Psi Force: Psi-ghted, #3

By Maxine Millar

In Psi force, The Final in the Trilogy, the search for Jules becomes planet-wide as the reward for her capture sky rockets up past the million. Meanwhile, Michel is struggling to find out where he fits in; to family, work, society and love. Miranda, his mother, sets up Psi Force, calling it a detective agency, but its prime mission is to capture Jules. Recruits with Psi and other abilities, knowledge and training come from the space station refugees. But with them come the effects of slavery, imprisonment, ill-treatment, ill-health and despair. This gives Psi Force some extremely motivated people with a serious grudge.
Jules plots to regain as much of her ill-gotten gains and re-start her empire on another planet. However it seems this whole planet is out to get her. But she has prepared well for this situation and she has a secret weapon and some seriously good places to hide. Plural.
Into this charged atmosphere come five orphaned, badly behaved, independent cats, used to having the run of a space station and no limits. They don't understand boundaries and they don't plan to.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maxine Millar
• Release date: Jul 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463654750

Maxine Millar

Maxine lives in New Zealand, on a life style block. She now writes full time.

Book preview

Introduction

In the late 21st century, once the star drive had been developed, exploration to other planets commenced and by the early 22nd century, these planets were seen not only as homes for settlers, the new west, but also as a dumping ground for unwanted people; political refugees, environmental refugees, criminals, those thrown off ancestral lands by oil companies, cattle barons, mining companies, forestry companies and the biggest category of them all, the chronically unemployed. These migrations were often involuntary for the unwanted people.

A two-tiered society developed here on Sanctuary of the rich and the poor. The definition of rich was anyone who had a decent home and a job for the poor generally had neither.

There were signs there had been a race of creatures here once, possibly sentient, but there was no sign of them now. There was evidence in ice cores that there had been an extinction level event, an asteroid strike. The huge number of apparent vacancies in the food chain were replaced by Terran imports and all seemed normal but as the years rolled on it became obvious it wasn’t. From some source, and the consensus of opinion now was that it was something in the environment, a mutation, or enhancement, was occurring in humans.

In Psi-ghted, Jay, surname unknown, a Shantytown orphan, is one of those Humans with a mutation, (or enhancement depending on your opinion). He can sense emotions and the intent of others. He can also tell if people are lying. This doesn’t keep him safe but it helps. Sometimes. Growing up an ‘unsupported orphan,’ Jay has few legal options to feed himself but plenty of others and works for Monty, a crime boss whom one could call a poor employer, deficient in his attitude towards Health and Safety of employees. Monty also pays Jay a pittance for the often dangerous job of drug courier. Jay finally leaves Monty’s employment, having a son and partner to provide for and considering that staying alive would assist in that task.

One day, signing up for casual labour, his world changes as he is identified as Michel (Me shill), the son of Jed Bannerman, kidnapped and missing for thirteen years. But Michel is seventeen while Jay is about twenty. Jay rejects his supposed father but uses his now legal status to get a job. Life just keeps getting more and more complicated as he juggles work, identity and his secret child. Then Danny, his child, is sold and Jay begs his father to help. Soon after, Jay finds pictures of his mother in his father’s home and realises it’s all true.

But Jay is an abused child with a history he has trouble dealing with and he burns for revenge. Jay, now accepting his real name of Michel, discovers that his mother arranged a block on his psi abilities to keep him safe and then blocked his memory to eliminate his recall of the torture of himself and his mother. She then used her Telekinesis to throw him from the spaceship.

Using his extraordinary abilities, he assists in the prosecution of Monty, his old boss. But for Michel this is practice, a stepping stone to his real ambition; to get Jules, the contractor who ordered the kidnapping and death of Michel and his mother and from which only Michel escaped.

In Psi-nister, Michel continues to struggle with his psi abilities, his identity, his wish for revenge, his fight with the media which is just beginning and his wish, finally successful, to find the woman he loves, another Telepath with whom he has been communicating for thirteen years without knowing who she is because she does not wish to be found. But the path of true love has some major obstructions on the path. And his obsession to get Jules, the woman who ordered his and his mother’s kidnapping and death, sharpens as his new abilities increase his options. He yearns to kill Jules but that is illegal and will have consequences. How can he kill and get away with it? Can he? More to the point, should he?

