Special Talents

by J. B. Tilton

  "Any idea what it is?" Scarborough asked.

  "None. But you said he seemed to know what the lieutenant was doing."

  "That's right. Every time Glen instructs his men on an assault Hampton seems to know exactly what they're planning. He's ready for them."

  "Any chance he's getting outside help? Maybe someone nearby using a radio or something to let him know what's going on?"

  "No," said Scarborough. "All of the nearby houses have been cleared. And Glen doesn't use the radio. He instructs his men personally. There's no chance anyone could overhear what he's saying and let Hampton know what's going on. Any ideas?"

  "Well," said Jeremy, thinking. "If he does know what's going on he's getting his information from somewhere. You once told me that each standoff is different. That the person in charge decides what actions to take based on the situation."

  "That's right. There are standard protocols for handling a standoff but no two are the same. The officer in charge has to make decisions based on the situation at the moment."

  "So there's no way Hampton could know what Peters is doing. He can't have access to a guidebook of sorts and know what decisions Peters will make."

  "No, none. As I said, Hampton seems to know exactly what Peters has planned. No one else knows what he's doing until he tells them."

  "But Peters knows what he's going to do," said Jeremy. "Maybe Hampton can read his mind. Know what he's going to do before he relays his orders to the men."

  "That would make sense," said Scarborough. "If Hampton can read Peter's mind he'd know where the officers are going to make their assault. And he'd know that the last one was a decoy meant to distract him."

  "Which also means," said Jeremy, "that whatever Peters decides to do, Hampton's going to know about it. Even before Peters issues orders to his men."

  "So what do we do about it?" Scarborough asked. "How do you deal with a situation where your perp knows exactly what the guy in charge is going to do the moment he decides?"

  "That's a good question," said Jeremy. "That's a very good question."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Several tense moments passed as they tried to decide what to do. Suddenly Jeremy's face lit up. He pulled Scarborough aside and spoke to him privately.

  "Okay," said Jeremy. "We have a standoff because apparently Hampton knows what Peters is planning. Maybe it's telepathy or maybe it's something else altogether. The point is that each time Peters forms a plan, Hampton knows what it is."

  "Okay, that makes sense," said Scarborough. "Which makes it difficult to do anything if Hampton knows what the guy in charge plans to do."

  "What if Peters wasn't aware of the full plan?" Jeremy asked. "What if he only knew part of the plan and the rest of it was kept from him?"

  "I'm not sure that would work," said Scarborough. "Hampton is the officer in charge. He has to be kept apprised of everything so he can make decisions based on changing circumstances."

  "I know that," said Jeremy. "But that obviously isn't working in this situation." He looked up at the house. "I have an idea. But it will mean you'll have to convince Peters to do something without telling him the entire plan. In fact, he can't even know there's another part of the plan for my idea to work."

  "That might be difficult," said Scarborough. "It goes against standard protocol."

  "And more than likely Hampton knows that," said Jeremy. "Here's my idea."

  Jeremy outlined his plan to Scarborough who thought about it for a moment.

  "All you have to do is get Peters to initiate his part of the plan," said Jeremy. "We'll fill him in later, if my idea works."

  "I'll try," said Scarborough. "But I've known Glen a long time. He'll want to know what you're planning."

  "Just try," said Jeremy. "I'll let Janet, Conrad, and Simon know what's going on."

  "Glen," said Scarborough walking over to the lieutenant, "I'd like you to attempt another assault on the house. Similar to the last one. Send some officers in the front to distract Hampton and send some in the left side of the house to make the actual assault."

  "We've tried that," said Peters. "It didn't work. I can't justify putting more officer's lives in jeopardy without a good reason."

  "Trust me, Glen," said Scarborough. "You've worked with my brother for 15 years. And you know me. You know I would never put officers in the line of fire without a very good reason."

  "What about our friends?" Peters asked, indicating Jeremy and the others. "You said they could help. What are they going to be doing?"

  "I can't answer that. Please, just trust me on this one, Glen. I'll explain everything later. I just need you to make the assault. And have a sniper ready. No one is to fire but him, no matter what happens."

  Peters thought for a moment. Finally he decided to trust Scarborough. He gathered his men to give them their instructions. Several minutes later several officers began to advance toward the front of the house. At the same time more officers advanced on the left side of the house. As before several shots rang out from the front room. As they did, the officers advancing on the front immediately began to move back.

  A moment later several shots rang out from the left side of the house. As they did the officers making that advance suddenly turned and retreated back to the safety of the police barricade that had been set up there. Everything got quiet.

  "Rick, you want to tell me what that was all about?" Peters demanded after a moment. "We didn't accomplish anything. All we did was put some of my officers in the line of fire and Hampton . . . .?

