Disconnected

Sean followed Brett into his office. The room was good sized with a multi monitor system against one wall. Sean saw that a collapsible table had been brought into the room and there were several boxes on and around the table. Brett led the way over to the table.

"Okay, Sean I have gathered together some top of the line parts so that we can get your computer built. I have an i7 processor on a motherboard, 12 GB RAM, a 1 TB solid state hard drive, DVD ROM, high end Radeon video card, two 24 inch touch screen displays and everything else you might need to get this put together so, let’s start work."

Sean nodded and the two of them got to work, Brett only guiding Sean when he had any questions. Sean had experience building computers, so there were very few questions. Brett left him alone and sat at his desk. Sean’s questions were usually in the form of where a part was rather than how do you do something. Brett glanced up from his work to see how Sean was doing as they both worked along in silence. He saw the computer system slowly take shape. Soon Sean was hooking everything up and turning it on.

He had little trouble with the configuration and after checking everything out, he proclaimed it ready. "Okay, it’s all set up, we can load my files now."

Brett nodded and got up from his desk. He went over to his workstation and picked up a jump drive and plugged it into the new workstation. He inserted a disc into the drive and after entering some commands started an install of a program. Sean watched the screen and saw that the download was for something called MYO by Thalmic labs. Then Brett picked up a circular device from a box that he had brought over from his workstation and slipped it onto his arm. Sean’s mouth dropped when Brett began to gesture toward the monitors and the computer began executing his commands.

Sean got up from where he was sitting at his workstation and came to stand by Brett. "Wow. What is that?"

"It’s called MYO. It connects to the computer via Blue Tooth and it reads the movement of my arm and the muscles to interpret my commands."

"How can I get one?"

Brett didn’t answer, but reached into a drawer of his workstation, and pulled out a couple of boxes and handed one to Sean.

"They aren’t available to the public yet, but I have friends in the industry who got these for me."

"Awesome, thanks."

Sean went over to his computer and started working on the installation and configuring of the MYO device on his workstation and tried it out on a few things. When he finished Brett brought the jump drive over to Sean and handed it to him. Sean plugged it into a USB drive, and then stood in front of the workstation and using MYO, he started copying his files. For those files that needed a particular program, Brett pointed to another box. Inside were current versions of all the software that Sean had been using on his computer, productivity, and games. The productivity software were the professional versions rather than the home versions. He wanted Sean to have the best possible programs so that he could do anything he might need to do. There were some that Sean had not had, but Brett again said that he wanted Sean to have the best possible system that he could have. Once Sean had everything copied and configured, which was about two hours of work, Brett picked up the other box he had taken out of his drawer and handed it to Sean.

"Since I became aware of your abilities in regards to computers, I acquired one of these for you to use. It’s called the Emotiv Epoc."

Sean took the device out of the box and turned it all around. It looked like a headset, but instead of earphones, there were octopus like extensions that radiated out from where earphones would be. Sean removed the software from the box, and followed the instructions to install it. Brett pulled out the chair from his workstation and sat next to Sean to watch as he did the configuration. While the software was installing, Sean was reading through the manual to get some idea of how to make it work. When he came to the correct place in the installation he picked up the headset, put it on, and adjusted it to fit his head. Brett watched Sean as he finished the configuration and then worked on using it to control his computer. When he was satisfied he turned to Brett.

"Okay, what next?"

"Well, I thought that because of your abilities, you would be one who could really make use of this and maybe even go above what the developers thought a person could do with it. So why don’t we go online and see what you can do with it."

Sean nodded and using MYO, he made a couple of movements and he was soon logged into his account.

"Okay, let’s try to access a couple of easy sites that you have been on before."

Sean nodded again and looked at the screen for a few moments trying to figure out how to get the headset to help him connect to what he wanted to do. Nothing was happening for several moments then Sean remembered the exercises that they had done earlier and he tried to relax and calm his mind down. He closed his eyes for a few moments and concentrated on centering. When he opened his eyes, he gave it a try again. Suddenly, he found himself at the school website and in moments he was in through his backdoor. He used a mixture of MYO controls and the Emotiv controls to get into the student files and he was able to open them and look through them, then he logged out of the system and he decided to try something a little harder. He headed to the Hemet police department website. He found he was able to easily get into their files as well. He pulled the case files on Josh and displayed them. He felt a connection to the net that he hadn’t felt when was doing everything via the keyboard.

