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ScifiShort fiction

Smile And The World… : a Psi-Kicks short story by: GF Willmetts

<<Sara, we’re wearing masks as well.>>

<<Scanning.>>

Faster than vision, both Sara Seeker and Chris Lancier collected information from around them. They were dressed as cowboys but the people they were facing looked like mobsters. Armed mobsters. Their attention centred on that.

  <<Are we a dancing act?>>

  <<Not with loaded guns.>>

  <<This will be a massacre.>>

  <<For them or us?>>

Sara inhaled deeply, feeling the mask drawn into her face and at the same time reached out and spiked the six gangsters in front of them and they dropped their guns and fell to the ground. Survival kicked in. Safety first.

The cold barrel of a pistol pressed into her cheek from behind.

‘Don’t know what you did to them, but I figure I can shoot you faster if you try anything like that on me. Just keep looking ahead. Just so you don’t hex me.’

A sideways glance showed Lancier in the same predicament.

  <<Blanks?>>

  <<I thought they couldn’t be manipulated?>>

  <<Two cowboys amongst mobsters?>>

  <<They could just be strong-willed.>>

‘How can we help you? We only just arrived. Clearly we aren’t here for a hoe-down.’

‘Can you hex people like that?’

‘Usually. There are some exceptions. You seem to be amongst them.’

The gun barrel pressed a little harder into Sara’s cheek.

‘Just you remember that with the gun here.’

Another pair of hands clicked a necklace around her and then Lancier’s necks and then one on their wrists. A large amulet on each one.

‘Explosive. Try to remove them and it’ll go bang, taking your head with it. Wrists are optional. We might take both. Don’t do what we say, someone else will blow it. Understand.’

It wasn’t a question.

  <<What series is that?>>

  <<1960s Champions story. The wrists are an extra to keep us in check. Can you scan them.>>

  <<He’s accurate. We’re in a jam. If I tamper, they’ll go off.>>

‘You realise we work with a different gang?’

‘The illustrious Miss Kettle. We know her.’

‘She’s the expert thief. We’re just consultants. You should have asked her. I’m sure she’d have split the proceeds with you.’

‘But not with what you do. You stopped that gang in seconds.’

‘So they aren’t your team.’

‘Would I want such a team?’

‘Probably not.’

‘You’re quiet, Lancier.’

‘Your companion’s gun is pressing on a filling. We could do with looking a little less conspicuous.’

‘We choose. Something in black is preferable. Sleeves. Hats. Coats. I prefer black jeans as well.’ Sara briefly looked behind her. ‘We like warmth.’

  <<Is this a Max infestation?>>

  <<We’ll have to work with it until we get rid of these toys.>>

  <<Deadly toys.>>

  <<Cowboys?>>

  <<Looks like things were changed mid-process. A crack in the process. We were almost on them.>>

‘What do you want us to do?’

The pistols were put down and they turned to face three nondescript people. One left quickly, presumably to find them a change in clothes. The remaining two held flashing bleepers.

‘These work on different frequencies. If we don’t follow procedures every hour, the devices you are wearing will explode.’

‘So whatever you want us to do has to be now or before you need to sleep?’

‘We do have a shift system.’

‘I wouldn’t want those gadgets going off in sleepy hands.’

‘If this going to take long? We do have other business we are employed to do.’

‘You are hardly in a position to make demands, Miss Seeker.’

Sara shrugged. ‘You want us to co-operate. We’re co-operating. What do you want us to do?’

‘We will drive you to a building across town. Get in and get one of their…employees and his invention.’

‘A kidnapping? Why not wait until he goes home and do it yourself?’

‘We also want the device or plans he’s working on.’

‘You could read his mind’, the other man said. ‘I’ve heard you can do things like that.’

‘It doesn’t work like that. It would take an age and skilful interrogation. The most we’re aware of are surface thoughts. The most I could pull you easily is your PIN number. People repeat this in their heads before they use their cards. Anything beyond the main five thoughts carried in your short term memory needs to be brought up to recall level. The brain is a mass of memories, mostly forgotten.’

  <<That’s a lot of free information.>>

<<Enough for him to believe we aren’t perfect.>>

‘Just so it makes sense. We have to walk past the security at this building, go to whatever floor this person is, grab him and whatever he’s working on and walk out again. What could go wrong?’

 

OOOOOOOOOOooooOooooOOOOOOOOOO

 

They had been stopped at the front desk simply because they were wearing too much metal and couldn’t take the bracelet and neck bombs off. They both had to spike the guard staff that they were harmless but both of them were still placed in cells.

