Two of a Mind (22 page)

Come on Dez, it's staring you in the face.

Seth had brought all our research, notes, and Elizabeth's
Handi
to our house. It was a way to reassure the 'rents that we were being careful – and Mum was baking again so Seth was staying close, taking no chances at missing out on the results! Dad was allowing us to use his study so we'd have access to his interactive wall-screen – much easier than sifting through hundreds of
Handi
pages.

I still had a thumping headache from the day before but I wasn't going to let it interfere and, while Seth set everything up in the study, I went in search of painkillers. I keyed the code to the medicine cabinet, a precautionary measure that Dad had installed when I was little, and looked at the array of pills, sprays and potions that had accumulated over the years. I grinned at the sight of the calamine lotion, remembering its lovely coolness and unique pink, powdery smell when I'd needed it to sooth a particularly bad heat rash one summer.
Surely, it's out of date now?
I picked up the bottle to check the label. It was past its best-by date by six months and I couldn't resist a twinge of satisfaction that something had slipped through Mum's super-efficient cleaning regime. I replaced the bottle and took out the packet of painkillers, turning the box over to look at the instructions. My brain gave a nudge as I read:

PL Holder: Lisle Pharmaceuticals EU, Paris,

Subsidiary of Trevalyn Corps, Regd Office: 264 Lisle St, London,

Distributed by Deveaux International,

Boulevard de Sébastapol, Paris.

“Seth,” I said, as I rushed into the study thrusting the package towards him. “Look. Lisle. Isn't that the same name as the lab Tomas worked in? We need to check the notes that Simone sent though.”

“Steady on!” Seth took the box from me and gestured for me to sit down. “Now, tell me calmly what you're on about.”

“It's beginning to come together, Seth. I wondered why one of the photos at the Johnsons' looked familiar. It wasn't really familiar to me but it was to Nicole 'cos it was the lab where Tomas worked – Laboratoires Lisle.”

“And ..?”

“And in the Johnsons' photo they were with the head-honcho from Trevalyn Corps – oh, what was his name?”

“Trevalyn, by any chance?”

“No need to be sarcastic, Seth. Anyway, we can look that up easily enough.”

“But, Dez, what's the connection? I'm still not following.”

“It's just a hunch at the mo, but let's look at the other victims to see if there're any links to Trevalyn Corps. I don't know why, but it feels like the right track.” A sudden shiver went down my back and for no apparent reason a vision of that rotten nurse at the clinic flitted across my subconscious.

We powered up the wall-screen and linked Elizabeth's
Handi
and our home Comms kit so that we could trawl the InfoNet and run several apps simultaneously. After a couple of hours or so we had a list of the victims and any noticeable link to Trevalyn Corps:

I pushed the hair out of my eyes and straightened up in my chair.

“It looks so much worse when it's laid out like that,” I said, struggling with the lump in my throat. Seth pulled me into his arms and gave me a reassuring squeeze.

“Hang in there,” he said. “We're making great progress.”

“How can you say that?” I asked. “We can't find something that links all of them to Trevalyn's so it can't matter can it?”

“Just 'cos we can't see 'em yet doesn't mean they're not there. Come on, Dez. Don't give up now. You were the one all gung-ho to get the bastard and it looks like we've got a number one suspect here.”

I looked at him to check he wasn't just trying to cheer me up but I saw his expression and knew he was taking this all very seriously. My mouth dried up as the pieces started to fall into place in my own mind. A fleeting memory from Sally's trip to the Weardale Forest showed me the face of the man she was with – he'd tried to hide from the media but I still recognised him: Victor Trevalyn!

“You're right, Seth. It's him. It's Victor Trevalyn. I remember him from the forest but how do we convince the police? And what connects those other victims?”

“Let's look at Mum's quotes again. Maybe they'll make more sense now.”

“Can we ask my mum to help with that?” I asked. “She's good at cryptic clues and she knew your mum so well that she might have a better idea.”

Seth paused, his brows drawn together in a tight frown. I could see he still struggled to let others see his mother's
Handi
but he finally gave a sigh and nodded his acceptance.

In the kitchen, the smell of home-baking was comforting and Mum was humming one of her favourite tunes as she tipped the latest batch of muffins onto the cooling rack.

“Mum.”