What followed for the next half hour was Sean traveling all over the net, quickly and easily. Brett could only watch and said little. He wasn’t even sure that the equipment was designed to work the way it was working for Sean. It connected Sean to the computer in ways he was sure their developers planned for. They probably planned for it to be able to do this at some time as they did further R and D, but with Sean’s gift he was able to use it better than Brett was sure the designers had though. So he just sat and watched amazed at what Sean could do with both the MYO and the Emotiv, then he saw something come up on the screen that brought him up short.

"Sean, No!"

Sean had started to try to find a web portal to the GRA. Sean looked over and saw a little bit of worry on Brett’s face. He nodded and quickly moved away from that line of search. In fact, he wasn’t even looking at the screen, he was looking at Brett when he closed that search field and returned to his home page. It seemed effortless for him. Brett gave him a nod in thanks.

"I would prefer that you don’t go looking for them just yet. After you’ve been honing your skill for a little while, then and only then will we do any searches concerning the GRA. My biggest worry is that they may have their own cyber security watching for unauthorized attempts and will trace it back to you. So let’s keep away from them for now. I am amazed at how you are able to use the Emotiv and the MYO, especially the Emotiv. I don’t even know if the designers who built it could come close to your ability with it."

"This is awesome, thanks for letting me use it. It’s like I’m a part of the computer and have complete control."

"I’m not letting you use that, it’s yours. I’m use to the old way of using the computer. I think with your gift, you will get far more and better use of it than me. However, please do not try to look for anything on GRA, or anything connected however remotely, such as the Hunt Lab fire, until we, you and I, have determined that your skill is sufficient. I can’t watch every minute of your life, but trust me it is not yet time for us to confront them. Promise me?"

"Cool. Thanks, this is awesome. Yes sir, I understand and I promise that I won’t do anything concerning the GRA."

"Great. Instead why don’t we do a little searching for further information on Jamie’s "friend" Alma Geddes, see if you can pull bank records, real estate, family info, basically a thorough background check and let’s see if we found everything that we could on her. If we find some more, we’ll get the information to the BI so that they can add more charges to the other charges currently facing her."

Sean grinned and nodded. He turned back his workstation and he was soon plowing through the life of one Alma Geddes.

---

Dakota followed Gabe into the armory with anticipation. He was still not completely sure about what everyone had said about his gift. It was hard to believe that he could pick up something and suddenly he was good with something like a gun without going through a lot of training, but he was starting to come around to the idea. He had done it just the day before. He thought about the other instances that Sean had talked about, the skateboard, and the video game.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Gabe talking to him. "Huh?"

"I said, I want to see if what you did yesterday was just beginner’s luck or not. This is very important and I need your full attention son. Guns are tools nothing more, but they are very dangerous tools and I want to make sure that you are safe with them. Understand?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, I’m just not convinced that I can do what everyone says I can do."

"Well, that is what we are here to find out. Maybe this afternoon, you and I both will be convinced that you can do what they say you can do."

"Yes sir."

"Okay, to start with, from what little we have been able to find out about a gift such as yours, all of it Science Fiction, not reality, at least until now, it is supposed to work for you, if you hold the gun and center yourself like you were taught earlier. Get a feel for it, weigh it in your hand, think how it feels in your hand, and then when you have done that, and you are centered and calm in your mind, then you shoot. Clear?"

Dakota nodded and watched as Gabe took several different guns from the racks, handing a couple to Dakota and had him follow him into the range area. He set the guns he carried on the back table, he took the guns from Dakota and did the same thing with them. He and Dakota went back into the Armory to grab magazines and ammunition. They placed the boxes down next to the gun it was chambered for. He turned to Dakota and gave me some basic safety instructions about treating every gun as if it was loaded even if you are absolutely sure that it is empty. Open a revolver and check to see that the cylinder is empty, or remove the magazine and pull the slide back and lock it so you can check to make sure there is nothing in the chamber. Once he was sure Dakota understood, he handed him a handgun. Dakota kept his finger off the trigger as he ejected a magazine and then pulled the slide back to make sure there was nothing in the chamber. Gabe smiled approvingly.

