The Elders (Mind Dimensions #4)(62)

“No,” I say. “I mean, I did bring these people with me, but they were supposed to rescue Thomas and Mira, not attack you. It was supposed to be a stealthy rescue operation, with all of you none the wiser. Turning the Temple into a war zone was never the plan.”

“But they are Pushers, aren’t they?” she says. “We learned that from the minds of the police after they attacked.”

“They are Guides, yes, but that doesn’t mean they automatically can’t be trusted. I didn’t think you were prejudiced that way.”

“I wasn’t, at least not until Pushers tried to kill everyone I hold dear.” Her mouth hardens. “Why do you think you can trust them?”

“They work for the Elders,” I say. “Your equivalents among the Guides.”

Her eyebrows pull together. “You knew that and thought the results would be different?”

“When I spoke to them, the Elders wanted nothing but peace with the Readers,” I explain. “I was sure of it.”

“That’s news to me,” she says.

I let out an exasperated breath. “We can sort that out once we survive this.”

“This is hardly the path to peace.” She looks at the fallen monks. “It’s a way toward a new war.”

“Right,” I say. “Which might be the reason this is happening. Someone who’s against an alliance between Guides and Readers is causing this. I think someone is controlling the people I brought with me, the same person who was controlling Mira and Thomas when your people came to grab me. Someone—”

She looks so horrified that I wonder whether I have maggots and scorpions crawling on my face.

“Someone can control Mira, a Reader?” Her eyes look wild. “So the rumors are true. They can do that to anyone.”

I realize we’re now on very shaky territory.

“Only some Guides can influence Readers and other Guides,” I say carefully. “Everyone thinks only the Elders can do it, but I’m not so sure. And the weirdest thing is that, in theory at least, I can do it too, but that’s a long story.”

She swallows. “Tell me everything. Please, don’t leave anything out.”

I give her a disjointed tale of everything I consider relevant to the situation: why I kidnapped grandpa and ran away from the Temple to save my mom, and how my encounter with Kyle revealed my Level 2 capabilities. I tell her about Level 2 because I want the Enlightened to know that their little breeding project was a success a generation early. Hopefully, if we all get out of this alive, they’ll leave me alone.

I explain how I learned that someone else can use a power similar to mine, and that he or she Pushed Kyle, as well as Mira, Thomas, and, more than likely, everyone here at the Temple. I also tell her about my trip to the Elders’ Island. This allows me to do what the Elders actually want me to do—start the peace conversation. So, to that end, I tell her what they wanted from me.

When I finish, she wipes her face with the sleeve of her robe and says, “Here’s my thinking. If all that peace talk was true, and let’s assume, for now, that it was, then at least one of the Elders seems to be working against the others.”

“Except no Elder is here,” I say. “They never leave the Island.”

“Right,” she says. “So like you, one of the people you brought here might have this whatever-you-called-it power.”

“Nirvana,” I say. “Or Level 2.”

“Yes, that.” She looks as if she wants to cry again. “Our plans were doomed from the start. We were generations too late.”

“Too late?”

“To a degree, the reason we’ve been breeding for Depth has been to protect our people against this type of scenario. We assumed that, given enough Depth, instead of being Guided, a Reader would get pulled into that second tier of the Mind Dimension. Back when our groups were at war, some of the captured Pushers divulged information about such a power. We believed them because it’s the only thing that could explain the paradox of the Orthodoxy.”

I frown at her. “What paradox?”

“Think about it,” she says. “Why would the Purists, the people who hate Pushers more than anything else in the world, work with their equivalents, the Traditionalists?”

“I’ve heard theories. They might, for example, plan to kill one another as soon as—”

“We’ve thought about this long and hard, and no other theory stands up to close scrutiny,” she says. “Take Jacob. The man killed Pushers in his youth, but then one day, he decides to work with one? The Jacob I knew would never do that, not unless he was compelled.”

She may be right.

“You weren’t too late,” I say, deciding to address her earlier concern. “In a way, thanks to my mother’s background, you succeeded. Hell, being part Guide, I can do more from Nirvana than a mere Reader.”

“Indeed.” She blinks rapidly, as if to contain her tears. “Paul and I underestimated you.”

No shit, I want to say, but resist the urge.

“I’ll try to undo more of this,” I say instead. “I need you and the others to keep fleeing.”

“Can you please save the monks?” she asks. “They don’t deserve to die.”