Chapter 26: Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Jake dropped two handfuls of Wal-Mart bags on the kitchen counter at the farmhouse. The light of sunrise was shining in through the window. He went back into the car, brought back a McDonald’s bag, and handed it to his father who had been sitting at the kitchen table, watching him without saying a word. He glanced into it.

“I’m sure they’ll enjoy a hot meal.”

Jake selected one of the Wal-Mart bags and handed it to Harris. Harris pulled out a drip coffee maker, a large can of ground coffee, some filters, and a ceramic mug.

“You’ve got all my money and the Cox’s, too, and you’re buying appliances at Wal-Mart?”

“If you wanted me to have more expensive tastes, you should have brought me up better.”

“Ouch.”

Jake handed him a thumb drive. Harris woke his computer and copied over his files.

“How are they?” Jake asked.

“Same as last time. Well, maybe a little more stir crazy. Let me get them started on the day.”

Jake nodded. Harris went down the hall and a minute later Rose Cox appeared in the hallway, dressed in her underwear and making her way to the bathroom by feel. She came out a minute later and stood there. She couldn’t see, hear or talk, but she could smell the Egg McMuffins.

Harris took one out of the bag and handed it to her. She unwrapped it, dropping the wrapper on the floor. She took a bite and chewed slowly, savoring the taste.

“I have some questions for you,” Jake said to Harris as they watched her eat.

“Shoot.”

“I want to know more about how you conditioned the servants.”

Jake sensed uneasiness in Harris.

“I told you how I burn out their sense of self.”

“That makes them easily managed, but there’s got to be more to it than that.”

“Just some loyalty mods.”

“How do you install them?”

Harris hesitated. “You know enough now to come up with something just as good as I used to do. You don’t need my help.”

“Your servants have always been completely obedient to me. I’ve never had issues with their loyalty.”

“Obedience is their nature,” he said grudgingly. “They’re perfect servants.”

“You’re hiding something. Spill it.”

Jake felt Harris deflate.

“The hallmarks of a well-constructed slave are loyalty and obedience. When I sold them to other mind readers, they expected both qualities. But no mind reader would buy one without assurance that I wasn’t planting an agent in their household.”

“Assure them how?”

“I’d stick in a loyalty control during their preparation. Initially they were imprinted on me. Upon delivery and payment, I would tell the buyer how to locate the control. He was then free to alter it to make himself the target of their loyalty.” He gave Jake an amused smile. “But you can be sure that the servants also got scanned very thoroughly for Trojan horses.”

“So my five servants are still loyal to you.”

“Yes.”

“And why have they never been disloyal to me?”

“They’re being obedient, not loyal. You must never have ordered them to do something that conflicted with their duty to me.”

“Huh,” Jake said, and sat quietly for a minute. Then he glanced at Harris. “There were several times that I almost ordered one of them to come over and check up on you.”

“But you didn’t. And do you know why? It’s because you are the luckiest son of a bitch I’ve ever met. They were my last hope. I can’t disobey you, but with them, I wouldn’t have had to do anything. They would have recognized my problem and rescued me.”

Rose finished her sandwich and went back down the hall to her room. Harris followed her. Tommy appeared a minute later and stumbled into the bathroom.

“He’s looking better,” Jake said.

“He needed to lose the weight.”

“How do I find their loyalty controls?”

“You’d have to bring them to me to show you where they are. It’s different in each one. Their exact location depends on where I found the mental structures that I needed to construct them.”

“Why do I keep you alive? How many more traps am I going to dodge before I finally fall into one?”

Tommy emerged from the bathroom. Harris handed him the last Egg McMuffin. Tommy shambled down the hallway with it back to the bedroom. Harris sat back down.

“That was my last trick if you can even call it that. It’s not like I planned it. Your goddamned controls won’t allow me to actively plot anything. My only hope was something passive. The thing with the servants wasn’t a plot. I just recognized the possibility that it might work out for me if things fell out just right. It was too much of a long shot to even get my hopes up.”

Jake stared at him for a minute.

“I’ve got a problem. I need your advice. I’ve pissed off the Council. They ordered me to move to Oklahoma City and I balked.”

“So soon? You’re only 13.”

“I’m 14 now, Dad. They sent an investigator to look for you. When he questioned me, I was difficult.”

“How difficult?”

“You know that testicle pain thing I did to you?”

“So they gave you two chances to show them that you’d be a good boy, and you blew both of them.”

Jake nodded.

“And now you’d like to know what to expect?”

He nodded again.

“I’ve never heard of anyone standing up to the Council before. Not to say that it hasn’t happened, but I’ve never heard anyone bragging about it afterward. I never even considered doing something like that, no matter how insufferably the Council acted. And believe me, they can be really insufferable.”

