“The Catalyst” Series Book 6
		“Building a Legacy”
		Crumbly Writer All rights reserved © 2013
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16:  More Theorizing, Testing and a Few Conclusions
(and a New Girl)

           

“I’m still pissed you’d send us off to do common chores when you’re revealing new information about your abilities!” Becky complained once again as they drove to Sacramento for their next concert. “Cate would never let you get away with that.”

“Yeah, especially since it’s such a short drive,” Melinda added. “You should have just told us to ignore packing.”

“Then I guess you shouldn’t have lectured him to pick up his stuff,” Gini cut them off, tired of them beating this particular dead horse again. “Cate had her priorities straight. If it was a difference between getting a good night’s sleep and expanding their knowledge, she’d have brought Alex coffee all night.”

“Still, Cate’s never going to forgive us for this,” Becky said.

“Hey, I told you what we concluded,” Alex said, tired of defending himself.

“Ha! You gave us the Reader’s Digest Condensed version,” Becky argued. “We had to get the full details from Patricia’s girls. Your Seers were memorizing it as you spoke. They were quoting you verbatim on the spot.”

“They relay the words telepathically, assigning whoever is near a computer to record the conversation while the others either transmit it down the line in a round-robin or prepare questions,” Alex explained, having only learned of it recently. “They’ve got quite an extensive system set up. But at least you heard the details.”

“But we heard the details despite the two of you,” Melinda corrected him. “If it were up to you, we still wouldn’t know what you discovered and how it expands our understanding of what’s happening.”

“Give it a rest, girls,” Gini insisted. “It was a spontaneous decision and I was trying to keep you from putting a kibosh on the entire discussion. Alex didn’t tell you because he was wrestling with the concepts. But Anh warned me to watch for an opportunity for Alex to resolve his conflict. The two of you bitching over who was going to clean up the room seemed pretty trivial.”

“Well, focusing on what we still don’t know; how the heck did you realize you could spontaneously boost someone?” Becky asked. “That’s the first time you ever knew right away about a substantial new ability.”

“No, I suspected I could create a portal between someone’s brain and the near absolute zero of outer space for a long time, but I’d never had an opportunity to test the theory until that incident in San Diego,” Alex explained. “In this case, it wasn’t so much knowing about a new ability as it was recalling what I’d previously done.”

“So it was part of your recovered memories?” Melinda asked.

“I hate that term, since it’s been disproven,” Alex countered. “Each of the cases where someone claimed to have recovered someone’s memories it turned out they were planting suggestions and then convincing someone their version of events was correct. That’s why I didn’t reveal the details until I was sure they made sense.”

“Still, that’s what we’re talking about, isn’t it?” Becky pressed.

“I’m not sure what the process is since I’ve never heard of anyone recalling previous lives. Any reliable reports, that is. I became aware of just a portion of what the process entails. My guess is everyone’s idea of spirits feeding me information and helping me along is true, and someone, or something, is circumventing the normal limits on memories.”

“That doesn’t help at all,” Becky replied. “It fact, it creates more questions than it answers. It’s better if we just assume it’s unknowable where you got the memories.”

“I don’t know,” Melinda said. “You science types may not like it, but for those of us who think it’s God directing Alex’s actions, it makes perfect sense.”

“Hey, don’t forget you’re one of us ‘science types’ now, but I take your point,” Becky answered. “But summarizing, essentially we have no new information on how anything other than heaven and hell work?”

“Yep, that about summarizes it,” Alex replied. “It was a purely theological issue, a simple instruction manual on how to get to heaven.”

“Hold on a minute,” Becky warned. “It may not be quite so simple. If you consider it, you remembered doing it before. That means you’ve done each of these steps previously, either here or on some other world—or both. That puts the whole topic of ‘spirits’ in a whole new light.”

“You know, you have a point,” Alex said, considering the implications. “Maybe the spirits leading me have been my own memories. While my mind wasn’t ready to deal with the conflicts before I understood what was involved, they were influencing where I was going?”

“Oh great, now you’ve gotten him back on his ‘There is no God’ theme.” Melinda complained.

“Look, let’s get off this ‘abuse Alex’ theme, as I’ve got my own question about the discussion last night,” Gini said, frustrated at the girls’ continued attacks on Alex.

“Yeah, what’s that?” Alex asked, glad to escape it as well.

“We’ve talked before about what I did in the military and its effect on my psyche. You also said you forgave me for what I’d done and I shouldn’t feel bad about killing that one boy,” she said, referring to her revelation to Alex about killing a young Afghan lad who’d been trying to kill members of her unit. “But how does what you discovered last night change that? Does it mean I’ve got a shot at heaven, or does the morality clause mean I’m permanently locked out?”

