Dragon Girl

Part 24, Would You Like to Be a Millionaire?

Katey lived with the Colsons for six months before she was exposed to the general public again. Her healing under their careful love was just short of miraculous but it was not only the love showered upon her by Richard and Gale, it was the psychic work both Janey and Nancy did with her.The "spring break" week saw the two girls back at the institute for five days and Mr. Frost was totally amazed at the progress Katey had made.

She now stood tall, not hunched over like she was trying to hide. She made direct eye contact with anyone speaking to her. She smiled almost all the time and, more importantly, she didn't cling to Janey nor shrink from contact with others. This was the greatest breakthrough, he thought.

"How did you do it, Janey? She's like a normal girl now! I'm blown away!" He asked Janey at lunch the second day of training.

"There is more to me than meets the eye, Mr. Frost. I have spirit helpers and they gave me some tools most people couldn't use."

"How is it that she was so vulnerable before and now she's so confident?"

"That was easy.I taught her how to shield herself from emotional overload. She now knows how to shut out casual emotions. She only catches distress and she can pinpoint it now, too."

"Janey, you and your family have done in six months what I projected would take ustwo years to accomplish here."

"Honestly, Mr.Frost, all she needed was love. Maybe a little help in the practical application of her abilities but mostly it was just that she needed to give and receive love."

"Well, you give my undying gratitude to your parents for providing that love andstructure to let her love."

"I will."

They continued to eat for a little while then Janey asked, "What is this trainingabout? I mean, is there a specific goal for this week's training?"

"Yes, Janey there is. This entire week is not about training, only part of it.The end of this week is going to be your first field assignment."

"Really? What amI going to do? I'm only a kid, what can I do?"

"You may only be a legal minor, Janey, but you are very intelligent, and very perceptive, even without your special abilities. We're looking for one specific person whose identity we don't know, exactly. You are going to be introduced to an environment where we know this person is likely to be and we need you to point him out. I know you can't project your thoughts, but one of the training things we will do is you and I will establish a telepathic link and all you have to worry about is looking at the right person and saying his name in your head, if you hear it. You will be with a group of other fourteen and fifteen year old girls, so no one will know how we got the information."

"You are sure the group you are going to introduce me into doesn't have any psychics?"

"If there are any psychics in that group, they don't want anyone to know about it."

"You're going to send me to a Muslim mosque or school, aren't you?" Janey asked suspicious of his secrecy.

"What makes you think that?"

"I don't know, actually ... I think I read or heard somewhere that the Muslims don't acknowledge these kinds of gifts especially in girls."

"To the best of my knowledge, it is true they distrust psychics as being deluded by the djinn."

"Also, I thinkin the back of my mind I put DHS together with the idea of terrorist and came up with Muslim extremist so, I came out with "you're sending me to a Muslim girls' school to hunt out a terrorist."

"Do you understand, now, why I said you were very perceptive in a normalway?" Frost asked her.

"Most people wouldn't make that connection?"

"Janey," He put his hand on hers on the table, "Most people won't even try."

"You know,Carmella calls those kinds of people 'sheeple' because they don't think."

"I'm aware of that. It is something I'm afraid the corporations, who pressure congress to give to the school systems, did deliberately. They want the "masses" docile and easily led. Not thinking for themselves and not making waves."

"Then incorporate arenas people like me must be a real thorn in their side.I've always gone farther than the lesson, sought my own answers and figured out what was really going on."

"I am aware of that, Janey, and quite frankly, it makes you dangerous to those in power, and I'm not talking about our government. They don't hold the true power in this country."

"I know they don't, it's the mega corporations who do; big fossil fuel,chemistry, agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and the banks. I may be too young to invest in the stock or commodities market but dad and I make a game of looking at what's running high and what's not. He says I have a good head for finance."

"You are going to need it, Janey. If you want to start investing before you are ou tof high school, I will help you get started."

"I'd need like... five thousand dollars, no way can I manage that before I'm around twenty three."

"I will give you the seed money and you will pay me back with five percent interest after you have doubled it."

"Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Well, actually I can't do it with you; personally, I'd have to make the contract with your father. You are too young to enter a contract. But, yes, I would do that for you. Five thousand dollars is almost pocket change to me."

"Just how rich are you?" Janey blurted then felt embarrassed.

"My annual income from all sources, and I mean personal, not business, is in seven figures most of the time."

"You make over a million dollars a year?"

"Yes. I am avery astute investor."

"But this project, the institute ... it must cost you a fortune."

"As part of what goes on here is government contracts, and some of it is considered charity work, it actually doesn't cost that much and we get a high return on what we discover in the bio-industrial section."

"You mean the vaccines and such, the stuff you do for the CDC?"

"Yes. I'd distribute the vaccines for free, and often do in an emergency but it would ruin the economy for me to do that completely. And you are correct about the pharmaceutical industry having a stranglehold on America. Every drug out of a commercial company is designed with the need for another drug to counteract it. It is deliberate design."

"Yeah, drug companies are not in the "wellness" business because that would put them out of business."

 "You're right there, Janey. Well, we've a lot to do, so finish your dessert and we need to get back to the training rooms."