I found Mum in her room. Sandy-hair had gone and Matsin was stretched out on the sofa, pretending to be asleep, while somehow not getting the smallest wrinkle in his expensive suit.

  She gave me a frazzled smile. “Oh Jesevo. How are you doing, hon?”

  I went over for a hug. “Had better days, Mum. Pel hates me, I apparently see ghosts, and it’s just possible that Urei might end up dead.”

  “We won’t let that happen, I promise. I won’t let Pel down. Or you.”

  I searched her face. “They meant a lot to you, didn’t they?”

  “I loved them both. Was in love with them both, a little. Maybe a tiny bit closer to Nev, but Jesi...Lord, he was a beautiful man, inside and out. Nev adored him. When Jesi died and I saw him with Nev on the other side...it was right, Jay. It was how it should be. But I missed them so much. I always thought I’d have more time with them, but they left me so young. So young and in their prime.” She wiped a bit of moisture from her eyes. “At least I had a chance to say goodbye, but I missed them anyway.”

  “But you think Nev’s back.”

  She smiled. “His spirit is, hon. But you’re not him, and Pel’s not Jesi. I'm not that crazy. You’re your own person, just as he is.”

  “Don’t you think it’s weird that someone who was Jesi’s mortal enemy turns up as his brother? How does that work?”

  “Nev and Keril Parido were bitter enemies too. His team killed Nevo. They had to work together but they didn’t like each other.”

  “Sounds just like me and Matsin.” She laughed and shook her head. “Mum...when we find Urei, what’ll happen to him? Will the government take him away or something? It’d break Pel’s heart.”

  “We’re trying to avoid it, my friend and me. It’s a risk. Urei was too disturbed before but that might have changed or their needs might have. We have to keep this quiet if we can—but not at the price of his life.”

  “If Nev and Jesi hadn’t died, you’d still be a cop, wouldn’t you?”

  “Probably.” She traced a pattern on the table, her expression still rather sad. “I loved my job. I’d have married a different cop, maybe, or maybe I’d have just hung around the edges of their relationship. They were so much in love.” She sighed. “I thought I’d have years and years of coming over to visit them in this apartment, being their friend for the rest of their lives. I couldn’t have missed them more if they’d been my brothers. When Zan was born, it made up for that feeling, a little, but his father never quite....” I patted her hand. “Then Zan died, and I thought I would too. Finding out I was pregnant again probably stopped me from following him. Them too.”

  “Mum!”

  She smiled. “Long time ago, Jesevo, and I'm past all that now. I know you worry but you’ve been the saving of me. You don’t have to be afraid I’ll leave you. And when I do die, you’ll still be able to see me.”

  “Mum, don’t.” Lord, I couldn’t bear the idea of her dying. Not now, not ever. “Please don’t even...it’s not funny.

  “No, it’s not. Sorry, hon.” She hugged me again. “You look pretty tired. How about you nap in here for a bit? I'm going to keep watch and go over the notes I’ve made. I’ll wake you if there’s any developments.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. Get some rest while you can.”

  I knew better than to argue with that tone of voice and I was tired. She shut the door after her and I stripped down to my underwear. Despite the stress, and being so pissed off with Pel, I was out in seconds.

  Chapter 5 — A Fresh Start

  I was shaken awake in the dark, but before I could curse at whoever it was, the light came on. It was Pel. “They’ve found something. Come on.”

  I fumbled my way back into my clothes and looked at my watch. Four in the morning. I’d slept a solid eight hours, which meant my mum hadn’t had any sleep at all. Damn it.

  You’d never guess it by looking at her, though. Her sandy-haired friend hadn’t reappeared, but she and Matsin had pages of print outs in front of them, some marked in red. “Sit down, Jesevo. Pel, dear, can you bring in the coffee, and those cake things from the fridge? It’s either early breakfast or late supper,” she said, nodding at me.

  “What have you found?”

  “Three names,” Matsin said, his voice harsh from tiredness. Had he been up all night? Sure looked like it. “All connected to firms working on or close to the last set Urei visited, and on two others. One of the firms is a caterer.”

  “Any of the names actually appear on the set?”

