A Disease of Magic

Leo’s idea of a visual aid included closing the blinds, turning off the lights, and connecting his tablet to the projector. Once he was satisfied, he pulled up both his and my stats, starting after his mods were added. Alex sat in silence for several moments, looking at everything up on the wall. Then he stood up and walked closer.

I let myself relax into the couch and tucked my feet underneath me. When Leo had gone to get the tablet and started swearing, I’d excused myself to change into comfortable leggings and a t-shirt. I cocooned myself in a plush blanket—one Leo had gifted me for my birthday last year that I could never justify the price tag for—with matching sock-like slippers. I’d still gotten back out here before Leo was done with whatever he’d been doing, even taking the time to pile my hair on top of my head in a more put-together way than I normally would have.

“So. What am I looking at? I mean, I can see what this is, but what’s the significance?” Alex finally wondered aloud.

Leo tapped on his tablet, filtering things even more to show the radiation spikes.

“Based on the very limited data, it looks like we’re giving off radiation when we utilize these new talents of ours,” Leo explained. He pulled up his timeline next to mine, showing how there were slight discrepancies between them with similar rise and fall patterns. He pointed to one of his. “This was when I was showing Callie what I could do. The tall plateau on top is mine, and the smaller gradual rise and fall on the bottom is Callie. She wasn’t using hers then, but she was near.”

“Hmm.” Alex took a few steps back and crossed his arms. “How close to you was she?”

“Maybe a foot,” I supplied. “I was standing right next to him.”

“And is the reverse is true? Callie using hers caused a rise in your level?”

“Yes,” Leo answered, pointing to the harsh spike in mine right where his plateau plummeted, though didn’t return back to zero. “This is when Callie caught the mug I dropped.”

“Teleported,” I corrected.

“Sure,” Leo agreed. “What I’m curious about is if this radiation has something to do with what you’ve said. Is there a buildup in the body that needs regular releasing, or else it causes damage?”

Alex picked up on Leo’s train of thought. “Or does using it too much have the same negative effect as regular radiation exposure?”

“We should track that,” I suggested. “On the bio-screens. Come up with some parameters, decide what we think is acceptable levels of exposure from others and from ourselves. Because if I’m using mine and barely within my upper limit, will being too close to you push me over the edge?”

“Mmm, that’s a thought,” Leo murmured, tapping on his tablet.

“Is there any way to get a screen for Alex? Since he’s been managing his perfectly for years, it could give us what we need.”

Leo shook his head slowly, still tapping away. “I don’t know if I can. It’s a very thorough vetting process. I bet his employment would disqualify him, though they’d claim some other reason.”

“Can’t you change that?” Alex accused.

“Not without good reason. As much as it’s my father’s company, there are still shareholders and the board to answer to. I can’t override everyone just because of who I am. Even my father can’t.”

“So, can we give them a good reason? Tell them what we’ve found?”

“No,” Alex and Leo said in unison. Was that the first time they’d ever agreed on something? I should write it down, memorialize it.

“It’s not a good idea to share this information yet,” Leo explained. “There’s reasons we were going to keep it a secret for longer.”

“I know, but with what Alex has tol—”

“And,” Alex interrupted, “once this is public knowledge, who knows what will happen. The government might decide to interfere or round us up or put us on a list. It’s why there’s a careful process for bringing people in.”

I frowned. I’d already had this mental argument with myself. I still didn’t feel any better about it. Even though Leo and I picked a date nearly a year out when we’d share all the information we had no matter what, it still gnawed at me uncomfortably. If it were up to me to make this decision, what would I choose? I had more information now than when we initially agreed to wait. Both sides had solid points. I couldn’t predict the future to know what would morally be best; waiting and controlling the situation to keep things from getting out of hand, or sharing it now and damn those theoretical consequences if it could save lives?

“We will need to make this publicly known,” Leo said. “But not yet.”

“The narrative needs to be controlled.”

“Wow. Look at you two getting along,” I teased. They glanced at each other. Alex looked away first, gazing back at the stats projected on the wall. “It doesn’t sit well with me. Keeping this information that could help others.” I needed to voice those worries. At least now I wouldn’t get caught wondering if anything might have changed had I just said something.

“It’s for the best.” Leo didn’t even glance at me. Being the bigger person and ignoring his patronizing tone because I knew he didn’t mean it, I got up from the couch and pattered into the kitchen with my blanket cape to pour another glass of wine. I downed it before returning to the couch, switching places to lean against the opposite arm.

