Caleb 52 - Danger

Amanda hugged her back. "Okay then," she said, "but the offer's there."

I served up breakfast and we all sat down. Gracie and Dana came in. Dana looked at me and blushed.

"Have a good time last night?" asked Amanda grinning. Gracie returned the grin while Dana blushed even more but smiled.

"Thanks for the loan," said Gracie.

"Anytime," said Mary, "but overnights for special occasions only, okay? We missed him in bed last night."

Dana's face clouded. "I'm sorry I didn't think..."

"Hey," said Ness going to her and putting her arms around her. "It was fine. Yes, we missed him, but we're all glad you had a good time."

Dana looked at Ness gratefully.

"You are wonderful," she said.

Ness decided to be brazen. "I know," she said breezily and went back to serving up the breakfast.

"Modest much?" asked Jules as she came through the door.

Ness grinned at her, placing plates on the table. We all sat down to eat.

After breakfast we broke up into our groups. Gracie had appointments to see her doctors today, a prelude to being allowed back to work. Dana was going to travel in with Josh and Louise. Mary, Amanda, and Jules were going to travel in together in Amanda's car, and I was taking Ness with me and dropping her at the college.

The girls all fussed over Ness, making sure she had her phone, some money, and everything else she needed for college until finally she quipped "Jeez, I left one mom behind and gained three more."

I heard Gracie use her line on Dana as she kissed her cheek. "Have a nice day at school, dear." Dana grinned at her.

"Yes, mom," she said, and Gracie swatted her on the ass as she turned away. She yelped and laughed.

I dropped Ness at the catering college. I had intended to go to school and spend my first week getting the lay of the land with my classes. I'd introduce myself to my professors and see what their thoughts on attendance at classes were. If they counted it toward the final grade, or if they didn't care as long as the work was turned in.

I was, fortunately, between classes when I felt something strange along the connection from Ness.

"Ness?" there was no answer.

I frowned and pushed my awareness along the connection. Normally I'd ask permission to access a person's senses, but the fact that there was something weird going on, and that Ness wasn't answering me, overrode the niceties.

Ness was sitting in a classroom. There were probably about twenty other people in the class, a mix of boys and girls. They were all sitting staring at the lecturer who was standing at the front of the class, being sucked by a student who was kneeling topless in front of him.

I could see the strings of control he was exerting over the entire class, holding them in position while this girl was forced to fellate him.

"That will do," he said. The girl got up, pulled her top up, and headed back to her seat.

"Next," shouted the lecturer, and another girl got up. She was on the front row, two rows in front of Ness and about two seats along. She pulled her top down, and knelt in front of the professor and began to suck him.

"HMMM," he said. "You have skills. I'll remember you."

Rage flowed through me, and I ran toward the parking lot, splitting my attention between what was going on in Ness's classroom and what I was doing.

He'd finished with that girl, and moved on to the next. The next person was actually a guy. That didn't seem to phase the professor at all. The boy, not bothering to remove his shirt, simply knelt down and began. The professor frowned.

"Terrible," he said. "You have a lot to learn. Have you ever had a blowjob? Use your tongue, close your lips around it, mind your teeth. Better. Now push forward and take it down your throat. Boys are usually better at that for some reason."

I saw the boy in front of him gag and pull back.

"You'll learn," he said. "Next!"

It was about a ten minute drive from PSU to the catering college and I made it in five. There were, luckily, no police around. I dumped my truck outside the door, ignoring the protests of some official or other. I ran into the college, and used the connection to locate Ness.

She was on the fourth floor, in a classroom toward the back of the building.

I ran up the stairs, watching as the student before Ness stood and walked to the front of the class. She undid her top, and knelt before the professor, just as I got to the classroom door. It was locked.

My TK took care of that. I blasted it open, not wasting time with the finer points of unlocking the door.

"WHAT THE..." yelled the professor as I strode into the room, immediately breaking his hold on all the students there. The girl who was kneeling down in front of the teacher let out a squeal and tried to cover her breasts.

"What is the meaning of this?" yelled the professor. At the same time, I felt pressure on my shields as he tried to take control of me. I shrugged him off easily. He was the strongest wild I'd come across yet, but still no match.