  <<We’re out of harm’s way. No one around.>>

The bomb necklaces and bracelets fell to the floor.

  <<I’m not used to focusing on such small objects or so many.>>

  <<That’s why I carried the conversation. I didn’t think you would want to lose concentration. Are they inert?>>

  <<It did help that you spiked them to believe they were working. The catches weren’t sprung. I can zap them if you really need them to go off.>>

  <<Maybe as a distraction.>>

  <<Did you ever tell Max about scrambler technology.>>

  <<It was never perfected but I guess even our own scientists are still trying to figure out how we could beat it. I still think we ought to let them think one of their devices will one day work which would reduce research in that area.>>

  <<Shame. I was thinking we could use if on Max or his Patron Max. Was that a woman I saw before the shift? They aren’t acting synchronised when they thought they had us.>>

  <<I hadn’t figured on that. A pretty face who then copied him. Double jeopardy.>>

  <<And keeping her own shape.>>

  <<Different Pattern. More powerful. I doubt if even they would want to keep her around.>>

  <<So what do we do now?>>

  <<As far as our captors think, we’re completing the mission. They can’t see us here. I think we ought to play it out as quickly as possible. Have you found anyone else’s signatures?>>

  <<Just a muffling effect. You’re better than anyone at looking for people.>>

  <<Muffling. Good term. Will you do the honours with the doors.>>

Sara heard a thump on one door and a second thump when her own cell door sprung open and Lancier gave a neat bow. A little vibration had scooped the locks.

‘Have you found where he is?’

‘They aren’t keeping the research department in the basement. Fourteenth floor.’

‘Long walk.’

‘We’d be too vulnerable in a lift.’

‘Let’s see if we can boost one and use its roof.’

‘Or grab one on the way up and take it up.’

Sara stopped and closed her eyes.

  <<This is too easy.>>

  <<For which Max?>>

  <<The detail is too vague.>>

  <<A trap?>>

  <<The only to find out is to spring it.>>

  <<We’ll have to get higher. I doubt if they’ll send a lift up from the basement.>>

They found the stairwell and began climbing, scanning ahead to ensure there were no surprise guards along the route.

By the third floor, Sara stopped. ‘I need to be fitter than this. Let’s find a circuit diagram. You OK, Chris?’

Lancier nodded. ‘Been scanning outside the building. Our friends are still waiting with a van down the street.’

They entered the main floor and headed towards the lifts. The night lights making the shadows long

‘A fire alarm might bring anyone from upstairs down but there’s no guarantee our target will bring what he’s working on.’ Sara gave a wide smile. ‘Chris, scoop the lift mechanisms. Turn them all on. Just make sure the lift here is going up but open the doors. That should stop anyone just stepping in.’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘You all right? You seem distracted.’

‘Must be the reality shift.’

‘No more difficult than releasing those explosives.’

Lancier closed his eyes, focused and reached out. The lift doors sprung open and the noise of lifts came to life. They stepped onto the roof of the one going up and stepped off on the fourteenth.

‘They’re messing with the electrical systems.’

‘I’ll stop them. We’ll use them to get down.’

Sara scanned. ‘Confusion. Let’s go.’ She boldly led the way through an unmarked room.

‘You look in a bad way.’

There were two people waiting. One a half-caste woman. The other another Chris Lancier.

‘SNAP! Hello, Georgie.’

The second Lancier looked at the one who came with Sara, frozen on his feet.

  <<I had to rush to get ahead of you. Clever ploy, two Lanciers either side of you down there and not thinking I got out.>>

‘He must have thought he lucked out when he thought he could scoop,’ the second Lancier said. ‘I’ve been doing all the heavy scooping once we got here.’

‘And we’ve caught a bona fide Pattern or Patron or whatever they want to call themselves this week. Shame we can’t get two at the same time but we need to lay in some groundwork for the future.’

‘Did you find this gadget our friends want outside?’

‘It’s a new version of the scrambler.’

  <<Still not very good. The Patrons need it to confound us but couldn’t get it themselves.>>

  <<We’ll play along for now. They want a minor victory out of this so this can be it.>>

  <<Seems a lot of trouble.>>

  <<For so many failures, anything is better than nothing.>>

‘What do you make of our captive, Georgie?’

Georgire Rothane finished her inspection of the first Lancier and sniffed her nose.

‘He’s mine, dahlin’.’

‘You spiked him?’

‘I have his emotions. Long-term, darlin’. He adores me. Stronger than your spikes.’

‘Nice to know what I’m sharing.’

