BOOK 1: SERENDIPITY / CH. 24: KAREN

FRIDAY 14TH JULY, 2271

Kate looked up from her work. She hated this sort of administrative form filling with a passion, especially on Friday, but that hadn't been what had distracted her. She listened with her mind. Had someone called? Was it another of the threesome? Some called them the holy trinity, which they objected to forcefully, others the three musketeers, which at least wasn't blasphemous, but hardly fitted.

In the last weeks, they had become more adept in using their gift. They'd found how to read people's surface thoughts without touch but without the full invasion of privacy that they'd found initially, or without such a high risk to their own health. They'd also found that by this mode they could talk to each other at a distance of up to a few kilometres, perhaps more. If they focussed just right they could also check if someone was OK without reading any thoughts. They'd also learned how to give better directed mind-shouts — they could call either to just one of the others seemingly wherever they were, or what seemed like it might be to people in a certain area. That was difficult to prove with just the three of them, of course. Kate called Sarah and John. Had they heard anything?

No, they'd been working with Horrace on his latest attempt at replicating Sarah's old tiara. So far without success, it seemed.

She reached out and felt for Pete's mind. He'd been true to his word about no secrets and had declared that he'd allow Kate to read his mind any time she liked, as long as it wasn't just being nosy. He was at work in the cakeshop. All seemed at peace there. No alternative. [Sarah, help me look at a memory, please!] she called.

Sarah had turned out to be the most adept at this, dredging up things from a memory that Kate or John couldn't work out themselves. Sarah came and together they sorted through what Kate remembered. It was tricky, but eventually they found it. Kate had indeed heard something. A cry for help.

[John, come please, it was a cry for help.] Sarah called. If Sarah had proven the best at sorting memories, then John had better control over his ‘ears,’ and they'd found that listening together was best by far.

“John,” Kate started, “it seems that I heard a very faint cry for help, source unknown. Let's first go down the staff list, narrow focus, just check they're all OK.”

That didn't take long, and they didn't find anything either. “Next, we'll go through the people we've talked to about this, disclosure list, clients too. Not Pete, he's fine.”

[OK, Kate. (you got another rose today, I see) One of you ladies can multi-task and tell me who to look for, and I'll do the focussing.]

[Arwood.]

[OK.]

[Hannah.]

[OK.]

[Teresa.]

[OK.]

And so it went on, down through the list of people that were most likely to think of mentally shouting for help. Then there were people that they knew had been informed — the judge Teresa had talked to and government officials and senior officers in various police and armed forces. The list ran into hundreds, but within five minutes they'd checked and found no sense of danger from anyone, although they had felt some frustration from a set of government officials who they guessed were in the same meeting. With extreme caution they checked on the well-being of heads of states and security forces. Nothing. Since the paper they were preparing was still only half finished, they weren't known generally. It was obviously a call from someone who had no knowledge of them. They prayed for wisdom and just listened. There it was once more. Very much clearer now they were all listening together.

[O God, help me please. Send someone to get me out. Help! I don't want to die, God. My throat hurts from screaming, God. Let someone hear me, please.] A woman's mind-voice. They heard the cry, but this wasn't something they'd done before. How did you focus on a voice? Was it possible? They prayed and they tried. They couldn't focus on ‘that voice,’ it didn't work. [What if we call her ‘Damsel (in distress)?'], suggested Sarah. They tried. For some reason with a name it worked. They found her, sort of. She had gone exploring in an old railway tunnel. She'd got lost, panicked and stepped into a hole, had possibly broken her leg. She couldn't walk on it anyway. She'd left her wrist unit at home along with her panic button. But which tunnel? Unless she thought of it just while they looked, there was no way they'd find out. There were miles of tunnels.

[I've got an idea. What if we try to mind-shout her, get her to think it to us?]

[She'd never hear, surely?]

[There's always the chance she has the gift, isn't there? Her cry came to us. That's pretty unusual.]

[It can't hurt.]

[Kate, you're probably the right one to lead this.]

[OK, let's try. John, you listen to surface thoughts. Sarah, I'd like you to scan as deep as you can at this distance, once I stop thinking to her.]

Kate thought at ‘Damsel’ as loudly as she could.

[Hello, we heard you, where are you?]

John heard her thoughts, disbelief. How could someone be that close and not know? It didn't make sense! Why whisper? Why was there no echo?

Sarah got no position, just the confusion, pain, the regret about leaving things at home, about exploring these tunnels at all. John heard, [Why hadn't she told anyone? What a stupid adventure! Go exploring and die!]

