Million Dollar Gift

by Ian Somers

  ‘It’s not a fear of women … hang on – exercises?’

  ‘Do not fear, I will not ask you to do any sit-ups.’

  ‘Good. Because I don’t need to do any. Bit of a six-pack going on here,’ I patted my stomach, ‘you know.’

  ‘You’re skin and bone, Ross.’

  I rolled up a sleeve and flexed my bicep. ‘Check it out! That look like skin and bone to you?’

  Romand lifted his shirt sleeve and flexed his right bicep. It was three times thicker than mine. He didn’t say anything, but his smile spoke volumes. I kept my thoughts to myself after that.

  We entered the immense barn that had cement block walls and a corrugated metal roof. There were hundreds of hay bales in the back and a number of tables up front with an assortment of items on them.

  ‘You need more control over your gifts,’ Romand said as he sat on the edge of one of the tables. ‘Everything you will require is in this barn. I have designed a number of exercises to help you attain more skill and power.’

  ‘Where do we start?’

  He told me to stand a few metres away and to lift a pencil that was next to him on the table.

  ‘This is a bit simple in all fairness, Romand.’

  ‘It is not a training exercise. This is just to limber up.’

  I focused on the pencil and used my power to seize it before I lifted it a few feet off the table.

  ‘Allow the pencil to fall, take a moment then lift the lead weight next to it.’

  ‘I don’t need to take a moment,’ I scoffed. ‘It’s like Yoda said: “There’s no difference between a rock and a ship”.’ I tapped my temple. ‘Only different in your mind!’

  Romand hopped off the table and flicked me on the temple.

  ‘T’es stupide! This is not Star Wars! Of course there is a difference! To move a pencil is easy, to move a rock can leave you drained, to move a truck can kill you!’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes! Let’s skip the limbering up.’ He turned his back on me and went to the table. When he reached the first table he shouted, ‘Lesson one,’ then fired a golf ball at my face. I’d sensed it before it left his hand and instinctively reached out and caught it cleanly.

  ‘Uh, oh,’ Cathy laughed. She was leaning by the entrance; she shook her head at me and giggled uncontrollably.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Romand snapped, furiously waving his arms in the air. ‘What do you think this is?’

  ‘I caught it! What was I supposed to do with it? Eat it?’

  ‘You were supposed to deflect it with your thoughts. I’m not training you to be a handball player.’

  He took two more golf balls from the table and fired them one after the other. I easily deflected the first, but the second almost caught me out.

  ‘You’re very slow,’ Romand muttered. ‘You will need to be much faster than this.’

  ‘It’s half seven in the morning and I only got about three hours sleep last night because of that stupid dog, not to mention your snoring!’

  ‘Look sharp!’ Cathy threw a tennis ball at me.

  I deflected it then sensed another golf ball hurtling towards me from Romand’s direction. I deflected that too and it bounced off the tennis ball.

  ‘Better,’ Romand said before he spun round and shouted, ‘Again!’

  They spent over an hour throwing all sorts of objects, from golf balls to old kettles, at me, and although some came close, none hit me. When there was nothing left to throw Romand told me that the warm up was over and I could have a short break.

  This was just a warm up? Romand was a slave driver, even worse than Professor Foster!

  He patted me on the back when I sat next to him. ‘Not bad for a novice. You do have great potential. I want to see how good you are with fast-moving objects before we move onto more complex training techniques.’

  ‘What’s next for the novice?’ Cathy asked, she’d cheered up – slightly – since the morning, probably because she’d gotten the chance to throw things at my face.

  ‘Have you ever played paintball?’ the tall Frenchman asked her. He had a cheeky grin that I didn’t like one bit.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Would you like to?’

  She looked at me she flashed her teeth. ‘I’d love to!’

  I put my hands on my hips and frowned. ‘Why do I get the feeling that I won’t have a gun in this game?’

