Cindy Psi: Spy In Training

“He’s still in the infirmary,” Louise said to Dave as she entered his office, “it’s like he’s back in the wall but of his own volition this time. All we can do is watch him for now.” Half an hour had passed, and while Louise had been trying to deal with George, Dave had been joined by a young man. He was about seventeen years old, with brown, wavy hair. He was wearing a uniform similar to Dave’s and had a confident, almost cocky air about him. “Hello, Justin,” Louise added when she saw him.

“Louise.” The young man replied.

“I’ve been briefing Justin on the recent attacks. He’s off mission now, so he may be useful.”

“Oh,” said Louise, “is the Beta Sector mission completed then? Good outcome?”

“Of course,” Justin replied smugly, “what did you expect?”

Louise raised an eyebrow at him, but took it no further. “So what did you have in mind David?”

“I’m not really sure. I was going to consult with The Controller on it.”

Consult with me on what? Came the message to the three of them.

I think we need to start getting more pro-active with this threat. We’ve had to fend off two attacks from this woman and we know very little about her. I thought we could send Justin on a rec mission.

No.

Dave nodded, and Louise looked pleased. Justin was clearly not. Why? What’s the problem?

I don’t want you leading on this mission. You’re too reckless, and there’s too much at stake.

‘Reckless’?!? What do you mean, reckless? I get the job done, don’t I?

Yes, you do, but often with too much risk. We’ve spoken about this.

No, you and Dave have decided it and told me that’s how it is. That’s not speaking about it …

No, The Controller interrupted, you are correct. It’s a command. And I’m your Commander. So you will accept the orders and be silent.

Fine, Justin grumbled. So what are you going to do, send Cindy?

As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

There was silence for the briefest of moments, then Dave was first to respond. Boss! Are you sure?

Yes.

Well, I guess, you’d have to be, but why? How?

Well, the how is with Selma as mission lead …

Justin started to interrupt, but The Controller cut him off before he could sping anything.

... And Justin as covert support. Stay in deep cover Justin so you can be the ace in the hole if required. Cindy will be there because she is obviously the target and will draw the woman out.

Are you sure you want to risk that boss? Cindy isn’t even trained. It was Louise.

No. No, I don’t. I don’t want to risk the mission, and of course more importantly I don’t want to risk her. But she’s not safe in the facility. Given that, our capacity to defend her will be the same wherever she is. So it seems to me that the best way to keep her safe is to flush out the threat and deal with it. I can’t think of any other way to do that but I’d love to hear any suggestions.

The three in the room looked at each other for a moment, Dave and Louise clearly thinking about what their commander had just said; Justin still looking put out by his earlier words. Again, Dave was first to respond:

No. No, I can’t think of anything else. I guess you’re right. Ok, let’s get a plan together then we’ll have a word to her.

Yes. Well, you will.

Of course, Dave sent. Then, to Louise, privately, he sent I don’t know how he does it. I marvel at how his mind works sometimes. It’s like he’s the most dispassionate man alive.

I know what you mean, she sent back, but in his defence, he kind of had the passion burned out of him.

True.

Cindy was sitting in an office she hadn’t been in before. It was the Junior’s office, apparently, shared by Selma, Christof and Rebecca. Rebecca was in there with her, chatting, trying to make sense of the events of that morning. A couple of hours had now passed, during which time Rebecca had been debriefed. George was apparently “under psychic observation”. Cindy had spent the time thinking through his point of view but couldn’t get a handle on it.

“He’s just confused,” Rebecca was saying, “he didn’t know what he was saying.”

“I think he knew exactly what he was saying, and I think he means it,” Cindy said, morosely. “I don’t know what else I could have done though – I couldn’t leave him there. And I wasn’t to know he wanted to be left anyway – I couldn’t get to him.”

“Oh, I know,” Rebecca’s reply was heartfelt. “Believe me, I know. But, also, I’m in a better position to understand in a way. Being trapped was horrible, but if I force myself to ignore that part then being alone, and, sort of, cocooned could be comforting to someone like George.”

“But enough to want to stay in there for ever?!?” Cindy was incredulous.

