Winters Family Psi Chronicles 2: Project Onyx (17 page)

Abruptly, her eyes widened and she screamed. Her hands clutched her temples as her head fell forward and waves of agony coursed through her body. Brian’s second sight snapped into focus just as her body crumpled to the floor in an unconscious heap. Inky blackness filled with energy spheres replaced his normal vision. Instantly, he saw the problem with Driscol. Her blue energy pulsed erratically as her link to Global Net was blocked by a sickly green blockage. A tendril of sickly green energy hovered over her and its source disappeared in the wall. Somehow, Brian knew the attacker was Samantha. The tendril lashed out at him but he blocked it with a tendril of his own silvery blue energy.

“If you give up, I’ll make your death swift but if you keep struggling, I’ll make you suffer,” Samantha said coldly.

“I didn’t realize you had connectivity psi,” Brian said. “How many abilities do you have now?”

“I have more than you know. They keep coming. I’ve received years of technical training on variant abilities and how to use them. You don’t stand a chance against me,” Samantha said authoritatively.

“I have connectivity psi as well so I can block your attack,” Brian said.

“Can you really?” Samantha said icily.

Brian realized he was weakening and it was taking more effort to hold her back. In addition to the tendril he was staving off, there was a barely visible wave of sickly green energy intersecting him and passing directly through his psionic shielding. He focused on blocking it but his efforts made no impact. Brian shivered as his core temperature continued to drop.

“You don’t have pyrokinesis so you aren’t able to block that ability. It won’t take much time before you’re too weak to stop me from cutting your link to Global Net. But if you don’t just give up, I’m going to make sure you’re conscious and in agony before your connection is completely cut off,” Samantha said. “There are no connectivity psi in the area so no one can patch up your connection in time to save you.”

Brian swallowed as terror began to seize his mind and distract him. He almost lost his grip on Samantha’s sickly green tendril that struggled to rip into him. He focused on her as he struggled to think of a way to save himself. It took almost all of his strength now just to keep her away. He lost feeling in his fingers and toes as his body struggled to keep its core temperature up. Brian focused on Samantha’s energy and an image of her materialized in his mind’s eye. She currently sat on a marble bench facing a water fountain about two blocks away. Brandon was seated beside her and idly watching the water splash in the fountain. Brian abruptly focused all his strength on shooting a dissonant wave of empathic energy at her. Her eyes snapped open and she screamed as he continued to pour waves of terror into her. Her attack on him ceased and he continued to direct the disruptive empathic energy for several more seconds until he lost his strength from the backwash. The reason why empaths didn’t become soldiers was the backwash of the negative emotions of others prevented them from ever becoming effective fighters – especially when they utilized their abilities.

Brian weakly sat up from the floor as the door crashed open and two FBI agents burst into the room. He wasn’t concerned about Brandon attacking him because he wasn’t a remote-viewer so he could only target someone who was in his visual range. Brian quickly informed the agents as to Samantha’s and Brandon’s current whereabouts and they quickly dispatched a team to intercept them. Hopefully, they would reach the fountain in time. Brian closed his eyes and slipped into his connectivity sight to make sure there was no partial blockage on his link. He was relieved to find nothing although there was the beginning of an energy transference psi link. It took only a couple moments to dissolve the loathsome energy from him. He walked over to Driscol who was still lying unconscious on the floor and removed the block that prevented her from linking to the Global Net.

Chapter 19

Samantha and Brandon walked briskly down the sidewalk and turned into an alleyway where they wouldn’t be spotted by the FBI. Samantha still reeled from the empathic attack. Terror swirled madly in her mind as she realized it was time to act now before the opportunity passed. She pulled out her revolver, pointed it at Brandon, and fired twice in his gut. She gazed coolly at him as he clutched his stomach and leaned back against the wall for support. Blood oozed from between his fingers. He eyed her with incredulous disbelief.

“I know you’ve been in contact with the commanding officer from the beginning of this project. You’ve been secretly contacting him. You were planning on killing me soon so that there would be no security risks,” Samantha said icily.

“You stupid bitch! I have no idea who’s in charge of Project Onyx,” Brandon said heatedly.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen you lose your cool.”

“This is the first time I’ve had one of my superiors turn into a crazed killer,” Brandon retorted.

Samantha pointed the revolver at his head and fired twice in rapid succession. His lifeless body fell to the floor and she calmly stepped over him and to the other side of the alleyway. She walked down the street to her parked car and slipped behind the wheel. Doubt flared in her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut as renewed terror flooded her body. She wondered if he could possibly have told her the truth. If so, the multipathic abilities were degrading her body as she had first believed. Samantha shook her head savagely and the steering wheel made a cracking sound as she unintentionally gripped it so tight that it threatened to break. She loosened her fingers and forced herself to shove aside her fears and calm down. The empathic attack was the source of the terror. It wasn’t real. She chanted this truth repeatedly until she regained enough control to drive safely.