  Romand pulled a case from under one of the tables and opened it. He took two guns and gave one to Cathy then loaded his own with a magazine full of paintballs. ‘Let’s see how fast you really are.’

  I was ordered into the vast maze of hay bales in the back of the large barn and was followed in moments later by Romand and Cathy. The objective was simple: avoid being hit. I hid near the rear of the barn and tapped into my precognitive gift. I tried my best to sense when they would attack. It started out well and I evaded every attempt by my opponents, but Romand was obviously an expert with a firearm and his agility (along with the auto-fire option) outdid me. During the first session I was hit seven times, including a particularly painful hit in the back of the neck from Cathy.

  ‘Focus,’ Romand told me as we prepared for the next session. ‘Use your two gifts as one. You are better than this!’

  I hid at the back wall of the barn and listened for their approach. I sensed danger to the left and raced away from it. Cathy caught me somewhat off guard and fired a volley of paint balls in my direction. I raised a hand and the balls scattered away from me and dashed the hay bales. I blew her a kiss which infuriated her even more.

  ‘I’ll get you right on those stupid lips of yours!’ she cried. She reloaded and ran after me into the hay bales. When she caught up with me I deflected her shots and laughed.

  ‘Bang, Bang!’ Romand said as he pressed his gun against the back of my head.

  ‘Crap,’ I sighed.

  ‘Very crap if you ask me. I told you to focus and here you are having a laugh, which clouds your concentration and diminishes your powers. I walked up right behind you and you didn’t even sense me. Try again. Harder this time!’

  I avoided them both for the first five minutes of the final session. Romand ultimately found me, but couldn’t manage to shoot me, I had mastered the game and my trainer soon ran out of ammo. That left Cathy and I amid the vast maze of hay bales. She crept around as quietly as possible, but couldn’t catch me off guard; I sensed her every time she got close.

  Eventually the game was brought to an end when I used my telekinesis to draw the gun from her hand and into my own. I pointed it at her and when she ran away I shot her twice in the backside.

  ‘You’re not supposed to shoot me!’ she screamed. ‘That’s not part of the game.’

  ‘Nobody told me the rules!’

  ‘That bloody hurt.’ She rubbed her bum cheek and limped back to the front of the barn. ‘I hate you, I do!’

  ‘I just acted out of instinct and shot at the first thing that came to mind.’

  I winked at her and she almost broke a smile, but fought off the urge and stormed out of the barn. Pepe followed her, but the older dog, Bebe, remained in the entrance, watching everything Romand and I did.

  ‘You’ve shown that you can predict and deflect fast moving objects so you might just be able to protect yourself against an attack from another psychokinetic.’

  ‘Aren’t you getting a bit carried away, Romand? It’s not like there’s a team of people with superhuman gifts trying to kill me!’

  ‘You still don’t get it, do you?’

  ‘Get what?’

  ‘Marianne is probably already searching for you. If she ever finds this place, she will try to kill you!’

  ‘I find that hard to believe.’

  ‘You saw what she did at the Laberinto. She could fight off a legion of police officers. Marianne can do whatever she wants.’

  It finally dawned on me that my life was in jeopardy and probably always would be. I really did need to be better prepared. />
  ‘I need to get serious about this,’ I said and Romand nodded at me. ‘What’s next? Bring it on.’

  ‘That’s the attitude you need,’ Romand said smiling. ‘Offensive training. How fast can you propel an object?’

  ‘Dunno. Can move my skateboard pretty quickly,’ I said proudly. ‘Maybe a hundred miles per hour.’

  ‘That’s pitiful! You will need to be able to move objects at the speed of sound.’

  ‘That’s pretty fast.’

  ‘It’s over 1,200 kilometres per hour.’

  Romand took two large metal cases from the floor and placed them on the table. They contained parts to a strange looking contraption that reminded me of the laser machine used in Professor Foster’s tests. When Romand had assembled it though I could see it was very different. It had a hard-drive, a thick base, and at the top there was a metal cylinder with hundreds of small red lights inside it.

