The Enlightened (Mind Dimensions #3)(7)

“Why are you looking at me like it’s my fault? Why not ask this oaf?” Paul says defensively, pointing to Caleb.

“Young man,” Rose says, her full attention on Caleb. “What did you tell him?”

“Nothing,” Caleb answers, and his voice takes on a note I haven’t heard from him before. If it were someone else, I’d swear he sounded deferential. “I just asked him a few important questions about the business with Jacob.”

I shudder, remembering how he’d chosen to ask those ‘few important questions.’

“You were explicitly instructed to bring him in unharmed,” Paul says, apparently noticing my reaction. His eyes narrow at Caleb. “Which part of that instruction was left open to interpretation?”

“Is he harmed?” Caleb says, and now he’s the one sounding defensive.

“Darren,” Rose says in an overly soothing tone, the kind a mother takes with a tantrum-throwing child. “Whatever happened with Jacob will not get you into trouble. Whatever Caleb told you was because he was mad about his mission going awry.”

Caleb gives an angry grunt but says nothing.

“What mission?” I ask suspiciously.

“Jacob was part of a group that Readers call the Purists. The Purists are part of another group, a bigger group, called the Orthodoxy,” she explains patiently. “Caleb has been working with us to penetrate the Orthodoxy, and Jacob was an important lead.”

“What is the Orthodoxy?” I ask, my head spinning. Caleb was an undercover agent of some kind? Actually, when I think about it, it doesn’t require a stretch of the imagination to picture Caleb in such a role. He’s certainly well versed in fighting.

“It’s complicated,” Rose says. “We believe there is an alliance between the Purists and their traditional counterparts among the Pushers.”

“There’s a whole organization of these people? It wasn’t just Jacob and a Pusher?” I blurt out before I can stop myself, and realize I might’ve admitted to knowing too much.

“So Jacob did have a Pusher ally?” Caleb asks, his face managing to darken even more.

“Yes,” I say. At this point, lying probably won’t help matters. “In fact, that’s who I was really going after when this thing happened with Jacob.”

“Tell us everything,” Caleb says.

“Young man,” Paul says to Caleb. “Remember your place.”

“We’ll find out what happened when we perform the Joining,” Rose says gently. “For now, we just want to make sure you, Darren, are who we think you are.”

“Wait, I want to learn about the Orthodoxy,” I say, keeping to my original subject. I don’t want to be at the center of their interest. I don’t want them confirming their suspicions about who they think I am, especially if those suspicions include me being part Guide. It’s a big break as is that they’re apparently not angry with me for offing Jacob. At least the Enlightened aren’t; Caleb clearly is.

“We don’t know much about them. They’re religiously secretive. People like him”—she nods at Caleb—“are trying to uncover more information about this sect. From what little we’ve learned, we know they’re responsible for many actions we don’t approve of.”

“What kind of actions?” I ask, staring at her.

“They’re too numerous to list,” she says, frowning, “but their biggest mistake is their desire to get rid of us. They want to return to the days when Readers of our magnitude didn’t exist. Our power scares them. Our practices scare them. Anything new scares them, really, which is why they intentionally stifle human progress of any kind. They want to make sure the world remains within certain parameters that are comfortable for them. We suspect they’re behind most of the fundamentalist groups in the world, be it Islamic extremists or—”

“Enough,” Paul says. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Rose, but we can cover this at another time. Darren, let’s cut to the chase. Was Mark your father?”

I look at them. Rose gives me an entreating look. Caleb’s eyebrow rises slightly, but his expression otherwise remains blank. Paul waits expectantly.

“Why would you ask that?” I ask, searching for a way to dodge this subject.

“We ask because we’re almost certain that you are his son,” Rose says. “We want to know without a shadow of doubt before we proceed with the next part of our plan.”

I rattle questions at them as quickly as I can. “What plan? Why do you think I’m this person’s son? And why does it matter?”

“We believe you’re Mark’s son because we looked you up before asking Caleb to bring you here. When we saw you, we noticed the familial resemblance. Combined with your questions about the man, the likelihood seems great, but given whom Mark married, we just didn’t think it was possible,” Rose explains.

“You know whom he married?” I give them a surprised look.

“We do,” Rose says, cautiously looking toward Caleb. “No point in going into that right this moment.”

“Indeed,” Paul says. “But I am beginning to understand the source of your reluctance on this issue.”

“Yes, now I get it, too.” Rose smiles at me. “You have nothing to worry about, though. Not from us two, that’s for sure.”