[We don't want you to die, silly], Sarah mind-shouted at her, [just tell us where you went in.]

[Who? How? What are you?]

[You prayed to be heard. God's given the three of us the ability to hear thoughts. We heard. We're just people. I'm Sarah.]

[I'm delirious, aren't I? Does that mean I'm going to die soon?]

[Not if you'll tell us where to send the rescue team to, dear,] Kate said. [By the way, I'm Kate, what's your name?]

[I've never had delusions before. It's not like I imagined.]

[We're not delusions, we're people sitting in the director's office at the Institute for the Human Mind, talking to someone who's hurt her leg, but won't tell us where she is. It's pretty hard what we're doing. Please tell us soon, I don't think we can do it much longer.]

[OK, delusion, I'm Karen, I got in through a tunnel near West Street.]

[OK, Karen. If we can't convince the police then it might be the army. I don't know how long it'll take. We'll be back in touch when we can.]

[Bye, delusion Kate, bye, delusion Sarah.]

[John, you seem tired. Focus on peace, please.] John did, and found the disturbing sense of heat was there, not much, but some.

[Some heat, love] he told Sarah. [Check yourself too, and Kate.]

They checked, and seemed to be OK. Kate called the police station. They weren't prepared to waste valuable police time going on a wild goose chase down the tunnels just because of an anonymous tip off about a student going down and not come up yet. Where did she get that information from?

“You wouldn't believe me.”

“Try me, madam.”

“God let some colleagues of mine hear her praying. She's probably got a broken leg, and she went in by the tunnel near West Street.”

“Wasting police time is a criminal act, madam. Goodbye.”

“He didn't believe me,” Kate told Sarah.

“Any clients with the right connections?”

“Well, there's someone in the accounts department in the right ministry, but I think the local army base commander's a better bet. I'll call him.”

“Good afternoon, Colonel, Kate here from IHM. Yes. You've read our disclosure statement? Yes, sir, that's right, we're serious, and we're as committed to security as ever. But right now I'm actually calling about something else. Our mind-reading team here heard someone calling for help, young woman broke her leg somewhere in the railway tunnels. Left her wrist unit at home of course. Is there any chance some of your lads need some underground search and rescue practice? Thank you, sir, thank you very much. Yes, I'll talk to our team and get you any more information from her that we can.”

“He'd like to know which way she started going. The sniffer dogs have a better chance of picking her up that way.”

They joined minds again. [Karen, how are you?]

[Hi, delusion Kate. Not too much to drink any more. I'm pretty sure my leg is broken. I can't walk on it and it's swelling.]

[OK, the colonel at the barracks is going to stir up some troops to come and find you. But he'd like to know, did you turn left or right at the first junction?]

[I don't remember, I got all turned around.]

[OK, Karen. Sarah, can you try?]

[Karen, if it's OK with you, I'd like to try and read your memory of when you entered the tunnel. I know I could do it if you were here, but I'm not sure I can do it at such a distance. Can I try?]

[OK, yes, you can try.]

[OK. Please think of going into the tunnel now.]

Sarah looked, supported by the others, and saw the confusion which overlaid the original memory. Karen had planned to go left at each turning but she'd actually gone right at that first one because she'd been looking at the map she had and hadn't seen the split. She'd found it on the way back though, a tunnel where there should have been a solid wall. That had thrown her into a panic and thinking this wasn't the way she'd entered she'd tried running back to find where she'd missed her turning, and then she'd fallen.

[Sarah, focus on peace now, love.]

[You got all that?]

[Yes, you cool down now, that wasn't a short check.]

Sarah focussed on peace, and found John was right. She'd been pushing herself hard to get everything from that link that she could, and needed to rest.

[Karen,] Kate sent, [Sarah's worn herself out and is having a rest, but we've got a good idea where you are now.]

[OK, delusion Kate, I guess I'll see if you're real soon then.]

[I'll just talk to the colonel.]

[Take care, Karen] John added.

[Who was that?]

[I'm John, Sarah's my fiancée.]

[Now I know I'm delirious. John at church has a fiancée called Sarah.]

[Oh, you're at Gateway? Talk to Arwood if you don't believe us, but please don't tell anyone else our names. The soldiers don't know them. We're just the team from IHM to them. It's safer for us that way. I need to rest now, Karen.]

[Bye, delusions!]

[See you at church!]

Kate finished her call.