"Caleb?" asked Ness. I held my hand up to her to wait.

He had shields. I don't know who had taught him, but they were reasonable. Maybe he'd figured it out. They lasted no time at all as I tore them down. Then I Compelled him to lie face down on the floor, with his hands behind his head, and say nothing.

I locked that Compulsion off for now.

Shit.

I had a classroom full of people staring at me.

"Hi" I smiled "I'm Caleb. FBI." I flipped open my FBI credentials.

I need you all to sit back down at your desks, take out a pen and paper, and write down everything that you remember happening since you came into this classroom.

The girl who had been kneeling before the professor had managed to close up her top and, blushing furiously, returned to her seat.

I used my Empathy to roll out trust, compliance, faith, and relaxation. They all sat down and started to write.

Ness came up to me.

"Caleb?" she said. "What happened?"

"Later," I said. "I need you to write the statement too please."

She nodded and went back to her desk pulling out pen and paper from her backpack.

I pulled out my phone.

It took twenty five minutes for Maggie and Dianna both to arrive.

There were two other agents with them.

"Tell me again." said Maggie.

"I was between classes when I got a weird feeling from Ness," I said, "through the connection. I piggybacked onto her senses, and saw," I looked around and pointed out a girl, "that girl on her knees in front of him, giving him a blowjob. He dismissed her and then moved on to the next. It was like he was assessing their skills. He went through them all, girls and boys alike. He got to her," I pointed out the last girl before Ness, "by the time I got here.

"I removed his shields, put him down, got the class writing statements and called you."

"So, he still has his power?" she asked.

I nodded. "I didn't want to do anything permanent before talking to you," I replied.

"Gregory," she shouted to an agent, "go get a collar from the car."

Gregory darted off and came back a few minutes later with a collar like the one I'd seen Zachariah wearing in the judge's chambers.

Maggie stood with it ready. "I need you to release your Compulsion before I put it on," she said. "You won't be able to connect to him once it's in place."

I didn't disabuse her of that notion. We got the professor handcuffed first, and then Maggie stood behind him, the collar around his neck but still not closed.

I released the Compulsion, and she snapped it shut. Instantly the little blue light began blinking.

"What's going on?" asked the professor suddenly coming to himself.

"I'm ADD Forbes from the FBI. You are under arrest. A full list of charges will be read to you. Gregory, take him."

The professor was led away.

"May I?" I asked the nearest student indicating their statement and he nodded.

He, and presumably all of them, remembered everything. I wondered if the professor was going to Compel them to forget at the end of the class, or just not allow the students to reveal what happened to anyone. That would have been a sick torture. I made a mental note to go and speak to Daisy and make sure that she was not still carrying some form of Compulsion, although I doubted it. I would have expected to have noticed such a thing when I read her mind.

"What a fucking mess," said Dianna. "We have twenty students, who remember witnessing someone using Mind Control on them, and then Superman here blasting the door open and using Mind Control on him. Talk about cat out of the bag...

"Couldn't you have been a little bit more discrete?"

I glared at Dianna. "Ness was next in line. I was watching. If he'd have gotten to her, I would have thrown him out of the fucking window before I let him touch her."

Maggie grinned. "That might have been preferable," she said. "But now you are well and truly 'outed.'"

"He could make us all forget," said the girl who'd been on her knees when I came in.

"What?" asked Dianna.

"The professor said," she explained, "that after we left the class, we'd forget everything that went on in here. So, maybe we will forget in any case. But if not. He could do it. Couldn't you?" she looked at me with wide eyes."

Ness, sitting behind her, rolled her eyes and mock simpered at me.

I grinned at her.

"Dianna." Maggie said, "Can you get all their memories please. If they have been programmed to forget, then that might be the best idea. We can test the theory in a moment."

I reached into Ness' mind and saw the compulsion to forget there. I removed it, mentally telling her what I'd done. She nodded at me, a small smile on her face.

All the statements were collected in, Dianna collected memories from each of the students, then they were led from the room. As they each crossed the threshold, they looked surprised to see the smashed door, and the FBI agents there. Apparently, their memories had been wiped.

I was standing outside the classroom waiting for Ness, when the girl with the wide eyes came over.

