The Embers Of My Heart (26 page)

They exchanged looks. "Let's get more comfortable," Todd said. Star and I moved to the couch, where she promptly sat shoulder to shoulder with me. Todd sat on the edge of a chair across from us and managed to look exceedingly uncomfortable somehow. "Understand, Kevin, this isn't something we can tell you a lot about. We operate very secretively and keep things on a need-to-know basis. The fact that you're here and know about me is extremely irregular."

"You've proved you can keep secrets," Star pointed out. "But you're still not part of us."

"That's fine," I said. "But look at it from my perspective. I'm not diving in headfirst until I'm convinced this pool has water."

"Understandable," Todd said. "What do you know of the state of the world?"

"Crazy. Divided. Lots of factions with their own goals and methods," I said.

"Do you know where the Establishment fits in?"

"Not exactly," I said. "I mean, I've done the basic research on PSInet, but I take all of that with a grain of salt."

"What about the other groups you butt heads with?" Todd asked.

"The Bureau's part of the government," I said. "Doing their bit to further the aims of whoever actually runs the country. I suspect the government doesn't actually have a clue. I've encountered them quite a few times now. I haven't really run into other groups, aside from that one Kaze agent, and one of the small gangs in the New York City area. I do know that the Order of Chaos was planning something in Troy, but I was sent out to stop them."

Todd held his hand up. "Whoa. I appreciate the free intelligence, but you might want to think twice before telling us you did something. Sarah, can you confirm that?"

"Can't confirm or deny to my knowledge," she said.

"They were going to release some sort of bioweapon," I said. Todd started to say something, but I waved him off. "Consider this a trade for some of what you're going to tell me. We got a hold of their plans and concocted a counteragent."

"I'll look into it," Star said.

"Thanks. Well, you can tell him about the things he's missing," Todd said.

She nodded and pulled away from me. "The Bureau is the major force in North American psionic politics," she said, her tone all business. "As a quasi-governmental agency, they have forces throughout the entire country, enclaves in Canada and Mexico, and a few outposts across the world. Your Establishment is a strong regional power, strong enough to ensure that New York City maintains a certain level of neutrality, but not strong enough to make a serious play for power against the Bureau. There are other regional powers that you don't normally interact with since they're in the southern or western US, but simply because you're based near New York City, there's a lot of psionic traffic to deal with."

"So the Bureau is the big bad guy?"

"Yes," Star said.

At the same time, Todd said, "No." I looked back and forth between them. "The Bureau's got a host of problems and is slowly caving in under the weight of its own bureaucracy," he said. "This weakness has encouraged a splinter faction of the Kaze to make inroads on the Californian coast, as well as reducing their influence in the South American power vacuum."

"There's a potential civil war brewing," Star added.

"Which leads me to our problem," Todd said. "You want to know what the Resistance is, Kevin? What do you think we want to do with the Bureau?"

"Encourage them to split up and fight each other?"

He shook his head. "The Bureau, as far as it goes, is a relatively benign organization. The Resistance wants weak, benign factions. We want them as harmless as possible. The general purpose of the Resistance is to prevent psionic organizations from growing strong enough to seize control. Most factions see normal humans as simple resources, as a silent threat, or in some cases, they don't consider normal people to even be human. Normal humans are ninety-nine percent of the population. Less than one percent of us are psions. That's not an acceptable basis for ruling, leading, or anything of that nature."

"Humanity First?" I asked. Star snorted.

"Something like that," he said. "We're doing our best, but we're losing. All we can hope for is making sure the least harmful groups rise to power."

"So what do you think I can bring to the table?" I asked. "Star's been trying to recruit me from the hour she met me. I mean, I'm not able to offer much information on the Establishment, I'm just a trainee."

"Your strength," Todd said. "You inherited a lot of it. Your mother is at least as strong as I am, if not stronger."

"Mom? What? No way."

