Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps (10 page)

Reed voice: You’ll go too far one day, Blood You can’t just kill normals. Woman: He deserved it. Look what he did to our brother. A third voice, carrying the raw tones of youth. For this one he caught a name-Dana. But the teep was running from us. The guard was helping us. WouldnY we have killed the teep if we had to? Woman: This is your first hunt, butfrom now on you must know. Teeps are ours. If they have to be killed we kill them. They are ours. But no matter what—no matter what they’ve done, they don’t deserve to be dirtied by a normal. Ever. Normals are the enemies , Daria, the real enemies. Teeps are our kith, our family, even if they deny us. Never forget that. Daria: The kith is mother. The kith is father. Woman: Those aren’t just words, you see. Dana: I do see.

The woman knelt where he could see her. She touched his face so only he could hear. I don’t think you will live. I’m sorry. Is there anything you want me to tell your wife and boy? Please, no. Let them alone. You’ve killed me, let them alone. That’s not how it s going to be. But I’ll take good care of them. He felt like he was shivering, rattling apart, as if a train were arriving inside of him. 1 love them. Will you tell them that? Of course. Their names? Mary-He stopped. You didn’t know about them, did you? I wasn’t sure. I see them now, on the train to India. Nice-looking boy. And now for another thing or two … He would have wept, but he didn’t have time. Death swallowed his tears along with the rest of him. Blood shuddered as the world reasserted itself. She had followed him only to the threshold, and as far as she was concerned, that was too far. The sense of dislocation, the vague shadow of nightmare, would be with her for days. She looked down at the still face. A P9, maybe PIO.

What a pity. We could have used him. Did the rest of you get it? The face of the man who helped him get his passports? Yes, Teal answered. But there was an afterimage behind him-somebody our friend here never saw, but that he picked up from his benefactor. Blood nodded grimly. Exactly. Did you recognize him? Teal hesitated. It might not be … Blood snorted, and said it out loud.

“Bullshit. It was Monkey. I knew we would pick his trail up one of these days.” Teal reached to touch her, ignoring the bewilderment of the rookie beside them. Well? What do we do? Blood shot him a weary glance. What else? Catch him, of course.

CHAPTER 2

“Understand me, Senator. It’s not just murder I’m investigating. It’s the machine behind the murder. In short, Senator Crawford, I’m investigating the Metasensory Regulation Authority itself.”

Lee shook his head as if at a child.

“You’ve got all that backward , don’t you, Senator?” An ambiguous grin quirked Philip Lai’s handsome, ascetic face. He folded his long fingers into the loose pockets of his grey suit. “I don’t believe 1 follow you, Senator.”

“Son, don’t play games with me. 1 was in this business when you were still learning to count on your fingers. What I mean is, certain senators like yourself-most of them in the opposition party-have been hankering for a piece of me. Now they use a murder that they have absolutely no evidence for to try to hang the MRA out to dry. You see what I mean, son? You’ve not only already decided that the murder was committed, you’ve decided that it was committed by a member of the Authority, and that in turn the MRA is to blame, and thus me. But you’ve got not a single link in the chain of causality. So what that really means is that you want me-for purely political reasons-and you’re willing to climb up the crummiest, shakiest ladder in the solar system to get to me. How’m I doin’?”

“I have not decided anything,” Lai stated. “The president appointed me to this investigation. If you don’t approve of that, I suggest you take it up with him. You are familiar with the president , aren’t you? Contrary to what you might believe, he is not your subordinate.”

Crawford actually laughed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. How could I suspect underhanded political motivations from a man who makes a comment like that? Or from a president I actively campaigned against?”

Lai’s hands emerged from his pockets again and spidered out on Lee’s desk. He leaned forward.

“I will be clear, Senator. I don’t like you, and I don’t like the MRA, I don’t like Teeptown, and I especially don’t like your telepath goon squads. I think you’ve consistently abused your position, and I think you’ve grossly misused the talents of the telepaths you keep incarcerated. Now, my feelings on these matters are one thing. They are my opinion, and that is neither here nor there. Except, Senator, that I can prove what I say.”

“Son, you can certainly try.”

