Chapter 5: A Rude Awakening

EARLIER THAT MORNING, a quick stroll through the park had sounded like a superb idea to Daniel. Boy, was he in error.

Though not as nightmarish as his experience in the taxi, it was still almost more than he could handle. Being the only piece of public greenery for miles in any direction, it was packed with people from every walk of life. Mothers pushing prams, fathers playing catch with their sons. Successful businessmen taking an early morning jog, their schedule so flexible as to allow it. Daniel realized his mistake the previous day; his wildly gyrating mind had focused on the loud, insistent thoughts; completely ignoring the quieter, calmer ones that were in fact more numerous.

Though Daniel was relieved that the city was not the vile cesspool of depravity he had initially made it out to be, it was still an unwelcome ache he could not rid himself of.

The kids were the worst. Young and innocent, with no real experience yet in the real world. Their thoughts, while certainly not depraved, were on a level of confusion beyond a psychiatrist's wet dream. The average adult has little or no imagination - their full potential having been beaten into submission in the face of everyday reality - evident from their viewing preferences on prime time television. The spark of creativity that is at the core of every human personality is rendered powerless in nearly all adults; only a rare few - writers, lawyers, directors, tabloid journalists, spin doctors - maintain a vivid imagination, but even they are no match for the average child.

A child can look at this normal, mundane world and superimpose his own fantasies upon it. A boy sitting on the grass verge, subjected to far too many godzilla clones and playing with toy robots, looks up smiling and 'sees' that same robot towering over the city skyline, its dented and scratched carapace glittering in the sunlight as its fists rise and crash down on random appartment blocks, scattering cartoon-like toy figures flying and tumbling out of windows to, for the child, an unknown and unimportant fate.

A girl playing with her cheap plastic dolls as her parents cuddle each other fondly nearby smiles in rapt adoration as a bright pink pony prances about the field whinnying at her, the envy of any drug addict.

These impressions came at Daniel in a confused jumble as he stood rooted to the pavement, none really distinct from any other. His own wildly thrashing imagination lending a surreal element to an already chaotic stream, reminding him disturbingly of a number of LSD trips he had taken while at university.

Looking at a small boy, about three years old, it did not surprise him that he had some difficulty walking. The grass about his feet were covered with an enormous army of all-green soldiers, fighting each other with some difficulty as their feet seemed to be glued onto a piece of board, also green. Fighter jets taking impossible gravity-defying turns, helicopters rushing about at mach five with their deformed rotors unmoving. To Daniel, the effect as they marched and struggled on the grass was like a violently churning sea of algae, something that failed to impress his stomach.

Looking farther afield, he saw a boy chasing a young girl in circles, occasionally reaching out and pulling her hair. To him, here was a fine tassle similar to the one on his aunt's bedroom wall. He made no distinction beyond the fact that one had a ribbon tied to it; one was made for pulling, ergo the other was too; the girl inconveniently attached to it must enjoy it, for why else would she have it? That strangely logical train of thought confused Daniel momentarily as he watched the girl yelling for her mummy and the boy laughing and giggling behind...

"Excuse me," said a clipped, well mannered voice behind him.

Daniel turned around, momentarily dizzy with the sudden snap back to reality. He saw a wizened old man there, holding an empty dog leash and a rolled up newspaper in the other hand. "Um, sorry?"

"You're in my way?" said the old man, a wry expression on his face. "If you don't mind?"

Daniel looked about with confusion for a moment at the wide expanse of green surrounding him, then realized he was standing right in the middle of the footpath. "Oh, uh, sorry. I didn't..." he trailed off, as recognition dawned. "Have I seen you somewhere?" he asked.

"I don't know. Have you?"

Daniel stared for a moment, searching his memories frantically. The taxi ride? No, that wasn't it. Work? No. The clinic? No... hang on. Daniel recalled his swift perusal of his mail before he left the place. "You were at the clinic!"

"Oh?"

"I sat next to you as I read my mail!" Daniel exclaimed.

The old man scrutinized him momentarily then nodded. "Glad we've got that sorted. You're not a complete loss after all. Follow me."

