Out of Touch (34 page)

             
Sitting on a rumbling train in the dark, Sarah was frozen with a skull shattering pressure inside her ears, not worse than she’d felt before, but it wasn’t waiting until she was ready to deal with it. “I should wake up, Emma,” she said. “She—this affects her too.”

             
“You were going to say she’s a telepath, too. But you’re not—you were trying to make me unreadable, and this—“

             
“Stop, please. I probably deserve it. But none of the rest of them could read my mind. I don’t know why you can, or if the rest can now, too. But, I need a minute.” Tears were pouring out of Sarah now. She turned her head so they wouldn’t fall on Emma, who somehow still slept with her head on Sarah’s leg.

             
“Don’t wake Emma yet. We need to talk first. I’m sorry if this seems like such a bad thing to you.”

             
Aliana’s touch was no longer provocative. One arm held protectively around Sarah’s back, while the other held the hand draped over Aliana’s shoulder.

             
When Sarah’s tears had stopped, Aliana spoke. “I think we’re past whatever you wanted to discuss about my sexuality. A few minutes ago, I sensed you liked what I was doing, but thought you should say something to stop me. I avoided touching anything more than your arm, even though my whole body is crying out for touch in a way I’ve never felt before. My mind wants to say I feel this because I’m falling in love, but my feelings for you are not new, and the intense desire of my skin started somewhere in the confusion of this evening.”

             
Sarah wanted to pretend confusion, to slow down, but that wasn’t possible. “You’re asking if the change in how you feel touch is caused by what I did tonight? It’s possible. I’ve always been unusually sensitive to touch, and what I did to you, I’ve done to myself many times. But I shouldn’t have tested it on you. I think I’ve crossed some line.”

             
“The idea that you might feel things the way I’m feeling them now, is unbearably attractive. So if you’re going to say no, maybe you’d better say it.”

             
Sarah couldn’t believe where this was going. She couldn’t believe how much she wanted comfort and acceptance from someone who by rights should condemn her. “We couldn’t do anything with Emma here.”

             
“But you want to.” Aliana used the arm holding Sarah to stroke lightly down her side, along her ribs. Not touching her breast, but close enough to set off an intense erotic reaction.

             
Sarah wanted to; she also wanted to cry. “But I wouldn’t. Much as I might be tempted, I’m already involved with Reggie. We may not be married, but I love him, and our lives are so entangled that he gave up everything to come to Thailand with me.” It sounded weak, even to Sarah. No matter how much Reggie tried to be the perfect boyfriend, Sarah could see him distancing himself, see him disapproving of her power and what she was willing to do. If Reggie truly loved her and wanted to stay with her, would he have been so distracted lately with his new PAD and all his business calls? Would she be responding to Aliana this strongly? But Aliana had affected her, since the first day they danced, and now she could hear Sarah’s thoughts. Still, Reggie had stayed with her through so much—

             
“I’m not trying to displace Reggie. But couldn’t you love me, too?” Aliana’s breath struck moist sparks against Sarah’s neck and ear. In the same instant she wanted more but also felt it was unfair of Aliana to manipulate her that way, especially if Aliana could hear her thoughts. And it hurt to think she was probably hearing these thoughts too.

             
“Do you know how I’ve felt for you since we first met?” Aliana answered her thoughts. “Is it so unfair to make you deal with similar feelings?” The fingers on Sarah’s side were no longer tempting, but clinging.

             
“I wouldn’t have hurt you on purpose, you know?”
Though now I hurt you and maybe Emma and Reggie too, because my thoughts betray me.
“I can’t defend what I’ve done up to this point, but please, let this stop now. Let it wait ‘til I’m not tired and overwhelmed.” Sarah’s voice squeaked as she almost drowned in waves of emotion. Aliana’s hand stopped moving, settling platonically on her shoulder. Relief washed through Sarah like cool water, easing a few stubborn traces of desire.

             
“I’ll stop because I don’t like to hurt you either, and even if you haven’t handled yourself well, I still have my standards. Nevertheless, pain and all, I hope neither of us forget this.”

             
They sat together, not speaking, not moving, a still spot in a humming, vibrating metal train. Sarah fiercely battled to keep her thoughts from forming words, knowing she couldn’t. And she tried to console herself with the thought that it was her friend Aliana listening, and she could at least give Aliana trust. So as she calmed down and the fear receded, she carefully thought through what she figured Aliana had a right to know. She thought about how she had fled the U.S. because she was a teek, and how she had used her telekinesis to stop Tom, a teep, from giving her to the Chinese. She thought about how Tom had lost his telepathy and how that had given her the clue to stop Aliana’s mind from being read, to keep them all hidden from the assassin. Then she thought about James’s research, about the genetic precursor to telepathy that he didn’t understand. And suddenly she hoped that Aliana’s telepathy might be different than Emma’s, and maybe her own thoughts were still protected from other teeps.

             
In the moment when Sarah decided she had to wake Emma because she had to know the answer no matter how selfish that was, Aliana nodded.

             
Sarah gently shook Emma’s arm. “Emma, wake up.”

             
The exhausted teenager didn’t react, and Sarah convinced herself to wait, to let the girl sleep. But five minutes later, when Emma stirred slightly, Sarah couldn’t resist trying again.

             
“Emma, wake up.”

