Minds of Men

by Kacey Ezell

  Shaken, Evelyn reached out and re-established the link with the lieutenant. Sean shoved me out. Told me to run. What do we do?

  “On the other hand, Miss Psychic, if you do not reveal yourself, you will be forced to watch as we break all of the bones in your friend’s hands and feet. And then we will find you anyway. You see, we are not without psychic resources of our own.”

  The German psychic! Evelyn thought, her heart sinking. That must be why I didn’t sense him here. She must be shielding him.

  Them, Abram corrected her, his own mind voice sounding strange and strained. Evelyn turned her attention to him and realized that he was focused on a single, pinpoint sensation: the barrel of a 7.92mm Mauser pressed against the nape of his neck.

  “Do not try,” another accented voice said softly. “If you try to touch me, your friend here will lose his head, and we will still hurt your other friend very badly. I am not alone in these woods.”

  Evie...Abram started to say. She could feel his mulish determination rising within him. He was a scrapper from Brooklyn. He thought this Nazi prick was bluffing. He could move his leg, just so, sweep the other guy’s stance, make him fall...

  “No,” Evelyn said, both mentally and physically. “Do nothing! I am here.” She put her hands against the cold ground and pushed herself up to her knees. Though she tried her best, she was unable to suppress a grunt of pain as she did so.

  Instantly, two other Germans materialized out of the trees and reached under her arms, helping her to her feet. The one who had spoken grinned at her, then reached down and roughly pulled Abram up as well.

  “We will join your friend in the clearing,” he said. “Willi, Werner, help her walk. You, my good friend,” he added to Abram, “will walk in front of me, with your hands in the air like a good boy.”

  Evelyn could feel Abram’s anger radiating down the lines of their link. She shrank back from it, severed the connection. What had she done? What was she supposed to have done? She could no more let them torture Sean and shoot the lieutenant than she could do it herself. She knew she had done the only thing she could...

  So why did she feel like such a traitor?

  The Germans brought them through the trees and out into the open clearing. The tall blond one smiled at their approach and beckoned them forward. “Put that one here, next to this one,” he directed in English, nudging Sean with his boot. The flight engineer began to thrash, and the blond German kicked him in the stomach without even looking down. Evelyn let out a little cry of protest.

  The blond German smiled.

  “Ah, you do not like that, do you, miss? Well, let us understand one another, then. Your friends’ treatment will be directly correlated to the level of cooperation you provide to me and my specialist. Do we understand one another?”

  “You should address me, not her,” the lieutenant said, his voice rough and angry. “I’m senior here.”

  The blond German raised an eyebrow and spoke quickly in German. One of the men holding Evelyn let go of her and stepped over to grab roughly at the lieutenant’s hands. Evelyn watched as he wrenched Lieutenant Portman’s hand down and forced him to spin around. While the lieutenant faced their smiling German captor over the barrel of his rifle, the other one tied his wrists together behind his back. Then he grabbed the lieutenant by the collar and kicked at his legs, throwing him down on the ground next to Sean, who rolled to try and see what was happening.

  Misery flooded Evelyn. What had she done?

  “I will speak with you presently, Lieutenant,” the blond German said, once the navigator was down on the ground. “Right now, I am interested in this young lady.” He turned his head and looked at Evelyn again. Lieutenant Portman started to say something else, but the soldier that had found them in the woods kicked him, hard, in the face. Evelyn cried out again and reached out toward him, only to find herself restrained by the iron-hard arms of the blond German.

  “I am a reasonable man, Miss,” he said, his slight accent growing just a touch thicker. “I do not wish to treat anyone in a rough manner, let alone a lady. But I require cooperation, and I will have it. It is your choice as to whether I must treat you ill to get it or not.”

  For just a moment, Evelyn considered fighting back. She could strip his mind bare, the way she’d done with the men who’d assaulted her and Mary in London. She could even, eventually, probably do the same to all...five of the German soldiers she counted now in the clearing. But judging by the way the soldiers held their rifles pointed at both Sean and the lieutenant, she didn’t think that either of her men would survive the battle.

