The Psionic Thief Page 7

  “Well… isn’t that interesting,” I said to myself. “That’s the real Mayan book of psionics.”

  Chapter 11

  Claire: Retribution

  Even though I slept in super late, I still woke up tired and grumpy. I was too worried about our situation to get much in the way of sleep, and thinking about it was giving me a massive headache. I wasn’t looking forward to making long distance contact with Sam again, but we needed more info before we could figure out what to do about this mess.

  I considered going back to sleep, but nature called and wouldn’t be denied. I saw my friends were already out and about, so after stretching for a few minutes I flew down to join them. It was easy to know where they were, since they were all hooting and hollering from the lakeshore.

  After taking care of business I went to see what the fuss was about. As I came into sight, I saw Billy and Joey splashing around and chasing each other in the water and having a grand old time. Charlie was trying to fish, but it was doubtful he was having any luck with all the noise the other guys were making.

  It looked like fun and I was way overdue for a bath, so I picked up my pace to join them. As soon as they saw me step onto the shore they both stopped cavorting around and squatted down up to their necks.

  “Claire,” Billy said. “Give a guy some warning, will ya?”

  “What?” I said, pausing in my tracks.

  I think my face turned beet red in an instant as I figured out what was going on; they were skinny dipping and didn’t want me to see their private parts. What a silly pair of yuppies.

  “Oh, please,” I said in disgust.

  “Y’all ain’t got nothing I ain’t seen before. You’re not the only ones who want to get clean, so either man up or get out.”

  “You mean you’re gonna come skinny dipping too?” Joey asked. “Go ahead if ya want… I’m gonna just soak here for a while in the deeper part.”

  I wasn’t a shy person when it came to swimming, but something about the tone of his voice made me hesitate and I could feel my face turning red again.

  “Forget it, you bunch of sissies. I’ll go over to the far shore to take my bath, and you two guys can keep doing whatever it is you’re doing with each other.”

  “We’re not doing anything with each…” Joey began saying, but the wind in my ears quickly drowned out whatever he tried to say.

  The other shore wasn’t really that far, but was enough that none of us would have to worry about prying eyes. After a quick glance at my clothes, I figured they were clean enough for now so I simply stripped them off and hung them up on a fallen log. The day was already warm enough that I was looking forward to diving in to cool off.

  I tried for a mighty whoop as I flew through the air, assisted by a little super power nudge, but mistimed things and wound up gulping some lake water as I came down. It made me cough for a bit as I broke the surface and I was glad the others weren’t close enough to see my little slip up.

  Once I was breathing right again, I took a more normal dive and stayed under for a good little while. Feeling better, I waded back to shore and began cleaning up with handfuls of sand to scour off the layers of grime that always built up every time I stayed on the street for too long.

  It worked well, but before I was finished I began feeling like a peeled potato; I would have to remember to grab some soap next time it was handy. Feeling clean again, I decided to simply sun-dry myself so I wouldn’t have to shimmy into dry clothes while I was wet.

  The strong morning sunlight did the job in short order, but next time I would add a proper towel in addition to the soap I already wanted. Once dressed, I flew back to the other shore to see what the sissies were up to and found them building a fire.

  Even with all the splashing around, Charlie somehow managed to catch a fish for each of us and within a few minutes we were all munching on a fresh trout. It filled the belly, but that was about it; Charlie simply gutted and spitted his catch. I would have to talk to him about the benefits of seasoning and sides.

  After chowing down my share, I flew back up to the cave so I could get ready to try calling Sam. Hopefully it would be easier the second time, but I had a feeling it would still be a real chore. Lying back down in my bed I tried to calm my thoughts and prepare as much as I was able to for my contact attempt. Joey said that meditation would help me to concentrate and focus my power, but all I could do was to try and slow my breathing a bit.

  Once I was as calm as I figured I was gonna get, I sent my mind out in search of Sam. Once again I lost track of time, but I had a feeling it was a good long while before I gave up, unable to reach him. The bugger had better not be asleep or I would kick his ass the next time I saw him.

  I sluggishly climbed to my feet and got a glass of water. I sipped it slowly and tried to re-gather my strength for another attempt. I would give Sue a try this time and hopefully have better luck. It didn’t take too long before I felt up to giving it a go, so I lay back down for round two.

  It wasn’t long before I had to give up on reaching her as well. I felt tired, weak, and my head felt like someone was using it for an anvil. I shouldn’t have tried calling twice so close together; flying would have been easier and I’ll know better next time.

  Even though I wanted another drink, I just couldn’t bring myself to try standing yet. I saw the guys sitting at the entrance trying to be quiet at some project, so I cleared my throat and got their attention.

  “Welcome back to the land of the living,” Joey said.

  “Water, please,” I croaked.

  “How did it go?” he asked, while filling my glass.

  “I couldn’t reach anyone at this distance,” I replied, once I had the glass in hand and a few sips down my throat. “I’ll have to fly back to town to get any info.”

