Chapter 58

Janine Fong has potential, despite her limitations. I suggest we assign a specific member of staff to work with her—the tests seem to show that she needs to bond to her handler in order to function at an effective level.

—Dr. Upashna Leslie to Councilor Marshall Hyde (date corrupted, file reload required)

JANINE HEARD THE call, tried to answer. But her head was fuzzy and it felt nice to snuggle down into her blanket. Sleepy, she managed to telepath.

She knew they wouldn’t be angry with her. They were never angry with her. Today, they said, Rest. We can teleport tomorrow.

Promise? Janine managed to get out past the heaviness in her mind. She loved teleporting to new places, but first she had to get the image of the place, so she could lock onto it.

Last time around, she’d gone to a forest! That had been so fun! Forests were hard to lock onto, because they didn’t have a lot of unique things. Just tons of leaves and trees and crumbly things underfoot. But Janine had done it. She’d stared and stared at the photo she’d been sent, and found an interesting pattern of roots, then linked it to the spiral pattern on the trunk, and she’d done it!

I want to teleport again.

We will. I promise. Tomorrow night.

Janine smiled, her sleep that of the innocent.