
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