Michel impulsively launches his own attack to assassinate Jules but arriving on the space station, he unintentionally finds his mother on the station and escapes with her before he realises what he has done. A later, organised attack on the space station, captures the station; but Jules escapes.

And now in Psi-Force, the search for Jules becomes planet-wide as the reward for her capture rockets up, passing the millions. Meanwhile, Michel is struggling to find out where he fits in; to family, work, society and romance. His mother starts up Psi-Force, with the name of a detective agency but its primary mission is to capture Jules. Recruits with psi and other abilities, knowledge and motivation come from the space station refugees, but so does the effects of slavery, imprisonment, ill-treatment ill-health and despair. This gives Psi-Force some extremely motivated people with a serious grudge.

Jules plots to regain as much of her ill-gotten gains as she can while it seems the whole planet is out to get her but she has prepared well for this situation and has a secret weapon.

Chapter One

Unknown location; Sanctuary

Jules sat in the tiny, shabby, dusty flat, seething. She thought her life had altered a trifle over the last two days. Dev was dead. He was dead yesterday and his condition hadn’t improved overnight. She had objected to sleeping in a flat with a corpse but he had declined to move. He had jumped too far. Belatedly, she had remembered the orange plastic container in the fridge. She had remembered it after he had died which was a few minutes too late. It held sugar or something but your circulation had to be circulating for it to work. By the time she realised he was dead and figured in the probable reason for why he was in this condition, it was too late for any treatment she was capable of. Now what could she do? She looked down at Dev. There were multiple reasons why she couldn’t call for an ambulance starting with address. She didn’t know it. Additionally, he was too big to move, she was in the middle of a city, she didn’t know which one although she assumed it was likely to be Naseby, it was daylight outside, oh and she was the most sought-after fugitive on the planet so she was pretty much trapped. Very soon he would start to smell and be even more unpleasant company than he was now.

Her face and description was on every media outlet and some bastard had posted a reward for her. It was over a million and rising fast. She was brown-haired, brown eyed, medium height and build and had no identifying features. So good luck with that, she thought. Could life get worse? Yes, it could. There was no milk and not much food. She craved a coffee but coffee without milk was barely drinkable. Whoever was supposed to stock this bolthole had not done so, not adequately at any rate. There were concentrates and tinned food and packets of food but nothing fresh and not much in quantity and she had cleaned up the one container of long-life milk yesterday. Dev wouldn’t eat much so the supplies would last maybe four weeks? Six with rationing.

She sat and thought it out. The whole planet was looking for her with mercenary, murderous or moralistic intent. That was apart from the media who desperately wanted to know how did she feel about losing her space station? How did she feel about losing most of her empire? How did she feel about losing her money? Oh, and yes, how did she feel about losing her freedom? She thought she would much rather stay in a situation where she didn’t get asked that but this particular position was untenable and she wanted out of it.

Having finally made a decision she, with distaste, searched Dev’s pockets. She removed anything which could be useful to herself including his burner phone which was the object of her search. Checking her own call list, she punched in a series of long forgotten numbers and made the call she had told herself she would never make again. She had never deleted a number unless the recipient was dead. She archived a lot but never deleted anyone she might just possibly need again. She now needed an idiot who was reckless, a long-distance Teleport, fearless, knew her boltholes and in fact knew far more than he should have known and would see this as a challenge. It would cost her but she was prepared to pay the price. This time. She smiled; it might even be fun. He would be a lot better company than Dev. The call connected her to her chosen idiot.

Kasim looked down at his display, ‘unknown caller,’ Yes?

Hullo Kasim.

A wide smile flashed all over his face as he recognised her voice. Nice to hear from you. Do you require assistance Madam?

Yes.

Kasim felt the future explosion in his bank account looming and said, Do you know where you are?

No.

How many jumps and how far did the escape pod go?

It landed near Naseby.

How many jumps did you make from there?

One, and then he died.

How many jumps did he make before you reached the pod?

I don’t know, She thought hard, About four, maybe five, all over the space station and then into the escape pod and then here. Maybe seven? He said there was a Seeker after us.

Did you have any luggage?

Yes. One large backpack.

Ok. I’ll be there as soon as I can but it will take me a while, maybe a day. Are you alright until then?

Yes.

Who was he?

