Awake Read online

  “You should have done a better job with your mental blocks. I was able to sense your presence when you started thinking about me. From your world. I've never been there, I might have to come visit.”

  In my mind, the hourglass was trembling.

  He walked around, taking food from the diners who stood mutely throughout the restaurant.

  Returning to me, he said, “Jeff will be very pleased to see you. I know he has a more...permanent solution in mind this time.”

  In my mind, the hourglass continued to tremble, and then stood upright.

  I blinked.

  My captor wasn't watching.

  I was able to watch from a corner of the restaurant as he returned to where I had been standing, only to find I was no longer there. He stood, blinking, his mouth open.

  “Nice trick,” I called out. “I'll bet you impress the ladies with that one.”

  He plastered a smile on his face. “You are unpredictable! No wonder Jeff is so interested in you. That reward is going to come in handy. I have some vacation time coming up!”

  “Sorry, you're not going to be able to collect,” I told him. I reached out to his mind. “Pete? Yeah, you'll not be taking me in.”

  For the first time he looked unsure of himself; he licked his lips. “You can't get in my head.”

  “I just did,” I said. “Pretty easy, too. Maybe you need to work on your own barricade.”

  “It's not going to happen again,” he said, and started walking towards me.

  I held up my hand. “Why don't you just stay right there while we talk?”

  He stopped, frozen in place like everyone else.

  “Good,” I said. “Do you like it? Being controlled like that? Like everyone else here? Nice sense of power, huh?”

  He blinked and shook his head; I hadn't completely locked him in place.

  “We need to have a chat. I need to have some...alone time, with Jeff, and I can't have you and your friends getting in the way. I already had a nice chat with Sara, and she's agreed to stay out of it. Well, she didn't really agree, exactly, but let's just say she's not going to remember that I talked to her.”

  His eyes grew wide and he licked his lips.

  “Oh, I know you think you're the most powerful of the special ops agents, just like Sara did. But you're not, and she's not, either. I'm not sure about the others, but if they're as much of a pushover as you are, I shouldn't have any problems.”

  I could feel him in my mind, trying to get me to release the hold, but it was pretty easy to push his thoughts out of the way.

  “Of course, the big problem would be getting you our of my way. I'm not even sure I can wipe your memory like I did Sara.”

  His reaction was to smirk.

  “Maybe I should try and find out?” I asked. “It would mean probing your mind more than I'd like to; your thoughts are kind of ugly. I can see why Jeff wanted you for his team: he likes arrogant.”

  More smirking.

  “Whatever. Let's take a look at that mind of yours and see about removing all references of me from it.”

  That wiped away the smirk.

  I pushed through his mental defenses, which were pretty weak – or maybe I was just getting better at this.

  What I found was the image of a computer, a simple desktop computer with monitor, keyboard and mouse. I could visualize sitting at this computer, and finding file folders marked CHARLES MATHESON. Easy enough to remove by clicking on them and hitting the delete key on the keyboard.

  There were quite a few file folders and it took some time to get through them all.

  Maybe it was a bit excessive, but there was no way I could continue on to the rest of my life without having to remove all traces of my existence from this person's mind.

  Eventually I got through all the files; when I was done I could see the hatred – and fear – in Pete's eyes. Also confusion, since he now didn't know who I was.

  “I'm taking off, and you're going to forget we had this little chat.”

  He resisted.

  I had to dig in deeper to his mind. “I said, you're going to forget we had this little chat!”

  “Ow, damn it, stop that!”

  I bore down once more. This time I made it through. “Forget you spoke to me today. This never happened.”

  “Right, this never happened,” he agreed.

  “Good,” I said. “I'm gone.”

  * * *

  I returned home to take a breather and grab something to eat; this experience was proving to be exhausting, and I wondered if I were somehow subconsciously going after the special ops agents in order of ability, from weakest to strongest. If so I was in for a battle. As easy as it ended up being dealing with someone like Pete, the process was draining and my head was throbbing.

  At home I grabbed a couple of aspirin and a glass of water, and sat down at my couch to consider what to do next.

  There were four other agents, and as I contemplated them in my mind, I could see that two of them never separated – they did everything together, it seemed. Which meant I'd have to go after both of them at the same time, not knowing what they were capable of.

  I knew time was a factor; there was no telling what Thomas knew at this point, if anything, and it was certainly possible a security camera had picked me up at some point.

  Headache or not, it was time to take action.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  My next two targets surprised me by the fact that they were twins: fraternal twins, in their late 20s.

  Apparently they were video game fans, as I found them inside a video game store. I didn't go inside the store as I wanted to avoid getting anyone else involved, as had happened with the diners at the restaurant I found Pete at.

  I was curious to take a peek in the story if only because I myself was something of a video game fan and wanted to see how the technology had advanced, considering this world was a good decade ahead in technological development.

  It would have to wait for another time.

  One thing wasn't different in this world: the video game store was located in a strip mall, sharing space with a fast-food sandwich shop and a beauty salon.

