Part 13
You will Mr and Mrs de Tayne to listen to John. He presses on as they hesitate, anxious to push his point home.
"Your son, Frankie, has certain gifts and abilities that are not common. I have these abilities too, as does my friend Jay here. Developing these skills can be very dangerous...."
"Stop!" Mr de Tayne is practically snarling in John's face. "You expect me to listen to this? Now, when my son is in intensive care?"
You look from the man to his wife and know that the battle has already been lost.
"Look, I dont know who you are or what you did to Frankie, and at this moment I don't really care. I don't want you anywhere near my child!"
"Mr de Tayne," John tries again, "Frankie is one of us now! Nothing can change that whatever you or I might wish."
"No! Listen to me. If you come within ten miles of my son I will have you arrested more quickly than you can possibly imagine. Now," the man says in what sounds a reasonable tone of voice. "Are you going to leave or do I have to call the police?"
[Come on, Jay.] John's thoughts are heavy with anxiety. [Let's go.]
[But, Frankie...]
[Frankie is past the worst of it. We can find him again when we need to to train him properly. We're not going to do any good just standing here arguing.]
You jaunt with a bad feeling in your soul, knowing this is a bad move.
*
For three days you have occasional telepathic contacts with Frankie. At first his mental voice remains quiet, audible only to you but gradually it begins to grow in strength until the others can hear him too. The child is exhausted by his ordeal and a little shell shocked. He has known for his entire life that his brother and sister died young. It had become almost a matter of fact for him that he would do the same.
It is on the third day after his breakout that his mental contact is strained and upset.
[Jay, Papa says that I mustn't speak to you any more.] He says simply. You frown to yourself.
[Your Papa doesn't have to know, Frankie. You are one of us now, a Tomorrow Person.]
[Papa says I can't be.] You can feel Frankie's anguish but also the fierce and stubborn resolve behind it. This is a child who has been raised to be heir to a great estate. He has been trained in duty and obedience since before he could talk. [I'm sorry, Jay, but I can't talk to you anymore.]
*
You tell John at once, of course, but the two of you call out in vain and when you jaunt to the hospital it is to find that Frankie was moved the previous day. TIM's most prying investigations cannot reveal where the boy has been taken. De Tayne's solicitors appoint a caretaker to his manor after a few weeks and it is announced in the society press that the de Tayne's will be unavailable for some time as a complete retreat is required for their son's health. Again, TIM's valient efforts to investigate go unrewarded. The de Tayne's have dropped from sight and if young Francis is still recieveing your thoughts he is taking extraordianary care not to transmit any.
The loss of Frankie is demoralising so soon after you found him. You begin to feel again the disorientation and feeling of isolation that is the result of your jaunt through time. Some days you stay in the Lab, some days go shopping, other days go to college with Paul for the company. They blur into one another and in all you feel the wrongness and anger with yourself for being so slow with the new technologies and new lifestyle you are living. It all seems so pointless at times.
You spend the one month aniversary of your arrival in the college with Paul and spend an hour wrestling with a computer as Paul types up an essay. For the first time you try to find out what happened to your parents that fount of all knowledge, the internet, throws up so many references to couples of that name that you become completely confused and disorientated.
Frustrated and upset you leave the computer behind and stalk out of the building, ignoring Paul's somewhat concerned telepathic calls.
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