Chapter Twenty-Six

The European Union today announced the development of a Euro Corps of Telepaths, who would be charged with supporting counter-terrorism activities and border security. Rumours have emerged from Brussels that the Euro Corps was brought into existence through the combined efforts of France, Germany and Britain – and over the objections of most of the European Parliament. Telepaths in France and Britain have helped expose and capture many terrorist cells in both countries...

...Russia accused the Chinese Government of allowing a telepath to peek into the mind of the Russian Ambassador to China, following a small border dispute two weeks ago. The Chinese denied the claim and accused Russia of attempting to undermine the Chinese Government...

-AP News Report, 2015

Senator Curtis Hughes was a beefy black man, elected twenty years ago to the Senate and, so far, hadn’t even been worried by the Tea Party Movement. Roger disliked him on sight, as did many others in the media, even though they knew that Hughes had been quite successful at pleasing his constituents. Rumours of scandals plagued his career, as they did to all political figures in the world, but somehow nothing had ever stuck to the man. He’d been quite willing to unleash an army of lawyers on anyone who dared to repeat some of the more outrageous rumours, including the one that linked him to organised crime and voting fraud.

He scowled as he stood in the press pit and watched as the Senator outlined his plans for the future, including a possible bid to become the Democratic Candidate for President. There were several other major figures in the party considering a run for President themselves, so it was clear that Hughes didn’t want to show his hand too soon. Roger had never quite understood the process, but he did understand that the prospective candidate had to bring in enough funds, without exposing himself to the media for too long. The longer his name was in the public eye, the greater the chance of some of the mud that would be thrown at him sticking It wouldn’t be the first time a seemingly inevitable victor had been derailed by the sudden discovery of an embarrassing fact.

The Senator was, of course, talking about telepaths. “I say to you all,” Hughes thundered, “that the use of telepaths in law enforcement is quite unacceptable! Can a telepath tell the difference between a fantasy and reality? How long will it be before the Telepath Corps becomes the Thought Police, poking into our minds and using whatever it finds as evidence against us?”

Roger shrugged, jotting down the high points in his little notepad. As he understood it, from his interviews with Professor Zeller’s pupils, a telepath could easily tell the difference between a false memory, one born from a fantasy, and a true memory. The false memory would lack the hundreds of tiny impressions that the true memory would have – everything from temperature to ambient feelings. But the Senator was speaking to men and women who were scared of telepaths, worried that their innermost thoughts and feelings would be brought out on display. They might have good reason to worry. Only five days ago, a telepath – a thirteen-year-old girl in school – had been exposed, using her powers to read minds for her own amusement. The courts were still arguing over what, if anything, she could actually be charged with. Could she be charged with invasion of privacy or worse?

“And I pledge that should I be elected, I will ensure that every known telepath is told to go to Alaska and live there, or take sleeper drugs to dampen their telepathic powers,” Hughes continued. Roger lifted an eyebrow, wondering if he’d misheard. No, the other reporters were reacting as well. It was rare for political candidates to make such blunt statements, if only because their rivals would have a field day making fun of it. A statement in favour of one issue would ensure that everyone who was not in favour of that issue would line up on the other side. But then, telepaths were only a tiny percentage of the population. Losing their votes wouldn’t matter a damn if the remainder of the population voted for him. “They will be taught to control themselves or be separated from normal people.”

Roger listened to the remainder of the speech, but there was little else of interest in it. As always, the Senator took questions from the media, carefully picking out the reporters who were sure to ask favourable questions. Roger rolled his eyes cynically; reporters always had their political favourites, the candidates they would root for, ignoring all traditions of journalistic neutrality. The first question was harmless, one about how the Senator treated his constituents; good for nothing more than a sound bite. The second was political dynamite.

“Senator,” a voice said, “is it true that you’re having a relationship with a woman called Yolanda who is not your wife.”

There was a stunned pause. A moment later, the Senator started to speak. “Yes,” he said. Roger stared in disbelief. By the look of him, the Senator couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth either. “I fell in love with Yolanda after my wife rejected my advances. I had tried to introduce her to some of my favourite sexual games, but she refused to play. Yolanda loved experimenting with me, although we sometimes went too far and I had to pay for her to get an abortion because an illegitimate child would have ruined my prospects of becoming President ...”

