Chapter Eight:

A Mental Stowaway

It was around six o' clock in the morning when the Circus trailers moved out. Most of the Circus people were already awake, and had already gotten a head start on their drinking and smoking. Baroda and the bearded lady, who were among them, were sitting in the corner of one of the trailers playing cards. (They were forced to start over many times due to the fact that every time the trailer hit a bump the cards would go flying everywhere.)

The others were scattered about randomly trying to keep themselves as busy as they could while they waited to reach their next destination.

Raz, who had also been awakened when the trailers had pulled out that morning, was sitting on a wooden crate in one of the animal stalls waiting for one of the horses to finish eating so that he could move to the next. He wasn't particularly fond of the job…but it was certainly better then cleaning the stalls.

He had been offering to do a number of random jobs so that he might keep his eye on the other circus people without looking as if he was up to something suspicious. (Particularly to his father, who had caught him lurking about the night before and had ordered him to bed.)

He hadn't minded much. At the time he had been standing outside the magicians door 'listening' for any sort of suspicious happenings. (Since he had become a Psychonaut, Raz found that the most effective way of finding out about someone was to listen in on their most trusted conversations, these being the ones held with themselves. When you were a telepath it was very difficult for people to hide ANYTHING from you.)

After only fifteen minutes of this it became obvious that Mr. Twilight's only concerns were a missing cigar and a coffee stain on his favorite cloak. Raz decided that looking into his mind was a waste of time. Anyone who had threatened Ms. Fermi with a knife would probably be thinking of far more serious things then a stain or a half smoked cigar.

He had had similar luck with the others. He was beginning to suspect that Beth was indeed crazy when he fell upon a particular conversation that started with Boris Batiks flinging a knife at the wall about an inch away from Raz's nose.

His brain sent an immediate response to this shock, which told him, quite calmly to turn his head very slowly toward the thrower and to not give off any sign of being surprised. Unfortunately the rest of him had already fallen backwards off the crate after receiving the first signal, which had been a bit more frantic.

Raz cast an irritated look at Boris, who was issuing an annoying sound that crossed between laughing and coughing. After he untangled his legs and stood he set the box back up and turned towards the sound warily.

Behind Boris, two other men were observing the scene with less amusement. Pasco was on his right and was giving Raz an analyzing look that was slightly unsettling. On his left was Jamie Gore, who Raz knew as the odds and ends man who tended to do all of the dangerous work that no one else in the circus wished to do.

Jamie gave Boris a distasteful look before elbowing him sharply in the ribs. In response Boris wheezed and then gave the man a dirty look. After the noise subsided, Jamie stepped forward and swiped what was left of his hair out of…what was left of his eyes. (A majority of Jamie Gore's looks were considerably diminished due to the many burns and scars received in various…unfortunate mishaps.)

"We have access to this area now, little boy…run along." The man said in an unusually fruity voice.

Raz raised his brow and gave the trailer a quick glance before crossing his arms and giving the man a suspicious look.

"On what authority?"

"On your dads, you brat, now get lost!" Boris fingered another knife and glared at Raz ominously.

Jamie gave Boris a stern look before stepping forward.

"We're taking over your duties here, Razputin. You're dismissed." The man's one good eye was a crisp blue…and gave a person the uncomfortable feeling of penetration under its gaze.

Raz, who was eyeing the knife, still sticking out of the wall, with a kind of concentration, set the feeding stuff down and walked quietly towards the door. Boris stuck his foot out to trip him, but at the last minute was overcome by an intense burning feeling in his ankle and wound up accidentally kicking Pasco instead. Raz tried hard not to smile about that.

After he was outside the door he walked a couple steps into the connected trailer before ducking behind a crate and waiting until he heard the men settle themselves in the trailer beyond.

After a minute or two when he heard talking in hushed voices, he closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on focusing all of his mental energy into what he wanted to do next.

In the last two years Raz had tried to improve his mental abilities and learn as many new abilities as he could. Some of this…personal training he tried to keep to himself…mostly because both Sasha and Ford had sternly lectured him about certain dangerous areas of the mind.

So far he had made improvements in levitating ( He had mastered the levitation ball and was currently trying to levitate in a way that would allow him to move upward WITHOUT a giant fan underneath him.) telekinesis (He could now move at least one object around without too much difficulty and was working on lifting more then one object off the ground.) and telepathy. When it came down to it…he wasn't concerned about the telekinesis or the levitation…but the level of telepathy he was currently exploring made him uneasy.

Sasha, who was also a telepath, had told Raz that if you advanced the skill to a certain level you could use it to either drift around in a persons mind (without them knowing if you were good at it.) or even control a person. Mind control was something the Psychonauts were uncomfortable with. Too many times it had wound up being damaging to a persons mentality.

