by Kay Hooper
“Understood,” Bishop murmured, smiling. “I’ll expect you when I see you.”
“Good. Give our regards to Sheriff Gordon, will you? And anybody else who notices we’re gone.” He didn’t let go of her hand even when Hollis paused in the doorway to look back at their unit chief.
“Bishop?”
“Yeah?”
“Forty-eight hours?”
She didn’t have to clarify the question. Bishop smiled slowly, something few people ever saw. “A new record for the unit,” he confirmed.
She grinned at him. “Good. See you later, Bishop.”
“Much later,” DeMarco said, and led her from the room.
Bishop looked down at the remarkable sketches on the big table, and heard his wife’s voice in his head, their mind talk one of his greatest joys, laughing now.
Told you so.
SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT AGENT BIOS
HOLLIS TEMPLETON—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT
Job: Special Agent, profiler.
Adept: Medium. Perhaps because of the extreme trauma of Hollis’s psychic awakening (see Touching Evil) her abilities tend to evolve and change much more rapidly than those of many other agents and operatives. Even as she struggles to cope with her mediumistic abilities, each investigation in which she’s involved seems to bring about another “fun new toy” for the agent, such as seeing auras, healing herself and others, and possessing the ability to sense, define, channel, and use sheer energy. She also consistently tests at the higher, more powerful end of the scale the SCU has developed to measure psychic abilities—with virtually every new ability gained.
Appearances: Touching Evil, Sense of Evil, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage, Haunted, Wait for Dark
REESE DEMARCO—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT
Job: Special Agent, pilot, military-trained sniper; has specialized in the past in deep-cover assignments, some long-term.
Adept: An “open” telepath, he is able to read a wide range of people. He possesses an apparently unique double shield, which sometimes contains the unusually high amount of sheer energy he produces. He also possesses something Bishop has dubbed a “primal ability”: he always knows when a gun is pointed at or near him, or if other imminent danger threatens.
Appearances: Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage, Haunted, Wait for Dark
NOAH BISHOP—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT
Job: Unit chief, profiler, pilot, sharpshooter; highly trained and skilled in several martial arts.
Adept: An exceptionally powerful touch-telepath, he also shares with his wife, Miranda, a strong precognitive ability, the deep emotional link between them making them, together, far exceed the limits of the scale developed by the FBI to measure psychic talents. Also possesses an “ancillary” ability of enhanced senses (hearing, sight, scent), which he has trained other agents to use as well, something they informally refer to as “spider senses.” Whether present in the flesh or not, Bishop virtually always knows what’s going on with his agents in the field, somehow maintaining what seem to be psychic links with almost all of his agents without in any way being intrusive.
Appearances: Stealing Shadows, Hiding in the Shadows, Out of the Shadows, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil, Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Sleeping with Fear, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Haven, Hostage, Haunted, Fear the Dark, Wait for Dark
KIRBY BELL—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT
Job: Special Agent.
Adept: Eighth-degree empath, which puts her at the more powerful end of the scale the SCU has developed to measure the strength of psychic abilities. But Kirby is young, her abilities largely untried in the field, and she can become overwhelmed by the emotions of the people around her. She also looks like a teenager, which is a bit of a trial to her since she always gets carded and no one ever believes she’s a real FBI agent.
Appearances: Wait for Dark
CULLEN SHERIDAN—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT
Job: Special Agent.
Adept: Seventh-degree clairvoyant, which puts him also at the higher end of the scale of power. Unlike many of the newer agents, Cullen has very good control when he uses his abilities, as well as a solid shield, so he seldom gets blindsided with unwanted information. He does, however, suffer a common side effect many of the more powerful psychics share: occasional “wall-banging” headaches, especially when he’s pushed himself and his abilities to their limits.
Appearances: Wait for Dark
MIRANDA BISHOP—FBI SPECIAL CRIMES UNIT
Job: Special Agent, investigator, profiler, black belt in karate, sharpshooter.
Adept: Touch-telepath, seer, remarkably powerful, and possesses unusual control, particularly in a highly developed shield capable of protecting herself psychically, a shield she’s able to extend beyond herself to protect others. Shares abilities with her husband, due to their intense emotional connection, and together they far exceed the scale developed by the SCU to measure psychic abilities.
Appearances: Out of the Shadows, Touching Evil, Whisper of Evil, Sense of Evil, Hunting Fear, Chill of Fear, Blood Dreams, Blood Sins, Blood Ties, Hostage, Haunted, Fear the Dark, Wait for Dark
PSYCHIC TERMS AND ABILITIES
(As Classified/Defined by Bishop’s Special Crimes Unit and by Haven)
Adept: The general term used to label any functional psychic; the specific ability is much more specialized.
