Seers (18 page)

He must have had a relatively contented childhood, because up to this point Luke has been relaxed and matter-of-fact. Tobias once explained to me that in best-case scenarios Preceptors and parents work well together. They form a co-parenting bond for the good of the child. Sometimes not. Sometimes parents reject their “gifted” child and the Preceptor takes over. Tobias comforted me in the loss of my family by telling me it was likely I would have lost them anyway. I should have turned against him then… .

From Luke’s telling it sounds like his Preceptor took charge of him but that his parents kept in contact. As Luke moves into the years following his first Extraction, a cloud comes over him. It’s not a glooming, dragging cloud. It’s a black, dry force that promises not tears of rain but destructive sparks and booms.

He arches his back and sets his shoulders, and as he continues I learn that Luke’s views are ones that I didn’t know existed. Views on the way Seers operate. Particularly the Preceptors.

I listen as Luke explains through tight lips that some time ago, because they already filled a leadership role through mentoring young Seers, Preceptors decided to join regionally and work to organize and manage area Seers. Their goal was to ensure that enough training was completed. This training became known as missions.

At first missions were completed for training purposes only. Soon, though, additional missions were assigned by need. Since Seers are part of general society, they overhear problems at every turn that could be helped by Navigation. This could be overwhelming, even distressing, to a Seer. Seers could end up resenting or hoarding their gift so as not to feel exploited. To avoid this, to avoid animosity, to avoid overexposure, Preceptors took on more of an administrative role.

Previously Preceptors had been only mentors to new Seers, but they grew to form regional governments reining over all Seers in their designated areas and assigning all missions. As their power increased, so did their interest in Extraction. After all, Seers are in charge because they are the most powerful. So when the Seers they have mentored since early childhood suddenly displayed an ability to Extract, the power card exchanged hands. And since Preceptors like their role as kings of the Seers kingdom, they set out to do something about controlling who becomes Extractors. If they can ensure that Preceptors and all their minions become Extractors, they can ensure that their power remains intact.

“They took the power, and then changed the game. They changed why we See. They called it a ‘mission,’ and suddenly we work for someone. But who? General society? No. The good of humanity? No. We certainly don’t work for ourselves. So we end up working for them. The Preceptors. And now they want to make sure we keep working for them. They can’t stand that some of us age into Extractors and that if we don’t want to, we don’t have to follow them anymore. Only we’ve been taught to follow them, to look up to them, to think of them as family. And does the worker challenge the boss when the boss is
family
? Do you see the problem?”

Suddenly his eyes are earnest.

I lean back and straighten up. “Yes. I see.”

That’s not good enough for him.

“Tell me. Tell me what you see.” Now it’s his turn to lean forward. He rests his arms in front of his chest. He’s bent over at the waist, and with me upright, we are even-eyed as I search his. He seems to have a lot resting on my answer.

“We have been blinded by the blurred lines. Preceptors are revered elders, fathers to us. We must not challenge or question. So, as they quietly slipped into power, we barely noticed. And anyone who did knew better than to question it. Our powers are being controlled, and we are either accepting of it or unaware it’s even happening,” I say softly. I am careful to meet his piercing gaze as I complete my last sentence. Luke raises his eyebrows slightly. Something flickers in his eyes. Something you see in a dog’s eyes when he’s gotten out. The dog stops in front of his owner as she calls him. For a second she thinks he will wag his tail and happily obey, following her back to the safety of the yard. But instead he pounds his front paws, lowers his head, and after the telltale look, he bounds off in the opposite direction. Why do I get the feeling Luke is ready to lead me away from the safety of the yard and toward a busy intersection?

Finally he nods slightly and says, “Good. Now we begin.”

“Begin what?” I ask, confused. Aren’t we already in the middle of something here?

“You need to understand why this power structure was created. Preceptors went from mentors to manipulators and you need to know why,” he says. “Have you ever wondered why, since you found your Preceptor, you have been handed mission after mission?” He waves an arm in the space around him as he addresses me, “Are you asked if you approve of the information you are retrieving? Are you even given all the necessary information about those missions? At what point was it accepted that Preceptors would decide how much or how little the rest of us know? And who? Who gave them the authority with which they rule? Did I? Did you?”

As Eri walks over and reaches out to touch Luke’s arm, hoping to reel him back in, I realize I am leaning so far forward my chest nearly touches my arms resting on the counter. I’m drawn in not only by his words but by his passion. I had no idea he would sound so informed, so enraged, so powerful. I had no idea he would make so much sense.

I don’t have the years of experience with a Preceptor that Luke has. But two things I know for sure. One: Seers are definitely not given all necessary information before they are sent on a mission. I am present proof of that. And two: Seers are not free to Navigate as they see fit. Once you connect with your Preceptor, there is no such thing as Navigating for pleasure. And if there is, no Seer ever mentions it.

I have Navigated for pleasure or for no reason at all. Sometimes I go into a being’s brain simply because I can. That person may be particularly aggravating, and I decide it’s a way to avoid prolonging the interaction. Since I have been with Tobias, I have done this a couple of times. The secretary at Alsinboro comes to mind. I was agitated that day. She was annoying and condescending, so in I went. Not for any real purpose, just to find out what makes her tick. To find information I could turn around on her. To have her eating out of my hand by the end of the meeting. Which I do believe she was. But I never told Tobias.

What’s interesting is I don’t remember ever making a conscious decision that if I were to ever veer from the carefully laid-out path of Seeing before me, the path Tobias set, and Navigate someone on my own, I would not tell him. But I had. At some point I decided not to tell him. Something inside me told me not to. And I had no plans of telling Tobias about my attempt to Navigate Eri. As a matter of fact I had a feeling of anxiety every time I thought of his finding out.

