He took my change of subject in stride. “It depends on an individual’s
psychic strength, but pre-cogs see one future, and can determine what will happen in the next hour or so, but the further out they go, the less accurate their
predications become. Seers see various futures, but those futures are fluid.
Why?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how Ellery stays ahead of everyone. I thought
maybe it had to do with the ability he stole from Liza.”
“Maybe, but she was a mid-range psychic, which put her accuracy at about
forty percent.” He sat up slowly, his color a bit closer to normal. “I’d be more concerned if Ellery got his hands on Risia.”
“How come?”
“Risia’s accuracy is closer to seventy percent.”
I gave a low whistle. “Guess she’s not mid-range, then.”
He shook his head. “She compared being a seer to looking at wall full of
screens. If each screen started with the same action and the same players, it wouldn’t be long before each screen showed different scenarios. All it takes is one person to make one unexpected decision and everything changes. Seers have
to have an anchor that holds them to the present, or they’ll get lost watching those screens. She called it a Cassandra Spiral.”
The implications of his words sent a shiver of dread down my spine. It
sounded eerily similar to slipping too deep into the tides of the past. “That doesn’t sound good.”
He grimaced. “Yeah, not something I’d wish on anyone.”
I sat back with a loud sigh, and tapped my fingers absently on the chair’s armrest. Sorting through everything we had on Ellery to this point, I thought it
through out loud. “Okay, we know Ellery’s got the stolen information and he’s getting ready to sell it, probably to Hobbes. What does it get him?”
“The big two, money and power,” Kayden offered.
I nodded. “And payback. By selling this information, he not only keeps it out
of the government’s hands, but also from whoever hired him to steal it in the first
place.”
“He’s playing a dangerous game.”
“He doesn’t think so.”
“You reading minds now?”
I shook my head and got to my feet, needing to move as I kept sifting through the bits and pieces. “Basic profiling. Ellery is a psychopath, so he believes he’s in control and thrives on manipulation. Therefore, he’ll make sure
he holds the power, using it to force everyone else to move where he wants them. Money, power, manipulation,” I ticked off each trait. “Then there’s his need for payback. When we stopped the initial sale from going through, we stole
his control, so now he’s stealing it back.”
“By killing each of us and taking our abilities.” Kayden sat on the edge of the couch and watched me. “But each time he does, his personality fractures.”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
I stopped in front of him, the coffee table between us. “If he felt remorse, or
shame for killing, then yeah, he’d start to crack, but he’s a psychopath, Kayden.
Guilt? Shame? Those don’t exist for him. The only one that matters to Ellery is
Ellery. We screwed with his plans. Whoever hired him, left him hanging in the
wind, now he’s going to make us all pay. That scares me, because he has no boundaries, nothing to stop how far he’ll go. What if he’s using this possible sale
to lure everyone out into the open so he can take us all out in one big blow?”
“That’s awfully arrogant.”
“Right.” I moved to the couch and perched next to him. “What happens