He had Dakota follow him to the firing line. "Okay, I want you to watch me. I want to show you a good solid shooting stance. Then I want you to assume the same position. I will look at it and then correct you if necessary. At this time, I don’t want you to try to use your talent. Just watch and listen."

"Yes, sir."

"I want you to stand with your feet about shoulder width. Your arms extended, but slightly bent, not straight out in front of you. Your left hand should be wrapped around and covering your right which is wrapped around the grip. Your trigger finger should be straight alongside the side of the pistol until you are ready to fire. Clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Get into the position and again, don’t use your talent, just do as I just showed you."

Dakota took the stance that Gabe had just shown him. Gabe walked around him and made some minor adjustments, but otherwise was satisfied with his stance. He had him relax and took him over to the bench and showed him how to load a couple of magazines for the gun.

"Let’s go to the line and do a little shooting. Put your eye and ear protection on. I want you to use the stance that I showed you and not your gift and shoot at the target until the magazine is empty."

Gabe attached a target and ran it out about 25 feet. He then gestured for Dakota to get in position and fire. Dakota took his position and then aimed down range and started firing. He fired slowly, the sounds of the gunfire muffled by the ear protection. At first he was again a little surprised by the recoil, but he got used to it quickly. When the magazine was empty, he put the gun down and Gabe brought the target back. They could see that although he seemed to have gotten all the shots on the target, they were a little scattered. Gabe then ran the target back out and had Dakota stepped back. This time Gabe pulled his gun and he fired a bit faster, but still at a measured pace until his gun was empty. When the target came back to them you could see the bullets were grouped closely together in the center of the target. He removed the target and put clean one on and ran it back out.

"Now this time, when you take up your gun, I want you to use your talent. Think about the gun, feel it, weigh it, make your mind calm and then when you are ready, fire the gun slowly like you just did."

Dakota stepped up and did as he was told. After putting in a fresh magazine, he stood for a few moments and breathed in and out as he tried to reach that calming feeling. When he was centered, he moved the slide release, got into position and then started firing. Gabe watched him and noticed a slight change in the way he took his stance, he suddenly looked like someone who had been shooting for a long time. After he shot he was able to quickly get back into the correct position for the next shot. When he was empty, they checked the target and this time his grouping was of an expert pistol shot. Gabe nodded and sent the target back into position and this time he fired fast, emptying the pistol quickly. He brought the target back and you could see where he had grouped his shots on the right side of the target. He pointed at the left side.

"Do just as I did, using your gift and aim to this area."

The target was back into position and Dakota stepped up, centered himself and then started firing. When he was empty the target was brought back and you could see that his group although a little bigger then when he took his time it was still expert marksmanship level.

Gabe nodded with approval. "Well, I think that should pretty much put to rest your lack of proof that you don’t have a talent for this. Let’s try a few different pistols. For the next hour they shot several different pistols and revolvers. With each one Gabe had him fire slow and then fast. Each time the results were the same, he was shooting well enough to earn the expert qualification badge in the military.

Once he had shot all of the handguns, Gabe oriented him to the other gun he had brought out. "This is an MP5. It fires a 9mm pistol cartridge and is used for CQB, Close Quarters Battle. It is semi automatic or full automatic depending on the selector switch."

"I thought you had only semi automatic?"

Gabe gave him a conspiratorial grin. "I won’t tell, if you won’t"

Dakota grinned and nodded his agreement. Gabe continued.

"A silencer can be attached to it as well to make it quieter. It is used by law enforcement units like SWAT, FBI, HRT, and other units that will be working in close quarters, or any situation where a full size assault rifle like the M16 would be a hindrance for movement in close quarters. I’m going to have you shoot it both semi auto and full auto, with and without your talent. I’ve loaded up a few magazines, because it would take a while to load a magazine between firing."

Gabe then ran through the proper stance for holding the gun and operation of the gun, making sure he knew where the selector switch was and the safety. He moved around the room like he would if he was in a hostile environment and wanted to be ready to fire. He then had Dakota copy his movement as best as he could. He was not as smooth in his movements as Gabe, which was expected. He was then directed to the firing line, Gabe handed him a magazine and had him fire the gun in semi auto mode without his gift. When the magazine was empty, he gave him another and this one was to be fired full auto until it was empty. Dakota had a hard time keeping it on target when it was fired that way. He then had him fire another magazine, only this time in short bursts. When they were done, they checked the target and there were holes all over the place. They could see when it had started to climb from firing full auto. They put a fresh target out there and this time, he had Dakota use his gift while shooting semi auto, full auto and burst fire. Each time Dakota centered himself before firing and when the target was checked he was again firing at Expert level.

