“The Catalyst” Series
		“Touring Under Pressure”
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10:  A Quiet Oklahoman Afternoon

           

Alex was glad to get out onto the streets of Oklahoma City. While he was afraid of attracting more attention to himself following the shooting in Dallas, he didn’t like the idea of hiding in the hotel room any more than Cate did. What’s more, the idea that Cate might have some ideas on how his ‘automatic boost’ ability worked had him enthused. If they could crack that nut, it would really improve things for his followers and for himself as well. As necessary as boosting people was, he didn’t like having to constantly make love to a bunch of virtual strangers. He missed spending time with Kitty and Chalise, remembering the days when he only had three lovers with fondness, even if those memories were a little off, since he’d actually had quite an extensive harem at the time. But he still missed his girlfriends anyway. He managed to call them regularly, but there’s a big difference between calling and being there.

Despite his fears, they found the streets of downtown Oklahoma City on a hot summer Sunday morning relatively empty, so Alex wasn’t as concerned about creating any potential scenes. If anyone overreacted, it was likely to only be noticed by a few people, so he felt a little freer, able to ignore his constantly niggling worries at least for the moment.

The hotel was located near several conference centers and sports arenas, but the downtown area didn’t have the big retail draw other cities had. He didn’t think the arenas were busy today so they headed off in a random direction, just walking along and seeing what they encountered. They were both enjoying themselves and Alex tried holding Cate’s hand, but she dropped it after a few awkward minutes, which made Alex curious, but he figured she’d simply found synchronizing their pace difficult, so he ignored it. Still, he was feeling himself more uncertain about her all the time. ‘Maybe she’s just as anxious as I am about whatever test she’s trying to schedule for me,’ he thought.

They were enjoying the walk, even though the scenery wasn’t overly impressive, when they were interrupted after several blocks.

“Hey, wait. Wait for me!” someone called out behind them. Before they could even turn around they both heard the click-clack of heels as a woman ran after them, trying to reach them quickly. Alex had a good idea of what to expect, so he took a moment before turning around and confronting the woman, allowing her to draw closer.

When he did turn, he saw a well-dressed, slightly older woman, probably in her mid to late 40s, running towards them. When their eyes met she jerked back slightly, losing her balance momentarily. Alex was worried she’d trip, possibly twisting an ankle due to the high heels on the fashionable boots she wore, but she recovered, taking the time to focus on what she was doing and moving a bit more sedately after that.

As she moved towards them more cautiously, Cate hurried to her side while Alex took the time to look her over. Although older, she seemed to be very comfortable. The slight laugh lines around her face made her seem like she really loved her life, and her clothes marked her as being somewhat successful. She wore a hat, which had made running after them more difficult, as she’d had to run with one hand on her head holding the hat in place. She also wore a scarf, a colorful multi-patterned dress and the aforementioned high-heeled leather boots. Alex knew next to nothing about women’s footwear, but he knew what looked good, and he figured those must have cost a bit.

She was also a blonde, with her long slightly curly hair bouncing around as she hurried forward, now being steadied by Cate.

“Wait a minute,” she said on reaching him. She put her hand on his chest as if to see if he was real or not, “you really knocked me for a loop with whatever you did to my vision. Give me a second and I’ll be OK.” It did in fact take a long time, probably around a full minute before she could gather her wits about her, but then she steadied herself and tried to address Alex directly, even though she had to squint while looking at him.

“Excuse me, but I could somehow feel you from inside my club, and I just knew I had to find you. I was afraid you’d get away before I could catch up to you.”

Looking over her shoulder Alex observed a couple of women watching them from a small establishment farther down the street.

“Don’t worry, we’re used to it. This is a typical reaction, though it’s due to a rare occurrence,” Alex explained patiently, as he took her arm and guided her to the side. “By the way, what’s your name? I’m Alex and this is my sister Cate.”

“Sorry, my name is Leanna Dickson. As I said, I’m sorry to bother you but—”

“Don’t worry about it. You’ve got a rare genetic trait which responds to a certain energy I give off. Very few can detect it, but for those who can, it’s pretty overwhelming.”

“Excuse me, but why the hell are you glowing like a spotlighted disco ball? Is it you, or am I having some kind of stroke?”

“No, you aren’t having a stroke,” Alex answered, laughing quietly. “Like your genetic anomaly, which allows you to detect people’s emotions and feel this energy I give off, I have a separate one which allows me to ‘activate’ new abilities in you. The glow you see when you look at me is this energy I give off. We’ve decided to call it BCM for want of a better name. It’s undetectable by anyone else, but you’ll notice it in almost everything you look at now. It’s a sort of life supporting energy, so it indicates health and a lot of other things. It’ll probably be easier to explain this if we could sit down somewhere private. Does this club you just came from have an area we can talk privately in?”

“It sure does,” Leanna replied with a gentle laugh of her own, her laugh striking a light tinkling note which made one smile in response, “though I’m sure a lot of people are going to be curious why I took off running after some strange guy like I did, so we may have to answer a few questions about it.”

