Chapter 3: A New Friend

Lisa was the only one I told my secret to. Mainly because she was the only one that didn't buy the working out story to explain my new look and as no one but my step dad had actually seen my powers at work I didn't have to work hard to get everyone to buy it. Since I normally wear black Dockers and a loose shirt, most people couldn't see a big difference.

As my abilities grew so did my self-confidence. At work things were really working out well. The department head was really impressed with my work to up grade virus detection of our computers as well as to make them hack proof. I'm not sure if it was part of my new abilities or not but my thought process has never been more clear and concise. I had also determined that the virus was inserted into the win95 project via an on line hacker, but we never found out who.

About six months after Bob left I had taken Lisa to the mall so she could buy a new ZZ top cd and on the way home we decided to go the Space Needle for lunch. That's when it happened. We had just finished a nice lunch when I felt an 'itch' in my mind. Without thinking I closed off my mind and the 'itch' was gone. Then slowly opened my mind like looking through a pair mirrored sunglasses. I can see out but nobody else can see in. I started to follow the 'itch'. Lisa was confused but did as I told her. I followed the itch down to the park at the base of the Space Needle where I found a girl about 17 standing by the souvenir stand. She had red hair and the deepest blue eyes. She was about 5'11" with a gorgeous body. I estimated her measurements were 38-27-34 and she had to have about a C or D cup. She was the source of the 'itch'. She was looking around like she was looking for someone. As we got closer to her, I felt the itch get stronger. When we were about 20 yards from her, she saw me and the look on her face told me I was who she was looking for and she was scared.

When we reached her I said, "Hello, my name is Rick Carr."

"Hello," she said nervously, "I'm Sandi."

I decided to be direct and asked. "Why are you trying to get into my mind?"

She paled and said, "How did you know?"

"Because I felt it." I responded.

"If you felt my probe you would have to be more perceptive than most tels," she said.

"Tels?" I asked.

"Yeah you know telepaths." she replied as if I were an idiot.

"Oh."

She looked at me closely then asked, "Why didn't you attack me?"

I was surprised at a question like that. "Why would I want to?"

Now she was surprised, "You must not have had your powers long. Most tels feel threatened by other tels. There are two disciplines, 'the house of light' and 'shadow clan'. They have always feuded but the real danger comes from the rouge tels."

"And which are you?" I asked.

"I used to be from 'the house of light'." she replied.

"Used to be?" I asked.

"Yeah I killed a fellow student when I found out he was a spy for the clan and he attacked me. But the student had already made it look like I was the spy."

"Well where are you staying, because I have a lot of questions?" I inquired.

She looked at me with a little suspicion in her eyes.

When I saw this I said, "Don't worry, if I were after you, you'd already be dead."

"Yeah right," she said not believing me. "I'm not staying anywhere right now."

I smiled, "No prob you can stay with me and my family."

She hesitated and then said, "I don't think I should."

Then Lisa seeing that I really wanted her to stay with us grabbed her hand and said, "Oh come on, it'll be fun."

Sandi smiled, "okay, just for a few days."

"Alright." I said, "my car is this way." as Lisa lead her to the gate.

That evening I found out that she was a telepath and that was it. No other powers. But she understood more about telepathy than I did and agreed to teach me.

The next morning was Saturday. So we went out to the back yard so we would not be distracted.

"Okay, " she said, "the first thing you need to know is how to hide you mind. There are several techniques but the best is to create a cover mind, the best way to describe it would be a mask that looks just like a normal mind."

I won't bore you with details; let's just say that it took me six hours to get it right. After that we worked on mind shields and then mind probes. This was when I found out that not only could I read thoughts but also I could insert commands to change the way a person thinks. After fourteen hours of training with her I had a pretty good headache not to mention being exhausted.

The next day we spent working on mental attacks. After about four hours I was getting nowhere. Then I had an idea. Since the exercise she had me doing was to get around her mind shield I decided to try to go through her mind shield. So I focused my mental energy into a drill to punch through her shield. When I let it loose, it took all of about half a second to get through. She was shocked; "I've never had anyone get through my shields in less than 30 minutes. How did you do it?"

When I told her, she was amazed.

I had to grin when I said, "you should see some of my other tricks. But not here, I'll take you to an old quarry and show you."

At the quarry she asked what I was going to do. I grinned when I said, make gravel. Then I walked up to a 2-ton boulder and after charging up my body I picked it up. Man you should have seen her face.

I couldn't resist teasing her. "You know if your jaw gets any lower your going to get dirt on that lovely chin of yours."