Chapter 17: Testing for a Double Negative

"And then he says ... pardon me, that's my phone. I'll finish up in a second.

"Hello, Patty Moore's line?" She listened for a moment as the others continued with their breakfast. No one else paid much attention, but Alex couldn't remember her getting a lot of phone calls in the past, so he was curious who might be calling at this hour.

'Alex, I think you'll want to hear this, ' she warned.

'Go ahead, just let me listen in, ' he suggested.

"Excuse me, but we were talking and I missed most of that. Could you repeat it please?"

The woman, Nancy Atkins, sighed theatrically. 'I was asking whether you'd allow us to run with those comments you'd given us before?'

"And why would you want to do that? Again, I didn't catch the reason you gave before."

'We did as you suggested, withholding airing the report, only one of our competitors, Chanel 5, the one you threatened to provide with a counter story if we ran with it, decided to run with it instead. So now we look like we're playing catch up, even though we had the story first. So we're hoping you can give us the counter story you threatened us with so we don't look like complete fools.'

Patricia bit her lip. As much as she'd railed against them before, it had really been a hollow threat. She couldn't very well go on record downplaying Alex's role in the rescue, since he had been traveling with them. If she did, there was a good chance someone in the police department might take offense and release their association. That would not only make her look conniving, but would raise questions about what she was hiding. She glanced beseechingly at Alex. He simply nodded his head, telling her to go with her instinct, whatever that may be.

"OK, I'll do it. Did you record my previous statements or do you want me to repeat it for you?"

'Actually, we'll issue a release with what we have for now, but we'll stop by the hotel if you're going to be there for a little while and record your response. Since the report from Channel 5 is saying just what you didn't want reported, I figure your response should work well on both the 12:00 and the 6:00 news, and it should attract additional attention for your concert tonight. After all, while you're denying anyone actually did anything miraculous, you're still the only ones who were trying to help out.'

"Aside from the other man, that is."

Nancy laughed. 'Yeah, aside from him. So you'll be around for the next hour?'

"Actually, if it'll save you time, why don't I stop by your offices? I'm sure you've got better facilities there, and it'll look more professional," Patricia suggested, hoping to avoid having them stop by the hotel where someone may accidentally say the wrong thing.

'That sounds great. I'll be waiting for you. I'll get the crew ready for you so we can get started as soon as you arrive. As I said, this is highly embarrassing for us, since our phones were ringing all morning and we were talking to people about it. So if we can explain to people why we didn't run with it ourselves, it would really save my ass.'

"Yeah, don't worry about it. I'm glad to do it. I'll be there in about another twenty minutes." Patricia said, concluding the conversation, and turning to Alex. The others around them had figured something was up by now, so they were watching as well.

"You did good. There wasn't anything else you could have done," Alex told her, not waiting for her to explain what happened. "Now, we'd better see if we can catch the broadcast just to make sure they don't have any video. I'll need to know whether anyone will recognize me today."

"So what are your plans for the day?" Patricia asked, wanting to have an idea where he'd be.

"I was thinking of heading out and—"

"In this heat? Are you crazy?" Cate asked. "It's stifling outside. Trust me, if anyone is looking for you, they'll probably arrive in their air conditioned cars and expect air conditioning when they get here. Besides, we don't know what effect this energy boost you're experiencing is going to have on you. All we need is you stressing your system unnecessarily and have you collapse in the middle of the street."

"That makes sense," Gail said. "After all, your aura is so strong today that you're likely to attract a lot of attention. You've already pulled in two people from the hotel and another two from outside. With your energy radiating so strongly, you'll be drawing people from a long ways off. Your best bet is to stay in one place where they can find you."

"Not only that, but honestly, there aren't any more likely locations nearby," one of the new girls suggested. "This isn't like your bigger cities; there isn't a large public park with a lot of high rise apartment and office buildings nearby. People are more spread out here. I think this would be a good location."

