Radha Misra-Yasser (45 years old, half Indian origin) – India, Pakistan

Radha is a survivor. When her father married her off to an organized crime family in Pakistan at age 14, it was only the beginning of a life full of violence and betrayal. Now the leader of the organization, she is hardened, scrappy, strategic and ruthless. When she learns about her father’s vision of her impending death, she must find a way to sidestep her fate. Her plan is to obtain exceptionals to help her, whether they’re willing to or not. But little does she know, the process of stepping out of her father’s shadow will shed new light on a power she never knew she had.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 4.

Backstory

The daughter of Sandesh and his first wife, Marie, Radha was born in the United States, but was raised primarily in India. It was around the time of her birth that Sandesh realized he had precognitive telepathy. Her mother died when Radha was very young, and after Marie died, Sandesh was a father in name only — he was absent for most of her childhood and she was raised by aunts and cousins.

During her childhood, her father’s business became more profitable — the business was basically money lending, first to gamblers, then to criminals, and finally to terrorist organizations or any group that needed large amounts of undocumented funds and who had the ability to pay them back. From this business, her father did invest large amounts of money into legitimate businesses, but unstable financial markets in Asia made criminal money-lending more profitable than legitimate investments.

In an effort to grow his organization into the lucrative arms trade in Pakistan, Sandesh agreed to marry Radha to the 28 year old Kabir Yasser, one of the sons and likely heir to the Yasser family, the biggest crime family in Pakistan at the time. To do so, Radha had to convert to Islam, both to appease the Yasser family and to circumvent the marriage age laws in India, since she had just turned 15. Radha wanted neither a husband nor to be a Muslim, but her father would hear none of it. She was married quickly and sent off to Pakistan with her new husband.

Her life with Kabir turned very violent, very quickly. He was a sadist and would take great joy in sexually and emotionally abusing his young bride. Her only solace came when he had trips away from home, and she often prayed to whatever gods who would listen that he wouldn’t return. Unfortunately, he always did return, and he seemed to have a new, twisted desire to share with Radha. Her relatives were less than sympathetic — many of them had similar marital stories or they would say “poor spoiled girl, never satisfied with anything.”

When she was 20 years old, she and Kabir learned from doctors that she was unable to have children, and it may have been related to abuse she suffered at his hands. After hearing this news, he beat her senseless that night, but secretly she was glad to disappoint him. After that, he also lost interest in her sexually, and she was very happy for that as well.

When Kabir’s father died, Kabir took over the family organization, but he soon proved to be an incompetent and lazy manager. He enjoyed being a working thug for the family, but was ill suited to do any of the planning or deal-making. It was Radha that filled this void, and she quickly established herself as the de facto leader of the family and gained the loyalty of her in-laws, in particular Fahad, Kabir’s younger brother and a competent and loyal right-hand person for Radha. When her father’s organization was much more sizable than that of the Yasser’s, she orchestrated a more direct merger of the two, rather than just a working relationship. Kabir was enraged that she would do this behind his back and he violently confronted her. This time, she was prepared, and she walked away leaving him to die from multiple stab wounds.

After Kabir’s death, her relationship with her father improved and she effectively became her father’s most trusted ally. But three things would change all that. First, Radha was growing tired of her father “watching” her in visions. She could feel it and she perceived it as not only a violation of her privacy, but also an indication he didn’t trust her, and he didn’t. Second, he learned he had cancer and after consulting with Dr. Morris, his outlook changed. He became more spiritual and decided the family business should change directions. Finally, since she was a child, Sandesh saw a future where he learned of her death. This basically meant his visions of her “turned to black” or appeared as a void which was an indication the target of the telepathy was dead. As that future got closer, his visions indicated more clearly that he apparently had a hand in her death. He reasoned that they must have had a falling out, and once he started to believe that, it eventually happened. They did have a falling out over the direction of the family business, and Sandesh’s desire to shed the unlawful pursuits of the business, which meant most everything Radha was involved in. Independently, both she and he split their business, and she willingly took the criminal aspects of the enterprise.

10 months ago, Radha became aware, through a mutual and trusted family member, that Sandesh had visions of killing her (or in some way being responsible for her death). She knew his visions always came to pass, but that the context may be unclear. She had one year before the incident, so she decided to formulate a contingency plan. But how to outwit a telepath who can spy on you from anywhere, and from the past?

Her desire to protect herself from her father grew into an obsession, but she knew she could not write anything down or verbalize the plan in any way — he might use his power to see what she is doing, then stop her. She came up with a plan: she would permanently block his ability to “see” her with his visions. That would give lead him to believe she was dead.

This plan was complicated — even if she could find a means to block his clairvoyance, she had no good means of testing it or even implementing it. More problematically, her fixation with this desire to protect herself lead her to lose track of her business colleagues and other members of her organization.

While in Germany, she visited a bookstore — she reads a lot, and knows a lot of languages, so she had many books to choose from. She enjoyed non-fiction, particularly philosophy and new age books, and one caught her eye. She couldn’t believe her luck. A book that provided her one third of the solution to her problem: Future Certain.

The second third of the solution to her problem presented itself from a series of expensive bribes made by a trusted colleague and several trips he would make that ended in Myanmar.

The final third of the solution came in the form of her cousin, Dariya, who provided Radha with more information about how her death might occur.

Her contingency plan now in place, she has only to find Brynne Harris in India to set the plan in motion. Unfortunately, she can’t see the future, and it is far from certain what the outcome will be.

