Aside from the limited view from his balcony and Desmond’s office, this was Jack’s first time fully seeing Cairo. It was much larger than Jack had expected, sprawling into the horizon in all directions. Even his New York wasn’t this big, Jack was impressed.
“No, it’s not,” the professor said. “In fact, Cairo is the largest known city in any Verse.”
“It’s beautiful.”
The trip was short, lasting only three minutes. The Academy was a large glass pyramid dwarfing every other building around it for at least a mile.
As they were landing, Jack remarked on how green the city was.
“Yes, we have terraformed the city to suit our needs. Driving back the desert with trees, grass, and fields full of crops,” the professor explained.
“I know a lot of people where I come from who would love to know how it’s done.” Jack said, thinking of the parts of Africa that were still devastated from droughts and the wars of a hundred generations before.
They parked the hover and entered the pyramid. The Academy was much larger than it had looked from the air, there must have been a thousand or more rooms. The corridors were like a maze, twisting this way and that, rooms branching off on either side. If not for the Professor, Jack was sure he would be lost in a matter of minutes. Young men and women milled about up and down the hallways, some in conversation, some silent, lost in thought or some telepathic function.
“This is where we train our Shadows.”
“That’s what Desmond is, isn’t it?” Jack asked.
“Very good, yes. Celia, too. They are our protectors and agents. Here, this might help.” The professor sent Jack a thought.
Jack saw an FBI agent, a CIA spy, a marine, a doctor, and a host of others in his mind. The forms began to melt together, morphing into one body, taking a rough shape at first, and then smoothing out until there was only one person left. It was Desmond.
“Kinda like the best of the best, right? Superheroes,” Jack said, thinking he had the gist of it.
“Something like that, yes, and more. After completing university, the most gifted young people are brought here to train to become a Shadow. The only qualification is that they must have the telekinetic ability.”
“How many Shadows do your people have?” Jack wondered, thinking that an army of these would be quite formidable.
“In these times, not as many as we would like. The training takes many years and many do not see it through until the end. As of right now, there are little more than a hundred of them.”
“That’s it? There must be at least five thousand people in the Academy right now.”
“Some don’t possess enough of the telekinetic gift to become Shadows, and some will decide that the life of a Shadow is not for them. It is not the easiest of roads, and your life is rarely your own.”
Jack said nothing, waiting for an explanation.
“They are a relatively new development for us. Desmond, in conjunction with several others, is responsible for their founding. With the discovery of the MultiVerse and the strife with the Seventh, they realized that we needed to create an agency capable of responding to any threats from outside verses. The name for our agents actually comes from the Seventh, as a fully trained agent is like a shadow—there, but not there. Unable to be grasped or held...”
“I see,” Jack said.
He was led to a small room, the walls about twenty feet long all the way around, and the ceilings about the same. It appeared to be a symmetrically perfect cube. The floors looked like finished concrete, with a long-threaded, white, square rug in the middle of the room. On top of the rug there was large crystal on a pedestal two feet off the ground. The crystal was light gray and roughly cut, but translucent. It reminded Jack of several glass sculptures he had seen once at an art exhibit that he had been dragged to on a first date.
“It’s an energy crystal. It’s why I brought you here, instead of just doing this back at the university. I thought you might need a little help.” The professor smiled at Jack.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jack said. He was slightly offended, but not sure why—after all, it’s not like he had any idea what was going on or what he was supposed to do.
“You’ll find that most people will vote for your confidence when they actually see that you have some… Anyway, the crystal will amplify your telepathic ability, helping you to learn in a matter of minutes what may have otherwise taken you half a lifetime to learn.”
“Alright… So how’s this work?” Jack was excited to read somebody’s mind. In fact, he’d been looking forward to this since he was seven years old, reading superhero comics on his bedroom floor.
“Hate to burst your bubble Jack, but you’ll probably never be able to read someone’s mind, unless you mutate somehow. But you may be able to hear someone’s thoughts. At least an unshielded mind’s thoughts… like yours right now.”
Jack’s enthusiasm faded. “I’ve just about had enough of this crap about my inferior mind. How do I shut it off?”
“Let’s begin: First you must learn to connect with your own mind.”
“I think I’m pretty in touch with myself… I can hear my own thoughts just fine. I thought the problem was, so can everybody else.”
“You are not your thoughts though, Jack. Anyone can connect to their thoughts. You must connect with your mind, with your true self. We’ll begin with an exercise, and go from there. Have a seat.” He motioned at the rug on the floor and then sat down.
Jack followed his lead.
“Now, close your eyes and breathe deeply. In, through your belly, not your chest, and all the way down. Imagine that you’re breathing down into your legs and feet, that the air is filling up every part of your body. And when you have inhaled fully, slowly let your breath out, relaxing completely as you exhale.”
Jack began to breathe as instructed, not really believing this was going to do anything. But as he exhaled, he felt a calm begin to come over his body.
“Good,” Professor Williams said. “Now, again, breathe deeply and relax your body even more… feel your muscles let go of all the tension that you have stored in them for a lifetime, and let yourself fall deeply into the calm that surrounds you.”