“Personally, I don’t think you have to worry about it. From what Anh’s always said, I somehow managed to bring everyone close to me in the other dimension over with me, so you’ve already made the transition and should be better equipped to do it again.”

“Maybe,” Gini complained, “but that theory doesn’t really hold up if you examine it. It makes sense you and Cate came over together since you were only born a couple years apart, and maybe Kitty and Chalise as well. But I was born a whole decade earlier than you. How do you explain my having crossed over before you did it yourself?”

“It may be the crossing isn’t constrained by the normal rules of time,” Becky suggested, already realizing it was a weak argument.

“That may be,” Gini countered, “but like you said, it makes the explanation more complicated than the initial problem, so it’s preferable to not believe it.”

“Well, the whole discussion is what’s required to allow someone to handle the transition between worlds mentally,” Alex explained. “So it’s a matter of emotional baggage. When people think they’re guaranteed a position in heaven, they aren’t willing to fight hard enough to get there. The problem isn’t having killed someone, it’s when someone overreaches and tries to justify their position. I think we all know people who don’t simply accept what they did in battle was necessary, but take actual pride in having killed dozens of people, bragging about it to anyone who will listen. Like the sniper who declares his combat role on his bumper sticker or the army general who says he’s not sorry for a single decision he made, despite being personally responsible for the deaths for tens of thousands of people.

“It’s when you don’t question what you’ve done that you’d encounter problems. Jesus stressed you have to ask forgiveness for ALL your sins. When he said you can only reach heaven through him, he meant you had to search for forgiveness. As long as you’re always questioning your choices, you should be mentally prepared for the transition. It’s the people who remove self-doubt from the equation, who never question what they do or who aren’t curious about what comes next, who condemn themselves. Those who don’t push themselves and are comfortable with where they are in their spiritual development have the greatest problem. The fact you’re asking whether your experiences were right or not shows you haven’t reached that stage.”

“Then only those people who can’t forgive themselves are allowed into heaven?” Melinda asked, not sure she understood Alex’s point.

“No, there’s nothing that says you can’t accept what you had to do. If someone attacks you, and you’re forced to defend either yourself or someone you love, that isn’t the issue. The point is killing someone takes away any chance they might change their minds and reform their lives. And when you feel no remorse for what you’ve done, then you’ve sealed off a portion of your humanity; a vital component of what’s required after you’ve died.”

“That would also apply to anyone who obsesses about the guilt,” Becky added, catching onto the concept. “If you were unable to get over that one incident, you may feel you didn’t deserve to move on, and thus wouldn’t be able to. That might have been the case before you met Alex, but now your mind is clear and you’re curious about the entire process. As Alex says, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.”

“That’s pretty heady stuff,” Gini admitted. “But the bottom line is, there’s absolutely no knowing if you have what it takes to cross over until you already have, and then you won’t remember what it was which allowed you to cross over in the first place. So crossing over once is no guarantee you’ll be able to do it again.”

“Hmm, that is a troublesome point,” Alex said, biting his lip and drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as he considered it. “Frankly, I don’t know enough about it myself to say exactly what’s required. I have strong impressions about what works but no specific information about what exactly will hurt your chances and what won’t. So like everyone else, I’m not sure whether I’ll make the transition. But again, it’s the doubt, mixed with the curiosity and hunger to see the other side which provides the impetus needed to make the leap.”

“So are you saying I should still worry about what I’ve done, or that I can safely put it behind me?” Gini asked.

“I’m sure you can put it behind you. You know what you did wrong and you’re sorry you had to do it. You haven’t convinced yourself that killing someone was an ideal decision. You did what you had to do because you had no choice. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it’s one you can live with. I’m talking about anchors on your soul when it needs to launch from this world. You don’t have to chastise yourself to throw off your anchors, you just have to avoid taking the easy route in your moral decisions.”

“Well, I’m no more sure whether I’ll be able to cross back over with you, or even if I do whether we’d end up in the same place or not, but at least I know I don’t have to keep questioning all my mistakes. That’s something, at least,” Gini concluded.

“And the two of you heard it here, first,” Alex told his sisters. “Quick, grab your smartphones and tell everyone what I revealed,” he added with a wide grin.

“Too late, I’ve already spread the news, and it’s being dispersed as we speak,” Gini answered with a wicked laugh.

“Well, at least we can lord it over Cate,” Becky said with a grin, grabbing her phone and pressing Cate’s number.

---

“So, Alex,” Becky asked entering their hotel room in Sacramento, dropping her suitcase on the floor and tossing her purse on the bed, “I’ve been thinking about this whole thing. I’ve been trying to keep my tongue, since it’s mostly theoretical, but your ideas on heaven and hell have a lot that relates very specifically to our new laws of physics and has implications concerning your abilities.”

