Chapter 32

(Mandy)

We got into registration a short while after the debacle at the gate, I got a few friendly hellos from various people. The three of us sat down at the back and chatted while we were waiting.

"Have you seen that the new film with Brad Jones is out," Jane said excitedly, "he is such a hunk!"

"Yeah pretty easy on the eyes," grinned D, "We should go see it, maybe Sunday. What d'ya reckon Tish?"

"OK I guess," I said half heartedly.

"What, you don't like Brad Jones!" Jane exclaimed.

"Not really, I always found his films a little boring. I know Gwen likes him though," I said.

"Maybe we should invite her along too," said D thoughtfully, "she could probably use a little fun."

"I think she'd like that," I replied.

"I can't believe you don't like Brad Jones," said Jane in a disbelieving tone, grasping her red hair in her fists on either side of her head like she was going to pull it out in shock.

She looked set to ask me more but at this point Mr Griffiths stormed into the room. He began taking the register so I sat back waiting for my name to be called. About half way through there was a knock at the door and one of the Admin staff a tall thin woman with very short black hair walked in. She whispered something to Mr Griffiths who frowned then nodded.

"Dorothy Newman, Jane Collins, and Amanda Wilson, come with me please, the head needs to see you," the woman said in a neutral but authoritative voice.

We grabbed our things and headed off after the woman.

"What's this about?" asked Jane.

"I'm afraid I don't know, I was just told to come get you three," the woman said.

She lead us through the school struggling a little against the traffic when the bell went. She took us to the admin block and towards Mrs Thomas's office.

When we entered the outer office where Mrs Thomas's nasty secretary Mrs Donal, who thankfully was absent, unsually sat, Jane twitched as if surprised.

"Hmm, there are two people in there that seem to be telepaths," said Jane with a frown.

We were ushered into the office where Mrs Thomas and her guests were waiting. One was a very attractive brunette woman with sparkly blue eyes that looked very friendly. The other was a tall thin white haired man with fierce piercing grey eyes dressed head to toe in an odd gray suit with white highlights. Something about him bothered me. Both of their minds felt shielded but it didn't stop me reading their emotions. I guessed I probably couldn't interfere with their emotional state, not that I would. I guarded my thoughts carefully, unsure how much they would be able to read.

The white haired man's attention swept across us.

"Hey!" said Jane angrily, "it's terribly rude to invasively read someone's mind without even asking!"

He snorted and shifted his focus to me. His powers were very strong I could feel it. I locked myself down tight. He frowned, his glare intensified and I could feel his frustration as he clawed at my mind trying to force his way in.

"Open up!" he said through gritted teeth.

"NO! I don't even know who you jokers are!" I said defensively, feeling very uncomfortable about complete strangers turning up in odd uniforms trying to force their way into my head. If I didn't roll over for Trisha I sure as hell wasn't going to do so for some weirdo in a bad suit.

"My apologies," said the woman with a tight smile. She was very nervous and slightly on edge, "My colleague can be a bit blunt."

"Why don't you girls sit down," said Mrs Thomas.

The man swung his head in her direction sharply as if he had only just realised she was there.

"It would be better if you would leave," he said.

"For whom?" Mrs Thomas said and sat down at her desk making no move to leave.

The man scowled at her but sat down on a sofa on the far side of the room with his companion who was looking at him anxiously. D, Jane, and I grabbed chairs and sat down wondering what was going on.

"Get on with it then," the man said to the woman.

"Ah yes well," the woman flustered before regaining her train of thought. "My name is Tanya Franklin, I represent the International Association of Telepaths, Telesensors and Empaths. This is my colleague ah..."

"Smith ... John Smith," said the white haired man. I could tell straight away he was lying, it was harder to tell than with most people, he seemed to have training at controlling his emotions but I could still tell. Of course the pause from his companion was rather telling too. Plus couldn't he have picked a different alias than John Smith it practically screamed fake.

The woman was not concealing anything of her feelings, she was extremely uncomfortable with whatever was going on and a little afraid of the man to her right. I was getting very suspicious of what was going on, I focused on locking down my head as much as possible.

"We are here to investigate the allegations you raised about another pupil here Trisha Jackson, specifically that she used her abilities to influence one of you against your will."

D told the story with me and Jane chipping in various bits here and there. The man John Smith stared out the window projecting a sense of boredom and complete disinterest. I guess he had ripped the essentials from my two friends' minds.

The woman was very nice and friendly and asked questions making notes and filling out some sort of report. She asked for D's permission to examine her memories of the incident to verify that she was under control which D agreed to. Once she was done she said that she had enough to take action against Trisha. She would be given the choice of expulsion from school with a black mark on her records to indicate that if she were caught again she would face jail time, or she could go to some sort of retraining facility where she would be coached in more responsible uses of her powers. If she chose this option she would be returned to school afterwards with a clean slate and only occasional monitoring if she showed she had learned her lesson. She told us we could go back to our lessons and thanked us for our help.

As we made for the door, "You!" said the white haired man jabbing a finger at me, "Just one more moment."

