Test Subjects

by R S Penney

  He lashed out with his mind.

  The woman at the Khendrazian restaurant fell to her knees, hands over her ears as she tried to shut out wails that no one else could hear. The old man dropped his tablet and clutched his chest as he fell out of his chair.

  The teenage boy was covering his eyes, whimpering “No, no, no,” again and again. It was no easy task to provide each of them with a different illusion, but Adren managed it. He was one of the best.

  “Yes,” he whispered. “Call for help.”

  A young who were huddled up and shivering on the other side of the food court did just that. One young man frantically tapped something into his multi-tool while his boyfriend looked around for monsters that weren't really there.

  “Call your protectors,” Adren whispered. “Let them give you hope…So I can rip it away.”

  Chapter 8

  The video played out on a screen of SmartGlass that was bolted to the wall in Bevi Tremana's office. Security cameras showed full-colour footage of a food court in one of the local fabrication stations. Maybe half a dozen people were sitting at the plastic tables, all minding their own business.

  Anna spotted an old man who sat with his back turned, reading something on a tablet. On the other side of the room, a young high-school boy sat on the edge of a table, staring off into space. Though it shamed her to admit it, part of her felt irritation as she watched the footage, waiting for something to happen.

  She had been enjoying a quiet evening with Jack when Bevi Tremana's call made her multi-tool buzz and beep. The detective had practically begged her to come back to Telsaran. Thankfully, Jack understood, and more importantly, he didn't ask if she wanted him to come with her. This was her case; Jack trusted that she could handle it on her own.

  On the way here, she had read Bevi's report, and she knew that she was about to see some kind of disturbance in the food court, but she was impatient for-

  On the screen, the old man dropped his tablet and tumbled out of his chair. The kid pressed the heels of his hands to his eye-sockets, trying to shut out something he didn't want to see. What the…

  As the camera panned, she saw two young men huddling in fear near the windows that looked out on the street. One started pointing at nothing, and the other struggled to use his multi-tool.

  The telepath.

  It had to be.

  Anna stood with her arms crossed, frowning as she let her head sink. “Okay,” she said. “So, we've gone from spooky, practical-jokey unfun to full-on panic mode. I really need to catch this guy.”

  Bevi's silhouette was there in her mind's eye, standing just behind her with fingers on the surface of her desk and staring out the window. “We may have caught a break in that department.”

  “Feel free to share.”

  “Computer,” Bevi said. “Grid J-2.”

  Once again, the camera panned until it was focused on a man who was just sitting in the middle of a sea of tables. This guy was good-looking: pale with short, dark hair and dressed like he was on his way to a party.

  His eyes were closed, his face serene, almost as if he were on the verge of falling asleep. In the middle of all that chaos? Not likely. It seemed they had finally gotten a look at their perp.

  Anna narrowed her eyes, nodding slowly as she mused on the possibilities. “This is all wrong,” she muttered. “Guy's been careful all this time, and now he slips up? No…He wants us to find him. We're talking full Ackbar here.”

  “I'm sorry?”

  A flush singed Anna's cheeks, and she let out a wheeze of laughter. “Just something my boyfriend would say,” she explained. “Basically, I'm trying to tell you that it's a trap.”

  When she turned, Bevi Tremana was watching the screen with lips pursed, her face tight with visible anxiety. “Be that as it may,” she said. “We still have to go after him. I've been running a facial recognition protocol.”

  “Any hits?”

  Bevi tapped something into her multi-tool.

  Facing the screen once again, Anna watched as the footage from the food court shrank to a small rectangle in the upper left corner. Other rectangles appeared across the SmartGlass pane, displaying the intersections of busy streets, a park with tall green trees, the front of an apartment building. In each case, the telepath stepped into the frame, and the image paused with a red box around his face.

  “Guy's been hanging out in this neighbourhood for quite some time,” she said. “Do we have a fix on where he might be staying?”

