The shock sank deeper. Nothing in her purse listed her current address. Her mind churned, trying to come up with
some
way this guy could have known all of that information. Nothing came to her.
The car approached an exit ramp. Josh told her to take it. They traveled down Wool Wash Road before turning onto a dark, one-lane stretch of pavement with no painted lines. Karen had tried talking, but the man told her to be quiet, and when she tried to speak against his wishes, he grabbed her arm and squeezed.
“There’s a dirt road coming up on the left. Take it,” he said, releasing his grip.
Karen wanted nothing to do with going down any of the roads he’d forced her to travel, but definitely not a dirt road. How had she allowed this to happen? She should’ve tried crashing the car on the highway and hoped for the best. Now she was at the guy’s complete mercy. He would kill her and dump her body, leaving it for the maggots and worms.
“I’m not going to leave you for the maggots and worms,” the man assured her.
Bewildered and unable to speak, she focused on driving and turned onto the dirt road. The guy was reading her mind, only that was impossible. There were no such things as mind readers. She refused to believe any of the words spoken from his mouth. He was good—really good—but like any slight-of-hand magician, he was simply using tricks.
She thought about the doorman, Ron. She hadn’t told Josh anything about him and her license had her old address on it. The bastard must have been following her for weeks.
“Stop the car here and turn on the radio,” he said.
Karen hit the brakes, fearing that her life was nearing its end. She remained frozen, unable to move. Before her mind was able to conjure up images of her strangled and naked body, Josh screamed at her to turn on the radio. Karen jumped, reached out and pressed the power button on the radio.
“What station?” she asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Josh said. “But after you hear…
it
, turn to another station—to as many as you need. When you’re satisfied, turn the radio off.”
A song was playing, one that Karen didn’t recognize. When the tune ended, the D.J.’s voice came over the airwaves. “This is Mike from WJKPL and as I told you folks out there already, this is an urgent alert direct from our local military. I’ll be repeating it after every set.” Karen listened intently, absorbing every word. “An escaped convict is on the loose and has already caused some injuries. He was last seen breaking out of a police van and heading north on Roberts Street. He is extremely dangerous and may be armed.” The D.J. went on with a description, a pretty vague one, telling only of the man’s physical size and shape.
“So you’re an escaped con?” Karen asked, guessing the guy enjoyed the attention, a glory hound.
“Turn to another station, as many as you like, then turn it off.” Josh closed his eyes and sat back in the seat.
Karen ran through the stations on the pre-set buttons. The ones with songs she skipped over, but almost all the others were making public announcements warning people about the escaped convict. She switched to AM radio. Every news station was talking about Josh Rubin. Satisfied that the man sitting next to her was the person behind the panic, she pushed the volume knob in to silence the speakers.
“Okay,” she said, turning to Josh, who appeared to be sleeping.
“I haven’t much time, Karen, so do as I ask. Think of something only you would know about. It can be anything.”
Karen immediately thought about nailing Josh in the throat, killing him, or at least wounding him enough for her to get away.
“You’ll never get off the hit in time before I catch your arm and rip it off,” he told her. “Do me a favor and think of something else before I get pissed off again.”
Karen, afraid and angry at the same time, thought of her best friend Melanie. Having grown up in an orphanage, Karen had no family and Melanie had become like a sister to her. They met at school during the seventh grade and had remained best friends. Karen wanted nothing more than to see her friend again. To be able to spend time together, laughing over old movies, stories from work, and men. Before last night, neither woman had spent a lot of quality time together, both too busy with their jobs. Realizing how precious time was, Karen made a mental note that if she got out of this situation alive, she’d make sure to spend more time with Melanie.
“Good, that’s enough. I’m going to make this simple. I need to convince you of something. Then it’s up to you what you do.” He told her how she wished she could see her best friend, Melanie, again. That she hadn’t spent a lot of time together recently, with work being so crazy.
Karen was dumbfounded, but still refused to believe. Sensing her disbelief, Josh told her to think of numbers in a certain order. After she was done, he told her which numbers she was thinking of; the math matched. Everything she thought, he guessed correctly, and soon she presumed that he wasn’t guessing at all.
