The Coffee Shop Pt. 04

I recalled walking out to the front of the building where I work, looking for the cab that I had telephone for. I remembered seeing the cab and climbing into it. No, wait a second. I tried climbing into the front seat like I usually do, but the driver informed me that I'd have to sit in the back seat as the front passenger door was stuck. So I got into the back seat of the cab and gave the driver my home address. Yes I clearly remembered that. After a few minutes of travel, I noticed a strange order in the cab and then I started feeling tired as if the day had suddenly caught up to me. I closed my eyes for just a second, and then I woke up here. I had been drugged, I finally realized. (As you can probably tell, I'm not very good at jigsaw puzzles, either.) So that is how I got from the cab to here. The problem was, I didn't know where here was.

The sound of a door opening brought me back to the present, and my less than desirable situation. I opened my eyes, and resisted the natural impulse to turn my head in the direction of the sound. The gun pressed against my temple was more than incentive enough for me to keep my head still.

"I see that our guest is awake," said a strange male voice.

"I don't think much of your hospitality then, if this is how you treat a guest", I thought to myself. I didn't dare speak such a thought out loud. I heard the sound of footsteps approaching me. Soon a pair of black leather shoes walked into my scope of vision, attached to a pair of legs that were shrouded in a pair of black dress pants. Slowly more and more of the legs came into my view as the man, whoever he was, walked closer and closer to me. A few more paces and the knees came into view. Another pace or two and I could see the tails of a suit jacket appear. It was a black double breasted jacket, and it was buttoned up. I could see the lowest set of buttons on the jacket, but that was all. The man had stopped walking towards me.

"Mr. Red, you may withdraw the gun from Mr. Walton's head but only an inch or so. Mr. Walton is now permitted to move his head, but should he turn his head in any direction other that to look at me, you will immediately ventilate his skull. Is that understood?"

"Understood, Mr. Black," replied Mr. Red in a voice that sounded so calm, so controlled, and so ordinary, that it was frightening.

"Good. The same goes for the rest of you. If any of you see Mr. Walton so much as glance in your direction you are to put a bullet into Mr. Walton's skull. Neatness does not count. Is that clear?" Mr. Black said to several other people in the room.

'Yes, Mr. Black." "Understood, Mr. Black." Two new voices replied in rapid succession, from different areas off the room. These new voices were off to my right and behind me somewhere, as near as I could tell. They had not spoken long enough for me to get anything more than a crude idea as to where they were positioned relative to me.

Well now I had a bit more information. The man standing in front of me was named Mr. Black and he seemed to be in charge of the other three men who were arranged about me. Mr. Red, the man to my left was armed, no question about that. Apparently there were two other armed men in the room, who also had their weapons trained on me. Talk about having the deck stacked against you! I was already tied to a chair, and physically helpless. Now Mr. Black was insuring that I would not have even the slightest opportunity to use my powers on any of the armed men. It didn't require any great mental effort on my part to come to the conclusion that he knew more than just a little about my super hypnotic powers. I had no idea exactly how much he knew about them, but clearly he knew enough to avoid presenting me with any opportunity of using those powers on the armed men in the room.

These thoughts flashed through my mind as I slowly raised my head up to get a good look at my captor. Slowly the rest of Mr. Black's body came into my view as I raised my head upwards. I looked past the lowest set of buttons on the double breast suit jacket as I let my gaze move upward across Mr. Black's body. A black double breast suit, with a plain black silk tie and a bright white shirt met my gaze. Unremarkable.. Mr. Black's body appeared to be of average build. He wasn't fat or muscular, just an average build. He looked like any other fit thirty year old man that you might encounter walking down a city street. He was ordinary. In fact he almost seemed to stress being ordinary, if that were possible.