Marnie Vega (30 years old, Latina) – Dallas, Texas

A thirty year old who has overstayed her mother’s invitation to move back home, Marnie is lost. She has a power, but she doesn’t know what it is – something like telekinesis, but seemingly useless. But much more distressing is that her mother has been kidnapped and the authorities have found nothing. When new information surfaces, Marnie steals some cash and travels abroad to take the investigation into her own hands. It’s when she ropes documentarian and former P.I. (and eventual love interest) Jeremy Garner into her chaos that she is finally able to recognize her true power: amplification.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 5.

Backstory

Marnie’s real name is Margarita Renata Vega, but she prefers the nickname Marnie and has gone by it since her teens. She was born in Argentina, but her parents moved to Dallas, Texas when she was three years old. Her mother is Texan and her father a native of Argentina.

While she was in college and living in the dorms with her roommate, Brenda, she discovered something unusual about herself that would be a consistent source of anxiety and curiosity and that would alter the trajectory of her life goals.

One night, after a long alcohol induced rant about relationships with Brenda, Marnie drifted off in an uneasy sleep. When they woke up the next morning, her alarm clock and other items were strewn about the room, as though they had been scattered by someone. Brenda and Marnie blamed each other and to compound their irritation with each other, both of them had what they believed were massive and unprecedented hangovers.

This same phenomenon – small items in the room scattered about – happened again a month later. Then again two weeks after that, but the last time without any alcohol the night before, yet still with somewhat debilitating, though temporary, headaches. Again, they blamed each other, and their relationship, already at odds due to a mutual interest in the same man, deteriorated and Brenda moved out.

Marnie lived alone for the remainder of the semester and the following year. That next year, her cousin Brenda came to visit and it happened again. Brenda and Marnie woke up with massive headaches, and there were the small objects, scattered around the room. Brenda was convinced it was a ghost. Marnie didn’t know what to think, except that it had something to do with her.

After she graduated from college and found a decent job, the incidents of that stopped. She was still fascinated with what she thought might be a relationship between her, the headaches and the objects being moved around. Then she saw a documentary about telekinesis and other odd mind powers. The documentary included a man, Vyacheslav Wolanski, from Ukraine who purportedly could move objects with the power of his thoughts, but his telekinetic ability didn’t seem to function based on his control. It was random, but it produced powerful headaches. The documentary also examined other people who had similar abilities, but that man in the Ukraine seemed very convincing to her. The others in the film, not so much.

Then the odd experience happened one more time when she was spending the night with a boyfriend at the time. She realized it only happened when she was around other people and somehow affected them as well.

She knew she had to figure this out, and the best place to start was by contacting Vyacheslav.

Brynn Harris (25 years old, Black) – Portland, Oregon

Though often troubled by her ability to see the future, Brynn has a Pollyanna view of the world. She’s caring, honest and open, and uses her power for good: saving a drowning child, and warning her friend about a dangerous bus ride, for instance. But when her visions lead her to India, she gets kidnapped and entangled in a conspiracy that puts her at odds with Homeland Security. As her life comes under relentless scrutiny and her loved ones become endangered, Brynn becomes less trusting and goes into hiding. She also learns to use her power to her own advantage to become very wealthy.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 2.

Backstory

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Brynn was raised by very conservative and religious parents. Brynn was actively involved in school band and theater and, as she got older, these school pursuits began to dominate her time and often kept her away from church. Her parents didn’t question it because it meant she had little time for boys, too.

Upon turning 18, Brynn left home, but stayed in Portland, Oregon to take college classes and take part in a culture with which she was unfamiliar. Even then, she could feel the division with her parents growing as her beliefs changed.

In her early 20s, Brynn struck up a friendship with a woman named Gabriella who was close to her age. Gabriella was very much Brynn’s opposite in temperament; Gabriella was very out-going and flamboyant, whereas Brynn was cautious and subdued. Gabriella was also a risk-taker and willing to take risks with drugs and her health, too. Their friendship slowly turned into a romantic relationship that left Brynn conflicted. Brynn’s parents would not approve of this relationship, and Brynn had nagging guilt due to the traditional values she was raised to believe in. Ultimately, the guilt caused Brynn to end the relationship with Gabriella, which left Gabriella devastated.

When Brynn was 27, she had the first vision she could remember. It occurred as she was having a migraine headache while she was sleeping. She dreamed of Gabriella overdosing on drugs and dying. Brynn woke up abruptly from the dream feeling nauseous, dizzy and with a severe headache. Brynn was deeply disturbed by the dream and decided to reach out to Gabriella, who was fine. Brynn brushed it off as a silly dream.

Because Brynn reached out to Gabriella, this rekindled their relationship in a strong, passionate way, but once again, Brynn severed her ties to Gabriella a few months later. It was after this break-up that Gabriella overdosed on drugs and died.

Gabriella’s death caused Brynn to become obsessive. Brynn learned everything she could about the cause, the means, and the location of Gabriella’s death. Everything she read and heard matched the vision she had a few months earlier. Then she had another vision – about a friend in South Korea and a bus exploding. Then she had another about a neighbor’s cat caught in a tree. The visions came more regularly and always in her sleep and always with migraine headaches. The visions were very distorted and difficult to interpret, but they always came true.

Then Brynn had a dream of a drowning child and saw herself rescuing him. She roped her best friend, Lauren Canella, into helping her rescue the child and found herself on the news and a minor local celebrity in the process, although she was cautious not to tell anyone but Lauren that it was due to a vision.

