“The Catalyst” Series
		“Touring Under Pressure”
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09:  Would Energy by Any Other Name...

           

Alex awoke to the sound of the hotel room door opening. He wasn’t quite aware of anything yet, so he simply rolled over and glanced wearily at the door.

“Hey, just came by to bring you something to eat,” Cate said by way of a greeting. “I figured that none of you would manage to get moving yet.”

“Man, how come my sister never brings me stuff to eat in the morning?” Brittany complained, as she tried to find a sheet to pull over herself.

“Hey, I think angels just have very angelic sisters,” Jamie suggested. “She certainly watches out for him.”

“So how’d it go last night? Did everyone get boosted?” Cate asked as she tossed Alex a bag full of goodies, just to show she wasn’t that interested in her brother. Gail, who’d come in with Cate, was eager to hear the results as well.

“It went wonderfully,” Jamie replied cheerfully.

“In case you couldn’t tell, she was the control group,” Steph explained. “She had her mind officially melted. She passed out for a while.”

“I would have worried,” Brittany said, “but Alex had just finished with me and I could feel her emotions as she went under. It was the weirdest thing. I could literally feel an inkling of what she was experiencing.”

“That was nothing,” Steph added. “I had a little orgasm when she did. That got me prepped for my own.”

“We meant did you each get boosted, not how it was sleeping with my brother,” Cate pointed out, letting the girls think she didn’t like hearing about Alex’s sex life.

“They each did,” Alex explained as he started eating things from the bag that Cate had thrown at him. Jamie tried to sneak some grapes, and he playfully slapped her hand before sticking a couple in her open mouth before continuing. “As Steph explained, Jamie got the full treatment. Steph had the buildup but I skipped the simultaneous orgasm, and poor Brittany drew the short straw. She didn’t get the big build up but I tried to give her an orgasm when I did, but I was off by a few minutes.”

“So I was right, then?” Gail asked, trying to drive her point home. “You don’t really need to work so hard to achieve the same results.” Alex agreed with her summation, so she continued. “I think that demonstrates you’ve been standing in the way of your own abilities. Maybe if you stopped trying to analyze and control everything you might be able to figure out this spontaneous boosting ability.”

“I prefer the old way, myself,” Jamie replied as she stretched out, not bothering to be as self-conscious as Brittany was. Brittany figured she was fighting a losing battle, so she dropped the sheet she was covering herself with and started picking up the scattered pieces of clothing she found lying around the room.

“So it worked with everyone?” Gail stressed. “Did you try communicating with anyone?” she asked Stephanie.

“Yeah, I said hello to Anh just to see how well my telepathy worked. By the way, Alex, she said she’s anxious to speak to you today.”

“Yeah, she can wait until we hit the road later. Right now we need to get cleaned up and dressed. I think we’re all ready for breakfast.” The three girls agreed.

“I think Steph and I should get to share the shower with you this morning, to make up for not getting the full ‘mind melting’ treatment last night,” Brittany teased as she handed out the various pieces of underwear she’d collected. Once Cate was sure they were all moving in the right direction, she returned to the other room to give them a little more privacy. She’d learned what she’d wanted to find out.

---

“So, what do you think about this ‘spontaneous boost’ issue?” Alex asked, once they’d escaped the heavy downtown traffic, allowing them focus on Alex's outstanding issues. They’d gotten an early start, since they had no one to meet and were anxious to get out of the city. Gail had informed them she had a late morning public meeting with the mayor where they were going to give her a key to the city for saving people from the attack at the Cotton Bowl Stadium, so Alex and Cate were on their own for the day. She’d try to catch them when they stopped for the night, but she didn’t know how soon she could get away, or how long it would take her to catch up with them.

“Well, as usual it’s complicated,” Cate said diplomatically. She turned to watch him as she got comfortable, preparing to discuss the issues at length. “First of all, I’m not sure ‘spontaneous’ is the best word to use. I was thinking of ‘autonomous’, since it occurred independently of your conscious mind, but that doesn’t seem to be much better. But aside from that, there are a lot of outstanding issues about it.”

Alex was pleased to see Cate getting back into her ‘science mode’, which is where she felt the most comfortable and enjoyed herself the most. He knew she was uncomfortable constantly watching out for him, and he knew she was much better exercising her mind instead. What’s more, Alex had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to explore the issues that had arisen lately. There were a lot of things they had no explanations for, and they really needed some handle on them to know how best to approach them. He knew Cate was the best person for that role.

“And those issues would be?” he prompted her, even though he already had his own list.

“The whole premise behind your boosting the women during sex was predicated on the extreme mix of hormones in the brain during sex combined with the heavy brain activity occurring during orgasm, and the necessary emotional link you seem to need to make the connection. It just doesn’t make sense you can bypass all of that.”

“But you heard what happened last night. Apparently all those steps I was taking were unnecessary. I boosted the girls without them.”

“But that’s just it, just because they don’t need a simultaneous orgasm doesn’t mean they don’t require the hormones, the increased brain activity or the emotional connection. There’s clearly more to it than that. There’s something else we’re missing, although the rest is a part of it as well. If you don’t need the other things to achieve the spontaneous boost, then you probably don’t need them otherwise. But our focus needs to be on how you achieved it in the first place.”

Alex could see that Cate, once again playing the role of scientist, was again calm and detached, evaluating the issues on a logical basis, not on the emotional one he was considering them on.

“So what do you suggest as an alternative?” Alex prompted her again.

“The idea you could do such a thing from a distance, to people you hadn’t even gotten to know yet, goes against everything we’ve assumed about the process up to this point, so clearly those assumptions were incorrect.”

“You do remember that incidents of violence have generally—” Alex began.