  “We’ve been busy as well,” he said, pointing his thumb toward the other guys. “We figured this was a pretty cool spot to hang out at for a while, so we changed the climbing rope into a real rope ladder. It’ll make getting up here a lot easier for us mere mortals.”

  “That was a pretty good idea. In fact, if you guys are comfortable here, then I can go back and forth to town and not have to worry about you.”

  A chorus of agreement from the guys sealed the deal as far as I was concerned; I would leave them here while I went back to town. Not today though… even though it was still fairly early, I was completely wiped.

  I decided a little nap was in order before dinner so I told them to have fun and leave me alone. I must have looked as bad as I felt, since they didn’t argue or even tease me for once. I curled up in my blanket and immediately fell asleep.

  ***

  I felt a million times better when I woke this time. My headache was mostly gone and I had some energy again, but my stomach was demanding to be noticed. Looking out through the mouth of the cave I saw it was completely dark outside, so I guess I slept longer than planned.

  I missed my chance for the night, but maybe it would be better this way. I could leave early tomorrow morning and get a chance to spend the whole day in town. The extra time would come in handy, so I could be cautious about where I poked my nose out.

  The guys were chatting quietly around the fire, but heard me getting up. Charlie pointed to a foil wrapped bundle sitting on the edge of the fire pit where it was keeping warm. I immediately attacked it and devoured every last morsel; he even used spices this time.

  There wasn’t much else to be done tonight so we simply chatted about random things, only occasionally coming up with something new to add to our plans. I was still worried about the situation back in town, but taking the night off was sure nice, even if it wasn’t planned.

  ***

  I managed to crawl out of bed just as the false dawn was starting to light up the sky. I hadn’t had to get up this early in a long time, but it would work out great today. If I left soon I could fly back to town with enough light to see by, but still have it dark enough that I wouldn’t be easily spott
ed.

  My plan was decided; I stopped only for a brief wash at the lake before taking to the air and heading to town. The cool morning air was great to fly through, even though it was making my eyes water. I found myself enjoying it a lot, despite the mess I was heading into.

  I went straight to the flop we were using before bugging out to the hills. Landing in the trees a hundred yards or so away, I crept through the brush carefully, making sure nobody was around. It looked safe so I went in closer and listened at the window for a minute.

  I didn’t hear anything so I decided to climb inside. With the window propped open I could see things looked normal, but my friends weren’t here either. Our stuff was still where we left it, and nothing else had changed either, so it seemed that neither one of them had spent much time here.

  I was hoping to find one or both of them here, but my luck was never that good; I would have to go into town after all. I didn’t know all their hangouts, but hopefully I would run into one of them at the soup kitchen during breakfast.

  That wasn’t too far off so I made my way there using the scenic hiking path along the edge of town rather than the main streets. My timing was perfect, and I arrived in time to see the end of the line moving inside. I hurried to join them but stopped dead in my tracks as I saw two new signs posted out front.

  Scheduled for Immediate Demolition

  Future home of TM’s Irish Bar and Grill

  I was stunned. I would have to ask Gladys about it, but first I needed to find my friends and find out what went wrong. I went in and looked around for them, but it was obvious they weren’t here. I got my tray anyway and sat down with Tim and Smart Charlie; hopefully they could help me track them down.

  “Howdy, guys,” I said.

  “Sup,” they both replied in unison, although Tim mangled it a bit with his mouth full of food.

  “Have y’all seen Sue or Sam around? I need to talk to them.”

  They shared a weird look before Tim replied. “Were you in on it too?” he asked in a hushed voice.

  “I’m not in on nothing, I just wanna talk to them.”

  “Well, Sue’s in jail so I’m sure if ya ask the sheriff nicely you can pay her a visit,” he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

  “Thanks, I think I’ll pass. What about Sam?”

  “Sam got beat up real bad. He’s in the hospital.”

  “What? Who did it and why?”

  “We’re not sure, but we think it has to do with the recent string of break-ins. I’d be careful if I were you; keep asking about those two and someone might come pay you a rather nasty visit.”

  “Thanks for the advice,” I said, gulping down the rest of my breakfast. “I guess it couldn’t hurt to lay low for a while.”

  It was obvious he didn’t believe me, but he didn’t press the issue. He was a friend, and would back me up… as long as it didn’t put him in danger, of course. I saw Gladys come out and start cleaning off the serving tables, so I quickly went over to ask her what was up with the two new signs.

  She seemed distracted, but kind of angry. Once she said it was those darn thieves who were to blame for the schedule being pushed up, I simply said it was a shame and made my way out of there in a hurry.

  I checked that the coast was clear, and then made a beeline for the trees. Once I was sure I was safe I sat down on a fallen tree and tried to think. My first thought was to run for it and go back to the cave, but I still didn’t know any real facts yet.

  Wait a minute… I couldn’t get in touch with my friends while I was up at the cave, but Sue was here in town for sure, and so was I right now. I could head closer to the jail and easily make contact with her.

  With a plan in mind I got going, still staying in the trees. Once I figured I was close, I poked my nose out to get my bearings. Finding myself close enough, I looked around for a nice safe spot to sit while I tried to talk to her.