"Hi," she said smiling at me. "I don't think we've met. I'm Tiffany."

"Tiffany," said Ness walking up alongside me, "this is Caleb, my fiancé."

Tiffany looked from Ness to me, disappointment in her face.

"Oh," she said. "Nice to meet you."

"And you," I said. then I turned to Ness.

"Are you finished with Registration?" I asked.

Ness nodded. "We were finished with that an hour ago," she said. "Then the professor said he wanted a word, as our cadre leader, and asked us to join him in the classroom."

"What happened to the door?" asked Tiffany, looking at the smashed and splintered door.

"I don't know," said Ness. "I was going to ask you."

"Come on," I said. "I'll take you home."

Ness took my hand as we walked down the corridor, down the stairs and out to my truck. The parking attendant was still stood by it. There were three other vehicles parked beside it. Two of which still had their red and blue lights flashing.

"I'm moving it now," I said. He looked at me and just sighed. "Whatever," he said, dropping his hands to his sides. I grinned at him.

I held the door for Ness, and then walked round to get in the other side.

As I got in, I was hit by a cannon ball of a teenager, throwing her arms around me, bawling her eyes out.

"Ness?" I asked surprised.

"I was so scared," she said. "I knew immediately what had happened as soon as he closed the door it was like I'd been shoved aside. I had no control. He told us to sit in alphabetical order. That's the only reason I was so far back. If I'd had a last name beginning with an earlier letter, I'd have..."

"No," I said. "I was watching. I wouldn't have let him touch you. Couldn't you feel me coming?"

"I couldn't feel the connection. I tried to call for you, to shout for help, but I'd been cut off from everything. All I could do was sit and watch what was happening. I watched as my 'turn' got closer and closer. I saw all the boys and girls sucking on the sick old perv's little cock. Then Tiffany went up. I knew that once she was done, it would be me going up there showing everyone my tits, kneeling down, and sucking on that rancid dick.

"Then the door crashed open, and you were there. You came in like an avenging angel. You need a theme song by the way," she smiled wetly, her eyes still streaming. "You saved me...again."

"And I always will," I said holding onto her.

It took a few minutes for her to gather herself, and then we set off for home.

Both Amanda's and Louise's car were outside the house when we got home. I pulled into the garage, and had barely turned the engine off, when the backdoor opened and everyone came rushing out. My girls descended on the truck and all but dragged Ness out of her seat and into a hug. Josh and Louse stood back. I climbed out of the truck and we all went into the house.

Ness told her story once again to an enraptured audience. I made lunch.

I was just finishing up when Jules came into the kitchen and put her arms around me.

"Thank you," she said. "You saved my sister once again."

"You know I always will," I said. "That's why I was so mad at her for breaking the connection that time."

"Mom and Daddy say thanks too," said Jules.

"You told them?" I asked.

"Ness did. She called them when she finished telling her story," Jules replied.

"Will you let people know lunch is ready?" I asked and she nodded going out of the kitchen.

I sighed. Today had been a close call. What if I'd just assumed that Ness had wanted to concentrate on what she was doing and not chat during her lecture? What if I'd been unable to reach her in time? Mary and Amanda had ways to defend themselves from Power users; they had shields. I needed to figure out a way for Ness and Jules to protect themselves in some way.

I considered the collars. If they could wear some kind of device that would block connections to their minds, then that might work? If those collars worked, then why didn't FBI agents who were going after power users wear them? Why use drugs that made them sick. It made no sense.

I needed more information about the collars, and I also needed to learn more about Compulsion. Unfortunately, I couldn't learn it from any of my family. They had all been mentally castrated by the Eversons. I needed an expert.

Everyone trooped in and took their places around the table. I found it interesting that people always took the same seats. I, of course, sat at the head of the table. Mary and Amanda took a seat either side of me, then Jules. Ness sat next to Jules while Louise and Josh sat on the opposite side. Dana and Gracie were seated side by side, Gracie sitting next to Ness and Dana next to her.

Even if someone was absent, people wouldn't move up. They sat in, what had become, their seats.

We'd finished eating and I was busy clearing up when there was a knock on our front door. I opened it to find a guy there with a clipboard. A car transporter was parked on the road in front of our drive.