  “You are right. It is not a good idea,” the blond German said.

  Evelyn looked up at him, startled. He chuckled and let his hands drop.

  “No,” he said. “I am a man and, therefore, not favored with your gifts. I am, however, conversant with them, and I know that you have your own defenses. You wear a warrior’s uniform. A warrior would at least consider using her abilities to try and escape. So I have planned for this. We are not without defenses of our own. Any attempt to psychically harm me and mine will result in failure for you and the deaths of your men. Do you understand?”

  Evelyn felt the blood leave her face. Of course. The German psychic who had shielded them from her senses earlier. She would be protecting them now. Her mouth felt suddenly dry with fear as she looked into the blond German’s pale eyes. Slowly, unwilling to trust her voice, she nodded.

  “Good. Now that we understand one another, let us repair to a more comfortable location?”

  Someone shoved a cloth hood down over Evelyn’s face. The last thing she heard was Sean screaming her name, and then her mind exploded in pain.

  * * *

  Lina gasped as the psychic hood took effect. By all the heavens, this Ami psychic was strong! She could feel her attention and consciousness being pulled by the device, which required psychic energy commensurate with its victim’s power. She reached out with one hand and steadied herself on the frame of the wrecked bomber and sent out a pulse of message to her Fallschirmjager.

  The hood on the Ami girl requires most of my energy. I must drop our connection, she sent on a pulse of need as she screwed her eyes shut in concentration. Without waiting to hear any sort of acknowledgement, she dropped the link...except for that with Josef. That link had become like air to her and severing it never even crossed her mind. Everything else that she had, though, she channeled into the device that Willi had just thrown over the American girl’s head.

  “Oberh-h-helfer?” Horst asked, his tone worried. He reached out one hand but didn’t quite touch her. “Are y-y-you w-w-well?”

  Lina breathed in slowly through her nose, then exhaled and nodded with a tiny smile. “Yes,” she said. “Thank you. It’s just...she is very strong. I thought I was prepared, but it seems that I will have to focus almost entirely on maintaining the feedback loop the hood creates.”

  “She is down on her kn-kn-knees,” Horst said, as he peered around the twisted metal that had shielded them from the dramatic interactions between their commander and the Americans. “I can signal the stabsfeldwebel. Perhaps we m-m-may a-a-approach.”

  Josef hadn’t wanted Lina to be visible, just in case the Americans had someone nearby with a rifle. Lina had told him that she sensed no one, but he would permit no argument. Her safety was paramount. Since Lina was confident that she could run the device from a short distance away, she’d agreed. But now, having felt the way that the hood demanded so much of her, Lina thought that a little more proximity might make things worlds easier.

  “Yes, please,” she said softly. And then, before he could move, she laid a hand on Horst’s arm.

  “I am sorry,” she said, “that I had to drop the connection. I know you don’t enjoy speaking...but your mind is among the fastest I have ever known. That is why you stutter. Please don’t feel self-conscious around me, my friend.”

  A slow flush crept up the hauptgefraiter’s face, and he gave her a qu
ick nod. Then he turned and stepped out away from the wreckage and into Josef’s eyeline.

  Lina could have asked Josef directly, of course, but she still wasn’t certain she wanted everyone to know of the depth of connection between them. She felt his assent, however, as soon as he saw Horst’s hand signals asking the question. As soon as the hauptgefraiter turned toward her with a nod, she reached out for his steadying arm and allowed him to help her pick her way through the twisted metal and back toward her beloved and his prisoners.

  “Oberhelfer,” Josef said as they approached. His smile was carefully professional, but his mental caress made her shiver. “Congratulations! Your bluff worked phenomenally well, judging by the Ami girl’s reaction when Willi hooded her.”

  “What have you done to her?”

