Chapter 8: Unexpected Fallout

"I'm telling you," he explained to the impatient policemen facing him in the decrepit hospital room where he was physically chained to the bed by handcuffs, "I was trying to protect those girls from a predator attempting to take advantage of them."

"And we're telling you," responded the beefy sergeant who glared at him as if he was the bug he'd just accidentally swallowed while out biking, "there was no guy there, supposed angels or not. You shot into a group of women. Everyone reported the exact same thing. It was a group of women talking amongst themselves. No guys."

"That just can't be right," Anthony said in confusion. They'd given him medication to ease the pain when they'd operated on his stomach to repair the gunshot wound he'd gotten when that woman had shot him in the gut. But they hadn't given him enough to eliminate the pain, and he found it difficult to think through the still flaring pain in his stomach. "If that's the case, then—"

"Then you imagined the whole thing?" the other cop asked. Anthony had already seen a whole string of them. Apparently shooting someone in the middle of a crowded stadium got a lot of attention from the officials. "I'm sorry," the cop continued, "but if you're trying to build an insanity defense it ain't going to fly. You've already admitted to shooting into the crowd. You've already told us you were trying to kill someone, and it doesn't matter if he was there or not. You were trying to commit murder, you thought enough to bring a gun, so it shows both intent and premeditation, and if you injured someone else in the attempt the law's the same. It's just as if you had been gunning for them. You're not going to get off on this one."

"Yeah," responded the sergeant, "especially not in this jurisdiction. You may not be aware of it, since you're from out of town, but the local councilman from this region is notorious for pushing race-baiting issues. He's not about to let some rich businessman from another part of the state slip by, just because you can hire some expensive lawyers to argue a useless insanity defense. While we don't report to him, he'll be sure to bring enough political pressure to bear that you won't be able to dance away from this one."

"But you don't understand," Anthony argued, trying to get them to do just that. "I went there just to talk to him, but when I saw him there, trying to take advantage of all those girls who were just like my daughter, I lost it. I wasn't even sure what I was doing."

"Yet you managed to say something to him, this mysterious angel who wasn't even there, that he 'wasn't going to get away with it'. That demonstrates clear thinking. Being mistaken in who you're trying to kill won't buy you anything, and insanity defenses almost never succeed. If you're going to make bogus claims you're going to have to be more careful about your story when you do it. Now, why were you shooting at those girls? We all know there are no damn angels in Dallas, and we know people don't go around shooting them even if they did exist. So what were you really trying to do? And just bear in mind that we're not leaving until you give us an explanation we can understand. OK?"

Anthony knew he was going to be there a long time. The thought he'd shot the wrong people, the very people he was trying to protect, that he was protecting them from someone who wasn't even there, was more than he could take. It forced him to question his own sanity. Obviously he must have been out of his mind. He couldn't have seen something that no one else there had noticed. Hell, the cops insisted that each of the victims had denied any such person had been there. Things were looking bad, both from a legal, personal, mental and psychological perspective.

Worst of all, the money he was trying to protect was in danger, as he wouldn't be able to manage his finances while in prison, and his daughter wouldn't be likely to look on his actions favorably. Hell, he'd screwed up big this time, and he couldn't see any way out of the mess he'd stumbled into.

'Alex?' Gail asked telepathically.

'Yeah, are you ready for us to pick you up? We've been waiting to come get you.'

'Actually, it's OK. When the police asked about my car Linda Evens told them she drove me, giving me a plausible excuse for why I didn't have my own. So she's bringing me by.'

'OK, that makes sense. So how'd everything work out? We've been anxious about what's happening. We're trying to decide how to respond.'

'I think the best bet is to lie low for now. Right now no one suspects you're involved. The suspect, an east Texas businessman, has been ranting and raving about how dangerous you were and how he wanted to stop you from harming anyone else. But since no one reported seeing you, and since everyone there said not only that you weren't there, but that it was only a group of women, the police are taking this as a case of someone with a severe mental condition. Thus it would be better if no one knew you were actually in the city right now.'

'That makes sense. So it sounds like we should head to Oklahoma earlier than planned? Say early tomorrow morning as opposed to Tuesday morning?'

'That's what I was thinking, ' Gail responded.

'So what was this all about? Who was he so concerned about? Who was I supposedly cheating?'

'Well, despite my being a fellow cop, they wouldn't tell a witness who may be called to testify any information about the case, so they wouldn't give me any specifics. But it's got to be someone you've met while you've been here in Texas. Since they keep specifying 'eastern Texas', I'm thinking it was someone we met in Houston, and the only one who reported any problems with her family was that real skinny Seer, what was her name, Gracie something or other?'