After the rescue, Lauren talked Brynn into telling the world she can see the future, which Brynn was not interested in at first. But to make extra money and to document her visions more completely, she decided to throw caution to the wind and write a memoir which she called Future Certain due to the fact that the visions always came true and she wasn’t able to alter them, whether good or bad. She dedicated the book to Gabriella and it was published by a New Age oriented publishing house.

Future Certain had very low sales in niche markets, most of the sales were to those who had existing interest in New Age topics and a predisposition to believe something the general public regards as fiction. The book, however, did get the attention of Radha Misra, who believed in Brynn’s visions.

Brynn has a strong moral and ethical outlook — she’s concerned for others and wants to protect her friends. She also wants to protect strangers she knows are innocent and whom she has seen only in visions. Her morality (and naivety) causes her to suffer prolonged interrogation both at the hands of Radha and Homeland Security. Lauren provides frequent moral and psychological support to her as Brynn faces pressure from foreign, organized criminals and Homeland Security. Like many telepaths, Brynn possesses an unusually strong willpower.

Dr. Tina Plantes (50-60 years old, Caucasian) – Baltimore, Maryland

A physics professor at Johns Hopkins University, Tina loves her work. In fact, she’d rather be married to her work than to any man. But when she starts to find herself in alternate realities, she gets very distracted – not just because she’s a physicist with a real-life physics problem, but also because she has fallen in love – in more than one reality! By tackling the greatest scientific problem she has ever faced, Tina quickly learns that her actions have profound consequences – not just for her, but also for her new beau, Dr. Morris… and everyone they’ve ever met.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 1.

Backstory

Adopted as the only child of a couple from a Mexican orphanage, Tina never knew her real parents, nor did she have any interest, except in passing, to find out. Her adoptive parents moved to the United States when Tina was still an infant and raised her in an English-only household and sent her to private schools, in an effort to give her the greatest chance of success in America. Both her adoptive parents passed away of natural causes when Tina was in college, and that was the end of any connection she had to family. This would seem to be a sad circumstance for any young woman, but Tina was always grounded firmly in reality and the here and now. Any anxiety or stress that came her way, she dealt with it through work, specifically in the study of Physics. She threw herself into the deep end of the physics pool and came up with some remarkable insights into quantum physics, space-time physics and furthering or challenging generally accepted notions of the day.

An introvert and a person of the mind, she was content with keeping distractions, like interpersonal relationships, separate from her work life, which was her entire life for the most part. Although, she did find time for reading ancient and historical literature, and physical fitness through martial arts.

Though she never really wanted to have children, when she turned 40, she began to think more about her legacy. Without family, would she ever be remembered? Since she had no children — and no built-in legacy that comes with kids — would there be something in her work that could serve as a legacy. She also started to realize that, although she was a physics professor at a small, but relatively well-regarded university, it had been many years since she had a profound, original idea regarding physics.

It was during this minor existential crisis, that Tina began to have unusual dreams. During a two-week period of time, she had vivid dreams: a man kept coming to meet her. She had never seen him before, but he needed her help. She knew it had something to do with alternate realities, but she couldn’t hang onto the idea. The images kept coming to her: a manuscript she had written but actually never wrote, a knife, some notes in her handwriting carried by this stranger. Something terrible was happening — people were dying. She saw herself being killed. And then the dreams just stopped. She can’t remember the man’s face anymore, but the experience was profound.

She took a long-term leave of absence from her professorship and began to travel and dwell on her experience. She also began to write about it, but only in general concepts, not as though it had really happened to her — people would think she was crazy, not that it wasn’t exactly what she was thinking, too! She wrote both a scientific discussion about alternate realities, and also published a series of fictional short stories about alternate realities, which proved to have some popularity among science fiction enthusiasts. She eventually went back to teaching at Johns Hopkins.

During her long “hiatus from real life” as she put it, something else happened to her, and this time, she wrote down everything she could and tried to hang onto it all. She was visited by a Chinese monk, Renshu Sun — he did not approach her in a Buddhist robe, he just stated his affiliation. He had a bizarre story to share with her, one that he believed she was uniquely able to understand given her physics background and her imagination (he had read her short stories). And his encounter with her was urgent, because he said he could not remain here long. Here’s what he told her:

Hello, my name is Renshu Sun. Please listen to me. I cannot stay here long and I have traveled a considerable way to see you. This is the start and the end. I think you will understand when I say this is the first and last time we meet.

I believe you are the key to understanding alternate realities. I too have been seeing them. I was ordained as a bhikkhu, what you would call a Buddhist monk. I always found it easy to reach a deeply meditative state even when I was young. I was a monk for a few years until one day, a day that spilled over into night, I was engaged in a long meditative session in my room, and suddenly my perception changed. I was no longer in my room. Indeed, I was no longer at our monastery. I was in what appeared to be a temple — it was quite destroyed, and all around me lay the ruins. I was shocked and I immediately came out of this vision back into my room.

Arrogantly, I wondered if I had not seen a glimpse of Nirvana. But what of Nirvana? A ruined temple? Was this what the Buddha himself had seen? I was too young and naive even then to know what I was really seeing. It was disturbing, but I decided to seek out that temple again. During my free time the following week, I meditated deeply again. And it came to me. The same temple. This time, I vowed to stay as long as I could. I concentrated on this place. I realized I was sitting amidst the ruins, so I stood up. Before me was a strange symbol carved into the floor. It was nothing I had seen before. I looked around me. The debris was everywhere and my immediate reaction was that I wanted to rebuild it, but the feeling inside me was much like the place. I was helpless to repair it.