“Yeah, I know,” she said, but then continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “Thus we have much of the same ingredients. You have the emotional connection, because you’re concerned about the women due to the perceived threat to them, and you have the excitement level which seems to be a major component for you, but what’s missing is the women’s responses. Apparently they don’t need the big build up. Apparently the only requirements are your own. Whatever you manage to do you do on your own, with no requirements on their part.”

“You don’t think the adrenaline rush they got from being shot at made a difference?” Alex asked.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think it was a major component. Instead I think it was a component for you, and as I said, the worry about one of your followers was threatened would force you to identify with them. I suspect the long process is so you’ll trust someone enough to relax, but if forced, you can make the jump that much sooner.”

“So you’re suggesting the hours long lovemaking is just to make myself feel better about the whole process?”

“I didn’t say that, but we may need to examine it as a separate issue. Right now I want to examine what’s essential to the process and what’s not. I’m thinking this is more about your ability to create and enhance links in their minds. Again, I’m thinking the boosting, at least for the Seers, involves recreating or enhancing the existing links you’ve already created in their minds.”

“And the Watchers?” Alex countered.

“I suspect you’re doing something similar, but it doesn’t involve anything nearly so complex it would show up on a brain scan. I think you’re probably doing something with a quantum-mind, you’re essentially sharing a portion of your mind, or possible the Seers’ minds, with the Watchers.”

“Wait, this is the same quantum mind you think I’ve somehow accessed in another dimension, and which fosters both the telepathy and gives me my extra energy?”

“Yeah, and we need to come up with another term for the energy,” Cate said. “It gets too difficult talking about two different types of energy using the same terms. The energy you give off is clearly different than the biological process of converting fats and food into biochemical energy to propel muscles. It’s a whole different beast.”

“Well hold off on that thought for now, since I’ve been debating that myself. I’ve got an idea, but I want to discuss it with the others first.”

“The others?” Cate asked, although she had a good idea what he was saying.

“But if I do it by triggering the link I created in their brain, then wouldn’t it mean that all I need to do is tweak that linkage again?” Alex asked, avoiding answering her question immediately. “Couldn’t I then boost someone without doing anything specific? Couldn’t I just access their minds directly, make a slight adjustment and get out again, without getting anyone worked up?”

“That’s something we may never know,” Cate advised him. “You have no conscious control over the aspect of your mind which handles these things, so we don’t know how to control or even access it. Thus we’ve got to rely on what we know will work, and try to refine that process. Simply hoping for the impossible won’t advance anything.”

Alex was still mostly convinced it was a combined process between him and the girls, but he wasn’t quite willing to rule anything out at the moment, especially since their best theories had just been knocked for a loop. The idea he may be able to boost people without having to take them to bed was vitally important to Alex. He continued to feel bad about what he was doing, like he was using everyone’s perceptions of him being more than the naïve young man he was to take advantage of people he barely even knew. What’s more, the conflict over who to boost, and whether they were currently involved or not, was a constant source of worry for him. The incident with Megan and Ryan still bothered him tremendously. He’d made a stupid mistake in ignoring his better instincts and had almost responded by inflicting permanent damages on someone who couldn’t handle the situation. Such a scene just illustrated why this whole process was so dangerous. He was playing with people’s lives here. And although he had powerful motives for doing it, he couldn’t shake the perception he was only doing it to get his own rocks off, effectively making him no better than any of the other high profile people who have a string of sexual dalliances then proclaim shock and dismay when eventually exposed. Alex could only imagine when he was eventually exposed. Man, the number of people who could publish a book about their experiences with him would be almost unlimited.

“The shared quantum-mind would certainly explain a lot. It would explain the tremendous link we share between us. You know I feel as strongly about my Watchers as I do the Seers, despite the direct brain connection I share with the Seers.”

“Yeah, while that’s one of the more ‘far out’ conjectures, it also makes the most sense,” Cate said, blowing a stray hair out of her face. “Luckily we don’t have to account for how it could occur, since we’re simply assuming you’re utilizing a pre-existing quantum mind which you’re using to share your own abilities with the girls. If I had to explain the whole thing in a science paper, it would take another hundred years, at the very least, but if we simply assume it’s an already working system, we can skip most of those problems.”

Cate was frustrated not by her brother and her inability to answer his questions, but because she was distracted at the moment. The back of the small car was filled with cages of hyperactive mice whose continual chittering kept diverting her attention. Since they’d had to leave town ahead of Patricia and her band, and would probably be separated from them for over a day, they’d decided to bring Cate’s lab mice with her so Alex could continue giving them their twice a day exposure to his energy, testing how they responded to it over time so Cate could determine the effects of long term exposure to Alex’s energy.

She’d dedicated certain mice to specific tests, namely the ‘Alex mice’ (who’d get a massive exposure equivalent to what Alex was getting), the ‘Seer’ mice (who’d get a much smaller dose representative to what they’d get), and the control group, who’d receive none at all. She was currently trying to settle both Anh and Brooke, two mice named after two of his earliest followers. Alex had already spent enough time with them he could actually identify which little furry creature was which. Neither Alex nor Cate felt comfortable riding in a car full of mice, since all it would take would be one simple accident, or his hitting the brakes too hard, and Cate’s precious experiment might be seriously compromised. But they couldn’t leave them behind, and there was no way to secure the cages like they had in the touring van. Still, they tried to ignore the disruption and continue the conversation.

“So, if we agree there’s something in me which can achieve this spontaneous boost without my getting physically involved with the women—excusing any obvious puns, since I can’t imagine anything more ‘physically involved’ than monkeying around with someone’s brain—then how do we figure out how it operates, so we can figure out how to access it?” Alex asked, starting to feel frustrated since they weren’t coming up with any clear solutions to his central underlying problem.

