The Talented (20 page)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Dying is hard to describe. The pain stopped first, and every care I had in the world gently fell away. There was no confusion or regret, just peace. The lightness carried me up above my body, looking down on the chaos below. It seemed so cosmically unimportant.

My sense of calm shattered when a voice whispered in my head.

This is how I see the world. It looks different from up here, don’t you think?

And suddenly there he was, floating before me like an apparition from Hell. Talon the Prophesier in all his glory. If you ignored the pale skin, black eyes and dark feathery hair, he looked a lot like me. Instead of clothing he had swirling ribbons of inky black energy that streamed around his body, twisting and writhing. Seeing him for real was more terrifying than anything I had ever experienced. His chilling gaze was devoid of all expression. No empathy, no compassion would ever be found there.

Then a misty white cloud faded in behind him and began to grow rapidly. Soft bluish white light shone from within it. The light grew more brilliant until it was almost blinding. But more intense than the light was a sense of yearning deep within me to go to the light. Become one with it. Lose myself in it. In the light there was peace and joy. And rest. Oh, blessed rest.

Talon seemed not to notice and just stared at me in that inhuman way. He hovered between the great light and me, backlit in a way that made him appear to be nothing more than a shadow.

Then I began to drift toward the light, consequently toward Talon as well. One of the shiny black tendrils lashed out behind him toward the light, sending oily veins of darkness into the glow. Polluting it. Desecrating it. Trying to banish it. I held my hand out toward the black tendril and both my hand and it suddenly glowed blue. The frozen tendril then disintegrated.

You can’t win against me, Adam, but why would you want to? So that you can let yourself die? Have you thought about your attachments to the living world? Gus? Do you want to know what happens to Alicia if you die?

My God. Alicia. Talon was right. What was I thinking? Alicia was my one hope in this world and I wasn’t ready do give up hope just yet.

My spectral hand dropped and immediately a fresh swarm of black tentacles invaded the cloud, dimming the light within. It seemed to collapse within itself and disappeared as silently as it came. Regret gripped my heart. Blessed peace was oh so close, and it was almost mine. Even as a spirit, I wept. Cried like a baby. My choice was made. There was nothing that I could do now to change it. The last thing I heard was:

It’s not time to leave this world yet, Adam. You’re my avatar here and I intend to stay. Now I have your mess to clean up. Observe.

Then a million Mandellian threads flashed across his form and he was gone.

My spiritual body drifted down to the ground, feeling heavier now. There was a big man sprawled out on the floor covered in blood. He looked awful. It dawned on me in a rush that I was looking at myself. My body, anyway.

Kate fell to her knees and pressed her palm onto the gushing wound, trying to stop the bleeding. “Oh Adam,” she wept, “I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I never should have gotten you involved in all this. This is all my fault.”

Stuart rolled his eyes. “Oh, please, Kate. Stop with the drama, will you?”

“Murderer!!!” Kate screamed at him, “What did you do!?! Oh God, what did you do, Stuart?”

Still holding the knife, he took a careful step toward her and said, ”Katie, Katie, Katie…you never see the big picture, do you? As far as anyone knows, Harrison and Adam were the last two class A psionics on Earth, other than me, of course. But they were really in another league, I must admit, and would always be dangerous to us as long as they were alive. But now that they are out of the picture, who could possibly stop us now? Fortress Investments is just the beginning, my dear. Just think of the possibilities! It would be like the Program all over again, this time unconstrained by serious opposition or government oversight.”

All in a rush a vision appeared to Kate. Her pupils dilated wide. She spoke with a shocked expression on her face. “The murders…Nate and the client outside the café…Justine being hit by the bus…that was all your doing. My God, Stuart. Why?”

Stuart looked defiant and continued, “Nate was going to leave us, Katie, and take our clients with him. That was what he was doing at Café Luc; he was betraying us all. Believe me when I say that I didn’t follow him with the intent to kill him. It just made me so angry that when I noticed that the Alliance was spying on the two of them with one of their goons, I…influenced him to do what he did…to pull the trigger.”

“What about Justine?” Kate spat out, “What did she ever do to you?”