"They've got a good point," Cate said, putting the final nail in that idea's coffin. "If you are drawing people from farther away, it'll take them longer to get here. If you start wandering around you're likely to lose several of them, confusing them as you move around while they're trying to find you here. Besides, we don't know how healthy you're going to be. I'd rather you stayed here where we can watch you and where we can more easily get you help if you need it."

"Hey, no hospitals. You know as well as I do they won't do any good, and they'll ask too many questions," Alex argued.

"Agreed, but we have the hotel room nearby, it's air conditioned, and there's a cafeteria and vending machines here. You'd do better here than out on the street."

"OK, that makes sense," Alex conceded. "Let's move to the lobby and see if we can catch the local news to see what they're reporting about me. That way we'll be right by the front door to intercept anyone who might come looking for me."

"Are you sure it's wise to expose yourself so publicly if someone is broadcasting videos of you?" Gail cautioned.

"So far, this is different than the other situations were. No one has yet mentioned the dreaded 'A' word, so no one is likely to connect it. I don't mind being viewed as a religious individual as long as it doesn't lead anyone to identifying who I am. This seems like a particular situation we may not get again. In effect, it's the best we can hope for in terms of exposure."

"All right, but if things change I'm yanking you back up to the room. Just be aware of your public exposure. We don't need anyone in the hotel calling the press. After all, we don't want anybody associating you with Patricia. That would just raise too many questions."

"Agreed. How about we finish up and move out of here. More people are likely to notice me here in the dining room than will in the lobby, especially if we remain off to the side. Grab whatever you can grab and we can finish up in the other room."

"Jordan, I'll need you to accompany me so I don't have to rely on some stranger to do my makeup. But I won't take anyone else, since I don't want to come off as a diva. I'll need to appear as a no-nonsense down-to-earth person."

Chelsea turned to Alex with a bright hopeful smile. "I guess that means I'll be able to help then. How about if I head outside and direct anyone looking for you where you are? Hopefully that will decrease the 'awkward incidents'."

"We're not doing anything this morning, and we'd love to help as well," Erica said. "We love the fact we've been able to talk to you more over the last week, and we like being involved in this. How about I take the back of the hotel, and maybe Sammy can scope out the garage. He looks pretty tough, so no one is likely to bother him, and he's big enough to not have to worry about someone jumping him."

"Yeah, I'm sure Erica knows your spiel by now, and while we may not know it in depth, we can at least caution anyone not to overreact when they see you," Sammy agreed. "After all, it works at the concerts so it makes sense to apply it here as well." They all agreed, sounding like they were happy to be involved in the process

"What about us?" one of the new girls asked.

"Well, we should be fine on our own. How about you talk to your families so they can meet us tonight at the concert if you think they're likely candidates. Otherwise we'll see you there anyway, as we can always use the assistance."

They readily agreed to that, so everyone got up. Alex gave Patricia a hug goodbye and she and Jordan headed out accompanied by two of the new girls, the other two, Sarah and Wendy, still hadn't finished getting briefed yet. They got up as well, since Alex had previously told them they could trail along today. Alex was anxious to see what effect this increased energy he was giving off would have. They'd already seen it was attracting more people, but there hadn't been much chance to see just how much of an effect it had, yet.

"All right, I'm guessing it's going to be another interesting day," Alex said as everyone headed off in different directions.

"When is any day with you not interesting?" Cate cracked as she walked by munching on an English muffin with jam.

When they reached the lobby corner they found several comfortable chairs in front of a TV, and Wendy started flipping through the channels, since she knew what channels to look for. Alex settled into an easy chair, while Cate settled to the side on a nearby couch so she could finish briefing the two new girls.

The girls, Carmen and Kerry, were about the same age, the same height, had similar sun bright smiles and seemed to be getting along great. Carmen was a dirty blond in a simple print dress, whereas Kerry was a young Asian-American with her hair pinned up in what almost looked like mouse ears. While they talked to Cate they could hardly take their eyes off of Alex.