Cate simply shrugged her shoulders. “You can’t. There could be any number of different factors occurring, and we have no way of tracking any of them down since we don’t have access to subconscious mind. But we have some decent ideas, so hopefully we’re narrowing it down. You just can’t get frustrated yet. This is a big step, as you said, so it doesn’t make sense to rush it unnecessarily. It’s worth taking a structured look at it. If we can crack this particular nut I have a feeling we’ll figure a lot more as well. So that makes it even more important than it is at the moment. After all, this one little detail, the unlocking of this mystery, could mean the difference between boosting dozens and thousands of individuals.”

“As if I’m not feeling stressed enough about it at the moment,” Alex groaned, but he knew she was correct. Just as she usually was. He sat there for a moment considering it.

“I think I may have to take Anh’s advice on the topic,” Alex suggested.

“Anh’s?” Cate asked. “What did she say about it?”

“Just what she’s always said, that there’s more to what’s happening than simple science can account for. She keeps harping on my spirit having crossed over from the spirit realm to guide me in this, just like the other girls keep telling me that I’m being led by God. Maybe that’s the simplest explanation. Maybe there’s some outside influence pulling strings we simply can’t see.”

“Alex, while I still believe in God, I don’t believe in a paternalistic deity who has the time to sit around listening and responding to individual prayers of each individual animal in his kingdom, nor that he controls each and every physical response in the entire universe in each second of its existence. I believe he set the universe up to operate according to very specific rules, and that those rules are what governs its functioning. Science has answered most of the major questions for the last 2500 years, the same questions religion has failed time and again to answer, so I can’t see any point in abandoning a reasoned response now.”

“That’s not what I’m suggesting,” Alex calmly explained to her. “All I’m saying is that, given our inability to come up with a rational explanation, we may have to forego explaining it right now. I’m thinking that maybe someone else is doing the activations instead of me, for their own reasons. So instead of stressing about what’s causing it, we need to focus on what we’re going to do about it.”

“Oh,” Cate responded, looking momentarily surprised by that response. She waited a few moments before responding again. “Well, what’s the next step? You’ve been trying to repeat the process without any luck, so it doesn’t look like you can force it. You and I need to figure this out. You, because it will solve a major problem, and me because it might provide a clue to how everything works. And, frankly, attributing it to an ‘unknown entity’ seems like just throwing our hands in the air and giving up.”

“Again, that wasn’t my attempt in suggesting it. I was simply trying to say that maybe I’m not directly responsible for it. But you’re right, it’s too soon for us to assume that. Gail seems to think I ‘need to get out of my own way’ in the matter,” Alex reminded her. “That’s a familiar refrain, as Anh always said that as well. They may have a point. Maybe if I just stop stressing about it, I‘ll stumble across how to do it.”

“That’s hardly a plan of attack,” Cate said. “Telling someone to relax is almost guaranteed to make them tense up. Telling you to just ignore it means you won’t be able to.”

“OK, it looks like we may need the big guns to figure this one out. Why don’t you try calling Anh and ask her if she has any ideas? I wanted to speak to her about what happened to them anyway.”

So Cate got her phone out and dialed the number, putting it on speakerphone as soon as it started to ring.

“Hello? Cate?” they heard Allison answer.

“What’s this? No ‘Angel Vision Foundation’? We leave for a couple of weeks and suddenly everyone forgets the proper way to answer the phone?” Cate teased her.

“No, it’s just that we’ve been anxiously waiting for your call. We checked it was you calling before I answered,” Allison replied.

“And who is ‘we’? We were hoping to ask Anh a few questions,” Cate told her.

“I’m here,” Anh responded.

“Yeah, Anh, Shani and Liv are all here. We knew you were anxious to discuss what happened, so we took the day off just so we could be here for this call. That’s why I was so nervous when I answered,” Allison responded.

“Was there something specific you were looking to say?” Alex asked, slightly concerned.

“Not specifically,” Shani responded, “but we had some things we wanted to convey which we figured out from our little mishap, but mostly we’re just here for you. After all, we hear from you so infrequently, and we’re used to you relying on us a lot. Plus, we figure you had a lot to tell us about what you learned in New Orleans.”

“Yeah, can’t we just be glad to talk with you?” Allison asked.

“OK, sorry for asking then. It’s good to speak to you all again, and I’m glad you’re all there,” Alex said. “So how are you feeling? Have you recovered from the other day?”

“We’re fine,” Shani assured him. “It’s just like you always do, we just needed to eat and we eventually recovered, though we seemed to take a bit longer to recover than you usually do. I’m guessing the energy you have constantly pouring through you makes a pretty big difference.”

“What about you, Anh, any after affects with your head injury?”

“No, I’m fine. If there was any injury, they seem to have taken care of it. I had a bit of a headache, but no more than I used to get once a month, so it wasn’t anything major,” she explained.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about what to call this energy I’m taking in. Simply calling it ‘energy’ causes a lot of confusion. By referring to everything as energy we aren’t being very precise.”

“I agree, we’ve found ourselves caught in the same word trap,” Liv replied. “Do you have any suggestions on what to call it instead?”

“Actually I do,” Alex responded. “I definitely don’t want it named after me. First of all it would sound boastful, which just isn’t like me, but more importantly I don’t want anything which refers back to me, since it would make talking about it in public difficult.”

“So…,” Shani prompted him, knowing he’d already come up with something.

“I was thinking of making it personal, but still nonspecific enough so no one would be able to figure out what it was. I’m thinking of simply calling it BCM energy, or just BCM for short.”

“BCM?” Cate asked, glancing at her brother.

“It stands for ‘Becky, Cate and Melissa’,” Alex answered. “That way it gives credit for what they are each doing for me, since I know one of the three will likely eventually unlock the secrets to it. I figured I might as well give them credit for it upfront, rather than creating some meaningless abbreviation.

