Premonition

Chapter #14: Black Magic

“It’s not a test per say,” Hella said to Keiji. “It’s more of a party game. But I’m glad your up for the challenge nonetheless.”

“Thanks….so how do you play?” Keiji asked. Hella gestured for them to sit down at the table and the entire group, Duke, Keiji, and Ricky sat down while Hella explained to them the rules of the game.

“Have you heard of the party game black magic?” Hella asked Keiji.

“I think so,” Keiji said. “That’s where you entertain guests by suggesting you have a mental/magical connection with someone. Essentially you establish a certain signal with someone you segregate from the group. When that person leaves the room, you tell your guests that you are thinking of a certain object or thing. When the person you made the signal with returns, you begin mentioning objects around the room – until you get to the one you showed your guests. The person who was absent should guess it correctly because of your signal with him or her. The key to this game is that the signal is unknown to the rest of the guests, and establishes that magical connection between you and the person who leaves the room.”

“Well….aren’t you well informed?” Ricky said.

“Light level’s analyzers like to party too,” Keiji said.

“Oh?! So you’re a light levels analyzer,” Hella said who was quite impressed. “Which floor?”

“4th,” Keiji said. He then stopped himself and decided to mention his illness. It would be prudent for them to know the whole story. “Well in actuality, I am a former 4th floor light levels analyzer, before I was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s….” Duke who had been silent this entire time being with group finally spoke up.

“Advanced Alzheimer’s…for how long?” Duke asked.

“5 years,” Keiji said.

“I see…”Duke said. “I think I can connect the dots now.”

“What do you mean?” Ricky said.

“Two things. First: Keiji mentioned that using his powers for a couple of hours brought him significant fatigue. You all know I mentioned his ability to see into future eclipses my own. Two: his history with advanced Alzheimer’s. One does not recover from that…unless given something to help. So, I can infer two things: that he was given NX7 to help his condition, most likely from his sister. And two: that he must have received a more a more acute ability from the NX7 because of his condition.”

“That’s a pretty educated guess Duke,” Hella said. “Keiji is this true?”

“Yes….for the most part. The only real inference is that I received more acute precognition from NX7 because of my condition. Everything else Duke said correct,” Keiji said.

“Well let’s see just how far you can see into the future Keiji,” Ricky said. “Before that though, I would like to iterate to him the general consensus of precognition from NX7. I know you usually do that sort of thing Duke, but let me start.”

“Certainly Ricky,” Duke said. Keiji noticed a mutual respect between Duke and Ricky. Keiji sensed as well that it something to be earned from Ricky.

“In general, mister new recruit, precognition varies between people who have taken NX7. Sometimes they can see far into the future, maybe 5 seconds. And then there are some who can only see a second or two into the future. Myself and Hella can see about 7 seconds into the future. Duke is the only one who exceeds our ability, with his being 12 seconds. I’ll demonstrate now. Hella, pair up with me.” Ricky then left the room and waited.

“So Keiji, I’m going to be pointing to the stacks of empty kegs. Specifically…..the 3rd one to the bottom left, the top most right one, and the 4th one to the bottom right. Let’s see if Ricky can see everything,” Hella said with a smile. “Ricky! You can come back in now!” Ricky walked back in and spoke up.

“You were pointing to the 3rd one to the bottom left, and the top most right one. That’s as far I saw,” Ricky said.

“As you can see, Keiji, there was no established signal between Hella and Ricky. The only way Ricky could have known about those empty kegs was through precognition,” Duke explained.

“I think I get it,” Keiji said. “Ok I’m ready for my turn.”

“I’ll test him Hella,” Ricky said. “We need to know how far his sight is, if we’re are to train him correctly. Keiji please exit the room.” Keiji obliged and left. Knowing what the next step to do was, he blinked 3 times and his vision changed to black and white. He then saw all 3 of them, Ricky, Hella, and Duke. However, it wasn’t just Ricky pointing to things. It was all of them. Ricky pointed to two barrels in particular, 2 on the top left. Duke pointed to two in the third row. And Hella pointed to two in the bottom row, 3 from the right. As Keiji, blinked again to return his vision to normal he wondered if that was part of the game. Walking back to them now, Ricky spoke up again.

“Tell us everything you saw…and I mean everything,” Ricky said. Keiji obliged.

“You yourself Ricky pointed to 2 barrels on the top left. Duke pointed to two in the third row, and Hella to 2 in the bottom row,” Keiji said. As Keiji finished saying this, Ricky looked at a stopwatch on his wrist.

“That was about 30 seconds. You didn’t see anything else?” Ricky asked.

“No…” Keiji said.

“Ok…we’re done for the day. Tomorrow we’ll calibrate your training to seeing 30 seconds into the future. You may go Keiji.” Ricky said, who seemed to now be having a small argument with Hella. As Duke escorted Keiji out of the brewery, Keiji spoke up.

“Are they ok? They seemed to be having an argument,” Keiji said to Duke.

“They’ll be fine, Hella is just putting some sense into Ricky. Are you sure you didn’t see passed the barrels?” Duke said.

“No, why?” Keiji asked.

“Because Ricky made some threatening signs to you, it was around the 32 second mark,” Duke said. Keiji was taken aback by this, but at this point didn’t seem flustered as he could tell Ricky was that kind of guy.

“Doesn’t surprise me, but why?” Keiji said.

“Thing you have to understand about Ricky is that while he’s fiercely loyal, he’s resistant to change. He’s good at what he does though, that’s why we keep him around. He did that mostly as a test rather than seriously. But Hella doesn’t like that sort of thing, that why she was having a small talk with him.” Duke said.

“I see…..we’ll see what happens, I hope I can trust all of you in time,” Keiji said.

“You and me both Keiji, you and me both,” Duke said.