Dev. She closed her phone with relief. He would come; she knew he would. It would cost her but he would come and deal with her major problems and see to her safety.

Kasim phoned and arranged a flight to Naseby. He used the three hours he had to wait, packing and looking after his affairs. Four hours later he was on his way. He would reach there when it was still daylight and could start to search. If she was somewhere he didn’t know, he had a problem but he could see a solution. There were five boltholes he knew in the area and he would check them first.

• • •

Kasim arrived in the first bolthole; the nicest in his opinion. Empty. He had the feeling it was going to be a long day and it was already early evening. He put his pack down on the bed and jumped to the next one. Ditto. He continued on. Arriving in the fifth bolthole to find it also empty he had to stop and refuel. His hands were shaking. He put the kettle on and opened a packet of biscuits. Once he had consumed most of a packet of biscuits and had three cups of coffee and a nana nap, he was feeling decidedly human again. He finished the coffee and looked outside. It was dark enough.

He pushed ‘dial last caller’ on his phone. He should have gotten her number!

Yes?

It’s me. Give me your number. He quickly entered it into his log and entered ‘lover’ against the name. You’re somewhere I’ve never been. Did you say you’re in the city?

Yes.

Have you got a jacket with a hood or a scarf?

Yes.

Put it on, go outside and look for a shop or a landmark or street sign or something to let me know where you are. Then I’ll come to you.

He sighed in exasperation. This was ridiculous in this day and age but she couldn’t turn her bracelet on. The minute her identity showed near any detector, which could be anywhere, all available law enforcement would be making a beeline in her location via planes, helicopters, cars, bicycles or running. Not horses, they didn’t have any. And of course, there was the other inconvenient problem that if she went anywhere near a place where there was a detector it would alarm because her bracelet wasn’t on. She couldn’t win. And all over the planet there were hopeful people with rewards on their minds and mobile detectors in their vehicles. But they wouldn’t catch her that way. She didn’t get as far as she did by being stupid. The only transport she could safely use was walking or Teleportation and she had no psi except a Shield. You couldn’t travel on that. That was where he rode to the rescue, metaphorically speaking.

Yes?

Corner of High Street and Greenwood Terrace.

I’ll be there in a few minutes. Get back inside.

Idiot! She thought. Like I’d stay on the street! He was going to milk this for all it was worth when he got her. Now she just had to hope she was still in Naseby. She had assumed Dev had jumped to the nearest city but he might not have.

Kasim took a taxi, asking the driver to drop him a street short. With his wrist Navigator on (he was legal so he could use it), he walked up the street to the corner. He saw a shape came towards him; a shape his memory told him was her and he felt a mix of greed, desire and triumph. He dearly loved a challenge and finding her without tipping anyone off had been a doozy.

Jules, despite her caution had been unable to go back inside and so was pleased to see his arrogant walk coming up the street towards her. She would have recognised him anywhere even though his handsome face, black hair and black eyes were not visible. Unable to stop herself, she sped up the last few yards and went into his arms. Her weakness infuriated her as she responded to his kiss with an enthusiasm her rational self, told her was unwise. She normally listened to that little voice but today she told it to shut up. They walked arm in arm into the pokey little flat and Kasim stopped dead as he saw Dev.

Oh dear, he said. That Dev.

You knew him?

Yes. He was very good. Nearly as good as me but obviously not as well trained.

For once, Jules hoped his arrogance was justified.

What happened…? No, I’ll get rid of the body first. He stood and thought for a minute then he went and got out a clean sheet, lying it down beside Dev.

Give me a hand, he said.

Reluctantly, Jules helped him roll the body into the sheet and then helped lift it up and over Kasim’s shoulder. He disappeared and she was so relieved to see the body go with him. She turned and put the kettle on. She knew what was coming next and wondered how many jumps he had made today. She found some biscuits and put them on the table and waited. At least he would be company. She thought about the last time they had been together. She had to admit it had initially been frightening but as soon as she teamed up with Kasim, the fugitives had a ball together. He even managed to get food for them when they had so little money left because he could make a feast out of so little and he knew how to forage. She remembered he had had a poverty-stricken childhood, unlike her. Kasim just made life fun. He was irresponsible and irrepressible and yes, he would be ideal for this. So she would pay the price.

It wasn’t long before he popped back in, looked at the table and suggested, I’ve got a much better place we could go to. This place is dismal and it smells. I’m not keen on sleeping here.