Jack kept breathing, trying to will himself to relax even more. He became aware of his own heartbeat.
The experience was completely foreign to him. His mind began to wander as thoughts of Celia, and Cairo, and Kid came to him. The feeling of anger and loss swelled up in him. What was he doing here? He had to find Kid and rescue him. He didn’t have time for this foolishness.
“Do you notice how loud your thoughts are now Jack? How you can’t quiet them?”
Jack opened his eyes, frustrated. “What am I supposed to do? I can’t control what I think. This is a huge waste of time!”
“You may not be able to control your thoughts, but you can learn to not be controlled by them,” the Professor said. “I thought we might be able to take the gentler route here, but I see that we will not have enough time. There is a faster way, but it is not very pleasant. You will only be able to learn how to shield your mind from others, and you won’t be able to communicate back.”
“Whatever, let’s just get this over with so I can get on with finding Kid.” Jack’s patience was at an end.
“It’s good that you’re angry, it will help you. The only other way for you to learn control over your mind is through pain. I will, unfortunately, have to hurt you until you learn to protect your mind. Are you ready?”
“Ready? I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. How can I...” Jack was suddenly incapacitated by a searing pain in his head. His vision went white and he slowly became aware of someone screaming. It was his own voice. Abruptly, after what seemed like hours, the pain stopped.
“Was that a pleasant experience for you?” Professor Williams asked.
“What the fuck do you think?” Jack spat. “What the hell did you do?” The blinding pain returned, this
time even more painfully.
“Control your breathing, Jack. Find the points in your mind where the pain is coming from and block me out.”
Jack tried to shut the pain out. He tried to think of something else, anything at all beside the overwhelming pain. He couldn’t.
“Don’t run from the pain, Jack. Embrace it. Become one with it. Follow it back to its source.”
Jack, unable to deny it any longer, gave in to the pain. He took it inside himself and let it fill every part of his body. His breath came in ragged gasps as he struggled to make sense of it. He heard the professor talking to him, telling him what to do, but it didn’t make any sense. He couldn’t find a way out of this.
But then, just as Jack was about to beg the professor to stop, he felt it. The source of his pain.
He had become his pain and was a part of it now, just as it was a part of him. His awareness ran up and down the length of his body searching for the source, and at last he found what he was looking for.
In the agony of the ordeal Jack no longer saw things as he usually would. Instead, he felt them, much like a blind person must, he thought. What Jack felt was the pain pouring through several large openings in his mind. He saw a picture of water flowing through a dam with large cracks in it. The water was his pain, and the dam his mind.
“Do you want me to stop?” Professor Williams asked.
“No, I think I’m almost there,” Jack managed to spit out between gritted teeth.
The pain redoubled it’s strength and Jack saw the cracks of the dam bulge, little chunks of concrete falling out. He searched for a way to repair the dam. For some way to stem the flow of pain.
It felt like trying to move your arm when it was asleep. He could see the muscles that he wanted to move but he couldn’t feel them. Every impulse he sent to the sleeping muscles was blocked.
Jack knew he was close to blacking out from the pain. It seemed inevitable. With one last ditch effort he fought back with all his might, pushing against the pain that was pouring into his body. With every ounce of strength that he had, he pushed.
Nothing happened. The water kept flowing through the damaged wall of his mind.
Jack kept pushing.
Nothing.
And then, he felt something move inside him.
It was like the pins and needles of an awakening limb.
The feeling grew stronger and Jack seized hold of it. His long lost muscle, not in his arm, he realized, but in his mind.
He flexed his new muscle and felt the pain lessen, only to come crashing back through. He squeezed harder and the pain again began to fade.
Jack kept his attention on the now strengthening dam in his mind, until no more pain flowed through.
He opened his eyes and realized that he was lying on his back now, covered in sweat. His clothes were twisted on his body from his thrashing about.
“Congratulations, Jack,” the professor said. “That was the first and hardest step. You must remember to exercise that new muscle every day, just as you would the muscles of your body. You must strengthen it to a point where you no longer have to exert yourself to block out that pain.”
“I don’t ever want to experience that again,” Jack said.
“And you won’t have to, hopefully. From here on out, I can use a different stimulus now that you are aware of the process. You will feel a pressure from it, rather than the pain you did before.
“Are you ready to continue, or do you need a moment?”
“I’m ready,” Jack said, breathing heavily.
The training continued for two more hours. Professor Williams tested and probed Jack’s mind, while Jack exercised his new found ability and forced him out.
Once Jack possessed the needed skills, the professor brought the teaching session to a close.
“I think that will be all for today, Jack,” Professor Williams said. “You’ve done very well.”
“Thank you,” Jack said. “And thank you for teaching me.”
“The pleasure has been mine, Jack. Now it will be up to you whether or not you wish to share your mind with anyone.” Professor Williams beamed like a proud parent. “Keep strengthening your defenses though, Jack. While you can shield your mind from most ordinary telepaths, you would still be almost helpless against a stronger being.”
“Some would use their ability to hurt me?” Jack asked, a bit fearful at the possibility.