  Mum shook her head. “The link’s very indirect, but it’s all we have. That—and Matsin’s talent.”

  I glanced at Pel as he set the coffee and sweet things down. He looked unimpressed. I didn’t blame him, and I knew Matsin’s hunches were unnatural. “Matsin?”

  “There’s an eighty-three percent chance that the people connected to the caterer have him. Under twenty for the other two.”

  “And the chances of you being completely wrong?” Pel asked.

  “Twenty-nine percent. May I have some coffee?”

  I poured for him because he looked like shit and he didn’t deserve Pel’s attitude. Pel wasn’t the one with an unwanted and unexplained talent. Matsin gave me a brief grateful look for the drink, then perused his lists again.

  “Mum?”

  She nodded. “Apart from Matsin’s hunch, I think this looks likely. The catering staff would’ve had any number of chances to see and hear Urei and if he was indiscreet about the voices in his head—”

  “Which he was, any number of times,” I said.

  “Yes, Matsin said. If someone said the right thing to the right person...it’s a long shot, but if Urei’s reached this age without being snatched from home, it has to be chance. That will be in our favour. If he was taken opportunistically, without a lot of planning, then they’ll be holding him while they decide what to do and who to sell him to.”

  “Where?” Pel demanded. “This level of speculation is bad enough, but how do we have a chance of finding him in a city this size? If he’s even in the city.”

  “We’re chasing that down now, looking at communicator activity from certain locations. When did Urei last take any of his medication?”

  Pel bit his lip, trying to remember. “I think...we argued over breakfast, but he would have taken his morning dose when he got up at dawn. I'm pretty sure that’s all he took before he left. He left all the bottles behind. He has a pill carrier but if he was taken before he swallowed the next dose at eleven....”

  “Okay, so we can assume he’s coming up to twenty-four hours without drugs, because his captors won’t dose him.”

  “Mum, from how far away can one of these telepaths reads minds?”

  She screwed up her nose, trying to think. “It varies a lot, apparently. Tinun Ajui was quite powerful, but that doesn’t mean Urei is. His range might be as little as a few metres, or it could be kilometres.”

  “And he won’t realise at first the voices aren’t delusions,” Matsin said. “Which is why it should be Kani who makes contact. He can reassure him it’s real and tell him what’s going on.”

  “Have to find him first,” Pel ground out.

  “Yes.” Mum picked up her notes. “So here’s the plan, boys. Once we have a list of addresses, Pel and I will go out with a driver, visit them.”

  “Matsin and I could too,” I pointed out. “I mean, Urei’s spent a lot of time with him recently. Oh fuck off, Pel,” I said to his dirty look.

  “It would be faster, Luiz,” Matsin said.

  “I can’t protect two sets of searchers.”

  “Mum, Pel and I can both handle ourselves.”

  Matsin snorted. My mum turned around and gave him this look. “Something you want to say about my son, Mister Ro?”

  “Uh...can he shoot a gun?”

  “If he can’t, I’d sure as hell like to know why not. He first passed the national weapons proficiency certificate when he was twelve. Hon?” she asked, turning to me. “Do you think you can keep Pel safe if I babysit Matsin?”

  Matsin made a choking noise. Pel almost grinned.

  “Sure. Can you spare another driver?”