She was not keen on being left alone again, How many jumps have you made today?

Just that one and five very short ones by myself. I can do one more. When you rang, I was miles away. I flew to Naseby and took a taxi here. Let’s get out of here.

Jules thought that was one of the best ideas she had heard today. She went into the tiny bedroom, where she had spent an unhappy almost sleepless night, and packed in minutes. She returned to the kitchen wearing her pack to find the kitchen tidied. She went into his arms, having no choice in the matter and, ever an opportunist; he kissed her as they jumped. They landed and separated and as she looked around, she heard him put on the kettle and sit down. Which indicated he was more drained than he was letting on. This place was cleaner, smelt fresher, it was much larger and would be bright and airy in the daytime. And then she remembered why this house had been a favourite; it had had tinted windows. They would not be seen when it was daytime if they kept the lights off and they did not have to draw the curtains in the daytime. Immediately, she felt so much less claustrophobic and she so appreciated the absence of the dead body smell. As he had last time, Kasim had turned an ordeal into something resembling normality. She had to admit he was an expert at making the best of any situation. She looked into the three bedrooms to find Kasim’s pack on the bed in what was clearly the master bedroom. The insufferable, presumptive, arrogant sod! She went to storm out into the kitchen when he called out,

Coffee with fresh milk.

Ever getting her priorities right she decided on the coffee first. As she sipped it, he said,

So, what happened on the station? Rumours are rife but what’s the truth? He stood up, pulled the curtains, shut the door and turned the light on.

Glancing down, she saw he had eaten half a packet of biscuits. He was badly drained. She reached for two and said, A bunch of people jumped straight into the station and Dev jumped me away as planned but they arrowed after us and nearly caught us on the second jump. A group of about four, all disguised. Dev said they were all Teleports and led by one who had to be a Seeker as well and that one was very fast at getting a lock-on. He was frightened. She didn’t add that she was too. After the third jump he said we had to get to the pod fast and out of range or they were going to get us. The pod was Shielded. He said he couldn’t compete with single jumpers. What did that mean?

It’s the weight that counts. He was jumping two and they were jumping one.

How much difference does that make?

Depends on how he trained. I can jump two nearly as far as one. My range goes down if we both also carry backpacks but not hugely. Jasna was even better because that’s how I trained her. What happened next?

He collapsed in the pod and I flew it as if it was just drifting. As soon as I saw an opening, I gunned it. They couldn’t keep up and I got away. That ship had some serious engine power where more seats should have been. I suspect they didn’t realise I was in the pod. They didn’t make a serious effort to pursue me until it was too late. I looped around the planet across commercial lanes so they couldn’t follow me. I landed in a gully south of Naseby and Dev jumped us here. He collapsed and died. I went to get the sugar stuff but he was dead.

I didn’t know you were a pilot.

There’s a lot about me you don’t know.

True but I don’t have the energy to find out tonight. I suggest we get some sleep.

I get the master bedroom.

Of course.

By myself.

He sat back down, Well the price goes up if I’m not getting any.

We haven’t discussed price.

No and remember you’re a captive audience and a somewhat dependant one. The price is halved with and full price without.

She braced herself, What are you charging?

One hundred thousand units a day. Paid daily until you no longer need me. He held out his wrist.

She sighed but it could have been worse and he was right; he could charge anything he liked but she also knew that he was likely to keep his word because he did last time. Once bought, he stayed bought. Unlike most others. She leaned over and accessed one of her banking sites through his bracelet and as he pulled up his bank icon, she dropped the money into it. She noticed how happy that made him. Alright, she said. What did you do with Dev?

I left him on a hiking trail, at a hut I know. It will look like he stumbled into or jumped into the hut and lay down and died. He’s on the floor not in a bunk so the first person there will discover him.

Is that wise?

Yes. The sooner he’s found the better. And I left him in the configuration he was in here.

What?

There’s a thing called lividity or something. The blood pools in a dead body as it lies. If someone puts a body in another position, like in a body dump, it’s obvious the body has been moved. I left him in the same position as he was in here. They’ll probably think he jumped there and died of hypoglycaemia in the hut. With a bit of luck, they’ll look for you there instead of here. Classic misdirection. I always like to do two jobs at once. Hopefully it will make us safer. He will be found fairly quickly. But I also wanted him found because he has a family. They’ll appreciate knowing what happened to him. But the main factor is that that should give us time to get away while they look for you within walking distance of that hut. Good luck to them. It’s a huge area to cover and heavily forested and you could have made it quite a distance given you could have been running downhill.