  Lina looked down, startled, at the man who’d asked the English question in ugly, furious tones. One of the prisoners, the one with red hair. The one she’d found when they first approached the wreckage. The one who’d been subdued and functioned as bait for the psychic girl now lying in a heap nearby.

  “She is unharmed,” Lina said, carefully articulating the English words. She hadn’t used the language much since leaving school. “She is wearing a hood to control her psychic abilities...” She gasped, then, as Josef charged forward and booted the captive squarely in the face.

  Blood fountained from his nose, and the other American prisoner started to struggle against his own bonds. He got a kick for his efforts, too, from Kristof. Josef backed up a step and took Lina by the elbow, turning her away from the two prisoners as the other men moved in to continue the beating.

  “You need not answer questions from such as they,” Josef said softly. “They will not address you again.”

  “I do not mind—” Lina started to say. Josef cut her off with a raised hand.

  “I do,” he said, his voice harsh. “They are killers, Lina. They are the evil that bombs our cities. They rain fire and death down on the ones we love. They have no right to address you. Do not concern yourself with them. You must concentrate on the girl.”

  Lina nodded, slowly, and allowed herself to be led slightly away.

  “I wanted to tell you. She is much stronger than I had anticipated. I will need to remain in close proximity to her.”

  “How close?” Josef asked.

  “A few meters. Within the same room. I just...it is tiring because the hood draws from my energy.”

  “Of course, whatever you need, my dear,” the stabsfeldwebel reached out and stroked her upper arm lightly. “I do not recommend that you touch her because we do not yet know whether she is capable of physical violence, and I will not risk you.”

  “I am safe enough,” Lina assured him as she leaned ever so slightly into the caress. “Especially with you near.”

  I will always be near, my love, he promised her. Lina smiled and despite everything, felt as if she might just drown in the blue of his eyes.

  * * * * *

  Chapter Ten

  Josef decided they would make camp there in the trees that ringed the clearing. Lina knew he didn’t realistically think any other surviving members of the bomber crew would turn up, but he figured it didn’t hurt to be close, just in case. And Lina also knew he didn’t want to take the American psychic back until she’d had a chance to be thoroughly interrogated by Lina herself. His fear was that if they brought the girl back and turned her over to the party leadership, or even to the Luftwaffe command, she would be lobotomized before he’d had a chance to show how useful she could be as a source of intelligence.

  But for that, he needed Lina to get inside the Ami girl’s head. And that was proving difficult. Lina still couldn’t believe how much of her attention the damping hood required. She hadn’t even been able to help with setting up the camp. Rather, she’d simply watched as the American girl was tied hand and foot (which, apparently, was painful. She’d been badly injured, enough that the pain spiked through the damping hood to Lina), then carried over to the spot Josef had selected for a camp. Lina had followed closely, her eyes only half-focused on the world around her, as the majority of her consciousness was engaged within.

  The psychic damping hood worked by enforcing a sensory feedback loop on its victim. However, it required another psychic to double the psychic sensing inputs back on to the victim so she couldn’t break her consciousness loose. It prevented the victim from transmitting or receiving from everyone except she who held the loop. It also overwhelmed her with her own psychic power. It was effective, but it was a lot of work for Lina.

  By the time the sun had started to set, the men had a camp set up, complete with a tent for Lina and her captive. The other American prisoners found themselves blindfolded and tied to separate trees so that they could not communicate with one another. Horst stood silent guard over them both.

  “Let us take the American psychic into the tent,” Josef said out loud to Lina, startling her into a little jump.

  “All right,” Lina said, her voice weak. Josef nodded to young Willi, and he lifted the American girl in his arms. Josef gestured to Lina to go first, Willi and the Ami girl next, and then he followed them into the largest canvas tent they’d brought.

  Inside, Lina could see they’d set up a camp bed, a table, and several chairs. Willi set the girl down on a rug near the bed and took the precaution of tying her bound hands to the bedpost. Then he gave both Josef and Lina a respectful nod and left, letting the tent flap fall closed behind him.

