"Which part of being suspended did you not understand?" Stella snarled, walking out of the lift. As she approached the team, Aneisha and Dan shuffled to the side so that she could see Derren Beige.
"Oh." Stella said lamely. "I'm glad to see you safe and well, Mr Beige. Now, MI9 would like to know how you make your predictions."
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I can't tell you." Derren said, touching the amulet hanging from his neck.
"Why the hell not?" Zoe asked.
"Just as your profession prizes secrecy, so does mine." Derren answered.
"Uh, Derren, when I asked if you always wanted to be a clairvoyant, you never answered." Aneisha said.
"Well I had to prepare." Derren replied.
"You're hiding something." Zoe said.
"The show must go on." Derren said.
"Why?" Aneisha asked. "Why is it so important?"
"Because . . . That's what he always said."
Zoe's expression softened and she glanced down at the table, where there was, along with a heap of Derren's drawings, a photo of a clairvoyant named Roderic. Zoe picked it up and offered it to him. "Is this who you're talking about?"
Derren took it, his cast downward at it as he sat down in a chair. "It's my old man. He put on one hell of a show. Cold reading, telepathy, mentalism – he wanted me to follow in his footsteps."
"But you didn't want to?" Aneisha asked.
"I only ever wanted to be an artist." Derren replied. "Instead I went onstage. Trouble is, I was rubbish at it. Until . . ." He coughed, his voice deepening. "I'm a big success now. Dad would be proud."
"Derren, what you do is amazing, but in the hands of the wrong people it can be really dangerous." Aneisha said.
Zoe noticed that Derren was touching his amulet again. He seemed to do that every single time anyone asked how his ability to tell the future worked. Suddenly, all the pieces clicked into place in Zoe's head. "Neish. The amulet."
Aneisha grinned at her friend over her shoulder. "I was just thinking the exact same thing, Zo." Then she turned back to Derren, holding her hand out. "Give me the amulet."
Derren looked quickly between the two girls. "How did you – "
"It's not science, just simple phycology." Aneisha said.
"When Stella asked how you make your predictions, you touched it without realising." Zoe added. Dan glanced across at her, a small smile playing on his mouth. All of a sudden, he really wanted to kiss her, to tell her how amazing she was. Instead he held himself back, gripping the table until his knuckles turned white.
Derren smiled. "You two would make great stage clairvoyants."
"I already have a job I love." Aneisha replied as Derren took off his amulet, placing it into Aneisha's outstretched hand.
"I found it a month ago." Derren said as Tom started scanning it. "Now, whenever I go into a trance, hey presto, I catch glimpses of the future. Some of it doesn't make much sense but I draw it all the same."
"The crystal in Derren's amulet is from a T.E.D." Frank said.
"T.E.D. Ted. Teddy bears." Zoe said.
"What?" Dan asked.
"All the pictures of the teddy bears." Zoe said. "That's what they mean. What is a T.E.D anyway?"
"Temporal Energy Device." Stella replied.
"It's an experimental technology that harnesses the kinetic energy of time." Frank said.
"Yeah, this thing's covered in temporal energy particles." Tom said.
"Danger with a T.E.D is that it can be used to manipulate time itself." Stella said. "Even rewrite history."
"At KORPS there were heaps of drawings of teddy bears." Zoe said. "If the Crime Minister works out what they mean . . ."
"We have to secure this T.E.D now." Stella said.
"We don't even know where it is." Tom said.
Without a word, Derren got up, put his amulet on, grabbed a pencil and paper and slipped into a trance. Zoe watched, mesmerised, as Derren's hand glided across the page. She felt a small smile tug at her mouth as Dan's fingers found her own, the touch of his skin against her own making her skin feel like it was on fire. She bit back a contented sigh as she tightened her fingers around his, keeping her eyes fixed on Derren so she wouldn't turn around and kiss Dan.
The four teens stumbled into the white room, completely empty except for the big metal sphere in the middle of the room, which was sitting on a white pole.
"What are you waiting for?" Dan asked Tom. "Destroy it."
"This thing's hooked into the timeline." Tom replied. "If I get something wrong, there's a chance I could wipe out the past the present and the future."
"Be careful." Aneisha said.
As Tom opened up the sphere, alarm bells started going off and the lights started flashing red.
"KORPS." Dan said, blue eyes flickering from side to side as his every sense went on red alert.
"Whatever happens, you can't let them get ahold of T.E.D." Aneisha said.
"Tell me something I don't know." Tom replied, pulling out Derren's amulet.
Dan spun around as KORPS came in. He shoved two into the wall and kicked another one in the stomach while Zoe took on another two and Aneisha took on one. They could hear a strange beeping noise coming from T.E.D, but none of them paid much attention to it – they trusted that Tom had it all under control.
Zoe grunted as she fought a particularly difficult KORPS agent – mainly because he was much bigger and stronger than she was. He easily grabbed her and shoved her into the wall and as she tried to get her bearings, she dodged another attack, but she wasn't fast enough to dodge the dart that sank into her calf. She heard Dan yell out as she collapsed on the floor, but she was already too far under. Dan grabbed the guy she'd been fighting and punched him in the face, sending him stumbling backwards into the wall.
"Tom!" Aneisha yelled, hanging onto her own KORPS agent in an effort to keep him from reaching the T.E.D. "We can't hold them! Do something!"
As three KORPS agents ran up behind him, Tom thrust Derren's amulet into the T.E.D, bringing the crystal in the T.E.D in contact with Derren's crystal. The T.E.D exploded, sending Tom and the KORPS agents flying backwards.