THE SWORD AND SICKLE

PART TWO: DECEPTION

CHAPTER-FOUR

PRESS CONFERENCE

©2017, Olan L. Smith

"Hey, you're the one! You're that agent who captured that man who killed Menisci! Hell, you're a hero. The fuel-up and coffee are on me."

"I was just doing my job and the fuel is on the government. I have to keep track of those things. But thank you." She wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

"Have it your way."

She grabbed her receipt and card and headed to her car. On the way out she heard someone think, "She betrayed the Lord." Greta turned to see who it was, but the person did not stand out in the crowd. Opening the door of her car she drove away in a hurry trying to outrun the range of her power to understand peoples' thoughts. Finally, after about a mile the thoughts left her mind. She was going to have to learn how to block these thoughts, and only use her new power–selectively. Suddenly, a white dove hit her windshield and bounced off leaving a small crack in it. Peering back in her review mirror she saw its body bouncing across the lanes of traffic. Damn, she thought. What else is going to happen? Her phone rang. Picking it up she saw Chief Detective Wescott's name showing, "Yes Chief Detective. How may I help you, sir?"

Wescott replied, "Good morning, Greta. Morgan has a new assignment for you. When you are finished with Dr. Burton I want you to head straight to the office to receive your orders."

"Yes sir. Chief, have you read the papers this morning? My name is plastered all over the place. How am I going to do my job?"

"You let me worry about that. I will see you in a few hours."

"Yes sir," and she hung up the phone.

Arriving at the CIA Headquarters, she was greeted by Agent Casteel. "Hello, Greta. I had a feeling we would meet again."

"How can I help you, Agent Casteel?"

"Call me Reuben. It seems that we will be working together on this new assignment."

"Oh, we are? My Chief didn't say anything about that."

"Well, mine did and I understand it comes down from the top."

She probed his mind and found out he was telling the truth, but he did not know either what the assignment was about. "So, where are we going, Reuben?"

"I have no clue. All I was told was to meet you here and then follow you to meet with your Chief Detective."

"Well Reuben, have a seat, and when I am through the doctor we can leave."

"You know you are famous, don't you."

"Yes, I read the paper this morning. I am still not sure how the tabloids obtained my picture."

"Yeah, that is strange." Reuben had a seat as she walked through the lab of Dr. Burton.

Dr. Burton was waiting for her as she entered. "Hello, Greta. Let's get to work."

Greta tried to hear the doctor's thoughts, but she failed. Hmmm... she is good at guarding them. I'd better not probe too much or she will know it. "You got to get these birds out of my head. They are driving me nuts."

Soon enough, but first, I want to talk to you about your experience with Levi and your cousin. How did you communicate with him?"

"I did as you asked. After sitting down I merely thought about them and there they were, standing in front of me in the nude."

"Did you experience any time dilation while doing this?"

"What do you mean by time dilation?"

"I know you know the meaning of dilation, it is the same with time. Time is not only material, it is also subjective to the mind. The mind perceives time about many things such as age, enjoyment, sorrow, or meditation. The brain thinks up to a thousand words a second, so if you are daydreaming, you can think of a whole day of experiences in a matter of seconds. I want to know if, while you were with Levi time seemed to pass at a different rate."

"Yes as a matter of fact. From what the team told me I just sat down and they appeared in front of me. It seemed more like I had been meditating for an hour. What do you suppose that was?"

"As I said to you last time, Levi is a master of mind control, and from what I can tell so is his wife. We are not sure how he transports himself from one place to another without us not detecting him, but one theory is he causes the people around him to miss time by causing them to suffer partial seizures. This is the opposite of what you experienced. For them, it was as though someone turned them off, and while they were 'switched off'; he walked among them without notice. You, on the other hand seem to have had a different type of seizure. Yours is more like a complex-partial, where you may be aware of what is happening, but time is distorted."

"Yes, that is right. It was the weirdest experience of my life, and it took a while to focus on Levi and Venus when they appeared."

"What did Levi and Venus say to you?"

"They were glad to meet me and seemed to be unaware of what was about to happen to them. The conversation was strange. I could hear them well, but their lips remained closed."

"Do you mean like this?" Dr. Burton transmitted her thoughts into Greta's mind.

Greta cringed as she received the message. "No, and yes," she responded. "Your thoughts were harsh, almost an attempt to force them upon me against my will, while theirs were pleasing, gentle, and kind."