Psych Investigation Episodes: Episode 1 (A Young Adult Scifi / Fantasy) (26 page)

“
I know, Sarah. Believe me, I know.
But you’ve already sent in his blood. There’s no way I can fake it
with someone else’s.” Paro’s team shot him a look of surprise, and
he knew why. To even suggest doing something so illegal was in
itself a crime. A very, very serious crime.

“
Damn, Paro, this kid’s not
dangerous!” Michael’s voice, though a shout, had a pleading tone.
“And even if he could be dangerous, he never will be. I had to beg
him just to learn a few simple things. He’s never gonna bother to
be destructive or anything else like that. There’s gotta be
something we can do.”

Paro stood from his leather chair then walked
to the back of the room and turned away from his team. He couldn’t
bear to see the look of disgust on their faces—the looks aimed at
him.

“
I can’t make a case for that,
Michael. It’s already been documented that he started the fire in
his classroom by accident. Had I known in advance, I might have
been able to alter that as well. But the facts are the facts, and
the higher ups fear few things more than an Unrestricted that can’t
control himself.”

“
But that was then, Paro! He’s not
like that anymore. We showed him how to—”

“
Quiet, Michael. Don’t you think
this is hard for me too? Because of this organizations ridiculous
rules, we now have to refocus valuable time from stopping a pair of
homicidal maniacs to ruining the life of an innocent
child.”

Sarah slammed her fists against the glass
table, almost shattering it. She too, was showing signs of
aggression that Paro had rarely seen from her.

“
Then we’ll hide him,” she said.
“We’ll put him somewhere safe, some place they’ll never find
him.”

Paro smiled. Sarah was such a courageous,
caring person. “I can’t believe you just said that, Sarah. If
anyone in this room ever reported you, the consequences would be
dire.”

“
But we’re not like the other
teams,” Michael insisted. “I trust everyone in here with my life as
well. We’re more than just colleagues.”

Sarah and Kazou nodded. “I don’t mind putting
my life on the line if it’s for someone like Jack,” Kazou
said.

Paro sighed. What they were attempting was so
far on the other side of the law, that if they were ever caught—and
they probably would be eventually—more than likely an Op. team
would be dispatched with no opportunity for surrender.

Looking around, Paro had never felt so much
pride in his life. He was truly honored to have gathered these
people. They all had their faults, sure, but in this world, there
was no one he cared more about than the people sitting around
him.

“
You guys,” he said. “Are you sure
you understand the risks? If we grab the Harris-kid and we get
caught—and believe me, we’ll be the first suspects—are you all
willing to pay the price?”

They all nodded without a moment’s hesitation,
and for the first time in a tiring life, Paro actually had to
resist the urge to weep. “Very well then, we’ll take the Harris-kid
somewhere safe. We’ll protect him from what lies ahead.”

“
Well said, well said!” shouted a
voice from behind Paro. The door to the planning room swung open,
and Paro filled with alarm as he swung his head to see who’d
entered. His heart almost stopped, his palms began to sweat. Sarah
almost fainted, and Michael’s jaw dropped. Kazou remained
motionless, but even in his eyes the fear was unmistakable. Did the
man standing in the doorframe hear their conversation? If he did,
then their only chance would be to try and kill him immediately. It
wouldn’t matter, though, Paro realized.

I think I just got my entire team
killed.

A tall black man entered the room. There was a
smirk on his face and an almost oppressive aura. He didn’t say a
word as he closed the door behind him and took a seat, as if he
were just another member of the team.

Sarah and Michael remained frozen. Once again,
Kazou broke the silence.

“
Ge-General Moore,” he
whispered.

Paro rarely felt the touch of fear, but when he
did, it was a sickening feeling. Sitting before them, with a casual
and relaxed smirk, was General Deven Moore, considered the greatest
and most powerful Telepath in the known world.

He was a very tall man, muscular, with the
tattoo of the General’s insignia embedded on the shoulder over his
dark skin. He had the build expected of a Reinforcer like Kazou,
yet he was far from it. He had short buzzed hair and a clean-shaven
face. Despite his powerful body, a single glance into his eyes
revealed a deep, complex intelligence.

“
You’re thinking to yourselves, if
you all attack me at once, perhaps only half of you will die,
yes?”

Paro almost lost it. His heart beat faster as
the man somehow managed to gaze at everyone at once while in
actuality looking at no one in particular. The feeling of
oppression was so powerful that Paro felt weak in his knees despite
being seated, and he had the urgent desire to flee.

“
I see none of you are making a move
against me. I could tell the moment I walked in here that if I
attacked a single one of you, you’d all die protecting each other.
This is good.”

The man smiled, and all at once, the feeling of
oppression was gone. The sensation of impending death was replaced
immediately by a purity and brightness so vivid that it was almost
too much to contain. For the first time since entering the room,
the man allowed his true self to be shown. There was greatness
there, a hopeful feeling of inspiration so powerful that the team
was almost blown away by it. The man’s smile was genuine—Paro was
certain of it. The general had falsely created the feeling of
oppression, but now that he allowed it to fade, he was showing his
true self.

Paro blinked to ensure his eyes did not deceive
him. Here the man was, sitting in their very planning room—one of
the Psych Generals, part of the most feared, yet also most
respected group of men and women. The highest rank one could obtain
as a Psych.

