Chapter 7-3
1206 Words
“You are correct,” Summer agreed. “The shooter was too far away for either of us to detect his presence. I did not sense him at all. I sensed the bullet.”
“The bullet.”
“Yes.”
“But the bullet hadn"t arrived yet.”
She was smiling at him the way Lauren did whenever he asked a stupid question, which made it that much more irritating when she reached up to pat his cheek. “You call it spatial awareness,” Summer explained. “But a more accurate name for the phenomenon would be spatial-temporal awareness.”
“Because space and time are one.”
“Humans,” Summer went on, “can only perceive three dimensions. You experience time as a linear flow from one moment to the next. But this is not an accurate depiction of reality. It is a limitation of human perception. You cannot imagine a four-dimensional object; so, you cannot use spatial awareness to its full potential. Nassai, however, perceive all four dimensions simultaneously.
Jack stood there, slack-jawed, trying to work it all out in his head. Was she really saying what he thought she was saying? “Summer,” he stammered. “Are you trying to tell me that you can see the future?”
“With varying degrees of clarity.”
“So, you saw…”
“I saw your death,” she said in a tone that was far too matter-of-fact for the subject matter. “At a moment when the probability was solid enough to be near certainty.”
Drawing in a shuddering breath, Jack walked to a bench near the path and sat there. He set his elbows on his thighs, resting his chin on laced fingers. “If…you can do this,” he whispered. “Why don"t you do it more often?”
Summer laughed again.
“What"s so funny?”
“Your linear perception of time strikes again.”
Summer extended her hand over the concrete path, and an image of Leo appeared. Jack felt an instant flash of rage, but the other man was just standing there, ready for a brawl but not moving.
Another version of Jack appeared, a simulation who stood with his fists up, ready to respond to whatever Leo threw at him. Both men were frozen, locked in place as Summer inspected them. “The future is not a single, linear path,” Summer began. “It is a multitude of timelines existing concurrently.”
Suddenly, there were three Leos, all moving in slow motion. One drew back his arm for a punch. Another shifted his balance to begin a kick. The third was backing away, trying to gain a moment to catch his breath.
And then there were nine Jack"s, three in front of each Leo, each one offering a different response to what his enemy did. One Jack, in front of the punching Leo, leaned back and raised a hand to deflect the blow. Another ducked to evade it outright, The third Jack prepared himself for an arm hold.
One of the Jacks in front of the kicking Leo was jumping to begin a kick of his own. Another was backing away. It was…a confusing mess. And just when he thought it couldn"t get any worse, twenty-seven new Leos appeared.
“Okay! Okay!” Jack said. “Stop!”
But Summer ignored him. With another wave of her hand, she changed the image slightly so that some of the Jacks and some of the Leos became transparent. On second look, he realized that they were all transparent, but some were more solid than others. “The more probable an event is,” Summer went on. “The more clearly I can perceive it.”
She spun to face him with fists on her hips, wearing a stern expression that would make his mother proud. “Given your accelerated reflexes and those of your opponents, sometimes, I only become certain that you"re about to be punched in the face after it"s already too late to prevent it. Ironically, the fact that you were not aware of the sniper made your death more probable and allowed me to perceive it with greater clarity.”
not“Whoa…” Jack whispered.
“And we are limited by what I can share in the heat of the moment.” She walked over and stood right in front of him. “I cannot put specific thoughts in your head. I can only choose how strongly I wish you to experience my emotions. I can warn you that something is wrong, but I cannot give you specifics as to the nature of the problem.”
that“Right.”
With a sigh, Summer turned around and sat down beside him. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Now, ask yourself this,” she said. “In the moment just before the sniper fired, I allowed you to experience an overwhelming sense of panic and dread. If I did that all the time – if I tried to warn you like that when the threat was minimal, a certainty that one of your enemy"s kicks would land true – would you have reacted as quickly as you did when I warned you about the sniper?”
“No,” Jack admitted.
“So, now you understand my dilemma,” Summer concluded. “I must reserve such warnings for moments when the danger is extreme and when I am certain of the outcome of not warning you.”
Rising in one fluid motion, she glided across the width of the path to the bushes on the other side. She remained there for a little while with her back turned. “You humans,” she murmured. “The truth is, Jack, that I am very impressed. Even with my warning, the probability of your death was incredibly high.”
very She turned partway around and looked over her shoulder, a lock of her golden hair falling over one eye. “But you trusted me,” she whispered. “You always have. You treat me like an equal partner. You dignify me with a name. You listen to me. My emotions are not just background noise to you.”
She plucked a rose, studied it for a moment, and then, with a frown, she let it fall from her hand. “So many of you do the exact opposite,” she lamented. “It wasn"t always that way…But now, too many Justice Keepers ignore their Nassai.”
Jack stood up slowly, his face tight with sadness. “You"re right,” he said, nodding. “They do…And maybe it"s time we changed that.”
When Jack came out of the trance, he found Anna watching him intently, and he could tell that she was nervous. He put his arm around her, and she snuggled up with her head on his chest. “Everything"s going to be all right,” he assured her. “It"s going to be better than all right.”
“How so?”
“Because,” Jack whispered. “We have an advantage we didn"t even know about, and I"m going to teach you how to use it.”
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