I decided to explore outside the temple. It was dark outside. Or rather, there was darkness, though I wouldn’t call it night. There were also clouds swirling around the temple. Some appeared to take form, like misty people or what I felt were hungry ghosts who could not come inside the temple, but spun around it in a turbulent cyclone. I went up to one of the cloudy images. It looked like a person. It could have been frightening, but the image didn’t last long. Suddenly, I was in an empty room, or rather it appeared to be a public meeting place where people go to have dinner and congregate. There were tables and chairs, but no people. I had never seen it before, but it looked like some place you might see in an old American movie.

As I stood in this room, I noticed that there were plates with food, but no people. Then I could hear something, someone talking, faintly. Then more muttering, imperceptible at first. Then the ghosts — translucent people started to appear, most sitting at the tables, some walking around. They become more opaque, but they did not seem to notice me. And then I realized they were all moving backward, speaking backward, too. But the realization quickly hit me — it was me that was out of place, out of time compared to them. Something was happening to me.

I fled that place and ended up back in the temple, and then back in my room. It would be a few months before I chose to journey back to the temple. It scared me, but not for the reason you might imagine. I realized that the temple, that place I kept coming to, had nothing to do with my religion or worse still, it might indicate that religion could not explain it. I continued to visit the temple, observe the people. There were people from all over the world that I could visit by leaving that temple.”

And then he cut his story short. He told Tina that he had to leave now, but that he wanted to let her know he had seen her in this place, too. That she was the only one who ever recognized him — regarded him — during that time. He believed she could perceive this, too. The last thing he said to her was, “don’t forget this — you will not find me here or now, but you will find me.” And he literally vanished before her eyes. Tina woke up from this dream — or? Had she dreamt all that? It was more than a dream, like those visions before, but even more memorable. She immediately wrote down everything she could recall to the smallest details.

She attempted to locate Renshu Sun, but nobody, not all the Buddhist orders or monastic communities in China she contacted, and she contacted many, had ever heard of him. It was as if he did not exist. And he might not exist. Yet. Or, she began to reason that he might not exist in this reality. For a time, she tried to actively attempt to dream to get the visions back. Then she tried mediation, but her overly active brain and general lack of patience didn’t work very well for her.

Eventually, Tina began to wonder if this wasn’t all in her head. After a routine brain scan for problems came up negative, she confided in a colleague who was also a psychiatrist. The colleague told her that it would be very unusual for Tina to suddenly have a psychotic episode at this point in her life especially one so incredibly detailed. The colleague put her in touch with Dr. Daniel Trent who is an expert on very unusual mental phenomenon.

Tina met with Daniel and told him her story. He shared with her that it didn’t sound like something he’d heard of before and he’d heard of some incredible things. He suggested she attempt to actively induce an altered state and also suggested methods to do it, including the use of a mind-altering drug. She had never done drugs before — not because she didn’t have the opportunity in college, but because she was very much afraid she would lose control or damage her brain or do something really inappropriate. Still though, she wasn’t a kid anymore, and she could think of no other way to “get there”. She kept telling herself that something like peyote is sufficiently mind-altering and it’s also natural. And, after all, this is all in the name of science.

Now, after illegally obtaining the desired controlled substance, Tina locks herself in her apartment. It’s night. She’s alone, but she’s feeling giddy and giggly. She’s like some dumb school kid about to trip! She decides it’s a good idea to eat, and maybe some wine to calm her nerves. Damn, should she have had alcohol before taking peyote? She opens up the package. It contains strips of cactus. “What the hell — how do I use this?” There are brief instructions on a note inserted in the package: Chew and wash down with liquid. “How many?” She tries one to start. Very bitter. She waits about 5 minutes and doesn’t feel anything. She tries another strip. A third can’t hurt. It doesn’t taste that bad after all. Should she be washing these down with wine?

Then something happens…

Adebayo “Abe” Rotimi (50-59 years old, African) – Omaha, Nebraska

Abe is compassionate and selfless, a psychologist by training and an exceptional with a potent mental ability: he can block telepathy. It’s because of his unusual power that, as a boy in Nigeria, a man with telepathy found Abe to be a threat and killed his mother for trying to protect him. But Abe’s power has its advantages; working alongside Dr. Daniel Trent, his ability allows them to identify those who may be exceptionals so they can get help from Dr. Morris. After a massacre occurs at Dr. Morris’ facility in Omaha, Altruistic Abe hits the road to save unknowing patients who may be targets of an assassin.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 7.

Backstory

From the Ogun state in Southwest Nigeria and ethnically Yoruba, Adebayo Rotimi, found out at an early age that he could block telepathy. He would have likely never known he had this ability were it not for a chance meeting with a local crime boss who could read minds. Realizing he was in danger, his mother sent him to Sudan to be raised by distant relatives. Not content to let Abe escape, the telepathic crime boss tortured and killed Abe’s mother to find him, but she never revealed Abe’s whereabouts.

From Sudan, Abe eventually migrated to Egypt and obtained an advanced degree in Psychology there before coming across Dr. Morris while attempting to research his own mental ability. He and Dr. Morris became good friends and Dr. Morris hired Abe to consult with him as he studied people with exceptional abilities.

Abe’s own mental ability has been very useful when studying other exceptionals with mental abilities. In addition to being able to protect himself and other doctors and researchers from harmful or invasive mental powers, he is also able to help patients with uncontrolled mental abilities learn how to control them.

Abe has been called upon by Dr. Morris, with Dr. Daniel Trent, to locate those he believes have exceptional abilities. Their task is to interview possible exceptionals and, if they determine they have actual abilities, refer them to Dr. Morris and his team to obtain treatment and therapy.