“Why not?”

“My mother made it clear that I might get away with a little teenaged rebellion with her, but the Council would crush me like I were a fly.”

“Do you know anything about Oliver Wise?”

“Who?”

“Miami.”

“No. I never did any business with him.”

“For my orientation, they sent this old guy named Hamilton. At one point Hamilton had this thought—when someone pissed off the Council, Philadelphia would call Miami. Hamilton never heard what was said and he didn’t know what Miami did, but Hamilton never heard anything more about the trouble makers.”

“If you’re thinking the worst, you might not be far wrong. These guys have been controlling every mind reader in the country for as long as I’ve been alive. They don’t fuck around. I made sure you understood that when I first told you about the Council.”

“What would you do to protect yourself from them?”

“How can I answer that without knowing what they plan to do? The only thing you can do for sure is to disappear to one of the territories they don’t control. But when you do, take everybody with you that you care for. Anyone you leave behind can be used as leverage against you.”

“What if I go after them first?”

“Jake, my idiot son, the Council are the five strongest, meanest, most ruthless telepaths in the country and they stick together. If you take on even just one of them, you have to deal with them all.”

“Come close everyone,” Jake said. “Now that you can see the neurological level, I’m going to show you something you can do with it. Everyone touch Kara to get your best resolution.”

Alice, Shannon, and Nina crowded around her. Julie and Carol stuck their arms through the gaps and laid their hands on Kara, too.

“Look at Kara’s prefrontal cortex,” Jake said.

“Where’s that?” Julie asked.

“That’s the front-most part of the brain, right behind her forehead. That brings up an important point. At the neurological level, we are directly manipulating the brain. The more you know about the anatomy of the brain the better. If nothing else, that gives us all a vocabulary we can use to talk about what we are doing. A little book learning here will stand you in good stead.

“Now back to what I was saying. Look at Kara’s prefrontal cortex. I’m going to project a bit of energy into it. It will look to you like a little spotlight. Get ready. Now. Do you see me wiggling it back and forth?”

“I see it,” Julie said. “Neat.”

“Good. Now follow the pointer as I move it around. I’m going to move it posteriorly. That is in the direction of the back of the brain, toward the occipital lobe. Look carefully because I’m going to split the pointer into three and show you some very small nerves.” Jake leaned over Nina and touched Kara. “There. Is there anyone who doesn’t see the three nerves I’ve illuminated?”

Again no one spoke.

“Now I’m going to send a trickle of energy into each of those three nerves at the same time.”

Jake did. Kara slumped down, asleep. Jake reached over Nina and grabbed Kara’s shoulders before she could slip out of her seat.

“Did you all see that? Anyone miss it?”

“How did you hit all three nerves at once?” Nina asked.

“You already know the answer to that. It’s the same one I always give you for how to do something at the intuitive level.”

“You just think it,” Nina said.

“Exactly. The way we view the neurological level is very different than the intuitive level, and the things we can do in that mode are very different as well, but the technique we use is the same. Just think it. With a little practice, your brain will create the intended effect. Now, since you asked, Nina, you are the one who gets to try it. As is almost always the case, you need to use a very light touch. You are going to just brush her nerves with a little energy. Too much and you burn things up. Start with the right-most of the three nerves, Nina. Project a small amount of energy.”

“But what if I mess up?” she asked. “I don’t want to turn her into a vegetable.”

“I’m your training wheels, darlin’. I’ll intervene before you can do her any harm. Go ahead and do it.”

Nina concentrated for several seconds in vain.

“Look at my mind while I do it, Nina,” Jake said. “I’m going to paint one of her nerves with a wisp of energy.” Jake did so. “Now I’m going to do the same to all three nerves. Watch.”

After a moment, Jake stopped and looked at Nina expectantly.

“I saw you in action,” she said. “But that’s not the same as knowing how you did it. I’ll try again.”

“Good. Just remember, don’t strain. It may take a few tries but it’ll come to you, and once you have the touch, you’ll see how easy it is.”

Nina focused again. It took her several more tries, but the knack came to her quickly, and she was able to energize that nerve.

Jake woke Kara. She was a bit groggy.

“Now, Nina. All three nerves at once to put Kara to sleep.”

Nina focused and Kara dropped off to sleep again.

“Perfect, Nina. Now you have the cure if anyone has insomnia. Who wants to go next?”

Eventually, all five students in the class learned the technique. Kara, after being awakened for the fifth time was getting a little out of sorts.

“Okay, everyone, think back on yesterday’s lesson on projecting emotions. On the count of three, we all send gratitude to Kara for being our experimental subject. One, two, three.”

All six, Jake and the five students, projected gratitude into Kara simultaneously.