Since it was still early, it didn't take long to find several competing early morning news programs. They already knew Nancy's station wasn't reporting anything on him, yet, so they focused on the others. As usual, most of the material they found were either teasers to continue watching, fluff pieces like they'd done with Patricia the previous day, or cooking segments, nothing of any interest to Alex. After a while they finally saw something about him.

"And in the latest local news, we have reports of a young man praying over the victims of a traffic accident just off Interstate 17 approaching the city. As the video here shows, the elderly man was unresponsive until the young man is seen literally praying over him, and who then responds. We have reports he did the same for the other three victims, and they responded similarly. They still required hospitalization, of course, but their injuries were reported as 'critical, but not life threatening' by the hospital staff."

The video they played, without sound, clearly showed Alex bending over and placing his forehead against the man's chest in what looked like an act of devotion to a higher being. Alex had to admit it provided a more believable explanation than his simply pointing at someone's chest, since it took the responsibility for what he did off of him and put it squarely in God's hands. Alex was glad to let God take the credit this time, and reminded himself to continue the practice in the future.

Although the video didn't show Alex clearly, having been shot at a distance with a cell phone, it showed enough. It was doubtful anyone could make a positive ID from it, but it might cause people to question him, which was exactly what Alex was hoping to avoid. But at least it didn't identify him as an angel this time.

That was about all they said about it. Wendy continued flicking between the available stations and they continued talking about it, but it was mostly either showing people's reaction to it, inane chatter between the news people about it, or, more importantly, a few calls to the news station reporting the event soon after it happened.

"It was the most amazing thing," said a businessman who'd called the station on his way to work and who'd been forced to stop while the intersection was cleaned up. "This young kid walked from one person to the next, and everyone seemed to just step aside as he did, and after he'd bend over them they'd get better. They weren't healthy, by any stretch of the imagination, but they were responding, and they appeared to be stable afterwards."

However, the most interesting thing came after the coverage was over in the 'inane chatter' between the news people.

"You know, Mac," one newsman observed to the weather person, "I think I prefer someone like this, a young man who believes in the power of prayer, over a self-serving attention seeker who describes himself as an angel who personally speaks to God."

Alex had to smile at that, and the others had a good laugh at it as well, although everyone was careful to keep their mirth under tight control so they wouldn't alert anyone nearby to their personal interest in the story. They were hoping to merely appear to be interested in an unfolding story.

During the intermissions between the news reports the girls talked amongst themselves about it, occasionally asking either Cate or Alex their opinions. Although Cate had finished her discussions with the new girls, they weren't quite ready to head off yet. After all, this was fun being behind a hot news story, having insights no one else had.

As the morning shows began wrapping up, and the newer girls finally headed home to talk to their families, Cate joined Alex to discuss something more worrisome to her.

"Are you feeling OK?" Cate asked. "After all, you seem to be giving off a lot more energy than you normally do, so it's got to be draining you."

"Honestly, I can't tell any difference," Alex replied.

"Yeah, I guess you wouldn't. The healing aspects of it would probably have you feeling pretty good, but any negative impact will probably come upon you pretty quick."

"Sarah," Cate warned, "Alex is likely to need a bunch of food if what happening catches up with him. Could you see if you could grab a bunch of high calorie foods for him from the vending machines or the reception desk? Sodas, cookies, cakes, or even better, some sugary fruits like bananas or apples; that sort of thing."

"Yeah, sure," she said, and took off without even looking back, eager to help out in any way she could.

"You know, I—"

"Alex, excuse me, but this is Angie Hopper," Chelsea said, introducing a woman in her late thirties. She was nicely dressed with reddish blonde hair, a colorful lightweight dress, and wearing a cross prominently displayed on her chest, dangling from a simple chain necklace. "I've got to head out to catch anyone else outside, so I'll leave this to you guys," Chelsea said before heading back outside.

