Despite the cocktail party aspect of the meeting, John hadn’t seen any obvious links or affinities between his group and the Telepaths. Willie showed himself to be easily flustered around strong-willed women, and had hardly said a word since Boise created the dome above them. The poor man remained too uncertain of himself and his new skills as a magician to push himself into this fray, despite the fact he had been a half-assed occultist for years, almost but not quite believing in his own magic. Dr. Horton, Atlanta’s liaison to the Indigo group, stayed as far away from the Telepaths as possible, save for a short and likely terrifying conversation with Nessa, where Nessa told her she was safe, and that if Dr. Horton wanted to talk to a Telepath, to go through her. Nessa had dealt with the Indigo before, he knew, but her interactions with them had not included Dr. Horton. The Gods mixed better, but damn their screwy natures, none of them lost the ‘we’re Gods and you’re not’ crap enough to keep from rubbing the Telepaths the wrong way. Well, save for Celebrity, who John feared he had well and truly lost to the Telepath camp.
As the group assembled, Inventor lagging behind, trying to chat up one of the Telepath recruits, Giselle, John caught the two Nessas studying him.
Instead, one of the Nessa’s stepped forward. “We’ve talked among ourselves and made a decision.”
John opened his mouth to challenge Nessa about when the Telepaths could have had the time to talk among themselves, not having gotten together as a group since he arrived, but shut his mouth with a snap. The Telepaths had been telepathically chattering with each other during the entire soiree, he realized.
“We’re going to continue on and visit Portland,” the other Nessa said.
“That’s unwise,” John said. “We should stay together until we have the protection against Dubuque’s control worked out.”
“That’s not our worry,” the first Nessa said. “I’ve already got the mind control problem covered for my group. I’m convinced we need to get to Portland before Dubuque can try anything else. We need her on our side, and quickly.”
“Why?” John said.
“She’s the opposition leader,” Alt said.
“Not that I know of,” John said. He looked at the Gods, who had grouped together, all but Celebrity. None of them saw things that way either.
“Okay, I didn’t state that right,” Alt said. John still wasn’t sure what to make of Alt’s tricks, all much quieter than Nessa and Ken’s abilities. If he had enough strength to challenge Dubuque in any fashion, John didn’t see it. “We believe Portland should be the opposition leader, and will be, if we give her the evidence of Dubuque’s activities. She’s got potential, immense potential. She hasn’t utilized it yet.”
“She already has the information,” Dana said. “She’s in my mind right now, as glued to our little confab as a guy watching the Super Bowl.”
“Has she been convinced to break with Dubuque?” the second Nessa asked.
Dana frowned and thought. “No.”
“Then we still need to visit her in person. Tell her we’re on the way,” Alt said.
“Why don’t we invite her here, as a projection?” John said. “Dana?”
Dana shook her head. “I’m sorry. Portland’s feeling paranoid. She’s afraid someone’s gotten to all of us.”
John sighed. They couldn’t all go visit Portland, either. “Whose sway?”
Dana licked her lips and turned away to look at Atlanta. “Your sway, John,” Dana said. “She thinks you’re far more powerful than you’ve let on.”
“Oh, he is, but mind control at this level isn’t one of his tricks,” the first Nessa said. “Will she accept a visit by a group of bedraggled Telepaths and a rebellious Practical God?”
“Yes,” Dana said.
“Then as soon as we can acquire some transportation, we’re on our way,” Nessa said.
“Stupid,” Atlanta said, her arms crossed across her chest. “Splitting up is real stupid.”
“It would help if Portland could trust you, Atlanta,” Dana said.
“That’s her problem, not mine.” Atlanta turned to John. “Do you know of some safe place where we can hide out and figure out how to balk Dubuque’s mind control? I’m carting my real body this way, and I’d like to know where to go.”
John nodded, but the other Gods shivered in their fake bodies. “Perhaps another time on the real body business, Atlanta. I do have a place for us to go, though. I’ll direct you there.”
“Well, that’ll teach me,” Atlanta said, unhappy but not ready to blast them to cinders. “In the meantime, I propose we follow our psychic friends from above until they get to Portland, just in case Dubuque goes after them again.”
“We’re not psychics, we’re Telepaths,” one of the Nessas said, under her breath.
“Great idea,” John said. Both Nessas shrugged.
This fight and its aftermath had turned out to be the big break he had been waiting for. John just hoped they could put a real alliance together before Dubuque found another way to interfere.
45. (Nessa)
Nessa lay in bed a languid pool of goo, half under Ken and half asleep. Or that’s what she felt like, after their first night in the city of Portland. She would rather stay in bed the rest of the day and share some more love with Ken, but they had a luncheon appointment scheduled with the God Portland. Of all things, Portland had a flunky of hers waiting for them when they pulled into the hotel, and the flunky had given them a phone number to call. Ken had called on his cell and talked to Portland, and they had gone all formal at each other and arranged a fancy lunch meeting at a neutral location, Antonio’s Restaurant.
