Seers (16 page)

I drop my eyes, nod once, and then raise them again to meet hers. “Why?”

“You know why. What haven’t you been told?”

She doesn’t need to say any more, and she knows it. It’s always been there. That nagging question. That piece of doubt. Why all this trouble about the girl? Why the fuss over the daughter who seems to be doing okay despite the normal teenage self-doubt? Why Navigate the father to fix her? Unless I was meant to Navigate the father for a different purpose. Navigate the father who is working on a breakthrough that will change the world of Seers. A breakthrough I know nothing about.

It’s true. She had never seemed broken enough. She seemed disgruntled, sure. But what teenager isn’t disgruntled at some point? She has a family that loves her, an amazing group of friends. Besides, I was supposed to be moving into more challenging, more dangerous missions, Tobias had said. So why the human-interest story? Why all the fuss about a girl’s feelings? A girl who happens to be the daughter of a neuroscientist. And a neuroscientist working on something that will change the world of Seers, at that.

I nod again. “So what haven’t I been told?”

“You are not Navigating to help, Leesie. You are not Navigating for me, to make me a happier girl and my father a more focused worker. We’ve established that. You are Navigating my father to steal something from him to deliver into the hands of the Preceptors. You see, my father is not on the cusp of a breakthrough. That is just what you’ve been told. You are to know as little as possible about the real mission. The truth is, my father is desperately trying to keep safe the information you are trying to Extract.”

She pauses. She’s awfully good at allowing me to process information.

“My father was approached by a group of Preceptors over a year ago,” she continues. “They exposed themselves as Seers and asked him to work for them. Naturally a neuroscientist who finds out that the brain is capable of far more than he could have ever dreamed jumped at the opportunity.

“My father began working with a brain, a Seer’s brain, experimenting on the nature of the power of Navigation and Extraction. What he discovered, though, he soon realized cannot end up in the hands of Preceptors. Fortunately I was there to connect his memory of that discovery with a discovery about me.”

Okay. Now she better pause.

“What? Back up. What discovery about you? Connected how? How do you know all this?”

“The day my father sat in his lab poring over months of testing was the day I told him what I am.”

I don’t bother to ask the obvious. I raise my eyebrows and wait.

“I am an Aurae. I read emotions, intentions, the way you read brains. Only I see it in colors. Hear it in waves.”

“What?”

“Surely someone as smart as you didn’t believe she was the only being with powers, the only possibility of it?”

“I had hoped, I guess.”

This makes her laugh. “Yeah, I bet you did. That doesn’t surprise me. Only Leesie is powerful. Right.”

I am being mocked, and yet I love getting a glimpse of the Eri I know returning.

She goes on, “My father’s memory of that day is linked to me because of the shock of his realizing the truth about powers of the brain, both the powers of Extracting and my power of Reading. They will not be a separate memory in that layer. You go into that moment to complete your mission and Extract, and you will have his motivation to protect me and the secret behind Extraction.”

“And I was supposed to believe I was taking only the memory that leads him to overprotect you. I would have the Seers’ secret without knowing I had it?”

I was catching up.

“Yes. And that information would have been taken from you.”

“How? By whom?”

“By your Preceptor, Leesie.”

I am so sick of the word
what.

“What?”

“You are in danger.”

Danger?

Being a Seer has always been a thing I could do. I used it to find things out, to help people, to help myself. Truth be told, sometimes I used it to amuse myself. I enjoyed playing around in people’s heads, having an edge. I had never thought of it as something dangerous. Bleeding-eyes dangerous, yes. But that’s just a physical drawback to the gift. She’s not talking about that kind of danger, is she?

“The discovery my father has made, if placed in the wrong hands, could put all Seers in danger. You completing this mission successfully for your Preceptor puts you doubly in danger. Once they have what they want from you, your place in the world of Seers is questionable. You would be a liability. No one would want a connection to me or to my father to get in the way of the Seers’ use of the discovery. In the worst-case scenario, you would be disposed of. In the best-case scenario? The memory loss would be extensive, and you have lost so much already.”

