Once breakfast was consumed, Alexis made Jen leave to go put on clothes because part of her plan involved driving. While Jen left, Alexis opened up a notes program on her laptop. She had a feeling that she was gonna be doing a lot of typing and that using her phone or the white board was gonna be annoying after awhile.
She moved to the tarp area and sat on one of the two couch cushions they had plundered from Alexis’s loveseat. She didn’t love having her laptop near Pam, but she was not going to risk her tv.
This morning Alexis had started brainstorm a few next steps.
Alexis typed, “Okay Pam, just want to make sure you and I are on the same page. I assume the whole ‘super villain’ thing means you don’t want to go to the police.”
The lantern flashed.
[“C”]
Honestly, no matter how much Pam’s talent scared her, or how jarring it was to talk to someone who presumably identified as ‘evil’, at least they could agree on having a healthy skepticism of authority.
“Alright,” Alexis typed, “then first things first, we need to know if your body is still out there. Can you feel it at all?”
When she was brainstorming this morning, Alexis put this at the top of her priority list. She needed more information about how much sensory information Pam might be getting from her body, if any.
[“N”]
Alexis typed, “You said you felt tired last night though, right?”
[“C”]
Alexis typed, “So you can see and move your talent, but you can’t hear, feel, or move your body at all?”
[“C”]
Alexis typed, “And sorry if this is obvious, but you can still feel emotions like being happy or angry, and last night you said you felt tired?” Even if it was stuff she had intuited or had already been told, Alexis asked just to make sure she had as clear an understanding as possible. That was the method she had seen a lot of detectives employ when dealing with a lot of unknowns.
In fiction anyway.
[“C”]
She tried to wrap her head around what that experience was like. There were of course cases of people who can’t move anything but their eyes, but usually they didn’t have a second phantasmic body they could warg into. Or, I guess I don’t know if it feels more like warging or just having another set of limbs.
Alexis typed, “Again, sorry if this is obvious, but do you feel hungry?”
There was a long pause before the conversation.
There was a very real chance that Pam might be dying with no food or water, and if that was the case they would have to start moving fast. And even if Alexis wasn’t a fan, it definitely meant going to the police.
But also, Alexis couldn’t feel too concerned about this scenario however. It had been days since she was first attacked and was left in this state. And It just seemed so implausible that her attacker would do all that work and just leave her somewhere to starve rather than kidnap or kill her. Especially if the attack was premeditated, but Alexis didn’t have enough info to determine if that was the case yet.
So if Pam did feel like she was starving or if her hunger waxed and waned (because someone was feeding her regularly), it would at least be one clue them into what her body’s condition might be.
But also, hunger wasn’t really an emotion, it only occurred if you had a stomach to send signals to your brain. And if she was fully cut off from her body somehow, she probably couldn’t feel it.
This was dangerous because it meant that they would have no idea what condition her body would be.
Not to mention if she felt hunger it would one hundred percent confirm she was alive.
[“N”]
“Dang it!” Alexis whispered, before typing, “Okay, another obvious one, but I’m assuming you have already tried to find your body?”
The lantern floated over to where the morse code cheat sheet was. This must be important if she is checking how to get it right.
[“DUH”]
Nope, guess she was just putting in the extra effort to be rude.
Just then, Jen appeared wearing the clothes she had the day before, with the one change being that she was still wearing Alexis’s t-shirt. She better not think I am gonna let her keep that shirt, it is super hard to find merch for Meitantei Tensei.
The beauty of typing everything up on the computer meant everything that had been talked about was there for Jen to read and catch up. Alexis simply pointed to each of the questions and said what Pam’s answer had been. When they were finished, Jen got out her phone to reply.
“lex,” Jen typed in all lowercase, as was her usual, “of course she looked 4 her body, like duh?”
“I am just trying to be thorough!” Alexis said out loud, before typing, “Specifically, I mean the area where you were attacked.” I definitely should have just phrased it that way at the start.
[“C”]
Alexis’s first plan of action when she was brainstorming this morning was that if Pam hadn’t already searched the area where she was attacked, they definitely needed to start. Checking the last place you remember having something is basically Finding Lost Things 101.
Even if the lost thing in this case is someone’s body.
Jen typed, “k so wat now?”
For Alexis’s second plan of action, she needed to know where Pam could even go. Pam had said she couldn’t go home, but she seemed able to go to the Town Hall just fine. Granted the Town Hall, Hoplite’s parking lot and Alexis’s condo were all within a few miles of each other.
“Okay,” Alexis typed, “for this next idea, if it works, it is basically guaranteed to find exactly where Pam's body is.”
“and wats that?” Jen typed.
“We use math!” Alexis typed, proudly.
“srsly lex?” Jen typed.