  “Most image searches show him around that building you see there,” Bevi replied. “It's a six-story apartment complex on Renlon Avenue.”

  “All right,” Anna said. “When Keli arrives, we'll go check it out.”

  “I'm coming with you.”

  Anna whirled around with her arms folded, lifting her chin to pin a death glare on the other woman. “No, you're not,” she insisted. “This is a job for a Justice Keeper. You go in there, and that man will have you at his mercy.”

  Spots of crimson appeared in Bevi Tremana's cheeks, and she seemed unable to take her eyes off the floor. But her voice hardened as she spoke. “This is my city,” she said. “I have a right to go with you.”

  “Not if it gets you killed,” Anna snapped. “Not if it gets me killed. Look, Bevi, I don't mean to walk into your house and take over your kitchen, but I can't have you on this case. So, why don't we sum this up with a 'something-something-jurisdiction' and move to the part where you accept that the best thing you can do is play a support role?”

  “Fine.”

  “Thank you.”

  She stepped out of the office to find a tired and disheveled Keli trudging through the narrow corridor. The other woman looked up with bleary eyes and blinked once. “It better be good, Lenai,” she muttered. “Whatever it is that required me to go back to the Hub and take another SlipGate ride to this sorry little town.”

  “We think we found our telepath.”

  “I see…” Keli grumbled. “Well, let's get going then.”

  Round lights in the ceiling illuminated a long hallway with gray carpets and white walls. Doors of brown faux-wood were spaced at even intervals, each with a bio-metric scanner next to the knob. So far, this place looked like any normal apartment building. Nothing to see here. Just move it along.

  Ten seconds after Anna knocked, one door opened just a crack, allowing an older fellow with silver hair and visible stubble on his jawline to poke his head through. “Yes? What do you want?”

  A few taps at her multi-tool caused the disk on her gauntlet to produce a hologram of her badge, complete with a picture of her from when her hair had still been red. “Good evening, sir,” she said. “I'm Operative Anna Lenai with the Justice Keepers.”

  “And what do you want?”

  On the other side of the corridor, Keli was leaning against the wall with her hands in her pants' pockets, staring blankly at nothing. “We'd like to know if you'd had any odd experiences lately.”

  The man frowned.

  Letting her arm drop, the hologram vanishing as soon as she did, Anna took a step back and exhaled. This wasn't how she wanted to open the conversation; she would have preferred to ask directly if this man had seen the rogue telepath, but Keli sometimes took over conversations. “Strange sounds,” Anna said. “Apparitions. Anything that might look impossible or supernatural.”

  The man squinted at her, a grunt betraying his disdain. “The Keepers are hunting ghosts now?” he asked. “No, I haven't seen anything like that.”

  Anna summoned another hologram, this one a six-inch representation of the man from the food court video. His transparent image floated in the air. “And what about this man?” she asked. “Have you seen him around the building.”

  “I think so…Maybe a couple times.”

  “Can you be more specific?”

  “He was in the stairwell a couple times.”

  Touching two fingers to her lips, Anna shut her eyes. “Which means that he's been living
in the building,” she said. “Thank you, sir.”

  The door slammed shut, followed by the soft click of the locking mechanism. Anna clicked her tongue in annoyance. Once upon a time, the Keepers were revered. Speaking with one was considered an honour. Now, people couldn't wait for an excuse to end the conversation. All because of Slade.

  Was it just because of Slade? she wondered. Do you bear no responsibility for what happened? Wasn't it you who remained blind to the rot that was spreading through this organization?

  How long would that rot have gone unnoticed without an infusion of new blood from the Earthers? Jack, Melissa and the others had the advantage of not having been raised in a culture that idolized the Keepers, which gave them the ability to see through some of the bullshit.

  “What's our next move?” Keli asked.

  Anna felt her eyebrows rise, then shook her head as she forced out a ragged breath. “If our boy is living here,” she began, “then he's probably squatting in one of the vacant apartments.”

