Winters Family Psi Chronicles 1: Transformation (5 page)

“There’s juice and milk in the refrigerator,” Julie said. “I’m going to bed. See you in about nine hours.”

“Thank you for everything,” Emily said gratefully.

“You’re welcome.” Julie smiled radiantly before retiring.

Ryan joined Emily in the kitchen a short while later. Emily was relieved to find that his earlier hostility toward her from last night had completely evaporated. She wondered at the change of heart but wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She poured herself some coffee then added plenty of cream and sugar before sinking into one of the chairs at the table. Ryan fixed his own mug of coffee before joining her.

“I want to apologize for last night,” he said. “I didn’t have the benefit of being able to read your mind but Julie felt an immediate connection with you.”

“Julie is a very special person.”

“Yes, she is.” Ryan sipped some of his coffee and cocked a bemused brow at her. “She’s brimming with questions about you and the future.”

“Such as?” Emily prodded.

“I’ll let her ask you. It’ll be easier than having me be a go-between,” Ryan said wryly.

Emily mulled this over as she sipped some more of her coffee. She hadn’t felt this refreshed and revitalized in years. She almost dared to hope that Julie might actually come up with a plan to shut down Psi-Tech.

“Julie is a very strong-willed individual. I’m surprised she’s taken charge like this. I thought I’d have to convince her of her future,” Emily remarked.

“She has always strongly believed she was meant to do something extraordinary with her life. She thought that some day she would find an opportunity to do something that would help change lives for the better. And now it looks like that opportunity has come,” Ryan said.

“Interesting.” Emily regarded him with curiosity. “Do you feel the same way about yourself?”

“Yes, I do. I’ve felt that way for years but at the same time I’ve always discounted that feeling.”

“Maybe you and your wife are secondary intuitives. It’s a very common psychic ability but people don’t realize they have it. They just think they’re lucky or that they’re good guessers, or that they have hunches,” Emily said.

“You could be right. I guess we’ll find out in time,” Ryan said.

Emily finished her coffee and poured herself some cranberry granola. She had only just started eating when she sensed a remote-viewer. She successfully blocked the attempt without any strain. When the intruder withdrew, Ryan eyed her intently.

“Remote-viewer?” he asked.

“Yes. It wasn’t hard to keep him away,” Emily said. “I’m well rested so it won’t be a problem standing watch until Julie is with us.”

Half a dozen more attempts were made before Julie strode into the living room early in the afternoon. Her hair was still damp from her recent shower and she wore jeans and a blue blouse.

“We’re off to a late start but I think the time we’ve spent was worth it,” Julie said crisply.

She opened her journal and poised her pen over the pages to take notes.

“I feel like I’m on an important interview on Dateline or something,” Emily teased.

Julie smiled with amusement as she read her first question. “Tell me what Psi-Tech’s major moves will be during the next several months.”

“By now, they’ve already killed all the natural psychics that were prisoners,” Emily said slowly as she sorted through her thoughts. “They are testing all their staff to see what abilities everyone has and what their capacities are. This will allow them to use everyone to their maximum potential. It will probably take about a week to do this. They plan on killing all telepaths and have a six year time-line. They plan on going public in a couple of months. When they do this, they will provide a variety of services for a price. Mostly, the precognitives will be the main source of revenue for businesses. The psychometrists, intuitives, and remote-viewers will be offered for investigative services and law enforcement. Psi-Tech will actively recruit the strongest talents and have already adopted a training program that allows psychics to utilize their ability to its maximum potential. They also have a procedure that can be used one time on individuals to increase their psychic strength but it’s only effective on a third of the population and is painful. It will probably be kept a secret except for the most trusted members of the company.”

“Wow!” Julie exclaimed as she wrote madly in her book. Her brows furrowed as she read over the notes she’d just written. “How much of a boost does it give?”

“It raises psychics an average of two points in strength which is significant. Of course, that’s just the average so you’ll have some people who may start out as a level four and end up as a level eight which would be a jump of four. Others may not receive any measurable benefit from the procedure at all. There’s no way of predicting.”

