Psion Beta (7 page)

I must smell terrible
. All of the things that had not seemed important with his friends, like personal hygiene and grooming, now mattered a great deal. He wondered if he’d become immune to his own stench after spending so much time in the abandoned store.

“
Er—I’m Samuel Berhane.” He glanced at the blonde girl who looked back at him indifferently, almost impatiently. “My parents—well, just call me Sammy. I’m fourteen and I grew up in South African Territory. Is that all?” he asked Byron.

Byron nodded.

The small boy next to him stood up, looking not nervous, but mortified. “My name is Brickert Plack.”

He sat down immediately.

“
Anything else you want to say about yourself, Brickert?” the commander asked him.

Red spots formed on Brickert’s cheeks as he realized he had forgotten to finish his introduction. He stood again and said, “I’m from Ireland, er, the Territory of Ireland, and I’m twelve, almost thirteen.”

Without missing a beat, he dropped back into his chair.

“
Yes, Brickert is the youngest Psion we have ever trained in this facility,” Byron added, beaming down on Brickert, whose red spots grew and flushed to an even deeper red.

The first two girls introduced themselves as Kawai Nujola and Natalia Ivanovich. Kawai was almost sixteen and came from a smaller west African territory Sammy vaguely remembered from school geography, and green-haired Natalia had been recruited from Samara, a Russian territory.

The blonde girl stood up. Sammy couldn’t help but notice her perfect posture. “My name is Jeffie Tvedt. I just turned fourteen, and I’m from Oslo in the Territory of Norway.”

Sammy experienced a sudden strong connection with the Territory of Norway.
I’ve always liked that place. Very beautiful. Jeffie . . . Nice name
.

“
Thank you,” Byron said. “I hope you all become fast friends and help each other whenever needed.” He cleared his throat as if to begin a speech. He surveyed the new recruits with a look of satisfaction.

“
I think what you are all about to experience can be likened to putting your mouth over a fire hydrant to take a drink of water. I hope you can handle the deluge of information. Anytime you have questions, please feel free to ask.”

Sammy understood this to mean “get comfortable, we’ll be here for a while.”

“
Life at the headquarters of Psion Beta will be different than anything you have experienced. I briefed all—well—most of you about the daily routine here.” Brickert glanced over, no doubt guessing that Commander Byron was referring to Sammy. “You will be trained for four to seven years to prepare to join a Psion Alpha squadron. Alphas are the most specialized task force under the NWG and consist solely of persons with Anomaly Fourteen. I want to elaborate on this anomaly so you understand precisely what you can and will be able to do with it.”

Byron paused briefly to stress his next point.

“
But first I wish to begin by saying this, because I feel it is most important. As a government operative you are above most laws that civilians must abide, similar to police breaking speed laws while in pursuit. This is not because we are privileged or chosen, but because of the work we do. It is easy to slip into the pitfall of thinking we are above everyone else, or even detached from them. While you will have little contact with the outside world, make no mistake, we are servants. We never use our abilities to put ourselves above others even though, ultimately, you will never receive thanks from the people you serve and protect.”

Protect from what?
thought Sammy.

“
How about a history lesson?” Byron said, as if he had read Sammy’s thoughts.

A transparent square appeared in the wall exactly like the one Sammy had seen on the ceiling in the white room. As Byron spoke, pictures appeared.

“
Late in 2054, the first Psion was discovered in the Mid-American Territory. Like all new anomalies, the government brought him to a NWG research center for study. Doctors found he had a unique enzyme that interacted with carrier proteins in the mitochondrial matrix throughout the cells in his nervous system.”

Sammy recalled learning about mitochondria in school, and he recognized the one in the picture that appeared on the screen. The picture looked like a green jelly bean with a section removed to see several internal membranes sandwiched and folded against each other.

“
The mutation in these organelles acted as super-catalysts in energy production, manufacturing thousands of times more energy than a normal mitochondrion. But the spontaneous adaptation of energy emitting channels in eleidin found in the stratum lucidum of the dermis . . . scientists called it a wonder of evolution.”

The stratum whatsidum?
Sammy wondered. The others around him all looked equally confused.

A picture of a section of human skin divided into layers appeared on the wall. Highlighted in red were certain cells in a particular layer of the skin.

“
Stratum lucidum is a layer of the skin found only on the palms of hands and soles of feet, so these are the only places on the body where energy blasts can be emitted.”

“
What happened to the boy?” The question came from Natalia whose eyes were wide as her finger twirled knots in her poison-green hair.

“
He trained with the Elite in Siberia. Over the years, as the government discovered other Anomaly Fourteens, the boy suggested employing them as a second operative group independent of the Elite. The little group grew and named themselves ‘PSIONS.’ In 2060, they founded the Psion Corps. This building used to be the original headquarters until Psion Alpha and Beta formed in 2070. Now it is used only for training the Betas.”

“
Is the boy still training Psions?” Sammy asked and glanced over to see if Jeffie was looking at him now.
Dang
.

The screen behind the commander went dark and Commander Byron smiled. “Yes, he is. In the beginning, the Psions worked mainly as a special task force, taking on missions too dangerous for the Elite.”

The screen behind Byron flashed images and clips of both peaceful and violent protests, debates in the World Congress, and ended with a world map. He spoke for several minutes about the Scourge’s impact on social politics and how human life became more precious after over forty percent of the world’s population died from the supervirus. Bombs, abortions, guns, and even armies became deeply unpopular as the world moved toward global peace. Byron’s lecture so far reminded Sammy of the classes he had been forced to attend in the Grinder—classes about not only math and reading, but also making the world a better place through service to humanity.

