Chapter 11 Herb's story

Herb Stewart received the disturbing call from his son Stan. He analysed what was happening and set in motion all of the preset plans that had been made by the pack. The pack had been attacked so everybody had to know. Those doing it had some esper ability. Very little had to be actually mentioned, just the names of the plans being followed, the names of those captured and the number and disposition of the enemy.

If the pack had not been so organised, very little of this could have been taken care of.

With some soul-searching I called Jeff on his cell.

"Jeff here."

"Hi Jeff."

"Hi Cuss. What's up?"

"This is important, so just do it without asking foolish questions that I will not answer over the phone."

"Sure, you got it."

"Is Greg and Rose with you?"

"Yes —"

"Drive to the farm but stop at the Tim Horton's restaurant before you get there. We will be there in just a while."

"What's this about?"

"Later." I just hung up the phone and continued with my planning. It was possible that we were being monitored and the rest of us were on our toes. I did not detect any people that were extra nervous but they could be using a scope. This reminded me of a rifle and I worried even more.

I called in to inform the hospital that I had a family emergency and so did Kim and Melissa. Since we had not used this excuse before, we got the time off.

We took taxis and then did a lot of shifting around that we hoped would even confuse an esper. Eventually we met some of the pack members. Nothing had changed in the interim.

We raced to the Stamford's farm and our own perceptions were getting hazy because we could now feel the disagreeable hum. The younger children were apparently out of danger and we questioned everyone about new developments. Most of the pack that had been saved, had gone back to the farm with our children. I was angry at Stan and Jessica for pushing the limits this way.

Only a few minutes later we heard a tractor coming and though it was difficult I knew that it was our children. We were further surprised to see some people that were trussed up. We went to an even higher threat posture until Stan started to explain.

I said, "You shouldn't have gone back but you all did well."

"It had very little danger, Dad. The opposition was outnumbered. They were not prepared in the least. Tatum appears to be under some sort of strong compulsion. She and the four others may know a lot about what is going on."

"We can't make any sort of investigation here."

Stan made a good argument for further monitoring of the situation and after and in-depth study we allowed them to stay. We took the other children, the captives, Tatum and the students away. Only a few pack members stayed.

Stan's idea of a mental helmet had a lot of merit so we took some of the supplies he brought and worked on a plan to retake the farm. Some of the pack would get a shop to spray paint some motorcycle helmets with paint and ground particles of metals as a defence.

We drove away while Kim and Melissa helped me to work on Tatum. It was five minutes later that the interference had abated enough for us to really work.

Kim said, "Tatum's mind was mangled by a butcher. I can see what they wanted to do but they did it so crudely."

Before I could say it, Melissa asked, "Show me, we have to heal her."

The three of us worked for half an hour. Most of that time we were waiting in the Tim Horton's parking lot. Greg, Rose and Jeff were already here and anxiously awaiting my appearance.

As the two women healed Tatum, I searched for what had happened. The pack had been picked off one at a time and programmed to lure the rest into a position where they could be safely altered.

From the questions that were asked of Tatum, the group was much older than the pack. They had been doing this for at least three hundred years. Too many had been burnt at the stake for them to be open about their abilities. Over the years they had gained strength and abilities. They had a much wider arsenal than we did but their abilities were not up to ours. Since Tatum had to pee in a bottle, we knew that they now were taking abicore.

Tatum knew very little because she was treated like a slave. There was a lot she was not allowed to do and her conditioning made her not even want to go against her masters' wishes.

The Hamiltons were very security conscious and there should be very little known about them. With the amount of time they had been around we had to figure that the family was very large and very powerful. They would gain a lot of money and control a lot of politicians. Security concerns would be the reason they were not the obvious leaders.

From scraps of phrases, Tatum thought that the Hamiltons had done this sort of attacks before but usually it was just one or two individuals they had found. This to me meant that they were on the lookout for espers.

The espers they found were assimilated like the Borg but the units were all slaves. The Hamilton family was always the Master.

I went into the coffee shop and the three got up, I bought eight cups of coffee and went to the table. "Hi. Let's go outside."

They all wanted to ask now but held their tongues for a few minutes. Our four cars were in a far corner. Greg could not help himself and asked, "What is all this about, Herb?"

"Piper and the girls encouraged your brains to change just a bit so your abilities were strengthened or started from scratch as in Rose's case."

I paused and they got around this simple idea well enough. "Piper is the leader of what we call the pack. It has many similarities to a dog pack and they are the same as a clan or a tribe. The pack worked on itself and is many times more powerful than they let on."

Jeff said, "Powerful in what way?"

"The pack can read minds and push out their thoughts to those that are not in the pack."

We reached the cars and I handed out the coffees. Greg said, "That is startling news but there is more."

"There sure is."

"Our paranormal abilities extend to being able to hover over the ground or fly."