“What do you know about my memory loss?” I spit the words out as fast as I can to stop her from going on to her next point. Does she know something about my past? Does she know why I cannot remember my life?

“I know that you have a very limited memory. And I know why. You are a valuable Seer. You not only go in; you also take out. Seers need you if they want to
possess
what is in someone’s brain rather than just look at it. Think about it. You go in and Extract this information from my father, and it isn’t his anymore. He doesn’t know it, can’t recall it. And only the Preceptors would have it.

They need you
, rings in my ears. Right. I am more powerful than Seers. Because I am a Seer. And an Extractor. I never really thought of it that way.

“They needed you to need them,” she goes on. “And you do need them if you have no one to rely on because you can’t remember your life, if you need someone to put the pieces together for you, if you have no one else to turn to. Tobias was able to be that for you. He pretends to know what will make you stronger, what will help you regain your memory, if that’s possible, so that he can send you on missions without question, so that you will work blindly for him, and so that you will trust him. But I have to tell you that I have reason to believe that it is Tobias who is responsible for your stolen memories.”

This isn’t the straw that breaks the camel’s back. No. This camel is dead. Gone. Pulverized. I am spinning. Too many things are turning upside down. First she tells me Tobias would be stealing the information I Extract from Dr. Kuono and this mission has been a lie, and now she tells me that Tobias is the one behind my stolen memories? He’s not only plotting against me now, but he has always been against me. Every meeting, every conversation, every piece of advice has been a part of his plot. Like fattening the veal calf for Easter dinner.

“Tobias?” These words escape like the last whistle of air from a deflating balloon.

“Leesie, I’m sorry. I’ve given you a lot to digest. I know this is hard for you—”

I interrupt her: “Hard for me? What do you know? Are you
Reading
me or something? Anything that was easy about my life must be in the parts I don’t remember. I can deal with
hard.
What I’m having a difficult time dealing with is the fact that you are telling me to change everything. I have to change the way I see everyone. You, this mission, Seers, Preceptors, Tobias. He has taught me so much, given me a place to live, provided—”

“Provided what exactly? Mission after mission? Is it he who has given you so much, or is it you who have been working nonstop to learn at a rapid pace in order to be ready for this mission? Let me ask you, has he offered any explanation about your missing life? Your family?”

I can tell by the look on her face she is not asking me questions. She is proving her point. I meet her eyes.

“No. He says I just came to him one day. He’s been trying to gather information on me—”

“That’s a lie.” Eri spits the words, half growling.

Her words hiss through the space between us and bite into the nagging part of me that doubted Tobias’s explanations, or lack thereof, all along.

“How do you know? How can you be sure?” I half demand, half plead.

I need cold, hard facts now. If she is going to turn my life upside down, if she is going to talk me into doubting, challenging, rejecting my Preceptor—something that is just not done in the world of Seers—she is going to have to start producing evidence for her claims.

“The night my father discovered the secret behind Extraction, I went to see my dad at work. Something I never do. But this day was the day. I had decided to tell him about my being an Aurae.

“I developed the ability around eight. I aged into it, I guess. I have done some research, and there are a lot of us out there. Anyway, at first it was faint and slight, just a little color around someone’s head if they were in a heightened emotional state. As I got older, it got stronger; the colors became brighter. I began to understand them and use them. I became lost in them for a while, distracted. I lost focus at school and in my activities. It caused a rift between my father and me. He is so success-driven, wants so much for me. So I couldn’t wait any longer. I needed to tell him that day that I am an Aurae. That I was okay. That I was going to be everything he wanted me to be and more.

“When I walked into his lab, he was hunched over his papers with his head in his hands. He was nodding his head yes and shaking his head no at the same time. Next to him was a glass box, and it had something in it. Lights shone around it, and it was hooked up to electrodes. When I walked past it to stand in front of my dad, the box began to glow brighter. Green but mostly yellows. The rays floated and wafted out of the box and around my dad.