Alex turned to Cate, who was the one who'd been keeping track of who everyone they'd met was.

"Cate, I need the last name of Grace, the girl we met when we just entered Texas."

Cate grabbed her iPad and started going through her notes. "It's Grace Barlow, from Beaumont, Texas," she responded, which Alex conveyed to Gail.

'All right, I'd suggest you contact her for information about whether it's her father or not, and what may have happened.'

'OK, I'll get on that, ' Alex replied, but Gail continued before he could switch over to her.

'There's something else I wanted to bring up. It's strange and I think it needs to be addressed, ' she said, without supplying any specifics.

'All right, I'm listening, ' Alex replied cautiously, not knowing what to expect.

'I know everyone always talks to each other, and that you generally ignore most of it, effectively just tuning it out, but can you tell if Kayla Odell, the new Seer who was shot, has been using you to transfer messages?'

'That's a tall order, since as you said I try not to listen in to the private conversations in my head, but now that you mention it I don't recall hearing her mental voice. Although I don't listen in, sometimes I get enough for me to make a connection to a specific person.'

'The reason I ask, ' Gail explained, 'is that she contacted me directly. When I asked her how she did it, whether or not she went through you, she had no idea what I was talking about. As strange as it sounds, I think you somehow boosted her abilities without being aware of it.'

'I can't picture how that could have occurred, ' Alex replied. 'Normally boosting someone takes a lot of work, trying to set up the environment, carefully controlling the pace and trying to arrange things so everything happens at once. I can't imagine how it could just spontaneously occur. I mean, we'd have to at least be in close physical proximity. They were both well away from me when they were shot.'

'Do you think the attack might have boosted your own abilities?' she asked. 'After all, it's happened before. Usually every time you're attacked you end up with some strange new power.'

'I'd hardly describe them as new powers. Usually my new abilities are either new manifestations of existing abilities, or they're something my brain wasn't able to handle initially, like when the telepathy kicked in when I got in that fight with Bao, Anh's son. I suspect I'd had the ability for a while, but my brain hadn't yet figured out how to process it.'

'Yeah, I remember hearing about that. But however you describe it, you usually can do new things you couldn't before following a physical altercation.'

'I'll tell you what, hold on and I'll contact her and set up a test. I'll have her contact you while I focus. If she goes through me I'll know it this time.'

So Gail waited while Alex made the arrangements.

'Kayla? This is Alex. How are you doing?' Alex asked.

'Hey, Alex, ' she responded, sounding pleased he'd reached out to her. Her thoughts were clear telepathically, but that didn't necessarily mean she wasn't still in a lot of pain. 'Actually it's kind of mixed. Both Haley and I refused the painkillers they offered us, since we wanted to keep our minds clear so we'd know how to respond to questions by the police. Gail told us how to approach it so we were prepared, but we were afraid we wouldn't be able to focus on giving the right answers if we were drugged up.

'So essentially we're both still hurting, but we're also feeling more alive than we ever have before. I was checking in with Gail the entire time the police were questioning me.'

'That's just it, ' Alex replied. 'Gail was wondering how you managed to do that. Normally the only way a new Seer can communicate telepathically is either to or through me, and you don't seem to be doing either.'

'Yeah, Gail mentioned that. But it's not just me. Cate said the Watchers don't get activated, they're just drawn to you but that you don't actually do anything to them. Yet Haley can easily tell which of the cops' good-cop/bad-cop acts is legitimate. She actually told them she didn't buy the whole act, since the bad-cop was more sympathetic to her.'

'Whoa, that's a significant development, ' Alex responded with a bit of alarm. 'Alright, just so we can get a handle on this, I want you to contact Gail again just after we finish talking. That way I can tell whether you're actually going through me or not.'

Kayla agreed, and Alex sat back and focused on what was happening inside his own mind.

'Alex, this is Gail again. Kayla just contacted me. What did you get?'

'You're right. She didn't go through me. Not only that, but she also told me that Haley was boosted as well. This is downright freaky. I have no memory of doing any such thing.'

'But this is a good thing, isn't it?' Gail asked. 'I mean, you keep complaining about having to make love to one stranger after another. Wouldn't this solve a lot of your problems? It's essentially a spontaneous boosting without the need to get intimate with each of your followers. It would mean you could boost everyone right away without having to get to know them so intimately first.'

'You're right; it would be a tremendous advance, not only for me but to the whole movement. It would make my life much easier, it would help each of the followers I meet from here on out, and it would reduce a lot of my ongoing stress. But I think Cate will want to examine it in detail before I attempt it again.'

'Well, I just wanted you to be aware of it, ' Gail said. 'We should be home shortly.'

Alex stopped to update Cate and the others in the room on the latest news, and then left them to discuss it while he reached out to someone else.

