Designed with a Destiny (24 page)

“So, Mr. Harrington, why don’t you begin by
telling me what brought you and your friends here today,” she
finally begins. Her voice has a sweet, almost melodic quality to it
with just a hint of a southern accent and her honey brown eyes are
fixated on him as she patiently waits for his answer, like an
elementary school teacher. He nervously twitches in his seat.

“I came to share the tragic news of my
father’s death with his business partner Reginald Hocking,” Zane
says.

“Is that all?” she asks, tilting her head to
the side, and smiling, like someone catching a kid in a little
white lie.

“No—actually we came to find Cat’s brother,”
he blurts out, causing all of us to look up at him in astonishment.
Kennedy doesn’t look at all surprised.

“Well, maybe I can help. What’s your
brother’s name, Cataryn?” she calmly asks, directing her gaze
towards Cat.

“Wait—how do you know our names?” Cat asks,
closing her eyes and rubbing her temples as if concentrating
heavily on something. Kennedy waits until Cat looks up at her, than
glances uneasily at Zane—subtly implicating him. “YOU!” Cat hisses,
whipping her head around and glaring at Zane. “You set us up?” Zane
looks shocked, then insulted by the accusation. He starts to
object, but one glance from Kennedy and he sits back tight-lipped.
Natalie is also unusually quiet. This is the perfect situation for
her to show off her attorney skills and come to Zane’s defense
using a twist in words to distract Ms. Malcom with, but she just
yawns and quietly sits back observing.

“It’s all right, Cat—I’m actually on your
side. I can’t imagine how hard it must be not knowing where your
brother is—worrying about his safety. I want to help, so the more
information that you can give me…” she says empathetically. Deep
inside, I can feel that something is off, but my mind is telling me
not to worry about it. It takes concerted effort to overcome the
desire to be complacent about the situation—all I want to do is
relax like Natalie, and let things sort of unfold. I even grab a
bag of chips from a pile on the table, and contemplate opening it
even though I’m far from being hungry. I’m about to toss it back
when something catches my eye—the expiration date of 0111. I feel
my gut tighten.

“
Something’s not right—we need to get out
of here,”
I urgently transmit a telepathic message to both
Natalie and Cat. Neither of them acknowledge, and so after a second
or two, I try to get Cat’s attention by reaching over, and slipping
my hand over hers. She pulls it away, and folds her arms across her
chest as she continues to give Zane dirty looks, sulking over his
perceived betrayal. The action in and of itself isn’t as much of a
concern to me as something else I happen to pick up on and I
position my hand a few inches above her leg, just to make sure. Her
vibrational frequency rate no longer matches mine—not even close,
and that’s when I first realize that Kennedy Malcom is something
much more than an interrogator here to probe us for information.
She’s actually influencing the vibrational frequency of everyone
here, especially Cat.

***

Lawrence is the first person I think of to
connect with to get help, and when I tell him what’s going on,
mentioning Kennedy’s name, he immediately keys in to the who versus
the what of the situation.

“
Her name is Kennedy Malcom,”
I
reiterate a little impatiently. “She’s an interrogator for the
military and somehow she has the ability to influence us.”

“
What is her color screening?”
he
asks after I’m pretty sure I already told him.

“
Pure gray.”

“
Pure gray, huh?”
The prolonged
silence after I tell him grates on my nerves.
“Lawrence?”
I
hiss impatiently.

“
Yeah—I’m here.”
I hear a mental sigh
from him.
“Well son, I have good news and bad news,”
he
finally says in a voice that sounds almost sad.
“The bad news is
that Kennedy Malcom is a Designer—I helped with her DNA mapping
sequence. She has the ability to manipulate energy just like the
rest of you. The problem is, she’s using it for much darker
purposes. The good news is that sooner or later she’ll lose those
abilities but until she does she’s going to be dangerous. I should
have known better—her parents barely color screened blue. I believe
her father ended up committing suicide a few years ago after being
indicted for embezzlement, and her mother’s been institutionalized
ever since.”

