by I. T. Lucas
“Anyone want something to drink? Anandur pulled out a couple of bottles of water from the fridge.
“I’d like one,” Edna said.
Kian waved a hand. “Just bring all the bottles over to the conference table, and if there are any more in the cabinet, put them in the fridge to chill.”
“Yes, boss. Do you want me to bring the beer too?”
Kian would have loved one, but this was an interrogation, not a social visit. “Save it for later.”
Edna unscrewed the cap and took a sip. “Just so I know what to focus on, what exactly do you want me to search for?”
“Subterfuge and ulterior motives. Both will produce feelings of guilt, and that should be easy for you to find.”
“Wendy could feel guilty about losing the income.” Anandur pulled out a chair next to Kian. “It probably goes to her family.”
Kian wiped the condensation from the bottle. “Did you get a chance to talk with her?”
“Sorry, I didn’t. I had my mate with me. Wonder is not the jealous type, but Wendy would have been suspicious if I sat next to her instead of sitting with my girl. I saw Ella talking with her, though. You can give her a call and ask her what she learned.”
“There is no time for that. Besides, I’m going to ask Wendy about her family anyway because I want Andrew to verify her answers.”
“How do you want me to do it? Overtly or covertly?” Andrew asked.
“Covertly. If she is lying, scratch your stubble.”
“Got it. So, you don’t want me to say anything when she is telling the truth?”
“Right.”
“What about the others?”
“Same thing, unless I decide otherwise. You’d better sit across from me, so it won’t be too obvious that I’m looking at you for verification.”
53
Jin
Arwel closed his phone. “We need to get Wendy.”
“She is going to freak out.” Jin put down her third coffee cup of the day. “I should go first.”
“It’s not up to me, and I don’t know if Kian has plans for you to go through it at all.”
“Then I’ll volunteer. I have nothing to hide.”
Across the kitchen island, Richard shook his head. “I’m surprised he doesn’t want me to go first. If I were Kian, I would have suspected me the most of having ulterior motives.”
Jacki stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “Since no one can get into my head, I have nothing to worry about. Not that I have anything to hide either.” She chuckled. “Except for the shoplifting I did as a teenager. But I don’t think that’s what Kian is looking for.”
Perhaps Kian was right about wanting to interrogate Wendy first. If Richard and Jacki weren’t worried about being questioned, that left only Wendy.
She hadn’t joined them in the kitchen, preferring to stay in her room to watch anime on one of the streaming services. Not that it was suspicious. The girl was technically still a teenager.
What was suspicious was Mey claiming to still be exhausted and going back to bed, with Yamanu joining her. After spending more than a week with a bunch of people who had exceptional hearing, those two were probably having fun behind the thick dungeon walls.
Pushing away from the counter, Arwel lifted his phone. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take with Wendy, so keep your phones nearby. I’ll call to let you know who’s next.”
When they got to Wendy’s room, they found her door closed.
“Maybe she went back to sleep? We can have either Richard or Jacki take her place.”
Arwel shook his head. “I’m calling her.”
A moment later, Wendy answered, and he told her that he was activating the door.
The thing was so heavy that Jin doubted she could push it closed without the help from the pneumatic mechanism.
“What’s up?” Wendy asked once the door opened.
Arwel motioned for her to step out. “It’s time. Edna and Andrew are here.”
“Oh.” The color drained from the girl’s face. “Let me brush my hair and put my flip-flops on.” She looked down at her feet. “I wish I had proper footwear.”
Jin grinned. “Amanda promised to come back with supplies. I can’t wait to see what she gets us.”
“Yeah, but she’s not here now, and I have to meet important people in flip-flops.”
“No one cares about that,” Arwel said. “But they do care about having to wait. So, hurry up.”
“Yes, sir.” She padded to the bathroom.
“You are right,” Jin whispered to Arwel. “She looks so innocent. But for some reason, that makes me more suspicious of her, not less.”
Smiling, he lifted his hand as if meaning to touch her, but then let it drop by his side. “You have a suspicious mind. Perhaps you are better suited to being a spy than you think.”
“Nah.” Jin waved a hand and leaned to whisper again. “It’s just that in all the books and movies, the least obvious character ends up being the one who’s done it. So that’s what my mind is programmed to think. You are the empath. What is your impression?”
“She is scared. That’s all I’m getting. But that doesn’t mean anything. If I had to go through Edna’s probe, I would be scared too.”
“Why? Is it terrible?”
“I hear that it’s very intrusive. I only get what people project; she can actually reach in and pull it out.”
“Sounds ominous, but I’m not scared. There is really nothing going on inside my head that I want to hide. What you see is what you get.” She snorted. “Except for the tethering. That’s my biggest and only secret.”
Arwel glanced at the closed bathroom door. “What’s taking her so long? She said she was only going to brush her hair, not wash it.”
“She is probably putting some makeup on. Either that or she is talking to herself in the mirror, rehearsing what she’s going to say.”
As Wendy stepped out of the bathroom, a line of a blue pencil around her eyes and black mascara on her lashes, Jin lifted her finger. “And the correct answer is number one.”
