Simoom Rising

Chapter Three

WAVE Orbiting Station
Now

Doric

Harmony was stalling—telling me these stories to gain sympathy. She deflected every time I circled back to the subject of her fellow ringleaders. She kept her face down and hidden behind her hair, and asked again and again about her son, but I was confident I would wear her down if given enough time. That was the problem—time.

Mac was lounging beside me, eyes closed, leaning back in his chair, feet up on the desk, and I was wondering if we should take a break, when Harmony jerked her head and turned her face to the left wall as if she heard some noise from outside the sound-proofed room.

"Mancy's complaining about his food," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"You got Mancy in a cell."

I was not impressed by this "mind reading"—it was a safe guess. It was no secret PCC member Gerhard Mancy had co-operated, and he was wildly known as a born complainer. I answered: "Yes, we've offered him a deal. We could cut you a deal, too."

"Why do I need a deal? I didn't do nothing wrong." All afternoon her voice had oscillated between soft and desperate and harsh and bitter, with twinges of dark humour thrown in. This last bit was full of defensiveness—but the next bit was strident and imperious. "Let me see Travers—now. You can't keep me from him."

I barked back at her. "Of course, we can, Commander Harmony. Your son was picked up for rioting. And you and the other members of the PCC will be charged with the murder of twenty New Earth volunteers—"

"So, you're blaming everything on us then? You're going to punish all of us?" Anger had crept into her voice. Some recognition of her situation at last? Perhaps now we'll get somewhere.

I nudged Mac awake, before I replied: "That depends. Tell me how the council functioned and how it made decisions."

She laughed at me. "You want to know how telepaths make decisions? Well, first we argue all the fucking time."

"What are you doing?" Mac told WAVE-Sec to cut the sound before reminding me: "We don't care how the PCC worked—all we need to know is where the other members are."

"But, if we knew more about them, maybe we could figure out where they're hiding."

He smirked. "Bullshit."

I was hoping Mac would be on my side about this. "Don't you want to solve the case before those New Earth agents arrive and steal our thunder?"

But he crossed his arms. "Not our job, Girlie."

"Come on Mac, don't you want to know the truth?"

"Not our job."

"But—" I stopped when I saw Mac's face. "Okay, Okay, whatever you say Boss." I glanced at the monitor and saw that Harmony was sitting perfectly still in her chair with her head cocked to one side as if listening, but listening to what? She couldn't possibly have overheard us—the sound was muted.

"Sound on," I ordered WAVE-Sec and then settled my voice. "Ms. Harmony, can telepaths block their minds—their presence—from each other? If they wanted to ... if they wanted to conceal themselves?"

Harmony wrinkled her brow, as if she were a teacher considering a particularly dense student. She answered slowly. "You can block what's in your head—bits and pieces anyways. Sometimes you can block out what you're feeling and doing and where you are. Some people are better than others at doing that. But you can't do it forever—that'd be exhausting."