Celebrity and Ken chatted. Nessa let them. Sex with Celebrity inside her made Nessa all tingly and gooey. She had predicted the opposite, suspecting the overlapping bodies trick would dilute the experience. She did have a twinge of jealousy because someone beside her made love to Ken, but she decided she was being foolish. When they merged, Nessa couldn’t tell where her thoughts ended and Celebrity’s started. Better, being one with Celebrity made Nessa feel saner. The merging did dilute her telepathy and other tricks, but also gave her a little of Celebrity’s miracle-making God tricks.
The merging gave her no doubts about the dangers of worshippers: far more potent than speedballs, and far more addictive.
“Nessa, let’s talk,” Ken said, and telepathically sent.
“Okay, you’ve got both of us now.”
He gave Nessa a hug.
“Not exactly what I meant,” she said, and wiggled in his arms, not minding where she was at all. “What do you want to talk about?”
“This idea you and Celebrity have cooked up, where you become the God and Celebrity takes your body. I think it’s another of your crazy schemes that’s going to backfire on you,” Ken said.
“It’s only as an experiment,” Nessa said. “I’d make a nasty God. The rest of the Gods wouldn’t know what hit them. There’s so many cute tricks…”
“Stop,” Ken said. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Celebrity, trading bodies would be a disaster. Nessa’s schemes always end up getting her in trouble. If you want to be a human so much, why not trade with someone besides Nessa?”
“Because,” Celebrity said, using Nessa’s voice, “I haven’t met anyone else whose mind would survive the experience. With Nessa, it’s not even a risk. The real risk is we would end up with Nessa the God and Nessa the Telepath and no mor
e me at all.”
Ken frowned even more. “Which would be fine with you?”
“Ken, I died and got resurrected as a God against my will,” Celebrity said. “I’m nothing more than a pawn in the games of hideous monsters. Using Nessa’s telepathy I measured myself up against normal human minds, and I didn’t like what I found. I’m so messed up it’s beyond belief. The world would be a far better place without me.”
“Well, I’d miss you,” Ken said. His mind flashed on a memory of the previous night, a hot and sweaty memory.
Men. Effective, though, as Ken’s comment did buoy Celebrity’s despair.
“We’re not going to do the experiment today, in any event,” Nessa said. “We need to get up and get ready for this meeting with Portland. My body needs a long shower, and so will yours, Celebrity, if you split off from me before I take my shower.”
Portland, it appeared, had completely rented out Antonio’s. Alt led the Telepaths into the restaurant, which had a large table all set up for them, with Portland and a black man of the loaned-God-power variety sitting next to her.
They introduced themselves to each other. Melvin Terry was the man with the loaned God powers, which came from Atlanta. Everyone sat down at the table, behind white linen, crystal goblets, and way too many pieces of silverware.
The waitstaff served food, and Portland and Melvin chit-chatted with them about mundane events while they ate lunch. Portland said she actually got hungry if she didn’t eat, and did digest the food she ate, even though she knew she couldn’t starve to death. Portland didn’t impress Nessa hardly at all. She still presented herself as a portly woman in her fifties, which if Nessa remembered Celebrity’s comments correctly meant this was her appearance before she died and got turned into a God.
She had no idea why Alt fingered her as the leader God for their side. Alt did such things, though. So far, all his strange recruitment choices had worked out. There must be more to Portland than an ability to wiggle out from under Dubuque’s control and block Nessa’s attempts to read her mind.
After the waitstaff cleared the desserts away except the one in front of Nessa, who was still finishing a wonderful concoction she rarely found in Alaska known of as Death By Chocolate, Alt started the formal meeting.
“Portland, we have some evidence we would like you to look at,” he said.
Portland pushed her coffee cup away and speared Alt with her eyes. Nessa noticed someone had subtly rearranged the room and the seating. She, Celebrity, Alt, Ken, and Phil gathered around Portland, while Melvin had moved to join the other members of the Telepath group. Even with access to Celebrity’s tricks, Nessa couldn’t tell how or when the rearrangement occurred. In fact, Nessa now suspected she couldn’t do or sense anything Portland didn’t want her to do or sense.
Portland might not be imposing or leader-like, but she did have immense power. If Portland turned out to be an enemy, they were in big trouble.
This pissed Nessa off. Sudden anger allowed her to penetrate the mystery: no rearrangement had happened. Instead, Portland had rearranged everyone’s perception. The complexity of the mental tricks involved to support such an illusion boggled Nessa’s mind, and for a while she worked out sight vectors in her head. Then she realized Portland hadn’t done the trick Nessa’s way. She had adjusted reality by analogy and ordered the light to follow along. Such cheating made Nessa jealous.
“I examined your two captives,” Portland said. “They are as you said they are. I agree with Boise, though, about Dubuque’s lack of direct involvement and still hold open the possibility this could all be a misunderstanding.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” Nessa said. “Anything else you need to clear up?”
“I’m not convinced Dubuque has worshippers.”
“I can locate the Dave in Denver person for you,” Alt said. “Would this help?”
“Yes, but not immediately. I’ll fly a projection over to examine him, though, if you locate him for me.”
“He’s currently on an airplane, on his way to Los Angeles,” Alt said. “He moves around a lot.”
