Winters Family Psi Chronicles 1: Transformation (17 page)

“What did you see?” Kate asked.

Jeremy hesitated before telling them what little he could remember.

“I saw the same thing. We have to save Emily,” Kate said.

“How can we do that?” Skylar asked.

“We need to have a meeting with Julie,” Jeremy said.

“She’s not going to come up with any ideas that you couldn’t think of yourself,” Skylar scoffed.

“You might be surprised,” Jeremy said.

He left the room to find Julie who was currently working in her office. She glanced up at him then frowned with concern.

“What’s happened?” she asked.

Jeremy explained the situation and Julie nodded slowly in acknowledgement.

“I’ve been thinking about a plan but I’m not sure I could convince people to follow through with it. I wouldn’t have mentioned it or even tried except for the dire circumstances. I’m sure with what you’ve told me, it would motivate a lot of people to help out,” Julie said crisply.

“What exactly is this plan?” Jeremy asked.

“It involves linking with Emily and helping her to break out of her mind,” Julie said.

“We would risk a high probability of being trapped in comas along with Emily,” Jeremy pointed out.

“Not if we had a large enough group linking together,” Julie said. “I was thinking we could get fifty or so people to go along with it.”

“How could you possibly convince that many people to take such a risk?” Jeremy asked.

“I’m sure you and Skylar will volunteer.”

“Definitely. Now we only need forty-eight more people to join us,” Jeremy said flippantly.

“Trust me. I can do this,” Julie said confidently.

Jeremy was taken aback by her strident tone. She never failed to surprise him with her ability to achieve great things. He never would have expected that their psychic network would grow to over five hundred people. It was so large now that he no longer felt any changes when new members joined which happened constantly throughout the day.

“I’ll get back to you on my progress in the morning,” Julie said.

“Thank you for helping me with this,” Jeremy said gratefully.

“You’re welcome. Now, get some rest,” Julie ordered.

The following morning, Jeremy found his mother and Skylar eating breakfast with Julie and her husband, Ryan. He joined them with a bowl of granola and some orange juice.

“I’ve got terrific news.” Julie smiled at him. “We’ve got eighty-two people who will be ready to link with you and Emily at eight o’clock sharp.”

“How did you do that?” Jeremy asked.

“I have my ways but really it involves a little bit of deception,” Julie admitted. “After I explained the gravity of the situation to each member, I insinuated that I already had fifty people who’d volunteered so that there would be practically no risk. Compared to the precognitive vision you had as well as the ones the other precognitives had in our psychic network, people were very receptive.”

“I’m impressed,” Jeremy said.

He found it difficult to eat breakfast but forced himself to do so. He didn’t want his body weak while he linked with Emily in a couple of hours. When the time finally came for them to act, the four of them gathered in her room. At around eight o’clock, Jeremy’s mind was flooded with telepaths who had volunteered for this assignment. He waited until several minutes after the time because stragglers kept arriving. Finally, Jeremy reached out to his sister’s mind. Unfortunately, he couldn’t ease into it. After spending several moments trying this, he forced his way in. Emily’s mind exploded with pain and Jeremy cringed and telepathically apologized to her.

Her mind was too deeply embedded within the imprisoning energy to respond to his contact. As a group, they delved deeper into her consciousness. Suddenly, a surge of power burst from her for no apparent reason. Jeremy, Skylar, Kate, and Julie were tossed like rag dolls across the room. An unnatural chill dominated the air as Emily abruptly sat up screaming. Her black eyes stared sightlessly forward as the lights flickered. Jeremy felt the absence of her presence in the psychic network like an aching loss and realized that this was what had killed his sister in his vision. They had somehow torn her loose from their link and triggered multipathic abilities which would block her from reestablishing a connection with them. Multipaths always died within a week from the point that their abilities awakened. Jeremy swallowed a huge lump that swelled in his throat as he berated himself for effectively murdering his sister and subsequently propelling the events that led to the collapse of the U.S. government and anarchy.

Chapter 19

Kevin was still sleeping as Rose finished her breakfast in the large, luxurious two-story house in Redmond. She was certain that even if Sharon figured out that she was working with Kevin, she wouldn’t be able to track this house down. Rose’s future self had arranged the purchase of this property through someone that implicitly trusted her and followed the complicated set of instructions given. Rose had three fake ID’s waiting for her here and one of those was the owner of the house. A pleased smile curved her lips as she reviewed the plans in her mind and silently congratulated herself on a job well done. Very soon, she and Kevin would become very powerful political figures.

