Psion Read Online Free Page A

mine get hot again.
    “Wait a minute.”
    I stopped, and heard Siebeling asking if anyone there was a telepath.
    One by one, they shook their heads and said, “No.”
    I looked at him again, even though I was afraid of what showed on my face. He frowned, and then he gestured me back. Suddenly I wanted to walk out on him. I nearly stepped on him instead, getting through that door before he changed his mind.
    The first thing he said was: “Don’t think this makes anything different. You’re here because of your resistance level, but that’s the only reason. I’ll still drop you the minute you fall short anywhere. Contract Labor has requested you be turned back to them, if that means anything to you.”
    I laughed, but it wasn’t funny.
    He stood there like he was waiting for something. “Don’t you even want to know what you’ll be doing?”
    I shook my head, as much because he wanted me to nod as because I really didn’t care. “Why? Nobody’s gonna miss me.” Everything was lousy; at least this was a choice.
    But he said, “The experiments we’ll be doing involve psionics-‘mind over matter.’ Mainly it will be a group of people with undeveloped mental abilities working together to learn how to control those abilities. We’ll teach you how to be a mind reader without going crazy. That’s all you need to know for now.” I shrugged. He pushed something on the desk and a door stood open in a wall again. A different door; I uncrossed my fingers. “How long have you known the woman who came in here ahead of you?”
    “Why?” I frowned.
    “Curiosity. She suggested that I give you a chance. I wondered why.”
    “I never seen her before today.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I just stood and waited until he pointed toward the door.
    “Through there. They’ll tell you what to do.”

2
     
    I followed another hallway, one that didn’t try so hard to look like it wasn’t in a hospital. The tightness in my chest eased as I walked, and I took deep breaths. At the end of the hall a couple of people in pastel coats were sitting on the edge of an examining table, tossing out game pieces. I stopped. They looked at each other, then put the pieces back into a bowl. “Siebeling sent you?” the old man with side-whiskers asked, like he thought maybe I’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.
    I nodded.
    “What are you?”
    I glanced down my body and up again. I put my hands on my hips. “Tired and hungry and sick of taking a lot of crap.”
    His face changed, first confused and then annoyed. “What’s your talent-are you a teek, or a ‘path, or what?”
    “What?” I said, feeling like an echo.
    “Well, he’s not a mind reader, Goba.” The woman pushed at her hair.
    “Wrong,” I said.
    They traded looks again. The man leaned over and put a readout onto the screen in the tabletop beside him. He stared at it, a frown growing between his thick brows. “Take a look at that.”
    The woman peered past him. “Total dysfunction? We’re supposed to unravel that in reasonable time? God’s teeth, where do you start? What strands do you pull? How do you get through that wall?” She touched something on the screen with her finger.
    “Like the Gordian knot,” the man said, “I think it requires the direct approach.” He chopped the air with his hand.
    The woman laughed. “Well, this one’s all yours, lucky son. If you can find a real telepath in that you can retire.” She looked up at me. “If you can even find a human being inside this pile of rags you’re doing better than I could.”
    He pulled at his mouth, starting to look too interested. I began to get uneasy again.
    I have good instincts.
    The first thing he did when she was gone was call in reinforcements. Together they stripped me and threw my clothes down the trash chute. Then they scrubbed me and disinfected me and gave me a medical that didn’t leave anything to their imaginations-all the time telling me they’d tape my mouth