Listen (Muted Trilogy Book 2) (10 page)

“Katherine and Sam. Twins.” Jemma fought a smile at Jack’s surge of pride at her getting the information from them. “So there are six of us being held here, then, if Josh was telling the truth. He hasn’t lied, that I’m aware of.”

“That means there are other facilities. The others who went missing from elsewhere, they aren’t here.”

Jemma sent a surge of agreement, then tensed at the electronic voice.

“In five minutes,” typed the guard, “you will begin exiting in the order you arrived.”

She closed her eyes, then opened them again and looked at Jack. He was watching her, too, and the room was silent save for the occasional crinkle of a wrapper. “I’m not sure how well I’d handle this without you here. No more losing lunch privileges, all right?”

“Okay. I’m not planning on it.” He was still looking at her. “I wouldn’t do well without you here, either. I wish we could still try to figure things out on a nice couch instead of on these plastic stools, though.” He wiggled and grimaced dramatically enough to get his point across without the words, and Jemma laughed silently, her shoulders bouncing. Marcia and Ken spared a moment to smile, and the twins looked as if they wanted to move even farther from the rest of them.

She felt a nudge against her feet, and she saw Jack smirk before his expression faded into something softer. “Did you just kick me?” she asked, trying to match some of his levity.

“Won’t do it again. I can only reach your shoes, anyway, and the guards check every once in a while.” He tapped his shoe against hers once more before pulling away.

Their remaining minutes passed quickly, and Jack sent a wave of emotion that felt suspiciously like a hug. She returned it while she still could. As their connection broke, she crumpled the wrapper of her sandwich and shoved it inside her drink bottle, allowing herself a glare in the direction of one of the cameras before her time was up.

TEN

To Talk

Jemma fought a sigh. Josh seemed to be his normal, exuberant self. He was obviously pleased by the inclusion of the others in their lunches, and he seemed to take Jemma's impatience with the morning’s session as a personal compliment.

“The surprises aren't over yet,” typed Josh. He wasn't rubbing his hands together, but he looked like he wanted to; he was smiling, leaning forward, his wrists almost touching.

The man seemed to fluctuate between stereotypical villain and puppy. Jemma was tired of surprises, tired of trying to deal with what was reward and what was punishment, with what she was expected to do and with her lack of choices.

“This is another good surprise then?” typed Jemma. She was sure whatever showed on her face wasn't exactly excitement, but Josh didn't seem deterred.

“It's certainly something new.” Josh grinned and looked at the door expectantly. Jemma followed his lead, looking up in time to see the door open.

Katherine entered, curling a piece of hair between her fingers, her shoulders pulled forward and head bent. Josh stood to greet her, then indicated that she should sit in the chair next to Jemma’s. After a moment's hesitation, she complied.

Jemma watched Katherine; despite the woman’s body language—after sitting, she’d crossed her arms and leaned as far from Josh and Jemma as she could—she was still easier to watch than Josh was.

“Okay,” typed Josh. “First, we are going to try telepathic communication without physical contact.” He looked between the two women, a grin on his face. He lifted his hand before lowering it and moving it back and forth dramatically, as if waving the starting flag for a race.

“Hi,” tried Jemma. The telltale echo was nonexistent. She wondered whether it was her familiarity with Jack that allowed her to Talk to him without contact; that would explain why Marcia and Ken seemed able to Talk. Josh nodded at the monitor, which had spiked with her attempt.

“Were you able to hear anything?” he typed. Jemma shook her head, then turned to see Katherine doing the same. “Okay, I want you to keep trying. Let's go back and forth first, for about 15 minutes, typing your message after you send it. Then, we will switch and get Katherine hooked up to the monitor. Then we'll go from there.” He grinned again. “You're certainly going to earn your lunches today.”

Jemma was pretty sure that Josh was a major contributor to many of her headaches; they hadn't even done much yet this morning, and her head was already throbbing.

“Hello again.” Jemma blinked at the sound of a female voice she wasn’t controlling. She turned to look at Katherine while the other woman continued typing. “My name is Katherine, and it is nice to see you.” She looked back at Josh, waiting for a response.

When Josh gestured to Jemma, Jemma tried to send a message. “I’m Jemma. How are you today?”

The mundane, two-step conversation continued until Josh was ready for them to switch places. When Katherine was hooked to the monitor, Jemma in the hard metal chair instead, it started all over again. While the change in enforced routine should have been nice, the imitation of conversation was draining, and the further change to her routine, as restless as the monotony had made her, put her more on edge.

“Okay,” typed Josh finally. He seemed pleased again. “Now, I’d like to add in some contact. Jemma, I want you to put your hand on Katherine’s arm.” Jemma did as she was told, and Josh nodded, satisfied. “Katherine, you may begin.” He turned his attention to the monitor, to which Katherine was still attached.

Immediately, Jemma heard Katherine’s voice echo in her mind. “My name is Katherine, and it’s nice to see you.” In contrast to the words, she sounded neutral. Jemma couldn’t feel any emotion coming through the connection.

Josh, still staring at the monitor, leaned forward, his mouth opening. He looked at Jemma and raised an eyebrow, and when she nodded in response, he grinned. As Jemma continued to watch, he actually tilted his head backward and laughed soundlessly. After several seconds, he refocused his attention on Jemma. Some of her confusion must’ve shown on her face; he started typing.

“Knowing that you can communicate telepathically with contact is one thing,” Josh typed, “but actually seeing it confirmed on the equipment…” He gestured dramatically. Grinning once more, he typed again. “Okay, Jemma. It’s your turn. Don’t forget to type what you said. Remember I can see the activity, but I can’t see what you’re saying. Not yet anyway.”

He winked at her.