“Yes ‘srsly’, think about it!” Alexis typed, “Pam, last night you implied that your range was always a certain distance away from you right?”
[“C”]
“Okay, and that means it maxed out the same length away from you on all sides of you?” Alexis typed, “Like your
[“C”]
“A shape that is defined by being equidistant from a center point means the shape of your range is a circle, which is pretty much the norm for powers. I never tested it but I am pretty sure that
“lex, y didnt u just ask if her range was a circle?” Jen typed, “she probably already new that w/o u needing to logic it out”
[“C”]
Jen please stop making me look bad in front of the supervillain. Don’t really want to find out what happens if she thinks I can’t help her anymore.
It was at this moment that Alexis pondered just how much fear and strife Pam had caused her unintentionally and shuddered to think about what she could and would do if she wanted to cause mayhem on purpose. Most of the tactics the federal government had for dealing with rogue psychics relied on how psychics were always vulnerable when they were asleep, or that they still needed to eat and drink.
But if Pam disappeared when she was asleep, and if she really didn’t need food or water, depending on her range she could potentially threaten everyone in the town’s safety. She wouldn’t do that though, right?
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Jen poked Alexis in the side, she had typed out a message, “so wat does it matter if the range is a circle anyway?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Alexis typed, “Anyway, if we assume that the range of Pam’s talent is still a circle. And also that it is still centered on her body, that means that if Pam moves her
“Once she hits the edge of the range we can drop a pin on my GPS, we do that a few more times, measure out the distance between each, and with a bit of trigonometry we can find out the radius and the circles centerpoint.”
Not to mention prove that my geometry teacher was super wrong for flunking me sophomore year.
“and thats where her body might b?” Jen typed.
“If her talent works the same as before, just with a bigger range,” Alexis typed, “then that is exactly where her body is gonna be.”
Though if Pam is still alive like I think she is, because again, ghosts aren’t real, there may be a chance someone moves her body, which will definitely throw off the math a bit.
“so we just, wat?” Jen typed, “ride round town?”
Alexis typed, “Honestly I think it is a pretty smart plan.”
Just then the lantern behind them started to flash. [“N”]
“What?” Alexis typed, “You don’t think so?”
Before Pam could respond, Jen replied, “she thinks ur gettin cocky” What is she supposed to be the translator now?
[“C”]
I was proud of my idea, sue me!
“Anyway,” Alexis typed, “I have a backup plan if this doesn’t work, but it may or may not be time sensitive. I think we should see if we can track her cell phone. That is assuming you had one Pam?”
[“C”]
“y wud it b time sensitive?” Jen typed.
“You know… Because like, isn’t it gonna run out of batteries?” Alexis typed.
“it def ran out of juice already lex,” Jen typed, “but that shouldnt matter”
“Really?” Alexis typed.
“havent u used ‘Find My Cell’ b4?” Jen typed.
“Um, no? If I lost my personal phone I would just trace my steps. And if that didn’t work I would just call it with my work phone.”
“lex u can b such an old lady sometimes” Jen typed, “but anyway no, it saves watevs was the last location, we just need the login info”
Alexis tried to brush off the insult because at least Jen was giving her some good news.
“Okay,” Alexis typed, “then let’s do the math plan first, because I have a good feeling we won’t even need to track her cell phone.”
----------------------------------------
13:14. Tuesday, December 5th, 2023. Alexis’s Condo.
They were gonna need to track the cell phone.
The first hiccup in Alexis’s plan was logistical. Pam could in theory ride in the car, but it was safe to say neither Alexis or Jen wanted to be the one to volunteer to have the talent that was prone to fits of destruction in their car.
This meant that Pam had to ride outside of the car. Speed wise she could keep up, but when she hit the range of her talent she wasn’t able to communicate that fact. It also meant having a flying lantern traveling next to the car, which was an easy way to attract attention. Even in a world of psychics, that was at minimum notable.
Specifically because Pam kept bumping the lantern into the side of Alexis’s car.
Eventually they were able to find a groove, with Jen driving and Alexis regularly checking the status for the lantern to see if Pam hit her range’s boundary or had any messages for the two of them.
Once this was settled they were able to start putting the points down in Alexis’s GPS. The first of which was on Main Street not far away from Alexis’s condo. Once they had their first point, they traveled up Main Street, passed the town hall, until they reached the parking lot for the better Duncan’s Coffee.
To sell that they weren’t up to anything strange they decided to get some food. Or maybe Alexis wanted more than just the instant mac she had for breakfast.
While they ordered, Pam went up ahead and traveled down Pinewood Avenue. Leaving the lantern behind to draw less suspicion.
When she came back she had explained the easiest accessible point was in a park and led them down Pinewood, passing the high school into Riverview Park. They drove down South Street but it wasn’t until it merged onto the highway that went over the river bend into Midport that Pam reached the limit of her range again.