"That was well done."

Dakota had a big smile on his face. "That was cool."

"Let’s get these cleaned and oiled and then we will try something else."

They quickly cleaned up the fired brass and the guns. With everything cleaned up, they put the guns away and Gabe went to some other locked cabinets and pulled out some long guns. There was an M16, M40 Sniper rifle, and a 12 gauge pump shotgun. Gabe explained what they were as he pulled them out. He put them into cases and then put several boxes of ammunition into an ammo can and led the way out of the armory, locking up behind them. They went to one of the SUV’s and put everything in the back, got in, and drove off to another part of the property. He stopped at an outside gun range. In the distance they heard what sounded like an explosion. Dakota looked around with some concern.

Gabe noticed and laughed while he clapped him on the back. "Don’t worry about that. It’s just Muldoon, blowing stuff up."

"Yes sir."

"Let’s take these guns to that bench over there and then we will do some longer distance shooting. You can apparently use your gift on handguns and subguns. Let’s see how you are with these types of guns."

They brought the guns up to the covered firing line and uncased the guns, got the ammunition out and Gabe began to go over the guns and how they were used. Once he was satisfied that Dakota understood everything about the guns on the bench they moved up to the firing line.

"Okay Dakota, there are some metal silhouette targets out there. We have them at different ranges. The closest are at one hundred yards, then two hundred fifty, then five hundred yards. I’m not going to give you any instruction. You can fire any way that you want, single shot, burst fire, full auto, whatever you want. The only instruction that I’m going to give you is that I want you to shoot from the standing position only. That is the most difficult position to shoot from, so this should give your gift a little workout. Other than that, I’m just going to watch you. I’ve taught you what you need to know, now just have fun."

Dakota nodded, went up to the firing line, picked up the M16, inserted a magazine, changed the selector switch to semi auto and pulled back the charging handle. He stood there for a few moments as he centered himself. When he was ready he brought the assault rifle up and took the safety off. He looked down the sight and fired. There was a ding from the bullet hitting the target. He continued to fire single shots and each one hit the target. He ejected the mag and put in the next one. After changing the selector switch he began firing bursts. All they could hear was ‘ding, ding, ding’ over and over. At full auto, not every bullet hit when he tried that, but it was still a pretty good percentage.

When he finished the three magazines, Gabe got up from where he was watching and clapped. "Well, I guess that proves it, that gift of yours makes you an expert. Let’s try the M40 rifle. With that I want to you to try to take one shot in different positions, standing, kneeling, sitting and prone."

Dakota nodded and changed to the sniper rifle. He took the standing position and fired. There was no hit.

"Don’t worry about it, very few people can shoot that distance standing. Continue."

Dakota nodded and took the next position. He fired and was rewarded with the sound of a hit. He moved to the next positions and got a hit each time. Gabe got up to have him try the shotgun, but Dakota stood up held his hand out to stop him.

"Let me try again."

Gabe stopped and waited.

Dakota took a little longer time in centering and then he smoothly brought the rifle to position and paused a moment and fired. He was rewarded with a ding. Gabe had a look of surprise on his face and he began to clap. Dakota turned around and smiled.

"Well done son. Let’s go shoot some clay."

They headed over to the shotgun range.

---

Ian followed his mentor out of the main house and into the same building where the armory was located. He turned in a different direction and took Ian into a room that was set up like a medical treatment room. There was a treatment table in the middle of the room, a desk with a computer along one wall next to a refrigerator. One wall had several drawers and cabinets some with locks and some without. There were also a few other pieces of medical equipment along the edges of the room. Some Ian recognized; others he didn’t.

"C’mon over to the desk and we’ll talk a bit first."

"Yes, sir."

"Call me Doc, everyone else does."

"Okay si…Doc."

Doc smiled and gestured to a seat next to the desk while he sat down at the desk. He typed a few things into the computer before turning the screen so that both of them could easily view the screen.