Samantha’s gaze shifted to the rearview mirror and she scrutinized her face. The dark circles under her eyes were a lot better now than when she’d first injected herself with the retrovirus and her skin was no longer pale. Her condition was definitely improving. Her body wasn’t degrading at all. She smiled grimly and started the engine. If anything, she was becoming stronger by the day. She possessed more abilities than she had ever imagined was possible. She would have to assume one of her two false identities she was now using would soon be discovered. Brandon had cleared the psychometric traces from Norman and Ashley as well as their homes so that routine investigations wouldn’t associate them with her. Samantha knew that there were too many psychometric experts in the FBI and they would eventually realize Norman and Ashley were the ones they were looking for and find something with trace energy that Brandon had failed to erase. Brandon’s own body would contain psychometric energy that could be read by moderate level psychics to determine precisely who Samantha was.

She had already resigned herself to those truths. Samantha would disappear with a new fake identity but it was necessary to kill Brian or she would be constantly running and hiding from the authorities for the rest of her life. Once he was out of the picture, she could move to a foreign country and use the money she’d saved to make a new life for herself and continue to develop her research. Excitement surged through her veins as she thought over the discovery she’d made a couple days ago. Sometimes, medical discoveries were all about establishing a pattern. She’d identified a common DNA similarity between herself and Brian. So far, the two of them were the only ones who’d developed so many abilities. Samantha hypothesized that Brian’s talents would have continued to multiply if he hadn’t received the treatments from the wellness center to stabilize his condition. The healers hadn’t realized he would have recovered on his own and that they had stunted his potential.

Samantha wondered if he would have developed identical talents to her own if the treatments hadn’t been given. It was a shame that she would never find out. It would have greatly enhanced her understanding of the genetics of multipathic talents. Fear and insecurity swirled in her thoughts and she frantically analyzed her situation with her aggregate intuition. She realized she would still suffer from the effects of Brian’s empathic attack but that didn’t make the emotions go away. Samantha wanted to be sure she wasn’t ignoring any warnings from her newfound psychic abilities. Her body and mind were flooded with psychic impulses as she struggled to identify any reason for her anxiety besides the empathic imbalance which she wouldn’t be able to detect as she lacked that particular ability. Samantha parked her car in a strip mall, turned off the engine, and closed her eyes so she could disseminate the information that flowed to her.

After spending a great deal of time processing the information she’d acquired which had mostly been junk psychic data from random thoughts of the people around her, she pulled out her DPU and activated the holographic interface. A blue keyboard and a screen materialized in front of her. She swiftly typed the valid observations she’d made related to her research and also to Brian. After that, she created half a dozen tentative strategies for executing Brian.

Chapter 20

A smug, satisfied smile curved Driscol’s lips as Brian stepped into her office. Officially, this was his first day of work as an FBI agent. He had never imagined he would become employed while still a high school student. After Samantha’s attack yesterday, he still felt off-center and vulnerable in spite of the two military personnel who guarded him at all times. Brian wondered if the rest of his life would like this. The two guards waited by the door which they had closed behind him.

“Things have been moving along nicely since that near miss yesterday,” Driscol said smugly.

Brian seated himself at the chair facing her and regarded her with incredulous disbelief.

“How are things going well? She almost killed us,” he pointed out.

“But she didn’t succeed. And she shot her only ally, Brandon Nelson. We got the strongest and most talented psychometrists on the scene who uncovered the identity of Samantha Reynolds. Last night, we sent agents to her home but she’s long gone. She left all kinds of psychic residue for us though. Our remote-viewers will easily track her down. We almost caught her this morning. It won’t be much longer,” Driscol said confidently.

“That’s terrific news. However, you aren’t any closer to uncovering the perpetrators of the Onyx Initiative,” Brian said in a matter of fact tone. “All of the researchers who work on Project Onyx never come in contact with their commanding officer. It’s all done with electronic communication. There’s no way of tracking down the source.”

Driscol regarded him in stunned silence before she recovered her senses.

“I see you’ve heard of the Onyx Initiative so you must have dreamed about me again,” she said in a stilted tone. “What did you see exactly?”

“I saw quite a bit. You’ve been working on this case for years. Samantha will be just one more dead end.”