Jules nodded. Classic Kasim and so like him to achieve several things at the same time. How far away is this hut?

"Only thirty odd miles. We’ll head in the opposite direction once I get some sleep. Have I got to sleep on my own?"

Yes. She looked up warily as he got up but then remembered he liked his women willing. He removed his pack from her bedroom, smiled again at her and went to bed leaving the door open. She sighed; Kasim was one of the large proportion of men who think no doesn’t really mean no. But he would only push the issue verbally. Sex might always be on his mind but it didn’t even make the short list in her priorities. It didn’t make the long list either. She sat and thought. She was hungry but she had not liked to demand he cook her something. Any fool could see he was exhausted and if he was wrong and someone found them, he needed the energy to jump them out. She looked through the cupboard for something she could eat by just heating. She searched through the freezer and found an instant breakfast. It just needed heating and she knew how to microwave. She heated it and ate it with some enthusiasm but only because she was really hungry. She made another coffee and dawdled over it.

Now she had to get busy. She had an empire to rebuild and a fortune to get off planet with which to do it. She picked up Dev’s burner phone then went and shut Kasim’s door. She started to make phone calls and as she did, she made a list of what she needed to do. She needed a ship, she needed it stocked with everything she could cram on it, she needed to liquidate every asset she could and she needed to leave this planet. In that order. Kasim’s own self-interest and his competitiveness would keep her safe. He hated to fail at anything. He had to be the best even if part of that being the best meant that few knew what he had done. He could keep secrets. He had a discipline about him in the things that were essential for him and now for her. And the things that were important to her far exceeded the priorities that occupied his brain she thought scornfully.

Chapter Two

Seaside ‘Holiday’

Our uncomfortable and awkward so-called holiday was spent recovering from gunshot wounds and shattered nerves during our attempted capture of Jules on her space station. She got away during a murderous gunfight which resulted in those aforementioned injuries. This left us also recharging our depleted batteries and trying to entertain an over-exited small boy who had never been on a holiday before. Danny wanted to see the whole world and he wanted to see it all now. I was too sore to cope with him and my nerves were shattered. I think I mentioned that but it could do with repeating. Granddad took over Danny while Miguel took over recharging my mother and I. I was extremely appreciative of having a cook like Miguel and he thrived on people who loved to sample his creations. He kept popping out with ‘just a little something’ and I was educated into all sorts of luxuries that he knew I would appreciate but I had no hope of eating them all although I made a valiant effort to. Danny vacuumed some of these treats on his return, my father would sample some and the guards would demolish anything left.

My mother and I tried to stay as far apart as possible. I don’t know how Miguel coped with my anorexic mother but I took my meals from the lovely dining room and then ate outside under the umbrella, or in the large veranda, or in my own room, or in the lounge or anywhere else my mother wasn’t. It just made life easier for my feelings. My mother; the memory of her love for me had kept me alive when life became intolerable. Which happened frequently in the slum I had lived in. I’d thought she was dead until I accidentally found her when I jumped onto Jules space station intent on murder. And promptly changed my target and mission. But the mother I returned with was not the mother of my toddler memory. This mother didn’t love me, didn’t seem to like me and felt I was not her son. Which caused me anguish. It was easier to avoid her.

Luckily that was easy because this seaside villa was huge. It had two lounges, a gourmet kitchen, two dining rooms, eight bedrooms and a huge laundry. We all had an ensuite. There was what was called a wraparound veranda so I could move around the house and follow the sun and there were comfortable seats and sofas all around the veranda which had to be twelve feet deep. It was partly enclosed to shelter bits of it from the prevailing winds. You had the feeling of an old house that had been altered and adapted and extended to fit the climate and the needs of the lucky inhabitants. I just wished I had been well enough to appreciate it all but it sure beat a hospital. It also had a spa which my painful hip really appreciated. I soaked before bed to ease the pain. The villa was three storied but there was a lift. While Dad was away my mother and I kept apart. When Dad was back, we were polite to each other in his presence. The house was not decorated in fashion colours which were garish this year. It was in a lot of colours which blended with its surroundings like soft greens and blues. I loved the sound of the waves. I loved walking through the water in the shallow bits and Danny loved everything.