“That’s fine. You’ll find you’ll have to watch how you respond to questions now, as we generally don’t want to tell people too much about these abilities we have. But we’ve gotten fairly good at dealing with people’s curiosity.”

“That’s no problem, I’m used to dancing around issues. I’ve had my fair share of secrets in the course of my life. Come on, I’ll take you back, introduce you, and then we can escape to a private room to discuss whatever you need to tell me.”

Alex offered Leanna his arm. She gave it and him an odd look, then shrugged and linked her own through it as they walked back.

“If you look at the people around us, you’ll noticed how their ‘auras’ contain a lot of different colors,” Cate explained, as she fell in beside them. “You can only see pure white when you look at Alex, but that’s because his BCM is so strong it overwhelms you. But with others it reflects a lot of information you’ll likely find very useful.”

As Cate continued to describe what she was seeing, Alex took in their surroundings. There were four women standing outside of the club, which was pretty nondescript. It had those odd one way windows which looked like mirrors on the outside with the name of the club, “Maiden Nights”, on it. Alex thought it an odd way to decorate a club, figuring clear windows would attract more people, but he guessed it was probably a bit exclusive and they weren’t interested in attracting just anyone to it.

As they drew closer to it, he noted the other women awaiting their return were also nicely dressed, although one looked more like a lumber jack, which Alex found strange. If this was an exclusive club, and the others people were so nicely dressed, then surely there must be some kind of a dress code. Alex then wondered about his own attire, glancing quickly at Leanna and Cate, trying to guess whether there might be an issue with how they were dressed.

But by then they were already back at the club.

“Hey, Debbie, Betsy. Sorry, but I saw someone I recognized, and I just had to say hello,” Leanna explained. “These are two … old friends, Alex and Cate,” she temporized.

“Yeah? And how’d you do that when you couldn’t see them?” the oddly dressed woman asked, though she seemed more curious than hostile. She didn’t look bad, and she didn’t have a heavy plaid jacket or anything, but she was just dressed more casually in what Alex would consider more work clothes than ‘going to a club’ type of dress. The woman was young, with a big toothy smile and wore thick framed glasses which shouted ‘retro chic’. She also wore her hair cut very short.

“I actually heard their voices as they walked past and I noticed them as they passed the window,” Leanna responded. “Anyway, these young women are Betsy, Debbie, Linda and Lori,” she said, identifying the woman Alex had noticed was indeed Betsy, “girls, this is Alex and his sister Cate.”

They all said hello, though they seemed a little guarded responding to Alex, probably because of the strange way they met him, but they seemed to take to Cate right away. When Alex watched everyone saying hello, he noticed Cate grinning as she watched him as well. He tilted his head, silently asking her what was so funny, but she just waved him off as she continued smiling at him.

Leanna started to head in, but Alex quickly got the door for her.

“Ah, a good old fashioned gentleman. Just watch out who you do that for, a lot of people read more into it than you probably intend,” she responded, offering him an odd bit of advice. But once she was through he waited as the rest entered and followed after Cate, watching her shake her head the entire time.

As soon as he crossed the threshold everything suddenly made perfect sense. Cate was right in laughing at him. The entire bar’s clientele was composed of women, though it was hardly crowded. There wasn’t another man in sight. Alex thought he saw two, but on closer examination he saw they were just women wearing less obviously feminine clothes. Now Betsy didn’t look so out of place, as there were several women dressed like her here. Alex just shook his head, Cate was right, he really was slow sometimes. All the signs were there, and he should have had enough experience with it by now to have recognized what was going on.

The women turned to watch him as they entered, their eyes moving from Leanna to him, though they’d also stop to follow Cate as well. Alex just followed the rest, acting like his being there was the most natural thing in the world.

“Ah, there you are, we wondered where you ran off to like that. And now you come back in dragging some strange guy and a nice piece of candy that’s likely to get us all thrown in the joint if we go near her, what’s the deal?” someone sitting nearby asked.

The place was nicely laid out with a small bar by the door, but only a couple of people were located there now, instead most people were sitting at a variety of tables eating lunch. There was a nice homey feel to the place with candle lit tables, several couches and a lot of posters featuring either notable or famous figures or sporting specific women’s slogans.

“Relax, it’s just someone I met a little while ago who I haven’t been able to—”

“Hey, you don’t run out of here that fast unless your undies are on fire,” someone countered. “I can also see you’re a bit preoccupied with this chap.”

“Hey, I’m a business woman, I have to interact with a variety of different people every day. I can’t spend all my time flirting with you girls,” Leanna argued.

“Hey, leave them alone,” objected a woman who was standing beside Betsy. “This guy is clearly someone important, I want to hear his story. The rest of you can do your own thing, but let’s not make a fight out of this.”

Betsy seemed to be clearly surprised by this response, but Alex noticed her companion’s eyes were focused on him in a typical pattern so Alex quickly walked up to her.

“The name is Alex,” he said, offering his hand to her.

She shook it, saying, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alex, my name is Ally Frey. You’ve clearly got important things to do, so what brings you to our little place? I’m guessing it wasn’t due to a personal recommendation from anyone you know.”