“Don’t be so sure of that. I’ve learned tidbits from other researchers on other Project Onyx teams. I’ve never managed to catch any of them alive but I’ve looked through the communications they had with their leader. The individual or individuals in charge are very cautious which is why they’ve gotten away with their illegal experiments for so long but they will eventually screw up and I’ll be ready for it,” Driscol said confidently. “Your unique skills are no longer required on this particular case. I’m reassigning you to another one.”

“Why can’t I just go back home?” Brian asked.

“You are home. You’re part of the FBI now. You will be assigned a private tutor instead of attending classes so that you can earn a GED. It should only take about three months. At that point, you will take the proper training to become a field agent. Meanwhile, you will utilize your connectivity psi to help us track down elusive criminals,” Driscol said authoritatively.

“How can I get my GED in three months? I’ve got almost two years of high school left and I’ve fallen behind,” Brian asked.

“We have a program for speeding along the education process. Part of it involves hypnotherapy and the assimilation of knowledge through subliminal suggestion. Gifted people like you can’t be wasted with ineffectual, mundane learning systems,” Driscol said.

“You’ve gone through it, haven’t you?” Brian asked.

“Yes,” Driscol said smugly. “I earned my GED when I was sixteen. You should be thanking me for saving you from the tedious life of high school.”

“I’m not sure I want to be an FBI agent,” Brian said.

“It doesn’t matter what you want. Your gifts make you perfectly suited for that line of work. You’re a great asset to this country.” Driscol smiled and shoved a manila folder across the desk towards him. “This is your next assignment.”

“What is it?”

Brian reluctantly picked up the file and opened it. There were a stack of documents lying inside. The first page contained a picture of a brunette woman in her early twenties at the top and general information filled the rest of the document. Brian’s gaze skimmed over the words and the last line described her brutal murder. He was grateful there weren’t any crime scene photos. Or perhaps they were stacked within the next page. He reluctantly turned the document over to reveal the next one but this was another brunette woman in her early twenties.

“Are all the people in this file murdered?” Brian asked.

“Yes and we’re reasonably certain they were killed by the same individual,” Driscol said grimly.

“Serial killers are practically unheard of,” Brian said.

“That’s because they are usually apprehended before they murder anyone. Their sick thoughts are picked up by the average person and they are reported. The only ones who get away with it are those who learn to achieve the Quiet which makes them unreadable. However, they are unable to maintain the Quiet when they act out their fantasies and murder their victims. At this point, their dark energy saturates their surroundings and leaves psychic imprints that can be easily detected by psychometrists. Since psychometry is a common secondary ability, the serial killers who possess this talent can eliminate the psychic energy that is left at the crime scene but only level eight to ten talents can completely erase all traces. That means that we can use level ten investigators to read the residual psychic trace residues left behind in virtually every instance.”

“That means the serial killer is always going to be a high level psychometrist,” Brian said.

“That’s where you come into play. These are the pictures but you will need to spend time handling the physical evidence left behind. The victims’ clothing is bagged and you won’t need to touch them directly. There are many different types of psychic energy. We theorize that the reason this method works for connectivity psi is that there is a distinctive energy only they can detect which will later show up in their dreams. Sometimes it takes days or weeks but this case will be your number one priority,” Driscol said.

“It doesn’t make sense. I don’t think it can work,” Brian said.

“Strong connectivity psi are a rare breed but this strategy does work and you’ve already demonstrated your talent is well developed even though you’ve only had it for a short time,” Driscol said.

“What good do these pictures do me?” Brian asked.

“So you will be able to identify the victims when you dream about them,” Driscol said.

“Isn’t there something else I could do instead?” Brian asked.

“We only have two high level connectivity psi working for us and they have their own cases.”

“Why haven’t they solved their own cases if this technique works so well?” Brian demanded.

“It’s not a foolproof strategy but it’s very effective,” Driscol said.

“So you’re admitting it doesn’t work all the time,” Brian said accusingly. “You could be putting me through all this for nothing.”

“To be completely honest, there’s less than a fifty fifty chance that you’ll pick up on the killer but he’s been running loose for years and you’re the only hope we have of finding him until he eventually messes up and leaves evidence behind which could take years,” Driscol said. She reached behind her desk and pulled up a white cardboard box. “This contains the evidence from various crime scenes. All you have to do is hold each bag for awhile and just clear your mind.”

“All right,” Brian said with resignation.

He slowly reached out and removed the lid from the box. The first sealed bag contained a folded blue shirt with speckles of dried blood. Bile rose in the back of his throat and he swallowed convulsively.

“Try not to look at what you’re holding,” Driscol smirked. “I didn’t realize you were so weak but I suppose I should have realized since you’re an empath.”

“Empaths are the great stabilizers for an advanced civilization,” Brian said evenly.