“She knows us, Kate, from church. I think we should either go and meet her when they get her out or ask Arwood to meet her. I asked her not to name names, but I don't know. If the guys actually carrying her out start asking questions...”

“She's going to find it hard not to name names, yes.” Kate thought a bit. “OK, lets ask Arwood or Hannah to be there, and also Teresa.”

“That's a good idea. And Kate, if Karen does have some abilities in this direction, should we be employing her?”

“We can't employ everyone we rescue, John, and going into those tunnels without any tech or telling someone isn't the most level headed thing to do.”

“No, but if she does have even the partial gift, then we'd have someone else to help with the experiments.”

“OK, John. Let's talk to Arwood and Teresa first.”

----------------------------------------

[Karen, how are you?]

[Hi, Kate, do I really hear people coming?]

[I expect so, Karen. I told the colonel where to look for you. But Karen, this thing we're doing is new and scary. And people in the army know that some people here have the gift, we've told them that much, but we don't want to be dissected. We're pretty sure it's a spiritual gift. At least, I only got it when I turned to Christ. Please feel free to natter incessantly to your rescuers, but do try hard not to name us, OK dear?]

[Urm OK, Kate, I'll try.]

[We've asked Arwood to be around for moral support when you come out, and also Teresa, our legal advisor, in case they try anything underhand to get you to name names. Oh, what's your job by the way?]

[Thanks. This isn't seeming real right now, Kate. My job? I've just finished my first week as a cleaner at the new mall. I'm still a student and that's all I could get this summer.]

[Well, it looks like you've got a rare ability, Karen. And a big streak of stupidity for going down there unprepared. I can't promise anything yet without a lot more discussion, but if you've got enough excuses for this and manage to hold your tongue, then we'll probably want to find you a better summer job than cleaning floors.]

[So I break my leg and get a better job offer in return? This can't be real!]

[So, how long have you been able to hear other people's thoughts?]

[I can't!]

[Then how come we're talking, dear?]

[See, that proves it, I'm having delusions, and the lights I can see are just figments of my imagination. Help, I'm here!]

[Talk to you later, girl. Do try not to name names, please. Oh, and if you hear them thinking, then it's probably best if you don't let on. Skin contact usually does it. They might drop you or decide you need dissecting!] Karen shouted once more and then heard a returning shout. The army, or at least a squad of four soldiers came round the corner following a dog.

“You all right, luv? Hop onto the stretcher, will you? I know you're supposed to have a broken leg like the colonel said, but it's a lot easier if you get on yourself.”

“I can't, I think my leg's broken.”

“Oh, come on, luv, I know it's a training exercise,” he said.

“'Ere, Burt,” said the second soldier, who'd actually been looking at her legs, (for the wrong reasons, Karen suspected) “either she's a very good make up artist or she's got a broken leg. Look at that swelling there, looks just like Jimbo's arm did when he fell off the net last month.”

“Oh great!” Burt said and then swore some more.

“Sorry, luv, we was so certain this was a training exercise with one of our guys pretending to be a victim that we've only got the light stretcher with us. Henry here had the brilliant idea that if we left the splints and med kit half way back down the tunnel, we could bandage the so-called victim up there and it'd save us lugging everything here and back. Then we'd help his memory that it all went according to the book by buying him a few rounds in thanks.”

“So how do you get me to the splints?”

“No can do, luv, can't risk it. Someone's got to go back and get them.”

“And if we do that,” the man who Burt had pointed to as Henry said, “we're going to have to put ourselves on report, ‘cause we've got trackers on us, in case we get lost.”

“Is it really that dangerous?” Karen asked, not wanting to get these men in trouble.

“Depends on the break, luv. It should be splinted.”

“Could try a boyscout splint, if the lady's willing,” said Henry.

“What's that?” Karen asked.

“Improvised splint. We find a couple of bits of wood, and tie them on with our neck scarves, only we don't have any, or bits of wood.”

“Well there's that thing in the hole I tripped over, Karen pointed at the obstacle, some kind of wooden stick like a broom handle.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Hey, that's just the ticket. You sure we can try this, luv?”

“I want to see the sky, Burt, I'm fed up with hurting and sitting here in this tunnel. I've been here hours. I'm Karen, by the way. Get me out of here, please.”

“I'm Arnold,” the second soldier said and made the rest of the introductions. “Just scream if it hurts too much, Karen. And we can do it the proper way.” He used his belt to strap her leg to the wood. As he did it Karen heard his thoughts. It was a good thing Kate had warned her about it. [Stupid Harry for wanting to leave the rescue kit back there. Stupid Burt for agreeing. Karen is a real sport, nice legs too. Silly place to be wandering alone, she could get hurt. Duh, had got hurt.]

