Psychic Siblings (The Helmsworth Project)
Read Psychic Siblings (The Helmsworth Project) Online
Authors: Madison Key
Psychic Siblings (The Helmsworth Project Book 1)
Madison Key
Copyright © 2014 - Arrabella Publishing
http://www.ArrabellaPublishing.com
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Claire Helmsworth was just heading out the door of her childhood home, one that she shared with her younger siblings, when the phone rang. Normally, she would ignore it and let the answering machine take the call, but she and her siblings had been awakened in the wee hours of the morning with an ominous feeling plaguing them.
Jason and Diane Helmsworth, the parents of the three siblings, had been scheduled to make a routine phone call to their children at 9 o’clock the night before. The call had never come. Claire had begun to worry at 9:01 p.m., as her parents never missed a scheduled call. Never!
In all of her twenty-three years, she had never been disappointed like some of her friends had. Her parents always kept their promises and were never late. It just didn’t happen.
She and her siblings had gone to bed, having joked with each other that there was a first time for everything, and with their parents reaching the ripe old age of forty-five this last spring, maybe they had finally begun to slip.
Claire had tossed and turned, finally falling asleep around midnight, only to be awakened by both Jenna and Brian as they entered her room, worried and scared.
Hearing the phone ring again, she backtracked across the room and picked up the phone lying on the coffee table, “Hello?”
“Is this Claire Helmsworth?” asked a male voice she didn’t recognize.
“May I ask whose calling?” Claire was the cautious one of the three siblings, and talking to strangers was only okay when she was standing behind the checkout desk in the small library where she worked.
“Ma’am, I need to speak with you and would prefer to do so in person. I am about fifteen minutes away from your location.”
“Well, I…I was just heading out to work. What’s this all about?” Claire was not going to let some stranger come to the house, one that wouldn’t even give her his name!
“I really do need to speak with you in person. You work at the library, is that correct?”
Claire was growing more suspicious by the minute, “How did you know that?”
“I know lots of things about you and your siblings. I will be at the library in thirty minutes. Make time to meet with me.”
The caller hung up the phone, leaving a very confused Claire staring in disbelief at the phone in her hand. Who did I just talk to? And what gives him the right to give me orders?
Claire replaced the phone, anxious to get to work and make sure she had people around her before the mystery caller arrived. She headed for the front door, closing her eyes for a moment and concentrating to still her mind and reach out to her siblings. Strange phone call just now. Meet me at the library in fifteen minutes!
She waited for the acknowledgement to come from both Jenna and Brian before leaving the house and getting into her car. Something definitely wasn’t right!
Chapter 2
Claire arrived at the library and opened up for the day, relieved when her two part-time employees showed up only moments later. Jenna followed and gave her a quizzical glance as she walked past the checkout counter towards the back room Claire used as an office.
Claire glanced at the clock and realized that her mystery caller would be arriving within minutes. Brian wasn’t there yet, and she really wanted to know that he was close by. When he walked in a few seconds later, she let out a sigh of relief.
Brian just shrugged in a nonchalant way and headed for her office. She smiled at him, liking the fact that his carefree attitude hadn’t been hampered by the worry of their parents.
Precisely thirty minutes from the time she had hung up the phone, two very large, very handsome men walked into the library. They were both dressed in black suits, with white button-down shirts and black ties. One of the men was older, with greyinghair and a thin mustache. He appeared to be about 5’10” tall and looked like he could easily be someone’s grandfather.
His companion was his exact opposite. He was much younger; with thick, black hair that he wore just a little too long to be considered a ‘nice’ boy. He hadn’t removed his dark sunglasses, but Claire could tell his eyes would be mesmerizing when he did so.
She let her gaze travel the length of his body as she guessed his height to be similar to that of Brian’s – 6’2” give or take an inch.
Neither man smiled or gave any sense of being easy to get along with. The older man asked for her by name and her ever-efficient help all turned and looked directly at her.
Claire stood a little taller before speaking, “I’m Claire Helmsworth.”
“Ma’am, is there someplace where we could speak in private for a few minutes?” The older man had spoken and she guessed he was in charge.
The other workers were looking on with avid curiosity.No doubt all of their friends and family would hear about the mystery visitors before too long. Claire gave them both her best boss glare and stepped out from behind the counter.
“If you’ll follow me,” Claire told them, turning and walking at a sedate pace towards her office.
After reaching her office, she entered and took refuge behind a large mahogany desk, noticing that Jenna and Brian had added two chairs to the room.
Hey, sis, we’ve got you covered. Whatever these two goons are after, we’ll deal with it.
Thanks Brian.
Claire turned her attention back to her guests as they both sat down. “Gentlemen, how can I help you? I must say this is all very mysterious.”
The men looked at Jenna and Brian before the older man spoke up again, “Claire, may I call you Claire?”
She nodded her assent and he continued, “I really think it would be best if we spoke in private. I’m sure your brother and sister wouldn’t mind waiting outside.”
“Actually, we would mind. We’re not going anywhere.” Brian was using his most intimidating voice and Claire smiled knowing that he was trying to find a way into their thoughts.
The men looked at each other before the older one spoke again, “Very well. My name is Ken Harding and this is my partner Seth Anderson.” He pulled an I.D. badge from his jacket and handed it across the desk to Claire, “We are with the FBI office out of Denver.”