Alex gave them a relaxed quiet laugh, “No, we just stumbled on Leanna here. We’ve got an unusual … relationship between us. She’s got a unique ability to sense something in me, just like you do, Ally. It’s got nothing to do with me as a person, but a lot to do with who you are.”

With this unexpected response several people drew closer, wanting to hear what bill of goods Alex was going to try to sell them. Ally was all ears, so Betsy protectively moved closer to her. Alex simply smiled at her in response. Ally looked a lot like her girlfriend. She had longer hair, but it was the same shade as Betsy’s, though a bit longer, and she wore a dress instead of the work shirt Betsy wore. She also had on some jewelry which made them contrast in their appearance, although they also both wore the clunky thick black glasses that were currently fashionable amongst the hipsters.

“You don’t need to worry, Betsy. What Ally feels for me isn’t sexual, instead she feels a specific energy I give off,” Alex said, surprising himself with how much he was revealing so quickly, but he felt strangely comfortable with this group of women so he went with his gut. “We each have related genetic anomalies. I have one which causes me to give off a certain type of invisible energy, while Ally and Leanna have one which allows them to detect that energy. They’re both drawn to me not because of my young boyish charm, but because of what they sense in me.”

“Wait a minute, what kind of stuff are you trying to tell us?” Lori asked. “I’ve never heard of any ‘mysterious invisible energy’ that attracts people. Are you going to give us a bunch of bull about crystal energy next?”

“Hey, leave my damn crystals alone,” another woman called out from a table nearby. “What I chose to believe doesn’t impact you in the least. They make me feel better and that’s all I care about.”

“Ignore my friend,” Lori advised Alex. “I like to tease her about her belief in things like Feng Shui, but I can see Ally and Leanna seem to be responding to something that I can’t see, so I’m actually interested in knowing if there’s anything behind these claims of yours.”

“Actually, we’ve gotten a lot of practical experience with it, although we haven’t been able to document the process,” Cate explained before Alex could respond. “It seems the energy, which we call BCM for reasons I won’t bother getting into right now, is in all living things, but it seems to be neither a wave nor a particle, so it’s never been detected by existing measuring devices. We’re not sure yet what it consists of or how to measure it, but just watch Ally and Leanna and you can see just how real it is. Alex, walk to the bar and back.”

Smiling, Alex did so, safe in the knowledge that no one was checking out his ass as he walked away. He heard a coin clinking against the floor behind him. He stopped at the bar and headed back.

“Did any of you notice that while everyone else looked at the coin I tossed, neither Leanna nor Ally ever took their eyes off of Alex? And did you also notice that while Ally can’t keep from staring into his eyes, Leanna is unable to? That’s all part of our evidence. The BCM energy Alex gives off is too intense for Leanna to manage. Ally can detect it, but not quite as well as Leanna can.”

Cate had no idea why they were revealing this much detail to a bunch of complete strangers, but she’d learned to trust Alex when he suddenly decided to go off on a tangent. If he felt it was safe, then she had no problems with following suit.

“You know, getting off of the particulars of our unproven ideas, you might be interested in something else we’re doing. We’re involved with a group called the Angel Vision Foundation. They’re involved with a new college sorority, Pi-Alpha-Zeta. That stands for ‘Praecipue Animo Fiduciam’, which means ‘Always Trust Your Judgment’. We’re trying to find others like Ally and Leanna who have these particular talents. They typically are able to detect things about people, often guessing how people are likely to react.”

“I’ve always wondered how Leanna did that,” Lori said. “She always seems to know when someone’s had too much to drink or when a fight is about to break out.”

“You know, Leanna, I hate to ask this, but it’s pretty ironic that your name is Dickson and you own a lesbian bar.”

She smiled, apparently comfortable with the observation from having heard it before. “Yeah, I don’t have any control over my family name. Seems it came from my father, who was a bit of a dick himself. But my mother would never forgive me if I changed my name now, and I wouldn’t know what to change it to. ‘Vaginadaughter’? ‘Pussyrelative’? Or my personal favorite, ‘Cunt Kid’?”

Alex had to laugh, although the others in the bar seemed to have heard the line before. “Now that’s a superhero sidekick I’d like to see. Although, since everyone now thinks that Batman and Robin are a gay couple, we’d have to find her a different mentor.”

“How about Invisible Energy Guy and the Cunt Kid?” someone suggested, only partially trying for a laugh.

“Anyway, you’ve got a good point, Leanna. As I said, I didn’t expect you to have an answer, I was just curious how you handled it. But getting back on topic, we’re trying to reach out to women and girls, trying to teach them to trust their instincts, since many of them are actually based on this genetic trait. While those like Leanna, who have learned to trust their feelings based on experience, the ones like Ally, who we call Watchers, don’t trust those same instincts because they aren’t as strong.”

“Wait, if Ally is a Watcher, and yes, we can figure out why you call her that, then what do you call Leanna?” Debbie asked.