"What?" Daniel asked, but the old man had already wandered off onto the grass. Getting more and more confused by the minute, he gritted his teeth in irritation then stumbled after him.

Eventually they came to a small copse of trees, strangely empty of visitors, where the old man sat on a park bench and motioned for Daniel to join him. Doing so after a moment of hesitation, Daniel sat and waited for the man to speak.

"So, Mr. Stone. How are you coping?"

"I... wait a minute. You have me at a disadvantage. How do you know my name? And what do you mean, 'coping'?" Daniel asked suspiciously.

"Oh, my appologies!" The old man's face broke into a friendly smile as he laughed to himself. "Dear me. Oh my. It's just been such a long time. Sorry," he offered his hand. "I'm Edward Masterton, old boy. Just call me Edward. No need for formalities."

English! thought Daniel as he shook hands. A long way from home.

"Yes, that I am indeed. Though this place does have its charms, I do miss home occasionally."

"Sorry?"

Edward waved his hands. "You surmised correctly where I was from. Pay attention."

Daniel sat still for a moment, stunned. Anxious, he reached out and found... nothing. There was nothing there, the old man's mind was empty, absolutely nothing registered to Daniel.

"Please stop that, it's not polite. You're new, so I'll let you off. But don't do it again please," Edward said with a hint of ice in his voice, all the time still smiling and gazing about at nothing in particular.

"Ah..." Daniel mumbled through his shock. "You're... like me?"

Edward nodded. "More that you're like me. Or us should I say. But me in particular so far."

Daniel shook his head in a daze. "I'm not... I don't know what to say. I thought I was alone."

"Don't be stupid. There's eleven billion people on this wonderful planet of ours, don't be so arrogant as to assume you've been blessed." He looked sharply at Daniel. "You don't think like that do you? Any messianic thoughts lately? Dreams of sitting at the right hand of god and the like?"

Daniel shook his head. "No, certainly not. Besides I'm not particularly religious."

Edward nodded approvingly. "Good. That's an excellent start. It's a real pain educating those who are like that. Pain in a real sense. To them."

Daniel sighed, ignoring that last vaguely worded threat. "I'm confused as hell. What's going on? I assume you haven't approached me for the hell of it."

"Again, correct. It's best if you remain quiet while I explain, then we'll get on to the question and answer session afterwards." Edward waited for a moment for a reply. Finding none, he began.

"You're familiar with the terms ESP, telepathy, telekinesis, mind over matter, that sort of thing. Ah," he waved his finger in admonishment as Daniel opened his mouth to speak. "Don't say anything until I've finished. Anyway," he carried on. "Well, they're for real. Sort of. Not to any great extent, but they're real. You won't find any real life supermen out there, though some of us may look - and act - like it sometimes.

"All men have the potential for such capabilities. ALL. Some animals too. That covers women too, by the way, I'm just old fash... not the animals, the... anyway. There is a kind of... oh, a safety switch, deep inside your brain, that is a real pain in the arse to shift. It is a rare few that can disable it on purpose as no one even knows where or what it is. Most get access to the abilities by accident, like yourself. No one, including those who try on purpose, ever completely rid themselves of that block.

"You may be having control problems. Hardly anyone has such difficulty, as their blocks are more are less intact, so there's not much to control. But with a few, they have a hard time dealing with it. Now, before we carry on with that, lets talk more about strengths.

"There are five, as far as we know, 'types' of 'power', for want of a better term, which in every day language is referred to as telepathy, remote viewing, mind control, telekinesis, and mind over matter. I say types but they're very flexible, they can be used together or individually. These abilities usually come paired; mind control with remote viewing, telekinesis with mind over matter. Telepathy is the odd one out, nearly everyone has that ability to some extent, even normals - though they generally pass it off as a fluke, a daydream or they go running to their therapists. Those who don't are generally laughed at.