  <<She’s an empath. I thought you said they were dangerous.>>

  <<Heavy artillery. We need to do to the Pattern what they’ve been trying on us. Why infiltrate when we can control one of them and get him worked up the ranks.>>

  <<You weren’t idle in that micro-universe.>>

  <<I had a lot of time to think.>>

  <<Glad you didn’t have to rush anything.>>

‘Georgie, we need our Pattern here changed into someone looking more scientific and less like Chris.’

‘How do they do that, darlin’?’

‘We’ve never seen them do it. Just tell him so.’

‘Really?’

Sara shook her head.

‘I mean’, Georgie aske, ‘do they copy someone in person or from a snap?’

‘They’ve tried copying us fairly well’, Lancier added. ‘Couldn’t have got that close to us.’

‘Assume anyway they can, Georgie.’

‘Need a photo.’

‘Desk. Drawer. Top. Left hand side. Phone.’

‘Photo file.’

Georgie followed Lancier’s directions and pulled out the mobile phone. The phone came on.

‘Automatic phone, darlin’?’

‘A little scoping, Gee. Beats all passwords.’

Georgie flicked through the phone’s photo gallery and stopped at one and showed it to the two Psionics who nodded. She pointed the picture at the Lancier duplicate and his features slowly elasticated and resembled it and his hair darkened.

‘Wish we had time to experiment.’

‘Shapeshifter 101. What? Turn him female.’

‘Time to go.’

‘How do we go down?’

‘Let’s do the top of the lift and get off on the second floor. Leave by the front door.’

‘Won’t we be seen?’

‘We’ll be on camera. It proves we were there to the Americans although I doubt if it’ll last unless it transfers to the regular reality.’

‘And their toys?’

Oh, we return them. I wouldn’t want them to think we’re a pushover. Remember the Stable mantra.’

Simultaneously, both Sara and Lancier recited, ‘You only have to ask, not threaten,’ and both giggled again. ‘It works on the Russians and made Rurik an alley not a threat.’

A bemused Georgie asked, ‘Are we allowed to act like children?’

‘Sorry, Georgie. We’re just enjoying ourselves before we tackle Max. I think we’re sharing off you with no shielding.’

‘We’ll stand out if you giggle as we leave, darlin’.’

‘We’ll make them laugh with us,’ Lancier chuckled. ‘Just need the right joke.’

Sara shook her head, but still smiling. ‘I think it’s the three of us together. We’re doing a three way share. Are you enjoying any…new abilities, Georgie.’

‘Not as much as that,’ although this time, even she responded with a smile. ‘I just reflect other people’s emotions much of the time.’

‘We’re bouncing off each other. I feel a bit intoxicated…drunk even.’

‘Can we control everyone like this?’

‘I tend to avoid crowds. We would be caught up in the mob and you’d be paralysed.’

‘But with three of us, could we control them?’

‘I’ve never tried.’

Sara laughed. ‘Shame to waste the opportunity. Smile and the world smiles with…’

They stepped onto the top of the lift, with only the Patron keeping a straight face as Lancier scooped the electrical flow.

‘Doesn’t he get the gag?’

‘I’m holding control.’

‘Give a little slack.’

The Patron grimaced a smile but not outright laughter.

‘Shouldn’t we go after the blueprints?’

‘And let them waste all that research and still not get anywhere.’

‘Are you feeling any of our abilities. Maybe not Chris scooping. PK doesn’t seem to share. Do you sense directions for locating people?’

‘Just these odd feelings of people around me.’

‘Probably assessing. It’s one thing empathy sharing quite another with the power boosted right up. Our shields are messed without Philly boosting them up.’

They stepped off in the second floor walked down to the ground floor, still giggling.’

‘This is a hell of a feelgood factor.’

‘You people are just too happy, darlin’.’

‘You’re probably holding it in.’

‘Sara, you were on cloud nine sharing with Harbinger,’ Lancier reminded her. ‘You were becoming dangerous.’

‘Je…Harbinger acts with restraint.’ Sara slowed down. ‘I didn’t have so much. We’re not about to kill anyone. Just make them all happy.’

‘And lead them on a conga.’

‘Let them conga. We need to focus.’

‘We need Philly to shield us before we try this again.’

‘You never told Max about her.’

‘Not every secret.’

They walked across the reception area and were suddenly surrounded by guards. Armed guards who slowly put their arms on the ground and burst into giggles.

‘A public share with norms and I’m…we’re not doing anything.’

‘Georgie, you’re going to get a reputation as the party girl.’

The empath smiled. ‘Or the wallflower. Really, darlin’, it can get tiring with everyone happy all the time. I try to avoid getting sad or angry.’

