Total pages in book: 136
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128413 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 642(@200wpm)___ 514(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
A rapid-fire exchange between all the members of the Coalition, and the time for the next attempt was set for fourteen days hence.
Dropping out of the PsyNet after helping with the aftermath, Kaleb opened his eyes in his Moscow office. When he turned to the floor-to-ceiling window that faced the square below the building, it was to a misty rain and a brilliant array of umbrellas.
Lenik, he telepathed. I am no longer offline.
A knock on his office door, before his junior aide walked in. His senior aide was at present doing a historical deep dive into the PsyNet, to ensure they hadn’t overlooked any possible solutions.
“Sir,” Lenik said, far more confident these days than he’d been back when he’d started working for Kaleb. “I have the report you requested on the Scott family’s new base in Sunset Falls, Tennessee.”
A more unusual place for the HQ of a major Psy family, Kaleb couldn’t imagine. Built in the shadow of the Great Smoky Mountains, the town had about forty thousand majority-human residents scattered across a large area, with the town center not much more than a single main street with the odd offshoot.
Trees and other foliage dominated, with not a skyscraper in sight. From the images Sahara had pulled up online when he’d mentioned the anomaly to her the other night, the place was awash in fall color at this time of year, the vivid reds, glowing oranges, and intense yellows of the tree leaves living up to the town’s name.
“How stunning.” His lover’s face had lit up. “I’m dragging you there the next time we can take a break. But I see what you mean—it’s not exactly London, Milan, or Las Vegas, is it?”
Those were just three of the metropolitan cities where the Scotts had a presence.
Yet it was to this remote location that the Scotts had moved their center of operations after the death of their matriarch Shoshanna roughly two months ago. The Scotts had owned the small compound for twenty years—but Kaleb understood it to have been used as a training ground for younger members of the family.
Now, and though the family had made no announcement about the shift in HQ, it was the residence of Auden Scott, the official Scott CEO. That made it their HQ, no matter how many shiny buildings they owned or occupied in major centers. “Summary?”
“No information anywhere as to the reason for the move, but I was able to confirm Auden Scott’s residence at the location. She was spotted in a vehicle that passed through the main street.”
Lenik showed him an image that was blurred at the edges from how quickly it had been snapped, but there was no doubt: that was Henry and Shoshanna’s daughter.
“The same vehicle has since been at the compound,” Lenik added. “We can’t rule out travel via teleportation, and I did pick up a rumor of a jet-chopper at the compound, but I’ve been unable to track down any sightings of her at their other properties, so chances are high that she’s still in that region.”
“Thank you, Lenik,” Kaleb said, his eyes on the report.
Lenik left to return to his desk.
The data was as thin as the aide had warned. Nothing in it even came close to addressing the question of why the Scott CEO had moved to a location more suitable for changelings than Psy.
It only added to the mystery of the enigma who was Shoshanna’s unlikely successor: barely twenty-four years of age, and—critically—with no indication that she’d been handed some of the reins at an earlier age in preparation for the move, Auden Scott should not have been in the CEO position.
This wasn’t the same as the situation with Pax Marshall, another young CEO. Kaleb had known of and negotiated with Pax as Marshall Hyde’s proxy prior to Pax’s takeover of the Marshall Group. Auden Scott, in contrast, had been functionally invisible until she’d emerged as a full-fledged CEO. He’d heard she’d sat in on a few negotiations led by Shoshanna’s chief aide, but that was about it.
Of course, Shoshanna hadn’t intended to die so young.
And, given the cold purity of the gaze that had held Kaleb’s during a negotiation soon after Shoshanna’s death, Auden had more of Shoshanna in her than might be indicated by her age.
That made her dangerous.
Chapter 9
Silence was a program instituted by our people from 1979 to the end of 2081. During the existence of that program, we, the Psy, conditioned all emotion out of ourselves and our children.
We believed that such conditioning would help our people control the side effects of our abilities. These side effects include minor to major mental instability, uncontrollable rage, and homicidal acts done without intent.
The aim of this essay is to discuss Silence in the context of the ongoing fragmentation and possible catastrophic collapse of the PsyNet. The question is whether Silence is the reason for the damage to the PsyNet—or if a return to Silence is the answer.