             
Her eyes opened and shut a few times. Sarah thought she looked like a much younger kid when waking up, and Aliana smiled with a repressed laugh. Emma didn’t react to the thought, which probably would have annoyed her, and Sarah felt a renewed surge of hope.

             
Once Emma sat up and rolled her shoulders until she seemed reasonably awake, Sarah asked her, “Can you still not hear Aliana’s thoughts?”

             
Emma shook her head and her chin jutted forward disapprovingly at Sarah.

             
“And you can’t hear mine?”

             
“What? I could never-- What’s going on?”

             
“Bizarre,” Sarah sighed, with a huge feeling of personal relief. “Get this, Aliana can now hear my thoughts.”

             
“How? Are you sure?” Emma’s face shifted in that moment from the soft inexpressiveness of sleepy youth to the dramatic raised eyebrows and tucked chin of adolescent skepticism.

             
Sarah stiffened a bit, and Aliana gave her shoulder a calm squeeze without saying a word.  “We tested it lots,” Sarah ventured, “But so you’ll know, tell me something to think about.”

             
“Think about what I told you my favorite new food was two days ago at lunch,” Emma said without hesitation.

             
Fast as Sarah could think it Aliana said, “Vietnamese spring rolls.”

             
“Okay, now tell me what I’m thinking,” Emma said quickly.

             
Emma and Aliana stared at each other for half a minute, but in the end Aliana just shook her head.

             
Emma asked, “Can you hear the guy dreaming in the next room?”

             
“No.”

             
“You wouldn’t like it anyway.”

             
Sarah pretended outrage, “Maybe your parents shouldn’t let you out.”

             
“Yeah right,” Emma smirked. “So you want to explain to me how you first blocked her thoughts and now this?”

             
“I guess I’d better,” Sarah sighed, and she explained to Emma what had happened to Tom and the relevant bits of what happened with Aliana. They were still trying to make sense of it when the train bumped to a stop in the Bangkok station.

              It was full morning and the gleaming modern transit center pounded with the footsteps of busy people. Silent now, the three women carried their belongings toward a taxi stand, eager to get back to the Johnsons’ house. Then Sarah heard a shot, felt it hit her head, and was swallowed into nowhere.

Chapter 20

June 3, 2025 – Bangkok, Thailand

             
“But can you tell us why the Americans want that patent?”

             
If Alak were speaking aloud, James imagined he’d be talking through his teeth. James wove a pencil through his fingers, then through the fingers of his other hand, trying to stay calm. He wondered if Alak was specifically annoyed with him or just relaying tensions from above.

             
“I’ve told you it might relate to telekinesis, but with so few teeks to study, it’s hard to find any answers. Now if you’ll let me return to my work—“

             
“And you still haven’t explained what the teek did to Tanit.”

             
“I had only one case to study, and the problem was clearly not genetic.”

             
“What good is genetics if it can’t answer any of our questions?”

             
James set down his pencil, took a deep breath, and glanced at the Swiss results on his screen. After weeks of delay, Heiss had at least provided excellent data. He’d sent blood samples from thirty paranoid schizophrenics and forty-six members of their immediate families, along with a psychiatric history for each.

             
These samples included only one patient who was homozygous for the telepathy predecessor. She also had the bipolar sequence the Americans wanted. Her mother shared all of the genetic factors, but was classified as mentally healthy. So even if latent or partial telepathy might be in play, perhaps causing delusions, it was not a sure path to schizophrenia.

Realizing Alak was still waiting, James said,
“Look, I’m frustrated too. Do you know what I’d give to know if this patient and her mother are teeps or teeks? But even if I could convince Heiss to let me visit and run some follow-up tests, the subjects must not be doing anything too obvious.”

Alak squared his shoulders and sat back, as if he was considering a serious proposal.

“You don’t think it could be arranged, do you?”
A quick shake of Alak’s head dashed those foolish hopes.

“No, but there’s something you should know.”

James refused to play the impatient one. He just waited, not even moving his hands.

“Your man Heiss has been silenced.”

James froze for about ten seconds, pressing his hands down hard, then blurted,
“You do mean to telepathy, not killed?”

Alak nodded.

“Was it because of me?”
First Nigel, now this. James needed to untangle himself from this web, and yet, he was looking for a pattern in the threads.

Alak shifted sideways, as if the soft office chair was too hard for him.
“We don’t know.”

“But you’ve been watching him?”

“Just peripherally. We never saw him with any Americans or even any high ranking Swiss. But our observer there reports his mind is now silent. We want you to go ahead and talk to him at the conference this weekend, but be careful what you say.”

“You think the Americans are involved? What’s going on?”

“Just remember anything Heiss says.”

“And tell you, when you won’t tell me anything?”
James had reacted without thinking, and Alak ignored him until he amended,
“I might guide the conversation better if I knew what you suspected.”

“If we knew anything, and you knew what we knew, then that information would be at risk.”

“I see.”
James tried to see this as a fair challenge.

“But afterward, there’d be no reason not to tell me. After all, I gave this country my best discoveries and was promised scientific freedom and support. If they want to understand the Americans or some double agent, they can ask their spies.  I have my own work to do.”

              “As do I.”
Alak nodded and brought his hands together in something short of the traditional wai. He turned to leave and was just reaching the door as it sounded a brief knock and swung inward.

             
Lisa stood in the doorway, an arm’s length from Alak, and for a moment it seemed as if the hand he’d been reaching for the door would connect instead to Lisa’s hip.