Turnabout

wound up. Can't meditate, can't nap…» She held up a sheaf of papers. «I'd offer to let you read some of these legal papers to put yourself to sleep, but somehow I don't think they'd really help.» Kyle smiled. «So, you seem to be handling this whole affair rather well. Is it just because you've known about the Evans family secret for a while? Or is something else keeping you calm?» Considering how much caffeine she'd ingested, Kyle wondered if she was secretly taking tranquilizers. Shelby removed her glasses, slipped them into a blouse pocket, and returned the smile. «Probably a bit of both. I read a lot of science fiction when I was a kid. Hung out with sort of an alternative crowd. Fat girls usually aren't firstdraft choices for high school friendships, so we loners and outcasts tended to gravitate toward one another. Maybe that gave me a wider perspective on life than the 'in crowd' had. So here I am, on the road with an alien fugitive and actually kind of cool with the whole idea.» She shuffled her papers into a neat pile and set them on the seat beside her. «My church had always taught me that we were the only beings in the universe, but that never made any sense to me. It seemed the height of pride and hubris to believe that of all the billions of planets out there even if one did believe in an all-knowing, all-seeing God that we would be the only planet with life.» «I never really went to church,' Kyle said. «At least not after Mom left us. These days, I follow the Buddhist philosophy. At least as best as I can under the current circumstances.» «Philosophy beats dogma, at least in my book,' Shelby said. «Philosophy is about asking questions and coming to understand the answers. You aren't spoon-fed somebody else's idea of the truth via dogma. You're not told what to think. Science fiction taught me a lot about possibilities, and to compare what is against what could be.» She pointed forward, toward Isabel. «I've known Isabel and Max since Phillip and Diane first adopted them. These days, I know something about them that I didn't know before. But they're still the same Isabel and Max, and I still love them. Were they hiding the truth about their secret lives for all these years? Are they part alien? Do they have powers and memories I don't understand?» She laughed. «Yeah. And I've got lots of questions about those things, believe me. But I'm not going to he frightened by the fact that they're different. The possibilities they offer me the possibilities they offer the world are limitless. They represent what could be.» «That's a pretty Zen-like view of things,' Kyle said, finding Shelby's optimism oddly infectious. Shelby spread her hands apart and shrugged. «What good does it do me to fear them because they're different, because they're something I'm not? It's fear that makes people hate fat people, or gay people, or people of different ethnic backgrounds. Rather than learning from them, or at least allowing for their differences to be a part of the diversity of life, people reject those who are different. I've had a bit of experience with rejection.» She paused, chuckling at what she no doubt regarded as an understatement. «Maybe that's made me a little more open-minded than the Men in Black. Or makes me ask more questions.» Kyle saw Isabel get up, and watched as she approached. «Hey, I don't mean to interrupt, but have you tried calling your father yet, Kyle?» «No, we don't have his number,' Kyle said. «Just a pager ' He stopped when he saw Isabel tapping her finger against her temple. «Oh. You mean that kind of call.» «Yeah,' Isabel said, taking a seat near him. «I'll help guide you if you want.» Kyle nodded. «That might be a good idea. I seem to be a lot better at this when you're involved.» In fact, every time he'd succeeded in activating this new power since its unexpected emergence a few days earlier in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Isabel had been somewhere close by. If the human brain is a sort of bioelectrical engine, he thought wryly, then maybe she's the psychic equivalent of a spark plug. Isabel turned toward Shelby. «Please excuse us, Shelby.» Shelby waved her hand. «Don't mind me. I'll either be fascinated watching this, or else go back to my papers if you both slip into an excruciatingly boring telepathic trance.» Smiling gently, Isabel took Kyle's hands in hers, and, for a brief moment, Kyle felt a twinge of concern. What if Jesse gets jealous? But the thought fled almost as soon as it had formed. Isabel and Jesse were tight together, and he'd already seen from the intensity of their reunion that nothing was going to change that. Kyle closed his eyes as though making yet another attempt at meditation. This time he wasn't trying to clear his mind, however; he concentrated on his father, letting his mind rise and move out into the dark night. After a moment or two, he felt a peculiar physical sensation, as though he'd been abruptly transformed into a shadowy flying wraith. But he knew he was still sitting on the plane, that it was only his thoughts that had taken wing. For an absurd moment, he visualized himself wearing the mutant-detecting Cerebro helmet that Professor Xavier had used in the X-Men movie. Then he and Isabel were sitting together, only not aboard Brody's chartered plane. Instead, they were seated just behind the cockpit of a darkened helicopter, looking at Jim Valenti and the female African- American pilot who occupied the front seats. Both his dad and the woman were dressed in black paramilitary gear, and Kyle had never seen his father look