Chapter 28: Thursday, August 12, 2010

Thursday, August 12, 2010

“The MRI was inconclusive,” Dr. Worden said. “We’d like to schedule the electrophysical study next.”

“No,” Ellen said. “No more tests. Please arrange for Jake to be discharged.”

“But, Mrs. Fielding, we need to learn what happened to Jake yesterday. If it happens again, it could kill him.”

“If you’ll give us a referral to a cardiologist, we’ll follow up.”

“Any other cardiologist would just have Jake admitted to a hospital for this same test.”

“Perhaps. But we’ll be leaving today.”

Dr. Mahoney frowned. “I can’t emphasize how serious this matter is, Mrs. Fielding. If you remove Jake from the hospital you will be putting him in substantial danger.”

“I understand your position. Nonetheless, the decision has been made.”

“Maybe we should discuss this outside,” he said.

“No. Let Jake hear.”

“Very well. You should know that we could contact the child welfare authorities and have them intervene. If necessary they could put Jake in a foster home to ensure that he gets the necessary care.”

Ellen looked over at Jake and raised her eyebrows. Jake adjusted both doctors and nodded at Ellen.

“So, how long until Jake can be discharged?” Ellen asked.

“It will take a couple of hours for the paperwork,” Dr. Worden snapped. “I will make it clear in your son’s medical records that you refused the test that he needs and that you insist on having Jake leave the hospital against medical advice.”

“If you must,” Ellen said.

She sat at Jake’s bedside and waited for the doctors to leave.

“That was impressive, Jake,” she said when they were alone. “You left all their attitudes in place except for the little adjustments that made them stop arguing. After they threatened me, I wouldn’t have been as gentle.”

“They were kind of jerks about that, though they obviously thought they were doing the right thing. It’s not like we could tell them what was really going on.”

With the doctors gone, Boris, Jan, Kara, and Leanne came in.

“I’ve got to wait for them to discharge me,” Jake said. “It’ll probably take a couple of hours. Since you all are here, let’s plan our next move. First, it looks like we’re at war. Any discussion?”

“As far as we’re concerned,” Boris said. “I doubt that the Council realizes it yet. They may know that something went wrong, or maybe they’ll figure it soon. But either way, they won’t know exactly what.”

“Good,” Jake said. “They won’t expect it when we hit them.”

“Hit them how?” Kara asked.

“We’re going to take control of the Council,” he said.

“That sounds reckless, Jake,” Leanne said.

“No, this is war,” Boris said. “Everything is changed now. It is us or them. Jake’s life is at stake, and maybe all of ours, too. I would like to hear what Jake has in mind.”

“I talked to my father yesterday,” Jake said. “He told me the Council will stand together. An attack against one will be met with a response from all of them. We also know from my orientation that the Council can call on other mind readers to do their bidding.

“So, we have to deal with all five members at once. Any that remain would come after us. Also, we have to take care of them before they can get reinforcements.

“I propose five simultaneous attacks, one on each member of the Council. We should have the advantage. We can send two of us after each of them, and we have much greater range than they do. If we can surprise them we can win this war in one night.”

“It goes without saying that a lot of things could go wrong,” Boris said.

“That’s why we need to scout out each home base. We need to know enough that we can pick the right time and place, and take them all at the same time.”

“Your plan rests on several assumptions, Jake,” Boris said. “First, that we actually do have a range advantage. Second, that there is a position in each city from which we can launch our attacks. Third, that our targets will be where they are supposed to be when we launch the attack.”

“That’s true,” Jake said. “But if we can verify the assumptions, or if we can make them true, it will work.”

Boris scratched his chin while he considered things. “Learning the lay of the land and the habits and plans of our targets will require reconnaissance. We don’t know which ones operate from their homes and which have a separate office. We don’t even know if we can get close enough to bring them within range.”

“My father has already told me what he knows about the council. Today we can question Wise. He obviously has some kind of regular contact with them. I might go and visit my grandmother in New Orleans. She’s quite old. There’s no telling what she might have learned over the years. Then, we’ll split up into teams and case the homes and offices of the Council members. After all that, we should know if my plan is any good.”

“If we attack late at night,” Jan said, “we can focus on their homes. We won’t have to worry about their offices or their staffs. We’ll also be more likely to catch them unaware.”

“I like the idea of a night attack,” Boris said.

“But how can we be sure that we have a range advantage?” Leanne asked.

“We know we have one over my father. When we interrogate Wise and my grandmother we can find out about theirs. We can also ask them about the range of other mind readers.”

“But the Council are supposed to be the strongest mind readers,” Leanne said.