“
Are you going to kill us, General
Moore?” Paro asked, trying desperately to keep his voice
steady.

General Deven Moore stretched his arms and
relaxed in the seat he occupied, but his eyes turned hard. He sat
up straighter and took a moment to look at each one of them. “No,”
he whispered.

He stood up from the chair and paced around the
room. “Jack Harris, Unrestricted Psych, age sixteen. He is one of
the luckiest boys alive. Why
? Because I saw the file
first
.”

He continued to walk around the room while he
spoke. Every time he passed a member of Paro’s team, he would stop
momentarily to give one of them an evaluating look, before moving
on to the next.

“
He needs people like you,” the
general said. “If I were any other general, he’d be on his way to
one of the facilities as we speak, and you would all be
dead.”

Paro tried to form some semblance of
understanding, some idea of what was going on. “So you’re not going
to send him away?”

“
Unrestricteds are not permitted to
walk free. That law has been in place since before any of you were
even born. It seems foolish, but it is not without purpose. But
this Jack Harris, I think he deserves, at the very least, a chance
to live a happy life. So, Paro, kindly write up a notice of
employment. Jack Harris is to become a member of your
team.”

As soon as the last word was spoken, the only
sound that could be heard was one large gasp, as all four present
members of Paro’s team looked around at each other in
awe.

Paro shook his head. “But he hasn’t gone to the
camp! How can we sign him up if he hasn’t received any training?
All juvenile applicants have to go to the training camp. It’s
practically written in stone.”

“
So, now you know why I am here.”
Moore’s face brightened. “I am a general, and I can do whatever I
want. So, here’s the deal—I will sign the forms, and it will be
done. Boot camp starts up again in a few weeks, and you fellows
just need to make sure he gets there, and I’ll take care of the
rest. For now, consider him accepted.”

“
Why would you do this for us?” Paro
asked. “Why would you do this for Jack?”

General Moore shrugged. “Because everyone in
this world deserves a chance, Paro. And make sure you don’t tell
anyone I said that, either! Generals are supposed to be impartial.
I can’t have anyone think I’m favoring the Investigation
department, now can I?”

Paro remained seated in astonishment. Generals
were not supposed to take sides in the ongoing feud between
Investigations and Operations departments. The Op. teams recruited
from the facilities and occasionally willing participants from the
training camps. Investigations received most of their members from
the camps as well, and on rare occasions elsewhere, but for a
general to take the Harris-kid out of their domain and give him a
chance at a life—it was a violation of their
impartiality.

“
We won’t speak a word of this,”
Michael said. His face held a look of gratitude that Paro had not
seen on him before. It was almost a look of worship. It made sense,
though. Michael already considered the kid to be an apprentice of
his in some ways.

“
I’m going tell you fellows a little
secret, something you’re really not supposed to know. When a Psych
becomes a general, he or she must swear under oath to forgo all
beliefs, feelings, and prior opinions, and work only at improving
the overall schematic of our organization. But it never happens
this way. We investigators will always be what we were, and so it
remains the same for the dogs over in the Op. teams. I’m telling
you this so that you can trust me as well. Much like the risk you
were willing to take, by me simply saying these words, I put my own
life in danger.”

In an instant, Paro understood the man and even
came to revere him. So, at one point General Moore was just like
them? Paro forgot his place for a moment and reached over to shake
the man’s hand. At the last second, he realized what a massive
breach of protocol and formality that was. The General seemed
oblivious to rules, and grasped Paro’s hand in a firm
shake.

“
Paro, you’re an Unrestricted as
well, so I know you don’t want to see Jack end up as some soulless
killing machine. Take care of him, but if there are
any
problems at all, be sure to report them to me immediately. I’m
willing to give the boy a chance, but you alone should know what
kind of destructive power someone like him could possess. If
anything happens, anything at all, I trust in you to report it to
me without hesitation.”

Paro nodded and the man took his leave. He
paused at the door and saluted before exiting.

“
Well,” Michael said, “I sure hope
the kid doesn’t mind waking up early most mornings.”

With Deven Moore gone from the room, a single
thought entered Paro’s mind.

Maybe I should have let him just kill
us.

No matter how hard Jack tried, he couldn’t get
Melissa to give him a moment away from her. He wanted to tell Adam
everything, yet no matter what he did, he couldn’t seem to get more
than a few feet of distance.

Part of it, he knew, was because she wanted to
ensure that Jack kept his mouth shut, which was absurd—Jack was
great at keeping quiet! But more so, from the way she darted her
eyes like she was crossing a crowded intersection, she clearly
feared an attack, even in the middle of school. Jack thought she
was being ridiculous. From what he remembered about the two
weirdoes from the other night, they’d stick out like a sore thumb.
They wouldn’t just show up like Melissa seemed to believe they
would.

Melissa followed Jack through a narrow hallway
on the first floor. There were classes in session on both sides, as
teachers, male and female, old and young, struggled valiantly to
teach students pointless things, like art history. Jack wondered
why anyone would care about the history of art.

Already Jack was receiving wide-eyed stares
from everyone they passed, but it wasn’t surprising. After all,
what else could be expected? Jack, the wimpiest and most bullied
kid in school, was walking hand-in-hand with a knockout like
Melissa. With a devilish grin, Jack realized he didn’t mind some of
the jealous stares. He wondered if Melissa would become angry or
embarrassed, but so far she didn’t seem to care what people thought
of her.