Special Talents by J. B. Tilton Page A

the food court? I did identify myself as being with Homeland Security. Do you think it's possible he heard me?"
     
    "Hang on a second. Kamalene. Take some food into Conrad, will you? He's probably starving."
     
    "Sure Dr. Sloan."
     
    "Richard, it is possible he overheard you identify yourself even while he was unconscious. We're still aware of our surroundings even when we're asleep or unconscious. But no one mentioned terrorists either in the food court or here."
     
    "So what? He heard Homeland Security and just assumed?
     
    "I don't think so. He said he heard things. Not voices, things. And that he was hearing things about terrorist while we were in there. He also mentioned people with special talents. That's a term that's only been used a few times. And certainly not while we were with him, unconscious or awake."
     
    "That is odd. That term was coined by one of our analysts. We just sort of adopted it and outside of Homeland Security headquarters I'm not sure it's ever been used. How could he know about it?"
     
    "That's a good question. But what if he didn't hear it anywhere? What if he just learned it?"
     
    "What do you mean 'just learned it'?"
     
    "In the mall he kept saying 'get out of my head'. And just now in that room he said he hears 'things'. Not voices, things. Most schizophrenics hear voices. Voices usually telling them to do things. He said there were no voices telling him to do anything. He just heard 'things'."
     
    "So what, he really is crazy?"
     
    "I don't think so," said Jeremy. "I think we might be dealing with some form of telepathy. Remember I did see him using an ability. Even now he's still using it. Maybe he has the ability to draw information out of a person's mind. That could account for the 'things' he hears. He gathering information from the minds around him but he's being so inundated with them he doesn't know how to stop it."
     
    "Kind of like being in a crowded room with everyone shouting at the tops of their lungs at the same time. The noise can literally be quite deafening and can even cause headaches, or so I understand."
     
    "Exactly. Only instead of hearing those voices you've described, he's hearing information in people's minds. God only knows how much information he's being inundated with every second of every day. No wonder he has migraines."
     
    "So he has headaches."
     
    "Quite possibly. It's not like my own ability. If I use it too much or too often I can get headaches. It puts a lot of pressure on my optic nerve and we do know that bright light can cause headaches. With him I'd think it would be even more severe. It's possible he doesn't know how to control his ability. He may not even know he has one. So subconsciously he's drawing information from all the minds around him. Can you imagine the massive amounts of information he must have been gathering from all those people in the mall? Getting it all at one time with no way to separate or categorize it?"
     
    "So what about the pity part? I wasn't thinking about feeling sorry for him when we were in the room. I was thinking about what kind of a security risk he might represent. I know what you're thinking, Jeremy. He might be a good addition to the team. And I have to admit, if you're right, having someone who can literally pick someone else's brain can be very useful.
     
    "But we know virtually nothing about this guy. He might be some psychopath or serial killer. We can't even consider bringing him into the group until we find out who he is and what his story is. And if he can read our minds there's no telling the damage he could do and we wouldn't even know what information he's been able to gather. But that still doesn't explain how he knew I was feeling sorry for him."
     
    "I can't answer that, Richard. Not yet. And you're right about all of that. Until we learn more about him I'm not even going to mention anything about the group. I can tell if he's lying but that's about it. I would suggest that you get