The woman Tanya looked exasperated at that but slumped a bit in resignation, "If we could please just have a few more moments of your time Amanda it would be helpful."

I nodded and stayed.

"Leave us!" gestured Smith to Mrs Thomas.

"And have you interrogate one of my student alone! Not likely!" said Mrs Thomas.

The man did nothing but I sensed a brief flare of activity between him and the woman.

She winced very briefly and said sweetly "It will only take a moment we just wish to ask Amanda some more ... sensitive questions, you can wait right outside the door." Her emotions told a different story. I tensed up worrying that I would be in for a fight.

Mrs Thomas eventually nodded looking a little unsure, I got the feeling that if she had said no then things might have gotten rough. I wasn't sure who this Smith represented but it didn't seem like some essentially benevolent regulatory group. There was something far more sinister in his actions.

Mrs Thomas paused at the door and said to me, "I'll be right outside the door, if you need any help just call."

I sat back in my chair waiting to see what would happen next. The man put a briefcase onto the desk next to him and extracted a small square object which he slapped onto the door. There was a strange humming noise but other than that it didn't seem to do anything. Then he spun suddenly and attached a thing to my forehead. I let out a scream.

"Oh do be quiet that will just relax you," He said.

He was right it had relaxed me so much that I couldn't move my arms and legs. I slumped in the chair like a puppet with its strings cut.

"What have you done to me," I wailed scared. "HELP! HELP!"

At every cry for help the woman cringed and looked more and more worried.

"Don't bother to waste your breath that gizmo on the door prevents sound from carrying. No one out there can hear us now. And don't bother trying to alert your little friend out there I'm blocking any telepathic contact," Smith said.

I became frantic trying to move I began throwing my head around violently the only bit of me I could move. "Stop that! You will not be harmed if you cooperate!" he said.

For once he was telling the truth at least as he saw it. I relaxed a little but was still a bit terrified.

"What do you want!" I spat angrily.

"Information!" He replied.

"You'll not get it!"

He chuckled to himself at that, "Come now that is no way to treat an official of the IATTE."

"You're not with them you big fat liar," I replied. "I'm not telling you a thing, you could be anyone. Official people don't work like this."

He seemed momentarily taken aback that I knew he was not who he pretended to be. He was sure clueless that his disguise fooled nobody, "Fine, let me lay it out for you. You are blocking an agent in the line of his duties, this is a serious charge and I have complete authority."

I stared at him resolute that he wasn't going to get away with this. He went back to his briefcase and pulled out some kind of scanner and began recording data including fingerprints and even taking a blood sample.

"Get off me! You can't do that you bastard," I screamed.

"I can do whatever I want!" he shouted back arrogantly. "Now open up!"

He grabbed me by the shoulders and tried to mentally batter his way through my defenses. He failed several times, each time trying a different way to get in. His attacks were much more powerful than I had experienced from any other telepath or at least he seemed to know exactly how to bypass normal shielding. I was lucky I was made of sterner stuff so even with his abilities my mind stayed locked down tight. He growled with frustration then went back to his case and came back. He tried again this time just as he attacked he jabbed some sort of shock thing into me. The surprise made me drop enough of my mental defenses that he got slightly into my mind.

"AHA!" he shouted.

He started searching my mind but began butting up against other mental defenses and the parts of my brain hard-wired to keep telepaths out. He also triggered a rather nasty autonomic defense mechanism, and my darkest and most painful experiences all rolled in a neat looping package blasted its way back along the link. His mind was well trained snapping in defenses of his own as soon as he felt it coming but it was like air gun pellets trying to stop a freight train. His mind was woefully under protected compared to mine and it just smashed straight through his meager shields like they weren't there.

He screamed out in pain grabbing his head, collapsing to the floor clawing at his face.

I decided that now was the time to get rid of the illegal data he had collected on me.

Not being able to move actually seemed to help with this. Normally to generate heat I had to use my body as a sort of focal point but since it was mostly limp I tried something new. With a little concentration I was able to mentally conjure up a imaginary hand over on the table to focus my powers and my recent practice allowed me to control it better. If it had been earlier on I probably would have roasted the entire room in an inferno. I focused on his briefcase content heating it as fast and as much as I could. His fancy gadgets were reduced to scrap in seconds. The metal briefcase functioned as a heat sink absorbing and dissipating the heat, which was lucky otherwise the hot scrap might have set fire to the case or burned into the desk. I decided I could use this to cover my tracks a bit, I focused on the sections holding the case open making them collapse by destroying the tiny metal pins with a blast of heat. The lid snapped down and I focused on the latch welding it shut.

After a few minutes he got a grip on himself, "You little bitch!" he shouted.

"Now you know one of the reasons I don't let telepaths poke around my mind without my say so," I said firmly, "It's too dangerous for them, you got off lucky!"

He staggered to his feet and ripped the widget that was keeping me stuck there off my head, "Get out!" he shouted.

I made for the door and was just about to open it and race off when a thought occurred to me. With him distracted perhaps I could use a little subterfuge to gain some information.

I opened the door and stealthed myself as I pretended to rush out but instead I quickly ducked behind a cupboard that was next to the door to hide my movement, and shut it again.

