The Talents of the Fallen - 17. Part Seventeen: Reshaping the World

Chapter Seventeen: Reshaping the World

Dr. Balthazar hated these visits to the Reformatory. It reflected the worst his people were capable of. To the outside world it was a private psychiatric research institution that only accepted specific rare cases of psychosis. In actuality it was where Talented and Untalented alike were imprisoned and reeducated by the ruling members of the Elected.

While the hospital claimed what they work was a merciful form kindness compared to being executed, as far as Greg was concerned what the mentalist did to their patients was a form of psychic rape.

He hated coming here but given the patient in question his need for answers outweighed his revulsion of the prison. If it were anybody else he wouldn’t have come but as the patient was Mary Mays he had to.

After being cleared by the guards at the gate he was met by the head of the institution Dr. Malic Haskell. He was the top mental Talent at the Reformatory. He was one of the best mentalists in the world and one of the most feared people among the Elected. Still he greeted Dr. Balthazar with all the warmth and respect someone of Greg’s station deserved.

“Welcome to the Reformatory Dr. Balthazar. I cannot stress enough how grateful we are that you agreed to come on such short notice.”

“If it were anyone else I wouldn’t bother but things being as they are…”

“Yes, I know. The case of Mary Mays involves several of your students.”

“Yes. When you described what you have observed over the phone…” His thoughts drifted forcing him to shake himself back to reality. “The safety and wellbeing of my students come first.”

“As it should. Now, if you will follow me I will show you what we have learned. Be sure to stay close… the amount of psychic energy saturating the hospital is quite potent. I doubt there is another place in the world more dangerous. I will be able to shield you from the worst of it. I cannot say the same if you decide to go off exploring on your own.”

So, he doesn’t want me snooping around. Figures. If half the rumors of the goings-on of this place are true it would be shut down as a crime against humanity. Better set him at ease. “The Council and I greatly appreciate the work the Reformatory does on our behalf.”

“Yes… we truly do the Lord’s work within these walls. If not for us most of our patients would have been killed. What we offer is a second chance, which is something everyone deserves. Isn’t that so Dr. Balthazar.”

“Quite.” Greg knew exactly what Dr. Haskell was referring to. Ryan had once been a patient of the good doctor. Greg had to call in every favor, spent a fortune in bribes, and even rented out his body to the craggy old goat who headed the London Council to buy Ryan’s freedom. Dr. Haskell hated it when one of his patients slips from his grasp before he’s finished with them. He clearly hadn’t forgotten or forgiven Greg for taking away one of his prized patients.

“Here we are.” They had reached the room where Mays was being kept.

It was not really Mary’s room but the observation room that looked into her cell. She was in a dreadful state. Half her hair had been torn out. Her body was covered with self-inflected cuts and bruises. She had ripped out half her nails out cutting herself and trying to claw out of her cell. Out of all the patients he had seen here she was in the most disturbed state he had ever seen. For the rest of his life he would remember this moment and despise himself for it. He was the one who sent her here. “I would like an explanation.” He said through gritted teeth. He wanted to kill Malic for letting her end up in such a state.

Malic knew he was treading on dangerous territory. He would have to be careful around such an important member of the Order. “This is not my doing. She did this to herself. As I said over the phone it appears she has been mentally altered in a way I have never seen before.”

“So you said. Care to go into greater detail?”

“Of course. She was sent to us for a simple mind wipe and implantation of a new identity. No reeducation was requested. We performed the wipe and implanted her new memories but for some reason not even I can comprehend the changes didn’t hold. Instead a third persona took over.”

“Did you try to wipe it?”

“Yes… but each time the persona returned. She used to scream but eventually it caused her vocal cords to be ripped apart. This… this masochistic desire to destroy herself without regard to self-preservation is nothing I’ve ever seen before. It is if she’s been hardwired to self-destruct.”

“What was she screaming?”

“I have a recording if you care to listen.”

“Please.” Greg didn’t have to listen long before he got the gist of what she was saying. She demanded over and over that they give ‘him’ back to her. There was no question in his mind who ‘him’ was. “Stop the recording. I’ve heard enough.”

“I take it you knew who she is referring to?”

“Possibly.” Greg wasn’t about to bring up Aaron unless he absolutely had to. He had to come up with some sort of lie… one close enough to the truth as to not be detected. “Her son tried to kill her for abandoning him. That’s what led to this whole mess. Somehow he got hold of a considerable amount of Taint. I can only suspect that he used his magnified powers to mentally assault her mind until she was left like this.” He swiped his arm in the direction of the observation window as if hoping it would brush away the horrors inside.

“You’re saying this is the result of his revenge?”

“That is exactly what I’m saying. We know little about the true effects of Taint on a person’s Talents. That might explain the unusual symptoms she is displaying.”

“Possibly… to know for sure I would need to study her son. I take it he is still alive.”

“You could say that. I’m afraid however that you will not be able to study him.”

