Strangers and Shadows (16 page)

“Control your breathing, Jack.  Find the points in your mind where the pain is coming from and block me out.”

Jack tried to shut the pain out.  He tried to think of something else, anything at all beside the overwhelming pain.  He couldn’t.

“Don’t run from the pain, Jack.  Embrace it.  Become one with it.  Follow it back to its source.”

Jack, unable to deny it any longer, gave in to the pain.  He took it inside himself and let it fill every part of his body.  His breath came in ragged gasps as he struggled to make sense of it.  He heard the professor talking to him, telling him what to do, but it didn’t make any sense.  He couldn’t find a way out of this.  

But then, just as Jack was about to beg the professor to stop, he felt it.  The source of his pain.  

He had become his pain and was a part of it now, just as it was a part of him.  His awareness ran up and down the length of his body searching for the source, and at last he found what he was looking for.  

In the agony of the ordeal Jack no longer saw things as he usually would.  Instead, he felt them, much like a blind person must, he thought.  What Jack felt was the pain pouring through several large openings in his mind.  He saw a picture of water flowing through a dam with large cracks in it.  The water was his pain, and the dam his mind.

“Do you want me to stop?” Professor Williams asked.

“No, I think I’m almost there,” Jack managed to spit out between gritted teeth.

The pain redoubled it’s strength and Jack saw the cracks of the dam bulge, little chunks of concrete falling out.  He searched for a way to repair the dam.  For some way to stem the flow of pain.  

It felt like trying to move your arm when it was asleep.  He could see the muscles that he wanted to move but he couldn’t feel them.  Every impulse he sent to the sleeping muscles was blocked.  

Jack knew he was close to blacking out from the pain.  It seemed inevitable.  With one last ditch effort he fought back with all his might, pushing against the pain that was pouring into his body.  With every ounce of strength that he had, he pushed.  

Nothing happened.  The water kept flowing through the damaged wall of his mind.  

Jack kept pushing.

Nothing.

And then, he felt something move inside him.

It was like the pins and needles of an awakening limb.

The feeling grew stronger and Jack seized hold of it.  His long lost muscle, not in his arm, he realized, but in his mind.  

He flexed his new muscle and felt the pain lessen, only to come crashing back through. He squeezed harder and the pain again began to fade.

Jack kept his attention on the now strengthening dam in his mind, until no more pain flowed through.

He opened his eyes and realized that he was lying on his back now, covered in sweat.  His clothes were twisted on his body from his thrashing about.

“Congratulations, Jack,” the professor said.  “That was the first and hardest step.  You must remember to exercise that new muscle every day, just as you would the muscles of your body.  You must strengthen it to a point where you no longer have to exert yourself to block out that pain.”

“I don’t ever want to experience that again,” Jack said.

“And you won’t have to, hopefully.  From here on out, I can use a different stimulus now that you are aware of the process.  You will feel a pressure from it, rather than the pain you did before.

“Are you ready to continue, or do you need a moment?”

“I’m ready,” Jack said, breathing heavily.

The training continued for two more hours.  Professor Williams tested and probed Jack’s mind, while Jack exercised his new found ability and forced him out.

Once Jack possessed the needed skills, the professor brought the teaching session to a close.

“I think that will be all for today, Jack,” Professor Williams said.  “You’ve done very well.”

“Thank you,” Jack said.  “And thank you for teaching me.”

“The pleasure has been mine, Jack.  Now it will be up to you whether or not you wish to share your mind with anyone.”  Professor Williams beamed like a proud parent.  “Keep strengthening your defenses though, Jack.  While you can shield your mind from most ordinary telepaths, you would still be almost helpless against a stronger being.”

“Some would use their ability to hurt me?” Jack asked, a bit fearful at the possibility.

“Not here, no.  But there are others in the MultiVerse who possess similar powers to ours.  Take care that you are able to protect yourself from them.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“And let us hope that it is enough.”

The Overlaps

Celia and her father were in his office discussing how Jack’s training might be going.

“I bet he had to learn the hard way,” Celia said, wondering if she cared a little more than she should at this stage of the game.  Her last love interest hadn’t turned out so well.  More accurately, he hadn’t turned out alive.

“No doubt you’re right, Silly,” Desmond said, calling her by the pet name that he knew she was not fond of.  It wasn’t that he wanted to annoy her, but he’d called her Silly since the day she was born, and he liked the nickname.  “Jack may be a lot of things, but a telepath he is not.  It may take him a while.  Do be patient with him, dear.”

“I’m not just using him to get over Craig,” Celia offered out of nowhere.  Craig, her previous love interest, died while they were on what he thought was a vacation in the Fifth Verse.  It had actually been a mission to spy on a Stranger from the Seventh.  While Celia completed her mission, Craig had been murdered in her hotel room.  They had been together for five years.  “I’ve moved on… besides, I think I might really like him.”

“Whatever you say, sweetie,” Desmond said, not bothering to look up from the report he was reading.

“I really mean it.”  

“Okay,” Desmond said. 
She’s really trying to sell this to herself,
he thought.

Celia was about to really drive her point home when the door to the office burst open.  A man rushed in.  

He was breathing in ragged gasps and covered in sweat.  Celia recognized him as one of the newer agents, recently graduated from the Academy.

“What is it?” Desmond asked.

“Forgive the interruption, sir,” the man stammered, “but you asked to be notified at once if any news of the boy came across the network.”

Desmond perked up at the mention of the boy.  “What do you have to report?” 