"Vanessa Steadman?" he looked at me.

"Do I look like a Vanessa?" I asked and he grinned at me.

"Hey, I don't judge."

"Ness," I shouted, and Ness emerged from the living room. She showed ID and then the guy took her outside and unloaded her car. He asked her to make sure there was no damage, which she did, before signing his form.

He left and Ness parked her car on the driveway. With my truck and Amanda's car in the garage, Ness', Louise's, and Gracie's car on the driveway we had no off-street parking left.

The car transporter had barely turned the corner at the end of the road when another truck appeared with the remainder of her belongings. We unloaded them and spent time figuring out where to put all the stuff.

"Do you have ANYTHING left at the ranch?" I complained, trying to find a place for a stuffed bear.

Ness grinned at me. "Not much," she admitted but Jules snorted.

"She'd fill this place all by herself if you let her," Jules said. I laughed.

I spent the afternoon looking for a contractor to come and look at doing the remodelling work, and made a couple of appointments for them to come and look at the job.

Maggie turned up just after six, as I was cooking dinner.

"Is this just lucky timing or did you want dinner?" I asked. She grinned at me. I laughed.

Over dinner, after Ness had caught Gracie and Dana up on the happenings of the day, Maggie told us what happened to the professor.

"He was interrogated by Dianna," she said. "He's been working at that school for ten years. Every year he has a cadre of students that does exceptionally well. Mainly because he Compels them to study and work hard. He also turns them into his personal 'servants.'

"Apparently his M.O. was to 'test drive' the students on the first day, and find out which ones were any good. The good ones would be Compelled to his house on the weekend where he would 'road test' them further. When he was satisfied with the ones he wanted, he would host parties, which people would pay to attend and be serviced by these students. He also made movies with them, most of which were privately sold to a select group of clients, although one or two have found their way into general circulation. He was making a very tidy sum from his side-line, not to mention having his own fantasies fulfilled.

"So what's going to happen to him?" asked Jules.

"Well, we have him for about two hundred counts of psi rape over the period of the last ten years. The statute of limitations has not expired for a good portion of those rapes. Safe to say he'll be going to Kansas, probably for the rest of his life.

"Kansas?" asked Dana.

"There is a special facility there to house Powered criminals."

"How do you stop them forcing the guards to let them out?" asked Amanda.

"They never meet the guards," said Maggie. "Everything is done remotely via remote control and automated systems. Inmates are kept in solitary confinement. They have access to books, television, films, even limited access to the internet. They can interact with each other via video chat. They each have mini gyms in their cells and are encouraged to exercise daily. Their food and everything they need is provided electronically."

"What if they take ill?" asked Dana, who I could see was very uncomfortable with the thought of this facility.

"There are cameras in each cell," said Maggie, "capable of taking vital signs, heart rate, respirations and the like. There are also sensors in their beds that can also detect the same. If a prisoner becomes unwell, they are examined remotely. If their vital signs support that they are unwell, then, and only then, will someone go into the cell with a collar. They are monitored remotely until the prisoner is collared then they will be taken to the medical facility to receive care."

"And what if they're faking and they take the person with the collar hostage?" asked Mary.

"Then the cell is immediately flooded with a fast acting anaesthetic gas, rendering both the prisoner and their hostage unconscious. Then we go in, collar the prisoner and still take them for examination, and take the guard also to the medical wing to recover from the gas."

"I meant to ask," I said. "If those collars block mental connections, why don't you guys use them on takedowns? Why drug up when it makes you so sick?"

"The collars interfere much more with mental processes," said Maggie. "You know that the amulet you wore reduced your memory and your mental acuity, but only by a percentage -- probably about five to ten percent. The collars are much more powerful. They have to be, since the users are often much more powerful and have had use of their powers. That means they are very disruptive to thoughts. They kill short term memory, reduce concentration spans, and prevent people from using powers, not only by blocking the connections, but also by making it that they don't have the mental acuity to formulate the commands required. Also, their effect is cumulative. The longer they are worn, the more suppression occurs. If we were to leave someone collared for, say, six months, they would effectively be a drone, receptive to commands, but having no independent thought of their own. That would also be permanent.