“What’s more, it’s nonspecific enough no one will know what we’re referring to. If anyone manages to overhear one of us referring to it, and asks what we’re talking about, we can always claim it stands for ‘British Comedy Measure’, meaning it refers to how dry or abstract the person’s humor and personality are. That way we can make it sound like we’re talking about individuals, rather than about a scientific principle, but it would also be so esoteric it would never catch on and anyone hearing it would quickly forget about it.”

“You’ve clearly given this some thought,” Shani replied. “And you seem to be the resident expert on esoteric names,” she said with a laugh.

“Actually I think he may be onto something,” Cate said. “It would be easy enough to drop in conversation, it wouldn’t mean anything to anyone listening, and it’s got a quick response if anyone does ask about it. Although it hardly slips off the tongue, I think it does everything we’d need a name to do for us. Although I take exception to the idea that Becky may isolate and document it before I do,” she added with a little edge to her voice.

“You know, speaking of names, how about we change what we call the Watchers,” Shani suggested. “Every time someone says it, I see Natalie wince.”

“What’s wrong with Watchers?” Alex asked, clearly surprised to hear anyone had an objection to it.

“Well, frankly it’s a little demeaning, as if they aren’t as committed or as motivated as the Seers are,” she replied.

“And it’s not just the Watchers who feel that way,” Allison told him. “I see the girls from your school who help out around here react whenever the term comes up. They glance at each other, as if asking ‘if they say that about them, then what chance do we have?’”

“So what would you suggest we call them?” Alex asked a little irritably.

“Hey, you’re the man in charge,” Allison told him, “you should be the one to choose. After all, BCM was nicely handled. We’re just bringing a problem to your attention.”

Alex looked a bit frustrated to be presented with this at the moment, especially since he had no ready response to it.

“Well, I’ll take it under advisement. What other topics did we want to discuss?”

“So is Becky there?” Cate asked. “I had something I was going to ask her as well.”

“No, she had school today,” Allison said. “She was interested in talking about what was happening, too, but she’s been busy doing her work trying to sequence your genome. We told her we’d take care of this and let her know what we found out.”

“What did you want to ask her?” Shani asked.

“It’s not worth getting into just yet,” Cate answered. “We’ve got a lot of things to discuss, and I’d rather get to the more important things first.”

“So what’s first on the agenda then?” Liv asked.

“I’m very worried about my inability to duplicate the spontaneous boost I achieved yesterday. This is something that’s vitally important, since it means the difference between boosting one or two girls at a time and boosting everyone we meet.”

“Not to mention it also eases your guilt about having to sleep with everyone,” Shani guessed, once again knowing just how Alex’s mind worked.

“Guilty as charged,” Alex answered. “I’d love it if I didn’t have to continue making love every damn night, nor having to worry about crossing some unseen line each time I do. It’s stressful enough doing what I have to do, but adding making love to a string of strangers at every stop just makes it uncomfortable for everyone.”

“Well, not everyone,” Shani answered with a quiet laugh. “We all seemed to appreciate it, and I’m sure each of the girls you spend time with treasures it tremendously. Methinks you focus on the negatives too much. I don’t think it’s as much of an issue as you’re making it into.”

“Well, we had an embarrassing scene the other night when I went against my own better judgment and took an established couple to bed, simply because the guy said it was alright. It almost went tragically wrong.”

“Wait, you took another guy to bed?” Allison asked, sounding shocked at the very idea.

“Alex wanted to boost a specific person,” Cate explained, “and her boyfriend agreed it made sense, but he insisted on being there just to ensure she didn’t fall for Alex and out of love for him. Everyone agreed, but the guy turned into a real ass about it when they got down to it. Alex was about to do something very stupid when we jumped in, saving his ass yet again.”

“Yeah, I could see where that would be problematic,” Shani answered. “But that kind of thing hardly happens very often. I still think you’re making a mountain out of a molehill here.”

“That may be so, but it’s important to me,” Alex responded. “It makes it unfair to the women who chose to not make love to me, like Caity or Kelly Ott, plus it makes me feel like I’m taking advantage of everyone. It makes me feel like I consider myself more important than anyone else, and it causes me nightly stress as well.”

“Alex, I hate to tell you this, but in regards to this mission of yours, you are more important than anyone else,” Liv reminded him. “Only you hold the key to the future of this new race. If you can sire an heir with your genetic ability then it could very well live on and form the basis of a large community. But if you start getting self conscious it could mean the whole thing goes nowhere and we all eventually die out as a simple momentary blip on the evolutionary scale.”

“Well, debating the merits of Alex’s worry isn’t answering the question,” Cate pointed out. “Does anyone have any ideas about how we may be able to unlock this new ability of Alex’s?”

That got everyone focusing, and they tried various suggestions, although most simply duplicated the things Alex and Cate had already either discussed or tried. No one seemed to be getting anywhere. Finally Alex grew frustrated.

“Anh, you always seem to come up with amazing new insights when everyone else is stymied,” Alex said. “What do you have to say? You’ve been pretty quiet up to now.”

She took a moment to respond. “I think yours is an old problem, older than time itself. You have to ask yourself, what does the turtle do when it encounters something it no understand?”

“A turtle?” Alex asked, surprised by the question.

“Yes, a common turtle. What does it do when it runs across something it cannot figure out?”

“Uh, I have no clue,” Alex answered, sounding befuddled by the question.

“It simply goes around it,” she answered simply. “It no worry about what it cannot understand. If you get more information, then you go back and try again. But if you no understand enough to answer question, then it’s simply not worth bothering with.”

The simple wisdom of Anh’s advice surprised everyone. Alex wasn’t happy having his worries effectively shunted aside, but he had to admit that no one seemed to know enough to offer any significant advice, so he figured Anh had a good point. If there’s no way to figure something out you simply put it aside, only going back once some new information offers you the chance of unlocking it.

However, Anh’s advice effectively shut down the conversation.

“OK, there are other issues,” Cate pressed. “What did we figure out from your misadventures the other night?”

