Dark Visions Read Free

big corporation in Silicon Valley. But his real interest is in psychic phenomena. Psychic research."
    Joyce paused and pushed sleek blond hair off her forehead. Kaitlyn could feel her working up to something big. "He's put up the funds for a very special project, a very intense project. It was his idea to do screening at high schools all over the country, looking for seniors with high psychic potential. To find the five or six that were absolutely the top, the cream of the crop, and to bring them to California for a year of testing."
    "A year?"
    "That's the beauty of it, don't you see? Instead of doing a few sporadic tests, we'd do testing daily, on a regular schedule. We'd be able to chart changes in your powers with your biorhythms, with your diet-"
    Joyce broke off abruptly. Looking at Kait directly, she reached out and took Kait's hands.
    "Kaitlyn, let down the walls and just listen to me for a minute. Can you do that?"
    Kait could feel her hands trembling in the cool grasp of the blond woman's fingers. She swallowed, unable to look away from those aquamarine eyes.
    "Kaitlyn, I am not here to hurt you. I admire you tremendously. You have a wonderful gift. I want to study it-I've spent my life preparing to study it. I went to college at Duke-you know, where Rhine did his telepathy experiments. I got my master's degree in parapsychology-I've worked at the Dream Laboratory at Maimonides, and the Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio, and the Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory at Princeton. And all I've ever wanted is a subject like you. Together we can prove that what you do is real. We can get hard, replicable, scientific proof. We can show the world that ESP exists."
    She stopped, and Kaitlyn heard the whir of a copier in the outer office.
    "There are some benefits for Kaitlyn, too," Ms. McCasslan said. "I think you should explain the terms."
    "Oh, yes." Joyce let go of Kaitlyn's hands and picked up a manila folder from the desk. "You'll go to a very good school in San Carlos to finish up your senior year. Meanwhile you'll be living at the Institute with the four other students we've chosen. We'll do testing every afternoon, but it won't take long-just an hour or two a day. And at the end of a year, you'll receive a scholarship to the college of your choice."
    Joyce opened the folder and handed it to Kaitlyn. "A very generous scholarship."
    "A very generous scholarship," Ms. McCasslan said.
    Kaitlyn found herself looking at a number on a piece of paper. "That's . . . for all of us, to split?"
    "That is for you," Joyce said. "Alone."
    Kaitlyn felt dizzy.
    "You'll be helping the cause of science," Joyce said. "And you could make a new life for yourself. A new start. No one at your new school needs to know why you're there; you can just be an ordinary high school kid. Next fall you can go to Stanford or San Francisco State University-San Carlos is just half an hour south of San Francisco. And after that, you're free. You can go anywhere."
    Kaitlyn felt really dizzy.
    "You'll love the Bay Area. Sunshine, nice beaches- do you realize it was seventy degrees there yesterday when I left? Seventy degrees in winter. Redwoods- palm trees-"
    "I can't," Kaitlyn said weakly.
    Joyce and the principal both looked at her, startled.
    "I can't," Kait said again, more loudly, pulling her walls close around her. She needed the walls, or she might succumb to the shimmering picture Joyce was painting in her mind.
    "Don't you want to get away?" Joyce said gently.
    Didn't she? Only so much that she sometimes felt like a bird beating its wings against glass. Except that she'd never been quite sure what she'd do once she got away. She'd just thought, There must be some place I belong. A place where I'd just fit in, without trying.
    She'd never thought of California as being the place. California was almost too rich, too heady and exciting. It was like a dream. And the money . . .
    But her father.
    "You don't understand. It's my dad. I've