When dealing with English speakers, he goes by the name Abe, a nickname for which he is fond. He speaks English fluently, although he has a trace of a Nigerian (Yoruba language) accent.

Abe has a strong sense of justice, a belief in the ultimate goodness of people, and a desire to help those who are in need or who are being oppressed. When working with Daniel, a large part of Abe’s motivation is helping exceptionals and ensuring they will be safe. This motivation comes into conflict with Daniel’s interest, which is at first scientific curiosity, but later finding a way to protect the general public from exceptionals.

Vivienne Hayley (late 20s, Caucasian) – Idaho and U.S.

Vivienne is a drifter, a grifter, and a bigot. And she’s fresh out of prison. A physical exceptional, her skin and cells rapidly die and regrow, allowing her to breathe underwater and regenerate wounds faster than a normal person. But as a former patient of Dr. Morris, she knows her ability is also a disease. She will likely not live past 35; and with a lack of ethics, a lack of maturity, and a very high pain threshold, Vivienne just lives for the day. It’s when she ends up saving another exceptional’s life that she finds meaning in her own and is inspired to become a literal superhero.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 14.

Backstory

Vivienne always knew she was different, but saw her abilities as more of a parlor trick rather than anything useful. Her skin rapidly regenerates and is permeable ensuring that any tattoos put on her are always temporary. To make money or get free drinks in a bar, she’ll use her skills to impress the patrons or win bets. She never once considered herself special or extraordinary.

Born in Cooperstown, North Dakota, her mother disappeared when she was a baby and her father moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota where she grew up. At one time her father told Vivienne that her mother was a tramp and just ran off, while another time he said her mother was dead. She never knew what the truth was and her father wasn’t much for words or the truth. Her father and her rarely got along. When young, she learned that she could stay underwater, without breathing through her lungs, for very long periods of time. She scared a neighbor girl and that girl’s mother when she pretended she drowned. Mostly, she kept this ability a secret. It was the way she’d be able to run off and hide when her home life was too difficult — she’d immerse herself in a deep pond or river and wait until trouble passed her by. She liked the way it was quiet and still underwater.

At 13, her father and her were having a particularly heated argument while he was driving. Distracted by the shouting match, her father lost control of the car and it upended on a highway at high speed, throwing him away from the vehicle and leaving Vivienne trapped inside as the interior of the car caught on fire. Soon she was engulfed in flames and lost consciousness. She woke up from a coma in a medical facility a week later and was told her father was dead and that she was under the care of Dr. Morris. While most of her hair was burned away, she had no other visible signs of burns. Without parents or available (or known) relatives, her custody fell to the state, or in this case, Dr. Morris’ research team. The research staff found her to be a very disagreeable and difficult patient. She was argumentative, ignored her tutors, and got into fights with other patients and employees at the facility. Just prior to her transfer to Enfeld Bionomics before her 17th birthday, she escaped. She hid in a nearby reservoir for a day then walked away.

Although she is still anxious around fire, there’s very little that causes her to be afraid. Vivienne has an extremely high pain threshold. When you add to her high pain tolerance a faster than normal regeneration rate, you get a person who’s not bothered by concerns about getting physically injured. She’s also a very physically capable and physically secure person. She’s comfortable with her physicality — she likes her body, and she’s a bit of an exhibitionist. She likes how men look at her and she is attractive, although she’s definitely a diamond in the rough — very rough.

While she lacks a sense of fear, she also often lacks good judgment. She’s emotionally very reactive — quick to anger, quick to get defensive, quick to get emotionally hurt, and slow to trust anyone. She’d rather manipulate people than try to build trust, particularly men. She finds it very hard to make and keep friends or even keep a job. Though she doesn’t see herself as different because of her ability, her lack of trust in people does set her apart. It takes a very patient person to get close to her.

Vivienne is prone to using her fists — and teeth — to resolve an argument. That, coupled with writing several bad checks, landed her in prison a few different times, with the last stay being for six years.

Now, after spending the last several years in the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello, Idaho, she has been paroled and is eager to drift away.

Dr. Jean Speerel (50-59 years old, Caucasian) – Washington, D.C.

Jean is an imposing woman with icy blue eyes and dark secrets she’d do anything to protect. For one, she has the ability to read minds. But despite these secrets, Jean has built a commendable reputation as a neuroscientist and criminal profiler for U.S. intelligence. Jean is always in control. She dresses impeccably, keeps a meticulous home, and uses her telepathy to manipulate any situation in her favor. But when her life is threatened and she discovers the world’s biggest secret – an alien – she must go to increasingly extreme lengths to keep her grip on things, no matter how destructive the consequences.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 8.

Backstory

The only child of an affluent family on the East coast of the United States, Jean Speerel knew about her ability from a very young age, and realized then that she may be the only person with this power. She was extremely intelligent and intuitive in addition to having telepathy. When she was 6 years old, while playing with other children in her elementary school playground, she listened to their thoughts. At first, she told the other children and they didn’t believe her. She was able to prove it and convinced them all by telling them what they were thinking. Then they told their parents, and before long, she was taken to the principal’s office, and, with her mother called in, asked to explain herself. It was at that young age she realized telling people about her ability could get her into trouble. It was also then that she decided not to tell the truth, instead she said she had made it all up. Eventually, the whole thing blew over and nobody gave it a second thought.

