by Jenn Nixon
“We’ve already begun our research on Miss Allen, I think we found the same clip, from her phone cloud?” the man named Theo asked.
Sanjeeta nodded. The third man, still sitting among the computer stations in the middle of the enormous room seemed to be chatting with someone on the hanging monitors at the head of the computers.
“If you’ll be kind enough to give us the screennames of your friends,” Liam said, drawing her gaze back, “we can begin a trace.”
“Some of the hackers in the group already tried…but I’m sure they don’t have a set up like you guys. Are you the psychic FBI or something?”
“Something,” Theo murmured.
“MIND,” Liam added, “the name of our team. We may not be able to answer everything straight away, Sanjeeta—”
“Can psychics be telekinetic?” she asked.
Theo blinked.
Liam pressed his fingers into the corners of his eyes before glancing to Hinta who simply shrugged.
Sanjeeta frowned. “Is that a no?”
“No, it’s possible, we’ve not see it…if I’m to be truthful. We do, however, have the ability to test your DNA and genome. A swab and a scan and I will tell you more about yourself than you probably want to know,” Liam offered without making her feel odd or scared.
“Sure, I’d honestly love to know more,” Sanjeeta said, sighing with a bit of relief. “The handles from the deepnet are in the notes app on my phone. The only thing I ask is that we protect their privacy, I don’t want you calling their family or friends and outing them.”
“That’s never part of the plan,” Hinta said. “We’re more concerned with protecting them from humans.”
Theo and Liam winced.
“Normal humans,” he added quickly.
Sanjeeta lifted her brow.
“I’ll go get you a swab,” Theo said and went to the back of the room disappearing into one of the two large doorways.
“Something to drink?” Hinta asked.
“I’m okay, thanks.”
“I’ll start running the names,” he said, breaking away from her and Liam who sat across, seemingly lost in thought until Theo returned with the swab.
“Just dab inside the mouth,” he said, handing her the long cotton swab. She’d seen it done enough in person and on TV to know what to do and offered it back when done. “We’ll have more information in less than an hour.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“No, thank you, Sanjeeta,” Liam said, rising from the couch. “It was very brave of you to come here. You’re more than welcome to sit with us while you wait.”
Theo broke away to bring the swab back to their lab, so she followed Liam to the middle of the room. Hinta, already sitting at the second station in the first row, glanced up and smiled. Behind him, the third man, staring down at his screen didn’t seem to notice others were around him, and swiped the screen occasionally.
“Sit anywhere,” Liam said, motioning to the empty side.
Sanjeeta sat across from Hinta and glanced up to the four connected monitors, each of which had different information scrolling and flashing across the screens. Coming from a business and management background, the charts, graphs, and science information meant nothing to her. She could pick out a DNA helix, however, that wasn’t on the screen.
The man sitting behind Hinta chuckled softly. She glanced back. He lifted his head. His bright blue eyes seemed to spark silver for a second as they widened and then narrowed. He stood up. Sanjeeta tensed. Liam cleared his throat from behind.
“Pardon me,” the man said, shaking his blond head. “I’m Caelum.”
“Sanjeeta.”
“If you’ll excuse me,” he said before vanishing in a silver blip.
She gasped. Liam and Theo cursed under their breath. When she looked to Hinta, he only shrugged again. She didn’t feel in danger, but something was really off. If her telekinetics were considered unusual, what the hell was teleporting in the grand scheme of things?
Finding Marjorie was all that mattered. This team offered to help. She’d be an idiot to turn it down. Still, these men obviously knew more than they were telling her.
Sanjeeta turned her attention to the screen and tried to clear her thoughts, but the harder she tried the louder the words got. What the hell did I get myself into?
***
“It’s today,” she whimpered, hiding her face against his chest this time.
“What?” His voice quivered as both arms slipped around her back.
Dina clawed his shoulders. “We have to go home.”
“Why?”
“Lexa’s awake.”