“Yeah?” Alex asked, arching his eyebrow, knowing perfectly well she was getting ready to hit him with something heavy. Melinda merely groaned, flopped down on the bed and looked up at the two of them, getting ready for another long discussion. Gini ignored them, checking the lock, the phone and the window to make sure the room was secure and uncompromised.

“Since your ideas of heaven and hell involved traveling to another dimension, does that mean you have or haven’t changed you mind?”

“Pardon?” he asked, not sure of her point.

“I mean, have you decided you believe in the soul, those inhabiting a hidden land of spirits, or is this a purely physical world we’re talking about?”

“Actually, I answered that last night, but of course you weren’t there at the time,” Alex replied with a smile. He sat down in an easy chair, kicking his shoes off and putting his feet up on the bed, getting ready for an extended discussion. “The soul, as much as I can determine, only exists for a very short time. I’m really not sure how long since it has no perception of time, but I’m convinced the whole process happens rapidly. But I’m convinced there’s no such thing as an independent soul floating through space.”

“OK then,” Becky responded, leaning back against the desk facing him, “kindly explain how this soul comes into existence and how it allows someone’s personality to jump from one being into another.”

“I think what she’s asking,” Melinda tried to clarified as she stood and went to their cooler, grabbing a couple of chilled sodas for each of them, “is she’s interested in the physics involved, and whether she can either learn something about it, or apply it to what you’re doing.”

“Well, duh!” Becky responded, rolling her eyes. “Of course that’s what I’m interested in. Now how about it? What’s the deal?”

“Well, as we’ve always said, what we think of as the soul is simply a particular flavor of the energy which enables life, somone’s BCM. It’s what the Seers see, where people’s personality colors it and their emotions flavor it, so if someone suffers grief, or is angry all the time, it’ll slowly poison their soul.”

Becky nodded, encouraging him to continue, so he did. “Well, at the moment of death, before it has a chance to actually die itself, it has the opportunity to make a jump to another dimension, by much the same process I create links to another dimension to garner my abilities.”

“Do you think that’s how you came here, or did you find a different technique?” Gini asked, her curiosity overcoming her reluctance to get into these complicated discussions.

“Again, I’m not sure, but I suspect it was more complicated than that. If it was simply duplicating something which happens all the time, I wouldn’t need a whole new power source. But I suspect my previous self found a way to open these portals, accessed the energy I use to gain my abilities, and used that to make a jump without having to wait for death to come. I’d also guess taking that approach made it less of a hit-or-miss proposition.”

“OK, that’s very nice,” Becky said, waving dismissively, “but let’s focus on specifics. You say you have no idea how long the process takes. What about the destination? Would you appear as a new-born baby? As another humanoid? As a giant bug? Do you have any idea what happens to you?”

“Well, as I explained earlier, it’s like a rebirth, a reincarnation. So the thing which makes up your basic personality makes the jump, leaving its memories behind as it does—like the rest of the flesh and blood cells it abandons—and makes the transition. I’m not sure exactly how it does it, whether it attaches to a new fetus or if there’s another process, but you’d be reborn as a whole new entity. Although you’d be completely nonhuman.”

“OK, that answers that, I guess. What else can you figure out? Does the soul here figure out where it’s best to jump to? Does it pick out an empty being? Does it just know how to jump to an existing one, or maybe there’s a giant waiting queue somewhere? Possibly something like your quantum brain which your own mind is attached to, something that can feed these ‘souls’, allowing them to wait until they can then jump to a new body?”

Alex simply shrugged his shoulders, indicating he didn’t know.

“It would make sense, at least it’s plausible,” Melinda suggested, chewing her knuckle as she considered it.

“As Cate would say, your explanation raises more questions than it answers,” Gini said. “It may be plausible, but it doesn’t sound likely. I think it’s simpler than that; more likely a simple jump. As much of a crapshoot as it is, maybe you can only make the jump if there’s already a body available for you to jump to.”

“Still, the waiting room makes a certain sense,” Becky suggested. “That may be why Alex’s cohorts are all different ages. They may have had to wait for available but unclaimed human fetuses, so it took time to find one, at least one near enough to help him in this life.”

“Now that makes more sense,” Melinda agreed. “Especially if we assume everyone following Alex was waiting for the same destination.”

“OK, let’s assume that’s the case until we have a reason to question it,” Becky stated. “Now how does someone decide where to go?” When Alex took a deep breath, getting ready to begin his standard refrain, Becky cut him off. “I know you don’t know the specifics, but see if you can get any ‘feelings’ about what seems true. That appears to be how these new memories work, so you need to examine your feelings and see if you can milk them for additional information.”

“Hmm,” Alex said, considering that as he examined his feelings on the matter.