Kevin Vacit heard the shouting quite clearly as he approached the door marked SENATOR LEE CRAWFORD. He paused. The secretary had said to go straight up and knock, that he was expected. But walking in on an altercation didn’t seem the best way to meet his new boss. Then again, ignoring instructions might be worse. He rapped. The shouting broke off.

“Come in!” Kevin opened the door. “Who the hell are you?”

Kevin recognized him, of course. He had grown up seeing Lee Crawford’s face on the vids and in newspapers. It was a sort of shock to see him in person. He had expected Crawford to be bigger somehow, more godlike. In an intangible way, he was. There was an almost palpable sense of power that lay behind that seamed, angular face, that did not come across on a screen or in any photograph.

“Sir-Senator-I’m Kevin Vacit.”

“My replacement,” said the other man. Kevin recognized him, too-Tom Nguyen, who had interviewed him.

“Damn it, Tom, I don’t need your replacement. I need you. You’ve been with me for almost twenty years.”

“I’m sorry, Lee. It’s what I feel I have to do.”

The senator blinked, and his face relaxed. It was as if he had just realized his anger was showing and chose not to show it any longer. He sighed.

“Very well, Tom. I guess I’m not going to talk you out of it. I’ll miss you, though.”

“I just think, under the circumstances-“

“Tom, I told you I don’t hold any grudges.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s me I can’t live with.” He seemed to remember Kevin was in the room. “Sorry, Kevin. Kevin Vacit, meet Senator Lee Crawford.”

Lee Crawford smiled, the avuncular hound’s grin from a thousand images.

“Good to see you, son. Hear good things about you. Have a seat, won’t you?” He turned back to Tom Nguyen. “You will stay long enough to fill him in?”

“Of course. Two weeks, and then as needed.”

“Good. Well, let’s see here, Mr. Vacit-may I call you Kevin?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Then you must call me Lee. In private. Outside of the office you should call me Senator for a while.”

“I understand S-Lee.”

“Good. So, Kevin. Bachelor of science in neurophysics from ASU, master’s in the same from Harvard-and a degree in law. First in your class. Worked with the Houston special attorney for metasensory evidence-ah, Ernesto Perez, a good man.” He looked up. “Son, how old are you?”

“I’ll be twenty-four next month.”

Lee smiled.

“You’ll stop countin’ that way someday, son, I promise you. But damn impressive, to be where you are at your age. Precocious, even.” He stood up. “Drink?”

“No, thank you.”

Lee snorted.

“Figures Tom would replace himself with another straight arrow.” He went to a small cabinet and withdrew an earthenware bottle, poured an amber fluid into a small crystal flute. “So you oversaw telepaths in the courtroom.”

“I did.”

“Well, tell me this. Some of my colleagues have been pushing to broaden the admissibility of teep testimony. What’s your opinion?”

“My opinion is that things are best as they stand.”

Lee nodded.

“Well, at least you have an opinion. Now explain it.”

“Spectral evidence.”

“I’m afraid you’ve lost me, son.”

“In the late seventeenth century, in North America, in Salem, Massachusetts, a number of people were tried and many hung for witchcraft. The court admitted testimony of spectral evidence-allegations that the accused had appeared in ghostly form to those they afflicted. One of the men involved-Cotton Mather-argued persuasively against the admissibility of such evidence. After all, the testimony wasn’t verifiable-the witnesses could lie for any number of reasons, accusing innocent people. Despite Mather’s objections, the testimony was admitted, and twenty-one people were executed. Later, there was a backlash, a big one. I think telepath testimony is comparable. It’s good for establishing the possibility of guilt, but shouldn’t be admitted without corroborating physical or overwhelming circumstantial evidence.”

Lee cocked his head.

“They teach you that in law school?”

“No. I’m something of a history buff.”

“Write that up for me. It’ll sound good on the floor. Can you think of other historical precedents?”

“Yes. In Nigeria, in 2002-“

“Just write it up.” He held out his hand. “Good to see someone earning their pay on the first day. Now, why don’t you have a talk with Tom? He can fill you in on the nastier aspects of working with me.” He turned back to his vid, but called again before Kevin could get out the door. “Have you been screened?”

“Yes, S-ah, Lee. It should be in my vitae.”

“We’ll want to screen you again. in-house. Good to have you on board, Kevin.”

“Good to be here, Lee.”