Stuart actually looked a bit guilty about that one. “Justine finally discovered what I did and confronted me about it. She was going to turn me in to the Alliance. I couldn’t let that happen.”

As he spoke, Tracy and the others gathered behind Kate. Tracy spoke out, “Kate’s right, Stu, your actions are appalling, but,we don’t have time to discuss it right now. We have to get out of here before…”

Clack-clack

They all turned to find more than a dozen assault rifles aimed at them by the now awake guardsmen.

“GET DOWN! DOWN ON THE GROUND WITH YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEADS! DO IT NOW!!! DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN!!!!!!!”

Travis and Ashley laid flat quickly and put their hands over their heads, with Kate and Tracy doing the same, but more carefully. Stuart stood his ground and laughed.

“Really? Am I supposed to be frightened? I descend from the Homo Illuminati! Your kind used to worship mine as if we were gods! How about you point those weapons somewhere more interesting, lets say…at the person next to you. How about that?”

The shaking gun barrels began to turn, and just as Stuart had commanded, each of them ended up pointed at a fellow guardsman.

Stuart continued, “You are now my soldiers and answer only to me. On my command, you will move out into the rest of the compound and kill any Alliance employee you find. Scientists, other guardsmen, even secretaries will be treated the same.”

He watched as their eyes suddenly moved up to gaze at something above his head. In his mind Stuart saw through their eyes what they were gawking at, then whirled around to see for himself. My bloodied form levitated high above him, halfway to the center of the domed ceiling, arms extended to the sides, with palms extended. There was a wrongness about my body that was difficult to pinpoint at first glance, until you saw his eyes: Talon’s cold eyes in my head. The entire surface of each eye was solid black, yet reflective, like polished obsidian, and the impassive expression on my face gave me an otherworldly and inhuman quality. Then out of nowhere, hundreds of shining pinpoints of light manifested in a perfect sphere around my body, orbiting it like a shield of stars. I watched it all as a spirit. Detached.

Stuart’s heart pounded and he screamed, “Shoot him!!! All of you!!! Kill him!!!!”

The eruption of gunfire echoed off the concrete walls and ceiling with deafening intensity, and each bullet that struck the shield of light exploded in a shower of sparks and molten lead. Then the shield began to expand, and the gaps in the orbiting lights revealed the form of me, who was not me.

Then a piercing ringing sound emitted from my body and everyone fell to their knees, holding their hands over their ears. In the center of their minds, all present heard these words:

Guardsmen, drop your weapons, then be still.

The assault rifles all clattered to the ground noisily. The alien-looking face then aimed its fearful gaze to Stuart’s trembling form, lips unmoving.

Stuart Allen, you betrayed my host and attempted to slay him. I have seen your future and the depths of your soul, you miserable creature. You are a bane to all of your kind and are hereby banished to the Void.

On the center of Stuart’s forehead a shining pinpoint of light sprang forth, followed by one on his shoulder, then another on his ear. Then he cried out as they erupted over every surface of his body. The room stared in shocked silence as the lights flashed, then winked out. Stuart was gone.

Erika ran up to Harrison’s unconscious form and checked for vitals. “He’s alive!” she called out, and two other guardsmen ran up to help with a wary eye turned toward the Prophesier.

The shield of starlight dissipated, and the Prophesier descended to the ground. He walked oddly, like a sailor unaccustomed to dry land after a long voyage. Tracy felt a sharp temperature drop as he passed her, enough to turn her breath to water vapor and form frost on her long eyelashes.

He stopped before Kate, who crossed her arms to defend against the sudden chill. Then the voice returned, this time in Kate’s mind alone. And mine.

Katherine Scott, my host desires you and your allies to be freed from captivity. However, I see what your future holds. There will come a day when you will wish that you had not survived this day. You will find happiness for a time, but will lose everything in the end. Knowing this, do you still wish to be saved?

Her eyes wet with tears, she whispered, “Yes, please save me.” The Prophesier just stared for a moment, then Kate, Tracy, Travis and Ashley became engulfed in starlight, and when the light was gone, so were they.

