The Psionic Thief Read online

  I had to look real close to see where the tire tracks used to be. “That’s damn near perfect. I guess I’m glad now that I didn’t shake the beers before giving them to you.”

  Then I did a double take; in the corner were the initials ‘CH’. Bastard. Then I thought what the hell, and added our initials, too.

  “I’m glad too,” Carl said, opening his bottle and taking a big swig before going back to cleaning his truck.

  I let them get back to cleaning so they could finish before it hardened and went inside to get some munchies ready. I assumed none of us would want to make it a late night, but something to nibble on while we all shared our latest news would be nice.

  I sighed as I looked at the empty space where my dining room table should be and turned to the patio door. It was nice enough tonight that we could sit on the back deck for a few hours before the night chill got too bad.

  It wasn’t long before they came in, chatting enthusiastically about something. Spying me out back, they each grabbed a refill and came to join me.

  “Tell Linda what you just told me,” Mark said, as he began filling a plate.

  “I’m not sure she’d be interested,” Carl mumbled around a mouthful of cheese and crackers.

  “Interested in what?” I asked.

  “I was down in the same area of the Yucatan peninsula you two visited on your honeymoon, looking at the old power nodes you told me about. I spent a week sitting on top of one that was off the beaten trail from the regular tourist traps when a local kid named Ikan told me someone wanted to speak to me.”

  He paused for a drink and to stuff more food into his maw, and probably for dramatic effect as well before continuing. “He took me to see his village elder, a man named Gukomatz, who was curious about what I was doing there for so long. With the kid translating for us, I let him know I wasn’t wrecking or desecrating anything, I was just studying something.”

  “I can see why they might be curious, since most tourists head straight to places like Chichen Itza.”

  “He said they had been watching me and while I appeared to be harmless, I was sitting on a hach k’as sayab, and I should pick another spot.”

  “That roughly translates to ‘dangerous fountain’ or ‘dangerous source’,” I said after a moment.

  “It took me a while to figure out what he meant, but after I got the gist of it, I told him that’s why I was there. He seemed surprised at that and asked me how I knew about it, since he could tell I wasn’t hmen.”

  “I would interpret hmen to mean something like a shaman,” I said, feeling a bit more confident about that one.

  “It was evident that he knew about the node, and furthermore, he must have been sensitive himself if he could tell I wasn’t fully empowered the way you two are. Translation was a little tough, so I took a chance and gave him a little demonstration by lifting myself off the ground psionically.”

  “That was more than a little risky.”

  “Yeah, but I figured it would get the point across better than words ever could, and if it hit the fan, I could always bug out and go to another part of the peninsula. He got very excited at my demonstration, but before I could scram, he called me bo’oy waay and looked very happy.”

  “That might translate to ‘shadow sorcerer or magician’.”

  “I couldn’t get a proper translation from the kid, but I figured out the basics and guessed it wasn’t something very common. To make a long story short, he invited me to stay at the village so he could try to give me some instructions.”

  “A Mayan elder who knows the old ways of their priesthood offered to teach you their ancient secrets?” I asked in disbelief.

  “You betcha. I spent the next two weeks there trying to learn from him, but it wasn’t easy since he couldn’t actually use any of the powers himself, he was strictly a ka’nsah and could only sense them.”

  “I think it’s interesting that someone could sense the power without being able to actually use it,” Mark added.

  “I guess that’s why he called himself an instructor instead of a shaman or magician,” I said.

  Finishing his beer, Carl stood and stretched before continuing. “During the course of his instructions, he wanted to know how I was able to do what I do. Using a combination of drawings, pantomimes, and translations with the kid, I eventually got it across about the storm here and the node which is forming from the three lightning strikes. He was rather disturbed once he figured out what I was trying to say.”

  “Disturbed? Why?”

  “Well, apparently the triple node that formed here isn’t how it’s supposed to happen. Our theories about the three nodes coming together to form a normal one like the others we’ve seen wasn’t quite right.”

  “What’ll happen then?”

  “chich hach k’as waak’al.”

  “That means…” I began.

  “It means something along the lines of a ‘catastrophic explosion’, and it’ll happen in about three months. Anyway, I’m beat so I’m gonna hit the sack. See ya in the morning, eh.”

  Chapter 3

  Claire: A Dream Come True

  Still in a state of shock, I turned my fish so it wouldn’t burn over the hot flames of the fire. The fact that I was cooking it and turning it without pan, stick, or fork was just adding to my confusion.

  I had already ruled out dreaming, so while I had no idea of how or why I could do it, I wasn’t about to ignore it. It was as plain as the nose on my face; I had somehow gotten super powers. My supper looked done so I brought it over to my plate. I reckon I could have eaten it in midair, but that would have been too weird.

  I barely tasted the fish, but I guess I ate it since my plate was empty when I looked down. I started to get up to refill my water glass, but aborted since I wanted to try it the new way. Throwing my cup at the cave mouth, I stopped it in midair before it sailed out of sight and held it under the water stream until it was full.