  “I can spare a dozen if I need to. I sleep with the boss. She can cut me a deal.” That raised a smile even in Matsin. “Okay, we’ll split up, but not without plans. Pel, we’ll find him. I swear that on Jesi and Nev’s memory.”

  ~~~~~~~~

  Three hours later we were driving slowly around a grotty light industrial area in a nondescript vehicle, while Pel desperately ‘called’ to his brother. He, like me, was in disguise, and I carried a Peshar automatic that I’d forgotten I owned a license for. Trust Mum to make sure my credentials were up to date, even if I never used a pistol for anything more than monthly target practice. I wouldn’t forget the way Matsin’s eyes went all big and googly when I locked and loaded, and he realised that his dumb ex-client really could use a gun and no, this wasn’t acting. Pel’s eyes went all funny too, but I think it was because he knew that guns meant someone could get hurt. That someone could easily be his brother, and there was just no getting away from that.

  At this point, we were under strict orders from Mum not to engage or even leave the vehicle—unless we saw Urei sauntering happily down the street, of course. Being restricted in what he could do chafed on Pel, but I was fully prepared to knock him out if he tried to get out of the vehicle and chase a bad guy down. Our driver, Huon, was briefed too. Mum didn’t employ fools.

  The problem for us was the catering firm belong to a large family company with many interests and a number of private residences. We couldn't even be sure that Urei would be at any of them—or, despite Matsin’s strange ability, that we were on the right track at all. Pel had vented his frustration at all the ‘if, if, ifs’ we’d handed him, but what else did we have? At his insistence, Mum’s ESF pal—now grudgingly identified as ‘Deri’—had been called back over and he’d explained very forcefully to Pel that Mum had left the ESF with the rank of lieutenant, she was highly trained, and the operation was proceeding exactly as he would have set it up. More than that, there would be little more that the police or ESF could do that we couldn’t.

  “We could send more people in, Mister Kani. And we’d be dragging out a corpse. Thought you wanted him alive?”

  Pel gave Deri an evil look, but shut up then. He still wasn’t happy, though.

  We’d been searching for an hour now. Pel had a headache, I could tell that by just looking at him. Fortunately I’d thought of that, and pulled out the thermos of coffee and the pills. “Painkillers,” I said at his frown.

  He nodded, accepting the pills and knocking them back, wincing as if that movement hurt him, but he didn’t speak. I wished I could help but even if Urei heard my thoughts, he might not trust me enough to answer. If he even could. Lord, I knew why Pel looked as if he wanted to punch a hole in the wall. So much uncertain—

  “Hey, watch it!” I yelled as hot liquid spilled over my hand.

  Pel had splashed me with coffee but as I looked up from the mess to glare, I realised his thoughts were entirely elsewhere. Had he heard something?

  A few seconds later, he turned to me. “I spoke to him. He’s alive, Jay!”

  “Where is he?”

  “Wait.”

  I pulled out my communicator and called Mum. “We’ve made contact.”

  “Heading to your location now. Stay low, keep this line open.”

  I tapped Huon on the shoulder and told him to pull up somewhere safe. Then, holding the communicator close to my face so I could speak quietly, I kept a watch on Pel. As soon as his attention came back, I asked, “Where?”

  “He doesn’t know. He’s scared stiff. I had to work to convince him this wasn’t a delusion.”

  “But now?”

  “He’s tied to a bed and blindfolded. He only woke up a little while ago. They drugged him with something to knock him out. He sounds pretty sick.”

  I quickly reported this to Mum. “Keep talking to him,” she ordered.

  “Jay, he’s terrified,” Pel said when I repeated her words. “He can hear too many voices.”

  “Tell him to concentrate on just you. Keep talking to him. Tell him that Matsin is on his way too. Do it, Pel. Your prejudices aren’t important.”

  With a fierce scowl, he turned away, and his gaze turned inward. I whispered a report to Mum, and could only wait.

  Huon turned. “Miss Fresiz is around the corner. They want to transfer. Be ready, Mister Jay.”

  A few seconds later, another vehicle pulled alongside ours, and Mum and Matsin quickly slid across, taking up position on the seat across from us, then their transport moved away. “He’s panicking,” Pel said, sounding panicky himself. “I can’t make him calm down.”

  “Let me talk to him,” Matsin ordered.

  “Pel, dear, it’s worth a try,” Mum said as Pel glared at my ex-manager.

  Pel screwed up his nose—for some reason, that made me want to hug him. “All right. I’ll try and let him know you’re here.”