Addressing Alex, Leo asked, “If you had to put a number to it, how much time do you need to use your power on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to maintain that balance?”

Alex rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s changed. At least for me.”

“How so?” I asked.

“I’m definitely using it more than I was two years ago.”

“Do you think it’s because your body had gotten used to that lower usage and can tolerate more? Or do you need to use it more?”

Alex looked at me while he considered my question. “That’s a great question. I tend to go with my gut, using it as needed, so I honestly don’t know. Thankfully for me, it’s easy to hide in everyday activities. I can use it to lift a pen; I don’t need resistance acting against me. I barely think about it anymore.”

Leo tapped furiously on his tablet, probably taking it all down.

“What do you know of others?” I continued the train of thought. “Do they also have an increasing usage?”

Alex shrugged. “That’s pretty nuanced. As a rule, we don’t talk about those details with each other.”

“Why not?”

Alex shrugged. “We’ve each got our own abilities that differ from each other. So it’s like comparing apples to something like celery. It doesn’t make sense, and they’re similar in only the broadest ways. What works for me might be bad for someone else, and vice versa.”

Leo had the next question. “Have you always had this power, or have you had others?”

“Just this one for me.”

I met Leo’s eyes, knowing we were both thinking it; I’d had two.

“As far as you know, is that the norm?” I asked.

“I haven’t heard of anyone else having more than one. Not to say it’s impossible. But I’ve never tried, either, so who knows?”

Leo and I had a moment of best friend telepathy; we wouldn’t bring up how I’d demonstrated two to Alex. While I had already told him that I discovered my power by accidentally breaking things, he must have forgotten or thought it was my power developing into teleportation.

I allowed the men to continue their discussion of the nuances of radiation exposure and what should be considered allowable levels. Leo asked Alex a lot of questions about how many times he used his power today, how long did he use it each time, how much time there was between uses. Not being involved in the technology side of this, I was content to sit back, listen, and wait until I had something to add.

After what had to be at least twenty minutes of interrogation, Leo nodded to himself, satisfied. “This will give me enough to get started.”

“I hope so. That was, like, a thousand questions,” Alex bemoaned.

“My science is thorough,” Leo replied, unmoved.

“Question,” I finally said. “What’s causing this gamma radiation?”

Leo’s head snapped in my direction to look at me.

“What? It’s a good question.”

He shook his head and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Well, we can assume we’re not nuclear,” Alex volunteered. “There’d be so many other problems if we were.”

“Lightning is another unlikely source,” Leo added.

“We’re not glowing like a star or heating up to a bajillion degrees, so that’s out,” I added.

“Nuclear decay and antimatter are also sources,” Alex said after looking it up on his phone.

“Gamma rays have lots of energy, right? So…is that the power source for our abilities? Is there something in us that’s radioactively decaying and causing this?” I addressed my question mainly to Leo, though it was Alex who answered with his own question.

“And is that why people with LaShoul’s die? Because there’s a buildup of the gamma from that decay?”

We all sat in complete silence.

Leo broke the silence. “We need a gamma ray telescope.”

“For what?”

“Looking at us. Though, just a lens would do; we don’t need the whole thing.”

“And where do you find one of those?” Alex asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll look into it.”

“How does this gamma not kill us or make us sick?” I threw it out there because why not. If we were asking all the questions, what’s one more?

“No fucking clue,” Alex helpfully provided with a shrug.

“That’s another good question.” Leo tapped on his tablet until a word document was projected on the wall, filled with questions. I watched as he added mine to the list and read through the other ones he already had.

Is radioactive decay the cause of gamma radiation?

Is radiation the source of the power?

How much variance is there from person to person?

What’s the relationship to LaShoul’s?

Can we see it with a gamma lens?

Do different powers lead to different levels of radiation?

How does the body process it to keep from getting sick?

“That second to last question.” I paused. “Can we look at our stats again? Because we have different powers.”

“Sure.” Leo pulled the stats up again, this time layering them over each other. He adjusted the timelines so that both his plateau and my spike were on top of each other.

“Well, then.” Mine was significantly higher. By a lot. More than…maybe quadruple? Or more? It was hard to tell without the numbers. “How did we miss this?”

“I think the program automatically adjusted the scales so that you wouldn’t be off the chart. Let me see if I can calculate the total amounts and compare them.”