When Harrison opened his eyes a few moments later he looked confused, but rose to his feet quickly enough. He touched his temple and asked, “What…did you do to me? Adam…my…my thoughts, my mind…something is very wrong.” Then he looked Talon in the eyes and recoiled as if slapped.

“You aren’t Adam. Who…What are you?”

My name is Talon. I am a Prophesier: an oracle who wields the power to change fate. As for your other questions, Adam wishes to answer you himself. He awakens now. You will do him no harm.

The shiny blackness faded from my eyes, and as it did darkness covered my vision and I felt like I was falling from a great height.

I awoke on my feet with my eyes open and staring at Harrison. At first I could not say anything, immobilized by guilt and self-loathing, but my eyes remained locked with his.

My voice trembled as I explained, “Harrison, I did to you exactly what you planned to do with Kate and Stuart once your researchers were done poking and prodding them. I tore out your Mandellian threads. All of them, except for one thin one, the one you use to maintain consciousness.”

“Stupid boy,” Harrison chuckled, “I still have the correlates of consciousness in my brain which built up the threads to begin with. My abilities will return, in time.”

Looking down, my cheeks flushed red, I replied, “I’m sorry. They aren’t coming back.”

Harrison scowled and drew up to his full height. As big as I may be, I still look like a cupcake next to him. He narrowed his eyes and said, “Lets see about that.” I could feel him trying to connect with his former abilities, and his shock at what resulted.

“My…my throat…so dry.” Then he looked down at me in alarm, “Thirst! You replaced all of my powers with…intense…thirst! You…you. How? Why?” His last word came out in little more than a gasp as the big man began to look around for a source of water. The look of shocked betrayal in his eyes will haunt me forever.

I tried to explain, “What choice did I have? Would you rather I had killed you? Besides, the parts of your brain where your power resides are still fully intact, I just cut them off from your conscious mind. When you try to use power, something like a mental short-circuit will happen, transferring your thought into a need for…”

“Water!” Harrison interrupted and stormed out of the room, Ericka following behind him. What a terrible waste.

What had I done? I felt sick.

New footsteps echoed in the corridor, and the petite frame of Dr. Grauer entered the room, followed by an entourage of fresh guards and a few of her colleagues. She approached me without fear, displaying her usual confidence. Indeed, there was even an excitement about her that was almost unsettling.

“My, my, Mr. Sharpe. How busy you have been since our little talk.” She looked at my ruined shirt and frowned. “How badly are you hurt?”

I lifted my shirt to find freshly healed pink slashes where the stab wounds should have been.

“I’ll be okay, doc.” I replied, then looked at her a moment before asking, “How much did you see?”

Grauer’s lip barely curled up on one side, but her eyes sparkled. “I saw everything from the control room. There are cameras all over this facility. We have a very clear recording of Director Kirkwood admitting to a mass murder. Between that and the loss of his psionic talents, there’s no question that his relationship with the Alliance will be terminated.”

She seemed a little too pleased about that. I suppose with Harrison out of the way, a mighty big power vacuum was left for her to fill.

She continued, “I also have some astonishing footage of you performing psionic feats for which we have no explanation. I expect you to thoroughly debrief me on the matter once you return to full-time employment.”

My jaw dropped open stupidly, then I stammered, “Return? Are you serious? Harrison is getting fired and I’m not? You know that his job was just a cover-up to get me in the building so that I could free Kate, right? You saw the video, so that should be no surprise to you. Why are you still interested in keeping me around? Better yet, why would I stay?”

Dr. Grauer took a half step toward me and whispered softly enough so that I had to lean down to hear her.

“We need you, Adam. That’s why we’ll overlook your duplicity this one time, so long as you swear absolute loyalty from this moment forward. And you will do it because you’re better than the two-bit hustler that you have allowed yourself to be. It’s time that you actualized some of that potential of yours for the good of humanity.”

We stood like that for a time, then I finally answered, “What the hell, why not? I will make a deal with you. I will agree to work for the Alliance as a resource, maybe even an agent, but I’m going back to Detroit. Whatever I do for you, you will have to find a way for me to do it from there. Otherwise…no deal.”