“I don’t know, but I believe the first time was when she went for the sleep study.”
“That long?” I considered that, nearly two weeks ago. “Why didn’t she tell us?”
“Because he threatened us,” Shear said.
“You knew?” I snarled his way, the idea that Shear would have not done anything to stop it driving my temper nearly out of my control.
“Of course not,” he answered. “I just know Mr. Yorn and I know Yun. If he’d threatened her, she wouldn’t have gone along with it, but Mr. Yorn is good at finding the pressure point for people, at manipulating them, and he has the power to reach further than most know. For Yun to agree, to keep quiet, he must have threatened us—possibly me, given our past.”
I curled my hands into fists, the muscles of my forearms aching from the pressure, from the need to do something right that moment.
“He’s right. He said that if she didn’t do as he wanted, he’d make sure you all perished in The Pitt, that he’d send other espers after you in there. If the contract was broken, it wouldn’t matter what she chose. So she agreed to testing here in secret, to keep you all safe,” Kaidan said.
And, boy did I hate that. Failing her was one thing, but the fact she’d suffered in silence just to protect us?
Would anyone but my squad do such a thing for me? Even they’d keep me alive, but anything more?
“Well, that seems easy enough,” I said, knowing my smile held nothing friendly. “We kill him.”
The moment I said that, Shear went forward, falling from the couch and to his knees, clutching his head. He gasped and shuddered, nearly convulsing. “No,” he growled out. “Can’t hurt him.” The words didn’t sound like him, rough and torn from his throat. He shook his head back and forth, nearly seizing.
Kaidan moved quickly, dropping down before Shear and cupping his cheeks. He forced Shear to look him in the eye, his movements confident, showing his skill as a guide.
Kaidan flinched, as though the action hurt him, but Shear calmed after a moment. It took another minute before Shear collapsed, unconscious.
“What the fuck was that?” Ingram asked, eyes wide.
“He has a hidden trigger in his mind. It was probably put there by another esper, and given what just happened, I have to assume Mr. Yorn did it,” Kaidan explained, hand still on Shear’s head. The soft energy of guiding filled the trailer, just enough to calm Shear.
Normally I’d have been pissed at the idea of anyone else guiding us, like it was a betrayal, but there were times it was unavoidable. I chalked this up as one of them.
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“I’ve seen it before. It’s sometimes done to ensure compliance. They can’t usually be widespread, meaning there is usually a pretty good limit to the control one can exert. In this case, I’d guess it was placed to ensure Shear didn’t harm Mr. Yorn. It was likely placed while he was at Obsidian. He probably doesn’t even know it’s there.”
“So we kill Mr. Yorn, and it’s a two birds one stone thing, right?” I asked, ready to end the fucker right then.
“Not necessarily. The fact that this happened at even the idea of harming him makes me think it’s a pretty deep trigger. I can’t say what will happen if Mr. Yorn is killed, especially if Shear knows it was done by any of you. It’s possible the trigger could cause irreparable damage to his mind.”
“Which means we have to find another option,” Kenyon said. “We can’t kill him, but we can’t let this keep going.”
“You can’t tell Yun you know, either,” Kaidan said. “She’s a horrible liar, and if Mr. Yorn finds out you know, he’s going to assume you’ll come after him. You don’t want that.”
I ran my tongue along the edge of my top teeth, my brain working faster than it possibly ever had before. I considered options and discarded them in seconds.
Can’t kill him.
Threaten him? No, he might have more control of Shear, and if he knows we’re after him, he’ll make another move.
Go to the Guild? No, they want the same thing he wants. We’ve learned they’ll throw us under the bus in a heartbeat already. Plus, they already seem to want us dead in The Pitt themselves, so they’ll be no help.
Take Yun and run? No, the Guild would never stop searching for us, and I don’t know that Yun would want to come. Can’t ask her to leave everything behind.
Finally, after so many options came and left, I settled on one.
“We can’t touch him, but he’sneverthe top of the chain.”
“You can’t mean…” Kaidan said. “That’s insane. No one would do that.”
