Jim gave the woman in front of him a quick once-over as he began to feed the pasta through the machine. She was about average height, 5'4 to his sisters 5'6, and had hair that was only a drop darker than his own brown. He made small talk with her as he pushed some of his consciousness at the mental connection between him and his sister.
Typical of his sister, she hadn't given much of an explanation earlier, only telepathing to him that she needed him to help train someone. Leila a classical paranoiac, had refused to send any details over their connection, worried that people might listen in. Just because people are after us, sis doesn't mean that you aren't paranoid, he thought. Mae and Sheryl – two of the best psychics that the Drakes knew – couldn't detect the connection, let alone hack into it without the siblings – neither of them slouches when it came to mental defense – knowing about it. Two mental packets floated out of Leila's side of the bond, one containing memories of all the events starting from when she had entered Captain Thorne's office until he arrived, the other containing her analysis of what was behind the operation. Leaving O'Hara to his sister and cooking on autopilot, Jim quickly played the memory packet before taking a bit more time looking through the analysis portion.
he warned his sister.
Leila answered, sounding for all the world like a sensible person who, after thinking long and hard about a problem, had come to the logical conclusion.
Leila winced at the telepathic shout. Jim didn't let up.
“Excuse me,” O'Hara cut in.”It's rude to telepath in front of other people about them.”
Jim smiled, slightly embarrassed to be caught. “Sorry, most of that wasn't about you though.”
“Riiight,” drawled O'Hara. “So what was it about then?”
"Why she wanted me to be the one training you," Jim answered. A partial truth.
"That's still about me." O'Hara pointed out. "Although I was wondering the same thing. How is a kid in his teens supposed to train an FBI agent?"
Jim smiled, “I'm twelve.” Raina gaped. “How about I explain while we eat? Pasta's almost done, and the garlic bread should be coming out soon.”
Refusing to say any more, Jim set his arms to preparing a salad while he checked the refrigerator for drinks.
A few minutes later the three were sitting at the table eating. Jim was trying not to laugh at the frustration that O'Hara was radiating, it may have been a bit immature, but he enjoyed the feeling as long as he could. Calm before - “So why should I be wasting my time getting 'trained' by some kid not even in his teens?”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
And here comes the storm. Jim sighed. “Because I'm one of the very few people who have a mental landscape that can be used to accurately simulate reality.”
Another persons' shock was always a nice feeling, it wasn't so much a new emotion as a sudden skip in their emotions, Jim savored the moment of relative peace until O'Haras' emotions came back. Curiosity and some denial. "Explain," O'Hara demanded.
Jim smiled, "I have the ability to give you about a year's worth of skill training over the next few weeks. The only other person who we have access to that has a similar capability is Leila, and she needs the time to develop a new fighting style and disguises. I also have experience with multiple skills and programs that can assist in your training."
O'Hara frowned. No more denial, just curiosity, and suspicion. "So you can take me into your mental plane and slow down relative time?" Jim nodded. "So two questions. First, why should I trust you to not take control of my mind while I'm in your territory? Second, what is this 'skill training' going to consist of?"
Leila sent something that felt like a smirk through their connection.
O'Hara nodded, “How much time dilation are we talking about?”
"It depends partially on our compatibility and your level with Enhance and Psychic, but we should get at least ten times dilation." He felt her excitement rising before he added, "there is also the issue of mental fatigue so we won't be able to take full advantage of the extra time."
Raina tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
Jim shrugged. “There is a limit to how many injuries you can take -”
O'Hara nodded, absorbing the information. “Sounds like a reasonable risk to me. When do we start?”
Jim noted the caution in her emotions, she would probably find someone to consult about the risks of the training before the next lesson. While he liked the sense of caution, he didn't want random people knowing about his abilities. Note: Make sure that by the end of the night, she won't talk to the wrong people. He looked at the table. Somehow they had finished almost all of the food. He shrugged. “Once you explain to me why a rookie SA is being assigned to something like this.”
O'Hara glared at him, not appreciating his tone. “My ability makes me perfect for any information gathering assignment.”
Jim raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by the level of anger that he had evoked from the woman. Someone has a chip on her shoulder. “Must be quite the ability, if it's supposed to make up for a total lack of experience.” He said aloud, deliberately keeping his tone as dismissive as possible.
"Invisibility," O'Hara replied smugly.
Jim raised an eyebrow, "Well, that's pretty useless. If you need to use psi to go invisible, then anyone near you will be able to sense the active psi. It's not bad for combat since it hides your attacks, but it's no good for infiltration."
O'Hara glared at his further dismissal, “You can't detect my psi while I'm invisible.”
Leila broke in, forestalling Jim's retort, “That's pretty impressive, does it apply to all your psi or just the
O'Hara turned towards Leila, “Other psi?”
“Can you Enhance while invisible?” Leila clarified
O'Hara frowned, “I can, but it takes a lot more energy and a good Psychic could probably find me.”
Jim nodded, “I see. I'll include some combined type training in your schedule. Alright. Let's start. Hide.”