The Fire In My Eyes

by Christopher Nelson

  I heard a car horn in the distance and Nikki yanked on my arm. Something whipped past behind me, close enough to feel. She was leading me somewhere. I stumbled along in her wake. Every time I blinked, the white was fading to a darker gray, but no shapes were resolving. I had blinded myself. What had I done?

  “Kevin?” It sounded like she was shouting in my ear. I jerked away and blinked again. Her face suddenly appeared in front of me, blurry and indistinct, but unmistakably her. “Kevin? Can you hear me?”

  “I'm here,” I said. I could hear myself, but it felt like I was hearing everything from underwater. “Are we safe?”

  “Yes,” she said. “But you look a little shaky. Are you all right?”

  “I'm fine, but you should see the other guy. Other guys.” I chuckled and then groaned as my head spun. “How long has it been?”

  “About two minutes,” she said. I winced. It had been more effective than I had anticipated. “We're far enough away that I can try and heal you without them noticing now.”

  “I'll be fine,” I said. “But remind me for next time to shield before I light it off. If that's what happens for a spur of the moment idea, I'm terrified of what would happen if I was focused on it.”

  “I could feel it,” she said as she placed her fingers on my forehead. The next time I blinked, I could see a faint green glow around her irises. “It felt like I got smacked in the back of the head. If I'd been using my Sight at that moment, I'm sure it would have knocked me out. There. Is that better?”

  I shook my head back and forth. My hearing was almost normal and my vision was back in focus. “Yes. Let's get out of here.”

  The moment we stepped back on the Ripley campus, Alistair Ripley tele'd me with a demand to get to his office right now. We ran there and the secretary waved us in without even looking up. Ripley stared at us over his enormous desk and shook his head. His expression was grim. “I trust you have a good explanation?” he asked.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “For setting off that mindflare. It was you, wasn't it?” He steepled his fingers in front of his face. “It was rather surprising to have an emergency distress call so strong and close to home. All of our reserves mobilized immediately. I had to issue an emergency order to stand by until we understood the situation. Well? Is there a reason?”

  I explained what had happened and how I had come up with the idea to escape. Nikki added her own explanation. Ripley nodded throughout the story, then sighed deeply as we both ran out of words. “What else could we do?” I asked.

  “Nothing. You acted prudently,” Ripley said. “Mindflares are disconcerting. They can confound the psionic senses of others. They can also be sensed at great distances. Some of our outlying reserve agents twenty miles away reported in as soon as they sensed the flare. Most organizations use it as an emergency signal, a last ditch effort. You've signaled that someone is investigating that campus. They will be very, very careful from here on out. On the plus side, since you did it without being taught on how to do it properly, no one is sure that it was an Establishment investigation.”

  “I see,” I said. The energy from the flash must not have been Establishment green. If what Shade and Absynthe had told us was correct, it must have been blue. That would have confused people.

  “Since the situation has escalated, I will take responsibility for the assignment,” he continued. “Based on what you have told me, there are multiple agents operating on the RPI campus. I cannot, in good conscience, allow you to return there.”

  “No!” Ripley raised both eyebrows. Nikki and I had spoken at the same time. “You'll kill the kid just for being too smart. That's not right,” she said.

  “He is no longer your concern, Miss Wainwright,” he said. “I will assume all responsibility.”

  “It's not just your responsibility!” I hadn't heard Nikki ever shout like that. Judging by the look on Ripley's face, neither had he. “I thought you were supposed to be teaching us ethics!”

  Ripley stood up and Nikki shut up. “I teach you ethics,” he said. “I never claimed to be an ethical standard for you to measure yourself against. You are no longer involved with this assignment. I will tolerate no more outbursts.”

  “We won't let you do this!” Nikki ignored his warning. “We'll go back. We'll take care of it ourselves. We'll do the right thing.”

  Ripley glanced at me, then back at her. “No. I forbid you to return to that campus, Miss Wainwright. I will not allow it.”

  Nikki grabbed my wrist. “Come on. We're leaving.”