Once they thought I was gone they began to talk, "What on earth happened!?" asked Tanya.

"Some sort of psychic backlash, it's listed in her files. I guess for once they weren't exaggerating," Smith said.

"Was it really necessary to do that to that poor girl?!"

"I have my orders and it's not for you to question them Miss Franklin. You know the deal, you assist us when we need it and your little indiscretions get wiped off your records. So do your part and see that it remains that way."

"I know the deal! It didn't include anything about interrogating girls or the possibility of handing them over to your agency!"

"I'm altering the deal, pray I don't alter it any further."

"Yes, thank you Darth," she said with a sour expression, I wondered what she meant. Was that his real name or something? My gut told me it wasn't, "I still can't believe it, a mighty Spectre beaten by a school girl! I though you guys were supposed to be the best, she could even tell off the bat you were lying."

"Think what you like Miss Franklin, she is an unusual individual."

"So are you going to disappear this Jackson girl or do I take her in?"

"I think she is far too unstable for our purposes and despite her power she is clumsy. Though she was found out by this Wilson girl who would probably be a match for most telepaths. I will make my report and maybe my superiors will think differently. For now Miss Franklin, you may train that stray like the good dog catcher you are."

"What about Amanda Wilson?"

"I have no time to look into her now, I will report this data and they will make a decision."

I shifted slightly and must have made a noise as he froze. For a second seemed to relax, though his mind stayed tense. He wandered over towards the door seemingly to retrieve the sound blocking device. Then he lunged suddenly at the wall next to the door where my hiding place was.

He grasped air, "Hmm guess it was nothing."

Preached on the wall above the cupboard I gave a mental sigh of relief.

"What was that about?" said Tanya.

"Oh nothing, I should be going. I will be in touch when I need you," Smith said as he tried to open his briefcase to put the two gadgets in there, but it wouldn't bulge. "Damn lock always sticks."

He grabbed it off the desk then stormed off. I noticed a slight discolouration in the varnish on the edge of the desk where the heat from my incinerating his toys had leached out. Tanya followed him looking more dazed than before. I swiftly leapt to the floor and silently followed her out.

"I trust that this is everything Miss Franklin," Mrs Thomas said with a stern look.

"Yes Mrs Thomas, I will need to talk to Miss Jackson in private to see what she decides," she replied.

"Can we go then Miss?" asked D.

"Yes run along you three," answered Mrs Thomas.

"Amanda," said Tanya before we went out, "I'm sorry about Mr Smith, he is not a people person."

I nodded and the three of us dashed off to science.

Once we were out of sight D turned to me and said, "OK what did you hear on your little spying session Tish?"

"What do you mean," I said innocently, trying hard to suppress a grin.

"Door opens you vanish from the doorway door shuts on its own," Jane said, "then you sneak out from behind that woman making sure she doesn't see you. Come on Tish we're not idiots."

I giggled a little then tried to think of what to say. I might potentially be putting my friends in danger by telling them. Still I didn't want to start keeping secrets from them and if Mr Smith disappeared me they might be at risk anyway, better to give them some idea what they were up against.

"Have either of you heard of something called a spectre?" I asked.

"It's some sort of ghost, isn't it?" said Jane furrowing her brow.

"Yeah, but I suspect it must mean something else in this context as apparently Mr Smith is one, and I don't think he was dead or anything. It sounded like he was blackmailing that woman so he could come along to check Trisha out for possible recruitment," I said.

D was looking at me with a frown, "They're supposed to be a myth," she said.

"Who?" asked Jane.

"Spectres, sort of telepathic super spies. I always thought they were a joke," she paused biting her lip with a look of intense concentration as if she was trying to remember something. "The way I heard it they spy on people and governments. Though it's not clear who they work for, if they are part of the government, some sort of private security, or maybe a wing of some criminal outfit. The rumours say they take young powerful telepaths, train them in all sorts of techniques both combat and powers related. Then they use them both overtly as agents like Smith or even more subtly as the ones no one spots."

"Smith was angry about me keeping him out of my head, he tried forcing his way in..." I started.

"He tried forcing his way in!" exclaimed Jane, "Well that's just one more bit of proof he wasn't who he said he was. That's a big no no for IATTE, they won't force their way in under any circumstances."

"He tried for a long time and eventually he distracted me with some sort or electric shock and got in slightly. Then my mind did that thing it does to telepaths with sharp thoughts used as weapons and he broke off," I said with a shrug.

"Why didn't you come get us?" asked D angrily.

"He put some widget on my head that made it impossible to move and another on the door to block the noise. I was paralysed and shouting like mad. He also decided to take scans and blood samples of me," I said.

"You could have called to Jane we were in range," D suggested.

"He said he was blocking any telepathic contact."

"Well so that was that odd fuzzy feeling I got right after we left the Office. He was messing with me. This is all pretty scary," said Jane hugging her arms around herself, "An agent of some highly secret agency turns up at our school and starts taking an interest in Tish. He just waltzes in and gets blood samples, scans, and tries to interrogate you telepathically."