“
But I thought you said that a higher
vibrational frequency is automatically more powerful than a
lower—how is she overriding our vibrational frequency?”

“
The only way I now of is if your state
of mind has been weakened or altered. Chemicals such as drugs and
alcohol can do this.”
His words bring back memories of my
drinking binge—a definite energy killer. Then there was the time I
was given sedatives in the hospital…it doesn’t feel quite the same,
but there are similarities—mainly the indifference—even now as I
watch Natalie bring the glass to her lips to take another sip. I
glance at the pitcher of ice tea and conclude it’s possible—every
single one of us had some.

“
Sorry Natalie,”
I silently apologize
as I cause the glass to slip through her hands, spilling ice tea
down the front of her. Not too shabby for a guy who’s a novice in
the use of telekinetic energy and has drugs in his system. I
conclude it was the right thing to do when she doesn’t so much as
even acknowledge the mishap, and instead reaches for the pitcher a
second time. I beat her to it, grabbing the pitcher, and emptying
the remainder of the liquid in my own glass instead.

“
Lawrence—tell Ali, Claire, and Austin
what’s going on and see if they can make a connection with Cat and
Natalie. We’re going to need their help.”

The energy donated by Lawrence during our
telepathic connection has a clearing effect on my mind which starts
to fade the minute we disconnect, and a veil of ambivalence
follows. For now, Kennedy seems to have most of her attention
directed on Cat. She almost purrs like a kitten when Cat tells her
Chord's name, then goes on to tell her the story of how she thought
he died in a boating accident. The second Ali connects with me, I
sense a change in Cat and Natalie too.

“
I see it didn’t take you long to get
yourself in a bind—did it?”
Alisha says, still sounding a
little sore from being bumped of her leadership duties.

“
Ali, I need you to stay with me mentally
no matter what. Just keep talking and tell Claire and Austin to do
the same with Cat and Nat.”
She grumbles but keeps the line
open with background music, humming a lullaby which is clever but
annoying. This time when I reach for Cat’s hand, she grips it hard,
and slowly blinks her eyes, looking at me with a similar level of
understanding thanks to Claire’s reinforcement of energy. As her
vibrational rate slowly rises so does her ability to block
Kennedy.

“It seems that you and I have a lot in
common, Kennedy,” Cat eventually says interrupting Kennedy’s
manipulative sweet-talk for more information.

“How’s that?” Kennedy asks, showing the
first sign of uncertainty. Cat projects a stream of white energy
toward her, and continues.

“Well we both had our parents tragically
taken from us, although I imagine you still get to visit your mom
on occasions—right?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Kennedy says coldly, her eyes narrowing. Her demeanor instantly
changes, once Cat takes control of the conversation.

“It’s okay, Kennedy—you shouldn’t blame
yourself for your father’s suicide,” Cat says softly, getting up to
move closer to her, an obvious attempt to make physical contact.
Suddenly, Kennedy explodes with anger, releasing a string of
profanity that makes even a drugged Zane raise an eyebrow. With a
wave of her hand, Cat is catapulted across the room with such force
she slams into the wall behind me. Cat makes a grunting sound as
she slides to the floor. Kennedy’s eyes are filled with hatred, and
when Cat clutches her throat, making gurgling type noises, I know
she has telekinetic power and is intent on choking the life out of
Cat. The last mistake Kennedy Malcom will ever make is not
disabling me before messing with Cat. It’s not premeditated, just
instinctual when I hurl the glass pitcher at her, but when it
strikes her in the left chest, over the heart, I know she’s in big
trouble. I’ve been known to clock a speed of 130 mph when pitching
a baseball—and that’s without the added force of fury. She staggers
backwards, her eyes wide with shock, and before her body collapses
to the floor, military staff is at the door, weapons raised. The
Lieutenant Colonel barges past them, bending over Kennedy as he
hollers for additional help. Cat coughs and gasps to catch her own
breath, and I start toward her to help, immediately halted by the
words of the Lieutenant to his men. “Take your aim.”

