Chapter 27

“What?” Jacob asked when he saw me looking at him. “I’m all the way over here—I’m not stealing your light.”

I pulled out the Telekometer. The additional pointer was at one o’clock now instead of noon. “What were you just doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing,” I repeated as I swept the device back and forth across Jacob. The compass needle wobbled, but the other needle didn’t budge. “Nothing at all? Even in your mind?”

“Well, I….” Now he wasn’t so sure. “If I did, it wasn’t deliberate. You just always tell me repeaters are hard to scrub out and…” he shrugged helplessly. “Maybe I focused.”

“Shit.” I clipped off the end of the word more forcefully than I needed to. “Lucky for you, the only one who knows how this happened is me. I don’t care if the only scientist down here is busy rolling around on an office chair and spurting blood. You’ve gotta watch yourself in front of the researchers. They’re smarter than either of us and they’re dying to unlock a new psychic secret. You can’t afford to set off his warning bells. Not even a little.”

Smoothly, Jacob said, “Everything’s fine. It’s just me and you.” He cut his eyes to the elevator bay. “Or is it?”

I turned and looked at the spot where I expected Darnell’s repeater to appear…and waited, and waited….

And waited.

Nothing.

“Look, I appreciate the help,” I finally admitted. Repeaters hardly ever got gone on the first go-around. “But you’ve gotta start being more careful.”

“I will,” Jacob said. He even managed to sound contrite.

“Because once you’re on the radar—”

“I know,” he said gently. “I get it. It’s just…not being able to actually see what’s going on—especially after all these years being told I’m just a Stiff—well, old habits die hard.”

“Just a Stiff? The fact that ghosts bounce right off you is huge. I can focus on what I’m doing because I don’t have to worry about you—” other than the fear that he’d TK in front of the wrong person and be spirited away by National…or someone even worse.

“I know I shouldn’t need to keep proving to myself that my abilities are real. I get caught up in the moment. That’s all.” Jacob took a step toward me, then paused. “I really wish I could touch you right now.”

I considered the queasy white light buzz I was currently experiencing. “Best let me simmer down, first.”

Jacob nodded regretfully, and I turned back to the spot where I’d last seen the repeater, and though I counted to a hundred and ninety—twice—he didn’t reappear. I made an effort to stop clenching my mojo as I crouched down to snuff the candles. Even so, Jacob got a little jolt when we both reached for a candle and our fingertips brushed.

Our exorcism was cleaned up, except for the salt…though the FPMP janitors were accustomed to finding random patches of salt on days when Carl wasn’t there to sweep up after me. I straightened up and gave the area one final sweep with the Telekometer, taking care to go nice and slow on Jacob.

Nothing.

“C’mon, mister.” I slung an arm around him and gave him a squeeze. “We’d better get back to the others before anything else goes wrong.”

We headed back and found Alisha dozing while Jibben pushed the shards of mirror he could reach from his chair out of the way with a piece of the mirror frame. I said, “Nothing else has fallen on you yet—I’ll take that as a good sign.”

Jibben shook his head ruefully. “And your efforts—were they a success?”

“All clear.”

Jibben looked back at Alisha. “I’d hate to move her, but the water in the break room is spreading toward the threshold.”

I missed the times when all we had to worry about were ghosts.

Jibben said, “It’ll be safer to do it without the I.V. Let me just get a blood pressure reading to see if it’s advisable to stop fluids.”

I stepped aside to let him wheel past me…and as I did, the Telekometer in the pocket of my clean suit clicked.

I stood very still and held my breath. Jibben hadn’t noticed. Jacob either. What with all the glass crunching underfoot, it was easy for a little click to go unheard.

Angling away from Jibben, I eased the Telekometer out of my pocket and checked the dial. Now it was on two o’clock. If I palmed the device and kept it behind the beam of my flashlight, I didn’t think anyone would see—especially with the focus on Alisha. I did a slow and careful sweep, hoping to target Jibben and not Jacob….

Nothing.

Suddenly, I felt like an idiot. This stupid device, whatever it was…what on earth led me to think it was the real deal? Look where it came from—a shipment of random crap. I stuck it back in my pocket. Of course it didn’t respond to telekinesis. In all likelihood, it was just picking up some random jostling. This notion that a freaking compass could tell me where telekinetic waves were coming from was patently ridiculous.

Jibben wheeled past me again. The device clicked.

Random. Probably.

So, why was I holding my breath?

The simplest solution is probably correct. Those micro-motions that powered pendulums and dowsing rods were most likely the same thing causing the clicks. I was holding the compass. I was reacting to something. Simple as that.

“Alisha’s BP is much better,” Jibben began—

And then a tiny ping sounded by the ceiling, and a fish-eye security camera directly over him shattered in a shower of glass.

—and as I turned to avoid the fallout, I swung past the cold storage door, and the clicker in my pocket went crazy.