Roger – the entire press pool – just stared as Hughes destroyed his political career. The words just kept rolling out; he’d committed adultery on many occasions, he’d accepted bribes, he’d spread lies and nonsense about his rivals, he’d used blackmail and threats to ensure that his state got a large slice of the federal pie...there seemed to be no end to the confession. He was even talking about taking drugs as a young man and using prostitutes before he married his wife. The live feed from the event would be on CNN and Fox by now, he knew; none of the Senator’s army of lawyers or PR men would be able to stop it from going viral. The entire country would see it by afternoon.

“Fuck me,” he said, as the confession finally came to an end. He couldn’t help but notice that the army of supporters and assistants behind the Senator was a great deal smaller. Men and women who had believed in him had been disillusioned forever. Whoever ran against Hughes in the next election would not lose, even if he had his own scandals to overcome. “What the hell just happened?”

***

Elizabeth watched from the sidelines as Senator Hughes collapsed on the stage. She hadn’t meant to make him collapse, but there had been a sudden unexpected pressure in his mind, throwing her back into hers. A moment later, he’d just crashed down into darkness. She hoped that she hadn’t killed him by accident, although after what she’d seen in his mind she found it hard to care. A world that had nothing but telepaths wouldn’t have such dishonesty in high places. It would be impossible to hide such a mind for long.

Come on, Leo sent. She’d insisted on doing the probe herself, knowing that Leo might well lose control and seriously hurt their target, instead of just humiliating him. It helped that the Senator had been terrified of telepaths, not without reason. His list of crimes seemed never-ending. We have to get out of here.

Elizabeth nodded and led the way out of the crowd. Hundreds of others were leaving, some already using their cell phones to call their resignations into the office. Others – citizens who would have voted for Hughes in the election – looked angry. How could they vote for him now? She wondered if they’d just switch en masse to the other party, or if they’d just stay home in disgust. The general mind tone was full of sudden anger. Hughes would be lucky to be elected to Assistant Garbage Disposal Officer if there was an election tomorrow.

“I expected him to have support from the Telepath Corps,” Leo muttered, as they kept walking. They could already hear the sounds of sirens heading towards the stadium. Someone had probably called the police and suggested that Hughes be taken into custody before his former allies in the criminal syndicates realised what had happened and sent assassins after him. Or maybe someone had realised what had happened and sent the police after the rogue telepaths. “They should have guarded him.”

Elizabeth shrugged, remembering the only Telepath Corps member she had ever met. “They might have had a peek themselves and discovered the truth about him,” she said, thoughtfully. “Hughes clearly decided that telepaths, even telepaths who were supposed to be on his side, were a liability. I think he’s just learned the error of his ways.”

Leo chuckled as two police cars drove past them. Elizabeth sensed the presence of a telepath in one of the vehicles and pulled her own mind inward, concentrating on hiding. The other telepath didn’t notice them, his thoughts intent on something else. There was no way to know what without risking a probe and that would have certainly alerted him to their presence.

“And what will happen,” he asked, “when the Telepath Corps starts peeking into the heads of the people they are supposed to guard?”

Elizabeth smiled. Walking like this, almost as if they were two young lovers, made the world seem almost normal, just as it had been before her powers exploded into life. The illusion was shattered as they walked into a small café and met up with the other three telepaths, led by Valentine. Their thoughts were calmly focused, but glittering with victory. They had succeeded. Their task hadn’t been as dangerous as peeking into the Senator’s mind and forcing him to spill his secrets in front of a captive audience, but it had been richly rewarded.

“Success,” Valentine assured them. “We got everything we wanted from the targets.”

Leo nodded. “And then I am afraid the next step in the plan is for you, Liz,” he said. Elizabeth nodded. She disliked that part of the plan, but it was necessary. Besides, it would keep her away from Valentine for a few hours. “Good luck.”

***

Gary lived for computers. As a youth, his parents had bought him an old Windows machine that had been destined for the scrap heap. Gary had, instead, bought a handful of books on computers and somehow managed to repair and vastly improve the old machine. Other computers followed after his parents realised that he had a talent, each one expanding his knowledge of both computer hardware and software. Gary became a master programmer, cutting his teeth on Linux and other free programs, before expanding outwards into computer hacking and even mischief. He wasn’t political, although he had once helped hack into a congressman’s computer after the man had demanded greater controls over the internet; his only concern was keeping access to his beloved computers. His apartment was crammed with the machines. When he ran them all simultaneously, as he did most of the time, he had to use air conditioning to keep the room cool.