I lifted my gaze from his body and moved onto his face. If I had to guess I would have to have said that Mr. Black was probably in his early to mid thirties. His face was pleasant looking, and except for his goatee, unremarkable. His eyes were a dark and smoky gray. He was not wearing glasses. His black hair was cut short, but neatly styled. He stood there in front of me, patiently waiting as I looked him over. His demeanor was one of cool, calm and control. He was in the driver's seat here, and he knew it. I looked at the man's face and studied it. It seemed vaguely familiar somehow. I couldn't help but get a feeling that I knew him, that I'd seen him somewhere before. It was an unsettling, almost frightening feeling. The longer I stared at the man, the stronger the feeling became.

Suddenly a cold chill ran down my spin as I finally remembered where I had seen this man before. It was after that failed robbery at the bank branch from a couple of months ago! He was among the detectives and police officers who were interviewing the hostages and witnesses after the robbers were safely in custody. He had never spoken with me, but he was hanging around in the background talking with other people at the bank. My mouth went dry and I gulped with shock as I realized that this man had also been at the restaurant where I had first encountered Cody and his friends, a few months before the incident at the bank. The man had been following me and my adventures for several months! This could mean only one thing. I was in deep, deep trouble.

"It took you long enough to put two and two together, Mr. Walton," this Mr. Black said to me, grinning at the shock he saw on my face. "Yes, I have been keeping very close tabs on you and your activities for some little time now. You have been a very busy little boy, and while you have done a admirable job of keeping a low profile, you have not been able to cover all your tracks."

I stared at Mr. Black, and remained silent. The arrogance in his voice came through loud and clear. I found it annoying and irritating, but I managed to curb my impulse to reply with a sarcastic and scathing remark. He seemed to know everything, or at least he gave that impression. I wasn't about to provide him with any more information. If anyone needed information, it was me. I figured that I'd learn more if I kept my mouth shut and my ears open. I wondered where it was that I'd slipped up. I thought I had been very careful about concealing my abilities and tying up any loose ends. Obviously though, I had missed something otherwise I would not be in the position that I presently found myself in.

"You have followed the guidelines and convention set down by The Panel. You need have no fear of retribution," Mr. Black informed me, in a calm and even tone of voice. "That is not why you are here."

If that was supposed to offer me some semblance of comfort, or to calm my fears, it failed miserably. The fact that this man appeared knowledgeable about The Panel, only confirmed my worse fears. After all, if the man knew about The Panel, it was only logical that he knew at least as much about my powers and abilities as they did. I derived some small scrape of comfort that my full abilities were not known by The Panel. In all the months since that less than cordial meeting with The Panel, I had never opened a dialog with any members of The Panel. I had kept my own council as to the true extent and nature of my powers or how they had continued to grow in depth and scope in the intervening months since that encounter. I had even kept my beloved Andy in the dark regarding how much easier it had become for me to use my powers on people. I had never volunteered any information, and Andy bless his heart, had never asked. I think that somehow he sensed that this was something I just could not talk to him about. He didn't have the proper frame of reference to understand. It would have been like me trying to understand Andy's job as an RCMP constable. I just did not have the frame of reference to do so.

I looked at Mr. Black, and slowly locked my eyes onto his. Carefully I sent out a delicate mental feeler out towards his head. I knew better than to try anything along the lines of a direct confrontation. Even if he was susceptible to my powers, I had three other men in the room, with guns pointed in the direction of my head, to deal with. My suspicions were quickly confirmed. Mr. Black had a mental shield up around his mind. His shield was hard and tight, and the texture suggested that the shield would reflect any commands that I might try to insert in to his mind.

"That's a very nice touch you've got there, Mr. Walton," Mr. Black commented, as he complimented me on my abilities. "I am impressed with your finesse. However, you can see that I am more than ready for you. You'll find me a most worthy opponent, let me assure you. In the unlikely event that you do manage to break through my shields, any abnormal behaviour or orders on my part would result in a bullet in your brain, courtesy of one or all of my associates. So, given the circumstances, I would advise you not to try anything. You may be fast and powerful, but even you cannot stop a bullet."