Julie nodded and wrote this down. She was about to ask another question when they both sensed a remote-viewer.

“I’ll get rid of them,” Julie said.

A prolonged silence filled the room until the remote-viewer was forced to give up. Julie asked more questions and took meticulous notes in between various interruptions from remote-viewers.

“I’ll bet Sharon is frustrated,” Emily said with satisfaction over thwarting her nemesis.

“She’s the director of the Seattle branch of Psi-Tech. Let’s see. If I remember correctly, there are three branches.” She flipped through the pages of her journal. “Yes, we have one in Seattle, one in Sarasota, Florida, and one in Saint Louis, Missouri.”

“Do you know how to perform the psychic link between telepaths? Can you describe it in detail?” Julie asked.

“Both participants must enter a meditative state so their abilities are at peak levels of performance. Normally, they spend about an hour if it’s a one-to-one session. If there are six or more telepaths already linked and bringing someone into their network, the meditation isn’t necessary. The next step is for the two individuals to communicate telepathically to each other. A casual conversation allows them to get used to how the mind of the other feels. The next step is for both individuals to picture an invisible bond forming between them. It doesn’t matter what you visualize but if it’s exactly the same thing, it’s more effective. The most popular visualization technique is to think of a silver energy cord connecting your throat with the target’s throat as its symbolic for communication. You must both picture and feel the connection. The stronger the telepaths, the easier it is to make the connection. The two individuals must hold this session for hours before the beginning of a tenuous, psychic link is formed.”

“That sounds remarkably simple but I can guess it’s hard to imagine what a link feels like and to spend hours doing the procedure must take a lot of discipline,” Julie said.

“Yes, it does take a lot of discipline. And once a tenuous link is formed, the procedure must be repeated every day for three days to ensure that it becomes permanent,” Emily said.

“What if you can’t repeat the process except for one more time? What are the chances the link will hold?”

“I think there’s about a little bit less than a fifty-fifty chance at that point,” Emily said.

“Okay.” Julie scribbled some more notes in her journal. “How much stronger are your psychic abilities once you’re linked to someone?”

“Every time you link to another person, your strength increases exponentially,” Emily said. “Because people never developed the technology to be able to measure psychic output generated by individuals more than a level nine, there was never any way to see if the results are consistent or if there’s a limit to the increase in strength.”

“I’m curious about your plan to help your brother. It’s something that you’ve never seen done successfully and you won’t have a psychic network to help you link with him. Did you think there was much of a chance to save him?” Julie asked.

“No, I didn’t but I wanted to be with him and to be free one final time before he passed away. I had to take the chance that I could save him even if there wasn’t really any chance my plan would work,” Emily said.

Julie exchanged an uncomfortable look with her husband. Emily sensed that strong displays of emotions embarrassed her. Julie adopted a cool, professional expression on her face and continued questioning Emily. Finally, she snapped her journal shut with a sense of finality.

“I’ve got a plan,” Julie said authoritatively.

“You do?” Ryan and Emily said with surprise.

“Emily, we are going to link telepathically. After that, we’re going to work on finding your brother and his friend, Skylar. You and I will strengthen our links for the next several days but if we find Skylar sooner, we’ll link with him as well. When all three of us have a strong link, we’ll work on saving your brother,” Julie said.

Emily was stunned by this pronouncement and was at a complete loss of words. Julie made it sound so simple and straight-forward but her plan had little chance of success.

“It will be difficult to link with Skylar,” Emily finally said.

Julie opened her mouth to speak but at that moment, a remote-viewer’s presence approached. She mentally pushed the intruder away but it didn’t take all of her focus anymore. After practicing so many times while Emily was asleep, she’d quickly honed this skill until it was almost like walking.

“Why will it be difficult to link with Skylar?” Julie asked.

“He’s a level nine telepath – possibly stronger. He won’t be able to regain consciousness for more than an hour at a time. He won’t be able to reach any kind of meditative state.”