"Excuse me ... Mr ... uh, Alex. You'll have to excuse me, despite Chelsea's telling me what to expect, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond here."

"You can just call me Alex, that's fine," Alex told her as he stood to shake her hand. "I certainly don't stand on formality here. This is a very relaxed comfortable group. Are you from nearby?"

"No, actually I was driving by on the Papago Freeway on my way to Tempe when I had the oddest sensation. I felt like I needed to get off the highway. The further I came the stronger the feeling got, though I couldn't understand what I was looking for or what it might mean."

"And what, if anything, did Chelsea tell you about it?" he asked, trying to gauge where to begin the explanation.

"She said it had something to do with some genetic quirk of mine which allowed me to sense things that were invisible," Angie said a bit nervously, as if she was afraid someone was pulling a joke on her.

"Well, that's a good place to begin it—" Alex began, and got no further as he doubled over, gasping out and trying to grab something to stabilize himself with.

"Alex!" Cate cried as she jumped from her seat and ran to him. The other girls ran forward as well, but Gail beat them to him.

"I've got you. Are you OK standing or do you need to lie down?"

"What's wrong, Alex? What happening?" Cate asked before he had a chance to respond. But Alex just waved a hand at them, grimacing as he tried to straighten up, having trouble with it as he did. Angie didn't know how to respond. She'd jumped back to make way for the others, but was still hovering nearby.

"Should I call for a doctor?" she asked.

"Not yet," Gail told her. "We don't know if it's something serious or only a cramp at the moment," though she had her own fears of what was occurring. She and Cate guided him over to the recently vacated couch. Cate knelt down beside him.

"Alex, what's—"

"He's not as bright as before. His aura has dimmed a lot," Sarah observed.

"Maybe it's just returned to his normal level?" Cate asked hopefully.

"No, I'd say it's dimmer than normal," Gail advised her, checking his vitals.

"Come on, Alex, talk to us. Tell us what's happening," Cate pleaded with her brother.

"I ... I don't really know. It's nothing serious, at least I don't think it is. I just got weak, and then I got this ... weakness which seemed to consume my whole body. I'm hardly able to do ... much of anything."

"It could be his body reacting to the BCM easing up," Cate said. "Without the healing effects of it, the stress it's been exerting on his body is only now becoming apparent." She turned and started taking control. "Sarah, grab that bag of food over there and let's start feeding him. Start with the bottle of Coke first. Wendy, see if you can get us a wet towel to wipe him down with. Gail, open his shirt and let his skin breathe. See if he's sweating as well."

"Wouldn't fresh fruit be better for him?" Sarah asked.

"It takes too long to eat. Bananas are OK since they have a lot of carbohydrates and they're sweet, but things like apples, pears and oranges take longer to consume than these quick snacks."

"I'm ... I'm OK, I just need to get my wind back," Alex argued.

"You'll lay there until you've eaten and we've examined you. I warned you before we didn't know how this increase in your energy level would affect you, and it doesn't look like it's been beneficial."

"His heart rate is up, he's got goose bumps, and he's sweating," Gail advised her, "but then again, it's so damn hot today it's hard to tell whether it's from the heat or something else."

"Do you need any help?" one of the hotel staff asked, looking on and rubbing his hands together while he bit his lip.

"See if you can find a blood pressure cuff. We need to check his vitals," Cate called to him as she glanced at Alex's eyes to see if they were clear.

"I didn't do this, did I?" Angie asked.

"No, he started showing some unusual ... symptoms last night. We've been watching him ever since, but this is the first time he's become sick because of it," Sarah said as she started feeding Alex the Coke, which he drank as if he'd been starving.

"Do you think he's..." Angie asked, afraid to finish the sentence.

"He'll be fine," Cate insisted. "The problem is with long term damage, though. We don't know what effect this will have on his overall health."