  I looked over my shoulder just before we left the room. Ripley's expression was inscrutable, but was that a slight smile I saw? I couldn't be sure. The doors slammed shut behind us.

  She led me straight back to my room and promptly blew up. I let her rage. After a good half hour of ranting, she told me not to go anywhere, then stormed back to her room. She returned five minutes later, dressed all in black and ordered me to follow suit. “Are we really going to do this?” I asked her.

  “I am not going to have his death on my conscience,” she snapped, and that was that. I changed my clothes and we headed out. As we approached the exit of the dorm, Max and Drew walked in and immediately headed for us.

  “Hey, where are you two going, all dressed up like that?” Drew grinned and winked at me. “Going to some goth club downtown? I didn't think you were into that sort of thing.”

  “Wearing all black isn't goth,” Max said. “Proper goths would laugh them right out of the place. Besides, it's way too early to go clubbing, it's only seven.”

  “We don't have time for this,” Nikki said. She seized my wrist and started dragging me ahead. Max and Drew exchanged glances, then Drew stepped in front of her and blocked her path. “Get out of my way,” she snapped.

  He held his hands up. “Chill, Nikki. What's the story? You don't look too happy, Kev. Something going on between you two?”

  “I said we don't have time for this!”

  “Nikki, hang on,” I said. “Look, we're just going-”

  “We're just going out. Now let us go.”

  Max shook his head. “You two are acting weird. What's going on?”

  I started to say something, but Nikki was faster. She held her hand up toward Drew, fingers splayed. I felt a surge of psionic energy, too quick for me to react. “I told you, get out of my way!”

  She blew him backwards, flinging him toward the glass doors. I tapped my own power and caught him with a telekinetic grip, catching him just before he could smash through them. Max swore and fell on his ass. “What the fuck are you doing?” I shouted at Nikki.

  “There's no time to deal with this sort of shit,” she said, far calmer than she had any right to be. “We've got to do what needs to be done, and we've got to do it now before it's too late. I'm not going to play patty-cake with these two idiots. We've got lives to save.”

  “You just blew cover,” I said. Drew and Max were both staring. I lifted Drew and placed him back on his feet next to Max. He promptly fell on his ass as well. “Sorry guys, she's a little pissed at the moment.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Max asked. “Your eyes, both your eyes? Is it contagious?”

  “She pushed me without even touching me, what the fuck? Kev, what the fuck, man?” Drew seemed horrified. “You've been hiding this sort of shit?”

  I looked away from my roommates. This wasn't my choice. “Nikki, have you learned how to tweak memories? I haven't.”

  “I have.” She walked to Drew and slapped her hand to his forehead. Seconds later, she turned and stepped toward Max, who scrambled backwards. She seized him with a telekinetic grip and slapped his forehead as well.

  “Wait, Kev, help!” he shouted to me, before going limp. I shuddered. They wouldn't remember this incident. I certainly didn't feel right about it.

  “There. They won't remember seeing us.” Both of them were getting to their feet, looking a little disoriented, but none the worse for wear. Nikki grabbed m
y hand and led me down the stairs before they could come to their senses.

  We walked across Troy in record time. Neither of us tapped our psionic energy after that incident and no one seemed to be looking for us, from either the Bureau or the Establishment. I could only imagine how many rules we had just broken, and how many more we were about to break. At the bottom of the huge staircase leading up to the RPI campus, Nikki stopped short. “Kev?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Sorry about doing that to your friends. I'm a little on edge.”

  “I noticed.” The apology didn't quite make up for what she had done, but at least I had been able to save him from injury. It wasn't as if I had the moral high ground to protest what she had done, not after what I had done to her. Still, I hadn't done it on purpose.

  She squeezed my hand and we walked up the stairs. The campus was quiet, far quieter than it had been earlier that afternoon. Instead of breaking left around the central field, we broke right and walked right to the engineering building. We took a small, nearly hidden staircase, and then approached the main entrance of the engineering building. Nikki pulled on the door handle. It opened. “I almost expected it to be locked,” she said.