“He can still concentrate on the linking process though. He’ll just have to skip the first step,” Julie said crisply.

“The first step is critical,” Emily said.

“We have to try anyway,” Julie said decisively. “That’s the plan.”

Emily cocked a bemused eyebrow at her but decided it was best to just go along with her idea. Maybe it would work.

“Okay,” Emily said.

“As soon as this remote-viewer is gone, we can start meditating,” Julie said.

“We’ll need to sit comfortably in a position that we can hold for several hours,” Emily instructed.

Julie nodded and shifted her position on the couch. When the remote-viewer was gone, the two of them began the linking process.

Chapter 5

Emily’s frustration mounted as yet another remote-viewer interrupted the linking process. So far, Emily and Julie had diligently maintained a deep trance but the constant intrusions prevented them from establishing a link. Unfortunately, Emily’s ire was hindering her performance as it detracted from her meditative calm. She could sense a powerful distraction growing in Julie’s mind as well. Emily opened her eyes as she gave up on the linking process. Ryan was reading a magazine on the couch facing the two women. He looked up sharply when he noticed she’d halted the procedure.

“We’re going to need to take a break,” she said.

“Sorry about that,” Julie apologized. “I’m famished.”

“That’s understandable. We haven’t eaten all day,” Emily said.

Anxiety welled inside her as she worried about her brother and Skylar. While she’d been confined in her prison at the Psi-Tech research facility, she’d focused entirely on how she would escape. Now that she’d regained her freedom, worries and uncertainties churned through her mind.  Skylar would be extremely difficult to save and Jeremy most likely would be a lost cause.

“I’ll fix some pasta for dinner real quick. You can both relax,” Ryan said.

“Thank you, sweetie.” Julie gave him a quick kiss before he rose from the couch and left to carry out the task at hand.

“It’s almost six o’clock. If we try the linking process after dinner, we could end up staying up until midnight or later,” Emily said. “Do you think you’re up to it?”

“Of course, I am. We have people to save and a world to change,” Julie said wryly.

Emily smiled questioningly at her. “A world to change?”

“Yes, I have a plan,” Julie said confidently.

“And what would that be?” Emily asked.

“I’m going to actively seek out telepaths and form a large psychic network. With our enhanced ability, we should be able to protect ourselves from any attacks that Psi-Tech can throw at us,” Julie said.

“It’ll take years before you can develop a network large enough to be sure your psychic abilities are strong enough to protect you,” Emily said. “Are you sure you want to do that?”

“Yes,” Julie said. “I’m not going to allow bullies to control this country. What do you plan to do once you link with Skylar and Jeremy?”

“Assuming I can successfully save those two, I plan on going into hiding. Jeremy and Skylar are both loners. We’ll purchase fake ID’s and purchase a house in the country somewhere.”

“Sounds like a nightmare to me,” Julie said. “I’m not going to go into hiding indefinitely.”

“What you’re planning to do is too risky. The precognitives at Psi-Tech will see the potential for the psychic network that you create in the future and will be able to track you down by locating future members,” Emily said.

“It’s worth the risk,” Julie said.

Emily swallowed a rush of guilt over her own cowardice. She should be supporting Julie rather than finding fault with her plan. She was embracing her destiny while Emily planned on shirking her own responsibility.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be arguing. I just feel like escaping from Psi-Tech. I never want to have anything to do with them again,” Emily said.

“You have nothing to feel sorry about,” Julie said passionately. “You were their prisoner for years. I saw your memories and how Sharon had them punish you with starvation and water torture. If you decide to go into hiding, I don’t blame you in the least.”

Emily’s eyes misted over with unshed tears and she blinked several times to clear them.

“Thank you,” she said quietly.

“Everything will be okay,” Julie said encouragingly.