“Those are just platitudes to make you people feel better. Try to understand that you’re more than an empath now. You’re a multipath with extraordinary abilities.” Driscol took a deep breath and she leveled him with a no-nonsense gaze. “Now, close your eyes and concentrate.”

Brian shot her a disgusted look before complying with her instructions. He couldn’t believe he had to work for this woman who’d stripped him of his freedom and rights. Brian held the bagged article of clothing in silence until Driscol ordered him to hold another. Fortunately, no negative impressions came to him. In fact, he received nothing at all.

“Look at the clothing with the second sight,” Driscol said.

Energy flared into existence all around him. He could perceive the patterns of energy for over two blocks away without even extending himself. He focused on the clothing in front of him and saw a faint shimmering of black and red. It was barely discernable among the beautiful spectrum of luminescence that danced around him. Brian’s sphere of energy had changed since the last time he’d viewed it. It was mostly blue with streams of vibrant green, silver, and purple swirling slowly in a clockwise pattern.

“Can you see it?” Driscol asked.

“Yes,” Brian said reluctantly.

He hated to admit that she was right.

“Excellent. That’s a great sign. You will probably be able to tune into the serial killer and dream about him,” Driscol said.

Brian wasn’t looking forward to what he would be seeing. He swallowed and the second sight wavered around him as his anxiety threatened to break his concentration. He released the vision and opened his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Driscol demanded. “You need to focus longer.”

“I’m just a kid. I haven’t had these abilities for long. I need to rest,” Brian said.

“Fine! Take a twenty minute break but then I want you to focus on this case for at least two hours. If you don’t start cooperating with me, you will begin to lose privileges that you’ve taken for granted,” Driscol said in a threatening tone.

“I promise, I’ll focus,” Brian said.

He walked down the hall to the break room that she’d shown him yesterday. It was a small room with a coffee maker, refrigerator, a couple of vending machines and a carpeted area with a variety of small couches. Two agents were sitting on different couches with their eyes closed and deep in meditation. Everyone at this facility was a high level talent and the importance of numerous breaks so they could reinforce their psionic shielding was understood. Brian sat down and relaxed against the cushions.

He worked on reinforcing his shielding for a bit then concentrated on finding Jason. He desperately wished to speak with his grandfather. Unfortunately, he failed to make contact. Brian returned to Driscol’s office and sat down on the chair facing her. She ignored him as she continued working at her computer. Brian wordlessly grabbed a bagged article of clothing and avoided looking directly at it. He closed his eyes and just held it. Satisfaction and smugness radiated from Driscol as she pretended not to notice him. Brian allowed her to think she’d won because it made his life easier. Obviously, she was going to be his supervisor for the indefinite future and he didn’t wish to incur her wrath. Brian worked with the same bagged articles of clothing for several hours before he underwent another hypnosis session with awakened dreaming. Strangely enough, Brian received no visions whatsoever even though he reached an altered state.

Dr. Freeland joined them shortly after the failed attempt at awakened dreaming. Driscol shot her a scowl of displeasure as she sat down in her usual position off to the side.

“Brian didn’t have any visions whatsoever. He always sees something even when we had our first session. This is completely unacceptable. Did your healing process do something to his abilities?” Driscol said heatedly.

“I’ll need to scan him to know for sure,” Dr. Freeland said dispassionately.

“The only thing that is different since his inability to achieve visions is you,” Driscol said curtly.

“I understand your frustration,” Dr. Freeland said calmly.

The psychologist closed her eyes and Brian sensed her soothing energy flow over his mind. After a lengthy silence, she withdrew from his mind and leveled a stoic gaze at Driscol.

“His subconscious programming is working against his connectivity psi. He has years of brainwashing so it is firmly established. Because the connectivity psi was new, it wasn’t perceived as a threat but now it is,” Dr. Freeland said.

“Why now? Why all of a sudden?” Driscol demanded.

“It only seems sudden. His subconscious is starting to fight the programming which is why the connectivity psi was working before. Now, there are large changes in his life that feel threatening and create feelings of uncertainty and vulnerability. These contributing factors have allowed the programming to gain the upper hand in the internal struggle within his subconscious.”

“Can’t you fix it?” Driscol asked.

“There is no such thing as a quick fix for the human mind,” Dr. Freeland said calmly. “Brian will need time to get used to the new life he’s now forced to live and I will need to have daily healing sessions with him for probably weeks or even months to undo the brainwashing damage.”

“I’ve started an investigation of those in his life that may have had the opportunity to do this to him but so far the list of suspects is short,” Driscol said. “Is there any way you can find out through your abilities who has done this to him?”

“No, the individual who did this was very careful to make it impossible to determine his or her identity,” Dr. Freeland said.