Chapter Four:

            In a mid-sized passenger jet heading west over the Atlantic Ocean, Jay Malloy sat in a first class seat and stared down at his laptop with a frown.  He was unconsciously chewing on the end of his pen as he scanned the document displayed on the screen.

            It had been less than forty-eight hours since Quentin Travers found him in the library watching the news report of the incident in Colorado, and now Jay was traveling to the small town of River Mead as part of the Council's investigative team.  Any other trainee in his position would have been excited or just plain nervous to be on their first mission, but Jay seemed to fold in quite naturally with the rest of the team.  His manner was always respectful, and his confidence in his abilities was never overbearing.

            Of course, only his friends and family saw past his proper exterior, and they knew that Jay had learned to keep himself cool in most situations only by snuffing his infrequent but vicious temper.  Emotionally unstable people were quickly eliminated from the Watcher trainees, and Jay did not want his position and reputation damaged by an inappropriate outburst.  However, his friends still steered clear of him when they knew he was angry, fearing for black eyes and lost teeth that could come from a poorly placed joke or snide remark.

            The document displayed on screen was the front page of the current Denver Post.  It had a picture from River Mead below the headline, and the destruction shown was similar to the other photos acquire by the Council over the past day and a half.  Yet, Jay still scrutinized every detail, just in case this picture hinted at something the others did not.

            After a while, Jay clicked the image closed and rubbed his eyes.  He glanced to his left, and saw that most of the other team members were asleep or engrossed in their own research.  It would be many long hours until they reached the United States, and then even more time until their adjoining flight took them on to Colorado.

            Jay sighed and stared forward through the cabin.  The stewardesses were mostly gathered near the cockpit, occasionally moving down the aisles to assist a passenger.  Other travelers were seated around him, scattered through the sparsely occupied cabin, and most were silent as the jet's engines hummed steadily around them.

            In order to keep himself awake, Jay opened a video file on the small computer before him, and put his hand to his temple.  He closed his eyes for a moment, allowing his vision to cloud and the seeing eye in his mind to open.  He made sure none of the others from the team were watching him, and then he looked out over the cabin again.  Around each passenger, he could make out vague clouds of swirling light.  They enveloped each person from shoulder to brow and then tapered off as the light trailed upward through the air craft's ceiling.

            Jay grinned, though he quickly suppressed it.  The light around each person told him something of their life.  If they were sick, upset, happy, mostly any emotional or physical state he could name.  Lights that were strongest at birth, but did not entirely fade out once someone had passed away. 

            This talent was what had sparked the Council's initial interest in Jeremiah Malloy.  He could see these lights when he wanted to, even the fading life force of the dead, which made finding ghosts and demons especially easy for him.  And in a few hours, his talents would be put to their first real test.

            With this awareness in his vision, Jay stared down at his laptop again and played the video.  His eyes glittered like fire through glass, and the smile crept back onto his face.  It was a scene of chaos, from the town of River Mead.  Mixed with police and reporters were the residents of this once quiet small town...uncertainty on their faces...loss...confusion...

            And not all of the people Jay watched had survived the destruction.  They were vague, hazy and unclear forms captured by the video, and still would have remained unseen to anyone lacking Jay's gifts. 

            After a while, Jay stopped the digital movie and closed his laptop slowly.  He was getting a headache and decided to save his strength until he actually got to the town of River Mead.  It would be much easier to see the lights there, instead of over the recorded resources he had now.

            Jay stretched his arms over his head, and allowed his eyes to wander over the cabin again before he allowed his vision to return to normal.  Every one seemed very calm, but Jay read deeper into their lives by studying their lights.

            One woman nearby was staring with annoyance at her nails and then shifted unhappily from one buttock cheek to the next.  Her lights were bright, but also tightly formed around the woman's body.  She was a very private person, this told him, but every now and then her light would expand, as if trying to reach out to everyone, trying to be noticed, not wanting to be ignored.  She was a complainer, Jay guessed, mostly because she wanted people to pay attention to her all the time.

            Past her, a middle-aged man in an evenly pressed suit was tapping quickly onto an air phone connected to his chair.  Little flecks of yellow light darted around the man's head, and Jay would guess that he was about to tell someone a lie.

            Near the back of the cabin, Jay spotted the head of another man and he quickly looked away.  The man's light was bright, healthy, but swirling with dark blue ribbons.  Jay swallowed uncomfortably and tried to ignore the pleasure in the man's light.  Blue light...Jay had learned very quickly that blue light meant wrath...and often meant murder.  He would have bet anyone that man may have recently had something to do with someone else's death.

            Jay stared forward and then frowned as his gaze settled on the person directly in front of him.  It was a young man, barely out of his teens, and his light was bright, innocent, but strangely different from the others around him.  The aura was more solid, more pronounced, as if the light had been filtered through a prism.  Almost as if certain colors had been amplified...enhanced...

            Jay had noticed this odd occurrence before.  Not too often, and in the most random places.  Someone who seems completely ordinary in every way with just have those certain lights that stand out in a crowd.  Jay had not yet been able to figure out what they meant...as he had with certain 'colors' found in each person's light.

            Yellow usually meant deceit, gray typically meant an illness of some kind, red meant anger, blue meant malice...the list went on.  But the enhanced lights did not seem to be specific to any emotion or physical state. 

            Jay wondered what made those few random people so different from anyone else.

            Oh well, he thought and closed his eyes again.  When he reopened them, and was glad to see that everyone had returned to normal. 

            I'll figure it out eventually, he thought and then decided to close his eyes again, and hoped when he awoke they would be over North America.

            Home, sweet home...

***

Author's note: Very tired right now so if grammar errors are out of control, let me know.  :-)