Clairvoyance: The ability to know things, to pick up bits of information, seemingly out of thin air.
Dream-projecting: The ability to enter another’s dreams.
Dream-walking: The ability to invite/draw others into one’s own dreams.
Empath: A person who experiences the emotions of others, often up to and including physical pain and injuries.
Healing: The ability to heal injuries to self or others, often but not always ancillary to mediumistic abilities.
Healing Empathy: The ability to not only feel but also heal the pain/injury of another. It can be extremely dangerous for the healing empath, depending on how serious the pain or injury they attempt to heal, since it always depletes their own life energy.
Absolute Empath: The rarest of all abilities. An absolute empath can literally absorb the pain of another, to the point that she physically takes on the same injuries, healing the injured person and then healing herself.
Latent: The term used to describe unawakened or inactive abilities, as well as to describe a psychic not yet aware of being psychic.
Mediumistic: Having the ability to communicate with the dead; some see the dead, some hear the dead, but most mediums in the unit are able to do both.
Precognition: The ability to correctly predict future events. The SCU differentiates between predictions and prophesies: A prediction can sometimes be changed, even avoided, but a prophesy will happen no matter what anyone does to try to change the outcome.
Psychometric: The term used to describe the ability to pick up impressions or information from touching objects.
Regenerative: The term used to describe the ability to heal one’s own injuries/illnesses, even those considered by medical experts to be lethal or fatal. (A classification unique to one SCU operative and considered separate from a healer’s abilities.)
Spider Sense: The ability to enhance one’s normal senses (sight, hearing, smell, etc.) through concentration and the focusing of one’s own mental and physical energy.
Telekinesis: The ability to move objects with the mind. A very rare ability.
Telepathic mind control: The ability to influence/control others through mental focus and effort; an extremely rare ability.
Telepathy (touch and non-touch or open): The ability to pick up thoughts from others. Some telepaths only receive, while others have the ability to send thoughts. A few are capable of both, usually due to an emotional connection with the other person.<
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UNNNAMED ABILITIES:
The ability to see into time, to view events in the past, present, and future without being or having been there physically while the events transpired. Another rare ability, it seems to be a combination of clairvoyance, precognition, and, sometimes, mediumistic traits, though the ability is so rare it hasn’t been studied in depth.
The ability to see the aura or another person’s energy field, and to interpret those colors and energies.
White = healing
Blue/lavenders = calm
Red/rich yellows = energy/power
Green = unusual, tends to mix with other colors, peaceful
Metallic = repelling energy from another source
Black = extremely negative, even evil, especially if it has red streaks of energy and power
More than one color in an aura is common, reflecting the outward sign of human complexities of emotion.
The ability to absorb and/or channel energy usefully as a defensive or offensive tool or weapon. Extremely rare due to the level of power and control needed, and highly dangerous, especially if the energy being channeled is dark or negative energy.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The first books in the Bishop/SCU series were published back in 2000, and readers have asked me whether these stories are taking place in “real” time and if, at this point, more than sixteen years have passed in the series. The answer is no. I chose to use “story time” in order to avoid having my characters age too quickly. Roughly speaking, each trilogy takes place within the same year, with some overlaps.
So, from an arbitrary start date, the timeline looks something like this:
Stealing Shadows—February
Hiding in the Shadows—October/November
YEAR ONE:
Out of the Shadows—January (SCU formally introduced)
Touching Evil—November
YEAR TWO:
Whisper of Evil—March
Sense of Evil—June
Hunting Fear—September
YEAR THREE:
Chill of Fear—April
Sleeping with Fear—July
Blood Dreams—October
YEAR FOUR:
Blood Sins—January
Blood Ties—April
Haven—July
Hostage—October
YEAR FIVE:
Haunted—February
Fear the Dark—May
Wait for Dark—August
So, with the publication of Wait for Dark, the Special Crimes Unit has been a functional (and growing) unit of agents for about five years: time to have grown from being known within the FBI as the “Spooky Crimes Unit” to becoming a well-respected unit with an excellent record of solved cases—a unit that has, moreover, earned respect in various law enforcement agencies, with word quietly passed from this sheriff to that chief of police that they excel at solving crimes that are anything but normal using methods and abilities that are unique to each agent, and that they neither seek nor want media attention.
An asset to any level of law enforcement, they do their jobs with little fanfare and never ride roughshod over locals, both traits very much appreciated, especially by small-town cops and citizens wary of outsiders. They regard both skepticism and interest with equal calm, treating their abilities as merely tools with which to do their jobs, and their very matter-of-factness helps normally hard-nosed cops accept, if not understand, at least something of the paranormal.
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