“That’s probably what Anh was saying about ‘trusting your feelings’,” Melinda suggested. “She somehow knew that’s how this process worked.”

“She must have been my spiritual adviser in the other world as well, and since that’s part of her basic personality, her ability to feel and trust her emotions carried over with her,” Alex surmised. “Thus she was able to feel it in the souls she felt around her whenever someone died.”

“That’s as good a theory as any,” Melinda offered.

“OK, so can you surmise anything else on the subject, Alex?” Becky pressed.

“I’m rolling your options over in my head, and right now, I’m thinking it’s the same process I used when I created the first link. I simply followed the strongest energy signal I could find. So it would be tied to either an ability to sense the BCM energy, or there’s some sort of communication involved.”

“It couldn’t be that simple,” Becky argued. “Otherwise everyone who died would jump to the same place, and no new babies would ever find a new soul. They’d all end up stillborn.”

“That would imply there’s some sort of communication between the new entity—the new babies—and the old souls preparing to die,” Melinda concluded.

“Ah, good, now we’re onto something,” Becky said, smiling as if she’d just won Cate’s vaunted imaginary Nobel prize. “If there’s some communication between specific entities, eggs calling to spare souls, then if we can tap into that, we’d know how to follow them. Tracking where other worlds were, or maybe allowing us to communicate with other beings surrounding the new one.”

“That’s making a lot of assumptions,” Alex warned.

“It’s still our best way of learning more about this,” Becky replied. “If we have to wait to discover it ourselves, we’ll never know because as soon as we learn, we’ll automatically forget it.”

“It makes sense, Alex,” Melinda suggested. “Check your intuition and see if it’s true or not.”

Alex grew silent, searching his feelings trying to pick out what was real and what wasn’t.

“Hold on, Alex. I may be able to help,” Gini said, approaching him, reaching out and examining his head.

“What are you looking for?” Alex asked, glancing up at her nervously.

“As you’re evaluating one option after another, I can see some very specific lights flickering in response,” she explained. “We may be able to do this more scientifically than Becky is suggesting. If we can associate the specific lights, the specific colors, with correct or false assumptions, we could identify which options are correct and which aren’t. Maybe even which ones you can’t hope to answer to prevent you from guessing incorrectly.”

“Quick, Alex, call the other gir—,” Becky suggested.

“Already done,” Alex assured her. “Patricia and Hannah are on their way over. Patricia is excited about the possibilities so they’re hurrying. She says they should be here soon. They’re phoning Winona on their way since she’ll be busy for a while.”

“I hope that won’t hurt their preparations,” Gini said.

“Screw that,” Melinda replied. “This is important.”

“OK, it’s going to take some time before they arrive,” Becky said, preparing to make some point, but Alex didn’t let her get to it.

“No, they’re here in the hotel. Winona is going over dance moves with the other singers and the girls were just sitting around talking. They’d wandered into the hall to get away from the dancers, so they’re on their way here even as we—” Alex’s explanation was interrupted by a knocking on the door. Gini grunted, getting up to get it.

“Do I even need to look?” she asked, glancing back at Alex. He shook his head, so she opened the door revealing the two women. Patricia pushed her aside as she ran in, her excitement about their experiment apparent.

“This is major, Alex! What should we do?”

“That’s what we were trying to tell him,” Melinda commented.

“Think about those options again, Alex,” Gini instructed, coming up behind Patricia. “Becky asked him to once again trust his intuition while he considers different options, the assumption being he’d know which option was correct, when I noticed these lights, right here, here and here started flickering. They’re faint, but they’re fairly distinctive.”

“What’s he evaluating?” Hannah asked.

“He’s testing if new bodies communicate with dying souls to alert them where to find them,” Melinda explained.

“Wait, I thought you couldn’t see if someone was telling the truth or not?” Melinda asked, suddenly unsure about the procedure.

“That’s right,” Gini answered. “But this is different. Apparently Alex is using a different part of his brain to access those lost memories. Either he’s stored the repressed memories somewhere specific, or he’s accessing the information using a particular process, but they occur in very specific areas of the brain.”

“Hmm,” Becky said, thinking. “Unfortunately, I’m not much into the brain’s physiology, having concentrated on genetics and physics.”

“We could always ask Liv,” Alex suggested.

Patricia waved that concern away. “We can get to that later. We’ll remember the location, but knowing what region is active won’t change the results. Let’s get to the bottom of this while the iron is still steaming!”

“Be specific,” Becky advised. “Alex, what’s the actual question you’re considering?”

“I’m evaluating if it’s actually communication, and if it is, whether it’s from—”

“Slow down,” Patricia told him. “Think about each one and then tell us what it is you’re considering.”

“OK, whether it’s communication or not,” Alex said.