“Just a second,” Alex said, interrupting her, “what did you figure out about Frank Osmon? The two of you talked the other morning, but you never told me what you figured out about him. Is he like Peter and David in New Orleans, you know, having an extra X-chromosome?”

“Well, he wasn’t aware of it if he was,” Cate replied, remembering their conversations back in San Antonio, “although it seems many people with that condition never do. It’s estimated it occurs anywhere from one out of every 500 to one out of thousand men. They wouldn’t show any symptoms as long as the NRY region of the Y-chromosome, the noncombining genes, prevents the expression of the female-specific genes on the X-chromosome. However, if that were the case then I’d expect they wouldn’t be able to utilize the gene in question, since we have good reason to think the gene which governs the Watchers and Seers are within the sex specific region of the X-chromosome. A more probable hypothesis is that they’re actually chimeras, or someone actually possessing two different chromosome pairs. If parts of their brain had some XX chromosomes while the rest of their body was a normal XY it could account for it, although it would be difficult to test for. Generally, you can only determine it if a specific medical issue points out a specific region of the body to examine for it. Chimerism is generally associated with the body’s absorption of a twin’s body before it can develop. It’s fairly complicated.”

“Well, that’s more than I really needed to know. The question is can we learn anything from Frank, and more specifically, could it be possible for me to discover a male Seer because of the same mechanism?”

“I don’t think so. In order for it to occur, the normally blocked sex-specific regions of the X chromosome and the NRY Y chromosome region would compete with each other, producing some significant medical issues. Basically it wouldn’t be a pretty thing to see someone suffer from, and they’d have a fairly short lifespan.”

“All right, I’ll take that as a no, then. Now is there anything we can learn from the three men who’ve managed to express the Watcher gene.”

“Actually, I suspect the Watchers and Seers utilize the same gene, but I think the Seers have two separate occurrences of it, whereas the Watchers only have one. A normal male could carry the gene, but it would normally be inhibited by the NRY gene on the Y-chromosome. That’s why I suspect they only have a few specific regions of the body with an XX chromosome pair. But no, I haven’t figured out how this will help us understand anything, although it looks like you’ll occasionally meet more of them.”

“OK, so no new information then. Now, Cate was asking about what you girls in Carbondale learned from your attempt to heal Anh. Is there anything you’ve figured out?”

“We’ve been discussing that amongst ourselves,” Liv answered, taking charge of the discussion from their end. “Aside from our figuring out we really aren’t equipped to try it very often, we decided it had some specific uses for Alex.”

“Yeah,” Allison echoed the thought. “If you were to give up this pointing at wounds like a spirit from on high, you may actually accomplish more. If you’d used your forehead, instead of your finger, you might not have worn yourself out so much with Jennifer Weston back in New Orleans.”

“That’s a good point, Alex,” Shani said. “You’ve got to be less preoccupied with trying to appear inconspicuous and go with what’s the most effective. If you accomplish something amazing no one’s going to care how indifferent you appeared. They’re going to react to what you did however you go about it. Pressing your head against someone’s wounds may seem a bit too religious for you, looking more like a praying motion than a ‘laying on of hands’, but it would clearly work better than what you’re doing now.”

“OK, I can get on board with that,” Alex replied. “Though let me point out I wasn’t doing it to be any less inconspicuous. I just didn’t have any reason to think there was any more effective way of doing it. After all, I’d only done that the first time because Shani suggested it and it seemed the most obvious way of doing it. But I’ve got no problems in being more efficient.”

After that they discussed the issues Alex had tackled in San Antonio at the Brooke Medical Center. Liv and Allison were especially interested in discussing the topics raised there, and each of the Carbondale girls were interested in what he’d learned about handling mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) cases. But nothing they discussed seemed to offer much in their own treatment of such injuries at the high school, not that they had many of them to worry about, as it was.

“So what was it you wanted to ask Becky?” Shani asked Cate when the discussion finally ground down.

“Before you get to that,” Liv interrupted, “let me tell you that she’s been having more success than she led you to believe the other day. Apparently the machinery she has access to is pretty sophisticated, so it can do a lot of work. What’s more, she’s made some assumptions which seem to be making things much easier. Instead of doing a full genome analysis, like she’d originally suggested, she’d been focusing on a few specific regions. I’m not sure I understand it, but she thinks she can come up with some answers pretty quickly.”

“That sounds impressive and we’ll have to talk to her about it, but what I wanted to ask her was a bit more generic than that,” Cate responded. “I’ve been thinking a lot more about what Alex does when he activates someone. Each of you know what I’m referring to, and most of you were there when Alex activated Gail, so you could actually see what happened. But I’m interested in why nothing occurs until Alex looks someone in the eyes. Even when he activated Mattie, nothing happened until he looked into her eyes, so it can’t have anything to do with their individual responses. Do you have any idea what this thing of making eye contact is about?”

Everyone considered that, but it was Liv who answered first. “There’s more to the eyes than just being ‘the windows to the soul’. While he may be simply getting to know them on a personal basis, much like he does when he has to figure out their ‘psychic phone number’ in order to communicate telepathically with them, the eyes typically reveal what’s happening in the body as well. I don’t have to tell you how the eyes convey sicknesses in the body, like with dialysis patients. The eyes are close to the brain, so they typically offer insights into what’s happening there more directly than any other method. That’s why people use them to determine whether someone is on drugs or how they’re responding to them in a hospital environment.”

“Frankly, Cate, I think we were all focusing on Gail’s brain when Alex activated her,” Allison responded. “None of us even considered looking into her eyes.”

“I think Liv has the right idea,” Cate answered, as if she’d been struck with a revelation. “It may have nothing at all to do with communication, or with recognizing each other. Instead it might have everything to do with how the eyes respond.”

“So what do you think it might reveal?” Shani asked.