Leo had the tablet do the math, and out popped two numbers that were within a hundred electron volts of each other. I only knew they were electron volts because I asked.

“It looks like Callie’s uses more in a shorter amount of time,” Alex said. “But since Leo can maintain his longer, that could put them in the same ballpark.”

“So, short answer is yes. Different abilities seem to generate different amounts of radiation,” I summarized.

“What I want to know is if you teleporting an object from across the room is equivalent to my telekinesis bringing it just as far.” Leo wrote down the question after stating it, and I caught Alex’s surprised look. Leo didn’t seem to notice what he had revealed, so deep into it all that it must have slipped out.

“Does the mass of the object matter?” I added.

“What about distance?” Leo’s question.

“We can test those out, right?”

“Oh, sure. That’ll be easy.”

“No offense,” Alex began. “But is there a specific point in finding that stuff out? Not that it isn’t super cool, I’m curious too, just…It seems to me like there are other, bigger questions we could use the answers to more.”

“You’re not wrong,” Leo allowed. “Some of those will take time to answer. And the more data we have, the easier some of those questions will be to answer. In theory, at least. Alex, I hate to ask, but are you willing to help us with the tests?”

“Why not? Sounds like fun to me. Just tell me when and, well, I’m assuming we’ll do it here?”

“Yes, here. I think it’s best if we try to keep this as contained as possible for now.”

“Right. Well, tell me when, and as long as I’m not working, I’ll be here.”

“Thanks. You know, I think I could get you a bio-screen, like, yesterday if you applied for a position at my company,” Leo threw out. “I’d have to pull some strings, but I can guarantee to hire you.”

“What, my own experience isn’t enough?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Why don’t you come work for the company I work for instead? We’d be happy to bring you into the fold. I’m sure Goodwin would love to use your brain. We could all be a team.”

“That’s a great joke.”

“Or,” I said emphatically, trying to break the rising tension. “Leo, could you develop a device that just measures the gamma? I don’t think we need all of Alex’s other stats for this, do we?”

It worked. Both men turned to look at me.

“That could work. I’ll see what I can do. Alex, do you have any biotech already? Preferably something my company made?”

“No.”

“Not even eye lenses?”

“Nope.”

“Perfect. You’re getting eye lenses. Congratulations on the spontaneous eye degeneration.”

Alex snorted. “Thanks.”

After several moments of silence, I asked, “Where do we go from here?”

Leo ran a hand through his hair. “Well, first things first, I need to make these tracking mods for us, and then do the same with some lenses for Alex. We’ll do some tests, see what information pops out. Then, we start looking for the answers to the other questions.” He gestured towards the wall, where his list of questions was displayed again.

“Is there anything else we should hash out tonight?”

Leo looked at Alex and answered, “It goes without saying that this is all confidential information until we agree to share it with our respective companies.”

Alex crossed his arms defensively. “Of course.”

“There’s a lot on the line here.”

“I’ve been hiding my own power for years. You don’t have to remind me what’s at stake. I know how to keep my mouth shut.”

I jumped up, ditching my blanket on the couch. “Oh-kay, it’s getting pretty late. Alex, thank you for coming tonight and sharing everything with us. I think us working together amicably—” I shot Leo an accusatory look “—will benefit everyone. Why don’t I walk you out?”

Alex didn’t say anything, only giving Leo a long stare before following me to the door. Once out in the hallway, I heaved a relieved breath.

“That was stressful,” I admitted as we walked towards the elevators. I took Alex’s hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. “I think overall it went well. Seriously, thanks for all that. I know you didn’t have to. Leo can be a prick, but he does mean well, I swear.”

“Listen, this could help so many people. It’s my pleasure.” He let go of my hand to wrap his arm around my shoulders instead in a half-hug. It felt nice, being pulled into his side. “And if I get to verbally spar with the guy who’s got a stick shoved so far up his ass, then—”

My laugh cut him off, and I playfully whacked his chest. “Sometimes, I think he’s trying to prove something. I don’t what it is or who he needs to prove it to, maybe just himself, but it gets him on edge. This is a big deal to him, or he wouldn’t be causing such problems.” I reached out and pressed the button on the elevator.

“I’m not so innocent either. I won’t lie and say it isn’t difficult for me to share what I know with him. Getting a rise out of him makes me feel just a little bit better about it,” he admitted somewhat sheepishly.