  Lina turned to Josef, and for the first time, she let the despair she felt show on her face.

  “She is so strong,” she breathed, sinking down to a seat on the camp bed. Josef pulled off his leather gloves and sat beside her. The mattress dipped under his weight, and it forced Lina to lean toward him. He wrapped one arm tenderly around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

  “So are you, my love,” he whispered into her hair. “It will take time, perhaps, but you can break into her mind. I know you can do it. What do you need? I will give everything I have to aid you in this task.”

  Lina drew a ragged breath.

  “I don’t...I don’t know. Sleep, perhaps. And food. I cannot keep the hood on her all the time because it requires so much of my strength.”

  “Would unconsciousness work?” Josef asked. “We have chloroform.”

  Lina wanted to ask why on Earth they were carrying a powerful anesthetic, but she was too relieved at the prospect to do much more than nod. Josef smiled, kissed her head one more time, and then stood.

  “I will return shortly,” he said. “Do what you can in the meantime.”

  Lina nodded again and lay back on the bed. She closed her eyes, the better to focus her consciousness on the mind she held captive. Slowly, carefully, she let a tendril of awareness snake out along the lines of her link to the hood and the American girl held in its thrall. Almost immediately, she felt the sickening maelstrom of the feedback loop. Scent blurred into sight, tangled with sound and touch and taste. The overwhelming power of it crashed over her like an ocean wave. Lina gripped the rough wool blanket that lay under her, feeling its scratchy warmth bunching beneath her fingers. That one sensation grounded her to her own body, which gave her an anchor in the storm.

  With her body’s reference point established, Lina let more of her awareness play out as she attempted to ride the waves of the American’s mental hurricane. Sensations battered at her, but she dove on, seeking a way in, past the noise and the violence of it all. She could feel herself getting closer with every smashing wave of input...

  Lina! Come back, my love! Come back to me! From impossibly far away, Josef’s anguish filtered down the tattered, stretched lines of their link and pulled Lina slowly back, out of the storm.

  She gasped and shuddered as she opened her eyes to find herself still on the camp bed, but cradled in Josef’s arms, which tightened convulsively around her.

  “Lina!” he gasped. He used one hand to brush the hair out of her eyes and cup
her face. “My Lina, come back!”

  “I’m here,” she said. Or tried to say, anyway. Her voice came out as barely a whisper. She was so tired from fighting the waves, she found she could hardly speak. Her eyelashes fluttered as she forced her eyes to remain open and focus.

  “Mein Gott!” Josef swore, and hugged her tightly to him. “My Lina, you cannot ever do that again. Promise me!”

  “I can’t,” she whispered. “I have to. It’s my task. I’m so tired.”

  “Knock the Ami girl out!” Josef said harshly, using one arm to wave someone forward. Lina thought she could see Werner carrying a cloth and a small bottle. He bent in front of the captive psychic and put the cloth over her mouth and nose, under the hood. Almost immediately, the scent of sweet, cloying decay rose in the tent. Lina felt a distant cold, and then an easing of the demand on her consciousness. The drain lessened as the Ami girl slipped into oblivion, only the tiniest pull remaining to let Lina know that she still lived. Lina let out a relieved sigh and felt her body relax into Josef’s embrace.

  “What happened?” he asked her, after Kristof had slipped noiselessly out of the tent.

  “I hardly know,” Lina said as he helped her to a sitting position. “I tried to infiltrate her mind. The magnitude of her power is...unprecedented. But I was almost there. I think, next time, I will reach my goal.”

  “Lina...” Josef started to say. But she held up a hand to cut him off.

  “No,” she said sharply. “I know you will not risk me, but this is my task. This is why you brought me out here. I can get inside her mind and interrogate her. I wasn’t prepared, this first time. The next time, I will be.”

  “All right,” Josef said slowly, pursing his lips. Clearly he didn’t like the idea, but he nodded anyway. “But you will not try alone again. I will be in here with you. With the chloroform ready.”