"We decided a long time ago that we didn't like the standard terminology. Oh, a long time indeed. Besides, they're real attention-grabbers. Something we certainly don't need. We've been mixing and matching terms for a long time now, but recently we've stabilized the set by hijacking some of the terms used in Julian May's books. Read them yet? Never mind, later. Anyway, 'officially' telepathy is farspeech, remote viewing is farsensing or farsight, mind over matter becomes creativity - though that one isn't the same as the one in the books, it uses the imagination to a large extent so the description applies. For the others we took and made up from other sources. Those with mind control abilities became mentats - don't look at me like that, they used to be called benders up until forty years ago - while those with telekinesis we simply call levitators, lifters or teekays. Remember these, they help protect your privacy. You don't want some damned newshound hunting after a bona fide telepath. They don't chase farspeakers though. Get my drift?

"Now, as for 'us', we have a fairly loose hierarchical system based on strength. How strong you are in your primary skill, how many you have access to, things like that. Intelligence is of course a must. Something that world politics hasn't grasped yet I'm afraid. Anyway, it's not very well organized unfortunately as so many are suspicious, rightly so, and prefer to remain anonymous for safety's sake. There have been... problems with the suits. Both government and corporate. We also have spats with religious types who get wind of us, but they're fairly quick to deal with and not a big problem as they tend to be isolated.

"Daniel, I want to make sure you understand the importance of keeping a low profile. If anyone, I mean ANYONE, gets into a serious level of difficulty, it's simpler for us to, as you people say, 'take them out'." He saw the look on Daniel's face and added hastily, "That is always a last course of action. We are not so many that we can afford to lose anyone, particularly to normals. Oh, by the way, whenever you hear of 'them' or 'they', that's us they're talking about though they don't know it."

"You're kidding!" Daniel exclaimed, forgetting to keep silent.

"Shush. It's a useful piece of misdirection, as we don't have anything to do with the government. Now, we don't have quite as bad a time as I'm making out. It was much worse in the seventies; the obsession the black ops lot had with drugs and population control made things hard for us and we lost quite a few of our number. Be assured Daniel, we are not a soft lot. The cat's out of the bag, so to speak, and the world is not a pretty place for the likes of us. We are determined to survive, and we will do anything to assure that. We will not be openly persecuted. Not again. I can see by the look on your face you're not convinced. Very well, let me tell you a story.

"In the spring of nineteen seventy two, my wife disappeared. I was devastated. I, with my wife, was and still am highly regarded in our group. My work suffered and with that the group suffered. After a brief investigation, it turned out that she had been... taken. By the bloody government of course. Security was too tight, so... well, we arranged for a mentat team to link up and take her out from a distance together with everyone in the building." He sighed with remembrance, his eyes glittering as he saw the look of shock on Daniel's face. "Yes, we killed her, effectively. We burned her out. It was not an easy decision, I assure you, but I knew she would understand. I was not an easy man to live with for a long time, and my standing in the group dropped to as it is now; greatly respected but not relied upon.

"Are you beginning to understand, Daniel? Answer me, I've said as much as I can without feedback."

Daniel was overwhelmed. Here was a society that he had no idea existed, it was way beyond the idealistic conspiracy theories of the time, beyond X-Files, beyond anything he could have imagined. It was a hidden war, similar to the cold war but using different weapons and on a global scale. A war of which the massed millions of normal humanity had no inkling of, and no defence against.

Edward's emotional tale of his wife's fate had done as it was intended; the seriousness of his situation was burned into his brain, the possible danger he was facing a palpable reality. His lack of control was an issue he urgently needed to address, not for his peace of mind but for simple survival. He reflected on his behaviour since leaving the clinic - no! Since waking up! His casual antics towards Dr. Farrell and the orderly, his quite frankly amazing seduction of Elaine, stumbling like a zombie both before and after the taxi ride, his trance-like state earlier as he stood in the park. Even now he was a disheveled mess; hair unkempt, day-old beard unshaved, bags under his eyes. Only his clothes were clean and ordinary, even then barely.

Eventually he refocused his horrified mind back to the present, and looked at Edward who was in turn looking at him with a cool, calculating expression. "Yes," he nodded. "I understand. Believe me, I understand."

Edward nodded slowly, his eyes fixated on Daniel's. "Good. I hope so, for your own sake. Now," he said, rubbing his hands briskly. "Any questions?"

Daniel sat and collected his jumbled thoughts. "I can't block my - farspeech? Mentat powers? Which is it?"