Alex managed to skirt that topic, but they proceeded to talk about the work Alex’s foundation was doing, with Alex leading the conversation. He subtly suggested Cate take Leanna and Ally aside to explain what they needed to know, while Alex distracted everyone else with the topic of helping women in general. More and more women came over to join them, and soon Alex was entertaining quite a group of interested women. Noticing many of them had just finished eating, Alex asked if they could continue the conversation over lunch, since neither he nor Cate had eaten yet.

The women were more than happy with that, and they pulled a group of tables together so everyone could listen to them as they talked. A couple of women offered to buy Cate lunch, but Leanna said their meal was on her, since it was the least she could do for what Alex had done for her.

That led to a discussion about just what he’d done for her, since so far, all the women knew was that Leanna and Ally could somehow detect some sort of energy Alex gave off. Leanna started to describe her being able to sense more things, and the women asked her for specifics. She slipped up, mentioning his “changing what she could see”, and it led the conversation further astray.

“Wait a minute,” Lori, always the instigator interrupted, “you said earlier that Leanna couldn’t look at you because your energy was too bright, but she had no trouble looking at you as she ran after you, and now she says you’ve changed what she sees. What is it you did to her? You both mentioned you did something, but you didn’t say exactly what it was.”

It was Cate that sighed this time, but Alex was ready, having anticipated this coming up.

“The truth is that my genetic ability plays off of their abilities. I ‘activate’ dormant abilities in them. I’ve enabled Leanna to see the BCM in people, and that energy supplies a lot of information about people. It shows someone’s health, since all living things give off BCM, but it also shows people’s personality traits, as well as their current emotional state. It’s complicated but—”

“Wait, if this BCM stuff isn’t related to light, and isn’t either a wave or a particle, then how can she ‘see’ this energy.” Despite how much she was leading the conversation astray, both Alex and Cate were developing a real admiration for Lori. She seemed to have a real sense of curiosity, and it was hard to slip anything by her.

Cate took over the explanation here, since this was her bailiwick. “It’s complicated, and we don’t want to overwhelm you, but Alex uses his excess of this energy to cause Leanna to grow new brain tissue. Since she’s focusing on her perception of the energy at the time, it triggers her to develop a mechanism to interpret it.”

“But wouldn’t that involve a predefined structure on her DNA? I mean, growing a whole new organ would require a lot to … I don’t know, I guess if a single gene can govern whether we have thumbs or not, it could trigger this, but it just seems a little, I don’t know, odd that it would in this case.”

Alex took the time to give Lori another look at this juncture, since she continued to impress him. She seemed like a simple girl with a pretty face, a nice smile—especially when she was being challenged—and fairly straight blonde hair which cascaded around her face. She had the kind of hair that was definitely helped by a bottle. She wore simple jewelry—large pearl earrings and a matching non-pearl necklace. She also had soft penetrating eyes, and was dressed in a heavy leather biker jacket. She clearly didn’t fit into any single mold. Although one wouldn’t pick her out of crowd as an intellectual, based both on her blonde hair and her style of dress, she seemed to revel in it, just as she seemed to revel in being her own woman, picking her own clothing style, her own look, and maintaining her own way of life. Alex also didn’t notice any girlfriend.

In short, she was a whole series of enigmas. A butch lesbian, an intellectual book worm, a blonde bimbo, a girl who liked to dress up, there just wasn’t any way of pigeonholing her. But Alex didn’t get a chance to analyze her any more than that, she was waiting for a response.

“That’s because I trigger growth along her optic nerve which utilizes the areas of the brain associated with sight to also process what she’s now perceiving. Although she’s not seeing light waves, she ‘sees’ the energy as if it’s normal vision. What she sees is completely different from the recognized color spectrum, and it also overlays her normal vision, so she can see both things equally. Again, we’ve leaving a lot of specifics out because it’s actually quite complex, but that’s the general idea.”

“But then why can’t Ally see anything new?” Betsy asked, growing more interested in what might affect her girlfriend’s ability to deal with the world around her.

“That’s because while Watchers respond to the BCM energy, they don’t respond well enough to grow new tissue. We think it would allow them to heal better, but only the Seers can, well, grow the physical structures to actually see this energy.”

“Wait, if Ally is a Watcher, and you never answered my question about what you called people like Leanna, let me guess, she’s a Seer, or something like that?” Lori asked. Alex had to smile in response.

“You should be a scientist,” Cate told her. “You pick up on a lot of subtle clues. You’d be good at it.”

“That’s exactly what we call them,” Alex confirmed, not giving her a chance to respond, despite Alex’s curiosity about what she did. “The Watchers constantly stand in the background and watch me, while the Seers can physically see the energy I give off.”

“Wow, this is amazing,” Debbie said. “Leanna, what am I thinking?”

“Sorry, she can’t see your thoughts, but she can see emotions, particularly strong emotions. Although she’s still a little green at it yet, meaning she isn’t likely to know what the different colors she sees mean yet.”

“OK, then, Alex, what am I feeling?” she laughed.

Cate laughed as well. “As strange as it sounds, Alex doesn’t share the same genetic trait he activates in others, thus he can’t actually see what they can. It’s a strange codependent relationship between him and them. He opens their world up, allowing them to see all kinds of things, but he has to rely on them to see the things he can’t, the very things he allows them to see.”