  The sandwich shop had some tables outdoors, and I sat down, waiting for the twins to come out. I had no idea if they could sense me or not, so I filled my mind with a kind of white noise, random thoughts and images.

  The twins stayed in the store quite a while; after 45 minutes they exited.

  Both were striking: red-haired, tall, and slender. He was dressed in a kind of a universal hipster cool with engineer boots, jeans, black t-shirt and a black knit cap (his red hair peeked out from the bottom of the cap). His arms were covered with tattoos. His sister was dressed similarly, although her t-shirt and jeans were a bit tighter to emphasize her curves; her hair was longer, down to her shoulders. No boots for her, but a pair of sneakers.

  They hadn't looked in my direction and seemed oblivious to my presence.

  Good. Maybe that would prove advantageous.

  I was tempted to not say anything; instead I sent my mind out, which immediately got their attention.

  They both looked over at me, with similar expressions of surprise.

  Although it was a struggle, after a moment I was able to extract their names: Eric and Erin.

  “Eric and Erin, how cute,” I said. “Twins with the same letter name! No one ever does that.”

  A number of expressions filled Eric's face, while his sister looked apprehensive, which surprised me. Eric finally settled on angry. “You have quite a set of balls to just show up here,” he finally said. “There's a bounty on your head.”

  “So I've heard,” I replied. “One of your colleagues told me about it. Seems kind of low, if you ask me. I think I rate something much higher.”

  He smiled, but like Thomas, it didn't touch his eyes. “You made a big mistake, friend. You know it's our duty to take you in, you're number one on our most wanted list.”

  “Jeff's bringing in twin
s. That's interesting, although it makes sense. Oh, I've been on his most wanted list for years. Nothing new there.”

  While I was talking, I had taken my off of Erin; she suddenly appeared next to me and touched my shoulder.

  She was trying to transport me directly to jail, but I wasn't about to let her. I was a bit surprised she couldn't do so without touching me.

  “No, let's just chat here,” I said.

  She looked at her brother, baffled.

  Eric walked over and touched my other shoulder. “No, let's not,” he said.

  We vanished.

  As we did, something curious happened in my mind; my perception of time seemed to slow to a crawl, and I could observe us actually traveling through whatever portal or wormhole that was used for this miraculous method of getting around.

  I could see Eric to my left, and Erin to my right; we seemed to be flying through some kind of tunnel, which probably was filled with a dazzling light, although with time slowed down the light was reduced to flecks and spots. I could also make out open spaces of land, and cities, and crowds of people, one after the other, like watching a high-speed film slowed down to a frame a second.

  I was able then to focus on the world that was unfolded in all directions; I spotted what looked like a park and, with a slight grunt of concentration, was able to pull us all to it.

  Of course, Erin and Eric both looked at me with equal expressions of surprise; I could sense they were attempting to teleport me a second time, but it wasn't going to work.

  The park was, thankfully, empty of people; or if there were others here, they were elsewhere. It was a huge park, all green grass and pine trees.

  “Let's just talk here,” I said.

  Eric and Erin both did not seem receptive to the idea.

  “I know you want to take me in and collect that reward, but it's not going to happen, so it's best just to deal with the situation at hand.”

  This also did not go over well.

  Erin said, “We don't have to deal with anything, other than making sure you're brought in.”

  I shrugged. “Fine, go ahead and try.”

  They both grabbed me again (not gently, either) and I could feel in my head their attempts to stampede through my own mental defenses; it wasn't working, but it sure was painful as they tried. My head was throbbing, and I knew they knew it as they kept trying with more and more force.

  The question at this point was, would I break, or would they break first?

  I soon had my answer as Eric and Erin both removed their hands and glared at me, although I could see in the pain in their eyes. My own headache thankfully went from a sharp pain to something very manageable the moment they stopped.

  “That's better,” I said. “We'll just take a few minutes and talk, and after that you can get back to what you were doing.”

  “I'm not telling you anything,” Eric said.

  “We will be telling Jeff about you,” Erin added.

  “Sorry, you'll not be telling him anything,” I said. “He's the reason we're talking. I kind of need to get him off of my case. And I'm going to stop him. I can tell you this since you'll not remember our conversation when we're done.”

  “He's right about you – you are a threat to our security,” Eric said. “He's doing the right thing.”

  “Sure he is,” I said. “I'm not a threat to anyone.”

  “What are you going to do with us?” Erin asked.

  “I'm not going to do anything. You'll be returned to where you were and, best of all, not even know we spoke.”

  “If you think you can wipe our memories, think again,” Eric said. “We're not going to let you.”

  “Unfortunately, at this point it's not going to be a matter of 'letting' me do it. But since you're not going to just volunteer to have it wiped, I'm going to have to take some liberties.”

  “Why would you do that?” Erin asked. “It just proves everything Mr. Thomas has been saying.”

  “It doesn't prove anything,” I replied. “I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to, but there's no way I can go after Thomas with all of you in the way.”

  “Try, it's not going to work,” Eric said.