  I brought it back and slopped a little when I tried to switch from a mental grip to a physical one, but I didn’t much care because it worked. I sipped the ice cold water slowly and tried to figure things out.

  Even without much in the way of schooling, I considered myself fairly smart. I was more of a practical kind of smart rather than book smart, but the answers I needed wouldn’t be found in a book anyway. Maybe a comic book would be close, but not a real book.

  So… logically speaking, Superman had his powers even as a baby, so this wasn’t anything like that. There were no nuclear plants or the like up here, so it wouldn’t be anything like a radioactive spider. Also, Spiderman couldn’t fly and he was kinda silly when you thought about it.

  Wonder Woman was some kind of Amazonian goddess and that had some possibilities. Then again, she also needed junk like her rope and bracelets and all I had was an old belt knife with the tip broken off of the blade.

  With a sigh, I pulled my blanket over me so I could try and get some sleep. I was in way over my head with this and would need to consult with an expert. Risky or not, tomorrow I would have to head back to town.

  ***

  “You should know better than that, Claire,” Joey said, shaking his head at me. “Superman and those guys are just make-believe. No, the only possible explanation comes from the X-Men, silly.”

  “X-Men?”

  “Yeah, this has gotta be some kinda mutation. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

  “I’m a mutant?” I said with revulsion.

  “Don’t say it like that… this is way cool!”

  “I dunno about that. At first I thought this might be cool, but being a mutant just sounds downright disgusting.”

  “Naw, you’re obviously not some kind of ‘tentacles out of the forehead’ type of mutant. You’re just a mutant on the inside, which gives you the cool stuff without all the disgusting crap. I don’t know the official scientific term, but it’s the cool kind of mutation thingy.”

  “Maybe,” I said, slightly mollified. “
So what else can I do with this?”

  “I dunno yet. Every mutation is different, so we’ll have to try stuff and figure it out as we go.”

  “In that case, let’s go have some fun.”

  “I’ve got a new flop that nobody else is using yet, so it should be a good place to practice in privacy. The shelter is on the way and it’s getting close to chow time, so we can get something to eat on our way out there.”

  “Sounds good… breakfast wore off quite a while ago.”

  We were a little late for the soup kitchen lineup, but they were still serving when we got there so we managed to get a meal. Several out of our regular circle of friends were there and Joey wanted to bring a few of them with us, but I shut that down.

  Figuring this stuff out might be awkward at first and I didn’t want to get laughed at. Once we knew what we were doing it would be different, and it would be fun to surprise them with the whole kit and caboodle.

  It took a while to get to his flop, but it was worth the trip. We had to crawl in through a window and fumble our way through garbage the previous people left behind, but it wasn’t too bad.

  I kept hearing news about how the whole economy of the country was in the crapper. This didn’t really mean much to me, except that now there was always a good selection of abandoned buildings around, and this one still had the power turned on. Joey had blocked out the windows of a room and set up his stuff in just that one area. It was a sweet flop.

  “Welcome to my humble abode,” he said, gesturing expansively.

  “Nice find,” I replied, taking a seat on an old office chair.

  “Thanks, I kinda lucked out finding it. I saw them clearing out and offered to help load their truck for a few bucks. Once I got inside, it was easy to make sure a window was unlatched for later.”

  “Smart thinking… I’ll have to remember that one.”

  “Let’s get started,” he said, pulling up a chair of his own next to me. “Show me what ya got.”

  ***

  “We’ve been at this for two days now,” I said, both tired and frustrated. “I just don’t think I have any of those powers.”

  “It was a long shot on most of them, but it was worth a try at least. I also think you can do more than we figured out so far, but it’ll take time before you learn how to use them. At least you got the most important ones now.”

  “Not fully… the flying and lifting things seems simple enough, but the mind speaking thing is only working one way right now.”

  “I told ya it’s two different things, and mind reading will be a whole separate thing to get the hang of.”

  “I know, I know,” I said. “It makes sense the way you say it, I just can’t help but think I should have been able to pick them both up.”

  “Give it time. As you said, we’ve been at this non-stop for a couple of days and you’ve done real good so far. Trying to rush it ain’t gonna do us any good, so let’s just go get something to eat and take a break for a while.”

  The mention of food made my stomach growl and I had to agree it was a good idea. “Sounds good. It’s pretty late though, so you better hope there’s something in one of my snares.”

  “It’s not that late,” he disagreed. “If we hurry, I’m pretty sure the superette will still be open.”

  I was a little dubious about that, but didn’t want to waste any more time arguing about it. Neither one of us had a watch, but I was pretty sure I had a better time sense than he did. Either way, we needed to get moving, so I waved him on to lead the way.

  I took the lead once we hit the edge of the woods and headed at a rapid pace to the first of my snares. I had done good with them yesterday, bagging two squirrels and a rabbit out of four snares laid.

  Today’s luck wasn’t the same, though; I had two snares tripped and empty, one un-tripped, and one tripped but something else beat me to the prize. I cursed at the last one for a minute, but was heading toward town while doing it.