  ‘What the hell is that?’

  ‘It’s a chronograph of my own design.’ He stood back and presented it with his chest puffed out. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘Very impressive, Romand. You’ve outdone yourself.’

  ‘Merci beaucoup.’

  ‘Just one thing…’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘What the hell is it?’

  ‘Imbecile!’ he cursed. ‘You shoot something through the cylinder and its speed is calculated by a series of lasers. The precise speed is shown here,’ he pointed an LCD screen on the hard drive. ‘See?’

  ‘I see. What do I fire?’

  ‘This,’ Romand handed me a playing dart. ‘I want you to place it in the palm of your hand and send it through the cylinder into the hay at the back. And watch your aim; I don’t want to be picking it out of my face.’

  ‘I’m quite good at darts for your information!’

  Romand outstretched his hand towards the cylinder. ‘Show me.’

  I took my time, gathered energy from my body and sent the dart whizzing through the chronograph. The speed was quickly calculated and the screen flashed. 442kph.

  ‘I thought you said you were good…’

  ‘That’s just a warm up shot.’ I retrieved the dart and prepared myself for a second attempt. ‘You just wait and see!’

  I gathered all my power and fired. 822kph.

  ‘Not bad. Keep trying.’

  After four attempts the best I could manage was 995kph.

  ‘I can’t do it,’ I panted.

  ‘Give me the dart,’ Romand demanded. He took some deep breaths then launched it. Before it reached the cylinder there was a boom and white flash. The screen read 1,525kph.

  ‘That’s incredible,’ I gasped. ‘Absolutely incredible!’

  ‘Especially incredible seeing as I am nowhere near as powerful as you.’

  ‘You’re not?’

  ‘No. I have the gift, but I cannot master it like you and Marianne can.’

  ‘But I can’t break the sound barrier, so how could I be more powerful?’

  ‘I have my suspicions. I want you to try one more time.’

  I took the dart and held it in the palm of my hand then stood in front of the chronograph. I took a moment and focused on the small projectile then stared carefully at the cylinder.

  ‘You do realise how ridiculous she made you look at the press conference, right?’ Romand said unexpectedly.

  ‘No, she didn’t!’ I barked – every time I thought of that press conference I felt embarrassed and enraged.

  ‘You looked like the silly fool that you really are. You can’t even complete the most basic of training exercises.’

  My temper boiled inside my chest and I swung round to him, ‘Oh, really? You just watch this.’

  I spun back and launched the dart with all my rage. The dart flew into the air and there was a deafening boom that shook the metal roof of the barn. The small screen on the hard-drive flashed: 1,768kph. I was stunned by what I’d just done. I couldn’t really understand it at first.

  ‘It’s as I suspected,’ Romand said thoughtfully. ‘You have the purest form of psychokinesis.’

  ‘What do you mean by pure?’

  ‘A psychokinetic like me can summon energy from the body and use it to move objects. You can also do this but, you see, the body’s energy is limited. Those with the purest form can suck energy from their environment and use it to move almost anything. When someone with the pure gift feels extreme anger or happiness or sadness they can suck in huge amounts of energy. Just like you did moments ago. This is what makes Marianne so powerful; she is very troubled and is always angry. She can summon immense powers at will, making it almost impossible to contend with her.’

  ‘Anger is the key to matching her abilities?’

  ‘Strong emotions are the key.’

  ‘Happiness can be as useful as anger?’

  ‘Anger is very immediate and tends to be one of the most effective emotions. Panic is the most powerful emotion to use but it is unpredictable and cannot be easily replicated in tests or training.’

  I sat on the table and thought back to when I’d smashed the concrete pillar in Dullbrook, I’d felt intense panic just before I did it. Everything Romand said was making sense. While I was pondering my gift I saw Bebe lie down in the entrance, close his eyes then spring back up and walk away from the barn. I looked at Romand, who was dismantling the chronograph.

  ‘What’s the deal with those dogs?’

  ‘Deal?’