Emily marveled at Julie’s strength of character and mental stability. She didn’t know how she could be so confident in spite of the odds; especially when she’d seen some of the more brutal memories that Emily had endured. Soon, Ryan called out that dinner was ready and they gathered in the dining room. Emily gave herself a very generous portion of the pasta with white sauce because she hadn’t eaten since breakfast and was starving. She’d only finished half her plate when she sensed a remote-viewer. Emily pushed against the invasive presence but unexpectedly sensed another one approaching. It took a lot more energy and focus to block out two invaders at the same time. Instantly, her head pounded with pressure. Julie reached out with her mind and took one of the remote-viewers off Emily’s hands. Almost immediately, a third presence joined the melee. Emily prepared to block the third opponent but Julie quickly stepped in.

“Are you sure you can handle two of them?” Emily asked with concern.

“I’m alright,” Julie said.

Because Julie was a moderately stronger telepath, Emily allowed her to take up the slack. The struggle continued for a long period of time. Emily could tell it was taking far longer than the earlier remote-viewing attempts. Sharon must have ordered a change in strategy. Hopefully, she wouldn’t realize this new approach was a lot more effective than the previous one.

“I’m going to need some help,” Julie said.

“Okay,” Emily acknowledged.

She reached out with her mind and pushed against one of the intruders. Julie relaxed a bit but Emily sensed she was straining. She devoted more of her energy to the struggle when one of the remote-viewers began to lock onto their position. A surge of panic rushed through Emily as she realized what a close call that had been. Of course, it was doubtful they would pinpoint her location with just one glimpse but she wasn’t sure how much the intruder would have learned. Emily’s head pounded with a building pressure and the pain slowly intensified. She wondered how long this would take and if she would be able to hold out. She gripped the edge of the table in a vise-like grip as she forced the block to remain in place. Finally, the intruders retreated. Emily took a deep, steadying breath and clutched her head with both hands as pain beat at her skull. Julie squeezed her eyes shut and held herself rigidly.

“Are you all right?” Ryan asked with concern.

“I need Excedrin!” Julie finally said. “Give me the bottle.”

Ryan swiftly left the room and returned with the bottle of pain killer. Julie shook a handful of pills out and popped them in her mouth. She immediately swallowed them down with some water. Emily did the same thing. Julie waited several moments before speaking.

“How long were they trying to see us?” she asked.

“Almost an hour,” Ryan said.

“That’s amazing,” Emily said shakily. “They must have taken all three remote-viewers and put them together so they could all work at the same time in a concerted effort. An expert must have guided them into a trance so they could maintain their efforts for as long as possible.”

“How soon will they be able to do this again?” Julie asked.

“If they burned themselves out, it’ll be at least six hours before they can try again,” Emily said. “But it’s possible they could do a much weaker attack at any time before that.”

“This isn’t good. If they continue every assault like that one, we won’t be able to keep them away. I don’t know if you realize but there were several times I almost let one of them in.”

“We won’t be able to recover as quickly as the three of them,” Emily said. “It’s likely that they will get some information the next time they remote-view us.”

She weakly rose to her feet when she realized what she needed to do. She had found a temporary safe shelter but it was time to go.

“I can’t stay here any longer and continue to jeopardize your life,” Emily said.

“I’m willing to take the risk,” Julie said stridently.

Ryan gazed at her with trepidation and he looked ready to argue.

“This isn’t your decision to make. I’m afraid I have to go now,” Emily said.

She didn’t realize just how weak she was until she began walking toward the door.

“Wait!” Julie said. “It’s unlikely they’ll try again for at least six hours. We can try the linking process one more time. If we succeed, it will strengthen both our psychic abilities and we’ll be better equipped to defend ourselves. If we fail, you’ll have plenty of time to go.”

Emily hesitated at the front door as she deliberated over this offer. If she left now, there was no chance at all to help either Jeremy or Skylar. The risk to Julie would be minimal so there wasn’t too much of a reason not to try this one more time. Emily slowly turned to face her.

“Okay. One more time and if we don’t make it, I’m gone,” Emily said firmly.

“Agreed,” Julie said.