Tom Nguyen stood as the third member of their party approached , a lean fellow the color of black coffee.

“Kevin Vacit, may I introduce Akimba Ironheart.”

“Mr. Ironheart,” Kevin said, taking the black-gloved hand. “I hope you don’t mind, but it’s SOP to have a teep along for these sorts of things. To be candid, assisting Lee is an extremely sensitive position. Even the vice president doesn’t have higher clearance.”

“I understand completely. And I’m aware of Mr. Ironheart’s reputation-you worked on the Knorozov trial, didn’t you?”

Ironheart seemed pleased. “I did.”

“That was good work.”

“Thank you.” Tom drummed his fingers. “Another reason for Mr. Ironheart’s joining us has to do with security above and beyond you. Some of the things I’m going to tell you can’t be overheard, and there are a lot of people who would like to overhear, teep and normal alike.” Kevin nodded. “The first thing I want to stress is that this job carries some risk. While it’s not well known, there have been four attempts on the senator’s life in the past fifteen years. None succeeded, and in each case after the first, teeps were able to identify the assassin before his attempt.”

“I haven’t heard about these.”

“You wouldn’t have. Cards on the table, Kevin-you’ve signed a disclosure document. That’s to be taken seriously, and from here on out it comes into play. But I ask you again, for the record-do you swear to keep the things I tell you confidential?”

“I do.” He felt a sort of tickle among his thoughts, a faint alien presence. Ironheart nodded. “He’s telling the truth.” Tom smiled thinly.

“Good. Let’s go have a look at Teeptown, then.” Kevin took in the broad avenue, the carefully sculpted landscape . In the middle distance he could see a mass of scaffolding and lifters busily at work, and beyond that the sharp peaks of the Alps.

“Is that EarthDome?” he asked, pointing toward the distant construction.

Tom nodded.

“It will be. What else could it be? It should be a wonder when it’s done.” For a moment, a brief regret seemed to flash across his face, then he turned in a slow circle. “This is the metasensory compound.”

“It looks more like a village.”

“It is, Mr. Vacit. Some call it Teeptown, as a matter of fact. That’s the square, there-bars, restaurants, a few shops. Those larger buildings on the hill there are the dormitories for the children and singles. Married housing is down that way.”

“I thought it would be more like a military base.”

“We try to minimize that feel. Teeps are not ordinary enlistees, as I’m sure you know. Most come from civilian backgrounds, and though they find themselves more comfortable here, with other teeps, than they did out in the `mundane’ world, we want them to have some of the comforts of the lives they’ve left behind. If you know the military, you know the people on military bases are always trying to get off base. Most teeps would rather stay here, though, where they are safe. But given that factor of isolation, we try to make life as-you’ll excuse me, Akimba-`normal’ as possible.”

Kevin nodded as they walked along. The buildings were mostly new and fresh, unpretentious ceramic brick, a hue removed from natural earth tones, topped with high, pitched roofs. More than anything, the complex resembled some of the self-towns that had sprung up in rural areas over the last few decades—homages to an earlier time. Simulated small towns, as it were. He saw a lot of children, fewer adults, the occasional uniformed cop or functionary.

“Metasensory has four legs, as it were. First and foremost, its function is education. Teeps are taught how to use their powers and how to control them. The younger we get them, the better.”

“What about the parents of the children?”

“It’s something of a boarding school. The parents can visit, the kids can go home on holidays-if they’re deemed able to control their powers. It’s not perfect, but it works. Eventually, most kids end up feeling more at home here than with their parents-I suppose that’s inevitable. Of course, most kids who are teeps have at least one parent who is also a teep, so we have whole families here, too. Many of the children were born here. In fact, we’ll be having our first secondary school graduating class in just three years. An exciting day.”

“I look forward to it.”

“Education goes beyond teep abilities, of course. All of the usual courses are offered, but we try to steer people toward careers for which they are best suited. Here, for instance, we have the school of law enforcement, and there the verbal arts college. And, of course we have a military prep academy. “Me Authority no longer draws on government funds-that makes it one of the most popular programs with taxpayers. We hire teeps out to private business, where they monitor deals-on a mutual-consent basis, of course; to the courts, which I know you are familiar with; and to EarthForce, where they mostly serve in Alliance security.”