The Elders (Mind Dimensions #4)(21)

“You’re leaving so soon?” Anne looks at George. “I didn’t even get a chance to feed you.”

“I’m sorry,” George says. “For what it’s worth, Hillary will stay here.”

Anne’s eyes widen.

“It was nice to meet you,” I say to Anne.

“He really is going to see the Elders,” Anne whispers to Hillary. “I thought you—”

“Bye,” I say gently and exit the house. I don’t envy Hillary this reunion.

George exits after me and walks across the street. I follow him. He gets inside a BMW in the neighbor’s driveway and starts the car, then opens the passenger door for me.

“Where to now?” I ask, getting into the passenger’s seat.

“The airport,” he says.

“Oh, back to Jacksonville?”

“No, my plane is parked at the local airport.”

As he drives, I check my phone for updates from Bert. According to Bert’s email, in the hours it took Hillary and me to reach Florida, he and Eugene managed to set up the mobile lab.

“This is Pandora,” George says when the car stops next to an airfield.

Pandora is a Challenger 600. If a Ferrari had a sister that was a plane, she would be Pandora. Compared to commercial airliners, the plane’s small, but for a private jet, it’s huge.

A woman is standing next to the plane. She’s wearing military-looking boots and a tight leather outfit that makes her look like either Catwoman or a dominatrix. Something odd is sticking out from behind her shoulder, a black handle of some kind. I notice all of this peripherally, because what stands out most is her overly symmetrical face, with piercing gray eyes that seem as weirdly old as George’s.

“Kate, this is Darren,” George says to her. “He’s going to the Island.”

“Are you carrying any weapons, Darren?” Kate asks, looking amused.

“Please cooperate with Kate,” George says to me. “She’s part of our security force.”

With that, he waltzes onto the plane.

“No, I’m unarmed,” I answer.

Suddenly, the world goes silent, and a second Kate is standing in front of me. She pulled me into the Quiet for some reason.

“Why did—”

Before I can finish my question, she reaches behind her head for that black handle and pulls out an honest-to-God sword. She throws it on the ground, where I get a better look at it. It appears to be one of those katana swords, though I’m no expert when it comes to weapons.

Entranced, I watch Kate bow to me.

As she leaps toward me, my body reacts before my mind can catch up. I move to block the attack, unsuccessfully.

Kate’s slender fist goes right into my stomach.





Chapter 7





It takes all my willpower not to cry out. I’ve been hit a lot lately, too much in fact and by a variety of people, but this has to be one of the most debilitating punches yet. Considering Kate’s lean build, the hit seems disproportionally painful. If Mike Tyson had hit me, this would make more sense. Pain aside, the place where her hand made contact with my body becomes the focal point of an excruciating, yet numbing sensation. Did she damage an internal organ?

I block her next hit, or at least I try to. When she sees my elbow rising for the block, she taps it with the knuckle of her right index finger, a sly smile touching her eyes.

The result is as familiar as it is unbearable. She hit my funny bone. For the record, there’s nothing funny about hitting your funny bone, nor is it a bone. I believe it’s actually a nerve that’s close to the surface of the elbow region.

The pain reminds me of what she did to my stomach. Did she go for this effect on purpose?

I retreat and she follows me. The way she moves is really strange. Every large movement consists of smaller sub-movements that are pieced together unnaturally. Every little twitch of her body is like a piece in a strange mosaic, all erratic and hard to respond to. For the first time in a while, I have no clue what this style of fighting is, or even whether it’s a type of martial arts or a weird, avant-garde dance. Her movements are fractal—which is a mathematical concept that, according to Bert, is responsible for the way most music players’ visualizations work, as well as clouds and tree leaves. How does a person learn to move this way?

I move to dodge her right-handed strike to my neck, so she hits me with her left hand instead.

I fall to the ground, my body completely numb.

I wonder whether I’m lucky enough to have already met the Super Pusher. Could Kate be the one? Could she have been Guiding Kyle? That would mean she’s about to make me Inert, and afterwards, she’ll likely kill me. Given how good she is, I don’t understand why she would bother making me Inert first.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see her walking toward her body.

In the next instant, the strange paralysis is gone and I’m back on my feet, the sounds of the world around us again.

She phased us out.

“What was that about?” I ask Kate carefully. I’m cognizant of that sword, which, in the real world, is still sheathed behind her back.

“Weapons can be of different kinds,” she says.

“I told you I’m unarmed.”

“One’s body can be used as a weapon, so I had to test you.”