A Touch Of Lightning (COMPLETED!)

Chapter 70 Focus Point 3

Chapter 70 Focus Point 3

Michael stood and paced over to one of the windows that looked out over the ocean.

"And that is perhaps the most important question of all." He turned to look back at them. "Why do we do the things we do? Where does action come from?"

Callin stood, and Miya and Arianne stood quickly, also. Arianne moving a few steps away from him, and Miya moving closer. Both of them could sense the tension boiling in him.

"Why allow me on your ship? Why trick me with this...this mind link thing? Why threaten me? Who are you?"

"I allowed you on my ship because I needed to learn more about you. I tricked you, and I threatened you, as you say, in order to learn the measure of you. And before we get to who I am, I still have a few questions about who you are. Although these questions...you don't have to answer them, if you do not wish to."

Callin took a deep breath, closing his eyes and focusing the entire path of the stream of his consciousness into one straight line. As Ghost and Ahleena had taught him. Then he wrapped his will power and his intent around that line and opened his eyes. Now he felt ready to face this tangled mess of confusion.

"Very good. You have been taught well." Michael said, obviously able to sense how much more in control he was now.

Next to him, Callin felt Miya relax. She had been ready for battle still. She would have fought by his side, even though she had only met him a week ago. Callin had nearly as many questions for her as he did Michael.

"You said you taught telepaths for thirty years. And you said that thirty years ago, there was a sudden spike in people with psychic power. Your agency, or whatever it's called, is in charge of researching psychic power. Training telepaths. And most likely, using them as weapons."

"Now you're connecting the dots. Although I wouldn't say we use telepaths as weapons. In fact, we have been training them and putting them to a very...particular task. Do you know of the Seven Isles of Carleigh?"

Callin frowned at the sudden subject shift. "Yes, I've heard of them. Aren't they near Hawaii?"

Michael smiled. "You're educated. Those islands are tiny. Barely more than just pebbles. They commonly get stripped of all vegetation, as they're in the direct path of the seasonal hurricanes that hit that area. So they're uninhabited, and many maps don't even bother to show them."

Callin waited. He was trying to piece how these islands could be at all related to telepaths and Michael's agency. But he saw no connection, no matter how he worked his imagination.

"All seven of those islands have always been full of life, despite being scoured by tropical storms every year. But about thirty years ago, something strange happened. One of them went barren. All life is gone. Even microbes, which as our scientists understand, is virtually impossible here on Earth. And at the same time that happened, the agency I work for noticed a dramatic increase in the number of known telepaths."

Arianne was watching Michael with something like a feverish intensity. Callin could almost see her mind working, taking notes and filing it away. She was unusually intelligent, he suspected, and he could see how she was gathering as much information from this as she could.

"And you've tied this change in that island to telepathic power unquestioningly? It's not a coincidental occurrence?" She asked the question Callin was wondering himself.

"West Enterprises is not aware of the Carleigh Islands? Hm. We always assumed you were at least somewhat involved with psychic power, considering the way you always turn up wherever and whenever anything of importance is occurring."