“That’s to be expected.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Four days.”
He wanted to be surprised but he wasn’t. “What happened?”
“You were brought in unconscious and unresponsive but there were no signs of trauma.”
“Where’s Kayci?”
She crossed her arms. “Kayci?”
“Yeah, she must’ve brought me in. I was with her at the plaza.”
“Oh right, you were at the plaza shooting. That was the one that set off the spree.”
“The spree?”
“You slept through it but there’s been four shootings in four days. It’s out of control.”
Jordan looked out the window. “Where were they?”
“Well, let’s see, the one here in Atlanta, then Raleigh, then D.C. and then a real bad one in Philly where fourteen people died.”
“All east coast? In a perfect travel line.”
“Yeah, weird right?”
“He was traveling.”
“Huh? Who was traveling? What’re you talking about?”
Jordan shook his head. “Nothing, never mind, I was just thinking out loud.” He tried to resolve these new feelings. Something had happened when he tried to keep Felix’ soul from leaving its body. Being a Savior Frequency was apparently the highest of all the frequencies, but Anna had once mentioned something about the eyes. There was something about the soul, escaping through the eyes that he was able to feel. He used to see it, all those people he saw die, he’d literally watch the life blink out of their eyes, their soul energy escaping. It was a very spooky and distinctive thing.
“Are you okay?” The nurse asked him.
He shook his head. “I’m fine, I was just thinking.”
“You said, he was traveling, like there was one person doing the shooting. But it wasn’t one person. They were all random acts of violence.”
“Oh, yeah of course. I was just thinking in terms of evil, you know, like Satan or something. You know.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “Well, Jordan, I’m going to track down the doctor and he can come see you. If he gives the okay we can probably get you out of here soon.”
“No,” Kayci appeared in the doorway. “We can get him out of here right now.”
“Kayci!” Jordan felt so happy when he saw her.
“Did you miss me?” She came over to him and hugged him. “You had me worried for a while there, but…” She trailed off and gave the nurse a long look.
“I’ll leave you two alone.” The nurse headed out.
“What happened?” Jordan asked.
Kayci rolled her eyes. “You got knocked on your ass.”
“I remember. I was trying to keep his soul in his body.”
She lowered her brow. “You were what? Why? How?”
“I don’t know. But I could see it, I could see it trying to escape through his eyes. There were all these different frequencies, and they were all just leading into one path and trying to escape. They were like spooling up. The eyes started to get that glassy clouded look and I just tried to stop them from exploding out.”
“That’s amazing. The soul, it’s too much energy for any one person to control, you can’t stop it.”
“I tried.”
“Jordan you have to be careful with that, it could be dangerous. These lines of frequency that you can read, they are just one tiny connection to the soul, they are just so small but the entire soul is too powerful for any single practitioner to handle.”
“Maybe so, but I stopped it. It was only for a few seconds but I saw it, I stopped it. I saw all these little bolts of energy, like lightning just spooling up and churning and they got together and busted right out.”
“Do you remember anything while you were asleep? Did you see Anna?”
“No, nothing, I don’t remember anything.”
Kayci nodded. “You had a major reboot. I’ve never seen one so long.”
“A reboot?”
“Whenever a psychic receives a large download, the system needs to reboot so it can process the new data. Those little blackouts your were having when you first started your awakening, they were tiny but as you noticed significant. When we made love, your reboot was a few hours and you know what you felt like.”
Jordan nodded. “Now I just had one that lasted four days.”
“Exactly. How do you feel?”
Jordan looked around the room. “I feel weird, something is different I just don’t know what yet. I feel something, it’s like, right there.”
“How does the frequency network look?”
Jordan concentrated on the local lines of frequency. They appeared normal, well as normal as seeing digital lines of people’s thoughts in your mind could be. “Everything seems as bizarre as it should.”
Kayci nodded. “Hmm, it must be latent.”
He rolled his head to stretch his stiff neck. “Sounds logically illogical.”
A tall thin man in a white lab coat came into the room. “Mister Callahan? I’m Doctor Haines. How’re you doing today?”
Kayci stepped aside and Jordan replied, “I feel fine.”
“No ill affects?”
“Not that I can tell.” Jordan suddenly got a very bad feeling about this man, and when he pulled out a sharp instrument and slashed it at Jordan’s neck he knew why.
Jordan felt slow, and just barely moved out of reach of the razor sharp scalpel. Kayci was quick. She stepped into the doctor, spun and planted an elbow into his ribs while taking hold of his wrist. She slammed his hand into the edge of the bed rail and broke the blade free of his grasp.
With another swift move, Kayci snaked around the taller man bending his arm in an impossible angle behind his back and kicking his feet out. The two of them dropped to the floor with Kayci driving her knees into the doctor’s back. The man let out a horrible groan and tried to squirm away from Kayci.
Jordan got up and instinctively touched the doctor’s head, blew apart the connection and the man immediately stopped resisting and calmed.
Jordan then felt something in his frequency that made him let go, and stand upright. “Holy crap!”