“If he’s looking for some indication of how their bodies or brains are responding, then the most obvious thing they’d be responding to would be his BCM energy. That’s why they’re responding in the first place. The idea has always been that what separates the Watchers from the Seers is the strength of their response. I’ve assumed since only women seem to be affected by Alex’s ability, that it requires the double X-chromosome to respond to him. Thus it may be that Watchers have a single necessary gene, which I’ll call the ‘S’ gene, while the Seers have a double dose of it from having the same gene active on both their X-chromosomes. That could account for why they respond so differently.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Liv asked. “That the Seers have some receiver in their brains which the Watchers don’t, that they’re picking up some invisible signal Alex is broadcasting?”

“Oh, it’s invisible alright, but I don’t think Alex is actually broadcasting it, and I don’t think they need a specific mechanism to receive it. I think it’s what we’ve been discussing all along. I think the ‘S’ gene they both possess controls how their bodies respond to Alex’s abundance of BCM. It isn’t that Alex’s abilities parallel their own so much, but that he knows they’ll respond to his energy.

“Look, think of it this way,” she said, taking a moment to reorganize her thoughts. “We’ve always thought Alex’s genetic ability was related to that of the Seers. But I screwed up that concept when I surmised his gift wasn’t in activating someone’s native ability, but was instead in his creating a physical link to a different dimension somewhere. A place where he could take in more of this BCM than he could elsewhere. What I’m suggesting here is similar to that. It isn’t that Alex is determining whether they have a specific ability or not, instead, I think he’s measuring how they’ll respond to his BCM.

“If we assume the ‘S’ gene controls how people respond to BCM, where those without it don’t respond at all, the Watchers respond to it positively, but the Seers respond the best of all, then it reduces everything to that responsiveness. Alex isn’t broadcasting anything for them to receive. Instead he’s simply radiating BCM, and they’ve been genetically predisposed to respond to it.”

“So how would that work?” Allison asked, figuring Cate was onto more than what she’d said so far. “What’s so important about how they’d respond to this BCM energy?”

“That’s the point,” Cate said. “They don't have any specific abilities of their own. What abilities they showed before is tied into their body's reaction to people's varying levels of BCM. Thus when he establishes eye contact with them, he’s measuring how their bodies will respond to the BCM. Specifically how their bodies can utilize it. Look, if he’s actually creating portals between dimensions or between their brains and his, then there’s more to it than just the simple creation of said portal. That was shown when he accidentally created one in Rakeem’s head. It simply didn’t work. The portal itself doesn’t do anything. Instead the recipient has to be able to grow enough new tissue to be able to respond to the new input.

“What I’m suggesting is that while the Watchers respond to his energy, the Seers are actually capable of using the energy to grow new tissue. I’m guessing if Rachel had been a Seer, or a potential Seer, she would have responded much quicker to his attempt to force her to grow new tissue. As it was, she responded much faster than Jennifer did. Essentially what Alex is measuring when he looks in their eyes is how well they can grow the new tissue that’s needed to respond to the new links he creates in their brains.”

“You know, you may be onto something there,” Allison responded. “We know the activated Seers’ brains undergo some rapid growth. We know he actually affects two separate areas in their brains, one specifically in the communication and cognitive area of the brain, and the other outside of the brain itself along the optic nerve. In both cases we’ve documented the Seers grow new tissue which would be necessary for them to process these new abilities.”

“Right,” Cate replied. “And Alex can apparently tell who’s capable of growing new tissue by how their eyes respond to the BCM he gives off. Thus he doesn’t try to activate the brains of Watchers or type 3s, already knowing they wouldn’t respond to it.”

“But wouldn’t that require a lot of a priori knowledge?” Shani asked. “I mean, how could he possibly know that? After all, he supposedly hadn’t done anything like that until he’d first met me.”

“Not that we’re aware of,” Cate replied. “So far, we’ve surmised he created his first portal in his own brain when we were both young, based on how long I’ve been feeling the effects of his BCM. That leaves years before he activated you. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t trying in all of those years. For all we know, there could be hundreds or thousands of people walking around Shawneetown with little gaps in their brains they never responded to or ever noticed. After all, we know Alex doesn’t create them in the brain itself. Or at least we know he hasn’t in any brain other than his. Instead he creates it in the gaps in the brain, inside the brains’ sulci. Thus he’d never really affect anyone who couldn't respond to it by rapidly growing the necessary brain tissue in response to the BCM.”

“That makes sense,” Allison said, getting excited herself at Cate’s newest proposal. “We’ve already theorized that the gap in our brains holds the mechanisms to physically transfer our thoughts, which gives us our telepathy. But the gap along our optic nerve is smaller and not as well formed. Chances are it doesn’t actually transfer anything, but was created simply as a way of giving us a quick boost of BCM to trigger the growth there.”

“Which still begs the question of how Alex could ever have known how the brain would respond, or which areas of the brain to create which structures in?” Liv responded. “Hell, I’m a damn surgeon who’s studied the brain, and I couldn’t give you a specific location to try something like that in.”

“Again, that’s something we’ll probably never know enough to answer,” Allison answered, “but this idea of Cate’s manages to answer several important elements with an elegantly simple solution. There is no underlying ability in the Seers which Alex is acting on when he activates them. Instead he’s simply working on their ability to respond to BCM to grow new tissue.”

“But the Seers could already identify people’s emotions before they encountered Alex,” Shani argued. “Just take Brooke’s explanations of her own history. She describes how she always knew what to expect in emergency situations.”

“But again, that can be explained by how someone responds to BCM,” Cate responded. “They can differentiate the BCM they receive enough so they can tell the differences between them. Just as I can, even though I don’t possess the supposed ‘S’ gene. Because I’ve been exposed to it for so long, I can tell the difference between his BCM and that of others. If I can differentiate that much, then surely someone like a Seer, who is attuned to it, may be able to deduce something from the differences they pick up from someone.”

