Chronicles of the Unknowns: Control

Chapter 13

Jason and I made our way back to the others in silence. Even though he couldn't read my mind, he was still pretty perceptive. I had a lot of information to process and the most pertinent of it all was what my brother had told me privately. Timothy had given me a heads up about a few things:

One: Giovanna was currently in L.A., in preparation for the rally there in two weeks.

Two: Giovanna planned on doing something drastic the week before then.

Three: Leona was Giovanna's right hand woman. So there was no reason to doubt that she'd be there too.

Four: Timothy was counting on me to do something about Giovanna.

Leona wasn't privy to the fact that Timothy and I could communicate. Well, to be more exact, it was possible she might suspect, but didn't have concrete evidence. Timothy was sure that the deepest parts of his telepathy were out of reach from her. Only time would tell. I was grateful that I'd only told Lili about it and no one else. I had the element of surprise on my side because no one believed Timothy was a liability.

I didn't know what "drastic" thing that Giovanna had planned. But I knew Timothy was frightened by it. There was no way to touch Giovanna without getting Leona out of the picture. But there was no way to take Leona out without killing Timothy. Her mind was interconnected with his, so suddenly severing those connections would most likely kill him.

This was a lose-lose situation through and through. I didn't know what to do. I'd already done so many unforgivable things in the name of winning this war. I'd gotten a five year old boy killed. I'd forced a teenager to kill both his own parents. Blood was already on my hands. What right did I have to hesitate at killing my brother? What more was it if I added his blood to the never-ending list?

Not doing anything with the information that Timothy gave me would mean that Giovanna would go through with her plans uninhibited. Which may mean the point of no return would be passed and all would be lost. This woman had made people disappear out of thin air. That added a lot more gravity to the situation.

Intervening as Timothy wanted me to do, may very well be suicide. With Leona there, Jason had no way of using his telekinesis. That was out of the question, but expanding his telepathy to protect other people wasn't. I didn't know exactly how his powers worked when it came to splitting his attention, but maybe, just maybe it was a little like juggling. If he was tossing one ball in the air then he was fine. Adding weight to the same ball wouldn't take quite the same amount of effort and attention as adding more another ball to keep afloat. Trying to use his telekinesis might be akin to adding a second ball, where as adding more people under his telepathic umbrella was like adding weight.

The thing was, I could be wrong about that. It could all be like juggling which would mean we were screwed. Not to mention I had no idea how many people he could protect. One, maybe two tops. Leona could only control about 3 people at a time. If Jason could protect our two most powerful allies then we were safe.

But that was just protection from Leona, not Giovanna. Let's say Jason can protect Daisy Lynn and Sakima. They could probably overpower Leona fairly easily. She was a powerful telepath, but if her abilities were nullified by Jason, she was useless. Giovanna was a wild card. Could the three of them take her on?

My gut told me, no, they could not.

I felt a sinking feeling, deep in my gut. We were fighting a losing battle. There was no way to win. No way to overpower Giovanna or Leona. No way to save my brother. A tremor ran down my spine.

I should have beaten Leona to death when I had the chance. I should have stayed as a grizzly and eaten her alive right then and there. At least then Timothy would be free, even if his freedom was in death. With that, the last thing that tethered me to this senseless war would be gone. I'd have no obligation to keep fighting. No reason to keep risking my life and forever scarring the minds of others with ruthless tactics.