Right now Raz was attempting the first. The only person Raz had ever tried it on before was Agent Cruller…and he had caught him. (It was for this reason that Raz chose Ford for the experiment. If Sasha had caught him he would have been in A LOT more trouble. Also, Ford had followed him mentally throughout the entire time he was at Whispering Rock…so Raz figured he would be less against Raz trying to learn how.)

For a moment, Raz was beginning to think it wasn't going to work. Then, he felt a moment of disorientation before his body and Psyche disconnected.

XXXXX

There was a sensation of darkness as his mind searched for the most susceptible mental wave to attach to…then, after a moment where he got a brief glance at a winding madhouse that could only have been the inside of a very disturbed mind, he opened eyes that weren't actually there in a physical sense and looked into the face of Jamie Gore.

Beside him, Pasco appeared to be gazing at him attentively as his mouth opened against his will and began to speak in someone else's voice.

XXXXXX

Boris banged a glass bottle against the table before taking a deep swig and turning towards Pasco, who was giving him a very unusual look.

"What?" He asked, somewhat annoyed. He handed the bottle over. "Did you want some?"

"No. Let's just get started." The man said after a long pause.

"Fine…but I don't see why we gotta do this at six o' clock in the morning." Said Boris. He gave Jamie a dark look. Jamie smiled.

"Because…no one's alert this early. The work doesn't start till this afternoon. Besides…I want to make sure you two gentleman don't skirt out on our deal." Pasco sighed.

"We tell you, you get it, yes? Best for you if you lay off while we work."

Boris pulled out a package of tobacco and offered it to both gentlemen, who turned him down. He then shrugged and began chewing it himself.

"Still, I don't like trusting two men who steal useless stuff out from under people's noses and transpire against obese women who spend all of their spare change on carnival glass lamps and scented candles."

"We tell you that was mistake! That trailer belong to Rafael last week. He switch it without telling anyone. Fat woman is least of concerns." Pasco said bitterly.

"Yeah…and she surprised me. I didn't know the woman had such a sharp eye." Boris said after spitting loudly at a horse and laughing as it cowered at the corner of its stall.

"Or mind. It was hard enough altering tissue. I could not make her think she is dreaming." Said Pasco with a sigh.

Jamie frowned.

"I don't want to hear about your voodoo stuff. Now you said Raf was the one that Dr. Kay was looking for. You said HE matched the description. If you're sure then why isn't this operation moving quicker!"

Boris and Pasco shared an uncomfortable look.

"Umm…actually…I'm not so sure about that anymore." Boris said slowly. Beside him, there was a look of warning in Pasco's eyes. "He doesn't seem to be showing any…unusual behavior anymore.

For a moment Jamie gave Boris a look that quite possible could have splattered the man's brains on the far wall.

"You said he was Psychic." He said in a dangerously low voice.

Boris spat and cast Pasco a worried look.

"Well…he is…but…he hasn't showed any signs for…"

"For very long time." Pasco finished. "We think he just hiding, sir. We're sure he is the one." Pasco looked at Boris meaningful. "That what we think? Yes?"

Boris nodded quickly.

"Good." Jamie said, visibly relieved. "Because Garret has moved the deadline up by a month. We agreed that you two would take care of him…if you don't…there will be problems for you." Jamie stood and nodded at both men before exiting the trailer. Luckily for Raz, he moved in the opposite direction of his currently mindless body.

After he left Boris and Pasco sat in silence for a moment.

"We are sure Rafael is only Psychic here, yes?" Pasco said cautiously.

"Of course. The only other person likely to have any sort of Psychic ability is his son…and he's twelve…not exactly a threat there."

Pasco nodded with a half amused grin.

"Yes…we bring in twelve year old and Dr. Kay would hang us on wall by ankles. Still…we must get rid of brat before he warns his father of danger. You see how nosy brat is."

Boris nodded.

"Then, when the kid's gone and everyone forgets about this fat lady fiasco…we'll take Rafael to Dr. Kay and we'll be home free to do what we want." He said with a grin.

Boris looked up at Pasco, who was once again giving him an unsettling look.

"What?"

"What color your eyes?"

Boris gave him a funny look.

"Brown…why?"

"For a moment I swear they turn green." He shook his head and stood. "Come my friend. We must feed horses."

"Why the hell must we do that?" Boris said as he finished his beer.

"Because if we don't we look like we've been sitting in horse stall for twenty minutes doing nothing." Boris sighed and stood, swaying lightly as he felt a sense of sharp vertigo for an instant before it passed as soon as it came.

Back in the other trailer Raz opened his eyes…(his real eyes) and stood as he began to search the other connected trailers for his father.