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)
She waited, fierce will and unshakable courage.
“It would kill me to be unable to protect you against that kind of assault. So the first hint of something happening, you tell me—and then you tell me who it is.”
“You won’t be able to get to them on the psychic plane,” Auden said, anguish in her tone. For him.
“No, but I can shoot them in the head.”
Auden stared at Remi, the blunt violence of his answer a cold shock…but a good one. Because he could stop a psychic assault if she could get him to the right target. “People can attack on the PsyNet itself,” she said, “and that can be done from a distance, but I think with the baby’s life on the line, it’ll be up close so they can stabilize me after they take control. I’ll tell you. I promise.”
The warmth of his hand squeezing her nape felt good. Too good.
She had no right to it, or to the warm, happy, sweet feeling of being called “Cupcake” in that deep voice, but she held on to it all the same.
Her phone began to beep, the sound distinctive. When Remi looked at her, she nodded, and he grabbed it for her from where it sat on Finn’s workspace.
She glanced at the screen. “It’s Charisma. I’ll answer in the bathroom. There’s a faux-wooden wall that looks similar to the walls of my cabin. A white background will make her suspicious.”
And it was time Auden began to not only play this game—but lead it.
Chapter 33
Humans have no reason to trust the Psy, but this is a crisis of unimaginable size, with millions of lives on the line—and I am prouder than you can imagine to see how our people have reacted in the face of that terrible truth.
We have given all we can to assist the Psy in staving off the collapse of their PsyNet, including creating places where friendship could blossom between our two races, because a bond of emotion is the only way to infuse the PsyNet with human energy. So many of you have held out a hand to a Psy, and the Psy Ruling Coalition tells us that a number of bonds have formed, that the PsyNet does now have a sprinkling of human energy.
However, to get such bonds back to pre-Silence levels will likely take decades, perhaps a century or more. And the PsyNet does not appear to have that much time left.
As such, I have spoken to the Coalition on the safety of those humans already linked into the psychic network. They have assured me that, should the worst occur, human minds will simply be cut free, and will experience no backlash. Only the rare human will even feel the disconnect.
The individuals most at risk will be those who have infants who are half-Psy and are linked into the PsyNet—or who are, at the time, pregnant with a child conceived with a Psy. Given the recent nature of renewed contact between our two races, your numbers are low enough that you should already have received a visit from a dual Psy/human team to go over your options. If not, please reach out to me directly.
It is a matter of unfathomable sadness that those same options are not available to the far larger numbers of Psy infants. It is simply a matter of scale. But we haven’t given up, and will continue to search for ways to save every life we can.
Even as they do the same, the Ruling Coalition has also handed over all research done by their scientists on an effective way to shield human minds from Psy intrusion.
The Psy have kept their part of the bargain between us—so now I ask you to hold on as long as you can. And if there are Psy you could call friends, open your heart to them earlier rather than later.
The time left is now measured in a matter of months.
—Giovanni Somme, official head of the Human Alliance, to its membership (1 October 2083)
TAKING A DEEP breath once inside the bathroom, Auden thought back to her mother. Shoshanna had simply never had a maternal gene—Auden didn’t blame her for that. What she did blame Shoshanna for was her choosing to have a child for the simple reason that she could use that child to control Henry.
Yet both of them were monsters of equal ugliness.
Now her mother’s sycophants had created another child who carried Shoshanna’s genes—but come what may, Auden’s baby would have a far different life than Auden.
“Charisma,” she said, cold and remote when she answered. “What is the emergency? I assume it must be an emergency for you to so flagrantly contravene my order not to disturb me.”
The other woman had frozen for a moment, but regrouped quickly. “I am used to caring for you,” she said with every appearance of sincerity. “Dr. Verhoeven’s diagnosis of stress has me worried for the pregnancy.”