Jemma clenched her fists and closed her eyes before looking back at Katherine. “Are you really going to go along with this?” Jemma sent the other woman. Katherine’s eyes darted toward Josh while Jemma typed carefully into her cell phone, composing the expected greeting and response for Josh’s benefit.

Katherine nodded. “Fighting them only makes things worse. They’re trying to help.” Following Jemma’s lead, Katherine typed what Josh expected to hear. From what she could see of him, though, she wasn’t sure he would care exactly what they were saying as long as they continued Talking.

“You really believe that? People who are willing to kidnap and experiment on others against their will, they only want to help?” Jemma closed her eyes again, then typed a longer exchange to compensate for the activity she knew had shown on the monitor.

“I’m not gonna talk about this anymore. I’m following the rules. Stop trying to break them or I’ll tell.”

Jemma, a fan of rules and order even as a child, had sometimes made things difficult for her spirited younger sister. Now, she felt a stab of sympathy for the times she’d tattled on Jill, not that Jill had ever been harshly punished, not as a relatively good-natured kid who was so much younger than the one turning her in for her misdeeds.

“Okay,” typed Josh, and Jemma jumped at the male voice. “I know we haven’t been going for very long, but I’d like you two to go ahead and switch places again.”

Jemma obeyed, and the short, telepathic conversation that followed adhered to the script perfectly in word. On Katherine’s end, the recitation was monotone. On Jemma’s, it was sarcastic.

Josh interrupted again only minutes later. He checked to make sure his tablet was recording before he leaned toward them, his eyes sparkling. “Now that you’ve gotten used to speaking to each other telepathically with contact, I want you to pull away. Leave an inch between your hand and her skin,” he directed Katherine, typing quickly, “and then continue with the script.” He gestured almost royally this time.

Katherine pulled her hand away from Jemma, leaving her fingers resting on the arm of the medical chair. When nothing happened between the loss of contact and Katherine’s typing of the conversational nonsense, Jemma could almost feel Josh’s disappointment. She kept her eyes trained on Katherine as she attempted to send a message, lack of echo enough confirmation of failure that Jemma typed her response.

“Keep trying,” typed Josh.

They went through another exchange, words communicated via their cell phones rather than telepathy.

“Again.”

Once more, they traded empty pleasantries, this time about weather that neither had seen in weeks.

Josh put down his keypad, the resulting clatter loud enough to draw Jemma’s focus, and ran his hands through his hair. He glanced at the tablet, which was presumably still recording their session, then picked up his keypad once more. “Katherine, move your hand closer. Cut the distance in half, at least. I want you as close as you can get without touching.” After she’d complied, Josh nodded for her to begin. His shoulders drooped when she typed her message before any activity displayed on the monitor. He looked at Jemma, his eyes pleading.

She looked back at Katherine, focusing on the message, on the tenuous connection she had with the woman. “What would you like for lunch today?” she tried. The message didn’t quite go through, but there was something, some hint of pressure that wasn’t quite an echo, and Josh leaned far enough forward that Jemma could see him.

When there was no response from Katherine, Jemma typed her message, and Josh stood and started pacing the room. A minute passed, then another, before he finally returned to his seat. Jemma watched him. She hadn’t seen him quite so rattled before. His eyes wide, he put his hand on her arm, then watched the monitor for several seconds. He pulled away, looking toward the ceiling as he ran his hands through his hair again. A glance at Katherine told Jemma the other woman looked cautious but not surprised.

Finally, Josh picked up his keyboard. “This has to work, Jemma, and you’re our best chance at it. Do you understand? Limiting telepathy here wasn’t really intentional, but we have to keep it this way because it lessens the side-effects. If we can’t figure out a way to make the telepathy work without contact under these conditions, the whole thing will have been pointless, and I’ll have risked everything for nothing, and on top of that, we need this advance to be able to save everyone because—”

The door to the lab flew open, and Josh stopped typing. He clenched his jaw, looking determined before adjusting to what looked like a legitimately contrite expression, which he turned to Dr. Harris.

Dr. Harris, who stopped just a few feet away, was typing into the private frequency; Josh was nodding and typing back, but Jemma wasn’t able to hear anything. Her head pounded in the silence as she watched the tense exchange. After long minutes, Josh left the room, his shoulders back, tablet tucked under one arm. Dr. Harris took his place and readied his clipboard to type.

“Let’s begin again.”

***

The guards led Katherine and Jemma to the cafeteria together. When they entered at the same time, Jack rose his eyebrows from where he sat.

“That’s new,” he commented while the women walked toward the food display.

“I’m too tired to pretend we’re not Talking today,” Jemma sent Jack while she studied her sandwich options. “I’m sorry, there’s a lot to talk about, I just…” She trailed off, her head pounding and her stomach growling, as she received Jack’s response, a silent, wordless equivalent of a hand to hold. Jemma smiled down at the turkey sandwich she picked up, then took her place at the table.

He maintained the mental contact until, after lunch was over, the distance was too great to sustain it.

ELEVEN

Progress

Jemma yawned as she sat down in her chair in the lab, then took note of the stillness in the room.

Most mornings, regardless of who they were planning to have her work with that day, Josh was already present before she arrived, situated in his spot and ready to go, though Dr. Harris had been actively monitoring him from within the room since her session with Katherine. Today, save for Jemma and the equipment, the room was empty. She could see movement at the edges of the window, at least one person standing off to the side near the door, but she couldn’t quite see who it was.

Again, she was torn, struck with the uncomfortable, unfamiliar sensation of being glad things were changing. She’d still love to go back home, to go back to her library, her job, her family, her own routine. She still craved a schedule, normalcy, on so many levels, that disruptions remained… well, disruptive.