Telepathic ability like this comes with an odd effect — she refers to it as an “echo”. Just before people speak, they think of what they are going to say. It can be a jumble of thoughts and words that converge and coalesce into a sentence that plays in their minds just before coming out of their mouths creating a sort of echo. As she learned about the echo, she also learned how to ignore it. Amateur and weak telepaths are easily distracted by it, but she has a great deal of control over her power and she has a very effective mental filter for the echo.

Suffice to say, the advantages telepathy gave her were enormous. She could read the thoughts of everyone around her: teachers, her parents, classmates, everyone. She could play into their interests, get them to help her or give her things just because she knew things about them. But the disadvantages were staggering. She realized that people routinely lie. During high school, her supposed “friends” frequently thought ill of her while telling her they liked her. Boys she didn’t know who passed her in the hallway objectified her for her body, but also criticized her without saying a word. Even though teachers patiently answered her questions, she annoyed them by asking too many questions. Her parents didn’t trust her even though they encouraged her and told her they did. Everyone, all the world, lied.

The deceit from other people was disheartening and isolated her. She stopped just actively reading minds because of the constant barrage of negativity. She also found that reading the minds of teachers to cheat on tests was too easy and lacked inspiration. She had enough intelligence and self-motivation that she didn’t need to cheat.

Her intelligence, academic achievements, and her parents money ensured she could attend the Ivy League college of her choice, Brown University in Providence Rhode Island, and indulge her fascination with neuroscience. She knew she was attracted to this subject in part because it might explain something about her and her unusual mind. She always, and perhaps with some hubris, felt that she was mentally, and perhaps genetically, advanced.

It was during her freshman year of college that she met and began a relationship with Jacob, another freshman who was also a biology major. He was immediately attractive to her. He didn’t lie. Well, he almost never lied, and he was completely attracted to her — very infatuated with her actually. It was almost embarrassing to her the way he thought about her and so often. She very much liked him, and liked more how he made her feel. It was like holding up a mirror to yourself that always makes you look your best. But Jacob was simple — very straight-forward. He did what she was interested in doing and took her places when she asked. He would do anything for her. His adoration grew tiring to her, but she continued to see him because it was easy and because he was easy to manage. That is, until she noticed one of her lab instructors, Elias. He was in his 30s and he definitely didn’t think like the average person. He had dark, complicated thoughts and it seemed that he was frequently on the verge of saying something very inappropriate to students, but then backing off just before the echo. Jean was utterly fascinated by him and would catch herself smiling when she read his mind as he lectured. He was the exact opposite of the uncomplicated Jacob.

And then it happened. Toward the end of her second semester of her freshman year, while she was having an informal dinner with Jacob at his apartment. He said “are you reading my mind?” She knew he wasn’t joking because she was reading his mind at the time. She was mortified. How could he know? The look on her face gave her away. “Can you read my mind?” “How is that possible?” — the questions came almost as fast as the echoes. She wasn’t prepared for it, and she didn’t know what to do, so she left abruptly. He called her repeatedly that night, but she didn’t answer. She was exposed in a way she never had been since she naively exposed her ability when she was a 6 year old.

Jacob left messages for her: it was Ok, and he just wanted to understand it, and, always, how is it possible, and how can you do that. She could not understand how he knew, but she hit upon a possible reason that was only confirmed to her through Dr. Morris’ research many years later. Prolonged exposure to telepathic contact can make even a non-telepathic person aware of its presence. And she most definitely spent the most time reading his mind of anyone she knew except perhaps her parents.

Jean ended her relationship with Jacob, and at the end of the semester, began to pursue Elias. And it was easy to get with Elias. She knew how dark, how unhinged some of his thoughts could be and how that informed his sense of humor, and she could match him with some very dark humor of her own. At first he protested that he should not date a student, but she assured him that, since it was summer break, she was no longer his student. And besides, she wasn’t a typical student anyway. The first time they made love was intense for her. She tried to control how much she read his mind so he didn’t become aware of it, but she was utterly absorbed with him. The things he thought during sex were pornographic, yes, but somewhat unsettling, but very much mesmerizing to her. But he had amazing control, too. He never said many of the things he thought. She just enjoyed the darkness from a safe distance.

A month later, Jean ran into Jacob at a market near campus. He made it seem like a chance encounter, but she knew he planned it. He was still very much obsessed with her. Since she spent most of the previous month at Elias’ place, she hadn’t realized that Jacob was now camping out at her place. He also knew she was seeing someone else. With Jacob in this state, and knowing about her secret, she didn’t know how far he would go and it bothered her. She had trouble relaxing later that day with Elias. The next day, there was a knock on the door, and Elias answered it. Jacob was there now — he followed her to Elias’ apartment. Jacob was both shocked then angry that she was sleeping with an instructor. Elias warned Jacob that he wouldn’t tolerate him around there. Jean was stunned and many things echoed back and forth — somewhere in the middle of the shouting match, Jean could hear that Elias wanted to kill Jacob, though didn’t say it. Then Jacob blurted out “you know she can read minds — good luck with that!” She could read that Elias was confused by that comment, but seemed to shrug it off as some dumb ploy of Jacob’s. Jacob left after Elias repeatedly and increasingly loudly said he’d call the police.