Unfortunately, Rose hadn’t heard from her future self as planned which meant that the outcome of events may not go as she had anticipated. She stepped in her bare feet in the backyard. A myriad of fruit trees and evergreens spread around her and offered privacy from neighbors. Rose strolled to the large slab of quartz crystal embedded in the ground facing the small pond. She sat down on the quartz platform and activated her very unique talent to communicate with herself during different time periods. It had some severe limits but gave her a huge advantage over her enemies. One of the strange quirks of her ability was that it was far easier to communicate with herself the greater the distance in the timeline. Rose frowned with puzzlement as she went as far toward the end of her life as possible. She would simply touch base with her oldest self and download the memories she’d accumulated which would provide her with more than two hundred years of additional information, practice, and memories. It was strange that she was having trouble making contact. It should have been easy because of the vast distance of time. Rose finally received a response and stilled at the unfamiliarity of the mind she met with.

“You shouldn’t be doing this,” her future self said.

“What do you mean? I need to know how our new plans will shape up.”

“Things aren’t going to go as you predicted but everything will turn out for the best.”

“You feel very different,” Rose commented.

“The years have changed me. You should go now.”

“No. We must link our memories together so I know what happens.”

“All right,” her future self said reluctantly.

Rose eagerly established the memory link and hurriedly pulled at the information, embracing it into herself before her future self could change her mind. She quickly realized that events were indeed drastically different as was her character and mind. Rose had somehow become weaker and this weakness threatened to contaminate her present self. She tried to block the link but the memories continued to flow as her future self kept it open. Fury raged through Rose as she collected herself and roughly broke the upload.

“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Rose demanded. “You’ve become weak and you’re dragging me down with you. Don’t you realize that if you give me your memories that you’ll ruin my ability to correct what’s happened while you’re in your current state?”

“Things have changed. You don’t need to do the terrible things you’re about to do. I want things to be different,” her future self said passionately.

“I don’t care what you want!” Rose screamed furiously. “What’s happened to you?”

“No matter how much you change things and no matter how many new goals you meet, you’ll never be happy. When you get to be older, you’ll wish you hadn’t carried through with your plans.”

“You’re wrong.” Rose seethed at the lack of cooperation she received. An idea suddenly struck. “Someone from Phoenix Enterprises is going to figure out what I’m doing. Tell me who is the key.”

“I’m not going to tell you anything.”

“I knew Phoenix Enterprises was a threat. That company is completely out of my control and Jeremy keeps ruining my plans,” Rose said. “I’m going to have to kill him.”

“No, you mustn’t do that! You’re going to murder so many people and cause so many deaths, it’s going to eat at you later when you’re different.”

Rose felt the memory link reestablish but quickly severed communication with her older self. She breathed deeply as she opened her eyes and disgust flowed through her. She couldn’t believe how weak she’d become. Somehow, she had been thwarted and thrown in prison. Her future self had been racked with guilt and anguish. She needed to discover what had gone wrong. The last two times she’d downloaded memories from herself, Emily had died and for different reasons each time. Unfortunately, Jeremy had gone berserk in both instances and joined forces with Psi-Tech to track her down. He needed to die. A name flitted through her mind and she remembered that it was someone from a memory she’d downloaded from her future self. A woman named Alexa O’Malley. She would become a powerful empathic healer if she wasn’t already one. She had visited the prison that Rose had been staying at and used her ability to weaken Rose’s mind and taint her with flawed reasoning which would fundamentally change her. Empathic healers were an uncommon breed of psychic but there were still plenty of them. Rose itched to find out more information but unfortunately the limits of her ability required that she wait until the end of the day before she tried to contact herself again. Next time, she’d go only fifty years into the future before she became imprisoned. That should be safe enough. The main key element that consistently ruined her plans always pointed to Jeremy. He was always instrumental in her capture so he had to be killed.

Chapter 20

Emily had been sitting in her bed staring sightlessly into the distance with disturbing black eyes for several moments now. Jeremy, Skylar, Kate, and Julie had managed to pick themselves up off the floor at this point and were keeping a safe distance from her. Jeremy felt her absence in the psychic network like an ache in the back of his mind. It made it difficult for him to think coherently as guilt and regret consumed him.

“Jeremy, she’s stuck in a precognitive vision,” Julie said. “She’s no longer trapped in a coma. You need to focus.”

“All right,” he said.

Kate patted her son on the shoulder and he smiled reassuringly at her before fixing his gaze on his younger sister.

“Can you do anything for her?” Julie asked.

