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Geof’s reaction was as she expected, she was annoyed as Pete immediately clamped down on his sexual interest. For Pete to ignore her attractions was slightly offensive, especially since it was caused by a weakness that any grown telepath should have overcome.  The poor fellow,  she thought to herself and smiled.
     
    ‘Let’s get the show started then. The sooner we blow the lid off this charade, the sooner I can get back to work. Colonel.’ She saluted cleanly.
     
    Pinter declined to return the antiquated gesture. ‘Tamsin Grey, I’d like you to meet Peter Lazarus, volunteer, and Geof Ozenbach, who’ll be running data on this operation.’
     
    ‘Ozenbach. I’m glad to be able to thank you in the flesh for keeping me alive.’ Tamsin reached for his hand and shook it, smiling.
     
    Geof smiled back. ‘I don’t remember you needing much help.’
     
    ‘A good weaver keeps it that way.’ She now turned to Pete and sized him up. ‘So you’re the man who has the ups jumping at shadows? Why did you come in from the cold? Nobody would have cared if you had stayed there.’
     
    Pete was still stunned by her blocked mind.  Are you real? Are you human?  Only bots and rocks were silent to a telepath.
     
    Real enough and more human than you want me to be,  a voice licked into his mind.
     
    I can’t see your thoughts.
     
    Fancy that. Now, answer the question. Everyone is watching.  ’Why, Mister Lazarus? For the attention? Trying to get on the inside?’
     
    Pete slowly found his voice. ‘Some things are more important. And who’s jumping at shadows?’
     
    ‘You are. You’ve got them hopped up on stories of Pierre Jnr, as if there weren’t enough myths about him already.’
     
    ‘I think his existence is well documented.’
     
    ‘It hasn’t been for the past eight years. And if this Pierre is as bad as you’ve got everyone thinking, then there’s no way he could have — or would have — been hiding this long.’
     
    ‘I have evidence. That’s why I’m here.’
     
    ‘What you found was a blanked mind, nothing more. You just leapt to the conclusion that it was an all-powerful, psychic eight-year-old, who no one has seen since he was born.’
     
    ‘Clearly there are some people who take this more seriously than you.’
     
    ‘Or, the point of this exercise is to dispel the myth once and for all.’ She smiled at him with closed teeth.
     
    ‘Why would Services care so much if they didn’t believe he was alive?’ Geof asked.
     
    ‘Because  of the myth, Ozenbach. He’s keeping the flame alive for all the psis out there waiting for the day when their saviour comes to free them.’
     
    How can you be so callous?  Pete thought to her.
     
    I’m just asking the questions you haven’t.  Her retort left him stunned. She was one of them, a psi like him, but so very different. Her eyebrow arched, waiting for his response.
     
    ...  You hunt your own kind.
     
    My kind? Psionics is a skill. Being able to dress yourself doesn’t make you my brother. Understand?
     
    ‘Tamsin,’ the Colonel said. ‘The order is clearly stated that we are to bring him in. The command is the command.’
     
    ‘Of course, Colonel. There must be something that Command isn’t sharing if they’ve already reached the conclusion that Pierre is still alive. And furthermore, why now? Can you get me an answer to that?’
     
    The Colonel swallowed. ‘No answer is forthcoming.’
     
    ‘So, just because a second-rate telepath volunteers himself, two of Services’ best are seconded to dig out a myth?’  No offence, Pete. I’m just trying to see what I can get out of them.
     
    Her mind was amazing to him. On the outside she was a closed, calculating woman, but underneath she was like a gleeful child throwing stones at windows.
     
    The Colonel tapped his head and smiled at Tamsin as a torrent of data began streaming into Geof’s and Pete’s symbiots.
     
    The data was a backlog of evidence gathered