“Are you sure?”
“Will be.”
Dina. Theo nuzzled her neck. Leaning back, she pressed her lips together, looking into his weary green eyes. She couldn’t tell him. He’d never understand and more than likely try to stop her. Instead, Dina collected his dark face between her pale hands, memorizing every line and wrinkle around his eyes and gray hair in his eyebrows. “You’re scaring me.”
“It’s not going to be easy getting to Lexa, you know that.”
“I know.”
“They have the entire block under surveillance.”
“The shields will hold until we get there,” Theo replied, covering her hand with his. “What is this really about, Dina?”
“Do you remember the night in the club?”
His brow rose high. “When you were high on E and kissed me the first time? Oh, yes.”
“What did I say to you?”
He leaned back, pulling her hands from his face as he frowned. “That we’d never be in love with each other because we’ll always be in love with them.”
“It doesn’t mean I don’t love you, Theo. All of this. It was real.”
Theo’s face went from surprise to confusion in a nanosecond. “Was real? Dina—”
Her eyes popped open. The blue barrier surrounded her body. Every new image from the dream downloaded into her memory, searing into her brain. They didn’t terrify her anymore. Maybe because Dina knew it wasn’t a vision. Conversely, she didn’t understand what she was seeing, feeling. Maybe she was broken after all.
As the barrier faded, her head began to clear. Dina took in the contents of her bedroom, everything exactly where it had been the day she left, including the pair of socks she put on top of the dresser next to the chargepads for their phones. When she got up from the bed, caught of whiff of her pits, she teleported to the bathroom, took a long, hot shower, and then trimmed her hair.
With a towel secure around her body, she sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the dresser, unsure she was ready to go downstairs and face Liam, Caelum, or Theo. She hoped they could help her make sense of the chaos in her mind.
After she dressed in a pair of MIND sweatpants and plain green tank top, she went down stairs, instantly sensing Caelum in the kitchen. Dina walked through the living room, her heart beating faster the closer she got. From the doorway, she saw him staring into a cup of coffee and only glanced up when she entered.
“Hello, Dina.”
“Hey,” she replied, rounding the breakfast bar and the far side and dug through the fridge, pulling out a grape soda and pastry. He was still staring into his cup when she sat down across from him. “What’s wrong?”
He chuckled. “You are astonishing. Despite your struggles, you still care to ask about me. Humans will never cease to amaze.”
“Caelum, what’s wrong?” She frowned.
“I’ll let Liam explain, he’s much better than I—”
Before she opened her mouth to argue, the base door creaked back and Hinta walked out talking aloud. Dina tilted her head up, ready to say hi and saw the stunning Indian women behind him. Her light brown eyes shimmered.
“Sandee,” Dina gasped. The back of her head throbbed. She winced.
“Dina?” Caelum leaned forward.
“How does she know my—”
Images of Sandee, Lexa, and D
ina breaking through a security barrier on the streets of New York bombarded her mind. Theo and Jazara yelled from behind. She felt hot again, just like the dream.
“Dina, focus,” Caelum called sharply. Blinking, she shook her head and met the Enhancer’s concerned face. “Do you know Sanjeeta?”
She looked up at the woman again, admiring her cute pixie haircut, thinking she felt more familiar than her appearance did. “I don’t think so...but I’ve seen her face in my mind.”
“You have?” Sanjeeta asked.
“Long story,” Hinta said. “We just came in to get drinks, Liam’s onto something with those screennames.”
“Huh?” Dina furrowed her brow.
“We’re helping her locate a missing employee and some psychic friends from the deepnet,” Hinta added, shooting Caelum a look.
“You should come inside with me, Dina,” Caelum said, rising from his chair as Hinta and Sanjeeta went to the breakfast bar. “We can give you an update.”
Dina absently nodded and carried her grape soda into the base, following the Enhancer to the computer stations. Theo sat in his spot, first row, three back, while Liam commanded the hub per usual.
