The Elders (Mind Dimensions #4)(13)

“They would still have enough leverage over you, with your parents and Mira,” Hillary reminds me.

I frown as I consider that. “They didn’t freak out about me being a hybrid, and I didn’t get the sense that they harbor ill will toward Guides. Besides, regardless of the leverage they have over me, I think they know I’d kill them if—”

“Would you really?” Hillary gives me an incredulous look. “These are your grandparents we’re talking about.”

“So what’s your point?” Eugene snaps at her. “Should we give up? Or should Darren sleep with Julia to appease them?”

“While we’re at it, we’ll get Julia out of there too,” I promise, finally realizing why Eugene is acting so uncharacteristically bloodthirsty.

It’s because he and Julia have a history.

“Yes,” Hillary says. “My point is that I think we need to be rational. To maximize everyone’s chances of survival, we need to plan, then act. You seem to want to go into hothead mode, which could be detrimental to—”

“That’s not fair,” I say. “Why do you think I’m here instead of following them in my car?”

“I was chastising Eugene, not you,” she says. ”You did good coming here.”

“Fine,” Eugene says tersely. “Let’s hear your master plan.”

“I only have a rudimentary idea,” Hillary says. “We need Darren to master going into Level 2. If he could do this, he could Guide his grandparents toward the outcome we need. This is the only surefire idea I have, for the moment.”

“Would that work on them?” Bert asks. “They’re very powerful, and if Guiding the monks doesn’t work, wouldn’t the same be true of their leaders?”

“If by power you mean Depth, then it wouldn’t help them, since they showed no indication that they can reach Level 2 the way Darren can,” Hillary says. “That’s why they’re trying to breed offspring who can. That means, in theory, they can be Guided, but I didn’t think about the monks’ Guiding resistance. If the Enlightened can also do that, then my idea has a problem. But then, why would they even bother learning that? Unless they know what the Elders can do . . .”

“If I could magically master that skill, it would help greatly, even if it doesn’t work on my grandparents,” I say, thinking about her idea. “I’d be able to control Caleb, Julia, and her mother.”

“Exactly,” Hillary says. “Plus, there’s the issue of our friends being controlled by the person Darren dubbed as the Super Pusher.”

“Okay, I buy it,” I say. ”Level 2 control would be great. But I want to remind you that I couldn’t do it today, even when my life was in real danger.”

“I was about to mention possible ways in which you could overcome your issues,” Hillary says.

Eugene stares at her. “I think I see where you’re leading with that. If only I had more time . . .”

“I wasn’t talking about your tech,” Hillary says. “I had something much worse in mind. But if you think your stuff would help—”

“Can someone clue me in please?” I ask. “What does his research have to do with anything?”

“Dude, didn’t he tell you what he’s trying to do?” Bert chimes in.

“He tried, but—”

“Wait,” Bert says. “You’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on all this equipment and you never even asked what it was for?”

“How would you like to make out with Kiki?” I ask him threateningly. When Bert pales, I say, “I do know. Eugene is trying to better understand our powers by researching how it all works in the brain.”

“That’s the oversimplification of the century,” Bert says, giving Hillary what I assume is a ‘Hey, hon. You’d save me from kissing an ape, right?’ kind of look.

“Enlighten me then,” I say. “In layman’s terms, so even a dummy with a Harvard graduate degree would understand.”

“Sure,” Bert says, pretending as though he’s taking my sarcasm at face value. “The shortest version is that among many other applications, Eugene’s research can let a regular person, someone like me, go into the Mind Dimension.”

“What?” I stare at him and then turn to Mira’s brother. “Eugene, you never told me that.”

“I thought it was self-evident,” my friend says moodily. “Besides, I think I did tell you. You’ve just adopted my sister’s annoying habit of tuning out anything to do with my research.”

He’s right, but in my defense, when he gets going, he doesn’t shut up for hours, and there’s a limit to how many words like ‘connectome,’ ‘microtubules,’ and ‘oligodendrocytes’ I can listen to before I get selective with my hearing.

“Okay,” I say. “As cool as that is, how would giving Bert this ability help in my case?”

“Without some redesign and tinkering, it wouldn’t,” Bert says. “But the mechanism Eugene is working on basically combines two effects: it grants a little bit of Depth, and then it jolts the mind into Splitting into the Mind Dimension. The second part might—”

Eugene shakes his head. “We haven’t gotten past the animal testing phase, and I haven’t given such application much thought. We can’t just apply things to Darren’s situation—”