“Not here, no. But there are others in the MultiVerse who possess similar powers to ours. Take care that you are able to protect yourself from them.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“And let us hope that it is enough.”
The Overlaps
Celia and her father were in his office discussing how Jack’s training might be going.
“I bet he had to learn the hard way,” Celia said, wondering if she cared a little more than she should at this stage of the game. Her last love interest hadn’t turned out so well. More accurately, he hadn’t turned out alive.
“No doubt you’re right, Silly,” Desmond said, calling her by the pet name that he knew she was not fond of. It wasn’t that he wanted to annoy her, but he’d called her Silly since the day she was born, and he liked the nickname. “Jack may be a lot of things, but a telepath he is not. It may take him a while. Do be patient with him, dear.”
“I’m not just using him to get over Craig,” Celia offered out of nowhere. Craig, her previous love interest, died while they were on what he thought was a vacation in the Fifth Verse. It had actually been a mission to spy on a Stranger from the Seventh. While Celia completed her mission, Craig had been murdered in her hotel room. They had been together for five years. “I’ve moved on… besides, I think I might really like him.”
“Whatever you say, sweetie,” Desmond said, not bothering to look up from the report he was reading.
“I really mean it.”
“Okay,” Desmond said. She’s really trying to sell this to herself, he thought.
Celia was about to really drive her point home when the door to the office burst open. A man rushed in.
He was breathing in ragged gasps and covered in sweat. Celia recognized him as one of the newer agents, recently graduated from the Academy.
“What is it?” Desmond asked.
“Forgive the interruption, sir,” the man stammered, “but you asked to be notified at once if any news of the boy came across the network.”
Desmond perked up at the mention of the boy. “What do you have to report?”
The agent took a moment to gather himself. “We’ve received word from one of our contacts in the Seventh. He says he knows where the boy is being held. He wouldn’t say anything else until he met with you face to face.”
“Very well. Have we set up a meeting yet?” Desmond asked.
The man nodded his head. “The contact set the meeting for an overlap in Nashville. Place called The End.”
“Perfect,” Desmond said. He was not overly fond of meetings in overlaps. They had some advantages, but security was always an issue. It was too easy to overhear things, or, in some cases, not hear anything at all.
Desmond dismissed the agent and turned to his daughter. “Would you please go and gather Jack? Whether he’s ready or not, we don’t have anymore time to spare.”
“I’d absolutely love to.” Celia curtseyed and excused herself with as much sarcasm as she could muster.
As she was leaving, Desmond muttered to himself with a smile, “That’s my girl…”
Celia found Jack just as he and the professor were arriving back at the University from the Academy. They were getting out of the Professor’s hover as Celia approached. Every bit of her was business.
Jack took one look at Celia’s face and immediately knew something was up. “What’s going on? Did you hear something about Kid?”
“I’ll tell you about it on the way,” Celia said, turning to the professor. “Sorry we have to run, thanks for your help. I hope he wasn’t too much
trouble.”
“Me? Trouble?” Jack asked. “I’m the one who got the mental shit kicked out of me.”
Celia laughed along with the professor.
“It was all my pleasure,” Professor Williams said, taking Celia’s hand and giving it a kiss. “And his pain…” At this, the two began laughing even harder.
Tired of bearing the brunt of every joke, Jack cleared his throat loudly. “Shouldn’t we be going? Young boy to track down and save, bad guys to thwart, and all that good stuff?”
“You’re right. I’m sorry, Jack.” Celia turned back to Professor Williams and kissing him on the cheek. “Thanks again, professor.”
“You two be careful,” the professor called out as they walked away.
Celia had parked the hover several blocks away and Jack struggled to keep up with her on their way to it. He had barely stepped foot in the vehicle before Celia took off, pulling out into traffic with a u-turn that nearly sent Jack flying into the back seat.
“Take it easy, will ya?” Jack adjusted himself in his seat.
“Sorry, Dad said to hurry back as fast as we could. He’s got a lead on Kid.”
“Still, can we get there in one piece please?”
“Awww, is Jacky scared of the woman driver?” Celia baby-talked.
Well, compared to you, I am a baby, Grandma, Jack thought.
“I heard that!” Celia stopped laughing. “And what does that make you then? Huh? A grandmotherfuc—”
“Stop! You win.” Jack tried to dispel the image of his own grandmother wearing lingerie from his head.
Upstairs in his office, Desmond was waiting for them. He wasted no time with greetings; in fact, he didn’t even look up from the screen he was reading from. He just said, “Get whatever you need for a day off-world. We’re going to an overlap.”
Celia groaned. “Ugh… Your contact couldn’t have picked another place?”
“Afraid not,” Desmond said.
“What’s the big deal?” Jack asked.
“The big deal,” Celia explained, “is that overlaps are a one-way trip. The door that takes you there can’t be used to return to the verse you started in. And,” she continued, “they attract every piece of shit in the MultiVerse that’s hoping to overhear some tidbit of info that they can then take back to their superiors, or sell off to the highest bidder.”
Strangers and Shadows Page 11