Kayci looked up. “What is it?”
“His frequency split, I saw another one. I saw the hijacker break away.” He met Kayci’s eyes. “Did you see it?”
She shook her head, “No, I was busy, felt nothing.”
“It wasn’t like ours, it wasn’t red, but it was very high up.”
“What color was it?”
“Like a violet or purple, but when it broke away it started to turn blue, but it was way up on the pyramid with us. How could that be?”
Kayci nodded. “There’s someone we need to meet with.”
Chapter 18
Kayci didn’t plan to keep anything from Jordan, but there hadn’t been time to tell him about Project Pyrite and the nugget device. She would tell him shortly. They needed help, and getting it would be tricky.
After flying back to New York Kayci contacted Rose Giacco, another member of the DRC that Colleen had mentioned. It wasn’t usual protocol for DRC members to work together, in fact they recommended that it didn’t happen for various logistical reasons. Staying anonymous was the DRC’s best strategic policy. But on occasion it was necessary.
At the moment, she sat on a bench in the southeast side of Central Park, waiting for Rose to show up. Jordan sat on the opposite side of the grassy field on an identical bench. She could see him but couldn’t make out any detail of his face.
Kayci saw another dark red line of frequency appear almost out of nowhere and she looked up to see a woman with long black hair, large dark eyes and a cute little smile.
“I’m Rose.” She sat down next to Kayci. “You’re younger than I expected.”
Kayci nodded. “I could say the same thing about you.”
Rose crossed her legs and moved her hands over her knee, adjusting her long flowing skirt. “Aren’t you sweet. But I’m older
than I look.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Rose snickered. “Another commonality we share.”
Kayci leaned back into the bench. “Do you know why I contacted you?”
Rose smiled. “Colleen mentioned via I-M that you might, she’s big on the whole—girls need to stick together, in this game especially. There’re so few of us.”
“Are we the only two in section eight?”
Rose shrugged. “No one knows for certain exactly how many of us there are, I guess that’s the beauty of it. But Colleen has hinted that you and me make three under her reach. I’m sure there are others.”
“I’m sure there’re others out there.”
“Possibly. But you didn’t bring me here to talk about women in the spy business. And as much as I’d like to chat, I’m a very busy person as you might expect. I waste no time before it’s time.”
Kayci looked up to the blue sky. A single white cloud roamed the blue over the trees of Central Park. “What do you know about Project Pyrite?”
Rose frowned and shrugged. “Only what I’ve learned indirectly through people talking. Chatter was that it was an absolute nightmare, an abject failure, and a black eye against the world of psychics even though it had nothing to do with us at the start.”
“Do you know about the nugget?”
Rose shook her head. “Not much. I’ve heard of it but don’t know the particulars.”
“Not to get too involved, but it was apparently the core of the project, designed to be a targeted mind control device. It was stolen and now it’s out there.”
Rose tilted her head back and looked up to the sky. “How does this concern us?”
“I have reason to believe the mass shootings lately, haven’t exactly been random.”
Rose turned to face her. “You think people are being manipulated? Did the device work that well?”
“No it didn’t, not on its own.”
Rose groaned. “Oh, let me guess, in the hands of a psychic of even meager means…”
Kayci nodded. “One of the unintended side effects of this thing was that it could sort of amplify the power of a base level practitioner.”
“Wonderful, so there could be some carnival psychic killing people because her crystal ball broke?”
“I’m sure we’re dealing with something far worse than an angry palm reader. But yes, you get the drift.”
“I’m sure you’re aware,” Rose pointed across the park with a subtle pinky, “that we’re being monitored right now by a very odd frequency signal.”
Kayci smiled. “Yes, he’s with me. I made him wait over there so as not to spook you away.”
Rose narrowed her eyes as she looked at Jordan. “He has a peculiar frequency. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
“You can tell that easily?”
“One of my gifts is that I can read other psychics at a very fine level. His striations and colors are like none I’ve ever seen. Who is he?”
“His name is Jordan. He’s recently had his awakening under my tutelage.”
Rose narrowed her eyes. “Recently? How recently?”
“Not long, it’s a matter of days.”
Rose’s eyes grew wide. “That’s improbable. His complexity is baffling. I’d have guess no less than a year.”
“I think that’s because it’s been a crash course. We’ve compressed a lot into a little. Plus his gestation period was very—very long. But without him, I wouldn’t be here.”
Rose touched a finger to her plump lips. “Is he?”
“He’s a Savior Frequency, yes, that’s how we met. He was seeing people die for almost fifteen years, totally unaware of what he was.”
“My goodness. That is an unimaginably long gestation period.”
“If not for him, Avery and Nathan would’ve won. He literally saved the day.”
Rose looked at her with sad eyes. “I’m sorry about SORC. I know what it’s like to lose everything like that. I was part of the RPT PsyOps program for many years but they shut us down too, although not in the spectacularly robust way SORC went out. Colleen and the DRC was a Godsend.”
Kayci nodded. “It seems to be.”