  His sentence went unfinished as movement from the front of the house caught his eye. As he looked at the house what he saw defied belief. Simon stepped through the front door, which was still closed. He was holding Hampton and as they moved off the porch, Simon dropped Hampton to the ground and retreated back into the house; phasing through the door again.

  "What the hell?" questioned Peters as everyone watched in shock at what had happened. "How the hell . . . ."

  Suddenly Hampton stood up and looked back at the door to the house, a look of astonishment on his face. Then he looked around, realizing he was outside the house, standing on the lawn. He reached behind him and began to pull out a pistol. He never finished the move. A single sniper fired and Hampton went down, a bullet through the head.

  Almost immediately officers began to converge on the body lying on the lawn. As they did, Simon tentatively opened the front door and stuck his head out. Seeing Hampton on the ground, he cautiously stepped outside, his hands in the air signifying he wasn't armed.

  "What was that?" Peters asked. "How the hell did he do that?"

  "Trade secret," said Simon, moving over to the people gathered on the lawn. "Afraid a magician doesn't reveal his secrets."

  "He's dead, sir," said an officer, checking Hampton's body.

  "Why the hell didn't you tell me what you had planned?" Peters demanded of Scarborough.

  "I'm sorry, lieutenant," said Jeremy. "It was necessary. Hampton seemed to know everything you were planning. We figured the only way to end this was if you didn't know everything that was going on so he couldn't find out."

  "But how could he know what I was planning?" Peters demanded.

  "Sorry, Glen," said Scarborough. "We can't answer that. National security. But trust me. It was the only way."

  "Well," said Peters, looking at Hampton's lifeless body, "we were able to end this with a minimum of bloodshed. And other than the one officer who was shot when they arrived, no one else got hurt. I'd say this was a successful end to the standoff."

  "The house is clean, lieutenant," said an officer coming out the front door. "No one else inside and no sign of any drugs. Or anything else illegal that we can find."

  "So if he wasn't dealing drugs," said Peters, "why did he open fire on the two officers that responded to the call? There weren't any returns on him so he wasn't wanted for anything. So why fire on two police officers when there's nothing inside the house?"

  "That's
not true," said Conrad. "There is something in the house."

  "How do you know that, Conrad?" Jeremy asked.

  "I don't know," replied Conrad, looking around in confusion. "I just know that there's something in the house. Something Hampton didn't want anyone to find."

  Suddenly he looked down at Hampton's body. He seemed to study it for a moment.

  "It's him," he whispered to Jeremy. "I'm getting information from him."

  "You can read his mind?" Jeremy asked in puzzlement. "But he's dead. How could you be learning anything from him?"

  "I don't know. But I'm telling you there's something in that house he didn't want found. I think I know where it is."

  They followed Conrad into the house. He immediately went to a small library just off the living room. The library had several book cases built into the wall. As they watched, Simon removed the books from one of the shelves. The he pressed on the paneling on the wall behind the bookshelf. A section of the paneling opened exposing a small safe set into the wall.

  "Is that what he was hiding?" Peters asked. "We'll need to get someone down her to open that safe."

  "I can take care of that," said Janet.

  She reached up and took hold of the handle on the safe. After a moment she pulled on the handle and the door opened easily. But it was obvious the locking mechanism was bent completely out of shape. She reached in and removed several sheets of paper from the safe.

  "Who are you people?" Peters asked.

  "Trust me, Glen," said Scarborough. "You're better off not knowing."

  "This looks like Arabic," said Janet, looking the papers over and handing them to Scarborough.

  "Yes it does," Scarborough replied. "Sorry, Glen, I'll have to take these with me and get them translated. It could be a matter of national security."

  "National security," said Peters. "That seems to cover a lot of sins."

  "It also happens to be true. Once I've had a chance to look these over I'll see about getting then back to you."

  "Well, I don't suppose I have any choice," said Peters, looking at the bent and twisted safe. "I'm just not sure how I'm going to write this up in my report."

  "Just tell them there was a federal agent present who was able to open the safe for you," said Jeremy. "You don't necessarily have to say how she opened it, do you?"

  The lieutenant just shrugged and then went to supervise the search of the house. Scarborough and the others left the house, their work there being done.

  "I'm surprised he didn't give you a hassle about jurisdiction or something," said Janet. "Aren't those papers part of the investigation?"

  "Well, if it had been anyone else, he probably would have," said Jeremy. "But I've known Glen a long time. He and my older brother were partners for many years. He knows I won't step on his toes anymore than I absolutely have to.

  "As for these papers, like I told him, they could be a matter of national security. That takes precedents over a local crime. Besides right now there's no proof these papers are involved in the crime. So technically they aren't evidence."