Wendy returned with the cloth, which Cate then used to dab his forehead and chest. She didn't know if it would do any good, but it's something her mother had always done for her whenever she'd gotten sick, and it had stuck. Whenever someone got sick, she'd always try to cool them with a washcloth.

The hotel employee, Frank Tye, according to his name tag, came running up with the blood pressure monitor and his supervisor trailing behind him. He handed it to Cate, asking if there was anything else they needed or if they should call for a doctor.

"It wouldn't do any good. He has fainting spells that strike at random," she lied, not wanting anyone else to involve themselves. "He'll be OK once we stabilize him. But he just needs to be off his feet for a little while."

"Well, if we can be of any assistance," the other man said, but Cate waved them away in another trait she'd picked up, this time from her brother.

"We'll let you know. If we need to, we'll take him to his room, but I doubt it'll be necessary."

Everyone continued to administer to him, and Alex gradually began to recover. He sat up a little, still eating and drinking whatever Sarah fed him, but turned to Angie.

"So, tell me, what is it ... you do, Angie?"

"Me?" she asked, as if surprised to find the attention turned onto her. "Oh, I work with a number of women's organizations in the region. I have a company here that sponsors a lot of the groups, and I lecture throughout the southeast."

"Really?" Alex asked, pushing aside the pear Sarah was trying to force on him. "What kind of women's groups?"

"Oh, abused women's shelters, women's health care, child care services, all that kind of stuff," she said dismissively, not thinking it would interest Alex or bear on the current circumstances.

"You know, that's interesting. We do several things along those lines as well. We have a 'trust your instincts' program where we try to get women to rely on their own perceptions of people. It's based on these genetic traits you share, but even if others don't have them, we encourage the women who do, to ... help them evaluate the men they encounter so they can avoid any bad elements."

Although his sudden interest in the woman focused his attention, he was still weak enough he had to take frequent breaks in speaking. Each time she simply waited for him to go on, much as one would do if the Queen Mother would suddenly partake of tea during a social exchange.

"I saw something similar about a concert here in town," she responded.

"That's us," Cate told her, saving her brother from having to answer, hoping he'd take the chance to recover a little more. "Or rather, it's one of us, Patty Moore, the singer."

"Listen, while I'm recovering, tell me more about ... what you do. You may be able to ... help us out," Alex said, trying to take it a little easier.

So Angie described what she did, and Cate started telling her bits and pieces about what she was and what this mission of Alex's was about. She'd let Alex ask something, then when Angie finished explaining she'd distract her with some more information until Alex could formulate another question without gasping for breath. Unfortunately, while they were talking several other people arrived, further complicating the situation.

"Where did you come from?" Cate asked one.

"We're from Bel Air," the tall girl responded. "It's about six or eight miles away. I felt this odd sensation, like there was something important I couldn't let slip away," she said, proving that Alex's reach had grown substantially if he was pulling people from so far away. She'd been sitting in her house at the time, and had found her car keys, told her husband she was taking off and had driven downtown. She hadn't been able to tell what she was following when she'd left her house, claiming it was only an "odd sensation". It wasn't until she'd gotten closer that she described the typical impressions. And it looked like people were still coming in from even farther away. The parking and exits weren't real easy to manage, so it seemed to take them a while to find Alex.

About then Carmen, who was fidgeting with the TV, managed to find Nancy's report. It sounded much like Patricia had recited to Nancy, with Nancy herself dismissively reporting that their station hadn't felt the story was "up to their standards". However Patricia's simple honest delivery as an impartial observer is what really sold it. As she described how Alex hadn't actually done anything, they showed a still shot of him leaning over the guy, followed by a single shot of the guy sitting up as Alex sat back up. Hopefully this would kill the story, but it wasn't likely to make Alex any less recognizable in Phoenix. The video they'd watched earlier had already been airing for a couple of hours, and if Alex could guess, he felt pretty sure it was already online. The photos, although not close up shots, were clearer than the videos had been.