That night, Jean and Elias sat quietly eating dinner. She could tell that Elias was mulling whether a relationship with her was a good idea. She brought up the subject of the altercation earlier in the day. Elias expressed concern that he could get in trouble for seeing a student since he was a new instructor. This position was a huge break for him and he shouldn’t be risking it. She reminded him he had already. Then he thought “what if I were to kill that guy — he’s unstable — I could very easily make it look like suicide.” Elias asked her what she thought were the odds Jacob might talk. She told him it was a definite possibility. Several things went through Elias’ mind and she realized he’d attempted to kill someone before, but didn’t succeed. Jean said in a joking manner, “well, you could kill him, just be sure it looks like an accident!” Elias didn’t laugh. He asked her if she thought people would believe Jacob could commit suicide. She said “yes” and that was the last they spoke of it.

Later that week, she heard on the local news that Jacob was found dead of a likely drug overdose. They were drugs that were readily available from their university lab, so he could have gotten them, but she knew it was Elias. Elias was different after that — distant. He was very concerned about the impropriety of their relationship, but she knew he was also bothered about killing Jacob. Obviously, he never confessed it to her openly, nor did she ask. It made her uncomfortable as well. All those dark thoughts in him. She knew she’d have advance warning if he decided to attack her, but it might not be enough advance warning. So she left him.

Later that school year, she learned that he had a relationship with another student and that the administration found out about it. Although he wasn’t terminated, he was put on probation. While on probation, he committed suicide. And that was that. That experience taught her two valuable lessons: if someone tries to reveal your secret publicly, prepare to lie and lie well, and if you kill someone, you’d better be able to handle the emotional consequences of the action. It was also helpful to learn that even non-professionals could be effective killers if they are so motivated.

Jean went on to obtain her Ph.D in Neuroscience then post-doctoral work with a medical non-profit in Washington D.C. She became more involved in consulting work and obtained a consulting position with a prestigious non-profit medical organization that lobbied the government. She was an extremely effective negotiator and lobbyist. Eventually and quickly, she made her way up the food chain of power first as a consultant on health-related policies and laws in the House, then on security-related health issues first with the House, then the Senate. She eventually became a general adviser to the Intelligence Community (NSA, CIA, Treasury Department OIA, FBI, DoD’s DIA, etc.) Her background includes deep knowledge in both neuroscience and neuropsychology. She can get into both the medical aspects of how the brain works and the psychology of the human mind. Criminal profiling has become a recent area of her consultation work.

Now, she’s learned of a possible effort by the Chinese government to study telepathy. And, that there is a man named Dr. Morris who has been studying them as well.

She decides to find Dr. Morris.

Rachel LaTour (early 20s, Chinese American) – Washington, D.C.

An Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics and martial arts as a child, Rachel LaTour is physically exceptional. Now using her talents as a CIA agent who leads high-risk missions in China, Rachel is conscientious, honorable, and patriotic. But when she learns that telepathy is real and she can detect Jean using it on her, her world view is altered. The closer she comes to the truth, the harder it is for her to reconcile her new beliefs with her sense of loyalty to the U.S. government.

Character introduced in Book 1, Chapter 11.

Backstory

Rachel’s parents moved to the U.S. from Taiwan and became naturalized citizens. Her father died when she was 2 years old and her mother later remarried to Arnold LaTour. Rachel was ultimately adopted by her step-father and became very close with him, though was somewhat distant from her mother. Her adopted father encouraged her athletic and academic pursuits and Rachel bloomed. Her step-father eventually died when Rachel was 17 which deeply affected her, though she channeled her grief into her studies becoming even more focused.

Driven by both physical and mental pursuits, the over-achieving and very serious Rachel LaTour would seem to anyone to be exceptional. Her physical ability allowed her to achieve fame in the Olympic arena, in both gymnastics and the martial arts, beginning at age 12, and her educational pursuits have been rewarded with a Bachelor’s degree in criminology prior to age 15 then graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point at 19. She has been called a child prodigy because of her level of motivation even from a very young age, but what she has in drive, she lacks in social knowledge and she is frequently isolated from others in her age group and generally from everybody else due to her lack of interest in typical young adult pursuits. Rachel has a strong ethical nature and a belief in justice.

She was recruited by the Army’s special mission unit, Delta Force, and trained in covert work. The CIA was impressed by her physical and academic credentials, but also saw in her a maturity beyond her years. They recruited her into their Special Operations Group and found that she could be useful in more subtle operations. The CIA realized that Rachel’s high profile and name recognition, rather than being a detriment, allowed her to make contact with and gain the confidence of others in many places in the world where she is required to work.

By age 22, Rachel established herself as the leader of a covert group of special operatives trained in infiltration and extraction. Her colleagues refer to her by her code name, Blackbird, which her supervisor applied to her upon seeing her “fly” into action and demonstrating unusual athleticism during training exercises. She prefers to be called Rachel.

When she has been involved in romantic situations, they often turn out to be problematic for her work. She had difficulty integrating a social life into her work life, until she became involved with her co-worker Michael DeCosta. This was, seemingly a good solution for her since she is at work or traveling regularly, but this created a new, and ethical, problem for her and him.

Now, during a mission to extract a defector from China, she finds out that telepathy — mind-reading — is real and learns that she can tell when someone is reading her mind. She is understandably shocked by this news. When she attempts to report this back to her superiors, she feels Dr. Jean Speerel attempting to read her mind. What is going on here? She isn’t one to jump to wild conclusions, but she wonders: is there a conspiracy in the U.S. government?

Erik von Trapp (45-50 years old, African descent) – Beijing, China and International

A genius, engineer, and die-hard anarchist, Erik has zero allegiances and many passports – each with different aliases. For the time being, he lives in Beijing in an apartment full of security cameras with his adorable pug, Brad. He’s been hired by China’s Scientific Research Steering Committee for a telepathy research project, but behind the scenes, he’s embezzling money as part of a larger plan to disrupt world economies. Erik can outsmart anyone, even the CIA; but despite making fast enemies with Rachel LaTour, an unexpected catastrophe involving an alien will eventually cause them to join forces.