“Alright, go on,” Patricia said, waving to him distractedly as she tried to examine him. “We really need a steel door to block his aura. It’s like staring into the sun trying to make out a solar flare.”

“How about the elevator?” Melinda suggested.

“That would be perfect,” Patricia said. “Run see if you can call it for us. We’ll be along in a second.”

They got organized, closing the room door securely and collecting around the elevator Melinda was holding open. Becky brought along their trusty tablet, making notes as she walked.

“OK, Alex, inside,” Gini instructed, taking the lead role, using her ‘commander’s voice’ to get everyone to do what they should. “Let the door close. Melinda, you’ll have to block it so he doesn’t go anywhere. The doors will open again, but it will give us a couple quick seconds to gauge each response.”

They all stood around, watching the elevator doors close and open again, each time with Alex calling out what he was thinking of, even though Patricia, Gini and Hannah already knew.

“OK, it looks like it is a matter of communication and the new body—or something observing it—is calling for volunteers,” Becky said, restating what she was writing in her notes, making sure she had her facts right.

“That sounds about right,” Hannah confirmed.

“And we’re sure these aren’t false positives?” Becky asked.

“Absolutely,” Hannah answered. “We’ve clearly identified what constitutes a false positive. It’s a dull glow of a slightly different color, though it’s not so much a false positive as simple doubt.”

“If the new body is making a broadcast for available souls, then it can’t be tied to BCM, otherwise only women Seers would make the transition,” Patricia said.

“So it looks like we’re back to where we started,” Becky summarized. “We know there’s some new mechanism we can’t identify, but we have no way of learning what it is.”

“It looks like it,” Patricia said, sighing and looking away from Alex’s bright glow once again to preserve her ‘vision’ as the elevator opened again.

“Look, can I get out of here?” Alex asked, finally reaching out and holding the elevator door open so it would stop opening and closing. “I think you’ve found as much as you’re going to.”

“Yeah, we’ve learned a significant amount,” Becky admitted. “We’ve achieved a lot for twenty minutes of experimentation. We might as well take a break. If we get any more clues we can always try this again, now that we know it works.”

Glaring at her as if he didn’t appreciate the suggestion they repeat the process, Alex exited the elevator and headed down the hallway, not glancing back or waiting for anyone. He wasn’t very fond of these ‘experiments’ where he played a minimal role acting as a mindless test dummy. At least when Cate and he theorized about things, he got an equal chance to come up with answers. This … this was just insulting, he fumed to himself.

“Hold on,” Gini told him when he paused at the door. Rushing ahead of him, she used her keycard to open the door, holding it open for him as he walked through.

“Tell the others we need to eat dinner and prepare to head to the concert,” he told her dismissively, heading into the bathroom to get cleaned up.

“So do you think we’ll be able to figure out how this communication between dimensions works?” Melinda asked the group at large, her excitement at the prospect palpable.

“Possibly. We know what to look for, so we at least know what we’re dealing with,” Gini stated as she locked the door behind them. “But it’s a big jump from knowing something exists to discovering and then understanding it.”

“Yeah, it’s possible we may never figure this out,” Becky said authoritatively, speaking from the vast history of scientific knowledge where unknown phenomena gave up their secrets very reluctantly.

“What do you think, Alex?” Melinda asked, calling into the bathroom, wanting to hear from the expert himself. “This impacts you more than anyone else.”

However, no answer came from the closed bathroom other than the sound of running water.

“You know, he’s been acting really odd recently,” Hannah whispered so she couldn’t be heard in the bathroom.

“You’re telling me!” Becky commented. “Not only has he been revealing so much new information, but it’s like he’s become a whole new person. I almost don’t recognize him anymore.”

“Yeah,” Melinda agreed, glancing at the bathroom door to make sure he wasn’t listening. “He’s quiet and peaceful one second, and then morose and frustrated the next. It’s like his previous self is warring with his new personality.”

“It’s probably the stress he’s under dealing with all this new information,” Gini suggested, wanting to cut her boss some slack. “Believe me, I know what it’s like wrestling with personal demons, and dealing with previous lives as an alien has got to be tougher than a little PTSD.”

“I agree with Gini, he’s sharing his head space with a reincarnated wise man from another dimension who’s no—” Patricia began, just as the bathroom door opened. Silence descended on the room, but Alex hardly noticed as he wiped his damp hands on his pant legs.

“So who’s up for lunch?” Alex offered, smiling as if nothing had happened.

“Uh, don’t you want to continue discussing what we’ve learned?” Melinda asked. She was still excited and wasn’t ready to quit just because her brother was in a foul mood. This was the first time she’d actually been involved when new discoveries were unfolding and she wanted to keep plugging away, afraid if they stopped it would all end and she’d no longer be included.