The videos changed to show news cuttings during the Second Scare. Some were famous clips Sammy recognized from history in junior high. Most of the shots contained mob violence and protests at government offices around the world.

“
None of you were alive during the Second Scare,” Byron continued. “Scare is really too small a word to describe the terror people felt at the idea of a second, deadlier virus wiping out the rest of humanity. Every day we heard about riots and mayhem. People wanted to protect their homes, pharmaceutical companies wanted to protect their factories. But no one legally owned guns because of the weapons ban. So in 2058 several northern and southern American territories passed laws allowing their citizens the right to bear and manufacture arms. Superior Court challenged the laws and ruled them unconstitutional, and levied heavy sanctions against the territories.”

“
Wasn’t that a little harsh?” Jeffie asked. Natalia stopped twirling her hair and stared at Jeffie, whose question sounded a little confrontational.

Commander Byron’s smile seemed to invite the challenge. “What do you think?” he asked her.

“
My dad says people should be allowed to have guns.” Her tart tone made it clear her dad’s opinion was the final word on the matter.

Byron nodded noncommittally. “It depends how you look at it. Regardless of how anyone felt about the issue, being a government means working together to solve problems, not just promoting the interests of one group. Whether or not weapons should have been allowed is less important than knowing the majority of people did not want them. As part of a larger community, or team, they should have together worked for a solution. Do you agree, Gefjon?”

Sammy used this as an opportunity to steal another glance at her.
Gefjon? Her name is Gefjon?

“
I guess so, but call me Jeffie.”

The tension diffused; Jeffie seemed supplicated, and Byron resumed.

“
Americans have always had a superiority complex, just like almost every other culture,” Byron continued, wearing his little smile again. “I know, I grew up there. You guys probably know most of this stuff from history classes. After the Berkeley Weapon Debates in 2062 and 2063, all but five of the North American Territories shocked the world and seceded from the NWG. Then every Central and South American Territory, but two, followed. Leading to the formation of . . . ?”

“
The Continental American Government,” Kawai answered. She spoke it like a dirty word. It reminded Sammy of kids in school calling each other a variety of names that all had “cag” in them: cagger, cag-head, and cag-lover were all common.

Byron nodded. “We call that the Schism. For a time, a few North and South American territories stayed with the NWG. Quebec was one of the few territories that didn’t secede. And what you probably don’t know is that when the CAG invaded Quebec, it marked the beginning of the Silent War.”

“
The what?” Natalia asked. She wasn’t the only one confused. Sammy had no idea what Byron was talking about.

“
The Silent War,” Byron repeated. “A war fought only by operatives. Specially trained soldiers not part of an army. No war in the history of the world has been fought this way. During the twentieth century, the Cold War was a race to build up nuclear arms. Not a single bomb detonated nor one bullet fired between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, but they did fight via smaller proxy nations. Since the Scourge, standing armies and weapons of mass destruction have been deeply unpopular in both governments. Human life is viewed as sacred. We are assured the CAG does not intend to build an army unless we build first. So when these rare exchanges take place, like in Quebec, we fight anomalies against other anomalies.”

Sammy and the other recruits stirred uncomfortably in their seats and exchanged glances. Brickert paled and swallowed hard. Byron had not said that the Psions were in the middle of a war. Byron’s repetition of the words “extreme danger” now took on greater meaning.

“
How come I’ve never heard of the war?” Jeffie asked. Sammy liked watching her lips move as she spoke.

“
There have been only five battles between NWG and CAG since the Schism. Four of those were in territories invaded by CAG. The last battle took place almost seven years ago in an Australian territory. NWG works hard to keep information away from the public and press.”

“
Why?” Jeffie asked. Her questions mirrored Sammy’s own thoughts.

“
To prevent people from losing faith. The concept of a worldwide government is fragile. We base most of our military strategies around intelligence gathering and surveillance, not invasion.”

“
And the CAG uses other Psions, like us?” asked Natalia.

“
As far as we know, Psions do not work for the CAG. They use different anomalies. Before we even knew of an operation in Mid-Western America, the CAG had struck us the worst blow of the war in a former American state called Wyoming. It is a desert—a perfect place for an ultra-security holding facility for people discovered to be afflicted with Anomaly Thirteen—the anomaly discovered three years before mine.

“
Have any of you ever heard of the Friday the Thirteenth Carpenter Killings? A teenage girl named Katie brutally murdered and then decapitated her family one morning. Then she went to school and stabbed twelve students, killing nine. Three were horribly mutilated. I have seen the pictures from the police reports. They are very disturbing. A battery of studies showed she had an anomaly affecting her brain in such a way that she possessed no sense of barriers to restrain her actions. People with this anomaly have no fear of consequences or authority. They are all but mad with their own desires. Even small whims can become obsessions. Anomaly Thirteens have been known to kill brutally, inflict prolonged torture, and rape without the least remorse. I have even heard reports of cannibalism.”

Sammy looked at Brickert, whose faced mirrored the look of disgust on his own.
This is who we fight? A bunch of animals? No wonder Byron didn’t mention this
.

“
Why would anyone want to have those kinds of people on their side?” Natalia asked. “That’s horrible!”

Sammy fully agreed with her, and Kawai silently nodded.

“
Like I said, the loss of the Wyoming prison hurt us. The CAG was desperate for its own operative force and wanted to force the remaining American territories to secede. When CAG troops invaded Mid-West, they broke into the prison and bargained the Thirteens’ freedom in exchange for their service. The Thirteens paid a minimal price of being tagged, and became free if they work for the CAG. They weed out CAG citizens who are still loyal to NWG. Watch this example of their brutality.”