Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 5 - Apathy - I

  Once again, the pieces of chalk laying in the tray began to float up and indicate votes. Rachel wanted to try and read the connections in the air to see who was manipulating each piece. If she could trace those faint lines back, she could discover which among the attendees had the smooth, quick motions in the air, and which were barely managing to float their chalk, their piece barely wobbling up to the board and drawing a line before falling once more.

  They'd taught every attendee the process of basic telekinesis, and if only Rachel could find out who held each piece, there was so much they could learn about the variations in people's affinity to certain types of magic, or the differences in movement techniques, or strength relative to body type and size. So much data, but in the interests of anonymity and political expediency, Rachel had to repress the urge and stick to her principles. She contented herself with the knowledge that no one else could detect such things, as it was a secret shared between a very small group. Of all the people that might ever attend a meeting, only herself and Will knew how to see the links that attached people, objects, anything with significance.

  The vote was almost unanimously in favor, which wasn't surprising. Most were willing to let anyone speak, and the one or two nay votes were usually just people being obnoxious.

  "Very well. The 'ayes' have it. Mr. Black, you have the floor." Rachel took her seat again.

  As she did, Julian took a few steps forward from his spot on the window side of the room. He was dressed plainly in all dark colors, and he wore a brown baseball cap with the logo of the delivery company he worked for. Rachel was surprised he would give away such information so publicly, but took it as a good sign. The general air of distrust and secrecy amongst the group was bad enough already, with the measures they took to reduce spying and leaks of information. Rachel hoped they could raise the level of internal cooperation before the entire venture fell apart. Kendra's public appearance and now Julian's negotiating out in the open were a good start.

  "Hi, everyone. I'm sure you're wonderin' why I'm tryin' to take over half the town," Julian started, with the toothy grin of a man who clearly should have visited an orthodontist in his youth. Still, he spoke with a quick, easy charm—one that caught Rachel off-guard. It wasn't as though anything he said was particularly charismatic, and he certainly didn't look very appealing.

  Julian Black was exactly the sort of person you'd expect in a dead-end job driving around delivering packages, as well as the sort who'd probably end up stealing quite a few of those packages (not that he had any history as such. Rachel had looked into it thoroughly after receiving his proposal request). He was tall with a thick beard, slightly overweight but still in surprisingly good shape thanks to the time spent in the warehouses out of town, loading and unloading the truck.

  "Now, you all know me as the guy who delivers your Amazon orders. That's fine, but between the few of us runnin' the show, we have a hard enough time keeping up with the load during the school season, and it only gets worse as the internet keeps growin'. So I'm gonna try something special, something to affect an entire neighborhood for at least a week or two. We'll basically be deliverin' packages by chuckin' 'em out with our brains. Cool, right?" Again, the toothy grin emerged.

  Rachel immediately saw a major potential concern. Since Julian already seemed to be done, she decided she may as well address it straight away. "Mr. Black, doesn't that risk discovery?"

  "Well, of course, miss, but we're pretty sure it won't be a problem. We'll still be drivin' out to areas before doing the actual deliveries. More efficient that way anyway. So there won't be packages flyin' over the whole town."

  "What about the people you deliver to?"

  "No one ever notices us delivering anyway," Julian said with a quick shake of his head. "They just check their porch later in the day to see if their stacks of textbooks have shown up yet," he added with a pointed glance at Kendra, who didn't react in the slightest.