Alex shrugged. “Nope. Frankly, I’m bored with the topic. How about we grab some food and then hit the town. With any luck we can find a few new Seekers before we have to be at the concert tonight.”

“I’ll call Winona,” Patricia offered. “She said she and the other girls would meet us downstairs when we were ready. I’m sure she’s dying to hear what we’ve been up to, as it was almost all she could talk about this morning.”

“Great, yet another reason to avoid her,” Alex grumbled as he grabbed his things from the table.

“Alex!” Becky chided him, but he looked unapologetic.

“I’ve been cooped up long enough. The last thing I need is to be stuck in some stale hotel’s dining room with everyone talking about me. These Seeker hunts are my only chance to see any of the cities we visit, and they’re unlikely to be preoccupied with what’s been happening to me lately.”

“Since when?” Gini asked, shooting him a questioning glance. “You know as well as I do, they’ll want to learn as much about you as is humanly possible.”

“Well, I think we have enough we can tell them without getting into how much we don’t know,” he said as he headed for the front door.

Realizing he was about to leave without them, the others hurried to grab their bags. By the time they’d grabbed the bare minimum, he was already out the door and Gini had run after him to ensure he didn’t run into anything unexpected. The others came hurrying after, including Melinda who’d made the mistake of taking her shoes off in the room and was stuck hobbling while trying to put them back on. However, Alex was stuck waiting for the elevator, so it gave everyone time to catch up with him.

“You know, Winona seems to have gotten better about us,” Melinda commented in passing as they waited for the elevator to arrive. “I mean, it was touch-and-go for a little while, but the hostility has definitely eased.”

“The hostility was over Cate,” Becky observed. “They disliked each other and their animosity was palpable, so it created a feedback loop. Each one pulled away and worked to undermine the other because their actions justified how they felt. Now that no one is challenging her role in Alex’s life, she can deal with a little competition. Besides, she’s so busy with the concert she hardly has time to focus on anything else.”

“I suspect you’re pleased about that, aren’t you Alex?” Melinda asked her brother with a teasing lilt to her voice. “She was getting a bit cloying, and we all know just how much you hate that.”

But once again, Alex didn’t respond, simply staring unseeing at the elevator door, waiting for it to arrive while thinking his unknowable thoughts.

“So does anyone have any idea where we should head for lunch?” Becky asked, just to break the tension. Everyone knew Alex was on edge and they didn’t know whether to feel guilty about it, try to distract him by talking about something else or give him his space. “I didn’t have a chance to look up the layout of the city, so I don’t know where the greatest population densities are.”

“Isn’t that your job?” Gini asked a little curtly as she stared at Melinda.

“Oh, yeah. I guess so,” she answered, looking down at her empty notebook still sitting in her purse. “We were so distracted, I never thought to plan out the day’s activities,” Melinda said, surprised the normally quiet Gini would respond so rudely. She swore Alex’s foul mood was rubbing off on everyone else. But when she looked up at Gini, Gini winked at her, showing she was only teasing. But though Gini didn’t like to ride people too hard, she liked things structured. Having spent so much time in the military, she had strong feelings about everyone sticking to their assigned roles. Out in the field, if someone doesn’t do their job, people end up dying. Everyone’s job here was no less serious, especially since the heart of the operation—Alex—was essentially irreplaceable. Particularly now he’d turned everything they already knew on its head.

“I’ll pick up a map of the city in the lobby,” Melinda explained, trying to justify her not researching the details ahead of time.

“That’s OK,” Hannah offered, trying to keep the peace amongst so many people she barely knew. “As you said, everyone was distracted today.”

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Gini made a sweeping motion, gesturing for Alex to precede everyone, and then waiting until everyone else got on before entering herself to ensure she was the one closest to the door as they got on and off. As they entered and Becky reached to press the button for the lobby, they heard someone calling out.

“Wait! Hold the elevator,” a voice yelled, followed by someone scurrying to reach them before the elevator disappeared.

Despite being in the back of the elevator—where Gini felt he’d be the most protected if anything happened—Alex pressed forward and used his hand to block the elevator door from closing. Melinda couldn’t keep from smiling. What she’d done that so annoyed him before, now he was doing to the rest of them. However, Alex didn’t seem to think it was such an amusing parallel, as he shot her another dour look as if knowing what was amusing her.

Stepping partly out the door into the hallway, Gini checked to see who was calling. She then glanced back at Alex, giving him a simple look which spoke volumes. It was yet another woman. Gini didn’t know her, but Alex drew them to him like flies to crap, even those who had no sensitivity to his energy. There was some sort of sexual magnetism which drew them. Even confirmed lesbians, like Gini’s predecessor, weren’t immune to it.

