by Alex Hughes
Shock and anger pushed over the Link like fire; then they were gone, and Cherabino’s no-nonsense cop thinking snapped into place. Where are you? How many are there?
I replayed my memories of the day in a panicked fast-forward stream—Stop. She breathed. Stop!
I stopped. What’s wrong?
I’m not a . . . damn it, you’re giving me a migraine. Stick to words, okay? Words. She was struggling not to put up the walls again, struggling to put her own crap aside and deal with the situation. I’m not a damn telepath. I need words.
With the compulsion weakening, I looked over at the building entrance and tried to get a view in Mindspace of how many there were. I don’t know, at least ten.
Damn it, Cherabino said. Half a dozen police cars with heavy rifles. At minimum. We can’t see what’s in that building, and odds are that’s where you’ll be by the time we get there. Damn it, Adam, that takes hours to requisition. Days, worse. I can’t just . . . Are you sure he’s dead?
He’s gone from Mindspace. The sound of the door lock disengaging made me look up in panic.
Call Kara, I told Cherabino, fear running down the Link without me helping it.
The door next to me opened, and two men with guns and a female telepath of considerable strength stared at me. She was Tamika’s age, give or take, pale with freckles and no sense of humor.
After that was . . .
Like a knife to butter, something tore through the connection between me and Cherabino and I was stuck, alone, in my own head, the watcher’s tag hitting me with pain in response, like an ice pick to the brain.
Someone grabbed my sleeve and I fell, my side hitting the concrete with bruising force.
I reached back out again, again, past the pain, gripping—and hit a fog, the frustrating horrible fog of a local Mindspace telepathic block. The woman scowled down at me. “We’re going to have to move to plan C. This idiot managed to talk to somebody before I shut him down. This is going to cost us extra time.”
Then she nodded to one of the beefy guards. He hit me across the head with the butt of his gun, and with a burst of stars, the world went black.
* * *
I woke up with the female telepath standing over me. I jumped back—and couldn’t. I was sitting in an old-style wooden chair, my hands bound behind my back and to the chair. I tested the bonds.
“I wouldn’t,” the telepath told me. She was slight of build with a heart-shaped face, not very tall, and her dirty-blond hair and freckles might disarm most of her opponents enough for her to get in the first strike. Me, on the other hand—well, I’d had my ass kicked too many times by Jamie, who looked like a young cookie-baking grandmother. Looks didn’t mean anything when it came to the mind.
I eased back, noting that my legs were free. She was at the wrong angle for me to kick her. Time to try words instead. “So you’re a Minder, huh?” My brain kept flashing back to Bellury, and I kept forcing it down. Get through this first. Get through this, and then you can think about it. “Wait, are you the missing telepath?”
Her brow wrinkled. “How did you . . . ?”
I nodded to her tailored skirt. “Um, well, that’s standard issue for Minders who don’t have the cash yet to blend in with the fancy clients. Nobody else wants that gray-brown color. Plus you have a brighter spot on the shirt from where your badge was. Right breast pocket, standard-issue size.” Actually the shirt wasn’t all that faded, but when her hand went to the spot, I knew I was right. “And a telepath disappeared at the same time Tamika did. It should have been obvious you were working together. Do you have a name?”
“Coleen,” she said, and crossed her arms in a stance that was probably supposed to be intimidating. Her cuteness didn’t blunt the real threat she posed.
“No last name?”
“None that I’m giving you. You realize I’ve seen your file. You’re not the first Structure guy I’ve ridden herd on.”
I suppressed the urge to make the obvious sexual comment and stuck to something more neutral. “You’re counting on me to be out of practice, then?” Hopefully my injury hadn’t made it into the file, at least not the version she’d seen. Some advantages to secrets, after all.
Coleen nodded. “You’re old, and you haven’t had to take recurrents. Plus Structure guys are slow. And you’ve been working for normals, which is even worse.”
