Chapter 19: Answers
Lexa felt her toe tapping with impatience. What was taking so long? Lost in her own thoughts, she was startled when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She managed to control her body's instinct to jump, but turned around to see who had touched her.
"Relax, Lexa. It's been less than a minute." Katie touched Lexa's arm reassuringly.
"Well this isn't exactly an everyday occurrence! We don't know what's going to happen, do we?!" Lexa was immediately sorry as she heard the harsh tone of her voice. "I'm sorry, Kate," she said, throwing a hand up in frustration. "But why is Jesse in there? Why would David take him in there too?"
"Brennan doesn't know David. Jesse's there as a familiar force. That, and David's not all that comfortable with his abilities yet. The connection with Jesse will help calm him down."
Lexa considered Katie's words. In the few months that she'd known Jesse's sister, Lexa had found that the young woman had a knack for saying the right words at the right time. Maybe it was because she was the only non-mutant of the group or maybe it was just her personality. If it was the latter, it would be extraordinary considering the formal and indifferent upbringing she'd had.
"Relax, Lexa," Adam said from the console, where he was trying to measure any affects on Brennan. "There's nothing we can do right now. We just have to wait, and trust them."
"David, look out!"
David looked up just in time to see a blue energy ball hurtling toward him.
But before he even had a chance to react, Jesse was there, sliding in front of him, massing. "Get down!" he shouted, dragging David to the ground.
"What the hell was that?" he shouted when the shower of sparks stopped.
"That was one of Brennan's tesla coils. He's attacking us for some reason." Jesse automatically massed as another round of electrical bolts flew their way. After it ended, there was nothing for several moments, Jesse let himself take a breath, and he and David pulled themselves to their feet.
"He's scared," David said, reaching out. "He's acting on instinct. His mind has been violated, and then all the sudden we show up. It's only natural that he attack us."
"Well, nice to know he's acting naturally. I'd hate to think he was mad at us," Jesse said a bit sarcastically. "How do we get him to stop?"
"Talk to him. See if you can get him to calm down enough for me to take a look around."
Jesse nodded. "Right," he said softly, then "Brennan!" he shouted into the void. "Where are you? Can you hear me?"
"Jesse?" Brennan's deep voice echoed.
"Yeah, man. I'm here."
"No! It's not you. You can't make me hurt them again!"
Jesse saw sparks dancing in the air, ready to hurl themselves at him. "Brennan, relax. It's me, I swear."
"No, you were Jesse before! I'm not going to let you do it again!" This time the shout was accompanied by a swift flash of blue lightening.
Jesse dodge the charge, half directing, half dragging David, who seemed to be locked in a meditative trance, behind him. "Brennan, you jackass! Snap out of it, man!"
Almost instantly, Jesse felt the electrical charge in the air disappear. An image of Brennan appeared in front of him.
"How are you here?" The voice and image of Brennan still projected disbelief and distrust.
"David brought me here. We're trying to help you. What's happening?"
"How do I know it's really you?"
Jesse thought for a moment. "Only your friends call you jackass because they're not scared of you." There seemed to be no response, only the continued threat of sparks hovering over Brennan's fingertips. Jesse tried again. "Hey, if I were someone else, would I know about that night with the pizza and the chain link fence and the thing?"
"It is you." Brennan's features relaxed and the sparks disappeared. "You haven't told anyone else about that, have you?"
Jesse shook his head and chuckled a bit. He gripped Brennan's arm and dragged him in for a quick, back-slapping hug. "Good to have you back, man."
As Brennan drew back from the embrace, his relief was evident. "So what's the plan, Jess?"
"Well, David's going to take a look around, see if he can figure out what's going on. I know, I know," he said when Brennan held up a hand to interject. "I know you don't like people snooping around your head, but it's the only way."
Brennan glanced over to David, who was "standing" what seemed to be 10 feet away. As though he had already received permission, the psionic's eyes were closed, and a silver aura blurred the edge of his image.
Brennan opened his mouth to ask a question, but was halted by what happened next. David's eyes flashed open, his eyes bright. Jesse heard him start to shout a warning, but a sudden loud shrieking noise cut him off. Reflexively, he ducked, covering his ears as the noise echoed around them.
Jesse ducked too, as did Brennan. The noise grew louder, shriller until it seemed as though it were a freight train barreling towards them, breaks squealing. The noise seemed to hover over them, and the air around them shook with the intensity of the noise. The extremely low pitch caused their vision to blur and it took all they had not to fall to their knees from the incredible vibration it caused. As hard as they could, they pressed their hands over their ears, trying to drown out the overlying shrill shriek.
Just as suddenly as it had appeared, there was a quick flash of bright pale orange light, and all the noise was gone. Tentatively, Jesse stood up, his ears ringing from the abrupt cessation of sound. "What was that?"
"That," David said, straightening the blue t-shirt he wore, "was our answer."
Katie watched David open his eyes slowly. "Are you okay?" she asked, putting a hand on his sleeve. "Did it work?"
