Conspiracy by A. K. DuBoff

Author:A. K. DuBoff [DuBoff, A. K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BDL Press
Published: 2019-01-10T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

“I don’t get it,” Leon muttered half to himself. He pushed back from the workstation in his lab and crossed his arms.

Next to him, Kira had been watching him perform the analysis of Kaen’s scans. “So, you don’t see anything amiss?”

“No,” Leon replied. “There don’t appear to be sufficient neurological variations to account for Kaen’s present condition.”

“It would seem telepathy doesn’t take up much neural real estate,” Jack added.

“But this is about a whole consciousness, right? Not just telepathy,” Leon said.

Jack extended his hand in the air, palm open. “What is consciousness?”

Leon scowled at him. “You’re not helping.”

“Settle down, boys,” Tess interjected from her cluttered workstation on the opposite wall. “There are a lot of unknowns here. We need to be systematic.”

“Griping about the monumental task is all part of the process.” Leon smirked.

“Yeah, yeah.” She chuckled and crossed her arms. “But seriously, what gives? I’d expect there to be all sorts of weirdness going on inside him.”

Jack let out a long breath. “It’s not that surprising. After all, it went unnoticed for three years.”

“He was altering his own medical records,” Leon pointed out. “The changes were subtle, but there was a definite shift in neurochemistry.”

“True,” Tess conceded, “but beyond that, who’s to say that there needs to be anything physically different to enable control? Kira’s just like the rest of us, right?”

Leon nodded. “That’s true. They’ve never found a medical reason for Valtan telepaths to—”

“Actually, that’s not quite true,” Kira cut him off. “I didn’t want to bias your assessment before, but Jared revealed something about telepathic abilities back at the MTech lab.”

“And you’ve been sitting on that information?” Leon questioned with a raised eyebrow.

“It may be nothing, so I wanted to see if you had other leads.” Kira leaned her arms on the high table in the center of the room. “MTech was using some sort of new imaging technique—maybe something from that recent Aesir technology disclosure. He and Monica had found a part of my brain that seemed to resonate with the telepathic output or something.”

Leon perked up. “Do you remember where that was?”

“More or less.” Kira approached his workstation and examined the monitor. “Here, I think.” She traced her finger between the left inferior frontal gyrus and the supramarginal gyrus.

“That’s right in the speech and sensory centers,” Leon assessed. “It’d make sense.”

“Huh. Well look at that,” Tess said. “I can’t believe we all missed that.” She pointed to a slight dark spot in Kaen’s neural scan, which branched between the two areas Kira had identified. The line was no more than a hair’s width, and they’d dismissed it as a defect in the scan.

“Yeah, that’s it,” Kira confirmed. “It was most distinct in Jared’s scan, probably thanks to their imaging tech.”

“Could that tiny structure really be responsible for such complete telepathic control?” Leon mused aloud.

“Well, there’s nothing else out of the ordinary here,” Jack replied. “If that’s the only thing different, then it must mean something.”

“Hmm.” Leon’s eyes met Kira’s. “Maybe it’s time we talk with Jared.

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