The Elders (Mind Dimensions #4)(3)

Instead of responding, I walk up to Thomas, all the while thinking, This can’t be right. Could Thomas do something like this?

Thomas is frozen in the process of moving toward my frozen self, which is odd. The funeral isn’t over, and a sermon isn’t exactly a good time for a stroll.

Then I see his face. His glassy eyes are looking intently at something in front of him.

I follow his gaze. He’s staring at the immobile me.

“Yeah,” Mira says. “I wasn’t just talking out of my ass. He’s giving you the evil eye.”

“There has to be another explanation.” I wonder whether she detects the hope in my voice.

“Well, you can tell the ‘tone of voice’ of the Pushing instructions during a Read. Why don’t you check to see if you can recognize your buddy Thomas in there?” She knocks on the head of the cop she shot.

“He’s also my adoptive brother,” I say. “And why can’t you do that?”

“I tried, but I couldn’t tell if it was him. But I didn’t even have to check. Given what we know, he’s the most logical choice.”

“He’s the least logical choice,” I say stubbornly, wishing I felt as confident as I sounded. “I’ll prove it to you.”

Walking up to a large cop, I touch the hand that’s reaching for his gun.





*





We’re watching Kyle Grant’s funeral. It’s more than a little selfish to be thinking about the upcoming game, but as the priest says his sermon, we get flashbacks to when we used to zone out in Sunday school, and our thoughts wander. We think about the team we’ve assembled. As the department’s designated quarterback, we know every player’s strengths and weaknesses. We know that Kyle was one of our best guys. With him dead, the guys from thirty-third will wipe the floor with us . . .

I, Darren, disassociate. I must’ve jumped in a few seconds ahead of the Guiding.

I let the memory unfold. It consists of more plans and worries about the precinct’s football team. Some people never outgrow the ‘being the team’s quarterback’ stage of their lives, a stage I missed out on in high school on account of being younger than everyone else. I still wanted to try out, knowing the Quiet would’ve helped me dodge people, but the coach laughed me out of his office when I brought it up.

A presence enters the cop’s mind, and I forget all about football.

You will mentally count to a hundred and then get your gun out. You will aim and shoot the young man standing between Detective Wang and her lesbian life partner. You will shoot to kill. He’s a dangerous suspect from the FBI’s most wanted list.

I try to determine whether I recognize this ‘voice.’ Apart from Kyle, I can only recognize two other people this way: Hillary and Liz. Hillary’s voice I learned by entering Bert’s head. Liz’s voice—by spying on what she did to Lucy’s mind during their therapy sessions. This voice doesn’t sound like either of them, nor does it sound like Kyle’s—not that it could. Voice aside, the phrase ‘lesbian life partner’ in lieu of ‘wife’ is something Kyle would’ve said.

Though I don’t know who this Pusher is based on the ‘voice,’ I know one simple fact: this person just made an enemy of me, and not just because he or she wants to kill me. This mystery person is Guiding these cops to shoot me while I’m standing next to my moms and Mira.

This degenerate just put everyone I care about in danger.

I’m livid. I’m not sure whether my anger is so strong because I’m afraid, but whatever the cause, the fury makes it hard to think. Still, I realize I do recognize something about the Pusher’s tone, though I can’t verbalize what it is. Could it be Thomas after all?

If so, he and I will be exchanging words.

I exit the cop’s head.





*





“I don’t know who it is,” I say and look at Thomas. “Something doesn’t add up, though. I don’t think it’s him.”

“What makes you so sure?” Mira asks.

“For starters, I’m standing next to Lucy, his biological mother.” As I say it, I realize this is a good argument, so I add, “Do I need to draw you a diagram?”

Mira looks thoughtful. “I didn’t think of that. Can you do to him that thing we agreed you’d never do to me?”

“You mean go to Level 2 and Read him?”

When girls say ‘we agreed,’ and especially when Mira says it, it’s code for ‘I commanded.’ I never agreed to not Read her if I could. During the last ten days, I’ve been trying to replicate the feat of going to Level 2 without any luck, so arguing about whether I’d Read her or not is useless.

Just in case, I attempt to enter Level 2 for the millionth time. I do what I usually do in the real world to phase into the Quiet. I try to forget that I’m already in the Quiet and will it to happen with all my being, but again, nothing happens—not even that ‘hitting a mental block’ feeling I sometimes manage to bring on.

“I can’t,” I tell her. “I still haven’t figured out how to make it work. You’re right, though; it would be the best way to deal with this.”

“Fine. Then our only course of action is to have a little chat—”