As I listen to Luke’s passion, his conviction, I wonder if I would have ever become as angry as he is if I had never had the opportunity to listen to him now. Would I have been smart enough or an independent enough thinker to challenge the system as Luke is? I don’t consider myself a runs-with-the-crowd person. But it feels so natural to follow him. I know part of it must be my infatuation with him, but the other part is that he is hitting on so many points of contention for me. I have had so many doubts. So many things about the world of Seeing have seemed senseless or unfair. I have had so many questions. I have had no one to talk to. No family. No friends. No other Seers like me.

I listen to him now, going on at Eri’s prompting into the way he came to know about her, her father, and her father’s discovery, but all I can think about is how lonely he must have been, distrusting his Preceptor in a world where trusting one’s Preceptor is paramount.

Focus.

It seems that as Luke began to doubt his Preceptor he also began his life as a spy. He began gathering information not only against his Preceptor but against all regional Seers in the Delaware Valley, which includes Central and South Jersey, Philadelphia and its suburbs, and southern Delaware. His covert operations exposed the plot to Navigate and Extract Dr. Kuono’s discovery.

“Tell me more about the Preceptors’ motivation behind controlling the creation of Extractors,” I interrupt as he pauses his speech and paces back toward me. “If they just want to level out the playing field, if they just want to ensure that they, too, have the power to Extract, shouldn’t it stop there? Eri said
danger.
Tell me the danger.”

Luke doesn’t seem bothered or even surprised by my redirection. He seems to feel the need, though, to stop his pacing, plant himself a foot from me, and look me in the eyes in order to let me know that what he is about to tell me is anything but good.

“Dr. Kuono possesses the formula of Extraction. The formula completes a sequence that will fill in a gap in Seers’ brains. Once applied, the Preceptors in possession of the formula will be Extractors.”

“Right. I get that. But—”

He shakes his head.

“The danger lies in the secrecy of this. This is not a mission cleared by the Seers organization. The group of Preceptors involved in this mission believes that only they and the doctor know about this. Their mission is to send an Extractor in to take out the memory so that only they will possess the secret. Dr. Kuono will no longer possess the memory. It will be Extracted from you. Only these Preceptors will have the knowledge that the formula of Extraction was ever sought after much less found.”

This last thought he utters seems to trigger a spark in him. His nostrils flare and he grinds his teeth as I watch the muscles in his jaw flex.

His eyes pierce me as he almost whispers, “Know this. Once you have this secret, they will not rest until it is taken from you.”

His agitation only works to fire me up. “Great. So they all just want to,
what
? Dance the Irish jig in my head? Have a party in there? Awesome. And what aren’t you telling me?”

He pauses to clear his throat. “Dr. Kuono’s findings are in the hands of Preceptors already because he was working for them. It was the Preceptors who provided him with the brain Eri told you about earlier, who gave him the mission, who started all of this.”

I raise my hand to object, but Luke was expecting that. He shakes his head at me again and continues.

“Dr. Kuono was excited, floored by the possibility of it all. You don’t have to try very hard to convince a neuroscientist that the brain is the ultimate in untapped power. When he was faced with the reality, with proof, that brains were capable of so much more than anyone is aware of, he was in. Dr. Kuono knew he was working for Seers on a breakthrough and on the possibility of making Seers into Extractors. But he did
not
know their intentions.”

“How did he find out their intentions? He did find out, didn’t he? I mean, that’s why we’re here talking about this like we can intercept the discovery, right?” My interruption has the slightest twinge of panic to it, which I hear and hate instantly. Too many questions. And the answers aren’t coming fast enough.

“I told him.”

Well, that answer was quick.

“You?”

“You find that surprising?”

“That you’re working alone? Just you? Against the Preceptors? Yes. A little.”

“I am not alone, but our intentions are to continue to expand the army, so to speak,” he says with just a touch of suggestive flirtatiousness. I’d love to reciprocate, but the timing couldn’t be worse. I decide to bypass that road and conduct business as usual, but not before I slip in a slow blink and little half smile.

“An army against Preceptors? Why? Tell me what the Preceptors intend to do.”

“Preceptors are planning to use this information to imbed the ability to Extract in all chosen Seers. Extractions would be done at the command of Preceptors.”

“Uh, okay …” I trail off intentionally to let him know I am still not buying all the hype.

“Leesie, you don’t see the danger because it has never occurred to you to Extract for other than helpful purposes, right?”

Other than helpful purposes? Like what? My mind begins reeling like a movie scene that follows its actors on a roller-coaster ride. As I tick to the top, gaining height and gaining momentum, I begin to piece together what this means. I begin to see, for the first time, Extraction as a weapon. What could I do with it? I begin to see memories moved to recessed layers. Something that happened last week I could grab and drag down to a third-year layer, where memories just sit but cannot be recalled. That memory would be essentially lost. What kinds of memories could I move? Memories of successes, failures. People? Could I erase people? And what if I Extract memories all together? What if I take them out with me? What if I take layers out? Couldn’t I change who people know, what they can do, what they are capable of? Could that be what was done to me?

By the time I steady myself and meet Luke’s stare, my roller coaster has pulled back into the station. I have been down one horrific dip after another. I am even nauseous, as I would be if I had actually ridden one. And I know what he means by danger. If the Preceptors use Extraction as a weapon, they will destroy people’s brains. And quite easily, too. No one would even know.

“Everything we talked about earlier, about Preceptors starting as mentors and now being our bosses, points to this.
They
want to be able to control who Extracts. They want to safeguard
their
number of Extractors. So that a rise of rebel Extractors can never overtake them.”

“And once they have all that power? What then?” I shudder as I ask.

“I’m still working on that one, Leesie.” He raises his eyebrows a little as his eyes search mine.

“All right, Luke. You’re right. Danger. What do you need me to do?”