The Enlightened (Mind Dimensions #3)(60)

Chapter 21





The noises of the world return, and I look around. A guy wearing shades and a baseball cap, probably a student, is walking toward us. I phase into the Quiet and Guide him to sell me those items. When I phase out and begin the transaction, the guy wants a hundred bucks for the stuff. I debate Guiding him to give me a better price, but decide it would be too much like stealing and hand him the hundred-dollar bill. It’s bad enough he’s selling me things he wouldn’t have otherwise dreamed of selling.

“Great disguise,” Thomas says after I put my new gear on. He pulls out his own shades, the kind you often see ‘agents’ wearing. “Let’s take a look in the back.”

As I’d hoped, the back of his car is an armory.

“Take this,” he says, handing me a heavy revolver. I take it and tuck it behind my back, under my shirt. I’m getting used to concealing guns gangster-style.

Thomas straps on a holster under his suit jacket and puts his own gun in. It’s a much fancier piece that has some initials on the handle and even a laser sight. I begin asking whether he has another fancy gun like that when, without a word, Thomas heads toward the building. I follow.

“Keep your head down,” he says once we enter the conference hall.

Though the place is the same in the real world as it was in the Quiet, the noise and movements are a stark contrast to our previous excursion. Without much ado, we split up. I walk to my designated right-hand walkway. I’m making sure Kyle doesn’t pass by me, and Thomas is doing the same on his side.

As I walk through the crowd, I keep track of the row numbers. I’m looking for Row 20—the position Thomas decided was the optimal distance to Kyle’s hideout, and the marker for me to phase into the Quiet and retrieve Thomas.

My walk is uneventful until Row 25, where I notice a scientist looking at me strangely.

This guy resembles a tall, overweight version of Bert, but dressed carelessly, like Eugene. I can tell the hatred on his face is not his natural expression. That’s all that registers before the man closes the distance between us and tries to punch me in the stomach.

Without willing myself to, I quickly move aside. His punch never connects with my midsection. The Bert/Eugene-hybrid dude stumbles. I spot a white-haired woman out of the corner of my eye a second before I feel a sharp pain as she grabs me by the hair, girl-fight style. I grab her wrist and squeeze, gently but firmly.

“I don’t want to break your hand, lady,” I say.

She lets go, but I feel another stab of pain, this time in my shoulder. Having had enough of this weirdness and pain, I phase into the Quiet.

The people around me all have one thing in common: they’re frozen in the process of attacking me. The pain I felt a moment ago was from a guy who stabbed me with a pencil. I’m lucky he didn’t have one of those high-end metal pens on hand, because that would’ve really hurt. As is, his pencil broke off without breaking the skin.

These random, peaceful-looking people attacking me can only mean one thing. But to confirm my suspicions, I Read the white-haired woman who grabbed my hair.

As I thought, Kyle Pushed her to attack me.

Which means he’s spotted me.

Shit.

I take a second to change their minds about attacking me, and then run over to Thomas. No one is attacking him, which means Kyle hasn’t noticed him, or else Kyle doesn’t realize we’re here together. If that’s the case, then he might not realize how much trouble he’s really in. Or maybe his Reach only allowed him to control the group that’s attacking me, leaving none to spare on the folks around Thomas. More likely, though, Kyle just didn’t see Thomas, which is great.

Thomas’s frozen face is looking intently in my frozen self’s direction, watching as I’m getting attacked.

I touch him on the neck.

“Darren, I was about to pull you in. I saw those people go at you.”

“Yeah, it’s Kyle. Guess he saw me.”

“He must be Splitting and walking the perimeter,” Thomas says. “I was hoping he wouldn’t be this cautious, and if he was, that he’d fail to penetrate our disguises in this crowd.”

“Doesn’t seem like he knows you’re here.”

“We have to move now. We’re close enough to where he’s hiding—”

“Unless he moved,” I interrupt.

“He wouldn’t have had the time to get more than a few feet,” Thomas says. “And if he doesn’t know I’m here, he might decide to stay put.”

I walk toward the stage, taking my gun out of the back of my pants. My heart rate increases when I reach the right stage exit where Kyle was hiding just minutes ago. Only Kyle isn’t there. I run down the cavern-like path Thomas and I explored earlier until I get to the first turn of the corridor and almost bump into him.

Thomas was right. Kyle didn’t get far.

“He decided to get out of here,” Thomas says from behind me. “Cautious as ever.”

“Are you ready to do this?” I ask. “Should we pull him in?”

“Wait.” He walks farther down and positions himself in front of frozen Kyle.

“You’re hoping he materializes in front of you?” I ask.

“Yes. But just in case he shows up behind you, I want you to face away. Take the safety off your gun.”