Chapter 10: Ghost Story

I am sitting on the edge of my bed, the same place I have been for almost 48 consecutive hours when I hear a knock on my door. I turn down my music and look toward the door.

“Who is it?” I ask. My voice is shaky from crying on and off for almost two days. I take a deep breath and sit up a little straighter.

“It’s me, my dear,” I hear Rhodes say from the other side of the door. I nod a little to myself and tell him to come in. He opens the door slowly and smiles at me empathetically as he walks in. He looks like he is going to sit on the edge of my bed but at the last second changes his mind and sits in my oversized chair. He pulls it closer to me and reaches out his hand to take mine. I pull away.

“What you saw the other day, Physion, I know that was hard to take,” he starts off. I look up at him and shake my head.

“That was my fault. I did that to him. It was me he was after and that’s how we all got into it in the first place,” I say to him. I refuse to let the tears out while someone else is in the room.

“No, Physion, he didn’t know what he was after. He was crazy and we have reason to believe that he was just a pawn in the Brotherhood’s game. We also have reason to believe the Sleepwalker may have been involved as well. This is absolutely not your fault,” he says as he reaches into his pocket for tissues. I shake my head at them and shift on my bed.

“I watched him die,” I say softly. Rhodes tips his head to the side and lets out another empathetic sigh. I am doing all I can to hold the tears back.

“No, dear, you were there to watch us save him. What kind of life do you think he had before? Physion, he was a schizophrenic hearing voices all the time. We wiped him, he can start over. We will start him over. We will bring out the person that was in there,” he tells me.

“And what about what Shadowmind and Darius told me, about the fact that it doesn’t always work and his gene might get deactivated. That it might kill him? What then?” I ask. Still no tears.

“Physion, we do everything we can to reprogram them. If he doesn’t make it, at least he’s free from that torturous existence he had. This absolutely isn’t your fault,” he says. I still feel sick inside, having stood there and watched him die. Having stood there while he thanked me for holding his hand while he died. I suddenly feel like I am going to throw up and reach for my garbage can. I dry heave for a few seconds before I look up and Rhodes and start crying. He watched me for a moment before he starts speaking again.
“The Ghosts, Physion, they can be saved. Look at Shadowmind,” he says quietly. In between my sobs, I look up at him with a questioning look. He nods at me.

“He was one of our greatest rehabs, dear. That is why he doesn’t participate in the mindscourging. He doesn’t want it to unlock memories,” Rhodes explains.

“What do you mean ‘unlock memories?’ I thought they get completely wiped?” I ask. Rhodes shakes his head.

“No matter how many psions you have connected and how many mindscourges you do, Physion, there are always parts of every Ghost that we cannot touch, cannot erase. These memories are latent and inactive, sometimes for the rest of the Ghost’s life, sometimes years, decades. We never know what, when, who, or how they may be triggered. Our friend Shadowmind was captured in an assault against the Brotherhood’s outpost in Wellington Hills nine years ago. It took us nearly a full year to complete his mind reconstruction. We have a team of two psions who monitor him on a daily basis, still looking for the locked memories. They haven’t been able to find them yet, but we know they’re in there. He is a very powerful psion, has great control and ability. But he was once the most powerful psion the Brotherhood possessed. He doesn’t know this, but the number of lives he alone had taken numbers in the hundreds. We lost two operatives during his capture.

“Now, every mission is carefully observed and we have at least one overseer psion assigned specifically to monitor every mission he participates in. An overseer does not mindlock with him, they simply follow his energy and ‘watch,’ if you will, from our compound. The second they find anything funny going on with him, Tux and Darius have outstanding orders to shoot to kill, so to speak.

“Physion, he knows you on a personal level. You have to be careful. We weren’t going to bring this up until you had another session, but I feel like this is the right time, considering what you’ve just seen with the Pyromaniac. Shadowmind has developed a personal relationship with you, he can easily manipulate you with his psionic abilities because you trust him. I’m not saying not to trust him, Physion, but don’t trust him. You never know what might set him off,” Rhodes says. I sit back on my bed and take everything in for a second.

“Shadowmind is a Ghost,” I say out loud. Rhodes nods.

“He is a Ghost. But we saved elements of his personality and reconstructed him as best as we could. The Pyromaniac will be treated in the same way. We will reconstruct him as best as we can, if possible. We may fail, Physion, but we will try.”

“Will I ever see him again?” I ask Rhodes. He chuckles and stands up.

“How should I know, Physion, I am not a psychic,” he says with a smile. He pats me on the shoulder as he walks out of my room.