And that got me the last bit of information I needed. She didn’t know about my injury, and she was definitely a Minder, and a young one at that. If she was relatively fresh from graduation (which the clothes implied, either that or some large expense I didn’t know about), well, she’d definitely have a much better reaction time mind to mind than I would, even at full strength and practice. That’s what Minders were trained for, after all, protecting high-profile clients from anything mental anyone could throw at them. And from what little I could see of her presence in Mindspace through the blocking shield, she wasn’t weak, and she wasn’t careless. She’d be a strong mental guard, here to make sure I didn’t call for help.
I shifted in the chair a bit, unable to keep myself from pulling at the bonds. “What do you—”
She took a step back and Mindspace suddenly felt charged. “Seriously, don’t. I didn’t give up my spot in the Guild to go down to an out-of-practice punk. You won’t get ten feet before I take you down like I took down that saleslady.”
She had killed Emily’s boss? Another question answered too late. I’d stay put for now, save my move until she wasn’t expecting it.
I finally let myself take a look around. We were in an office, a medium-sized basic office from a hundred movies and even more office buildings, a file cabinet or four to the front of the room, a battered metal desk, plain beige walls, and a bookcase. Nothing exciting. Nothing interesting. Not even a window to climb out of. The phone jack in the wall, not far from the closed heavy door, led to an old-style black boxy phone on the desk. “You don’t expect me to try to strangle you with the telephone cord?”
She blinked, and a burst of nervousness floated through Mindspace before she damped it down. Interesting. I’d been bluffing, but if physical confrontation made her nervous, I could work with that.
“Why give up your spot in the Guild anyway?” I asked, to keep the conversation going, trying to get all the information out of her I could. “You’re a little young to know Tamika as a classmate, and illegal Tech seems an odd thing for a Minder to get involved in.”
“Tamika works in the logistics office,” Colleen said, in that tone of voice teenagers take with adults, like I was too stupid to live. She was too old for it to look natural. “She helped me get something through one of the couriers. And then she helped me get a deal with enough money for my brother to—” She shut up then, frowning, like she’d just caught on. “I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to get me to like you so I won’t burn you out later. Well, it’s not going to work.”
Of course it was going to work; she was practically handing me all her secrets on a platter, shielding in Mindspace or none. I had this down.
And then she hit me with pain—real, honest-to-goodness pain, pain that ripped me open and up, pain down every single nerve fiber I had, the pain of a third-degree burn over every inch of my body. My skin, my fat, my very bone burning away in red-hot fire.
An interminable time later, she let it go. I panted, desperately, my muscles knotted and sore from spasms; the echo of my screams still hung in the air.
That stance—her arms crossed, her too-young eyes weighing me—that stance no longer seemed cute.
She was stronger than me, probably, and her pain tolerance was a hell of a lot stronger than mine. For the first time since I’d awakened, I started to sweat in earnest.
* * *
Faintly, faintly, I heard Cherabino’s presence poking at me from the inside.
Adam. Adam, pay attention, damn it! Her tone was like she was yelling at me, but the volume was barely above a whisper, like Coleen’s interdiction shield c
ouldn’t quite block a Link even with its best efforts. Adam!
What? I replied, with as much mental volume down the Link as I could manage without leaking into Mindspace. Tell me you’re almost here. I was starting to get tired, and in this context, that wasn’t good for my life expectancy.
You should be able to hear the sirens. Five, ten minutes tops. Traffic is hell on North Druid Hills. Hang in there.
I glanced at Coleen and looked away. I had to keep my body language completely neutral—otherwise she’d suspect I was up to something. For not the first time, I was glad communication over a Link didn’t travel through Mindspace; if I was careful, I’d get away with this.
Any new information about the layout? Cherabino asked.
Boxy building with a huge deck with a lift on the side, with a bunch of trucks parked on the lower levels. There’s at least one strong telepath and six guards in addition to Sibley and Tamika.
Who’s Tamika?
