Gumshoe Telepath - News

Once more I develop sufficient concept to generate some content for the next installment of this slowly developing story. Once more it has character development and also gets back to some of the political vibe of the story.

It was an overcast and smoggy day on which we met at the Roundtree. For once I made sure I was on time. Kirsten walked in a moment later and sat opposite me in our customary booth. Despite my best efforts, my mind flashed back to sitting in the car with her the previous night. It was difficult to see her as anything other than...

Kirsten interrupted my thinking by taking my hand. Suddenly I lost my mind. I was gone. I was nothing but an awareness that I was who I was. But then that awareness was filled with the content of another mind and I perceived myself in a way that was new to me.

I had never known that I was totally lacking in attractiveness. I had never considered that I was admired and respected in the manner of an older sibling. This was a shock. And in contrast I also experienced fleeting moments of how Kirsten felt for those in her life that she was intimate with... the love she felt for him... the lust she felt for her... the total absence of such things for me. And finally I felt the frustration she felt at constantly having to endure my innuendos. I also smelt the faintest aroma of something as she withdrew her touch.

"Coriander?"

"The mind works in funny ways Derrick."

I was flabbergasted. Rarely if ever do we understand exactly what others think of us and now I had experienced just that. I stared at her dumbfounded.

"I had to do that Derrick. You had to know, so that we can get on with our working relationship and get this case sorted."

I considered saying that what all human relations needed was telepathy but then I started thinking. What they needed was for everyone to pay attention to the words and deeds of others rather than just think what they wanted to think. Even a non-telepath like me knew that. I had been a shitskull with Kirsten and on some level had always known that.

"I can tell you my mad notion of the twins now" Kirsten uttered with a small smile.

"Yes - um - surely even twins would still feel different to your senses."

"Well sure but these two felt like they are both twins and also the product of the most amazing life-long conditioning. I have got a similar vibe from small groups of fanatics whose minds seem to grow closer and closer till personal differences are quashed by peer-group oppression."

"Right. So. Twin telepaths conditioned as assassins for some fanatical cause who kill gang bosses. What is the cause? A sort of ultra-violent Neighbourhood Watch?"

Kirsten smiled once more at that. "I wish. There was another thing I detected in my vibesweeps - an excitement at the practice the killings represented for them."

"Practice?"

"Yep. They were passing a test and if they succeeded then the next thing would be something much bigger."

I wanted to say that this was all the most amazing conjecture and that finding evidence of any of it would be like finding a specific pixel in a Summer blockbuster holo-cast. Just then however our attention was drawn towards the bar and the old-school vidscreen showing world news.

The news had that important feel to it and yet it took a minute or so to get what exactly they were reporting. It seemed that the Congress Minority Leader had been killed by one of his own security force. Kirsten looked at me with a haunted look animating her face.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking Derrick?"

"You tell me Kirsten" I muttered with a raised eyebrow.

We both sat there staring at the screen and wondering whether this news and our case were linked. I will just for now assume that we were both imagining that a Telepath Twin was the killer and pondering what damage the other twin was inflicting on the world. And for possibly the first time ever Kirsten and I were united in mind and purpose. We had to get to the bottom of this even if it would take us down a very dangerous path.

The most interesting concept I explore here is that with sufficient practice and good will we can all get that bit closer to telepathy if we pay attention to the way others communicate with us. I wonder if throwing morals into my story is a wise thing to do. In the next chapter I get back more to science fiction and action.

The rest of this now completed story can be accessed via this listing.