“Why not!” Very few people would dare deny him anything. Without a good explanation this would be the second time Dr. Balthazar had thwarted him.

“If it was in my power to provide him to you I would but he is beyond my reach. As a member of the Coven they can do whatever they want with him. I could ask, but as the son of the head of the Order, they would laugh in my face.”

“I will have to contact the Master then.”

“You can but do you really think he will listen. As this involves Taint he probably doesn’t want outsiders studying its effects.”

“Damn it… I need to study him!” The doctor was suffering from a childish temper tantrum

“As I said there is nothing I can do. Anyway…” Greg paused… he felt something other mind probing deep into his mind. At first he thought it had to be the doctor but it didn’t feel like it. Its touch was too alien. Concentrating he traced the mental energy back to its source. To his shock it was emanating from Mary.

She opened her mouth as if to shout something but all that came out was a spray of blood. When she finished speaking she grabbed the sides of her head. With a hard twist she snapped her neck. With her death her compulsion to protect Aaron that had once possessed her older son Hal had passed on to the headmaster.

By the time the medics could get to her she was already dead.

“Never seen anything like it…” Dr. Haskell whispered.

“I pray I never do again.” Greg left as fast as he could. He had to get back to the school. If Aaron’s life was in danger, he was the only one who could protect him.

Rushing down the halls he began to regret leaving his escort behind. Without the good doctor to shield him, the mental flotsam and jetsam of the prisoner’s shattered Talents attempted to overcome him. They were like parasites which fed off sane minds with ravenous hunger. Without a strong mental shield their Talent fed madness would consume his thoughts until he was one of them.

He had to get out of there. As he ran through the maze of halls he heard the voice of a child call out to him. “Greggy… Greggy? Don’t leave me Greggy.” Only one person had ever referred to him by that name, his sister Amelia.

Born before his twin siblings Talia and Andrew, Amelia was the daughter his father despised and Greg and his mother loved. Her only crime was she was Untalented. When it became clear she lacked any Talent his father had made her a prisoner on his estate. Though her mother and Greg pleaded for him to at least let her play outside, Lord Oliver would not risk it becoming known he, a member of one of the oldest families of the Elected, had a normal child. It would humiliate him and cause the purists in the Order to question his leadership. In the end he sent her away… supposedly to a treatment center where the doctors said they could give her true Talent.

Until now Greg had assumed his father had his sister killed. Hearing her voice inside his head made him think differently. Of all the places his father could send his Untalented daughter the Reformatory was the perfect place. It would have been kinder for his father to have killed her then let her mind rot in this graveyard of sanity.

Landon Casper, Chosen of the Master, stepped into the express elevator of the Willis Tower with a sense of trepidation he had not felt in the countless other times he had gone up to the 70^th floor.

To think he once thought he could challenge the Master. His last attempted betrayal seemed so long ago as to appear to be part of a different life. After the destruction of the Canadian compound the Master saw to it that he would never dare try to leave the Coven again. He was the Master’s, to do with as he pleased.

Having graduated from Harvard Law School and Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business he had enough education for his new position. All he lacked of was experience but the Master had given him the position of CEO of InterVest and he could not disappoint the Master.

Before today he had only been head of acquisitions and mergers but after he managed to pull off the Bio Sign merger the Master had been so pleased that he felt his Chosen was ready for more responsibilities.

Yes he was now CEO of a $180 billion equity fund. More importantly he was in charge of the Midwest Coven. If he proved himself here he could find himself the Lord Chosen of all of North America. That would make him third in power after the Coven Lord of Europe and the Master himself.

By this point he had proven himself above the need to take part in things like Cake Day. As one of the Chosen nor did he had to prove his power through combat. His battlefield was with the Untalented world, his weapon of choice his honed mind. That didn’t mean he felt he was ready for all the responsibilities that were now his to carry.

Even as he rode the elevator up he could feel the touch of the Master’s hot mouth on his lips. The Master owned him lock, stock, and barrel. Yet, even so, the embers of his last rebellion burned beneath the ashes of his raped soul.

When the doors opened on the 70^th floor he found the staff lined up to greet their new boss. There was clapping the throwing of confetti, and even a cake. Landon enjoyed all of it but the cake which was dry and too heavy with butter crème icing.

Once in his corner office the department heads visited him one by one to give their daily reports, he ordered a general meeting for later in the day to discuss their next move once the Bio-Sign merger was complete. Between then and now, he met with the heads of the regional offices.

“Well Reagan… what is the word from Detroit?”

“The city is on the verge of bankruptcy. We are still negotiating the land purchase but the city is holding out for more. I suggest we wait until the city is dragged to court.”

“You think we will be better off dealing with the bankruptcy judge.”

“Yes… it would take fewer if any bribes that way. We would probably get away with paying less too.”

“Money is not the problem, but InterVest has a reputation to maintain so don’t pay too much. We need that land to consolidate our biomedical companies on one site but we can always build elsewhere.” Landon knew that was not necessary true… the land purchase was tied in to several of the Coven’s plans but if push came to shove he could turn to Plan-B. He needed to move on to other matters. “Kate how is college recruitment going?”