I closed my eyes and let out a soft sigh. The son of a bitch was right. Damn it! I cleared my mind and focused my powers. Now was not the time to act, but maybe I could collect a bit more information about this situation, and about my captors. I concentrated for a moment and did a quick and powerful scan of the room. I was able to pinpoint the locations of all the minds of the men in the room. That was the good news. The bad news was that they were all shielded. This wasn't much of a surprise. These men knew about my abilities, or some of them at any rate, and they were taking precautions. I should have expected nothing less. Their positions showed up in my mind like blips on a radar screen, a very accurate and detailed radar screen. Once I had them located, I sensitized my mental scanners, my radar, to the texture and feel of their shields. In less than three heartbeats I had tagged their shields. I would now be able to track their locations in the room automatically, without having to periodically scan the room. It was only a minuscule advantage, but it was still an advantage. I didn't know if they were aware of what I had just done, though. Frankly it didn't make much difference if they did. The odds were four to one in their favour, after all.

"Not even going to ask why it is that you have been brought here?" Mr. Black taunted me. "I must say, I am a tad bit disappointed in you. I was under the impression that you were far more inquisitive person."

I stonily ignored the barb. I wasn't exactly in the mood for conversation. I looked up at Mr. Black and locked my eyes on his. I swallowed nervously, but managed to keep looking him in the eyes.

"Ah, so be it. Out of the kindness of my heart, I will answer your unasked question and inform you as to why your presence was requested," Mr. Black continued, in a business like voice. He paused for a moment as if for dramatic effect. "It seems that you have some unusual capabilities, the details of which you are unwilling to share. This situation is going to change. Before this evening is over, you are not only going to provide full information about your enhanced mental abilities, but you will teach me in the use of these techniques. Mary was unsuccessful in her attempt to coerce the information from you. I will succeed where she did not."

I answered him with stonily silence. It was all that I could think of to do. How could I explain something to him, which I didn't understand myself? I didn't know how I did what I did, I just did it. You might as well ask someone to explain the details of how you breathe. Imagine how difficult it would be to describe the exact muscles that you control and the sequence that you control them in when you take a deep breath. As I pondered that, something clicked in my head and a question popped into my mind.

"Why didn't you drug me?" I asked Mr. Black. "If you wanted the truth from me, why didn't you use that same drug on me that Mary used when she first met me?"

"A most perceptive question, Mr. Walton. I see you still have your wits about you. Unfortunately such a simple and painless option is not available to me. The drug only works on those whose powers are dormant. Once your powers have been awakened, the drug no longer has any effect on you," Mr. Black answered. "Other less desirable methods must be employed."

"Why do you want this information so badly?" I asked him as I gained a small measure of courage from his answer.

"You and your abilities are an unknown factor, an 'x' factor if you like. Do you really think that the government would be willing to let someone with your abilities wander around unmonitored?" Mr. Black asked me point blank. He continued speaking before I could even begin formulating an answer to his question. "The potential harm to the general public is far too great. In order to know how to counteract you powers, we need to understand how it is that you use them in the first place. Surely you can see the necessity of that. You were given an opportunity to provide this information willingly when you met with The Panel. However, you decided to be stubborn and difficult, so I was called in to deal with you. Rest assured that you will provide this information before the evening is over."

There was a coldness and finality in the tone of Mr. Blacks' voice that made chills run up and down my spine. I knew that he wasn't kidding. I gulped once as I tried to swallow my fear. If there was one thing that Mr. Black was very good at, it was intimidation. Another inspiration flashed into my mind as a few more pieces to this puzzle clicked into place in my mind.

"Since you desire this information from me, I'm willing to bet that you are unwilling to risk losing your only opportunity to gain that information," I shot back at Mr. Black as I tried to match the coldness of his voice.

"Meaning what exactly?" Mr. Black asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.