Alex and Angie continued to talk, and he outlined how he'd like her to head up the community in Phoenix. She liked the idea, seeing it fitting into what she was already doing, and anticipating being able to use some of Alex's followers to help in her outreach to other women. She thought if a few Seers, or even a boosted Watcher like Sarah, could talk to certain of the 'at risk' girls, they could reach more women than they did otherwise. By using their ability to read the women's emotional responses and relating how they'd learned how manipulative men put up a false front, they could be very influential.

Angie agreed to head the local community, as well as keeping an eye out for any other potential Seers and Watchers in her dealings throughout the southwest. That was ideal for Alex.

"But didn't Cate mention something about you wanting to protect the community by putting Seers in charge?" Sarah asked.

"The idea to boost a Seer was only to have someone, anyone, who could communicate with the other communities if something were to happen to me. That really has nothing to do with who organizes the community. A Seer makes organizing things easier, simply because they don't have to rely on the telephone to communicate, but Angie can just keep one of the Seers close by so she can do the same thing."

"Well, I'm glad you aren't discriminating against the Seekers," Wendy commented.

"No, I'm trying to reach out to more people, and you can't do that by showing favoritism. It took me a while to figure that out, especially since we were still learning how to balance things, but my being forced to include more type 3s finally got through to me."

"So how are you feeling, Alex?" Cate asked.

"I'm doing better, but lunch would probably be a good idea. I seem to have mostly recovered. It knocked me on my ass, but I don't think it hurt me that much overall."

"Not that we know of," Cate cautioned him. "But we have no idea what it may be doing to your overall health. If your exposure to your BCM is killing you, then exposure to higher levels would surely hasten it. What's more, the fluctuations in the level probably wear on your system more than a single constant amount. I'm worried about what this means to you in the long term."

"Yeah, those thoughts occurred to me as well. I'm well aware of the dangers this represents. We'll have to discuss this and try to figure out what's happening. Hopefully we can prevent it from happening again, but until we do, there isn't much we can do about it."

But, despite what he said, Alex was largely worn out for the rest of the day. He wanted to take a long nap before the concert, but people kept showing up at the hotel, mostly having been drawn from points far away, so he didn't get much rest. Luckily he had several days to recover after the concert that night, if he could only last that long. After all, he didn't think anyone would appreciate his falling asleep while he was making love to them.

"You know, this isn't very comfortable. When you mentioned you and several of your friends were going to restrain me, I had a whole different type of thing in mind."

"Yeah, I know how awkward this is, honey, but it really is necessary," Megan explained to her boyfriend, Ryan, while ignoring his attempt at humor. She was a little too stressed about what they were undertaking to appreciate it at the moment. "We're hoping that by doing this, we can identify a means of testing who responds negatively to Alex. The women in Carbondale have managed to document how the Seers and Seekers respond, so now we're hoping we can come up with some way for Alex to identify who is likely to go off on him."

"Wouldn't that other guy, the one who just shot at him, be a better test subject?" Ryan asked, while the other women worked around him as Megan was patiently taping his eyes open. "After all, I don't actually dislike the guy."

"I understand that, but both Anthony Barlow and Rodger Jones, the father of his girlfriend who also tried to kill him, are currently in jail, and surprisingly, the prison isn't overly fond of people bringing in used T-shirts and strapping in their inmates without a reasonable explanation, which we're not anxious to supply them with," Megan responded with a smile.

"Yeah, but I just don't know how much of a response you're going to get from me."

"That might very well be, but although you liked Alex from the start, when you were around him in a closed room your whole personality changed. I see that as a warning. You didn't seem to have much control over how you responded, and that's not a good sign. Instead, I see you as part of a continuum. Anthony and Rodger are at one end, and responded violently, but there are a string of other people who can cause him trouble of a less drastic nature, and Alex will need to be warned whenever he sets someone off. If we can figure out the variations between people, we'll be doing him a huge favor."