  ‘You know what I’m talking about, Romand. Some times they’re just like normal pets, bouncing around the house and sniffing out food. Other times they act real suspicious. The old dog is listening to every damn word we say and the younger one is watching me like a hawk … and I won’t even tell you about how it was watching me when I got out of bed this morning … but it was pretty odd!’

  ‘They are normal dogs, Ross.’

  ‘I want to know what’s going on,’ I demanded. ‘You’re keeping way too much from me.’

  ‘All right. I guess you are old enough to comprehend it.’

  He took a briefcase from a drawer under one of the tables, thumbed a combination into the locks and opened it. There was a block of sheets inside, around two hundred, and the title printed on the front read: A Study of True Gifts by Marcus Romand. 1992.

  Romand unclipped a metal binder and took three of the A4 sheets from the front of the block and handed them to me.

  ‘Read this. It will open your mind to the real world and may answer some of your questions. As for your curiosity regarding the dogs, I think you will find the second last entry very informative. It may also explain my comment at breakfast.’

  ‘Which comment was that?’

  ‘You’ll have to figure that out for yourself.’

  We got back to the house at 5pm and I was told by June that I had two hours before dinner was served. Cathy was sitting on the edge of her chair by the table; she refused to even look at me. I figured she’d get over her delicate injuries though and made my way upstairs to my temporary bedroom. I locked the door then sat on the bed and read the first paragraph.

  I took a deep breath. What the hell had I gotten myself involved in?

  CHAPTER NINETEEN -

  The True Gifts

  I had to read the first paragraph a few times over before it sank in. Romand was right about me taking a step into world that most are blind to. It was hard to believe this stuff really existed. I read over it once more before moving on to a number of paragraphs that looked like dictionary entries.

  There are over two hundred known gifts. These have been documented throughout history and have recently been brought together in a paper by Professor William Davidson of the Golding Scientific Center in California. They include extraordinary abilities in the areas of mathematics, physical capabilities, artistic talent, etc. The paper was not intended for publication and the only physical copy exists in the vault library of the Golding Scientific building in Pittsburgh.

  I am an employee of Golding
Scientific so I have had the opportunity to study the paper for many weeks and have decided to write my own on the subject, focusing primarily on the ‘True Gifts’, of which there are only fifteen. The search for more true gifts is ongoing, but to date only fifteen have emerged.

  The existence of these true gifts has been verified under laboratory conditions by Golding Scientific. There have been many reported instances of true gifts in the distant past. These cannot be scientifically proven, but some are considered to be reliable accounts based on government records and historical texts that have been studied by the staff at Golding Scientific.

  Below I have numbered the reliable instances of true gifts recorded throughout the centuries; there could be many more people who hid their gifts, for various reasons.

  Although some would argue there is a sixteenth true gift, this has yet to be backed up with any significant scientific evidence. The fifteen true gifts are as follows:

  Gift 005. (First reported: Mesopotamia, 3,245 BC.)

  Prophet / Seer / Propheta /

  An individual who has visions of future events. There have been thousands of reported cases, the vast majority of which are unconfirmed. Most individuals with this gift suffer serious emotional difficulties as a result of their visions. The nature of this gift means only traumatic events are predicted. This relates to the belief that surges of strong emotion reverberate through time and can be detected by certain humans (Prophets).

  Most noted Prophet: Michel de Nostredame / Nostradamus (1503 - 1566 AD.)

  Gift 044. (First reported: Macedonia, 1,574 BC.)

  Psychokinetic / Telekinetic / Pyrya Domina /

  An individual who can move objects at a distance by paranormal means.

  This phenomena was first recorded in Macedonia in 1,574 BC. Subject was said to be able to move pottery from distances that equate to more than ten metres.

  There have since been sixty-one recorded cases.

  At the time of writing, there are only two confirmed cases: Marcus Romand and Sarah Golding.

  Most noted Psychokinetic: Ala Qush, general in the Mongolian Army.