Character introduced in Book 1, first mentioned in Chapter 42, introduced in Chapter 44.

Backstory

Erik von Trapp, aka Erik Reiter, aka Eric Van Zell, aka Eric Hong, aka Jan Gantt, aka James Danvers, aka… well, the list goes on and even Erik von Trapp is likely an alias, too. He is an anarchist, no debate there. He is a freedom fighter, and humanity just doesn’t know he is their greatest ally. He is many different things, and it really depends on who you ask. Above all, he’s adaptable.

Very little is known about Erik as a child, but it is believed he was born in Canada. He then moved to Austria when he was a small child, then spent time in Denmark and Germany. Records indicate he received a Master’s degree in Engineering from RWTH Aachen University in Germany when he was 13 years old, and to this day, the youngest graduate of that prestigious university. And that was the last degree he received before deciding that the structure of the university system was too constrictive.

Between the age of 13 until well into his 40s, there is a significant gap in the record. Rumors place him in Sweden raising a family. Still others tell tales of him wandering through the deserts of Africa on hunting safaris with the Bedouins. One crazy rumor indicated he was learning the ways of the ascetics in India. A reliable first-hand account complete with one very out-of-focus picture is of him hiking the mountains between Bolivia and Chile when he was about 30 years old. Whatever the story, it’s clear that Erik’s past is much less relevant than his future.

In his 40s, he obtained an official post with the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China to head of their cyber-security division and thwart outside intrusion. It’s believed that Erik was also instrumental in developing hacking technology. The Chinese position: the technology is only to test our network security. The American position: you are using that technology to hack the networks of other countries and companies. Erik’s position: if you have a technology, it’s important to test it out in many different, real-world scenarios.

Erik was also instrumental in developing banking and stock exchange software that helped ensure stability of the Chinese currency. The Chinese position: the software ensures proper tracking and reporting of the value of our currency. The American position: you are using that software to help manipulate the value of your currency and devalue it to increase the U.S. trade deficit with China. Erik’s position: it’s a very sophisticated system — lots of numbers — you wouldn’t really understand it.

By all accounts, Erik’s advice and assistance has been well received in China.

At the same time that Erik was working in China, he started, under the name James Danvers, a global non-profit organization, Population implosion Advocacy Agency, or nicknamed PiAA (pronounced like the Spanish dish, paella). Through both a newsletter and online blog, the group advocated the reversal of the world population explosion, or the movement that is referred to as negative population growth (NPG). Both to prevent destruction of the environment and reduce wars, most of which can be directly attributed to over-population, the Agency put forth some radical suggestions. Among these, allow nature to take its course and let plagues or other infectious outbreaks spread, especially to regions or areas where the people did not believe there was a problem or people avoided modern medicine because of religious beliefs. James Danvers was quoted in an interview on the BBC as saying “if people don’t immunize their children, let the children die. It will help remove mental deficiencies from the gene pool.” PiAA also put forth a belief that the Chinese population control system could be improved and should be exported to most large developed nations. Their most radical proposal indicated that having children shouldn’t be a right, nor should it be easy. All people should be sterilized at youth, then be required to pass a form of standardized test when they are at least 21 years old to be able to have the privilege to have children, and have that sterilization reversed only if they pass the test and could ensure they have the resources to raise a child. PiAA was a growing non-profit under Erik’s leadership.

But in actuality, PiAA was only a front organization that was created to launder money that Erik was siphoning off of national banking systems which is his real reason for working on banking software. But the purpose of hacking into banks isn’t to get rich — he already has great wealth — it’s to create a complex bug in the global banking network that will ultimately bring about the downfall of the global economy. He is, after all, an anarchist and that is his true goal.

Erik is fluent in multiple languages, including German, English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, Danish, and possibly others. Native speakers in those languages are impressed that Erik speaks with hardly an accent at all.

Most recently, Erik’s assignment with the Chinese government has changed and he has been moved to a highly classified research division, the SRSC. The Chinese government has learned that there are individuals in their population, at least three people that they know of, but conceivably more, who have unusual mental abilities. The SRSC have attempted to collect as much information as possible, but they have met road-blocks, partly from skepticism in their own government, partly from skepticism from other nations, but also because individuals with the powers are presumably keeping them a secret.

Among other things, the SRSC is attempting to learn about these powers, which include telepathy, but also they tasked Erik with studying and proposing means, whether technological or biological, to block the brain waves generated by their subjects to stop their telepathic ability.

Now, Erik is working with a woman, Liu Lei, who has telepathy and is in charge of the study. She has a daughter, Regina, who also has telepathy and is actively working for the Chinese government using her ability. The other subject with telepathy seems less than enthusiastic to be a participant in the study. Yan Jing spent years in a Chinese mental institution and was initially believed to be schizophrenic, but Liu Lei confirmed that he has telepathy, albeit he is unable to effectively filter out the “voices” he hears (which are actually the thoughts of people near him). Lei worked with him to train him how to use his ability and filter out the thoughts. It worked, although Jing’s participation in the research was not voluntary.

The Chinese government trained Jing to be a spy and he was sent on a covert mission to North Korea. Jing has gone missing and the Chinese believe he is planning to defect to the United States. Finding Jing has become a top priority for the Chinese and it has Lei concerned as well. Erik is unconcerned. He has a different agenda, which the Chinese will learn about soon enough.