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parents actions. But whatever her own feelings, she realised that it was vital to try and make a connection with the boy.
    Concentrate on coaxing him out from under the bed, she thought. That's the important thing. Remember, Jansen's outside waiting to call up a tac-team if you don't bring the boy out. It doesn't matter that you think Alexei's parents were a pair of backwater stupes. All that does matter is making sure the situation doesn't get any worse than it already is.
    "Your parents were just scared of something they didn't understand," she continued. "And because they were scared, they did some crazy things, but it doesn't change the fact that both your parents and Father Grigori were wrong. There are no witches, Alexei. You're not possessed by the Devil or anything else for that matter. All that is different about you is that you were born with a special talent. You're psychic, Alexei. That's all there is to it."
    She paused for a moment, allowing time for her words to sink in. Then, taking another step closer to the bed, she began again.
    "I want you to come with me, Alexei," she told him. "I want you to come with me to Psi Division. There are people there who can show you how to use your powers."
    "But I know how to use them..." Alexei's voice was low and mournful. "I used them on Father Grigori... and he... You saw what I did... The blood..."
    "I know, Alexei." She stood by the bed, waiting. "And I understand how it happened. You were defending yourself, but I know you didn't mean for everything to get so crazy. Listen to me, I know it all seems really bad now, but, you've got to understand, things don't have to be that way. You have a gift, Alexei, a gift. You just need to learn to control it a little better." She held out her hand. "Come with me, Alexei. Come with me to Psi Division, and I promise you everything will be better. Come with me, and everything will be all right."
    There was another pause. Then, amid the sound of rustling bed clothes, the boy emerged from underneath his bed. Standing before her, for a moment he looked at her uncertainly. Until at last, reaching a decision, he stepped forward and put his hand in hers.
    "You won't let them hurt me?" the boy asked.
    "No, Alexei. I won't let them hurt you," she said, even though inside her the words felt like a lie. "I promise you, no one will ever hurt you again."

TWO
     
    RED HARVEST
     
    "Come with me," she had said to the boy. "Come with me and I promise you everything will be better. Come with me, and everything will be all right."
    As Anderson rode her Lawmaster motorcycle along the megway away from Psi Division Headquarters, the words returned to haunt her.
    Two hours had passed since her conversation with the frightened boy in his bedroom. Two hours, in which she had taken Alexei to Psi Division and handed him over to a senior Psi-Judge in charge of the psychic examination procedure. Over the next few weeks, Alexei would be subjected to an exhaustive battery of tests designed to discover the full range and magnitude of his powers. Brain scans, genetic screening, psi-tests: over the weeks to come the boy would be poked and prodded while the data gathered would be analysed and collated. Then, once the results were in, the powers-that-be at Psi Division would make their decision.
    I just have to hope he makes the cut, Anderson told herself, as she zigzagged her Lawmaster through the late night traffic. I have to hope they decide it's worthwhile to enrol him in the Academy. If they don't, the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.
    The psi-cubes; that would be Alexei's fate if the examining Psi-Tutors decided his powers were too wild and untamed ever to be controlled. If they made that decision it would be a life sentence. Alexei would be condemned to spend the rest of his life locked up inside a small windowless cell whose walls were lined with psi-resistant materials, doomed never to be allowed out to breathe free air or even see the sun. To make