Jay! Jay! Read my thoughts!!! At first he thought it was Captain Williams, showing him which thoughts were his. He knew this could not be true, as the thoughts were excited and informal, while it was clear Captain Williams wished to maintain his air of superiority and formality. This is Donny!! I’m outside the window, if you can hear me, say “Let me see” as if you are trying to think about what that guy’s thoughts are!! As corny as Jay thought that sounded, he trusted that Donny had a reason for all of this, so he played along.
“Let me see…” Jay said in a louder than normal voice.
NOT SO LOUD!! We don’t want your interrogator to suspect anything. First of all, I want you to know how awesome it is that you’re a reader!!! I hope I will be one someday too, and we can have lots of conversations like this, except two ways! But that’s not the point; I wanted to tell you what I’ve figured out about them. They are here to test your mind reading ability. The two in the other room are readers, just like you, and I think they are trying to get into your head, although by the looks on their faces, I think they’re having some trouble. The look is a calm, which I think makes it easier for them to read, with sudden twitches of fear, showing they are having difficulty. They can probably hear all I’m saying right now too. I don’t think the guy you are with is a mind reader. If you need anything from me send me a sign, I am sitting under the left window, and I will help you in any way I can as long as those two from the living room haven’t found me yet.
Jay was impressed. Donny may not be a reader, but he was brilliant at reading people in other ways. Jay knew they had come to test him. After all, Captain Williams had just asked him what he was thinking and was now waiting for an answer. He had not realized the two others were readers though. If they were readers, that would explain why he was seeing everyone’s thoughts in sets of three; once from their own heads, and once from each of those two who were reading them. Since he had already identified which pictures belonged to his parents, and Donny was making it easy to identify his, that left the black ones as Captain Williams. But why were they black? Maybe if he calmed himself down, and tried to clear all the other pictures from his head... if he focused on just one of those pictures…
“It’s a trick; you are blocking me from reading your thoughts.”
Captain Williams smiled. “True, with the right techniques, it is possible to block a reader’s penetration, and I have just demonstrated such a technique to block yours, showing you nothing but a black screen.”
“You didn’t block mine.”
“But you said I was blocking you from reading my thoughts. There is no need to get defensive over it, you are still new to this…”
“No really, I wasn’t telling you that you were blocking me, your thoughts said that it was a trick, and that you were blocking me from reading your thoughts. I was just repeating what I saw from your head.”
Captain Williams was not nervous, he knew the boy’s brother was just outside listening in, sending Jay some sort of mental message. Captain Williams may not be a reader, but he has other ways of finding out what is going on. While little Donny was sending info to Jay, his readers have been sending him a message through a small device in his pocket. They told him the brother was spying, sending a message to Jay, and asked if they should apprehend him. Captain Williams had already told them to leave him for now. Somehow the younger one realized he would be blocking Jay’s attempts, and Jay read that message from Donny, thinking it was his own thoughts. “You were not reading my thoughts.”
“Yes I was. And just then, you were thinking about my brother being outside, listening in.”
Captain Williams was surprised to hear this last statement, although he did not let it show. He felt certain this boy could not really be reading his thoughts. Although he was not putting a large amount of effort into his blocks, he should still be able to keep a new reader at bay without any effort at all. Still, he did not like that this kid was making such lucky guesses.
“Do you want me to stop reading your thoughts sir?”
“If I wanted you to stop I would make it so you had to.” To prove his point, Captain Williams changed his technique to make sure nobody could read his thoughts. In the odd case that this kid could break through his weaker defenses, he would not let him keep the upper hand. He also sent a message to his readers for one of them to apprehend the brother.
“I’m sorry sir, I did not mean to sound disrespectful. And you have nothing to worry about, I have always wanted to be a hero, and I would rather die than fight for the Villains. I am on your side, sir.”
“If you really want to be a hero, I’m going to need to test you again. Here’s a new set of flashcards, with new images. I will not block these thoughts. Are you ready to begin?”
CHAPTER 3
DONNY WAS SURPRISED to see one of the readers turn the corner of the house suddenly, appearing in an instant right next to the window that Donny had told Jay he was under. Good thing he was not actually there. He felt bad lying to his brother, but he knew the readers would come for him, and he had to say something to throw them off. He had expected them much sooner, but Donny figured they must have gotten held up for some reason. He noticed the reader stand straight up and close his eyes. Donny realized the reader was trying to read his thoughts, to find out where he was. Ok, Captain Williams, let’s see if I can apply what you just taught me. Donny tried to picture blackness in his head, a blackness that fills all the space. Captain Williams had said he was trying to make Jay see a black screen, so Donny figured he might as well try to do the same. His screen clearly did not work, as the reader soon began moving quickly towards the neighbor’s tool shed. Donny, however, was actually on his own roof. Good to know; my screen didn’t work, but thinking about the inside of that tool shed did the trick, Donny thought to himself, as he did his best to conceal these thoughts behind his attempt at a shield and mental images of the inside of that tool shed.