"Meaning that you won't risk killing me," I said as I turned my head to the left to look over at the man off to my left. If I was wrong, I was dead. I looked over and saw a man who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He had light brown hair, cold hazel eyes, and was clean shaven. His face was average looking. He wasn't remarkably handsome nor was he unusually ugly. He looked like any run of the mill guy that you might see on a busy street corner. Only the cold, remote, determined expression on his face marked him as unusual. He was a professional and to him this was simply business nothing more. He was wearing a two piece single breasted two button black suit with a white shirt and a black tie. It was an outfit similar to Mr. Black's. Unlike Mr. Black though, this man had a small caliber handgun pointed at my head.

"Hello, Mr. Red," I said coolly, when a bullet did not find its way into my skull. "In other circumstances I would say that it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Do you often bet your life on hunches? Are you always so reckless?" Mr. Black asked me.

"It wasn't a hunch," I answered him as I turned my head back and looked Mr. Black in the eyes. "It was simple deductive logic. Fact one. You emphasized that I should not try to engage you in a mental battle. Reason unknown. Fact Two. You admitted that you could not use a drug to obtain the information from my mind. Fact Three. You want me to teach you how to use these techniques. Conclusion one. You cannot risk destroying me or my mind because you need the information and also my experience on how to use these abilities of mine. Conclusion two. You will not kill me, at least not until after I have provided the information you seek. Therefore, your orders to ventilate my skull were merely part of your attempt to intimidate me. I decided to call your bluff."

"Clever. But you could have been wrong," Mr. Black said as he indirectly admitted that my deductive reasoning was right on the mark. "You were still risking your life on very flimsy facts, if you can call them that. It was a foolish risk, nevertheless."

"Not really. If I was wrong I would merely be dead a little bit earlier. You can kill me only once," I answered with a sigh. "You never made any claim that you would release me after I told you what you wanted to know. So as far as I am concerned, I'm a dead man anyway. At least my secrets will die with me. I am confident that you cannot read the mind of a dead man, otherwise you would have killed me already and saved yourself all this trouble. I'll be damned to hell before I'll help someone like you, government agency or not."

"Mary said that you were stubborn to a fault. I can't believe that you would give up your life so easily. Do you value life, your life, so little?" Mr. Black asked me with a touch of wonder in his voice as if he could not believe what I had said.

"I would rather be lying dead with my face on the ground, than on my knees in front of the likes of you," I answered him somewhat flippantly. "I value life, especially my life, a great deal, but not at the expense of others. Who knows what you would do if you had such abilities as mine? Mary explained to me that with great power, there must also come great responsibility. I have a duty to use my powers wisely and with compassion. I won't hand over my abilities to the first thug who sticks a gun in my face. Death is preferable, to the pain and tragedy that would be inflicted on others."

"Noble, foolish and stubborn. A most unlucky combination for you," Mr. Black said with a sigh. "Since you're so unwilling to cooperate, we shall have to try a different approach. Something with a bit more leverage, I think." Mr. Black broke eye contact with me as he addressed the two unnamed men off to my far right. "Mr. Green and Mr. Yellow, if you would be so kind?"

"Yes, sir. Right away, sir" They replied, one after the other.

A sound off to my right caught my attention. I swiveled my head to the right, no longer worried about bullets visiting my skull. The door I had seen earlier slide open. It moved from the left to the right revealing a mysterious dark rectangular hole in the wall of the room. Two of the men guarding me, walked over to the door and left the room. They left before I could get a good look at them, though. The door remained open. I did not have long to wait. When they returned I nearly had a heart attack.

They pushed a swivel chair into the room. The chair was not empty. A man was sitting in the chair. It was Andy! He was tied up, and gagged, still wearing his working RCMP uniform. He was sitting in a swivel chair with his arms securely tied to the arms of the chair. Several bands of heavy rope secured his muscular torso to the back of the chair. His legs were bound together although they were not tied to the legs of the chair. Since this was a swivel chair on casters, that would have been rather difficult to do. Regardless, though, Andy was helpless and completely unable to move. They placed him about five feet in front of me. I studied his face. I could see the confusion and bewilderment in those soft doe brown eyes of his. He didn't seem scared, just very, very puzzled. He wasn't the only one.