  “Me too,” I said. “But it's not too late. Twenty to eight.”

  “They'd expect us to come late at night,” Nikki said. “But they won't expect us now, plus we might find the researcher in the lab. Let's walk around. They said the lab he’s working in is on the seventh floor. Remember what he looks like?”

  Before he left, Shade had telepathically shown us an image of the student. He was baby-faced, looking surprised as if the camera had appeared out of nowhere. I could visualize him easily. “Yeah. Should we look for him now?”

  She nodded and we took the elevator up. The building was far quieter than I had anticipated. The overhead lights were on, but the corridors still seemed dark. We peered into several rooms, but our suspect was nowhere to be found. “I don't like this,” Nikki said after the tenth room. “We might have to find him by other means, but that'll attract attention.”

  “I feel like this is a trap,” I said.

  “So do I,” she said, wrapping her arms around herself. “At least there are people in the building. Even so, it's too quiet. It's creepy.”

  I nodded. We had passed a couple of students in the hallway, and some of the rooms had people at work in them. Even if we did use our power, if it was quick enough, no one would be able to focus on us. Even if they remembered us from earlier, we were just students here, so it wouldn't be too shocking to find the same people again. “I'm going to see if I can track him down.”

  “All right. I'm going ahead a bit,” Nikki said. I waited until she had turned the corner, then tapped into my power, drawing a tiny trickle out, just enough for my Sight. I matched the picture in my head to a presence in the building. The line ran to the opposite corner of the floor and I immediately twisted my power off before it could be traced. I hadn't sensed any other psionic presence, but almost as soon as I dropped my power, I could sense someone looking for me. Again, it felt as if there was wind rattling leaves on trees, an impossible sound to hear when we were indoors. I ignored it and followed Nikki around the corner. The touch on my mind lifted. If they knew it was me, the attack would be on the way.

  As I rounded the corner, I saw Nikki shudder, then look back at me. She held a finger to her lips, then shuddered again. After a moment, she smiled. “They passed over us again.”

  “I found him. Other side of the floor,” I said.

  “Great!” Nikki stepped toward me and surprised me with a quick kiss. “Let's go get him and then get out of here.”

  We followed the twisting hallway around to the other side of the floor. It was a corner room, a secluded area of the building. As we reached the door, someone nearly walked into us from the other direction. He looked like an exchange student, short and dark-haired, dark-eyed, sizing us both up. He immediately took a step back and gave me a deep nod. “Excuse me, I didn't mean to run into you,” he said.

  “No problem,” I said. I reached for the doorknob at the same time he did. “Sorry. Were you looking for this room too?”

  He dropped his arm and turned to face me. “I am.”

  “What are you looking for?” I asked.

  His dark eyes searched mine. “Quite possibly the same thing you are.”

  “Who are you?” Nikki asked.

  His gaze slid over to her and nodded again. Something started to crawl up and down my spine. “My name is Shigeru Yamamoto. You?”

  “Nicole Wainwright,” she said. “And this is Kevin Parker.”

  “A pleasure to meet you. Are you involved with this research?” he asked.

  I shook my head. “Not exactly. Are you?”

  “Not exactly. Are you students here?”

  “Are you?”

  His eyes narrowed. “Are you the source of the disturbance this afternoon?”

  Nikki stepped toward me and whispered in my ear. “He's not answering your questions and he's asking too many of his own. He knows something.”

  “Maybe he's the trap we're worried about,” I whispered back.

  “Find out more.”

  I looked back at Yamamoto. “What sort of disturbance?”

  His eyes narrowed even more. “Surely you know of what I refer to, if you are interested in what is within this room.”

  Nikki grabbed my arm as I started to step back. “Let's stop dancing around this,” I said. This was a trap, I was sure of it, but we needed to get some information before running like hell. “You're here for the same reason we are, the paranormal research being worked on in there. And you're a psion. Who do you work for? What are you planning on doing with it?”