THROUGHOUT THE TEST, Captain Williams made no sign as to how Jay was doing, nor was Jay able to read any of his thoughts other than those of the cards. He made it through the cards much faster than the last time, despite there being twice as many involved. This time he knew he was getting them right. I am a reader, Jay thought in amazement.
When the test was done, Captain Williams got up and led Jay out into the living room, where his parents were still waiting along with one of the readers.
“Please get your other son; I would like to be able to address your whole family at once,” Captain Williams demanded.
“He went to bed; he’s had a long day,” Jay’s mother responded, not making any indication that she would be waking Donny.
“Ma’am, this is very important, and it is necessary that I address the whole family.”
“I’ll get him,” His father responded, turning towards the stairs.
“No, I’ll get him!” Jay burst out. He knew Donny had been outside listening, and not actually in his bed. Donny would be in a lot of trouble if he were discovered to have been spying on delegates from the Academy.
“I would prefer your father were the one to get your brother,” Captain Williams stated. So he wishes to expose Donny. Jay could not think of anything he could do.
Jay’s father turned and went up to Donny’s room. A few moments later, he emerged with Donny, who was dressed in his pajamas and rubbing his eyes. The two of them went down the stairs and joined the rest of the family. Jay tried his best not to appear surprised. Shortly thereafter, the second reader, the one who was out searching for Donny, walked in. He looked angrily at Donny for a moment, then noticing Captain Williams, quickly became serious again.
Captain Williams looked around the room at everyone gathered there. They look so normal, he thought to himself, and yet they have one amongst them who has the potential to become the best reader the Academy has ever seen.
He waited for a moment, letting everyone anticipate his words. Once he started speaking again, everyone was in full attention. “As I am
sure you all know by now, we have come to test Jay to see if he possesses enough of an ability for mind reading that he would be worth having at the Academy. We have all the information we need now, so we will leave your family in peace.”
As Captain Williams had expected, the family was not pleased with this. He knew they were wondering what the results were. He knew this family, just like all the rest, held admittance to the Academy in the highest regard. At first the family was displeased by his arrival, and now they do not want him to go. Captain Williams gave a nod to his men, and the three of them turned and began walking out of the house. Jay's mother opened her mouth to speak, but Jay and Donny simultaneously took either of her hands, signaling to her that it is alright. The family waited in silence until long after they heard the door shut, and the two cars pull out of the driveway and drive off. Finally their mother could not take it anymore.
“The nerve! They march in here as if they own the place, hold us captive as they interrogate our son, then leave without any indication of what to expect next!”
“They’re from the Academy dear, they need to act mysterious to keep interest up,” their father responded to his wife. He then turned to Jay with sympathy. “I’m sorry son; I know how much this meant to you.”
Donny gave a short chuckle, his eyes still fixed on the doorway through which the three men had departed. “Don’t be sorry, Dad. Jay passed the test.”
“Donald, that is not something to joke about. They have now tested Jay twice, and then left without a word. I think we need to be realistic about the fact that they will not come a third time.”
“No, Dad, Donny’s right, I did pass.” All eyes turned immediately to Jay.
“He said you passed? Did he tell you that in the room?”
“No, but I got every question right. I knew every card they asked me to see, and they used twice as many for this test than the last one. I also demonstrated by reading Captain Williams' mind a few times before we began the official test.”
The effect on the room was not what Jay would have hoped. He knew his parents would be shocked by this information, just as Jay could hardly believe it himself. He was hoping, however, that they would get over their shock quickly and be excited by the prospect. When his mother left the room to find her inhaler and his father had to stumble into the closest chair, Jay knew the shock would not leave quickly.
After a few minutes, when his mother had returned and the initial shock wore off enough for his father to find his voice again, they began to talk about it once more.
“So…what you’re saying is…you are a reader? And…you can…read minds?” their father asked, stumbling over his words.
“Sometimes.”
“Sometimes?”
Yes, only sometimes. Jay realized now that the pictures were gone. When had they gone away again? Jay could remember pushing them away while he was waiting for Captain Williams to speak to the family. Maybe they went away then?
“It seems to come and go. During the test yesterday it wasn’t there, and then it started for the first time shortly after. It continued for most of that evening, and the next morning in school. It stopped again when I left school, and began again a little before I went in for the second test. It just stopped again, so right now I can’t.”
This explanation opened up a stream of questions from both parents. Jay did his best to answer, and after hours of discussion pushing well into the night, Jay’s parents finally needed to go to bed. Jay knew it had been a long day for all of them, and that his parents were beginning to feel the strain of it all. Donny, who had not said a word throughout the entire conversation, helped their father up, while Jay took their mother, and the four of them went upstairs. After putting their parents to bed, Jay and Donny realized they had missed both lunch and dinner, so instead of going back to their own rooms, they went downstairs to get something to eat.