“Yes, it’s a complex relationship, but it’s fascinating. How come we’ve never heard of it before?” Lori asked.

“It’s a very rare occurrence, and its effects were never obvious enough for anyone to identify until Alex came along,” Cate explained. “After all, if everyone has the same amount of this energy, how is anyone going to measure a difference in someone’s response to it? Alex is also a strange case, as it seems he’s the first person with his ability. So it looks like Leanna and Ally’s abilities were hidden for thousands of years, while Alex’s just popped up out of nowhere.”

Alex figured everyone had a good idea of how things operated by then, and he figured they needed time to consider it before he revealed any more information, figuring it didn’t make any sense until they had time to process what he’d already told them.

“Do any of you know of a decent jewelry story around here? Nothing too ostentatious, but I need to pick up some gifts?” Alex asked, trying to get everyone off of the topic they were discussing.

“Well, surprisingly, there aren’t any big malls in the downtown area,” Leanna told them. “There’s one in the Oak Brook Shopping Center, which is close, but it doesn’t have much of a selection. There’s also the Crossroads mall, but that’s seen better days and is more of a gang hangout than anything else. The only jewelry you’ll find there is nickel and dime stuff. Your best bet is ‘Mizrachi’s’ in the Penn Square Mall, but that’s a ways from here. I could drive you there, if you’d like.”

“You know, that’s not a bad idea. It’ll give us time to talk a little more about this. We aren’t taking you away from your business, are we?”

“Nah, that’s the great thing about being the boss,” she teased. “I can leave the place to my lackeys. Can’t I, girls,” she called out loudly enough for them to hear her.

The various waitresses and the bartender all called out, “Yes, your evil lordship.” Apparently it was a well-rehearsed response and Alex could see them all smiling, so he knew it was a comfortable joke amongst them.

“But what about Ally?” Betsy asked, sounding concerned for her girlfriend. “Doesn’t she need to know the same sorts of things?”

Alex waited a moment before answering. “Frankly, there are separate things to discuss with each, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you wanted to come along.”

“That’s OK,” Ally hurried to say. “You guys go ahead. We can get together later to discuss anything more that I need to know. Frankly, I think it’s better if I take some time to talk over what I’ve already learned.”

“Oh, yeah, there’s more we need to cover,” Cate told her. “I’ll also need to get some contact information, and we need to give you contacts to our communities in Illinois and New Orleans. We have smaller ones in Texas, but—”

“Wait a minute,” Lori said, sitting up and staring intently at Alex. “New Orleans, building communities, teaching ‘select individuals’ things they need to know. Are you that, that angel who was in the news recently?”

This time Alex couldn’t resist the audible sigh he gave out. “Yeah, you got me. I’m the fabled Angel of New Orleans. But don’t tell anyone, will you? What I’m doing doesn’t have anything to do with religion, and I don’t like the idea of misleading people. People call me that because the Seers often call me an angel when they first acquire their new vision. They see my glowing with this energy and assume I’m a messenger from God.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” Ally said, getting a faraway look.

“Look, if we’re going to go we’d better do it soon. I don’t know what we’ll need to do today, but I’m trying to avoid attracting attention. I figure if we’re going to go to a mall, we should go early so there won’t be too big of a crowd.”

They all agreed, and Leanna got her purse from her office and they took off, leaving the bar abuzz with women discussing Alex and his movement.

---

---

Stacie took one last glance around the corner, but saw nothing which would stop them from doing what they’d been anxiously planning for so long. This was it. It was now or never. She glanced at Mike and he nodded. She reached into her jacket pocket and took out her mask.

She was definitely not crazy about this idea. It seemed stupid, but Mike was right, they really had no choice. They were at the end of their rope. Their debts had been mounting steadily since they both lost their jobs and the bank took over their house, but they were still living there illegally. They had credit card bills they had no way of paying back which they’d used to live off of while they’d continued to look for work, but nothing had panned out.

Then Mike had made a series of mistakes. He took out a ‘temporary loan’ from a neighborhood loan shark, figuring he’d have another job before long. Then, in order to pay off the loan shark, he borrowed money to bet on a ‘sure thing’ he’d heard about at the track. Now having lost their home, and having no money to stay anywhere else, it looked like they’d soon be living in either their car or the street if the bank took the car as well. Certain dangerous people were also looking to break their legs for the illicit loans they couldn’t pay back.

Mike, always one for the most direct solutions, had come up with this idea. “We just need one big haul to pay off our debts,” he’d told her. “We just do this one hit and we can get started again, maybe move somewhere we can start again, find jobs, someplace unlike here where the only people we know don’t trust us because we owe them so much money.”

While he was right, that there didn’t seem to be any alternatives, she thought this idea was completely insane. Neither of them had a criminal record, but neither of them knew the first thing about how to commit a crime either. Mike had managed to pick up a gun from a pawn-shop by pawning her engagement ring, the ring promising her a marriage which had never taken place, but he had no experience with guns, and he was such a gentle soul she had no doubt he’d be unable to shoot anyone.