She jumped and nearly dropped the baking tray, then laughed nervously to hide her embarrassment. I apologised for the scare and asked if she had time to give us a hand with something. I saw the brief look of surprise then she smiled and nodded, wiping her floury hands on her apron before turning off the oven. Although I didn't catch her thoughts I could see that she was pleased to be included in our activities even if she didn't fully approve of them. Her smile soon faded when she saw the list of death on the wall-screen and she held her face in her hands as though trying to stop the horror showing in her expression. Seth brought a chair forward for her to sit down and she patted his arm in gratitude as she sank onto the cushioned seat.

“So many,” she said in a hushed tone. “I didn't know. Poor Elizabeth.” I sensed Rosa's protective reaction to Mum's distress and I felt a moment of jealousy that I couldn't experience that closeness, that comforting presence of a genuine PT. I reached to hold Seth's hand and consciously opened my mental door to allow all the connections through. The sudden onslaught of psychic noise threatened to floor me but I managed to tame it, searching for the one voice I desperately wanted to hear. Seth's subconscious remained locked to me. He didn't even react to my touch. Why couldn't I get through to him like I had with Dad, Dale and Asil the day before?

“Mrs Hanson,” Seth was speaking to Mum and I had to force the voices in my head back into their padded-cell so that I could concentrate on the problem of Elizabeth's riddles.

“Mrs Hanson, we're hoping you can help with the clues that Mum tagged onto the news reports of these incidents,” he explained. “Dez thought you might have a better insight as you were good friends. And you're an ace crossword puzzler.” He turned and winked at me, oblivious to my inner turmoil.

Mum's cheeks, already pink from the heat of the oven, turned a deeper shade.
Omigod, is she simpering?

“I'll see what I can do,” she said, as Seth added Elizabeth's quotes to the list.

“We can see the first one is self-explanatory now that we know Sally worked for Trevalyn,” said Seth. “‘
He just had the power'
seems simple enough.”

“Yes,” Mum agreed.

As Mum looked towards the wall-screen her enthusiasm to solve another clue seemed to disappear. She was looking at the entry for Bethany Simpson and her face drained of colour so that she was almost as white as the screen she was staring at.

“What is it, Mum?” I tried not to probe mentally to find out what had suddenly struck her dumb, but I couldn't avoid hearing her desperate thoughts.

“Oh dear lord, Jonathan, what have we let them get into?”

What was all that about?

Mum made an excuse to leave the room – something about burning the scones, but I'd seen her turn off the oven earlier. Seth and I exchanged puzzled looks then turned back to the wall-screen.

“What is it about Bethany Simpson that got her going?” I mumbled.

“Pardon?” Seth obviously hadn't noticed Mum's reaction was to a particular incident.

“I overheard Mum's thoughts just as she saw Bethany Simpson's entry. She was worried about what we'd got ourselves into.”

“Your dad's been saying that all along, so it's nothing fresh.”

“Yeah, but this was different. She was really frightened. I bet she's out there right now trying to get Dad home early to put a stop to this.”

As I was about to march out to the kitchen to confront Mum I heard my personal Comms kit beeping. I sensed who the caller was but checked their I.D. to be sure.

“Hi, Alvin.”

“Hello, Dez. I thought I'd check to see how you're getting on.”

“I'm fine thanks.” I glanced at Seth who was shaking his head and mouthing ‘liar' to me. I wasn't sure I wanted to share the latest revelations of my condition but Seth had different ideas.

“Tell him about Dale,” he said, loudly and, as I didn't have the privacy filter activated, Alvin heard Seth's comment.

“Dale?” Alvin asked. I threw a furious look at Seth and he grinned back at me knowing I couldn't attack him while I was on the call.

I told Alvin about the spectacular result of my physical contact with Dale and Asil. I had to recap several times as Alvin kept interrupting to ask for more details – I was sure he was taking notes for his next offering to the annual medical shin-dig. I felt I was being treated like an interesting lab-rat rather than his client.

“Fascinating,” he said, when he eventually allowed me to finish. “You certainly push the boundaries of what we currently know about psychic connections, Dez. These abilities have never manifested in anybody before. You're a real trailblazer.” His excitement didn't help my mood but his next comment stopped any sarcastic reply I had in mind. “Victor will be very interested to hear about your latest exploits.”

“V-Victor?”

“Yes, Dez. Victor Trevalyn. He's the current President of The International Alternative Therapist's Association. He was the key speaker at the conference last weekend and he heard some of the delegates talking about you – not specifically of course, it was all anonymous – but he searched me out to ask if he could follow your progress.”

I struggled to respond. I was shaking with the shock of hearing Alvin talking about that monster Trevalyn with such respect and excitement. Seth couldn't hear Alvin's side of the conversation but he'd heard me say Victor's name and he saw my reaction. He grabbed the Comms kit from me and disconnected the call.