“I know. It’s hard to believe. I guess maybe we shouldn’t rule out that George’s thoughts might not be entirely his own? After what you told us about the ‘message’ that horrible woman left I just don’t know what else is possible.”

“Well, I’d thought that. But she’s not there with him now, if you know what I mean. I’d know.”

“Yes, but maybe she, kind of, changed him or something?”

Cindy considered this. “Hmm. Maybe. I don’t know.”

Can I come in? It was Dave

Sure, come on in, sent Rebecca so Cindy could also ‘hear’. Dave strode in and Rebecca filled him in on what they were talking about.

“Yes,” he said, “I guess something like that is possible. I’m not sure though. George has his own demons to deal with. Either way, we need to do what we can to support him.”

“Of course,” said Rebecca as Cindy nodded.

“And another thing …” Dave continued.

“Yes?”

“We’ve been discussing the message you got, Cindy. I think we need to be clear that this woman planned all of this. She’s sharp enough and knows enough about us all that she knew George would choose to withdraw given the right impetus. She knew that you’d be the one to save him – she said so. And she knew that George wouldn’t want to be saved. So whether she contributed to him feeling like that or not we have to make sure we don’t underestimate her.”

The other two nodded. Dave continued: “We don’t know if she knew about your mystery helper’s instructions Cindy, but let’s assume she does. She may even know better than us who that is. So for now we have to assume that she has the advantage on us at all times.

“And that makes what we’re going to ask you next so much harder. Would you two mind stepping into my office?”

Cindy and Rebecca glanced at each other briefly, puzzled, then walked with Dave next door into his office. Louise was already in there.

“Rebecca, I think you should be a part of this discussion as well because you’ve been the most affected by our adversary. I’ll get right to the point.”

Dave exchanged a glance, and possibly a thought, with Louise and turned to face Cindy. He drew a deep breath, and announced:

“Cindy, we want to do one more week of intensive training with you and then send you on a mission to find this woman.”

You’re crazy! It was Rebecca. What are you thinking? This woman is both evil and powerful and Cindy’s only a child! She’s talented, sure, but hardly trained and only twelve years old!

Rebecca shook her head incredulously, and continued aloud, “I mean, I can understand you and … and him coming up with this crazy idea with all your ‘galaxy first’ business, but how they managed to convince you to go along with it Louise I don’t know.” She collapsed into one of the side chairs in the office in exasperation.

“It’s not as bad as you think, dear,” said Louise gently, “We’re not talking about sending her alone.”

Rebecca turned a little pale, but visibly steadied herself. “Oh, you want me to go with her? Ok.”

“Well, actually, we were thinking of Selma.”

Rebecca tried in vain to conceal her relief. “Oh, fair enough. Well, I guess if Cindy’s being escorted by an experienced agent it’s different. And I know you would have thought through all the options. But it’s still a big ask if you ask me.” She turned to Cindy. “Ultimately I guess it’s up to you, isn’t it? What do you think, Cindy?”

Now all three of them were looking at her. Cindy thought hard.

I guess … I guess it makes sense. I’ll go.

“That’s very brave of you Cindy, but before you commit to anything I feel I owe you an explanation of how we got to this decision, what support we can offer you, and what dangers there are that we’ve thought of.”

“Ok,” Cindy replied aloud.

Much of what Dave talked through next Cindy had already guessed. Dave thankfully didn’t go on too much about her being their best chance thanks to how powerful she was and so on, but the implication was there. He also spoke about how Cindy had already kind of defeated the woman – twice. Of course, he also went through the obligatory “wouldn’t send someone so young on such a dangerous mission but the galaxy first” bit, which Cindy understood, but was already getting tired of hearing.

There were a couple of things Dave said though that particularly stood out for Cindy. Firstly, he explained a theory they had that the woman was threatened by Cindy and was trying to intimidate her away from a confrontation.

“It sounded like she was trying to provoke you,” he said, “but if you think about it, after the first time, when she came back she came in strength, and she was armed with this plan to target your friend, with a trap only you could solve, and left the message for you. It also seems a bit set up towards scaring you off in some ways.”