“How are you feeling, Dina,” Liam asked with a thin smile on his mouth.
“Confused, what’s wrong with me?” She winced, rubbing the side of her head. Liam rose up from his chair. Caelum lifted his arm in the hub’s direction, but kept his gaze locked on her. Dina frowned. “You know, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Caelum said, sticking his hand in his pocket and pulling out a gray box. When he opened the lid, her heart pounded and she began struggling for each breath with no logical explanation as to why. “Do you recognize it, Dina?”
“No,” she said, panting.
“Caelum,” Theo rose, balling his hands at his side.
The Enhancer stared him down. “Don’t interfere.”
“What’s going on?” Dina stepped back, trying to ignore the dread seeping through her skin.
“What you’ve been seeing…they’re memories. Future memories from your mind, Dina. You came back to warn Liam about Gardner and Project Phoenix,” he said, lifting the necklace from the box. “You gave this to him, told him to follow the experiments and to trust Sandee.”
Dina shook her head. “This is crazy.”
“The dream is a memory, bleeding through time via the fracture in your mind. The moment you visited the radiation site in New Jersey you exposed yourself to the temporal energy, when you and Liam returned—”
“No,” she said, shaking, backing away from him and the box. “You’re lying.”
“He’s not, Dina,” Liam interjected gently, gazing at her from the hub, his eyes as glassy as hers, perhaps for the same reason. In those images, those memories, practically everyone was dead. “Everything you’ve seen…in a manner of speaking happened. Only by heeding your warning can we change anything.”
“Which we’ve yet to discuss,” Caelum retorted.
“I don’t need your permission,” Liam said evenly.
Dina didn’t hear the rest of their words. She stepped closer and took the necklace out of Caelum’s hand. Her mind filled with images from the dream, the penthouse, the shield, Theo punching through…then she saw everything after, the light, Liam, her shock at his appearance, saying goodbye. Every emotion stunning her system as if she experienced it firsthand, despite knowing it was impossible. The blue shimmer surrounded her body. “No…”
“Dina?” Caelum tilted his head. “Give me the necklace.”
“I promised to never take it off,” she whispered, wincing as a surging wave of emotions flooded her mind. She curled her fingers around the charm.
“Holy crap,” Sanjeeta gasped.
The Enhancer used the distraction to swipe the chain from her hand. Dina’s shield vanished and her head spun. Liam was beside her in an instant, grasping her arm and keeping her steady. When she met his concerned gaze, she fell against his chest.
“I know you don’t want to see the memories, Dina, but if you want to be whole again, you may have to,” Caelum said. “For now, I will keep the necklace, until you talk it over and make a decision.”
“I died,” she said softly, gazing up at Liam and ignoring everyone else.
“Apparently I died first, you came back to warn us, to save us,” he replied, stroking his hand down her cheek. “I won’t let you down again, Dina.”
“I have to see them if I want to get better, don’t I?” She shuddered and pressed her face to his chest again.
“I don’t know. Caelum believes that’s the only way. I think if we change the present, they won’t exist anymore and they’ll vanish from your mind.”
“Okay, I think I’ve been patient enough,” Sanjeeta said suddenly. “Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?”
“Uh,” Hinta stammered, looking between Liam and an amused Caelum.
“She needs to know,” Dina said, peering over to the Enhancer and Theo, unable to linger for long. Then she met Liam’s eyes. “I’ve seen her in the memories.”
“Band-Aid?” He smiled slightly.
She nodded.
He kissed her forehead. “Aime, go visual.”
“Good afternoon.”
“Queue the video we’ve been working on, play it for Sanjeeta when she’s ready,” he said before glancing back down. “Let’s get you something to drink, okay?”
Dina nodded, still a little bit out of it and certain she didn’t want to hear their history replayed on a loudspeaker right now.
“I’m heading out. Lexa will be here soon and Casey needs help on a job she’s trying to finish,” Theo said, patting Hinta on his way to the door. Not looking her in the eye, either. “Good luck.”