"She's high up in the Establishment," he said. I leaned back against the couch and couldn't find any words. She'd always been away on business when I was young. Establishment business, apparently. "We exchange Christmas cards every couple of years. Ran into her in San Diego a few years ago, actually. But yes, your mother and I are psions. Our mother and father were also extremely strong."

My head was spinning. "What about my dad?"

Todd leaned forward. "He's not even a latent, but he does have something very important. Are you familiar with the genetics behind all this?"

"We talked about it today, actually," I said.

"The Establishment has put more research into this than any other group short of the Illuminati, and maybe even them. I led one of their research teams. We discovered something unique, something they won't reveal publicly. There are genetic markers that inhibit your ability, and they usually link with markers that enhance your ability. When there's enough of an imbalance between those markers, it makes someone a psion. The Establishment discovered certain genetic markers that inhibit the inhibitors. It took years for them to find someone with those genes, who didn't have any additional genetic baggage." Todd squeezed his hands together and looked down at the coffee table. "Your dad. Your mom and I were the third generation of an Establishment guided breeding program. You're the fourth generation."

I didn't know what to say. Had they forced my parents together somehow? "So I'm the result of sixty, eighty years of this?" I asked.

"Hundreds of years of past study and efforts," Todd said, his voice barely audible. "Everyone's tried to deliberately breed gifted children, all throughout history. It never worked. At some critical point, the inhibitors always locked the kids down. One generation would be strong, phenomenal, and then their children would be normal, latent at best. They tried so many things. The Establishment thought ahead, Kevin. They started multiple lines and had them produce different combinations of children. Psion to psion, psion to latent, latent to latent. The line that worked the best, that produced your mother and me, was the one that started with psion to latent, then psion to psion. We're both strong, but have a host of inhibitory markers. Your father suppresses most of those markers. They also decided Patsy would be the empirical test of the Only Child Theorem."

"I've not sure I've heard that before," I said. "I assume it's related to the Twin Theorem?"

He looked at Star, then back at me. "Yeah. It's unconscious genetic manipulation. When you have just one child, when you're absolutely certain you're one and done, it amplifies their power. If you do end up having more kids afterwards, they get all sorts of inhibitory mutations."

"But Mom always said she wanted to have another kid," I said.

"She lied," Todd said. "They sterilized her a week after you were born. I was there."

"So I'm the end point of this experiment?" I asked.

Todd's eyes tracked past me to look into the distance. "No. You're the penultimate point. The fifth generation is where everything comes together. We can splice genes now. Foolproof artificial insemination is available. We have a young man who has incredible potential and the genetic makeup to protect his children from inhibitory genes." He shook his head. "I was in charge of that program."

Star stared at me. "Are you saying he's been made to be breeding stock?"

"In a crude sense, yes," Todd said. "That's why I left the Establishment. The program started as a research study. Alistair Ripley wanted to use it to gain power. If you pass all of their tests, they'll begin the final phase, and in twenty more years or so, they'll have a host of young men and women with enormous power. They won't make the mistake of allowing them independence, not like you, Kevin. Alistair will see to that." He shook his head again. "You'd never meet them. You'd probably never be aware. In fact, I'm certain that they already have samples from you, just in case. They'll foster the children out. When they get to college, they'll all find their way to Ripley for training. Training and complete indoctrination. The best of them would be used to continue the program."

"I didn't know any of this," Star said quietly. "That's monstrous."

"Is it?" Todd lifted his head. "It's a way to a new stage of human evolution or advancement."

"But it's not natural."

"It doesn't matter if it's natural," I said. They both looked to me. "What matters is that it's possible. Why should we wait for it to naturally spread or die out on its own? I mean, we have the ability to direct our own evolution now. I don't think it's wrong to do that."

"Exactly," Todd said. "The Establishment originally meant to uplift humanity. Alistair tweaked that plan. He wants to lift humanity up under the control of a small elite. That's why we fight, not just to stop him and his type from ruling, but to give us time to bring everyone up to an equal footing."

