The Mind's Eye, page 32
Memories flared up around him in a blinding jumble. Greenwood’s life was flashing in front of his eyes. The early days at school, the decision to join the army, Ranger School, his recruitment by the CIA, his activities in Iraq, a Kurdish girl who had won his heart, the bitterness of knowing that he’d been betrayed by his own country...and that the betrayal had claimed the life of his girl. And then...a name flashed across his mind. A name that Art recognised, someone very important and dangerous...
And then Greenwood’s mind shattered.
He came to several hours later, lying on a hospital bed. Alice was sitting beside him, looking down at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears. Art felt a sudden surge of love for her and reached for her hand, even though he felt too weak to do anything else.
“You idiot,” Alice said, after they’d kissed. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Art shrugged, although – if the truth were to be told – he’d never been so badly scared in his life. “We had to know what he knew before he died,” he said. “We had to know the truth.”
He pulled himself to his feet, feeling his head spinning. “And I have to go,” he said, ignoring her objections. “I have to go see a man about a dog.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The President is reported to be unharmed today after an assassination attempt was carried out by the rogue telepaths. The telepaths, who were either captured or killed by the Telepath Corps, are believed to be the last of the telepathic terrorists who fled the burning ruins of the Zeller Institute. The results of their terrorism will, unfortunately, linger on. The President is expected to address the Telepath Crisis in a speech before Congress in two days, although twelve states have already enacted anti-telepath legislation.
-AP News Report, 2015
Senator Wallis was a tall handsome man, wearing a suit that cost more than Art’s annual salary and a smile that made people want to trust him. Art disliked him on sight, not least because he could tell that the smile was faked, even without telepathy. A few years of dealing with citizens who saw and heard nothing while terrorists were operating near their homes gave soldiers a strong nose for bullshit. He could see why Senator Wallis was popular, although he did wonder what his supporters would have thought if they’d realised that the anti-telepath senator had a very low-level telepathic gift himself. His mind was a closed book.
“I appreciate you seeing me on such short notice,” Art said. It had been easy, if slightly unethical. He’d rung the doorbell, used a mental compulsion field to convince the senator’s bodyguards that they were looking at an FBI pass and then to convince the senator’s personal assistant that he needed to see the senator instantly. The senator had accepted the word of his PA, even though Art suspected that she served him in ways that weren’t normally included on a job description. Her breasts, too large and shapely to be natural, revealed too much about the senator’s preferences. “It is quite important.”
“Not at all,” Wallis said, genially. “It is always a pleasure to help a man from the FBI.”
Art smiled. “And it is always a pleasure to meet an elected representative of the people,” he said. “They always reflect so well upon their constituents.”
Wallis narrowed his eyes, as if he suspected that he was being mocked. “You will understand, of course, that there are many demands on my time,” he said, coldly. “I’m afraid that I can only spare you a few minutes without you making a proper appointment.”
“Minutes are all I need,” Art said. He checked the device in his pocket – an NSA-designed hacking terminal that had deactivated all of the surveillance gear in the room – and looked up at Wallis. “It’s about Alvin Greenwood, and Leo Davidson, and Professor Zeller, and Senator Walker...and how they all interact.”
The senator, he noted, seemed unmoved by the list of names, but his mental shields had tightened. “I’m afraid that I have little to contribute to your investigation,” Wallis said, stiffly. “I know Walker professionally, of course, and I saw Professor Zeller when he addressed Congress on the subject of active civilian telepaths, but the other two are strangers to me.”
“Oh, I think otherwise,” Art said. He smiled inwardly at the senator’s reaction. Even his tough mental shields couldn’t keep a hint of fear from leaking through into the open. “You see, from the start things didn’t seem to quite make sense. How could Leo, a naive student who mistook intellect for capability, manage to hide so long from us? What was Alvin Greenwood doing posing as Cyrus Valentine? How could the Church of the Rapturous Awakening obtain the illegal assault rifles and other surplus military equipment that they used to attack the Zeller Institute? And why, if Senator Walker was being blackmailed, did his blackmailer shift from demanding money to demanding political favours?”
“I am not here to be your Watson,” Wallis said, calmly. “I think you had better leave now, while you still have your career.”
“I think not,” Art said, sharply. “We have so much more to discuss.”
“Unless you want to be cleaning the director’s toilets tomorrow,” Wallis snapped, “I suggest that you leave...”
Art ignored him. “As long as Leo was in charge of the rogue telepaths, no explanation seemed to make sense,” he said. “But if we factor in Greenwood – a former CIA operative who had gone rogue – we see the signs of an alliance that transformed Leo from a student to someone who could be very dangerous, someone with a brain and a cause. And yet, what did Leo actually accomplish? Very little, in real terms; all he really did was to convince most of the public that telepaths were dangerous and unsafe to have around. I know that terrorists are hardly the most intelligent people in the world, but it was unusually stupid.
“And even if Leo was dumb enough to believe that wanton destruction would get him what he wanted, Greenwood would know better,” Art continued. “They would have to move from an insurgency force to one that actually took and held ground, except they didn’t...”