“If we don’t have a range advantage,” Jake said, “then my plan is too risky. But it’s not a bad assumption. If none of them will allow other mind readers near for fear of being taken over, then they can’t know our techniques for extending our range.”

“What you’re saying seems sensible, Jake,” Boris said, “but I agree with Leanne. We need to verify it, especially with their reputation for being the strongest.”

“But to do that,” Alice asked, “don’t we have to approach each of them until we get within their range? That seems dangerous.”

“I think I know a way,” Jake said.

“What’s that?”

“We all know how to read people neurologically now. We can get a rough idea of someone’s range by looking at his long mind-reading nerves — the parietal and occipital nerves. When we conditioned you, Boris, we scanned along those nerves fixing dead spots. If we check those same nerves in the Council members, we should be able to see how powerful they are. The more range, the more signal there will be on those nerves.”

“I don’t know,” Ellen said. “When we condition ourselves, we are right there, usually in physical contact.”

“It will still work,” Jake said. “We only get that close to maximize our resolution. Even from a distance, we can tell how much signal is on the nerves. With a little practice, we can estimate their range from near the limit of our own.

“Let’s try it out. Look at my occipital nerve, Ellen. My range is much longer than my father’s. It’s also much longer than mine was before you all started giving me my treatments. When you look you should see a lot of activity on the nerve.” Jake gave them a moment to look. “Now look at Boris. How many treatments have you had, Boris?”

“Eight. Four of each.”

“Have you been supercharged yet?”

“Once.”

“So Boris’s range is probably about half of mine. Maybe a little more. Compare his occipital nerve with mine. Mine should be bright the entire length. After four treatments, Boris’s nerve should be, too. It just won’t be quite as bright.”

“You’re right,” Leanne said. “His isn’t as bright as yours. It’s also not quite as thick.”

“Interesting,” Jan said. “The treatments not only make the nerve more efficient, they also increase the number of neurons in the nerve bundle. Jake, we may be able to increase our range even more than we’ve already been able to.”

“Interesting, indeed,” Jake said. “But the law of diminishing returns must be coming into play.”

“Maybe, but that would just mean that each additional treatment gets us less improvement. It doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily near the upper limit of our maximum range. If we’re willing to work at it, who knows, maybe we can double our range yet again.”

“We can look into that after the war,” Jake said. “Getting back to the point, you’ve seen the difference between me and Boris. When we get home, we can look at Wise. That will give us a basis to go by.

“When we conduct the reconnaissance missions, we can look at the mind-reading nerves of the Council members. It won’t be precise, but it will give us a rough sense of how strong they are. If any of them are as strong as me, or even as strong as Boris is at the moment then we’ll have to rethink our plans.”

“I’m willing to move forward with Jake’s plan,” Boris said. “After we’ve learned everything we can, we can refine them, or scrap them if we find any serious flaws.”

A nurse came in with some forms for Ellen. She signed them. They waited until the nurse was gone.

“Did you get Wise home okay?” Jake asked.

“It went like clockwork,” Boris said. “Jan and he hopped into the car. She blinded him and we drove home without any problems. We put him down in the basement. Alice is keeping an eye on him.”

“That’s nice of her,” Jake said.

Boris chuckled. “No, I don’t think nice has anything to do with it. That woman is angry. She’s making his stay with us very unpleasant.”

“She’s keeping his shame level pretty high,” Jan said. “And every time she goes downstairs to check on him, she kicks him in the ribs.”

“What do you plan to do with him after he’s interrogated?” Boris asked.

“I’m not sure. I could kill him, or just take control of him. But whatever, I’m going to bleed him of his wealth and make his life unpleasant.”

“Jake, you need to start planning out your end game,” Jan said.

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s say you win the war. What happens then? If you kill the Council you will have created a power vacuum. But you know what they say about a vacuum. It will be filled somehow, and there’s nothing to say that the next regime won’t be worse. At least these guys have imposed stability. What’s going to happen when 90-some mind readers realize that there’s no sheriff anymore?”

“Isn’t that getting the cart before the horse?” Jake asked. “We need to win the war first.”

“No, she’s right,” Boris said. “I should have brought it up myself. The role of leadership is not just to deal with the current situation but also to anticipate future problems. And that could be a much worse problem than the one we’re dealing with right now.”

“Any ideas about what we should do?”

“Don’t kill them,” Leanne said. “If you keep them alive and in place, but under your control, everyone else will assume that nothing has changed. That will give you a chance to engineer an orderly transition.”

“Smart,” Boris said. “You can focus on the war for now. Once it’s over, you will have a window in which you can plan the next stage.”

“And it’s not just the Council,” Leanne said, “Every mind reader you bring under your control increases the influence you’ll have with the other mind readers. The Council members are especially influential, but it can’t hurt to have other mind readers, such as Wise and your father, in your camp, too.”