  It took less than two minutes to pull up data on this building. At the moment, there were two units that were not registered to any tenant, one on the third floor and one on the sixth. “I say we go up.”

  “Why's that?”

  “Our guy likes to flaunt his power,” Anna said. “Which makes me think maybe he sees himself as superior to everyone else. So, I'm betting he'll want a view.”

  A little ways up the corridor, they found a door that led to a stairwell, and so they climbed. Anna found herself very cognizant of the echo her footsteps made. When you were about to go up against someone who might be trying to kill you, it was best not to announce your presence. Not that it would make much difference to a telepath.

  Anna paused halfway up one flight with her hand on the railing, her head drooping with exhaustion. “Do you sense anything?” she asked. “This close, he must be giving off some kind of vibe.”

  Behind her, Keli's silhouette rubbed tired eyes. “I do not sense anything,” she said. “But there's no guarantee that he's here at this particular moment.”

  “Mmm.”

  A door on the sixth floor had a palm-scanner that required her hand-print. It was programmed to admit only the residents of this building or members of law enforcement. Those scanners on the door of each apartment would not let her pass without a warrant. But she could enter the common areas of the building.

  Which led her to a more uncomfortable question: if the telepath was squatting here, then how did he circumvent the building's security systems. She would have to remember to ask him once she got him in a holding cell.

  The door swung open with a ca-chung, and she stepped into a hallway that was pretty much identical to the one she had seen below: white walls, gray carpets, brown doors. The air was a little musty.

  With one hand on the grip of her holstered pistol, Anna watched her surroundings as she moved cautiously forward. “Stay sharp,” she whispered to Keli. “If he can sense my Nassai, he might be waiting for us.”

  Keli moved with less care, glancing this way and that every time they passed by a door. “There are people on this floor,” she said. “Over a dozen of them in different units. But that's all I can sense.”

  “Would a telepath stand out to you?”

  “Maybe.”

  When Anna gave her a look to indicate how unhelpful that answer was, the woman met her gaze with a flat expression. “It's…complicated,” she said and left it at that.

  “Your powers and my cousin's dating profile,” Anna muttered. “Who knew they'd be so similar?”

  Around the next corner, they found a man standing in the hallway with his back turned and humming softly. By his clothing, Anna recognized him as the guy from the food-court video. Yup, definitely waiting for them.

  He turned around to reveal a handsome face set in a stern expression, a death glare that he directed at anything that passed in front of him. When he caught sight of them, he spoke in a deep voice. “It's you.”

  Beaming at him with a bright, beautiful smile, Anna shook her head. “I know!” she said, striding up the corridor. “You're like, 'She's so much cuter in person!' ”

  “Not you.” He pointed at Keli. “Her!”

  “Oh, well now I'm just offended,” Anna teased. “No threesome for you.”

  A cruel, mocking smile made the man seem almost inhuman, and he never took his eyes off Keli. “I felt you from miles away,” he said. “Like a beacon pulsing, an endless buzz in my mind. I had to get your attention.”

  In her mind's eye, Anna saw Keli step back with a hand pressed to her chest. Such apprehension! Anna didn't think the woman was capable of that emotion. “Who are you?” Keli demanded. “Why are you attacking these people?”

  “People?” the man said. “Hardly.”

  Anna squinted at him. “Just a thought,” she said, stepping forward. “If you're trying to establish your innocence, showing open contempt for the rest of humanity really isn't the best way to go.”

  Of course, the man ignored her and focused all of his attention on Keli…which was one way to crank up the awkward. Was she just supposed to stand here until he and Keli finished their staring contest? Sweet Mercy, were they communicating telepathically?

  “So,” Anna went on. “You're a person of interest…and I'm an interesting person! Why don't we celebrate how much we have in common with a romantic evening in the Interrogation Room?”

  With his mouth agape, the man shut his eyes and breathed out a sigh. “Yes…” he whispered. “You are powerful. Why do you waste your time with these insects? They are nothing compared to us.”