She almost laughed at his mental monologue but it turned into a hiss of pain as he tightened the belt.

“Sorry, Karen. We don't want your break getting worse. One more pull, I'm afraid.”

“Ow!” said Karen weakly as he pulled again. [How are you, Karen? I heard you thinking 'Ow' just now.] Kate's voice came to her.

[Do you hear me?] Karen thought, not using her voice for the first time.

[Yes, I hear you.]

[Thanks for sending the army. These guys are not going to quiz me, I think. They're too concerned about getting caught leaving half their equipment back down the tunnel.]

[What?]

[They thought it would be a training exercise and left some stuff behind. They were going to buy the fake victim's silence with a few drinks, I think.]

[That's not good. But they've splinted your leg properly, I hope.]

[I didn't want to make trouble, so I let them improvise a splint.]

[Well, it's your leg. Take care, Karen.]

[Bye, Kate. Oh, I heard Arnold's thoughts when he touched my leg.]

[First name terms and he's already pawing at your leg? Be careful there, Karen!]

[Kate! When he was splinting my leg, not stroking it.]

[Just teasing, dear.]

[But come to think of it, he's angry at the others for being so lazy, and he's not swearing like the others either, so maybe he's a Christian.]

[Even if he is, Karen, there are plenty of them in the church, I think. That doesn't quite qualify him as your one true knight in shining armour, dear, and this ability you've now got could ruin a perfectly feasible relationship, I'm afraid.]

[How?]

[Never heard the expression ‘witch hunt,’ my dear? There are many many people who find the idea of someone poking around in their innermost thoughts a mite scary.]

“Karen, Karen, are you OK?” Arnold was looking concerned.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Just you seemed to be staring into space. I wondered if you were passing out on us.”

“Um, no, I don't think so. It just hurts lots. I'm not looking forward to you putting me on that stretcher.”

“If it's any comfort, we aren't either.”

“What's the plan?”

“Bert and Henry lift a knee each,” said the dog handler. “I lift your shoulders, and Saint Arnold here gets to arrange your legs into the right position, the lucky boy. And the dog stays still, don't you, my clever boy?” He scratched the dog behind his ears. Karen wasn't sure if Arnold had said his name was Matt or Mutt. It had sounded like Mutt, but that wasn't his real name surely.

“Saint Arnold?”

“They call me that. I'm a Christian.”

“Me too, but also a stupid fool for coming in here to explore,” Kate admitted.

“You said it, babe, a total idiot,” Burt agreed, insultingly. “Lift on three, lads, one, two, three!”

They lifted her and Arnold tried to arrange her leg carefully. She overheard his thoughts, even while she was moaning in pain.

[Burt didn't need to insult Karen like that. OK, she was an idiot, but you don't need to grind her face in it. Especially since she's trying to keep us out of trouble. Wish we'd met under better circumstances.]

“Which church do you go to?” he asked.

“Gateway,” she gasped through the pain. Talk about bad timing!

“Oh yeah, I know it.”

[Full of wishy washy ‘born again’ types with no real moral backbone. Wouldn't go there if you paid me. Well, that explains the trespassing. Didn't think the rules applied to her.]

Karen whimpered in pain. Emotional as well as physical. And she realised that Kate had been right. Hearing that dismissive unspoken thought had broken reality onto her too painfully. Even if he did decide to pursue a relationship, she wasn't going to be swept off her feet like she would have been a few minutes earlier. He'd rejected her church family, the people she worshipped with. She wasn't sure what sort of Christian he was, but he wasn't her sort.

[Kate, you were right, but I wish you weren't] she mentally shouted. [Hey, you're getting better at this, Karen. I heard you without even listening that time.]

[Eh?]

[Before, I was focussing my attention on you, like trying to pick up a whisper in a noisy room. Very hard it was too. But you're doing it right now, girl. We only learnt that trick just over a week or so ago. But what was I right about, Arnold?]

[Yes. He was so kind, and the others were calling him a Saint, and it seemed like we were getting on well, and then he asked which church I went to and it was horrible. He was so dismissive in his thoughts, ‘That explains the trespass.’ It hurt so much. But I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I'm sorry.] [Not many other people you could turn to, dear, but it's OK. When I'm not shuffling paperwork, my job's a psycho-counsellor after all.]

[You are? But... I thought computers did that these days.]