David smiled down at her. "It did."
"Oy. This is one of the times I'm really glad I'm not a psionic." Jesse rubbed his temples. "This is one nasty headache."
David looked over at his friend, concerned, but Adam almost laughed. "It's because you're not a psionic, Jesse; you're just not used to participating in intense psionic activity while lucid. Usually you're unconscious, for one reason or another. I would think that you'd be used to the feeling by now. As for why, it hurts for the same reason it stings for the others when you use your powers on them." The smile lingered for a moment, but then his features sobered. "Did you guys find anything?"
David nodded. "There was definitely a presence there. I managed to make contact, but then it panicked and ran off."
"And that's good, right?" Lexa stated. "That means Brennan's…whatever waves will go back to normal and he'll be fine."
Adam was already back at the medical console, running another scan. As the golden rays moved along Brennan's body, he said, "If David's right, Brennan should be fine in an hour or two. But I think we should keep him restrained until his T waves return to normal. For all we know, the psionic force could return. All we can do is wait."
"No."
Jesse looked up at David's voice. Gently, he opened himself up to David's mind, seeking to understand. "What is it, David," he gently asked aloud.
David had been staring at the ground in concentration. Now, though, he looked up at the others. "The presence was familiar. I've felt it before. I recognized it."
Jesse's eyes widened a bit. "Someone from Jacobs' group?"
David nodded. "It has to be. I've never met any other psionics. I know this person. I can't put my finger on who it is, though."
Lexa's eyes closed for a moment in thought. "But that doesn't make sense. According to the records, there were 12 mutants in the project. Two of them are dead, and David's right here. The other nine are in the underground – all at least 30 miles from here. Unless one of them can work from that distance..?" She looked over at Adam.
Adam shook his head. "That's highly unlikely. Unless there's already a special bond between them, like a familial or traumatic bond, I've never known a psionic able to attack or communicate from such a distance."
Jesse shifted his weight nervously. Looking over at Lexa, he asked quietly, "What about the wish list? Maybe it's more real than fantasy."
Katie's brow furrowed as she watched Lexa respond to Jesse with a shrug. "Wish list? What are you talking about?"
Adam crossed his arms over his chest, clearly wanting an explanation as well.
Jesse sighed. "Jacobs had another list. There were about two dozen psionics, in addition to the 12 he had, that he wanted to get his hands on and include in the program."
"Great, so you mean there's another 24 mutants running around out there that might be in danger or a threat? Why didn't you tell us about this?"
"Katie, I'm sorry, it's just – "
"Wait, did you say twelve?"
Katie and Jesse halted their burgeoning argument at David's strong voice. Adam and Lexa looked up from where they were just about to step in between the siblings. Lexa looked at David and then over to Jesse. "Yeah," she said. "There were only twelve mutants in the group that Jacobs' was actively working with. Why?"
"There weren't twelve. There were thirteen. I remember because my birthday's on the 13th of March."
Lexa's brows lifted in doubt. "The dominion database only listed twelve. There were twelve sets of data for each test, twelve pod locations listed, nothing to indicate that there were more than twelve in the group. Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. Who's listed in the database?"
Jesse's instinct, as well as his connection to David, practically screamed at him that this would prove to be an important lead. He quickly moved over to a terminal and opened the file that contained the names of Jacobs' group. "Well, you. Then there's Liang Zhu, Tyrone White, Dan Wakefield, Ariah Tamblyn, Rick Tamazuki…" Jesse went on to list the other six names on the list. He went slowly, allowing David to match a name to a face. After each name, David nodded.
"There's one more…I can picture her, but I can't remember her name. Arrgh! Her name is right there, right on the tip of my tongue. I remember her powers, and that was definitely her in Brennan's head. He should be fine, by the way. She's a touch telepath like me, but once she breaks contact, there's no way for her to get it back without touching the person again. Her power is manipulation. She gains control of the other person's body. The idea was that she could be used to make someone jump of a building or something, and then break contact before the person died."
This time Lexa frowned. "If that's the case, and it is her, she could have easily killed Brennan, or made Brennan kill us."
"Not like she didn't try," Jesse pointed out.
Lexa rolled her eyes, but then put on a serious face. "It had to have been Lisa. If she shook hands with Brennan or something, she could have gotten control of him that way. But with Shalimar in New York and Brennan still in la-la land, we have no way of knowing what she looks like."
David dragged a hand through his hair. "It probably is her, but I'm sure her name's not Lisa. That's not the biggest problem, though. In order for her to maintain control," he said carefully, "she has to be within smelling range. She uses her heightened sense of smell to locate and maintain contact with the person. Her range is about 100 yards."
Jesse's link to David helped him reach the conclusion first. "Holy…" Jesse's eyes widened at the implication. Almost instantly, he attacked the computer terminal, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
"Wait, if she has to be within 100 yards of the person she's controlling, and Brennan was still under her control while he was in the hanger…"
Adam finished Katie's sentence. "Then she's somewhere here in Sanctuary."