The one I told you about earlier. She’s the one who killed Bellury. And Emily. The girl I burned out at the Guild. The one with the box that can make you do what they say. I took a breath, forced myself to think of anything that could help her. I strongly doubt they’re alone here. I got the impression . . . it was only a second. If I had to guess, if my life depended on it . . .
It might.
I took another breath, slowly, so as not to attract attention. Maybe fifteen minds, then, maybe twenty, and all of them strong and professional. Be careful, there’s at least one building behind this one. Worst case, more reinforcements; best, well, you’ve got office workers to think about. Either way—these people are good, Cherabino. Coming after them is going to be extremely dangerous.
If you think I’m leaving you there, you’re an idiot. Just give me a better idea of where—
Another intense burning pain stole my breath and made me scream out loud, burning horrible melting pain—
And when I came back to myself, the feeling of Cherabino was gone. Utterly gone. Worse, the door opened, and Sibley, Tamika, and an armed guard walked in.
* * *
“Be still,” Sibley told me, and that weird mesmerizing thing happened again; I literally could not take my eyes from him.
Beside him, Coleen stood, still wary, and on the other side, Tamika. The guard took a stance next to the door. And Sibley pulled the telephone line from the wall and detached it from the phone.
“Unfortunately, the latest batch of my cords has a regrettable tendency to shatter,” he said in a quiet tone, and pulled the telephone cord tight. “I’m afraid we don’t have much time now; my employer is expecting us to maintain his schedule tightly. But. We have a few more pallets to load. So. This lady has given my employer a great deal of useful resources and information. In return, she has about ten minutes here where she gets whatever she wants.”
I was looking directly at Sibley with my full attention.
“Let me rephrase.” Sibley pulled the cord around my neck, settling in behind me, his breath falling on my ear like a lover’s. The cord pulled against my neck—not tight, not yet, but all of the slack disappeared in a slow pull. “Pay attention to Ms. Johnson over there. Stay completely still.”
My heart sped up, terror engulfing my veins, but I couldn’t move so much as my eyelids. I watched her in Mindspace instead, the sodden twisted knot of her mind like a fortress, a fortress my mind wouldn’t be able to touch. If she couldn’t reach out, neither could anything touch her in turn.
“Did you hear me, Adam?” his voice asked in my ear.
“I’m listening,” I murmured, moving my mouth as little as I could and still answer him.
“Good.”
Faintly, in the background, came the sound of sirens. But they would be too late—too late. All it would take was one movement from Sibley’s hands and I would die, slowly and horribly. Somehow I knew he was too good to snap my neck right away; I knew, with dreadful certainty, that he would draw it out.
“Sirens,” Tamika said.
“We can’t be sure they’re for us,” Sibley said. He nodded to one of the guards, who went out of the room. “Make sure we’ve got plan C in place, please. There’s enough ammunition and manpower to hold us to our timetable even if the police do show up for us. The floor is yours, ma’am.”
Tamika widened her stance. Gone was the shy, self-assuming girl I’d known once upon a time; in her place was a strong, angry woman with a purpose.
“Now, Professor. Not that you’re a professor anymore. I’ve been thinking about this since the funeral and your insensitive idiotic apology.”
“Thinking about what?”
The cord tightened around my neck, and the smile on her face widened. Just when the world was starting to go black, Sibley let up.
I struggled to breathe, struggled with everything in me, panting hard.
“Stay still,” his terrible voice said in my ear, and I stopped panting. I barely breathed, the air hissing down my now-sore throat. I couldn’t move. I wasn’t allowed to—
“We’re running out of time,” the guard said from the door.
Sibley made an agreeing noise next to my ear. “Let’s hurry this up.”
The thick blanket in Mindspace, the thick shield the Minder had held, was starting to lighten, and Tamika’s twisted mind settled in front of me. I couldn’t move to look up. I moaned, unable to move even enough to speak.
“Talk if you want,” Sibley said.
“Why did you kill Bellury?” I whispered. “Why him? He didn’t do anything to you.”