Ryan frowned with disapproval but didn’t try to argue with them. Emily and Julie positioned themselves comfortably in the living room and centered themselves. In spite of the threat of their time constraint and not knowing for sure that the remote-reviewers would leave them alone for several hours, they took their time in the linking process. Ryan left the room so he wouldn’t distract them and was careful to be extremely quiet. In her current meditative state, Emily couldn’t track the time but in the back of her mind, she knew that hours must have gone by. She could clearly sense Julie on a telepathic level and they easily transmitted thoughts to each other but there was no connection. Emily’s doubts and fears snuck up on her little by little and when she became aware of them, she brushed them aside and returned her focus to the matter at hand. She vividly pictured and imagined what a link would feel like.

Without warning, a psychic connection finally snapped into place. A rush of emotion swept over Emily as random memories of Julie flooded through her mind. She had known by Julie’s actions that she possessed a great strength of character but now she saw it and sensed it. The jarring rush of memories, emotions, and thoughts quickly came to an end and was replaced by a powerful sense of well-being. A temporary jump in a telepath’s serotonin levels was one of the side-effects of a new psychic connection. Emily had gleaned this information through one of her visions of the future. Unfortunately, there were many gaps in her knowledge about this phenomenon. This was a learning experience for her as well as for Julie.

“Wow! That’s amazing!” Julie exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me it would feel great once we succeeded!”

“I forgot to mention it.” Emily offered a sardonic grin.

Ryan smiled questioningly as he emerged in the room.

“Did it work?” he asked.

“We did it!” Julie exclaimed triumphantly.

“That’s great.” Ryan smiled with relief.

Julie clumsily rose from the couch to give him a quick hug and kiss.

“How long did it take us?” Emily asked.

“About seven hours,” he confessed. “I was going to interrupt but I knew Julie wouldn’t like it.”

“And you were right,” Julie teased.

Emily frowned with annoyance and puzzlement over her continued risk taking. Julie seemed to harbor a casual disregard for her own life.

“You’re wrong, Emily. I’m just overly confident,” Julie corrected her.

Emily’s face flamed with embarrassment. Now that the psychic connection existed between them, their thoughts weren’t exactly private anymore. Soon, the three remote-viewers returned uninvited and were repelled with just as much difficulty as before. However, Julie and Emily managed to prevent a lock which signaled that the two of them did share a small increase in psychic strength. Julie clutched her head and demanded Excedrin from her husband. After both women had experienced some pain relief, Julie shot Emily an accusing look.

“You said our psychic abilities would increase exponentially,” Julie said.

“In the future, they do. Maybe it takes a couple days for it to kick in or maybe it takes more psychic connections,” Emily said. “There’s a lot I don’t know about it.”

“Hmm,” Julie said disapprovingly.

A sad realization gripped Emily and she knew it was time to leave.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Julie said authoritatively.

“I have to go,” Emily said shakily. “Even together, we’re not going to be able to block the remote-viewers again. We were barely able to do it this time after we’d already formed a psychic connection. I’m putting you in danger. I have to leave.”

“It’s in the middle of the freaking night! You can’t go!”

Emily swallowed as a cold fear threatened to shake her resolve. She’d selfishly allowed the temporary safety that Julie had afforded her to cloud her judgment.

“Wait! Before you go, I need to give you something.” Julie rushed out of the room.

Emily was tempted to just sneak out the door. Ryan eyed her pensively but she could tell he approved of her decision. Julie returned with something in her hand which she slapped into Emily’s grip.

“What’s this?” Emily brought her hand up and gasped with surprise at a pile of twenty dollar bills.

“If you’re going to go gallivanting into the night, at least you’ll be able to rent a room at a hotel,” Julie said.

“I can’t take this,” Emily said.

“Don’t be any more foolish than you already are,” Julie said irritably. “I can’t believe after all the work we went through to create a psychic connection that you’re going to let it fizzle out.”

“We don’t have to be in close proximity to strengthen the connection,” Emily said.