“Because they were wiped out by the Telepath Corps,” Wallis pointed out.
“Their actions in Washington were foolish,” Art countered, smiling inwardly. Wallis was being drawn into the discussion now, rather than screaming for his bodyguards to evict the unwanted intruder. “They accomplished the exact opposite of what they were meant to accomplish. And a suspicious mind like me might start wondering what they really meant to accomplish.
“And then there’s the question of Greenwood himself. How was he able to operate in America without being caught? Answer; someone politically powerful, with clients at all levels, was able to smooth the way for him. And Greenwood has been in the arms smuggling trade for a long time. It would be easy for him to get those weapons to the Church of the Rapturous Awakening. And, in exchange, the Church would be willing to do anything for him. He was, after all, the one bringing them the weapons they would need to resist the godless liberals when they came to burn the churches and destroy all religion.”
Wallis scowled at the mockery, but said nothing.
“It must have been a real stroke of luck,” Art continued, “when Greenwood developed telepathy. All of a sudden, he was able to help root out the FBI’s operatives within the Church and isolate them, quite without them realising what had happened. And, a little later on, it was Greenwood who scanned Senator Walker and discovered that the Senator could be blackmailed. That was a second stroke of luck, because Walker had been appointed to the Telepath Corps Commission.”
He grinned. “I traced back the payments made to the blackmailer,” he added. “They were all electronic – and they were all bootstrapped through a dozen different sites and banks until they all arrived in a charity donation box. Most blackmailers want money, yet this one seemed content merely to torment the poor senator. Until, at least, the time came to demand a political favour, to insist that a certain vote went a certain way. Why would that be, I wonder?”
“I am not here to do your job for you,” Wallis said, icily. Art could sense the fear underlying his words. “Why do you think it would be?”
“The blackmailer wanted a vote on telepaths to go a certain way,” Art said. “Leo and his gang of rogue telepaths created all the public horror and anger anyone could need if they wanted to create new anti-telepath legislation. Most people act according to their own self-interest, but neither Leo nor Greenwood did – or did they? Who were they working for that made it so important to convince the world that telepaths weren’t to be trusted?”
He leaned forward. “Who benefits, Senator? Who profits from everything that happened over the last few months? Who comes out ahead in the political struggle over telepaths and the Telepath Corps?
“You do.”
Wallis stood up, so quickly that he almost knocked his chair over backwards. “Are you telling me,” he demanded, “that you have come into my house with a cock and bull story about me being the only one who benefits from suppressing telepathic terrorists?”
“Sit down,” Art snapped. “You want to be President. Right from the start, you have been advocating and demanding tougher laws to put telepaths under government control. You called in every favour you were owed to ensure that you got one of the coveted seats on the Telepath Corps Commission – and Senator Walker, who was your political rival, was under your thumb. That gave you two votes out of three, enough to dominate and control the Telepath Corps. And your stance on anti-telepath legislation is well known and very popular. You could look forward to becoming President, after having solved the crisis you decided to create.”
“I have never heard such nonsense in my life,” Wallis said. “Do you really believe that anyone will actually believe such a...stupid story? I would be throwing away my political career if even a whiff of such a dumbass stunt got out into the media. Your director will be hearing from me...”
“I think that that is unlikely,” Art said. He dropped the telepathic haze he’d generated to prevent the senator from recognising him. “You see, I peeked into Greenwood’s skull before he died. You met him just after the disaster in Iraq; you promised him help and support...what would you have done, I wonder, if telepaths had never come into existence?”
“And such evidence is hardly actionable,” Wallis hissed. “The laws I designed myself will make it impossible to bring it before a court.”
“Maybe,” Art conceded. It was a telling point. “Why?”
Wallis blinked. “What do you mean – why?”
“Why did you do it?” Art asked, honestly curious. “Why did you create the crisis in the first place? Did you want power, or...what?”
Wallis scowled at him, and then clearly decided to be honest. “You must realise that the world is the way it is because of a complex interlocking of factors,” he said. “If you introduce something new, for whatever reason, the world changes – and you might not like the result. Think about what might happen if the oil companies were suddenly forced out of business by the discovery of a kind of substitute oil. Millions would be forced out of work and there would be a massive economic crash.
“And telepaths are something new! The human mind is the last true refuge of privacy in the world. Until you and your kind came along, even the lowest prisoner in a foreign jail could be comforted by the privacy of his own mind. The mere introduction of telepaths reshapes the world – telepaths would start using their powers for their own advantage, while non-telepaths would fear and hate them because of what they can do. Do you understand that?
“Any new change must be controlled and guided smoothly towards integration into human society,” Wallis added, sharply. “I wanted a strong governmental project to control telepaths to prevent them from tearing our society apart.”
“You seem to have failed,” Art observed archly. “Your stooges have wreaked vast economic and social damage...”
“The damage can be repaired,” Wallis said. “This is a great country. We survived the British, the French, and the Native Americans, the Mexicans, the Germans, the Japanese and even ourselves in the Civil War. We’ll survive telepaths too.”