“You ruined my life,” she said, quietly, intensely and for the first time I heard an echo of that pain, that real devastation that I’d seen all those years ago when she’d realized what had happened. “You put my mind through the shredder for no reason at all other than your own stupid selfish pride and a drug. A drug. A thing. You burned me out, so that I never, never will feel another person’s mind against mine. I’m alone now. I’ll always be alone. And I figured out how to destroy you. How to make you feel alone like me.”
Her hand came into my field of vision as she gestured toward the telepath. “Coleen thinks she’s figured out what it is you did to me. While Sibley makes you hold your mind still, she’ll turn your mind inside out and shred it to careful, painful pieces. Just like you did to me. But she’ll make it slow.”
Tamika stood back, frowning contemptuously. “Let’s get on with this.”
Coleen moved forward into my field of vision. “You need to tell him to drop his shields now. This will take a good five minutes or more.”
There was one last thing I had to know before I died, or worse, had my gift stripped away. I took a shallow breath and asked it. “Why—Emily . . . ?”
“She had a connection I needed,” Tamika said, stand-
ing over me. “Coleen, now is the time. It’s time for me to have my justice.”
“Not—justice. Is . . . revenge,” I choked out, my heart beating so fast I was afraid it would burst out of my chest. “Revenge,” I repeated, but I didn’t believe it. In my heart of hearts, I believed I deserved whatever she did to me.
She shouldn’t have killed Bellury, I thought, as the cord tightened, and Sibley said, “Drop your shields.” Bellury didn’t do anything to her.
But—but my shields didn’t drop on their own. That feeling of mesmerizing attention had dissipated and I could move. I could move! I pulled forward—
And got yanked back in the chair. Sibley was suddenly standing over me, pulling the cord with such angry force I knew I was going to die. “With eye contact this time, then. Drop your—”
And the world wrenched as someone teleported in, my mind screaming as I was used as an anchor.
Kara?
Stone came up from a crouch, mammoth dart gun in his hand, firepower pointed directly at the guard. And then he opened fire.
I was on the floor before I could think, deafening cracks of gunshots tearing through the room. A trail of fire hit my neck. I put my h
and on the spot. It was bleeding like a stuck pig but seemed more or less intact; a graze maybe. Shocking, hard pain, nothing at all like the pain of a telepath.
The guard was down, unconscious, and Stone and Coleen were grappling mentally, the waves of their struggle disturbing Mindspace like the sea during a storm, as they flailed and fought with painful cruelty.
Then Coleen lost it; Stone’s mind enveloped hers, and she went down. Her nose ran with blood from what he’d done, and her body went boneless. Her head struck the floor, hard.
Mindspace was fading in and out now, my vision going blurry, so I surfaced out of the shallows.
Tamika was standing behind Stone. Tamika, the one person in the room immune to whatever telepathy could throw at her. She had the heavy telephone in hand, lifted it—
And Stone couldn’t get out of the way in time. It hit his skull with a crunch. He fell, his mind going spotty and cold before unconsciousness. The guard and Coleen were down on the floor, out cold. Sibley, his nose bleeding from something Stone had done, grabbed me by the arm. He pulled me up, the side of my neck still streaming blood. A lot of blood in this room. A lot.
Sibley said calmly, “If we don’t leave now, we may not get away.”
My mind wouldn’t focus; it was like a display of fireworks, bright shiny fireworks I couldn’t look away from. I stared at him, drawn in oddly—and I felt the cord around my neck twist and tighten again.
Tamika said, “If Fiske wants the last few designs, you’ll have to get me away from here in one piece. He’ll never find them otherwise.”
“I promised you we’d get away clean. There’s the lift to the back, and we have plenty of firepower. Stop talking and start moving.”
“Fine.”
I was choking, choking, as Sibley yanked me through the door and down the hall.
As we entered the hallway, I realized the fog that had been blocking my telepathy was gone. Gone! I reached out through the Link to Cherabino.
We’re pulling up now, she said clearly, her mind settled on what needed to be done. Stay out of the line of fire.