Cindy thought on that. It made sense. Then there was the second thing:

“Also, we’ve told you we think she may be somewhere on or near your home planet – but I think you have an idea of an avenue of investigation to go down, don’t you?”

Cindy was getting used to the idea that not much was ever really secret when you lived with a group of powerful psychics. “Yes,” she said. “I think I want to investigate the woman that ‘Nancy’ tried to turn to the Turgs’ cause all those years ago.”

Rebecca looked surprised for a moment, then something passed between her and Dave that Cindy was not privy to, and her expression became more thoughtful. Dave, on the other hand, just looked surprised.

“Really? But she was contained. She’s harmless now. We had her under close observation for years and eventually dropped her down to low risk. I mean, we know where she is, but I’m not sure what benefit you’d get pursuing her?”

“I guess it’s just a feeling, really, but when you were telling me the story something struck a bit of a chord. Particularly when you said you thought she’d become a teacher …”

A light dawned in Dave’s eyes. Ah, he sent to Cindy, I see what you’re thinking. “But no,” he continued aloud, “completely different part of the galaxy. The woman you’re talking about is over on Valentine. Alpha Sector. It couldn’t be your teacher.”

“Still,” said Cindy, “something about the story feels a bit … I don’t know … wrong in some way. I know it sounds a bit lame, but I just have a kind of hunch that there’s something worth looking into there.”

There was a moment where Cindy assumed a quick conferring was taking place between Dave and Louise, then Louise spoke: “Well, one thing we’ve learned is that in this game hunches are always worth pursuing. We can take you to the research room and you can start following that one up if you like. But two things first … firstly, let me say again what Dave just said because we have to be sure you fully understand. This is very, very risky. It’s the biggest risk we’ve ever subjected a novice to. We’re doing it because we can’t think of another option, but that’s not your problem. If you said no, no-one would think any the less of you. And we may well figure out some other way to tackle it. So, what’s your decision? Do you need time to think? You can have it if you want it.”

Cindy paused, but not for very long. “No, I don’t need any more time to think. I’ll do it. I’ll have Selma with me, and anyway, I don’t know if this is the, you know, talent or whatever, or what it is, but something inside me is telling me that it’s what I should do, do you know what I mean?”

Dave and Louise nodded, but Rebecca spoke up, “Yes, I know what you mean Cindy, but then saving me from that trap was something you felt you should do, and that’s right, but that’s your natural sense of responsibility and obligation steering that. You’re a good girl; you do the right thing. But in this case, the difference between a hunch – the talent – and just a desire to do what you think is right is important. Can you get more of a sense of why you think you should do it?”

Cindy nodded briefly, and cleared her mind, descending into mindspace for a moment.

It was like two corridors forking off from this point. She’d seen this once before when deciding whether to do the training or not. But this time, it was too murky down both of them to see anything. She tried to get a sense of the left one – just the vaguest images of more training, a glimpse of a smiling Natalie, a laughing Jane … no George; that was weird … a sense of the training room. Not much else. She focused on the right, but this one was just lights and colours – green, grey, red, and, ultimately, silver … and then a glimmer beyond that … and the faintest hint of, of something. Something strong, but immeasurably far away. Cindy sunk lower in her mindspace. What was that?

Then, for the tiniest second, it was like all hell broke loose. She had split-second images of fire and explosions, buildings, towns, planets exploding. Fire in space. Armies of green, slimy, tentacled abominations tramping across scorched and dying lands.

Then silence. Cold winds blowing. A post-apocalyptic nightmare. A tattered flag hanging over a barren, muddy field. And, in the distance, the army of Turgs, triumphant, destructive. And then a tiny little voice above her in the vision; the tiniest …

This cannot be. There is need here Cindy. There is need of you.

And she was back in the room.

“This is more than just doing the right thing,” she said, bold, assured, and looking at each of them in turn, “this is something I must do.”

There was again that sense of them conferring with each other, then Dave stood up and gave her a hug. “Well done, Cind.”

Louise spoke next: “And the second thing …”

“Yes?”

“How about a comm. home?”

“So I hear you’re off on a trip then?” Mr Parker was sat in their living room, dressed casually. It was the middle of the day so Cindy assumed he must be working from home. She wasn’t sure, but his brown, wavy hair seemed a little greyer around the sides than she’d noticed previously.