The knock on the door reminded him that the real world sometimes intruded on his existence, an existence that was more in cyberspace than in reality. Given a choice between the cold greyness of reality – where a fat nerd like him would be mocked relentlessly – and the warmth of cyberspace, he knew where he wanted to live. Girls didn’t mock him in cyberspace – one of his proudest achievements was discovering how to unlock the passwords of a hundred different porn sites and spreading them over the internet – and he could have them whenever he wanted. It was so much cleaner than living with an actual girl, or so he told himself. The girl at the door took his breath away.

She was young, shapely and adorable, just like his favourite porno star. When she passed him the small hard drive containing a list of computer servers and passwords, he knew that he was in love. He’d been told, by one of his contacts, that there might be a chance to hack into servers that – so far – no one had been able to access, but they hadn’t mentioned the girl. He would do anything for her. He took the hard drive back to his lair and – feeling nervous at even making a tiny pass at her – beckoned for her to follow him. He expected her to leave, but instead she followed him into the room.

He knew she was impressed because her mouth fell open. Grinning, he sat back down in his chair and picked up the cyber-glove that allowed him to manipulate objects within cyberspace. Very few people could use a glove naturally, but Gary – whose early experience had given him a freakish insight into how computers thought and reacted – had no problems using one. The girl looked suitably impressed as he linked up the hard drive to the computer network and started to examine it. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had given him a virus, but most computer viruses couldn’t thrive on his machine. It would need to be a virus designed specifically for his computer and he had been careful to make sure that no one had the information that would allow them to create one.

The data fell open in front of him and he smiled. He didn’t know how she’d done it – he was sure that it was all her work – but the passwords of some of the most secure databases in the world lay in front of him. The secret databases of the banking sector, the insurance companies, the military-industrial complex, the state department...they were all open to him. He was barely aware of time passing as he started to poke through the internet, slipping through links that led to proxy servers and then into his destination. Secure firewalls that had daunted the most determined hackers fell open at his touch. They could hide nothing from him.

“All you have to do is spread this far and wide,” the girl said. Her voice sounded unbearably sweet in his ear, like the voice he’d ripped from a porn star and used for his alarm clock. “I want the entire world to know about it.”

Gary, who would cheerfully have killed for her, nodded. “Yes,” he promised. He knew that there was no way that a major babe like her would deign to kiss him, but at least he could dream. “I will make sure that everyone knows.”

***

Elizabeth looked up at the wall of computers and fought hard to keep herself from bursting into laughter. It looked like a computer geek’s paradise, which she supposed it was, in a way. Gary seemed to live a twilight existence, having long since hacked into the power companies to make sure that they kept feeding his computers electric power without noticing that they were doing anything of the sort. Valentine had told her that Gary was unlikely to give a damn about politics, but like all such outcasts, a pretty girl could get through his defences with ease.

She looked down at his mind and realised that Valentine had been right. Gary was easy to manipulate, even without telepathy, especially when she looked so much like his dream girl. She’d caught a glimpse of the image surrounding her in his mind and found herself smiling at how pretty she looked. She’d pushed a handful of other commands into his mind while he was distracted, covering her tracks. Even if the Telepath Corps peeked into Gary’s brain, they’d only see the porn star he admired. She wondered if they’d waste time trying to track her down.

The plan was simple enough. The most powerful firewalls in the world couldn’t stop someone who had the right password, the passwords that Valentine and the rest of his team had been systematically pulling out of the right minds. The data that Gary found would be dumped out onto the web, creating a security nightmare for their targets. Even if they managed to wipe it out of the web, no one would ever trust their security again. The damage would be considerable, or so she hoped.

Gently, she touched Gary’s mind and implanted a fantasy, and then left the apartment. She hadn’t realised how warm it had been in there until she walked out, back into the outside world. Gary seemed to live in a hothouse. She would have been surprised if Texas was any hotter. Shaking her head, she went outside and headed back to the meeting point, where the others were waiting. If anyone managed to trace the hacker back home, all they would find would be Gary. Oddly, exposing him like that caused her a pang of guilt. Gary had been a genuine innocent, without any fear of telepaths, or even hatred. All of his emotion was reserved for his beloved computers.

“Hey,” Leo said, as she walked in. He was grinning unpleasantly, his mind flaring with malice. “Take a look at that.”

Elizabeth glanced up. The television had been set to Fox News and the presenter was talking about Curtis Hughes. Leo clicked a switch and the volume came up, allowing them to hear what he was saying. The Senator’s career had come to an end. It seemed likely that he would never be free again; at least once all of the criminal acts he had admitted to committing were proven. She hoped that other political leaders took note. They could all be targeted by rogue telepaths. Maybe they’d see sense...

Or maybe they’d just become more determined to hunt them all down.