Standing half-in and half-out of the car, Gini waited for her while Alex continued to hold the door. The woman arrived, panting, and just as she entered the elevator Alex looked into her eyes. She froze, her whole body going rigid.

The woman, a pretty reddish-blonde with a perky smile but bearing a tired look about her eyes and dressed in a maid’s uniform, jerked back, caught by surprise, and lost her footing. She slipped and fell, smacking her head against the side of the elevator with a resounding thud.

“Are you OK?” Melinda asked, reaching out for her, but Gini grabbed her from behind, helping keep her erect as she eased her fully into the elevator.

“Sorry,” the woman responded, touching her head and looking around in a blur. “What the hell just…?” She stopped talking, jerking her head back once again. Because everyone was so familiar with the response, they all glanced at Alex.

Watching her, he held his hand up to prevent anyone asking him what was going on and then dropped his hand as if nothing happened. “She’s fine. She’ll have a bruise, but she seems clear-headed enough.”

“Wow! That was even more amazing than the activation,” the woman marveled, her eyes growing large as she glanced fleetingly at Alex with a look of amazement and utter devotion.

“How do you know about activations?” Becky asked, unable to piece the pieces together.

“I just gave her my standard spiel telepathically in a kind of mind dump, supplying all the information she needs to understand before she can ask a bunch of questions delaying the whole process,” Alex explained, as if he was already tired of explaining something he’s only done for the first time. The women surrounding him just stared, wondering what was happening.

“You did that before, but it took longer and you didn’t seem to share quite as much information,” Melinda pointed out. Once again, Alex merely shrugged helplessly, as if he wasn’t responsible for his own actions. As a result, everyone turned to the new woman in their midst. Melinda, though, glanced at her brother, finally grasping Alex was wrestling with his new abilities. That maybe they were impacting him more than they realized. That maybe his returning memories of the spiritual plane told him more than he was willing to reveal.

“So what’s your name?” Alex asked, smiling sweetly at her despite his prior mood, although those familiar with him recognized the friendly mask he wore when talking to a new follower. He tried to make them feel accepted and appreciated, even while feeling ill-at-ease and uncomfortable. He’d been doing it for so long the act was almost automatic. “After all, you haven’t told anyone else yet, and you already know who each of us are.”

“Just how much did you explain to her?” Patricia asked, but the new girl was already off and running.

“My name is Mickie Monroe,” she said, rubbing her head. “As you can tell, I work here at the hotel and I’m a native of Sacramento. I came in to work and felt your presence, but I had a hard time figuring out what it was or where you might be, and my boss was riding me hard, wanting me to get busy with the rooms. So I struggled to clean the rooms in a hurry, all the while trying to figure out what was going on. I’ve never felt anything like it, although now that you’ve explained it, it makes perfect sense. Anyway, once I managed to identify where you were, I excused myself saying I needed to use the restroom and I set out to find you.

“I took the stairs, not knowing what floor you were on. I realized I’d need time to stop on each floor and see whether you were there or not. I’d just exited the stairwell when he entered the elevator,” she continued in a rush, as if the words would catch fire in her brain if she left them alone for too long. “I ran as hard as I could to catch you. I didn’t know what I’d have done if I’d missed you; probably raced back down the stairs, trying to outrace the elevator.”

“Did you go ahead and boost her when you did everything else?” Becky asked, more intrigued by Alex’s new abilities he seemed so dismissive of than in Mickie’s personal details.

“Yeah, Anh and Shani already spoke with me, explaining what the visions mean so it makes it a bit easier to adjust to what I’m seeing,” she explained, already knowing more than Becky did about her condition, despite her having just met them.

“Don’t hit the lobby button!” she insisted, even as Patricia reached forward to do just that.

“I’m not supposed to be here and I’ll get into trouble if I’m seen walking through the lobby fraternizing with the hotel’s guests. Press a higher floor. That way we can talk a little more and I can get out and walk back down as you head down to lunch.”

“As you already know,” Alex said, changing the topic once again, “these traits run in families, so you’ll want to contact your family and see whether anyone shares these abilities.”

Mickie’s lip curled, like she’d just bitten into a lemon. “That’s OK,” she said bitterly. “We grew up poor, and during a difficult period during my childhood my father tried to sell me to some friends. And instead of protecting me, my mother has always defended him. I lost all respect for them both after that, and as soon as I could I cut all ties with the entire family. Frankly, if my mother shares the same genetic link, I’d rather she not know about it, as she’d only use it to for evil, giving the rest of us a bad name.”

The others reacted typically, feeling their hearts going out to this young woman, pouring her innermost secrets out to a group of virtual strangers, but Alex took a completely different approach.