Dave had filled her in that her forthcoming mission (and resultant gap in communication) would be explained away as a school trip organised by her host school. Apparently they were off to Galactic Central Point to experience the administration facilities at some of the galaxy’s biggest organisations. Because of the increased costs associated with galaxy central they were on emergency-only basis for comms, hence the radio silence. It all sounded extremely plausible.

Cindy fished for an honest but misleading reply. “Yes. It should be interesting I guess.”

“Are you excited?”

“More nervous, really. But I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure it will. My only worry is that once the big firms see your potential they’ll make you an offer and you won’t come back!”

She smiled. Although it was only a half-smile. Something felt a bit wrong. “Is everything ok Daddy?”

“What, with me? Well, I’m overdosing on pizza I guess, but otherwise I’m fine. Why?”

“You seem a bit … I don’t know, flat or something.”

“Oh it’s nothing. Just a bit of trouble at work. Your friend’s mother is giving me a hard time.”

Cindy rose to that instantly: “She’s not my friend!” she began, before catching the glint in her Father’s eye and recognising the teasing for what it was. “Is that why you’re working from home?” She continued.

“Well, sort of.” Mr Parker was being cagey. Cindy was tempted to try a quick spyline, but decided against it. She still felt it was wrong to use her power on her loved ones.

“What do you mean, ‘sort of’?” she said instead.

“Well, it’s not a big deal, and you have to promise me you won’t worry or anything …”

“Well saying that makes me worry!”

“Ok, ok, the thing is, I’m sort of temporarily suspended.”

Cindy was shocked. That couldn’t be right. Her Father was a hard worker and, more importantly, a good man. “How? Why?” She asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing, really. That silly woman has been working me around the clock, and every time I get pushed to the point where I push back I get a warning notice. Three of them, and it’s a suspension. But they can’t sack me or anything, so don’t worry, it will all be fine.” His tone was reassuring, and Cindy resolved that she probably would worry a little bit, but she let it drop.

They chatted a while longer. Tess was at school, so couldn’t make the comm. of course, but she had popped around a couple of times to fill Mr Parker in on any news from school, which Mr Parker dutifully relayed. “Apparently I’m not the only one being overworked either,” he said, “According to Tess, Ms Primp has turned into some kind of evil slave driver since the A&P exam. To hear her tell it, it’s like she’s turned into a whole other woman. I don’t know how she’d tell, frankly, that woman has always been a closed book as far as I could see.”

Cindy worked to maintain a casual attitude, but this was hugely relevant. “What did she say about her? Exactly?”

Mr Parker looked a bit surprised by her directness. Cindy made a mental note to be more cautious. “Just that she hasn’t let up,” he said, “and keeps piling on the work. Apparently Tess has been practically setting achievement records with her sports science work but she’s getting no positive feedback at all – just more work. Primp keeps telling her “life wasn’t meant to be easy” if she deigns to say anything about it at all. And, and again I don’t know how she notices, but apparently she’s a bit distracted a lot of the time.”

Definitely extremely interesting, thought Cindy. But it was time to act less interested. “Oh, I imagine she’s just reading some book that’s annoying her or something. It’ll pass. So what else did Tess have to say?”

After a little more chit chat it was time to go. “Well,” said Cindy, “I guess I’ll speak to you in a couple of weeks,” she said, choking up a little but keeping it hidden.

“Sure you will,” Mr Parker said, comfortingly, trying to appear as positive as he could, “You’ll have a great time. But listen, it’s a strange world you’re going into, you be careful there.” He was momentarily quite intense as he said this last; Cindy was slightly taken aback.

“I will Daddy, I promise.”

“I know you will, but I mean it. Be careful.”

“Ok. I love you Daddy.”

“I love you too, beautiful. And where are you most beautiful?”

With an immense effort of will Cindy suppressed the tears that suddenly threatened to overwhelm her and forced a smile instead. “On the inside.”

“On the inside. You really are. Always remember. On the inside.”

“I will. I do. Bye Daddy.”

“Bye monkey.”