“Don’t worry, it’s all a perception thing,” he assured her. “All you’ve got to do is look the part. Just meet their gaze and look a little crazy and they’ll back down. I’ll never need to shoot anyone.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have a gun,” she argued. “This is Oklahoma, and the people here are as gun happy as Texas is. If someone else pulls a gun, or if the guards or the police see us, we could end up in jail, shot or even dead.”

“That’s true, but what choice do we really have? We can’t keep going like we have. Frankly, jail would be a relief at this stage. At least then we’d get fed and wouldn’t have to scrounge from day to day. And if I get killed, well, that’s a gamble I’m willing to take.”

“But what if someone pulls a gun? What then? Are you going to kill someone trying to get away?”

“No, you know I could never do that,” he assured her. “But I’ve got it covered. The key is to get the drop on them so they don’t have time to grab a gun. Then you’ve got to look serious so they don’t try to resist, then finally we’ve got to get in and out before the security can respond. If we watch the security for a while, we can figure out their rounds so we can time how long we’ll have.”

“But rounds change. If someone wants to take a break they might rush to finish sooner, so figuring we have a set amount of time might just be wrong.”

Mike simply shrugged at that. “What can I say? We’re gambling everything for a one time shot at making a clean start. If something goes wrong we’re screwed. But if we do nothing we’re screwed as well. We’re out of options. If you have a better suggestion I’m anxious to hear it. But we both had decent factory jobs, and the factories all moved overseas. Without a degree we don’t have the qualifications for a new job, and without recent work experience no one will even consider us without specific job skills.”

“But no one will hire us if we have a criminal record,” Stacie countered.

“Yeah, but we’re first time offenders. True, if we’re caught we’ll face serious charges, but at least we’ll have a place to sleep at night and food to eat. Chances are they’ll look at our history and let us off on probation, so it won’t be so bad. Plus they’ve got government programs to help ex-cons, while they don’t have any programs to help people without any marketable skills. We lost our unemployment benefits years ago. We have no family so we can’t even get food stamps or childcare. Even if we could, it wouldn’t pay the tremendous debt we have against us. I don’t think we have a choice.”

Stacie had continued to argue about how wrong it was, how ill equipped they were, how stupid it was and how unlikely it was to succeed, but he’d continue to push her on the issue, and she couldn’t think of any way of dissuading him. They really didn’t have any other choices.

But the problem was, for all of Mike’s bravado, she didn’t think he was capable of this, and she knew she wasn’t. If anything went wrong, things were likely to snowball. An undercover cop walks by, someone makes a call with a hidden cell phone, someone happens to be packing? There were any number of things that could go wrong. The chances against succeeding were almost astronomical, but Mike had been right, the chances of them continuing without trying something were even worse.

With that thought she slipped the mask on over her head, straightened it so she could see out of the eye slots, then pulled her hood up over her head to hide the fact she was wearing the mask. They both had gloves on. They may not be smart, and they may not know much about being a criminal, but they knew enough to cover themselves. Mike seemed sure this place didn’t have any security camera, and while they didn’t get much traffic they were known to make on-the-spot purchases of diamonds and other gems, which meant they had money on hand. They’d covered all the bases they could. Now it was either do or die. Stacie considered that poor choice of words and hoped it didn’t come down to that, but this was no way to live, so maybe dying wasn’t such a bad option.

With that they slipped around the corner and into the store. They only had a small amount of time to get in and out again. They had to do this fast.

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The drive over was interesting, it was mostly quiet with Leanna driving while she was getting a hurried telepathic tutorial on how to read auras from Allison and Liv, who had a few insights of her own. Leanna would occasionally ask either Alex or Cate follow up questions, but she was mostly busy with their explanations. Instead they watched the scenery of yet another city, while Alex worried about his potentially overexposing himself this soon after Dallas. He knew visiting malls or similar places with a high density of people was likely to cause some sort of reaction, but he couldn’t very well hole up in the hotel for the next several days. Besides, both Cate and Gail had been so supportive lately he really wanted to get them both something personal to thank them with. He didn’t really think there’d be any problem rushing in and out of a single store on a Sunday afternoon.

Cate, on the other hand, was anxious to discuss this latest twist Alex had pulled. She was wondering why he’d suddenly chosen to entrust a bunch of type 3 people he didn’t know with as much information as he had. About the only thing he hadn’t told them about was the telepathy. They’d even intimated he could somehow ‘enhance’ someone’s health with his energy. However, she wasn’t going to take him to task in front of a new follower who wasn’t yet used to their personal dynamics, as she might not respond to Alex’s being ‘attacked’ very well.

It didn’t take them very long to get to the mall, though it was clearly much farther than they could have hoped to walk. Leanna parked at the entrance closest to the jewelry store, on the side with the Macys near it, but as usual each store opened into the mall and not the street. They got out and headed in, both girls being aware of his interest in moving as quickly as possible, so they were both prepared to help him select whatever he wanted so he could get out swiftly. Alex once again held the door for them both, despite Leanna’s advice to watch who he did it for, but instead of taking offense she smiled and thanked him, tipping the gray and black hat she still wore.