“You realize, as justified as you feel, your bitterness is weighing you down. If you can’t let it go, it’ll prevent you from moving on. You can reach great heights, both in this world and the next, but not if you allow your disappointment to weigh you down. What you did to your parents, while necessary, hurt them both deeply, and that’s going to mark your soul, not theirs. They’ll pay for the hurt they did to you, but there’s no sense letting them win by dragging you down as well.”

The women clustered around Alex in the crowded metallic cubicle—decorated with a mirrored décor—turned as one and stared at him. They weren’t used to him speaking so spiritually. Usually he focused on getting to know someone before anything else, and now it appeared he was more worried about saving her soul than letting her safely vent about a dark period in her life.

“You know, I never really looked at it like that,” Mickie said, trying once again to meet Alex’s eyes, unsuccessfully as usual. “They’ve already done enough damage to me, there’s no sense letting them do even more,” she continued, looking like she was wrestling with the decision. “So, do I have to, like, forgive and forget or something?”

“No, you needn’t forget,” Alex said, reaching out and grasping her shoulder. He used the other hand to clutch her bruise, which he gave a quick burst of energy to, ensuring it would heal quickly. “What you did was necessary and you don’t want to go back to a situation which could hurt you. But you need to put it behind you and realize how much what you did impacted not just them, but others as well. It’s up to each of us to inflict as little damage on others as we can, since we’ll all be judged by how we help and hurt those around us. While what you did may have been necessary, it’s also something you need to make amends for, while recognizing just what you did. You may not choose to make those amends, but you still need to account for them.”

Once again, everyone stared at Alex as if he’d suddenly pulled off a mask and revealed himself to be someone else. This was a side of Alex they’d never witnessed before. Alex had always had a very moral component to his personality, and always felt strongly about what he considered right and wrong. But he was never one to lecture others on what they needed to change in their lives in order to get closer to God. Melinda had to blink a few times to make sure she wasn’t in bed, having a nightmare about her brother morphing into the very people he so disliked.

“I’ll try,” she told him, looking like she’d give it her best, taking his words to heart.

The elevator, which had already stopped at a higher floor and was now nearing the floor she’d gotten on at, so Alex knew he had to wrap things up quickly.

“Look, we’re involved with a concert tonight and I want you to attend. You’ll be helping us out tremendously as I need local Seers to run interference for me. We’ll get you in for free and it will be both fascinating and informative as you learn about your abilities.”

The elevator stopped as he was speaking, and as the doors slowly opened Mickie responded. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to. I’m already going to be in trouble for skipping work to chase you down, and if anyone checks on me and sees the video of me talking to you, I could get fired. As much as I’d love to throw everything away and follow you, my finances are tight and I really need this job. My husband and I, who I loved dearly, struggled to make ends meet, and now that he’s gone it’s all I can do to keep my head above water. Life’s been pretty hard.

“My shift ends at 10 o’clock, so I won’t be able to go with you. I’m sorry, but I’ve really got to be going,” she said as she backed out of the elevator, watching Alex askance the entire time, even though she had to do an awkward dance with her eyes in order to do it. She was still watching everyone as the elevator door once again slid shut, hiding her from their view.

“Well that was interesting,” Becky stated, summarizing exactly what everyone was thinking. That was one for the record books. Someone new had taken over Alex’s body, one of his followers had refused to help him, and he hardly said anything of a personal nature to her, instead lecturing her on how she needed to reform her life. Everyone’s head was spinning as they tried to deal with this new Alex.

“I’m curious,” Melinda said, turning to Gini. “Did you get the same sensations during that boosting you normally get?”

“Ha, I wish!” Gini replied with a laugh. “Nope. There was no real indication anything happened. I was as surprised as the rest of you. Normally, when Alex boosts someone, we Seers share some of their orgasms through the shared telepathic link. For most girls, we’d pick up an orgasm, except it would be so diluted it would feel nice but wouldn’t be much of a distraction. When Alex has one, though, it affects each of us. But when he shares one with another Seer, especially when he boosts them, it multiples the effects exponentially and it’s incredibly powerful. What’s more, since they’re so powerful, they trigger mini-orgasms in the other Seers, so it radiates like a cascade, with hundreds of delightful feelings coursing through us.

“It’s actually useful, because we view the sensations as a sort of ‘welcome to the club’ introduction, and it leaves us with very positive feelings towards the new girls,” she explained while Alex tried not to groan at the unnecessary description as they got off the elevator once it stopped. “So, no, this new method doesn’t have anywhere near the effect the previous ones did.”

“Hey, I think you owe Gini and the other Seers a couple of orgasms,” Melinda teased.

“Put it on my agenda, and I’ll try to boost a couple of people the old-fashioned way in the next few days,” Alex drawled, rolling his eyes, showing he had no real intention of following through. His mind was clearly on something else, and sharing orgasms with unidentified women wasn’t enough to capture his attention at the moment.

           

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