[Mostly they do. I mostly deal with — or rather because I've been given this job full of horrible forms — I dealt with hard cases and rich types who wouldn't trust a computer.] [Ha, I shouldn't have trusted a computer.]

[What?]

[Confront my fears, it said. That's what got me into this horrible tunnel in the first place.]

[I think we need to talk about this later, Karen.]

[OK. I'll stop pretending to have passed out. It really hurts now we're moving.]

[I'm not sure if this'll work at this distance, but you might like to try relaxing something you don't know you have and focussing on peace. Like this. {fuzzy}]

[I got something fuzzy.]

[Hmm, well, try relaxing into a warm fuzzy mental blanket and think of peace. If it works, it might help with a lot of things. It's the most wonderful part of the gift. Lord, help her learn to use the gift You've given her, I pray.]

Karen tried to follow Kate's instructions, but her leg hurt so, and so did her heart from the mental bruising. Relaxing wasn't available to her right now. [Kate, I can't do it.]

[Sarah, John, can you help Karen know peace from her pain? She's just been mind shouting me like she's been doing it for a fortnight.]

[Karen,] John thought, [first repent of any outstanding sins. You know from Scripture that Jesus’ blood is able to cleanse you from each and every one. And then imagine you're being wrapped in the loving arms of God, that He wants to comfort you and reassure you that you're His child. You know this is true from Scripture, and think of the peace of God that is better than understanding. This is a part of the gift which we three have and believe you have also. His peace He left with us, may His grace and peace dwell in you richly. I pray that you, who are a woman of God and servant of the Most High, a co-heir with Christ, might receive the blessing of this gift from your heavenly Father.]

Karen realised that John's first instruction had been so right, she needed to repent of ignoring Kate's wise warning and of her foolish joy that Arnold has thought her legs were attractive. That's not what should have made her attractive. And while she was paying in pain for her stupidity, she knew that God had forgiven her when she'd repented earlier. She asked the Father's forgiveness, and thought of John's words, relaxed into the truth of them, of God's great love even for her. And she thought about that peace, and realised that she could indeed sense it, that peace that was so deep it could swallow any silly worries whole. And such a strong peace that it would give strength to the weakest heart. Even the throbbing pain in her leg was reduced in the light of that mightier peace. Here, she realised, was a part of the miracle of martyrs refusing to surrender their faith, and even sing hymns while being burned or stoned. There was a great purpose to this peace, and she felt humbled that she could have a taste of it. Her petty concerns were not worthy of bringing here, but she knew that even so, she wouldn't be refused. She returned to the mundane pain filled world, with an inner strength she'd never known before. They were still making their way down the tunnel. And somehow she knew that she must challenge Arnold's graceless faith. Just how, she didn't know.

“Are you all right? You seem to have been unconscious,” he asked her, ever courteous, as was his stern duty, he felt. “I don't think I was unconscious, so much as conscious of other things.”

“Too much pain to bear?” he guessed.

“I started going in that selfish direction, and then repented of my sin and became aware of just how trivial our pain is.”

“Eh?” Burt hadn't heard of anyone calling a broken leg trivial before. Agony yes, but trivial?

“Well just think, Jesus, the sinless Son of God, took on our sins and wasn't just tortured to death but also experienced separation from God the Father. The eternal Trinity broken so we could be saved. Just think of that pain. Jesus sweat blood just thinking about it, but still he still went through with it. Jesus thought that pain was worth it so that we could be saved. And that we could be forgiven for stupid things like me listening to a computer psych program which told me to go down a tunnel to conquer my fear of the dark. And for more significant sins like years of refusing to accept God's existence or forgiveness, expecting God to accept us because we'd worshipped duty instead of loving him, insulting Christ by thinking we could earn our salvation, or spitting in his face and telling him to get lost every day of our lives. “If we had our heads screwed on right then we'd be willing to have a leg cut off with a blunt spoon if that would let us earn eternal forgiveness, but often people are so wrong-headed that they would rather ignore forgiveness than accept the humiliation of admitting that we got it wrong. So, human pain is considered by lots of people trivial compared to humiliation, but pain and humiliation is really entirely trivial compared to salvation.”

“What drug are you on, lady?” Mutt asked. “And can I have some?”

Burt said, “It's the endorphins, body's painkillers, like heroin, they say.”