  I didn’t think the store would be open by the time we could get there, but it was our best shot. Joey was surprisingly good at moving through the woods behind me. I could barely make my way through the brush myself, but he kept up with no problem and no complaint.

  If he could hack it in the woods, we might be better off going back to my cave while we worked on learning my powers. I was a lot more confident with being able to eat regular out there. Speaking of which, I began to see lights through the trees ahead and knew we were close to the highway.

  Heading on a beeline to the store probably shaved an hour off our trek, but was it enough? It was almost pitch black already, so I didn’t think so. Sure enough, as we got closer to the store I could see the lights were already turned off. Even though we knew it was too late, we still trudged up to the door and tried it.

  “Now what?” I asked. “There ain’t much else gonna be open this late around here, and if we go all the way to a store that is, we’ll be too far away from any flop I know of. We could lay up in the trees, but I smell rain coming so that’ll make for a cold and wet night.”

  “Dumb Charlie had one around here, but I dunno where it is. Even though we’re both tired, I think we’re gonna have to make a go for the next store and just stay up all night in town.”

  I couldn’t decide if I was more tired or hungry. If we left now we could make it back to Joey’s flop, but we might even get rained on before we made it. That would mean we would be cold, wet, and hungry for at least half a day.

  If we went for food, we would most likely be cold, wet and tired. Both our options sucked. I pressed my nose against the glass of the window and looked longingly at the fast food sandwiches and hot dogs just five feet away. I could practically taste it from here.

  Hot and juicy meat, smothered in mustard and ketchup and relish… I was drooling just thinking about it. I must have been imagining it too hard, since before I knew it a hot dog bumped up on the glass in front of me. To say it startled me was an understatement, but after staring at it for several seconds, an idea settled in place.

  “Hey Joey,” I said, slowly but with a hint of excitement. “Is there any windows in this place that you think I could open without drawing attention?”

  “There’s a couple of them little windows up high, but they ain’t big enough to fit through, and I think they only open up a few inches anyway.”

  I looked up at where he was pointing and had to agree. Those windows were never designed for anything more than a little fresh air, but on the other hand I didn’t need a window big enough to fit me through.

  I had to fumble around with the latch for a few minutes before I got the trick of it, but it eventually popped open. Turning my attention back to the food rack inside, I began lifting sandwiches, hot dogs, and burritos out the window.

  It looked like we were gonna be eating tonight after all.

  Chapter 4

  Carl: Southern Research

  “You’re up early,” I said to Linda, as I poured myself a cup of coffee.

  “Gee, I don’t know why I didn’t sleep well last night,” she replied dryly. “You stun me with that bombshell and then slip off to bed before I can recover from the shock. I came this close to dragging you out of bed in the middle of the night for an explanation.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t think you would be worrying about it all night… after all, we’ve still got a few months before the balloon goes up.”

  “I just got to move into my rebuilt house and you tell me it’s gonna blow up again in three months. Of course I’m gonna worry about it, you dork!”

  “I tried to play it down so you wouldn’t worry. I shouldn’t even have mentioned it until today when we could discuss it, but if I did that, you’d have beat me up for keeping secrets. It was a no-win scenario for me so I picked one and ran with it.”

  “I can see your point, but I wish you would’ve picked the second option so I could’ve gotten some sleep last night.”

  “I’ll know better next time.”

  �
��Next time?” she squawked.

  “Sorry,” I said, starting to laugh.

  She couldn’t help it; she started to laugh herself before continuing. “Don’t worry about it… I’ll give you at least until lunch time to explain everything before I bury you head down in the back yard.”

  “Sounds fair to me. By the way, where’s Mark this morning?”

  “He headed out to get some donuts and stuff for breakfast. He should be back soon.”

  “Cool, then I might as well wait for him to get back so I don’t have to repeat myself.”

  It looked like she was going to press me for at least a synopsis, but we heard Mark’s truck in the driveway so she let it lie for now. He brought back a good selection of donuts and croissants, and once we all had a plate of goodies in front of us, I figured it was time to begin.

  “Ok, I know you’re mainly interested in the part I mentioned about your house blowing up, but let me backtrack a bit so things make more sense.”

  I got a nod from both of them so I continued. “It all started at Mount Persimmon when we went after Dawn. I’m not sure if you guys remember, but I grabbed a journal from the old guys’ bedroom cave.”

  “I remember you grabbing it, but I had forgotten about it until now,” Mark commented.

  “I brought it along so you can read it if you want… it’s really quite interesting. Anyway, he was a simple prospector who happened to acquire psionics while up in the mountains looking for gold. The part that concerns us is that he not only figured out how to interact with the node, he figured out how to move it.”

  “So it is possible to deliberately move one.”

  “Yup. Unfortunately for us he only wrote about why he moved it and not how he did it. Still, knowing it was definitely possible made your discoveries down south of even more interest to me, so I hopped on a plane to Mexico.”

  “There’s no shortage of nodes down there, and we were already pretty sure the Mayans knew how to move them.”