A Touching Of Lips (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 15. Damage Limitation.

"Drop the blinds Earth!" Pond bellowed loudly, as I was nearest to them.

As I leapt into action I heard Pond shout to the waiter to lock the door, and I saw another boy in chef's whites with a cleaver in his hand momentarily standing at the kitchen door.

Ming came and helped me in dropping the blinds and as soon as we had finished, we rushed over to Karn and Korn. They were now seated, in an enforced immobile state, with a shocked expression etched deep on their faces.

Yacht and Top were now sitting down facing them with equally shocked expressions etched on their faces too.

River sat on the floor where he had fallen, his face white as a sheet, staring at the Twins, totally motionless.

"Where did he come from?" Pond exclaimed, looking directly at me, demanding an answer.

I saw him visibly shaking. "You must have scared Karn. If only you had trusted me and had told me what you were planning to do, I could have prevented this from happening."

"What do you mean by that?" Pond replied.

"They feel each other's emotions," I answered, as I placed a comforting arm over Karn's shoulders, with Ming doing the same thing to Korn. "I told you and Ming this morning. If one is frightened or in pain the other one knows it immediately. It's called extra sensory perception. Korn must have felt his brother was in distress and was close by enough to come to his aid."

"I was not aware that we had distressed him. We were just trying to read his thoughts. I'm convinced that he was reading ours and that he seemed to know all about us. Did you tell him anything?"

"No, I did not. I told you he said that he had visions about me and that's as far as I know."

"You need to decide quickly what you will do, Sonchai," Yacht stated, using Pond's Mer given name, as he broke his stare on the twins. "It is far too dangerous to keep them in this state of unconsciousness for too long. We need to act now."

I saw the glare Pond gave Yacht at the use of his Mer given name and the redness that flushed the Yacht's cheeks. "If I call General Dang or Commander Yuthakun they will order their execution. That is too excessive and I do not think it is necessary," Pond replied as he placed a reassuring hand on my arm on hearing my sharp intake of breath at the severity of his words. "Karn was reading my mind. I could feel his energy and could do nothing to stop him. This gift of his is powerful and is worth investigating. I am sure that we could learn much from him."

"Can you not call Namrem?" River asked, as he stood up on his now returned legs. "He has the authority to grant them life."

"But if he grants them life and these duplicates tell what they have seen, then we all lose our lives too," added Top.

"You must touch lips with them, Pond, to see if they can be trusted," added Yacht, now correctly using his nickname. "If not, we must either destroy their recollection of tonight or kill them. We cannot risk being exposed or the mission compromised."

"Please don't kill them!" I pleaded. "Can you not just make them forget everything that's happened?"

"I have already said that I do not think it is necessary to kill them," Pond said quietly, patting me on the arm again as he tried to reassure me. "But I also think that trying to destroy Karn's recollection of tonight will not work with him. When I tried to enter his mind and make him forget his visions earlier, he fought me away. He has a strong spirit. River is right. I should make that call to seek his advice. Are we all agreed to take this risk?"

I looked at Ming, wondering just who this Namrem person was that they were referring to, as Yacht, Top, and River stood up and huddled together in a circle with Pond, talking quietly. Each had an arm over the shoulder of the person standing on the left of them and their right hand was held, piled one on top of another, out in front of them in the centre of the circle.