“Not drugs, you heathen!” Henry said. “This little lady's your genuine article Christian. Bet you if we slapped one cheek she'd offer us the other one. Here she is, must be in agony, and she couldn't care two hoots if we dropped her, just as long as we got right with God. Sorry, Arnold, I ain't going to call you Saint any more. I know you try but I think we've got the genuine article here.”

“I've been rebuked,” Arnold said, “and I'm going to hold my tongue. But if you drop her, then I'm gong to carry this lady out if it's the last thing I do.”

“Better response might be to do what she said, Arnold. I know I'm going to, just as soon as I get home,” Henry declared.

“What do you mean, do what she says?” Arnold asked.

“Admit yer wrong, numbskull, let Jesus into your heart, like my kiddies sing when they come home from Sunday school.”

“Is that why you're waiting ‘till you get home, Henry? To talk to your kids?” Karen asked.

“Naah, I'm silly romantic, me, I want to let my wife tell me what to pray.”

“Yez a great burke then, Henry!” Burt said. “She's going to be right pleased if we tell her what you said after you've had a tree fall on yer half way home, ain't she? Call ‘er when we get little lassie here out, or even better when we stop to put the right splint on her. That way I can say we had to stop for you to make peace with yer maker.”

“I won't lie about why we stopped, but if they don't ask, I won't tell,” Henry said.

“I might have to tell,” Arnold said. “My duty to tell the medics sometime.”

“Well, just do it in private then,” said Burt, “not with the CO in earshot.”

“I'll try, Burt, but if the CO stays in earshot, I still need to tell them.”

“Does it matter?” Karen asked.

“We appreciate it, Karen, but it might matter, yes.”

“I think my leg's going numb,” Karen said.

“I need to check her, guys,” Arnold said, “I might have got the belt too tight.”

“Down we go then!”

Arnold checked, and his guess had been right. He needed to loosen the belts.

“This'll hurt, Karen, I'm sorry.”

“Do it,” she said and sought peace. Even there the shot of pain was significant, but the peace let her endure it. She returned reciting Psalm 23 under her breath. But she hadn't realised that he needed to loosen both ends. The second end hurt a lot. It was all very well to call pain trivial from the insulation of wallowing in the peace of God, but in this world of pain she felt its full bite. She also knew the truth of her earlier thoughts. God's peace reached out to her and carried her through. His rod and staff comforted her. Tears ran down her face, but she was able to hold back the scream. “Ow...,” she said weakly. “That hurt, and still hurts. What happened?”

“It's a risk with an improvised splint, Karen. I needed to tie it tight, but I overdid it and cut your circulation. I'm sorry.”

“Not your fault, Arnold.”

“Then whose? I'm the only one with any medical training, and I let myself give in to Henry's scheme. By rights you should have pain killers and anti-inflammatories in your system by now, but no, they stayed behind. And I'm the one who tied a tourniquet instead of a splint and almost made you lose a leg!”

“OK, if you really want the credit then we'll admit it was your fault, but I forgive you, so let's go find that proper splint and those drugs. Please?”

“OK, let's go.”

A few minutes later they found the med-kit. More pain for Karen, but the proper splint was more comfortable. She accepted the anti-inflammatories, but decided against the pain killers. She had never liked drugs that might affect her thoughts.

Henry was true to his word and called his wife. Karen heard him say that he'd seen a Christian woman suffering and heard her talking about it, and he wanted to be that strong. That he was sorry for calling her weak. Karen felt guilty for eavesdropping and called Kate instead. [Hi, Kate!]

[You seem happier. How are you?]

[Very very humbled. High on God's peace, I gave a little speech about how pain isn't that significant really compared to humiliation and what Christ paid for our salvation. Henry's just phoning home to pray the prayer with his wife.]

[Praise God! And Arnold?]

[Still going on about duty, responsibility, and so on, but he said something about being rebuked too.]

[Well, not to worry. There's time yet for him, I expect.]

[I hope so.]

[Still thinking romantic thoughts?]

[No, not at all actually, just don't want any of them to perish. And since he's the one known as a Christian, well, you know...]

[He could be putting people off if it's just a moral code?]

[Yes, exactly. Oops, I'd better start paying attention round here.]

[Chat to you later, Karen.]

“Thanks Karen, from me and my wife,” Harry was saying.

“Thank you, Harry. I um heard what you said about me. I don't know if it's true, but it was flattering.”

“All right, you lot, let's have a vote. Who agrees with me that Karen here is as strong as anyone on our base? No, I'm not thinking physically, you numbskulls.”

“She's certainly as crazy,” offered Mutt. “I mean, refusing pain meds? Yeah, OK, she's toughing it out well, really well.”