“Perfect. I have a projection in Los Angeles already,” Portland said. “I’ll examine him when he arrives at the airport. He’ll never notice a thing. I do hope you’re mistaken, though, Alt.”
Alt sighed. “If you need to examine my mind to find out if anyone has played with my memories, I’m willing to let you, ma’am.”
Portland smiled. “No need for the ‘ma’am’ or any other formalities. By my measure, the five of you are my equals.”
“Just in case a mistake has been made, I’m not a Telepath,” Phil said.
“In my book you are,” Portland said. “You do use your mental talents for other than guarding your mind.”
“I do?”
“He does?” Nessa said. She dove into Phil’s mind through Javier’s telepathy and rummaged around again, not the easiest task in the world because of Phil’s strong mental barriers. As far as she sensed, he wasn’t one of the Telepath varieties she already knew about.
Phil winced in pain. “Nessa, please.”
“Bite me,” Nessa said.
Ken sniggered.
“His intellect and memory is augmented by mental energies on what I perceive as the Telepath bands.” Portland smiled. “Not that I know what these bands are, or what they represent.”
“Okay, that’s unexpected,” Phil said. “If you need anything from me to aid you in making your decision, Portland, I’m game.”
Nessa lost herself in dark thoughts. Telepath bands indeed. Portland just made this up on the spot. Phil was no more a functional Telepath than a housecat. He certainly wasn’t anything like… Oops! Nessa squashed her thought, not her secret to give out.
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” Portland said. “Although I’m not convinced Dubuque knew his people would go so far in their attempts to stop you, I’m convinced your case about Dubuque’s enmity is airtight. For reasons I don’t understand, he has turned on you, despite the fact your group did nothing to warrant such a response. I find no evidence of any outside interference, and this isn’t a trick set up by the witch-burner or by Atlanta. If you’re willing, I’ll take your group under my protection until I can clear up this misunderstanding with Dubuque.” Or if Dubuque proves to have worshippers, in which case it’s war, Nessa continued, reading Portland’s leaky thoughts.
“Whoa,” Alt said. “This is a bit fast for me. I’m not sure I can agree to this.”
“I can,” Ken said. “Portland, do you have any guess about what’s really going on here?”
“I can tell you I’ve heard nothing from Dubuque about your group, positive or negative,” Portland said. “None of you are evil doers…and trust me, this is the sort of thing I can tell. Celebrity and I have already spoken, in our way, while you were eating dinner, and I accept her explanation that the reason she’s potentially in trouble is due to her slow movement from being a Practical to an Ideological God. I find her new ideology within the acceptable limits; in fact, it’s one I’m tempted to publicly support. There isn’t a one of the Gods born and raised in North America who doesn’t suspect the Angelic Host of playing tricks of one variety or another. As a group, the North American Gods are an untrusting and independent bunch of cusses.”
“Nessa?” Ken said. “What’s your viewpoint on this? I don’t know if you realize or not, but you’re shielding as strongly as a strong Mindbound terrified by a Telepath, and I can’t read you at all right now.”
Nessa took a sip of water. She didn’t want to answer Ken, for fear of giving too much away, which would have been a clear violation of her mother’s second rule. “Why’d you reject the others in our group, Portland?” she said.
“My feel is you five are the ones who count.”
“I don’t share your opinion.”
“I realize you and I have issues,” Portland said. “While we wait for a response from Dubuque, I hope to have some time to work them
out with you.”
“I’m not going to fall under your mental sway so easily.”
“Nor I, yours.”
“Waiter, I would appreciate another of those desserts, please,” Nessa said.
Portland met Nessa’s eyes and pulled at Nessa’s mind.
Well, if Portland wants something from my mind, I’ll oblige, Nessa thought. She dropped a terror-filled episode from her past, the confrontation with Blind Tom, directly into Portland’s pull and into her mind. Portland’s chair scraped back an inch.
“You’re hopelessly traumatized, Nessa,” Portland said, instantly taking in all Nessa sent. “I can cure you and make you whole. Mental healing is one of my specialties.”
Nessa took Portland’s comment as an invitation to poke into Portland’s mind, which she was able to do now, because of the connection forged when Portland allowed Nessa’s memories into her mind. Before Apotheosis, Portland had indeed been a fifty-ish professional, a divorcee who had fallen away from the Catholic Church and an assistant principal at a local magnet high school, most recently in charge of the career development staff. Portland stopped Nessa’s probe with a fifteen year old memory of a dish-tossing full volume fight with her now ex-husband. Nessa echoed with one of the fights with her ex-husband.
“Surely there’s a better way for the two of you to air out your, um, issues,” Celebrity said, wincing. Alt’s mind had gone elsewhere, Phil eased toward a decision to lose his distrust of Portland, and Ken readied for a fight.
“I find this an adequate method,” Portland said, eyes focused on Nessa.
“You’re indecisive,” Nessa said. “That’s what’s been bothering me about you.” She took a deep breath. “I can live with indecisiveness. I’m not always the most decisive person, either.”
99 Gods: War Page 51