They walked quickly past the intervening shops, keeping an eye out for anyone noticing them. They knew he’d likely have to return here later, when it was more crowded, to find as many new followers here as he could, but he was nervous about doing it so soon after the shooting in Dallas the previous day.

As Alex walked into the jewelry store, named “Mizrachi & Sons Jewelry”, Alex leading since his longer legs carried him faster than the others, he almost ran into a couple hurrying out. Stepping back quickly to avoid them, one of the people he’d almost collided with stepped back from him. It was then Alex noticed that things seemed odd.

For one it was too quiet in the store. He quickly swept his eyes around, rather than looking to see who he’d run into, and he noticed all the customers in the store were on their knees with their hands on the floor. He had a very bad feeling about this when he finally looked back at the people he’d run into. He immediately noted the figure on the right had a gun clutched tightly to his chest. He also noticed they both had on dark hoodies with the hood pulled up over their heads and were wearing masks. One, a simple ski mask, the other, a plastic copy of the hockey mask from the movie “Friday the 13^th”. As he scanned their faces his eyes met the eyes of the shorter of the two people. He was close enough he could see her eyes dilate, and she stepped back, before her eyes lost their focus and the eyes contracted again. It was the strangest thing to see. It wasn’t clear the figure was female from a simple observation, given her bulky clothing, but her reaction had only a single explanation.

The figure suddenly dropped to her knees, throwing her hands out before her, one hand containing a heavy canvas bag.

“Damn, I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to do it,” she called out loudly, as if Alex wasn’t standing just in front of her, her voice breaking in her current emotional state. “Forgive me, Lord, I was desperate and I didn’t know what else to do.”

“What the hell are you talking about,” hissed her companion, clearly male from his voice and his larger build, although he spoke much quieter than she had.

“Can’t you see, HE’s come for us. He’s come to punish us for this stupid act,” she told him even as she trembled before Alex’s supposed might.

“Who the hell are you talking about?” the man asked, glancing at Alex and the two women behind him. The girl on the floor looked up at him as if she couldn’t believe how he couldn’t see what was so obvious.

“It’s the Angel of New Orleans, you idiot. Can’t you see his angelic glow? God has sent him to stop us from committing this sinful act.”

Alex winced at that loud proclamation from the jewelry robber, suddenly feeling more in danger from people overhearing them than he was from the man standing before him with a gun, although he was clearly aware of the gun the whole time.

The woman on the floor, as if suddenly remembering something, looked up at Alex and in a sudden moment of inspiration handed the bag she was holding to Alex.

“Here, take this. It’s not mine. Return it for me. I’m glad to pay whatever price necessary to make amends for my actions.”

Alex, taken completely by surprise, simply took the bag, noticing it seemed heavy and bulky, not at all like he’d expect a bag of jewelry to feel like.

“What the…?” the man with the gun asked as he started to reach forward.

‘Alex, the man’s not angry,’ Leanna advised him telepathically, ‘he’s scared and nervous, but he’s not angry enough to try to kill you.’

Alex had no idea how he did it, especially since he had seemed to have been in a stupor until then, but suddenly the man’s hand, which was reaching towards him to grab their loot, seemed to slow down until it was moving in slow motion, the gun in his other hand moving away from his chest and away from him. Without thinking Alex started to spin, although it was hardly noticeable they were both moving so slowly. He twisted away from the man’s open hand, moving the sack away from him, while spinning around.

Since it took so long to perform this spin in such slow motion, Alex had plenty of time to think and observe what was happening. The man hadn’t had a chance to respond yet, and Alex trusted Leanna’s reading of him. He didn’t think the man was likely to shoot him, but he was waving a gun around and there was a good chance he might shoot someone by accident. The store’s customers were relatively safe, all kneeling behind the couple, but Cate and Leanna might be in the line of an accidental discharge, and Alex couldn’t accept that.

The couple disappeared from Alex’s view as his body moved away from them. He observed how still everything was, how perfectly quiet it was. He heard a gasp. He noticed the sales banner hanging over the door he’d missed before, and he noticed a couple of people who’d appeared behind them, apparently brought around by the woman’s excited exclamation.

At this point Alex had no idea what was happening behind him, whether the robber was bringing the gun to bear on him or not, but he had a clear idea of the motions involved, and knowing how quickly everything was likely moving in real time, knew he wouldn’t have a lot of time to respond.

As he continued his spin both Cate and Leanna came into view. Cate’s mouth was opened wide in shock and her eyes were about to bug out of her head, almost as big as Ally’s had been earlier. Leanna, though, looked quietly confident, sure that Alex, her new hero, could do no wrong. Neither one’s reaction changed in the time it took him to spin around, except Alex had the time to notice that Cate’s upper chest seemed bare, and she really needed something to focus people’s attention, and he instantly knew what he wanted to get her.