“Dez. What's wrong? What's happened?”

“Trevalyn's on to us,” I whispered through parched lips. “He'll pick up what I know if he gets close enough.” An image of the man going into The Johnson Foundation flashed across my memory. “Omigod, he was there.”

“Where? Dez, what are you talking about?”

“Yesterday. He was at Dale's offices. Maybe that's how he managed to connect to me. What are we going to do?”

“Time for the police,” Seth said.

“It's gone beyond that now.” Mum was standing by the door. All my preconceptions about her being a silly, stay-at-home mummy disappeared as I saw an old-fashioned pistol in her hand.

“Mum!”

“Mrs Hanson!”

“Shush. I'll explain later. Right now, please, just do as I ask for once.” She looked at me with pleading eyes. I nodded, unable to find a smart answer. “We've got to back-up all this data and keep it hidden securely until Jonathan can deal with it.” Mum rarely called my dad Jonathan when speaking to me, it was usually ‘your father' or in good times ‘Daddy'. Why the sudden change – in fact, who was this woman and where was my mum? She must have sensed my anxiety and her expression softened. “Don't worry, Desirée. We'll look after you.” Ah, yes there she was, using my full name again!

Seth adjusted to the new Mrs Hanson a lot quicker than I could and she soon had him following her orders with military precision. For a while I stood mutely watching the activity around me. Files were backed-up onto Elizabeth's
Handi
and a separate copy onto a mini-pin-drive that Mum stuck into the underside of her jacket collar. The home hard drive was scoured with a programme I'd never seen before. It wiped the system spotlessly clean – as clear as the day it was installed and every trace of data removed. I worried about Dad's work but Mum kept reassuring me that things would be fine.

She programmed all the house windows to the privacy setting. We could see out but nobody could see in. Seth kept checking what was going on outside. It wasn't helping me to calm down and I sobbed quietly, feeling that I was responsible for bringing this terror to the people I loved and I was helpless to divert it. Why hadn't I just accepted that I didn't have a bloody PT? Why did I have to open the floodgates and get Alvin interested in my unique abilities? Why did I think two teenagers were any match for a cold-blooded killer?

“Stop it now Desirée. That's enough self-pity.”

“That's rich coming from you,” I retorted, instantly regretting it but surprised to see Mum smiling.

“That's better,” she said. “That's more like my Dizzy.” We hugged briefly before she sent me off to pack. “We'll need a few days' worth of clothing, Dez. Sensible stuff, mind.”

When I returned to the study I found a very confused Samuel in deep conversation with Seth. Mum guided me into the kitchen and gestured for me to set out some of the fresh baking while she made a pot of tea.

“Samuel and Seth aren't safe either,” she said. “We're going to a secure location until we can get the data verified and the right people involved to help us.”

“Mum, what's going on? This … this is all so much bigger than I thought.”

“You're right. It
is
much bigger. I can't tell you more until we're safely away and have time to talk about it. Pass the milk, there's a dear.”

This was surreal. One minute we're in fear of our lives and the next we're calmly sitting in the lounge and complimenting Mum on her delicious cakes. We were still sipping our tea when Dad came charging in.

“Everyone all right?” he asked, and he grabbed both Mum and me in a fierce hug.

“Fine, fine. I'm merely suffocating at the moment.” Mum struggled to free herself from his grip.

Dad's eyes were full of concern yet there was also a hint of approval as he looked at the preparations we'd made before his arrival. His emotions crept into his speech.

“I see you've got it all under control, Celeste. Any chance of a quick cup of tea?”

That broke the tension and we all laughed as he stacked a plate, trying to catch up on his share of the cakes. When the silly moment had passed Samuel turned to Dad.

“What happens now then, Jon?” Samuel was the only person I'd ever heard abbreviate Dad's name. It sounded nice. He trusted Dad to get us through and it made my chest ache with pride.

“Victor Trevalyn is a nasty piece of work,” Dad said. “But he is very well connected and we are not going to convince the prosecution service until we have concrete evidence against him. And that is not easy to find, believe me. I've been investigating him for a number of years now.” He turned to me, “When your mother saw Bethany Simpson on your list and read the quotation that Elizabeth had attached she knew we were in trouble.”