“Donny,” Jay began, once they were settled with their sandwiches. “How did you get back into bed? I mean, how did you not get caught snooping around outside?”
Donny smiled as his face turned red. “Sorry Jay, I lied to you. I wasn’t under the window, that was a decoy so those listening in wouldn’t be able to find me. I actually climbed the tree that overhangs the house on the far side and was lying on the roof over the window. When that guy came looking for me, I imagined myself in different places, and he went searching in those places instead.”
Jay could not help but laugh at this. Little Donny, giving the slip to the big bad mind reader. Leave it to Donny to find a way to use their own mind reading against them.
Donny continued. “Once I heard that you were in the middle of the test I figured you would be fine without me, so I led the reader as far away as I could, then climbed back down the tree and quietly snuck back into the house and up to bed. When I got back downstairs and noticed that the reader was still out looking for me, I felt bad so I looked about the living room and thought about everything I saw. He must have gotten the message of where I was, since he came back in shortly thereafter.”
Donny and Jay had a good laugh about the whole thing.
“REPORT.”
Silence.
“I said report.”
“He is a reader, sir.”
“I am well aware of that. I was in there testing him. You spent the last twenty-four hours in the boy’s head. I want to know what else you discovered.”
“He did not know he was a reader, sir. The whole time we were tailing him we could see that the pictures were there, but he thought they were his imagination. He finally realized he was reading minds during his English class just before he was called to the office and left the school to go back to his house. It appears the images are a fairly recent development. The most likely situation is that the images started recently, and during the test with Lieutenant Rogers he did not understand that the images were telling him the answer. The other possibility is that it began between the time of the test and our beginning to shadow him.”
“I find it incredibly unlikely that he would develop such a full ability within a day. Is it possible he has had this ability for a while and has been hiding it, and was just playing with Lieutenant Rogers?”
“No, sir, the ability was weak when we first arrived. It grew throughout the time we were following him. The only hesitation in its growth seems to have happened between the time of his leaving the school and our catching up with him again. When we arrived at the house the ability was back to its weakened state, however it grew back up quickly, and continued to grow until…”
“Until what soldiers?”
“Until he blocked us sir.”
Lieutenant Williams was not pleased. “At what point did he block you, and how long did it take you to get back in?”
“Sir, his images began to fade when we moved in to show our identification, while we were still in the driveway. By the time we had moved into the house, we could see nothing. We moved into full concentration, and got through for a few moments, but shortly after you began talking in the den we were suddenly thrust out and blocked from his thoughts completely.”
“How long did it take you to get back in?”
“We…we were unable to reconnect with the older boy.” They could see Captain Williams turning red with anger. They had to say something to redeem themselves. “We believe the younger one may be of interest as well.”
“I do not care about the younger one; we are here about the older boy.”
“By interest, we mean he may have an ability.” This statement at least temporarily distracted Captain Williams from his anger, so they decided it was wise to continue. The one who had previously attempted to apprehend Donny began to explain. “It is possible that he is also a reader. He figured out how to message Jay in surprising speed, and even attempted to block me at one point, although it was a weak and ineffective attempt. He showed no sign, however, of actually being able to read other minds, and we could see no pictures in his head. It is also unlikely tha
t two readers would come from the same family. The more likely scenario is that the younger boy has super speed.”
“Explain the basis for this assessment.”
“Sir, the boy was in the bushes outside your window, but the instant I turned the corner of the house he disappeared from the spot.”
“He cannot be faster than your eyesight, soldier. He must have suspected you were coming and changed location.”
“Yes, sir, however this was not the only situation to account for. I probed his mind to see where he was, and found him to be in the tool shed by the house next door. The door to the shed faced away from where I stood, but I would have seen an escape during most of my approach. The last instance when I motioned around the left side of the shed to the door is the only instance he would have had to make it out, and he would have needed to have been a speedster to have gotten out and around the right side without my noticing. This continued for quite some time. I would look into his mind to see where he was, but he would escape without being seen before I could arrive there. I lost a reading on him, most likely due to his moving out of range, and by the time I got a clear reading again, it was of him in the living room. That was when I returned.”
“You have training in how to catch a Hermes.”
“Yes sir, the usual techniques did not work. He is either very smart or very lucky.”
Captain Williams thought about this for a moment. He knew it was possible that this was being exaggerated or misinterpreted by a soldier who feared for his position. He also realized the possibility that this boy was as quick a learner as his older brother, and sent misleading images. It was clear that the boy had been brutally beaten recently, and if he had been a speedster, it would have made far more sense for him to have used it then to save himself. Still, in the case that the boy was a speedster or a reader, it would be good to know this information sooner rather than later.
The Games Heroes Play (The Academy Trilogy) Page 3