For this they decided against trying to get an exact point.
They met up back at her house, and this is where the math was supposed to begin. Or it would have until Jen had innocently asked how Alexis was accounting for each point's elevation.
“Man…” Alexis whined.
“What?” Jen asked.
“Pam,” Alexis typed, “your talent used to have the same limit in every direction, right?”
Jen typed, “lex, we already established that its a circle”
“I know but wait,” Alexis typed, “it includes above and below you, right?”
The lantern waited a beat before responding.
[“C”]
“That means it isn’t a circle,” Alexis typed, “it's a sphere.” I feel like such an idiot. I got so caught up in trying to be clever I missed an obvious solution.
“k?” Jen typed “wat does that change?”
“Not much for calculating
Jen typed, “and that is?”
“Pam,” Alexis typed, “try flying as far up as you can. When you are at the highest you can go, you’ll be at the midpoint where your body should be. Since we have the data anyway, I might as well calculate the range.”
Both these methods yielded the following results:
image [https://preview.redd.it/map-of-harmon-from-telekinetic-affairs-v0-wvrkeystt6pc1.png?auto=webp&s=4a6d9a538b9616a6cd29d4570ddf96c500d3890f]
*Not to scale
The first important info was that the center of
But Alexis wasn’t really sure exactly what this meant. It felt like a talent that only worked within a specific location was probably not unprecedented even if she had never heard of it before. But she wasn’t sure what caused it.
It did jell with Pam’s explanation from the previous night regarding how the more limitations a talent had, the stronger it was. So a location based limitation was maybe the trade off Pam needed to exponentially increase its range.
And even if Alexis didn’t fully understand how it worked, she did know that there were ways for a psychic to overcome a talent’s limitation. Maybe that meant they could also gain new ones in exchange for more power or versatility.
All this still didn’t account for Pam’s new ability to see out her
After doing the math, Alexis did know that
Though it didn’t cover all of it, since the Town Hall was actually way closer to the town’s center Alexis’s map made it seem. Somehow still managed to get both the town’s Duncan’s though. Lucky her.
Once that had been dealt with, it was time to check where Pam’s phone was last seen.
Jen typed, “k, so how do we wanna do this?”
“What do you mean?” Alexis typed.
Jen typed, “do u really wanna log in 2 a murder victim’s account on ur personal laptop?”
Alexis typed back, “Jen she isn’t dead.”
[“N”]
“Pam you aren’t dead.” Alexis typed. The lantern floated over to the cheat sheet.
[“PRETTY SURE IM DED”]
Alexis had to admit that the case for Pam being alive was getting a little thin on the ground. Pam didn’t seem to need to eat, her talent’s range wasn’t connected to her body, and the last thing she remembered was being choked out in the parking lot.
But Alexis refused to believe it. She was sure if psychics could still control their talent after they had already died it wouldn’t have just made the national news, it would be global news. And this was all just to say that Alexis could not, would not, accept the existence of ghosts.
“You guys believe whatever you want,” Alexis typed, “but either way we literally have the ‘murder victim’ right here. And it's not like either one of us could have been the attacker.”
Jen typed, “k, but when the feds come nockin on ur door, dont say i didnt warn u”
Alexis typed back, “Noted.”
They then proceeded to have Pam share her login info. A way more arduous process since morse code doesn’t not distinguish between lowercase and capital letters. And a lot of special characters weren’t included on the cheat sheet.
“Okay,” Alexis typed, “so it's St4bbrM(*)vieRulz with specifically one ‘L’?”
[“C”]
“Fucking, finally!” Jen said out loud, before typing, “k that 1 worked, were in!”
Now that they were logged into Pam’s account, Alexis opened up ‘Find My Cell’. The first bit of information it told them was that, of course, Pam’s phone was off and couldn’t be connected to. But unsurprisingly, the last known location was Harmon. Specifically, the Hoplite parking lot. With the time logged a little after 11 PM on November 29th.
“So we did all this for nothing!” Jen said, with more than a little frustration. They had been at this all day, so it made sense she would feel that way.
“I don’t see it that way at all,” Alexis typed. Even if this had technically been another dead end when it came to finding Pam’s body, there were still two important bits of information Alexis was able to glean from this.
“Now we at least have a concrete timeline for when the attack was, and maybe we even learned something about the attacker.”
Whoever had done this had more than all likelihood knew to dump the phone. So whoever they were dealing with was someone who was either an exceptionally fast thinker, or a very meticulous planner. Or they just got lucky and the phone broke on is own.
But this combined with the ruthless efficiency in the way the attack was executed meant this whole thing may have been premeditated. And if that is true, I still didn’t know who could pull something like this off, or why…