“In the box was the brain of a Seer. It was the brain my dad had used to conduct his research. The brain was hooked to electrodes and without a body to conceal my power to project color and possibly because of the electric current, I don’t know, but it lit up the room. My dad could
see
the colors. Only Auraes see the colors of a person and can Read their aura. But this exposed brain was
lighting up the room
! Of course he freaked! His specimen Seer brain was glowing! I immediately explained why and what I am. So for my father, the memory of the discovery and the memory of my being an Aurae are so close that they are one in that layer. This is the reason the Preceptors do not have the discovery yet. The memory is a jumbled mass they cannot clearly See. That’s where you come in. Their hope is that an Extractor will be able to make it discernible.”

“I had no idea that was possible, for memories to get stuck together,” I say.

“Neither did I.” She lets out a tired laugh. She stretches and steadies her eyes in front of her as she decides what to say next. I break in before she can continue.

“You keep saying ‘secret behind Extraction.’ And Tobias keeps saying Dr. Kuono’s discovery that ‘will change the world of Seers.’ So what is it? What is this all about?”

Eri takes a step toward me, and we lock eyes.

“I don’t know exactly, Leesie. My father won’t tell me. He won’t tell anyone. Anyone who knows the details behind his findings can be Navigated by a Seer and the information would be leaked. All I know is that his discovery is a formula. It’s the key to what sets the brain of an Extractor apart from the brain of a Seer. With it, Preceptors will be able to transform Seers’ brains. They will be able to
create
Extractors.”

“Create Extractors? Why?” I weave my fingers into my hair, holding my head.

“Think about how much more power you have as an Extractor. Think about how different it is to view someone’s memories versus stealing them. You could erase someone’s memory. Someone’s life. Now imagine Preceptors having the formula behind Extraction. Think of the power. And then think about it in the wrong hands.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh. Extraction is not a power all Seers should have.”

“And what makes you this expert on Extraction?” I challenge.

“You are not the only Seer of your kind, despite what you have been led to believe,” Eri responds quickly. “I know one and so do you.”

Okay. This sounds like evidence.

“It’s Luke.”

As soon as the words leave her lips, I realize that I am not shocked, not even surprised. On the contrary, I find myself relieved. This explains his connection to Eri. And his connection with me. We share something in common that up to a second ago, I didn’t think was possible to share with anyone. This changes things for me. Suddenly the fear of him faking a connection with me vanishes. Just the idea of discussing Extracting with someone who can do it overshadows anything else I feel right now. I feel validated, empowered, and less … alone.

“This makes you happy,” Eri says as she peers at me. She sounds as if she’s mulling this over. This may not have been the reaction she had been expecting. She continues to watch me. She seems to be looking around me, not into my face directly but into the space around me.
She’s an Aurae
, I remind myself. She Reads in colors, Reads auras.

“What color am I?”

She smiles a little. “You’re pumpkin orange floating in a sea of purple.”

“Is that good?”

“For you? Yes.” Eri chuckles again at my expense.

“What is that supposed to mean?” I lean forward, frowning. When did I become so hilarious to her?

She laughs again. “You’re on fire, Leesie. All the time. Most people are blues and greens when they’re calm. Your calm is a cooled-off red, sometimes a pale orange, but I’ve never seen you green. You are always somewhere between contained rage and moderate annoyance. It amuses me. I think it’s because you try so hard to feign an air of collected nonchalance.”

I hate knowing that there’s no point in denying my moods to her. Color rushes to my cheeks as I think of all the times I must have pretended not to care or be annoyed by something, and she knew I was secretly bubbling.

“So I run hot. Got it. And what’s the purple?”

She smiles again, a sly, slow smile. “Purple is content, blissful, enamored, passionate,” she says.

Eri locks eyes with me. She knows. And by the look on her face, I believe she wants me to say it.

“Oh.” I look down.