'Grace? This is Alex. Where are you now?'

'I'm in New Orleans. I came down to see the community down here. It's wonderful how many people like us are here and how supportive they are. I'm planning on returning to Houston and trying to build our local community to—'

'Yeah, that's wonderful. Listen, I've got some very bad news for you, but I've got to ask some questions first. How are you and your father getting along lately?'

'Does this have to do with your attack in Dallas?' she asked, but Alex wasn't ready to reveal that information quite yet.

'Not directly, but it may apply. Just answer the question.'

Grace was hesitant, but Alex couldn't tell if that was because she felt guilty about not conveying reports of her continuing problems with her father, or because she was concerned with what his 'bad news' might be.

'We haven't, frankly. We got into a couple of screaming matches. I kept trying to assure him I wasn't changing anything, but he insisted I was being taken advantage of and that he was going to cut me off financially to protect me. But I've never had access to much money to begin with, so his argument of trying to protect me seems pretty weak. I think he was just upset that I'm finally growing up and am no longer as easy to control as he used to be.

'Anyway, things escalated after that. He threw me out of the house, telling me if I wouldn't listen to him then he'd no longer shelter me. Again, I think he was more concerned that he couldn't buy me off as easily as he'd thought. When that happened I decided I'd take this trip to New Orleans just so I wouldn't have to bother my friends with putting me up indefinitely.'

'I can see why that would be beneficial, but I'm still interested in the relationship between you and your father. If he cut you off financially, how could you afford to fly to New Orleans?' Alex asked.

'Oh, that's easy. My father was being an ass, but my mom could see the effort I was making and how much I seemed to be maturing, to use her words. She wrote me a check to cover my expenses.'

'Ah, that might have been the trigger. Despite his best efforts to protect you, he probably saw the canceled check and thought you'd found a way to access his funds indirectly. I'm guessing he figured the money wasn't to go to New Orleans, but to follow wherever I decided to take you.'

'Alex, I'm starting to get worried. What's happened to my father? Why are you asking me all these questions?'

'Grace, there's no easy way to say this, but your father has just been arrested on two counts of attempted murder in Dallas. He came into a crowded concert and tried to shoot me. Unfortunately he hit two girls instead. I don't think anyone actually knows I was there, so I suspect he'll have a fairly good chance at claiming a mental impairment defense on the basis of his trying to shoot a mythical person.'

'Wow, that's terrible! This was when you alerted us about being attacked? He tried to shoot you then?'

'Yeah, it happened several hours ago. I'm just now starting to get details on what happened, and I didn't even know who he was when he confronted me. We pieced together that you were the most likely connection, so I wanted to be sure before I told you. The media is responding to the shooting but they haven't released any details on it yet. But that's likely to change before long. You'd better call your mother and see about getting to Dallas. You'd also better get a decent lawyer, because he's apparently been speaking pretty freely about his trying to gun me down.'

'Yeah, we'd better get right on this. You weren't hurt were you? And what about the two girls? Were they connected to you and were they seriously hurt?'

'I'm fine, and the girls weren't seriously hurt. They were injured, and that's serious enough, but they weren't critically injured. He wasn't aiming at them so they only suffered glancing blows as they tried to defend me. They reacted quickly to his strong emotions, knocking me aside before he could get a bead on me. But I'm worried about what this will mean for you and your family, so I want you to see if you can help him before he buries himself any further than he already has. I hate to remind you of this, but Texas is a death penalty state, and a shooting in a crowded stadium is likely to have people looking to make a public example of him.'

'Thanks for warning me, Alex. I'm not sure how I'll react to this. I'm a bit too surprised at the moment to be able to think clearly yet, but I'll start making the arrangements right away.'

'Talk to my people there, ' Alex suggested. 'If you can't access your funds right away, my people will get you back right away.'

With that, Alex wished her luck and returned to the ongoing discussion between the others. Cate, seeing he was done with whatever telepathic conversation he was having, tried to discuss the idea of his newest boost but he put her off once again.

"I want to check up on the girls in Carbondale and see how they're doing first," he told her as he started dialing the loft. "We haven't had a chance to check up on them, and I'm sure they're upset by whatever emotional leakage I projected when I was attacked. And before you ask, I'm calling so I can talk to everyone there and not just the Seers."

"Hello, Angel Vision Foundation?" Natalie Mendoza, the first Watcher he'd ever talked to, answered.

"Hey, Natalie, this is Alex. I was just calling to check in to see how everyone is doing. I was—"

"Alex, what the hell happened to you? Hey, everyone, it's Alex," she called out excitedly before returning to the conversation. "I'm putting you on speakerphone just so everyone can hear you."