Luckily, he had no Emote ability and either didn’t notice the tensions in the air or ignored them. And since one or more adults kept him entertained all day he slept well. Because of the spa, sleeping pills and pain killers so did I. And Danny was forbidden from waking me up. That last bit was very helpful. I told him being nearly seven meant he was too old for things like that.

The first week, I was too sore to do much but the second week I replaced my father every second day as we vainly tried to keep up with Danny. Thank God for the guards. We would do a tag team and one would take him somewhere, like on a ride while the other waited with me and I spent the day at an amusement park going from a ride to a café to a ride to a café. It was the only way I could survive. In the evenings it was read him a book and I had the energy for that. Just.

By the end of two weeks we were all feeling a bit better. By the end of two weeks, my mother and I no longer looked like we were injured so we were safe to return to work. That was a joke. My mother had spent most of the last two weeks planning and organising her new business. She seemed to spend most of her day on the phone or her laptop.

Meanwhile I was to start interviewing her potential psis, sorting out which ones would make good employees for her. That was alright by me because that was my new business. She had an office in a mall that she was renting off my father. She had booked the offices on either side and on the floors above and below and when one came up for rent, she was intending to expand. The mall had lots of different shops, offices, a hairdresser, lots of food outlets, a shoe shop, a supermarket and a general large variety store. She had made an offhand offer that I could share her office for free and of course I accepted. You know my opinion on free. But I really should have known better! I mean really, I should! I missed her motive in making such a generous offer!

But first we had to go to court and give evidence against Jules. I wasn’t sure about that. I loved the idea of revenge, payback, giving evidence against her but there was a downside of all that. The downside was remembering things I’d rather not and in detail. Re-traumatising, I think they call it. In usual court situations, the defending lawyer drags this process out as much as possible hoping to cause the victim to break down and decide self-preservation is more important than justice or revenge. The cross examination is also aimed at doing this by inventing possible alternative scenarios to what actually happened. And the other tactic is character assassination. So given you are already a victim, they seek to make this a lot worse. Sometimes the lawyers probably cause more emotional harm than the crime did. You can figure out what type of crimes I’m talking about. And the court system allows this. Except for the Organised Crimes Act. This Act was written with victims in mind although I was told it was mainly originally written to protect judges and lawyers. Typical! Only incidentally did it protect victims. Mainly by minimising further damage. No cross examination. No media. No open court room where your trauma is on the news every night; in fact no publicity. My statement would be held as confidential as possible but I still hadn’t decided whether or not to tell the court about the childhood abuse I’d suffered. I probably wouldn’t because I didn’t want to go there. The memories were suppressed for my self-preservation and I think I would rather keep them there. There was enough for her to be charged with.

Chapter Three

Supreme Courthouse

Finally came the day I had been dreading; and wanting to do since I was old enough to know what had been done to me. This wasn’t the trial it was a pre-trial and a part of the Organised Crimes Act that was very different from the way other trials were run.

We were to give evidence against Jules and her main employees, just on a preliminary basis and it was described by my father as starting a huge, cumbersome old engine, like a train which didn’t want to start but after it started it would be unstoppable. I liked the sound of that, I liked unstoppable. It was a good word.

I was now feeling vulnerable every time I left the Bantalmid Building, which was rare. It had taken the news media less than two days to discover that Teleports had been used to get onto Jules’s space station and opinion was divided over whether this was a good thing or whether it was ominous for the future. However, no identities were known and no one yet had talked. Kara from Psi School had put the fear of God into all those who had gone on that raid and any others who knew of it. She threatened to let me loose on the whole lot of them if anyone talked. Her threats as to what the consequences would be to anyone who talked included publishing the name, address and all contact details of whoever talked, so as to make it easy for Jules to get them, whether they had been involved or not. I didn’t think she was kidding either. Clearly neither did they.