"Ian, I don’t know how much anatomy you’ve been taught in school, probably not much or something pretty basic. Now, I’m not going to teach you everything I know about it, but I thought that if you have a basic set of knowledge about the human body, then it will help you use your talents a little more efficiently. With my knowledge as a combat medic and the supplies in here, I can treat many injuries. For anything really serious, I can stabilize the person, until we can get them to a hospital. So first I want to teach a bit about the body and give you an idea where all the important parts are and how they work."

Ian nodded and for the next couple of hours, Doc went through several programs and websites on the computer and explained about them. Since his parents were doctors, he quickly grasped the information and after going over some things, he could answer the questions that Doc posed to him as quizzes to see if he understood what he was being taught.

"Well it sounds like you have a good basic understanding. Let’s try something. I’ll lay down on the treatment table and I want you to scan me, or whatever you call it. I want you to try to get a feel of a relatively healthy person. Have you ever scanned any of your friends?"

"Um, no. I never thought about it. I only ever did anything when they were hurt."

"Good enough, then for your homework tonight, I want you to scan all of your friends, if they’ll let you. Get a feel of their bodies."

Ian couldn’t help himself and he let out a giggle.

Doc caught on and gave him an answering smile. "That’s not what I mean, although I understand you are in a relationship with….Logan, I think."

Ian nodded with a little apprehension.

Doc noticed it and patted him on his arm. "Don’t worry, It doesn’t matter to me. But maybe keep your ‘feeling’ to non-private areas only."

Ian giggled again and nodded.

Doc then went over to the table. "Oh, I forgot to ask. Can you do your stuff through clothes, or do you need to touch skin."

Ian reddened. "Um, I’m not sure. I think I can work through clothes. I healed Shane, Jamie’s foster brother, a little after he got shot and he was wearing a t-shirt at the time."

"Fine, but I think I’ll make this a little easier. I’ll put on a gown, but keep my shorts on and we’ll go from there."

Ian agreed and watched as doc grabbed one of those cloth hospital gowns out of a cabinet. He stripped off his shirt and put on the gown before dropping his jeans. He then got up on the table and lay down.

He looked at Ian. "Okay, I’m ready Doc."

Ian nodded and made his way over to the table and stood next to him.

"Okay, just do what you do, but I want you to just get a sense of my body and where everything is located. Remember the anatomy and get an idea of where everything is inside me. Remember the centering exercises we did earlier. Use that knowledge to help you use your gift."

Ian nodded, closed his eyes, and then took several moments to center himself before putting his hands on Doc’s chest. Doc said nothing he only watched the teen. Ian found that because of the centering that they had learned and the anatomy information that Doc had taught him, it was easier to get to that place that allowed him to use his gift. He moved his awareness around as he looked things over inside of the man. He did as Doc had instructed and tried to get a feel of the major parts of the body and how they worked with each other. He remembered Doc talking about something called homeostasis. Where all the body’s organs worked the way they were supposed to and everything was in a stabilized state. He found that everything looked good until he found something that didn’t seem quite right, not necessarily bad, but not quite right.

Doc kept his eyes on Ian and noticed that he made very little movement for about ten minutes. Doc’s back was starting to ache a little as it always did when he was lying flat on his back after a little while. He noticed Ian’s brow furrow for a few moments as if he was puzzling over something. The look stayed on Ian’s face for a minute or so. Doc noticed some sweat beading up along Ian’s hairline of his forehead. He wondered if he should ask about it, but the look went away and Ian continued his scanning.

He opened his eyes about five minutes later. "Could I ask you to lie on your side, if you don’t mind?"

Doc looked at him, and then shrugged and moved onto his left side at least that slight ache would go away now that he wasn’t flat on his back. When he was settled, he felt the smaller hands of the boy touch his lower back. Doc wanted to look over his shoulder to try and see what Ian was doing, but he held still as the hands continued to touch him.

A few minutes later the hands were pulled away. "Okay, I’m finished."

Doc rolled over and got up. The first thing he noticed was that the ache he had been feeling was gone. He went over to his clothes and put his pants back on before taking the gown off and throwing it in a nearby hamper. As he was doing that, he moved around, bending, turning, and twisting.

When he was dressed he looked at Ian. "Did you do something?"

Ian looked down, thinking he was in trouble and nodded. "I…I noticed that there were a couple of…disks, right?"

Doc nodded that he understood and agreed with what Ian called them.