  Yamamoto sized me up, then looked at Nikki, who was squeezing my arm hard enough to cut off circulation. After a long moment, he nodded again. “Forgive me for not introducing myself properly. I am Shigeru Yamamoto, in the service of the Kyoto branch of the Kaze. My orders are to end the research being done here.”

  “Kaze,” Nikki whispered.

  He wasn’t nodding, he was bowing. Shade had warned us in no uncertain terms about the Kaze. I slammed a defensive shield in place around the two of us, my power surging to the very edge of stability. Yamamoto took a long step back and raised his hands, palms forward toward us. Was he preparing an attack or signaling peaceful intentions? I reinforced the shield and prepared to mindflare. “We're from the Establishment,” I told him. “We're here to stop the research as well.”

  Yamamoto seemed to be thinking out loud. “Establishment,” he said. “I see. The heart of your own territory. It makes sense that you would be here. But you are not an agent, are you? Your shield is strong, yet brittle in places. Trainees? Ah. Your primary agents are otherwise engaged, yes?”

  I tele'd Nikki. “I'm going to throw a mindflare. We have to get out of here. This guy's way beyond our ability to handle.”

  She tele'd me back. “We can't! Ripley will find us, he'll kill the researcher, and we'll be in deep shit! There has to be another way. If he has the same sort of mission, we might be able to team up with him against the Bureau, right?”

  “He's probably got orders to recover the device too,” I replied.

  “So ask him!”

  “Ask him?”

  “Kevin, if he was going to attack us, he would have already!”

  She was right. I took a chance and lowered the strength of my shield. “Yes, we're trainees,” I told him. “We're probably not very well trained by your standards, but underestimating us would be dangerous.”

  Yamamoto gave us a slight smile. “There is a story we are told during our training. There is a swordsman, the best swordsman in the world. He does not fear the third best swordsman, nor the second best. He fears those who are only beginning to learn the art, because he cannot anticipate their actions.”

  “I'll have to remember that,” I said.

  “However, I do question your intelligence. You h
ave advertised to your federal government agents that there is a psionic disturbance here. Why?”

  “We were warned about you,” I said. “The Kaze kill.”

  “Of course,” he agreed. “Within our territory. Here, your common practice is to disable your opponents, is it not?” He spoke a short phrase in what I assumed was Japanese, then shook his head. “I do not know the English term for it.”

  “Mindtwist,” Nikki said.

  “Mindtwist,” Yamamoto repeated. “Thank you. In your territory, you mindtwist, and as you do, so shall I. It would be unforgivably rude to act otherwise when you are a guest in another's house, so to speak.”

  “Hold on a minute here,” I said. “You're saying that you're not going to kill anyone here because that's not the way we do things here?”

  “Of course.”

  “Do you trust him?” I tele'd Nikki.

  “He seems sincere. Do we really have a choice?” she tele'd back.

  “Try and make a deal?”

  Nikki nodded, then pointed at the door. “We both want to stop the research, right? And we both want to acquire the prototype, if at all possible?” she asked. Yamamoto's eyes narrowed and she let out a short giggle. “It's not like I couldn't guess.”

  “It is as you say,” he said.

  “I thought so. So, are we both agreed that each party here could make it difficult for the other to acquire the device?”

  “I would defeat you,” he said. His tone was flat.

  “You would defeat us,” I broke in. “But I guarantee you, we'd destroy the device first. We both win in that we stop the research, but both lose in not getting the device.”

  “So let's try and come to a compromise.” Nikki jumped back in. “Obviously we can't both get the device, but there's got to be something else.”

  “Do you have a suggestion?” Yamamoto asked.

  “Could we copy the research data?” Nikki asked me.

  I nodded and reached into my pocket. I kept a USB flash drive with my keys. “Either of you have one?” They both shook their heads. “Well, I'm sure the geek in there will have some. Would you be satisfied with that, Yamamoto? We all get a copy of the research data and destroy the device. It's not quite as good as the real thing, but it's better than not getting anything at all.”