Crosstalk (56 page)

“What are you smiling about?” Trent said. “You have no idea what I've been through. There must have been at least a dozen voices, and they were swarming all over me!”

A dozen,
she thought, thinking of the thousands that had swamped her and of C.B.'s poor burned hands.

Trent shuddered. “They were crawling up my clothes and into my ears. It was horrible!”

“I know,” she said sympathetically, noticing that Dr. Verrick had reached for a notebook. So much for having scared him. “I can make sure it doesn't happen again.”
But we have to talk mentally, not aloud,
she added, trying to keep what Dr. Verrick found out to a minimum.

All right,
Trent said, digging at his neck.
You should have warned me. Just think if we'd gone ahead with the phone and then something like this had happened!

At least he recognizes how dangerous telepathy is,
she thought, and started to explain how to put up a perimeter.
You need to imagine a wall or a—

Imagine?
Trent said scornfully.
You're going to teach me to
imagine
these things away
?

No, your brain will be creating electrochemical defenses, but the way you make it do that is by visualizing a wall or—

Did Schwartz tell you that?
Trent said, looking over at C.B. Lyzandra had a death grip on his knee just like Briddey'd had that night in his car.

It was more fun when you did it,
C.B. told her, and she started to smile again and then decided she'd better not let Trent see that.

But he wasn't looking at her. He was still watching C.B.
I can't believe you thought I'd be jealous of him! I mean, I know Dr. Verrick told us an emotional bond was necessary for people to connect, but come on! The Hunchback of Notre Dame?

You have no idea how close you are to me opening that door and letting you be devoured by bugs,
Briddey thought, but C.B. had said to help him, so she took Trent through the steps of putting up his perimeter and then said,
If you hear the voices, you focus on it and think, “They can't get through it.”

Trent nodded.
I focus on—
His voice cut off.

Briddey frowned.
Trent, can you hear me
?

Nothing. She couldn't hear him at all. And his wasn't the only voice to have cut out. C.B.'s voice and Lyzandra's, which she'd heard continuously in the background as she coached Trent, had gone silent, too, and so had the always-present murmur of the voices beyond her perimeter.

She glanced over at C.B., but he and Lyzandra were obviously still able to hear each other. He was still focused intently on her, and she still had that death grip on his knee. So what was happening?

C.B.'s decided to try to block the voices after all, in spite of the difficulty,
Briddey thought.
He concluded it was the only way to keep the telepathy out of their hands, so he blocked Lyzandra, and now he's blocking me.

But if that was what he was doing, he'd have blocked Trent, not her. Maybe since she was talking to him, he'd had to block both of them.
C.B., did you do that?
she called.

Nothing, and not only didn't he respond,
Yes
, or,
Doing what?
, but his attention never wavered from Lyzandra's face.

He can't hear me,
she thought. And she couldn't hear anything at all.

Then Trent was back, saying accusingly,
Why didn't you answer me? I asked you whether you wanted me to focus on the wall, and you didn't answer me.
He stopped to swipe reflexively at his shirt front.
And the bugs—

Which meant she was the only one who'd been blocked.
I'm sorry,
Briddey said.
Yes, focus on your wall and think, “It's impregnable.” Say it over and over.
And as soon as he'd started, she returned to pondering the shutdown. It must have been some reaction to the deluge. All those voices had been too much for her mind to process, and she'd done the neural equivalent of fainting or something.

She wondered if she should tell C.B., but he already had enough to worry about. Plus, he'd said they didn't have much time to get the others' defenses up, and she hadn't even started on Trent's safe room.

Trent was still repeating,
It's impregnable.

All right,
Briddey said.
Now you're going to build a safe room inside your perimeter,
and explained what it had to be like, listening warily for another abrupt loss of sound, but it didn't happen again.

Which was good, because they didn't need anything else to worry about. Neither Lyzandra's collapse and Trent's twitching nor C.B.'s dire warnings of how dangerous telepathy was had had any effect on Dr. Verrick. He was earnestly taking notes, and Briddey heard him think,
If Lyzandra's too traumatized to continue monitoring their tests, I'll need to bring in Michael Jacobsen and the Dowds
.

Oh, no,
Briddey thought.
He's got other telepaths
. Which meant even if they could convince Trent and Lyzandra that telepathy was a terrible idea, Dr. Verrick would still have a way to continue doing research. She needed to tell C.B.

I don't understand what you mean by pleasant associations
, Trent was saying.

It needs to be somewhere you'd feel both safe and happy
, Briddey said absently,
like—

An executive suite like Hamilton's.

Of course,
Briddey thought.
I might have known
, and was glad C.B. was too busy with Lyzandra to be listening to this.

Perfect,
she told Trent. She set him to imagining the executive suite's walls and furnishings and then said to C.B.,
I need to tell you something. Can you meet me in Santa Fe?

You bet
, he said, and, after telling Lyzandra to focus on her perimeter, came into the courtyard.

But when Briddey told him, he already knew about the other telepaths. “They're Verrick's patients. I heard him thinking about them earlier. Michael Jacobsen was the first one to report hearing his fiancée's voice after they had the EED. She couldn't hear him, though, and both Dowds are only partially telepathic. He thought you were a more promising prospect.”

“Because of my red hair.”

“Yeah. Jacobsen's a strawberry blond, and both Dowds have chestnut hair.”

“At least he hasn't tumbled to the Irish connection.”

“No, but it's just a matter of time before he does. Because red hair's an inherited trait, he's already leaning toward a genetic explanation, and the name Dowd's Irish.”

“But Schwartz isn't, and Jacobsen's Scandinavian. And Lyzandra's last name is Walenski.”

“Yeah, but we need to give him another reason quick—he's already wondering why I don't have red hair, and if Lyzandra recovers enough to answer questions, he'll find out that her mother's side of the family came from County Mayo.”