"In your back that didn’t feel right. I tried to do something when I had my hands on your chest, but it didn’t seem to be working, so I continued scanning. When I was done, I had you roll on your side, because then I could put my hand on your back. Once I touched your back, it was easier to feel what didn’t seem right and I pushed it back where it should be. The disks didn’t seem to be quite right so I kind of…fixed them. Was that okay?"

Doc tested out the movement of his lower back while Ian went to sit down. Doc noticed that Ian looked slightly pale for a moment, but his color seemed to come back once he was sitting down.

"What’s wrong Ian?"

"Sometimes I get a little dizzy, or tired when I use it. It passes pretty quickly."

Doc got him a soda from a small refrigerator next to the desk. He handed it to Ian who took it and drank a few good swallows. His color returned.

"Thanks, I guess I needed that."

"Good. Thanks for that by the way. My back doesn’t ache now. So have you ever passed out when you’ve healed anyone?"

"No, I just get dizzy, or a little tired."

"Hmm. Why do you think that is?"

"I’m not sure, Sean might know since he’s our researcher. I think he said one time that he thinks I use up energy when I heal someone and it tires me out."

"Maybe, we’ll have to research that a little more. Maybe I’ll talk to Sean about that later. Well, I think that’s enough for now. Do you have any other questions about anything medical related?"

Ian did and he started asking some questions. He and Doc talked for another hour or so about injuries, disease, and the way a person’s body heals such things and even if they can heal such things without help or at all.

---

Logan followed Jim, who took him into another part of the house away from everyone else. He had a small suitcase in his hand. When they got to the den, Jim gestured for Logan to have a seat on one of the couches while he took a chair facing him.

"From what I know and that’s not a whole lot, just what I’ve read or been told, you can get information from holding an object and that’s what we’re going to work on this afternoon. The other thing, I think I was told it is called precognition. You can sense when something is going to happen?"

He looked at Logan who nodded.

"Yeah, that’s what Sean said, but I‘ve only felt it a couple of times. Once was when Sean was attacked in the bathroom and the other was when Josh was shot by his dad. Other than that, no other times, not even when Jamie was attacked."

"That seems to be something that is hard to predict. I’m not sure how we can train that. Maybe if we train the object reading, I think it’s called, it will make the precognition stronger. That’s something we can’t answer right at the moment, but we will try. Okay, from what I’ve read, the best way to train this is for you to be somewhere quiet like here. You close your eyes and someone puts something in your hand, and if everything works right you can tell something about the object. Let’s get started shall we? Part of this exercise is for you to guess by feel and what you can pick up from the object, what it is and any other information that you can get from it."

Logan nodded.

"First thing, get comfortable and then close your eyes. Center yourself like you were taught and when I think your set, I’ll place something in your hands and you tell me what you get from it, if anything. Don’t open your eyes, unless I tell you to. Stay centered."

Logan again nodded and then closed his eyes and leaned back into the couch and made himself comfortable. Jim watched him carefully for several minutes before putting the suitcase on a table nearby and opening it. He looked inside at the items that were stored in there for a few moments before he selected something and pulled it out. Everything in the suitcase was in plastic bags. Gabe and Brett had told him that was to keep them all separate from the other items in the suitcase, so they didn’t get all jumbled. He took the item out of the plastic bag and put it into Logan’s hands. Logan was slightly startled as he was not ready for it, but he did keep his eyes closed.

He felt the item. It felt sort of like a real thin medium sized hardback book with a pebbled cover. He turned it over and over and he discovered that it opened like a book. On the outside he could feel something on the middle of the cover, it felt like printing. He opened it and felt inside the book and felt that there were no pages. One side felt just like the outside, but the other side felt different, it took him a moment to guess that it was some kind of thick paper as his finger caught on an edge of it. He felt around the edges of the paper and could feel some diagonal pieces of cloth like things at the corners, holding the paper to the book. He was puzzled about what it was. Now it was time to try to read the item. He put his hand flat on the paper feeling side and his other hand on the outside. He next tried to see if his gift would tell him anything.

Jim was sitting with a digital recording device on the table nearby waiting. He only knew the history of one item in the suitcase, which was the item that he had contributed to the test.

"I don’t know what it is, it feels like a book, but it’s not, I know that."

Jim knew it was a high school diploma from one of the guys, because the high school name was on the outside.