"So now what?" I asked. I put my arm around Star. "I mean, what's the end game here? What's Alistair waiting for? I owe the Establishment, but I didn't know how deep this went."

"You owe the Establishment?" Todd laughed. "You don't know the worst of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Ripley University. It's a front, and you know it, right? The primary goal of the school is to train psionically talented students and gain their services for the Establishment. How'd you hear about it?"

"From Mom," I said. "Oh."

"It's not even a question of her getting you in the door," Todd said. "You were guided to go there."

"Even though I tried going elsewhere first?"

"Why do you think you dropped out of that and headed for Ripley?"

"Mom wouldn't!"

He shook his head. "She wouldn't, not personally, no. Patsy has scruples. But, think about this. She knew the goal as well as anyone else. Someone probably threw a few suggestions in your head. Maybe they influenced your surroundings as well. They manipulated your life so that you'd end up at Ripley. Your mother wouldn't stand in the way of that. It was the best for her and the best for you."

"That's a lot to think about."

"There's more." He stared me down. "Tell me, Kevin, how long ago was Ripley founded?"

I thought back. "Twenty years ago. Twenty-one, now. Wait." My head suddenly spun. "That's insane. That's not even possible. No way."

"What is it, Kevin?" Star asked.

I couldn't answer her. The answer was so patently ridiculous that I couldn't even begin to describe it. I buried my face in my hands and shook my head. I heard Todd get up and walk over to me, then felt the weight of his hand on my shoulder. I couldn't stop shaking. "Give him a moment, Sarah," he said. "He just realized that Ripley University was built for him."

Chapter Seventeen

I focused on the shifting array of translucent psionic barriers separating us. Each barrier had an individual weakness, drawn randomly from a long list, but their weaknesses shifted over time. I couldn't be sure when I should exploit them or when simple brute force was the answer. The barriers weren't the only difficulty I was facing. She was holding up her phone with a stopwatch ready to go.

The first time she had me attempt this exercise, it had taken me close to five minutes to negate all the barriers and get to her. She snorted and gave me a goal of two minutes or less. Over the past two weeks, she tested me multiple times a day. It was the best way to get my mind back in fighting trim, according to both her and Todd. It had forced me to think about my powers in new and interesting ways. Absynthe never explicitly taught me how to focus on multiple psionic threads at the same time. Shade had outright discouraged it. "You don't have the control to use more than one. Stick to what you're good at, Parker, hitting things as hard as you can." I found myself grinding my teeth.

"Ready?" she asked.

I refocused. "Do it," I said.

She tapped the button and I engaged my new plan. The first barrier slid into place in front of me. I split my mind into a dozen different threads, each with a different aspect. Instead of driving them directly at each barrier in turn, I whipped them across the entire set of barriers at once. The energy needed to focus and attack with all of them at once was immense. My heart pounded and sweat broke out all over my face as psionic energy rushed through my mind.

Three of the barriers broke on contact with my threads. I stepped forward, cycled to another series of aspects, and whipped again. Two more barriers vaporized as I keyed upon the right weaknesses. Five down, seven to go. I relaxed for just a moment, then curled all the threads of my mind into a single assault and drove it right down the middle. Barrier after barrier burst as the force of my will shattered them. I heard Star take a sharp breath. Only one barrier remained.

I was exhausted, but I hit it with everything I had left. Nothing seemed to dent it until I stepped up to it and slammed a simple kinetic thrust right into the center of it. The attack passed clean through and Star deflected it to dent the wall next to her. I staggered through and dropped to one knee. I couldn't hear anything over the roaring in my ears. I closed my eyes and concentrated on controlling my power. Slowly, I folded it back into itself and shut it away.

"You got it?" she asked. I opened my eyes. She was squatting right in front of me, her eyes glowing electric blue. "You pushed yourself hard."

"I did," I said. "I'm good."

She nodded and her glow faded away. We stood up and she held the phone out for my inspection. "Thirty eight point seven seconds," she said. "Let me get you a drink."