Nepal's lineage

A young woman with chestnut curls patiently stood waiting for Jueqel to return to the conference room. “Hi, Sherry,” he greeter her. He always enjoyed her company. She looked especially cheerful this early in the morning.

She handed him a short stack of papers. “This came in by fax,” she said in a tone that conveyed disbelief that anyone could sink so low as to use faxes these days.

“A fax?” Jueqel shared the sentiment. He took it and scanned through quickly. He summarized for the others. “Psi-cops are involved. Or, at least, they're going to be. They've dispatched two operatives. They're asking if we know anything.”

Sherry said, obviously excited, “there's more. We've been able to get premonitions, again, about Karden.”

Interested Jueqel let her speak, motioning her to go on.

“It's not much yet, but he is or was driving a car. It broke down or will break down at the side of a road. We don't have a clear location yet, but bits and pieces are coming through. We did get a clear picture of one federal agent and a military psi officer hunting him. We're not sure how they could be working together, but we've heard stranger things. It seems every agency and street gang is getting involved. Blanks and espers.” Then she started and finished with a nearly imperceptible smile, “this is not looking good.”

Jueqel looked at her with exaggerated bafflement, “then why are you so gleeful?”

“Sorry, but we haven't had this much fun in ages.”

Dru snapped, “FUN!”

Jueqel gestured for Dru to calm down. “Dru, please.” Mr. Perfect was upset, he thought. How odd. Dru was burning as if insulted at her words. This was a side he'd never seen before. He knew Sherry was a prone to find amusement in academic oddities. Her humor obscure, at best. He felt a kinship with this part of her. Dru was out of line.

Sherry's fingers went to her temples as if to stave off a headache, but then decided to bite her fingertips instead. She bit down hard on her pinkies and held them that way for ten long seconds. Bringing her pinkies together, she hooked them so that when she pulled them apart with all her might. She had to stifle a scream.

Dru coughed and laid his head in his hands.

Sherry whipped her head around to Dru, defiant, “stay out of my head.” She wasn't a telepath, but she could defend herself from them. “There are boundaries you will not cross with me.” To Jueqel, her harsh tone so different a few seconds ago, “as I said, we're all getting premonitions. We're going on overload. If you'd care to check, I think your friend is causing it. He's facilitating a heightened response in all of us in the libraries.” Softer, she added. “After coming up against an insurmountable wall a couple hours ago, we hit the libraries. In the last half hour, the cybies did a database search and came up with Nepal's bloodline. Traced to a Psychinian candidate by the name of Li Liu, discovered in 1632.”

Sherry liked the cybies. Some precogs had a penchant for computers, and a few of those had developed the capacity to sense what the computer would tell them. More often it was the precognitive youngsters that were attracted to the machines. Their aptitude eventually evolved into a computer reading ability, similar to how telepaths read minds. They went even further by relating to the electronics on a more personal level, sending commands and interpreting signal feedback. This naturally lead to their nearly complete immersion into what amounted to the electronic world commonly known as cyberspace. One or more of them could be found on the Internet at any one time, putting a new spin on the phrase “surfing the net.” It was best to let them roam. They were happiest when they surfed. They often have had to be reminded it was time to eat or shower, but not too often. Sherry's pet name for them had been “cybies”, short for cyber babies. It stuck.

“What ruled him out?” Jueqel asked.

“SHE wasn't ruled out. They, I mean We, lost track of her around 1644, when the Manchurians invaded China and set up the Qing dynasty. We were able to pick up the trail and follow maternal lines and surname changes. It used to be that the mother's name was passed to their children, not the fathers. This male surname business didn't start with the Chinese until recently,” she eyed the men with playful contempt. “We only found her because Nepal's earliest ancestor on record appears in our database in 1684, but she had her name changed. We can't tell if it's the same woman, could have been a grand daughter. His British ancestry was even harder to trace. No psychics down that branch.”

“Ancestry? What good is all that?” Etten asked, impatient, letting everyone know he was bored with the lesson. “Are we going after Kard, now?”

Dru glared at Jueqel, expectant.

“Yes, I'm ready,” Jueqel said.

“What should I tell them?” Sherry asked.

“Who?”

“The Psi-cops.”

“Tell them,” Jueqel started to say.

Dru interrupted, “tell them to keep away from this guy. He's out to kill. No one on the force is strong enough to bring him in.”

Sherry shook her head, “they're not going to hear that.”

“Tell them to be careful,” Jueqel began again. “We are sending in the big guns.”

Thrilled at the words, Sherry jumped and said, “yea, they'll eat those words up.” Unexpectedly, she sprinted to the elevator letting out an excited “recess!”

Jueqel said, “lets go.”