Even as slowly as things were moving in this time warp he was in, he was spinning faster as the robber who had been reaching for him came into his line of sight again. As expected, he had been so focused on reaching for the bag which held what they’d been so desperate to acquire, that he’d over extended himself and was now stumbling forward trying to reach the bag being pulled away from his hand. As a result his gun hand splayed wider, leaving it exposed and pointing away from anyone. Alex moved his free hand up, it was already in motion, since this had been his intent all along, and he watched it slowly inch to intersect the robber’s hand.

Alex noticed an older, distinguished looking Germanic man in a suit standing behind the counter. He too had a look of horror on his face, but there was also an inclination of hope imprinted there, and somehow that helped to inspire Alex even further. The man was fairly squat, with short hair was graying on the sides and a wide face, but that was all the time Alex had to notice him. Again, he’d only picked up that much detail because of the way his mind tended to pick up stray events whenever he went into this weird slow motion thing he so often experienced.

Alex’s hand connected with the criminal’s outstretched hand, knocking it back and spinning the man away from the direction he’d been moving, knocking him off balance. Even though everything was moving at a snail’s pace, the motions all worked together, and Alex could see him release the gun as he twisted, his own arm pulling him around and upsetting his center of balance.

It was at that moment, the instant Alex knew that everyone was safe, that the gun that had been pointing away from everyone wasn’t going to accidentally fire, that things began to speed up once again. They sped up rapidly, moving from a gently faster movement to a sudden blur. All Alex could see of the gun now was a flashing blur of gunmetal gray as it flew back towards the counter of the store behind them. Alex continued through, now seeing both robbers. The man was hopelessly unbalanced, already falling, while the girl on the floor was quickly moving to avoid being crushed by him as he fell.

Suddenly there was a crash as the man fell hard on his shoulder, his shocked gasp from the impact clearly announcing how much pain he was in. Alex hoped he’d broken his shoulder bone for having put so many people in danger. The girl had just missed her companion’s landing on her, and she was now sitting on her ass with a shocked and surprised look on her face. Alex, still unbalanced himself, had to take a step to recover his balance and to stop his twisting motion, so he stepped past the fallen man.

‘Get the hell out of here,’ he told the girl on the floor. ‘The police will be here soon and you don’t want to be here when they do. While I don’t condone what you did, I truly believe you’re contrite about what you did. Go and make restitution as best you can. Make a better life for yourself. Do something for others instead of threatening to harm them for your own gain.’

Since she was no longer in Alex’s line of sight he had no idea how she responded, but as he landed heavily on his lead foot, braking his movement and stumbling a bit as a result, he heard movement behind him. When Alex recovered, mere moments afterwards, he glanced to his left to see where the two robbers were. The man was cradling his arm, crying out in anguish, while the girl was already on her feet and heading out. Alex turned around, having heard the gun smash against the wall behind the counter, knowing it was no longer a concern. He proceeded to walk calmly forward, trying to indeed calm himself before confronting the surprised store manager.

He glanced at the people kneeling on the floor. Half were watching him while the rest were watching the man on the floor as he struggled to get to his feet, being impeded by a non-functioning shoulder. All of their eyes looked to be the size of saucers at the moment. If they didn’t respond soon, the business wouldn’t need to buy any fly traps because they’d have been caught by all the open mouths.

Alex walked up to the man behind the counter and calmly handed him the bag, even though he still had no idea what it held.

“I believe this belongs to you,” he said, even as he heard continued shuffling behind him, followed by rapid footsteps moving away from him.

The man he handed the money to took quite a while to respond, so Alex had a chance to study him. He seemed like a nice chap, though Alex thought he’d look better if he could keep his mouth shut. Somehow that look never seemed to look very good on anyone unless they were singing an aria. While the man took a while to react, Alex heard both Cate and Leanna hurry up to him. Finally the man reached up and took the proffered bag.

“Uh … thanks, I guess,” he said simply, not quite sure of the social protocol in a situation like this.

“Look, I was going to buy something from you, but I’m not anxious to be associated with this whole ‘angel’ persona, so I’d rather be gone before the police arrive. I know you probably have no control over it, but if you could possibly keep them from posting my photo I’d really appreciate it.” Alex then pressed his fingers down on the glass in front of the man. “I’m leaving my finger prints so the police can eliminate them when they do a fingerprint exam on the bag. They won’t be able to identify me, since I’ve never been fingerprinted, but it should help them process the evidence.”

The man had no idea of how to respond, so he just nodded while continuing to stare at Alex.

Alex turned and nodded to the people still kneeling on the floor.

“Sorry to disturb you. You’ll excuse me if I don’t stay to make sure you’re each OK, but I’m hoping to avoid any unnecessary attention, you understand,” he told them before he turned again to address Cate and Leanna, who were looking at him with a mixture of shock and admiration. “Girls, I think this is our call to return home.” With that they calmly but quickly left the establishment and the premises. No one tried to stop them, even though they heard the rapid footsteps of the mall’s security guards as they entered the store behind them. None of them turned to see what was happening, simply acting like they were finished shopping and were ready to return home. They exited the door, which Alex didn’t bother to hold open for them for once, and were soon in their car and heading away.

           

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