Jeremy gently probed the edges of Emily’s consciousness which was now free of the imprisoning energy. Relief rushed through him when he detected the faint connection of the psychic network which was barely existent. As long as this link remained, her survival was still possible. He could sense a lot of damage which must have resulted in their combined efforts to release her from the coma. Somehow, it had awakened her multipathic potential which he hadn’t been aware of. Jeremy focused on the connection and carefully worked on strengthening it. When he finished, he gently retreated from her to be sure he didn’t unintentionally wreck his work. He would need to check on the link several times a day to make sure it didn’t fray and break. Emily suddenly took a deep, shuddery breath and her pupils shrank back to normal size as she turned to face him.

“Thank you for saving me,” she said weakly. Her gaze swept over the rest of them. “I appreciate everything that you all did.”

“You’re a multipath now,” Jeremy said.

“Is that why it’s so cold in here? I thought it was you.” Emily smiled teasingly at him.

“In this case, it’s just you,” Jeremy said.

“I never thought I could become a multipath but the potential is said to be genetic and is often triggered by massive trauma,” Emily said thoughtfully.

“You just had a powerful precognitive vision,” Julie interjected. “What did you see?”

“Terrible things that don’t make any sense.”

“Tell us what you can remember,” Julie said gently.

“There are going to be many assassinations on the government by multipaths. No one will be able to figure out how to stop them or figure out who is doing it until years later. There’s a strong possibility that it will be too late by then because of instability and fear. The government will break itself up and sign over power to clusters. Psi-Tech will be put in charge over key territories. We’ll be in one section and Rose will be appointed a leader at some point. Everything is shifting so much that it’s hard to tell what will happen for sure. That’s the most likely outcome but eventually Rose will be found out and imprisoned but not after many years of turmoil. Rose keeps seeing what will happen and changes major events so it’s difficult to see details. Also, there are many precognitives who see what is happening and are doing things in their own lives to protect themselves which is in turn affecting the major outcome.”

“What could other precognitives do to affect the major outcome if they’re only focused on their own lives?” Julie asked with a puzzled frown.

“I can’t see specific events, I just know that if a precognitive has a friend who is in danger due to something Rose does because she views them as a threat or just because they will be collateral damage, that causes a ripple effect when they act to prevent it,” Emily said.

“That makes sense. Is there any way you can hone in on specific events that are important in the near future that can helps us capture Rose?” Julie asked.

“I’m definitely going to try,” Emily said. “But right now, I’m exhausted.”

“Of course. You’ve been through a lot. Whenever you’re ready, you can get started. Until then, just recuperate,” Julie said reassuringly. “Let me know if you need anything.”

She left the room and Kate rushed over to give her daughter a warm, effusive hug.

“I’m so grateful you’re better now,” Kate gushed.

“Thanks, Mom,” Emily said.

Jeremy was so relieved to see his sister all right that he couldn’t bring himself to retire for the evening until late into the night. The next morning, he had the typical operational meeting with Julie and Ryan in the main conference room. Both of them looked grave and tense as though expecting problems. Jeremy braced himself for the bad news as Julie prepared to start their meeting.

“I wanted to start by bringing to your attention that there is a general fear and distrust of telepaths and multipaths because of the strength of their secondary abilities and of course the privacy issues,” Julie said crisply. “There is legislation currently being proposed in the government to monitor and control all telepaths including multipaths. Very soon, new laws will be passed that require them to register their abilities.”

“I hadn’t realized this was going on,” Jeremy said. “To be honest, I hadn’t been watching the news. This could be related to what happens with Psi-Tech.”

“That’s what Ryan and I were thinking. This could be the first step in giving Psi-Tech governmental authority. I could see the possibility of Psi-Tech being assigned as a monitoring agency for telepaths and multipaths. They already have connections to our government and are probably applying pressure behind the scenes for this kind of power,” Julie said gravely.

“Is there anything we can do to stop this?” Jeremy asked.

“You have a couple of friends in the government,” Julie pointed out.

“Yes but nothing close to the clout that Psi-Tech must have.”

“Ryan and I are going to start setting up appointments to meet with government officials. It would help if you could put in a good word for us.”

“Sure, I can do that. I’ll talk to Senator Philips and Senator Ayars who I can probably convince to meet with you,” Jeremy said.

“Is there anyone else you have ties with?” Julie asked.

“I’m sorry but those are the only two.”

“It’ll have to do,” Julie said crisply. “I also wanted to discuss the matter of protection from psychic attack. I noticed that during those times when our minds are grouped together, the attacks against us seem weaker. I think that this is because it gives us a kind of protection and I have an idea on how to use this to our advantage. I’m going to assign each member of our core network four individuals to call if they need immediate assistance. By doing this, our entire network can temporary group together which should offer very powerful protection when needed.”