54
Arwel
On the way to Kian’s office, Arwel kept stealing glances at Jin, wondering how to move their relationship from friendly to romantic.
They’d been spending nearly all of their time together, but there had never been a moment where he felt that it was the right time to put on his seducer’s hat and lean in and kiss her.
Had Jin caught him staring at her lips?
If she had, she was pretending that she hadn’t.
He wouldn’t have minded spending weeks getting to know her before making his move, but with the arrival of new Guardians, Jin would have a lot of suitors to choose from, and he would lose his advantage.
Except, what if he made his move prematurely and spooked her? She might not give him another chance.
As they arrived at the glass doors to Kian’s office, Wendy sucked in a breath. “I’m scared. I can feel the powerful empath.”
“Edna is not an empath. She is something else.”
Jin reached for Wendy’s hand. “If it will make you feel any better, I’ll go first.”
Looking at Jin over Wendy’s head, Arwel cast her a stern look. She shouldn’t have said that. What if Kian refused her offer to volunteer?
Kian waved his hand. “Come in.”
“Hi,” Jin said. “Thank you for letting me join you.”
Kian nodded. “You’re welcome. I hope you are all sufficiently rested?”
“Oh, yeah, I slept like a baby.” Jin smiled at Arwel. “I didn’t wake up until two in the afternoon.”
“Good. Pull out chairs, and let’s get the introductions over with.” Kian waited for them to be seated. “On my right is Edna. She has the special ability to detect intentions and assess the general make-up of a person.”
Edna smiled. “Hello.”
“The guy sitting across from me is my brother-in-law, Andrew.”
“Hi. Wel
come aboard.”
“Thank you,” Jin said.
Wendy looked terrified.
Per Kian’s instructions, Arwel hadn’t told anyone other than Jin about Andrew’s ability to detect lies. He hoped Jin had remembered not to say anything.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Jin, Mey’s sister, but you already know that. And this is my friend, Wendy.”
“Hi.” Wendy’s whisper was barely audible.
Jin cleared her throat. “Is it okay if I go first? Wendy is a little scared. Seeing me going through the probe might help her relax.”
Edna groaned. “Arwel, you really shouldn’t have told them that it was a probe. No wonder Wendy is scared.” She turned to the girl. “You are an empath, right?”
Wendy nodded.
“What I can do is very similar to your ability. The difference is that I’m able to peel away the outer layers and look at the core inside. Usually, what I find there is purer than what’s on the outside.”
Releasing a panting breath, Wendy nodded. “I don’t know why I’m freaking out. In the program, we used each other to test our abilities, and I had other empaths examine my emotions. It’s just that I don’t know anyone here.”
“I promise to be gentle.” Edna pointed to the chair to the left of hers. “Come sit next to me.”
“So, I’m not going first?” Jin asked. “Because I’m really curious to check out what you can do. My ability is uncommon too…” She smacked her forehead. “That’s why you don’t want to test me. You are afraid that I’ll attach a tether to you. But I don’t do that without asking permission first.”
Arwel stifled a chuckle. The girl was tenacious and had no filter. He loved it. Jin really was the ‘what you see is what you get’ type.
Edna smiled indulgently. “I’m not afraid of you attaching your tether to me. In fact, I would love for you to do that later on because I’m curious as well. I want to find out whether I can feel it, and even more than that, I’m curious to find out whether I can disconnect it on my end.”
“I see.” Jin nodded. “That should be interesting. I’ve never considered the possibility that someone could sever the tether from their side.”
When Jin opened her mouth again, no doubt to keep arguing, Arwel put a hand on her arm. “Give it a rest.”
Deflating, she slumped in her chair and cast Wendy an apologetic glance.
“It’s okay,” Wendy whispered. “I hope.”
“Give me your hands, and look into my eyes,” Edna instructed.
“Okay.”
“Don’t fight me. Let me in, and it’s going to be over in no time. If I have to force my way inside your head, it’s going to be difficult for both of us.”
Wendy nodded.
The room fell silent, with no one daring to breathe too loudly while Edna did her thing. It was like witnessing a delicate operation and not wishing to distract the surgeon.
The others had no clue as to what was going on within the connection that Edna had created, but as an empath, Arwel was in a unique position to feel the emotions of both the tester and the tested.
The longer Edna spent in Wendy’s head, the sadder she became. Wendy, on the other hand, seemed to loosen up. It was almost as if Edna had cut into a festering wound and relieved the pressure.
When she was done, the judge let go of Wendy’s hands and leaned back. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to share with anyone what I have learned, but I would like you to talk to a friend of mine. She can help you.”
Wendy shook her head. “I don’t need to talk to anyone. I’m fine.”
Andrew scratched his jaw, which Arwel assumed was the agreed-upon sign for when he detected a lie. Except, no one in the room needed a lie detector to realize that.
Wendy was obviously not fine.
Edna leaned forward and took the girl's hands. “Would you like to talk to me? I’m a great listener. I can make cupcakes and come to visit you. We can have a girl talk. How about that?”