“Yeah, she's a hardcase,” agreed Burt.

“Arnold, come on man, out with it.”

“She's weak. She's got herself into a stupid position by taking bad advice, coming down here unprepared. She'd got no backup plan, I wouldn't be at all surprised if she didn't even let anyone know she was coming down here. She doesn't even have her wrist unit on. Total lack of moral fibre and basic common sense. She needs a child minder.”

Karen wasn't particularly surprised. “Now that's the sort of evaluation that I'd give of myself. I'm not sure about the child minder bit though. So, someone explain the difference between Mr. Perfect here's version of Christianity and mine?”

Burt replied, “Oh you ain't perfect, Missy, but it looks to me like you've got peace with your God about it, and He's giving you a lot of balls, pardon the expression, to talk to a bunch of squaddies about it.”

Henry added, “Of course Arnold ain't perfect either, but he thinks he needs to be. You rely on God's forgiveness, just like my missus. Hey, I do too now, that's great!”

“When I was out of things earlier, just before my little speech, I was thinking about God's peace, His forgiveness. I think of it as an enormous lake, big as an ocean, and a single drop is able to make us right with God. I think Arnold might say it's like this very rare ointment, which you can apply once and it's gone. Am I right, Arnold?”

“God might decide to forgive my sins if I'm worthy,” Arnold intoned. “Ye great numbskull, Arnold,” exploded Henry. “Stop insulting God by thinking you can earn what He freely offers. Ain't you ever sung Amazing Grace? Listen to the words, man. You know what grace means? An undeserved gift.”

“I will not dishonour my God by replying in kind, Henry,” Arnold said formally, “nor will I subscribe to a gospel of cheap grace that means I can break God's laws whenever I want to.”

“I respect you for your stand against sin, Arnold. I wish I had your moral fibre, so I didn't keep on offending the God whom I love,” Karen said. “But I don't want you to forget that when Jesus said that there was more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repented than however many it was that didn't need to, He was speaking with irony. All have fallen short. But the costly, costly grace that Christ bought with His blood is offered freely to all who repent.”

“All right, luv, leave off the religion for a bit, will you? Mutt an me are going to get enough of it from Henry here I expect. You go converting our saint here and we'll ‘ave to get ourselves kicked out of the army to escape the God talk.”

“Or you could always turn to God too.” Karen pointed out.

“Oh, leave off, luv, OK? I'll think about it.”

“What I want to know,” chipped in Mutt, “is how come we came to get you in the first place. You've got no electronics at all, have you?”

“Well,” prevaricated Karen, “I've got my light, that counts as electronic, doesn't it?”

“All right, smarty. So what did you do? Make sparks in Morse code?”

“Can you do that?” Karen asked. “I never learnt Morse.”

“I've ‘erd of it being done,” Burt said. “Not sure it'd work down here though, anyway. But you didn't even try?”

“No, I'm not that resourceful.”

“So why in heaven are we talking to you and carrying you out?” asked Arnold. “By rights you should have tried crawling out or starved to death.”

“I know. I didn't know which way was out though, that's why I fell — panic. So I was pretty sure I was going to starve. Or die of thirst. It concentrates the mind on important things, imminent death.”

“I can believe it,” Henry agreed. “But how did you get word out?”

“I prayed. I screamed for help, and then I prayed again when my voice ran out. I prayed that someone would hear me, that somehow I'd be rescued. And here you are. You guys are the eventual answer to my prayers.”

“Hey,” Mutt objected, “I know the colonel thinks he's important, but you're not telling me that the big fella's got him listening in on the prayer line, are you?”

“No, not exactly. But from what they said there are a few people here in the city to whom God's recently given the gift of hearing thoughts. They were a bit surprised to hear my cry for help, it's never happened before. But somehow they know your colonel and rather than laughing ‘till he was sick he sent you lovely guys.”

“So that's what he meant about checking some dubious signals intel,” Burt muttered.

“Oh come on, Burt,” Mutt objected, “you don't believe this cock and bull story! It's got to be a set up. The girl's a bloody good actress, and there was some kind of evaluation team just round the corner to see how we did.”

“Actress willing to break her leg? I don't think so,” Henry replied.

“So it's not a real break! Very good make-up like Arnold said.”

“Funny make-up that. The swelling has gone down since I gave her the jab,”

Arnold offered, but Karen saw he was looking at her in horror.

She was fairly sure she didn't want to know what he was thinking. It probably involved whether his duty was to rescue her or not allow her to live.