  "Oh, they're involved," said Conrad. "Those papers are what Hampton was trying to hide. He was afraid the police had learned about them and had come to arrest him because of them."

  "And just how can you know that?" Simon asked. "Hampton is dead. How can you read the mind of a dead man?"

  "I have no idea," said Conrad. "I can only tell you I got the information from him."

  "This is a new twist on your talent," said Jeremy. "It's believed that people store memories through chemicals located in the brain. Maybe you're not really reading someone's mind. Maybe you're able to tap into this chemical storage system and learn what the person had stored there."

  "If that's true," said Scarborough, "we wouldn't necessarily need a living terrorist to get information. Conrad could get it from any terrorist that was killed while we were trying to apprehend him."

  "It might not be that simple," said Jeremy. "Like the rest of the body, the chemicals in the brain would begin to decay once the body stops functioning. We have no way of knowing how fast that decay is. There might be a very small window of opportunity for him to learn anything before the memories become unreadable."

  "Still, it's one more tool we have to fight terrorism," said Scarborough. "I need to get these papers to headquarters and have them translated. I'm very interested in seeing what Mr. Hampton felt was so important he was willing to die for."

  "So while the Hampton was busy with the police, Jeremy just had me phase in behind him at the house and drag him out the front door," Simon told the others when they had returned to the house. "It was so cool. You should have seen the look on his face when we passed right through the door."

  "I'll bet it was priceless," said Mariah. "And nobody even asked how you did it?"

  "Well, the lieutenant did. I just told him, 'a magician never reveals his secrets'. He seemed to buy it but I really don't know why."

  "Because I told him it was classified and that he should just forget it," said Scarborough. "Glen has been a cop for a long time. And he knows I work for Homeland Security. So he won't pursue it. But really, Jeremy, we can't go around having the team using their talents in front of witnesses. If this should get out there's no telling what could happen."

  "Yeah," said Simon. "We might actually be famous. Have people asking for our autographs and have to do the talk show circuits. Maybe even get a movie deal or television series. Man, that would be such a drag. How would we ever be able to live like that?"

  "Or some terrorist group might kidnap you and do experiments on you to learn how your ability works," countered Jeremy. "To give it to their people. There's always that side of the coin."

  "Oh, I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, that wouldn't be so hot."

  "Besides," said Scarborough, "you're supposed to be working undercover, remember? Not drawing attention to yourselves? I'd hardly call what you did not drawing attention to yourselves."

  "Well, you did call us in to help," said Jeremy. "And we did learn that Hampton was using an ability. Under the circumstances I think things went pretty well."

  "Yeah," said Janet, "and Conrad learned something new about his ability. He can read the mind of the dead."

  "The dead?" questioned Kamalene. "As in deceased dead?"

  "Apparently," said Conrad. "We were standing there talking and suddenly I started getting stuff from this guys' mind. It wasn't much but it was enough to find out why he freaked when the cops showed up."

  "Conrad, I have a friend at one of the local hospitals," said Jeremy. "I'm going to talk to him and see if he'll let us have a little time in their morgue. We need to investigate this new side of your ability. See how well it works and how far it goes."

  "Morgue?" questioned Conrad. "You mean where they keep all the dead bodies? I don't think I'm real crazy about that idea."

  "Relax," said Jeremy. "Dead people never hurt anyone. Besides we need to find out if tonight was a fluke or not."

  "Why not use the coroner's office?" asked Frank. "They'll have a lot more bodies than the morgue at a hospital."

  "Most of which have been dead for a while," said Jeremy. "We need to start with some fresher bodies. See how long a body has been dead before Conrad can't read the mind any longer. So we need to go someplace where we can have access to a body very soon after death."

  "Why not just go to an old folks' home?" suggested Simon wryly. "They have to be dropping like flies there."

  "Have a little respect for the elderly," said Will. "After all, there's a lot you can learn from someone whose lived 80 years or so."

  "Hey, I'm just saying if you want fresh bodies an old folks' home is a good place to find them. I got plenty of respect for old people."

  "Just like you do for authority," said Janet.

  "What about those papers?" Jeremy asked, trying to change the subject. "Any idea how long before they are translated?"

  "The tech I gave them to said he'd have them for me firs
t thing in the morning," said Scarborough. "From what he could tell he said they looked like some kind of medical papers or something."

  "Medical papers?" questioned Jeremy. "That doesn't make sense. Why would someone be willing to die over medical papers?"

  "Your guess is as good as mine," said Scarborough. "I'm having a more in-depth background check done on Hampton. That might tell us something. Anyway, thanks for helping out tonight. With that guys' ability there's no telling how many people could have gotten hurt before they stopped him."

  "Glad to be of assistance," said Jeremy.

  "Hey," said Simon, "does that count as our first assignment?"