“What kind of reason?” Briddey asked.

“Preferably something that leads him away from inherited traits, like brain damage or drugs. Find out if Trent took that relaxant Verrick prescribed, and if he ever had a concussion—played soccer or wrapped his Porsche around a tree or something. I mean, it's obvious from his treatment of you that he was dropped on his head as a baby, but see what else you can find out that we might use. Finish getting his safe room up first, though. I don't know how much longer I can shield them from the brunt of the voices,” he said, and left before she could tell him about her fainting spell.

She went back to helping Trent visualize his executive suite, which he'd apparently been coveting for months—or years. He knew exactly what he wanted in it, right down to the paintings on the walls.
Hamilton has a Modigliani, but I'm thinking maybe an Andreas Gursky or an Orozco.

Briddey wondered if Lyzandra's safe room was as elaborate as Trent's. No, listening to C.B. coaching her, she seemed to be more focused on making it as strong as possible.
What if they break through the door?
she was asking C.B. anxiously.

They won't,
C.B. said.
But you can add another lock, if that'll make you feel safer
.

Can it be a deadbo—?
she said, and her voice cut off.

Lyzandra
? C.B. said.

“Where did you go?” Lyzandra said. “Why can't I hear you?” and Briddey couldn't hear her thoughts, only the words she spoke aloud. She could still hear C.B.'s thoughts, though.

I'm right here, Lyzandra,
he was saying.
Don't panic. The voices can't get in
.

“I can't
hear
you,” Lyzandra said, her voice rising.

“What's going on?” Dr. Verrick demanded. He stood up.

Talk to me, Lyzandra,
C.B. said.
Tell me what's happening
.

She stared at him with wide, frightened eyes.

“Lyzandra.” He gave her a little shake. “Lyzandra.”

“I can't hear your voice,” she said. “Your mind-voice, I mean. I can still hear when you talk aloud.”

C.B. frowned. “What about the other voices? Can you hear them?”

“No.”

Briddey, say something to her,
C.B. said.

Lyzandra, can you hear me?
Briddey asked.

“Did you hear that?” C.B. asked Lyzandra.

“Hear what? I can't—oh, now it's back.”

“I said, what is going on?” Dr. Verrick demanded, advancing on them.

“Shh,” C.B. said.
Lyzandra, tell me what happened
.

Everything suddenly went silent, like it did before, and I couldn't hear you. I couldn't hear anything.

Did it fade out?
Briddey asked.
Or cut off suddenly?

Suddenly. Like somebody flipped a switch
.

And it came back the same way?

Lyzandra nodded, and C.B. asked,
Briddey, why—?

She looked at him, and this time he didn't need to be told to meet her in the courtyard. He was instantly there, saying, “Why'd you ask her that?”

“Because the same thing happened to me.”

“When?”

“Just a few minutes ago.”

“Was it like when you started hearing Trent, and you could only hear him intermittently?”

“No,” Briddey said. “This was much more abrupt, like someone hanging up a phone, and I couldn't hear anything, including the voices beyond my perimeter. I don't think Trent could hear me either. He asked where I'd gone.”

“Lyzandra said the same thing to me,” C.B. mused, “and when she was talking just now, I couldn't hear her underlying thoughts. When it happened to Lyzandra before, I thought it was because she was too hysterical to listen to me, but if you experienced the same thing…how long did it last?”

“Maybe a minute. Do you know what's causing it?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said. “Look, tell me if it happens to you again, okay?”

“How? You won't be able to hear me. I called to you last time, but I couldn't receive
or
send.”

“Okay, then tell me out loud. And get Trent's safe room up as fast as you can. If this is some after-effect of the deluge, who knows what other ones there might be,” he said, and went immediately back to instructing Lyzandra.

Briddey turned her attention to Trent.
I need you to tell me exactly what your executive suite looks like,
she said.

I don't have it done yet,
Trent said.
I'm trying to decide on what kind of desk I should have. Hamilton's is mahogany, but I think teak gives a more professional—

It doesn't matter,
Briddey said.
What's important is—

But you said to visualize every detail. How can I do that if—?
He cut out.

Trent?
Briddey said. “Trent?”

“What?” he said aloud. “I thought you told me we had to talk mentally.”

I did,
Briddey said.
Can you hear me?

He didn't answer her.

“Did you hear what I just said?” she asked aloud. “When we were talking mentally?”

“No,” he said, and she could see from Trent's expression that he was saying something to her and waiting for an answer that didn't come.

C.B.,
she said, but he was already asking her,
What's going on? Is it happening to Trent now, too
?

I think it must be. His voice stopped in mid-word.

“What's happening?” Dr. Verrick asked.

Neither Briddey nor C.B. paid any attention to him.
Trent?
C.B. asked,
can you hear me?

I'm the only one he can hear
, Briddey reminded him.

Then you call him,
C.B. said, and watched Trent carefully as Briddey began repeating,
Briddey to Trent, come in, Trent
.

He still didn't answer, but a suspicious look came over his face. “If you're doing this…,” he said to C.B.

“Doing what?” C.B. said. “Tell us what's happening.”

“Is Mr. Worth having a disruption now?” Dr. Verrick asked.

“Shh,” C.B. said. “Trent, can you hear Briddey's voice?”

“No,” Trent said, glaring at her accusingly. “I was asking her about the desk for my executive suite—”

“Executive suite?” Dr. Verrick interrupted. “What are you talking about? Mr. Schwartz, you said—”

“Shh,”
C.B. said. “Then what happened, Trent?”

“She broke in asking me out loud if I could hear her. And I said yes, but she didn't hear me, and if she's talking mentally to me, I can't hear her either. I can't hear anything.”