“While I can’t condone that, I would also be lying if I said I never did anything similar.” I sighed as the elevator doors slid open. “I wish he wouldn’t take everything so seriously.”

“Or get that stick extracted.”

I ignored Alex’s suggestion. “I can’t imagine the pressure he’s under. I know he doesn’t get along with his dad, which doesn’t help things.”

“No?” Alex seemed surprised.

“No,” I confirmed with a head shake. “I think his dad got married and had a kid because it’s what was expected of him. Or to have a blood relative to pass the company down to. Either way, I doubt it was because he actually wanted a kid.”

“That’s…” Alex didn’t finish.

“I know.”

We rode in silence for the remainder of the ride, saying our goodbyes and embracing briefly when we reached the lobby. By the time the elevator returned back up to my floor, I was ready to call it a night.

Leo had other plans.

“I got it!” he all but shouted when I opened the door.

“Got what?”

“The mod done.”

“Already?”

He grabbed my arm and yanked it next to his so he could share it with my screen. After a few seconds, my screen vibrated once, and Leo let me go.

“Before you run away, show me this thing,” I demanded.

“I was going to.”

“Uh-huh.”

He maneuvered to stand next to me. “There’s a new tab, here.” He pointed at the top menu of the screen. Indeed, a narrow new tab existed, labelled with the Greek capital letter for gamma. “I made it that small so at a first glance people probably won’t see it; they’d have to be looking for it. Just in case.”

I tapped on the new tab which was about half the size of the tip of my finger. Two horizontal lines were there, labelled P and S, and a quick check told me it was a live reading of what one could only assume was gamma radiation.

“Now.” Leo extended his arm, his phone floating over to us from the breakfast bar and landing in his palm. My arm vibrated once with a new pattern. The bottom line showed a soft rise and fall of radiation, and a table appeared to the right. A tally mark, or maybe the number one, appeared in the bottom box.

P 0

S 1

“That’s secondary radiation,” Leo explained. “Which is what the S stands for. When someone around you gives off gamma, it’ll pick it up. It’s sensitive to amounts, so if I were to use more power, whether that’s for longer period of time or something else, it’ll increase faster. The top one is the primary, or what you do.”

I held out my hand and summoned the wooden spoon from wherever it was in the kitchen. The number three appeared in the top box alongside a sharp spike in the top line.

P 3

S 1

“Nice,” I said. I was impressed with how much Leo had done in the short time it had taken to walk Alex out.

“Isn’t it? I have no idea how long it takes for things to reset, so to speak, so I picked twenty-four hours. It’s a rolling system, not by the clock, so twenty-four hours from now, that three will drop off.”

“Makes sense. Is there an alert, for a high or a low?”

He sighed and stepped away, giving me his back. His hands went to grasp the back of his head, elbows out to either side. I watched silently as he started pacing.

“No. I don’t know what it should be. Like Alex said, it’s nuanced. So we might need to find our own limits instead.”

“I think that’s for the best. Go with our guts, like Alex. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be.” I said it mostly to soothe an agitated Leo. “We’ll do these tests, get more information, and then we can reassess. Yeah?”

He let out a long breath, deflating with it, hands dropping back down to his sides. “Yeah. I just hate not knowing.”

I stepped forward, giving his arm a quick squeeze. “We can do more another day. Now you go to sleep, you hear me? No staying up late researching.”

“I make no promises.”

I rolled my eyes at him and walked to the right towards my room. Another thought occurred to me. I paused in the threshold of my room, turning back. “Hey, Leo?” I called to him as he walked in the opposite direction.

“Yeah?”

“About what Alex said, people using their power too much? Will you promise to take it easy for a few days?”

A confused look settled on Leo’s face. “Callie, I’m fine.”

“You spent an entire night practicing your telekinesis,” I reminded him. “We don’t know how much is too much. It’ll be a lot easier to fill the cup more than try to empty it once it’s already overflowing.”

He waved me off, both with his hand and with a curt, “Don’t worry.”

“And don’t forget that we’ve got tests to run. We want them to be as accurate as possible, and if you wear yourself out, you’ll skew them.”

Leo put his hands on his hips and stared at the floor, and I knew I got through to him.

“Fine,” he reluctantly agreed.

“Goodnight, Leo,” I said in sing-song.

“Night,” he answered in a low monotone.