"I hear music. I think I’ve heard the song before, but I don’t know where. There’s a stage on a field and a lot of people around. There’s a bunch of kids, they look like high school kids. One guy is holding something and getting a handshake from an older guy in a suit. Oh, I think that’s it. He’s holding this thing, it’s what they give you when you graduate from high school. A diploma."

"Open your eyes Logan."

Logan opened them and saw that he was holding a diploma. Its cover was blue pebble grain finish. Inside was the diploma made out to Patrick Wayne Jamison. Jim took the item from him and nodded and told him to close his eyes. He took another item out and handed it to Logan. Logan felt the item. It was small and made of metal. There were pins on the back that were covered by pin clasps. There were a lot of points all around the edges and it was about the size of his palm. He couldn’t tell what it was, so he put his gift into action. He saw young guy in black clothes, but it was kind of funny looking, no it wasn’t clothes it….was a uniform. A navy uniform, he could see the dixie cup hat and there was an older man in a tan uniform standing in front of the young guy and he was pinning this pin on the young guys chest. Logan could see the same insignia on the older man’s chest it looked gold and there was an eagle and under the eagle was an anchor, old time pistol and trident.

"It’s a military award of some kind for the navy. I saw a young guy probably in his early twenties with this being pinned on his uniform."

"Good, that is a Seal Team insignia. It belongs to Gabe. He was awarded that when he passed Seal Team training. Next one."

For the next two hours Jim kept handing Logan an item and he would try to guess what it was and then see if he could get a reading from it. There was a pocket watch that Logan saw a businessman who was dressed in an old time suit and top hat that Logan had seen in old time pictures. Another was a baseball glove that had been used by one of the guys when he was twelve and was playing in his local little league championship game that they had won. A girlfriends garter caused Logan to blush and Jim had to pry the information out of him. Jim had a difficult time to not laugh at Logan’s embarrassment. Logan turned so red, but eventually stammered out what the prom night for the couple had been like. He thought he’d ask Muldoon to apologize to Logan later for putting that garter in there. As they went on, he could tell that Logan was getting a little tired.

"Okay buddy. One more time and then we’ll quit for the day."

Logan nodded. You could see that he had a little sweat along his hairline and his eyes showed that he was tired. He closed his eyes one last time and centered himself. When Jim figured he was set, he took the last item from the suitcase and put in Logan’s hand. He felt that it was soft and seemed to be made of some kind of felt like cloth. He turned it around and soon could tell it was some kind of hat. There seemed to be patch or something like that on it with some metal thing in the middle of the patch thing. He extended his senses and then felt a sense of fast movement through lots of bushes and trees. He heard a lot of popping sounds and realized it was gunfire. He could see several other guys around his vantage point. Ahead of him he saw a figure in a tan uniform pop up and fire a gun at him. Logan gave a yelp of fright and he dropped the hat. His eyes flew open and then he felt a man’s arms around hugging him. It was Jim.

"Everything’s fine, you’re okay."

Jim had been watching Logan and he saw the look on his face become one of fear just before he yelped. He jumped over to put his arms around Logan when he opened his eyes. He could see that he was frightened by whatever he saw. Jim picked up the green beret with the 5th Special Forces patch and sergeant pin in the middle of it. Once Logan had calmed down, Jim released the hug and sat back in the couch still holding the beret.

He held it up. "What did you see?"

"Uh, I think it was a battle. At least that’s what it looked like. It was in a place with lots of trees and bushes. There was a lot of shooting all around. I could see other people wearing those hats and then this guy in a tan uniform with a wide helmet with leaves and stuff on it, popped up from some bushes and he shot an assault rifle, like you see the terrorists on TV use, at me. Then his chest turned red and he went flying backward, it looked like he got shot."

"Sorry about that. This was my Dad’s. He served with the Green Beret’s in Vietnam. You must have seen one of the fire fights that he had been in. He was wounded twice and received the Purple Heart. He’s the reason that I joined the Green Berets when I got the chance."

Jim looked at Logan sitting next to him and saw that the boy seemed to be okay now.

"How do you feel?"

"Kind of tired out."

"Why don’t we go relax in the media room then, and watch TV until dinner? I think we’ve done enough for today."

Logan nodded and the two of them got up and headed to the media room to relax.