“So tell me, Kayci, if the shootings are being perpetrated by someone, like us, how do you think we’re going to find them?”
“They’ve made it personal. They’re coming after Jordan every chance they get.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know. But as you know, when things get personal in this game, they become exposed. Whoever this psychic is, they’re not aware of the can of worms they’ve opened.”
“They can’t be very experienced then in terms of dealing with others. But you think they’ve been operating for a while now in this manner.”
“If you look back a couple years, over all the mass shootings, there is a single strand of commonality in most of them.”
“What’s that?”
“In almost every case the shooter was stepping out of their typical routine. It was a shock to everyone. There hasn’t been many cases where the shooter premeditated it, or one case where his friends and family weren’t surprised.”
“But that’s the case often with psychopaths. Hiding their true self is what they do. Admittedly it’s a red herring but certainly not proof enough.”
“Not for an arrest warrant, no, but it’s enough to point us down the right path.”
Rose took a long breath. “Admittedly this is not my area of expertise. I don’t work well with others to begin with, I also don’t do danger.”
Kayci looked at her in surprise. “But, you’re a spy. Dangers is kind of part of the package.”
“I was a logistical consultant.”
“But you carried a gun.”
“And I never used it.”
“Well don’t worry this shouldn’t be—”
“Don’t try and manipulate me, Kayci. It won’t work.”
“I’m not—”
“You were. And what you’re asking will paint a target on us. I don’t want to wear that outfit.”
“Well—”
“Save your pitch.” Rose held up her hand. “I’m in the middle of another case and I can’t pull myself away from it at this moment for a jerky jaunt into a minefield.”
“You don’t want to stop—”
“There’s nothing to stop, Kayci. You don’t have any evidence that these shootings are related. And even if they are, you’re not close enough for me to help. I’m sorry.”
Kayci looked at her. She was hiding something. Maybe it was just fear but something. She didn’t want to push the subject. “I understand.”
They both looked up when Jordan came sprinting at them from across the park. Kayci stood urgently when she saw the look on his face. “Again?”
Between deep breaths, Jordan said, “We don’t have any time, the playground, there’re kids, I think I can get there.”
Kayci turned to Rose. “I’m sorry to’ve wasted your time. I wish you’d reconsider but I understand.” They turned and ran away towards the east side entrance of the park.
Chapter 19
Jordan ran around the edge of the brick building, expecting to see a children’s playground full of kids and parents, but the yard was deserted. Except for colorful plastic swings, slides and riding toys, the sandy area was empty of romping sneakers.
“I don’t get it.” Jordan huffed after a deep breath. “This makes no sense.”
Kayci took a few steps off the blacktop into the sandy area. “Are you sure you had the right place?”
He nodded. “Of course, I mean, I think.” Suddenly Jordan felt unsure about the data he’d received. It seemed so certain when he’d gotten it. Now he was having second thoughts.
Kayci grunted. “Someone is screwing with us again. Are you okay?”
He turned to look at Kayci, unsure how to answer. He felt okay, but something in his head was just odd. Ever since he woke up from that reboot, he just didn’t feel right. �
��Kayci, I’m not sure what’s going. My head is all messed up.”
She stepped closer to him. “It’s okay, we’ll figure this out.”
“I’m just a little worried.” Jordan walked around the opposite side of the play area. “Why would I have read that so wrong? Again?”
Kayci shook her head slightly. “I don’t know. Unless, like I said, you’re being deliberately misled.”
“But, I didn’t feel anyone in my head. I learned, pretty well, when Cayden did his thing, being mind-hacked definitely has a specific feeling and I don’t feel that.”
“That one time, yes, but each practitioner will have a different signature so it will feel somewhat different.”
“Yeah, I know. But there’s a specific feeling I get no matter who’s knocking. Whether it was you or Nathan or Cayden. But this time, it’s not there.”
Kayci blew a long breath that turned into a slight whistle. “Because it’s not a person.”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t tell you right away because I didn’t want you to tip off Rose before she got here and I could talk to her. But there was a secret joint intelligence operation called Project Pyrite.”
“Pyrite? As in Fool’s Gold?”
“One and the same. That project was designed to explore and manipulate the human mind from the outside.”
“Are you talking about mind control?”
“For nefarious purposes of course.”
“And it works.”
“Sort of…Project Pyrite was the pilot program, it wasn’t really successful, or so they thought. But there was a device that came out of it, it runs on some sort of experimental elements and heavy metals, it was called The Nugget.”
“Fittingly.”
“Yes I suppose. Point is, that it was big and clunky and didn’t suit their clandestine purposes so the project was scrapped, supposedly. Truth is it probably just switched units and went military underground as all these projects do. Someone stole this nugget and gave it to someone and I think whoever that is, is the same person who’s screwing with us, the same person conducting the shootings, the same person who manipulated Murt to take Bella Hill.”
“But why?”
“That’s what we need to find out.”
“Wait a second.” Jordan had the distinct feeling that they’d already discussed this. “Have we talked about this?”
Soul Frequency (Frequency Series Book 2) Page 10