Today, we were in one of the five armoured cars Dad had organised and no one knew which one we were in. Black glass, of course. This danger was one of the reasons why depositions and evidence were given in advance under this Act. Hopefully it made us less vulnerable. And the evidence was set in concrete. This was not like the general court where your evidence, depositions, statements or whatever they were called, were inadmissible if you were dead. That was how Jules had got away with so much previously; she probably called it Witness Disposal. It was very effective. It was also why she was still free. She probably loved the stupidity of a law that allowed that to happen; evidence to be thrown out because the witness had been murdered, threatened, blackmailed, bribed or otherwise ‘got to,’ probably by the accused or on their orders. I thought it should be the opposite and for this Act it was. It strengthened the evidence.

I thought the laws, many of them, had often been written by very suspect lawyers to get the rich and guilty a free stay-out-of-jail card. I thought there should be a law that said immoral laws should be able to be thrown out. You can tell I have very strong feelings about this.

So the court was going flat out and getting as many faces, identities, statements and evidence as it could as fast as it could and then they would be categorised, sorted, whatever, I wasn’t sure. I knew we could be called back and my mother certainly would be but after today, our evidence against Jules would be undeletable. Is that a word? Anyway, you get the point. Huge reduction in vulnerability; hopefully. You had to line up in front of the court Truth Seeker, sign it in front of him/her and they checked to see if you thought it was the truth. So no cross examination was necessary.

The Supreme Court building was vast as were the grand, imposing, old fashioned concrete stairs leading up to it. We were here early because of those stairs or rather because of the people who would be there on them today. You see the staircase took up all the large area before you got to the actual building and the smaller rooms within and it was a grand entrance and exit and a meeting place. And often part of a media frenzy but not today. It was normally open to the public and the media but never while this Act was being used. Media were forbidden from being close without a very good reason, forbidden from using any cameras or recording devices or commenting on anyone here under pain of prosecution. They were not supposed to get within sight of it either and their social media was screened if they got within a mile of the building today and on other days when the Act was being used. Cameras couldn’t photograph through the Shield anyway or within it, not even the ones on our bracelets. I had no idea how that was done but I’m not technical.

I think I mentioned the place was a complex? There was a connecting prison attached to the back of it that could hold a hundred. I hoped it was full. It helped to ensure reluctant attendees got there on time…

And there was another building at the back that was probably a lot nicer. It held protected witnesses. I wondered how many were wearing their masks, concealer and bunny suits that hid their identity and this law said they could keep them on in court, in the corridors, in their rooms and anywhere else they wanted to wear them. To bed if they wanted to. They had all the rights and Jules had few and none over them. And they did not have to give any identifying information, while they gave evidence (already done) and there was usually just one judge. There was no cross examination which was so often used to pervert the course of justice. The judges could ask questions but they were asked to clarify the evidence not to try to interfere with it. There was no adversarial law system, no cameras, no spectators, no media, in fact no one in court without a very good reason to be there and security was tight.

My mother was not dressed in her bunny suit. As soon as she was well enough to get to the shops she was in high fashion, ridiculous high heels, with accessories that looked to me to be priced at a one hundred thousand per cent mark up. The fashion colours this year were green and blue and teal. She had the same colouring as me. Today, she was in swirls of varied greens and with her green eyes and blonde hair I have to admit it suited her. But her footwear! She practiced walking in appalling styles of shoes and wore them until she could balance and today, she was walking as if she wore them every day. I wondered what that cost her muscles. I was disgusted at her rampant consumerism and mystified that no one else thought anything of it. My father encouraged her! He told her she looked beautiful. She had spent hours in various beauty salons and other spa type things spending God knows how much. Eating more would help her face look better as Ischi kept telling her and it was cheaper…

Ischi got away with things like that where others would take cover but she was used to standing up to my mother and she had the advantage that she was right. Ischi was our favourite red-haired, green eyed, opinionated nurse that my father employed for extra services because of her stubbornness and refusal to back down.

Of course there were far too many people coming to give evidence for them all to be in that Witness Protection building and some were going to be giving evidence via various electronic means and sometimes in other courthouses in other cities rather than here in person but we had decided to turn up today because of who else was scheduled to be here today and being key witnesses we had been able to alter our court date. This was news to me.

We exited the car, and boiled quickly through the gates with the others who also wanted to be safe. Just me and my mother of course because no one else was invited and no one else got in without an invitation. There was a double gate system but we were safe as soon as we got to the first one and under the Shield. We waited in line, passed through the security checks and then breathed a collective sigh of relief. And yes, my concealed weapons were back in my apartment. I hadn’t used any of them so no awkward questions would be asked.

