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“Peace through chaos. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think of you.” I slipped easily into telepathy. Functioning in the speaking world required verbal communication, and I’d become accustomed to it, but, limited by vocabulary, talking was cumbersome, awkward, imprecise. Telepathy was easier, smoother, both expansive and much more precise.
Through our psi-link, I sensed Da’an’s pleasure at our reunion, his enduring love for me, his worry I could be caught, and his determination to assist the Galactic Justice Warriors. He was a true loyalist. I’d done well in recruiting him.
He released my hands and stepped back.
“This is so primitive, remote,” I said. “How can you stand being cut off from civilization like this?” We’d always lived in the city.
“The remoteness weeds out the undisciplined and the weak. Only those truly motivated to improve themselves are willing to trek up the mountain.” He paused. “Besides, it’s tranquil.”
An animal shriek pierced the ambient buzz of the jungle.
“Mostly.” He laughed. “You will be leaving as soon as business is concluded?”
“As remote as your hideaway is, I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to hang around.”
“No, the less time you spend on Mnemonia, the better. But it is so good to see you. And you arrived in the nick of time.”
“How so?”
“You were correct about Prince Lomax’s strong attachment to the female. It doesn’t surprise me you encountered pushback when you ordered him to kill her. He would die for her. She would die for him. The attachment bond is so strong, the partition you created would not have held much longer. It would have collapsed soon, and his love for her would have come rushing back. Worse, he would have remembered everything about his previous encounters with you.”
“You got all that, already?” I was horrified and embarrassed at my utter failure. I wished for my brother to be proud of me. I’d always known my psi-power couldn’t measure up to his since he was full-blooded, and his psi-powers ranking in the top 1 percent. But, with the exception of the attachment glitch, I’d been confident I’d done an excellent job of transforming the prince.
Apparently not. So, the female would die for Lomax? Fine. As soon as Da’an did what I needed him to, she’d get her chance.
Da’an touched his forehead to Lomax’s. I guessed the greeting was a diversion to begin to delve further into the prince’s mind. Da’an’s abilities were so strong, he didn’t need tactile contact to alter a person’s mind. But, of the old school, he preferred skin-to-skin contact.
“When I go mental, it keeps me grounded,” he used to say before I’d blurred his morals. “It keeps me cognizant I am dealing with a living person and not just electro-chemical signals. Change the mind; change the personality; change the person.”
Not for the first time, I wished I had Da’an’s abilities, and I cursed my Quadran genetics for diluting my power. But I’d overcome my limitations by training round the clock to strengthen my mental probes, practicing on random encounters, planting little seeds in the minds of passersby. Nothing too nefarious or risky anymore. Once, I did encourage a rival to leap in front of a hovercar so I could achieve rank, but I couldn’t do that too often without drawing suspicion.
After Lomax, Da’an introduced himself to the female and invited her into the temple for tea.
“Tea?” I’d telepathed. Although our reunion filled me with joy, I hadn’t come for a social visit. I had a life-or-death mission to complete. Da’an could have fixed the partition problem from the temple step. As a child, Da’an had been distance-tested. His MPP—mental perception and penetration—range was beyond exceptional. My MPP was limited to a few feet, and mind-control sessions left me fatigued for hours.
“Patience, Dria. I wish to spend a little time with my sister, whom I haven’t seen in ten years. You and I can catch up and, while we do, I’ll take care of everything.”
The wonderful, insidious nature of mind control was that the individual never realized he or she was being brainwashed. One always assumed one’s mindset was his and his alone, that we formed our own opinions.
“You’re right,” I conceded. Eager to wrap this up, I’d gotten overanxious.
However, the female didn’t appreciate the invitation to tea. She eyed Da’an. “I don’t want to go into the temple. I’m not thirsty. I don’t want any tea.”
Reluctantly, I gave her marks for intelligence, but I was fed up with obstruction from someone who should have been dead. The only reason I hadn’t killed her was so I could order Lomax to do it and prove the attachment had been removed.
I drew my stun stick to punish her resistance, but before I could use it, Da’an said, “Don’t. If you threaten the female, you’ll weaken the partition further by stirring his protective instinct.”
“Yes, but you’re going to fix that.” But I holstered the stunner.
To her, he said aloud, “Yes, you do. You wish to rest. You want tea.” He implanted a suggestion.
“Maybe a cup would be nice,” she agreed.
Lomax nodded.
I, too, was a bit thirsty after the hike up the mountain. A little refreshment would give me more time to spend with my brother.
The four of us headed toward the temple.