"I don't know. What's the problem?"

"I can hear everyone! I mean everyone! I can't block it out!" he cried.

"Okay. We should assess your abilities, but lets get this out of the way first. Earlier you had a go at reading me. What did you find?"

Daniel stared. "Nothing," he whispered. "There was nothing there."

"Yes there was. Look again, tell me what you see."

Daniel tried again. He fed a tendril of thought into Edward's mind, only to find the same as before - a blank, featureless grey nothingness. A frightening vacuum-like emptiness that he was afraid to cross, a void that seemed to insistently suck at him, beckoning him into a sweet, dreamless oblivi...

"By christ, you're strong. Okay, let me guess, not much, grey messy shit floating around?" Daniel nodded carefully, still concentrating inwardly. "Right, let me... hang on a sec."

Suddenly Daniel saw a tiny gap in the void; an impossible rift in the grey nothingness, shining brilliantly like a newborn star. Then as that bright chink of light widened, everything snapped into perspective as he realized what he was really looking at. "It's a wall!" he whispered.

Edward nodded, his face strained. "Right. Now, please kindly get out, it's giving me a headache trying to maintain that against you."

Daniel quickly retreated and sat back, waiting for Edward to speak.

"It is, as you say, a wall. Or a shield to be precise. A multifunctional one too, damned useful. Not only does it serve to keep your thoughts private, it blocks out random noise as well. Your problem as you describe it is fairly common, it's the first stumbling block that strong telepaths, sorry, farspeakers, have to face."

"How do I make one?" Daniel cried desperately, a shine of hope glimmering in his eyes.

"It's easy. Now, focus inward. I want you to picture a large balloon encircling you. All of you, even your feet. Got it?" Daniel nodded as he slowly visualized a bubble with the same dull grey color as Edward's wall. "Now... hell's teeth! Not so hard, man!"

Daniel felt something stab into his mind roughly, and suddenly his bubble was gone. He opened his eyes and looked up at Edward in surprise, his eyebrows raised questioningly.

"That took me by surprise. Sorry for the interruption there but, Danny boy, it seems like you've got an overactive imagination. You're a bloody creator too!" Edward shook his head wonderingly, then noticed Daniel's look of puzzlement. "Your blasted bubble materialized!"

Daniel froze in disbelief. He didn't doubt Edward's words, but... still. Materialized? Oh come on!

Edward glared at him briefly before continuing. "Lets start again. We'll get back to that other... problem later. Now, revisualize that same bubble but try to keep it intangible. Ghostly."

Daniel tried again. It felt no different from before, but now it was a translucent bubble rather than the glassy opaque wall it had been earlier. Like a large tinted car windshield, he pictured it surrounding him.

Edward nodded to himself. "That's it. Better. Okay, now set it spinning. Try to get it revolving both horizontally and vertically. Uhuh. My, my. That's usually a difficult thing to do but you did it easy. Right, now shrink it down slowly - maintain the spin! - down, yes, down until it covers your head like a helmet. Right, now in one go, shrink it down over your brain, like shrink wrap."

Daniel did it without thinking about the mechanics of it until it was too late, but by then the task was done. He could feel the difference straight away - peace was now his, there were no more unwanted voices yelling at him. It was like a marijuana high; he felt elevated on a pillow of bliss, the previously cloud-darkened vista of his mind swept clean, allowing the naked sunshine through.

"You okay? Relax that shield a bit until I tell you more," said a voice from the edge of his consciousness. With reluctance, Daniel did as he was told and the real world refocused and he looked at Edward.

"Thanks. I... wow, the silence was amazing. IS amazing. Thank you!"

Edward waved his hand dismissively. "It's nothing, easy. With time you should be able to keep that shield up without concentration, it will become second nature. Keep in mind though that it is NOT impermeable. Other tele... farspeakers, particularly mentats, can and probably will try to get through it. You will know when it happens, so when it does be prepared to give it a little boost. As you no doubt noticed, the 'tighter' your shield the less input you have from the outside. You may be able to finetune that later, only time will tell. But don't piss about with that. Too tight and you'll cut yourself off from your own body. NOT a good thing, let me tell you. Now lets move on."