As we walked up the steps, my mother and I, it was because we had a second, planned agenda which we had agreed on. There were other doors we could have gone in for privacy but my mother didn’t want privacy today, she was looking for people and these people would know she would be here and as I said we were in agreement on this task. That made a nice change. The ‘holiday’ which was a holiday really only for Danny, was just a time of recovery for both for us. We tried to stay apart in the big seaside villa my father had rented but my father had other ideas.

He had sat us down on several occasions while his guards took Danny out and made us do some talking. My mother had apologised to me and told me I was nothing like her brother; the one she thought I now looked like and that had been so cruel to her. She said he would have found a way to steal anything not tied down and relied on bribery, threats and crooked lawyers to get away with it.

It had profoundly affected my mother that I had been more honest than her. That I had shown her up. That I had taken her on for a good reason not a bad one. She’d said I was brave! We were still uneasy with each other but things were improving and I was so relieved that I’d taken her on thinking I was making things worse and it had had the opposite effect on her. We weren’t friends and I doubted we would ever be close but we were talking to each other.

We were both very happy about today’s task too and that was another nice change. It was going to change the day from scary, horrible, frightening and feeling like a giant target to starting with a very pleasant interlude and we were starting now.

As I said my mother was looking for certain people and she deviated first towards a little knot of five. I saw a huge black man and a not much smaller woman with similar colouring, an old man on crutches, a couple of other men and my mother was obviously heading for that group. Reaching the first man she said.

Hullo Bradley, to the huge black man, this is my son Michel.

I held out my hand and he took it cautiously, gently and obviously puzzled and apprehensive. He seemed tongue-tied and clearly did not know how to respond to my mother. He seemed to be having trouble recognising her for a minute too but I was concentrating on him.

I smiled; my mother was right. He was a very good person.

My mother tells me she owes you a lot so you have my thanks and my offer, and I passed him an old-fashioned business card. They were new. So was the business they listed.

This is Adele, my mother continued with a broad smile at Adele’s reaction.

Adele was openly eyeing my mother up and down and in obvious approval. Women!

Taking Adele’s hand, I was again intrigued as I read her quickly,

My thanks to you also and my offer, and I handed her a card.

My mother moved on, This is Fred.

I looked at the old man on crutches. He looked eighty odd, but my mother had been insistent; everyone she introduced me to gets a job offer. I thought quickly as he shuffled his crutches to take my offered hand. I was immediately impressed. He was a Telepath and a Teleport, well Shielded, honest, compassionate, felt competent and felt intelligent. What could I offer him? I had a brainwave and said as I offered him my card, I’m desperate for a receptionist. Can you help? Pays well. Where are you living? I asked being tactful.

In Shantytown, with Hugh here.

Just as well I’d asked, If you’re interested be at the security gate on Monday morning, around eight. A car will pick you up. That card is your entrance. The court must have authorised them to be here today and I wondered how that worked. I had never found that out because being arrested was something I had so far managed to avoid and now its likelihood had significantly decreased as in to, oh probably near zero, given I never intended to break the law again.

The other two men in the group were looking hopeful as my mother said, This is Cairon and his brother Ikram, she said indicating which was which.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell them apart. They looked like twins but my mother had said brothers. I reached for Cairon first and liked him at once. He was open, cheerful, hopeful and definitely employable. He got a card. Ikram was quite different; guarded, suspicious, showing all the signs of coping, not well, with stress or trauma but both men were essentially good and he got a card too. His response to it was different to Cairon’s as he had trouble believing in good luck? Probably.

We wove our way around the steps, my mother introducing me to so many people I lost track. I told them all to contact us next week for a job interview without saying what the job was; because I was going to interview them and work that out.

Finally, we entered the courthouse and were assigned a little room each. There was a Skype type of system where we could ask questions from a person but other than that we were on our own. The interviews were fairly easy to do and my typing was improving. They had a list of questions which led to other questions set out really well and it was like searching on the Internet so it went reasonably fast. Some were tick boxes and others required quite a bit of explanation but by lunchtime I was done. It automatically corrected if I forgot stuff or wanted to alter something and then printed out when I was happy with it. I went in front of the court Truth Seeker, declared