‘Shall we take them with us?’

I was going to but they might get shot in the crossfire before we control our bomb masters.’

‘Want to hand back their toys.’

‘I’ll get that one to doctor the recording.’

‘No need,’ Lancier said. ‘I caused it to loop. I’m not keeping quiet for the sake of it, I’m monitoring everything.’

‘Who’s ability is that?’ Sara giggled. ‘Let’s get a move on. Maybe we can tell Max the joke.’

‘Which one?’

This time, even Georgie joined in. The giggles were becoming contagious.

‘I thought you people could shield.’

‘Not in a share. That’s why we work as pairs.’ Sara counted out on her fingers. ‘One. Two. Three.’

‘That’s more than two.’

‘Less than four.’

‘What happens at four?’

More intoxicating laughter all around as they got to the black van and got in the back.

‘Home, Jeeves.’

The driver and co-driver looked at them in the mirror. Sara looked back, giggled and spiked the order. Immediate compliance.

‘No buts. We’ve got man and merchandise. We’re having a good time before you try to blow our heads off.’

The two men remained silent.

  <<This is…exhilarating, Sara. I’m finding it difficult to spake.>>

  <<I met Georgie when Philly had boosted my shields. I know the effect diluted. Got some control. You reacting to the ability not really using it. Think of it as a permanent spike until you turn it off.>>

  <<We can’t go in laughing.>>

Sara burst into giggles. ‘Georgie might spring a surprise. We both might. I’m not sure if I want to go in angry.’

The van drew up at a warehouse. Not where they had been originally.

‘I’m glad I let them drive. We might have gone to the wrong place.’

That had a laugh from all of them. The two men and Patron maintained their solemn expressions, although the latter was more of a grimace.

‘I’d love to know how you control this, Georgie,’ Lancier shook his head trying to find control.

‘Emotions control’s everything, darlin’.’

  <<You know we never asked who these people are.>>

  <<They knew enough how to think they could control us.>>

  <<Not Blanks. Just very strong-minded. Mercenaries probably. Did I say they were working for the Americans. Keeping their fingers clean around us again.>>

  <<Looks like the Maxs have found a weakness we’ve not had to worry about.>>

  <<We haven’t sent our message back yet.>>

Lancier giggled.

  <<We have a message?>>

They stepped into the warehouse. On a stage, the four men they had encountered earlier looked down on them, each had their hand on the detonator buttons.

‘Just so there are no mistakes here, keep your hands off those buttons,’ Sara called out.

Simultaneously, Lancier threw the bracelets and necklaces in a bunch into the area and they leisurely circled the men.

‘They weren’t difficult to take off, gentlemen. You set them off now, the air intake from the blast will do you damage. Mr. Lancier will be protecting us.’ Sara burst into giggles. ‘I called you Mr. Lancier.’

Two of the men looked up, the two main ones stared down at them.

Sara giggled. ‘You people need to lighten up. You asked us to get a device that you didn’t know what it would do.’

She threw it at them and Lancier made sure it reached the stage. Both of them had a fit of giggles. ‘Tell them, its not very effective. I like the word effective. Especially with a not in front of it. Not a not with a k.’

The men just stood there solemn.

One of them muttered, ‘I said one of us should have stayed with them.’

‘OK, let’s get serious. Gee.’

Georgie closed her eyes and when she opened them both Sara and Lancier were also calm. The men on the stage had dropped their detonators, their lights flashing out as Lancier short-circuited them.

‘Please do not underestimate us. You can keep the device. We’re taking its creator. Ask politely next time and we’ll judge the circumstances. You might get lucky.’

The bombs fail to the ground.

‘Don’t press the triggers,’ Lancier added with a light laugh.

  <<Why couldn’t she do that from the start.>>

  <<And miss the fun.>>

Sara looked at each of the mercenaries in turn. ‘As I said and so it sinks in to your employees, if you’re ever asked to come after us again, be polite and ask. We might just do a freebie.’

Her spike had more impact than usual. She had them all in a trice. It wasn’t a normal spike. Strong-minded individuals were now like putty.

  <<Is this our reality?>>

  <<I think one of the Max’s sprung a western on us and the other defected us here. In our own reality, the Americans really did want the latest scrambler. I mentioned Georgie and in she pops. We’ve had a mixed message. Just need to widen the gap and find them.>>

‘We need to…’

 

© Psi-Kicks, The Stable Consultancy

Sara Seeker, Chris Lancier and Georgire Rothane

All rights reserved

Ask before borrowing

© GF Willmetts 2022

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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