The nurse returned with Jake’s discharge instructions. Everybody but Jake and Ellen left the room to let Jake prepare to leave.

The trip home had taken a lot out of Jake. He sat at the kitchen table with a Coke and rested for a few minutes. He couldn’t go to bed. There was too much he had to do. Ellen was frowning at him. He had had to let her know that she was his sub again, not his mother.

“Annabelle, would you come sit with me,” Jake said.

“Yes, Jake, but it will delay lunch.”

“Let Brenda worry about it.”

“I’ll help Brenda,” Kara said.

Jake put his hand on Annabelle’s arm to maximize his resolution and peered into her mind.

“Next time you see Glen Harris,” Jake said, “I want you to slap him as hard as you can.”

Jake focused on her loyalties. There were some conflicts, but her loyalty to Harris immediately overcame the others. She looked at him coldly but didn’t say anything. Ellen and Kara stared, surprised by Annabelle’s unprecedented show of emotions.

“Ellen, do you see the part of Annabelle’s mind that I’m highlighting?”

“Yes, Jake.”

“Take over for me. Keep it energized.”

He switched over to the neurological level and found the implementation of Harris’s loyalty control.

“What’s my name?” he asked her.

When she answered him, Jake located the circuits that contained the concept of his identity. He severed the connection to Harris and instead linked the loyalty control to himself.

“So will you do it, Annabelle?” he asked. “Will you slap Harris the next time you see him?”

“Of course, Jake.”

Jake smiled at Ellen. “Piece of cake if you know what to look for,” he said and breathed on his fingernails and buffed them on his shirt. “How many treatments have you had, Annabelle?”

“I’ve had two. One on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.”

“Good. Relieve Brenda and send her over.”

“Yes, Jake.”

Jake found and overwrote Brenda’s loyalty to Harris, too. He tracked down Andy and Randy and did them as well. He got Maureen during lunch. He was still unnerved that he had had five armed bombs in his house.

When Jake restored Wise’s ability to move, speak, hear, and see, Wise flinched and drew away from the crowd facing him. The only mind reader who wasn’t present was Alice who had had to go into work.

Wise squinted in the glare of the bare, hanging light bulb and looked around at them. The sight of Jake terrified him even more than he already was.

Jake removed the shame that Alice had implanted in him. That was a relief for Wise, but he knew his circumstances were still hopeless.

Jake looked at him blandly. Wise was sitting on a sleeping bag that had been his bed the night before. His hair was wild and his clothes were wrinkled. He had to urinate badly.

Take a look at his occipital nerve, everyone. Make a guess about his range. Jake looked around at the others. Boris?

There’s hardly any signal left when it gets to the prefrontal cortex, boss. I can’t believe it’s more than ten feet.

Ellen?

It’s not much worse than yours before we treated you. I’d guess 20 feet.

Jake looked down mildly at the assassin.

“Go take a piss and then come back down here,” Jake said.

Wise felt hope for the first time since he had lost his mind-reading abilities. If he could get out of the range of the upstart he might be able to escape. He stood up shakily, keeping everyone in sight.

“I don’t know where to go,” he said.

“I’ll show him,” Carol said.

She led him up the stairs, pointed him in the right direction, and returned to the basement.

“He’s going to run for it,” she said to Jake.

“I’m on it,” Jake said.

Wise urinated with relief. When he was done he listened at the door. When he didn’t hear anyone moving, he quietly made his way up the hallway to the foyer. He saw the front door and started that way, only to find that he couldn’t move. He soon realized that he was incapable of moving in any direction but back to the basement.

“You’re already in a tight spot,” Jake said when he returned. “I don’t think disobeying me is going to help. Next time, I won’t be so nice.”

“I ringed you. Why aren’t you dead?”

“Do you really want to remind me about that? In fact, given your current position, maybe you should just answer my questions.” Jake pointed down at the sleeping bag. “Sit.”

After considering a show of defiance, Wise decided to do as ordered.

“Tell me how you came to be at the mall yesterday,” Jake said quietly. “If you leave out anything important, I will hurt you.”

Wise looked around at the others.

“You know I can’t talk in front of them.”

Jake powered the testicle pain circuit for a few seconds.

“It’ll only get worse,” Jake said after Wise had had a few moments to recover. “Answer my questions fully and truthfully.”

“I got a call Monday from Philadelphia. He said that you weren’t falling into line. I was told to kill you. I flew in Tuesday afternoon. I watched from down the street until I saw you leave your house. I followed you to that shopping mall. I saw you go to the ice skating rink. I waited between the rink and your car for you to return. When I saw you, I made my attempt.”