The agent took a moment to gather himself.  “We’ve received word from one of our contacts in the Seventh.  He says he knows where the boy is being held.  He wouldn’t say anything else until he met with you face to face.”

“Very well.  Have we set up a meeting yet?” Desmond asked.

The man nodded his head.  “The contact set the meeting for an overlap in Nashville.  Place called
The End
.”

“
Perfect
,” Desmond said.  He was not overly fond of meetings in overlaps.  They had some advantages, but security was always an issue.  It was too easy to overhear things, or, in some cases, not hear anything at all.

Desmond dismissed the agent and turned to his daughter.  “Would you please go and gather Jack?  Whether he’s ready or not, we don’t have anymore time to spare.”

“
I’d absolutely love to
.”  Celia curtseyed and excused herself with as much sarcasm as she could muster.

As she was leaving, Desmond muttered to himself with a smile, “That’s my girl…”

Celia found Jack just as he and the professor were arriving back at the University from the Academy.  They were getting out of the Professor’s hover as Celia approached.  Every bit of her was business.

Jack took one look at Celia’s face and immediately knew something was up.  “What’s going on?  Did you hear something about Kid?”

“I’ll tell you about it on the way,” Celia said, turning to the professor. “Sorry we have to run, thanks for your help.  I hope he wasn’t too much trouble.”

“
Me?  Trouble
?” Jack asked.  “I’m the one who got the mental shit kicked out of me.”

Celia laughed along with the professor.  

“It was all my pleasure,” Professor Williams said, taking Celia’s hand and giving it a kiss.  “And
his pain
…”  At this, the two began laughing even harder.

Tired of bearing the brunt of every joke, Jack cleared his throat loudly.  “Shouldn’t we be going?  Young boy to track down and save, bad guys to thwart, and all that good stuff?”

“You’re right.  I’m sorry, Jack.”  Celia turned back to Professor Williams and kissing him on the cheek.  “Thanks again, professor.”

“You two be careful,” the professor called out as they walked away.

Celia had parked the hover several blocks away and Jack struggled to keep up with her on their way to it.  He had barely stepped foot in the vehicle before Celia took off, pulling out into traffic with a u-turn that nearly sent Jack flying into the back seat.

“Take it easy, will ya?”  Jack adjusted himself in his seat.

“Sorry, Dad said to hurry back as fast as we could.  He’s got a lead on Kid.”

“Still, can we get there in one piece please?”

“Awww, is Jacky scared of the woman driver?” Celia baby-talked.

Well, compared to you, I am a baby, Grandma,
Jack thought.

“I heard that!”  Celia stopped laughing.  “And what does that make you then?  Huh?  A grandmotherfuc—”

“
Stop
!  You win.”  Jack tried to dispel the image of his own grandmother wearing lingerie from his head.

Upstairs in his office, Desmond was waiting for them.  He wasted no time with greetings; in fact, he didn’t even look up from the screen he was reading from.  He just said, “Get whatever you need for a day off-world.  We’re going to an overlap.”

Celia groaned.  “
Ugh…
Your contact couldn’t have picked another place?”

“Afraid not,” Desmond said.

“What’s the big deal?” Jack asked.

“The big deal,” Celia explained, “is that overlaps are a one-way trip.  The door that takes you there can’t be used to return to the verse you started in. 
And
,” she continued, “they attract every piece of shit in the MultiVerse that’s hoping to overhear some tidbit of info that they can then take back to their superiors, or sell off to the highest bidder.”

“The last time she was at an overlap, Celia had to hole up in the Fifth for three weeks before we could come extract her,” Desmond said.

“I see… why didn’t she just teleport herself back here, or whatever you guys call it?” Jack asked.

“The overlaps have a dead zone around them that prevents anyone from jumping out.  Some of the dead zones extend for miles,” Desmond explained.

“What?  You’re just stuck there?” 

“If you’re inside of that dead zone, then yes.”  Celia crossed her arms.  “Most fields only encompass the building or immediate surroundings, but the one that I got trapped in was almost a square mile.  I can’t
believe
I’m about to do this again…”  

Jack had never seen Celia nervous before and he couldn’t say that he liked it.  “But when you brought me here…?”  Jack turned to Desmond.

“We didn’t come from an overlap area, Jack, but even so, I am a bit of a rarity.  I alone seem to be able to jump out of an overlap.”

“Yeah, Dad’s a real freak of nature.” 

Desmond showed a small grin and turned to Jack.  “Jack, have I ever told you Celia’s nickname?”

“Don’t you dare!” Celia cut him off.

“Sooo…” Jack began, “What’s an overlap again?”  He still couldn’t get his head around the concept.

“In addition to being what Celia said, overlaps are just what the name implies.  They’re overlaps in the verses—places where one universe physically meets another.  Some overlaps are just between two verses, some are between several verses, and a very small number are between all seven.”  Desmond stood abruptly.  “It’s time.”   

Celia murmured a few curses under her breath and joined her father and her new lover at the door to the office.  “Here,” she handed Jack a semi-automatic pistol, “I assume you know how to use one of these things?” 

Jack nodded and tucked the weapon away behind his back, concealing it under his coat. 

“Normally, I’d give you a blaster, but, should the shit hit the fan, we can’t have energy bolts flying around in a verse that hasn’t invented them yet.”

“Then I guess I’ll have to get by with good old projectiles,” Jack said.

Desmond placed his hand on the oddly shaped knob and opened the door.  “Come on you two.”

Desmond walked through and his daughter and Jack Spade followed.

@ The End