“Maybe, but there’s a hell of a lot of unanswered questions,” Liv answered.

“Hey, you can’t expect me to solve every issue we’ll ever encounter all at once,” Cate argued with a relaxed laugh. “Let’s take what we have. Knowledge is the slow accumulation of fact, and theory is the best attempt to explain it. We just added a little more. Let’s take it and see what we can figure out with it, rather than worrying about what we don’t yet know,” she answered.

It was clear Cate was in a much better mood, having just figured out one of the long outstanding mysteries of Alex’s abilities. She was sure she’d cracked an essential nut in their understanding of the underlying genetics concerning Alex and his women, and she was anxious to discuss these newest theories with Becky, to see if she could put these newest ideas to use in identifying the genes responsible for those abilities. Man, it was a great day to be a scientist, she told herself.

---

After they hung up the phone the conversation in the car died out temporarily, leaving the car filled with nothing but the sounds of the traffic outside and of scurrying rodents in the back seat. To alleviate the awkwardness, Alex asked about what Cate had discussed the previous night, meaning her secretive talk, but she wouldn’t tell him.

“It’s a new theory, but I don’t have enough information to make an informed decision yet,” she told him.

“Oh, well, you also mentioned you needed to call Becky about it, do you want to do that now?” Alex prompted.

“Not really, it’ll be fairly involved and I’d rather not discuss it while we’re traveling, as I may not be able to hear all the technical details.”

Alex wasn’t quite convinced that made much sense, especially since she could always send an e-mail using her iPad instead, but he held his tongue. It seemed she was reluctant to discuss it, so he figured he’d best leave it alone. Besides, it probably had to do with her genetics investigation which Shani had alluded to, in which case she may need to do some research before she talked to her.

“So what are your plans for Oklahoma?” Cate asked, trying to shift he conversation.

“I’m just planning on lying low. I’d like to avoid calling attention to myself for a little while until the excitement in Dallas fades a little.”

“Yeah, now that’s likely,” Cate observed teasingly.

“No, really, I’ve thought it out. I’d originally been planning on staying in Dallas for a couple of days, so there’s no rush to accomplish anything in Oklahoma. Since I’d only planned on spending a day there, I should be able to establish a small community there in about a day. Now I won’t turn anyone who shows up away, but it also doesn’t mean we have to park ourselves downtown where I’ll attract a lot of attention. In fact, what do you think about staying at a smaller outlying hotel?”

Cate seemed thoughtful for a few moments. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” she said, but didn’t immediately explain. Instead she seemed to be searching for a satisfactory response. “I think it makes sense for you to avoid public appearances, but I think it’s a mistake to avoid the city altogether.”

“We did that after we left New Orleans, and it didn’t impact anyone,” Alex pointed out.

“Yeah, but still, why don’t we go ahead to the hotel Patricia got for us? We can check in early and just stay in the hotel. I can check the lobby occasionally and bring anyone who shows up to the room. Oh, by the way, I’m … uh, having my period so I’ll probably sleep alone tonight.”

Alex turned to glance at his sister. “You know that isn’t an issue with me. We don’t have to have sex, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sleep with me. After all, I know how much it means for you to spend time with me, soaking up my energy as it were.”

“Yeah, well, I guess I’m just having an off day,” she said, “I think I’ll skip it for one night. Maybe two, we’ll have to see how things go,” she concluded.

Alex glanced at her again, a little taken aback by her response. This wasn’t typical of her and he wondered what might be going on, but once again he decided to not press the issue. While it bothered him that she didn’t want to spend time with him, he knew it could be any number of things, and he didn’t want to stress her out if she had a good reason for her decision. He knew pushing her for information would just make her defensive.

“I’ll see if I can find something for us to do in the evening at a somewhat less crowded venue,” she said, as she busied herself with her little device, hurriedly typing in search requests. Alex just shook his head and thought about other issues. He was still upset he didn’t have any new leads on his automatic boosting. Successfully utilizing that ability would mean a big difference, not just in who he needed to make love to on any given night, but also in how many people he could reach in a limited amount of time. He really wanted to figure this riddle out, since he had so much depending on it, so both of them kept to themselves for the next hour or so.

---

They arrived in Oklahoma City relatively early, before lunchtime, and drove directly to the Skirvin Hilton in the downtown area. It was located near several different convention centers, but seeing as how it was Sunday there weren’t many people on the streets. Alex still wasn’t comfortable being downtown, preferring to avoid any public interactions, but Cate had a point, he couldn’t just hole up in the hotel room indefinitely. He’d attract attention no matter where he was. Besides, he’d really enjoyed being able to wander the streets in San Antonio. Hopefully here, in a smaller city, he may be able to do so again.

After Alex parked the car in the garage, they entered the hotel to check in with Cate carrying the animal cages on top of her luggage rack, perched above her single suitcase. While Alex headed to the reception desk, Cate told him she had to make a phone call and wandered off, standing to the side by her curious mice, before he could ask who she was calling. Shrugging his shoulders, he went ahead and did what he needed to.

Approaching the reception desk, the receptionist looked at him like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. Since she met his eyes and only reacted by looking even more awestruck, he assumed she was a Watcher. She was young, with dirty blond hair pulled back into a short ponytail. She had light freckles across her nose and cheeks. Glancing down before addressing her, he noticed her nametag read “Georgia Cantrell”.

“Good morning, Georgia.”

“Good morning, sir. Can I do anything for you? Anything at all?”

Another older man, standing at the end of the counter examining the computer, looked up.

“Is there a problem, Georgia?”

“No, sir, it’s just … this man is clearly …” Georgia seemed unable to phrase how she was perceiving this man she clearly didn’t know. “I just want to make sure we offer this gentleman the best service we can. He’s clearly very important, and I’m sure he needs his privacy and anything we can offer him.”

