The subvocal conversation Phil was having with the other captives in the mine carried a sense of urgency today.
“Something’s changed. I can’t put my finger on it, but I don’t think we have much time left to figure out who and what we’re dealing with before we need to get the hell out of here.”
“At least it seems to be getting easier to talk to each other. I could swear I caught thoughts from someone outside the mine today.” Phil’s head snapped up and he whacked it painfully against the rock to which he was chained. Karl’s words meant more than he realized.
“That can only mean the communication block I felt while at the house in Adamsville, and again when we got here is beginning to weaken.” A crease formed between his brows as he considered the implications of such a significant change. He reached out with his mind and found a noticeable increase in Earth energy, but anything would be noteworthy after the complete lack he’d experienced since moving to the desert.
“Well Boss Man,” Karl drawled, “I reckon things are gonna get interesting purty quick, here. Whatcha think we oughtta do?”
His friend’s words and corny accent had the desired effect on Phil. Karl had always been able to get him out of his own head and give him the objectivity he needed in a crisis.
“I dunno, Hoss,” Phil replied in kind “mebbe we should rassle up them folks at Headquarters and tell ‘em to send us a posse.”
Several people burst out laughing and one spoke up before Karl could think of a suitable reply.
“We’d be better off ordering up a troupe of trained monkeys, Phil. Those old farts are the reason you took things into your own hands in first place. Not like we really need ‘em to find a way out of this dung hole anyway.”
“You don’t seriously think I’d try to contact them do you? What if my suspicions were right and the Council has been compromised? We could walk right into a trap.”
“Tess had to trust someone, Sebastian if nobody else, if she was going to get the children to a safe place and start training them like we should have. What if she trusted the wrong person?” Barbara’s words acted like a bucket of ice water on the humor Karl had infused into the conversation.
“Honey, have you ever seen anyone successfully lie to that cat?” Phil’s voice still held a note of the previous amusement.
“Well, there is that. But you can’t fault me for being overly concerned about Sasha right now.”
“She’s safe. Energy vacuum or no, you’d know if something was wrong. Your maternal radar is incomparable.” Warmth filled him as Barbara communicated a gentle caress before his tone became brusque. “Back to the business at hand. We need to put extra effort into probing any mind we can reach. We may not have much time.”
“Might I also suggest that we solidify this escape plan of yours? Or as nearly as we can with no idea where we’ll land?” Karl, as second in command had the safety of the troops in mind.
“True. We might have to jump with little or no warning.” Paul pondered the problem for a few minutes before answering Karl’s question.
In the meantime, the other captives carried on side conversations; the primary topic being the safety of their children. Despite Tess’s reputation, they couldn’t help being concerned after disappearing without explanation or warning.
Phil wished he could contact the Council, at least to let them know everyone was all right and they were hard at work trying to learn more about their captors before staging their escape. But he wasn’t about to do anything to endanger his fellow captives until they knew more about who and what they were dealing with and worse, confirmed whether they’d infiltrated the Council. He was not about to underestimate anyone who could halt psychic communication and still Earth energy over an area this large, and for more than six months that he knew of. The loosening of the block might indicate their power was weakening or they were getting ready to move their base, but it could just as easily be a trap to get the Star Guides to expose their hand. He thought about letting their guard down slightly, if only to make themselves more comfortable in the damp, chill of their stone prison. He rejected the idea as soon as the thought formed; knowing to do so risked alerting their captors to the truth behind the abduction of these Star Guides in particular. Deciding it was better to err on the side of caution, he hoped Tess and the team who were gathering information about their captors from the outside would exercise the same caution until they learned more about their unseen but powerful foe. Meanwhile, not only had they managed to go up a few layers on their captor’s organizational ladder, they got a real break when a couple of Sasha’s classmates paid a visit to the mine on an errand for the school principal, Mr. Adams. It sure explained a lot about why nothing had been done to stop the abuse Sasha was suffering at the hands of Josh and his little band of hooligans!
He hated having Sasha suffer for the choice he and Barbara had had to make in moving here, but to put a halt to it would have meant abandoning their mission. Far too many people and places were at risk. He only hoped that someday his daughter would understand and forgive her parents for what she’d endured; especially since their mission had kept them away so much they were unavailable when she needed their love and support so badly.
A heated discussion brought him back to the issues at hand.
“… we should just immobilize the damned guards and get the hell out of here! I’m willing to bet the Council has already figured out that expecting the Transition to go off without a hitch was completely irresponsible on their part. Doesn’t anyone up there read history books anymore?” It might have amused him to know that his own son had posed the same question to Sebastian quite recently, much to Sebastian’s embarrassment.
Recognizing the mind voice of one of the more militant Star Guides who, in Phil’s opinion, would have made a much better Guardian, he touched a few other minds to gauge the general atmosphere of the group.
“Your point is certainly valid, but won’t we be far more effective if we get a little closer to whoever is running this show? Things have definitely changed in the last couple of days, and I agree we don’t have all the time in the world. But I don’t think another day or so of information gathering is going to break us, though it could make us if we catch a couple more breaks like we did today.”
Sensing grudging agreement from more than one direction, Phil continued.
“I see no reason why we can’t put some very careful and well-shielded feelers out a little further in all four directions. We’ve all noticed communication is getting easier. I’ll just caution you to send the probes out at low levels and only a couple at a time. If you start to feel resistance, or counter probing, pull back immediately! We can’t risk alerting these people to the fact that their captives are really spies. Above all, do not, under any circumstances, try to contact anyone outside of this mine! Understood?” Sensing the mutterings over their continued physical discomfort, he hastened to add, “Please continue to maintain the façade that we are captives. Don’t do anything which might give anyone reason to believe we are not what we seem.”
Sensing agreement from everyone, he pulled his mind voice into a tight band for a small group, including his wife, Barbara, and Mariel’s parents, Karl and Anita. Their job, for now, was to sift through the information they received from everyone else and try to form a picture of the organization they would soon be facing in what he feared would be a desperate battle to protect the Transition. True, they now knew which of the townspeople were directly involved. Information obtained from Josh and Amy was proving useful, though he knew in some ways it would be another dead end. Only a high-level military strategist could have created such an effective separation between the many layers of an operation intent on ensuring the status quo. That fact, alone could be the key to figuring out who it was since only a handful of people in the world had the appropriate knowledge and experience.
For now, each one took a section of the information they’d managed to obtain and broke off to do what they could to extrapolate additional facts. The resulting picture should prove helpful in determining when and where they would make their escape and rejoin the rest of the Star Guides and Guardians. With any luck, their little abandoned mine vacation would have netted enough information to neutralize the threat.
It couldn’t hurt to hope for a long-shot.