Chapter 3
“FBI? Why are two FBI agents visiting me?” Claire handed him back the I.D. badge, curious as to his answer.
“When was the last time you spoke with your parents?”
Claire looked at both Brian and Jenna before answering, “Two weeks ago.” The fact that they were supposed to have called the night before struck her as being a little too coincidental for this visit.
The younger of the two men leaned over and whispered in the older man’s ear before looking at Claire, and asking, “Weren’t they supposed to call in last night?”
Claire had heard enough. These men knew way too much about her and her family! She pushed her chair back and jumped to her feet and slammed her hands down on the desk, “Look, I don’t know what this is about but I’m a little tired of the games here. Say what you have to say or ask your questions.”
“Please, sit back down. Did your parents call in last night?”
“No! But you already knew that before asking didn’t you?”
“I’m afraid so. We’ve been monitoring your parents and you kids for years now. We got a distress signal late last night from your dad. Before we could attempt to contact him, he and your mother’s locators went dead.”
“Locators’? Man, what are you talking about?” Brian asked, with anger evident in his voice.
“Yes, please explain what you’re talking about. And while you’re at it, explain to me why you have been keeping tabs on me and my family for years.”
Easy, sis, Let the men talk. They are really concerned about mom and dad right now.
Jenna was the empathic one of our little trio, and she had the ability to read people’s emotions, most of the time without them ever knowing she had been in their minds.
Claire briefly nodded, and then inwardly cringed when she saw the older man’s eyes narrow. He had seen non-verbal communication and knew something was happening between them. He looked at Claire and then at Jenna and Brian before he leaned forward, “You can talk to each other in your minds?”
Years of being trained to deflect and hide the truth came rushing to Claire’s help, “No, most certainly not. Why would you ask me something so crazy?”
“Look, Claire. You and your parents have been ina special sort of witness protection program for the last twelve years. I can’t go into all of the details right now, but we think your parents have been kidnapped or worse. We also have information that whoever is after your parents is coming after you next.”
“Why? I don’t understand any of this.”
The younger man, Seth, pulled a manila folder from his briefcase and slid it across the desk towards Claire. “Read through this. We’re going to go grab a bite to eat and then we’ll be back. I promise we’ll answer any questions we can.”
The older man looked like he wanted to object, but then he stood up and followed Seth out the door. Brian and Jenna scooted their chairs closer to the desk as Claire opened the file.
There on the front page was a picture of Jason and Diane Helmsworth, much younger, wearing lab coats, and big grins. There were several other pictures of their parents in the folder, but they weren’t what captured Claire and her sibling’s attention.
What captured their attention was the information that Jason and Diane Helmsworth used to work as genetic engineers in a company called Prodigy. The company had since been disbanded and all of the employees taken into protective custody.
Prodigy had been the forerunner in developing ‘artificial telepathy’ after the end of the Cold War. Their research had included forays into manipulation of the audio cortex of the human brain with electromagnetism, microwaves, and cosmic radiation given off by a meteor.
They had used specially designed drugs, which targeted the brain cells, and then could be used to alter the DNA of human cells to obtain specific abilities. Telepathy, empathy, precognition, and mind control…all of these abilities were listed as being the results of scientific studies.
Unfortunately, all of the test subjects had been adults and had suffered traumatic mental breaks within months of participating in the live study. The Helmsworth’s had been sure that using children with brains that were not fully developed was the key to the project’s success, but before they could receive clearance to begin clinical trials on teens and children, the project had been officially shutdown.
Congress had begun asking questions and the project had gone black. Jason and Diane Helmsworth had worked for several more years in an underground, secret facility, but too many questions had been asked and the project was finally closed down for good.
Chapter 4
The trio looked at each other and no one said anything for several minutes. Finally, Jenna spoke up, “You don’t think…”
“…mom and dad used us as lab rats?” Brian finished for her.
Claire was silent, as she didn’t know what to think.
“I find it interesting that all of the results they discovered in their test subjects mirror the special abilities that we have.” Jenna was trying desperately to make sense out of this new information.
Flipping through a few more pages, the answer to that question was found. Jason and Diane Helmsworth had indeed experimented on their own children. Claire had been ten years old at the time and Jenna had been turning eight. Brian hadn’t been included in the first round of testing since he was so young.
Claire and Jenna read detailed laboratory reports stating how well their training had been coming along and that they were able to read each other’s minds and communicate with each silently.
Brian was entered into the experiment six months later and showed immediate results in his ability to communicate telepathically with his siblings.
TheHelmsworth’s had kept their discovery a secret for over a year before a visiting scientist had stumbled upon their data files. When the project had been decommissioned several months later, Jason had insisted on keeping a copy of all the scientific data as a means of safeguarding his children’s futures.
“I don’t understand why now?” Jenna asked.
“Yeah, sis! Why would somebody be digging up this information now?” Brian asked.
Claire shook her head, “I have no idea. I’m curious as to why those men think someone is after mom and dad, or us for that matter. We certainly don’t know anything.”
Brian shook his head, “No, that’s where you’re wrong. Maybe they don’t care if they get mom and dad. If they had us, they could always use us as guinea pigs to figure things out.”