“And you are?” he asked. Alex glanced at the nametag and saw his name was Andrew Peters.

“Let’s just call me Alex Jennings,” Alex said, playing up the role of a celebrity in disguise.

“Georgia, I think you can handle this. And yes, make sure you give him every amenity he requires.”

Alex was amazed it was so easy to get upgraded, even though he had no intention of asking for any special favors. After all, if they discovered he wasn’t anyone special he’d not only get himself in trouble, but he’d hurt Georgia’s reputation with her boss as well.

“The room we reserved is fine. I realize we’re here early; there’s no problem with leaving our bags here until check-in time, is there?”

“Nonsense, Mr. Jennings, I’ll have someone take your bags up to your room right away. Your room is already available,” Georgia responded, signaling someone over to take care of them.

“OK, a couple of other things, although they’re all minor. First of all, one of the people staying with us isn’t here yet, so you’ll need to hold a key for Gail Sanders. Secondly, we need to discuss something with you,” he said more quietly. “If you could give the room a call when you get off I’d appreciate it.” Georgia nodded eagerly that she’d be sure to do it for him, no questions asked. “Finally, if you notice anyone looking lost in the lobby, tell them to come up to my room, I’ll be expecting them. Chances are they won’t recognize the name, but that’s not unexpected, I’ll know who they are.”

“I can take care of those things for you, Mr. Jennings. Will you need anything else?”

“No, that should take care of everything. But please, call me Alex.”

She glanced at her boss, then back at Alex. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, sir.”

“Well, at the very least, don’t call me sir. You know, I’ve got a good feeling about you, I have a feeling you’re going to be running this hotel one day.”

Alex had no idea why he added that last bit. It had sprung unbidden into his head and he’d said it before he could stop himself, but Georgia looked surprised by it, then she smiled and stood up straighter and she took his credit card.

The rest of the check-in went by without any problems, but as Alex was walking away he overheard Georgia telling her boss, “You know, I’m going to take over your job in a couple of years.” Alex felt very good about that.

Cate joined him and they headed to the elevator accompanied by the porter, who Alex had gotten to load up the mice cages as well. He was very professional and never asked why they were carrying rodents into a hotel room. Alex reminded himself to supply him with a nice tip to ensure it wouldn’t become an issue in the future. Cate just looked at the man and back at Alex without a word.

“Who was the phone call to?” Alex asked.

“Oh, I’ve been trying to contact Becky for a couple of days now. I couldn’t reach her before,” she answered.

“You couldn’t have called her from the car?” Alex asked, remembering she hadn’t even attempted to call anyone beside the one call to the loft in Carbondale.

“I didn’t think you wanted to listen to us talk details. It’s not very entertaining,” she said, looking down at her feet.

Alex looked at her again. If anyone was interested in their discussion it would be him, since it directly impacted him. He was about to say something but the elevator arrived then, so they climbed in and rode up in silence. Alex simply figured she had something planned, and he trusted her enough to tell him when he needed to know when he needed to know it. Again, there were several things it could be, and several of them, like Becky’s genetics research, might need to be fleshed out before she could discuss it with him.

“There aren’t many people around today,” Cate said, changing the topic after they rode the elevator in silence for a few long seconds, “from what I can see, how about we wander the streets and see if we can find a nice place for lunch. I’m not crazy about your idea of staying in the hotel all day.”

Alex shrugged, Cate seemed to be in a strange mood. “That’s fine by me. I’m kind of anxious to get out, too. I just wanted to avoid any public scenes for a couple of days if I can. But since there don’t seem to be many people around, maybe we can slip by if we’re careful.”

They put their bags away in the room and Cate carefully stored the animal cages along the bathroom wall, under the sink, while Alex tipped the porter. Once he left, Cate brought up a subject she’d been holding back while they were in mixed company.

“Alex, I think you need to find a couple of new followers today and make love to them.”

“Huh, what?” Alex said, thrown off by the subject coming in out of the blue.

“You need to boost a couple of women tonight, you can’t hide out here until the concert,” she said, clarifying her thought.

Alex was thrown by this newest statement of Cate’s. While he had been concerned Cate didn’t want to spend time with him, this was something completely different. It wasn’t ‘I need my space’, instead it was, ‘you need to do this, and you need to do it soon’ There was clearly something she wasn’t telling him.

“And I need to do that tonight? How about if I just make love to you and Gail instead?”

“I already told you, I can’t tonight. Besides, it’s important you boost someone. A couple of someone’s, to be more precise.”

Now this intrigued Alex. There was clearly more to this than met the eye. She wanted him to do something, she didn’t want to be a part of it for some reason, and it had specific conditions to it. What could she be trying to do, and why couldn’t she just come out and tell him what was up?

“But why … wait, this is concerning something you discussed with Becky isn’t it? What did you … this is about the spontaneous boosting, isn’t it?” Alex asked, guessing what she was trying to arrange.

“I can’t say,” Cate answered obliquely. “It would impact the results if I did. But you need to find and invite a couple of women here tonight, and it can’t be either Gail or I. You need to boost someone.”

“Two people,” Alex said, confirming what she’d just told him now that he had a better idea of what she was driving at. “I take it the idea is that, while I boost one, I may somehow boost the other one as well?”

“Again, I can’t say. But you’ll do it anyway?” she asked.

“Cate, if this will give us more insight into what’s happening with the automatic boosting, you can count on it. That’s going to make a big difference, and we need to give it our priority. It will impact a lot more people than we’d be able to reach otherwise.”

“Good, then let’s get out of here and get us some lunch.”

Alex agreed, offering Cate his arm and escorting her out. If she had a new insight which would help solve this problem, he was all for it. The automatic boosting was important enough to risk exposing himself for. He was actually looking forward to meeting a couple of new followers now. He was looking forward to exploring Oklahoma City.

           

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