“Now do you believe I’m more than an escaped convict? They’re after me. The government.”
“What do you mean after you? Because of your gift?”
“Yes, I’m theirs and they want me back. I don’t want to go back, can’t go back.”
He went on to explain how he was once a poor man working odd jobs to support his family. One day a man approached him on the street and offered him a job. It would pay one hundred fifty thousand dollars a year for as long as he stayed with the company. Desperate, he signed on. He worked with a subject who had developed the ability to read minds. The man’s name was Roger Williams, a homeless man who also signed on for the cash.
The company Josh had
actually
signed on with was a secret branch of the military, called the Murphy Unit. Unbeknownst to them, Roger Williams was able to pass his gift on, and did so to Josh Rubin.
“Roger died after he gave me his gift. He committed suicide after finding out what they’d done to him. I say they were the ones who killed him, he just made it final.”
Then Josh told her his own story.
They’d wanted to lock him away for experimentation; use him as a weapon, but weren’t exactly sure how. Only a live test subject would do. When he refused, they grabbed his wife and two kids. He had to do as they wanted or his family would suffer. It was horrible, the things they made him do. Things he was too ashamed to tell Karen about.
She began to feel sorry for Josh, but quickly remembered how easily he had killed earlier.
“That man on the street you’re thinking about,” Josh began, “he was a Murphy agent. I knew he walked that way every day at about that time. He was the man who killed my boy.” Josh started to cry.
Karen felt a crushing wave of sadness fall over her. “Where’s your wife now?” she asked.
He opened his mouth, but broke down before the words could emerge. She put a hand on his lap to console him, as tears fell from his cheeks onto her hand. “Enough of this, I haven’t the time. I need to tell you the rest.”
“The rest?”
“I can read your mind; hear all of your questions as we go along. There will be no need for you to speak aloud. I will answer all of them with the remaining time left, so for now, just listen.”
Josh confessed everything. The Murphy higher-ups must not have known the extent of his mind-reading abilities, because too many secrets were let out. Josh had learned much during his long stay with them. A spacecraft was recovered off the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. An alien being was found inside the ship. The creature was dead, but the body was fresh—as Josh had heard it. He’d learned that the Murphy Unit’s science department had developed a serum from the alien’s brain tissue. A serum they believed would promote a human to possess advanced cognitive abilities. They had no idea what they had created, using Roger Williams as the first test subject. In total, they were able to create five vials of the serum, and were working on a way to synthesize more. Later that night, all four vials of the serum went bad, deteriorating to a useless sludge. Roger was their only viable subject.
Karen listened as if in a trance, letting Josh’s words seep into her mind. She couldn’t believe what he was saying. The whole thing was like something out of a science fiction novel and she wondered to herself how he could have escaped such a place.
“I used my gift,” Josh answered. “I can read minds from across the room, even through glass. Every security guard, worker, official—you name it, I read them all. I knew every inch of that place, every security code. I watched and waited.”
“That’s amazing.”
Josh resumed speaking, but with urgency. He told her how he had escaped and how he thought his abilities worked.
“I wanted to use my gift for good. I believed it was given to me, to us, to this world, for the betterment of others. I don’t believe that anymore. If The Murphy Unit get a hold of me, the world will change, but not for the better. Power will shift and freedom will be lost.”
Karen fidgeted in her seat. The car was running with the air conditioner on. She moved to turn it off, but Josh stopped her.
“Leave it on,” he said. “It’s harder for them to track me. The cold muffles the signal.”
“What signal? You have a signal?” she asked nervously.
“They injected me with a tracking device.” Josh looked at his hands. “It’s mixed with my blood so it can’t be removed; at least not any way I know of.”
“What are you going to do?” Karen asked.
“The one thing that ensures they’ll never be able to use me again,” he said, his voice growing weaker as he gazed out the window.