“Are you sure we would be able to group our minds together quickly enough to fend off any attackers?” Jeremy asked.

“Yes, because every member would have four members that they contact. I believe I could get two hundred members of our network to volunteer for this. I calculate that it would take less than thirty seconds to initiate this protection when needed. I suspect I can get more than two hundred individuals to sign up for this.”

“You realize this is just a theory and that it may not really offer any protection against psychic attacks, don’t you?”

“My intuition tells me that this will afford us very powerful shielding,” Julie said authoritatively.

She discussed several minor issues then dismissed the meeting. Jeremy returned to his office and was surprised to find it was rather easy to convince both senators that he knew to meet with Julie. After he informed her of the good news, he checked on Emily who was in her room resting. Her complexion was pallid and her shoulders slouched with fatigue. Jeremy sensed her connection to the psychic network had weakened so he quickly but carefully strengthened it again.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I haven’t been able to use my abilities,” Emily said. “I suppose I’m kind of burned out.”

“Be careful and try not to use them at all until your link to the network is stronger,” Jeremy cautioned.

“I’ll do my best but my precognition is second nature to me. Trying not to use it is like trying not to breath,” Emily said.

Jeremy frowned at her with concern but didn’t argue. His sister was strong willed and he realized that pressing the issue would just make her defiant. He’d just have to keep a close eye on her to make sure she stayed connected. He harbored serious doubts about Julie’s idea to group together a large conglomerate of telepaths for protection. It simply didn’t seem possible to do something like that in less than a minute. However, Julie continued to surprise him with her resourcefulness so he’d just wait and see.

“You know how to reach me if you need me.” Jeremy smiled teasingly at his sister as he tapped his head with his finger. “I’m just a thought away.”

Emily snorted with mirth and made a shooing motion. Jeremy chuckled and left the room. When he reached his office, he signed into the phone system to help with answering calls but business had dropped to the point that he only received a call every five minutes or so. Most of the telepaths and multipaths who were in jeopardy of losing their lives must have already joined one psychic network or another by now. Julie predicted their business would steadily decline until it reached a plateau. For now, there was more demand for psychic consulting than their ability to fulfill but that may change over time. The most popular use for contractors were the powerful precognitives in advising people on the safety of investments but a close second was investigative work using psychometrists. There were numerous psychometrists who weren’t employed at Psi-Tech or Phoenix Enterprises that could probably do the work but telepaths who were linked in a psychic network possessed much stronger talents than those whose primary ability was psychometry. It was no wonder that the public’s attention was becoming more focused on telepaths and multipaths.

Jeremy gasped as dizziness and disorientation slammed into him like a physical force. He slipped from his chair and collapsed to the floor as impressions flooded through his mind. When the strange and disturbing feeling passed, he slowly picked himself up off the floor and tentatively reached into the network which had more than quadrupled in size. He carefully eased himself into his office chair as he continued to probe at the psychic network that had transformed to accommodate the rapid growth. Normally, when new members joined the link there was no change felt by individuals but this had been such a drastic change that he knew everyone had felt it.

“Jeremy, what the hell just happened?” Julie said sharply.

“The network has grown by over 4 times its original size,” Jeremy said.

“How is that possible?”

“I’m not sure.”

Jeremy was struck with an awful thought and he quickly stifled his reaction so it wouldn’t telepathically transmit to anyone else. He felt his sister reaching for him but he was too busy tracing the psychic network to respond. He merely sent a reassuring thought to her before focusing his attention on the task at hand. Julie and Skylar both tried to communicate but he blocked it. He wanted to confirm his suspicions before he voiced his concerns. He swallowed anxiously as he found the evidence to verify his theory.

“I know what happened,” Jeremy telepathically broadcasted to Julie, Emily and Skylar. “Our network expanded so quickly because someone who recently paid us to link with our psychic network at Phoenix Enterprises just connected with the Psi-Tech network which has already joined six other networks.”

“Are you sure?” Julie asked.

“Yes, I just confirmed it. There was a strain on our network because the structure was changed to accommodate the new links,” Jeremy said.

“That’s just terrific,” Skylar said dourly. “So now Psi-Tech has direct access to our minds.”

“They can attack us at any moment,” Julie said. “I’m going to have to work on my protection plan more quickly than I thought or we’re going to be vulnerable. The question is whether Psi-Tech sought out a member of our network intentionally or if this was some sort of plan that an individual had to increase their psychic potential.”

“If it’s part of a plan that Psi-Tech concocted then we might find ourselves under attack very quickly,” Emily said.