“Hinta and I will stay and answer Sanjeeta’s questions,” Caelum said.
“We’ll be in the kitchen,” Liam said, wrapping his arm around her back and escorting her to the kitchen. Dina couldn’t bring herself to look at him until half her drink was gone. Picking up her apprehension, he reached across the table and took her hand. “Please, Dina, talk to me.”
“When I woke, after the sphere, Theo tried to stop me, grabbed my wrist. We both…saw things. If it’s true, if all this happened, I know why you got so jealous…”
“I’ve considered the possibility,” he said, frowning. “In this future I’m gone, Dina. I’d expect you to…mourn me and move on with your life.”
“You’re half of my heart, Liam, I’d never move on. I freaking time-traveled to try to save you, all of you.” She rubbed her thumb over his hand. A piece or two was still missing from the entire dream and Liam needed to be ready to hear the truth, but also know how she felt. Otherwise, they’d never make it through this together. “What I’ve seen is horrific. We can’t let it happen. No matter how hard this gets, whatever I see, we have to change it. I don’t want that life, that future. I can’t survive without you.”
“I promised her and I’ll promise you, we’ll stop Project Phoenix and change the future.”
Dina moved into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. She needed to believe him. “If we don’t, Liam, we’re all going to die.”
Chapter Eight
Caelum watched the human psychic shaking her head for the twenty-third time in fifteen minutes. Her facial expressions were amusing and supremely attractive when she wasn’t scrunching her face. In fact, she had the most spectacular eye color he’d ever seen on a human. As the video ended, Sanjeeta rubbed the side of her neck and glimpsed over to Hinta sitting in the lounge talking on his Netphone. She pursued her lips and looked back to the computer screen.
Caelum was still having issues reading her. Although her bioreadings all fell within normal ranges for a psychic, he couldn’t sense her emotional state and found it oddly captivating.
When she turned to him and smiled nervously, he straightened in his chair. Considering the woman was still sitting in the base a good sign, he tried to ease her anxiety with a smile of his own.
Her cheeks flushed. “Which, uh, class are you?”
“Technically, Sarpian,” he said. Remembering humans preferred elaboration, he continued. “I was genetically enhanced…long ago.”
“Am I an alien?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Indubitably.”
“Yeah, I can see how you’re an alien.”
“Visitor is the preferred terminology.”
“Sorry,” she said, turning back to the screen. “It’s…a lot to process.”
“You seem to be managing well, had you ever considered visitors a possibility? Human society is rife with fictional versions.”
“Honestly, I never dismissed the idea. Do you know much about India?”
“Some, your culture has many fascinating tales of beings coming down from the sky,” he replied, watching her cheeks darken. “The Mahabharata is an interesting read.”
“Yes. Is it true?”
“I’m uncertain, I was…far away during that time period on your planet.”
“You were alive then? Did ali—visitors come here back then?”
“Yes and yes.”
“So it could be true? Crap, this is intense…are you sure I’m not an alien? The people on the psychic board said I can’t be telekinetic.”
“You are not alien. Your scan should be done now, I can show you,” he said, rising from his seat and moving up behind her. “That blue bar on the bottom of the screen. Tap it twice.”
Sanjeeta nodded and tapped, bringing up her DNA sequence.
Caelum stared at it, tilting his head to the side. “Intriguing.”
“What is?” Hinta asked, returning from the lounge.
He didn’t answer right away, causing the woman beside him to clear her throat and eye him sideways. “Pardon, yes, it seems you have four distinct sets of psionics.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“All of your grandparents had the psychic gene,” Hinta added for clarity. “Do you remember them or your parents doing anything odd?”
“No, not a damn thing,” she replied, shaking her head. “Is that bad?”
“Quite the contrary, you may be one of the strongest psychics on Earth with guidance,” Caelum said, watching her and Hinta’s faces drop. “Did I say something wrong?”