“
‘The true men of action in our time, those who transform the world, are not the politicians and statesmen, but scientists.'
It's by W H Auden. I can't remember the essay it's taken from, but I don't think Elizabeth was using it as a compliment to scientists,” Mum said. Her knowledge of 20
^th
century literature always astounded me. I wasn't a big English-Lit fan myself, maybe 'cos I knew I could never compete with her phenomenal knowledge.

“What does it mean?” Seth asked.

“Elizabeth was reminding us that the scientists have been the real forces behind global changes. Think of the atomic bomb and how that affected the entire world,” Mum replied.

“Amongst some family files, Bethany had discovered a number of archived documents written by her great-grandfather during his time in the House of Lords,” Dad continued. “They mentioned meetings with the Trevalyn Company – a small player in pharmaceuticals back then.”

“Trevalyn? The same family? It goes back so long?” Dad nodded at my questions.

“In the early 21
^st
century – a period of serious civil unrest – Benjamin Trevalyn, Victor's grandfather, developed a mood suppressant that he presented to the authorities. The financial crash of 2008 was still affecting the global economy. The numerous uprisings in the Middle East made everybody nervous. Governments around the world were seen as corrupt and elections were being regularly dismissed as rigged. Things came to a terrible climax in October 2015 when nuclear war broke out in the Far East. It was brief but devastating. The ‘flu pandemic hit during the Nuke War so, between the two tragedies, a significant proportion of the world's population was wiped out.”

“Apart from the Nuke War and the ‘flu, we never heard any of this in History,” I said.

“You wouldn't. The response to the situation could never be made public.”

“Response?” Samuel asked.

“When the volatile situation was at its peak, the most powerful world leaders – not just politicians, but industrialists and religious leaders too – were fearful of a complete break-down of society. According to Simpson's notes they were convinced that this mood suppressant from Trevalyn was safe enough for worldwide use. The bio-agent was to be distributed via nano-particles released into the atmosphere. It would multiply and survive for up to a year so by the end of 2016 the vast majority of the population would be treated.”

“Infected more like! Surely that's biological warfare?” Seth interrupted.

“I agree,” Dad answered. “But the need to restore calm and the assurances that the product was safe reassured the decision-makers that the benefits outweighed individual human rights. Even sworn enemies shook hands on the deal. After all, the distribution method meant that they would be taking the drug themselves.”

“This happened so long ago. Why is Victor Trevalyn killing people now?” I could barely speak. It felt like I was calling him into the room by saying his name aloud.

“We are not entirely sure, sweetheart. I've been trying to uncover what really happened in the years following the dispersal. According to the established history a new, more-virulent mutation of the swine ‘flu brought the anticipated pandemic and affected ninety-five percent of the global population. Of those who survived a large proportion had residual depression and mental health problems. The latest theory that our medical historians have come up with is that the phenomenon of telepathic-twinning was emerging and people were finding it difficult to deal with this new psychic ability.”

Mum had been constantly pacing around the room, checking through the windows, nervous about our delay but she'd listened to all Dad had been saying. Her puzzle-solving mind sifted through the details.

“So,” she said, “the bio-agent probably provided the catalyst for the PT evolution.”

Dad smiled at her. “You always did manage to find the answer quicker than the rest of us. We've missed your talents. I'll insist the department re-commission you as soon as we sort this out.”

Mum's eyes flashed a warning at Dad then she glanced my way as though checking to see if I was probing her thoughts. Under the stress of the situation, I was struggling to keep the door shut on all those telepathic connections so, despite the temptation to see what was hidden in Mum's past, I stayed out of her head.

“Why the sudden fear for our own safety?” Samuel asked. We hadn't had chance to fill him in on our suspicions about Victor Trevalyn being Elizabeth's PT, but before I could answer, Mum spoke.

“The current Lord Simpson is Jonathan's godfather. He was convinced his granddaughter's death was suspicious and he asked Jonathan to help prove it. And now we know he was right. Elizabeth's
Handi
lists Bethany amongst Trevalyn's victims. Dez and Seth used InfoNet searches to link the incidents in Elizabeth's
Handi
with Trevalyn Corps and we're assuming Victor Trevalyn has in-built tracers which will have alerted him to their enquiries. It would explain how he was able to trace Bethany when she was conducting her research.”

“Now I remember! Your bridesmaid – little Beth? Oh my god, I'm so sorry. I didn't make the connection.” Samuel rubbed at his forehead, frowning while he struggled with the complex relationships. “But what has Elizabeth's
Handi
got to do with Trevalyn?” he asked me.

“The murdering bastard was her PT,” Seth answered on my behalf.

Well done, Seth. Why use tact when a sledge-hammer will do?