  A nice big tree with wide limbs gave me the perfect spot. I made myself as comfortable as possible, took several deep breaths, and reached out with my mind. Being such a short distance would help with talking, but there were still a lot of other minds to sort through before I could find her’s.

  Contact!

  “Sue… it’s me, Claire. Umm… what’s up?” I sent.

  “Claire!” she sent in reply, sounding weirdly scared, excited, and relieved. “Make sure you and the guys stay out of sight… we’re all in a real heap of trouble.”

  “What happened? Why did you run?”

  “So I wouldn’t wind up like Sammy. It was some of Murphy’s goons that beat the snot out of him and they spotted me so I ran to where I had seen a cop car earlier.”

  “Did you tell the cops who beat up Sam?”

  “Like they would believe me?”

  “True,” I replied bitterly. “So the cops arrested you, thinking you was me?”

  “I’m not officially under arrest yet, but I figured I would drag it out for as long as I can since I know I’m safe in here for now. From what I gathered they don’t have a full description since you were wearing a cap and hoodie that night, but I’m a reasonable match for you. We’ve both got dark hair and skin and are about the same weight and height.”

  “Great, so they’ll be looking for me next. What else is gonna go wrong?”

  “Since you asked, I’ll say that the sheriff somehow knows about your super powers. He’s made all kind of subtle hints to ‘flying’ and ‘lifting’.”

  “I had to ask,” I said in disgust.

  “Just make sure you get the word out to all our friends that Murphy’s targeting us. I sure don’t wanna see anyone else wind up like Sammy.”

  “I’ll spread the word,” I promised. “The guys are up at my cave right now and having a ball. Lemme know when you’re getting out and I’ll zip you up there where it’s safe.”

  “I wish we woulda went with you last time. Murphy’s real mad over this whole thing.”

  “Hopefully he’ll calm down soon and things will go back to normal.”

  “What if they don’t?” she asked.

  “Then I’ll make him sorry he was ever born. My pa taught me not to get mad, get even.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t. I’ll call you again tomorrow and let you know what’s happening.”

  Once I broke contact I let loose with a string of curses that probably should have stripped the bark off my tree. I lied to Sue; I was mad and I wasn’t about to put up with bullying from that rich old snot. If he wanted a fight, I would give him one he’d never forget.

  Chapter 12

  Linda: Ancient Wisdom

  “There’s what?” Mark blurted, in disbelief.

  “There’s a whole new book on the back side of the codex. I saw it by the moonlight while astral.”

  “That’s incredible,” Carl added. “I wonder if that’s what Gukomatz meant by ‘the codex will reveal its wisdom to one of the bloodline who learns how to see’.”

  “So what did it say?” Mark asked.

  “How the heck would I know? It’s just as complicated to translate as the regular side and I only saw it for a few moments.”

  “I was afraid of that. We’ll have to transcribe it and study it in order to translate it, and if we can’t figure out a way to make it visible then it’ll have to be done while astral. That will greatly complicate things and slow us down.”

  “Let’s hope for the best; the moon is almost full right now and the weather looks to be good. Let’s set up the codex outside where we can get full moonlight coverage and see if we can figure out how to view it without having to go astral.”

  “That would speed things up a lot. If we can’t figure it out then our best bet is to try and figure out how to communicate with the person who goes astral so we can transcribe it.”

  “I don’t think it’s possible to do it… we’ve tried several times with absolutely no luck.”

  “It’s not impossible. It was the psio
nic thief sending a very loud ‘scatter’ message to her accomplices that startled me last night and sent me back home.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa… back the truck up here. You neglected to mention that little detail,” Carl said, sounding both surprised and perturbed.

  “Let’s just say I had something else grab my attention.”

  “Ok, fair enough, but communication with someone who’s astrally projecting themselves could potentially be huge!”

  “We’ve figured out how to communicate amongst ourselves to either a single person on a narrow band, or to all of us on a broader part of the spectrum. This must simply be a different ‘frequency’ than what we’re used to,” Mark added, sounding thoughtful.

  “You say the thief told her lookouts to scatter, eh? I wonder if they are all psionically attuned or if our thief can communicate telepathically with regular people. If it’s the latter, then that’s another frequency we haven’t learned yet,” Carl said.

  “I think we’re just spinning our wheels right now and need to wait for darkness to try and view the hidden codex. That being said, I’m going to keep working on the regular one and you two can try and figure out the new telepathy thing.”

  “Do you think you can go astral this afternoon?” Carl asked Mark.

  “I can try… no promises, though.”

  “It’ll be worth it if we can figure it out. If we don’t make any progress on it, maybe we can try working on viewing the hidden text without moonlight. It’ll be a longshot, but we’ve got nothing to lose.”

  “Telepathic communication with a non-psionic person would be nice to figure out, but I don’t want to bring anyone else into this stuff,” Mark said. “Your plan sounds like our best bet for today.”

  “Then let’s get started.”