“We need to get you to a doctor…or the media.” But Karen knew that wouldn’t work. Even if he exposed them, they’d cover everything up. Wasn’t that what secret organizations did? And they’d never allow Josh to live freely. Knowledge that a mind reader existed would bring chaos to the world. Josh would be prodded by scientists and never again have a normal life.
“That’s correct,” he told her, reiterating her thoughts. “And with the tracking device inside my blood, I am not able to remain hidden for long. Eventually they will find me.” He turned to look at her, capturing her eyes with his.
Speaking softly like one would to a child, he said, “I have one more thing to tell you, Karen, and it’s very important.” She swallowed, hearing the seriousness of his voice. “There’s a second downed spacecraft out there. I have read the men’s minds. They don’t know exactly where or how many aliens are in it, but there is another craft.”
He went on to explain how the discovered spaceship contained data of its travels, but only a portion of it was translated before the alien power source was depleted. With no way to power the ship back up, and no way to download anything from the spacecraft’s computers, the Murphy Unit was left with whatever they had manually transcribed. And from the transcribed material, the scientists were able to ascertain that another spaceship had indeed crashed on Earth. Currently, a search is underway for it, but the Murphy Unit didn’t want to draw attention, so they were moving slowly and cautiously.
“You’re wondering what all this has to do with you?” Josh asked, having read her mind.
“I don’t have to open my mouth at all, do I?”
“No, you don’t. But I’ll let you talk so you can feel more comfortable.” He paused, seeming hesitant about speaking, then said, “I want to give you my gift.”
Karen thought she heard wrong, but his back and forth head waving said otherwise.
“Why would I want that?” she asked. “To have a secret military organization chase me around, hurting my loved ones? And add to the fact that I enjoy verbal communication just fine. Thanks, but no thanks.”
“I’m sorry, Karen, but it’s too late. You’re already infected.”
“What…how?” Karen began.
“When I was crying; my tears fell on your hand. It’s one of the ways the gift is passed on. Other body fluids might also transfer the gift. The scientists aren’t sure yet. That’s why this stuff inside me is so dangerous. Look how easily transferable it is. Tomorrow, you’ll wake with a migraine. That means it’s working. By tomorrow night you’ll have the gift.”
Karen felt dizzy and began rubbing her hand where Josh’s tears had fallen. “No, no, no. This can’t be happening.”
“I’m sorry Karen, but it is. It was meant to be this way. It had to be. Everything happens for a reason;
that
I know. I wasn’t sure I’d pass it on to you, but you felt right. And after spending time with you, I know I made the correct decision.”
Karen felt dizzy and wanted to vomit. Her vision was beginning to fade. Josh slapped her lightly across the face. Karen woke from her spell, staring absently at the man who had condemned her.
Josh leaned in to her. “I need you to listen and to accept this gift. Use it to help find that other ship. There must be a way. There is always a way. Now you have to leave; get the hell out of here.”
“I don’t know what to do, where to go,” she said, crying.
“Look, you’re in charge. I’m sorry about this morning and I’m sorry I had to give you this crash course in mind reading, but you’ll learn fast. I came to you for a reason; I’m sure the gift helped me to find you.”
Josh got out of the car, leaned back inside for a moment.
“Have faith in your instincts. Tell anyone you trust, but remember that you’ll also be endangering them. The other ship needs to be found and destroyed. The world depends on it.”
Karen’s mind raced. The military people would come after her eventually. With all their tools and gadgets, they would find her. But she had some time before they would catch on to whom Josh had passed on his gift. After that, the hunt for Karen would begin. He warned her not to be taken alive and not to let the gift die with her.
“I am truly sorry, Karen Lakemire,” he said, and closed the door.
Karen knew what he was about to do, but not how. Josh walked away to a rocky area where there was no brush nearby. He pulled a bottle of lighter fluid from his pocket. Karen guessed he had taken it from the deli. He doused himself, drenching his clothes until the bottle sprayed a mist, indicating that it was nearly empty. Tossing the empty bottle, Josh pulled out a book of matches. He folded one match over and readied it to strike. With his other hand he pulled out the large steak knife and held it to his neck.