  I sighed. “Obviously there's no point to my being polite.” I sent my mind out to both of them at once, and was immediately blocked. I cleared my mind and took a breath. I was trying to find a back-door through their barricade, but I wasn't finding one. Which meant I'd have to resort to brute force, which I didn't want to do; there wasn't any telling what kind of effect it would have.

  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

  It ended up being a simple matter to get through the mental blocks, but as I did both Eric and Erin cried out at the same time, holding their hands to their heads; their noses began to bleed immediately and my mind filled with panic. I'd have to be careful.

  Once in, I was able to quickly remove everything about me from their memories.

  “I'm taking you back to the game store. You'll not remember our chat. Your headaches are from playing with that 3D game unit on display in the store.”

  There was no response to that, but the blank looks on their faces suggested I had been successful.

  With that, I closed my eyes, and delivered them back to the game store, placing them in front of a display of used games. I even took a moment to clean up the small trickle of blood from below their nostrils. Satisfied, I returned home.

  * * *

  My own headache had returned, and it was worse than the last one. I was coming to recognize that, with a bad headache, I wouldn't be able to block someone from my own mind. I rummaged around for something better than aspirin and found a bottle of Excedrin. I poured a glass of water, took two tablets, and had a seat on my couch.

  Two to go, but at the moment I was feeling too weak to do anything, and my head was throbbing.

  Surely there was a way to accomplish my goals without causing a migraine?

  I hoped there was, as this headache was steadily increasing in intensity, and I started finding it difficult to concentrate.

  I pulled off my shoes and lay down on the couch; I quickly fell into a doze.

  I would wake up to a bit of a surprise.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  The surprise I woke up to was the presence of a woman in my living room.

  She was standing over by the bookshelves, looking at the photo album when I woke up.

  As I rustled awake she turned and smiled at me. “Hi!” she said. “I'm Steph!”

  Another young woman (Jeff Thomas had a theme going on here) in her early 20s, tall, dark-haired with a bright smile. She held up the photo album to me. “Who's this?” she asked, pointing to a picture of Melissa.

  “You could find out pretty easily, I'd think,” I said.

  She turned and returned the photo album to the shelf. Facing me again, she said, “I could, but I'm not going to.”

  “You're trespassing, Steph,” I replied. “Not very polite. You should leave.”

  “You've been naughty,” she responded. “I've been tracking you. Visiting all of the special ops agents. Well, and naughty for escaping from the banishment portal. When Jeff found out he was furious.”

  “He's found out, huh?” I said. I wasn't terribly surprised. “How'd he find out?”

  “They can monitor that portal for life signs. It was quite the shock to find none!”

  “Well, Steph, I wasn't about to stay there, and it seemed cruel to leave everyone else in there. It's not a pleasant experience.”

  “I guess,” she said. “Can I get a drink of water?”

  I sighed. “Sure, Steph, help yourself.”

  She went into the kitchen and returned a few moments later holding two glasses of water; she handed me one. “Here you are!” she said, brightly. “May I sit?”

  “Of course,” I said, taking the glass of water.

  She sat and took a sip. “Ooh, this is good!” she exclaimed. “Better than the water on my world.”

  �
�Is it?” I replied. “I hadn't noticed.”

  “It is!” she said. “So, Charles, I'm sure you know by now why I'm here.”

  “To take me in and collect the reward?”

  “Yes!” she said. “That's right. You should just turn yourself in. You'll be doing the right thing.”

  “The right thing would be for you and Thomas and everyone else to just let me be. I have no reason to go to your world. I have a life here that I'd like to return to.”

  “Yes, but we have no guarantees that you'd stay here, and that's the problem.”

  I'd heard this before. “You'd just have to trust me. I have no interest in going to your world.”

  “Well, that's not enough,” she said. “Like I said, the best thing is if you just turn yourself in, to me, and let me take you back to Jeff.”

  “Right, so he can just kill me,” I said. “No thanks.”

  “You really don't want to make this hard,” she responded.

  I was sensing that something was about to happen, and I prepared my own mental defenses for it. “I don't want to do anything, Steph. Why don't you just take off and let me be?”

  “I can't allow that,” she said, sadly.

  At that moment I felt in my mind a kind of blinding pain; she was diving in and her power was incredible. The world around me was collapsing into a stream of light and sound; she was attempting to teleport us both out of my home, and was nearly succeeding. What I was seeing was an image of my own living room, suddenly replaced with an image of that familiar holding cell in Thomas' world, and then back to an image of my living room.

  Pain was exploding in my head, and it was getting increasingly difficult to keep a grip on my own thoughts and defenses.

  Gradually, I was able to get the situation under my control; I could see the pain in Steph's face as the images I was seeing settled down to just my boring living room.

  With some concentration I was also able to cut the headache back.

  I could still feel her in my head, trying to get access, but all of my defenses were holding.

  “I'd advise you to leave my head, Steph,” I said. “Otherwise I will have to make this very difficult for you, without just sending you on your way.”