“She doesn’t have a pulse—start CPR, he says
quietly to the two that join him. He’s breathing hard when he
slowly stands to face me, and I have the fleeting thought that
Kennedy means something more to him than just the weapon he uses
her as. From somewhere in the depths of my mind, I can still hear
Alisha humming, but there’s a noticeable strain in her voice likely
caused from the intense range of emotion being transmitted by
us.

“Oh shit,” Natalie says, raising her arms in
a surrendering fashion, causing Zane to do the same.

“Wait! I think I can help, Kennedy,” Cat
says in a faint voice, getting up clutching her rib cage. She
staggers forward, coming in-between me and the men with their guns
aimed at my body.
“Don’t you dare move a muscle Mr.
Callahan,”
she telepathically warns, knowing full well I’d take
a bullet before I’d have her stand in the line of fire. “Let me
just try—please. I’ve had special training in this type of thing,”
she pleads with the Colonel using the energy of her thoughts to
subconsciously persuade him, and as ludicrous as he must know it
is—he says okay.

“
Cat you can’t bring people back from the
dead, and if you did, they’d want to know how. Please
don’t.”

“
She’s not gone—I didn’t see her energy
leave her body yet. I think she still has a chance.”
Her brown
eyes are full of hope and determination as she kneels down next to
Kennedy and I feel a tinge of guilt that I don’t share the same
interest in saving the girl who tried to kill her. Without actually
touching Kennedy, she spreads both hands above her exposed chest,
hiding the golf ball size lump caused from the blunt force of the
glass. “I need their help,” she says, and he reluctantly nods,
giving us the approval to move. Natalie and I crouch down next to
her, each placing a hand on Cat’s arm, donating energy to the
cause. Seconds turn in to minutes and one of the medical
technicians questions the Lieutenant Colonel’s decision to delay
real medical treatment. He’s almost immediately silenced not by the
Colonel himself but by the cardiac monitor that makes a bleep
sound. All eyes turn to the small screen that currently has a flat
line running across it, and when there’s another bleep with a
spike, followed by another…and another, the military crew starts to
get excited. Cat looks up at me and smiles with relief. She may
feel good about saving the girl who tried to take her life, but I’m
not so forgiving and far more pessimistic. Kennedy Malcom is
dangerous as hell. She has all the mind power of a Designer, with
the most evil thoughts and intentions possible.

“
Everyone has the potential to
change,”
Cat says, reading me like a book. I raise a
questioning eyebrow and respond cynically.

“
Yeah right—if you say so
sweetheart.”
Lawrence picked the perfect Designer to give the
frequency influencer title to—she takes the role seriously, and has
a much stronger faith in humanity than I ever will.

“
Come on Callahan—it’s our duty,”
she
says, reaching for my hand.
“What good is it to restore
Kennedy’s physical health and leave her with a color screen of
gray?”
Of course—I have to remind myself that this is our
purpose from now on—raise the vibrational frequency of even our
enemies. Kennedy isn’t the easiest to crack the casing of the
pineal gland on, and it takes more than a mere touch to move her
even into the blue range.

“
Focus on good memories—we need to raise
our own vibration if we’re going to change anything here,”
she
instructs Natalie and me. I smile. I have just the memory that’s
sure to raise more than a frequency level—at least in me, and I
privately share it with Cat.

“
I’m in a small town hotel with my wife
who I haven’t seen in two months. We’re in the shower and I have a
bar of soap in my hand that smells like honey suckle. The water is
the perfect temperature; not too hot, not too cold. I’ve been
invited to help her wash her body and it’s a job that I take very,
very serious. So, I take my time, first washing her hair, then
working my way down to her neck…then shoulders and arms. When I get
to her chest, I take special care, after all her breasts are like
perfectly sculpted masterpieces, and should be handled with the
most delicacy. For them, I use my fingertips to…”
Cat bites her
lower lip, and the corner of her mouth turns up in a smile that
she’s fighting hard to hide from the others.
“She then asks me
to wash her back, and turns to face the wall, leaning slightly
forward, with her hands on the tile,”
I remind her, pausing to
give us both a chance to relive one of the most erotic moments of
my life. There’s just something about water and suds…