  He and Matsin both concentrated. Mum took my hand as we waited. Even with my experiences, I found it hard to believe that Pel and Matsin were talking to Urei in their minds, but unless we were all dreaming, they had to be.

  It took a few minutes, and I started to worry that we were rather conspicuous. But if we moved, then it might mean Pel and Matsin wouldn’t be able to hear Urei. Finally, Matsin sat back. “He’s calmed down a little. We’ve convinced him that he should try and read the minds of the people who have him, to reveal his location. He’s having difficulty obtaining control of his talent. I helped a little but it will take time.” Pel’s expression as Matsin said that was sour as a lemon dipped in vinegar. “It must be close, however.”

  “There are hundreds of possible locations even in a half-kilometre radius,” Mum pointed out.

  “Wait!” Pel said sharply. “He’s...yes, he’s got an image in his mind from one of the guards. It’s a house...brick, dark blue paint on the windows...give me some paper, pencil, let me....”

  Mum quickly handed over what he asked for from her case, and his fingers flew over the paper, sketching out what he could see in his mind. Urei might be the official artist in his family but Pel was no slouch at it either. I envied him that skill. Always wanted to be able to draw.

  “Any use?” he said, holding up a picture of a two storey suburban house. Looked respectable, not flashy. There were hundreds of the damn things in this city. How many were close by, was the burning question.

  “Possibly.” Mum pulled out her communicator and called the other driver, asked him to return. “Pel, you keep talking to him, try and find out more information. We’ll drive over to the residential streets and see if this shows up. Matsin, you come with me.”

  So we split up again, Mum taking Pel’s drawing as we divided the district between us. Pel had to concentrate both on Urei and the scenery. I felt like dead weight, though I kept an anxious eye out for a house with dark blue window sills. Pel occasionally reported more details, nothing helpful—Matsin did the same. But twenty minutes later, I had a call from Mum.

  “Matsin’s spotted it.” She gave me the address which I repeated to Huon. “Drive past, don’t stop, and don’t slow down. Ask Pel to keep calling to Urei—it should get easier as he gets closer.”

  Pel looked about to puke from stress. I squeezed his arm. “Hold it together, okay?”

  “You can’t hear him. He’s terrified.”

  “Yeah, but he’s alive. The worst hasn’t happened. Hold on, Pel.”

  He clutched at my hand on his arm. His fingers were ice-cold, and he held onto me all the way to the street with the tidy brick house, in which, we hoped, Urei was alive and well, if scared half to death. Huon took us briskly past, and drove on for another two streets before pulling up behind Mum’s transport. She and Matsin got into ours again and she sent her driver away, telling Huon to head back to our apartment.

  “Pel, tell Urei to stay calm and we’ll be back soon.”

  “We have to get him out,” Pel shouted. Matsin and I both had to grab him to stop him forcing his way out of the vehicle. We had a hell of a job too.

  “Knock it off!” I bellowed in his ear. “We can’t do this without a plan!”

  “Pel, please, dear. Please.” Mum cupped his cheek as he glared mutinously. “I know exactly how you feel. I wouldn’t do it this way if it wasn’t important. Now tell your brother we will be back within a few hours. He just has to stay calm, and cooperative, and gather as much information as possible. Matsin, you talk to him as well.”

  Matsin coughed. “Luiz, could I not stay here and keep Urei company?”

  “No, we need you. Just talk to him.”

  Pel stared pleadingly at me even as he and Matsin had their secret conversation with Urei. Then he looked at Matsin. “Chances of Urei staying safe?”

  “Sixty-four percent.”

  “Not enough.”

  “I don’t make the probabilities, Kani. Urei needs you to be strong and sensible. Fake it if you can’t do it for real. Jay can give you lessons.”

  “You’re a prick, Matsin. Gold-plated,” I said.

  “Enough, boys,” Mum said, turning to tell Huon to pick it up. “We’re working as a team, so play nice. If you don’t, I know a man who can kick all your arses without breaking into a sweat. You too, Jesevo. Stop provoking him.”

  Matsin’s smirk was a very irritating thing. Even when I leaned back and let him see the gun, he kept it up. Just because he knew Mum would never let me shoot him....

  As soon as we arrived back at the apartment, Mum went into her bedroom to make some private calls. I was left as the host of our ‘team’. “Who wants breakfast? Coffee? Matsin, you could grab some sleep in my room. You look like shit.”

  “No. Coffee, please. But I need to make some calls so I’ll use the bedroom for that. I’ll be back shortly.”

  So I put on the coffee pot. Pel sat at the table. “Could I have some tea?”