"I don't believe that."

"Fine but wait. Our telepathy allow us to link as a single unit. This gestalt is very powerful. It's like a super, super computer. All you do is put in all the data and ask questions. If there is not enough data to suggest a solution, certain experiments are called for to gather new results. That is how we can do so well but you have no idea of what we have done or could do. The sad fact is that when we break the connections, we lose the mental power and even forget much of the information we worked on."

Rose said, "Is that how you worked on the DNA and schizophrenia?"

"You're right Rose. We are working on a power source that will end our reliance on petroleum. We are making headway in antigravity but so far a device can only elevate about a centimetre. We made great capacitors that hold much more power than any battery ever thought of."

Jeff said, "Why are those people sleeping in the cars? Are they drugged?"

"I see that this conversation is making you very uncomfortable. We thought we were the only organised group of espers. There were naturals like the Stewart clan. There were others produced by drugs. So far we thought we were basically alone. We were wrong."

They looked at me waiting and I said, "There is a family by the name of Hamilton. We just learned about it in the last hour. They are not as talented as we are but they overcame this discrepancy with electronic devices.

"We heard some odd data from New York and LA. A small team was sent to the former. We thought we were chasing one rogue esper that could endanger all of us. We were found instead.

"The Hamilton family captured the people sent there and put a mental compulsion on them to tell everything they knew. This compulsion would make the person their puppet in every way.

"Tatum came back with a gang of slaves and some Hamiltons to capture the pack. They would take Piper and then take over everyone that arrived later. In time they would get everybody."

Jeff said, "Where is Piper and Jacqueline?"

"The farm was attacked. Everybody but the kids were captured. Stan had on a special helmet that connected to a mental amplifier. This shielded his mind when a device sent out a powerful surge of mental power. It crippled everybody that was an esper and probably all the normals that were nearby too."

I paused for them to absorb what was said. Greg said, "Call out the army and the police."

"If we do that, the world will know of what we are. I want the world safe for us and I want the world safe from us. This can only be done by strong laws and an organisation like the pack to prosecute the rogue espers."

"What are you going to do?"

"We attack of course."

Rose was almost crying. She said, "They have to have guns. You will get killed."

"We developed some good armour but there is not enough for everybody. We can fly when necessary. Teargas and puke gas will be used. We have silenced weapons but we don't want to use them on people. I came to you people for some help in a tactical sense and because when we rescue Jacqueline, she will talk about what happened to her."

Bert was the one to say, "What do you have to fight with?"

Bert and Jeff were not that important to us. We had read the minds of a great many military and political strategists. This knowledge we now had. We wanted the three family members to be part of our group. I was not going to be like the Hamiltons and put a very strong compulsion on them. They already had a weak one and it did not hinder their thinking.

Pack from all over came to take part in the attack. Too many were in LA but we could not wait for them to arrive.

Greg, Rose and Jeff were pulled into a link. They were more of a hindrance but I wanted them here so they figured they helped and to let them understand what we really were.

When the plan was made, we broke up into units. Tatum and then the other four people were allowed to awake. All their old conditioning was removed and their minds started on the road to complete healing. In the meantime they got the standard conditioning we gave everybody that joined us.

Tatum was tired and drawn out. "You have to stop those people. They have my mate and my friends."

Kim held her and said, "We will do everything we can. They have Piper, Ellen and Jacqueline too."

Tatum and then her four assistants agreed to help us. They were going to act the way she had been a few hours ago. They were to try to drug as many of the force as possible and that included our own people that would be fighting us.

The five moved out with new weapons and our drugs. We all hated to see them go into danger but some things had to be risked or we would lose all.

At the right time we tied in with the rest and we moved units into position. When word came back we infiltrated much closer and took out individual sentries. The trucks were allowed to get much closer.

On my mark, they launched a heavy barrage of teargas and puke gas. We had good helmets that stunk of fresh paint and we had all sorts of gas masks that came from every imaginable source.

There were few outside the range of the gas and these we attacked from the air.

Bert said from a position five hundred metres from the battle, "My god, you were not telling me a lie. Your people can fly."

I was busy using radios and cell phones because I could not direct this battle with my mind the way I would like to do.

We hoped for a blitz but the Hamiltons were able to mount a good defence even with the gas.

What frightened me the most was Piper and Ellen racing out of the house. They were armed and I did not think it was to help us.

Pack was nearby and I communicated with difficulty what I was going to do and they fought me.

I ran as fast as I could to the farmhouse while yelling verbally and mentally to Piper. She was shooting people and killing our people. The Arachnids attacked first. She was shocked at the sight but reluctantly brought up her gun and shot at our children. I raced even faster.

Somebody threw a grenade near Piper and she shifted into overdrive and raced around shooting at our children. Ellen was on the ground retching. I raced in and used my hand to knock out Ellen and then I raced to my wife.