so tough. He tried to reach out to touch him, but his hand passed through his fathers shoulder, as insubstantial as fog. «Dad,' he said softly. Jim Valenti turned swiftly in his seat, surprise etched across his craggy features. «Kyle? What… how did you get in here?» «I'll give you the Cliffs Notes version, Dad: I've been developing some weird, alien-style psychic powers lately,' Kyle said. «Just like Liz did. Only different. She gets premonitions. I can set up telepathic conference calls, sort of.» He gestured back toward Isabel. «She's helping me navigate. Kind of a cross between a Jedi master and a switchboard operator for a psionic party line.» Jim looked stunned. «You… why do you have powers, Kyle?» «It looks like it's a side effect of Max's healing,' Isabel said, leaning forward in the cramped cockpit. The psionic manifestation of her shoulder sank partly into the back of the pilot's seat. «So why am I not affected?» the elder Valenti asked. «Max healed me, too.» «We haven't exactly been able to study it, Dad,' Kyle said. «Liz thinks it has something to do with relative age, and perhaps how much time has elapsed since exposure. We're young, and our bodies are still changing.» Jim raised an eyebrow. «Careful there. Your old man's not that old.» «I'm not saying you're old, Dad. But your body isn't going through the same kinds of changes ours are at this age. It might just take longer for you. And besides, Max healed you long after he healed Liz and me.» The pilot turned and looked at Valenti. «Why so quiet, Jim?» Kyle saw a strange double image then, of his father looking forward silently, and another of his father turned, talking with him. The quiet version turned back to the pilot and said, «I'm either hallucinating, Suzanne, or I'm having a psychic conversation in my head with my son and Isabel Evans.» The woman looked at him goggle-eyed. «Are you kidding me?» Valenti turned and gestured toward where Kyle and Isabel crouched. «I wouldn't kid about something like that, Suzanne. They're right there. They say they're communicating with me through some sort of psychic link.» The pilot turned, her gaze passing straight through Kyle. She really can't see me, he thought. Must be because Isabel and I dialed up Dad's brain, not hers. Shaking her head, Duff said, «No one's there, Jim. You sure you didn't get hit on the head back at the Special Unit house?» Kyle concentrated harder and reached with his mind toward the pilot. «Hello, Suzanne,' he said simply. «Jeez!» The woman jerked to the side, apparently now able to see Kyle as well. «Take it easy,' Kyle said. «You've got a chopper to fly. But I had to show you that what my dad just told you is true.» «Where are you?» the older Valenti asked. «In the flesh, I mean.» «We're on our way to California with Jesse,' Isabel said. «In the plane Brody chartered?» «Yeah,' Kyle said, realizing that his father must have been in touch with Brody. «He picked me and Isabel up in Chicago. The others are going to meet us in Los Angeles.» «Wait,' Jim said. «The others? As in Max and Liz and Maria and Michael?» «They're trying to get some help from Kal Langley,' Isabel explained. «He's the movie producer who's actually an alien. Like Nasedo, only different. Remember? We told you about him.» The pilot shook her head. «This just gets weirder and weirder.» «Have you found out anything more about our parents?» Isabel asked, ignoring the woman's remark. Jim Valenti looked down, a frown crossing his face. «The Unit was holding them outside Roswell in a safe house until a little while ago. Apparently they've been transferred to somewhere near Los Angeles.» He paused and looked at her. «But as near as we can tell, they're alive and unharmed.» «We need to bring in the others,' Isabel said, looking over at Kyle. «The others?» Kyle thought he knew what she meant, but wanted to be sure. «Max and Langley and the others. Patch them into this 'conference call.'' Kyle had begun to feel sweat or its nearest ectoplasmic equivalent collecting on his brow. He looked at Isabel incredulously. «How do you suggest I do that? I've never even met this Langley guy. And I'm doing all I can just keeping this four-way call going!» Isabel put her hand on his shoulder. It felt strangely solid, probably because they were both equally wraithlike during this psionic interaction. «Okay, you're right,' she said. «But can you at least try to get Max on the line? I'll keep helping you.» Kyle sighed heavily, feeling fatigue creep up on him as he wondered whether his «psychic spark plug» was up to the job. «All right,' he said at length. «But next time, we call collect.» Smiling, Isabel gently placed one of her hands against his temple. Once again, the sensation felt exactly like actual flesh-to-flesh contact, perhaps because she was physically touching him back aboard Brody's jet. Concentrating, Kyle reached out with his mind, in search of Max. The helicopter cockpit vanished around him, shooting away in shards of alternating light and darkness. He and Isabel and his dad and the FBI agent were standing now, in utter nothingness, a white void. Kyle concentrated harder than he'd ever done before, and felt his heart rate speeding up. It was like no meditation session he'd ever experienced. In fact, it was exactly the opposite of meditation, which had always slowed his pulse down. It felt more like an athletic contest. I can do this, he told himself, recalling the adrenaline rush of high school sports days. I've just got to be strong enough. Max was cradling Liz in his arms on one of Langley's luxurious couches, watching