  Keli's face was grim. “I'm not going with you,” she said. “Not now and not ever.”

  “You belong with me.”

  “I most certainly do not!”

  Somehow, Keli regained some of her backbone and strode forward as though she intended to stab this guy. Knowing her, that was a very real possibility. “Adren,” she said. “That's your name. I sensed it even though you tried to keep it from me. I'm stronger than you, and you know it.”

  “Stronger but less refined,” he countered. “You've relied on brute force all your life. It's all you know.”

  “I'm not afraid of you.”

  The man looked at her, and his eyes widened momentarily. “You should be,” he whispered, shaking his head. “You should be.”

  Without warning, Keli dropped to her knees and clamped her hands over her ears as if she were trying to shut out some terrible noise. Her screams echoed through the hallway. Anna felt a stab of panic.

  Keli toppled over, landing on her side and writhing in agony. “No!” she shrieked, squirming. “No! Stop! Stop! Make it stop!”

  Reacting quickly, Anna drew her pistol and lifted the weapon in both hands, setting it for stun rounds. “Undo it!” she barked, jerking her head toward Keli. “Whatever you've done, fix it!”

  The man replied with a rictus grin and shook his head again. “Oh, no, no no!” he insisted. “She needs to learn!”

  “You're killing her!”

  “She will survive this.”

  Baring her teeth in a snarl, Anna growled as she stepped forward. “I'm not gonna ask you again!” The only reason she hadn't already pulled the trigger was the fear that if she stunned this man, Keli's misery would continue. “Fix it!”

  Several doors in each wall popped open, and people poked their heads out just long enough to get a sense of the danger before retreating to the safety of their apartments. If any of them were smart, they would call emergency services.

  Cocking his head to one side, Adren studied her for a moment, as if really seeing her for the first time. Then he flung a hand toward Anna in a dismissive gesture.

  Something hit her like a tidal wave.

  A fog of confusion settled over her mind, making it difficult to focus on what she was doing. Where was she again? A hallway? A suspect that she had been chasing? Seth was panicking; she knew that much.

  Anna stumbled sideways
, shoulder colliding with the wall. Her eyes dropped shut, and she felt tears on her cheeks. Fight it, she told herself. You're a Justice Keeper. You've been through worse than this.

  Straining through the haze, she saw a well-dressed man draw a pistol from his belt holster and extend his hand to point the gun at her.

  Anna flung herself away from the wall.

  Moments later, a large hole appeared where she had been standing, thin chips of duroplastic tumbling to the floor. With a groan, Anna practically fell across the width of the hallway, slamming into the opposite wall.

  The telepath adjusted his aim.

  Stretching a hand toward him, she screamed and focused through the mental fog to craft a Bending. The air in front of her fingers began to ripple just in time to intercept a bullet and send it curving up into the ceiling. Somehow, having a patch of warped space-time between them weakened Adren's hold on her mind. She could think.

  Anna dropped to a crouch, the Bending vanishing, and raised one hand to point her gun at the telepath. All she saw was a quick glimpse of his hip as he ducked around the corner into the adjoining hallway.

  Anna closed her eyes, breathing in. “Damn it,” she hissed. “Why is it never easy?”

  Keli.

  The other woman was curled up in the fetal position, writhing on the floor and sobbing with every breath. Her screams had turned to soft whimpers and pleas of “No, no, no, no more!”

  Anna didn't even want to think about what had been done to her, and if this Adren had the power to take down a telepath with Keli's raw strength, then why hadn't he done the same to Anna? Was it Seth? No time to worry about that! She had to make sure that Keli wasn't in life-threatening danger.

  She rolled the other woman onto her back and looked for clues in Keli's tear-stained face. Her pupils were the same size. Not that that meant anything. This wasn't the result of a blow to the head.

  Sliding three fingers across the screen of her multi-tool, Anna dialed emergency services. “Medical emergency,” she panted into the microphone. “204 Renlon Avenue, sixth floor, south-side corridor.”

  She ended the call.