“And you wanted to be President,” Art said. “I’m sure that the prospects for personal advancement suggested themselves to you.”
Wallis shrugged. “What other ambition does everyone elected into power have?”
“I imagine the thought of doing your duty by your country never crossed your mind,” Art observed. “You know, back when I was a kid, my teacher used to tell me that in America anyone could grow up to be a Senator. Looking at you, I’m starting to worry that the old bag was right.”
Wallis flushed. “So what are you going to do now?” he demanded. “There is no way that you can prove any of this...”
Art allowed himself a smile as the trap was sprung. “Every telepath in the Telepath Corps has been watching through my eyes,” he lied. Wallis stared at him in disbelief. “Do you know how many witnesses to your confession that is? Enough to convince even the most hardened judge and bribed jury that you’re guilty. Not that it will get that far, I imagine, not once Senator Walker discovers who was blackmailing him and why.”
Wallis cut his losses with a single sharp movement. “What do you want?”
“I’d like nothing better than for you to stand trial for what you have done,” Art said. “I know that that won’t happen, so...I want you to resign your office, retire back to your hometown and stay out of politics. I want you to be completely out of politics. You will be watched for the rest of your life and – well, let’s just say that if you step back into politics, a small brown envelope will be delivered to the right journalist.”
He smiled. “Do you understand me?”
“You asshole,” Wallis said. Oddly, Art had the sense that it was the first completely honest thing the Senator had said. “You’re undermining the Constitution with this bullshit...”
“Perhaps,” Art said, tiredly. “Or perhaps I am repairing it. I doubt that the Founding Fathers ever envisaged a day when one of the country’s foremost senators would commit an act of treason that would make Benedict Arnold look like a rank amateur.”
He shrugged. “The choice is yours,” he said. “I’ll show myself out.”
***
“My Fellow Americans,” the President said. He was speaking to a packed Congress, but he knew that television cameras were broadcasting his speech live to the American people. He just wished that he had better news for them. “It has been a tragic few months. We have seen telepathic powers used for great evil, causing the deaths of thousands of innocents and wreaking economic havoc on the whole country. It is easy for us to take refuge in rage, to lash out at telepaths – all telepaths – in the hope that it will satisfy our desire for bloody revenge. We have seen scenes across the country where a few of our citizens, motivated by fear or rage or even bloodlust, have attempted to take matters into their own hands. We all understand, even if we don’t want to admit it, where such feelings come from. We all understand the darkness that lies within the human soul.
“But telepaths were also responsible for ending the career of a telepath who believed that he and those who followed him were superior to everyone else,” the President continued. “Fifteen telepaths gave their lives to stop Leo Davidson and his rogues. Others have served their country in their own way. I have seen young men and women risk their lives to save others, to stop terrorists or to find missing or trapped children, or to plunge into the minds of traumatised patients and help bring them back to themselves. Telepaths have had many positive effects on our lives, as well as negative effects.
“I could tell you about the young medical telepath who helps doctors with children. I could tell you how hard it is to know where a child is in pain. A baby cannot explain to us, in words we can understand, where he is in pain, but a telepath can. I could tell you about the telepaths who work with the fire departments to watch for people trapped in a burning building. I could tell you about the telepaths who work in business, helping to keep the business world honest, or the telepaths who help couples to reconcile. I could tell you so many positive stories...
“And yet,” he said, “all of those stories would not stop the fear. Fear corrodes; it wears away at what we are, stripping us down to base humanity. It is the fear that tells us to lash out at the telepath, be they friendly and patriotic or evil terrorists intent on bringing down the world. We fear, with good reason, the prospect of a mental police, of having our minds ransacked and used against us, or being turned into the puppets of mentally-superior people. Cold logic is no defence against such fear.
“The introduction of telepaths has caused this fear; we can only deal with it on those terms.
“The bill passed through Congress yesterday and ratified by the Senate is a step down a very dangerous path. It singles out telepaths as having been born bad, as being inherently wrong; as such, it is a gross offence against everything our country stands for. It should never have been proposed, or considered, let alone signed. In an ideal world, it would have been thrown out without debate, yet it passed. There was no choice, but to pass it. It is a terrible thing that we are doing, but there is no choice, not if we wish to preserve our country.
“We will make telepath testing mandatory for every person in the United States,” the President said. He looked for Senator Wallis, who had pushed for such measures from the start, but saw no sign of him. “The telepaths we discover will be given the choice between moving to Alaska or taking drugs designed to suppress telepathic ability. All telepaths who wish to work outside Alaska will be trained to follow regulations designed to prevent abuse of their talent. We will ensure that Alaska is developed; we will ensure that it is far more than a prison, but telepaths will have to live there. Violators will be treated harshly.
“I don’t want to do this,” he concluded. “It is a violation of everything we believe in, everything that we stand for, and yet we have no choice. Perhaps, in the future, we will come to terms with telepaths and what telepathy implies for us all, but until then...”