Arwel almost spat out the sip of water that he’d taken. Edna making cupcakes? Having a girl talk? Was the world coming to an end?
To everyone’s surprise, Wendy nodded. “I would like that.”
“Then it’s settled.” Edna turned around and faced Kian. “Wendy has no ulterior motives, and the things she hides are personal in nature. She poses no danger to our group.”
Arwel didn’t need a degree in psychology to figure out what Edna had found in Wendy’s head. Years of empathic exposure to humans had taught him all he needed to know. That didn’t mean that he could help Wendy or anyone else, though. There was a big difference between being able to uncover a problem and knowing how to fix it.
Kian nodded. “That’s good to know. I have a few questions I need to ask, if that’s okay, Wendy. Are you up to it? Some people feel very tired after a session with Edna.”
“I’m fine. She was very gentle.” The girl turned to the judge. “Thank you. That wasn’t bad at all.”
“I’m glad.” Edna patted her knee.
55
Jin
Jin had no intention of letting Wendy keep her terrible secret, whatever it was. As soon as she could have a moment alone with the girl, she was going to gently probe her.
In fact, she felt offended that Wendy was willing to talk to Edna, a complete stranger, and she hadn’t thought to confide in Jin or even Jacki. If she’d been having a problem, in the program or outside of it, they would have helped her in any way they could.
But maybe they couldn’t help, and that was why Wendy hadn’t said a thing. Still, just talking with someone would have eased her in some way. On the other hand, if her problem had been connected to the program, talking about it would not have been smart with all the surveillance equipment monitoring the trainees and everyone else inside the mountain.
Insisting that the only safe place to talk was next to noisy machinery, Jacki might have seemed paranoid, but she was probably exaggerating only slightly.
Damn, as Jin tried to imagine what could have happened to Wendy, the scenarios she was coming up with were one worse than the other. Hopefully, none of them were what had really happened.
“Tell me about your family,” Kian said.
He was going for gentle, but that wasn’t much improvement over his usual tone. The guy probably sounded gruff even when whispering sweet nothings in his wife’s ear.
“My father raised me alone after getting full custody of me because my mom was a drug addict. Over the years, many girlfriends came and went, but I guess none wanted to stick around and raise me. He finally got married after I graduated high school. When Marisol approached me, I jumped at the opportunity to get out of the house.”
“What about college?” Kian asked.
She shrugged. “I went to community college. But I quit when I got the offer. Marisol said that the skills I would learn in the program would be much more useful than anything I could learn in college.”
“Why did you decide to run?”
She dipped her head. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Edna put her hand on Kian’s arm. “That’s okay. I know why, and it’s private. It’s up to Wendy to decide who she wants to talk to about it and when.”
“I understand.” He looked at Wendy. “I have no further questions for you. Thank you for cooperating.”
“Who’s next?” Edna asked.
“Jacklin.” Kian turned to Arwel. “Please escort Wendy back and bring Jacki here.”
“I’ll come with you.” Jin pushed to her feet.
Edna leaned back in her chair. “If you stay, we could test whether I can detect your tether and sever it.”
That was a tempting proposition, but Wendy needed her. “Maybe after you test Jacki. I want to make sure that Wendy is okay.”
“I’m fine,” Wendy said. “I’m just going back to watching my favorite anime. I have four more episodes before I catch up.”
Sometimes zoning out was the best strategy, and it was apparent that Wendy wa
sn’t in the mood to talk.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Stay.”
“Do you want me to bring Jacki up right away or wait?” Arwel asked.
“Bring her up,” Edna said. “By the time you get here, our little experiment will be done.”
After Arwel and Wendy had left, Edna motioned for Jin to take the seat that Wendy had vacated. “Do your thing. Attach a tether to me.”
Jin hesitated. “Just so you know, I can’t see anything that happened in the past or what will happen in the future. My tether is like a surveillance camera. I only see and hear what’s going on at that moment.”
“That’s fine. If I can’t cut the line on my side, I assume that you can cut it on yours?”
“Yes. We tested it in the program. I tethered to each person in the group and then cut the connection. I even did it to Jacki, who is immune to all the other tricks.”
Edna pursed her lips. “I wonder if she is immune to mine as well.” She offered Jin her hand. “Let’s shake on it?”
Taking a deep breath, Jin clasped her hand and imagined a string of consciousness extending from her to the woman, entering her mind, and hooking up to her cranium. It was no more and no less difficult than with the other people she’d done it to.
“Can you feel it?” she asked.
Edna nodded. “I think I do, but if I hadn’t known it was coming, I would have never noticed it. Do you hear and see everything double now?”
Jin laughed. “No. But if you want to test it, I can go out into the corridor. When I’m out, say something I could have never guessed.”
“Okay. Let’s do it.”
Jin walked out of the office, closed the door behind her, and kept on going, making sure to go far enough not to hear anything.
Leaning against the wall, she closed her eyes and concentrated on her connection with Edna.
“Jin looks a lot like her sister,” Edna said. “But their personalities are different. Mey is more gentle and accommodating, while Jin is assertive and uncompromising.”