With agents planted in welfare departments and mental clinics the Coven would be in position to gain coverts from the most vulnerable members of society. “We are making strives within the psychology and social welfare programs in Ann Arbor and Madison. Illinois is still a hard nut to crack but we always known it would be.”

That much was true. InterVest might be based in Chicago but Illinois was Council territory. Taking the state from them was the true reason he had been given control of the Midwest Coven. “What about the Greek Societies?”

“We have control of at least one at all the major schools.” With control over the fraternities and sororities converting those who could prove useful to us in the future is not proving too difficult. The real challenge is the number of fraternities and sororities we can control on one campus without drawing attention. That can be partly dealt with by planting our people within the national organizations.

“What we really need is what’s in the Vault.” Kate pointed out. The Vault, storehouse of the secrets of the Elected had the only complete list of these bloodlines possessing Talent. With that list the Master could increase his number of followers a hundred-fold. The Vault also contained blueprints and prototypes of Talent based weaponry as well as the means to counter them. If the Master were to get his hands on blue prints he would have no need to use Taint to spread the Talent among the normal population.

There was a problem however, the Vault happened to be guarded by the same technology the Master coveted by the AI Three Wise Men; Balthazar, Melchior, and Casper. Named after the three families that developed the first Talents of kinetic, mental, and empathic powers the AI’s were created along with the Vault to prevent one faction from dominating the others. These factions were divided between three warring groups. The most brutal was the Coven. Led by the Master the families of House Casper sought to spread the Talent to as many as possible. Through the super Talents of his Chosen he would rule over the talentless majority of humanity. The organization directly opposed them was the Order; led by the telekinetic Balthazars. They wished to purify the Talent bloodlines so only the original families developed true Talent. Their long term objective is the genocidal extinction of the entire Untalented population. As a result the only difference between the two factions was the methods they used to obtain recruits.

As for the mentalist Melchior family, they were wiped out during the last Talent War. In their place was the Council. Made up the lesser families, they sought to maintain the balance between the two sides. Berg Omicron, Jon’s father, led the largest faction on the Council.

The situation was more complex than that but all that mattered at the moment was the Master’s desire to increase his number of followers. Kidnapping and brainwashing members of Elected like Landon had endured was a key part of that plan.

“Finally… what are we going to do about the Lakes School?” Landon knew he wasn’t going to like what they had to say but he was expected to ask anyway.

“There’s not much we can do. We’ve tried infiltration and converting the students but the Order has always caught on before we can gain anything from it.”

“It is also in Council territory which limits our ability to attack the school directly.” Another pointed out.

“We did have some luck kidnapping the younger Balthazar boy but the Order rescued him before the conversion could be completed. Since then Andrew has had to endure several torturous attempt to purge the virus from his system. It really doesn’t matter in the long term as he will convert eventually. Unfortunately his usefulness has become greatly diminished by the Order’s discovery of the virus. ”

“What of the rumors about the school’s newest student?” Kate asked.

“What rumors?” Landon knew what Kate was referring to but needed to appear surprised.

“There’s been a sighting of a boy with silver hair and light sensitive eyes. Seems to be another brat who escaped conversion. I didn’t know there were any that weren’t accounted for.”

Landon swallowed an approaching cough. “I didn’t either but mistakes happen. The matter will need to be investigated but I think all we will discover is that he is an escapee that someone far down the food chain didn’t dare report. If that is the case discovering which Coven he came from will prove quite difficult.”

“Do you think he could be one of those who escaped the fire?” Dean asked.

“He’s too young.” Kate replied. “He could be no older than sixteen. He would have had to have been no older than seven or eight during the fire. No one could have escaped that far down in the sublevels. Even if he had he would have to travel two hundred miles to reach the nearest town. He wouldn’t have been able to survive the cold.”

Landon knew of one person who might have but kept what he knew to himself. “Unless someone else has something needing to be discussed, we need to get back to work. The Master demands we stick to the time table. We wouldn’t want to disappoint him.” When none said anything he ended the conference call.

After telling his chief secretary he didn’t want to be disturbed Landon closed his eyes and daydreamed of a world where Aaron was safe and protected. If this lad he had asked Dr. Balthazar to protect was Aaron he should be able to trace him back to Canada. He doubted the Order knew what they had in him or else they wouldn’t have let him attend the Lake’s school. Anyway, he would not report the sighting to the Master.

He might have given up his personal fight against the Master but even now a part of him remained true to himself. It would not be too hard for him to find a scapegoat to pin the supposed escapee on. He could even play down the boy’s value to the organization… something like a low level empath so weak that it wouldn’t be worth the effort to go after the rest of his family. That should get rid of any further interest in the boy.

Still if he was Aaron he knew he couldn’t dare make contact with him. Any further interest would cause more questions to be asked. He would have to satisfy himself knowing that at least one boy had escaped the Coven.