Future Crimes Part 43

"And she's too psychic to be easily caught .. ."

Murrillo growled.

"Who the h.e.l.l could have done this?"

Fawn presented the tablet to Murrillo. It showed a rather goa tish-looking bearded male face.

"Look familiar?"

"Except for the thick eyebrows, that's the face the other teams conjured up."

"I'd appreciate a more respectful choice of words."

"Sorry. Anything else?"

"I picked up a name clairaudiently. Mel Drum."

"That helps. n.o.body got a name before."

"I read him as an unlicensed psychic. He also has an agenda."

"Go ahead."

"He's trying to crash the economy."

"If this keeps up, he'll succeed," Murrillo growled.

"Okay. Stand by with your team. I gotta get instructions."

FBI Director Silverglate took the news in silence.

"We have to find this Alpha terrorist, Mr. Director.

We have a face, a name, and a pattern. And we know he's targeting high-level banking officials. But we don't know why."

"With under grounded Alphas, there is no why," the Director snapped.

"Maybe he takes "Money is the Root of AH Evil' literally. Maybe he has a stash of old currency and thinks if V-money is discredited, he can cash in at pre-Schism rates. Motives don't matter.

We have to find this individual. Squirt your data to Central Processing."

"Done, sir. They show no such person. He's an Alpha illegal--virtually untraceable."

The Director cleared his throat.

"If you can't find the perpetrator, then it is your job to identify his next victim. Can you work with the D-Team onsite?"

"If I have to.. .."

"That's a politically correct answer. This won't appear on your permanent record, if that's your wish."

"It is," Murrillo admitted.

"Go to it. Just don't lose another one."

"Yes, sir." Murrillo snapped off. He found Fawn.

"Fawn--" "I'm Dawn now." Her voice had a professional edge to it.

"I need you in Alpha. You are now under my operational direction.

We've been tasked to identify the next victim."

"Easier a.s.signed than carried out."

The D-Team took two hours. Murrillo didn't watch this time. It always gave him a weird feeling to watch Alpha-state people at work. Like a vague memory was stirring, haunting, half-remembered. He had taken St.

John's Won at Harvard--a lot of people were doing SJW at the close of the Second Millennium--and had experienced lucid dreaming. That was as far as his flirtation with Alpha had gone, but the memories lingered.

When Agent O'Leary found him drinking coffee flavored herbal tea in the hard beam-secured corridor, she had that mellow lift to her voice that told him she was back in Alpha.

"Our man is blocking us. He's got his walls up and my belief is that he's not consciously preselected his next victim precisely to thwart us."

"That means he knows FBI has off-the-books divination teams."

Fawn shrugged.

"It's an open secret."

"Who works pre cognitively on your team?"

"I do. But you know how it goes. Given ninety percent psychic reliability factors drop to twenty or thirty when you go pre cog Time is not recognizable in Alpha, so I might pick up on victim five or six, instead of four. a.s.suming I catch the correct timeline."

"Okay, okay. Spare me the quantum quasi-physics lesson. If we're blocked, we're blocked. We're just going to have to go public."

Fawn lifted a quelling hand.

"There is another way."

"Name it."

"There's a man who used to do this kind of work.

A legend."

"A super-psychic?"

"He is psychic, but that's not his forte. He used to work with the police, but after the Schism, he went underground. Not wanting to give up his Beta life, he didn't care to go full Alpha. So he dropped out of sight." Her dark brows knit together.

"Funny, he should pop into my head. I haven't thought of him in years."

Murrillo raised an impatient eyebrow.

"So?"

"He's an astrologer. One of the best."

"Astrology is not a sanctioned procedure. You know that."