“So, these mind readers, where's their coven?” he eventually asked.

“Coven, Arnold?” Henry asked. “Didn't you hear the lady? God given gift. Mighty handy one, if you ask me.”

“What, being able to poke and pry into people's private thoughts? That's no gift of God. That's witchcraft,” Arnold retorted.

“So when Daniel told that king about his dream, that was witchcraft, was it?”

Henry asked. Karen was glad to have Henry on her side, and Burt for that matter.

“Oi, shut it, the lot of you! We can have the theological debate later. Let's just get Karen out of here. If it's a test, Mutt, then we've lost a lot of marks following lazy Henry's scheme. But if you get into a fight over it then we're going to lose even more. Not much further, luv,” he told Karen.

[Kate!] Karen called.

[Yes dear, everything OK?]

[They got curious how come I got word out. I had to answer, but gave no names, not even IHM, but just so you know, Arnold's thinking this is witchcraft, Mutt thinks it's all a set-up. But Burt has got them to stop talking right now.]

[OK dear, keep me informed, I'll warn Teresa and Arwood.]

A few minutes of strained silence later they were out. Karen wasn't sure who'd arranged it but there was an ambulance waiting. She was happy to see it was civilian. The men put her on the trolley and the ambulance crew started to check her leg and strap her in. She saw that Arwood was there too, talking to a woman she didn't recognize. But Arnold did. “Teresa, what are you doing here?”

“Representing my clients, Arnold.”

“What, these accursed mind-readers? Surely they've not taken you in?”

“They are one of my most valuable clients, Arnold, and no, I don't think they're accursed or witches. They seem like stable, rational minded people who want to use their gift ethically. And from what I've seen, they're all committed Christians with a very strong faith.”

“I'm sorry these devil-spawn witches have managed to blind you to their evil ways, sister. I thought you were cleverer than that but I see now that you're a gullible fool.” He turned his back on her and found himself looking at Arwood's chest. Arwood was a big man and could be impressive when he wanted to be, like now.

“Young man, I don't know who you think you are to go about damning people you've never met based on your ignorant prejudices. But I say to you that you have just disgraced your sister in public and should apologise at once.”

The colonel had also heard the exchange and had made his way over too. “I find it incredible that anyone wearing that uniform could hold such an utter contempt for what you've been told by people you should respect. You disgrace the uniform you wear. You are confined to barracks, sergeant, pending an evaluation of your mental stability.”

“Terribly sorry, ma’am,” he addressed Teresa. “I wasn't aware of his extreme prejudice, or he wouldn't have been on the squad.”

“Nor was I, colonel, and I'm his big sister.”

Karen felt she should speak in his defence. “I think he's been under a lot of pressure since they found me, sir. He blamed himself for something that wasn't his decision. Also we've been having a theological discussion where one of his squad members ended up turning to Christ, and rejected the sergeant's form of religion.”

“I see. And you're not going to tell me what he blamed himself for?”

“I don't believe I have a duty to, sir. I do not have any complaint against my rescuers, quite the opposite. I only mentioned it to indicate the unusual stresses he has been under.”

“Soldiers are supposed to function under stress, young lady. But I can see that this might have been stress in an area he hasn't been trained in. Very well, we'll take that into account. Good day to you, and I trust you won't explore any more tunnels, young lady.”

“No, sir,” she said humbly, and he left. “Thank you for speaking up for Arnold, Karen. Kate's told you about me, I presume?”

“That you're the Institute’s legal advisor? Yes.”

“Now, having seen my little brother's reaction, I presume you're not going to spread it about too much how you got rescued?”

“Um, no, I'm not. I'm just glad he didn't realise about me.”

At that point the ambulance crew said it was time to move. Arwood prayed a quick prayer and the doors were shut.

“Excuse me,” Karen said to the medic riding with her, “the soldier who went a bit bonkers back there — he thought you should know that they did an improvised splint on my leg first. I don't know if it makes a difference.”

“Thanks, it might, but it looks like they did a good job on you. What pain meds did they give you?”

“Urm, none, I didn't want any. They gave me some anti-inflammatories. I'm afraid I don't remember which.”

“You should be in agony, you know. I wonder if they mixed up the vials.”

“I suppose they might have. I don't know. It hasn't hurt much since the second splint went on. It really hurt a lot when they loosened the first splint.”

“Leg was going numb?”

“Yes.”

“OK, well, we'll have a good look then. There shouldn't be any worries.”